YOU HAVE LESS THAN 8 HOURS TO LIVE....

....wait a minute.  Sorry, typo.

What I meant to say was, you have less than 8 hours left to vote in the semifinals of our Midnight Madness Tournament!  Click the posters below, go to the post, and leave a comment with your picks for the two matchups!

The Thing vs. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre!  Moon vs. Evil Dead II!  

Who wins? 

YOU DECIDE!!!!!

Scream 4

(2011, Dir. by Wes Craven.)

I'm just going to come right out and say it.  I am absolutely in love with the ending of Scream 4.  It's not be the smartest thing I've ever seen - in fact, it might be one big joke - but it's completely what you wouldn't expect from horror in this day and age.  In fact, I almost want to say that the entirety of Scream 4 is one big middle finger toward the horror remake craze of the 2000s.

After an unpredictable (if not entirely ridiculous) opening, Scream 4 brings us back to good ol' Woodsboro, home of the original massacre, on a day that just happens to be the anniversary of the series' first on-screen murder.  Also returning to town on that day is Sidney Prescott, the object of Ghostface's desire through the first three Scream films, who's still played by Neve Campbell.  (By the way, Campbell appears to have aged no more than 3-4 years in the last 15 years.  Just thought I'd throw that out there.)

The other two-thirds of Scream's original trinity are also back, as we find David Arquette's Dewey and Courtney Cox's Gale are married and living in Woodsboro, where Dewey is sheriff and Gale is a struggling writer.  Oh, and - most importantly - people are dead, and the killer's mimicking Ghostface.  That leaves Sidney's young cousin (played by Julia Roberts' niece Emma Roberts, an inspired bit of casting) and her friends (former Heroes babe Hayden Panettiere - who's really quite good in this role - and Marielle Jaffe) to wonder what's going on in their high school, while the elder trio continue to deal with the problems that come with a mass murderer who's recreating their traumatic life...again.

Scream 4 takes a few clunky turns setting up its plot - the first two acts are filled with scenes that seem like they were added to up the gore factor, which is substantially greater than the first three films combined - but once the herd is thinned the film takes a nice turn and starts to resemble the original film.  And just when it's back where we expect it to be, it of course turns the tables once more - and the result is certainly the most unpredictable Scream film. While I'm inclined to say that the unpredictability comes from a script that may have been written while playing a game of Clue, the manic nature Craven and Williamson give the film is kind of refreshing. 

Seeing the film with an audience certainly adds to the film's charm; it's clear from the opening that Williamson and Craven want the audience's memory of Scream and other horrors to be a part of the experience.  At the same time, the duo don't overstep their comfort zone by making the film a modern-style "found footage" horror, and their nods to that subgroup of recent horrors are handled quite nicely.  The horror references are updated for modern audiences - I had a good chuckle the first time Saw was mocked - and the horror fans within the film seem to have grown with the times (though nobody seems to notice that Anthony Anderson's character is named Anthony Perkins).  The audience I saw the film with certainly bought into the film's winks at the audience, and that air of willingness to return to Scream-land certainly helped make a few jumpscares more effective.  (Credit must also be given to the film's marketing department, as many of the moments in the film's trailer that appear to be "reveals" were edited differently in the final film.)

The bottom line is that - unlike Scream 3, and maybe even Scream 2 (which I love, but do find a little snooty for a slasher) - Scream 4 is a really fun slasher film.  I'd say it's the most fun this series has been since the original.  I'm not sure if younger horror fans - the ones who expect something like Saw or the recently-gloomy Insidious - will be up for what Scream 4 is offering, but I look at the film and realize that these are my generation's horror icons.  Campbell and Ghostface (still voiced by Roger Jackson) can still compete with the kids, and I find that fact to be surprisingly refreshing.  Maybe I'm getting old - I did find the film's use of the theme from Beverly Hills Cop to be one of the funniest things I've seen in a long time - because Scream 4 seems like a welcome throwback to horrors gone by.

And, until this week, I had kind of forgotten that I missed them.  Without warning, Craven and Williamson's series has become "old school".

Midnight Movie of the Week #67 - Scream

(Keeping with the tradition of the Scream films, I'm gonna pretend I'm Ghostface and start this review with a good 'ol trivia question.

Jamie Lee Curtis, star of Halloween and many other horrors, is referenced often in Scream. She's even seen in the film a couple of times. What film is the first image of JLC we see in Scream from?

Find the answer in the screen grab at the end of the post.....or else!)

With Scream 4 officially released at midnight, and with us horror fans being a sentimental bunch, I'd imagine I'm about the 4,371st person to write about Scream this week.  If you live in the suburbs, I imagine commentaries on the film are issued to you, and they show up in the mail with samples of Tide.  But I can't turn away from the film because, as much as I try, because it really is a landmark for us horror fans who were born around or after 1980.

Through no fault of our own, my generation missed the golden age of Hollywood horror.  Many of try to compensate by telling you that the '80s were in fact a great decade of horror but, to be honest, they're really kind of wrong.  They were a great decade for cheesy horror and popcorn, but the problem was that the cost of these movies was so low that studios quickly realized they didn't need talent or intelligence to turn a profit.  Suddenly, every good horror film produced was drowning in the same pool as the dozens of imitators and sequels that followed it.  And by the 1990s, when the likes of John Carpenter and Wes Craven were struggling to catch up with their early successes, the genre was a sinking ship, weighed down by too many slashers and too few original and interesting titles.  The only way to fix a problem like this is to expose the problem, and that's where Scream comes into the picture. 

Craven - thanks to a "hip" script by Kevin Williamson that was developed under the now infamous title Scary Movie - got his chance to point out the paint-by-numbers state of the slasher subgenre while making horror cool again, and he took advantage of it.  It had been five years since a slasher film - the idiotic Freddy's Dead, from Craven's own Nightmare on Elm Street series - was a box office success. That film made a little over 34 million dollars, less than 1/3rd of the 103 million that Scream would make.  That total is still the top dollar amount earned by a slasher film, and it towers over the domestic earnings of every "torture porn" flick and all but two horror remakes released in the last decade. 

Though it did a lot of things that horror fans dislike - like making the slasher genre shiny and mocking icons gone by - there's no doubt that Scream was the biggest boost to the horror genre in the 1990s.  Suddenly, kids loved "scary movies" again, and teens were clamoring for more.  Many looked to the future, hitting up the sequels we've already discussed and the imitators like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Urban Legend, but others - like The Mike himself looked to the past.  I'm pretty ashamed to admit it, but it was only after Scream that I finally saw Halloween, which is now my favorite horror film.  And that wasn't the only thing the film turned me on to.  A werewolf flick with E.T.'s mom?  Sign me up!  The Town that Dreaded Sundown?  What a title!  There's something called The Fog? I want it!

As much as I hated to admit it while my sister and her friends were wanting posters of Skeet Ulrich and talking about how cool the soundtrack was, Scream was the horror movie that inspired us to love horror movies again. 

The film itself has aged pretty well.  Though I know the plots twists by heart, I still found myself refreshed by the small town dynamic of the film and the cast of youngsters who helped start a movement in horror.  Marco Beltrami's score still gets me pumped up for what's coming next, and the horror flick conversation takes on extra meaning now that I've seen pretty much every film referenced by Randy Meeks.  But the one thing that lifts the film in my eyes is now, and has always been, Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott.

Lesson to all the guys out there: Those eyes aren't really saying yes. Don't bang your emotionally torn survivor girlfriend!  THE MORE YOU KNOW.

Sidney survives the film, obviously, but looking at it with the sequels in mind I still feel like she's a victim of the killers.  Having seen the turns in her life that follow - and knowing that he's the killer (spoiler alert!) - makes the scene in which a broken down Sidney agrees to give up her virginity to Billy a shockingly painful one.  Ms. Campbell was always a favorite part of the film to me due to her innocent nature - and because teenage The Mike had a solid crush on her - but age and experience make her plight even more interesting to me.

Looking at Scream as a horror film is tricky, because it doesn't meet the expectations of the gorehound.  There's a bit of blood, but it's a much neater blood than we're used to.  There are no gratuitous sex scenes filled with nudity, and the number of kills shown is very low compared to most slashers that came before it.  Many horror fans - again, including myself - went through a pretty severe backlash against the films that came out of the late '90s due to their neutered appearance.  I certainly look back at that as silly today, because it's not Wes Craven or Neve Campbell or Marco Beltrami's fault that Valentine was an insultingly bad faux-slasher.

One of our killers famously remarks late in Scream that "movies don't make psychos, movies make psychos more creative".  In the case of the slasher films of the late '90s and early '00s, it appears Scream was a movie that made horror filmmakers less creative.  But that's not a problem that is caused directly by this film, which is an effective thriller dripping with relevant comedy and boasting a lead character who I'd easily place in The (Non-Existent) Horror Hall of Fame for her survival skills.  It's also a landmark for an entire generation, and a film that I can't keep down any longer. 

It goes against some of my past attempts at being a contrarian, but I finally have to say it: Thank you, Scream.  Without you, the thousands of horror blogs and websites out there and the millions of fans who love the genre would be far less interesting.  You awoke something special in us.

And there's your trivia answer. Did anyone actually see Mother's Boys?  I remember seeing that preview on a VHS once and saying "I would do anything for Jamie Lee...but I won't do that."

Scream Week: Scream 2 - The Cotton Weary Experience

There have been many times in my life when I've said I like Scream 2 more than I like Scream.  With age I'm starting to think I'm probably wrong, but I don't change my mind easily enough to say that for sure today.  Check back with me tomorrow.

There are plenty of things I like about Scream 2, starting with the surprisingly great supporting cast. I knew Timothy Olyphant was gonna be awesome from day one, and we also we get Laurie Metcalf and Duane Martin as subtle comic relief from the media side.  (Plus there's fresh new victims like Elise Neal and Sarah Michelle Gellar, and even a dose of David Warner!)  The college setting seems a little fraudulent now that I've passed my own college experience, but it's still an interesting step to take from the original film that provides plenty of cool opportunities. 

The main character arc in Scream 2 is Sidney Prescott's trajectory as a survivor girl, which Neve Campbell handles fantastically.  She's taking steps to protect herself - her early use of caller ID is the most obvious example of this - and is slowly but surely trying to get back to trusting others.  In scenes like the one where she nervously pauses before kissing her boyfriend in a crowded cafeteria or when she tells him that she needs space to deal with her situation - and that he doesn't have a say in the matter - it's clear that Sidney is taking every precaution possible to make sure that she's putting herself first..  In fact, I'd bet it was around this point that 16 year old The Mike went from "Man, Sidney's a cutie" to "Man, I really feel for Sidney".  Emotional growth, thy name is Mike.

But Sidney Prescott is not the past victim who's fighting the past in Scream 2 that I want to talk about.  I'm here to talk about my favorite character in the film - in fact, my favorite character in the first three films - Cotton Weary, as played by Liev Schreiber.

Since we're moving backward through what was once a trilogy, I suppose I need to go back in time to where we met Cotton Weary.  In Scream, Weary appeared briefly on a news report, and we quickly learned that he was the person who Sidney Prescott identified as her mother's killer one year earlier.  And...that's it.  The plot of that film reveals that Cotton was not in fact the killer, but the film doesn't come back to him.  Schreiber is credited as Weary, but the character is only mentioned a couple of times.  Nothing prepared us for where Scream 2 went with the character, and I thus think it might have been the best plot development as Scream rolled into Scream 2.

Scream 2 not only brings Cotton back to the series, it makes him an integral part of the story.  While Sidney is trying to make up for what she's lost, Cotton is trying to do the same thing.  But while Sidney wants a normal life, Cotton wants the spotlight.  And in his quest to gain it - and to not appear to be a creepy former inmate - Cotton battles his own defects of character and struggles to gain the acceptance of others.

Unlike most characters in these films, Cotton Weary is not drawn specifically as a "good" or "bad" person. In Scream 2, it kinda seems like he's the only character aside from Sidney who is interesting beyond the surface level.  He's upset at the world about what he's been put through - and upset at Sidney as well - but he isn't lashing out at people directly, he's simply trying to remind others that he too has been screwed over.  He reminds me of those times when I'm sitting around at work, ranting and raving in my head about why other people can't do what they're supposed to and why all the problems fall to me.  I'm not at my best in these moments, but my intention isn't to harm anyone; I just want things to go right for me.  And that's where Cotton Weary is at in Scream 2.

Thus, the character's on edge.  He's cracking jokes to create levity, he's getting flustered and suddenly having to explain why he's flustered without seeming crazy, and he's doing everything he can to put on a good face around others -especially the media, who he knows hold the key to rehabilitating his image.  He wants to improve his external situation to make up for lost time, and he seems to think that doing so - by being famous, getting money, and winning over others - will make things better for him.  He's truly the anti-Sidney, because we witness her doing the opposite by focusing on what she can do for herself to set her up for success in the future, but that's not inherently a bad thing.  Sidney Prescott has her own laundry list of character defects too.

Most of the credit for Cotton becoming so interesting goes to Mr. Schreiber, who is quite frankly one of my favorite actors working.  Remember that movie Seconds where the old man gets put into Rock Hudson's body so he can live a better life?   If I could do that, I'd become Liev Schreiber.  (And, since Schreiber already starred in the remake of another John Frankenheimer sci-fi thriller, there's no reason we can't remake that one with The Mike starring opposite Liev.  Hollywood, feel free to call me anytime.)  He makes the character a lot more charming than it could have been, delivering plenty of lines that start with "All I want is..." with an unease in his voice and a varying posture that easily tells the viewer that he's more than just a one-dimensional greedy villain. 

I shouldn't get so much satisfaction out of Cotton Weary's journey through Scream 2, but the character and the way it's portrayed just gets me.  Cotton Weary, for better or worse, is easily the most human character in the Scream movies.  He's the slasher movie version of The Shawshank Redemption's Andy Dufresne, only he never came out clean on the other side and is thus left with a lot of internal questions that he can't find answers for.  While he might not have earned his retribution in a traditional manner, he - like Sidney Prescott - is a survivor.  He's just struggling with his emotions in a more outward fashion.

Scream Week: This One Scene from Scream 2.

Discuss.

Scream Week: The Annotated Scream 3

Look guys, I can't be bothered to put too much thought into Scream 3.  It's been a long day, so I'm just gonna roll this stuff out.  Take all that follows with a grain of salt, and such.  This is The Mike in sleep mode.

The Set-Up:
Unwilling to leave the past behind after Scream 2 opened with the premiere of Stab - the self-referential horror film based on the events of Scream - Scream 3 takes place around the making of Stab 3.  Thus, I imagine Stab 2 was about the murders of Scream 2, and now Stab 3...well, Stab 3's just made up.  Hey, Fake Hollywood of Scream 3, I've got a message for you.  It goes something like this:

DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You've made two movies about copycat killers that are real in your world, and now you're gonna make a movie about a copycat killer which doesn't have a copycat killer that inspired it?  That's like offering a two for one sale on stupid.  You take advantage of two mass murderings, and then make one up just in case someone wants to copy it?  Tempting fate like a mofo, you are. 

Guess what? People start dying. Oh, and they look like the people from Scream, even though the people from Scream are in this movie too.  So it's all layered and stuff.  Let's get to the tale of the tape.

The Good:

• First of all, I have to point out that Sidney Prescott's hair - particularly in her first scene - is pretty awesome.  I had a thing for Neve Campbell when Scream came out, and it faded a bit by Scream 2 and was forgotten by 3.  But the short cut with the red streaks...yeah.  I can dig it.
• Also, Roger Corman shows up as a producer in an early scene.  Yep, that's awesome.
• Patrick Dempsey's rocking the suit coat and jeans look in an early scene.  That takes guts.  I like him already.  (WHAT? These movies are all about looking hip, I gotta mention hair and clothes.  That's what the Scream era was all about - GAP ads with knives.)
• Also from the "Oh, I just love her" files comes Emily Mortimer as faux-Sidney.  She looks better with age - and with her regular accent (oh, and she's a fantastic actress) - but seeing her as I look back makes me smile.  And her final scene is one of the film's better horror moments.
• I'm slightly torn here, but I guess I'm gonna go ahead and call it good.  The scenes in which Sidney are haunted by her mother's "ghost" are at times fantastic (and at other times cheesy).  But the moment when she's on the phone with what sounds like her mother and is instructed to "Do what mother tells you!" gives me a Norman Bates smile.
• Self-referential Carrie Fisher cameo?  I'm going to allow it.
• Best line of the flick, which comes from the mouth of Jenny McCarthy "The shower scene's been done! I mean, hello? Vertigo!"

Jenny McCarthy is serious bidness.

 The Somewhere Between Good & Bad:

• I can't decide whether I love the fact that Jenny McCarthy is in this or whether I'm annoyed by it.  I can't help that I was a mid-teenager when Singled Out was cool.  My dad made us go to a mall department store where she was doing an appearance once, and I did not complain. (I did, however, roll my eyes at the middle-aged Iowan housewives who were awestruck by how glamorous she was.)
• The actors who play actors in this movie seem to really struggle with presenting human characters.  Are they going too far for parody, or are they just so bad at acting that they can't play an actor? I'm looking at you, Matt Keeslar.  And you, Deon Richmond.  And don't even look at me, Parker Posey.  You make me angry.
• Teasing us with a glimpse of Randy Meeks? NOT COOL.  That's like offering a meth addict free cough medicine.  You shoulda let Heather Matarazzo take over, she's cool.  On second thought....I love Randy.  So maybe it was OK....
• Dewey looks really constipated.  But, the dude had a rough few years, so I guess a bit of bloat isn't the worst thing that could have happened.

 The BAD:

• I'm not torn about only getting a small taste of Cotton Weary.  I EFFING HATE THAT. Cotton Weary in Scream 2 was the absolute perfect counterpoint to Sidney Prescott.  He's a victim, he's a survivor...but he's a snaky one who's kind of intimidating.  And now he's gone in the first 8 minutes?  That's not 100% Cotton, that's %3 Cotton.  And that, my friends, SUCKS.
• I don't know why, but having Sidney working as a survivor girl hotline lady is just a bit off for my tastes.  It comes into play in the finale, and she does deliver a nice bit of wisdom when face to face with the killer that must have come from her job, but it's an odd choice for someone who twice previously hid from drama and is living as a near hermit.
• Gale's hair looks weird.  
• The use of Red Right Hand is just not as cool as it was in Scream.  Or Scream 2. Or - especially - Hellboy.  And I LOVE Red Right Hand.  But I want REAL RED RIGHT HAND!!!!!!!
• Hey, I got an idea. Let's cast Lance Henriksen.  Let's call his character John Milton, give him two scenes, then shove him in a closet.  Oh wait, that's a bad idea.  Glad SOMEBODY noticed.
• Go away, Parker Posey.  You annoy me greatly.

 The Best Thing About Scream 3:
There are some surprisingly powerful moments in Scream 3 that surround Sidney Prescott - including a final shot that I love to mentally analyze - but none are better than when she comes face to face with the replica of her teenage home and the fateful party house from the original film/her hometown of Woodsboro.  The confrontation with the killer that occurs on this set works because it is well-shot, but it also works on a deeper level as Sidney seems to try to convince herself that there's nothing to fear in this artificial world that has been created to mimic her past home, the memory of which has been forever tainted by treacherous events gone by. The film needed to spend more time reminding us of the small town that once held terror, and less time trying to convince us Hollywood backlots and mansions are filled with characters we should be interested in.

The Worst Thing About Scream 3:
A GAS EXPLOSION?  That's right.  Not only does our Ghostface killer rig a gas explosion to off one character - out of a potential five that were in the scene - but he accurately predicts that a) all but one person will leave the house before reading his mysterious fax messages (Wait, Ghostface used a fax machine??); b) the person who stayed to read the message would not be able to read in the same amount of bright moonlight that other characters had no trouble reading in; and c) the remaining character would thus go into the next room and find a conveniently placed lighter that would trigger both his demise and a lot of bad CGI.  For shame, Scream 3.  For shame.  If Scream 4 has a gas explosion that's this contrived, I'll be an angry angry Mike.

The Killer:
Let's be honest, 97% of the appeal of these movies is made or broken when the killer's revealed.  And this time out, the reveal is about as interesting as the dinner menu at Denny's.  Plus it does that whole "retcon" thing that comics do, which I HATE in sequels.  I hate it hard.  I still hate the ending of Terminator 2 for trying to convince me that Arnold never existed, so how do you think I feel about this one peeing all over the killers from Scream?  Yep, I am not in favor of it.  That's right.  Good job, reader!

The Final Thoughts:
When Scream 3 is looked at as a horror movie, it's bad.  When it's looked at as a follow up to the first two Scream films, it's a travesty.  Gone are the smart references and the dark and interesting open spaces, instead we get Dimension Films' leftover props and far too much cynicism about the movies that were looked upon as holy texts in the first two films.  This should have killed the series, and I surely hope the next installment doesn't stoop as low as this one does.

And that it gives me some real RED RIGHT HAND!

Scream Week Midnight Top Five: The "Before Scream There Was..." Edition

With Scream 4 (or Scre4m, if you're mentally disturbed and don't like grammar) due out in theaters Friday, I figured there was no better time to take a look back at the film that is undoubtedly the most popular and socially relevant horror film to come out of the 1990s.  Thus, I present FMWL's Scream Week - an entire week dedicated to that movie and the legacy it has in horror.

We all know what Scream wanted to copy - it name drops most of the films it is inspired by - but what we don't often look at are some of the films that indirectly paved the way for Wes Craven's self-referential slasher film.  I want to take a look back at some of the films that looked at horror cinema in their own ways in the days before Scream.  Here are five of my favorite (mostly) horror films about horror films, and why they're important as we look at Scream itself.

Mark of the Vampire (1935, Dir. by Tod Browning.)
If you thought remakes were a new thing, you'd probably be surprised to know that this 76 year old film is actually a remake of the director's own (no-longer-in-existence) 1927 classic London After Midnight.  (Sure, I have no way of knowing that this lost film is a classic, but...duh people!  It is.)  In the film, a murder where a father and daughter team of "vampires" - played by the legendary Bela Lugosi and the haunting Carroll Borland (pictured below) - are the main suspects is investigated, and a wise Professor/Vampire Expert - played by Lionel Barrymore - is called in to investigate.  The film is a relatively modest story that lacks punch and is a bit dated - Browning had little ability to block studio interference after his now iconic film Freaks flopped at the box office - but it features a few haunting visuals and, most importantly to this article, a one of a kind twist that set the tone for future films.

Of course, to tell you what that means, I have to use some of those dreaded SPOILERS - so read the next paragraph at your own risk!

The trick of the film - which is revealed in future Scooby Doo fashion in the final minutes - is that the vampires and the professor are actually just playing a part to weed out the real murderer.  The professor is actually the chief of police, and Lugosi and Borland's vampires (who were written as incestuous before the studio blocked Browning from filming this subplot) are actually real life everyday ACTORS.  That's right.  The director and actor who made everyone terrified of Dracula four years earlier - had made a film which revealed on-screen that the man who terrified millions was actually a jovial actor who got a kick out of wearing a cape and scaring people.  Though the plot is a far cry from Scream, this is one of the first films to ever blatantly wink at the audience before implying that these monsters aren't always as ominous as they appear.

By the way, if you don't want my commentary on Mark of the Vampire, Trailers From Hell has some commentary on it...from the legendary John Landis!

Arsenic and Old Lace (1944, Dir. by Frank Capra.)
I know.  Dudes, I know.  It's not really a horror film, it's a madcap comedy adapted from a play.  It also happens to be one of my favorite films, and it also happens to be a film about a family of feuding insane people who have combined for at least 26 murders. 

While Mark of the Vampire took its shots using Lugosi and Dracula, Arsenic and Old Lace uses Boris Karloff and the Frankenstein monster to create its torture.  Before Raymond Massey's Jonathan Brewster is even introduced Aunt Martha remarks about how she was taken to one of those "scary pictures" a few weeks earlier, and when we do meet Jonathan, she confirms our suspicions - Jonathan's face resembles that of Boris Karloff. 

Karloff is name dropped a couple of times throughout the film - though I don't believe the Frankenstein name is - and several scenes hinge on Jonathan Brewster flying off into a monster-esque rage when compared to Mr. Karloff.  The joke is even funnier when you learn the back story - that the role was originated by and made famous on stage by none other than - you guessed it - Boris Karloff.

The incredibly dark comedy - especially for the early 1940s - is also notable because Cary Grant's Mortimer Brewster is a dramatic critic, who spends part of the film explaining murderous acts that he's seen acted out - which then are acted out upon him.  Though Frank Capra's adaptation - and the play before it - aimed to create laughs - it's one of the first indications that characters who are wiser due to the things they've watched (like Scream's Randy Meeks) would be coming to cinema screens.

Targets (1968, Dir. by Peter Bogdanovich.)
Speaking of Boris Karloff, let's talk about Targets.  I've talked about Targets before, but I ain't gonna stop talking about one of my favorite films that easily.  But truthfully, Targets is kind of the Anti-Scream.

An aging Karloff stars as aging horror icon Byron Orlok, a man who spent his life playing the kind of characters Boris Karloff would have played.  In fact, the film features real works of Mr. Karloff, primarily featuring a few minutes of Roger Corman's 1963 film The Terror (that first-time director Peter Bogdanovich was required to use by Corman) as Orlok's latest film, which has pushed him over the edge toward requirement.  In the picture below, Karloff as Orlok watches himself on TV in 1931's The Criminal Code, and laughs about the things he's done to scare innocent people from behind a screen.

But Orlok knows something that most real world viewers were already realizing.  Real world horrors were a lot more frightening than gothic castles and the ghosts of the past.  These fears are personified in Targets not by Karloff, but by young Tim O'Kelly - who kind of looks like a mini 1960s version of John Cena - who plays a trained sniper who decides he's sick of the ordinary and heads off on a senseless killing spree.  The paths of the old ghost and the new killer path in the final scenes of the film, and the result is one of the most telling statements about horror cinema that's ever been filmed.  Like Scream, Targets knew that audiences were sick of the status quo in horror cinema.  And like Scream, the film dared to point out the flaws in the horror system that were holding the genre back.

Popcorn (1991, Dir. by Mark Herrier.)
I've also covered Popcorn before, but the 1990s' first horror-about-horror must be mentioned here.  Though it primarily connects to films of the '50s and '60s for inspiration, Popcorn blazes its own trail by mimicking cinematic kills, and also happens to connect with Scream by making the "survivor girl" be connected to the killer through her parents.  The result is one of the most fun horror films of the '90s, and a nice little piece of counterprogramming to offset Scream's shiny side.  What Scream offered in criticism of the slasher genre, Popcorn offered in love toward the drive-in and B-movie favorites of a simpler, less demonic time.  I love that about it.

(By the way, do you love Popcorn like I do?  Or do you want to see it, but are dissuaded by the poor transfer on the OOP DVD that is now available on Instant Netflix?  If you answered yes to either of these questions, I've got a treat for you.  The indomitable Kristy Jett - of FMWL favorite The Bloodsprayer and many other fine places - has spearheaded a campaign to get Popcorn the proper - nay, the FANTASTIC - release and restoration that it deserves.  You can check out the progress made by going to the production site HERE, or - more importantly - you can check out the Kickstarter campaign that's funding the project.  The project could certainly use your help, and I think it's a darn worthy cause to support.)

(Yes, I just skipped talking about the movie for a paragraph to insert a shameless plug into my list.  BUT IT'S FOR A GOOD DVD RELEASE OF POPCORN, and I'm willing to sacrifice for that.  Go read my earlier Popcorn post if you need more of it, OK? Thanks much.)

There's Nothing Out There (1992, Dir. by Rolfe Kanefsky.)
There's Nothing Out There is first and foremost a Troma release - within the first 40 minutes I felt like I had seen every pair of naked breasts on set, and the special effects rival those of a three year old playing with toy dinosaurs - but it also features a hero that any horror nerd - like myself, I proudly admit it - will fall absolutely in love with.  If you like Randy Meeks (And who the heck doesn't like Randy Meeks?  By golly, he was THE best thing about the Scream films!), you'll get one heckuva kick out of TNOT's Mike.  (Hey film, great choice of name!)

There's Nothing Out There offers a basic horror set up that combines elements of The Blob and The Evil Dead, in which a bunch of youngsters go to a secluded place to part and fornicate, without knowing that a bunch of carnivorous things with green slime are loose and hungry.  But Mike - who claims to have rented every horror movie possible - immediately sees the warning signs and starts to run through how horror films can help him and his friends survive the day.  As he tries to shed his nerdy exterior and save the day, he gets to say things like "This reminds me of Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and coach his friends on what they need to do to get past the threat around them.  The result is absolutely one of the most fun horror films to come out of the early '90s, and one of the few great male and nerdy heroes in the history of fright flicks.

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And that's five.  I suppose I could have talked about Craven's own New Nightmare - in which Freddy Krueger visits actress Heather Langenkamp - but Craven will get his due throughout the week.  And though I don't think these five films directly influenced Scream, their place in history is worth noting.  Horror has a long history of referring back to itself - ask any horror film that takes a break to tell the story of some terror gone by.  Like, for example....

On second thought, that's another list for another day. ;) 

Come on back tomorrow for more of Scream Week!

VOTE NOW in FMWL's Midnight Madness Tournament Fatal Four!

For more than three weeks, we've been plugging away at FMWL's March Midnight Madness Tournament.  A fantastic team of writers/bloggers from around the web signed up to help whittle the field of the first 64 Midnight Movie of the Week picks down to these four survivors, who will now battle to become FMWL'S 2010-2011 MIDNIGHT MOVIE OF THE YEAR.  Though I'm entirely grateful to all those folks for helping out so far, I wanted to get as many opinions as is humanly possible for these final matchups.  So, it's time for you - the FMWL reader extraordinaire! - to be heard. 

So here's the rules:

• Read about the matchups below.
• In the comments (and using your name or your blogger account, anonymous votes will not be accepted!) tell me which film you prefer in each matchup.
• Feel free to argue with other commenters, to make your case, to try and sway voters, etc.  (Of course, do so in a civil way.  Any overly mean stuff will be deleted promptly.)  I'm not counting votes right away, so you're free to change your mind all the way up to the deadline.
• Voting will end at 12:01 (AM Central Time) on the morning of Monday 4/18.
• After all the comments are left and the votes are tallied, I'll post your comments and votes here on Monday the 18th, at which point the same process will begin involving the final two films that will battle for the title!

Make sense?  Good.  Here's the four films and two matchups we're talking about....

MMOTW #32: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre vs. MMOTW # 25: John Carpenter's The Thing

#3 Seed & Frankenstein Regional Winner - The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

How It Got Here: Defeated #14 Seed Raw Meat (12-0); Defeated #6 Seed They Live (12-2); Defeated #7 Seed Ginger Snaps (13-0); Defeated #1 Seed Predator (8-2).  Total Vote = 45-2.

The Story Thus Far: It was a surprise to me that this film was as low as a #3 seed - it was the highest rated three seed, 9th overall - when I used IMDB ratings to formulate the original bracket.  None of the results here really surprised me, though I must admit I thought Predator might put up more of a fight.

My Favorite Screenshot: I'm not too proud to pick this iconic one.

#1 Seed & Myers Regional Winner - John Carpenter's The Thing

How It Got Here: Defeated #16 Seed The Food of the Gods (12-0); Defeated #9 Seed The House of the Devil (14-0); Defeated #4 Seed Big Trouble in Little China (13-0); Defeated #10 Seed Friday the 13th (11-0). Total Vote = 50-0.

The Story Thus Far: The results pretty much sum it up.  No one - including me - has voted against The Thing through four matchups.  It's been a juggernaut.  But it hasn't faced anything quite like TCM...yet.

My Favorite Screenshot: I love this one, which combines a pre-blood testing Kurt (and his beard) with the suggestive poster that proclaims THEY AREN'T LABELED and parallels the film's plot.

MMOTW #2: Moon vs. MMOTW #64: Evil Dead II

#1 Seed & Hammer Regional Winner - Moon

How It Got Here: Defeated #16 Seed The Roost (7-1); Defeated #9 Seed Candyman (7-6); Defeated #13 Seed Piranha (7-5); Defeated #7 Seed Spider Baby (6-4). Total Vote = 27-16.

The Story Thus Far: Despite it being the second highest rated #1 Seed on IMDB, I doubted Moon would make it this far from the start.  I didn't expect it to get past Candyman, and then Piranha nearly shocked it in the Sinister Sixteen.  But, the votes were just enough for it to make it through to represent the sci-fi genre in the Fatal Four.

My Favorite Screenshot: The haunting mysterious young woman from early in the film doesn't look too imposing here....but we just know there's something terribly wrong as soon as she shows up.  

#1 Seed & Blob Regional Winner - Evil Dead II: Dead by Dawn

How it Got Here: Defeated #16 Seed Attack of the 50 Foot Woman (11-0); Defeated #8 Seed The Curse of the Werewolf (11-2); Defeated #4 Seed Death Proof (11-2); Defeated #14 Seed Killer Klowns from Outer Space (9-1).  Total Vote = 42-5.

The Story Thus Far: The last Midnight Movie of the Week before the tournament was one I thought would do pretty well, and I haven't been proven wrong.  It also may have had the easiest run to the Fatal Four, with no disrespect meant to the likes of the Killer Klowns.  Can it survive till the final matchup dawns?

My Favorite Screenshot: There are few things that creep me out like the Evil Dead cabin, and I just adore this shot of it from the perspective of the makeshift cross that guards the grave of poor Cheryl 2.0.

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So there you have it!  Hit up the comments below and vote for the two films you want to see in the final matchup to become 2010-2011 MIDNIGHT MOVIE OF THE YEAR!!!!

Will it be The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or The Thing?

Will it be Moon or Evil Dead II?

YOU DECIDE!  All votes need to be in by 12:01 AM CST on Monday 4/18!

FMWL's March Midnight Madness Tournament - The Regional Finals!

Last weekend we whittled the field down to these eight films, and now it's time to take the field down to the FATAL FOUR films that will compete for the title of 2010-2011 Midnight Movie of the Year.  Our trusty and devoted selection Committee is back once more, and let's waste no more time letting their choices get cold!

If you missed the Sinister Sixteen, go HERE to check out how we got here!
If you missed Round Two, go HERE to check out how we got there!
If you missed Round One, go HERE to check out all the tourney action!
If you want to know who the selection committee for the Sinister Sixteen is, here they are:

• R.D. Penning of Dead End Drive-In
• Liam Underwood of Paracinematic Cinephile
• Andreas of Pussy Goes Grrr
• T.L. Bugg of The Lightning Bug's Lair
• Emily of The Deadly Doll's House of Horror Nonsense
• Joe Monster of From Beyond Depraved
• Matt House of Chuck Norris Ate My Baby
• Mike Snoonian of All Things Horror
• B.Stank of Brutally Violent & Wonderful
• Fred [The Wolf] of Full Moon Reviews
• B-Sol of The Vault of Horror
• Emily C of The Quest to Watch Every Movie Ever
• Geof of The Man-Cave 
• Christine of Paracinema Magazine & Paracinema.net

The Frankenstein Regional

#1 Seed - MMOTW #49: Predator vs. #3 Seed - MMOTW #32: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

What The Mike says: I'm gonna let you all in on a little secret.  I'm not wild about TCM.  I like it alot, I think it's a fascinating piece of horror, but I can only watch it once in a long while.  Predator and I, on the other hand, have no problems.  It completes me.  And it gets my endorsement here.

What the Selection Committee says:

• "TCM is my favorite horror film of all time. Viewing it elicits a visceral response that I don’t believe could ever be recreated. The dinner table scene makes my teeth grind." - Christine
• "I have to vote for Predator here. It is one of my favorite creatures of all time. So much detail went in to creating it, and it was insanely good for its time! Predator moves on!" - R.D. Penning
• "Wow...Leatherface vs. Predator. The thought of this matchup would make an awesome film! Arnie could have a cameo where he says to Leatherface: Now you...you REALLY are one ugly muthafucka!" - Geof
• "Of all the things I love about TCM, the fact that Tobe Hooper thought he made a comedy might be my favorite thing." - Mike S.

The Vote: Predator 2, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre 8 - THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE moves on to the Fatal Four!

The Myers Regional

#1 Seed - MMOTW #25: The Thing vs. #10 Seed - MMOTW #11: Friday the 13th

What The Mike says: This is the easiest choice ever.  The man who created Halloween takes on the ripoff of Halloween.  It is called the MYERS Regional, after all.  Gimme that THING.

What the Selection Committee says:

• "Be honest: would you rather see a bunch of anonymous teenagers being predictably hacked up one by one, or experience the gory, grueling antarctic mayhem of Carpenter's masterpiece? It's not even close." - Andreas
• "There is no worthier king to finally dethrone an overrated slasher than Kurt Russell's beard." - Emily
• "This is no contest, and frankly I'm surprised Friday the 13th has made it this far. Out of the big three slashers, both Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street are far superior for me, and if either of those were facing off against The Thing then this would be a far tougher match-up to call. As it is, Kurt Russell and his beard keep on going. If The Thing doesn't get through to the next round, well, to quote Palmer: You gotta be fucking kidding." - Liam
• "Every aspect of this match-up screams for The Thing to win....from it's claustrophobic and paranoid atmosphere, to it's grotesque creature, and of course to the presence of Kurt Russell.  I love Friday the 13th, but it pales in comparison to The Thing." - Emily C

The Vote: The Thing 11, Friday the 13th 0 - THE THING moves on to the Fatal Four!

The Hammer Regional

#1 Seed - MMOTW #2: Moon vs. #7 Seed: MMOTW #14: Spider Baby

What The Mike says: I probably like Moon a little more as an overall movie, but I'm backing Spider Baby here.  It's one of the most unique horror comedies ever made, and it deserves the rub.  Moon's day will come, Spider Baby's is here.

What the Selection Committee says:

• "Duncan Jones is perhaps THE most well rounded director out there right now. His attention to detail and love for the cinema is unbelievable. Moon easily wins... Sorry Spider Baby." - R.D. Penning
• "Moon is a masterpiece, no doubt about it. But Jack Hill's Spider Baby is such a perfect slice of campy horror that I believe it would stay on court until the timer ran out, then proceed to tear Sam Rockwell apart with its own adorable hands." - Emily
• "I'll admit, I've still not got around to catching Moon, but it would have to be something damn special to beat out Spider Baby. There's just something so fantastic about Spider Baby's glorious ricketiness that just gives it so much appeal. It's quirky and off-beat, and I know I shouldn't but I kinda fancy Virginia." - Liam
• "Spider Baby once again gets my vote because I just can't help but love the wonderful family and their homicidal tendencies... even more than multiple Sam Rockwells." - Emily C 
• "As much fun as I get out of Spider Baby's quasi-exploitation antics, Moon is undoubtedly the superior film. (Though just for kicks, let's imagine a crossover: what if GERTY had to supervise the Merrye children?)" - Andreas

The Vote: Moon 6, Spider Baby 4 - MOON moves on to the Fatal Four!

The Blob Regional

#1 Seed - MMOTW #64: Evil Dead II vs. #14 Seed - MMOTW #9: Killer Klowns from Outer Space

What The Mike says: I can't stop myself.  I love that Killer Klowns from Outer Space has made it this far, and I love the movie's cheesy brand of awesome.  I love Evil Dead II as well, of course, but it's no fun to always root for the favorites.  Give me Klowns or give me Evil Death!

What the Selection Committee says:

• "Evil Dead deserves the crown. I’ve never been a super fan, but it’s impossible to deny its influence and staying power in the community." - Christine
• "The best matchup of this bracket! Klowns are awesome but Ash owns. I imagine if he said "Gimmie some sugar, baby" to them, they would offer one of their cotton candy cocoons." - Geof
• "I can't help it. I just think crazy straws are groovy." - Emily
• "I'm just not down with the clowns. I hate goddamn juggalos." - Mike S.
• "While I love Killer Klowns to death, the horror-comedy blend is much more even in Evil Dead II...and it has Ash and demons and evil incantations, which are superior to klowns." - Emily C

The Vote: Evil Dead II 9, Killer Klowns from Outer Space 1 - EVIL DEAD II moves on to the Fatal Four!

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And like that, we're down to FOUR.  One #3 seed crashed the party, but the other three regions were dominated by the #1 seeds, which should set up a dynamic Fatal Four!

The Fatal Four Matchups!

#3 Seed & Frankenstein Regional Winner - The Texas Chain Saw Massacre vs. #1 Seed & Myers Regional Winner - The Thing

#1 Seed & Hammer Regional Winner - Moon vs. #1 Seed & Blob Regional Winner - Evil Dead II

Thanks again to our wonderful selection committee for all their help with the project thus far, make sure to go check out their sites and spread the midnight love around!  And make sure to check back tomorrow....when Fatal Four voting will be made open to ALL FMWL READERS AND MIDNIGHT WARRIORS OUT THERE!

Insidious

(2010, Dir. by James Wan.)

A married couple and their children deal with a peculiar haunting in Insidious, which is born from the minds of writer Leigh Whannell and director James Wan.  The duo, who created Saw - for better or worse - and the creepy puppet chiller Dead Silence are staking their claim as a force in the horror scene - again, for better or worse - and Insidious is certainly their most mature and effective film yet.  However, I still struggle with proclaiming their work on Insidious to be entirely successful.

Patrick Wilson and Rose Byrne star as the couple dealing directly with the haunting and they, along with their two young sons and infant daughter, are certainly painted as a normal family early on.  When I say normal, I don't mean they're the prototypical Hollywood family, I mean they seem like an actual normal family, dealing with everyday problems and being worn down by the world around them.  The plot opens as they've just moved into a ridiculously large and seemingly isolated home, which comes with a lot of creaky wood floors and a creepy attic that would make the residents of Amityville shiver.  It also seems to come with a few surprises, like the fragile old wooden ladder in said attic that their eldest son, Dalton, falls off of early in the film.  (In a stroke of bad parenting that the film glosses over, Byrne's character found out the ladder wasn't safe earlier the same day.  My parents would have told me stories like the rest of the film to scare me away from ever going near that ladder which, in hindsight, is probably also bad parenting.  Oh well.)

Dalton ends up in a kind-of-coma-but-not actually-a-coma that doctors can't explain, and in the meantime strange events continue to occur.  Byrne's Renai seems to be at the center of all this as Wilson's Josh continues to distance himself from the proceedings.  As the film nears its midpoint, the family has had enough with their home - which must have been a chore to heat anyway, what with its huge ceilings - and move to a smaller, more residential home where they can take care of Dalton and hopefully not deal with bumps in the night.

If you've seen any of the advertising for the film, you've heard a paranormal psychic character played by Lin Shaye announce the revelation that comes next.  Unfortunately, in a horror film, you can't just move halfway through the film and then live happily ever after.  The second half of the film brings not only Shaye's welcome presence as the film's "Ahab", but also introduces one of my favorite people, Barbara Hershey (who's still so lovable), as Josh's concerned mother.  Both hold key plot points that help the final act, and I was surprised at how well that final act came together on screen.  The film goes to a unique and interesting place as it moves toward a conclusion, which is very welcome before the final couple of scenes.

My biggest problems with Insidious had to do with its presentation.  Wan films the whole story with a muted color palette that I found extremely unappealing, and the final act slips into that "Hey, let's just turn all the lights out and flash some colors once in a while" trap that many modern horror filmmakers have.  Additionally, the film's sound mixing is exceedingly loud and shrill.  The coloring and sound do a great job of creating unease and tension in the viewer from a physical standpoint - but so would a pair of electrified clamps connected to their skin.  This is full-blown Pavlovian horror, as it seems the filmmakers want us to be conditioned to fear the creaks and corners we sense danger in.  To an extent that's fine, but I felt like these choices - which felt like blatant attempts to manipulate the viewer emotionally - took away from my ability to care about what was going on with the characters.

With the first half of the film being primarily about these shocking moments, the changes in the second house and second half of the movie were welcome to me.  I found myself appreciating the visuals a bit more - though I did think the "entities" that began to appear weren't the most interesting threats I'd ever seen on screen (while many said one was a demonic Darth Maul, no one warned me that one appears to be a zomified Tim Capello) - and I certainly became more involved with the characters now that we had more backstory into what was going on.

I'm probably overanalyzing Insidious.  It offers a unique horror story and plenty of jumps on a modest budget.  But I couldn't help feeling that it just wasn't my kind of horror movie I wanted for the first hour, and the obvious final scenes left a bad taste in my mouth too.  Still, the end result is at least a fun chiller that could be watched with friends who are casually interested in horror.  Perhaps my gripes with the film's style may fade upon second glance, but for now I can't give Insidious more than a modest recommendation based on my personal experience with the film.