Thursday, October 8, 2020

Thoughts on SHOCK VALUE: HOW DAN O’BANNON AND SOME USC OUTSIDERS HELPED INVENT MODERN HORROR (various) NightStream 2020

This is a collection of seven film made by a bunch of guys who would go on to change the face of science fiction and horror. The films were made in connection to their time in  college and in them you can see flashes of things that would show up in their later films such as HALLOWEEN. While the films will screen at the festival with a discussion following it, I only saw the films themselves. 

The films are:

BLOODBATH by Dan O'Bannon

THE DEMON by Charles Adair

CAPTAIN VOYEUR By John Carpenter

GOOD MORNING DAN by Dan O'Bannon

LADY MADONNA by John Carpenter

JUDSON'S RELEASE by Terrance Winkless

They are joined together by THE CREEPS MACHINE which looks to show us creepy stuff.

This is a good collection of films that gives us a really good idea where things came from. You also can see how these early films fit into their later work. Plot points carry over, as does the way that they shoot their films.

To be honest the films, while good, are not the sort of things you'll want to see repeatedly. These are interesting good footnotes. They are good enough to see once but ultimately these are going to be of interest for anyone who wants to see the early work of Carpenter and O'Bannon. 

I kind of wish that I could have seen the post film discussion since I suspect it would have given me more context to the films. Perhaps if these end up on Blu Ray or home video I'll revisit if there is a commentary track.

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