629. The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

Running Time: 88 minutes
Directed By: Wes Craven
Written By: Wes Craven
Main Cast: James Whitworth, Dee Wallace, Robert Houston, Russ Grieve, Michael Berryman
Click here to view the trailer

FRIGHTFEST 2012: THE CONCLUSION

The original plan was to save at least one horror film until Halloween night (or the night before Halloween, at least), but I go back to work tomorrow, from vacation, and I figured I'd better finish off "Frightfest" while I still had the energy.

The Carter family is traveling on vacation, to Los Angeles, in their station wagon (with a trailer hooked on back), when they take a detour through a deserted area. When they stop for gas, the elderly gas station attendant warns them to stay off the back roads, as it's dangerous. They ignore their advice and the family - consisting of a father, "Big Bob" (Grieve), his wife Ethel, their two daughters, Brenda (Wallace) and Lynn, their son Bobby (Houston), their son-in-law Doug and their granddaughter - continue down the back road, relying on a map to get them to California. When certain members of the family believe that they're lost, bickering leads to Bob driving off the road and breaking an axle on the car. With nothing in sight for miles, Bob decides to head back to the gas station to call for help and Doug takes off in the other direction to see if he can find anything or anyone. This leaves behind Bobby, Ethel, Brenda, Lynn and their two german shepherds. What the family doesn't know is that the old man at the gas station was speaking the truth, as the road is dangerous. It seems there is another family lurking in the hills, a much more demonic family. Headed up by Papa Jupiter (Whitworth), the evil doers converge on the Carter family with bloodshed on their minds.

This BOOK had really made me realize that I'm not a fan of Wes Craven. I used to think I liked him, but over the years and especially after watching his three "must see" movies, I realize that he is one of my least favorite directors. I thought "A Nightmare on Elm Street" was extremely overrated and only included in THE BOOK because of it's popular status in mainstream horror and because of it's big box office numbers. The same could be said about "Scream", a film that I used to love and one that did absolutely nothing for me when I reviewed it a few years back. When looking over the rest of his filmography, it seems to be filled with a lot of cheap horror films, of which I've only actually seen two: "The Last House on the Left" and "Vampire in Brooklyn" - both of which were, in a word, awful. Is it possible that when taking into account his popularity and status in the directing community and his actual ability to direct a quality film, that the difference equals one of the most overrated directors in film history? I think so.

It's not that "The Hills Have Eyes" is a terrible film or anything and actually, when watching it with someone else (like my wife and I did) it kind of works. It is my theory that horror movies should always be watched with a partner, because you need someone to make fun of the plot with and most horror films have plots that are easy to poke fun at. The plot is very basic, there's nothing particularly stand-out about it. The film relies on gore to get it's cheap thrills and when you compare the gore levels of 1977 to today's standards, gore was a lot more restrained back then. It worked for me as a Halloween time feature, but I wouldn't even entertain the notion of including it as one of 1001 movies that must be seen. It simply isn't that good. The truth is that most horror films aren't THAT good, but I realize that THE BOOK had to include some, so I can forgive the entry.

RATING: 5.5/10  Well that concludes "Frightfest 2012" and it might be the last Frightfest I do here on the blog, because I'm desperately running out of horror films. However, if there happen to be four or five left, I'll be sure and save them for next year. Happy Halloween!

MOVIES WATCHED: 567
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 434

October 29, 2012  12:17pm

713. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Running Time: 92 minutes
Directed By: Wes Craven
Written By: Wes Craven
Main Cast: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Johnny Depp, Amanda Wyss, John Saxon

"ONE, TWO, FREDDY'S COMING FOR YOU!"

The festivities for Halloween 2010 continue with "A Nightmare on Elm Street" and the efforts of Freddy Krueger to kill a group of teenagers in this 80s teen slasher flick directed and written by Wes Craven, a director I've come to like less and less as I grow older.

Out of the group of aforementioned teenagers, we first meet Tina (Wyss), who, upon the films opening is awakened by a nightmare. The nightmare consisted of a man with a red and green sweater, black fedora and who had knives for fingers. He also had a burnt face and chased Tina throughout her dream, slashing at her body right before she wakes up. When she does awake her night shirt is slashed and she is screaming. The next day at school, Tina tells her friends, Nancy (Langenkamp), Glen (Depp) and Rod, about the dream. Nancy later admits that the dream is very similar to a nightmare that she had, where she also dreamt of the man in the green and red sweater. They write it off as a simple nightmare and get on with their lives, having a little "get together" while Tina's parents are out of town. However, later that night, as Tina and Rod lie in bed together sleeping, Tina begins to be thrashed and thrown around the room, as if she is being murdered. Rod awakens, but is too frightened to do anything about it and can't see anyone else in the room. Tina is killed, lying in a pool of her own blood. Rod is the next to go, as he lays sleeping in a jail cell, being held for the murder of Tina, since he was the only one in the room. Now it's up to Nancy and Glen to figure out the origin of the mystery man in their dreams, who they identify as Fred Krueger, a former child murderer, released from jail on a technicality and killed by the angry parents of Elm Street. Nancy and Glen need to stay awake, because remember...If they don't wake up screaming, they won't wake up at all!

SPOILER ALERT!

"A Nightmare on Elm Street" being in the pages of the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" is like a drunk guy with a mullet showing up to a bourgeoisie party. Sure the snooty party goers will have their fun with the drunkard, but in the end he just doesn't belong there. I had fun with "A Nightmare on Elm Street" especially on Halloween, as it's a very fun film to watch to get you into the spirit of the holiday (Is Halloween considered holiday?). I'll actually admit that the plot is a pretty intricate and smart idea. A killer who can only kill you in your dreams. Now that sounds pretty cool to me. The makeup artist obviously showed up in a creative mood, as Fred Krueger looks pretty messed up, to say the least. Also, I should also give kudos to whoever was in charge of making the fake blood, as they obviously had their work cut out for them, as there was quite a bit of it, especially when it spewed up and out of Glen's bed.

I'm not even gonna' touch upon the acting, as it is non-existent and why not? Because this isn't the place to be scouting potential Academy Award nominees and we all know that. This movie has one purpose: to scare or frighten young kids who happened to sneak out and sneak into the movie theatre back in 1984. It also has the purpose now of being a piece of nostalgia, as it's fun to look back on the films of our youth and laugh at what we used to consider good film making. This isn't good film making, but again, we know that going in. I didn't care too much for "A Nightmare on Elm Street", but it served it menial purpose, to get me into the spirit of Halloween, so I'll give it some brownie points there. Otherwise, this movie has no place within the pages of the "1001" book.

RATING: 4/10 About as high as I can go for this 80s slasher flick.

MOVIES WATCHED: 178
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 823

October 31, 2010 8:26pm

912. SCREAM (1996)

Running Time: 111 minutes
Directed By: Wes Craven
Written By: Kevin Williamson
Main Cast: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, David Arquette

ONE YEAR LATER

It was one year ago today, when I sat down at the computer to type up my review for " A Trip to the Moon". Today, as I sack out on my bed, I choose a movie that comes almost 100 years later, "Scream", a movie that I remember watching twice the day that it came out on VHS, which seems like so many years ago.

The film opens with Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore), sporting short, blonde hair and cooking some popcorn in preparation for a scary movie in front of the television. Casey, who is home alone, receives a phone call and the wheels of the movie are set into motion. The caller talks politely at first, despite his eerie voice and questions Casey about her movie choice and then goes on to talk about more scary movies, Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc. As Casey continues to hang up on the caller, he becomes more agitated and his true motives are eventually revealed. He has tied up Casey's boyfriend on her porch and he plans to kill them both before the night is over. Her only hope is if she can answer a question correctly: "Who was the killer in Friday the 13th?". She fails the pop quiz and quickly finds herself hanging from a tree, her insides on the outside. Following that, the rest of the cast is revealed, her high school classmates, as they're shocked to hear about the vicious murder of Casey.

The main character is Sidney Prescott (Campbell), a virginal young girl who's boyfriend Billy (Ulrich) wants nothing more than to stamp an "R" rating on their "PG-13" relationship. The school and town is rocked by the murder of Casey and her boyfriend Steve and Gail Weathers (Cox), a local news reporter wants nothing more than to expose the situation and make a name for herself, just as she did with the story of Sidney's mother, who was brutally raped and murdered almost one year prior to Casey's death. Eventually a curfew is set in place and more murders take place, including that of the high school principal, Sidney's best friend Tatum and nearly Sidney herself as the killer, wearing a ghost faced mask, tries the same routine on her, as he did with Casey Becker. However, Sidney is seemingly more resilient and continues to escape the murderous clutches of the slasher, a slasher who wants nothing more than to get his hands on Sidney. Toward the end, all signs point to Neil Prescott, Sidney's father, but in horror movies, nothing is as it seems.

I look fondly on this movie, as it was something that I specifically remember being hyped and being a big success at the box office. I also remember sitting with my brother and watching this movie for the first time and having a blast. With that being said, "Scream" has absolutely no right mingling with the movies that are contained in the pages of the "1001" book. Sure it's a fun film when you're a teenager, but when you grow up some of that fun begins to fade and you realize that it's just another cliche slasher flick, full of plot holes. Not to say that ALL of the fun has diminished, I still had a pretty good time reliving my childhood today and taking in "Scream" for the first time in ages. You would think that Wes Craven would want his big comeback horror flick to be a really quality one, that creeped you out, instead of an ode to old horror movies (many of them his own) that makes you laugh, just as much as it makes you jump. In the end, you realize that the best part of this movie came within the first five minutes, and the scene with Drew Barrymore, a really perfectly played out scene that really amps you up for what SHOULD follow, but instead is only the high part of a movie that goes downhill from there.

RATING: 4.5/10 If you've never seen it, then 'yes' I'd recommend seeing it once, but "Scream" is a movie that is no longer for me, as apparently me and my tastes have grown up.

MOVIES WATCHED: 141
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 860

September 11, 2010 3:20pm