Fat Tuesday we still dont really know much about it

 

 I didnt realise that Fat Tuesday was basically another name for Mardi Gras a Carnival celebration, beginning on or after the Christian feasts of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day) and culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. In England where I am from it is basically what we would call Shrove Tuesday AKA pancake day. So basically it is the idea of having a last day/night of eating rich, fatty foods before you fast for lent. Funny really then that I never put two and two togther and realised that there was almost a Tales from Crypt movie released which would have been set around the time of pancake day, makes you think doesnt it?

I wrote a series of posts a few years back about the Tales from The Crypt films those released, those not and those films that almost became Tales films, one of these films an unreleased one was going to be called Fat Tuesday, a few things have made me return to write this sort of follow up post. As far as I can tell no real new information has come to light on the film, sure a few more people have made blog posts about it but they all seem to be picking from the same scraps I did, I am also not nieve enough to believe that my post was the first or possessed any more insight than most, but it is this very lack of information which sort of keeps this long dead film alive, the less info there is the more curious people are, they less they know the more they wish they knew.

A source calling himself Unknown30 contacted me in July of  2018 claiming to have more knowledge of this film, I would properly credit the individual but beyond the user name I do not haveany details. According to this individual TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS FAT TUESDAY was going for a September 1996 release by Universal. The story for the film was written by JP Kelly who pitched it to Joel Silver who thought it would make a great Tales movie. Gilbert Adler and A L Katz both rewrote the film but they had trouble getting the tone right apparently resulting in three sloppy drafts in a row. After this Silver wanting a finalized script that worked hired X Files writer Darin Morgan who was apparently a fan and wanted to work with the show's writers. Apparently not only did he agree immediately he also turned in a final draft three days later.

According to this guy it was a damn good script.  This is what he had to say about it ''The story was about a psychiatrist Roger and his son who move to New Orleans after his wife dies find themselves terrorized by the ghost of Roger's father, a voodoo witch and a demonic jester. It was a perfect followup to Demon Knight.''

''According to this source Adler and Katz stepped in and refused to make the film angered at the fact that their script was rewritten. To top it off, Universal bought Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis' spec Bordello Of Blood so that the latter wouldn't leave to go and work for DreamWorks. Those two things sealed the fate of Fat Tuesday. It's a damn shame cause Darin's script perfectly captured the EC Comics spirit and was so rich. Darin Morgan is still a criminally underrated writer and FT was in my own personal opinion the best script he wrote. It was the first script I ever read from beginning to end cause it was so good.''

I also wanted to bring this up again as recently a film has come out called Fat Tuesday, I found this out while looking for info on the missing Tales from the crypt film. This Fat Tuesday film was Screened at the Atlanta Film Festival and is written and directed by Louisiana native Jorge Torres-Torres. Apparently it was Filmed on location during the final days of Mardi Gras. The rough story of the film is that a hitchhiker infiltrates a group of friends with the intent of murdering her unsuspecting victims during the event, so in short its nothing like the tales from the crypt film would have been. I havent seen this film although I would like to give it a shot, apparently though people claim that it is slow but that it is gritty and a decent flick, it has been compared to Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer which is movie which I personally rate pretty highly.

I guess the truth is I dont relly have much more to say than I did the first time and if you havent read that post then I recommend that you give it a look Tales From the Crypt Fat Tuesday original post . I guess some missing movie legends just remain exactly that forever legends.

The Halloween movie Canon Jigsaw Part 4: The Return of Michael and the possible start of something new

OK so after Halloween 3 which had no real connection to the earlier films for Halloween 4 the producers very quickly turned back to telling the story of Michael Myers. Jamie Lee Curtis was unwilling to return to the role of Laurie Strode, so this meant that her character was killed off. This is where I have to say something which might prove a little bit unpopular and that's the fact that I really did not give a monkeys that Jamie Lee Curtis didn't return.I know this might annoy some people but as far as I am concerned Strode is not the main nemesis for Michael, I see Dr Loomis as the main force which stands against Myers. As long as we have the excellent Donald Pleasance in a Halloween film then I am a very happy fellow, in fact despite loving Halloween 3 to pieces I still wish that somehow there could be a little bit of Loomis in that one. To me he is very much the Van Helsing of the series an expert in the war against evil and a main foil for our villain.

I guess before I go into what Halloween 4 is I should have a quick shout out about what it could have become. I have heard rumors that if the whole anthology film idea of each Halloween being about something different had worked that this film would have been a ghost related movie, finding evidence for this seems to be hard though. What it is easier to find evidence for though is that at one point when Carpenter was more connected to the film they wanted to bring Myers back as a spirit. The idea was that Haddonfield the film series setting has decided to ban Halloween and not allow cinemas to show horror films or kids to trick or treat and that somehow this would bring Michael back as a spirit that he would be reborn in a pumpkin field as some spirit of vengeance. On the one hand this sounds a little bit silly and also a little bit close to Nightmare on Elm street but then I guess its no sillier than a guy who can be killed again and again and seem to somehow come back and have only been in a coma or knocked out.

OK so lets leave behind what could have been and instead focus on the film we got. So lets start at the start with the most basic of questions. What has Michael been doing since the second one? Well he has been sat in a comatose state for ten years since the explosion at Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, so not very much at all to be fair. It is while Michael is being transferred to Smith's Grove Sanitarium by ambulance that he wakes up after hearing that Laurie Strode, who died in a car accident, has a daughter. So I guess lesson learned right here if your ever around a comatose serial killer just keep your mouth shut just in case anything you say could wake them up and start the whole thing again. Ok If you want to watch the film without having it spoiled I recommend you walk away now as although I am not going to give away every beat of the film I will spoil the ending as well I cant talk about the movies place in cannon without doing this.

OK so lets get back to talking about this movie. So where was I? Oh yes Michael being Michael kills the ambulance personnel, and makes his way to Haddonfield in search of his niece Jamie. Dr. Samuel Loomis basically gives chase and its pretty much business as usual for the pair Michael killing and Lommis telling people Michael is evil while trying to track him down so that he can stop him. All in all as far as I am concerned its more of the same as far as the franchise goes, it takes on board the first two Halloween films while ignoring the third which with this once again being the story of Michael makes perfect sense.

Near the end of the film just before Michael is ''finished off'' Jamie touches his hand, then when things have apparently gone back to normal after the events her step mum goes upstairs to run her a bath, at this point though Jamie attacks old mummy dearest. Loomis hears screaming and starts to race up the stairs before stopping dead in his tracks about midway. We see why he has stopped, there at the top of the stairs stands an emotionless looking Jamie who is wearing a clown mask, holding a pair of scissors in her hand, her costume covered in blood looking pretty much like a young Michael had when he killed his older sister Judith, Loomis raises his gun to shoot her but is stopped. The film ends with Loomis sinking to the floor sobbing leading us to believe that for one reason or another be it something in her blood, the trauma she has suffered or some kind of curse passing from her Uncle when they touched that Jamie will become the franchises new killer. Would this change of killer ending go on to be an important piece of cannon or not? Well I guess you need to wait for my next post to find out, well unless you have seen all of the movies which given there age I am going to guess you most likely have.