Comics Review: "ELVIRA in Horrorland Volume 1 #4" on Elm Street

ELVIRA IN HORRORLAND VOLUME 1 #4
DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

STORY: David Avallone
ART: Silvia Califano
COLORS: Walter Pereya
LETTERS: Taylor Esposito
EDITOR: Joseph Rybandt
COVER: Dave Acosta and Jason Moore
32pp, Color, $3.99 U.S. (September 2022)

Rated Teen+

Chapter Four: “The Man of Your Dreams”

In 1981, actress and model Cassandra Peterson created the “horror hostess character,” known as “Elvira.”  Elvira gradually grew in popularity and eventually became a brand name.  As Elvira, Peterson endorsed many products and became a pitch-woman, appearing in numerous television commercials throughout the 1980s.

Elvira also appeared in comic books, beginning in 1986 with the short-lived series from DC Comics, Elvira's House of Mystery.  In 2018, Elvira returned to comic books via Dynamite Entertainment.  Elvira's latest comic book series is Elvira in Horrorland Volume 1.  The series is written by David Avallone; drawn by Silvia Califano; colored by Walter Pereyra; and lettered by Taylor Esposito.  The series finds Elvira trapped in the Multiverse of Movies (a bunch of “pocket dimensions” created by the existence of movies) with only the illusive “Remote Control of Federico Fellini” capable of returning her home.

Elvira in Horrorland Volume 1 #4 (“The Man of Your Dreams”) opens in a new world.  Elvira is still looking for the same old remote control.  Now, the Mistress of the Dark is taking on dream master, Teddy Luger, “the Man of Your Nightmares.”  As Elvira attempts to escape this nightmare – even the “New Nightmare – she will, however, find herself facing blame and more trouble.

THE LOWDOWN:  Since July 2021, Dynamite Entertainment's marketing department has been providing me with PDF review copies of some of their titles.  One of them is Elvira in Horrorland Volume 1 #4, one of many Dynamite/David Avallone Elvira comic books that I have read and enjoyed.

When I first saw Wes Craven's beloved horror film, A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), I was scared outta my mind.  Over the decades, I have seen it many times, and while it scares me less, it is not by much less.  Thanks to several sequels and a reboot, Wes Craven's film and its signature monster, Freddy Krueger, are ripe for funnin' and poking.

Writer David Avallone is merciless, and artist Silvia Califano slaps the creepy atmosphere and spooky cinematography right out of the cinema of Elm Street.  Suddenly, a horror fave is merely an exercise of characters running around, waiting for something to happen to them.  It is somewhat painful to watch Avallone and Califano kick the stuffings out of the original and its follow-ups (some of which I really like).  If they were really mean, they could have gone into the … closet after one of the sequels.

So I say, keep having fun with Elvira in Horrorland.  Oh, and I like the wet dream joke.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Elvira and of David Avallone's Elvira comic books will want to read Elvira in Horrorland Volume 1.

A-

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"


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The text is copyright © 2022 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog or site for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

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Remembering Wes Craven: "The Hills Have Eyes" Review

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 106 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)
Running time:  89 minutes (1 hour, 29 minutes)
MPAA – X
EDITOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Wes Craven
PRODUCER:  Peter Locke
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Eric Saarinen (D.o.P.)
COMPOSER:  Don Peake

HORROR/THRILLER

Starring:  Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, Martin Speer, Dee Wallace, Russ Grieve, Virginia Vincent, John Steadman, James Whitmore, Lance Gordon, Michael Berryman, Janus Blythe, Cordy Clark, Brenda Marinoff, Peter Locke, and Flora

The Hills Have Eyes is a 1977 exploitation and horror film written, edited, and directed by Wes Craven.  The film follows a California-bound family that has the misfortune of having car trouble in an area closed to the public and inhabited by violent savages.

Big Bob Carter (Russ Grieve) and his wife, Ethel (Virginia Vincent), are taking their children, son-in-law, and baby granddaughter to California when they accidentally go through an Air Force testing range.  They crash their car and trailer and are stranded in the desert.  Later that night, as the family looks for help, a cannibalistic clan attacks the family.  One by one, the clan picks off family members until the inbred marauders have left only half the family alive.  It’s up to the remaining members to fight back, rescue the kidnapped infant, and seek vengeance against their savage attackers.

A low budget 70’s horror film by horror master, director Wes Craven, The Hills Have Eyes helped Craven’s then growing reputation as a maker of fright flicks, especially coming on the heels of Last House on the Left.  The monsters really aren’t supernatural monsters, but they’re like the killers in Last House – savage humans living beyond even the farthest boundaries of civilization.   They are such outcasts that even domestic pets have a higher place in society than they do.

Forget the assumptions about Craven as a horror filmmaker.  The Hills Have Eyes is also a dramatic thriller about people fighting for their survival, even if that fight means the brutal deaths of their antagonists.  The Hills Have Eyes isn’t a great film, but it has its moments.  And like the best thrillers and horror films, The Hills Have Eyes is unsettling, frank, raw, and unrefined.  It’s not among Craven’s best work, but deserves to be seen as part of his larger body of filmmaking.  The Hills Have Eyes is a must see for true horror fans, and Michael Berryman as Pluto has become an iconic image in the horror film genre.

5 of 10
C+

Revised: Monday, August 31, 2015


The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Negromancer News Bits and Bites for September 1st to 5th, 2015 - Update #3

Support Leroy on Patreon.

NEWS:

From TheWrap:  Paramount has a release date for "Jack Reacher 2" (Oct. 1, 2016).

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From YahooSports:  Sony email hack reveals that Sony was afraid of the wrath of the NFL concerning the Will Smith film, "Concussion."

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From THR:  The Hollywood Reporter's "Critic's Notebook" looks at the work of famed horror director, Wes Craven, who died Sunday, August 31st, 2015.

From THR:  Hollywood reacts to passing of Wes Craven.

From YahooTV:  Wes Craven's legacy in TV.

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From Variety:  It's not too early for Oscar narratives.


COMICS - Films and Books:

From THR:  Kevin Feige is free at Marvel Studios.


OBITS:

From Variety:  The actor Dean Jones died at the age of 84, on Tuesday, September 1, 2015.  He was known for his appearance in Disney movies, including "The Love Bug" and "That Darn Cat."

Review: "Last House on the Left" (Remembering Wes Craven)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 156 (of 2003) by Leroy Douresseaux

Last House on the Left (1972)
Running time:  84 minutes (1 hour, 24 minutes)
MPAA – X
EDITOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR:  Wes Craven
PRODUCER:  Sean S. Cunningham
CINEMATOGRAPHER:  Victor Hurwitz (D.o.P.)
COMPOSER:  David Alexander Hess

HORROR/THRILLER with elements of crime and drama

Starring:  Mari Collingwood, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred Lincoln, Jeramie Rain, Marc Sheffler, Gaylord St. James, Cynthia Carr, Marshall Anker, and Martin Kove

Last House on the Left is a 1972 horror and exploitation film written, directed, and edited by Wes Craven.  The film was inspired by the 1960 Swedish film, The Virgin Spring, directed by Ingmar Bergman and written by Ulla Isaksson.  Last House on the Left focuses on the murder of two teenage girls by a quartet of psychotic criminals and the subsequent vengeance of one of the girls' parents.

Horror master Wes Craven’s (A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream) first film, Last House on the Left, is nothing like his later work.  A film of unflinching brutality, it is shocking in the immediacy of its horror, and it is matter-of-fact in the way it portrays murder.  As a horror film, Last House on the Left is not supernatural, nor does it have any of the conventions of the “slasher flicks” that would grow to mass popularity in the late 70’s and into the late 90’s, including films that would be the work of Craven.

Mari Collingwood (Sandra Cassel) is celebrating Sweet Sixteen with her rebellious friend, Phyllis Stone (Lucy Grantham), when the pair encounters a gang of sadistic criminals.  The evil bunch  kidnaps them, and when the girls try to escape, the gang members hunt and kill them.  They disembowel Phyllis, and the lead thug, Krug Stillo (David Hess), rapes (in probably the sloppiest and most pathetic rape scene in film history) and shoots Mari.

Later, the gang unwittingly stumbles upon the home of Dr. William (Gaylord St. James) and Estelle Collingwood (Cynthia Carr), Mari’s parents, and become their guests.  When the parents discover that their daughter was murdered at the hands of their guests, the couple quickly and savagely begins to slay their daughter’s murderers.

The acting is nothing short of remarkable.  Combined with Craven’s documentary style of filmmaking, Last House on the Left seems very real – kind of jerky, shaky and bloody.  Watching it is like being in the middle of some crazy incident and then having to run madly from one corner to another to find safety.  From the prolonged torture of the teenage girls to the speedy dispatching of the bad guys, Last House on the Left is a jolt of a violent voyeurism.  Part crime drama and part thriller, it is a horror movie like no other.  Disquieting, it is a shunned corner in the mirror of its time – the dirty and worn ends of the hippie era.  At times, it seems too raw and too unpolished, but the movie still leaves you shaking your head and saying, “What the hell…”

7 of 10
B+

Revised: Monday, August 31, 2015

The text is copyright © 2015 Leroy Douresseaux. All Rights Reserved. Contact this blog for reprint and syndication rights and fees.

Negromancer News Bits and Bites for August 23rd to August 31st, 2015 - Update #16

Support Leroy on Patreon.

NEWS:

From THR:  Famed film writer/director, Wes Craven, has died of brain cancer, Sunday, August 30, 2015.

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From BoxOfficeMojo:  "Straight Outta Compton" is the #1 movie at the box office for the 8/28 to 8/30/15 weekend.  This is the film's third consecutive week at #1.

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From DigitalSpy:  Tid bits on "Jurassic World" sequel.

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From CinemaBlend:  Woody Allen replaces Bruce Willis with Steve Carell.

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From Deadline:  Lee Daniels' Richard Pryor biopic is apparently a go with a list of hot stars.

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From YahooMovies:  Six actors who sabotaged their own careers.

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From Variety:  Amazon preps TV series based on "Galaxy Quest."

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From InformedComment and IReadsYou:  Natalie Portman on genocide.

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From SlashFilm:  Vin Diesel confirms xXx sequel to start filming in December.

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From BoxOfficeMojo:  "Straight Outta Compton" wins the 8/21 to 8/23/15 weekend box office with an estimated take of $26.8 million dollars.

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From Variety:  Universal and Disney dominate Summer 2015 box office, leaving not much for the other studios.


COMICS - Films and Books:

From CinemaBlend:  Guardians of the Galaxy spinoffs.

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From Variety:  In an exclusive story, Variety is reporting that Marvel is courting Mads Mikkelsen to play a villain in Doctor Strange.

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From SlashFilm:  The "Blade" film franchise may be revived, but focus on Blade's daughter, Fallon Grey.  Grey is supposed to be the lead in an upcoming Blade comic book revival from Marvel Comics.


REVIEWS:

From VillageVoice:  A review of "Z for Zachariah" by Stephanie Zacharek.


OBITS:

From ESPN:  Former NBA basketball player, Darryl Dawkins, died Thursday, August 27, 2015.  Known as "Chocolate Thunder," Dawkins is remembered for his backboard-shattering dunks and also for the naming of the dunks.  I thought that he was so cool and that he remained cool in retirement.  Negromancer sends condolences to his family.  R.I.P. Mr. Dawkins.

Black Mask's "The Disciples" Comic Book Headed to Cable Television

The Disciples are coming...

Wes Craven & Steve Niles team for 'The Disciples' Adaptation

As reported by The Hollywood Reporter (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/wes-craven-adapt-steve-niles-783358), horror maestros Wes Craven and Steve Niles are joining forces to adapt Black Mask's upcoming comic book THE DISCIPLES into a TV show for Universal Cable Productions with Niles' Black Mask co-founders Matt Pizzolo and Brett Gurewitzexecutive producing alongside Industry Entertainment's Sara Bottfeld. THE DISCIPLES marks Black Mask's latest foray into TV, joining the adaptation of FIVE GHOSTS that Black Mask has in development at Syfy with Evan Daugherty (Snow White And The Huntsman) writing the pilot.

THE DISCIPLES is a sci-fi/horror story about a team of interstellar private eyes tracking down a girl who's run off to join a cult on Jupiter's moon Ganymede... it's 'True Detective in space' brought to you courtesy of Steve Niles (30 DAYS OF NIGHT) and Christopher Mitten (UMBRAL).

Niles co-founded Black Mask Studios with Pizzolo and Gurewitz in 2013 as a home for edgy and subversive comics. At the time, Niles described the company's mission: "If V For Vendetta were created today, there would be no publisher for it... we want to be that publisher."

Niles and Pizzolo wanted to be sure the company established itself as a champion of bold creators rather than an outfit for distributing their own works, so they held back on participating in the creative side until after the company had established itself with its four initial releases: the political anthology OCCUPY COMICS, Darick Robertson's transreal cyberpunk adventure BALLISTIC, Ghostface Killah's TWELVE REASONS TO DIE, and animal-avenging vigilantes tale LIBERATOR. When the second slate was announced, Niles' THE DISCIPLES and Pizzolo's YOUNG TERRORISTS joined the dramatically expanded roster including Grant Morrison and Vanesa Del Rey's SINATORO.

Designed to find new ways of supporting creators, Black Mask has consistently sought innovative, fresh ways to reach new audiences and help them discover smart creator-owned comics -- the most recent example being the YouTube 'tubecomics' initiative reported on by The NY Times.

Disciples #1 streets May 27th.  It's not too late to pre-order issue one at a local comic shop using Diamond order code: MAR151018

Synopsis for Diamond Comics Distribution solicitation:
Dagmar, Rick, and Jules, intrepid private eyes/bounty hunters, have been hired by a high ranking Senator to retrieve his teenage daughter who's run off to join a mysterious religious cult.

This is no ordinary cult though. In the near future of "The Disciples," the ultra-wealthy have become true Masters Of The Universe by colonizing moons throughout the solar system. Billionaire industrialist McCauley Richmond is one such colonist: he's built a new society on Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter, where his flock of cultists can have the religious freedom to worship him.

But when the team reaches Ganymede in their Starship Venture, they discover something has gone horribly wrong...

This ghost story in space reunites comics’ king of the macabre Steve Niles with his longtime collaborator Christopher Mitten, whose stylish mix of grit and flow matches Steve’s sharp characterizations and taste for screams.


About Black Mask Studios
Black Mask Studios is a publishing/production company that specializes in working with creators interested in utilizing technology to reach a range of audiences across multiple media platforms. Launched in 2013 by Brett Gurewitz (Bad Religion, Epitaph Records, ANTI- Records), Steve Niles (30 DAYS OF NIGHT), and Matt Pizzolo (Occupy Comics), the company's mandate is to support unique creators and expand their audiences. Black Mask's initial slate included the political, not-for-profit Occupy Comics (with Alan Moore, Charlie Adlard, Art Spiegelman, Molly Crabapple, and dozens more), the animal-rescuing vigilantes story Liberator, Adam Egypt Mortimer and Darick Robertson's transreal, cyberpunk adventure Ballistic, and the multi-platform gangster odyssey 12 Reasons To Die by Ghostface Killah and RZA. Black Mask recently announced its 2015 slate which features new works by Grant Morrison, Vanesa Del Rey, Michael Moreci, and Steve Niles.

THIS WEEK in comic book stores:
WE CAN NEVER GO HOME #1 hits comic shops this Wednesday 3/25/2015. This coming of age crime story is garnering a lot of buzz. You can check out the first issue HERE.

NEXT WEEK in comic book stores:
Psychedelic freak out SPACE RIDERS #1 takes off next Wednesday 4/1/2015. This may be the craziest book you have read in a long time. Look for it in your inbox very soon!

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Review: "The People Under the Stairs" Got Woke Decades Ago (Happy B'day, Wes Craven)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 30 (of 2006) by Leroy Douresseaux

Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Running time: 102 minutes (1 hour, 42 minutes)
MPAA – R for terror/violence
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
PRODUCERS: Marianne Maddalena and Stuart M. Besser
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Sandi Sissel
EDITOR: James Coblentz
COMPOSER: Don Peake

FANTASY/HORROR/THRILLER

Starring: Brandon Quintin Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, A.J. Langer, Ving Rhames, Sean Whalen, Bill Cobbs, Jeremy Roberts, and Kelly Jo Minter

The subject of this movie review is The People Under the Stairs, a 1991 horror and fantasy film from director Wes Craven. The film has elements of the folk tale and urban legend. It focuses on an African-American boy who steals into a mysterious house to look for gold and finds that some of the stories about the house are true.

A young boy nicknamed Fool (Brandon Adams) assists two thieves, Leroy (Ving Rhames) and Spenser (Jeremy Roberts), so they can break into the fortified home of a reclusive and mysterious couple (Everett McGill and Wendy Robie), who are reportedly very rich. However, Fool ends up trapped inside the house, where he learns the couple’s horrifying secret. In the basement of their home, they have imprisoned a group of young men they kidnapped when they were boys. Fool also befriends the couple’s abused daughter, Alice (A.J. Langer), and together they try to free the people under the stairs.

Many people might scoff at the idea that the wealth of any ghetto or neighborhood is hidden in some rich, reclusive family’s house. However, it is not unusual that one family or small group of families and business interests own most of the businesses and property in a particular neighborhood or small town. Sometimes, the owners of most wealth in a poor neighborhood are people that live outside of the area. Wes Craven’s The People Under the Stairs takes this idea and turns it into a horror movie told as if it were an urban legend or folktale. For decades, one inbred, crazy family has been overcharging people for coffins and other funeral services and also growing fat and wealthy as slum landlords. This kind of family makes an ideal movie villain; put the concept in Wes Craven’s (known for directing A Nightmare on Elm Street and all three Scream movies) hands and you have the makings of a creepy thriller.

In The People Under the Stairs, the house is the star. Filled with many nooks and crannies, crawlspaces between the walls that are like pathways, a huge attic, a massive cellar, hiding spaces behind the paneling, soundproof windows and walls, barred windows, electrified doorknobs and other sadistic security devices, lots of empty rooms, the house is a great space for a chase scenes in which a desperate little black boy runs from the big, mean white man.

Craven chose Brandon Adams, a young black actor, as the hero for The People Under the Stairs because (he said in an interview) African-Americans made up a big part of the audience for horror movies, so he figured he should cast one as a lead. Adams is spunky and certainly up for the effort, even if he isn’t a stellar actor. Ving Rhames makes the most of his small part, adding a nice presence to the film. Everett McGill and Wendy Robie are delightful, campy trash as the villains and make the parts theirs alone.

The People Under the Stairs isn’t classic horror, but it’s a fun, small horror movie that holds up (at least for me) to repeated viewings. It’s certainly an example of why Wes Craven can take just about anything and make it an amusing horror flick or credible thriller.

6 of 10
B

Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Wes Craven Working on Upcoming Graphic Novel, "Coming of Rage"

WES CRAVEN & STEVE NILES PARTNER ON NEW LIQUID COMICS PROJECT "COMING OF RAGE"

Prolific filmmaker of ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ & ‘Scream’ partners with the creator of ‘30 Days of Night’ to Launch His First Graphic Novel

Liquid Comics announced today a new graphic novel in production, “Coming of Rage,” created by legendary filmmaker Wes Craven (Scream, The Hills Have Eyes, Nightmare on Elm Street) and written by acclaimed graphic novelist, Steve Niles (30 Days of Night, Criminal Macabre, Wake the Dead).

"I'm thrilled to be working with Steve Niles, since I've admired his work for so long. And the concept behind ‘Coming of Rage’ is one I've been dying to explore. Steve has raised it to a whole new level with his script, and the folks at Liquid Comic are now bringing it to life with their incredible artwork. I can't wait for you all to see and read it!” commented Craven.

“Wes Craven is not only a great writer, producer and director, he is one of the most knowledgeable people I've had the honor to work with. I not only had fun working on ‘Coming of Rage,’ I also learned a great deal," added Niles.

Details on Craven’s story have not yet been released and Liquid plans to launch the project as a five issue comic-book series and subsequent collected graphic novel, starting early next year. In addition to print, Liquid will launch a number of digital initiatives allowing Craven’s fans to experience his graphic novel story across a variety of platforms including online or through their iPad, iPhone and other mobile and gaming devices.

Producer Arnold Rifkin of Cheyenne Enterprises (Hostage, 16 Blocks, Live Free or Die Hard) and Liquid Comics Co-Founder & CEO, Sharad Devarajan are working with Craven on developing a feature film adaptation of the graphic novel.

“Wes Craven and Steve Niles are masters of the horror genre. The opportunity to bring them together for Wes’s first graphic novel project is my fanboy dream come true,” added Devarajan. “Each of them alone has terrified audiences for decades, so we can only imagine what horrors await as they finally team-up on ‘Coming of Rage.’”


ABOUT LIQUID COMICS:
Liquid Comics is a digital entertainment company focused on creating cinematic and mythic graphic novel stories with filmmakers, creators and storytellers. The company was founded by entrepreneurs, Sharad Devarajan, Gotham Chopra and Suresh Seetharaman and uses the medium of digital graphic novel publishing to develop properties for theatrical live-action films, animation and video games. Liquid has created and is creating original graphic novels with acclaimed filmmakers and talents including John Woo, Guy Ritchie, Grant Morrison, Shekhar Kapur, Deepak Chopra, Dave Stewart, Marc Guggenheim, Marcus Nispel, Jonathan Mostow, Edward Burns, Nicolas Cage, John Moore, Wes Craven, Barry Sonnenfeld and others. The Company currently has a number of film and television projects in development based on their properties.

www.LiquidComics.com

Review: Entertaining "Scream 4" Treads Familiar Territory

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 32 (of 2011) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scream 4 (2011)
Running time: 111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong bloody violence, language and some teen drinking
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Kevin Williamson (based on characters created by Kevin Williamson)
PRODUCERS: Wes Craven, Iya Labunka, and Kevin Williamson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Deming (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Peter McNulty
COMPOSER: Marco Beltrami

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Rory Culkin, Marley Shelton, Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody, Nico Tortorella, Marielle Jaffe, Alison Brie, Erik Knudsen, Mary McDonnell, Anna Paquin, Kristen Bell, Heather Graham, and Roger Jackson (voice)

A little over 11 years after Scream 3, Scream 4 hits movie theatre screens in an explosion of blood and guts. However, Scream 4 is not just a sequel. It is also something of a remake of and homage to the original 1996 movie, Scream.

On the 15th anniversary of the Woodsboro massacre (as seen in the original movie), Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) returns to Woodsboro, the final stop on the tour to promote her book, Out of Darkness. Sidney discovers that she cannot escape the horrors of her past, because two high school students have just been murdered by the new Ghostface. Sidney also finds herself thrust back into the lives of the only other two people to survive the various Ghostface killers, Sheriff Dwight “Dewey” Riley (David Arquette) and his wife, journalist-turned-novelist, Gail Weathers Riley (Courteney Cox).

Now, Sidney’s young cousin, Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts), and her high school classmates are the targets of the new Ghostface. This new generation of potential victims, however, seems to relish the murderous attention of the infamous killer and hope this latest Ghostface rampage will help bring them fame in the age of social networking. Will they still be excited when they learn that the new murder spree is not like a sequel, but is instead like a reboot? Do they know that Ghostface is playing by new rules? Anyone can die anytime.

As a slasher film, Scream 4 is entertaining. Ghostface remains a terrific horror movie villain, slaughtering his victims to the point that they seem like butchered meat and offal. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette are reliable, if not a little a hoary. The new cast is, for the most part, pretty good, but Hayden Panettiere’s saucy Kirby Reed is the only standout. Overall, when Scream 4 plays it straight, it is a better-than-average horror movie.

Director Wes Craven and screenwriter Kevin Williamson continue their efforts to make the Scream franchise self-referential and each installment a horror movie about horror movies. This is where Scream 4, as well as the other sequels, flounders. The original film, for all its hip attitude and pop culture references, was a traditional horror movie, only slicker and with a better script and filmmaking. The original’s charming small town setting was perfect for a horror movie, and the youthful cast was vibrant and cool. The villains behind the Ghostface killer had believable (though crazy) motivation for their murder spree. Scream was a genuine horror flick.

Scream 4 wants to be more than something from the horror movie slasher subgenre. The script makes Scream 4 essentially a remake inside a sequel, and some of the film seems like a middle-aged guy’s rant against Internet celebrity and social media culture. That’s just filler material. It’s time for some fresh faces and ideas. Scream 4 is at its best when it focuses on what it already has that every successful horror franchise needs – a great villain. So if there is a fifth film, hopefully it will feel more like a fresh reboot instead of a tired sequel. Still, Scream 4 offers some bloody good fun.

6 of 10
B

Sunday, April 17, 2011

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Review: Wes Craven Makes "Scream 3" Worth the Repetition

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 52 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scream 3 (2000)
Running time: 116 minutes (1 hour, 56 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong horror violence and language
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Ehren Kruger (based upon characters created by Kevin Williamson)
PRODUCERS: Cathy Konrad, Marianne Maddalena, and Kevin Williamson
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Deming
EDITOR: Patrick Lussier
COMPOSER: Marco Beltrami

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Patrick Dempsey, Parker Posey, Scott Foley, Deon Richmond, Emily Mortimer, Lance Henriksen, Jenny McCarthy, Matt Keeslar, Patrick Warburton, Liev Schreiber, Kelly Rutherford, and Jamie Kennedy

When a series of murders are tied to Stab 3, a movie about the tragic events in her life, the most famous survivor of the Woodsboro massacre, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), leaves her secluded residence in Northern California to visit Stab 3’s Hollywood film set. Of course, the remaining survivors of Woodsboro and of the other Woodsboro-related murders – hot tabloid TV reporter, Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox), and Woodsboro deputy, Dwight “Dewey” Riley (David Arquette), are also on the scene. But they all soon learn that in the third film of a trilogy, all the rules are thrown out the window. The killer could be anyone, and even heroes can die.

Scream 3 is supposedly the closing chapter of the Scream franchise, and it’s a pretty good send off. Ehren Kruger’s script is certainly in the heart and vein of Scream creator Kevin Williamson’s scripts for the first two films. Kruger ably captures the self-referential, meta-lite atmosphere of the earlier films, and Kruger’s is less a satire or homage to horror flicks and more itself a good horror movie.

The cast is good, and the actors really understand their parts. The players who are supposed to be campy murder victims play their parts with relish, while the leads are intense and skillful. But the true hero of Scream 3, as he was for the first two, is horrormeister Wes Craven, who may be the most successful director of horror films in the history of movie making. He’s also skillful and adept at making even the rough spots in this move work, because he helms slasher flicks with the verve of an auteur making art films.

Scream 3 is not great, but it’s scary and funny and hard to stop watching. It’s clever and witty, both in its smart moments and in its lesser scenes. Though it seems to fall apart in some scenes of its last act, the film is worth viewing for its many genuinely creepy moments that keep you on the edge of your seat.

6 of 10
B

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Review: "Scream 2" Doesn't Sustain Strong Start

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 51 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scream 2 (1997)
Running time: 120 minutes (2 hours)
MPAA – R for language and strong bloody violence
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Kevin Williamson (based upon characters Kevin Williamson created)
PRODUCERS: Cathy Konrad and Marianne Maddalena
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Peter Deming (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Patrick Lussier
COMPOSER: Marco Beltrami

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy, Laurie Metcalf, Elise Neal, Jerry O’Connell, Timothy Olyphant, Jada Pinkett, Liev Schreiber, Lewis Arquette, Duane Martin, Rebecca Gayheart, Portia de Rossi, Omar Epps, Heather Graham, (voice) Roger L. Jackson, Tori Spelling, and Luke Wilson

Two years after the shocking events in Scream, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Randy Meeks (Jaime Kennedy), the only surviving teens of the Woodsboro massacre, are attending college. Sidney is trying to get on with her life until a copycat killer begins acting out a real-life sequel, and some of Sidney’s college classmates meet a grisly fate at the hands of a knife-wielding killer. Ambitious reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) and Woodsboro deputy Dewey (David Arquette) are also back as the new killing spree leaves no one safe and no one above suspicion of being the Woodsboro copycat murderer.

Scream 2 is, for the most part, quiet entertaining. It does not, however, have half the wild and crazy energy of the first, and part of that may be because the original film was full of nutty high school kids running amok and having a good time, although there was a murderer in their midst. There are plenty of party crazy college students in the sequel, but we don’t see much of them because the film really zeroes in on Sidney’s character. Wacky kid characters made the first film fun, not female problems. Beyond Sidney’s small circle of associates, no other characters, not even bit players, come in to add something surprising to the mix.

Scream 2 is worth watching, at least for the first hour. After that there are some good moments, but the film begins to fall apart.

5 of 10
B-

NOTES:
1998 Razzie Awards: 1 nomination: “Worst New Star” (Tori Spelling)

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Review: "Scream" Still a Scream

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 50 (of 2004) by Leroy Douresseaux

Scream (1996)
Running time: 111 minutes (1 hour, 51 minutes)
MPAA – R for strong graphic horror violence and gore, and for language
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Kevin Williamson
PRODUCERS: Cathy Konrad and Cary Woods
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Mark Irwin (D.o.P.)
EDITOR: Patrick Lussier
COMPOSER: Marco Beltrami

HORROR/MYSTERY/THRILLER

Starring: Neve Campbell, David Arquette, Courtney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, Rose McGowan, Matthew Lillard, Jamie Kennedy, W. Earl Brown, Drew Barrymore, Joseph Whipp, Lawrence Hecht, Roger Jackson (voice), Liev Schreiber, and Henry Winkler

In the GenX/post-GenX thriller Scream, a psychopathic killer stalks a group of teens just like psychos stalk victims in slasher movie. His primary focus is teenage virgin Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), and the killings begin near the one-year anniversary of her mother’s death. A tabloid reporter, Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox), who covered sensational murder trial of the alleged killer of Sidney’s mom, is determined to uncover the truth because she believes the wrong man was convicted of killing Mrs. Prescott and that the real killer is still at large. Of course, the mystery surrounding the killer culminates during a raucous teen party held at the obligatory isolated farmhouse. Finding out who survives is as fun as learning who the killer is.

Much has been made of how Scream references the many horror films that preceded it, especially 1980’s slasher flicks, but Scream is simply a great horror film and as much a mystery thriller as it is a scary movie. Maybe that’s because the film is a horror movie for the sake of being a horror movie. Any social commentary the film makes is ancillary, and anything it says about other movies is just the nature of the beast. Just about any horror movie will reflect the others that came before it.

While casting young stars from TV shows popular with teens and twenty-somethings in the mid-90’s was a savvy move on the part of the filmmakers (most 80’s slasher movies cast young unknowns), the two elements of that make Scream great are screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven. Williamson’s script is tight, smart, funny, deft, self-referential, and most of all, creates a solid structure of suspense. The characters are mostly throwaways, but Williamson makes us care about them because the situations he puts them in are so precarious, we’d be cruel not to root for them to escape. For all the artful window dressings, Williamson’s script simply tells a scary story.

Wes Craven is one of the greatest horror film directors of all time having helmed A Nightmare of Elm Street and The Last House on the Left. Scream simply cements his position as a master director of the suspense genre. He turns Williamson’s words into palatable fear. He knows when to make the film outright scary, and when slowly increase the level of suspense and fright. Craven knows when to be funny and silly, and he knows when to deliver the deathblow, but most of all when to leave it all hanging on a thin string.

Scream is a film no slasher fan should go without seeing, and certainly it’s a work not to be missed by admirers and students of horror cinema.

8 of 10
A

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Review: "Cursed" is an Odd Werewolf Movie (Happy B'day, Christina Ricci)

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 29 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Cursed (2005)
Running time: 96 minutes (1 hour, 36 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for horror violence/terror, some sexual references, nudity, language, and a brief drug reference
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Kevin Williamson
PRODUCERS: Marianne Maddalena and Kevin Williamson
CINEMATOGRAPHERS: Robert McLachlan with Don McCuaig
EDITORS: Raúl Dávalos, Gregg Featherman, Patrick Lussier, and Lisa Romaniw

HORROR/MYSTERY with elements of comedy and thriller

Starring: Christina Ricci, Jesse Eisenberg, Milo Ventimiglia, Kristina Anapau, Michael Rosenbaum, Mya, Judie Greer, Jonny Acker, Eric Ladin, Shannon Elizabeth, Scott Baio, Craig Kilborn, Lance Bass, Portia De Rossi, Bambi Allen, and Derek Mears

It’s released delayed over a year, Cursed, the teen/20-something oriented werewolf movie from director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson, the creators of Scream, finally made it to wide release the last weekend of February 2005. The film was not screened for critics and early word on the Net from fans who claimed to have seen it was poor… But I liked it. Cursed is not great and it has some problems; the makers don’t seem sure if they want a horror movie or a comedy, but scares and laughs mix a little better than oil and water in this instance. Thus, we have a new horror sub-genre – comic horror.

In the film, estranged siblings still dealing with their parents’ death (the film is never quite clear how recent they died or if they were killed) are attacked by a werewolf while trying to help a young woman in a car accident. Ellie (Christina Ricci), the sister, is some kind of producer for The Craig Kilborn Show. She’s always busy juggling guests for the show, and she’s hit a rough patch with her boyfriend, Jake (Joshua Jackson). Her younger brother, Jimmy (Jessie Eisenberg), is dealing with trials of high school as painfully shy nerdy kid who gets grief from the jock types, especially after he becomes attracted to Brooke (Kristina Anapau), a jock’s girlfriend.

At first, Ellie is reluctant to believe that a werewolf attacked them, and it deepens the riff between her and her brother, but eventually the physically changes to her body and her strange behavior convinces Ellie of the truth. A sexy gypsy fortuneteller informs Ellie that she is cursed, and that she must find the werewolf that attacked her (whom Ellie and Jimmy assume to be “the master”) and destroy it in order to break the curse of the werewolf or they too will become beasts. As usual, things are a lot more complicated, and there are several suspects, and it seems more than one villain wishes to harm Ellie and Jimmy.

The bad in Cursed: cheesy CGI to create a werewolf. I hate CGI werewolves, and there's a transformation scene in this movie that is more a mixture of live action and animation than it is computer generated imagery. Also, a lot of the acting is flat or is more pretending than acting, and a few cast members seem to be going through the motions or doing a paint-by-numbers version of acting. The characters are mostly a bunch of pretty people who drive expensive, high-end, luxury cars and act dumb. There’s not much to the plot, which the filmmakers stretch almost to the breaking point, and the story is limp. The film also lacks some poignancy, and it too conveniently resolves family and relationship problems.

The good: Christina Ricci and Jessie Eisenberg really buy into the concept. Everything about the duo rings true: their backstory, living situations, social relationships, and plight. They, more than any other element, sell Cursed to the audience. Rick Baker does some stellar makeup and mechanical effects work, but what else can one expect from this master effects man? The film’s atmosphere is also very good. It’s sometimes funny and outrageous and other times pretty scary, and there are also some nice character twists. Drop disbelief and don’t take Cursed too seriously. I had a blast.

6 of 10
B

Saturday, February 26, 2005

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Wes Craven Brings Terror to the Sky in "Red Eye"

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 134 (of 2005) by Leroy Douresseaux

Red Eye (2005)
Running time: 85 minutes (1 hour, 25 minutes)
MPAA – PG-13 for some intense sequences of violence, and language
DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
WRITER: Carl Ellsworth, from a story by Dan Foos and Carl Ellsworth
PRODUCERS: Chris Bender and Marianne Maddalena
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Robert Yeoman
EDITORS: Patrick Lussier and Stuart Levy

THRILLER

Starring: Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, Brian Cox, Jayma Mays, and Jack Scalia

Wes Craven wants you to know that his new film, Red Eye, is not a horror film. I even saw him on a cable entertainment talk show where he emphatically stated that Red Eye was not a horror flick.

In the film, Lisa Reisert (Rachel McAdams), who hates to fly, has to take a plane, Fresh Air Flight 1019, from Texas (where she attended her grandmother’s funeral) back to Miami. Upon boarding her plane, Lisa is shocked to find that she’s seated next to Jackson Ripner (Cillian Murphy), a seemingly charming man with whom she earlier shared a drink. Once the plane is in the air, Jackson drops his flirtatious and charming façade and reveals to Lisa why he’s really on board the same plane with her. Jackson needs Lisa to use her pull as the desk manager of the popular Miami hotel, the Lux Atlantic, to move the Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Charles Keefe (Jack Scalia), to a room in the Lux where it will be easier to assassinate him (and his family). If Lisa doesn’t cooperate, Jackson’s comrade is waiting in car parked by her father’s home, waiting to kill dear old dad, Joe Reisert (Brian Cox). Trapped at 30,000 feet in air in the confines of the airplane and unable to summon help without endangering her father, Lisa has to figure away to thwart the ruthless Jackson, who never lets her out of his sight for very long.

While not a horror film, Red Eye is just more proof that Wes Craven knows how to give people chills and thrills. Red Eye is a nifty thriller that’s part Hitchcock (the first half) and part slasher film (the second half as Jackson pursues Lisa). The film is especially taut and tense during the plane sequences; those who don’t like flying will especially feel the shivers on the back on their necks and running down their spines. The wonderful camera work by Robert Yeoman (who has photographed all of Wes Anderson’s films) and Craven’s direction ably creates a sense of panic, doom, and claustrophobia. While Red Eye wears its B-movie credentials on its proverbial sleeves, Craven executes a premise into a suspense film that simply works – making a by-the-book plot a highly engaging cat-and-mouse drama – if only the story stayed on the plane.

Earlier in Summer 2005, Steven Spielberg turned sci-fi B-movie tropes into a grisly disaster film of high pedigree with War of the Worlds. Craven falls just short of making his own thriller into a rare breed suspense flick, and he shares the blame with the script. Neither he nor his screenwriter, Carl Ellsworth, do anything novel to keep Red Eye’s last act from becoming a video fare crime thriller. Red Eye is by no means a failure; it just fails at being great although the first half of the movie had the movie on the path to excellence. Ellsworth (who wrote Red Eye’s original story with former college classmate Dan Foos) was reportedly the only screenwriter to work on Red Eye’s script, a rarity in Hollywood, but in this case, perhaps it would have been best if at least one more writer put in his two cents worth.

Red Eye’s lightening pace can’t quite hide the ugly truth that the script turns what is an engaging adversary, Jackson Ripner, into nothing more than just another killer who in the film’s closing act overestimates himself. Cillian Murphy, sure to be a good character actor for some time to come, chews up the scenery as long as Jackson is on the airplane. When Red Eye’s script turns the story from a button-pushing psychological thriller into a killer-on-the-loose cheapie in the second half, Cillian Murphy’s Jackson looses his wicked charm and becomes a tiresome (and not too bright) ordinary home-invading assailant. It doesn’t help that the co-star Rachel McAdams is just another pretty face, and her acting, which has won her a prestigious Genie Award in her native country of Canada, delivers a functional performance here. In Red Eye, she lacks the tasty menace that made her such a sweet adversary for Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls. Here, she’s just another spunky white girl running from a bad man with a knife – no better or worse than all the other white chicks who have run from monsters and killers for Craven since he first started making scary movies over three decades ago.

In the end, Red Eye works much more often than not. An edge-of-your-seat thriller with enough wit to make you laugh out loud, it’s a guaranteed winner for people who actually want to go to the theatre to see a movie, and it’ll also be a winning choice for those who are always looking for something good to rent from the video store.

6 of 10
B

Monday, August 22, 2005

Original "Nightmare on Elm Street" IS a Classic

TRASH IN MY EYE No. 28 (of 2010) by Leroy Douresseaux


A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
Running time: 91 minutes (1 hour, 31 minutes)
WRITER/DIRECTOR: Wes Craven
PRODUCER: Robert Shaye
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Jacques Haitkin
EDITORS: Pat McMahon and Rick Shaine

HORROR

Starring: Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri, Johnny Depp, Charles Fleischer, and Robert Englund

Originally released in 1984, A Nightmare on Elm Street was a film written and directed by legendary horror auteur, Wes Craven (Scream). A low-budget horror flick, A Nightmare on Elm Street launched a film franchise, a television series, merchandising, and imitators, but the film is a classic scary movie because of its penchant for blurring the border between dreams and reality. Most importantly, A Nightmare on Elm Street introduced one of the very best screen villains ever, Freddy Krueger.

Tina Gray (Amanda Wyss) has a dream in which she is stalked by a mutilated man with a second distinctive feature, razor-sharp knives attached to the fingers on his right hand. Her friend, Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), has experienced a similar dream involving the same sinister figure. Even Tina’s estranged boyfriend, Rod Lane (Nick Corri), has dreamed of this creepy man.

After Tina is murdered and Rod is blamed, Nancy discovers that Fred Krueger (Robert Englund), a child murderer killed by a mob of angry parents, is the man in her dreams. Krueger has returned to haunt the children of his killers, using their dreams to get his revenge from beyond the grave. When local teens fall asleep, Krueger attacks and kills them in their dreams, which also kills them in the real world. Nancy and her boyfriend, Glen Lantz (Johnny Depp, in his screen debut), hatch a plan to drag Krueger into the real world, but will that help them or make things worse?

In spite its low budget, A Nightmare on Elm Street delivers the thrills, chills, and scares of a movie with many times its budget. This first installment of the franchise has a high creepy factor because the narrative muddles reality with surreal moments in which imagination and the dream world intrude on everyday reality. One could make an argument that all or most of the movie is a dream, and that neither the narrative nor its characters are reliable.

Plus, in Fred (eventually Freddy) Krueger, A Nightmare on Elm Street has a villain who can terrorize his victims in their dreams and occasionally wreak havoc in the real world, which strengthens this story’s unsettling atmosphere. He is a bloodthirsty demon with a wicked sense of humor, and his glove, with its sharp knives, is one of the great weapons in horror movie history and in cinematic history, in general. Practically all the credit for Freddy Krueger’s fame belongs to character actor, Robert Englund, who achieved a rare feat – creating movie monster whose fame spans generations and who has international appeal.

The film’s target audience – the audience that first saw it back in the mid-80s – and likely many that see it now, can identify with Nancy and her friends. Adults don’t take them or their fears and concerns seriously, leaving them at Krueger’s mercy, which is ironic considering that the adults killed Krueger in order to protect their children. The teens are on their own, unable to discern the shifty reality that has become their existence. Like them, we are left alone to figure out this crazy, scary dream world, and A Nightmare on Elm Street delivers. It is the real deal in scary movies, and Freddy is a fictional serial killer who seems almost real.

7 of 10
A-

Saturday, May 01, 2010