Alex's Weekly Film Blog - 17th October

There's often a debate about whether Die Hard is a Christmas movie. In my book, it absolutely is. It contains four Christmas songs in the soundtrack, the action takes place at a Christmas Eve office party, and both the director and scriptwriter say it is a festive movie.

However, YouGov carried out a poll in 2022, which found a disappointing 37% of the British public believe the 1988 classic is a Christmas film.

Fast forward to 2024, and I really hope Terrifier 3 isn't one that your children stay up to watch before Father Christmas arrives. I went to see it at a mystery horror screening at Odeon last week, and having not seen the first two movies in the franchise, was a bit worried I might get lost in the plot, These concerns were ill-founded, it turns out. There's just gore, really. A lot of gore.

One scene involving a shower and a chainsaw is partiularly memorable, but to be honest the blood splattered moments begin from the film's opening minutes. Art the clown makes Pennywise in It look quite cuddly in comparison, as he takes over a department store's grotto and starts handing out presents to unsuspecting children.

The bottom line is that this was a very entertaining watch, although I can't imagine wanting to see two more to complete the trilogy. There is even a neat set-up for a sequel at the end of this one, so I wouldn't rule out a return for Art in the future. There are some neat flourishes of dark comedy amongst the bloodletting, and this is styled very much like an 80s slasher you might have rented from Blockbuster's top shelf back in the day. You also end up asking yourself the question - exactly why am I watching this, and should I feel guilty about finding it quite entertaining? Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I think one daliance with this clown is qui enough for my constitution, thank you.

The figures speak for themselves though. Made on a budget of two million dollars, it took an eye-popping $18.3 million in its opening weekend in America. I doubt the makers of Joker are very amused, given the flop they have on their hands. Given the choice, I'd choose to spend a couple of hours with Arthur Fleck, not Art, but it seems I'm in the minority. Be warned, you might need a sick bag on standby.

I've not left much room for Salem's Lot or Transformers One, but in short both were pretty good. Transformers is a return to the 1986 animation style, which featured actual Orson Welles, and this is a big improvement on the recent live action films. Salem's Lot is good but not great, and doesn't overly rely on jump scares, whilst feeling authentically mid-70s. Subtle horror, and a reasonable alternative if vampires are more your thing this Halloween, rather than killer clowns. It's a bit longer than needed, though, as is so often the case nowadays.