LA! Watch HALLOWEEN 2 With BC This Saturday!
As we reported a couple weeks back, on October 27th the New Beverly will host a tribute screening of Halloween in honor of late producer Debra Hill, with proceeds going toward a scholarship that has been set up in her name. 100 bucks nets you the rare 35mm screening (priceless, in my opinion!), a John Carpenter Q&A, PLUS a gorgeous Mondo poster, and the knowledge that your dough is going to a good cause.
But if you got another 8 bucks, the night can be even better, as the New Bev is having a midnight screening of Halloween II (the original. Someone actually asked me and I almost wept), hosted by yours truly as part of my monthly "Horror Movie A Day Presents" screenings. I've been doing newer films as of late (include THREE from 1998, for some reason), so this should be a fun time as chances are most of my audience wasn't able to see it when it was first released, unlike, say, The Faculty (last month's movie). As far as I'm concerned, whether it's your first time or something you've worn out on VHS, there's no better way to experience a slasher movie than on the big screen, and given the seasonal nature of the film, I expect this to be a packed house full of excited (but respectful!) fans.
And Halloween II is a great film to revisit, as I flip flop on it all the time and have talked to several other 'Ween-fans that can't decide where to put it in their ranking. Sometimes I see it as a solid, admirable followup, with great setpieces, an enhanced role for one of the original's assets (Dr. Sam Loomis, aka Donald Pleasence), and a cheesy/awesome synthed up version of the original's classic musical cues. But other times, I find it to be a bit bland, no better (or worse) than any of the other anonymous, "original" slasher films that were churned out every other week in 1981. And no matter how I feel about the movie as a whole, I can NEVER get past the fact that Laurie Strode spends the majority of it in a hospital bed, doped on painkillers and sleeping pills.
But that's not all of us. Some folks find that aspect to be quite realistic, and as it helped solidify her significance in the series (how many slasher sequels had the same heroine? Alice got killed in the first ten minutes of Friday the 13th Part 2, and Nightmare 2 didn't have Nancy at all), many fans will defend H2 (and even H20) over any of the ones in between because they can't accept a Halloween movie without her. And it would be her horror swan song for a while; after Halloween she did Prom Night, The Fog, and Terror Train (all 1980), and did this one mainly as a favor to Carpenter and Hill as she was already getting worried about being typecast. Afterward, not counting her vocal cameo in Halloween III and a couple of straight thrillers (Blue Steel and Mother's Boys, which had her as the villain!), she wouldn't appear in another full blown horror flick until H20.
In addition to the rare opportunity to see both films back to back on 35mm (that is, if you grabbed a ticket to the sold out Halloween screening), I'll be on hand for a quick intro and some DVDs/swag to give out for answering questions, and I'm still working on snagging a guest for Q&A (I tried getting Dean Cundey, who came out for my Psycho II screening a while back, but he's working on a shoot - and believe me, I'd much rather Dean Cundey shoot a new movie than having nothing better to do than talk to me on a Saturday night).
If you've never been to the theater (WHY NOT?), the New Beverly is located at 7165 Beverly Blvd in Los Angeles, two blocks west of La Brea. Tickets are 8 bucks cash at the door or online at BrownPaperTickets, and street parking is easy to find (Formosa Ave is the best bet). And again, this is Saturday, October 27th, at 11:59pm. Since Halloween starts around 8 and there's no other movie in between, we should be starting as close to midnight as ever, so be on time! See you there!
P.S. The event poster was designed by Jacopo Tenani - check out his Pinterest site HERE!
