October 16th - Sort of an Eh Day

 I will be finishing it a little later, but I started watching "Night of the Demons" (1988) on Shudder -- I have it on Blu-Ray, but I had finished a little workout and was lazy digging it up -- and stopped to see what was on AMC. The remake, Friday the 13th (2009), was on and my daughter came into the living room wanting to finish it so, I was like, "Whatever." To be honest, the remake has grown on me because the more I see it, the more I like Derek Mears' interpretation of Jason Voorhees. And Marcus Nispel's dirty greens and browns lighting scheme and aesthetic retained from his 2003 "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" brought to this remake of Friday the 13th isn't as obnoxious as it had been in time's past. The version I watched was obviously TV-14, so Julianna Guill's particularly memorable contribution (as well as Willa Ford) was excised. As I have mentioned before, I have the Scream Factory Friday the 13th complete collection so it is available to me. I might need to revisit it some time. In saying that, this Swift/Shannon script decided to update Jason. Now I don't know where he learned his expert ax throwing or ability to "workshop" and set up traps like Kevin McCallister, but Mears really has this fierce presence that provided a thought that came to mind, "You don't want this Jason coming after you or targeting you with his death stare". And there is one moment in the film where he grabbing for Righetti as she is trying to get away after Mears just mauls Padalecki that I thought was one of Nispel's best shot chase scenes. I also appreciated the arrow to the head this go-around, even if I wonder who taught Jason those excellent marksman skills.

Once again AMC showed "Halloween" (1978), so I have it running in the background. Right now Loomis is giving his "what lied behind that boys eyes was purely and simply evil" monologue to Brackett. I swear, I can't tell you how many times I have watched that monologue. Too many times to count. And I halt everything I'm doing to watch and listen. Pleasence's acting is just powerful. We keep coming back to this film for various reasons, but this Loomis scene is so iconic because of the authenticity Pleasence gives the words. How often we cringe when we listen to dialogue from "Halloween Kills" (2021), but with Pleasence, it never felt phony or too ridiculous. It was because of the ability of the actor to make those words feel genuine from the mind and lips of the character.