Delayed Halloween part deux.

Mar 20, 2009 00:54


This is a hard movie to explain without giving away everything, so I'm just gonna give away everything. A man awakes in a bathtub, apparently unaware of how he got there or even who he is. In his amnesiac stumble he knocks over a goldfish, but can't bear to let the poor little thing die ...



Outside of the bathroom, however, is a horrific murder scene, and the man manages to escape before the police arrive. They find a ritualistically murdered hooker in his wake, whose death matches the style of several other prostitutes around town ...



... which prompts the keen detective to ask, what kind of serial killer stops to save a dying goldfish? The answer, of course, is that this man is not a serial killer, but rather part of a world that is run by Hellraiser-esque, all-white men in trenchcoats, who can shift the city and the memories and identities of its occupants at will. Somewhere along the line the process backfired and John Murdoch is now aware of his waking self, which is technically a blank body and mind. He retaliates against the strange men to find they are not what they seem (which was weird enough to begin with) ...



The only other people who seem to have any insight into their control are Kiefer Sutherland with a lisp, who is the doctor who has been strongarmed into helping the controllers, and Detective Wallenstein, whose obsession strangely mirrors the rituals of the killer ...



Murdoch is able to catch the doctor and others in the act of brain-replacing, but finds out through the doctor he has the same ability to change reality that the controllers do, and they join powers to try to overthrow the strange visitors.



The visitors are not happy.



John, relentlessly pursuing the only clear memory he has of a place called Shell Beach, discovers the unnerving truth about the eternally night-drenched city they live in ...



It is part of a compound, set in desolate space, completely controlled by the visitors. There is no physical escape, and in his desperation John unleashes the power he shares with the visitors, defeating them and turning the world into the place of his dreams ...



... as he wanders off to meet the woman who doesn't remember she's his wife.



Director Tod Browning infamously used real "freaks" in this compassionate film and was subsequently blacklisted from Hollywood. Nowadays he'd be hailed as an ingenue and equal opportunity employer. The story concerns a band of sideshow freaks, part of a circus, who have formed their own family-like bonds to survive the cruelty of the normal world.



A couple, both little people, live life as pleasantly as they can, until the beautiful and cruel trapeze artist begins a ploy to earn the affections of the man. At first she does this to torment and tease him, but when she discovers he is actually in possession of a decent fortune, she plots with the circus strongman to wed and then murder him. In spite of the relatively obvious deceit, life goes on in the sideshow as normal.



The happiness of the other couples around them covers up the plot, to all except the little man's spurned lover. The strongman's ex-girlfriend, who has begun to fall for the clown, begins to watch out for the trapeze artist's shady behavior, and warns everyone else, including the Siamese twins and their respective husbands.



Soon enough, the beauty is discovered poisoning her new little husband, and the other freaks who watch over him in his sickbed let her know the jig is up after her latest poisoning attempt.



A rain-soaked fight ensues, and then the movie cuts to the new sideshow barker, proudly displaying the former beauty as the newest attraction.



That'll teach ya.



The original Freddy movie is probably one of the scariest horror films I've seen. The sequels got corny, but the creativity and special effects of the first one are noteworthy.



So funny story. My mom apparently rented this movie and watched it when she was pregnant with me. I didn't see the film again until 2003, yet somehow this terrifying image has haunted my dreams since childhood ...



After a dream-induced Freddy murders a young girl, her best friend begins to have similar dreams, dreams the creep over into the edges of reality ...



She realizes that Fred Krueger, a child-murdering maniac who was burned by the parents in the town, has come back to seek his revenge by continuing his murdering spree through their very dreams. Knowing this, she still manages to fall asleep absolutely everywhere.



In spite of her best (?) efforts, all of her friends succumb to Freddy's wiles, including her pre-21 Jump Street Johnny Depp of a boyfriend ...



The police force, which includes her father, denies her theory until the last second, when Freddy irrevocably crosses over into reality and strikes out at just about anyone he can ...



... including Nancy's alcoholic mother, who dies in a way that I still can't figure out if it's a dream or a really twisted reality.



When Nancy awakes the next morning, her mother and friends are all back like nothing has happened, her reward for finally beating Fred Krueger on her own terms. Nancy is confident in her victory until ...



One, two, Freddy's coming for you ...
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