My Soul to Take

On the night that the Riverton Ripper was killed, seven children were born. Sixteen years later, on their collective birthday, the Riverton 7 are stalked by an unseen killer. Has the Riverton Ripper come back from the dead? Or has one of the Riverton 7 become possessed by the killer’s soul? My Soul to Take should have been an easy layup for Wes Craven. It’s a supernatural slasher that borrows from several of his previous films. There are elements from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, The Serpent and the Rainbow, and Shocker in it. And yet, the film is a bit of a mixed bag. The main problem is the script. Seven characters are too many for the movie to follow. Only four of the Riverton 7 get a decent amount of screen time. The remaining kids, along with the rest of the side characters, float in and out of the movie. Mostly showing up just in time to be killed off. At various points, the script also tries to tackle a couple of serious issues but never takes the time to fully develop them. And the ending feels both unearned and like it could have been replaced by any number of alternate outcomes.

Rating: 61%

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Red Eye

After multiple delays, Lisa Reisert boards a red-eye flight to Miami. The man sitting next to her on the plane, Jackson Rippner, seems charming enough, at first. But, not long after takeoff, his true character is revealed. Kicking off a deadly game of cat and mouse with multiple lives on the line. Wes Craven's Red Eye is a slick little thriller. So fast and direct that the movie is, without credits, barely 80 minutes long. The leads, Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy, are both great and there are some good supporting parts played by Brian Cox and Jayma Mays.

Rating: 69%

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Cursed

After getting into a car accident, orphaned siblings Ellie and Jimmy (played by Christina Ricci and Jesse Eisenberg) get attacked by a large animal. Jimmy swears it was a huge wolf, but everyone tries to convince him that it was probably just a bear or a cougar. By the next morning, the pair start to notice strange changes. Jimmy's getting stronger and Ellie is surprisingly attracted to the scent of blood. Is it a coincidence or have they been cursed with lycanthropy? Wes Craven's Cursed was apparently a nightmare to make, with endless reshoots thanks to the Weinsteins. At least three different versions of the movie were completed. The final version is decent but probably nowhere near the movie that Craven and Kevin Williamson had intended to make. The cast is great, with Ricci and Eisenberg being backed by Joshua Jackson, Judy Greer and Michael Rosenbaum. Plus cameos from Portia de Rossi, Shannon Elizabeth, Nick Offerman, Scott Baio, Craig Kilborn, Lance Bass and the band Bowling for Soup. 

Rating: 62%

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Vampire in Brooklyn

Maximillian, a centuries-old vampire, travels from the Caribbean to New York City to find Rita, a half-vampire. Rita, unaware of her lineage, is a Detective with the NYPD investigating a series of brutal murders connected to a mysterious ship that crashed into a Brooklyn dockyard. Maximillian has only a short time to find Rita, woo her and transform her into a vampire completely. Should he fail, Maximillian would be doomed to walk the Earth alone. Did I mention that this is also a comedy? Sort of. That might be the biggest problem with Vampire in Brooklyn, tonally it's all over the map. It's a horror movie and a comedy and a love story. The movie is constantly jumping from one tone to another. The horror parts work but aren't given enough emphasis. The comedy almost exclusively comes from the supporting characters played by Kadeem Hardison and John Witherspoon. Eddie Murphy only really has one comedic moment in the movie where he transforms into an alcoholic preacher and delivers a sermon about how "evil is good." The love story, more of a love triangle, doesn't really work because the relationship between Angela Bassett's character and her partner, Detective Justice (yes, you read that correctly), isn't set up very well. While the film has some redeeming qualities, including a great nightmare sequence and appearances from Mitch Pileggi and Zakes Mokae, it doesn't entirely work. Also, it should be no surprise that the movie didn't connect with audiences, because it commits two major cinematic sins: Eddie Murphy's character kills a dog and a cat. Nothing turns audiences off faster than killing dogs and cats. 

Rating: 63%

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The People Under the Stairs

With a sick mother and a looming eviction, young Fool (real name Poindexter) agrees to go on a B&E job. The target: Fool's wealthy landlords. But, from the very beginning, something just seems off about the landlord's home. Like, why are all the windows locked from the outside? And things only get stranger after he gets inside the house. Soon enough, it's an all-out fight for survival. Will Fool make it out or will he become another one of the people under the stairs? Wes Craven's The People Under the Stairs was a video store staple going back to the early nineties. For casual movie fans, it was probably Craven's most recognizable film outside of the slasher genre. And, while I think it holds up pretty well, I feel like it has some serious structural problems. The movie kind of peaks at the end of the second act. There's also a bit of a reset at the beginning of the third act, which kills a lot of the movie's momentum. That said, it's still an enjoyable film. 

Rating: 68%

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The Serpent and the Rainbow

Dennis Alan, a Harvard anthropologist, heads down to Haiti to look for a drug used in zombification rituals, hoping to find the next super anesthetic. With the help of Dr. Marielle Duchamp, Dennis locates Christophe Durand, a man who had been pronounced dead several years earlier and who has since become a local legend. Dennis' quest for the drug is complicated after he runs up against Captain Dargent Peytraud, a high ranking member of the secret police, who warns Dennis to leave Haiti or face consequences worse than death. The Serpent and the Rainbow has some amazing locations and great camera work, but seems to be missing some connective tissue. Overdubbed narration is used several times to smooth over some of the gaps, but some scenes are still awkwardly joined. 

Rating: 62%

(Image from IMDB)

The Hills Have Eyes Part II

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the desert... Eight years after the Carter family were terrorized by a group of savage cannibals, Bobby Carter's motorcycle team set out to test their new super fuel at a race in the... dun dun duuun... desert. After failing to account for daylight saving time, the group take an ill-advised shortcut, which leads them straight into cannibal country. After their bus breaks down, the team are attacked by Pluto, who somehow survived having his throat ripped out in the first film, and the Reaper, Pluto's uncle. The Hills Have Eyes Part II is pretty bad. The dialogue is bad, the characters are bad, the pacing is bad and the movie's runtime is padded out with flashbacks to the first film. The most egregious of which is when the dog, Beast, has a flashback to his previous showdown with Pluto. It's hardly surprising that Wes Craven has disowned the film. 

Rating: 54%

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Swamp Thing

At a research base, deep in the swampland, Dr. Alec Holland is working on a top secret formula. But, after the base is attacked by the nefarious Anton Arcane, Alec Holland is seemingly killed and the Swamp Thing is born. With the help of Alice Cable, Swamp Thing attempts to stop Arcane from using Alec Holland's formula for evil. While I'm sure 1982's Swamp Thing has its defenders, I can't imagine it tops many people's lists of favorite Wes Craven or superhero films. The makeup design for Swamp Thing looks like a cross between the Toxic Avenger and a sad, gloopy Gumby. Harry Manfredini's score doesn't really fit the tone of the movie, mostly because it sounds like all of the scores he did for the Friday the 13th films. There are a handful of impressive stunts in the movie, as well as a number of explosions that seem to be going off dangerously close to the actors.

Rating: 61%

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Deadly Blessing

In a small farming town, the only thing separating the normal, everyday folks from the religious Hittite community is a simple fence. Similar to the Amish, but apparently far stricter, the Hittite people shun modern technology and anyone not already in their faith. When Jim Schmidt, a former Hittite, is mysteriously killed, the leader of the Hittites claim that it is the work of the Incubus. Martha, Jim's pregnant widow, refuses to sell her farm to the Hittites, regardless of the pressure coming from the religious group's leaders and all of the strange things happening around her. Deadly Blessing is an atmospheric horror thriller. While I would hesitate to call it a slasher, there are definitely some slasher elements in it, most notably the score by James Horner which sounds like it was taken from a Friday the 13th film. Michael Berryman has a memorable part in the film, alongside Sharon Stone in one her earliest roles. There are some scenes in Deadly Blessing that would be reworked and redone in A Nightmare on Elm Street, including a bathtub sequence that might actually be better in Deadly Blessing.

Rating: 67%

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The Hills Have Eyes

On their way to California, the Carters take a detour to check out an old mine that had been gifted to them. After getting lost in the desert, their car breaks down, leaving them stranded. Soon after, a group of cannibals begin to prey on the family. The Hills Have Eyes is 70s horror in the tradition of films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it's tense, brutal and unrelenting. The cast is very good and notably includes a few genre all-stars like Dee Wallace and Michael Berryman. I think it's safe to say that a lot of cannibal horror movies that came later took some inspiration from The Hills Have Eyes. I'm looking at you Wrong Turn. 

Rating: 75%

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Wes Craven's New Nightmare

Heather Langenkamp has been having nightmares. Disturbing visions of a newer, darker version of Freddy Krueger. But Heather's just an actor and Freddy Krueger isn't real. He's only in the movies, or is he? New Nightmare is Wes Craven's first kick at the meta can, a warmup for what was to come with the Scream franchise. It also feels like a victory lap for New Line, a chance for the studio to pat themselves on the back for making the Elm Street series. It comes close to being overly self-serious and self-indulgent but it's anchored by some great performances from Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon and Miko Hughes (Pet Sematary, Kindergarten Cop, Full House). Freddy's new look is kinda ridiculous with his trench coat, his green felt fedora and his big black goth boots. Some of the effects look pretty dated today, especially the early CGI and a couple of spotty composite shots. All that said, it's probably the best in the series after parts 1 and 3, bitch.

Rating: 70%

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Deadly Friend

There are two things in Deadly Friend that really stand out. The first is BB, the robot. BB looks like a shittier version of Johnny 5 from Short Circuit and sounds like R2D2, if R2D2 had been voiced by Stripe from Gremlins. The other thing that really stands out in the movie is the scene where Kristy Swanson's character throws a basketball at Anne Ramsey's head and her head blows up real good. It's almost as good as the exploding head in Scanners, almost. And even though Deadly Friend's exploding head has been meme'd to death, the best part of the scene is actually what happens right after the explosion.You get to see the headless body run around the room spurting blood for a few seconds before it flops to the floor. It might have been my favorite part of the movie.

Rating: 59%

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Scream 4

Most of the meta chatter in Scream 4 is about remakes. It makes sense, given that horror movies were in a serious remake rut at the time of Scream 4's release. And while the movie keeps telling us that it's a remake, it actually turns out to be a much better concluding chapter for the Scream series than Scream 3 ever was. Every surviving character returns except for Sidney's father, who never really made much of an impact in the series and only ever appeared briefly in parts 1 and 3. The story does a good job of showing us what's happened to these characters in the ten years since their last brush with death. It's a good send-off for the series and I sincerely hope that it's the final chapter.

Rating: 66%

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Scream 3

One of the things that always bothered me about Scream 3 was that a lot of it was centered around the production of Stab 3. In Scream 2, they had only just released the first Stab film. So we're just supposed to accept that another Stab film has come and gone, depicting the events of the previous Scream film? Stab gave Scream 2 the opportunity for some meta commentary on slasher films and the success of the original Scream. Stab 3 and the hijinks in this movie mostly transform Scream 3 into a parody. Also, in light of recent events and allegations, it seems pretty gross to have plot elements pertaining to a young woman being sexually abused by a Hollywood producer being used as the backstory for the latest killer.

Rating: 59%

(Image from scream.wikia.com)

Scream 2

Scream 2 was released almost one year to the day after the original Scream and it shows. It seems to have been made to capitalize on all of the elements of the original that surprised audiences and critics, while failing to deliver on some of the aspects that made the original so good. The humor is amped up and the cast features even more hip, young television actors. It's also very meta, with the characters recognizing and pontificating on the fact that they're in a sequel. Moreover, it features commentary on the success of the original film with the introduction of the film-within-the-film, Stab, which dramatizes the events of the first film. It fails to deliver a story on par with the original, recycling the framework from the first film without injecting enough original content.

Rating: 65%

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Scream

I've mentioned Scream many times on this site. It's a movie that was responsible for reviving the horror genre in the 1990s and launching a wave of imitators. It was the Pulp Fiction of horror movies, if you will. It holds up pretty well today but it has definitely begun to show its age. The hairstyles and fashions in the film stand out now, what with it being almost twenty years old. And you have to remind yourself that almost no one owned a cellphone at the time, because that's literally a plot point in the movie. I particularly enjoyed watching the movie again recently because I forgot just how awesome Sidney Prescott was, she had plenty of 90s sass and humor along with the strength to kick a little ass when confronted with a jerk in a Halloween costume. It was also enjoyable to be reminded of all of the little plot details around the edges of the film. You remember the teens and the rules and the iconic costumes, but you forget that a lot of the movie was about the main character coming to terms with her mother's death and the reality of her mother's sordid past. Also, the motivation of the killers (spoiler alert?) reads like something you'd see on a Men's Rights Activism message board nowadays, so you're happy to see them get killed at the end.

Rating: 85%

(Image from scream.wikia.com)

Shocker

I know this movie has its defenders, but I couldn't help but think it was meant to be seen as a parody. Written and directed by the late, great Wes Craven, Shocker seems to cherry pick elements from other, better Wes Craven films. There are a lot of similarities between Freddy Krueger and Horace Pinker, Shocker's unstoppable villain, and yet I'm not surprised that Pinker failed to make much of a cultural impact. I'd tell you the plot, but it really doesn't matter. Don't waste your time on this one.

Rating: 52%

(Image from movieposter.com)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors

A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors is easily one of the best movies in the Nightmare on Elm Street series, despite being jokier than the first film and substantially less gay than the second one. Dream Warriors finds a group of troubled and horny teens at a psychiatric hospital being terrorized by notorious child murderer and sweater enthusiast Freddy Krueger. Luckily for them, O.G. final girl Nancy Thompson is there to help out. I always liked Dream Warriors because it tried to broaden the scope of the franchise by adding in little things like the dream suppressant drug Hypnocil and the whole "son of a hundred maniacs" backstory for Freddy. And who could forget that sweet theme song by Dokken?

Rating: We're the Dream War-e-ers%

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The Last House On The Left

A Month Of Halloweenie Reviews # 26

The Last House On The Left is a tender story about a young girl who turns 17 and then goes to have fun in the big city with a friend. Meanwhile the birthday girl's parents are getting ready to have a great party for her. Also there are some escaped criminals on the loose. Also rape, stabbing, intestines, murder, dick chomping, chainsaw.

RATING: 40%

A Nightmare On Elm Street

#61 on Glenn's Top 100 Movie List

This one is the creepiest and best of the series by far. I know a lot of people like to think that New Nightmare is really original because of how it broke formula, but the problem is that it broke a good formula and replaced it with a boring formula. All of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies are good for one reason or other (even Freddy's Dead. That's good for the 3-D part), but this one is trying to play it serious. Freddy is a legitimate threat here, not some ridiculous joker. For instance, does anybody remember in the later movies when Freddy is saying some shit about the power glove that this clown was a fucking child molester who got burned alive out of revenge by local parents? I guess you can't blame this actual good horror movie for that, though. Also, props to Johnny Depp's first movie role as a character named Glenn. Keeping it real for the rest of us, bud. By getting eaten by a bed.

RATING: 87%