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As with his Shatner mask wearing rival, there is something sinister about not seeing the eyes.
To be fair, Friday the 13th is the franchise that stole the most from other horror films.
I watched Part 2 yesterday for the first time. I kind of thought that looked like a pillow case on his head .LOL!
Virtual high five!
Remember that this is the one with the warning to keep clean, girls, because of the bears. 😉😄
That scene was pretty funny!
As Siskel put it, it's a marvelous outdoor adventure picture with a message. ;)
Ebert's ranting about the film was hilarious! He really hated these movies. :D
Oh they bashed every Friday the 13th ever made. Paramount stopped letting them use film clips in their reviews after the third one I believe.
I truly miss him. Even if I didn’t agree with him. Siskel, not so much. Controversial opinion: Siskel was a example of a modern day fanboy. Just read his average James Bond review, and his biased love for Sean Connery.
Funnily, he still rated FYEO pretty high, complimenting it by comparing it favorably with RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.
He also liked OP, whereas Ebert felt it was too formulaic.
Had their tastes skewed differently, either Siskel or Ebert might very easily have praised the entire series as good, silly fun. I can just hear either one of them saying, “It’s not Lawrence of Arabia, but it hits the right spot and delivers everything you would expect it to. Thumbs up from me.”
"You know Gene, for all its spectacle, Congo is missing something important, and that is the kid in the wheelchair who has his head hacked open by a machete."
Lawrence of Arabia is a good film, but how many kids in wheelchairs had their heads hacked open by a machete in it? That's right.
That said, their disdain for those films was so over the top and it was especially wrong to publish the addresses of the actors and filmmakers for people to show up in protest.
And I disagree on Psycho and Halloween, they aren’t slashers. Only 5 people die in Halloween, one of them being off screen. The seasonal setting was an inspiration on Sean S. Cunningham, as was the campfire tale of Cropsy, but Friday The 13th owes more debt to Mario Bava's A Bay Of Blood.
I will have to rewatch Psycho, but I don't remember that many people dying in it. I can think of two, off the top of my head: Marion Crane and Milton Arbogast.
Okay, I do have something to say.
I've never send a F13 film in full; my curiosity isn't that strong. That might change someday, who knows. So by default I prefer Congo, and actually I really like Congo. It also introduced the world to Herkermer Homolka, formerly of Romania, free now of the chains of Ceaușescu, traveling the world doing good. That aspect must not be underestimated.
But regarding the main point of your post, as far as I'm concerned, one person's treasure is another person's garbage. We discover films (and books and everything) in a different order, at different points of our lives, in different circumstances, so we're bound to get different things out of them, and assign them different value. That's why I'm not big on sweeping statements like "false sophisticates will scorn it. Real sophisticates will relish it."
That said, I still get a valuable, deeper point out of those two sentences, not related to Congo in particular: to try to be authentic in one's taste. You like what you like.
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I don't know if you people were talking about F13: The New Blood here or in another thread, but that film's deleted head crush is, well, crushing to watch. Most gruesome kill I've seen in those films.
Only 6 people die onscreen in Friday The 13th, too. Halloween absolutely is a slasher movie. Masked villain? Check. Bladed weapon? Check. Horny teenagers? Check. The sweeter, more innocent leading girl? Check. It's all there.
Pyscho, though? Yes, I'd say it is less a slasher in itself but an undeniable influence for what was to come. It's a serial killer movie with a couple of iconic moments that clearly lingered in people's minds, and slasher horror producers expanded on those primal fears.
Funny thing, that "kid" looks about 30 years old!
'Kids' in slasher films are rarely any younger than 20 or 25.
I hate to admit I know this, but Corey Feldman was an exception in New Blood or part 4 or whatever that was called.
I liked it enough, but it did seem more of a parody that a typical entry.
Maybe not “slashers” in the sense that they are about the kills, but those two along with TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE are very much considered the progenitors of what became the slasher.
Yes, really! Ebert's Congo review is right on the money. The movie is pretty much completely tongue-in-cheek. Watch Tim Curry, Joe Don Baker, or Ernie Hudson: it couldn't be more obvious. Bruce bloody Campbell is in it! One character even breaks the fourth wall, referring to the fact that they are in a movie!
More good quotes from that review: "[Congo] is based on a novel by Michael Crichton, who is said to be unhappy about what they've done with his book. Since it is impossible to imagine this material being played for anything but laughs, maybe he should be grateful."
"...The filmmakers have cheerfully turned it into an action comedy, and the actors have gone a step further, treating it like one of those movies like "Beat the Devil" that is a put-on of itself. The result is not a movie that is very good, exactly, but it's entertaining and funny."
Congo is a wonderful comedic throwback to the jungle adventure genre, and Ebert got it. Most other critics (and perhaps Dylan Walsh?) did not.
Indeed, Bay of Blood immediately comes to mind when watching the first few F13 films, even though none of the F13 directors come even close to the greatness of Bava. Great part for Claudine Auger in BoB as well of course.
I love F13, but I wouldn't dare suggest that. Bavas films had style and flair. At least they did when he wasn't being screwed over a barrel by the studio.
The Final Chapter (my favourite!). And yes, indeed, but Corey wasn't sexualised in that film, unlike pretty much everyone else. Good thing too, knowing what we know now.
I have great respect for Corey. What happened to him... Sad. Just sad.
It's funny how the term "slasher" can spark so many semantic discussions. I'm more an "I'll recognise it when I see it" kinda guy. ;-)
To be fair, it's been a long time since I've seen Congo. It does have a very good cast. I was just using it as an example of a lesser acclaimed film that Ebert really liked and may have gotten a bit hyperbolic about.
Just to cover my bases, he also gave favorable reviews to Ghosts of Mars and Garfield: The Movie. ;)
"Ghosts of Mars delivers on its chosen level and I enjoyed it," wrote Ebert. Fair enough. Ghosts of Mars is the kind of film that should be right up my alley, but I thought it was pretty poorly made by Carpenter's standards. I'm not sure how Ghosts of Mars succeeds at its level and Friday the 13th doesn't, but that's where personal taste plays a hand.
I agree, we like what we like. Our tastes don't have to align with the multitudes.
The censors went totally Jason on The New Blood and hacked all the work that went into the kills to bits. It's got to be the least gory F13 of them all. But at least it still has that fantastic zombie Jason makeup.
I evidently have to go into my next viewing of Congo expecting comedy!
It may also be that Ebert was just really into jungle adventures because he also praised Anaconda...which to be fair is plain, good entertainment after all. ;)
Maybe not a controversial opinion, but I find myself more interested about old films I've watched thousands of times than new releases.
You Congo wrong with Congo. Or Anaconda.