[7] More of the same is enough to earn a passing grade in the case of Scream 2. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) is off to college, but Ghost Face isn’t through with her yet, shoving the sordid story of her mother’s sexual indiscretions and brutal murder front and center. Courtney Cox and David Arquette get more screen time to develop an odd but affecting romantic …
[7] This stand-alone slasher flick from Bob and Harvey Weinstein (the first Miramax film production) rivals the best of the Friday the 13th fare. The requisite nubile flesh and gory kill scenes are here, but the teen protagonists are more likable than usual and the film creates a genuinely creepy atmosphere throughout. With its lakeside camp setting and deformed villain, The Burning isn’t going to …
#12: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) [2] This is the worst of the Fridays. The subtitle is a misleading marketing gimmick, as Jason only arrives in Manhattan for the last twenty minutes. Those twenty minutes are okay, if only to see Jason put a few New Yorkers in their place. But the rest of the movie is interminably boring and the …
[7] You know what? Screw it. I like this movie and I don’t care who knows it. Does it break the rules Wes Craven set up in the original film by having Freddy (Robert Englund) bust out of dreamland to terrorize a bunch of kids at a pool party? Yeah, sure. Is it campy and homoerotic? Most definitely. But it’s also got some great special …
[3] A man decides to rob the home of a client, unaware that a psycho-killer has already laid claim to the family and has booby-trapped their entire house. If you’d never ever seen a home invasion or torture porn flick, maybe The Collector would be something of novel interest. But there is absolutely nothing new here — it’s just a series of Saw-like death sequences, …
[2] When Rob Zombie re-booted Halloween in 2007, trading Michael Myers’ boogeyman mystique for a more pointed psychological explanation for his behavior, I didn’t hate it. While I much prefer not to see the man behind the mask or to understand his motivations, I thought Zombie’s remake was a somewhat interesting experiment. But his version of Halloween II is a whole different and far worse …
[6] In this home invasion horror flick from writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard (V/H/S), a group of animal-masked killers armed with crossbows and axes begin preying on a wealthy family coming together for the parents’ anniversary. The film spends a generous twenty minutes or so getting you acquainted with the family — including three sons, a daughter, and everyone’s significant others. But then …
[6] If you wanted to remake William Lustig’s 1980 slasher cornerstone with an abundance of point-of-view shots, you probably couldn’t do a better a job than Franck Khalfoun did with this remake. Maniac is beautiful and imaginative, photographed almost entirely from the killer’s (Elijah Wood’s) point of view. You really only see him in mirrors and other reflective surfaces. On one hand, the conceit is …
[9] Wes Craven’s self-referential teenaged slasher flick soars on the strengths of Kevin Williamson’s clever screenplay and its charismatic cast. Anyone who loves slasher movies will revel in the in-jokes and homages, but the film isn’t all satire — it’s a fine little thriller in its own right. Neve Campbell (Party of Five) picks up the mantle of ‘scream queen’ admirably and the supporting cast …
[10] Oh, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways… I love that you’re an unrelenting free fall into madness. I love that your first half is mysterious and suspenseful, and that your second half is hysterically macabre. I love how your 16mm film stock lends a raw, documentary feel to the horror. I love your locations — from …
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