I saw THE HOUSE OF WAX (1953) on the big screen back in 1980 (if I remember correctly) with about a hundred other kids my age in a local Stockton theater back when theaters had one giant screen and multiple isles of seating like an opera-house. It was like being in school when they showed science films except no adults were around to keep us in line, there were three times the number of kids and it was a freakin' Vincent Price horror movie in 3-D! What more could you want from a Saturday afternoon? In spite of the only real 3-D effect in the entire movie being the infamous paddle-ball scene, I was totally hooked. I’ve been a huge 3-D fan ever since and will gladly suffer through an anaglyph bootleg for a few cool 3-D moments. Even crappy movies are entertaining in 3-D, well at least only if the 3-D works properly (more on the 3-D killers in coming days). With modern circular polarization (as opposed to the linear polarization of the ‘80s), we’ve hit a new high in 3-D technology. No more color issues, no more ghosting, no more eye-strain and possibly headaches. The 3-D effects are crisp, clean and breath-taking when the film is made for 3-D projection, making dire swill like THE FINAL DESTINATION (2009) a total blast from beginning to end. How long with this boom period last? Well if the short-sighted studios don't screw it up again by doing stupid things like bad conversions, my fingers are crossed that the format will move into the mainstream and some of these older classics (and maybe not-so-classics) will be re-released in the new format. Of course with Universal finally releasing METALSTORM (1983), one of my favorite 3-D films ever, on DVD in a full-screen, bare-bones, 2-D edition, I don't have a whole hell of a lot of hope. Then again, Universal has never been either smart or cutting edge.
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