An Eye for an Eye (Red Eye, 2005)

The same year as Cursed, Craven gave us Red Eye. An entirely different creature than Cursed or Scream, Red Eye is a thriller set primarily on a plane. Rachel McAdams is hotel concierge Lisa, returning home to Miami after a funeral.

While waiting for her flight, she meets the charming Jack. And, for awhile, he seems to be a friendly guy…but once the flight is in motion, he reveals a dark motive. He tells Lisa that if she does not do him a favor, he will have her father killed.

Red Eye is, in contrast to Curse, a tight and tense story that never overstays its welcome. In the course of ten minutes, we learn that Lisa has been devoted to her job and has a “always serve the customer” ethic. When the young woman filling in for her, Cynthia, struggles with demanding regulars, Lisa politely chastises her. Lisa serves and as the film goes on, we discover there are reasons for her having chosen this attitude.

McAdams is someone you root for in the film, she is kind and loves her dad. Her increasing determination and Jack’s ability to interfere keep you at the edge of your seat. There is a moment early in the film where Lisa tries to calm down an irate and impatient person in line and Cillian Murphy’s Jack steps in when he continues to be rude. He is excessively polite with the man, but then gives him this look that suggests he could end the guy in a second, causing the man to back down.

Honestly, I cannot understand why we did not get some more of these from Craven. Effective and exciting smaller films would have paid off wonderfully for Craven, I suspect. He does such a terrific job here,I feel like we missed out.

October 21, 2020 0

Scream and Scream Again (Scream 3, 2000)

Unlike Scream 2, this follow up took three years. And was it worth the wait?

Set a few years after the second film, Sydney lives in a remote location and is employed as a crisis hotline worker. But when murders start occurring the set of the latest Stab film (the movie series within the series based on the events of the series), Gail, Dewey and Sydney find themselves pulled into the plot of a possible trilogy.

Bringing everyone together for this one is a bit more convoluted. Dewey has been hired by the actress playing Gale (Parker Posey who is terrific and plays off against Cox really well). Gale is there to investigate after the killing of Cotton Weary. And Sydney is there… because? Like I said…convoluted. And while the film makes an effort to be clever…it just feels tired.

The twists and reveals are downright tortured as the film reveals a mastermind who was behind the other two films.

While there are some fun things in the film, and it is not unbearable…you can tell this was not written by Kevin Williamson who was too busy with Dawson’s Creek to return. And so only hal;f the magic is there. Craven does what he can, but Scream 3 feels like a true stumble for the franchise, especially for one to end on.

October 19, 2020 0

Back At It (Scream 2, 1997)

Scream was a massive success, and a sequel was green-lit and put out right away. Like, barely a year later. And for a lot of horror films, that can be a bad sign. So is Scream 2 a rush to cash in on success?

Picking up one year after the first film, Sydney is at college trying to make a new life. The past keeps haunting her though. The exonerated Cotton Weary (accused of killing Sydney’s mother) is insisting on Sydney participating in an interview with Gail Weathers. But the killings begin again, this time on the campus. Conveniently, Sydney and Randy decided to go to the same college, so Randy can explain the rules of a slasher sequel. THERE ARE RULES, PEOPLE.

Deputy Dewey shows up so that we can have some romantic conflict with he and Gail and the four survivors can investigate the killings on campus.

Scream 2 is written by Williamson and directed by Craven…and this is more of a case of striking while the iron is hot. The return of Campbell, Cox, Arquette and Kennedy makes for a lot of fun. They all have a real chemistry together. The new additions are a cast of solid talent… even in smaller roles (Timothy Olyfant and Liev Schreiber are guys who can carry films as leads).

The writing does not cheat, even the repeating of incidents from the first film are deliberate call backs. Craven’s direction is on still strong. Scream 2 is one of those rare sequels that feels like it compares to the original favorably. It is clear that Williamson and Craven had a vision for a continuation of Sydney’s story. And I think what helps here is that Scream is not about its killer. It is about Sydney Prescott and her friends. This makes Scream 2 an admirable follow up.

October 18, 2020 0

Tele-Visions (Night Visions, 1989)

James Remar is Sergeant Thomas Mackey… a plays by his own rules guy who is forced to work with psychic Dr. Sally Powers (sigh) who has multiple personalities so solve his case. There is a serial killer who is killing women and…sigh.

Folks…I cannot say enough that this was a complete slog to get through. There were no surprises and it feel like the ultimate paycheck movie from Craven.

The characters are bland. The settings are boring. It feels like a dull; pilot for a dull series that the network wisely passed on. It is just terrible.

October 14, 2020 0

Replacement (Summer of Fear, 1978)

Wes Craven’s career took a detour into the world of TV movies. His first was the Linda Blair thriller Summer of Fear.

Blair plays Rachel, a teenager living in rural California with her loving family whose life gets shaken up when her recently orphaned cousin Julia comes to live with the family. As Julia seems to become accepted by the family and locals, Rachel starts to believe Julia is a menace out to replace her.

Rachel sees a series of misfortunes that convince her that Julia is a witch and sets out to convince her skeptical friends and family.

As TV movies go, this is… okay? There are no standout performances or anything. It is also not a very special effects heavy film. It is pretty forgettable and not particularly exciting. It certainly lacks Craven’s voice.

October 6, 2020 0

Death of the Maiden (The Last House on the Left, 1972)

In the beginning of the 70’s Wes Craven was a college professor looking to transition his life. With the help of future Friday the 13th producer Sean S. Cunningham, Craven set out to write and direct his first film, a loose adaption of Ingmar Bergman’s the Virgin Spring.

The young Mari and her friend head off to see a concert in anticipation of her 17th birthday. But on the trip, the two young women end up crossing the paths of a sadistic group of escaped criminals. They proceed to rape and murder Mari’s friend, but Mari runs and falls into the river. Leaving her to die the crew seek a place to hide. They come across a remote house and convince the family to let them enter. The thugs are unaware that they have actually happened upon Mari’s family.

But later Mari appears at the house, on death’s door. Enraged, her parents set about bringing angry retribution up the criminals.

To be honest, the Last House on the Left is a movie I originally saw over 20 years ago. It left me nauseous and I really doubted I would ever watch it again. But I recently got the blu-ray incredibly cheap and decided to get it for the special features.

But I chose to watch the film once more to reassess the work. And honestly, most of the film would be a workable crime thriller. It has scummy bad guys lead by David Hess who is scary beyond words. But the film also suffers from some tonal inconsistencies with the cops appearances in the film almost being comical.

But the thing that keeps me from recommending the film is not the rough edges of a new writer and director. It is the long and lingeringly graphic rape and murder sequence. Certainly, Craven does not play it for entertainment. It is excruciatingly gritty and uncomfortable to sit through. It makes this a film I just have no desire to return to.

October 4, 2020 0

In Dreams

Welcome to the month of October. Our theme this month is looking back at the films of Wes Craven. I have always been a fan of his work. Wes was a film maker who wanted to explore things in his stories. Social problems, family conflict, politics…he came from a religious background, as I did. And we both found ourselves leaving that faith…but drawn to storytelling.

I won’t be cover Nightmare On Elm Street, New Nightmare or People Under the Stairs as I already have written about them. I will be covering the rest of his horror and thriller releases right on up to Scream 4. I will also be including his TV movies and the remakes of his work.

Tomorrow we begin with the Last House on the Left.

October 3, 2020 0

Soldiers for Life (VFW, 2020)

When a young woman runs into their VFW with a bag of stolen drugs a group of veterans find themselves have to fight vicious drug addicts hell bent on getting the drugs back.

I don’t have a lot to say here. The main draw is a really good cast of “Old Tough Guys” and George Wendt (who is a great actor, just not known for his tough guy roles). It is a pretty standard siege movie along the lines of an Assault on Precinct 13.

This is a violent and bloody film, but does a good job leaning into it’s tropes and not worrying too much about being some sort of heady exploration of themes. You just watch this for a wild and crazy action flick.

May 15, 2020 0

Woke Culture (The Hunt, 2020)

So, the Hunt was meant to be released last year, but after a mass shooting and leaks about plot specific information led to people declaring this movie should not be released, including a condemnation from the impeached President of the United States. And so the movie was pulled. Although there seemed to be talk at the time of this film just being put on a shelf somewhere…well, it was released to theaters with a modest amount of commercials and it hit a week before movie theaters closed across the nation. Universal took the proactive move to make three of their recent films (the Hunt, Emma and the Invisible Man) available for streaming rentals. Disney has followed suit with Onward. I recommend Onward and the Invisible Man as very worth watching. I have no opinion on Emma yet as I have not gotten to watching it yet.

So…how is the Hunt? Is it a super hateful film celebrating killing Trump supporters? Well, my short answer is as follows.

No. Yes, this film is about a bunch of rich liberals who hunt a bunch of red staters. But the film is not at all sympathetic to its liberal characters. They are all played as awful people, while the film is pretty ambivalent about the Red Staters. Most of those characters get little to no characterization, not even in the sense of being stereotypes. Most of the liberals are stereotypes, with really only Betty Gilpin and Hilary Swank’s characters getting much personality.

Betty Gilpin is actually really good in this. She seems to be in a constant state of shock and on the verge of breaking down. But she also delivers some great action scenes and had a really good show down sequence.

As a genre film, this has a solid and classic hook. This is in the vein of films like Surviving the Game (a personal favorite). Honestly, I think it is hilarious that people assumed this would be a hateful screed against Trump when all the people who do not support Trump are evil cretins. As a lefty, this did not bother me terribly much, Gilpin feels rather a-political and is easy for viewers to root for.

I liked it. It is not the greatest film, but it is pretty effective as a genre thriller.

March 22, 2020 0

The Art of Gaslighting (The Invisible Man, 2020)

When the Tom Cruise update of the Mummy crumbled, so did the planned Dark Universe that Universal was placing hopes on. Instead, Universal penned a deal with low budget horror production studio Blumhouse. They brought in director Leigh Whannell to make a lower budget re-imagination of the character.

Whannell moves the focus to Cecilia Kass who is trying to escape an abusive relationship with a famous optics tech scientist. She tries to hide from him until she is informed that he has committed suicide. At first, things start to look up and improve…but suddenly, mysterious occurrences begin to occur that slowly cause Cecilia to unravel…she is convinced that her ex Adrian is still alive (the film does not hide this, both the trailers and film make it clear that Adrian is messing with Cecilia). However, she cannot convince anyone of this. Adrian starts to escalate things, severing her relationships and interfering with all attempts to move forward.

Moving the focus from a mad scientist to the victim of an obsessed stalker is highly effective. Whannell constructs an incredibly intense opening sequence, with no effects beyond the use of sound and the motion of the camera.

The whole film uses angles, shots and general camera movement that causes you to distrust your eyes. And it is incredibly impactful for the viewer as we search the screen for what is…wrong.

Moss gives a terrific performance. We know she is not crazy, but her descent into obsession with proving Adrian is still alive is visceral and shocking.

I also really liked Aldus Hodge who is a police detective friend allowing Cecilia a home in which to stay.

The Invisible Man is an excellent thriller and I highly recommend it.

February 29, 2020 0