JoeLumb's Movie Review "Blade Runner" (1982)

 When this film came out on June 25,1982 in North American theatres "Blade Runner" initially underperformed which left critics polarized. Some praised it's thematic complexity and visuals while others critiqued (in my words "buried") the movie due to  it's slow pacing and lack of action. 

"Blade Runner" is a 1982 sci-fi film directed by the legendary Ridley Scott (Director of Alien) the screenplay was written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples and it's an adaptation of Philip K.Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" The movie stars Harrison Ford,Rutger Hauer,Sean Young and Edward James Olmos The film is set in a dystopian future (2019 in Los Angeles) in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on space colonies. When a fugitive gang of advanced replicants lead by Roy Batty escape back to Earth it's up to a cop named Rick Deckard to hunt down Batty and his gang.

Many years after it's release "Blade Runner" became a cult classic. Mainly due to the fact it was starting to be regarded as one of the greatest science fiction films ever made. Hailed for it's production design by depicting a high tech but decaying future,the film is often regarded as both a leading example of neo-noir cinema as well as a foundational work of the cyberpunk genre. It has influenced so many sci-fi movies,video games,anime and TV series. It also brought Philip K.Dick's work to Hollywood's attention and lead to several film adaptations of his works. In 1993 it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by The Library of Congress.

The Film's Budget cost was $30 million and why was it so expensive? Mainly because there were seven different versions of "Blade Runner" that existed as a result of controversial changes requested by the studio executives. A Director's cut was released in 1992 after a strong response to test screenings of a workprint. This in conjunction with the film's popularity as a video rental made it one of the earliest movies to be put out on DVD. There was a 25th anniversary Director's Cut of the film that Warner Bros. put out in 2007 which was digitally remastered it's the only version of which Ridley Scott himself retained artistic control. 

In 2017 a sequel called "Blade Runner 2049" was released along side a trilogy of short films covering in the 30 year span between the two movie settings.  The movie did $41.6 million at the box office in it's initial run. 

My overall rating of "Blade Runner" is a 75/100 for all it's hype the movie did lack alot of fast paced action and dragged on repetitively. However it's credited for creating the Cyberpunk genre. So I'll give the movie credit for that.

JoeLumb's Movie Review The Exorcist III (1990)

 This movie was more of a phychological horror film than a supernatural horror film. Written for the big screen and directed by William Peter Blatty based on his 1983 novel Legion. It's the third installment of the Exorcist film franchise. "The Exoecist III" is a direct sequel to "The Exorcist" (1973) as this film dismisses the events of 1977's "Exorcist II:The Heretic" the movie follows one character from the original film Lieutenant William F. Kinderman (played by veteran actor George C.Scott) as he investigates a series of murders in Georgetown that have the hallmark of The Gemini Killer. There is another character Damien Karras (played by Jason Miller who reprised this role) now going by Patient X has a significant role in this picture. More on that in the plot. 

Why did William Peter Blatty direct this movie instead of William Friedkin? Well you see Friedkin was on board with directing the film,but backed out as he went on to direct another supernatural horror film called "The Guardian"

It's 17 years later after Regan MacNeil's exorcism Father Dyer and Lieutenant Kinderman reminisce about Father Damien Karras. The following night an incident occured at the church indicating the presence of an evil supernatural entity which caused the crucifix to open it's eyes,the next scene follows with the perspective of a man walking on the streets speaking of a dream of falling down a LONG FLIGHT of STEPS" suggesting that someone is committing murders linked to Karras' death.  The Next morning Kinderman is called to a crime scene to find a deceased body of Thomas Kintry a youngster that had his head replaced with a cut off statue of Jesus. While fingerprints at multiple crime scenes didn't match the indication of a different person committing the murders,Kinderman informs the hospital staff that the murders fit the modus operandi of James Venamum The Gemini Killer a serial killer who was executed 15 years earlier. Later on Lt.Kinderman visited the head of the psychiatric ward Dr.Temple and relates the history of one of his patients The patient wandered around aimlessly 15 years previously with amnesia. He was locked up in a catatonic state until he became violent and claimed to be The Gemini Killer. Kindernam soon learns that the patient has turned out to be Patient X/Damien Karras however his form soon changes into The Gemini Killer. He expressed Karras' ingorance but boasta about killing Father Dyer. 

That evening a nurse gets killed and Dr.Temple dies by suicide,Kinderman returned to see Karras who once again transforms into The Gemini Killer. The Gemini explains that he is aided by a Master (Master of What I don't know,but if I had to guess Pazuzu is Gemini's master) The "Master" was furious with Karras for being exorcised by him after he possessed Regan MacNeil many years ago. So "The Master" is exacting revenge by using Karras' body as a conduit for the Gemini to continue his killing spree. Each night The Gemini's soul leaves Karras' body and possessed the other patients in the hospital using them to commit murders. The Gemini revealed that he forced Dr. Temple to bring Kinderman to him. 

Soon The Gemini possesses an old woman and attempts to murder Kinderman and his family at his home,however plans were thwarted when Father Paul Morning arrived and performed an exorcism on Karras. The Master Intervenes taking over Karras' body and Morning gets severely mutilated. Kinderman rushed back to the hospital and attempts to euthanize Karras. The possessed Karras then torments and attempts to kill Kinderman,however a recovered Morning tells Karras to fight,Karras is freed as he cries out to Kinderman to shoot him and Kinderman does shoot him freeing  him of both The Gemini and his Master.  The film ends when Kinderman watches Karras' funeral. Then the credits roll.

With a budget of $11 million to make,The Exorcist III made $44 million at the box office worldwide. This movie is considered a cult classic and would revive The Exorcist franchise and it spawned two prequels Exorcist:The Beginning in 2004 and Dominion:The Exorcist Prequel in 2005, Not to mention the recent release of Exorcist:Believer which was released on October 6,2023.

My overall rating of this movie is a 75/100 it was just as frightening as The original Exorcist movie from 1973 and it was FAR better than Exorcist II from 1977. 

JoeLumb's Movie Review The Exorcist (1973)

 Regarded as one of if not THE Scariest Movie of All Time "The Exorcist" has left a long lasting impression in motion picture history. Based on the 1971 novel by William Peter Blatty. "The Exorcist" is a 1973 supernatural horror film that if you seen it one time it would give you nightmares for years to come. 

The story follows a demonic possession of a young girl named Regan MacNeil and her mother's desperate attempt to save her through an exorcism through two Catholic Priests. 

William Peter Blatty not only wrote the screenplay but also produced the film and he handpicked William Friedkin to direct it. They had handpicked unknown actors such as Ellen Burstyn,Jason Miller and Linda Blair who was at the time when filming began was in her early teens,instead of major stars that was opposed by Warner Brothers. The Principal Photography was also difficult taking place at both hot deserts and refrigerated sets. Many of the cast and crew that worked on the film were injured,some of them died and unusual accidents delayed the film's shooting. Production took two times as long as scheduled and cost the initial budget triple the amount as the many mishaps believed that the film was cursed. 

The plot of this story starts in Georgetown,Washington D.C. where Chris MacNeil starred in a movie directed by a friend of hers named Burke Dennings they rent out a luxurious house with servants. We are then introduced by Father Damien Karras a psychiatrist who counsels Georgetown University's catholic priests recently visited her ailing mother in New York. He confided in a colleague that he is unfit for his role citing a crisis of faith. Then the film takes a dark turn it started at a party Chris held with Karras' friend Father Dyer (played by a real life Catholic priest by the name of Father William O'Malley) he explained to Chris that his protege Karras' mother died recently then Regan appears and she is unwell and starts pissing before the mother comforts her. After she is put to bed she shakes violently meanwhile Dyer consoles Karras who expressed guilt for not being there for her mother when she died. Regan is soon subjected to medical tests after her personality becomes violent. No physical cause was found. Then the police get involved as Lieutenant William Kinderman learns of the violent death of Dennings. But then Regan's condition started to get worse courtesy of another violent fit and this time stabbing a crucifix in her vagina (I'm not making that up) and started to turn her head backwards. So Karras shows up to visit Regan and she is believed to be possed by a demon named Pazuzu(representation of Satan himself) she starts vomitting projectiles in the face of Karras while speaking in tongues as Pazuzu will remain inside Regan until she is DEAD. So there is only one way to get the demon out of her body "AN EXORCISM needs to be performed" So after granted permission by his superior with the condition that an experienced priest lead the ritual Father Lankester Merrin (played by Max von Sydow) is summoned to the house that The MacNeil's are at.

So Father Merrin arrives as he along with Karras begin to read The Roman Ritual and while they were doing that Pazuzu started using profane language towards them. Soon the priest rests as as shaken Merrin took nitroglycerine meanwhile Karras went back inside and saw Pazuzu appear as his mother. FREAKY!! Showing Weakness,Karras claims that Pazuzu is not his mother,Merrin then returns and excuses Karras and continued the exorcism alone. Karras then gives the assumption to Chris that Regan will NOT DIE but when he re-enters the room Father Merrin is dead from a heart attack and Karras snapped beating the possessed Regan and damands that Pazuzu take him instead,Pazuzu rips the medallion of Saint Joseph from Karras' neck and possesses him and freeing Regan. Karras then hurls himself out of the window tumbling down the stone stairs outside. Then Chris and Kinderman enter the room Chris embraces a healed Regan while Kinderman surveys the scene. Outside Father Dyer administers a dying Karras his last rites.

As the MacNeils prepare to leave Father Dyer says his goodbyes. Despite having no memory of the ordeal that she was possessed Regan kisses Dyer on the cheek as she is moved by the sight of his clerical collar,as they leave Chris hands Dyer the medallion found in Regan's room. He then examines the stone steps where Karras died before walking away. 

"The Exorcist" was released in 24 studios in the U.S. the day after Christmas 1973 at first reviews were mixed,but audiences waited in long lines during the cold weather,even sold out shows were more profitable since they booked it into the theatres under four wall distribution rental agreements. Some viewers suffered adverse physical reactions like fainting or vomiting to shocking scenes such as cerebral angiography The MPAA wanted to give the film an X rating after children had eventually went and saw the movie. But instead it got an R rating which meant no kid under 17 can see this movie without a parent. After it's initial run the movie brought in $193 million at the box office and has a lifetime gross of $441 million thanks to  subsequent re-releases

"The Exorcist" was like the first horror film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture as well as nine other awards. My overall rating for "The Exorcist" is an 80/100 The Exorcist's legacy is still going after 50 years with the most recent release of "Exorcist:Believer" which was released on October 6,2023

JoeLumb's Movie Review Halloween II (1981)

 Picking up where Halloween(1978) left off. Halloween II directed by Rick Rosenthal in his directorial debut(he would go on to direct Halloween Resurrection in 2002) Written and Produced by John Carpenter and Debra Hill and Distributed by Universal Pictures following the success of Halloween. Initially Hill and Carpenter considered doing a sequel years after the events,where Michael would hunt down Laurie again this time in a high rise apartment complex. But the setting was changed to Haddonfield Hostpital in script meetings. Now what was the deciding factor to continue the story from that Halloween Night in 1978 was to find a fitting conclusion to the interaction between Michael Myers and Laurie Strode. Apparently Producer Irwin Yablans wanted to do a sequel and at that time sequels were never really a thing Tommy Lee Wallace who served as a crew member in the original film stated "no one ever thought of sequels" over the prospect of a sequel. (Noted:Friday the 13th (1980) had spawned a sequel with part 2 in 1981 the same year Halloween II came out). Anyway the script would get worked on Following Carpenter got done with directing "The Fog" Carpenter also directed the sci-fi/action flick "Escape from New York" with Kurt Russell(the first of many films John Carpenter and Kurt Russell would do together).

We pick up where the first film left off with the first film. After Dr.Loomis (Donald Pleasence) shot Michael Myers which lead him falling off a balcony,the disappeared into the night. He wandered in alleys stealing a kitchen knife from an elderly couple and murdered a teenage girl next door. Meanwhile Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) who narrowly escaped death is taken to Haddonfield Hospital. Meanwhile Loomis continued his pursuit of Michael and is accompanied by Sheriff Brackett. Dr.Loomis mistakens a costumed teenager named Ben for Michael ends up getting hit by a cop car and being burned to death. Then once Sheriff Brackett learned that Annie was murdered he blamed it all on Dr. Loomis and abandoned the search for Michael. Meanwhile a paramedic named Jimmy befriends Laurie. Michael soon learns of a news report of Laurie's location which is at The Hospital and that is where he is headed to,cutting phone lines and slashing tires so that no one can escape his wrath or call for help. He ends up killing a security guard and several nurses throughout the night while Laurie was dreaming about the day she learned she was adopted and remembers visiting a young Michael Myers at the sanitarium. Meanwhile police are informed that early in the day Michael Myers had broken into an elementary school. Well Marion Chambers had arrived to escort Dr.Loomis back to Smith's Grove under the orders of the governor and under the enforcement of the U.S. Marshal,on the way there Chambers tells Loomis that Laurie is Michael's younger sister (What in Fuck?) and that she was put up for adoption following the death of Michael's parents with records sealed to protect the family. After realizing that Michael is after Laurie who is at the hospital Dr. Loomis forced the Marshal at gunpoint ordering him to drive him to Haddonfield. After killing the last nurse at the place Michael finds Laurie and pursues her through the hospital.  She managed to escape out in the parking lot only to hide in a car. Jimmy who suffered a concussion earlier rescues Laurie and attempts to escape Michael only to pass out while still concussed drove to safetty long enough to pass out and he laid his head on the horn causing a commotion which got the attention of Michael,The Marshal,Marion and Dr.Loomis. They reached the hospital in time to save Laurie. The Doc shoots Michael until he falls,seemingly dead. While Marion calls the police using the Marshall's radio,the marshal attempts to check Michael who rose up and slit his throat with a surgeon scalpel. Loomis and Laurie run into an operating room where he gives her the marshal's gun before being stabbed by Michael. Laurie then shoots Michael in both eyes blinding him as he swings the scalpel violently the two filled the room with flammable gas Loomis tells Laurie to get out before igniting the gas immolating himself and Michael in the explosion. Laurie watched on as Michael engulfed in flames emerge briefly before finally collapsing to the floor. The following morning she is transferred to another hospital traumatized but survived the real night nightmare.

That is a pretty damn good sequel. Released on October 30,1981 Distributed by Universal Pictures with the production of Dino De Laurentis's Production company the film was made with a $2.5 million budget  and did $25.5 million in the North American Box Office. Overall rating of the film is an 85/100 and I ranked this movie at #7 on my favorite movies of 1981.

JoeLumb's Movie Review HALLOWEEN (1978)

 Well since it's Halloween season I think it's time I start the month of October right with the franchise that introduced is to it's main antagonist Michael Myers. 

On October 25,1978 The Original Halloween movie was released in theatres after it's release the movie became the most profitable independent films of all time grossing $70 million in the box office. Primarlily praised for John Carpenter's direction and the musical score,many critics credit the film in the first in a long line of Slasher films inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's "PSYCHO" (released in 1960) and Bob Clark's "BLACK CHRISTMAS" (1974) not to mention Tobe Hooper's "TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE" (1974) and it's considered to be of one if NOT the GREATEST Horror Films ever made.

How Halloween came about was when an independent film producer named Irwin Yablans and his financier Moustapha Akkad sought out Director John Carpenter following the viewing of his previous film "Assault on Precinct 13" at the Milan Film Festival and they wanted him to direct a film of a psychotic killer that stalked babysitters. Well Carpenter along with Debra Hill had wrote the screenplay in approximately 10 days.

In the start of the film it was Halloween Night in 1963 in a town called Haddonfield,Illinois. Michael Myers then a 6 year old boy stabbed his teenage sister to death with a chef's knife. He was soo caught shortly thereafter and we fast forward to October 30,1978 and Dr.Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) Michael's psychiatrist and his colleague Nurse Marion Chambers drive to Smith Grove's Sanitarium (where Michael has been incarcerated since killing Judith all those years ago) to escort Michael to a court hearing where Dr.Loomis hopes he'd be locked up for life,Michael managed to escape the Sanitatium and steals a car. Halloween was the next day and after killing a mechanic stealing his coveralls on the way to Haddonfield and stole knives,ropes and a white expressionless mask from a hardware store,Michael Myers sees Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) drop off a key at the long-abandoned Myers house that her father had been trying to sell for years. Laurie noticed that Michael had been stalking her throughout the day but her friends Annie and  Lynda dismiss her concerns. Meanwhile Dr.Loomis made it to Haddonfield as he discovered Judith's tombstone has been stolen from the cemetery,tightening his suspicions that Michael is in town. Dr.Loomis meets Sheriff Brackett (the father of Annie) and they investigate the Myers' house. Dr. Loomis tells Brackett that in 15 years he's known Michael and that he is purely EVIL.

That Night Laurie babysits Tommy Doyle while Annie babysits Lindsay Wallace across the street. Michael follows them spying on Annie and murdered the Wallace's dog by strangling it to death. Well later in the night Annie decided to take Lindsay over to the Doyle house so she could meet with her boyfriend Paul. Unknown to her Michael kills her by slicing her throat with the chef's knife. Soon Lynda and her boyfriend Bob arrive at the Wallace house to find it abandoned and they ended up having sex. Bob went downstairs to get a beer and Michael ended up killing him by pinning him to a wall with a kitchen knife. Then Michael posed as Bob in a ghost costume and confronts Annie who teased him to no affect. Then when Annie decided to call Laurie,Michael took the phone cord and strangled her to death while Laurie listened in on the other end,believiing it's a joke Laurie went next door to investigate. Loomis finally arrived and discovered the stolen car and searched the streets. 

Meanwhile Laurie went to The Wallace house and discovered her friends are dead and sees Judith's tombstone in the upstairs bedroom She flees to the hallway in distress when Michael appeared slashing her arm causing her to fall over the stairway banister. Barely escaping with her life she went back to the Doyle house,Tommy lets her in as those two along with Lindsey hide from Michael. Michael snuck through the window and attacked Laurie again but she stabs him in the neck with a knitting needle,that didn't keep Michael down for long as he got back up and went after Laurie again this time she stabs him with a hire hanger she then has Tommy and Lindsay go to a neighbor's house and have them call the police,after they leave Michael rises again and continued to go after Laurie,Luckilly Dr.Loomis saw the kids running to a neighbor's house so he went over the Doyle's house to investigate. He sees Michael attempting to strangle Laurie until Loomis took his mask off,distracting him as he puts the mask back on Loomis shot him six times knocking him off the balcony. He soon looks over the the balcony and discovers that Michael has vanished. Laurie sobs in terror after asking if that was "the boogeyman" and Dr. Loomis confirmed her worst fear.

Halloween spawned a film franchise that spawned 13 films in 45 years after it's release. My overall rating for the Original Halloween is a 90/100 Now keep in mind there was a remake of "Halloween" in 2007 Directed by Rob Zombie and that movie didn't bring the franchise any new life and the sequel 2009's "Halloween II" was NO BETTER.