X

Year:  2022

Director:  Ti West

Screenplay:  Ti West

Starring:  Mia Goth, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Brittany Snow, Owen Campbell, Stephen Ure, Scott Mescudi

Running Time:  107 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Texas, 1979:  A group of aspiring filmmakers: actors Maxine Minx (Goth), Bobby Lynne (Snow) and Jackson Hole (Mescudi), producer Wayne Gilroy (Henderson), director RJ Nichols (Campbell) and boom operator Lorraine (Ortega), head to a remote farm where they plan to shoot a pornographic film called The Farmer's Daughter.  They rent a house on the property from the elderly couple who own the farm, but when the couple find out what kind of film they are making, the filmmakers find themselves fighting to survive.

Writer, producer and director Ti West made his name with horror films such as House of the Devil (2009), The Innkeepers (2011) and The Sacrament (2014) and this is his first film since 2016's In a Valley of Violence.  X starts slowly, building up it's characters and their various relationships, but when the gruesome horror starts it doesn't let up.  It works as a homage to the old slasher films of the 1970s such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and Eaten Alive (1976), as well as Psycho (1960).  The '70s ambience works well. maintained by the soundtrack of classic rock songs.  While the film is pretty much tongue in cheek for the most part, it does have something to say about the miseries of getting older and the idea that "youth is wasted on the young".  It's strongly hinted that the couple's attacks are motivated by jealousy at these good-looking young people doing all the things that they would do, if only they could.  Pearl, one half of the elderly couple fixates on Maxine, telling her "I'm what you will become!" Incidentally Pearl is also played by Mia Goth, under very heavy makeup.  It's very well made, with strong performances.  It's worth noting that the film may be too sleazy and gory for some viewers, although the violence is too over the top to be really disturbing.  For fans of the old school slasher films, however, it is a real treat.  It follows the traditional route of these kinds of movies, but throws out enough modern twists on the formula to make it feel fresh and surprising.  It's almost certain to become a mainstay of late-night horror shows in the future.

Mia Goth in X
   

Halloween Kills

 Year of Release:  2021

Director:  David Gordon Green

Screenplay:  Scott Teems, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Starring:  Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Thomas Mann, Anthony Michael Hall, Kyle Richards

Running Time:  105 minutes

Genre:  Horror

Immediately following the events of Halloween (2018), Laurie Strode (Curtis), her daughter Karen (Greer), and Karen's daughter Allyson (Matichak) are taken to hospital to recuperate.  However, murderous Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle) emerges from the inferno of the Strode compound and proceeds to cut a bloody swathe through the good people of Haddonfield, Illinois.  The townspeople desire to band together to stop Myers once and for all.

The original Halloween (1978) worked because it emphasised suspense and tension over blood and guts, the 2018 Halloween which is a sequel to the 1978 film but ignores all of the previous umpteen sequels, remakes and reboots, wasn't great but it was an enjoyable enough rejuvenation of the hoary old franchise.  Halloween Kills, however, is pretty much a bloodbath.  The film tries to make a comment about mob mentality and vigilante justice, but it feels pretty half hearted, swallowing the greens of social commentary to linger over the pudding of gruesome murders.  The violence is surprisingly brutal, even by the standards of the Halloween franchise.  Jamie Lee Curtis is underused as Laurie Strode, who is in hospital throughout most of the film.  Judy Greer is the highlight of the film, providing some much needed heart as Karen, and Andi Matichak as Allyson does as well as anyone could do with a pretty underwritten part.  Some of the kills are imaginative, and a hospital riot is a highlight.  The thing is that the film is so over the top in terms of gore and violence it just becomes funny.  People were laughing at the screening I attended, and you could have some fun with it if you were watching it at the right time with the right audience.  It needs to be watched late at night, after a few beers, with some likeminded friends, for some silly, campy fun.  It's not scary and really not much of a movie.  There isn't really any conclusion,  it forms the centrepiece of a trilogy, with Halloween Ends due out in 2022, and so instead of a satisfying ending, it's like the film just stops.  

   Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney / Nick Castle) in Halloween Kills

Urban Legend

 Year of Release:  1998

Director:  Jamie Blanks

Screenplay:  Silvio Horta

Starring:  Alicia Witt, Jared Leto, Rebecca Gayheart, Joshua Jackson, Natasha Gregson Wagner, Loretta Devine, Tara Reid, Michael Rosenbaum, Robert Englund, John Neville,

Running Time:  100 minutes

Genre:  Horror, slasher

The students at the prestigious Pendleton University in New Hampshire are targeted by a parka-wearing serial killer who murders people in ways based on famous urban legends.  The victims seem to be connected by one student in particular, Natalie (Witt) who teams up with journalism student Paul (Leto) to put an end to the bloodshed.

This is one of a glut of similar slasher films that were released in the late 1990s following the success of Scream (1996).  It has an engaging cast including up and coming young stars, TV stars and older cult movie actors such as Robert Englund, who played Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street films, a soundtrack full of Goth and nu-metal music, elaborate and grisly murders, a convoluted plots and some comedy, with a number of in-jokes (in one scene Joshua Jackson starts his car and the theme from Dawson's Creek (1998-2003), the show he starred in, starts playing and he hurriedly switches it off).  One of the film's problems is that the only likeable characters are Alicia Witt's Natalie and Loretta Devine as campus police officer Reese.  The other characters are so unpleasant it's really hard to care what happens to them.  The film is pretty ridiculous, full of implausible coincidences and red herrings, the ending is particularly ludicrous.  Having said that it is enjoyable enough.  It has a few good thrills and scares, and if you are in the right frame of mind for it, you can have some fun with it.  It was followed by two sequels, and a remake is being planned, for some reason.

A killer on the prowl in Urban Legend  

 

Halloween

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  David Gordon Green
Screenplay:  Jeff Fradley, Danny McBride and David Gordon Green, based on characters created by John Carpenter and Debra Hill
Starring:  Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Will Patton, Virginia Gardner, James Jude Gardner,
Running Time:  105 minutes
Genre:  Horror

On October 31 1978, serial killer Michael Myers (Gardner) went on a murderous rampage in the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois.  Forty years later, Myers is incarcerated in an institution and Laurie Strode (Curtis) who survived Myers' attack is a hardened survivalist, obsessed with Myers and the idea that he will return one day.  Her obsession has alienated her from her daughter (Greer), and granddaughter (Matichak).  Until Myers escapes while being transferred and returns to Haddonfield to finish what he started all those years ago.

This is technically the eleventh film in the Halloween franchise, including the 2007 remake by Rob Zombie, and it's 2009 sequel.  However, this hits the reset button being a direct sequel to Halloween (1978) and rewriting the entire chronology.  The idea that Laurie Strode is Michael Myers' sister which was introduced in Halloween II (1981) and has been canon ever since, is specifically stated here not to be the case.  Also, here, Michael Myers has been locked up for 40 years.  This is very much a traditional slasher film although it does have a 2018 makeover, Myers doesn't exclusively kill horny teenagers, here he kills pretty much anyone who he happens across.  He also expands his repertoire from exclusively slashing and stabbing to include hammers and banging people's heads against anything solid.  The film returns Myers to the enigmatic killer of the first film, and makes him less of a supernatural being, although he does have seemingly supernatural powers of strength and resilience.  Curtis is great as the traumatised Laurie as are Judy Greer and Andi Marichak as her estranged daughter and granddaughter.  The film benefits from a strong supporting cast, who make the characters more than just the typical faceless victims.  The film takes it's time to get going and does at times get bogged down in subplots that don't go anywhere.  However, while it is never exactly scary, it is tense and exciting and gory enough to appeal to fans without being violent enough to alienate more mainstream audiences.  It also has humour and some fun nods to previous films in the series (including a cameo from Nick Castle who played Michael Myers in the first film, and supplies some of Myers' sound effects here), and is certainly one of the best in the franchise.

Trick or Treat:  Michael Myers (James Jude Gardner) in Halloween

Happy Death Day

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Christopher B. Landon
Screenplay:  Scott Lobdell
Starring:  Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine
Running Time:  107 minutes
Genre:  Horror, comedy, slasher

Obnoxious college student Tree (Rothe) wakes up on the morning of her birthday in a stranger's dorm room.  She goes through the rest of a pretty miserable day, being as horrible as possible to everyone around her.  Until the evening when she is murdered by a masked killer.  However, Tree wakes up in the stranger's dorm room, and soon realises that she is being forced to relive the day of her murder, over and over again, until she can stop the killer, and survive the day.  And you thought your birthdays were bad!

The obvious comparisons to make are with the 1993 comedy Groundhog Day (which has the same concept of a person being forced to relive the same day over and over again - and which is namechecked in the film) and with the 1996 film Scream (with which it shares a similar sense of humour).  The film starts slowly and it takes some time to really get into it, but once it gets there it is funny and exciting.  Jessica Rothe gives a fantastic performance in a difficult central role.  She plays a very unlikeable character, but gives her enough depth, so that the audience goes along with her through her journey. There are elements in the film which are introduced but not really followed through on, such as her relationship with her father and what happened to her mother.  Some horror fans may be disappointed because it is neither particularly scary or particularly gruesome, but there are plenty of shocks and an intriguing mystery.  The film does a good job of building and maintaining the mystery, and the scenes were Tree conducts her investigations are very funny.  The killer's creepy baby mask is memorable, and it's a good film for people who may enjoy the odd scary movie, but are not big horror fans.       

Look behind you:  Jessica Rothe in Happy Death Day

The Burning

Year of Release:  1981
Director:  Tony Maylam
Screenplay:  Bob Weinstein and Peter Lawrence, story by Brad Grey, Tony Maylam and Harvey Weinstein
Starring:  Brian Matthews, Lou David, Leah Ayres, Brian Backer, Larry Joshua
Running Time:  91 minutes
Genre:  Horror

A bunch of teens at a summer camp play a mean trick on hated caretaker Cropsy (David).  However the prank goes badly wrong and Cropsy almost burns to death.  Five years later, another group of fun-loving teens are at another summer camp, and the hideously scarred Cropsy is lurking in the woods around the camp with large garden shears, and he is not planning on pruning the hedges.

You know the story.  Even if you've never seen The Burning, if you have ever seen any slasher films, than you've pretty much seen it.  It's regarded as a carbon copy of Friday the 13th (1980), although Harvey Weinsten apparently came up with the idea before Friday the 13th was released.  However it is a pretty basic slasher, with maybe a tad more nudity and gore than usual.  Today it is is possibly most important for what the cast and crew would do later on: Jason Alexander (George in Seinfeld) and Fisher Stevens appear in minor roles, and Holly Hunter also has a very small part in the film.  Also writers and producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the moguls behind Miramax Films and later The Weinstein Company, would become two of the most important figures in American independent  film.  The Weinstein's commercial instincts are certainly on display here.  They know their audience, they know what that audience wants and they deliver it.  The gory special effects, from Tom Savini, would earn the film some notoriety, particularly in Britain where it was banned as a so-called "video nasty", although it is hard to see why.  It's a film that is not particularly good or particularly bad, it just trundles along delivers the requisite amount of gore and naked breasts, and it works as an undemanding late-night guilty pleasure, but if you want to see a slasher film, than there are better out there.  It has dated though, and probably won't deliver the goods to satisfy modern horror audiences.

Shelley Bruce, George Parry, Kevi Kendall, Jason Alexander, Holly Hunter and Ame Segull in The Burning      
  

A Bay of Blood

Year: 1971
Director: Mario Bava
Screenplay: Mario Bava, Giuseppe Zaccariello, Filippo Ottoni and Sergio Canevari, from a story by Dardano Sacchetti and Franco Barberi
Starring: Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli, Laura Betti
Running Time: 84 minutes
Genre: Horror, slasher, mystery

Summary: In her mansion beside a beautiful bay, the elderly Countess Federica (Isa Miranda) is murdered by her husband, Filippo Donati (Giovanni Nuvoletti), and arranged in a way to make it look as if she comitted suicide. However, no sooner is Donati finished arranging the crime scene when he is brutally stabbed to death by a mysterious assailant.
Believing that the Countess killed herself and her husband has disappeared, real estate developer Frank Ventura (Chris Avram) and his girlfriend Laura (Anna Maria Rosati) travel to the bay to get Donati to sign a series of legal documents which will enable them to take posession of the bay to devlop it as a holiday resort.
Also travelling to the bay is the Countess' daughter Renata (Auger) and her husband Albert (Pistilli) who are determined to get control of the bay by any means necessary.
Already at the bay are four teenagers ready to spend a weekend of drinking and partying at one of the abandoned bayside cabins.
However, the mysterious killer is still stalking the bay and the bodies are piling up in the water.

Opinions: This film is one of the classic Italian giallo films. "Giallo" is the Italian word for yellow and it came to refer to a series of cheap pulp fiction paperbacks which had distinctive yellow covers. The term came to refer to a series of horror and crime films which were notorious for lengthy and stylish scenes of extreme violence.
Mario Bava was a noted and well-respected film maker who specialised in horror movies, and this film got a very negative reaction from many critics due to the gruesome violence.
The movie proved to be very influential though and it's impact can be felt throughout the "slasher" and "splatter" horror film genre. The Friday the 13th films in particular with their killers stalking bucolic woodland locations are a direct descendent from this.
The storyline is fun and full of countless twists and turns. The impressive special effects were provided by Carlo Rambaldi, who went on to huge acclaim for the effects in E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982).
The acting is kind of bland, although it is hard to really judge due to the dubbed dialogue.
It is definitely worth watching for horror fans and giallo fans. Although it is worth remembering that it has been released under a wide variety of titles including Twitch of the Death Nerve, Blood Bath and Carnage.



Laura Betti and Leopoldo Trieste in A Bay of Blood

Scream 4

Year: 2011
Director: Wes Craven
Screenplay: Kevin Williamson
Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anthony Anderson, Alison Brie, Adam Brody, Rory Culkin
Running Time: 111 minutes
Genre: Horror, slasher

Summary: It's been ten years since the notorious "Woodsboro Massacre", and Stab, the film based on the murders, has spawned six successful sequels. The small town of Woodsboro has put the murders behind it, to the point where the massacre have become something of a joke to the town's high school students until, on the tenth anniversry of the killings, two high school students (Aimee Teegarden and Brittany Robertson) are brutally stabbed to death by a killer wearing the same "Ghostface" costume and mask that the original "Woodsboro Massacre" killer wore.
The following day Sidney Prescott (Campbell), who has survived three previous massacres perpetrated by "Ghostface" killers, returns to Woodsboro to promote her book Out of the Darkness but almost immediately becomes caught up in the murders. Especially since her teenage cousin, Jill Roberts (Roberts), and her friends Kirby (Panettiere), Charlie (Culkin) and Olivia (Marielle Jaffe) are among those targeted by taunting telephone calls from the killer.
As Sheriff Dewey Riley (Arquette) leads the investigation, his wife one-time journalist Gale Weathers (Cox) (on whose books the Stab movies were based) determines to solve the killings, and it soon becomes apparent that this horror movie obsessed killer is planning a "remake" of the original massacre: with everything bigger and better than before.

Opinions: The original Scream (1996) was a massive hit with it's blend of scares, mystery, humour and movie references. It assumed that audiences were familiar with horror movies and so it had it's characters being equally familiar with the genre. The sequel, Scream 2 (1997), targeted it's jokes and references at horror movie sequels, while Scream 3 (2000), which was intended to be the final film in the series, referenced trilogies. This film, coming out eleven years after the previous one, deals with endless, and increaingly bad, sequels and the recent popular trend to remake older horror movies.
It opens with kind of a clever sequence in which two teenagers are savagely murdered in what appears to be an over the top self-parody, but is revealed to be the opening sequence to Stab 7 (the latest in the film-within-a-film series based on the events of the first Scream). It pretty much sets the tone for what follows.
Scream 4 (or if you prefer it's on-screen title SCRE4M) is not a bad movie at all. It's funny, it's clever, it has suspense and a few good shocks and pretty much delivers what anyone could expect from a Scream movie. The cast perform well, and Wes Craven directs with his usual sure hand. It benefits enormously from Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first two Scream films, returning for this.
The problem is that Scream was such an influential film in it's time. For about six years afterwards horror was full of jokey self-referential slasher films, none of which managed to get as good a balance between jokes and scares as Scream. Watching Scream 4 it's hard not too feel as if it's been done before, although that tends to always be the way with sequels. At least this makes an effort to stay fresh.
Scream 4 is an entertaining and enjoyable movie, which fans will certainly enjoy, and is in fact an improvement on it's predecessor.



Neve Campbell in Scream 4

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

Year: 1998
Director: Steve Miner
Screenplay: Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg, from a story by Robert Zappia and Kevin Williamson (uncredited), based on characters created by John carpenter and Debra Hill
Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Josh Hartnett, Adam Arkin, Michelle Williams, Adam Hann-Byrd, Jodi Lyn O'Keefe, LL Cool J, Janet Leigh
Running Time: 86 minutes
Genre: Horror, slasher

Summary: In 1978 seventeen year old Laurie Strode (Curtis) narrowly escaped the murderous rampage of her psychopathic brother Michael Myers (Chris Durand).
In 1998, Laurie is now living under the name "Keri Tate" with her seventeen year old son John (Hartnett), and is working as Headmistress of the prestigious Hillcrest Academy High School private boarding school, which her son attends. She is also dating the school's guidance counsellor Will (Arkin). However Laurie is a recovering alcoholic, still haunted by the memory of her experience and suffers from horrible nightmares, especially when Halloween rolls around. Despite most people believeing that Michael Myers is dead, Laurie is convinced that he is still out there somehwere. Angry at his mother's overprotectiveness, John and his girlfriend Molly (Williams) decide to team up with their friends Charlie (Hann-Byrd) and Sarah (O'Keefe) and take advantage of the rest of the school taking a camping trip to Yosemite National Park over the Halloween holiday in order to have the school to themselves. However, it turns out that Laurie's fears are correct. Michael Myers has tracked her down and, on Halloween night, he arrives at Hillcrest Academy to finish what he started.

Opinions: This film is the sixth sequel to the classic horror film Halloween (1978). The film only really ties in to the original Halloween and Halloween II (1981), completely ignoring the other films as if they never happened, which is probably for the best. The film is also very heavily influenced by the hugely successful Scream (1996) and it's first sequel (themselves very heavily influenced by Halloween). Kevin Williamson, who wrote the first two Scream movies, did uncredited rewrites on the script to Halloween H20, and has an executive producer credit, it was also made by the same studio that made Scream, features some of the same music, and even features a brief clip from Scream 2 (1997). They also feature a very similar style as Halloween H20 also mixes scares, jokes and pop culture references, it also includes Michelle Williams who starred in the hugely successful television series Dawson's Creek (1998-2003) which was created by Kevin Williamson. Which all means that the film belongs squarely in the typical style of late 1990s teen horror films.
The film concentrates more on the "stalk" and less on the "slash" than many of the previous installments, which hearkens back to the first film. It means that the viewer spends time with the characters and gets to like them before they get turned into sushi. Directed by Steve Miner, who also directed Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981) and Friday the 13 Part III (1982), there is extensive use of a mobile floating camera which constantly gives the impression of the characters being stalked or tracked by the camera itself. The film also recognises that Michael Myers, who is a kind of limited villain, being more like a supernatural version of the Terminator, works much better when he is kept largely off-screen, frequently glimpsed briefly in the background or through open doors. In fact when Laurie Strode first encounters Myers in the film, she has to pause for a few seconds to convince herself that it is not one of her nightmare or hallucinations.
The scares are mostly effective and there are several good shock moments, even if the gore is probably too limited to appeal to the gorehounds.
The acting in the film is good, and the cast are engaging. Janet Leigh (in real life the mother of Jamie Lee Curtis), and who has also had previous experience of knife-weilding maniacs in the film Psycho (1960), appears briefly as a schoolteacher. It also has an appearance from Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a hockey mask wearing teen.
Aside from the original film, this is definitely the best in the series, and is a good slice of entertaining horror, featuring good performances, some decent shocks and plenty of humour.



Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) faces up to Michael Myers (Chris Durand) in Halloween H20: 20 Years Later