Halloween Countdown (Day 1.....kinda)

I return to attempt at yet another spell on this blog. The only interesting tidbit about my everyday life is that I finally enrolled into a ten week creative writing class. Well, since I won't be leaving the country this year, I may as well take up a hobby. Who knows, maybe it will reignite my love of writing, and kickstart my aspirations to write fiction. In the meantime, I will (try to) write some horror movie themed blog entries in the lead up to Halloween.

Now if I can just spray paint his face white.....

Admittedly I took the idea off someone from Facebook, who plans on watching one or two horror movies everyday until Halloween. I altered it to also include a blog entry for each film I watch. Granted, the idea is not an original one, but hey, it's my blog, and I need some excuse to exercise my rarely used writing skills.

Now, as you can see from the post date, it's already 02/10/12, and along with my writing class (which includes small assignments), and the fact that I'll be going to the yearly horror movie festival in town during the bank holiday weekend, regular postings will be tricky.

Just to get the first one out of the way, I'm going to post two short movies that will be referenced in future blog posts. The first includes one of the first things to scare me as a child, and the second one was the starting point to my favourite horror movie franchise (flawed as it may be at times)

Michael Jackson's "Thriller"

What more can I say about this classic video? The music is fantastic, the visuals are incredible, and as one of the most expensive videos to be made at the time, you can see where the budget went, and it was money well spent. You don't have to be a Michael Jackson fan to appreciate this John Landis directed music video, but you have to appreciate the impact it had on the music video format itself, and its influence on OTT music videos that came afterwards (a few of them by MJ himself).

There are two reasons why I am mentioning this video:

1. The beginning of video scared the crap out of me as a child. It took me years to pluck up the courage to watch the werewolf transformation. It still disturbed me, but at whatever age I was at that time, I was becoming more aware of special effects, so I began to appreciate the work that went into making that scene. And it's still impressive, especially in this age of CGI.

Another film that utilised the man to wolf transformation was the John Landis directed "An American Werewolf In London", which came out two years previously to the "Thriller". The transformation in that video also scared the crap out of me as a kid. The weird thing is, I don't know how I ended up watching that as a child. I know I saw the "Thriller" video on a compilation tape my parents had of an Irish music show called "MT USA", where they were doing a "best videos of all time" countdown, which was the basis of my early musical education. And "Thriller" was number one, and as I mentioned before, I was a Wacko Jacko fan, so that made sense.

So how did I end up watching "An American Werewolf In London"? I must ask my parents.

2. Unfortunately due to the controversial nature of Michael Jackson, whether it be personality, child molestation accusations, or the over the top nature of everything he created, he is still open to ridicule. I was actually going to include the next clip into this article as a short comparision to the much lauded "Thriller" video. But after watching the near 40 minute duration of this short film, it deserves its own blog entry in the near future.

I'm still going to post the film anyway, because let's face it, nobody really watched it when it came out. And if I was to hazard a guess, I doubt people know of it's existence today.

Michael Jackson's "Ghosts"

Saw (2003 Short Film)

Halloween is a time where I look back to the past, and feel a little sad that I never got into the spirit of things as a child (pun not intended). It was only during my twenties that I realised how much fun it was to go around in a mask in a public place (well, a pub where everyone else was in costume, but you get my drift). It made me feel a little more comfortable that I was able to hide my face, but that was more to do with my low self esteem and awkward shyness at the time. I'm a bit better on both fronts, but if I had the choice to don a hockey mask in public, I would. Even if it did mean a trip to a rubber room. But I digress.

Since I never went trick or treating, dressed up, or went to bonfires and all those staples of Halloween, the only way I celebrate this faux holiday is through watching horror movies, whether it be a movie night at a friends place, or by attending the aforementioned horror film festival. But there's one series of films in particular that I have watched every year, before the next installment came to the big screen, and that is the SAW franchise.

Well, what better way to start off this movie marathon by watching the SAW series all over again. Granted I've seen them over and over again, but if I'm still not bored of watching the same five Star Wars movies during Xmas (episode one doesn't exist, as far as I'm concerned), then I'll never be bored of the SAW movies.

One of the extras on the DVD of the first film is the 10 minute short film that was made by the creators of SAW, which was used to pitch the idea to movie studios, instead of talking about the concept, or showing them the script. It's a pretty neat way of getting your artistic vision across, and for those who are fans of the first movie, but never seen the video below, it's quite interesting to watch.

And on a final note.....

One of the films I'll be watching at the horror movie marathon later this month includes this little jingle. Come to think of it, this also freaked me out when I was young.