Halloween 2015 #9: Scream 2 (1997) - Wes Craven

No spoilers, I promise.

Sequels! I have seen very few horror movie sequels. Only recently did I see the wonderful A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. And I loved it. But sequels to horror films always struck me as blatant rip-offs of the first movie, trying to capitalize on the success of what was probably a great film.

My actual feeling before seeing this movie! But the best part about Scream 2 is that it anticipates this doubt. It’s kind of an underdog in that way, and by utilizing the lack of expectations in what a sequel can be, it succeeds in being awesome.

The film opens at a movie theater scene, the opening night of the new horror movie “Stab.” The movie is literally based on the actual murders that take place in the first Scream movie, with Heather Graham playing Drew Barrymore’s character in an almost shot for shot recreation of the first scene of the original movie. 

In the Scream 2 scene, Maureen and her boyfriend, Phil, are murdered at the theater, one of them in front of the entire movie-going audience. The highly stylized murder is an affront on the rowdy “violence is cool” antics of the audience, and it’s all pretty meta.

Which leads us into a film class at the fictional Windsor college, where the surviving members of the first movie, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) and Randy (Jamie Kennedy), are students. The students in the film class have a legitimate discussion about the effect violent movies have on the public, and even talk about whether a sequel can ever be as good as the original. 

By constantly criticizing and critiquing the horror genre, Scream 2 rises above the boring “the killer is back” stories of previous franchises. The killer is back this time, but is he inspired by the reality of the original murders, or does he want to be the star of Stab 2? Is this a revenge story or a copycat killer?

Courtney Cox is also back as the sassy journalist Gale Weathers, who wrote the novel that inspired the movie Stab. There’s so much meta-reality here, it’s very fun to watch. 

We also get future Mr. Courtney Cox, David Arquette as officer Dewey Riley.

And new characters!

Sorority girl Cici (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and Sidney Prescott’s college roommate Hallie (Elise Neal).

Not to mention the best of all, Portia de Rossi as sorority sister Murphy.

Eyebrows on fleek tbh.

The film is led by the impressive Neve Campbell, who deals with some serious post-traumatic stress after only two years of being “free” of her killer.

What I love about Sidney as a lead character is that she is a scream queen, but she is also capable of taking care of herself. She killed the killer in the first movie, and she’s not afraid to do it again. She’s clearly been through a lot, so we get to watch her genuinely be affected by the horrors of the first movie, not to mention having to relive it when a movie based on her disturbing past is released in theaters (she’s played by Tori Spelling).

And finally, there’s Randy, another Scream survivor. 

The film mocks itself for being a sequel, mocks the horror genre for so many of its lazy sequels, and mocks you as an audience member for thinking you could predict how this one will end. Today, in 2015, the only way to make a sequel is to wink at the audience the whole time (22 Jump Street), and this film is a precursor to that much needed self-awareness. If it wasn’t in on the joke, it’d be the butt of it.

Scream 2 grossed $172 million on a $24 million budget, and it earned an 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. If you haven’t seen any of the Scream films, definitely watch them in order (I saw Scream 4, then Scream, then Scream 2… oops). There were parts where I didn’t even remember who did what in reference to the first film, and I saw it less than a year ago.

Halloween 2015 #8: Sleepy Hollow (1999) - Tim Burton

Spoiler alert: Helena Bonham Carter is not in this movie.

Crazy, I know. Okay! The year is 1999. The world is ending on January 1st, 2000. People are afraid! Nothing like a good old fashioned horror movie to show everyone that what we should actually be afraid of is 19th century American literature.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving tells the story of Ichabod Crane, an awkward and lanky school teacher who is in love with the town’s most attractive and richest female, Katrina Van Tassel. After failing to propose to her at a party one night, Ichabod rides home, where he faces off with the mysterious headless horseman.

So the 1949 Walt Disney version, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, is actually a pretty faithful adaption of the story. Although Tim Burton did have his winks to the audience as well.

In this version, however, Ichabod Crane is a New York City police constable who is sent to the upstate town to investigate mysterious beheadings.

Johnny Depp really captures the sort of bumbling, flustered aspect of Ichabod well. He’s not inept, just kind of silly. Plus he faints a lot.

Which makes him perfect for the rich and mysterious Katrina, played by Christina Ricci.

Fun note: Christina Ricci was 18 when this was filmed (the age of Katrina in Irving’s original story) and Johnny Depp was 35. They play love interests.

Everyone in the film is a suspect, and the film does a good job of making us suspicious of every one of them. For starters, Katrina is a practicing witch.

The town all fully believes and accepts the origin story of the Headless Horseman, who was a Hessian mercenary in the Revolutionary War before he was beheaded and buried in the woods. Now he rises from the grave in search of new heads.

Oh and he’s also Christopher Walken.

The film is pretty gory, which caused some critics to criticize it for being over the top in its violence. But it has a lightheartedness about it that kind of makes some of the serious violence seem silly. I mean, watching a headless horseman chop someone’s head clean off is sort of comical, right? 

Ichabod focuses his investigation entirely in the realm of science, which leads him down several dead-ends. It’s only when he begins to accept the supernatural in his life that the picture begins to come together. There are interesting contradicting ideas about religion versus logic, or seeing versus believing at play, which makes for a good detective story with the added element of horror.

Sleepy Hollow went on to win an Oscar for Art Direction and is a fun film for any October movie night.

Halloween 2015 #5 - The Thing (1982) - John Carpenter

A lot of famous horror movies have vague titles, The Omen, Scream, Halloween, Psycho, but The Thing probably takes the cake. 

As horror movies tend to celebrate or analyze “otherness,” what’s more frightening than something you can’t even really describe? It hunts humans, yet it also lives among them. They were right to use flame throwers!

The Thing follows an American research station in Antartica. In the first scene, an Alaskan malamute runs into the camp, being followed by a distressed Norwegian with a gun. As Americans are wont to do, they shoot the Norwegian in the face.

But this dog did not come to make friends. It soon becomes apparent that it isn’t really a dog at all.

Poor dog. Just before, a couple of the Americans went over to the Norwegian side of Antartica and found their camp destroyed and the burnt remains of creature lying in the snow. What would you do? Take it back to your own camp of course!

The Thing makes an insane use of practical effects as this unexplained life form shows off its ability to devour and then transform into any of its victims. The film soon becomes an exploration of paranoia. Anyone could be the Thing. The impending darkness that is an Antarctic winter highlights the claustrophobic feeling of being trapped in a building with an intelligent, carnivorous creature. It’s part Alien (1979), part Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). 

One of the only comic relief moments is when the head of one of their buddies turns into a giant spider and tries to sneak out of the room unnoticed.

Kurt Russell as the helicopter pilot, MacReady, acts as our pillar of logic in this terrifying adventure. We trust him so much, that I really think the movie missed an opportunity by not having him be The Thing in the end. Although… it is ambiguous… oh my god maybe he was The Thing!

In this scene, he holds a flare to a dynamite because all of the others are convinced that he is the Thing. But they later prove who is and who isn’t with an intense blood test, and at least up until that moment, we can be sure he isn’t.

No one wants to be tied up next to the Thing.

But Kurt Russell is weirdly attractive here as our scotch-drinking hero. He just looks sensitive with that beard.

The Thing was released the exact same day as Blade Runner in 1982, and debuted #8 at the box office. Thanks to a cult following and a re-evaluation from critics, it is now considered a classic horror film, and is currently ranked at #168 on the IMDb Top 250. The director, John Carpenter, is also famous for launching the Halloween franchise in 1978.

Fall 2014 #13: Rosemary’s Baby (1968) - Roman Polanski

Of the four movies left on my list… this is most recently released one left. I guess I did not properly pace myself.

So this is somehow only the second Roman Polanski film I’ve ever seen, which is interesting because I think Chinatown is one of the few nearly perfect movies. What Polanski achieves in terms of tightness of story, surprise twists, and incredibly captivating mise-en-scène is nearly unparalleled for his time, and I knew I would love this without even having to be told how good it is.

The film centers on Rosemary (Mia Farrow) as she and her husband move into a new apartment in Manhattan and try to start a family. She meets her bizarre next-door neighbors, an old couple named Roman and Minnie Castevet. After Rosemary’s first friend in the apartment, Terry, who is a recovering drug-addict staying with the Castevets, commits suicide, Rosemary becomes suspicious of her elderly neighbors.

The film is slow and suspenseful, but includes an incredibly intense scene in the first half that definitely grabs your interest. 

Rosemary eventually does become pregnant, and things get pretty scary. Rosemary experiences incredible pains, despite the gynecologist’s (whom the Castevets recommended) insistence that it will subside. Basically there is no pregnancy glow and Rosemary starts to learn some horrific things about the people around her.

I don’t want to give too much away, because the build-up really is the crux of the film. All I can say is that Rosemary’s Baby is a classic horror film in the sense that it doesn’t need gore or even much violence to give you chills. It’s psychological and meticulous in its suspense, with just the right amount of hint that something truly terrifying will happen.

And Mia’s performance at the center of it all is fantastic. She makes you believe her while simultaneously wondering if she’s just a hysterically paranoid pregnant woman. Rooting for her to get to safety is truly thrilling, as unavoidable doom slowly falls upon her and her child.

With a last scene that will give you nightmares, it’s no wonder that Rosemary’s Baby has the lasting power that it does.

Rosemary’s Baby is actually Roman Polanski’s first American film, he optioned the rights to the book before it was even released. The film won one Oscar, for Best Supporting Actress for Ruth Gordon as Minnie Castevet. It was the only horror movie ever with an acting Oscar-win until Silence of the Lambs in 1991.