Freddy Vs Jason Vs Michael

Tonight I thought that we would debate the long running "Which is the best slasher franchise?" It's a Horror Battle Royal between "A Nightmare on Elm Street", "Friday 13th" and the "Halloween" franchises.

Now the answer is obviously "Nightmare on Elm Street" but that's just my opinion. Instead I thought that I would take a more empirical (if what a little simplified) look at the highs and lows of the genre. It may be appropriate at this point to let on that my day job is as a finance data analyst, previously it had been a retail analyst so I will use a few simple industry standard techniques to see which franchise and movie is the king of the slashers. For this little mock up. Any results and conclusions are based on the data for fun. Please know that there's great movies in all 3 franchises and I could have used alternative analysis methods to look at the success of the movies (however, the raw data is very much real).

I will be analysing by three main dimensions:

Budget ($)

Gross Profit ($)

Ranking (/10)*

*I will be using IMDB as a data source as it's reasonably impartial.

The aim here is a very simplistic way to establish the below:

What’s the highest Ranking?

Well, as you can see below I’ve plotted the ratings for each movie on the charts below. In terms of rating the original in each series is considered the best. Each franchise seems to deteriorate in quality over time. “Halloween 3: Season of the Witch” and “Halloween: Resurrection” received just 3.9 rankings on IMDB. Although the original Halloween movie tops the rankings chart at 7.9. Overall though there’s very little to choose from in terms of IMDB rating. The average rating chart shows a spread of just 0.58 between the franchises.

 What’s the most profitable?

Interesting here how the 3 franchises made their profits. Friday 13th went low budget but high on quantity. Nightmare on Elm Street was generally declining in profit until reinvented as “Freddy Vs Jason” and the remake. Halloween generally increases profitability after movie 6 “The Curse of Michael Myers”. Looking at the franchised as a whole the data suggests that Friday 13th is the overall most profitable, then Nightmare on Elm Street, followed by Halloween.

 

 What’s the most expensive to make?

The budgets of each franchise are a story in themselves. Nightmare on Elm Street took a simple strategy of building on past success, incrementally increasing the spending. This seems to have worked well and the cash cow keeps giving. Friday 13th took the thrift option of the lowest budgets of the 3 franchises. Only for “Freddy Vs Jason” and the 2009 remake do we see the budgets rise to compete with the other modern movies. These last 2 movies also returned some of the highest gross profits of any of the franchises showing that the budget increase was a good step to take financially. Halloween made an interesting decision after movie 6 “The Curse of Michael Myers” the budgets leapt from $5m to $17, for “Halloween H20: 20 Years Later”. Overall the budgets were the highest for the Elm Street franchise (mostly due to the £35m remake).

 

So, which series is best?

In terms of High Budgets and Overall Ratings “Nightmare on Elm Street” is our winner.

I will give a special award to the original Halloween that converted a budget of $320,000 in to a $46.7m profit for a single movie. In turn leading to a franchise of 10 movies plus another in the filming stage right now.

I will also tip my hat to the “Friday 13th” franchise. 12 movies so far and all made at a cheap budget but capable of getting cinema goers through the doors.

Hopefully you enjoyed this little look in to “Freddy VS Jason Vs Michael”.

Happy hauntings, Jiblet.

Tonight's Midnight Movie: "Devil"

Year: 2010

Actors: Chris Messina, Bojana Novakovic, Logan Marshall-Green

Director: John Erick Dowdle

Formats: DVD, Blu-Ray

Price: £3.49

 

Mini Review

A group of 5 strangers manage to be unlucky enough to get trapped in an elevator together. No problem, just call a mechanic right? Well, there’s a second problem, one of them is the Devil. Sure enough each person in the lift has something to hide and sure enough it doesn’t take long before the Devil claims his first victim? Who is the Devil?

Verdict

As soon as I saw the “M. Night Shyamalan” credit as a writer I was in two minds. I really enjoyed “The Sixth Sense” but really didn’t get on well with “Signs “ or “The Village”. I managed to pick the DVD up for £3 though at the local supermarket and took a gamble.

I’m pleased to say that “Devil” is actually a good movie. Contrary to what I’d imagined although the 5 actors are within the elevator for almost the entire movie there are plenty of scenes outside of it. It was a good choice as the feel of the movie would have been very different had the camera never left the elevator.

I don’t want to spoil any of the plot here regarding “who is the Devil?” The movie did keep me guessing which was really refreshing, I was convinced on one character from the start and nearly chose correctly. Actually working out the answer would almost be guesswork.

I was slightly disappointed that part of the final events were lifted straight from other movies in a movie that had up until the end been quite original. Despite that, this is still a movie worth seeing. It’s Shyamalan but without the annoying one trick pony twists of “Signs”, “Unbreakable” and “The Sixth Sense”.

Pros: Reasonably original, entertaining and will keep you guessing.

Cons: Several plot holes but nothing too disastrous.

The Haunted Cinema Rating: 7 broken elevators out of 10. Well worth a watch.

Should our review not be enough for you try these links.

IMDB: Devil

Wikipedia: Devil

Amazon: Devil [DVD]

Happy hauntings, Jiblet.

Your views: Watched this? Own this? Recommend this? Have a question about this? Please feel free to comment.

Will there be another “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie?

“Nightmare On Elm Street” is a horror series that just keeps on going. So far there have been nine Elm Street movies if you include the remake and “Freddy Vs Jason”. For the purpose of this blog I’m going to ignore the TV series and other related spin-offs).

So, here’s the question: Is the series any good and why so many sequels?

To investigate I’ve pulled data from IMDB for a quick piece of analysis.

Are the movies getting better?

Here I’ve taken the IMDB rank for each movie and plotted a linear trend. From a solid 7.4 for the original, the series drops to a woeful 4.6 by part 6 and recovers to a very average rating of 5.1 for the eventual remake. Overall the trend is negative, people just aren’t enjoying the series as is progresses. My observation here is that the story really doesn’t progress, from start to finish Freddy kills teenagers in their sleep. Ok Freddy Vs Jason set him against an opponent and Wes Craven’s New Nightmare mixed up the formula a little. Overall though there was little in the plot that progressed.

Are the Nightmare on Elm Street movies profitable?

Since the audience becomes more underwhelmed overtime with the series why would New Line continue to make them? Well, money could be the answer. In the chart below I’ve marked user ratings against gross profits for each movie. Part 7 (Wes Craven’s New Nightmare) had budget issues and “The Dream Child” was simply a bad movie. Overall though there is profit in the series which always creates a temptation for the studio to put out another. Interestingly there’s not a particularly strong correlation between user rating and profits. “Freddy’s Revenge” has a generally low rating but a decent box office profit. Conversely “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare” is one of the better movies statistically but turned a low profit.

Will there be another “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie?

The short answer is that I don’t know :-) Looking at the profit margins though I will make a guess. What’s important for a studio is the % markup of their movie. Essentially, for the budget given, how well did it turn a profit. The chart below show you how any possibly why New Line keep financing the series.

The original Nightmare on Elm Street had just a $1.8m budget but delivered a $23.7m gross profit, that’s a 1317% mark up. This means that the studio struck gold, of course a sequel at that point was inevitable. Made on a similar budget it too realised a mark-up greater than 1000%. Generally the movie is rated poorly though so it was the momentum from part one that got people through the doors.

As we progress on to movie 5 the returns are dropping radically despite the budgets ballooning. Statistically movie 5 (The Dream Child) looked like the end of the cash cow. However, the movie has no concrete ending. So, New Line came up with the concept for movie 6 “Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare”. In the UK we have a saying, “In for a penny, in for a pound”. Since you’ve seen the previous 6 wouldn’t you just love to see “The Final” movie where well before the release it was known that Freddy would be killed off in 3D. With the biggest budget to date and the promise of the end people bought in again and the movie saw a 310% mark-up.

Then we come to an interesting junction in the life of the series. Freddy’s dead, you can’t undo that otherwise you will alienate the fans that will now feel cheated. However, there are clearly fans that will see all 6 movies to date, surly 7 couldn’t hurt. Here’s where Wes steps in and transforms the series. Set in “The Real World” Freddy returns as a sort of urban legend/know evil. The idea was actually not bad (considering the options) and the reception was generally good. The budget of $25m was a real risk though, close to double that of any Elm Street movie before. The profits were terrible but I do feel that Wes put the integrity back in to the series here.

So, what next? Freddy’s dead in the movie world and dead in the real world. It’s clear that a movie of either type would not really be worth the risk. Well, at this point we start to see the series fracture with a spin-off. Having newly acquired the rights to the Friday 13th series it’s was time for a match up between Freddy and Jason. Having a fan base from 2 classic 80’s slashers was always going to get people through the door. A huge $57m gross profit saw “Freddy Vs Jason” top the most profitable (gross) of the Elm Street series to date.

So with the original series gone, the real world option gone and a spin-off where would the series go next. Well, disappointingly there was a £35m remake. At 19 times the budget of the original the remake only made a mark-up of 80% and around only half the gross profit of “Freddy Vs Jason”. Replacing Robert Englund was never going to work in my opinion, he simply is Freddy. Also, the idea by the very nature of a remake has been done before (and again and again in the sequels).

So, will there be another movie.

I believe that yes there will be. Although not announced it would make sense for the studio to keep going. The only real viable option is a concept for “Freddy Vs Jason 2” or even “Freddy Vs Jason Vs Michael Vs Ash Vs Pinhead”. Who knows?. As long as the series is turning profit there will be a producer to make the Elm Street movies. The real question is, Will Robert Englund return as Freddy? Withought him Freddy really is dead and buried.

Happy hauntings, Jiblet.

Tonight's Midnight Movie: "The Cabinet of Dr Caligari"

Year: 1920

Actors: Werner Krauss, Conrad Veidt, Friedrich Feher

Director: Robert Wiene

Formats: VHS, DVD

Price: UK £2.99, USA $7.98

Or watch for free at the bottom of this post! :-D

Mini Review

“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” ("Das Kabinet des Dr Caligari") is best described as a Horror movie of the German Expressionist style. From start to finish the movie is highly stylised. The plot concerns a young man called Francis recalling a story of recent events to another man. He tells how a mysterious man called Dr Caligari comes to town. Whilst at the town carnival Caligari reveals the somnambulist (sleep walker to you and me). A man that has slept for 23 years and can tell the past, present and future. Sure enough it isn’t long before Cesare the somnambulist predicts a death which in turn swiftly occurs. Can the locals get to the bottom of the mysterious murders and is all as simple as it seems?

Verdict

“The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” has been on my list of movies to watch for a long time. I’ve been burnt so many time though when I’ve watched a highly acclaimed movie by the critics. From the trailers it’s difficult to work out what the fuss is about, it’s one that you have to see, there really is no other option.

I generally like the silent movies, although not strictly a horror movie I still rate Fritz Lang’s Metropolis as one of the best movies ever made. “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari” hasn’t disappointed me either. For a 1920’s movie I was really surprised by the plot arc, it’s a movie way before it’s time in terms of technique. The sets are fantastic, I don’t think that there is a single right-angle in the whole move. Everything looks disjointed, abstract and gothic. I imagine that Tim Burton must love this movie, there’s so many of the stylings that seem to have influenced him. For those that remember the “Judder-Man” adverts by Metz back in the ‘90s I can’t help thinking that the character was modelled on the somnambulist. <--word of the day.

I’m happy that there is music to compliment the movie. Having watched several other “silent” movies with no soundtrack I did struggle to pay full attention. Luckily there is no problem here and there are alternate restorations to consider.

What stands out for me in the movie is that I just didn’t see the end coming. I really should have known better (having seen and read so much) but I was convinced that the movie would play out as I expected. For the most part it did but the last page turner made this movie for me. It’s like when you see a fantastic magic trick, you are convinced you know what’s coming but then the story takes you off on a rapid departure.

I can see now why this movie is regarded so highly and also why it is so important for the history of film. This not just a recommendation but a must see movie.

Pros: A clever plot, brilliant scenery and part of horror history.

Cons: The silent aspect may put younger viewers off. Some of the “restored” DVD editions are not as good quality as they could be considering the standard of the Nosferatu resoration.

The Haunted Cinema Rating: 8 German Expressionist somnambulists out of 10.

Should our review not be enough for you try these links.

IMDB: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Wikipedia: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari

Amazon: Das Cabinet Des Dr Caligari [1919] [DVD]

"The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920)" Full Movie.

Happy hauntings, Jiblet.

Your views: Watched this? Own this? Recommend this? Have a question about this? Please feel free to comment.

Tonight's Midnight Movie: "Carnival Of Souls"

Year: 1962

Actors: Candace Hilligoss, Sidney Berger, Frances Feist

Director: Herk Harvey

Formats: VHS, DVD

Price: UK £2.99, USA $5.29 (Remastered Color $9.95)

Or watch for free at the bottom of this post! :-D

Mini Review

“Carnival of Souls” has a simple yet creepy. Shortly after a car accident a talented organist called Mary leave for Utah to take up a new job as a church organist. However, since the accident she has strange sightings of a zombie-like man. He appears to her several times but only she can see him. Mentally she links these sightings to an abandoned carnival and sets out to investigate the source of the visits by the strange man. There’s lots of what could be paranoia, hysteria or could it all be real. At time Mary is uable to communicate with the world around here. Can the local doctor, priest or neighbour help her? Can she help herself?

Verdict

“Carnival of Souls” is a genuinely interesting movie. I first picked this one up a few years ago. It was at a time when the £ to $ currency conversion was superb and how I built up my collection of US DVDs. On the first viewing I’d worked out the entire plot within minutes, so naturally I was initially underwhelmed by the rest of the movie. To anyone that has seen a horror movie before the plot is reasonably obvious. However, I decided to give this one another go as I did remember it at least as an interesting movie.

Second time round it was much more enjoyable. The acting is reasonably good, sometimes a little wooden but generally convincing enough. There’s some real issues in terms of continuity/plot holes, one of them big enough to have you asking yourself if you understood the movie correctly (I won’t mention any spoilers here).

Some parts of the movie seem slightly redundant. There is a sub-plot with Mary’s neighbour. A drinking, slightly rude pushy sleaze bag. Any modern girl would tell him to shove off but Mary just seems to roll with it. These segments add little in the way of pushing the story forward. For me that would be one of the key issues with the movie, the story moves reasonably slowly and it can seem like a bit of a chore at times to watch. Had this been a short story/shorter movie I think that the overall effect would have been greater.

Those are the downsides but there is a lot of goodness in this movie. It’s definitely a classic and did incorporate ideas not often seen before the early ‘60s. The production values also seem to be very good for this time period. In particular the abandoned carnival/pavilion is a very impressive setting for a movie and really works well.

Overall I do like this movie. I think that it could have been better but overall I did enjoy the re-watch of this one. I would recommend this movie. It’s not scary and so I really have no idea why it is classified as a 15 certificate in the UK. Summing up, this movie is low on scares but there is enough plot to squeeze out a good movie.

Pros: Good production, reasonably unique story, great sets.

Cons: A little low on scares and slow moving.

The Haunted Cinema Rating: 7 creepy carnivals out of 10.

Should our review not be enough for you try these links.

IMDB: Carnival of Souls

Wikipedia: Carnival of Souls

Amazon: Carnival Of Souls [1962] [DVD], Carnival of Souls - Remastered Colour

"Carnival Of Souls" Full Movie.

Happy hauntings, Jiblet.

Your views: Watched this? Own this? Recommend this? Have a question about this? Please feel free to comment.

Tonight's Midnight Movie: "Sorority Row"

Year: 2009

Actors: Briana Evigan, Margo Harshman, Rumer Willis, Jamie Chung, Leah Pipes, Audrina Patridge, Carrie Fisher

Director: Stewart Hendler

Formats: DVD, Blu-Ray

Price: £2.49

Mini Review

I’ve been looking through the sales lately and came across “Sorority Row” for £2.49. Well, for that price you can’t really complain so I thought I’d give it a go. Even from the trailer I think the director was struggling to distinguish the idea from “I know What You Did Last Summer”. The basic plot is that there is a sorority prank gone wrong. A group of Theta Pi girls pretend that one of them is dead, this accidentally leads to the girl’s boyfriend making sure. The “making sure” bit involves stabbing a tire iron through her chest, this time actually killing her. The girls swear to secrecy about the accident and dispose of their sisters’ corpse down an unused well.

Then the fun begins, on the one year anniversary of the secret one by one the girls are being murdered by a hooded figure. In addition the girls receive phone messages of their the murder weapon. Has the dead sister come back for revenge?

Verdict

From start to finish this is an incredibly trashy movie. The trailer is reasonably accurate as a sampler of what you will be getting. There’s lots of half-dressed sorority sisters, alcohol and partying with a few murders in-between. There is absolutely nothing new about the movie in terms of ideas. There’s the girl going off on her own, a girl trying to hide in a wardrobe from the murderer, the unusually suspiciously guilty character and even the ultimate cliché of one of the sorority girls going down to the basement alone. The murderer for the most part is dressed in a black robe, this is literally identical to the Scream series.

Having said all that I will award some odd bonus marks. The soundtrack includes Dragonette and Franz Ferdinand which is always pleasant. The movie also has a small role for Carrie Fisher as the sorority mother. I have to say her scenes were much better than most. Overall I knew what I was getting when I picked this DVD. It’s not bad at all, I wasn’t bored and there was good energy on screen. The lack of originality left me a little disappointed though. This isn't the worst slasher you will see so I wouldn't want to put readers off too much.

IMDB estimates this one at a $16,000,000 budget with just $11,915,856 gross. For the life of me I can’t work out why this would cost so much to produce.

Pros: Good value for a £2.49 DVD.

Cons: Exactly the same plot as “I know What You Did Last Summer” with murderer from “Scream”.

The Haunted Cinema Rating: 6 corpses in a mineshaft out of 10.

If you liked this try: “I know What You Did Last Summer”, “Scream”

Should our review not be enough for you try these links.

IMDB: Sorority Row

Wikipedia: SororityRow

Amazon: Sorority Row [DVD] [2009]

Happy hauntings, Jiblet.

Your views: Watched this? Own this? Recommend this? Have a question about this? Please feel free to comment.

Tonight's Midnight Movie: "Clue"

Year: 1985
Actors: Eileen Brennan, Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, Colleen Kamp, Lee Ving
Director: John Landis
Formats: VHS, DVD
Price: £2.49

Ok, so it's not ghosts, goblins, demons, paranormal, haunted houses etc. I thought that I would branch out today with a quick murder mystery/comedy, although it is directed by Horror guru John Landis. If it makes you feel any better there is a big old creepy house and murder!!!

Mini Review

Ah Cluedo, err I mean Clue. You see in the UK the game is known as Cluedo rather than Clue, see footnote for reasons why*. Our game, our rules since a Brit invented it. The movie however is American and most definitely called Clue. As you would expect it's an adaptation of the classic board game. There's Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, Mrs White, Miss Scarlet, Mr Green, Mrs Peacock and of course Mr Body/Dr Black. In addition there's also Wadsworth the butler and Yvette the French maid. The guests all arrive one by one and get to know each other over a soup slurping, monkey brain scooping dinner. It sets the tone of the movie well. They are then joined by Mr Black who after dinner is revealed to have been blackmailing each guest for a different reason. Sure enough a light switch flips, the lights go out and we are left with one dead Mr Body as a result.

Wordsworth explains that he has already called the police with the intention of charging Mr Body with blackmail. However, since he is now dead there is a race on to discover how he died, where, with what and by who? Along the way the guests are interrupted by unexpected guests which lead to more murders. It's a delightful movie with plenty of running around and hysteria. The guests split up at times, use secret passages and generally all have reason to suspect each other. Only at the very end is the full solution revealed.

*Shortly thereafter, Pratt and his wife presented the game to Waddingtons' executive, Norman Watson, who immediately purchased the game and provided its trademark name of "Cluedo" (a play on "clue" and "Ludo", which is Latin for I play). Though the patent was granted in 1947, due to post-war shortages, the game was not officially launched until 1949, at which time the game was simultaneously licensed to Parker Brothers in the United States for publication, where it was re-named "Clue" along with other minor changes.

Verdict

Clue is a movie that really will keep you guessing until the end, even then you could be wrong. This is one of those movies I saw as a kid and have always loved. There's lots of slapstick running around, great word play and above all there's a relentless silliness to the proceedings which makes it so watchable. Along with Stephen King's "IT" this must be the one of Tim Curry's best moments. I'm guessing the director told Tim to just have fun and do things his way. The comedy timing is superb, every character seems perfectly crafted and all have great one-liners.

What really impresses me is that the writing allows for a real murder mystery story to run through the movie. There's red herrings, subtle clues and lots of far fetched motives for the murders. Take away the comedy and farce of the movie and the plot could have stood as a serious mystery movie in it's own right.

Pros: Just utterly silly and enjoyable. Tim Curry at his best.

Cons: There's a few continuity errors but it really doesn't take anything away from the viewing.

The Haunted Cinema Rating: 9 bodies stacked in the lounge out of 10. This is the pinnacle of the murder mystery comedies.

Should our review not be enough for you try these links.

IMDB: Clue

Wikipedia: Clue

Amazon: Clue [DVD]

Clue (1985): Trailer

Happy hauntings, Jiblet.

Your views: Watched this? Own this? Recommend this? Have a question about this? Please feel free to comment.