There has been a long standing discussion on weather or not it's right or wrong for a Major character in a film series to be killed off and I was on the side of it being totally wrong until I became a film maker myself .
In this blog I will give a few examples where films have done this and explain my point of view of each one . Enjoy :)
In this blog I will give a few examples where films have done this and explain my point of view of each one . Enjoy :)
By : Jamie Santamore
I love a good twist in a horror movie as much as the next guy but there have been three "Shocking Kills" in horror movie that not only surprised me but effected me on a personal level, what I mean by that is with these characters deaths my relationship to the franchise changed . I have three examples I will touch on and try to explain my feels for them when I watched them the first time and how my thoughts have changed about them over time and since I've become a film maker .
First up is 1987's A Nightmare on Elm Street Dream Warriors, I loved this movie and still watch it frequently with my wife (it's her favorite in the series after the original) the one thing I didn't enjoy about the movie was the death of Nancy Thompson played by Heather Langencamp at the end, her death left me feeling sad, weird and asking how will they continue with out Freddy's #1 enemy ...
I was so angry after I watched this movie and it effected my relationship with the franchise moving forward for a few years . I didn't see what they were really doing ....
I was so angry after I watched this movie and it effected my relationship with the franchise moving forward for a few years . I didn't see what they were really doing ....
 | The flip side of this is that all these years later I get why they had to take Nancy out of the story and why killing her was the only way for her to truly be eliminated from the series . They killed Nancy off because her story line had run it's course and it was time to move on to other characters because to be honest how many movies are we going to watch where Nancy outsmarts Freddy before it get's boring, I'm just saying they had to do something to give Ol' Freddy someone new to terrorize, right ?? Why it works in this case is because they needed fresh blood for Freddy to chase . |
Next up we have 1998's Scream 2 where we bid a bitter farewell to Randy Meeks played by Jamie Kennedy, Now I thought Randy was a goner at the end of Scream but some how he survived for Scream 2 , I love the character of Randy because he's me and in a way he's every die hard horror fan because we know our shit ! Randy is an iconic character in modern horror because like I said he's every die heard horror fan and you really didn't see a character like like before 1996's ground breaking film Scream .
This death hit me hard because I love the character so much, he was the geek who no matter how hard he tried to be the hero he was never going to get the girl but you gave the kid an A+ for effort, right ?
I almost walked out of the theater after he was killed and turned my back on horror I was so filled with rage and anger .
This death wasn't done because his time was up in the series but more so to do exactly what it did, that being SHOCK the audience ! Much of horror community to this day is still pissed that they killed Randy in Scream 2 .
I was happy that he was in Scream 3 on tape anyway . I wanted them to bring Heather Matarazzo as Martha Meeks (Randy's sister) in Scream 4 as the killer to get revenge on Sid for her brother's death (just my personal story line idea . I give the Weinstein Company permission to steal my idea for Scream 5, Just sayin' .
Why it works in this case is because the fans didn't expect it and when it happened we didn't want to believe it until they showed his bloody body in the van after his murder .
I almost walked out of the theater after he was killed and turned my back on horror I was so filled with rage and anger .
This death wasn't done because his time was up in the series but more so to do exactly what it did, that being SHOCK the audience ! Much of horror community to this day is still pissed that they killed Randy in Scream 2 .
I was happy that he was in Scream 3 on tape anyway . I wanted them to bring Heather Matarazzo as Martha Meeks (Randy's sister) in Scream 4 as the killer to get revenge on Sid for her brother's death (just my personal story line idea . I give the Weinstein Company permission to steal my idea for Scream 5, Just sayin' .
Why it works in this case is because the fans didn't expect it and when it happened we didn't want to believe it until they showed his bloody body in the van after his murder .
Lastly I want to talk about the final film in the struggling Halloween series before Rob Zombie came in and saved it with his outside the box thinking and raw ideas to breath new life into Michael Myers that film being Resurrection which came out in 2002 .
In this film they did the unthinkable and killed off Laurie Strode which is comparable to taking the lords name in vein . Why I say that is because if you think back to the fucked up Halloween logic through out the series Michael had to kill his entire family because of the curse of Thorn, so in killing Laurie in the opening of Resurrection the curse would be lifted and Michael would be free, so they kind of shot themselves in the foot there .
I understand that Jamie Lee Curtis wanted out of the movie as quickly as possible but still go back to not having her in it at all rather then kill her . I thought the idea of Resurrection was a good one for the most part but if it follows H20 then the story really should have been about Michael trying to kill his nephew John after he killed Laurie .
As big a Halloween fan I am I have to say this death while it made me mad more so it had me scratching my head and really didn't shock me at all because of how badly the series had been screwed up since Halloween III Season Of The Witch and how they never fully recovered from that point .
On a side note if you watch Halloween, Halloween II and H20 it's a perfect trilogy just like if you watch Halloween 4, 5 & 6 it's a perfect trilogy . Toss away Season of the Witch and Resurrection because they don't fit into the series at all unless you thing killing Laurie was the perfect ending to the story line ?? Sorry but I strongly disagree ....
Why it works in this case is because they needed to end the story of Michael VS Laurie some how and they couldn't have Laurie kill Michael for good so the alternative is to kill Laurie and that's the road they went down .
In this film they did the unthinkable and killed off Laurie Strode which is comparable to taking the lords name in vein . Why I say that is because if you think back to the fucked up Halloween logic through out the series Michael had to kill his entire family because of the curse of Thorn, so in killing Laurie in the opening of Resurrection the curse would be lifted and Michael would be free, so they kind of shot themselves in the foot there .
I understand that Jamie Lee Curtis wanted out of the movie as quickly as possible but still go back to not having her in it at all rather then kill her . I thought the idea of Resurrection was a good one for the most part but if it follows H20 then the story really should have been about Michael trying to kill his nephew John after he killed Laurie .
As big a Halloween fan I am I have to say this death while it made me mad more so it had me scratching my head and really didn't shock me at all because of how badly the series had been screwed up since Halloween III Season Of The Witch and how they never fully recovered from that point .
On a side note if you watch Halloween, Halloween II and H20 it's a perfect trilogy just like if you watch Halloween 4, 5 & 6 it's a perfect trilogy . Toss away Season of the Witch and Resurrection because they don't fit into the series at all unless you thing killing Laurie was the perfect ending to the story line ?? Sorry but I strongly disagree ....
Why it works in this case is because they needed to end the story of Michael VS Laurie some how and they couldn't have Laurie kill Michael for good so the alternative is to kill Laurie and that's the road they went down .
I wrote this blog because I'm thinking I might kill off a major character in Sins of Man III : Tribulation next year with the intention to SHOCK the audience and not really piss them off (Although some of you will still be mad at me but I'm okay with that as long as you recover to enjoy the rest of the movie .
STAY HUMBLE, STAY HUNGRY MY FRIENDS :)
STAY HUMBLE, STAY HUNGRY MY FRIENDS :)
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