I didn’t get a chance to talk about some recent horror flicks I’ve seen on this week’s podcast, so here goes.
Scream 4. I remember being genuinely shocked at the first Scream film in 1996 and even the 2 sequels (in 1997, and 2000) weren’t bad at all. There was the feeling that no-one was safe and they were, and still are, smart slasher films. I can see the point of attempting a fourth film, as Hollywood loves a good film that can rely on nostalgia and a known series. This just didn’t do it for me though. It still felt like a ’90s film, and wasn’t as shocking, seeing as horror films have given us Saw and Hostel levels of gore in the intervening years. If they killed Neve Campbell, then I’d be shocked. The, “New Decade. New Rules” premise/tagline is a good one, but the story doesn’t live up to that potential. Oh, and Courtney Cox’s facelift just seems wrong.
The Last Exorcism was a nice surprise. A found footage film released last year it follows a disillusioned evangelical preacher/exorcist who visits a farmer’s family and meets his match. It’s a slow build, but a good one.
For other similarly scary fake doco films, check out Rec (remade in America as Quarantine), Interview with the Assassin, or one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen, Aussie film Lake Mungo.
The Ward should be avoided. Amber Heard plays a woman in a mental asylum in the ’60s and meets a few fellow inmates, who aren’t that interesting, just like the rest of this predictable film directed by John Carpenter (The Thing, Halloween). It tries to be a suspenseful horror film with a twist, but it’s really none of those things.
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