A Strange Halloween 4 - The New Mutants

A chance mutation causes you pain,

Eliminating all that you seek to gain,

Starting over becomes a must,

But not all around are folks you can trust

In likeminded people you might find your home,

A crew each with their own sins to atone,

But horrors abound like you wouldn’t believe,

Haunting your nightmares without a reprieve

It’s time to come face-to-face with your fear,

Else you friends won’t make it far from here,

Your nightmares made flesh or try to deceive,

It’s a Strange Halloween on All Hallows Eve

It’s time to look at The New Mutants, the final film from the Fox X-men line. It’s an X-men film that had a pretty troubled production. The idea was initially pitched in 2014, and was filmed in 2017, Professor X was originally going to be in this but was written out alongside various other x-men being slated to make an appearance, though these ideas were ultimately dropped. Fox was expecting for the film to undergo substantial reshoots, getting the film pushed back from its initial 2018 release date. But their efforts were delayed by the Disney-Fox acquisition and by the time Disney had completed their takeover, reshoots were no longer an option as the young cast had aged out of the roles. Still, Disney wasn’t exactly impressed with the product and did some work to increase the horror tone, which was more in-line with the original vision of writer/director Josh Boone.

Still, at this point the film had not been fully edited, and Boone was busy working on a Steven King adaptation, so he brought on editor Andrew Buckland to finish the film. The film was set to be released in March 2020 but a little thing known as COVID-19 saw it delayed yet again to August. Even then, this was Disney knowing this wasn’t going to be successful and cutting their losses.

And they may have been right, the film got a pretty bad 35% Rating on Rotten Tomatoes and whilst it may have more outside of a pandemic, it made only $47m on it’s near $80m budget. Don’t think it would’ve been that successful either way, so let’s take a look and see what I thought…

A Strange Halloween - Addams Family Values

A family of quite a disturbing design,

Perturbing, cooky and hardly benign,

But their status quo is about to change,

A baby can make things really deranged

Their family values are put to test

As they show their worst and their best

The Addams’ family film yet to be seen

Will be covered next on a Strange Halloween

This took a trip to a second-hand store to get a copy of, it was Netflix last year but no such luck this year  just the original and the animated one (note: it came back onto Netflix just days after I initially wrote this review - talk about bad timing).

Anyway, Addams Family Values is the sequel to the 1991 film. It released in 1993, I don’t have a lot to say about its production, only that regrettably the signs of Raul Julia’s ill health that would eventually lead to his death had already begun to show at this point. The film had a $47m budget, hoping to capture the same success the first one had but it wasn’t to be, the film floundered making only $48.1m back at the box office. That said, the critical rating was slightly higher than its predecessor. Did the film work for me, well let’s take a look?

Netflix Retrospective - Pacific Rim: The Black Season 1 Episodes 4-7

We’re taking another look at Pacific Rim: The Black

A Strange Halloween 4 - Happy Death Day 2U

A birthday is special, a magical time

But the forces of science have their own dark design

One push of a button from those with a brain

And you live this day again and again

A psycho in the shadows is in for the kill

But a slice of temptation will test your will

In many a dimension this day will be seen

As we do now on A Strange Halloween.

Netflix Retrospective - Pacific Rim: The Black Episodes 1-3

So, I guess it’s time to talk about Pacific Rim again. I love the two movies but I realise the sequel is divisive. I never thought the first one took itself too seriously, but a lot of people criticised the sequel in particular for being too dumb. That and killing the only returning character in the first act probably soured a few people too.

Still, giant robots fighting monsters is a concept that will never get old, especially in Japan. So we get another clash between Jaegers and Kaiju in Pacific Rim: The Black. The developers here are Greg Johnson and Craig Kyle, who also co-developed Wolverine and X-men which I covered way back. The show has a 2 season order from Netflix, though the seasons themselves are only 7 episodes, so for the next two weeks, let’s take a look at what the show has to offer.

A Strange Halloween 4 - The Addams Family (2019)

A family that’s mysterious and cooky to the end

Their antics drive their neighbours round the bend

But change can shake things to the core

You can choose to embrace it or show you abhor

A mansion of misfits, shunned by the light

Does not protect them from internal strife

A perfect reflection is yet to be seen

As we continue A Strange Halloween

After Addams Family Values, which we will be getting to, disappointed at the Box Office, the Addams family franchise was left dormant. In 2010, Illumination entertainment, best known for the blight on humanity otherwise known as the Minions, were working on creating a stop motion Addams family project, certainly an interesting take. Tim Burton was set to direct but for whatever reason it fell through. In 2013, MGM, now owners of Orion pictures, the studio behind the 90's films, announced it would be making an animated take on the cooky family.

Now, MGM has a long history of producing animation, being the studio behind the original Tom and Jerry shorts, among others but their production of late is fairly slim pickings. They’re certainly not on the same level as something like Disney or even Illumination. CG is certainly a relatively new field for them, and they were only given a $23m budget for it. Still, the film was commercially successful, earning back $203m, but it divided critics with only a 44% Rotten Tomatoes rating

So, how does this animated Addams family show up? Let’s take a look.

Disney+ Retrospective - Love, Victor Season 1 Episodes 7-10

OK, we’re a go for one last run through Love, Victor. Will Victor find himself this season? Let’s take a look.

A Strange Halloween 4: The Addams Family

It’s back, muhahahahahahahahaha

A family of misfits, who embrace the macabre

And all things that are odd, strange and bizarre

Starting in artwork but moved to the screen

It’s an opening chapter of a Strange Halloween

The Addams family was created as a series of single panel comics by artist Charles Addams in 1938. It is no stranger to adaptation, receiving a TV series in the 1960s, with a TV movie loosely attached, an animated series in 1973, and an upcoming Netflix series helmed by the guy who was born to direct this franchise, Tim Burton. But we’re looking at the cinematic releases, starting with the 1991 film. [I won’t be covering the animated sequel, as it’ll only just have released]

The film has a notoriously troubled production, with several rewrites, and directors of photography putting the film $5m over-budget. Orion Pictures, who produced several classics such as Silence of the Lambs were sadly already in financial difficulty, sold the North American distribution rights to Paramount. And for what it’s worth, they and the international distributers MGM (who would go onto buy Orion Pictures) got a good deal out of it, the film made $190m on its $30m budget.

Disney+ Retrospective: Love, Victor Season 1 Episodes 4-6

Alright, we’re back for a second look at Love Victor. Pilar’s discovered a devastating secret and Victor’s love life continues to be complicated.