The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
When I was a young lad, I never watched horror movies. Looking back I had seen some horror movies, I just wasn’t aware they were horror movies and no I’m not talking about that Britney Spears movie Crossroads (not to be confused with the movie with Ralph Machio and Steve Vai). I’m talking about movies like Jaws. I even saw Jaws 3D in the theater.
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John Carpenter, Debra Hill
Author:jrnyfanraleigh
In 1978, John Carpenter brought us his film “Halloween.” This movie sticks out in my mind because it’s the first movie Streebo watched with me when we started preproduction on our film “C for Chaos.” We watched lighting, camera movement, pacing and story telling.
This film is about Michael Myers a psychotic killer that has been in an institution since he was a kid. His doctor, played by Donald Pleasance, searches the streets for him to find him before he hurts someone. Obviously he doesn’t find him before he hurts anyone or it wouldn’t be a horror movie…and it would be a short movie.
This movie also stars Jamie Lee Curtis. I believe this was her first feature film. She did some television work prior. The film also stars Nancy Kyes (credited as Nancy Loomis). She was also in “Assault on Precinct 13″ and “The Fog” which were directed by John Carpenter as well. Continue Reading…
That’s right, The Crazies is being released on DVD on June 29th, 2010. I’m sure I’ll remember this film for a long time because we (Mutantville) saw it in the theater with the legendary Matthew Ewald.
For the most part I liked it. The camera angles were good. Nice camera movement. Great zombie or infected make up though. It is a remake of the George A. Romero film. You’ll notice on the credits that Romero was an executive producer on the film. The original film came out in 1973. To make the new film period, everyone walks around in bell bottom pants to the disco soundtrack. Ok, none of that last sentence is true. 
If you’re thinking about picking it up on DVD, Help us out and get it here. We greatly appreciate the assistance!
I found some articles and reviews of The Crazies:
The Crazies – New Film Review | Front Row Reviews
The Crazies – New Film Review. The Crazies takes its title from a 1973 George A Romero horror film. Timothy Olyphant is Ogden Marsh sheriff.
Publish Date: 03/09/2010 15:46
http://www.frontrowreviews.co.uk/reviews/the-crazies-film-review/3923
Review: The Crazies – Cinematical
Your friends and neighbors want to kill you. It’s a simple concept, the basic underlying idea that drives the zombie movie genre, and it’s the.
Publish Date: 02/25/2010 21:45
http://www.cinematical.com/2010/02/25/the-crazies-review/
With its lurid title and anti-government paranoia, The Crazies bears the stamps of the 1970s original from the start, but it fits our times remarkably well. We’re discovering poison in baby formula from China, so how much of a leap is …
Publish Date: 02/25/2010 16:50
http://www.cinemablend.com/dvds/The-Crazies-4486.html
The Crazies | DVD | Review | The A.V. Club
George Romero’s 1973 horror movie, reissued in advance of a new remake, isn’t one of his zombie films, but carries a similar thematic charge.
Publish Date: 02/24/2010 1:00
http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-crazies,38532/
Here’s the preview:
For more info on ‘The Crazies’ visit: www.hollywood.com
“The Crazies” Interview with Timothy Olyphant
The Crazies Review: Rotten Tomatoes Show
Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox join forces with bloggers, comedians, students and citizen critics to review “The Crazies.” For more from the Rotten Tomatoes Show: rottentomatoesshow.com VIEW more Rotten Tomatoes & SUBSCRIBE to the YouTube Playlist here…..
Behind the Scenes with “The Crazies” Part 1
Looks like people are talking about The Crazies on Twitter too!
By CrankyMovienerd at 06/09/2010 20:33
By MenofAcertnAge at 06/09/2010 20:29
By johnisascarykid at 06/09/2010 16:04
By CloudZero45 at 06/09/2010 20:11
Hello Mutantville! I want to discuss something that helped us out immensely when embarking on our first feature film “C for Chaos.” A few of us had gone to art school to develop our eyes, since of composition, etc… But we hadn’t gone to “Official” film school. We were lucky that Streebo had been studying storytelling since he was young and I had been behind a camera since I was young. Brento had been making and editing movies since he was young. So now that we’ve established that at one point we were all young, we’re ready to move on.
When preparing for “C for Chaos,” we all studied feverishly. We read all the books we could find but another thing was watching movies. I know this sounds like a “Duh” type thing but…we watched them from as if we were making them. Streebo and I would get together and point out camera movement, lighting, pacing, screen directions, composition, coverage, etc… If you really watch and dissect films in this way you can see how different directors can cover similar situations. Some may use more wide angles, some may go in for close ups, etc… Commentary tracks are another great resource. Of course not all commentary tracks are created equal. If you’re a low budget filmmaker then I recommend lower budget movies. Robert Rodriguez has great commentary tracks. Some of his you need a note book and the pause button to keep up. Be sure you keep an open mind when listening to the commentary. You may only get one or two gems, But if it saves you a night of shooting or makes something easier, I’d say that was worth 2 hours of your time. For example, on the commentary for Ronin, he talks about the scene when they’re buying the weapons. They purposefully wet the entire area since they were filming outside, that way if it rained, it wouldn’t mess up their shooting schedule. Either write this stuff down in a journal or file it away in your brain somewhere.
Streebo is a big believer in only watching what you’re filming. So when we shot “C for Chaos” for about 3 years, that’s pretty much all Streebo watched. Thanks to places like Netflix he showed me horror films from all over the world. This can give you a lot of insight into the genre.
So before, while and after making your film, study as many films as possible. Notice I said study and Not watch. Watch is passive. Study is active.
Below Please leave comments about films with good commentaries for other filmmakers to go and study! Thanks!
