Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Us (2019)
Us is a film comprised of foreshadowing, nuance, and ambition. There is a lot of talk of coincidences, clones, and tunnels. There are clones in tunnels.
The concept is foreshadowed for 30 minutes before the plot really starts moving. It’s a psychological horror movie that feels a little like a political thriller. While a film’s tone should normally not take so long to establish, the movie earns its time, using it to educate the audience on the goings on, and there are several surprises.
Thursday, November 19, 2020
Wrong Turn (2003)
Does Wrong Turn warrant critical analysis? I think so. One would expect a new franchise in the slasher genre to be warmly received, especially during the dry spell of the 2000s. It’s The Hills Have Eyes (1977) meets Deliverance (1972). Both films are more artful by a mile, but Wrong Turn has the magic formula of idiots going into the woods and not coming out.
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Jason X (2001)
It’s Friday the 13th in space. Rarely does such a collision of genres exceed expectations. When your expectations are anchored in a character with Jason’s long and varied history, anything is possible.
Sunday, November 8, 2020
Scream (1996)
The only true slasher franchises (stories built around mythical, unstoppable serial killers) are Halloween and Friday the 13th. All of the others have villains who are either too sympathetic or too impotent to rack up a real body count and make the audience jump. Scream falls into that large category of wannabe slasher films, more of a Scary Movie (2000) than an actual scary movie.
This is a horror-comedy that is too clever for its own good, satirizing rather than celebrating. Intentional comedy belongs in comedy films rather than horror films. The unintentional kind is funnier anyways. Not that Scream is a bad movie. It’s pretty enjoyable, but it could have been better in different hands.
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Friday the 13th (2009)
The evolution of Jason Voorhees from slasher movie villain to folk hero is an interesting story with the entire franchise taken into account. However, the story in each individual film is usually dull. This one is over-hyped, slow, willfully stupid, and the MPAA probably cut it to pieces. In other words a perfect Friday the 13th movie.