Arkham After Midnight
August 18th, 2008 by MaT
I’m not sure how I feel about cutting and slicing movies in order to toss them together into something new, but I got an e-mail from Terminal Pictures who had a couple recent internet success stories with their first 2 Silent Shadow of the Batman films. Their latest horror/batman mash is Arkham After Midnight. Here’s the source list”
SOURCES: The Penalty (1920) The Blackbird (1926) Nosferatu (1920) The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari (1920) The Golem (1920) Batman and Robin (1949 serial) Haxan (1922) Destiny (1922) Fantômas - À l'ombre de la guillotine (1913) Juve contre Fantômas (1913) Waxworks (1924) The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) Alice in Wonderland (1903) L'Inferno (1911) Hans Richter 20s films Assorted 20's Newsreels Take a look at the video. What do you think?
Filed under: News
Grim Zombo said:
I thought it was going to be seventeen year olds when I saw the title, but this grew on me and I’d buy a CD of the soundtrack to play for my grandmother’s visits. The first minute was a little slow but picked up with Alfred’s expressions and sampled dialogs. I loved the gassing and he should make that a separate little clip. Or move it to the start.
Seems to me if you do it with love and care, point out what the sources are right up front and make something interesting and spooky like this instead of stupid and degrading to the original material its ok. The dumb clips on youtube sure drown out gems. Do you have any other links for similar work? I found this Australian crude one called Bargeass that was a 180 from this but made me laugh.
Rocky said:
I thought is was pretty cool, MaT
I recognized no Nosferatu clips, but it’s been a while since I saw it
Grim Zombo said:
His Mad Hatter choice was the “Renfield” in Nosferatu and maybe an establishing shot or two? Good that he mostly stays away from the really iconic silent movie images that would be a bit jarring and break the spell, like Caligari as Penguin in the 2nd short. Though it did influence Tim Burton’s version a ton.
I love the crackles. Bring on Riddler!
Frank Zanzibar Rose said:
I have watched this a number of times. I love all the films that he used and I love the idea behind what they are trying. Although to me having seen the films that it is made from it looks like a bunch of random clips thrown in to music with batman dialogue in the place of the old ones.
Not saying the idea isn’t understood but for all the effort they could of shot a low budget fan film.
Grim Zombo said:
Says he did it in a weekend, you reckon a low budget fan film could be done as quickly and with some style?
I haven’t seen a single live action fan film worth the tape it was shot on, much less one shot on decent black and white film.
The first two in the series don’t look like random clips, this one does seem a bit more disjointed, but it works for me with the whole asylum theme.
Rocky said:
Okay, now I remember. Thanks Grim
I haven’t seen that flick since like 1988, so my memory isn’t so good
Grim Zombo said:
I just woke up to find this in my inbox, a second episode!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIWf6PHYsVk
“Arkham After Midnight”
Chapter Two: “Riddle Me Deadly.”
“The Bat-Man” gassed at infamous Arkham Asylum! Drugged! Disoriented! A blurred reality. Now as “mad” as all at Arkham due to queer & curious chemicals of Scare-Crow.” Stuck in a musty old madhouse - meeting his most awful adversaries! Faces stained with suspicions… the deranged royalty of crime and its unsettling clown prince!
(Sick with flu is a good way to watch this.)