A masked serial killer turns a horror-themed amusement park into his own personal playground, terrorizing a group of friends while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show. (IMDB)
Couldn’t I write such a basic synopsis myself? Yes
Am I too lazy to do it? Yes
Is the movie related to the yearly Metal festival? No
Do we love Metal? Yes, enough with the questions! (who even asks questions to himself?)
We watched it on November 14th and I can’t remember much of it but it doesn’t matter because the story isn’t the strong point of a slasher movie (kids get scarred by a creepy killer, kids run and yell, kids die), what matters is the atmosphere and Hellfest has it right.
Two of the biggest deal breakers were avoided: the rhythm wasn’t slowed down by unnecessary drama and it wasn’t a psychological movie disguised as an horror flick.
Ok, just one last question: will I make an effort and try to post sooner, so I don’t forget half of the movie when I’m writing about it? Yes, I promise.
I remember watching the first Scream in 1996 at the theatre with my friends. It was a great Saturday eve slasher, and I loved it. I can still hear the iconic “Hello Sidney”, I think that these 2 words are imprinted in a lot of minds of people of my generation. However, after my disappointment with the second and third movie, I completely gave up on the franchise, and forgot it even existed. Until a new Scream was released this year.
It was fun seeing the old cast back in action, even though I have mixed feelings about Courteney Cox. I know that getting old isn’t easy, whether your appearance is mandatory or not. Every one I know suffers the same fate, and I understand that some people try to escape the inevitability by going to a plastic surgeon. Yet, I think that in most cases plastic surgery makes things far worse than they are. Honestly, I didn’t know whether to be scared of the killer(s) or Courteney Cox’ appearance.
Regardless, Scream 5 was a fun watch and brought back a lot of memories. Don’t expect anything deep though. I pity the ones who watch a slasher movie, and write a bad review cause they expected an award winning quality. Scream is what it is, a perfect Saturday Eve horror movie, and I’m glad a 6th one’ll be released in 2023. To be continued…
Fear Street is a giant slasher movie that’s divided in 3 parts covering 3 different periods in the town of Shadyside. It starts with the most recent: 1994, then moves to a summer camp in 70s and ends with the witch hunt times (1666).
All three movies, while very different in flavour, revolve around the same curse that’s been plaguing the town of Shadyside for over 300 years.
Each of these three movies is really good but, taken together, they’re even better because the master plot that connects them is really well written. Finally a modern slasher that’s as good, if not better, as the classics.
Halloween wouldn’t be Halloween without Michael Myers’ annual killing spree. We usually watch the original while eating our pumpkin oven pasta, but this year we were in for a treat with the new and gory Halloween Kills.
The opening few minutes were awesome, it had the great vibe of the original and looked very promising. It’s always great to see Jamie Lee Curtis again. Too bad they decided to throw in a never-ending scene with a lynch mob yelling “evil dies tonight” resulting in the suicide of an innocent man. I could have lived without that scene, it was chaotic and way too long to be good. The death count throughout the entire movie was huge though and some of the kills were rather creative and gory, the right recipe for a good slasher.
I’ve read somewhere that the firefighters appearing in the opening scene are the actual firefighters from Cannon Air Force Base Fire Department. From firefighter to movie star, they must have had a lot of fun shooting this scene.
Maybe the movie wasn’t a milestone in the horror cinema, but it was perfect for setting this years Halloween vibe.
On imdB, they published the following in trivia: Halloween (2018) was released 40 years after Halloween (1978). Halloween Kills (2021) was released 40 years after Halloween II (1981). Halloween Ends (2022) is set to be released 40 years after Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982). This means that next year the 13th Halloween movie will be released. Hopefully it’ll come out before October 31st.
The title is deceptive because the franchise actually counts 12 movies (why go that far and not making a 13th?).
Like Part III, the film was originally supposed to be the final installment in the series. It’s not entirely bad, it even has a few good parts, especially those with Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover’s dance scene. However, this is where our full rerun ends. If I remember well, the next chapters are not worth watching, unless you’re a hardcore fan, or you’re really bored.
I wish I could say something nice about the third movie of the franchise, but I really can’t come up with anything. The jokes are bad, the action is tedious and the actors are not really good.
I actually write this post to remember that we shouldn’t watch it again… It’s the second time that we watch it and, hopefully, this post will keep us from watching it a third time.
Jason’s mum is dead, and Camp Crystal Lake is shut down, but a camp next to the infamous place hosts a counselor-in-training program.
Let’s get this out of the way: starting a movie with a recap from the previous chapter is bad and useless. With that in mind, I already enjoyed the start of the movie much less than the original. As for the rest, I wish that I could keep in mind that it was 1981 and that slashers were a brand new genre… Unfortunately, I can’t. I write this post in 2021 and I’ve seen a lot of better movies since then. I can’t erase 40 years of horror just to write an objective piece.
The second part of Friday The 13th is not horrible but it isn’t good either, the new camp crew is boring, the kills are uninventive and unentertaining and the end is unsatisfying. This sequel is like its vilain, ever-decomposing and always returning to screw something that was fun.
Every Friday night we watch an episode of American Horror Story, I already loved the TV-show, but 1984 is amazing! We’ve skipped a few seasons only to watch this one, and it was worth it. Weirdly enough, season 9 got a lot of bad reviews. In my opinion, it’s one of the best seasons with such an electrifying 80’s vibe, it makes you want to plunge into the Camp Redwood bloodbath.
While it doesn’t fail to capitalise on Camp Crystal Lake references, Jason Voorhees, or the notorious serial killer Richard Ramirez, the TV-show is full of 1980’s nostalgia with a compelling story that keeps you engaged. You have to hand it to the creators, they’ve got it all right, from the aerobics-scenes, to the music (Kajagoogoo, Billy Idol, Greg Kihn,…), the fashion,… it’s a straight trip down memory lane. The opening credits alone are worth the watch:
Also, the casting is as great as always, among my favourite characters this season: Matthew Morrison (Trevor), Emma Roberts (Brooke), Billie Lourd (Montana), and Zach Villa (Richard Ramirez). The scenes have enough gore and horror to keep any slasher fan entertained, and has a somewhat happy and satisfying end. AHS 1984 is an instant add to our regular rerun list, now I only have to find it on blu-ray and we’re all set.
While trying to help a girl who’s running away from a killer, a young guy has to fight (and eventually participate in a quiz) to survive.
This sequel may be more gore and more violent, but it is also less enjoyable than the original. There’s a lot of dialogues, too much for a high tension slasher.
Warning: Spoilers below!
A lot of scenes are really good, but the rhythm of the movie is broken during the quiz scene. It was a good idea, but it takes too long for the captive to only lose a finger. Also, the end is disappointing. Spending so much time to capture the victim, only to release him with a note “you lose”?! It’s as if a porn movie would stop right before the final scene.
All in all, not a bad horror movie, just a disappointing sequel.
Three backpackers decide to have a road trip in the Australia outbacks. At some point, their car refuses to start and they are stranded in Wolf Creek. Later that night, a local approaches them and offers to repair their car. After a few hours towing in the dark Australian desert, they finally arrive at his place and fall asleep, only to wake up to their worst nightmare.
This time, no American hillbillies, it all happens in Australia. Naturally, we were a bit scared, Australian horror is often a hit or miss (and we witnessed more misses than hits). But Wolf Creek is great, it manages to replace the often goofy killer by a very creepy psychopath.
John Jaratt, well known in Australia at the time as the host of a gardening show, is a method actor and spent weeks living in the Australian desert preparing for the role of Mick Taylor. In addition he also avoided bathing before shooting so he would have a much more rugged appearance.
At one point during the shooting of the scene where Mick is torturing Kristy whilst Liz looks through the window, director Greg McLean wanted to get a shot of Cassandra’s POV, so he cleared the crew out of the shed in which the scene was being shot, leaving only the two actors inside. When he called action, they began playing the scene, however, after a minute, Mclean became convinced that Jarratt had gone too far and that Morassi’s cries for help were genuine. He burst into the shed only to find both actors stunned at the disruption. Morassi was fine – it had simply been the intensity of her performance which had fooled Mclean.
Unbeknown to the crew the abandoned mine where they chose to film had actually been the site of the real life murder of a woman. The filming prompted a protest from locals who erroneously thought the film was about those events.
A very eerie coincidence occurred for the second unit crew sent out to get footage of the Wolf Creek Crater. Since the location was many hours from any town the small crew decided to camp out in their car at the site after shooting. During the night a mysterious stranger showed up in a truck to investigate. The stranger indeed looked very much like the character of Mick Taylor, right down to the rustic truck. The stranger left, but the crew was so spooked that they drove an hour down the road before finally stopping to camp for the night. (source: IMDB)
Wolf Creek became Australia’s highest grossing R rated film with a box office achievements of $5,970,770.
I actually have a nephew who moved to Australia a few years ago… So, Thomas, if you read this, avoid the outbacks, don’t trust the locals and don’t drink their water.
