Halloweek

In case you didn't know, Halloween is just 5 days away and I am already celebrating what I have dubbed Halloweek (yes, clever). So in this light I come to you with my top 5 Halloween films that should get you in the mood for a night of ghoulish affairs.

5) A Nightmare on Elm Street



Let's start off with a classic. When young Tina is brutally murdered in her sleep, her best friend Tina starts suspecting that a supernatural force is at work. This turns out to be Freddy Kruger who lives in our dreams and slaughters those unfortunate enough to fall asleep. This movie came out in 1984 (allot of good things came out of that year it would seem) and was directed by renowned horror/thriller director Wes Craven. When released it became an instant pop-culture phenomenon and Freddy Kruger has become the poster-boy of the horror genre ever since.
When it comes down to the film it self you have to take into account that this movie was made over twenty years ago, so some of the effects don't hold up but therein lies much of the films charms. Despite some pretty horrific acting, Freddy (Robert Englund) is as menacing as anything you have ever seen and you are introduced to a young Johnny Depp in his first on-screen role. Besides, the film that made New Line Cinema what it is today deserves our respect and is a good start to your Halloweek.

4) Ring


Forget the American remake (all though the U.S. The Ring is a pretty good adaptation), but the original Japanese Ring becomes even more spine-tingling when set against a foreign backdrop. We all know the story: After a group of teenagers all die at the same day at the exact same time after having watched a supposed cursed videotape, reporter Reiko starts digging into the modern myth and soon finds herself face to face with an avenging spirit of a wronged little girl.
What really make this film scary is that it never goes for the quick, make-you-jump kind of scare, but rather builds up an unsettling vibe that never lets up and never truly lets you relax. Complete it all with a surprise ending and you have yourself a Halloween movie that you won't soon forget.


3) SAW

Sure Halloween is all about ghosts and ghouls (or at least it used to be), but when prepping up for Halloween you can't ignore what has for five years now been a Halloween tradition, namely the Saw franchise. Nothing supernatural here, just good old human malice.
With a dead body laying between them, two men wake up in the secure lair of a serial killer who's been nicknamed "Jigsaw" by the police because of his unusual calling card (IMDB.com). If you can escape his traps you get to live, but not without some sacrifice. Your life is in your hand.
What made Saw such a big deal back in 2005 was that it for the first time in a very long while was a film that brought something new and original to the horror genre. Since then we have gotten a Saw movie for each Halloween with number five just being released in cinemas as we speak. People being killed in all manner of horrible ways is just the thing to get you in the Halloween mood (and if you have the time check out Saw 2 and 3 which both offer more of the same gory goodness. Nr. 4 not so much).


2) Bram Stoker's Dracula

When Francis Ford Coppola adapts one of the best Vampire novels of all time you know you are in for a good ride and a Halloween celebration is not complete without visiting one of the classic monsters. You get a stellar cast here: Gary Oldman as Dracula, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins and Keanu Reeves (with an unfortunate British accent) and even with a running time of 123 minutes you never start looking at the clock. This is the hypnotic, Gothic and slightly erotic tale of the father of all vampires: Vlad the Impaler himself and you will be hard pressed not to find yourself drawn in by the lure and blood-lust this movie offers.


1) Halloween

Not a big surprise here as the best film to watch on Halloween is, in fact, Halloween. We started off with a horror icon and now we end with one, all though maybe a little less known. This is of course the man behind the mask Michael Myers. The IMDB.com's synopsis says it best: "A psychotic murderer institutionalized since childhood escapes on a mindless rampage while his doctor chases him through the streets." Enough said.
Made in 1978 by the legendary John Carpenter this movie quickly became another American horror film phenomenon that will remain a staple of not only Halloween, but U.S. horror for generations to come. If you can only see one film for Halloween this year, see Halloween.

So there you have it, my 5 choices for one week of Halloween. Of course there are countless horror films you can chose from that will do the job and I am sure you will have your own personal top 5 Halloween movies that puts you in the mood for a night of fright. So please, leave a comment and let me know what five films you would chose for your own personal Halloweek. Until next time remember: lock your door and close the window. You never know who or what is stalking you in the night.

Where is....Half-Life the movie?

Everyone that play games at a more then casual level have one or more franchises they wish to see make the transfer to the silver screen. I have quite a few game to film adaptations I wish to see (or write and make), so I have decided to create this segment in the blog simply named "Where is..."

Feel free to suggest something to out in this segment if there is something you would be curious to see make the transfer from game, book, what have you, to film.


For this firs installment of Where is... I wish to look at what is possibly the greatest First Person Shooter (FPS) in modern gaming. Since its release in 1998 the Half-Life series has set the standard for the FPS that followed, with a strong focus on story and puzzle solving mixed with great action sequences.

The game:

The story of Half-Life is simple, but engaging. You play as Gordon Freeman, a a recent graduate theoretical physicist who must fight his way out of a secret underground research facility (Black Mesa) who experiments with teleportation technology. After a test went horribly wrong, several alien life forms were teleported from another world to the facility. As aliens trying to kill you wasn't enough, U.S. marines are tasked with infiltrating the base and kill any survivors to cover the incident up, and that includes you.

The film:

For a feature film I would keep the general outline of the game and build from there. We are introduced to Gordon Freeman as he enters the Black Mesa underground complex and follow as he is going through the motions of day to day work. But of course everything goes horribly wrong during a test and the facility is overrun by vicious alien creatures of various kinds. Now Gordon, with the help of security guard Barney and surviving scientist Kleiner, have to make their way through the facility and escape aliens and marines alike.

In the terms of storytelling it doesn't get much simpler then this, so if the movie is to be any good and engaging we will need more meat to put on the bone here.

First would of course be to flesh out Gordon Freeman as an actual character. In the game he is a blank slate that you never see nor does he ever speak. He is you in the game, but in the movie he needs to be a man of his own so to speak.
In the game Gordon also travels alone for the most part, only occasionally paring up with either scientists or security personnel. But for a better story dynamic the film would see Gordon team up with Barney and Dr. Kleiner, both of which are featured as key characters in Half-Life 2 (game), so it makes sense to have them playing key roles in the first film.

Since we are already borrowing story dynamics from Half-Life 2 why not go full throttle. I would want to see all the dynamics we see in Half-Life 2 having their origins in the first move. This would include seeing a very young Alyx Vance following her dad, Eli, around at work. Throw in Judith Mossman and Breen in there and you have a pretty good cast of characters. Seeing were all these characters start out will enforce where they are in the Half-Life 2 movie a great deal and making the movies fit together better.

That being said, I would not have the narrative of the movie go away from Gordon at any time. Just like the game, which never have cut-scenes or ever move away from Gordon in any way. the movie would always follow Gordon as he makes his way through the facility. So, like the game, whenever we want exposition from other characters Gordon will have to be in the scene. This would create a rather unique narrative (again like the game) where background information and story details are overheard from conversations between characters surrounding Gordon, avoiding scenes designed purely for narrative exposition which more often then not comes across rather clumsy.

But the film would be nothing without the G-man, who in the games are a mysterious man in a suit that follows Gordon around and simply observes the events taking place. He ends up giving Gordon an ultimatum at the end of the game: join hi and whoever it is he is representing (which to this day is a mystery) or die basically. This is a character made for a film adaptation and for those of you familiar with the franchise the G-man I see playing more or less the same role in the movie as he does in the game.

All in all I see Half-Life being a mix between balls out action with Gordon, Barney and Kleiner working together battling aliens and U.S. Marines and horror moments filled with suspense.

Towards the end I would see Gordon, Barney and Kleiner trying to close the dimensional rift that allows the aliens to come through to our world, but in doing so sees Gordon being transported to Xen, the alien homeworld. Here he would be confronted by the G-man who informs him that the rift will never close as long as the alien mastermind (the final boss so to speak) is defeated. Gordon agrees to take him out and in doing so closes the rift between the worlds. But by defeating the alien Gordon also handed control over Xen to G-man and the people he represent (which could be suggested being the government). Now Gordon is faced with the ultimatum he faces in the game: Start working for the G-man or face a battle he can't possibly win.

The movie ends with Gordon agreeing to work for G-man, entering a bright white light to god knows what. FADE TO WHITE, THE END.

I won't go too much into what a sequel or trilogy would offer, but if you have played Half-Life 2 you would get a good sense of where the film series could go.

Hopefully all of that made sense, but if it didn't please let me know.