Category: Slasher

Dracula: Voyage of the Demeter

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★☆ (3.2/5)DRACULA VOYAGE OF THE DEMETER

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: André Øvredal

Screenplay by: Bragi F. Schut, Stefan Ruzowitzky and Zak Olkewicz, based on “The Captain’s Log” from Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Produced by: Brad Fischer, Mike Medavoy, Arnold Messer

Executive Produced by: Matthew Hirsch

Starring: Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, David Dastmalchian.

‘Evil is aboard.  Powerful evil.’

It’s 1897 when merchant ship, The Demeter is seen off the coast of Whitby, England.

The ship’s sails are torn, the hull blackened and like a ghost ship, there are no surviving passengers.

Based on the chapter, The Captain’s Log from the iconic literary novel, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897), this is the tale of the vampire’s voyage from his homeland across the seas to England.

The setting of the film is aboard the ship, where the captain (Liam Cunningham) and his crew, including last minute addition, Clemens (Corey Hawkins), a doctor looking for passage home, find themselves trapped as the horror begins; first the animals are found slaughtered, then the crew of the ship.  And there’s no way to escape.

Director, André Øvredal (Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark (2019), Trollhunter (2010), and a recommendation to watch if you haven’t already, The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)) focusses on Dracula as the monster – his visage more bat than man, with glowing yellow eyes and needlepoint teeth.

There is no sympathy for the monster, from the outset, Dracula is cast as the ‘Devil’s Serpent,’ a killing machine – and when the animals are found ripped apart, the audience is set firmly against the undead as Dracula preys on the living who have no hope and no understanding of what they’re dealing with.

Until the crew discover Anna (Aisling Franciosi), a girl they first believe is a stowaway, but after blood transfusions from Clemens to save her, she becomes the crew’s only way of understanding the evil that is sailing with them.  She’s not the bad luck that has befallen the ship.  She’s a survivor.

There’re clever devices used to ramp-up the tension, firstly those on board trapped as they wait for the sun to set so the film plays out like a slasher formula as Dracula feeds, picking each member off, one by one.

The crew knock on wood to communicate from the bowels of the ship, so there’s this listening out to hear that knock, to hear if someone’s trapped and about to literally be eaten.

It’s dark, raining, the sea throws the ship back and forth and there’s a monster on board: It’s the perfect set-up for a horror movie.

And I really wanted to love this film.  I’m a fan of the Dracula genre, and horror-thrillers, and there’s a good cast here – Liam Cunningham as the captain (you’ll recognise as Davos Seaworth from Game of Thrones) has just the right amount of gravitas and scores well for humanity putting the audience firmly behind well, the humans.  And the soundtrack adds a foreboding atmosphere, building the tension so there’re some good scares (someone sitting behind me yelped on more than one occasion, which was good fun).

There’s something to be said for watching a scary movie in the cinema where the audience is collectively given a jump.

But because it has that slasher formula, the film starts to feel predictable.

 

X

Rated:  R18+X

Directed by: Ti West

Produced by: Ti West, Jacob Jaffke, Harrison Kreiss, Kevin Turen

Starring: Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, Scott Mescudi, Jenna Ortega.

‘Just when you thought you’d escaped the slaughterhouse.’

Cicadas and flies and a rundown farmhouse are the setting of, X.

Police cars have their strobes silently rotating.

They walk into the farmhouse.

An evangelist is preaching on the TV.

The cops walk down to the basement, ‘My God.’

X is a horry (ha, ha, typo I swear), I mean gory, horror featuring the cast and crew of a porn movie in the making: The Farmer’s daughters.’

It’s 1979.  Anyone can make a porn, especially a home-made movie.  But cameraman, RJ (Owen Campbell) wants this porn to be different, ‘Because it’s possible to make a good dirty movie.’

He’s brought his good-girl girlfriend (Jenna Ortega) along as sound tech to prove his point.

And Maxine (Mia Goth) co-star and girlfriend of the executive producer (Martin Henderson) of said porn has the x-factor: ‘I need to be famous Wayne.’

To give the setting of the film the right ambiance, Wayne rents an outbuilding on a farm.  A farm owned by an elderly man and his wife.

And by elderly, I mean old; the old-factor pushed to become part of the horror, because, X is a horror that builds with flashes from the deteriorating old to the fresh and young x-factor porn stars.

Blond bombshell Brittany and fellow, well-endowed sometime boyfriend, Jackson (Scott Mescudi) are ready to perform for the first scene.

The flash back and forth between the old and the x with the ominous music of the soundtrack holds the tone of bad things to come.

Including bones sticking out of fingers and nails through feet.

There are jumps and moments when I was looking through my fingers.

It gets twisted too, but not to the extent it’s unwatchable.

The storyline wavers across to the ridiculous but there’s genuine tongue-in-cheek humour, like a sign reading, ‘Plowing Service,’ stuck to the side of the film crew’s van.

There’s nothing believable about the old couple, but the techniques in the directing and editing lift the quality of X, the juxtaposition of scenes timed just right, the staring of Maxine directly into the camera and co-star Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) asking, ‘What about you, Maxine?  What’s your American Dream?’

Maxine doesn’t answer directly, only to herself in the mirror – to not live the life she doesn’t deserve.

There’s underlying meaning to the seemingly benign that comes full circle in the story that leaves a different kind of understanding of the film – not just sex, not just horror, but an extra layer that makes the erotic slasher also interesting.

Scream

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★1/2Scream

Rated: MA15+

Directed by: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett

Written by: James Vanderbilt, Guy Busick

Characters Created by: Kevin Williamson

Produced by: Paul Neinstein, William Sherak, James Vanderbilt

Starring: Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Jenna Orgtega, Melissa Barrera, Marley Shelton, Dylan Minnette, Jack Quaid, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Sonia Ammar, Mikey Madison, Mason Gooding, Kyle Gallner and Reggie Conquest.

‘What’s your favourite move?’

The phone rings and I think to myself, who has a landline?

But Scream 2022 is all about bringing back the audience to the same opening as Scream 1996, the original.

Tara (Jenna Orgtega) answers.  She’s home alone and about to get stabbed.

Welcome back to Woodsboro.

Scream the return, doesn’t shy away from its slasher genre.  The film gets very stabby, Ghostface relentless as the knife penetrates cheeks and stomachs, people straddled with two handed plunges.  It gets bloody.  As expected with the Scream franchise.

The difference with this instalment is the invitation to the audience to be part of ‘the game’.

Watching the characters walking around the house just waiting for Ghostface to suddenly appear behind a door.  It’s a tease and light-hearted (if a slasher can be light-hearted) because the audience knows what’s going to happen.  We’ve seen it all before and know:

Don’t go off on your own.

If you know the why of the killing, you’ll know who’s the next target.

The killer is always part of the tight-knit group of friends being targeted, here your somewhat typical high school buddies, hyper vigilant Wes (Dylan Minnette), twins Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad (Mason Gooding), girlfriend of Chad, Liv (Sonia Ammar) and best buddy of Tara, Amber (Mikey Madison).

The film uses the assumption the audience knows what’s coming and the characters know what’s coming next because they’ve all seen the slasher franchise, ‘Stab’.  Which is basically the Scream franchise so the characters analyse their situation based on the Stab movies.  While being in a Scream movie.  Scream the return, or ‘requel’ as described by Mindy is not just a slasher, but also self-reflecting that makes for some funny, tongue-in-cheek humour.

Another rule in making a sequel (requel) is bringing back some legends, enter the return of Sheriff Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Gale Riley (Courteney Cox) and of course, Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell).

So there’s the current storyline of Tara and her sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) with boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) coming back to Woodsboro to help solve this new phase of Ghostface killings.

And there’s the legends brought back to help figure out who Ghostface is because they’ve been in the same situation many times before.

All the while inviting the audience to see the characters reflect on their story while comparing the killings to the Stab movies while we the audience watch them.

Is it better than the original?  No.  The first one was shocking and unforgettable.  But it’s just as good in other ways because it’s something different and challenging.

This instalment is not your typical slasher and the risky re-visit to the original idea of, Scream, is surprisingly successful.  It’s like a re-make in a re-make that leads to all sorts of layers and humour while still having the scary moments.

Recommend going back and watching at least the first Scream movie to get some of those aside jokes.

 

Happy Death Day 2U

Rated: MHappy Death Day 2U

Directed and Written by: Christopher Landon

Based on Characters by: Scott Lobdell

Produced by: Jason Blum

Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Suraj Sharma, Steve Zissis, Rachel Matthews, Charles Aitken, Phi Vu, Sarah Yarkin.

The baby-faced masked killer is back, along with characters from the original, Happy Death Day (2017), including ‘crazy-white-girl’ Tree (Jessica Rothe) who manages to get sucked into The Death Cycle at the end of every day until she figures out who the killer is… again…

What made the original so successful was the character Tree and her self-deprecating, fatalistic dark humour.  We get the same tone here along with the suspense of waiting for the baby-masked killer to strike and the mystery of who’s behind the mask this time.

Christopher Landon has returned as director and writer (based on character by Scott Lobdell, writer of the original), throwing something extra into the storyline because there has to be a reason for the cycle to start all over again.

The clever re-cap gives a backstory for those who missed the first – but I recommend going back to watch Happy Death Day because it makes those moments of Tree reliving the hellish nightmare funnier.  And here, it’s fun to see familiar characters also get sucked into the cycle with a few new nerdy scientists added to explain the new dimension added to the story.

I have to say the ‘dohicky’ knitting Dean Bornson (Steve Zissis) is hilarious.

And here we get Ryan (Phi Vu) meeting his replica with an added touch of sci-fi lifting the sequel into a different space – so it’s the same concept, but the obstacles have changed.  Which was needed to make this a worthy follow-up rather than just more of the same – yeah, excuse the constant puns but can’t seem to help myself after leaving the cinema with a wry grin.

I had a lot of fun watching Happy Death Day 2 U, even getting into the teary dramatic moments of Tree struggling with the death of her mother and the choices she needs to make going forward in her life.

Although, I have to say the push at the end of the film felt tack-on and a too little much.

But there’s twists and turns, romance, suspense (not as much horror as the first though), and good humour making this sequel worth a watch.

Halloween

Rated: MA15+Halloween

Directed by: David Gordon Green

Written by: David Gordon Green, Danny McBride and Jeff Fradley

Based on Characters Created by: John Carpenter and Debra Hill

Produced by: Jason Blum, Malek Akkad, Bill Block

Starring: Jamie Lee Curtis, Judy Greer, Will Patton, Nick Castle, Andi Matichak, Omar J. Dorsey.

A continuation of the first Halloween (1978), serial killer Michael Myers (Nick Castle), the boogie man, remains behind the walls of Smith Grove Sanatorium.

He doesn’t speak; he’s The Shape.  Without reason he is the ultimate human monster.

And forty years after her last encounter, Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), now a grandmother (to Allyson (Andi Matichak)), knows he’s a monster.  She has sacrificed her life, losing her daughter (Karen (Judy Greer)) to social services because of her obsession to prepare as she waits and hopes for his release… so she can kill him.

There’s not much more to the story: the monster, the victim turned heroin, the mask.

Director and co-writer David Gordon Green isn’t known for working in horror.  Yet he’s successfully kept the re-boot of this thriller simple yet effective in the telling.

There’s an echo from the original Halloween that gives that 70s tone with the same synth soundtrack and font for title and credits.  It feels like the same film but brought forward in time with a story-line with details giving the film a surprising sharp edge (ha, ha): it’s violent and bloody without getting over cheesy with too much gore.

There’s clever editing and careful shooting never slowing the monster; and a sometime focus on the eyes of the stalked without too much drama.  Just some good old fashion knife-in-the-neck, head stomping, hanging-from-a-wrought-iron-fence-by-the-head horror.

John Carpenter states, ‘I’m excited for audiences to see this.  It is going to scare the shit out of you.  I guarantee it.’

The monster behind the mask is scary because his face is never shown, he’s a mystery.  I still don’t understand why he’s evil and the film doesn’t explore the depths of his psyche, just the statement that fifty clinical psychiatrists assessing Michael each reached different conclusions.

It’s the way the film is shown that’s interesting and the intensity is relieved with some good humour like Michael’s current and long-term psychiatrist Dr. Sartain (Haluk Bilginer) being told to sit still after his patient escapes, ‘I am sitting still, what are you saying?’

And the little dude, Julian (Jibrail Nantambu) being baby-sat (of course) a classic, wanting to be the pretty babysitter’s favourite with some fun dialogue from the writers that I always appreciate in a good slasher movie.

Yet more importantly, there’s a careful piecing together of moments that gives the film a solid driving undercurrent with the relentless pursuit of the masked monster and the equally resilient Laurie Strode determined to exterminate what she can see is pure evil.

Nothing really new with a simple story, yet the blunt and bold telling made me feel like I was re-watching a classic made new.

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