HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

I hope you're having a wicked Halloween!!! :D

Mine is cool so far.

Not turning out anywhere near the way I imagined it, though.

I knew it wouldn't be crazy-fun. Last year Kelly was in town and Tommy & Kelly & Brian and I saw a sneak preview of BEHIND THE MASK: THE RISE OF LESLIE VERNON at the Drafthouse, then had drinks afterward and discussed it and filmmaking in general and all the cool stuff I wish I could do every weekend of my life.

So I knew this year would be a great deal more mellow.

But it's been odd...

First off, I woke up last night, maybe midnight or 12:30 am, and it's 8:01 pm as I write this. So I've been up for a while.

I played plenty of EVIL DEAD and DESTROY ALL HUMANS (the first one) during the wee hours.

Then I layed down to THE NIGHT STALKER and THE NIGHT STRANGLER, the 2 made-for-TV movies that kicked off the TV show KOLACK: THE NIGHT STALKER (which inspired THE X-FILES). Both of those are written by legend Richard Mathison, btw.

I was thinking I'd drift off watching those, then wake up tonight and do my Halloween-thang, whatever that turned out to be.

But instead, I remained awake. And Brian had to go in at 3:00 pm, and he has to go to sleep as soon as he gets home, because he closes the store tonight and opens another store tomorrow morning. So he doesn't get ANY Halloween. :(

So I got this idea that I thought might help him feel a bit more like he's getting a Halloween, and is something I thought I'd like to do sometime today anyway...

I have the first 10 seasons of THE SIMPSONS. That's 9 TREEHOUSE OF HORROR episodes! So I figured I'd put them all in, in order.

So Brian and I watched the first 8 together, laughing at episodes we've seen a million times, as well as ones we hadn't seen before. He had to take off for work about mid-way through TREEHOUSE OF HORROR IX, but I finished that one out.

Then, still not quite ready to drift off, I started watching them with audio commentary, in reverse order (starting with the last one I watched, the 9th one).

That was fun, but somehow watching them with the commentary takes away the Halloween-y mood. (Watching movies and TV shows with filmmaker commentary is something I do anytime, hehe.)

I've got CREEPSHOW playing -- figuring that would bring back the Halloween-y mood -- but I'm not really watching it.

I'm kind of too tired to really have much of an attention span, but not tired enough to take a nap just yet.

Which makes me a bit concerned about how getting up for work tomorrow is going to work.

I did come up with a story concept. That's cool! That's always special, WHENEVER it happens! :)

Oh, and my memory is shot at the moment, but sometime within the past 48 hours Brian and I watched the theatrical cut of 1408! We had seen the unrated "director's" cut (I place "director's cut" in quotes because the director and the writers are perfectly, perhaps equally, happy with both versions of the film) and that was the only cut I had watched.

It was really amazing to see both versions!!! THEY BOTH RULE!!! It's really amazing, because both cuts -- in particular, both endings -- seem perfectly valid to me! You don't see that a lot. Usually, when they include the "alternate ending" on the dvd, you realize that THERE'S A REASON they went with the ending they chose.

NOT the case with 1408!

Moreover, usually when I watch a director's cut of a movie, I prefer it to the theatrical release. If you disliked DAREDEVIL in the theaters, there is every possibility you might actually like the director's cut of it! And with movies like the remake of DAWN OF THE DEAD, or the unrated version of LAND OF THE DEAD or THE GRUDGE, or the director's extended version of GHOSTRIDER the extra footage just extends the story, makes the movie a richer experience
. (In the case of LOTR: THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, the extra 2 hours actually makes the movie FEEL less long, somehow, lol.)

But with 1408, BOTH versions are perfect as they are!

And... I feel weird saying this, but... I think I actually prefer the theatrical ending to the "director's cut" version. I miss the extra story stuff that got cut out of the theatrical release, but I prefer the way it ended in theaters.

Strange.

Plus, if you've ever read a book about screenwriting -- or fiction writing in general -- it has been impressed upon you that there is only ONE correct ending for your story. If your story could end 2 different ways, you didn't do your job right.

And yet... Watching the 2 very different endings for 1408, I would argue that there's a flaw somewhere in that rule.

I watched both versions of BUTTERFLY EFFECT, and I could make an argument that the unrated version is THE RIGHT ending, and the theatrical version is a compromise for the studio. Likewise, the original filmed ending of the first FINAL DESTINATION movie is -- in my opinion -- clearly NOT the right ending, and the one they re-shot was the right ending for that film.

So to watch 2 versions of a great, GREAT movie and see 2 endings that are equally valid is a bit mind-blowing. It speaks to some aspect of storytelling that I need to figure out!

Btw, I reported watching (and LOVING) Rob Zombie's HALLOWEEN online...

Well, after I blogged, I did some research (just to answer some behind-the-scenes stuff I was curious about) and discovered that there was a work-print ending that differed from the ending that appeared in theaters! In this case, the work print ending IS NOT, and never was, the real ending. Zombie made this ending to prevent the real ending from getting out before the movie was released.

And the work print ending, as described on Wikipedia.org, is the ending I saw.

So I still haven't REALLY seen the movie. I mean, you and I could have a conversation about it and understand each other, but I saw the fake ending instead of the real one.

But that's okay. I wanted me some HALLOWEEN and I was satisfied.

That just means I have even more to look forward to when the dvd comes out. (I was totally gonna buy that one anyway, no question. Just now I have even more reason to by it THE MOMENT it's available, lol.)

OH! More Halloween goodness: I got a Halloween card from my baby!!! :D I love her so much!!!

Okay... So do I take a nap and run the risk of waking up several hours after Halloween is officially over? Or do I try to stay awake?

And if I stay awake, what do I watch?

I'll play it by ear. (That's my style, anyway, hehe.)

If you haven't already, don't forget to check out this year's Homestar Runner Halloween Cartoon!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! :D