I caught all three movies in the local theater this past weekend. That’s a whole lot of Tolkien, but I never hit surfeit. Not even close. In fact, seeing all three films together was magical, and it reminds you—well, it reminded me—that the books on which the films are based were in fact just one book, as Professor Tolkien intended; one long book broken up into three parts. And seeing all that spectacle on the oversized IMAX screen was more than worth the price of admission.
Something else that struck me upon my reviewing of the films: THE LORD OF THE RINGS is a right proper Horror show. The Dead Marshes. Trolls. Giant spiders. The feral, beastlike, cannibalistic and maneating Orcs. The Army of the Dead. The launching of severed heads via catapult over the walls of Minas Tirith. Wargs. And those Ringwraiths! Tha Nazgul. Both in their hooded black wraith form and their spectral Witch King forms. They’re as spooky as anything ever depicted in any official Horror movie. I’d love to see a movie featuring just a Ringwraith, or more than one, menacing a group of teenagers. Maybe in the present day a group of friends inadvertently resurrect one of the Nazgul. I’d pay to see it. You think the Tolkien estate would go for that?
