Retrospective Look at...
We take a look at any horror film we see from the early black and white horror's to the latest DVD releases! Take a look at our 'Reviews' section for new films.
Friday the 13th 3+4
Slasher Month Day 3
Friday The 13th: Part III (1982)
Exactly a year after ‘Part 2’ ‘Friday The 13th Part 3’ came out, starting to see the pattern. Steve Minor returns for this third outing, obviously as it’s the third film, it was made for 3D, so we can already tell this going to be a laugh (expect things jumping at the camera, towards you). In this third instalment, Jason is alive and well, swearing to pick off all who enter his woods, which doesn’t go down to well for the group of friends that decide to party near the area of the campsite.
Like the beginning of ‘Part 2’ we have a summary of what happened at the end of the last film, followed by the title “Friday The 13th: Part III” coming out at the screen, meaning to be in 3D, already we’re laughing. It doesn’t help when we have a guy purposely and unnecessarily pointing a stick at the camera soon after the opening credits. After a few more objects being thrown at the camera, we meet out partygoers, two stoner hippies, a horny couple, two girls, one of the girl’s older, country boy lover and a weird nerd, by now we don’t expect any form of good acting within one foot of this franchise. We then have to deal with a yoyo coming at the camera for about 15 seconds, already it seems that they’ve decided to focus on the 3D more than the story, it doesn’t help that the film isn’t in 3D either, not that’d it’d be any good. Oh, there’s also a run in with some camp 80’s bikers, which is extremely cringe worthy, don’t worry, Jason soon teaches them a lesson, not that we really care.
After fifty minutes, not much has really happened, and you’re starting to feel it drag heavily, not even the hilariously bad acting can save this one. Finally, the moment we’ve been waiting for, Jason dons the hockey mask and the bloodbath begins! Oh and Jason has also had a haircut since ‘Part 2’ he’s bald now, it’s a good look. Among the deaths, there are a few recycled ideas that we’ve previously seen in the last two movies, supporting the lack of imagination within the film, but there are some hilarious special effects (mainly Jason crushing a guy’s head with his hands).
We all know how the final act is going to end by now, there will be running, screaming and the girl “defeating” Jason. We’re only three films in, and it’s already starting to get boring. You can laugh at it all you want, but it’s sad at how bad the film is and the sheer horror of the series getting worse. ‘Friday The 13th: Part III’ focuses on the 3D aspect of it all more than anything else, which leaves us with an extremely boring and cringe-worthy movie experience. Next... ‘Friday The 13th: Part IV – The Final Chapter’ - Yeah right.
1/5
Friday The 13th: Part IV – The Final Chapter (1984)
Jason awakes in the morgue and makes his way back home, might as well do a little killing along the way. A group of teenagers are having a party in a house by the lake, with a mother and her two children, Trish and Tommy (Corey Feldman – The Goonies, The Lost Boys), living in the house opposite.
We begin with an overview of what has happened in the previous movies, so all the viewers are on track with the “story”. ‘The Final Chapter’ is the biggest yet, bigger deaths, bigger “Action”(if you can call it that), bigger gore factor, more nudity and sex than any horny young teenager could ask for! By now Jason is starting to look pretty rough, I think he’s already getting worn out, but it’s the look everyone knows best, big, zombie-like, dirty and bald, with a worn out and damaged hockey mask; you’ve got to love that look.
It’s hard to comment on the story for the ‘Friday The 13th’ franchise, as it is all pretty damn similar, if they’re not at a camp, they’re in a house by the woods or lake and there is always going to be a group of young teenagers. After watching ‘Part 3’ it’s obvious that they’re going to get worse, but ‘The Final Chapter’ is a better addition to the series than ‘Part 3’, the acting is still questionable (it always is), but it’s not as bad as number 3, there’s also a lot more fun had with the deaths, which doesn’t make this a good film, but a fun viewing.
When the weather starts to get bad, you know Jason is about to go on a rampage. There are cork screws in hands, faces crushed, machetes through heads and more! There is actually some nice use of cinematography, with the camera panning away from a helpless girl outside, only to see her fate projected on the wall by the shadows when the lightning strikes.
‘The Final Chapter’ is everything you expect from a ‘Friday’ film, with a finale that could have been great, showing the serious effects and trauma ‘caused to a young boy in such an event, but it is portrayed in such a laughable way and only to be ruined by future sequels, but it could have worked. ‘The Final Chapter’ is better than ‘Part 3’, but that’s not really saying much.
2/5
William Gordon
Exactly a year after ‘Part 2’ ‘Friday The 13th Part 3’ came out, starting to see the pattern. Steve Minor returns for this third outing, obviously as it’s the third film, it was made for 3D, so we can already tell this going to be a laugh (expect things jumping at the camera, towards you). In this third instalment, Jason is alive and well, swearing to pick off all who enter his woods, which doesn’t go down to well for the group of friends that decide to party near the area of the campsite.
Like the beginning of ‘Part 2’ we have a summary of what happened at the end of the last film, followed by the title “Friday The 13th: Part III” coming out at the screen, meaning to be in 3D, already we’re laughing. It doesn’t help when we have a guy purposely and unnecessarily pointing a stick at the camera soon after the opening credits. After a few more objects being thrown at the camera, we meet out partygoers, two stoner hippies, a horny couple, two girls, one of the girl’s older, country boy lover and a weird nerd, by now we don’t expect any form of good acting within one foot of this franchise. We then have to deal with a yoyo coming at the camera for about 15 seconds, already it seems that they’ve decided to focus on the 3D more than the story, it doesn’t help that the film isn’t in 3D either, not that’d it’d be any good. Oh, there’s also a run in with some camp 80’s bikers, which is extremely cringe worthy, don’t worry, Jason soon teaches them a lesson, not that we really care.
After fifty minutes, not much has really happened, and you’re starting to feel it drag heavily, not even the hilariously bad acting can save this one. Finally, the moment we’ve been waiting for, Jason dons the hockey mask and the bloodbath begins! Oh and Jason has also had a haircut since ‘Part 2’ he’s bald now, it’s a good look. Among the deaths, there are a few recycled ideas that we’ve previously seen in the last two movies, supporting the lack of imagination within the film, but there are some hilarious special effects (mainly Jason crushing a guy’s head with his hands).
We all know how the final act is going to end by now, there will be running, screaming and the girl “defeating” Jason. We’re only three films in, and it’s already starting to get boring. You can laugh at it all you want, but it’s sad at how bad the film is and the sheer horror of the series getting worse. ‘Friday The 13th: Part III’ focuses on the 3D aspect of it all more than anything else, which leaves us with an extremely boring and cringe-worthy movie experience. Next... ‘Friday The 13th: Part IV – The Final Chapter’ - Yeah right.
1/5
Friday The 13th: Part IV – The Final Chapter (1984)
Jason awakes in the morgue and makes his way back home, might as well do a little killing along the way. A group of teenagers are having a party in a house by the lake, with a mother and her two children, Trish and Tommy (Corey Feldman – The Goonies, The Lost Boys), living in the house opposite.
We begin with an overview of what has happened in the previous movies, so all the viewers are on track with the “story”. ‘The Final Chapter’ is the biggest yet, bigger deaths, bigger “Action”(if you can call it that), bigger gore factor, more nudity and sex than any horny young teenager could ask for! By now Jason is starting to look pretty rough, I think he’s already getting worn out, but it’s the look everyone knows best, big, zombie-like, dirty and bald, with a worn out and damaged hockey mask; you’ve got to love that look.
It’s hard to comment on the story for the ‘Friday The 13th’ franchise, as it is all pretty damn similar, if they’re not at a camp, they’re in a house by the woods or lake and there is always going to be a group of young teenagers. After watching ‘Part 3’ it’s obvious that they’re going to get worse, but ‘The Final Chapter’ is a better addition to the series than ‘Part 3’, the acting is still questionable (it always is), but it’s not as bad as number 3, there’s also a lot more fun had with the deaths, which doesn’t make this a good film, but a fun viewing.
When the weather starts to get bad, you know Jason is about to go on a rampage. There are cork screws in hands, faces crushed, machetes through heads and more! There is actually some nice use of cinematography, with the camera panning away from a helpless girl outside, only to see her fate projected on the wall by the shadows when the lightning strikes.
‘The Final Chapter’ is everything you expect from a ‘Friday’ film, with a finale that could have been great, showing the serious effects and trauma ‘caused to a young boy in such an event, but it is portrayed in such a laughable way and only to be ruined by future sequels, but it could have worked. ‘The Final Chapter’ is better than ‘Part 3’, but that’s not really saying much.
2/5
William Gordon
Friday the 13th 1+2
Slasher Month Day 2
Friday The 13th (1980)
The 70’s and 80’s gave us some of the best and more memorable Slasher movies, one of them being ‘Friday The 13th’, seen as a classic and well known by all. In its time, ‘Friday The 13th’ was probably terrifying, but watching it now, it’s more of a laugh than anything. Whereas classics such as ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’, ‘Halloween’ and ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ all of have certain aspects of the film that are still quite disturbing and terrifying in its own way, even to this day, ‘Friday’ may have made people fear going into the woods (that’s a wild guess, didn’t make me fear the woods too much), but there’s not really much that sticks with you. Jason doesn’t actually make an appearance in the film, we also don’t see the iconic hockey mask for some time either, and it’s safe to say that the series goes way down hill after part 2, but we’ll go into that in the separate reviews.
‘Friday The 13th’, directed by Sean S. Cunningham, follows a group of young counsellors (including young Kevin Bacon); as they start to be stalked and picked off one by one, while trying to reopen a summer camp at Crystal Lake, where a boy once drowned. It has everything a slasher film needs, a group of youths, an Isolated setting, a scary old man openly telling the youths that they’re all “doomed”, sex and a creepy back story, if we’ve learnt anything from parodies such as ‘Scream’ or ‘Behind the Mask’ we just know it spells out “Massacre”.
‘Friday’ really hasn’t aged well, poor special effects (at the time they were probably good, so I’ll let them off), lazy cinematography/cuts and acting that is pretty damn bad. Probably the most brutal death is a spear slowly being pushed through someone’s neck, from underneath the bed, other than that, Cunningham just isn’t very inventive with his violence.
With a dull twist and an unsatisfying finale, ‘Friday’ really isn’t very original, and with characters you don’t care about, you just sit there waiting for the deaths to come. It proves that just because something is labelled a “classic” it doesn’t always mean it’s good. Sadly, the best part of the film is literally in the last couple of minutes, leaving us hopeful for a more interesting villain in the sequel (come on, let’s be honest, we all want to see Jason). ‘Friday The 13th’ is the start of a very long and uninspiring franchise, which gets sillier and bloodier every time, usually I’m all for lack of blood, but I think bloodier and more inventive deaths was just what ‘Friday’ needed. However, you have to love the film for being completely unoriginal and predictable, creating a rather humorous experience. For new comers, if you’re watching it to see a huge guy in a hockey mask hacking up teenagers, you are in for a complete let down.
2/5
Friday The 13th: Part II (1981)
A year after ‘Friday The 13th’, part 2 was released, this time directed by Steve Miner (Lake Placid, Halloween H20). After the events of the first film, Camp Crystal Lake is shut down, but a camp next to it is now having their own difficulties with a stalker/mass murderer, is it Jason? The son of Mrs. Voorhees that drowned in the lake all those years ago? I’ll give you a hint... yes... yes it is. Like the first, it’s the same setting, young adults, the crazy old man and sex, the only difference is that there are more people, which can only mean one thing... more blood! Or so we hoped.
When the film opens, we see Alice (the survivor from the first film) having a nightmare in her bed, the nightmare consists of the finale of the first film, so we pretty much watch the end of ‘Friday The 13th’ again, now that’s taken up some screen time, she wakes up and decides to walk about the house only to be killed by an unknown stranger (clearly Jason, which only leaves the question, did Jason really walk all that way to her house? Can’t imagine him getting the bus, plus... how did he get her address? Also, if I saw a guy in the street who looked like Jason, standing outside houses and holding a knife, I’d most probably phone the police), the title card appears with “Friday The 13th” which then explodes as if it’s some sort of action movie with “Part 2” appearing after the explosion. Now there are no more survivors from the first film, we are introduced to the new soon-to-be victims, and they’re as annoying as they always are, expect lots of girls wearing short shorts... and guys too.
Second night at camp, half the group go off to the local bar while 6 stay at the camp, they’re almost begging to be picked off, as they split into pairs, having sex and just being young. We are given a bunch of first person shots, girls in underwear or completely naked, throats being cut, machetes in faces, horny couple’s being skewered by spears and a girl slowly being approached by a knife-wielding Jason, who is apparently incapable of moving out the way. Camp leaders, Paul and Ginny return to find the cabins empty soon followed by a hilarious chase sequence, where Jason seems to always hold his hand out stiff, like the zombie hand you usually see on the poster for a George A. Romero zombie flick. May I also suggest not pissing yourself when hiding under a bed; it may just give you away a little, just a bit of advice. I sound negative, and believe me, I’m going to get a lot more negative as the sequels go on, but I’ve never watched a ‘Friday The 13th’ film because it’s good, I watch them ‘cause they are hilariously bad and that’s the main entertainment factor.
After a final fight with Jason, which looks more like play fighting, we are assumed he is dead, and that is the end of ‘Friday The 13th’ no more Jason, he is gone, happy ending, then we realise this is an 80’s Slasher movie and we are left with a similar ending to the first film, leaving it open for many more sequels. ‘Part 2’ isn’t a good film, but like the first, it’s a laugh, poor acting and lack of originality let it down, deaths aren’t anything great either. What next? Part 3 of course.
2/5
William Gordon
The 70’s and 80’s gave us some of the best and more memorable Slasher movies, one of them being ‘Friday The 13th’, seen as a classic and well known by all. In its time, ‘Friday The 13th’ was probably terrifying, but watching it now, it’s more of a laugh than anything. Whereas classics such as ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’, ‘Halloween’ and ‘A Nightmare On Elm Street’ all of have certain aspects of the film that are still quite disturbing and terrifying in its own way, even to this day, ‘Friday’ may have made people fear going into the woods (that’s a wild guess, didn’t make me fear the woods too much), but there’s not really much that sticks with you. Jason doesn’t actually make an appearance in the film, we also don’t see the iconic hockey mask for some time either, and it’s safe to say that the series goes way down hill after part 2, but we’ll go into that in the separate reviews.
‘Friday The 13th’, directed by Sean S. Cunningham, follows a group of young counsellors (including young Kevin Bacon); as they start to be stalked and picked off one by one, while trying to reopen a summer camp at Crystal Lake, where a boy once drowned. It has everything a slasher film needs, a group of youths, an Isolated setting, a scary old man openly telling the youths that they’re all “doomed”, sex and a creepy back story, if we’ve learnt anything from parodies such as ‘Scream’ or ‘Behind the Mask’ we just know it spells out “Massacre”.
‘Friday’ really hasn’t aged well, poor special effects (at the time they were probably good, so I’ll let them off), lazy cinematography/cuts and acting that is pretty damn bad. Probably the most brutal death is a spear slowly being pushed through someone’s neck, from underneath the bed, other than that, Cunningham just isn’t very inventive with his violence.
With a dull twist and an unsatisfying finale, ‘Friday’ really isn’t very original, and with characters you don’t care about, you just sit there waiting for the deaths to come. It proves that just because something is labelled a “classic” it doesn’t always mean it’s good. Sadly, the best part of the film is literally in the last couple of minutes, leaving us hopeful for a more interesting villain in the sequel (come on, let’s be honest, we all want to see Jason). ‘Friday The 13th’ is the start of a very long and uninspiring franchise, which gets sillier and bloodier every time, usually I’m all for lack of blood, but I think bloodier and more inventive deaths was just what ‘Friday’ needed. However, you have to love the film for being completely unoriginal and predictable, creating a rather humorous experience. For new comers, if you’re watching it to see a huge guy in a hockey mask hacking up teenagers, you are in for a complete let down.
2/5
Friday The 13th: Part II (1981)
A year after ‘Friday The 13th’, part 2 was released, this time directed by Steve Miner (Lake Placid, Halloween H20). After the events of the first film, Camp Crystal Lake is shut down, but a camp next to it is now having their own difficulties with a stalker/mass murderer, is it Jason? The son of Mrs. Voorhees that drowned in the lake all those years ago? I’ll give you a hint... yes... yes it is. Like the first, it’s the same setting, young adults, the crazy old man and sex, the only difference is that there are more people, which can only mean one thing... more blood! Or so we hoped.
When the film opens, we see Alice (the survivor from the first film) having a nightmare in her bed, the nightmare consists of the finale of the first film, so we pretty much watch the end of ‘Friday The 13th’ again, now that’s taken up some screen time, she wakes up and decides to walk about the house only to be killed by an unknown stranger (clearly Jason, which only leaves the question, did Jason really walk all that way to her house? Can’t imagine him getting the bus, plus... how did he get her address? Also, if I saw a guy in the street who looked like Jason, standing outside houses and holding a knife, I’d most probably phone the police), the title card appears with “Friday The 13th” which then explodes as if it’s some sort of action movie with “Part 2” appearing after the explosion. Now there are no more survivors from the first film, we are introduced to the new soon-to-be victims, and they’re as annoying as they always are, expect lots of girls wearing short shorts... and guys too.
Second night at camp, half the group go off to the local bar while 6 stay at the camp, they’re almost begging to be picked off, as they split into pairs, having sex and just being young. We are given a bunch of first person shots, girls in underwear or completely naked, throats being cut, machetes in faces, horny couple’s being skewered by spears and a girl slowly being approached by a knife-wielding Jason, who is apparently incapable of moving out the way. Camp leaders, Paul and Ginny return to find the cabins empty soon followed by a hilarious chase sequence, where Jason seems to always hold his hand out stiff, like the zombie hand you usually see on the poster for a George A. Romero zombie flick. May I also suggest not pissing yourself when hiding under a bed; it may just give you away a little, just a bit of advice. I sound negative, and believe me, I’m going to get a lot more negative as the sequels go on, but I’ve never watched a ‘Friday The 13th’ film because it’s good, I watch them ‘cause they are hilariously bad and that’s the main entertainment factor.
After a final fight with Jason, which looks more like play fighting, we are assumed he is dead, and that is the end of ‘Friday The 13th’ no more Jason, he is gone, happy ending, then we realise this is an 80’s Slasher movie and we are left with a similar ending to the first film, leaving it open for many more sequels. ‘Part 2’ isn’t a good film, but like the first, it’s a laugh, poor acting and lack of originality let it down, deaths aren’t anything great either. What next? Part 3 of course.
2/5
William Gordon
Scream Franchise
Slasher Month Day 1
Scream (1996)
In 1996 Wes Craven, one of the many masters of horror, treated us with his Slasher flick ‘Scream’. A year after the death of Sidney Prescott’s mother, two students are found gutted. When a serial killer known as ‘Ghost Face’ appears, Sidney (Never Campbell) starts to suspect whether the death of her mother and the two students are related. Famous reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) also tries to uncover the truth behind these killings. ‘Ghost Face’ starts to pick off everyone, one by one. No one can be trusted, as everyone is a suspect. Sounds like your typical slasher film right? It may make all the same moves and clichés as your usual slasher movie, but in reality it’s a completely original movie, as it slyly mocks the genre. However, we are still treated with scares, brutality, intensity and mystery.
The opening of the film is no laughing matter, as Casey (Drew Barrymore), while alone in her house, is terrorised by threatening calls from an unknown caller. In the middle of nowhere, she is brutally executed and found by her parents. From the first scene, it looks like a normal slasher, and a horrifying one at that. Throughout the film, the body count starts to rise along with the clichés and the laughs. We witness a group of drunken youths watching Halloween while an intoxicated Randy (the movie buff of the group) lists all the rules of how to survive a horror movie, while each rule is stated obviously there is someone breaking those rules. Let’s not forget the humorously intense scene, with Randy talking to the TV, demanding the girl in the movie to turn around and look behind her, while ‘Ghost Face’ sneaks up behind him.
Luckily ‘Scream’ was in the knowing hands of Wes Craven, creator of the iconic and infamous ‘Freddy Krueger’. If it was given to us by anyone else; well let’s just say it would most probably look a lot like ‘Scary Movie’. To fans of the Slasher genre, you will be laughing and predicting what cliché they decide to pick on next, and overall just having a hell of a time (hopefully noticing the Janitor wearing the famous red and black striped sweater, who is surprisingly called ‘Fred’ played by Wes Craven himself), whereas, those who are not too experienced with the genre, will be gripping onto their seats and will most probably be scared of picking up the phone when home alone for weeks.
There are plenty of interesting characters to keep you hooked, with the acting up to standards, most noticeably Drew Barrymore’s victimised ‘Casey’ (even if it is only for the opening scene) and Skeet Ulrich’s mysterious boyfriend of ‘Sidney’, ‘Billy Loomis’, followed by the fan favourite, film buff ‘Randy’, the friendly deputy ‘Dewey’ (David Arquette), the top reporter ‘Gale Weathers’ who will do just about anything to get her hands on a story and the Heroin, haunted by the past, Sidney Prescott.
Like most of these films, a few murders never stop the young ones from drinking and having fun. While it’s getting harder and harder to trust almost everyone in the film, the finale takes place at a house party in the middle of nowhere, what a surprise, the perfect setting for a blood bath. What Wes Craven does perfectly is keeping the mystery going, as soon as you’re pretty sure who the killer is, he goes and turns that all around.
‘Scream’, even though it mocks the genre, happens to be one of the best Slasher films to date, which doesn’t only make you think twice about staying home alone, it also gives you a hell of a lot to laugh at, and is guaranteed to be a fun viewing, with twists and turns that’ll keep you hooked. Slasher films, out of every other genre, are one of the most well known for dragging out sequels, so it was obvious Scream wasn’t going to be a one off, the trouble is, with a film as original as ‘Scream’, with so much charm, it’d take a lot to make a sequel that lived up to the standards of the original.
5/5
Scream 2 (1997)
A year after the release of Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’, as soon as everyone thought it was safe to answer the phone and as soon as directors found it safe to return to unoriginal Slasher films Craven gave us ‘Scream 2’. It has now been two years since the events of the first film and the survivors have moved from High school to College and no longer live in Woodsboro, apart from Dewey. Gale has written a book called “The Woodsboro Murders” which has now been turned into a film, “Stab”. As the film is released, murders start to happen again, someone new is donning the mask of ‘Ghost Face’. Dewey leaves Woodsboro to protect Sidney, and of course, Gale Weathers is there yet again, to uncover the mystery.
The first scene involves a couple going to see the new “Stab” movie on its opening night. We see Heather Graham playing ‘Casey’ in what is a Hollywood make-over of opening scene from the first film. Our first death takes place, it may not be as terrifying as the opening in the first, but it’s scary in its own way and is already a promising opening. Not long after the opening events, Randy is in a Film Studies class, discussing Sequels, asking his classmates to name a movie that surpasses the original, already ‘Scream 2’ knows it’s a sequel, it is aware of the track record of sequels that have plunged compared to the first film and plays along with that. Like the first film, Randy knows the rules and lays out the rules for a Sequel, Bigger body count, more elaborate death scenes etc. And the film does not ignore these points, it goes ahead and notes them down and proceeds to follow the rules.
Like the first, ‘Scream 2’ knows how to keep you on edge, it’s clear that it is not the same ‘Ghost Face’ from the first film, who exactly is it then? Well, prepare yourself for just under two hours of teasing, as soon as you think you’ve got it, Craven proves you wrong. There’s a lot more to laugh at, and a lot more to scream at (pun intended), noticeably a scene where the only way out of a crashed car is OVER an unconscious ‘Ghost Face’, you can count me out. Like the rules state, the sequel is always bigger, and ‘Scream 2’ is bigger, but bigger isn’t always better. Once you’ve seen the original, the sequel isn’t as... well... original, but as stated in the film, sequels never are as good, and as a sequel that mocks sequels, you can’t help but let it slide and just enjoy the ride.
We are surprised by yet another unexpected twist again at the end, obviously I won’t be mean and spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but a lot of the fun had in the ‘Scream’ franchise is trying to uncover the mystery, it’s not a good mystery if it’s easy to solve, which is not the case with ‘Scream 2’. It’s fair to say, as far as horror sequels go, ‘Scream 2’ is great, we may be used to the self-parody, but there is still a lot of fun to be had, cue being scared of answering the phone yet again. Remember, horror films rarely stop at number two, and there are small mentions of trilogies throughout the film, obviously this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of ‘Ghost Face’.
4/5
Scream 3 (2000)
Three years after the release of ‘Scream 2’ Wes Craven released the supposed finale to the series, ‘Scream 3’, funnily enough, “Stab 3” is also in production, so can you guess what ‘Scream 3’ decided to pick to pieces? That’s right, trilogies. Sidney, Gale and Dewey hear of murders on the set of the new “Stab” movie, inspired by their life. This time ‘Ghost Face’ is changing the script and writing his own third film, the old gang we’ve grown to know and love soon realise they’re dealing with a trilogy and in the final film, there are no rules and all bets are off.
I think it’s pretty obvious by now how the film will start... if you guessed “A girl/couple getting murdered” then you guessed right! Five minutes in and we’ve had our first bloody death, with someone new wearing the mask of ‘Ghost Face’...Again. Sidney and Gale start to suspect links between the events taking place and Sidney’s mother, remember trilogies always link back to the events of the first film. ‘Scream 3’ is definitely the least scariest, it decides to rely a lot more on the humour, it works though, it has some great ideas, one of which includes the actors of and the real Sidney, Dewey and Gale following ‘Ghost Face’s’ script, trying to figure out what comes next.
You can’t help but think that, after the sequels discussion in ‘Scream 2’, Wes Craven knew that it always goes downhill after the first sequel. You could always say “Scream 3 knows it’s a second sequel in a trilogy, so it plays with that” but you can’t always say that, especially seeing as this third outing doesn’t follow all the rules of a third film. There is more investigating in this third outing, as Gale starts looking in to the history of Sidney’s mother, as well as who is behind the killings, mystery starts to linger in the air, more and more every minute, as questions that are answered result in more questions. The magic of a horror film set on a horror movie set is that you never know what’s real and what’s not, with a few sets that’ll be extremely familiar to us viewers, along with Sidney and the others.
The twist in ‘Scream 3’, for me personally, is one of the best, which I did not see coming, Craven always knows how to surprise you with the reveal. When it was released, there was much hope that this was the last, and it seemed it. The gag was starting to grow old, and it was time to lay ‘Ghost Face’ to sleep and let Sidney live without fear. ‘Scream 3’ is guaranteed to be a disappointment to a lot of people, many saying it was unnecessary, however if you’re going to poke fun at horror movies and their sequels, you might as well cover all grounds. The investigative theme is a major highlight for me and even if it isn’t as scary, the laughs are still good, the paranoia is still there (Mainly in the final act, as everyone is being picked off in the house of the “Stab 3” director, with plenty of props), there is no denying that ‘Scream 3’ is bloody fun (emphasis on bloody) and as a lover of the franchise, I can’t help but love it. Now the trilogy is done, what can they poke fun at now? Reboots anyone?
4/5
Scream 4 (2011)
Just over ten years after the third movie, Wes Craven reunited the old crew. With a lot of films released lately being remakes, Craven leaps at the chance to make fun of them. Sidney Prescott is now the author of a self-help book, returning to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour, it only seems fair that ‘Ghost Face’ should show up. Reuniting with the old gang, they try to stop these killings, find out who his under the mask, however, you can’t help but feel a sense of Déjà vu.
The first thing we hear is a phone call, now we already know we’re back in ‘Scream’ territory. ‘Scream 4’ then decides to make fun of horror franchises, with the opening sequence being the opening to ‘Stab 6’ which is also the opening to ‘Stab 7’, when one of the viewers start to question the logic of it, the other replies with “you’re over-thinking it”, let’s be honest, this is true, never over-think in a horror franchise as there will always be issues with continuity etc. We learn that after ‘Stab 3’ Sidney Prescott threatened to sue, so they started making up stories. One of the blonde, soon-to-be-victim’s says that ‘Stab 5’ contains time travel, which pretty much sums up how carried away they can get with franchises (telekinesis in Friday The 13th Part 7, along with Jason in space in Jason X for example).
We are introduced to the next generation of ‘Scream’ victims; we have our Randy-like movies buffs, Robbie and Charlie, Sidney’s cousins, Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts), Jill’s friends Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) and Olivia, let’s also not forget Jill’s mysterious ex-boyfriend, Trevor. ‘Scream 4’ balances the laughs and suspense perfectly, with some great one-liners, for example; Kirby is talking to Sidney and Dewey about the phone call she got, stating “it was the killer’s voice, from the Stab movies... or, you know... your life”.
Like I mentioned in previous reviews, what is so great about the ‘Scream’ franchise is that they’re not only Horror-parodies, but mysteries, and already Craven has given us possible suspects, is it the Movie Buffs, the jealous aunt, the weird Deputy Judy Hicks or the desperate ex-boyfriend? Half an hour into the film and the film has already got us guessing and thinking. The rules have also changed, in a scene at the schools cinema club, which movie buffs Charlie and Robbie host; they explain that the killer is more likely to film the killings, uploading them into cyber space. The events are described as not a “Shrequel” but more of a “Screamake”, and the rules have changed, the unexpected is the new cliché, the deaths are more extreme and pretty much the only way to survive is you have to be gay.
It is believed that the finale is going to take place at the local “Stabathon”, where all the students gather to party/watch all the ‘Stab’ movies, until they realise it’s what they call a “fake” ending, which a remake does to trick the viewer, this is then followed by a bigger, real ending. Then comes the ACTUAL finale, as Jill, Charlie, Robbie and Trevor all go round Kirby’s for a gathering, unfortunately for them, ‘Ghost Face’ decided to tag along. Without spoiling the story, after blood is spilt, all is revealed, and what an unexpected surprise it is (playing with the rules of remakes, the unexpected being the new cliché).
Usually by a fourth entry in a franchise, it’s safe to say that we are knee deep in utter crap, however, ‘Scream 4’ changes that, and while mocking horror franchises and remakes, it defies the usually-inevitable and gives us a franchise that may not ever surpass the originality and brilliance of the first movie, but gives us a hell of a lot to love in its sequels. After intense mystery, honest humour and some grisly deaths, we are left with a surprising finale that doesn’t disappoint, you can’t help but have a huge fan-boy grin on your face when you hear Sidney deliver the line “You forgot the first rule of remakes, don’t fuck with the original!”. After ten years, there’s a lovely sense of nostalgia and what great fun there is to be had. ‘Scream 4’ redeems Wes Craven after giving us “My Soul to Take” the year before. After this satisfying conclusion, I think we can now lay the franchise to rest; it’s covered slashers, sequels, trilogies and remakes, there’s not much more to be done, but what fun we had while it lasted, all I can say is... Thank you Wes Craven, but please don’t ruin the charm with more sequels.
4/5
I thought it’d be a good idea to leave you with the “Rules of a Horror Movie Franchise”... just in case you ever get in that sort of situation... (We will be having an in depth look at these rules during Slasher Month)
Rules to survive a Horror movie:
· Don’t have sex
· Don’t drink or do drugs
· Never say “I’ll be right back” or “Hello?” or “Who’s there?”
Rules for a Horror Movie Sequel:
· The body count is always bigger
· The deaths scenes are always much more elaborate, with more blood and gore
· Never assume the killer is dead
Rules for a Horror movie Trilogy:
· You’ve got a killer who’s superhuman. Stabbing him won’t work, shooting him won’t work. Basically in the third one, you’ve got to cryogenically freeze his head, decapitate him or blow him up
· Anyone, including the main character, can die
· The past will come back to bite you in the ass. Whatever you think you know about the past, forget it. The past is not at rest. Any sins you think you committed in the past are about to break out and destroy you
Rules for a Horror Remake:
· The death scenes have to be way more extreme
· Unexpected is the new cliché
· Virgins can die now
· The killer should be filming the murders
· If you want to survive a modern day horror movie, you pretty much have to be gay
· Don’t fuck with the original
William Gordon
In 1996 Wes Craven, one of the many masters of horror, treated us with his Slasher flick ‘Scream’. A year after the death of Sidney Prescott’s mother, two students are found gutted. When a serial killer known as ‘Ghost Face’ appears, Sidney (Never Campbell) starts to suspect whether the death of her mother and the two students are related. Famous reporter Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) also tries to uncover the truth behind these killings. ‘Ghost Face’ starts to pick off everyone, one by one. No one can be trusted, as everyone is a suspect. Sounds like your typical slasher film right? It may make all the same moves and clichés as your usual slasher movie, but in reality it’s a completely original movie, as it slyly mocks the genre. However, we are still treated with scares, brutality, intensity and mystery.
The opening of the film is no laughing matter, as Casey (Drew Barrymore), while alone in her house, is terrorised by threatening calls from an unknown caller. In the middle of nowhere, she is brutally executed and found by her parents. From the first scene, it looks like a normal slasher, and a horrifying one at that. Throughout the film, the body count starts to rise along with the clichés and the laughs. We witness a group of drunken youths watching Halloween while an intoxicated Randy (the movie buff of the group) lists all the rules of how to survive a horror movie, while each rule is stated obviously there is someone breaking those rules. Let’s not forget the humorously intense scene, with Randy talking to the TV, demanding the girl in the movie to turn around and look behind her, while ‘Ghost Face’ sneaks up behind him.
Luckily ‘Scream’ was in the knowing hands of Wes Craven, creator of the iconic and infamous ‘Freddy Krueger’. If it was given to us by anyone else; well let’s just say it would most probably look a lot like ‘Scary Movie’. To fans of the Slasher genre, you will be laughing and predicting what cliché they decide to pick on next, and overall just having a hell of a time (hopefully noticing the Janitor wearing the famous red and black striped sweater, who is surprisingly called ‘Fred’ played by Wes Craven himself), whereas, those who are not too experienced with the genre, will be gripping onto their seats and will most probably be scared of picking up the phone when home alone for weeks.
There are plenty of interesting characters to keep you hooked, with the acting up to standards, most noticeably Drew Barrymore’s victimised ‘Casey’ (even if it is only for the opening scene) and Skeet Ulrich’s mysterious boyfriend of ‘Sidney’, ‘Billy Loomis’, followed by the fan favourite, film buff ‘Randy’, the friendly deputy ‘Dewey’ (David Arquette), the top reporter ‘Gale Weathers’ who will do just about anything to get her hands on a story and the Heroin, haunted by the past, Sidney Prescott.
Like most of these films, a few murders never stop the young ones from drinking and having fun. While it’s getting harder and harder to trust almost everyone in the film, the finale takes place at a house party in the middle of nowhere, what a surprise, the perfect setting for a blood bath. What Wes Craven does perfectly is keeping the mystery going, as soon as you’re pretty sure who the killer is, he goes and turns that all around.
‘Scream’, even though it mocks the genre, happens to be one of the best Slasher films to date, which doesn’t only make you think twice about staying home alone, it also gives you a hell of a lot to laugh at, and is guaranteed to be a fun viewing, with twists and turns that’ll keep you hooked. Slasher films, out of every other genre, are one of the most well known for dragging out sequels, so it was obvious Scream wasn’t going to be a one off, the trouble is, with a film as original as ‘Scream’, with so much charm, it’d take a lot to make a sequel that lived up to the standards of the original.
5/5
Scream 2 (1997)
A year after the release of Wes Craven’s ‘Scream’, as soon as everyone thought it was safe to answer the phone and as soon as directors found it safe to return to unoriginal Slasher films Craven gave us ‘Scream 2’. It has now been two years since the events of the first film and the survivors have moved from High school to College and no longer live in Woodsboro, apart from Dewey. Gale has written a book called “The Woodsboro Murders” which has now been turned into a film, “Stab”. As the film is released, murders start to happen again, someone new is donning the mask of ‘Ghost Face’. Dewey leaves Woodsboro to protect Sidney, and of course, Gale Weathers is there yet again, to uncover the mystery.
The first scene involves a couple going to see the new “Stab” movie on its opening night. We see Heather Graham playing ‘Casey’ in what is a Hollywood make-over of opening scene from the first film. Our first death takes place, it may not be as terrifying as the opening in the first, but it’s scary in its own way and is already a promising opening. Not long after the opening events, Randy is in a Film Studies class, discussing Sequels, asking his classmates to name a movie that surpasses the original, already ‘Scream 2’ knows it’s a sequel, it is aware of the track record of sequels that have plunged compared to the first film and plays along with that. Like the first film, Randy knows the rules and lays out the rules for a Sequel, Bigger body count, more elaborate death scenes etc. And the film does not ignore these points, it goes ahead and notes them down and proceeds to follow the rules.
Like the first, ‘Scream 2’ knows how to keep you on edge, it’s clear that it is not the same ‘Ghost Face’ from the first film, who exactly is it then? Well, prepare yourself for just under two hours of teasing, as soon as you think you’ve got it, Craven proves you wrong. There’s a lot more to laugh at, and a lot more to scream at (pun intended), noticeably a scene where the only way out of a crashed car is OVER an unconscious ‘Ghost Face’, you can count me out. Like the rules state, the sequel is always bigger, and ‘Scream 2’ is bigger, but bigger isn’t always better. Once you’ve seen the original, the sequel isn’t as... well... original, but as stated in the film, sequels never are as good, and as a sequel that mocks sequels, you can’t help but let it slide and just enjoy the ride.
We are surprised by yet another unexpected twist again at the end, obviously I won’t be mean and spoil it for those who haven’t seen it, but a lot of the fun had in the ‘Scream’ franchise is trying to uncover the mystery, it’s not a good mystery if it’s easy to solve, which is not the case with ‘Scream 2’. It’s fair to say, as far as horror sequels go, ‘Scream 2’ is great, we may be used to the self-parody, but there is still a lot of fun to be had, cue being scared of answering the phone yet again. Remember, horror films rarely stop at number two, and there are small mentions of trilogies throughout the film, obviously this isn’t the last we’ll be seeing of ‘Ghost Face’.
4/5
Scream 3 (2000)
Three years after the release of ‘Scream 2’ Wes Craven released the supposed finale to the series, ‘Scream 3’, funnily enough, “Stab 3” is also in production, so can you guess what ‘Scream 3’ decided to pick to pieces? That’s right, trilogies. Sidney, Gale and Dewey hear of murders on the set of the new “Stab” movie, inspired by their life. This time ‘Ghost Face’ is changing the script and writing his own third film, the old gang we’ve grown to know and love soon realise they’re dealing with a trilogy and in the final film, there are no rules and all bets are off.
I think it’s pretty obvious by now how the film will start... if you guessed “A girl/couple getting murdered” then you guessed right! Five minutes in and we’ve had our first bloody death, with someone new wearing the mask of ‘Ghost Face’...Again. Sidney and Gale start to suspect links between the events taking place and Sidney’s mother, remember trilogies always link back to the events of the first film. ‘Scream 3’ is definitely the least scariest, it decides to rely a lot more on the humour, it works though, it has some great ideas, one of which includes the actors of and the real Sidney, Dewey and Gale following ‘Ghost Face’s’ script, trying to figure out what comes next.
You can’t help but think that, after the sequels discussion in ‘Scream 2’, Wes Craven knew that it always goes downhill after the first sequel. You could always say “Scream 3 knows it’s a second sequel in a trilogy, so it plays with that” but you can’t always say that, especially seeing as this third outing doesn’t follow all the rules of a third film. There is more investigating in this third outing, as Gale starts looking in to the history of Sidney’s mother, as well as who is behind the killings, mystery starts to linger in the air, more and more every minute, as questions that are answered result in more questions. The magic of a horror film set on a horror movie set is that you never know what’s real and what’s not, with a few sets that’ll be extremely familiar to us viewers, along with Sidney and the others.
The twist in ‘Scream 3’, for me personally, is one of the best, which I did not see coming, Craven always knows how to surprise you with the reveal. When it was released, there was much hope that this was the last, and it seemed it. The gag was starting to grow old, and it was time to lay ‘Ghost Face’ to sleep and let Sidney live without fear. ‘Scream 3’ is guaranteed to be a disappointment to a lot of people, many saying it was unnecessary, however if you’re going to poke fun at horror movies and their sequels, you might as well cover all grounds. The investigative theme is a major highlight for me and even if it isn’t as scary, the laughs are still good, the paranoia is still there (Mainly in the final act, as everyone is being picked off in the house of the “Stab 3” director, with plenty of props), there is no denying that ‘Scream 3’ is bloody fun (emphasis on bloody) and as a lover of the franchise, I can’t help but love it. Now the trilogy is done, what can they poke fun at now? Reboots anyone?
4/5
Scream 4 (2011)
Just over ten years after the third movie, Wes Craven reunited the old crew. With a lot of films released lately being remakes, Craven leaps at the chance to make fun of them. Sidney Prescott is now the author of a self-help book, returning to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour, it only seems fair that ‘Ghost Face’ should show up. Reuniting with the old gang, they try to stop these killings, find out who his under the mask, however, you can’t help but feel a sense of Déjà vu.
The first thing we hear is a phone call, now we already know we’re back in ‘Scream’ territory. ‘Scream 4’ then decides to make fun of horror franchises, with the opening sequence being the opening to ‘Stab 6’ which is also the opening to ‘Stab 7’, when one of the viewers start to question the logic of it, the other replies with “you’re over-thinking it”, let’s be honest, this is true, never over-think in a horror franchise as there will always be issues with continuity etc. We learn that after ‘Stab 3’ Sidney Prescott threatened to sue, so they started making up stories. One of the blonde, soon-to-be-victim’s says that ‘Stab 5’ contains time travel, which pretty much sums up how carried away they can get with franchises (telekinesis in Friday The 13th Part 7, along with Jason in space in Jason X for example).
We are introduced to the next generation of ‘Scream’ victims; we have our Randy-like movies buffs, Robbie and Charlie, Sidney’s cousins, Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts), Jill’s friends Kirby (Hayden Panettiere) and Olivia, let’s also not forget Jill’s mysterious ex-boyfriend, Trevor. ‘Scream 4’ balances the laughs and suspense perfectly, with some great one-liners, for example; Kirby is talking to Sidney and Dewey about the phone call she got, stating “it was the killer’s voice, from the Stab movies... or, you know... your life”.
Like I mentioned in previous reviews, what is so great about the ‘Scream’ franchise is that they’re not only Horror-parodies, but mysteries, and already Craven has given us possible suspects, is it the Movie Buffs, the jealous aunt, the weird Deputy Judy Hicks or the desperate ex-boyfriend? Half an hour into the film and the film has already got us guessing and thinking. The rules have also changed, in a scene at the schools cinema club, which movie buffs Charlie and Robbie host; they explain that the killer is more likely to film the killings, uploading them into cyber space. The events are described as not a “Shrequel” but more of a “Screamake”, and the rules have changed, the unexpected is the new cliché, the deaths are more extreme and pretty much the only way to survive is you have to be gay.
It is believed that the finale is going to take place at the local “Stabathon”, where all the students gather to party/watch all the ‘Stab’ movies, until they realise it’s what they call a “fake” ending, which a remake does to trick the viewer, this is then followed by a bigger, real ending. Then comes the ACTUAL finale, as Jill, Charlie, Robbie and Trevor all go round Kirby’s for a gathering, unfortunately for them, ‘Ghost Face’ decided to tag along. Without spoiling the story, after blood is spilt, all is revealed, and what an unexpected surprise it is (playing with the rules of remakes, the unexpected being the new cliché).
Usually by a fourth entry in a franchise, it’s safe to say that we are knee deep in utter crap, however, ‘Scream 4’ changes that, and while mocking horror franchises and remakes, it defies the usually-inevitable and gives us a franchise that may not ever surpass the originality and brilliance of the first movie, but gives us a hell of a lot to love in its sequels. After intense mystery, honest humour and some grisly deaths, we are left with a surprising finale that doesn’t disappoint, you can’t help but have a huge fan-boy grin on your face when you hear Sidney deliver the line “You forgot the first rule of remakes, don’t fuck with the original!”. After ten years, there’s a lovely sense of nostalgia and what great fun there is to be had. ‘Scream 4’ redeems Wes Craven after giving us “My Soul to Take” the year before. After this satisfying conclusion, I think we can now lay the franchise to rest; it’s covered slashers, sequels, trilogies and remakes, there’s not much more to be done, but what fun we had while it lasted, all I can say is... Thank you Wes Craven, but please don’t ruin the charm with more sequels.
4/5
I thought it’d be a good idea to leave you with the “Rules of a Horror Movie Franchise”... just in case you ever get in that sort of situation... (We will be having an in depth look at these rules during Slasher Month)
Rules to survive a Horror movie:
· Don’t have sex
· Don’t drink or do drugs
· Never say “I’ll be right back” or “Hello?” or “Who’s there?”
Rules for a Horror Movie Sequel:
· The body count is always bigger
· The deaths scenes are always much more elaborate, with more blood and gore
· Never assume the killer is dead
Rules for a Horror movie Trilogy:
· You’ve got a killer who’s superhuman. Stabbing him won’t work, shooting him won’t work. Basically in the third one, you’ve got to cryogenically freeze his head, decapitate him or blow him up
· Anyone, including the main character, can die
· The past will come back to bite you in the ass. Whatever you think you know about the past, forget it. The past is not at rest. Any sins you think you committed in the past are about to break out and destroy you
Rules for a Horror Remake:
· The death scenes have to be way more extreme
· Unexpected is the new cliché
· Virgins can die now
· The killer should be filming the murders
· If you want to survive a modern day horror movie, you pretty much have to be gay
· Don’t fuck with the original
William Gordon
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
We were treated this week with the first trailer for “Texas Chainsaw 3D” a sequel to the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre, so in ‘Celebration’ or in ‘tribute’ of this new film I thought it best that I re-watch the original and write a review.
Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” follows five friends visiting their Grandpa’s old house in a deserted area of Texas, soon to fall victim to a Chainsaw wielding maniac and his cannibalistic, grave-robbing family. Slasher films from the 70’s ‘til present day are well known for their extravagant use of violence and gore, usually topped with a handful of below average acting. Unlike other films in this genre, ‘Chain Saw’ isn’t about being as over the top as it can, or fitting in as many gory, and inventive deaths as they can (like it’s surprisingly ok remake, the so-so prequel to that, and the sequels to this film, mainly the strangely laughable sequel, which didn’t take itself seriously at all), no, ‘Chain Saw’ isn’t about grossing you out, and having a fun night in with your friends, it’s about pushing you, as a viewer, to the limits, similar to the theatre practitioner ‘Artaud’, with certain imagery and noises, it’s idea is to make you feel uncomfortable.
‘Chain Saw’ plays the whole “Based on a true story” card, Tobe Hooper wants you to think this actually happened, seeing as we hear stories in the news all the time, and many have heard of Ed Gein (who actually inspired this film, along with Psycho and Silence of The Lambs), it’s quite easy to believe that it could be true, and there’s nothing scarier than something that is real. The first image we see is the flash of a rotting corpse, with the sound of a camera flashing and someone digging. We then get a long shot of two decomposing corpses stuck together on a monument in a grave yard, made to look like a work of art, the camera slowly pans out, with a news report in the background about a grave robbery and this “work of art”, and then it cuts to the titled card. Seconds in and they’ve managed to make you feel uncomfortable and grossed out, by showing us a lingering shot of a realistic, rotting corpse, you don’t particularly want to look at it, but it’s the only thing they have given you to focus on.
On the way to their Grandpa’s house, the five friends pick up a hitchhiker; he is dirty, has blood on him and is clearly not mentally stable. After self harming himself and attacking Franklin, the wheelchair bound friend, he is kicked out of the minivan. The Hitchhiker sets us up for later characters, already giving us a taste of what we’re in for, and that the area is not to be trusted. The acting with most characters, insane and sane, is surprisingly good, unfortunately it’s Franklin that really lets it all down, with his performance quite laughable. Once they reach the Grandpa’s old derelict house, they decide to go off and do their own things, which is never a good idea. Kirk and Pam, two of the friends, decide to go off and find a lake, instead, they come across a house and decide to ask the owners for any spare fuel. The house is enough to make you feel uncomfortable, it’s extremely dirty, with animal bones and skulls, caged chickens, feathers all over the floor and human skulls with bones made to look like some form of art or trophies, it is clearly the house of a madman. At this point we have our first attack by the infamous Leather Face, there are no sound effects to make the audience jump, just the sound of a mallet hitting a skull, it makes the scene more brutal and almost real. Leather Face never speaks, instead he makes child-like noises, emphasising his insanity. Soon after we have one of the unlucky friends strapped to a table, while the other watches, hanging from a meat hook. There is a lack of actual on-screen gore, which isn’t a bad thing, while leather face cuts up the friend on the table the camera focuses more on the reaction of the other friend and the feet of the victim moving, other than that, we see nothing, it leaves a lot of the violence to your imagination, making it even more disturbing, your imagination is fare worse then any film. Again it plays on what you hear rather than see when Jerry goes looking for their friends, while outside the house; all he can hear is what sounds like chains and a female struggling. After another brutal yet bloodless attack, we witness Leather Face running about the kitchen, almost animal like, making childish and ape-like noises, there is something extremely terrifying about someone who has completely lost the plot, and this is obvious with Leather Face.
The last half hour of the film is sure to give you a headache, but the constant sound of a revving chainsaw and a female’s scream is nothing short of unsettling and will stick with you long after the film has finished. The film doesn’t play the jump factor, it wants you to feel unsettled with the use of these loud noises, putting you in Sally’s shoes, pushing you to the limits, instead of making you jump, it wishes to disturb you. We then see into the lives of this mentally unstable family, the father holding in his urges to beat Sally with a stick while laughing, grinning and moving his eyes manically, we also see Leather Face wearing the face of an old lady, making noises that sound like that of an old woman, but never making any sense, hinting a multiple personality disorder. Sally wakes up at a dinner table with this psychotic family, as she screams the family laugh and howl, we see them as wild animals and savages, not humans. After a gripping escape, we see Sally covered in blood, laughing and screaming manically, we are hoping it’s because of her lucky escape, but you can’t help but feel that the mad family has managed to make her mask of sanity crack. The shot is followed by a final image of Leather Face swinging is chainsaw about; his mannerisms are as manic as Sally’s.
Overall, ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ won’t make you jump, it won’t make you look away due to bloody violence, but it does manage to be brutal without the use of graphic violence, it is evidence that you don’t need gore to make a good slasher film or just a horror film overall. ‘Chain Saw’ will stick with you for a long time afterwards; it’s a disturbing experience that really does want to push you to your limits as a viewer. It never needed a sequel, but we can only hope that “Texas Chainsaw 3D” is as good as the remake, but it will never overcome the original, as throughout the decades, it seems people have forgotten that you don’t need limbs flying to make a great ‘Chain Saw’ movie.
4/5
William Gordon
Tobe Hooper’s “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” follows five friends visiting their Grandpa’s old house in a deserted area of Texas, soon to fall victim to a Chainsaw wielding maniac and his cannibalistic, grave-robbing family. Slasher films from the 70’s ‘til present day are well known for their extravagant use of violence and gore, usually topped with a handful of below average acting. Unlike other films in this genre, ‘Chain Saw’ isn’t about being as over the top as it can, or fitting in as many gory, and inventive deaths as they can (like it’s surprisingly ok remake, the so-so prequel to that, and the sequels to this film, mainly the strangely laughable sequel, which didn’t take itself seriously at all), no, ‘Chain Saw’ isn’t about grossing you out, and having a fun night in with your friends, it’s about pushing you, as a viewer, to the limits, similar to the theatre practitioner ‘Artaud’, with certain imagery and noises, it’s idea is to make you feel uncomfortable.
‘Chain Saw’ plays the whole “Based on a true story” card, Tobe Hooper wants you to think this actually happened, seeing as we hear stories in the news all the time, and many have heard of Ed Gein (who actually inspired this film, along with Psycho and Silence of The Lambs), it’s quite easy to believe that it could be true, and there’s nothing scarier than something that is real. The first image we see is the flash of a rotting corpse, with the sound of a camera flashing and someone digging. We then get a long shot of two decomposing corpses stuck together on a monument in a grave yard, made to look like a work of art, the camera slowly pans out, with a news report in the background about a grave robbery and this “work of art”, and then it cuts to the titled card. Seconds in and they’ve managed to make you feel uncomfortable and grossed out, by showing us a lingering shot of a realistic, rotting corpse, you don’t particularly want to look at it, but it’s the only thing they have given you to focus on.
On the way to their Grandpa’s house, the five friends pick up a hitchhiker; he is dirty, has blood on him and is clearly not mentally stable. After self harming himself and attacking Franklin, the wheelchair bound friend, he is kicked out of the minivan. The Hitchhiker sets us up for later characters, already giving us a taste of what we’re in for, and that the area is not to be trusted. The acting with most characters, insane and sane, is surprisingly good, unfortunately it’s Franklin that really lets it all down, with his performance quite laughable. Once they reach the Grandpa’s old derelict house, they decide to go off and do their own things, which is never a good idea. Kirk and Pam, two of the friends, decide to go off and find a lake, instead, they come across a house and decide to ask the owners for any spare fuel. The house is enough to make you feel uncomfortable, it’s extremely dirty, with animal bones and skulls, caged chickens, feathers all over the floor and human skulls with bones made to look like some form of art or trophies, it is clearly the house of a madman. At this point we have our first attack by the infamous Leather Face, there are no sound effects to make the audience jump, just the sound of a mallet hitting a skull, it makes the scene more brutal and almost real. Leather Face never speaks, instead he makes child-like noises, emphasising his insanity. Soon after we have one of the unlucky friends strapped to a table, while the other watches, hanging from a meat hook. There is a lack of actual on-screen gore, which isn’t a bad thing, while leather face cuts up the friend on the table the camera focuses more on the reaction of the other friend and the feet of the victim moving, other than that, we see nothing, it leaves a lot of the violence to your imagination, making it even more disturbing, your imagination is fare worse then any film. Again it plays on what you hear rather than see when Jerry goes looking for their friends, while outside the house; all he can hear is what sounds like chains and a female struggling. After another brutal yet bloodless attack, we witness Leather Face running about the kitchen, almost animal like, making childish and ape-like noises, there is something extremely terrifying about someone who has completely lost the plot, and this is obvious with Leather Face.
The last half hour of the film is sure to give you a headache, but the constant sound of a revving chainsaw and a female’s scream is nothing short of unsettling and will stick with you long after the film has finished. The film doesn’t play the jump factor, it wants you to feel unsettled with the use of these loud noises, putting you in Sally’s shoes, pushing you to the limits, instead of making you jump, it wishes to disturb you. We then see into the lives of this mentally unstable family, the father holding in his urges to beat Sally with a stick while laughing, grinning and moving his eyes manically, we also see Leather Face wearing the face of an old lady, making noises that sound like that of an old woman, but never making any sense, hinting a multiple personality disorder. Sally wakes up at a dinner table with this psychotic family, as she screams the family laugh and howl, we see them as wild animals and savages, not humans. After a gripping escape, we see Sally covered in blood, laughing and screaming manically, we are hoping it’s because of her lucky escape, but you can’t help but feel that the mad family has managed to make her mask of sanity crack. The shot is followed by a final image of Leather Face swinging is chainsaw about; his mannerisms are as manic as Sally’s.
Overall, ‘The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’ won’t make you jump, it won’t make you look away due to bloody violence, but it does manage to be brutal without the use of graphic violence, it is evidence that you don’t need gore to make a good slasher film or just a horror film overall. ‘Chain Saw’ will stick with you for a long time afterwards; it’s a disturbing experience that really does want to push you to your limits as a viewer. It never needed a sequel, but we can only hope that “Texas Chainsaw 3D” is as good as the remake, but it will never overcome the original, as throughout the decades, it seems people have forgotten that you don’t need limbs flying to make a great ‘Chain Saw’ movie.
4/5
William Gordon
Wrong Turn 1-4
“After Jaws was made, you didn’t want to go back in the ocean, Wrong Turn will make you not want to go camping again” says Producer Stan Winston. When Wrong Turn was released in 2003 it was nothing new. Horror fans had come to expect a group of good-looking teenagers to get lost in a wood somewhere and ultimately get attacked by someone or something, in a horror film at least once a year. Many people were surprised with just how good Wrong Turn was though.
Directed by Rob Schmidt who was working from a screenplay written by Alan B. McElroy (Halloween 4) Wrong Turn focuses on Chris (Desmond Harrington) who is travelling to an important meeting when he gets stuck in traffic, having little choice Chris decides to take a short cut up a dirt road, this proves to be unwise as he crashes into another car which has been stuck on the road. In this car, among others, is Jessie (Eliza Dushku). The young adults look for a phone, they find a house (a cabin in the wood), there they soon realise that the inhabitants of the mysterious house are blood thirsty cannibals that are dead set on killing and probably eating the young group.
Predictably the group split up, Chris, Jessie and two more go looking for the phone while two others stay at the car to have sex. Yes these die first, you have sex in a horror film you’re going to die, there only reason in this film is to die, but that’s ok, they were horrible to Chris after he crashed his car into theirs, so we don’t mind that they die straight away and there killing let’s the audience know just how crazy this mysterious family of cannibals are.
Wrong Turn cleverly combines two-horror sub genres: The cabin in the woods and the slasher film. Wrong Turn is Evil Dead meets Halloween. The norms we have come to expect from the slasher film are: a group of young people targeted by a murderer, they are killed off one by one, we slowly learn the disturbing origins of the murderer, the virgin girl is the only one left and finally the murderer is never actually dead. Apply these rules to a cabin in the middle of the woods and you have a mixture of the two. You have Wrong Turn. So working in a mixture of horror sub genres, director Schmidt makes an excellent film. One of the hardest things to do when writing a horror film is to come up with a good villain, especially one that audiences would want to see again and again, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger are all well know, but more importantly well remembered, horror villains. Three Finger's, the films main antagonist, is an excellent creation and one that has stood the test of time. One of the most disturbing aspects of the cannibalistic family, is the fact that they clearly take pleasure from their crimes, laughing as they slaughter their victims.
The excellent direction and cinematography (John S. Bartley – Lost) make Wrong Turn a pleasure to watch and make it stand out over most other horror films released in 2003 such as Freddy Vs Jason, Dreamcatcher and Jeepers Creepers 2 but with one good horror film, darkness always follows, a sequel was quickly put into production and released in 2007. Wrong Turn 2: Dead End is reviewed below, a franchise quickly followed with Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead and Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings both released in the five year’s since the second film.
The strongest of the pack, Wrong Turn dares to be different in an American horror market dominated by remakes, prequels and sequels.
Wrong Turn - 4/5
James Voller
Directed by Rob Schmidt who was working from a screenplay written by Alan B. McElroy (Halloween 4) Wrong Turn focuses on Chris (Desmond Harrington) who is travelling to an important meeting when he gets stuck in traffic, having little choice Chris decides to take a short cut up a dirt road, this proves to be unwise as he crashes into another car which has been stuck on the road. In this car, among others, is Jessie (Eliza Dushku). The young adults look for a phone, they find a house (a cabin in the wood), there they soon realise that the inhabitants of the mysterious house are blood thirsty cannibals that are dead set on killing and probably eating the young group.
Predictably the group split up, Chris, Jessie and two more go looking for the phone while two others stay at the car to have sex. Yes these die first, you have sex in a horror film you’re going to die, there only reason in this film is to die, but that’s ok, they were horrible to Chris after he crashed his car into theirs, so we don’t mind that they die straight away and there killing let’s the audience know just how crazy this mysterious family of cannibals are.
Wrong Turn cleverly combines two-horror sub genres: The cabin in the woods and the slasher film. Wrong Turn is Evil Dead meets Halloween. The norms we have come to expect from the slasher film are: a group of young people targeted by a murderer, they are killed off one by one, we slowly learn the disturbing origins of the murderer, the virgin girl is the only one left and finally the murderer is never actually dead. Apply these rules to a cabin in the middle of the woods and you have a mixture of the two. You have Wrong Turn. So working in a mixture of horror sub genres, director Schmidt makes an excellent film. One of the hardest things to do when writing a horror film is to come up with a good villain, especially one that audiences would want to see again and again, Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger are all well know, but more importantly well remembered, horror villains. Three Finger's, the films main antagonist, is an excellent creation and one that has stood the test of time. One of the most disturbing aspects of the cannibalistic family, is the fact that they clearly take pleasure from their crimes, laughing as they slaughter their victims.
The excellent direction and cinematography (John S. Bartley – Lost) make Wrong Turn a pleasure to watch and make it stand out over most other horror films released in 2003 such as Freddy Vs Jason, Dreamcatcher and Jeepers Creepers 2 but with one good horror film, darkness always follows, a sequel was quickly put into production and released in 2007. Wrong Turn 2: Dead End is reviewed below, a franchise quickly followed with Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead and Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings both released in the five year’s since the second film.
The strongest of the pack, Wrong Turn dares to be different in an American horror market dominated by remakes, prequels and sequels.
Wrong Turn - 4/5
James Voller
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End
After the surprising success of Wrong Turn and other cannibalistic hits such as the re-imagining of The Hills have Eyes (2006) and The Hills have Eyes Two (2007) a sequel was inevitable and it arrived in 2007.
Tapping into the audience's love of reality TV shows, Wrong Turn 2 follows a new "end of the world" style reality TV show that is filming in the middle of the woods, this is problem number one, it's a terrible idea, all horror films have the same idea, the reason the first film was so good was, primarily, because it was different whereas this follows the crowd. This film is a sheep but Wrong Turn is the wolf. The main characters are all extremely unlikable, this means when they die, we don't care as we don't like them. This could be the point though, we hate reality TV contestant's so why shouldn't we hate these characters? It still does not work though, a film can not have a main cast that are all unlikable, we hate the characters, we are probably going to hate the film.
Problem number two is the nature of the reality TV show these unlikable characters are participating in. They are sent into the wood's and told to simply survive the apocalypse. Really? that's nothing new. The director even has a Battle Royale T-Shirt on!
Problem number three is the characters themselves, we already hate them so imagine how angry we got when one of them got injured, quite badly, and we learn that another character is studying sport science - another from of medicine. The characters are all too cliche. Most of the time the characters don't seem to know what is going on, so how are we supposed to enjoy watching this?
Problem number four is halfway through the film it turns into Wrong Turn meets Rambo. Dale (Henry Rollins) is the group's survival expert, he gets kidnapped by the cannibals before escaping and turning into Rambo, this didn't work. Once the reality contestants figure that they are no longer trying to win the game but to stay alive, it basically turns into a remake of the first film, just with different characters.
The continuity and editing are also a real problem in Wrong Turn 2. The characters all sustain terrible injuries but in the very next scene they are fine, the scene at the start of the film where one of the contestant's is driving to the wood's, she hits one of the cannibals, when said cannibal flies over the car, the editing is a real mess, he flies over her, next shot he is near the boot and then finally he is flying over her again.
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End takes the franchise in a direction many had hoped it would avoid and as a result makes for an unenjoyable horror film.
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End - 1/5
James Voller
Tapping into the audience's love of reality TV shows, Wrong Turn 2 follows a new "end of the world" style reality TV show that is filming in the middle of the woods, this is problem number one, it's a terrible idea, all horror films have the same idea, the reason the first film was so good was, primarily, because it was different whereas this follows the crowd. This film is a sheep but Wrong Turn is the wolf. The main characters are all extremely unlikable, this means when they die, we don't care as we don't like them. This could be the point though, we hate reality TV contestant's so why shouldn't we hate these characters? It still does not work though, a film can not have a main cast that are all unlikable, we hate the characters, we are probably going to hate the film.
Problem number two is the nature of the reality TV show these unlikable characters are participating in. They are sent into the wood's and told to simply survive the apocalypse. Really? that's nothing new. The director even has a Battle Royale T-Shirt on!
Problem number three is the characters themselves, we already hate them so imagine how angry we got when one of them got injured, quite badly, and we learn that another character is studying sport science - another from of medicine. The characters are all too cliche. Most of the time the characters don't seem to know what is going on, so how are we supposed to enjoy watching this?
Problem number four is halfway through the film it turns into Wrong Turn meets Rambo. Dale (Henry Rollins) is the group's survival expert, he gets kidnapped by the cannibals before escaping and turning into Rambo, this didn't work. Once the reality contestants figure that they are no longer trying to win the game but to stay alive, it basically turns into a remake of the first film, just with different characters.
The continuity and editing are also a real problem in Wrong Turn 2. The characters all sustain terrible injuries but in the very next scene they are fine, the scene at the start of the film where one of the contestant's is driving to the wood's, she hits one of the cannibals, when said cannibal flies over the car, the editing is a real mess, he flies over her, next shot he is near the boot and then finally he is flying over her again.
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End takes the franchise in a direction many had hoped it would avoid and as a result makes for an unenjoyable horror film.
Wrong Turn 2: Dead End - 1/5
James Voller
Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead
Somehow the franchise has made it this far, a third outing for Three Finger's and his cannibalistic family.
We start out with a pretty pointless opening, four college friends camping, they are suddenly attacked and die bar one, who goes on the run and for three days doesn't find a road or the local police station. THREE DAYS! These girls also can not act.
We are then introduced to a bus load of prison inmates who are been transported through the woods to avoid the main roads and a possible escape attempt. To give this film credit, at least its not a bunch of young beautiful people that are the cannibal's target's, its a bus load of harden, dangerous prison inmates including England's very own Tamer Hassan who must of been really stuck for money when he accepted this role as he looks like he really doesn't want to be there throughout the film. So now it is harden criminal's against a blood thirsty cannibalistic family... Ok interesting, does it work though? Short answer - no.
Again, we have the problem of unlikable characters, its hard to relate to these characters which in turn means it's hard to enjoy the film. The script is laughable and the direction is awful. All these elements make a bad film. Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead is a bad film.
The special effect's really went downhill when Stan Winston left the series after film number one. When the bus is driving through the wooded road, we see the driver looking out the front window )(obviously) but it looks like the bus is actually on a giant treadmill in a studio and the road is nothing more then a projection, this happens again at the end of the film when the remaining cannibal jumps onto the truck.
So we have a group of prison escapee's making there way through the woods, when they come across one of the girls from the start, she's still there? Seriously she hasn't found the road yet? or the police station that the bus makes a quick stop at before continuing on the journey? It's not until one hour, five minutes in that the main characters realise that they should probably fight back against the crazy cannibals.
Wrong Turn 3 is lacking any real plot, yes these convicts are trying to escape the police and Three Finger's but where are they going, how do they plan to escape, simply walk around until Three Finger's gets tired? When the girl turns up she seem's to be the world's biggest expert on the cannibals which doesn't really make any sense, what, has she been studying them when she hasn't been looking for the road?
The scare's are not scary and if a horror film is not scary, its pretty much failed. The death scene's are laughable and we spend too much time with the escaped convicts so when the police or the cannibals are shown we have forgotten about them. We are basically watching a very boring game of hide and seek.
Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead - 1/5
James Voller
We start out with a pretty pointless opening, four college friends camping, they are suddenly attacked and die bar one, who goes on the run and for three days doesn't find a road or the local police station. THREE DAYS! These girls also can not act.
We are then introduced to a bus load of prison inmates who are been transported through the woods to avoid the main roads and a possible escape attempt. To give this film credit, at least its not a bunch of young beautiful people that are the cannibal's target's, its a bus load of harden, dangerous prison inmates including England's very own Tamer Hassan who must of been really stuck for money when he accepted this role as he looks like he really doesn't want to be there throughout the film. So now it is harden criminal's against a blood thirsty cannibalistic family... Ok interesting, does it work though? Short answer - no.
Again, we have the problem of unlikable characters, its hard to relate to these characters which in turn means it's hard to enjoy the film. The script is laughable and the direction is awful. All these elements make a bad film. Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead is a bad film.
The special effect's really went downhill when Stan Winston left the series after film number one. When the bus is driving through the wooded road, we see the driver looking out the front window )(obviously) but it looks like the bus is actually on a giant treadmill in a studio and the road is nothing more then a projection, this happens again at the end of the film when the remaining cannibal jumps onto the truck.
So we have a group of prison escapee's making there way through the woods, when they come across one of the girls from the start, she's still there? Seriously she hasn't found the road yet? or the police station that the bus makes a quick stop at before continuing on the journey? It's not until one hour, five minutes in that the main characters realise that they should probably fight back against the crazy cannibals.
Wrong Turn 3 is lacking any real plot, yes these convicts are trying to escape the police and Three Finger's but where are they going, how do they plan to escape, simply walk around until Three Finger's gets tired? When the girl turns up she seem's to be the world's biggest expert on the cannibals which doesn't really make any sense, what, has she been studying them when she hasn't been looking for the road?
The scare's are not scary and if a horror film is not scary, its pretty much failed. The death scene's are laughable and we spend too much time with the escaped convicts so when the police or the cannibals are shown we have forgotten about them. We are basically watching a very boring game of hide and seek.
Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead - 1/5
James Voller
Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings
With the terrible reception received from the third instalment of the Wrong Turn franchise, a prequel was always on the cards, Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginning's is that prequel.
Wrong Turn 4 starts off in a hospital where we learn the horrible origins of Three Finger's and his family. Three Finger's manages to escape the hospital but does he actually leave? Skip to the future and a group of horny college kids are heading out to a cabin in the wood, when they get stuck in a freak blizzard, they end up taking shelter in an abandoned hospital, yeah you guessed it, it's not abandoned. Any horror film set in an abandoned hospital is going to be creepy, the atmospheric nature of the hospital makes Wrong Turn 4 a lot creepier and scarier then the second and third instalment's... combined.
Wrong Turn 4 looks like a bad TV movie, something you would see on Syfy at midnight (We have nothing against Syfy). All credit to the director Declan O' Brien for trying to take the franchise in a new direction after the second film (He has directed 3, 4 and 5, set for release soon) but Wrong Turn worked as a stand alone horror film, a franchise was not needed. At least with this instalment O' Brien took us back to the very beginning instead of recycling the first film again. First film aside, this is by far the most interesting and entertaining as it deals with something that the first film left out, Three Finger's back story. It works well, but it's nothing spectacular. The horror doesn't seem as brutal as the first film but the death scene's are more imaginative then the second and third films.
Wrong Turn 4 is the creepiest of all four films (Wrong Turn been the scariest), the director has taken this very scary family and stripped them of their madness, this is the cannibals as they are slowly going mad and we can see there descent into madness quite well.
Wrong Turn 4 would work extremely well as a stand alone film, if it didn't feature the crazed cannibals. The characters are easy to relate to and, surprisingly, they don't always stick to the horror cliche's, lets run upstairs and not out of the front door for example.
There is no happy endings, the only problem with a prequel is the fact that we know the antagonist will survive, the ending is good, and we see our first look at the 'truck' that has become well known within the series.
If you want to enjoy the Wrong Turn franchise, we recommend you watch 4 first followed by 1, then leave it alone, avoid the second and third film. Wrong Turn 5 had completed filming and is due out soon. It will serve as a sequel to this film and the second prequel to the first film.
Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginning's - 3/5
James Voller
Wrong Turn 4 starts off in a hospital where we learn the horrible origins of Three Finger's and his family. Three Finger's manages to escape the hospital but does he actually leave? Skip to the future and a group of horny college kids are heading out to a cabin in the wood, when they get stuck in a freak blizzard, they end up taking shelter in an abandoned hospital, yeah you guessed it, it's not abandoned. Any horror film set in an abandoned hospital is going to be creepy, the atmospheric nature of the hospital makes Wrong Turn 4 a lot creepier and scarier then the second and third instalment's... combined.
Wrong Turn 4 looks like a bad TV movie, something you would see on Syfy at midnight (We have nothing against Syfy). All credit to the director Declan O' Brien for trying to take the franchise in a new direction after the second film (He has directed 3, 4 and 5, set for release soon) but Wrong Turn worked as a stand alone horror film, a franchise was not needed. At least with this instalment O' Brien took us back to the very beginning instead of recycling the first film again. First film aside, this is by far the most interesting and entertaining as it deals with something that the first film left out, Three Finger's back story. It works well, but it's nothing spectacular. The horror doesn't seem as brutal as the first film but the death scene's are more imaginative then the second and third films.
Wrong Turn 4 is the creepiest of all four films (Wrong Turn been the scariest), the director has taken this very scary family and stripped them of their madness, this is the cannibals as they are slowly going mad and we can see there descent into madness quite well.
Wrong Turn 4 would work extremely well as a stand alone film, if it didn't feature the crazed cannibals. The characters are easy to relate to and, surprisingly, they don't always stick to the horror cliche's, lets run upstairs and not out of the front door for example.
There is no happy endings, the only problem with a prequel is the fact that we know the antagonist will survive, the ending is good, and we see our first look at the 'truck' that has become well known within the series.
If you want to enjoy the Wrong Turn franchise, we recommend you watch 4 first followed by 1, then leave it alone, avoid the second and third film. Wrong Turn 5 had completed filming and is due out soon. It will serve as a sequel to this film and the second prequel to the first film.
Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginning's - 3/5
James Voller
The Last Broadcast
I first saw "The Last Broadcast" on television while channel surfing. This film caught my eye. I was immediately engrossed by the documentary style storyline. I have now seen the film five times. It is one of the most incredible movies I have ever seen. The details and believability are the meat and potatoes. This story, about the murders of the hosts of a cable access show, left me with the creeps for days. It is set up like a documentary including interviews with investigators and experts. The footage shot by the hosts of the show becomes the video of a crime scene.
Things began slowing down for the cable access show called "Fact or Fiction." In a last attempt to stay on the air, the hosts journeyed to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey to shoot a live simulcast while they searched for the fabled Jersey Devil. The hosts had a psychic join their crew in order to lead them through the woods to where the psychic believed the Jersey Devil would be located.
That night, tragedy struck. With two cameras rolling, the crew was slaughtered. Only the psychic walked out of the woods that night. However, the actual tapes that contained the footage of the murders were damaged. Piles of footage built evidence against the psychic, but the police work was shoddy and there was no definite proof. However, the story doesn't end when the jury reaches a verdict. In fact, it intensifies. The damaged tape, thought to contain the face of the killer, begins to be processed and reconstructed.
As much I'd like to spoil the ending, I won't. You must see it yourself. Unfortunately, this masterpiece from 1998 is no longer in production. This means finding it in stores may not be likely. However, a quick internet search should result in many purchasing opportunities.
Many people believe this film influenced "The Blair Witch Project." Whether or not this is true, "The Last Broadcast" is certainly the better of two movies. It is a shame that it received less publicity. It did, however, win Silver Prize for Best Feature Film at the Chicago Underground Film Festival.
The only downside to this movie is that the interviews can become a little boring. On the other hand, the interviews only become boring because they are realistic. They really add to the authentic documentary experience.
I would recommend this to add to any horror fans collection if you can find it.
4.5/5
Chris Noble
I Drink Your Blood
One of the highlights of the Fantastic Films Weekend in Bradford (aside from seeing Peter Cushing on a big screen as the rather dashing Rev Blyss in Captain Clegg) was watching the Grindhouse epic ‘I Drink Your Blood’ on the lovely big screen in Pictureville.
The film was made in America by producer Jerry Gross and director David R Durston in 1970. Each state ordered different cuts to meet with their censorship rules so the distributors sent out uncut versions of the film to each state for exhibitors themselves to make the necessary cuts. The print we saw was re-edited back together from surviving prints by none other than Bob Murawski who not only runs Grindhouse Releasing in the US but also works as Sam (Evil Dead) Raimi’s editor.
The print had reddened somewhat with age, was quite scratched in places and quite hissy soundtrack-wise and at one point it did break leading to much hurried fixing and a resumption to big cheers and not too much missed action but it was joyous to watch with appreciative oohs and groans from the captivated audience throughout, and the trailers for other films beforehand of ‘Twitch of the Death Nerve’ ‘Pieces’ and ‘Fangs of the Living Dead’ were a joy to behold – apparently all of those films were so frightening you had to make sure your life insurance was up to date and that your mental health was robust enough to withstand it or else you ran the risk of dying and leaving your relatives without means to survive or spending the rest of your life in a mental institution….
But back to ‘I Drink Your Blood’ - the story is basically one of revenge, fear of Manson family like hippies, the dangers of getting involved in satanic shenanigans and of course a dire warning about the perils of eating rabies infested meat pies.
Set on the outskirts of a town which is about to be demolished as part of a big mining operation with only a bakers, a vets and a few construction workers left – a motley group of satanic hippies led by a charismatic long haired native American Indian have pledged their allegiance to Satan and to doing lots of horrible things.
Which they go on to do with drugged up relish and abandon – a girlfriend of one of the hippies is attacked when she is discovered secretly watching their ritual, she manages to make her way back to the town where she lives with her brother and grandfather and promptly collapses.
The hippies after visiting the bakery and getting some lovely meat pies take over the old abandoned hotel – after gleefully killing a lot of rats they hold further rituals all the while spouting a ‘do what thou wilt-like’ philosophy that sounded like it was inspired by a mix of Timothy Leary - infamous supporter of the use of LSD and one of the figureheads of the counter culture revolution and Aleister Crowley - an occult practitioner once known as the most wicked man in Britain.
They test the mettle of one of their members by cutting the feet of one of their members, and when the grandfather comes to take them to task for what they did to his granddaughter they mock him, crush his glasses and force-feed him LSD.
His grandson in turn comes looking for him and one of the pregnant hippies (who had a wig which she took off at moments of high tension and reminded me of Shelley Winters) manages to prevent them being killed by her drug crazed chums. Not so much because it’s not a very nice thing to do but more because it would mean they’d get into trouble with the police.
The grandson is incensed to learn from his big sister that not only have they assaulted his beloved grandfather but force-fed him with ‘LS something or other’ and when he kills a rabid dog in the woods he decides the thing to do is go back to its corpse, decant blood from it in a big syringe and then put this rabies infected blood into the meat pies the hippies buy the next day.
Aside from eating rabies infected meat pies all is not well in the hippy camp as tensions rise between them and what they should do next, the granddaughter’s boyfriend makes his escape after not eating a meat pie as they become even more blood crazed and violent.
As the hippies go madder and start frothing at the mouth, one decides to set herself on fire – though we only see her putting petrol around herself and then we don’t see her anymore, and one of the hippy ladies has made her way to the workers construction camp where she (off screen) sleeps with all of them thereby making them rabid too.
The pregnant one stabs herself in the stomach when she realises that she and her unborn baby are infected, and the rest of the hippy group including its’ two ringleaders along with the now rabid construction workers make their way towards the bakery intent on killing anyone they meet on the way – a kindly local who offers to give them some food is rewarded by having her hand chopped off with an electric carving knife and whilst the rabies infected people’s fear of water buys some escape time, it doesn’t buy Grandpa reprieve from being pinned to the barn wall by a pitchfork and in the end the bakery lady, the children and their ex-member are barricaded into the basement of the bakery – they manage to escape though in the process the ex member gets his head chopped off and then whilst the children and bakery lady are being set upon in their car, the non infected construction worker boss and the national guard arrive and shoot the raving rabid killers and so all is well with the world again.
Grindhouse Films have somewhat of a reputation for graphic violence – but in this film it seemed a lot of it was suggested rather than graphically shown though it’s not clear to me how much of that was the design of this particular film and how much of that is because that’s all that survives, or how much was due to budget restrictions effects-wise.
It is however a film which all too clearly shows the appalling outcome of the violence and the fears of mainstream Americans at the time – the fact that it is set in a small about to be abandoned town being taken over by big business, that drugs are bad, that the Manson-like hippies are from a mix of racial backgrounds with non-whites as their chief instigators, just the plain fact that people like the Manson family existed at as at the time America was still reeling from their hideous real life murder sprees.
In some ways too it is far more scary as a horror film as it doesn’t rely upon some supernatural creation to provide the fear as though they call upon Satan to justify their actions – it’s all too clear in the film that Satan doesn’t exist and they are just horrible human beings doing horrible things.
I Drink Your Blood - 3/5
Morticia Maguire-Broad
The film was made in America by producer Jerry Gross and director David R Durston in 1970. Each state ordered different cuts to meet with their censorship rules so the distributors sent out uncut versions of the film to each state for exhibitors themselves to make the necessary cuts. The print we saw was re-edited back together from surviving prints by none other than Bob Murawski who not only runs Grindhouse Releasing in the US but also works as Sam (Evil Dead) Raimi’s editor.
The print had reddened somewhat with age, was quite scratched in places and quite hissy soundtrack-wise and at one point it did break leading to much hurried fixing and a resumption to big cheers and not too much missed action but it was joyous to watch with appreciative oohs and groans from the captivated audience throughout, and the trailers for other films beforehand of ‘Twitch of the Death Nerve’ ‘Pieces’ and ‘Fangs of the Living Dead’ were a joy to behold – apparently all of those films were so frightening you had to make sure your life insurance was up to date and that your mental health was robust enough to withstand it or else you ran the risk of dying and leaving your relatives without means to survive or spending the rest of your life in a mental institution….
But back to ‘I Drink Your Blood’ - the story is basically one of revenge, fear of Manson family like hippies, the dangers of getting involved in satanic shenanigans and of course a dire warning about the perils of eating rabies infested meat pies.
Set on the outskirts of a town which is about to be demolished as part of a big mining operation with only a bakers, a vets and a few construction workers left – a motley group of satanic hippies led by a charismatic long haired native American Indian have pledged their allegiance to Satan and to doing lots of horrible things.
Which they go on to do with drugged up relish and abandon – a girlfriend of one of the hippies is attacked when she is discovered secretly watching their ritual, she manages to make her way back to the town where she lives with her brother and grandfather and promptly collapses.
The hippies after visiting the bakery and getting some lovely meat pies take over the old abandoned hotel – after gleefully killing a lot of rats they hold further rituals all the while spouting a ‘do what thou wilt-like’ philosophy that sounded like it was inspired by a mix of Timothy Leary - infamous supporter of the use of LSD and one of the figureheads of the counter culture revolution and Aleister Crowley - an occult practitioner once known as the most wicked man in Britain.
They test the mettle of one of their members by cutting the feet of one of their members, and when the grandfather comes to take them to task for what they did to his granddaughter they mock him, crush his glasses and force-feed him LSD.
His grandson in turn comes looking for him and one of the pregnant hippies (who had a wig which she took off at moments of high tension and reminded me of Shelley Winters) manages to prevent them being killed by her drug crazed chums. Not so much because it’s not a very nice thing to do but more because it would mean they’d get into trouble with the police.
The grandson is incensed to learn from his big sister that not only have they assaulted his beloved grandfather but force-fed him with ‘LS something or other’ and when he kills a rabid dog in the woods he decides the thing to do is go back to its corpse, decant blood from it in a big syringe and then put this rabies infected blood into the meat pies the hippies buy the next day.
Aside from eating rabies infected meat pies all is not well in the hippy camp as tensions rise between them and what they should do next, the granddaughter’s boyfriend makes his escape after not eating a meat pie as they become even more blood crazed and violent.
As the hippies go madder and start frothing at the mouth, one decides to set herself on fire – though we only see her putting petrol around herself and then we don’t see her anymore, and one of the hippy ladies has made her way to the workers construction camp where she (off screen) sleeps with all of them thereby making them rabid too.
The pregnant one stabs herself in the stomach when she realises that she and her unborn baby are infected, and the rest of the hippy group including its’ two ringleaders along with the now rabid construction workers make their way towards the bakery intent on killing anyone they meet on the way – a kindly local who offers to give them some food is rewarded by having her hand chopped off with an electric carving knife and whilst the rabies infected people’s fear of water buys some escape time, it doesn’t buy Grandpa reprieve from being pinned to the barn wall by a pitchfork and in the end the bakery lady, the children and their ex-member are barricaded into the basement of the bakery – they manage to escape though in the process the ex member gets his head chopped off and then whilst the children and bakery lady are being set upon in their car, the non infected construction worker boss and the national guard arrive and shoot the raving rabid killers and so all is well with the world again.
Grindhouse Films have somewhat of a reputation for graphic violence – but in this film it seemed a lot of it was suggested rather than graphically shown though it’s not clear to me how much of that was the design of this particular film and how much of that is because that’s all that survives, or how much was due to budget restrictions effects-wise.
It is however a film which all too clearly shows the appalling outcome of the violence and the fears of mainstream Americans at the time – the fact that it is set in a small about to be abandoned town being taken over by big business, that drugs are bad, that the Manson-like hippies are from a mix of racial backgrounds with non-whites as their chief instigators, just the plain fact that people like the Manson family existed at as at the time America was still reeling from their hideous real life murder sprees.
In some ways too it is far more scary as a horror film as it doesn’t rely upon some supernatural creation to provide the fear as though they call upon Satan to justify their actions – it’s all too clear in the film that Satan doesn’t exist and they are just horrible human beings doing horrible things.
I Drink Your Blood - 3/5
Morticia Maguire-Broad
Insidious
Its not the house thats haunted...
It was only a matter of time before the creative teams behind Saw and Paranormal Activity joined forces to bring you the ultimate terror. Did it work? Well... kind of.
James Wan (Saw) directs from the script wrote by long time friend and Saw collaborator Leigh Whannell with Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity) in the producer's chair.
As the opening credits play we are treated to a number of black and white shots of various rooms in a house (It reminded me of the ending of Carpenter's Halloween) and in every shot we can see something in the shadows or a figure. The credits nicely contrast the images as they appear in blood red.
The story of Insidious is a simple ghost story. A family move into a house and start to experience strange things such as the generic books falling off a shelf and doors opening by themselves.
One night one of the children, Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls off a ladder in the attic and then fails to get up for school the next morning. Concerned parents Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) take their son to hospital only to find out that Dalton is technically in a coma but there is no sign of brain damage, something the doctor's can't understand. Three month's later and Dalton is still in a coma but he has been moved back to his own room at home.
The first real spooky moment comes when Renai is sat downstairs playing the piano and she can hear a voice coming through her baby monitor, she runs upstairs to check on the baby and nobody is there. Josh offers a rational explanation when he tells his wife that it will have been a cross wire and they were picking somebody's else radio waves up. The couples third child, Foster (Andrew Astor) provides the second real chill moment when he ask's his mum if he can change rooms as he doesn't like it when Dalton gets up and walks around at night.
In the middle of the night a bang is heard on the family's front door. Josh goes down to investigate and this is where we first see the real writing talent of Whannell, as Josh goes down he switches on all the lights he can, normal horror films will have the young dumb blonde gradually making her way downstairs in the dark, not here. When Josh is downstairs, Renai hears the baby crying so she goes to comfort it, as she enters the room though she see's a man stood behind the cot, she scream's. Josh, who has just shut the front door and put the alarm on, runs upstairs. Predictably there is nobody there when Josh arrives but the alarm goes off and the front door is now wide open. Another chill factor see's Renai finding a bloody handprint on Dalton's bedsheets.
Renai tells Josh she think's the house is haunted and after she see's the man from the baby's room in her own room, she persuades Josh that they need to move house. Whannell proves he is not playing by the rules now, the family move house. They leave their haunted house behind and move away.
All is not what it seem's in the new house though as the family, mainly Renai, continue to experience strange things. After a serious incident involving Dalton, they decide to seek help. Enter Elise, (Lin Shaye) Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson) who quickly determine the problem. Dalton is not in a coma, his psychical body is fine but his spiritual body has simply wondered off into the "Further", where spiritual bodies are stuck and looking for physical bodies to inhabit. They perform a seance where Elise communicates with Dalton. Josh's mum appears and explains that Josh had the same problem when he was a child and he was followed, spirituality, by a strange old woman who wanted his body. Josh has the power to go into the further and look for his son, so he does. After wondering around in the dark for a bit Josh finds Dalton and makes his way back to where he is sleeping so he can inhabit his physical body again. Dalton runs straight to his body whereas Josh spots the old woman who followed him as a child and confronts her. Eventually Josh wakes up and everything seems fine again. Equilibrium has been achieved, or has it? When Elise takes a photograph of Josh, he kills her and Renai looks at the camera to see that it is not Josh in Josh's body, but the old woman.
The film, which looked like home-video quality, does an excellent job at telling us these are normal people living a normal life. There is nothing special about these people, it makes us relate to them easier. Shaky camera work makes us feel like we are in the house with the family, again making it easier to connect to the problems they are having.
The final third act is stunning to look at and is unlike anything before, its also very creepy. James Wan dares to make a film that is different and not your typical haunted house film. Excellently directed from a fantastic script.
Insidious will not be to everybody's taste but if you love it or hate it, you have to admit, its a game changer in the horror genre.
Insidious - 4/5
James Voller
Did you know? - Writer Leigh Whannell stated at the Toronto Film Festival that when he wrote the film he had a list of horror movie cliches posted above him, so he could avoid using them.
It was only a matter of time before the creative teams behind Saw and Paranormal Activity joined forces to bring you the ultimate terror. Did it work? Well... kind of.
James Wan (Saw) directs from the script wrote by long time friend and Saw collaborator Leigh Whannell with Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity) in the producer's chair.
As the opening credits play we are treated to a number of black and white shots of various rooms in a house (It reminded me of the ending of Carpenter's Halloween) and in every shot we can see something in the shadows or a figure. The credits nicely contrast the images as they appear in blood red.
The story of Insidious is a simple ghost story. A family move into a house and start to experience strange things such as the generic books falling off a shelf and doors opening by themselves.
One night one of the children, Dalton (Ty Simpkins) falls off a ladder in the attic and then fails to get up for school the next morning. Concerned parents Josh (Patrick Wilson) and Renai (Rose Byrne) take their son to hospital only to find out that Dalton is technically in a coma but there is no sign of brain damage, something the doctor's can't understand. Three month's later and Dalton is still in a coma but he has been moved back to his own room at home.
The first real spooky moment comes when Renai is sat downstairs playing the piano and she can hear a voice coming through her baby monitor, she runs upstairs to check on the baby and nobody is there. Josh offers a rational explanation when he tells his wife that it will have been a cross wire and they were picking somebody's else radio waves up. The couples third child, Foster (Andrew Astor) provides the second real chill moment when he ask's his mum if he can change rooms as he doesn't like it when Dalton gets up and walks around at night.
In the middle of the night a bang is heard on the family's front door. Josh goes down to investigate and this is where we first see the real writing talent of Whannell, as Josh goes down he switches on all the lights he can, normal horror films will have the young dumb blonde gradually making her way downstairs in the dark, not here. When Josh is downstairs, Renai hears the baby crying so she goes to comfort it, as she enters the room though she see's a man stood behind the cot, she scream's. Josh, who has just shut the front door and put the alarm on, runs upstairs. Predictably there is nobody there when Josh arrives but the alarm goes off and the front door is now wide open. Another chill factor see's Renai finding a bloody handprint on Dalton's bedsheets.
Renai tells Josh she think's the house is haunted and after she see's the man from the baby's room in her own room, she persuades Josh that they need to move house. Whannell proves he is not playing by the rules now, the family move house. They leave their haunted house behind and move away.
All is not what it seem's in the new house though as the family, mainly Renai, continue to experience strange things. After a serious incident involving Dalton, they decide to seek help. Enter Elise, (Lin Shaye) Specs (Leigh Whannell) and Tucker (Angus Sampson) who quickly determine the problem. Dalton is not in a coma, his psychical body is fine but his spiritual body has simply wondered off into the "Further", where spiritual bodies are stuck and looking for physical bodies to inhabit. They perform a seance where Elise communicates with Dalton. Josh's mum appears and explains that Josh had the same problem when he was a child and he was followed, spirituality, by a strange old woman who wanted his body. Josh has the power to go into the further and look for his son, so he does. After wondering around in the dark for a bit Josh finds Dalton and makes his way back to where he is sleeping so he can inhabit his physical body again. Dalton runs straight to his body whereas Josh spots the old woman who followed him as a child and confronts her. Eventually Josh wakes up and everything seems fine again. Equilibrium has been achieved, or has it? When Elise takes a photograph of Josh, he kills her and Renai looks at the camera to see that it is not Josh in Josh's body, but the old woman.
The film, which looked like home-video quality, does an excellent job at telling us these are normal people living a normal life. There is nothing special about these people, it makes us relate to them easier. Shaky camera work makes us feel like we are in the house with the family, again making it easier to connect to the problems they are having.
The final third act is stunning to look at and is unlike anything before, its also very creepy. James Wan dares to make a film that is different and not your typical haunted house film. Excellently directed from a fantastic script.
Insidious will not be to everybody's taste but if you love it or hate it, you have to admit, its a game changer in the horror genre.
Insidious - 4/5
James Voller
Did you know? - Writer Leigh Whannell stated at the Toronto Film Festival that when he wrote the film he had a list of horror movie cliches posted above him, so he could avoid using them.
The House of the Devil
"During the 1980's over 70% of American adults believed in the existence of abusive satanic cults... Another 30% rationalized the lack of evidence due to government cover ups... The following is based on true unexplained events"
We open on a shot of the back of a girls head. Unusual. This girl is with the owner of the house we are in and it this woman who gives us our first piece of important information. This woman tells Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) that she likes her. As the audience we latch onto this and we know Samantha will probably be the main character and we grow to like her. Within two minutes of this film starting we are introduced to the main character and we have seen how likeable she is.
The opening titles are typical 80's, very "loud" and bright. The music also helps set the scene and the time, this is the 80's. The House of the Devil was filmed in 2009 and really established director Ti West (The Innkeepers) as a horror master. The look of this film makes it look like it's not only set in the 80's but filmed in the 80's. West and director of photography Eliot Rockett (The Innkeepers) did an amazing job shooting this film.
We know Samantha is looking for a house so she can move out of her university accommodation, as she walks across campus she notices a sign reading "Babysitter needed" Samantha ultimately gets the job and is offered 100 dollars to work tonight. Needing the money she agrees. "I promise to make this as painless as possible for you" the mysterious man needing a babysitter says on the phone, a hint at things to come and he is not talking about the babysitting.
Samantha and her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) make their way to the house, as they do we are shown a shot of a full moon, possibly to fill some time or to tell us it's night or to tell us that there may be some satanic cults in "operation" tonight as these cults are known to operate on full moons. As the pair drive we hear through the radio that tonight a lunar eclipse will take place, Is that why we were shown the moon? Possibly.
The girls arrive at the house and are greeted by Mr Ulman (Tom Noonan) who invites them both in. A wonderful piece of acting from Noonan tells us that something is wrong, something isn't quite right here. Mr Ulman then ask's Samantha if he can talk to her in a separate room to where she is currently sat with Megan. West adds a lovely little piece of comedy here as Megan tries some food that is out on the table only to find out she doesn't like it so she spits it back out. This shows West has the talent and is daring to add comedy, although it is subtle, into his horror films. Meanwhile in the other room Mr Ulman tells Samantha that there is in-fact no baby and the job is in-fact to look after his wives elderly mother. Samantha is at first hesitant of taking the job now but when Mr Ulman offers Samantha more money she eventually agrees as she will now be paid 400 dollars for 4 hours work. 400 dollars will be perfect for that house she was looking at, at the start of the film. Megan leaves and agrees to pick her friend up at half twelve. Mr and Mrs Ulman then leave leaving Samantha alone in the house with the elderly woman who Mr Ulman has said "You probably won't even see her".
On Megan's way home she stops to light her cigarette, typically her lighter does not work and we are treated to the first 'jumpy' moment when a mysterious man appears and light's Megan's cigarette for her. After a brief discussion the man ask's Megan if she is the babysitter, she replies with "no, but my friend" before she can finish her sentence she is shot in the head. Who is this guy?
After a brief look around the house, Samantha switches the TV on and watches the news. The anchorman is talking about Lunar eclipse and says that it is "Well under-way" This mirror's Samantha's predicament, she is alone in the house, the lunar eclipse has begun, as has the ritual which will ultimately involve Samantha.
Samantha is now isolated in the house, not in the common horror sense of isolation, but she cant leave, she is trapped even if she does not know it. When she puts her headphones in she becomes even more isolated as she has basically lost her hearing in the house.
Samantha goes for another look around in the house and starts to suspect something isn't right when she finds a photo of a young couple with a small child stood outside the house and in-front of their red Volvo. The same car that the Ulman's drove away in. Mrs Ullman mentioned that they were new to the area. Coincidence?
Samantha then hears banging above her and goes to investigate, but she goes in caution, carrying a large kitchen knife with her. We see a possible homage to Nosferatu as Samantha goes up the stairs but we see the silhouette before we see the person. Samantha passes a door but she does not go in, we, as the audience, do get to see as the camera moves over the door to reveal a pentacle on the floor and a dead family (Possibly the family from the photo).
Samantha then goes into the attic and tries to put a light on but the fuse box blows and plunges the whole house into darkness, as the eclipse has plunged the world into darkness. Samantha, in the dark, bangs her head and passes out. As she wakes up we see she is surrounded by candles, she is tied to the floor and gaged. The Ullman's, the elderly woman and the mysterious man then appear with 'monk' robes on. They begin to perform a ritual but Samantha manages to get free and run out of the attic where she perform's the typical horror cliche, she runs upstairs instead of out the house.
Samantha manages to fight her way through this sick and twisted family but some very quick and clever editing almost makes Samantha relive the ritual. Samantha manages to escape the house as the eclipse starts to finish. Samantha makes it to a graveyard where Mr Ullman reappears and tells her that she is the chosen one. Samantha realising what has happened decides to shoot herself. A very clever piece of script work from West has the news anchorman saying that the eclipse finished faster then it should have, because Samantha shot herself.
The best thing about West films is that there is a potential for a sequel but one never appears because it is not needed. The films are independently made and this film feels like it was made with this ending in mind, West was not thinking about a sequel when he wrote this, he simply thought of the best possible ending.
House of the Devil established West as a real horror master and The Innkeepers only backed this statement up. We look forward to West's upcoming films.
The House of the Devil - 5/5
Did you know? - The camera frequently zooms in on characters - one of the techniques that were highly favored in the 80s. Nowadays they would have been most likely to dolly in instead.
James Voller
We open on a shot of the back of a girls head. Unusual. This girl is with the owner of the house we are in and it this woman who gives us our first piece of important information. This woman tells Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) that she likes her. As the audience we latch onto this and we know Samantha will probably be the main character and we grow to like her. Within two minutes of this film starting we are introduced to the main character and we have seen how likeable she is.
The opening titles are typical 80's, very "loud" and bright. The music also helps set the scene and the time, this is the 80's. The House of the Devil was filmed in 2009 and really established director Ti West (The Innkeepers) as a horror master. The look of this film makes it look like it's not only set in the 80's but filmed in the 80's. West and director of photography Eliot Rockett (The Innkeepers) did an amazing job shooting this film.
We know Samantha is looking for a house so she can move out of her university accommodation, as she walks across campus she notices a sign reading "Babysitter needed" Samantha ultimately gets the job and is offered 100 dollars to work tonight. Needing the money she agrees. "I promise to make this as painless as possible for you" the mysterious man needing a babysitter says on the phone, a hint at things to come and he is not talking about the babysitting.
Samantha and her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) make their way to the house, as they do we are shown a shot of a full moon, possibly to fill some time or to tell us it's night or to tell us that there may be some satanic cults in "operation" tonight as these cults are known to operate on full moons. As the pair drive we hear through the radio that tonight a lunar eclipse will take place, Is that why we were shown the moon? Possibly.
The girls arrive at the house and are greeted by Mr Ulman (Tom Noonan) who invites them both in. A wonderful piece of acting from Noonan tells us that something is wrong, something isn't quite right here. Mr Ulman then ask's Samantha if he can talk to her in a separate room to where she is currently sat with Megan. West adds a lovely little piece of comedy here as Megan tries some food that is out on the table only to find out she doesn't like it so she spits it back out. This shows West has the talent and is daring to add comedy, although it is subtle, into his horror films. Meanwhile in the other room Mr Ulman tells Samantha that there is in-fact no baby and the job is in-fact to look after his wives elderly mother. Samantha is at first hesitant of taking the job now but when Mr Ulman offers Samantha more money she eventually agrees as she will now be paid 400 dollars for 4 hours work. 400 dollars will be perfect for that house she was looking at, at the start of the film. Megan leaves and agrees to pick her friend up at half twelve. Mr and Mrs Ulman then leave leaving Samantha alone in the house with the elderly woman who Mr Ulman has said "You probably won't even see her".
On Megan's way home she stops to light her cigarette, typically her lighter does not work and we are treated to the first 'jumpy' moment when a mysterious man appears and light's Megan's cigarette for her. After a brief discussion the man ask's Megan if she is the babysitter, she replies with "no, but my friend" before she can finish her sentence she is shot in the head. Who is this guy?
After a brief look around the house, Samantha switches the TV on and watches the news. The anchorman is talking about Lunar eclipse and says that it is "Well under-way" This mirror's Samantha's predicament, she is alone in the house, the lunar eclipse has begun, as has the ritual which will ultimately involve Samantha.
Samantha is now isolated in the house, not in the common horror sense of isolation, but she cant leave, she is trapped even if she does not know it. When she puts her headphones in she becomes even more isolated as she has basically lost her hearing in the house.
Samantha goes for another look around in the house and starts to suspect something isn't right when she finds a photo of a young couple with a small child stood outside the house and in-front of their red Volvo. The same car that the Ulman's drove away in. Mrs Ullman mentioned that they were new to the area. Coincidence?
Samantha then hears banging above her and goes to investigate, but she goes in caution, carrying a large kitchen knife with her. We see a possible homage to Nosferatu as Samantha goes up the stairs but we see the silhouette before we see the person. Samantha passes a door but she does not go in, we, as the audience, do get to see as the camera moves over the door to reveal a pentacle on the floor and a dead family (Possibly the family from the photo).
Samantha then goes into the attic and tries to put a light on but the fuse box blows and plunges the whole house into darkness, as the eclipse has plunged the world into darkness. Samantha, in the dark, bangs her head and passes out. As she wakes up we see she is surrounded by candles, she is tied to the floor and gaged. The Ullman's, the elderly woman and the mysterious man then appear with 'monk' robes on. They begin to perform a ritual but Samantha manages to get free and run out of the attic where she perform's the typical horror cliche, she runs upstairs instead of out the house.
Samantha manages to fight her way through this sick and twisted family but some very quick and clever editing almost makes Samantha relive the ritual. Samantha manages to escape the house as the eclipse starts to finish. Samantha makes it to a graveyard where Mr Ullman reappears and tells her that she is the chosen one. Samantha realising what has happened decides to shoot herself. A very clever piece of script work from West has the news anchorman saying that the eclipse finished faster then it should have, because Samantha shot herself.
The best thing about West films is that there is a potential for a sequel but one never appears because it is not needed. The films are independently made and this film feels like it was made with this ending in mind, West was not thinking about a sequel when he wrote this, he simply thought of the best possible ending.
House of the Devil established West as a real horror master and The Innkeepers only backed this statement up. We look forward to West's upcoming films.
The House of the Devil - 5/5
Did you know? - The camera frequently zooms in on characters - one of the techniques that were highly favored in the 80s. Nowadays they would have been most likely to dolly in instead.
James Voller
An American Werewolf in London
"Keep off the moor's - stick to the road" warns a yorkshire farmer as he drops off two American backpackers as they travel England en route to Italy. The pair make there way to a small village with some rather unfriendly locals, the two American backpackers Jack (Griffin Dunne) and David (David Naughton) soon leave the village and find themselves walking alone on the moor's but they soon find they are not alone when they attacked by someone, or something. Jack is horribly killed by what the locals believe is a werewolf. The police in London, where David wakes up in hospital, think it was an escaped lunatic.
The brilliant opening scene shows witty humour, stunning scenery and gives us quite a shock. We are introduced to these characters from the very start, we expect to stay with them but Jack dies after ten minutes. Hitchcock first employed this tactic when Janet Leigh dies after half hour in Psycho. Very shocking but Landis, who wrote and directed the film, employes the same trick and its still shocking. What else will happen in this film? Is anybody safe?
David, now in a London hospital, is quizzed by Scotland Yard, his doctor and strangely Jack who is stuck in limbo until the blood line of the werewolf that killed him is killed off, the blood line that now runs in David.
David's nurse Alex (Jenny Agutter) ask's David if he would like to stay with her when he is discharged from hospital, having nowhere to stay he agrees and soon the pair start a relationship, very soon actually. The pair start to grow closer and this is clearly visible to us as the audience. It could be possible Landis wanted Alex to replace Jack as the main supporting character and it does work very well.
David soon realises he is a werewolf when he wakes up naked in a zoo, more specific the wolf inclosure, and finding out six people were brutally murdered the night before, which funnily enough had a full moon.
One excellent scene see's David sat in the back of a adult cinema screening talking to a ever decaying Jack and David's murder victims (All of whom are stuck in limbo) about how he could kill himself, all the murder victims chipping in with various suggestions. This scene demonstrates the perfect mix of horror and comedy that Landis employes in his script.
The film features Academy award winning special effects that would not look out of place in horror films today. The transformation scene was as shocking as it was awe inspiring when it was released in 1981.
The film concludes with a heart breaking ending that leaves Alex alone down a dark alley with what can only be described as a police firing squad at the entrance to the alley.
John Landis created a true horror masterpiece in 1981 that, just like it's special effects, has stood the test of time. An American Werewolf in London was released in a time when horror films were not copied by other studios. There was no rival to this true horror masterpiece which helped it stand out above the competition.
An American Werewolf in London - 4/5
Did you know? - At the close of the credits is a congratulatory message for the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (as Lady Diana Spencer). It was included because during the scene when David is trying to get arrested, he shouts, "Prince Charles is gay!" The film was shot months before the preparations for the couple's July 1981 wedding.
James Voller
The brilliant opening scene shows witty humour, stunning scenery and gives us quite a shock. We are introduced to these characters from the very start, we expect to stay with them but Jack dies after ten minutes. Hitchcock first employed this tactic when Janet Leigh dies after half hour in Psycho. Very shocking but Landis, who wrote and directed the film, employes the same trick and its still shocking. What else will happen in this film? Is anybody safe?
David, now in a London hospital, is quizzed by Scotland Yard, his doctor and strangely Jack who is stuck in limbo until the blood line of the werewolf that killed him is killed off, the blood line that now runs in David.
David's nurse Alex (Jenny Agutter) ask's David if he would like to stay with her when he is discharged from hospital, having nowhere to stay he agrees and soon the pair start a relationship, very soon actually. The pair start to grow closer and this is clearly visible to us as the audience. It could be possible Landis wanted Alex to replace Jack as the main supporting character and it does work very well.
David soon realises he is a werewolf when he wakes up naked in a zoo, more specific the wolf inclosure, and finding out six people were brutally murdered the night before, which funnily enough had a full moon.
One excellent scene see's David sat in the back of a adult cinema screening talking to a ever decaying Jack and David's murder victims (All of whom are stuck in limbo) about how he could kill himself, all the murder victims chipping in with various suggestions. This scene demonstrates the perfect mix of horror and comedy that Landis employes in his script.
The film features Academy award winning special effects that would not look out of place in horror films today. The transformation scene was as shocking as it was awe inspiring when it was released in 1981.
The film concludes with a heart breaking ending that leaves Alex alone down a dark alley with what can only be described as a police firing squad at the entrance to the alley.
John Landis created a true horror masterpiece in 1981 that, just like it's special effects, has stood the test of time. An American Werewolf in London was released in a time when horror films were not copied by other studios. There was no rival to this true horror masterpiece which helped it stand out above the competition.
An American Werewolf in London - 4/5
Did you know? - At the close of the credits is a congratulatory message for the wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana (as Lady Diana Spencer). It was included because during the scene when David is trying to get arrested, he shouts, "Prince Charles is gay!" The film was shot months before the preparations for the couple's July 1981 wedding.
James Voller
Session 9
There is something about certain places, especially abandoned buildings, that have the power to send a shiver down the spine of people that set eyes on them. Session 9 is the film equivalent of them abandoned buildings.
Using an abandoned insane asylum as its backdrop, Session 9 follows an asbestos cleaning crew working in the mentioned asylum that has a dark and disturbing past that seems to be coming back piece by piece. Directed by Brad Anderson ( The Machinst) and starring Peter Mullan (trainspotting), David Caruso (First Blood) and Josh Lucas (American Psycho).
The film starts with a fantastic shot of a corridor inside the asylum that focuses on nothing more then a wheelchair, the camera then spins 180 degrees and this sets us up perfectly for the rest of the film, there might be a twist on things we see perfectly clear. The story quickly pulls you in, within the first ten minutes you are told what the basic story is, we learn that the main characters have problems in their lives, which makes them easy for us to relate to, and we are given a guided tour of the asylum the film takes place in.
The first act could be seen as quite boring and slow but it does an excellent job of building the characters and telling us everything we need to know about them. The first real chilling scene comes when everybody goes home from work bar one who stays and goes through some of the old recordings that were left in the asylum after its closure. We see what each member of the team is doing that night with this creepy interview playing over the top.
Gordon (Mullan) seems to be hearing a mysterious man's voice that nobody else in his team can hear, this adds the first real sense of mystery, who is this voice? Why can only Gordon hear it? Mike (Stephen Gevedon) stays behind again and listens to more recordings, we soon learn that the three separate voices we hear on these tapes are coming from the same person, but none of them are the voice that Gordon is hearing.
Hank (Lucas) finds a stash of old coins and a ring, he returns after dark to take the coins home, this is when we are treated to Anderson's first real use of horror. Hank, alone in the asylum, starts to hear strange noises, we are regularly put into Hank's shoes with some clever and effective Point Of View shots. As Hank is leaving the asylum he enters a small passageway and again hears a noise behind him, spinning round he shines the torch down the passageway only to see a figure stood looking back at him, Hank does not make it to work the next day as we find out he has flown to Miami to spend his new found wealth. The disappearance of Hank was a blessing as he was "the annoying character" but he did leave us with another mystery before he left... Who was that figure in the passageway?
Things are also getting worse for Gordon who has some disturbing dreams, again involving this mysterious voice.
The team continue with their work but tensions rise within the group but they pull together when Hank suddenly reappears. Hank's voice has changed and he now sounds like the mysterious voice that has been plaguing Gordon's dreams. Hank then goes missing again and the group are forced to use one of the best horror cliche's: they split up to look for him. Hank is soon found in a rather strange situation and this kicks off the final act in style. We finally find out who the voice is and we learn what Gordon's true intentions are for the rest of his team.
The ending may take a little thinking to understand but the final pay-off is brilliant as we learn that Gordon has killed his entire team after developing a split personality. Once we find this out, its tempting to go back and watch it again to look for the clue's that are there, for example: As Gordon gets out of the car before he kills his family, we are shown a rather odd close up of a jar of peanut butter, Hank later finds the same make of peanut butter in the passageway before he see's the figure (Which is Gordon, who has been staying at the asylum)
Session 9 is a powerful horror that doesn't shy away from attempting to be different - 4/5
Did you know? - A subplot was filmed that involved a homeless women who lives in the asylum. In the original ending she witnesses all of Gordon's murders and then kills him. On the DVD commentary it was announced that this subplot was completely removed from the finished film because test audiences thought the homeless woman was Mary (The voice on the tape that Mike plays)
James Voller
Using an abandoned insane asylum as its backdrop, Session 9 follows an asbestos cleaning crew working in the mentioned asylum that has a dark and disturbing past that seems to be coming back piece by piece. Directed by Brad Anderson ( The Machinst) and starring Peter Mullan (trainspotting), David Caruso (First Blood) and Josh Lucas (American Psycho).
The film starts with a fantastic shot of a corridor inside the asylum that focuses on nothing more then a wheelchair, the camera then spins 180 degrees and this sets us up perfectly for the rest of the film, there might be a twist on things we see perfectly clear. The story quickly pulls you in, within the first ten minutes you are told what the basic story is, we learn that the main characters have problems in their lives, which makes them easy for us to relate to, and we are given a guided tour of the asylum the film takes place in.
The first act could be seen as quite boring and slow but it does an excellent job of building the characters and telling us everything we need to know about them. The first real chilling scene comes when everybody goes home from work bar one who stays and goes through some of the old recordings that were left in the asylum after its closure. We see what each member of the team is doing that night with this creepy interview playing over the top.
Gordon (Mullan) seems to be hearing a mysterious man's voice that nobody else in his team can hear, this adds the first real sense of mystery, who is this voice? Why can only Gordon hear it? Mike (Stephen Gevedon) stays behind again and listens to more recordings, we soon learn that the three separate voices we hear on these tapes are coming from the same person, but none of them are the voice that Gordon is hearing.
Hank (Lucas) finds a stash of old coins and a ring, he returns after dark to take the coins home, this is when we are treated to Anderson's first real use of horror. Hank, alone in the asylum, starts to hear strange noises, we are regularly put into Hank's shoes with some clever and effective Point Of View shots. As Hank is leaving the asylum he enters a small passageway and again hears a noise behind him, spinning round he shines the torch down the passageway only to see a figure stood looking back at him, Hank does not make it to work the next day as we find out he has flown to Miami to spend his new found wealth. The disappearance of Hank was a blessing as he was "the annoying character" but he did leave us with another mystery before he left... Who was that figure in the passageway?
Things are also getting worse for Gordon who has some disturbing dreams, again involving this mysterious voice.
The team continue with their work but tensions rise within the group but they pull together when Hank suddenly reappears. Hank's voice has changed and he now sounds like the mysterious voice that has been plaguing Gordon's dreams. Hank then goes missing again and the group are forced to use one of the best horror cliche's: they split up to look for him. Hank is soon found in a rather strange situation and this kicks off the final act in style. We finally find out who the voice is and we learn what Gordon's true intentions are for the rest of his team.
The ending may take a little thinking to understand but the final pay-off is brilliant as we learn that Gordon has killed his entire team after developing a split personality. Once we find this out, its tempting to go back and watch it again to look for the clue's that are there, for example: As Gordon gets out of the car before he kills his family, we are shown a rather odd close up of a jar of peanut butter, Hank later finds the same make of peanut butter in the passageway before he see's the figure (Which is Gordon, who has been staying at the asylum)
Session 9 is a powerful horror that doesn't shy away from attempting to be different - 4/5
Did you know? - A subplot was filmed that involved a homeless women who lives in the asylum. In the original ending she witnesses all of Gordon's murders and then kills him. On the DVD commentary it was announced that this subplot was completely removed from the finished film because test audiences thought the homeless woman was Mary (The voice on the tape that Mike plays)
James Voller