wes craven | the m0vie blog

Non-Review Review: Scream III

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Darren

Today, we’re reviewing the entire Scream trilogy. Sadly, I’ll have to wait to get a look at the latest instalment, but reviews of the first three will be going on-line throughout the day.

There are a lot of problems with Scream 3. It’s overlong, it’s more soap opera than horror, more camp parody than post modern deconstruction. It’s clear from the outset that very few of the people involved in the film had any interest in making it. However, its single most damning problem is that it has become exactly the type of bland and indistinct slasher movie that the first two films picked apart so skilfully.

Taking a stab at the trilogy...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: a nightmare on elm street, columbine, joss whedon, Kevin Williamson, List of Scream characters, Neve Campbell, non-review review, review, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, Slasher film, wes craven | 6 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Scream II

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Darren

Today, we’re reviewing the entire Scream trilogy. Sadly, I’ll have to wait to get a look at the latest instalment, but reviews of the first three will be going on-line throughout the day.

I actually like Scream 2 a great deal – perhaps as much as I enjoyed the original Scream. Which, to be honest, takes me by surprise because it’s a much weaker movie in a lot of ways, the most obvious being the fact that it sort of fizzles out in the third act. Still, there’s just something about the cheeky and energy of the sequel that grabs my attention and keeps it, as if moving the series from a stereotypical high school and into a college film class. Of course, as Randy the resident film buff points out, the only thing more stereotypical than high school slasher movies are college slasher movies, but there’s just something cool about the fact that most of the cast (rather than just Randy) are relatively genre savvy this time around.

Film Buff-y?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Drew Barrymore, Horror film, Jamie Kennedy, Joshua Jackson, liev schreiber, List of Scream characters, Omar Epps, Red Right Hand, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Scream, Scream 2, Slasher film, Timothy Olyphant, tom cruise, top gun, wes craven | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: Scream

Posted on May 20, 2011 by Darren

Today, we’re reviewing the entire Scream trilogy. Sadly, I’ll have to wait to get a look at the latest instalment, but reviews of the first three will be going on-line throughout the day.

It’s hard to really look back at Scream in context these days. It was released in the mid-nineties, a period where the slasher movie had all but died off, after series after series produced weaker and weaker instalments. Audiences had been sort of numbed to the impact of the slasher film as a genre, expecting the bland stock scares, the stereotypical mumbo-jumbo, the teen angst, the sexual politics and even the unstoppable killer. It’s not too much of a stretch to believe that Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson intended the movie as something of an epilogue for the genre, a not-too-fond farewell to the type of films that had been churned out since the seventies, with never a hint of growth and development.

A dead line?

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: do you like scary movies?, Drew Barrymore, Ghostface, Horror film, horror movies, Kevin Williamson, michael myers, non-review review, review, Scream, Slasher film, slasher movies, wes craven | Leave a comment »

Non-Review Review: The Evil Dead

Posted on March 29, 2011 by Darren

This is a post as part of “Raimi-fest”, the event being organised by the always wonderful Bryce over at Things That Don’t Suck.

Sam Raimi’s original Evil Dead is actually a pretty decent addition to the zero-budget teens-go-up-to-the-woods-today-and-are-sure-of-a-big-surprise subgenre. It’s a trashy horror which demonstrates a deeper affinity for the genre than a lot of other “video nasty” slasher films are prone to. However, while the film displays clear hints of the director’s developing skill, it still feels just a little bit too much like another random exploitation “schlock and shock” film.

Axe any questions you might have...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Ash Williams, bruce campbell, Bryce, england, evil dead, film, films, horror, Horror film, Mary Whitehouse, Movies, non-review review, review, sam raimi, schlock, shining, spider man, video nasty, wes craven | 1 Comment »

Non-Review Review: Last House on the Left (2009)

Posted on November 15, 2009 by Darren

Wes Craven is a very odd man. On one hand, you have the luminary who gave us the breathtakingly original slants on the horror movie which we saw in A Nightmare on Elm Street, New Nightmare and the Scream franchise, along with his talent as a straight-forward thriller director in Red Eye. On the other hand you have the king of schlock, the man behind pointless gore fests like the original Last House on the Left or The Hills Have Eyes or even Dracula 2000. And, on a third severed hand you’d probably find lying around his trailer somewhere, you have the Wes Craven who wholeheartedly approves and supports schlokier remakes of his schlokiest films. Like this, the remake of Last House on the Left.

The only thing to fear is the quality of the movie itself...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brutalisation, feminism, film, horror, last house on the left, Movie, non-review review, remake, review, slasher, the last house on the left, victimisation, wes craven | Leave a comment »

The “True Story” Behind A Nightmare of Elm Street…

Posted on October 13, 2009 by Darren

Halloween is coming up soon and we plan to celebrate it in style here at the m0vie blog. We’ll be looking at all manner of scary archetypes and horror conventions as that day approaches. Evidently, I’m already in the right frame of mind. I just found out that the original A Nightmare on Elm Street is based (very loosely, I must admit) on a true story. I’m not kidding, it’s actually quite freaky.