Double Dose of Halloween Horror! Part 3

After a couple weeks delay, it's time to finally finish off this Hallowe'en special! A duology of three parts, Halloween keeps on chugging. We left off last time half way through the first Twilight movie; Edward has just revealed himself to Bella as a twinkly vampire, she still trusts him and a confusing mammalian metaphor.

Biblical reference or not, it does not make sense in this context

So Bella is now "unconditionally and  irrevocably" in love with Edward. Either that, or his "camouflage" is doing its job.

Picture relevant

Bella asks Edward if somebody needs to be dying to become a vampire, and Edward explains how he became one. It was 1918 and he was dying of Spanish Influenza; according to Wikipedia: 

Most influenza outbreaks disproportionately kill juvenile, elderly, or already weakened patients; in contrast the 1918 pandemic killed predominantly previously healthy young adults. Modern research, using virus taken from the bodies of frozen victims, has concluded that the virus kills through a cytokine storm (overreaction of the body's immune system). The strong immune reactions of young adults ravaged the body, whereas the weaker immune systems of children and middle-aged adults resulted in fewer deaths among those groups.

Thanks Twilight, I've learned something today :)

Carlisle (his surrogate father now) bit Edward, but was able to resist the urge to drink all of his blood, sparing him from death. I have a serious question about this. Why? Why did he do this? Did Carlisle know Edward beforehand? Then there's the ethics of it. Is an immortal existence really better than death? Is it really saving him? Did Edward ask for this, or was it forced upon him? It doesn't really explain any of it.

That's some nice sunlight reflecting off Carlisle's face there

Apparently the Cullen family like to think of themselves as vegetarian, as they only drink animal blood. Ow, my brain, that hurts on so many levels. Edward reveals that only he has super speed and the ability to read minds, and a girl called Alice can see the future. Why can only you do this?

Also Alice's visions of the future are "subjective", meaning they can be altered if people change their minds. Ow, my brain again, there is so much stupid in this conversation. If people change their mind in the future due to the same events happening, then you cannot see the future. The only thing that could change would be due to your meddling, which we see later to not be the case. This story is trying to combine fate/determinism with free will in the most transparent way I've ever seen.

Alice: cause the script told her so

"I'm going to take you to my place" 2 scenes ago you were saying how you can barely control your thirst for her, and now you want to expose her to your family? Bella asks if he thinks they'll like her. Edward points out she's more concerned about that than being eaten by vampires. Nice to know this movie does my job for me.

So Bella goes to visit the Cullen residence. Now dear reader, remember some of the great vampire homes of fiction. Castle Dracula, or perhaps Castlevania. So what does the Cullen household look like?

Oh boy...

 A post modern abode with lost of large windows. This just baffles me; I get it, they're trying to not attract too much attention which a castle would do, but the giant windows seem so illogical when your family turns into discoballs in sunlight.

And Edward lampshades it again, wonderful...wait...

Look behind Bella!

WHAT IS THAT AT THE BOTTOM OF THE STAIRS?! A CRUCIFIX?! Vampires having a crucifix in their home! I really hope I don't need to explain the problem here.

The Cullens are preparing italian food; this is so surreal, it's like I'm watching the Munsters played completely straight. After a really weird exchange of beginners Italian, we get a genuinely funny, and intentionally done so, moment. 

http://youtu.be/TS27Lggp6pM?t=1m33s

1:33 - 1:50

I did not see it coming, nice one movie, I still laugh when re-watching that bit. I think its her face that makes it so perfect.

Alice joins the family, gives Bella a hug and declares they'll be great friends...okaaaaay... she's with Jasper, new vegetarian, remember Jasper, fish are friends not food.

2 Finding Nemo references already?

Also, apparently Edward never sleeps. Couldn't afford a coffin? While playing some classical music, Bella admits she can't dance; Edward says he could make her...creepy and potentially abusive, keep hold of this one Bella. My comment becomes literal as they jump out a window and climb up a tree because...reasons. Only at the top of the tree does Edward ask if she trusts him, no, I will not make an Aladdin reference here. Edward and Bella have some bonding time at the top of a pine tree.

I call this one Twiggy; he can get a bit nippy sometimes, but his bark is worse than his bite!

And the camera cuts to Edward playing a piano, with light shining directly onto him! consistency! Then Bella joins next to him and just stares longingly at him...

The secret to every girl's heart is in F-Major

Then out of the blue, a Stephenie Meyer cameo... Yeah, it's definitely her, they even say her name. Steph, honey, you're not Stan Lee, don't even go there.

Sadly, this is the most interesting part of this scene

Bella has dinner at the diner with her father who's in charge of investigate the recent killings. Previous assumptions had them thinking they were animal, but now they've discovered...a human footprint! dun-dun-duuuuuun!

Later on, Bella's on the phone to her mum about finding a new place, and yet again the conversation steers to boys. I swear almost every piece of parental dialogue leans that way. She asks what he's like, and he appears in the room behind her. I see somebody saw the Dark Knight.

Still a better love story than Twilight

"How did you get in?"

"The Window"

"You do that a lot?"

"Just these last couple of months...I like watching you sleep!"

D: RUN BELLA! RUN!!

But of course she doesn't, they start kissing, only for Edward to jump back saying he mustn't lose control. I'm getting really tired of your stalling movie, we all know it's going to happen, don't try to pretend it won't.

Can we go back to The Dark Knight now? please?

Bella tells her father about Edward while he's cleaning his shotgun; perfect timing Bella, especially considering his one characterisation has been he's very protective of you!

Edward is taking her to play baseball with his family, they can only play during storms due to the thunderous sound of the ball and bat colliding. I daren't try to figure out the physics here, but I'm sure if the sound would be that loud upon impact, then not only would the bat shatter, but possibly every bone in the batter's hand. So they invite a human to play with them? Is this some cruel joke? Also Muse's Supermassive Blackhole starts playing, it's pretty funny how it doesn't go with what's on screen at all.

Definitely not shot in 3D, it's just weirdly shot.

Midway through their game, a trio of other vampires pass through, whom I can only really describe as "The white guy, the black guy and the girl"; even for the levels Twilight had set itself, they are so one dimensional. They are the ones who committed the killings that Bella's father is looking for, and are just passing through, despite the killings taking place over days or possibly weeks. They ask to join in with the baseball, but the Cullens are afraid they'll smell Bella, which indeed happens; Edward and Bella escape in the car. The white guy, James, is a "tracker", he will hunt her down, enjoying the struggle of the chase.

From left to right: James, Laurent, Victoria

Edward tells Bella that she can't go home, because James will kill her father. He then proceeds to drive her home...idiot. Sorry, there's only so many ways I can point out these characters are being stupid.

They stage a break up in front of her dad, and Bella packs for running away with Edward, and lies through her teeth about how she's leaving. He's very casual and accepting about this; he even offers to spend more time together, and she throws it in his face.

"Yeah, and if I don't get out now, I'm just going to be stuck here like mom! *Door Slams*"

...You horrid horrid girl! You just opened the wound of him losing his wife, AND left him to die at the hand of a vampire YOU led to him!!

Bella drives off, to be quickly ousted from the driver's seat by Edward. Metaphor? They arrive at the Cullen residence and Laurent  (Black Vampire) is already there. He's come to warn them; has grown sick of James' games. Dude, I get that, but aren't you a vampire? Don't you have human eating urges? You aren't part of the vegetarian family. Maybe they were more developed in the book, but this defecting doesn't leave any impact when you've shown the personality of soggy potato mash.

Alice and Jasper will drive Bella south; they'd expect her to be with Edward; I see somebody else read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Rosalie asks why she should care, Carlisle says she's part of the family and they protect each other. Keep notes kids, important theme.

Googles "Twilight Family", gets ponies cuddling

Alice has a vision of James "The tracker has just changed course" I thought she could see the future, not the present.

Her vision also shows a room of mirrors, the ballet hall Bella attended as a child. Nice coincidence there. Bella receives a call from home, but its James on the other end. He bargains to leave her family alone, as long as she goes to the ballet studio alone. How does he know about her ballet studio? Were there photos? Did they have directions underneath?

Checkpoint: Final Boss Arena reached!

After arriving at the studio, James makes some very creepy close up statements to her. The cinematography is supposed to feel rapey, made worse by Bella's panting and moaning. 

James pulls out a camera; the video will enrage Edward, making the sport more entertaining. She tries to get away using that pepperspray set up so much earlier, which does nothing to James; really? that was the big pay off for that plot point? She gets thrown against a pillar, hitting her neck hard, somehow not killing her.

Edward intevenes; arriving alone because he's the fastest. Ensues a poorly shot fight scene, Bella getting bit by James in the process.

Edward ends the fight scene by ripping out James' throat, this was a 12?! Somehow James survives, only to have his neck snapped by Alice...seriously movie, what the hell? D:

Bella's spasming on the floor as the venom affects her; Edward attempts to suck it out, but struggles to stop. Perhaps I'm missing something here, but didn't she WANT to become a vampire? Sucking her dry will kill her, so you're taking a big risk here, let alone robbing her of potential character growth.

She awakens in a hospital bed, with her mum watching over here. Edward is sleeping next to her; I thought he never sleeps. She was fed some story about falling down 2 flights of stairs and a window; did you know that gullible is not in the dictionary? Did nobody notice the BITE WOUND ON HER ARM?!

Later on, Edward wakes up and says he's leaving Bella and she starts flipping out. After all this, I'd think so too, but don't worry, he changes his mind.

So Bella and Edwards get to go to the prom together (minor subplot set up to earlier, nobody cares); she comes down the stairs in what looks like the Last Friday Night music video. This is supposed to be a happy scene movie, how about some happy music and less awkward dialogue?

Waiting outside the prom, Jacob passes on a message from his father "Break up with your boyfriend, we'll be watching you" creepyyyyy.

Bella and Edward start to dance together; she now knows how to dance. This movie has heard of set-up and pay-off but doesn't seem to understand why it exists.

Bella tries to convince Edward to change her, saying she'll grow old and die this way. He goes to her neck, and kisses it.

"Is it not enough to have a long and happy life?". In other words, watch the sequels, I hate you movie! 

And that was Twilight, how was it really? On a surface level, it's on the meh side of okay. Bella and Edward are decently fleshed out, the sets are pretty memorable and it clearly hit a sweet spot with its demographic. That said, the dialogue feels unnatural, the effects are laughable, the pacing can be unbearably slow and the direction is as confused as I am.

That said, when looking at the characters and themes of the movie, it becomes a lot scarier. Bella acts as the audience avatar in her world; she's the normal girl surrounded by all the weird stuff, the everyman, or every-teenage-girl. A common trope for this in video games is to have a silent protagonist, in order to not have the audience disagree with attitudes held by the avatar. This wouldn't normally be too much of a problem, but Bella is so unlikeable as a character as to drive audience members to exacerbation, incredulity and frustration. She is self-destructive incarnate: She knows the dangers that Edward and family pose for everybody involved, but risks it all for Twue Wove, and despite every other character (family, friends, vampires, Edward) trying to convince her otherwise. In addition to that, she is hurtful to the people looking out for her, like the example of her leaving her father earlier, and a couple similar incidents with her mother. She is a horrible character, and the fact she's relatable to such a large demographic of people genuinely terrifies me.

Edward, and the vampires as a whole, are a weird bunch in this movie. When we see them, they look like a "perfect middle class family" image, rather than terrifying, blood-feasting creatures of the night. It's no secret that Stephenie Meyer is morman, and while it probably wasn't intentional, they seem more like angels than anything else. Particularly Edward being a Jesus insert; he is a supernatural being who is always there to jump in and save Bella (2 potential rapes and a car crash), constantly monitoring the ones he loves and makes sure they are safe at night ("I like watching you sleep").

The angel family idea seems even more plausible when you compare the human family, possible metaphor for non-believers; Divorced because the mother has found a new partner, and throughout the movie Bella tries to escape from mortality and become like the Cullens, potential metaphor for entering the church. Carlisle says that families protect each other, but that didn't happen with Bella's family, only with the Cullens. You'll remember that can of pepper spray that didn't work on James? Possible symbolism for how using physical measures won't defend from spiritual evils, from which the heavenly are the only protection.

Or maybe it's just a rubbishly shot and acted teen romance movie. Not the worst I've ever seen, but I wouldn't recommend it either.

A Double Dose of Halloween Horror! Part 2

Previously on Lions in Bow-ties' "Double Dose of Halloween Horror".

Part 2 of this Halloween blog post will be up a little bit later; After all these years, I finally saw the first movie in the Twilight saga. Cutting through all that has been said about the movie, is it any good? Well, you'll have to find out later.

Same bat time, Same bat channel!

Well, it's that time. Last week, Riordan (of Riordan Rants) finally caved. I don't know what caused it; perhaps it was his intellectual curiosity? maybe he wished to examine it as an aspiring film maker? or maybe I joked about it one too many times. One way or the other, he picked up the entire Twilight Saga on DVD, and I am contractually obligated to watch them with him. Our original plan for the halloween special this year was our first collaborative review of the first Twilight movie.

Sadly plans changed

Unfortunately Riordan's Mac went out of commission shortly after uploading last week's video, and I am currently at my parent's house, away from my good microphone, so the video reviews had to be postponed. Here are my thoughts during the first Twilight movie.

Pictured: Edward Cullen (Left), Bella Swan (Right)

The movie Twilight (2008) is an adaptation of a 2005 novel of the same name, authored by Stephenie Meyer. It told the story of Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), a new girl in town who falls in love with a young man named Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), who turns out to be a vampire. She strives to be with Edward despite his resistance, but the threats of being involved with a vampire goes deeper than she knows. For reference, I have not read any of the novels, and as such I will be judging the movies in their own right, not as how close they stick to the original material.

Is it just me, or does Bella look like she's about to sneeze?

One thing that's immediately noticeable about the movie is its colour palette, it's very subdued. There are varieties of colours, most notably in the school scenes and the Cullen household, but the movie always looks rather lifeless throughout. This was almost definitely done on purpose and I can think of a couple reasons for this decision.

Madness? This is Twilight!

Perhaps it was to contrast with the intensity of Bella's love for Edward; Bella is the protagonist of our story, and almost everything we see is through her eyes, so perhaps the dull world around her reflects her lack of interest. Another reason could be to reflect the focus on what the love interest is; he is a vampire, a cold, undead creature of pain visage. Perhaps the movie's muted appearance is an attempt to compliment this. That said, taking this angle gives the movie a rather cheap look and it would need some stellar writing, acting  or intrigue in the world to make up for the lack of visual flare.

Our "colourful" cast

The other thing that is instantly apparent when watching this movie is the dialogue; I want to be kind here, but it's pretty darned poor. I'm not sure which is generally to blame more: the script, acting or direction. As I said, I've not read the book so I can't clarify, but a lot of the characters, especially the teenagers, don't talk like people really talk; It felt like the script writer was trying to second guess how teenagers talk without any investigation. The best way I can describe it would be "fan-ficky"; like a person who hasn't had much social interaction with trying to guess how they speak.

The whitest cast since Saved by the Bell?

Another weird thing I noticed during the opening scenes is how everybody who met our protagonist already knew her name and that she was the "new girl". This happens multiple times, and it is distracting. Whenever they get a new student at Forks High School, is it the hottest news and they are suddenly the most popular person in school, or is this a growing case of a Mary-Sue?

Eric: [shows up from behind Bella] You're Isabella Swan, the new girl. Hi, I'm Eric, the eyes and ears of this place. Um, anything you need? Tourguide? Lunch date? Shoulder to cry on?

As of right now, I have no idea of which of the high school friends will be returning in later films, but I will say I can't honestly remember any of them aside from Eric here, mostly because of this incredibly creepy and weird introductory line, and his constant use of faux high school slang. Oh, and a girl (whom the internet informs me is called Jessica), in response to having Edward pointed out to her, calls him gorgeous. At this point the DVD was paused as my house-mates and I all needed a few minutes to stop laughing.

Jessica: That's Edward Cullen. He's totally gorgeous, obviously. But apparently nobody here's good enough forhim. Like I care, you know, uh. So...yeah. Seriously right, don't waste your time.

Not going to judge for different tastes or anything, but gorgeous? Not the word I would use. Anyway, the two get paired up together in science class, Edward pinching his nose most of the time. They have a bit of "banter" over their studies of flatworms, whom I will give props to, they gave the most believable performance in the movie *ba-dum-tish*

I'm bring vampire back! You other vampires don't know how to angst!

Later on, Bella is seen on the phone to her mother Renee; Bella just moved in with her father, and at this point in the movie we don't really know why Bella left. Out of all the characters, I do like how Renee is characterized; While we only get hints at what she's like over the phone here, she seems to genuinely care a lot for her daughter's wellbeing, and is shown to have difficulty with technology, and it all comes through naturally.

"There was this guy named Eric, major creep! He knew my name before I ever saw him and asked me out right away!" How it should have gone.

The next day we see Edward's first display of meta-human ability. An out of control van (that was nicely foreshadowed by Bella slipping on ice in a previous scene) comes towards Bella, about to crush her against another car. Edward zooms between the van and Bella, stopping the van and crunching in part of the van. 

Superhuman speed and strength? Robert Pattinson is Spiderman!

While this is a decently impressive moment, and I'm sure it looked wonderful to Bella, when we look at the scene itself (picture below), we see that the school is pretty populated, and we see from the image above, Edward traveled quite a distance in such a short time with all those people around; I thought it was supposed to be somewhat hidden that he's a vampire!

There are even other people between where they were!

To the movie's credit, there is a following scene where Rosalie (another vampire) chastises Edward for using his powers in public, where he asks "What was I supposed to do, let her die?". At this point, I flashed back to a similar scene in Man of Steel where a young Clarke Kent saved a school bus of his peers from drowning, and his surrogate father says "Maybe". This has little to do with Twilight, and now I'm trying to quantify which is the better movie. Pretty difficult.

For reference, I'm skipping the less important scenes; I don't want to be here all night.

At a beach called "La Push", Bella gets to bonding with Jacob, a long haired young man whom I hear becomes more important in the following movies. He gives an explanation to Bella about his ancient ancestors who were wolf people and the Cullens were a rival faction. This is compounded by some of the funniest costumes I've ever seen in a movie, it looked like they wandered off a set of Power Rangers. I wish I could find a picture, but when I googled the clan name, all I find are pictures of shirtless men, so have one of those.

This scene also plants the seed that Edward is a vampire. If nothing else, this movie definitely seems familiar with the concept of set-up-pay-off, unlike a certain other modern vampire movie.

Bella purchases a book on the Wolf-tribe and during her walk home she gets ambushed by 3 men. Then out of nowhere, her knight in shining armour (or Volvo, if you prefer) shows up to defend her. They drive off, and Edward instantly says he should have stayed and decapitated them. Back away Bella, back away! Also, how did he know where she was?! Were you stalking her Edward? Does every man in this movie creep over Bella?

If your partner drives a Volvo, he is probably a blood sucking creature of the night!

Later on, Edward and Bella meet up at a restaurant, and Edward refuses to eat anything, because that's not suspicious at all. Also, we are treated to one of the weirdest pieces of dialogue I've ever seen in any media.

Bella: You're really not gonna eat?

Edward: No, I'm on a special diet.

Bella: You gotta give me some answers.

Edward: Yes. No. To get to the other side...uh, 1.77245...

Bella: I don't want to know what the square root of pi is.

Edward: You knew that?

Bella: How did you know where I was?

Edward: I didn't.

Baffling

Afterwards Bella meets up with her father, a police officer, in the middle of an emotional state. An old friend of his has been found dead with wounds that look like animal bites; a similar case happened earlier in the movie too. He gives his daughter some pepper spray, just in case. A nice moment; Both Bella's parents are shown to care a lot for her throughout the movie.

After some research online, Bella meets up with Edward in a misty forest for what's probably the most famous scene in the movie. Bella asks Edward how old he is (17), and then how long he's been 17 (a while). This scene up until this point was restrained and well shot, to then be ruined by a hilarious camera shot that circles both characters rather quickly, then returning to its previous position. It looks like they couldn't get a good take with the actors...I can't describe it, here's a clip, enjoy. Sadly the scene devolves into silly camera angles and overly dramatic line deliveries.

And then we have the most reviled part of the movie by general consensus. The infamous scene where Edward steps into the sunlight and he...sparkles a bit. Honestly, I don't think this bothers me all that much as a concept, vampire lore has changed a lot between authors, and it's a clever way of changing the "We can't stay in sunlight" trope. That being said, Edward has been out during the day time multiple times during this move already and he did not sparkle. I think they try to explain it as it needs to be direct sunlight, unaffected by clouds, but that makes zero sense; if the clouds let no sunlight through, then no light would get through whenever the weather would be cloudy.

Twilight Sparkle is best pony

Edward talks about how he's the world's most deadly predator, and how his camouflage makes  him irresistible to his pray, because you know, shiny things attract idiots.

Edward: I'm designed to kill.

Bella: I don't care.

Edward: I've killed people before.

Bella: It doesn't matter.

Edward: I wanted to kill you. I've never wanted a human's blood so much in my life.

Bella: I trust you.

Oh boy, this is going to be important later. 

Edward reveals that his family are different, they only hurt animals. I really hoped this would turn out to be a sequel to The Little Vampire, but no such luck.

Edward: You don't know how long I've waited for you.

And so the lion fell in love with the lamb.

Bella: What a stupid lamb.

Edward: What a sick, masochistic lion.

...Which one is which in this metaphor?

I can't believe this has become this long, gonna have to end it here. Come back tomorrow for Part 2 of the Twilight review, where we finish off the movie and analyse just what is going on here.

A Double Dose of Halloween Horror! Part 1

It's that time of year again. Spooky spirits encapsulate the media landscape, children dress in cut-up bedsheets for a chance of licorice loot and for a brief period people stop complaining about the earliness of supermarkets selling Christmas supplies.

Well, aside from this gem.

I have two particular topics to talk about today, both tangentially related to the horrific holiday so I'm combining them into a little duology of modern frights. One of vampires and one of zombies; one of fangirls and fanboys; both worrying and aggravating, yet surprisingly apt for the season.

Pew-Pew-Pew! RELOAD!!!

Our first tale is about a video game; the fifth in a series of horror inspired light-gun games. You might remember these from arcades of the nineties, The House of the Dead. An evolution of Namco's Time Crisis series, HotD was a cheesy, campy series following Agent G, and ever more ridiculous scenarios involving mutants (the Z word is taboo). One fun deviation from the series was 1999's spin-off/remake of House of the Dead 2 known as Typing of the Dead!

Why didn't I get to learn how to type like this?!

Typing of the Dead replaced the guns and ammunition with vowels and punctuation; you decapitated zombies by correctly spelling the words that appeared underneath them, and it was awesome. The cheesy story and setting meshed with the ridiculousness of killing zombies with a keyboard (which could be seen as subversive of all video game combat at the time), and since then the game has become a cult classic. Fast forward to 2013 and Sega attempts to repeat the magic by keyboardidying 2009's Wii classic House of the Dead: Overkill!

This game is Pun-tastic!

HotD:Overkill was always the weird-fish of the series. Its tone appears more serious, though the subject matter remains as ridiculous as ever. This game specifically pays homage to B-Movie, grindhouse cinema and goes all out with over the top action, gore and swearing. Until recently it held the Guinness World Record for the most F-bombs dropped in a single game, which for a game with single digit linear levels is quite a feat. For reference, I have played TotD:Overkill and it is an absolute blast; the disonnance of using spelling to defeat waves of the undead works even stronger with the B-movie style. Then I discovered a NeoGaf thread that almost made me weep in despair.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=706407

Typing of the Dead: Overkill's resolution goes no higher than 720p.

The Wii game, whose style is paying homage to terrible, cheap horror B-movies.

And it dares to not have eye-blisteringly high resolution?

It may not be obvious from the screenshot, but the game always has a film grain effect to add a layer of authenticity (and mask the Wii's lackluster processing power). Perhaps I am being a little unfair here; if you have purchased or built a mega-powerful PC, and you want a graphical powerhouse game to show it off, that's perfectly reasonable. That's why games like Crysis exist, and Battlefield 4 will be releasing tomorrow!

So many lighting effects

This situation reminds me of a movie that came out earlier this year, a prequel to a timeless classic movie that was released over 70 years ago. The movie I refer to is Sam Raimi's "Oz: The Great and Powerful". 

So so pretty

For all three of you who have never seen The Wizard of Oz, it tells the story of Dorothy, a young girl from Kansas, who is swept away in a hurricane to a mysterious and beautiful land named Oz, and she goes on a journey to the Emerald City to find the eponymous wizard so he can send her home. The movie is notable for a lot of cinematic achievements, and one particularly memorable aspect is how the real world is represented in black and white, while Oz is shown in full colour, symbolising how beautiful and full of life this place is.

Somewhere over the rainbow...

Oz: The Great and Powerful attempted to use a similar trick; the "Real World" scenes at the beginning are in sepia, and during the transition to Oz the film regains colour. It even goes further by having the aspect ratio change from traditional 4:3 to the current cinematic 2.35:1 ratio. While I appreciated the touch, there was one thing that was blindingly obvious while I was watching it; the old-timey sepia effect and aspect ratio were being undermined by how sharp the image quality was.

(Well, that and the thoroughly modern the cinematography and effects)

I remember lamenting at the time that I could see through this easy trick, and wishing it were filmed more authentically. As a movie attempting to be in the same chronology as a movie from the 1930's, the lack of attention to detail was baffling, especially from Sam Raimi of all directors. Say what you like about the story quality of some of his movies, this man's resume for aesthetics and cinematography in his movies is nearly flawless.

Still the best looking super hero movie in my opinion

So where does this lead into Typing of the Dead: Overkill? Well, I genuinely feel higher resolution does this game no favours; artistically, I feel it could even be a detriment. While the arguments about standards are being thrown about, people are entirely missing the point that the game is supposed to look like an old cheap horror movie; how many of those have had Blu-ray releases?

Finger clicking good

House/Typing of the Dead: Overkill is a blast to play; over the top, funny, crude and wonderful. If you have a Wii, hunt this down, you'll find it for a fiver. Same goes for the PS3 version if you have a move controller or two lying around. Typing of the Dead: Overkill is available on Steam (and is half price at the time of this blog). You can buy it here.

Part 2 of this Halloween blog post will be up a little bit later; After all these years, I finally saw the first movie in the Twilight saga. Cutting through all that has been said about the movie, is it any good? Well, you'll have to find out later.

Same bat time, Same bat channel!