Reviews

Sidney Prescott returns to Woodsboro to promote her new memoir and a new series of murders start up in her honor as the police begin to suspect someone is trying to remake the events of the original murder spree.

Scream 4 lacks the suspenseful bite of the first two films and isn't funny enough to work as a camp comedy/live action Scooby Doo episode like the third film which leaves it in a strange place, tonally. Performances are mostly strong with Campbell, Cox, and Arquette as charming as ever and Roberts sinking her teeth into her character and not letting go. The film's attempts at being clever don't feel as sharp as the previous films, but there are a few inspired moments.

In this barebones slasher tale, a campsite known for several accidents and tragedies opens back up for the summer and the counselors tasked to get it ready for campers find themselves stalked and murdered by an unseen psychopath.

There's not a lot going on in this movie, but the filmmakers do a lot without a whole lot of resources or money and the special effects are still startling and effective to this day. Acting is variable, but each actor tries to create a real person with their own quirks. Kevin Bacon plays one of the ill fated counselors and has been better elsewhere. The true star of the film is Tom Savini whose special makeup effects are jaw droppers.

Just like the George Romero classic, Night of the Living Dead is about the survivors of a zombie invasion who barricade themselves in an isolated farmhouse to avoid becoming zombies themselves.

Tom Savini's update follows many of the same beats of Romero's original up to a point and then delivers an almost completely different finale along with a few additions and changes throughout. These changes are smart and thoughtful and help it stick out from the original. Performances are strong with Tony Todd and Patricia Tallman standing out at the two leads. The makeup effects are more complicated than the ones in the original and the filmmakers can get away with more gore and language.

A bride-to-be who's having serious doubts about getting married to her rude fiance goes for a weekend party in the woods with her fiance and their friends and two psychotic men stalk and kill them one by one.

The quality of acting in this ranges from surprisingly solid to painfully awful, but the script has a sense of humor about everything and at least attempts to tell an actual story instead of a by-the-numbers body count flick. Adult film star, Ginger Lynn Allen, gets a great chance to show off some pretty entertaining acting chops at the lead character's psychiatrist. It's not the most memorable slasher film you'll see, but far from a complete waste of time either.

After surviving the events of Friday the 13th Part 3, Jason is taken to the morgue where he wakes up, kills a few people, and head back to the woods where he sets his sights on a single mother and her two children and a group of party-loving teens across the street.

Some better than average character beats are found in The Final Chapter and Tom Savini's effects deliver like never before. It's easy to see why this one is a fan favorite. It sure goes out with a bang.

Years ago, a sorority girl fell to her death thanks to her dumb sorority sisters and, now, there's a killer dressed as Santa Claus attacking all the sorority girls staying there during the Christmas break.

Not a scare will be found under To All A Goodnight's tree and there's not a lot of suspense either. In fact, the whole thing feels slapdash and like it was put together over a weekend, but that doesn't mean there's not charm to be found even if it's of the "so bad, it's good" variety. A few gooey death scenes might make it wortwhile for the slasher completists among us.

A bride-to-be is stalked around Staten Island by a looney madman who's still angry his bride walked out on him and he wants to take it out on every bride he comes into contact with.

Right from the first few notes of the film's score, it's obvious that He Knows You're Alone owes a great deal of debt to Halloween, but it does try to do its own thing and the characters are a likable and entertaining group to hang out with in between bloodless kill scenes. Those looking for gore, should look elsewhere, but those more interested in old-fashioned suspense and characters might find themselves on the edge of their seats more often than they'd like to admit.

Donald Pleasance and Nancy Allen take the audience on a trip through famous horror films with some pop-psychology about the need for audiences to experience fear thrown in for good measure.

Terror in the Aisles clocks in at less than 90 minutes and there are most definitely worse ways to waste your time. If you've seen all the films featured, it might not be of interest, but there are a few more obscure films featured in the film that might peak your interest.

Robin, a young hitchhiker gets into a car accident and wanders off onto the beach where she meets an eccentric man who lives with his strange sister. He invites her to come have dinner and Robin discovers that he's a deranged cannibal who wants her for his next meal.

Welcome To Arrow Beach starts out well enough, but loses steam midway through and meanders until an eye popping scene of violence and gore towards the end of the film.

After a mining accident caused a miner named Harry Warden to lose his mind and kill a few people on Valentine's Day, the small town of Valentine's Bluff cancels any and all Valentine's Day celebrations. It's only when they decide to life the ban that the murders start back up again.

My Bloody Valentine has a nice working class cast of characters which adds to the realism. These aren't superficial high school students looking for a little fun, but real world adults who have real concerns. The murder sequences are shocking and nasty to this day and still take me off guard every time (especially in the uncut version). The dark, deserted mine location is claustrophobic and incredibly eerie.

A city-wide blackout helps three deranged madmen escape from a mental hospital and they head to the home of their psychiatrist to terrorize him and his family.

Director Jack Sholder demonstrates a good understanding of what makes horror films tick and he's able to load Alone in the Dark with a ton of great suspense sequences and scares. The performances are also better than average thanks to appearances by Donald Pleasance, Martin Landau, and Jack Palance.

A young opera singer gets the chance of a lifetime when a opera diva is injured and she gets to step into her role. This comes with a huge problem - there's an obsessive stalker who's killing everyone involved with her and wants her to watch the murders taking place by sticking needles under her eyes.

The central image of Opera - one with the needles placed under the eyelids of the leading lady so that she can't blink as she's watching people being brutally murdered - is a potent and disturbing image. Like many of Argento's films, it's filled with style and dramatic death sequences, but also a lot of silliness and weird writing. It's still more than worth your time.

A deranged serial killer with a fixation on his own abusive mother kills women in New York City, scalps them, and nails said scalps to mannequins in his apartment to feel less alone until, one day, he falls for a fashion photographer.

Maniac is the very definition of gritty. It's loaded with late 70's/early 80's NYC sleaze and grime and wallows in making the audience feel as uncomfortable as humanly possible. It's certainly not a "fun" slasher in the way the Friday the 13ths or Sleepaway Camps are. The whole thing is anchored by a fantastic central performance by Joe Spinell who's a great mixture of terrifying, pathetic, and even charming at times.

A brother and sister uncover a secret coven of witches that are lurking inside a New York apartment building and all hell breaks loose.

Dario Argento isn't a man known for his tightly written scripts and Inferno is no exception. It's a film all about mood, style, colorful lighting, and ghoulish murder set pieces than anything else and he delivers that in spades. A spiritual sequel to his Suspiria, he trades the pounding Goblin score for a very different one by Keith Emerson that's just as effective in its own way and feels similar to Jerry Goldsmith's work on The Omen films at times.

A bunch of people go into a creepy mansion and scary things start to happen.

That's about the best way one can describe Spookies. It's a good lesson of what happens when producers tinker with a film too much and add too many cooks in the kitchen. The fact that any element of Spookies works is a miracle. It still has that thrilling can-do indie film spirit and a myriad of excellent special monster effects, but it's a film that's better played on fast-forward since the story never convinces or gels together.

A trio of girlfriends go into the woods for a camping getaway and end up kidnapped and terrorized by a deranged woman and her two vicious sons.

More Last House on the Left than Friday the 13th, Mother's Day is a sick and twisted film that still has a decent sense of humor most of the time. The three leads are likable enough to root for them to break out of the hell they're going through and the three villains are admirably evil and disgusting enough to give you the creeps and pray that the three leads will give them a taste of their own medicine.

A small town cop investigates a series of bizarre murders where the victims reemerge days later looking like they were never killed to begin with.

Filled with a foggy seaside town atmosphere and great Stan Winston effects, Dead and Buried separates itself from the other horror films at the time with its tight Twilight Zone-esque storytelling, genuine chair-gripping jolts, and excellent twists on the classic zombie movie.

Vacationing teens break down and stop off at a seemingly abandoned old wax museum and are charmed by its jovial owner, but they're warned about going out after dark because his brother, Davey, isn't as kind and he doesn't care for new people.

Though the premise is a bit like a mashup of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Psycho, Tourist Trap always throws in a little bit of House of Wax and Carrie for good measure to make things even more bizarre. By the end, everything blends together in an unsettling dreamlike fashion and you start to feel like you're losing your mind. Mannequins come to life and coo at victims, objects fly around, and the leading lady appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown at any second.

An English musician working in Rome witnesses the brutal murder of a psychic and has to figure out who did it before he becomes the killer's next victim.

Blessed with a strong script and great performances by David Hemmings and Daria Niccolodi, Dario Argento's Deep Red is one of the best and tightest films in his career. The twists make some sort of logical sense most of the time and most of the characters behave in a semi-rational way. The visuals accompanied by the robust Goblin score mesmerize.

A woman inherits a spooky hotel in the deep south and, before she can restore it, strange things start happening leading her to find out that it contains one of the seven doors to hell and she'd better find a way to close it unless she wants the world to end.

For such an intense concept, The Beyond doesn't have an awful lot of urgency. It makes up for it with some really stunning sequences of gore and nightmare visuals which do entertain and keep it from being a bore. As with most Italian horror films, it's hard to judge the acting since all the performers have been dubbed and the dialogue isn't very good or believable to begin with.

Carrie Snodgress plays Louise, a repressed spinster caring for her elderly jerk of a father, played by Ray Milland. Her fiance disappeared nearly 20 years ago and she's never been the same since and doesn't have a chance of ever being normal thanks for her wicked father who doesn't want her to get better. When she befriends another woman at work, she starts taking chances and makes plan to improve her life, but will she ever be able to get herself together and make something of herself.

The Attic is less horror and more character study which will certainly turn off anyone expecting a thrill-a-minute gore fest, but if you give the film a chance, you might enjoy it. Snodgress and Milland are especially wonderful in their roles and it's definitely not a movie that you'll be forgetting anytime soon.

Fun-loving teens decide to have their Halloween party at the haunted Hull House and are possessed by bloodthirsty demons.

Rightly remembered with fondness by 80's horror fans, Night of the Demons might not be a life changing film, but it keeps the audience entertained incredibly well for around 90 minutes and features some jaw droppingly impressive special effects work and tons of Halloween mood. Just wait until you see what one of the female partygoers does with a tube of lipstick. You'll never be the same again.

After her sister is mysterious murdered during her first communion, young Alice's family falls apart as they all start blaming each other and suspect Alice might be more dangerous than your average spoiled pre-teen brat.

Alice, Sweet Alice has a mood like none other and isn't afraid to take some big risks while trying to surprise the audience and keep them on their toes. It follows no genre conventions or rules and keeps the surprises coming all the way to the end. You have to respect any horror film whose first victim is a young child who's killed in a church. That's a film that means business and it's this scene that leaves the viewer off balance for the rest of the film. If they'll do that, they'll do anything.

Two friends are recruited for a sneak preview of a new horror film by a mysterious man and, when they arrive at the theater, the demons featured on screen start to appearing the cinema itself, terrorizing them and infecting everyone.

The plot of Demons is slight, but the entertainment value outweighs any script issues or lack of strong characters. It's more of an experience you allow to wash over you. The special effects and transformation scenes are nothing short of stunning and the colorful lighting gives it a nicely nightmarish mood.

After 20 years, Candyman has returned for a sequel/reboot that's a lot stronger than I'd initially expected. Nia DaCosta's film follows a young artist who gets interesting the Candyman legend and, bit by bit, helps to bring his spirit back to claim more victims.

Dripping with mood and powered by a spooky electronic score, this new take on Candyman has all the atmosphere any horror fan could want, but it's frightfully low on scares and suspense. This isn't the fault of the cast (all of whom are excellent), but probably on the confusion that came about by having three writers credited on the screenplay. Interesting concepts are brought up and discarded without much thought, leaving the film feeling a little shaky and unsure of what it's trying to say. In spite of it all, it's still the best sequel in the franchise.