Tuesday, July 7

The Wiederhorn Apology Hour

what the fuck did we sign up for again?

Since I'm a genre masochist of sorts, I ran through "it" once more and for the final time with the audio commentary. Yes, Return of the Living Dead Part II still sucks all sort of varied ass. James Karen and Thom Mathews merely cast an ass-backwards shadow on their prior series performances in this garbage that's basically a sliver above a tween Halloween quickie on the Hallmark Channel.

Ken Wiederhorn's an asshole, at least judging by the DVD commentary. Even though the director/writer dances around it, floats over it, and pokes it with a stick, he never just lays it all out with an admission to not delivering on his end and O'Bannon's film being vastly superior. Wiederhorn is certainly honest about his disdain with the product, but instead of blaming the circumstances, the horror genre and its fans are sniped. Apparently in his view comedy and horror can't be mixed successfully nor are horror fans receptive to such a mixture. Bullshit, he just couldn't pull it off, and this makes even less sense when he repeatedly praises the first film and Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers.

Kenny boy also states he wanted to move away from the Horror genre to something of more "significance" and by his quiet intellectual demeanor you'd believe he moved on to become the next Peter Jackson. Yet no, episodic television and a thriller no one has seen. Through his endless cycle of blame and disinterest, one gets the impression he's more apologizing to colleagues and possible future business associates who might happen upon this disc. It just pisses me right off when those asked to contribute their thoughts use the chance to essentially dump on the viewer through the microphone. Why even say anything at all?

At least Thor Van Lingen who played the zombie bully kid is on hand to break the monotony with a more fan perspective with loads of quips and little trivia tidbits. Unfortunately, by the credits you'll most likely end up hating this sequel even more after Wiederhorn slyly insults you.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I saw this once a long time ago and never bothered to re-visit it. I didn't like Wiederhorn's Shock Waves, but I must admit that Meatballs part II is one of my guiltiest pleasures (DVD release, where are you?)

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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