wes craven | the m0vie blog

New Escapist Column! On How “Scream 4” Took the Franchise’s Self-Awareness to Its Logical Endpoint…

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Darren

We’re launching a new column at The Escapist, called Out of Focus. It will publish every Wednesday, and the plan is to use it to look at some film and television that would maybe fall outside the remit of In the Frame, more marginal titles or objects of cult interest. With the upcoming release of Scream VI, it seemed like a good opportunity to take a look back at the criminally underrated Scream 4.

The last film in the franchise to be written by Kevin Williamson or directed by Wes Craven, Scream 4 exists in a weird space. It is separated from the two film either side of it by more than a decade, the only point in time where the franchise wasn’t coming out on a regular basis. However, it’s a movie that feels very firmly ahead of its time. It was released years before Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and David Gordon Green’s Halloween, but it feels in conversation with a wider culture caught in a feedback loop of Gen X nostalgia.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: 1990s, Emma Roberts, franchise, gen x, horror, Kevin Williamson, meta, nineties, nostalgia, out of focus, Scream, self-awareness, slasher, wes craven | Leave a comment »

New Escapist Column! On “Scream 2” as the Perfect Slasher Sequel…

Posted on October 19, 2022 by Darren

I published a new In the Frame piece at The Escapist last week. With the film’s 25th anniversary approaching and Halloween coming up, it seemed like a good time to talk about Scream 2, Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven’s underrated slasher sequel.

Scream 2 is in many ways the perfect sequel to a smash success like the original Scream, despite its rushed and troubled production. Scream 2 is a movie that manages to both double-down on what made Scream so compelling, while also honing in on the emotional heart of the story being told. It’s the rare sequel that manages to heighten an already heightened premise, without ever losing sight of the characters within the story. It’s clever, it’s funny, but it’s also very sharply observed.

You can read the piece here, or click the picture below.

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: academic, escapist, film criticism, halloween, horror, in the frame, meta, Scream, Scream 2, self-aware, slasher, tragedy, trauma, wes craven | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Psycho (1960)

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Darren

Psycho is a masterpiece from Alfred Hitchcock, a uniquely American horror story that redefined and codified the horror genre. Even after one has already seen the film, and knows the twists and the plotting detours that Hitchcock’s adaptation of Robert Bloch’s novel might make, it’s still a powerful and compelling piece of cinema. Hitchcock laid a template here that would inform generations of horror films that followed, with the DNA of Psycho to be found even in the most unlikely of places.

“You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave…”

Note: Hitchcock famously guarded the ending to this project. “Don’t give away the ending — it’s the only one we have!” he pleaded in advertisements. However, it has been fifty-two years, so I fear that the statute of limitations on potential spoilers has expired. After all, Psycho has been so massively influential it’s hard not to know what happens. If, by some fluke, you know nothing about the film… see it! See it now! We’ll still be here when you get back.

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: alfred hitchcock, art, AT&T, Edward Hopper, film, graphic design, Graphic Designers, gus van sant, halloween, hitchcock, Janet Leigh, Movie, non-review review, Norman, Norman Bates, Psycho, review, Robert Bloch, Saul Bass, United States, wes craven | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Final Destination

Posted on June 12, 2012 by Darren

I am actually quite fond of the original Final Destination. Don’t get me wrong, it has its flaws (and some very fundamental ones at that) and the sequels drove the concept into the ground, but it actually has a fairly original premise for a teen horror movie. I’m fond of horror as a genre, and I’ll freely admit that I’m quite exhausted by the perpetual cycle of slasher movies or ghost stories or ghost story slasher movies. Instead of adhering rigidly to the conventions of the teen horror film, Final Destination feels like something of a breath of fresh air. It’s a well-constructed teen horror movie, even if it does fall into many of the same traps and issues.

Ali onboard…

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Adolescence, Alex, art, Baby, birthday, Blankets and Bedding, children, Diaper, film, final destination, Glen Morgan, god, Horror film, John Denver, Movie, non-review review, review, Seann William Scott, Shopping, Slasher film, Toilet, Tony Todd, Transportation, United States, wes craven | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Scream 4 (Scre4m)

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Darren

Alright, Kirby, then it’s time for your last chance. Name the remake of the groundbreaking horror movie in which the vill…

Halloween, uh, Texas Chainsaw, Dawn of the Dead, The Hills Have Eyes, Amityville Horror, uh, Last House on the Left, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare On Elm Street, My Bloody Valentine, When A Stranger Calls, Prom Night, Black Christmas, House of Wax, The Fog, Piranha. It’s one of those, right? Right?

(beat)

I got it right. I was &@#!ing right.

– Ghostface and Kirby redefine the frame of reference

In many ways, Scream 4 feels like a fitting end to the Scream franchise. In fact, it feels like it has come something of a full circle from the first film, which was envisaged as something of an obituary for the dying slasher genre. In the years since, prompted in a large part by the success of the original Scream, the genre has been resurrected. Watching the grind of horror films released, it seems that Hollywood has been churning out nothing but empty roman-numeral-denoted sequels and hallow remakes, with very little thought or creativity. Scream 4 feels a like a reflection on the “success” that the first film wrought, and actually feelings like a fitting closing act.

It's going viral...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: criticism, deconstruction, Emma Roberts, feminism, feminism in movies, films, gender roles, Ghostface, horror, irony, Jill Roberts, John Carpenter, Kevin Williamson, metafiction, Movie, non-review review, review, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Sidney Prescott, slashers, wes craven | 7 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Darren

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is probably the funniest movie I’ve seen in a long time. I’ll admit that I probably skew a little bit towards it, what with being a fan of cheesy horror movies and a sucker for a high concept comedy, but Eli Craig’s cinematic debut feature is a masterful comedic deconstruction of the conventional horror film, daring to turn genre conventions on their head and ask: why do we always side with the college students in these sorts of films?

What a waist...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Alan Tudyk, Dale, Eli Craig, film, Hills Have Eyes, Horror film, Movie, non-review review, review, Tucker, Tucker & Dale vs Evil, Tyler Labine, wes craven | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Tremors

Posted on January 20, 2012 by Darren

Man, I love Tremors. I’m a professed B-movie geek who grew up on the particularly cheesy Wes Craven and John Carpenter films of the seventies and eighties, who has always harboured a soft spot for playful monster movies, so I reckon I’m the film’s target audience. Tremors is one of those affectionate throwbacks, those movies that don’t just aim to evoke a particular genre and time period (as The Expendables was a generis eighties action movie produced twenty-five years too later) so much as offer an up-to-date and self-aware reinvention of them (as Spielberg produced a thirties adventure serial with modern sensibilities in Raiders of the Lost Ark, or Rodriguez offered a brutally hilarious modern-day Mex-ploitation film in Machete). Tremors is basically a fifties B-movie produced with late eighties A-list talent and self-awareness.

The town's gone to ground...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Bacon, Brent Maddock, Earth Sciences, Fossil, fred ward, John Carpenter, kevin bacon, non-review review, Paleontology, Peter Lindbergh, raiders of the lost ark, review, Ron Underwood, Russians, Tremors, Vertebrates, wes craven, wilson | 6 Comments »

My Best of 2011: Black Swan & The Elevation of Schlock…

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Darren

It’s that time of the year. To celebrate 2011, and the countdown to 2012, I’m going to count down my own twelve favourite films of the year, one a day until New Year’s Eve. I’m also going to talk a bit about how or why I chose them, and perhaps what makes this list “my” best of 2011, rather than any list claiming to be objective.

Black Swan is number six. Check out my original review here.

It’s interesting, how one can end up loving the same films, for very different reasons. I suspect that a great many critics and commentators lavish praise on Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan for its elegance and sophistication, which I appreciate and admire. There’s a lot to love about the film. However, my own appreciation of the movie seems to be for a very different reason. I think that what makes Black Swan so utterly compelling is the fact that it’s essentially a classic horror movie elevated to the status of fine art.

Continue reading →

Filed under: On Second Thought | Tagged: Academy Award, Aronofsky, arts, best films of 2011, black swan, christian bale, Darren Aronofsky, film, Machinist, mila kunis, Movie, my best of 2011, my favourite films of 2011, Natalie Portman, New Year, oscar, silence of the lambs, swan lake, wes craven | 4 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Ringu

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Darren

There are a handful of movies I will forever associate with a particular viewing experience – and some with the first time I had seen a given movie. I remember, for instance, seeing Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the first time with my father in the local cinema during its nineties re-release. When I think of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, I recall the time I had to sit in the hall while the grown-ups watched it. Anytime I see The Shining, I think back to watching it in the wee hours of the morning with gran and granddad. The Japanese cult horror Ringu is something of a similar experience.

All's well that ends well...

Continue reading →

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: arts, film, Gore Verbinski, Horror film, John Carpenter, Movie, non-review review, review, ringu, Television, the ring, vhs, wes craven, Woody Allen | 10 Comments »

The Movies Made Me Do It: Media Sensationalism and the Influence of Violence on Behavior…

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Darren

I had the good fortune to watch the first three films in the Scream series last week, and it was quite an entertaining little experience. Well, mostly – the third one kinda sucks, but let’s not get into that here. I picked up on quite few things I’d missed the last time I’d seen them, about seven or eight years ago, and one of the most interesting themes played with over the course of the series was the idea that violence in films serves as some sort of influence on kids, desensitising and even encouraging the practice of violence upon others. It’s a fascinating topic, one that I personally feel quite strongly about – but, at the same time, it’s a subject so big and so controversial that it’s probably quite difficult to make a new or witty observation upon. Still, the films inspired me to revisit the premise, and to ponder to myself.