Scream 4: A return to the good stuff!

Ten years after her last encounter with the Ghostface Killer, Sidney Prescott seems to have finally put herself together. While on tour promoting her new self-help book, she stops by her old hometown of Woodsboro and reconnects with her old friends Dewey, Gale and her niece Jill. But her reappearance also brings about the reappearance of the Ghostface Killer, who seems intent upon finally getting the best of Sidney.

The thing that made the original Scream so groundbreaking was that it broke the rules in regards to horror films. When it was released in 1996, it not only acknowledged that horror films (like Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc.) existed, but that there were certain rules that one needed to abide by in order to survive a horror film scenario. The original was also aided by screenwriter Kevin Williamson and director Wes Craven and the immense talent they both brought to the project. The self-reflexive look/story aspect of the film helped to break the mold of the Hollywood horror film (a mold that had existed since the early 1980's and something Craven helped to create with A Nightmare on Elm Street). However, the successive sequels fell victim to the flaws the original skewered and, as a result, lacked the punch and staying power of that original.

But, as with any good horror film franchise, it just could not die and Scream 4 was released nearly 15 years after the first one. Thankfully Craven and Williamson returned to guide the project which does not quite live up to the original (how could it honestly), but has the same spirited scares, laughs, pop culture references and sturdy performances to make it the best sequel in the franchise. Williamson's script kept the audience involved by presenting the mystery of who or whom was responsible for the new Woodsboro killings while giving the characters plenty of opportunities to rift on cultural gems like "the death of horror films" or how cliched the situation they were facing at the time was. Meanwhile Craven was also able to strike a balance between building up the tension as Ghostface stalked his (or her) victims and allowing the audience to breath and chuckle. Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette all pitched in with solid performances, breathing life into the characters that helped get them bigger paychecks when looking for other starring roles, and the youngsters in the cast added a needed jolt of youth and energy (Emma Roberts performance in particular was absorbing).

Scream 4 was a return to the uber-intelligent, fun and self-reflexive horror film ways that made this once fabled horror franchise relevant enough to pass judgement on the horror genre as a whole.

Grade: B

My Soul to Take: My goodness what a bad film

Fifteen years after the serial killer “The Riverton Ripper” was allegedly killed by police a number of teenager, whose birthdays match that fateful day, begin to go missing. Soon people begin to wonder if The Ripper is back and taking revenge or if his soul is somehow responsible for the disappearances.

Once upon a time when one saw the name Wes Craven attached as the director of a film a shiver no doubt went down their spin. For years Craven has directed some of the better horror films released, including A Nightmare on Elm Street and the Scream series, but his newest film My Soul to Take might mark a new career low for it featured a dreadfully befuddling story and absolutely no terrifying or thrilling parts whatsoever. The main villain of the movie, “The Riverton Ripper,” was rarely seen and hardly developed character-wise, like most of the disposable teen cast, which played their cookie-cutter parts as best they could before being dispatched in disappointingly similar fashions.

Without even a decent supporting character to root for the audience had to contend with the perplexingly tedious story, which never had a hint of intrigue and left them wondering why they had wasted an hour and forty minutes of their lives on a horrible film when they could have been doing something better, like watching paint dry.

Grade: D-

A Nightmare on Elm Street: One, two, this remake is nothing new!

Nancy and her friends are having problems sleeping. They are being haunted by a man with knives for fingers who has a strong desire to do them harm.

Unfair or not, this film is going to draw comparisons to the 1984 modern masterpiece of the same name by director Wes Craven. The director of the remake, Samuel Bayer, was able to utilize superior sets, subtle CGI and other visual goodies in order to give this version of Nightmare a very slick look and some impressive visuals. Jackie Earle Haley produced his own unique take on the infamous movie monster Freddy Krueger. Whereas Robert Englund’s (the actor who portrayed Freddy in the original) Krueger carried a Joker - ish glee when he stalked the teenagers in the original, Haley was just creepy with a capital "C" and more apt to mangle than crack wise. Even though Haley’s Freddy was more vicious in the remake, there were not many scares to be had as the jumps were predictable and standard for newer horror films (which seem more concerned with showing buckets of blood rather than merely hinting at mayhem and letting the audiences’ imaginations fill in the nasty details). In the end, what separated these two films was the fact that the original had some sustenance behind its story whereas the remake lacked not only in story but in characters as well. The original had an underpinning of social commentary in that the story seemed to be exploring the disintegration of the American household thanks to divorce and other factors unique to the Reagan Era. In order for Nancy’s mother to deal with the implosion of her life, she turned to alcohol and drugs, and expected her daughter to do the same when her friend’s started dying. But Nancy (an ultra whiny but still affective Heather Langenkamp) was willing to take on the problem of facing Freddy and not slip into the bottle. The result of this was that the audience (teenagers for the most part) were better able to relate to Nancy’s struggle for self-preservation and root for her while at the same time have the bejesus scared out of them. The Nancy in the remake (played by Rooney Mara), had little to no personality and, again, the story focused more on the many ways Freddy could dispatch the teens as opposed to drawing in the audience with a substantial story to punctuate the scares.

In light of this, it begs the question, why remake a superior horror film when you cannot hope to top it?

Grade: D+

Red Eye: As if you needed another reason to fear flying!

A good cinematic thrill ride is hard to find these days. Either the thrills don't jump up and grab you like you are hoping for or you find yourself shaking your head as a plot twist so unexpected comes along that you cannot help but feel ripped off. Red Eye is not one of those movies, it's a film that actually delivers the goods and gives you the white knuckle experience.

While waiting to catch a flight back to Miami, Lisa Reisert meets Jackson Rippner. They share a drink and some conversation before boarding the same flight and eventually find themselves seated together. But once they are in the air Jackson reveals the true reason he seems to keep meeting up with Lisa. Unless she helps him in his attempt to assassinate the Head of Homeland Security, her father will be killed.

Although it started off looking like it would be another disposable romantic comedy, Red Eye quickly turned into one hell of an intense thriller. It dispensed with all of the unnecessary cinematic fat found in most Hollywood films and concentrated on keeping its plot, story and character development economical and yet so rich that by the end the audience felt like it had just watched an epic. Uber horror director Wes Craven did his best Hitchcock impersonation by first playing with the audience, making them believe Jackson’s good intentions, and then cramming them into that claustrophobic cabin where Lisa had nowhere to go and no one to call for help. In a movie that relied heavily upon two actors to carry the story and the action (and make sitting in a plane for a quarter of the film seem interesting) Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy delivered with performances that kept the audience engaged . McAdams as the strong Lisa, a woman who refused to be a victim again, brought depth and power to a role that could have been overshadow by that of Murphy, who conveyed the kind of cool hostility which made it hard to root against him. He was never over-the-top in his villainy, rather he subtly exuded evil via looks and gestures and that in and of itself was more chilling than anything most villians in other thrillers could do with guns and knives and a bunch of cheesy, throwaway one - liners.

Grade: B+

The Hills Have Eyes: and you need to know that this film has a nasty streak to it!

Horror films are a staple of Hollywood but recently some of them have taken on quite a rough edge to them. These uber-gore fest seem to be more concerned with inventing new ways to realistically crack a skull rather than make the audience freak themselves out by pulling the camera away just as the monster approaches its victim. The Hills Have Eyes is certainly one film that did not hold back and wanted to show you every nasty little detail of its gruesome universe.

On their way out to California, a family takes an unknown desert road in order to save time and wind up fighting for their own survival against a group of grotesque hill dwellers who have devolved into blood-thirsty monsters.

If a gritty, no-holds-barred, gore-fest is what you’re in the mood for, then The Hills Have Eyes is for you. This re-imagining of the original low budget Wes Craven classic was so intense and unflinching when delivering its visceral ferocity that even the most harden horror film fanatic might have to turn away at points. The absolute beauty in which the film was shot only heightened the grisly nature of “The Hills”. The desert became something of an alien landscape, further hindering the family and aiding the hill dwellers. Unfortunately the film spoiled its opulent look by failing to capitalize upon it and tell an equally stunning story. These characters and the film's plot have been done to death (not only because it was a remake) by a million other directors and writers. It seems the only way to put a unique spin on a horror film anymore is to see how bloody you can make it, damning the characters and story to the background or sometimes dispensing with them all together. There was no grey area in the film, there were good guys (Bobby, Doug, Brenda, etc.) and bad guys (the hill dwellers), but to make an audience take a journey with those good guys it would have been worthwhile to make them believable and human instead of cardboard and clichéd. That didn’t happen here so when you get down to it, The Hills Have Eyes was nothing more than a faux snuff film that some of the ADD generation can watch over and over again in order to see their favorite death scenes.

Grade: C-