Celebrate this weekend with a Retro Slashers Trifecta
Right this moment a major debate is taking place in the United States. Will you see Halloween II or The Final Destination this weekend? I say to hell with the debate, go see both films. Here’s how the Retro Slashers Trifecta weekend works. Go see Halloween II and The Final Destination. After you’ve seen both films leave your thoughts and comments here at Retro Slashers. Do they both suck? Do they kick major ass? How was the crowd reaction? Let us know what you enjoyed or hated.
This is a big weekend for genre fans, I don’t think two major horror fans have been released on the same Friday since the early 1980s. Both films will be facing strong competition from holdovers so horror fans need to turn out in a big way. I’m a Halloween fan, so I’ll be seeing that first. But I expect The Final Destination to have the bigger box-office due to the ad blitz during prime time hours on every major network. Halloween II ads only appear during commercials on wrestling shows, UFC bouts, and the Sy Fy channel.
So get out there this weekend and enjoy large quantities of murder, mayhem, and mass destruction.
August 28, 2009 @ 2:52 am
I’ll be skipping Final Destination. I will be seeing Halloween II but it will be a few days before I can get the time to see it.
August 28, 2009 @ 2:04 pm
I’ll be seeing Halloween II Sunday morning without a doubt. I love Rob Zombie’s gritty 70’sish style of film making and couldn’t be happier he is making Halloween his own. With the exception of Parts 1 and 3 while doesn’t really apply, the rest of the Halloween movies in the first franchise are boring to down right terrible. I didn’t like them when they came out and certainly not now.
As for Final Destination I have already seen it in Parts 1-3 and have little to no interest. Actually I never finished 3. Maybe a rental down the road sometime. Plus I am already sick of 3-d. I saw My Bloody Valentine in 3-d and it was cool but it got bothersome by the end. That said I do however look forward to seeing Aja’s Piranha remake.
August 29, 2009 @ 1:51 am
Just got back from H2. This film is so much better than Zombie’s first attempt at the franchise. It has suspense, likable characters you hope will make it to the end, and a great performance from Brad Dourif. Old bastard nearly made me cry. Michael is more viscious in H2 than any other incarnation. The crowd had a good time and cheered whenever Michael went nuts. There are a couple of bits that could have been left out, but over all I thought this is Zombie’s best film.
August 29, 2009 @ 4:48 am
I thought H2 was considerably worse than its predecessor. It has its moments, and Michael is well-realized for the most part and often creepy, but all the stuff with Sheri Moon Zombie was ridiculous and the film telegraphs its ending early on. As with most of his films, Rob Zombie displays a gift for capturing the occasional nightmarish image but I think its time for him to move on to other projects.
August 30, 2009 @ 2:36 am
Not too many opinions of Halloween 2 coming in as it looks like it’s getting mixed reviews. I have yet to see the film but a concern I had was brought to life by Cheeseburger In Hell with the stuff with Sheri Moon Zombie. I don’t have a problem with her acting, I just don’t know that I like her character coming back into the story after her death. I wonder how the film is performing money wise, I have a sneaky suspicion that it is not performing as well as everyone had hoped it would. This could be the last Halloween film ever made. I have only heard negative things about Final Destination but I fear it may out gross Halloween. We’ll wait see till tomorrow night.
August 30, 2009 @ 3:22 am
I saw both sequels on Friday. F.D. was okay but felt like a cheat with its 76 minutes running time, without credits. Talk about delivering the bare minimum, plus every death was geared towards laughter, the menace is gone from this series.
Halloween II was incredible, not only an improvement over the last entry, but Rob Zombie’s best film to date. And his scariest, this entry is truly terrifying. Atmospheric and gory as hell.
Luckily, horror fans are getting out to theaters this weekend. Early estimates have F.D. as #1 with over $20 million, with Halloween II in the #2 spot in the mid to higher teens. This is a great opening number, especially considering that Halloween II is playing on 400 less screens than the remake and suffered from far less advertising. Apparently there is a large audience for both series. Horror fans win. Had only one of these sequels opened this weekend, it might have set a record like Halloween did two years ago on the same weekend.
Halloween II’s success also proves that Rob Zombie is not a one hit wonder.
August 30, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
Alright, perhaps I will be the minority here but I just saw Halloween 2 and cannot get over at how bad this film was. I was a fan of the first one done by Zombie, but this film just destroyed any ounce of respect or dignity that I had hoped the film would possess. If this is the future of the Halloween films then hopefully this will be the last one. The film had no story and destroyed the Loomis character beyond repair. It was just truly bad.
August 30, 2009 @ 7:41 pm
I saw Halloween II and it is totally awesome and like Hambone said out did the first one. Possibly the most intense slasher movie ever, even more than “Haute Tension”. And right up there with “The Devil’s Rejects”. I love Zombie’s style and he does have style. The atmosphere is amazing, the kills are brutal as hell,and I liked the way he brought back Sherri Moon and young Michael. Very freaky. Highly Recommend!!!
Can’t wait to see his next film which I read is a remake of “The Blob”. “The Blob” with Zombie’s dark vision could be very interesting.
August 31, 2009 @ 2:18 am
John, Have you seen Halloween II yet? What are your thoughts?
August 31, 2009 @ 3:15 am
Watched The Final Destination tonight. Not a terrible film but nothing much happens between the gory deaths. The crowd laughed after every kill. No real suspense or scares but scenes in the mall generated some tension among the crowd. I did notice many of the characters’ names seem to have been taken from the Halloween series.
Overall, it was a good weekend for horror fans.
August 31, 2009 @ 4:34 am
Hi Chris, H2 isn’t even on the theatrical schedule yet for here down under (yet SORORITY ROW is – a month earlier than USA, whee!), but H2 is one flick I’ll actually download a “cam job” for because of this.
August 31, 2009 @ 6:14 pm
Every time a cam job is illegally downloaded, an old VHS tape dies, and a horror filmmaker like me grumbles.
September 1, 2009 @ 12:07 am
An old VHS dies? Which one, out of the hundreds, if not thousand-plus, in my spare room?
September 2, 2009 @ 1:14 am
My biggest problem with this film was Michael’s mom coming back from the dead with a spirit horse? The movie had no story and I cannot get over what he did to the Loomis character. The whole final sequence was absurd and Michael making grunting noises? Yeah, I just cannot get over how bad this film was. I really wanted to like it, love it even. But it was pure drek!!!! Sorry, just my opinion.