Hi, my name is Jonathan Denard McNeair and I grew up in Lexington, North Carolina, also known as Pig City...Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha...The town is mostly known for its barbeque where they often throw barbeque festivals every October. In my chosen career, I am a self-published author of fiction.
Hey everybody, just wanted to give a quick update. I'm afraid I have to do a late Halloween review. there's a lot to talk about when it comes to the Scream series, so I'm putting a lot of thought, time, and research with a pretty hectic week, so rest is very important. But on the bright side, I am in the process of editing A Change Would Do You Good and I even have some more reviews for you guys to check out. Here's my list:
I've just heard that Paramount Pictures just made an announcement that they are producing a fifth Scream installment. How do I feel about this? I don't know. This is actually the first Scream film without the involvement of Wes Craven and even Kevin Williamson. I feel like without the collaboration of Craven and Williamson, It's just not going to capture the sharp wit and suspense of the first film. At least we have our core three leads back: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, and David Arquette. Their characters have become a legacy in this franchise and that's quite an achievement.
But I want to go back to the movie that started it all. Scream is one of those movies that was ingrained in my childhood. The parodies, the inside jokes, the Ghostface costume that became a staple in Halloween stores. The hype was completely overblown.
I've seen trailers, tv spots, clips, and whatnot, though I never saw the movie itself. But it was at the age of ten where I got to watch the whole movie in its entirety. I was shocked at how visceral the violence was. It was actually, dare I say, scary because it wasn't your typical horror movie. It was intensely realistic. Now I've first watched I Know What You Did Last Summer when I was around seven years old and watched half of Wes Craven's New Nightmare when I was eight. And yeah those movies scared me but it didn't scare me as much as Scream did. Hell, I was still too scared to watch A Nightmare On Elm Street back then and have yet checked out the Friday The 13th films. I had to grow into Horror movies a bit, I wasn't an early bird like most kids. But at age eleven, I saw the fun in watching horror movies, even the ones that really, really scared me. At age 12, I was hooked. Age 13-14, the rest is history. And in between those stages in my life, Scream was the movie I watched the most.
Out of all the horror movies I've seen, Scream was a different experience for me. It felt very grounded. It felt very real. The characters were framed as actually relatable and there was a sense of authenticity that we don't see in most 80s slashers. They are now self-aware of the conventions and feel as though they're immune to it. The commentary on horror movies became a staple in the late 90s and brought in a breath of fresh air that was needed in the genre. However, Scream was not without its copycats, which I myself watched every now and then. Certain people would look back at Scream and cringe at the characters' dialogue where they constantly make movie references. But I feel like that's where the movie's charm comes from, demonstrating how the characters are comparing their lives to a movie that they themselves can't figure out.
At this time, I"m only going to focus on the first three films. I might do Scream 4 a little later into this year but I have to tell you that my opinions on Scream 4 have changed a little bit. I still enjoy Scream 4, however, there are some things I'm iffy about when it comes to that sequel. The first three films for me feels like a solid trilogy where you get to learn and explore with the three lead characters of Sidney, Gale, and Dewy with an ongoing theme based on sensationalism, which is rare for a slasher film series. Not only that, the mystery is pretty tight and does keep you invested with a well-enough pace, alongside the late great Wes Craven piling on the suspense with a pulsating atmosphere.
Gosh, I would go on and on about how great these movies are...well, at least the first two. Still not a fan of Scream 3 but I'll tell you my reason when I get to that review.
First and foremost, I present to you, on this Hallows eve, The film that changed the face of horror...
It has now come to this. They finally went through with a Craft Reboot of sorts. Well, it's not really a reboot, it's more of a spiritual sequel in a way. It's hard to explain.
So, the trailer starts off with the main character, moving into a new town to live with her mom's new boyfriend and three sons. It's very identical to the original where Sarah moves to Los Angeles at the start of the movie.
How the main character meets the three girls is actually through an embarrassing experience. The scene implies that she has her period in front of a classroom of students. Everyone is laughing except the three main girls, identifying as our coven in the movie. Right off the bat, they accept her, showing a surprising amount of empathy. Okay, that's one thing I do like about the trailer. It's comparable to the cold reception Nancy and the three girls in the original film give to Sarah when she first meets them but I guess that's supposed to demonstrate their sudden betrayal in the climax.
As the trailer continues, they give the girl a ceremonial bath, christening her as their fourth. This suddenly enhances their magic, the main character being the most powerful of them all. But with great power comes with great irresponsibility as the main character's thirst for dominance becomes too hard to handle.
Okay, at least I do see that they do things differently this time. When I heard the announcement that Blumhouse was going to remake The Craft, I cringed. Okay, I would say they did an okay job with the Halloween Reboot, not the best but way better than the sequels and the Rob Zombie remakes. But this is also the same studio who made the second Black Christmas Remake, which I have not heard good things about. I really wasn't looking forward to it. I always felt that the Craft worked well on its own, particularly in the time period it was set in. It's one of those lightning-in-the-bottle types of movies that didn't need sequels or remakes. Is it perfect? No, but it's still entertaining with a charming cast of female leads.
But in this day in age, we are getting an influx of year-gap sequels and reboots. So due to the cult following of the 1996 film, a second movie was in the works.
The first thing I noticed was that David Duchovny, of all people, was in the movie....as the dad character, no less. We also have Michelle Monaghan, who I haven't seen in a while, as the main character's mom. I don't know if their roles are significant or not, but we'll see.
The main girl is sort of a mix of Sarah and Nancy. One clue is that she is the new girl in town, starting off shy and repressed. But as the trailer progresses, she gets more powerful and becomes a bit arrogant. She even recites one of Nancy's classic lines. Yeah, let me talk about that. That was one thing about the trailer that threw me off, which makes me think that this is a sequel disguised as a remake.
They somehow include a photo of Nancy in the trailer (which doesn't look real by the way) but it never entirely explains how much of importance she has in the story. Is she related to one of the characters? Is she a distant cousin of the main girl? I'm scratching my head here. In my opinion, I wish they would've left this out to be a surprise in the movie. This is what annoys me about these trailers because they want to constantly shove in easter eggs to remind the audience of the original film. The callbacks just makes the sequel seem like a cash grab and that's a shame. In the first few seconds of the trailer, I was actually invested in what new ideas that would bring into this movie.
For instance, we have the coven leader played by Lovie Simone. The difference between her and Nancy is that she actually comes off as caring and intentive. She also guides the girls with full knowledge of the craft, kind of like the character of Lirio. She could be put into a position where warns the main girl not to take advantage of her powers.
But as soon as the main girl gets corrupted, the coven leader must do what she can to stop her wrath. That would be an interesting enough twist. If the trailer just left it like that, I would be singing a different tune right now. I'm not sure how the other two girls would be portrayed in the movie but let's hope they have more development than how Bonnie and Rochelle were handled, in which by the end of the 1996 film, they are no more than cackling minions to Nancy.
Though my question is: are the four main leads believable as outcasts? I"m sort of in the middle with this one.
While the girls in the original movie were beautiful, they were also believable as outcasts but with this version, the girls look a bit...polished. And that's what I was afraid of. That this version would strip away any edge the original had.
As demonstrated in this photo here, the girls look like they're posing in a photo shoot for Seventeen magazine. Maybe the performances will tell otherwise, but again, they look a little too prim and proper by comparison.
So now I am down to my final thoughts. Will I watch this? Maybe, but not right now. It's not the type of movie that I will go rush to see. If something like this was done a couple of years earlier, I might. But since there are so many of these year-gap sequels, I might have to sit and wait for this one.
