Last Wednesday, The popular
Black Museum Debate
Club returned with four teams arguing which of their chosen flicks was the best
horror sequel.
Like before, each team consisted of two
speakers;
Like last time, the debate was broken up into
six rounds, after which returning judge Stuart “Feedback” Andrews awarded points based on performance.
The first two rounds consisted of opening statements followed by a prepared
six-to-eight minute video supporting their case. Here are some highlights;
Team Dawn of the Dead's three main points were scope, gore effects and the music.
Tal Zimerman: “Dawn of the Dead is the greatest
sequel ever. It is the greatest movie ever. George A. Romero took his
end of the world scenario, the likes of which no one had ever seen
before, to levels unimaginable by audiences of the day.”
“Dawn offers bang for the buck unlike
any other movie. There are so many gore gags and effects –
exploding heads, flesh torn from necks, arms and legs, entrails
pulled from body cavities, heads lopped off by helicopter blades and
swords, heads blown off by shotguns, rifles handguns, split in half
by machetes and dented by hammers, zombies run over by trucks, blown
up by Molotov cocktails, and thrown off balconies.”
Steve Kostanski: “From the title card which explodes
in a burst of guitar and synth, to the throbbing serenade that
comprises Dawn's main theme, this action-packed funk workout – yes
I actually just said funk workout – underscored the film's
sequences and would be Goblin's most accomplished musical effort to
date. No small feat considering the amazing soundtracks for Profondo
Rosso and Suspiria that had come before.”
Team Exorcist III's three main points were atmosphere,
the acting and that their film was the only true horror sequel of the
quartet.
Simon Borer: “You know what's not scary? The evils
of consumerism. You know what's not scary? Space. Nobody here is
going to space, it's going to be fine. And if you find a book bound
in human skin in the basement of an abandoned cabin? Don't read from
it. You know what is fuckin' scary? Old people. This movie is about
getting old, it's about seeing your friends embalmed, it's about
seeing your friends succumb to dementia and it's a fear we're all
going to have to face and that's why this has the scariest atmosphere
of any movie.”
Alison Lang: “George C. Scott gives this amazing
performance (as Detective Kinderman) and we have also have Brad
Dourif as the Gemini Killer, who we all know is one of the best
character actors out there. And he fuckin' acts the shit out of that
role! He's so fucking scary! And he doesn't need any prosthetics, he
doesn't need any gore, he's just Brad Dourif. He just looks like a man
possessed!”
Team Aliens' three main points were escalation,
that the film works as a stand-alone, yet also has callbacks to the
original.
Shaun Hatton: “Aliens raises the stakes of the
first film, which is something that sequels should do. In Alien,
there was a small crew aboard the Nostromo trying to fend off one
alien. In Aliens, however, there is a colony of people who have been
destroyed by a nest of Aliens. The situation is so bad that a special
group of marines are sent in along with Ripley, the only human
survivor of the first film.”
Less Lee Moore: “Ripley takes charge in Aliens, an
equal of the men in the film instead of being saved by them. That
makes her one of the first female action heroines, beating out Linda
Hamilton in Terminator 2 by four years.”
“It is still scary like its
predecessor, but it also adds action and comedy into the mix in the
form of the marines, especially Private Hudson, played by Bill
Paxton, whose scenes have become iconic.”
Team Evil Dead 2's three main points were ingenuity, Bruce
Campbell and its creation of a universe.
J.M. McNab: “What's great about Evil Dead 2 is
that it takes these formal building blocks of cinematic storytelling
and really propel them to new creative heights. We've got these crazy
tracking shots, stylized edits, the assaultive audio mix and the
crazy prosthetics and make-up effects. This style was widely copied
in this movie, and never equalled in our opinion.”
Alexandra West: “Bruce Campbell aka Ash really gives
one of the most iconic performances in the entirety of the horror
genre. Ash starts out as this smarmy guy, who loses his girlfriend to
demons, has a mental breakdown, he fights with his own body, and
eventually he emerges to become this crazy awesome, anti-hero with a
chainsaw for a hand. There are very few films that have this kind of
range. It speaks to the amazing relationship that Campbell and Sam
Raimi have that they can push each other's limits.”
“This movie really builds the
mythology and creates a wonderful world to play in. They make
something really bold and exciting and new, while still respecting
the horror genre. You can tell from this film that is a genre and
they really love and are passionate about.”
After the supporting video segments, came the trivia round
which consisted of five sequel-based questions. When the dust settled, Team
Dawn and Evil Dead 2 were tied with ten points, with Exorcist III and Aliens
following behind with, eight and six points, respectively.
Then after an intermission, the debaters returned
with their rebuttals. Here’s what went down when the claws came out;
Team Dawn of the Dead on Exorcist III;
TZ: “We have a problem with you saying
that Exorcist III is the only horror sequel up here. That might be
the case relative to Aliens, but come on. Dawn of the Dead's a horror
film, Evil Dead 2's a horror film. They may have comedic elements,
but yours is certainly not the only horror sequel.”
SK: “And is this movie even a sequel? The
exorcism in the movie wasn't in the original cut. The one scene that
ties this movie to The Exorcist directly, the exorcist scene, was
added after the fact. It was added into the film against the
director's wishes, so it's not supposed to be there.”
 |
| Team Dawn of the Dead, Tal Zimerman (left) & Steve Kostanski. |
On Aliens;
TZ: “We don't feel the stakes are raised,
because they are ARMED TO THE TEETH!”
SK: “A good example of this is the
chestburster scene in both films. In the original when it happens,
that's the most horrifying scene in the movie. But in Aliens when it
happens, their immediate response is to blast it with a flamethrower
which kind of diffuses the scene. It takes away from it being a
horror film.”
On Evil Dead 2;
TZ: “Creating a world? The world that's
created in Evil Dead 2 is... Evil Dead plus Bugs Bunny. It's not so
much a world as it is a cabin. It's basically a world that was
already there. It was Evil Dead, plus slapstick comedy. I'm sorry, a
world does not that make.”
“They pulled back on the horror
element quite a bit, here's what Bruce Campbell said, and I quote 'we
didn't want to create a movie that would cause kids to have
nightmares. We wanted to have a wider appeal so we took out some of
the real gore and put in some Three Stooges type gags.'”
Team Exorcist III on Dawn of the Dead;
SB: “When I said we were the only horror
sequel, I meant that nobody else was both horror and a sequel. I
don't feel Dawn of the Dead is the true sequel to Night of the Living
Dead. It doesn't have the same tone, it has none of the same actors.
John A. Russo retained the rights to 'The Living Dead', so the Return
of the Living Dead is the film we should recognize as the sequel.”
 |
| Team Exorcist III, Simon Borer & Alison Lang. |
On Aliens;
“Okay. What do the movie NBC sitcom
Mad About You and Aliens have in common? The answer is they're not
horror movies. Alien was a horror movie. It was an awesome haunted
house movie. Aliens was an action movie, a trial run for Avatar.”
On Evil Dead 2;
AL: “Ash is an action movie hero. He's
not necessarily a horror movie hero. He's sort of a gunslinger, a
buffed-up wise cracking, womanizing guy. Horror I relate to people
who are disturbed or beleaguered, fighting their way to some sort of
resolution. Ash to me always seems like a winner from beginning to
end. To me that qualifies more as an action movie, not a horror
movie.”
Aliens on Dawn of the Dead;
SH: “You talked about bang for your buck.
There is a lot of various gore, but no mention of many scenes of
people arguing, and the main characters playing 'house' for a very
long time. Nothing particularly horror about that.”
 |
| Team Aliens, Less Lee Moore & Shaun Hatton. |
On Exorcist III;
“The only reason it was directed by
Blatty was because John Carpenter passed on it. That is a sleight.
John Fucking Carpenter is like, 'no!'. Imagine how awesome The
Exorcist III would have been with like, Jack Burton in it. Fucking
great!”
On Evil Dead 2;
“You mention that the cinematic
ingenuity was often copied since. Yes, it was copied mainly by...
Raimi. He keeps using the stuff he used in Evil Dead 2 over and over
again.”
“Again, I would argue that this isn't
a horror film, as the other two teams have said, as much as it is a
slapstick movie with ridiculous gore and that there is nothing
terribly horrifying about it.”
Evil Dead 2 on Dawn of the Dead;
JM: “I find it interesting that one of
your main points was the scope of the movie, considering most of the
movie takes place in a shitty mall and a TV station. A lot of it is
just people wandering around an abandoned department store, it's
basically an episode of Today's Special.”
“I do like Dawn of the Dead, but I
think in retrospect, it is kind of the American Beauty of horror
movies. When I was sixteen I thought, 'people do go to malls, yeah
fuck them' and now it's like, 'sometimes I need shoes.'”
 |
| Team Evil Dead 2, Alexandra West & J.M. McNab |
On Exorcist III;
AW: “That one iconic scene with the nurse
that you showed works because it plays itself out, the rest of the
movie is this big Blatty wank-fest, with like lightning shots.”
JM: “I thought it was funny one of your
main points was acting, considering I was surprised George C. Scott
didn't choke on the scenery he was chewing. There's scenes where
someone's like 'oh, you should look at the police report', and he's
like 'NO, I WILL NOT LOOK AT THE REPORT GODDAMMIT!'”
“Also, I think it is worth noting
there is not one shot in Evil Dead 2 that contains Fabio.”
On Aliens;
AW: “It didn't really change from the
first one. Ripley always took charge. Even when she wasn't in a
position of power, she was always saying what was right, always
stating her mind, that's why she's a great character. So to say
that's something new and original in Aliens is just plain wrong. They
were just aping on that from the first film.”
“You mentioned call-backs? EVERY
sequel has call-backs. I pity the sequel that does not have some form
of call-back.”
Going into the last two rounds, Dawn and Evil Dead were still locked in a tie with twelve points, with Exorcist III right behind with ten.
Team Evil Dead 2 pulled ahead briefly after the closing statements, but the audience vote surprisingly favoured Exorcist III and put them into a tie for first with Evil
Dead 2 with fifteen points.
Following a tie-breaking trivia question about the members
of the Sawyer family from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, TEAM EXORCIST III were crowned the victors and took home the Golden Tentacle trophy.
After two debates, it certainly seems like the underdogs
flourish in this environment. In this particular instance, a win from Team
Exorcist III made sense, as they were the only ones that didn’t make a grievous
error over the course of the debate.
Tal of Team Dawn misspoke when he tried to argue that Aliens
failed to be scary because there were too many characters in the film, saying that made us not give a damn about any of them.
Alex of Team Evil Dead 2 made the ill-advised statement that
Dawn of the Dead was a boring film that she could barely stay awake through.
Team Aliens’ whole argument was inherently flawed in that
they didn’t really talk up the horror aspects of the movie. There can be
absolutely no doubt that Aliens is one of the best action films – if not the
best – of all time, but a horror sequel? That’s a tougher sell, and they shot
themselves in the foot by not concentrating on the few horrific elements that it
does have.
So, Exorcist III came through with the win, basically
by championing that it was the purest horror offering of the bunch. This was
another good debate, even if the score keeping was a little befuddling at times.
