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Slasher Films

1 Apr

Janet Leigh in "Psycho" (1960)

So, I’m sitting here watching Bob Clark’s “Black Christmas” (the one from 1974, not the shitty remake), and I’ve realised we’re probably going to review “Scream 4″ in the near future (fuck, was “Scream” really 15 years ago? Damn…), so heck, why not give you a brief run through of some of the best (well, in my self-exaggerated opinion) of the horror subgenre has to offer.

This is by no means a complete list of influencial slasher flicks, nor is it aiming to cover all flicks that have influenced or built conventions for the subgenre. Further, I’ve ignored many great films because I feel that while they can be considered slasher films, they primarily belong in different subgenres.

Let’s begin.

1960: Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock)

The proto-slasher from the master of tension, Psycho brought conventions such as the first girl (ie: the person you think is the protagonist, but dies before the halfway mark) as well as brutally violent deaths (for it’s time), but it also brought the concept of the damaged child, a trend you can see evident in the sequels to Sean S. Cunningham’s “Friday the 13th”. Sure, the blood in the shower is Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup, but it doesn’t look any less real in black and white.

1974: Black Christmas (Bob Clark)

Ever seen five of those 80s VHS slasher flicks? Ever seen John Carpenter’s Halloween? Yeah, thank Bob Clark. If Porky’s was the first time you ever saw boobies, now you owe him double.

1978: Halloween (John Carpenter)

Speaking of Halloween, while it’s a film that utilised many concepts seen previously, it is also deftly directed and, while slow to start, you can see why it became an iconic horror film – because it’s execution far excells it’s source material.

1980: Friday the 13th (Sean S. Cunningham)

While Black Christmas and Halloween spawned a subgenre, Friday the 13th spawned a franchise. Important distinction. Paramount was embarassed at the film (and it’s sequels) for it’s success, but the almighty dollar rules all. Watch the first four, part six, and skip the rest. Except for when Jason Voorhees crosses Freddy Krueger…

1984: A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven)

A quality flick that’s a cut above (hah!) the slasher fare. Once again, as with Friday the 13th, it has spawned a load of sequels (see parts 1, 3, 4, and New Nightmare – although number 2 is a bizarrely homoerotic flick, worth watching for the supporting performances alone, and Freddy’s Dead is probably worth a watch if you’re a truly hardcore 1980s John Waters fan).

1996: Scream (Wes Craven)

Redefined the slasher film after annual installments of Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. Made every horror film in the following five years have an ironic or self-aware tone. But you know what? It’s still got a star dying early in the film (ref: Psycho), it’s still got the reveal of the crazy killer (ref: Friday the 13th), and quite frankly, it’s still a fucking great film. Just be thankful that Party of Five is no longer on the air, and weap for the loss of Jamie Kennedy’s dignity.

If you’re still stuck on what to watch before Scream 4 besides the previous sequels, try a triple bill of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Shocker, and New Nightmare. You’ll see the development of ideas from a writer/director. What better way to prep yourself for Wes Craven’s return to one of his most successful films?

The Big Game Spots

28 Feb

Generally speaking, the Super Bowl is the most watched television broadcast on the United States calendar. The advertising spots are the most expensive, and this year, they were confirmed to be around the US$3M for 30 seconds of air time.

Just thing about that. $3 million for half a minute.

Imagine a movie cost that much to make. $6 million dollars a minute. Suddenly those budgets of $150M for a film don’t seem to pricey anymore, right?

Well, where there’s always plenty of room for another movie to hit the multiplexes, the Superbowl has a limited amount of advertising time. It’s targeting a wide range of people, and has for years been there premiere audience to debut a new product, a hot television series, or the biggest films.

This year, we got just that.

The first footage of Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger was released as a “Big Game Spot”. We hadn’t had a teaser or a trailer released to cinemas. The following 30 second spot is all the footage that has been shown outside of some footage shown at the San Diego Comic-Con, four days after principle photography began on the film.

But this got me thinking. You hear Adrian and I refer to the standard trailers and posters in some of the podcasts. Those are used in cinemas to get your attention, to get you back so that you can buy two tickets, a garbage-bag’s worth of popcorn, and a swimming pool sized soda. The cinema (where you’re likely to see the trailer) needs your return business.

But the NFL doesn’t care if you see Captain America: The First Avenger. You’re watching the biggest broadcast of the year, and your eyes are numbers. Captain America was the obvious one to focus on because it’s American, and that’s the people who watch the Super Bowl.

It seems like a gutsy, daring move to premiere your footage from a major film in a television spot instead of a trailer because it’s not standard. But really, it’s no different. There’s television spots for almost every film released. They get hosted online so the target demographic can frame-by-frame analyse the footage, scraping the information off the bone like a Thanksgiving turkey.

We also were giving a 30 second spot for the J.J. Abrams/Steven Spielberg film “Super 8″. Unlike the teaser trailer from mid-2010 (prior to the shooting of the film), this was (much like Captain America) the first look at the film itself. In addition, there was a 60 second version available on Apple’s website.

Sure, there was also trailers for Transformers: The Dark of the Moon, Pirates of the Carribbean 4, and Limitless. Some were completely cut down versions of the theatrical trailer, others shows glimpses of new footage, but none were as exciting for film fans as either of the two that I’ve focussed on above.

The one thing they all have in common?

$3,000,000.00

While you have a think about that price tag and watch some of the clips we’ve embedded below, I’ll just leave you with one little fact.

The Chrystler ad, featuring Eminem (who I doubt gave up his time for free) ran for 2 whole minutes.

Maybe cinema advertising isn’t an example of spending gone mad, eh?

I’ve added a few of the upcoming releases’ Super Bowl spots below. Watch and enjoy. If you’re still looking for more 30-second pitches on why you should plunk down your $15 for a ticket, hit our YouTube channel for the rest of the Big Game spots.

Songs Selling Films: Popular Music in Movie Trailers

28 Feb

Okay, so I should have published this one weeks ago, but between a new job, and a whole bunch of other stuff, I’ve been slack.

What I’m going to touch on today are some of the wonderful trailers that use a single song as the music for their trailer. That song has to essentially score the trailer, sell the tone, and not leave an audience disappointed with the score the receive with the finished film. The examples I’m using are primarily from some of my favourite bands, so if you don’t like Smashing Pumpkins or Nine Inch Nails, you’ll probably be a little bit less interested, but them’s the breaks. Write your own blog, or respond here if there’s some great ones you think I’ve missed out!

Willard

You know someone in the marketing department knew exactly what to put with this one. Or he Googled “rat + lyrics” into Google. But when the bass line to one of the most recognizable rock songs of the 90s kicks in at about 50 seconds, it’s the shit. Sure, the repetition of “despite all my rage I’m still just a rat in a cage” is a bit weak, but it works for the most part. Being a complete fan of Crispin Glover, and having dug The X-Files and Final Destination, I was down for this flick, and it’s still a fun B grade horror movie.

Watchmen

Another Smashing Pumpkins track. However this one has the most fantastic use of intertextuality I’ve come across in a trailer. Back in 1997, Smashing Pumpkins recorded two tracks for the Batman & Robin soundtrack; “The End is the Beginning is the End” and “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning”. TEITBITE (as it’s known among Pumpkinheads) was the lead single for Batman & Robin’s soundtrack, while the alternate version (TBITEITB) is the darker version only on the full soundtrack album. The message? Remember Batman & Robin? This. Ain’t. It. A perfect way to give message that this is a dark comic book movie, gritty, grimy, and with only limited nipples on costumes. It became an iTunes hit, and the band started playing it on tour around the time of Watchmen’s theatrical release.

Terminator: Salvation

Okay, so this film is hardly a great piece of work. In fact, it’s far closer to being a piece of shit. McG can fuck himself, and that’s coming from a guy who likes the first Charlie’s Angels (Crispin Glover owns it). Using a new remix (with live drums) of Nine Inch Nails’ “The Day the World Went Away” (originally released on 1999′s The Fragile double-album), the editing on this trailer is superb. Sells the tone, sells the concept, and has the Terminator theme just at the end. The moment of Bale coming face to face with Worthington is perfectly timed with the titular lyric. Yeah, it suckered me. Insult to injury? It ain’t on the fuckin’ Blu-ray.

Trivia: Terminator: Salvation was one of the films that the group of Xoe, Adrian and myself (along with Sam Winzar) would take in on opening day at an early afternoon session, as none of us were working jobs with regular hours. It became the genesis of Mark It! Movie Reviews.

PS: Apologies for the crappy sound, I’ll endeavour to upload a better quality version at some point.

300

The Social Network

The only song on this list that isn’t performed by the original artist. Covered by Scala & Kolacny Brothers – a Belgian all-girls choir, Radiohead’s paean to awkwardness is perfectly in sync with Fincher and Sorkin’s depiction of Mark Zuckerberg. It’s creepy, haunting, and reaches that crescendo just at the right moment. Sure, it’s not the best cover of the track (Sad Kermit takes that title, with Prince also nailing an incredible version live at Coachella), but it’s damn good and gives you the idea that “the facebook movie” that you’ve heard about might not just be a stupid teen comedy.

Marketing “Red State”

25 Jan


We’ve covered bits and pieces regarding Kevin Smith’s Red State, from our exclusive reveal of Michael Parks in the lead role of Abin Cooper, to covering the release of the first teaser poster that Smith revealed on Halloween.

Now, in the aftermath of it’s Sundance premiere, I figured it’s time we do a run down of the marketing Smith and his Harvey Boys Producer Jon Gordan have put into the film without paying a dime, and free to all.
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TRON: Legacy Prize Pack!

14 Dec

Okay, so our competition here at Mark It! is just about to finish (with about 50 minutes to deadline!) so we figured we’d show off the entire booty you can still win!

Well, what exactly is all that stuff?

* A great light-up TRON Legacy cap
* A swanky TRON Legacy USB desk lamp (the large box)
* A stunning TRON Legacy USB hub (the small box)
* Eye-catching TRON Legacy wristband
* TRON Legacy bike lights (turn your Schwinn into a light cycle!)
* Double pass to any session of TRON Legacy in Australia (opens December 16th!)

The above swag is all thanks to Disney Australia. If you’re entering from outside Australia and win, you’ll get everything except the double pass!

But that’s not all!

We figure that since you guys are definitely going the extra mile, we’ll throw a couple of other pretty special mystery prizes into the box as well.

We might even be able to rustle up something for a runner up prize too…

The winner will be contacted after the competition ends at midnight tonight, and will be announced on the TRON: Legacy review of Mark It! Movie Reviews (coincidentally our one year birthday, so expect it to be jam-packed with all sorts of shenanigans!). We’ll also be reading some of our favourite entries out on air, and Adrian and I will give our ideas on just what 1980s reboot/sequel we’d pitch ourselves!

Buried’s Opening Titles

5 Nov

As you may remember, in our podcast for the underground hit Buried, Adrian and I mentioned we weren’t fans of the opening titles.

However, rarely do we have the change to see and understand the artistic process of the man who made those titles.

Check out this link over at The Art of the Title Sequence where film and television titles are deconstructed, analysed, and often with interviews from the people involved.

It’s a fascinating site with great content on one of the most underrated aspects of filmmaking. You tend not to remember titles when they don’t make an impact, but who can forget the opening titles to either Fight Club or Se7en?

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