X Review

X

Dir: Ti West

Starring: Mia Goth, Brittany Snow, Jenna Ortega, Martin Henderson, Owen Campbell, and Kid Cudi

1h 45m

A group of independent filmmakers set out to rural Texas to make their adult cinematic dreams come true. Full frame stars and strips designed font, presenting the year 1979, welcomes viewers to director Ti West's throwback genre homage titled "X." 

The opening moments shot through barn doors and into the bloody aftermath of a murder scene feel tailored for a 1970s Tobe Hooper or Wes Craven production with its grainy film look highlighted with yellow and brown hues. Director Ti West, returning to the genre for the first time in over a decade, takes an old-school slasher movie approach with "X," blending the renegade spirit of the early independent horror filmmakers and the dawn of mass-produced pornography for a satisfyingly violent and humorous romp.  

Maxine (Mia Goth) is an exotic dancer at the Bayou Burlesque, a railroad adjacent dive on the wrong side of town, but her ambitions are for stardom on the silver screen. Wayne (Martin Henderson), the proprietor of the strip club, has the perfect script for his muse called "The Farmer's Daughter." Wayne enlists a blond bombshell named Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and her ex-military boyfriend Jackson (Kid Cudi) to star in the film. RJ (Owen Campbell), the director who insists that it is possible to make "a good dirty movie," and Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), the quiet but observant girlfriend who holds the boom pole for sound, join in the filmmaking fun. The group jumps in Wayne's blue van and heads to an outskirts farmhouse owned by a frail older man named Howard (Stephen Ure) and his wife Pearl (Mia Goth in old-age makeup), who envies the sexual acts and youthful freedom of the filmmakers. 

Ti West positions adult pornography movies and slasher horror films in the same avenue of examination regarding the gratuitous nature of writhing bodies in states of pleasure with sex and pain with violence. West pokes fun and plays ingeniously with genre archetypes throughout the film. The pacing of anticipation with horror show techniques, a skinny-dipping scene shot from a birds-eye view with a stalking alligator is tense and elegantly composed. The careful structuring of sex scenarios shot with a 16mm camera rarely looks at the raw act of body parts in motion and instead focuses on the emotion of expressions. Both of these scenes display that West completely understands genre filmmaking and utilizes them for greater gazes beyond gratuitous violence and sex. 

Once the film transitions into a slasher movie, with creative kills and a wealth of special makeup effects, the subplot concerning Pearl's envy of Maxine's beauty and the longing for sexual satisfaction meet their culmination underdeveloped. Still, West's journey through these subject matters of aging, lust, and infatuation are interestingly ventured when combined with the genre characteristics of a horror narrative. 

Mia Goth, who is excellent in the lead role, plays an unorthodox final girl who uses drugs, proudly owns her sexual freedom, and cares mostly about her singular well-being. Brittany Snow plays her seductive character with confidence, while Kid Cudi, with a 70's mustache, is cool, calm, and collected. 

"X" is a throwback midnight movie romp with a late 70s aesthetic that feels like it was shot from the same lens as "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Ti West makes horror fans remember the days when genre films could be exploitative, evocative, and entertaining at the same time. 

Monte's Rating

4.00 out of 5.00

Scream Review

Scream

Dir: Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett

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

1h 54m

 

"What's your favorite scary movie?"
 
By the mid-90s, the horror genre was half a decade away from the slasher film boom of the 1980s, where icons like Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers, and Freddy Krueger dominated the box office. Slasher film characteristics were still present and reinvented in films like 1992's "Candyman," but the oversaturation of franchises churning sequel after sequel produced more humor than horror. The worst part, the scare factor became nearly nonexistent.
 
However, in 1996, legendary filmmaker Wes Craven, responsible for conjuring an iconic figure of horror cinema in the 80s with Freddy Krueger, continued to push the genre forward with "Scream." This film transformed the landscape of genre storytelling by developing a narrative that reflected and acknowledged the plot and character tropes and stereotypes of horror films that came before. It was intelligent, funny, and, most importantly, scary. And for many horror fans, this film would grow to become the answer to the question, "What's your favorite scary movie?" 
 

The legacy of Woodsboro's murderous past continues in "Scream," co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's continuation of Wes Craven's vision of modernized horror. Coming 11 years after the ahead-of-its-time "Scream 4" and with the absence of Wes Craven, who passed away six years ago, this updated invention of "Scream" holds firmly to the tradition of the past, paying homage to the extent of becoming lost in its self-referential designs. "Scream" applies, reapplies, and slightly modifies the original film's formula, crafting a clever but redundant update. 
 
A new killer dons the Ghostface mask and begins accumulating a deadly body count of teens in Woodsboro, California. Tara (Jenna Ortega) is brutally attacked in her home, her estranged sister Sam (Melissa Barrera) returns to her hometown, bringing her boyfriend Richie (Jack Quaid) along for the journey. Past secrets and long-forgotten memories are resurrected, connecting the past to the present and bringing survivors Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), Dewey Riley (David Arquette), and Gail Weathers (Courteney Cox) back to the town they have tried so desperately to escape. 
 
Screenwriters James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick return viewers to familiar territory, bringing back characters from past films while also trying to summon the essence of the original movie. The film crafts one of the best cold openings since the original in the process. The dialog banter between a young teenage girl with love for "elevated horror" and a sinister voice-on-the-phone with a passion for the "classics" is sharp and witty. It's an amusing callback to the original that is updated and subverted enough to launch this film as a fun, gory mystery. 
 

But as things take shape, with a Ghostface who is always one step ahead of everyone, the group of young people tries to connect the dots of who might be the mastermind under the mask. They self-describe their involvement in this new murder mystery as a "requel," a cross between a reboot and a sequel. Beyond the meta-analysis of horror movies of recent years, the film also examines the aspect of toxic fandom. It's a unique perspective to explore in the world of pop culture, where fans expect that their favorite character, story, or universe should go on forever. Along with the heightened expectation of getting everything they want from their favorite thing. Can we imagine a world where Marvel movies don't exist anymore? Will Michael Myers ever go away? Will the new Hellraiser movie meet all my unreasonable expectations? Unfortunately, this thoughtful focus is executed with satisfying and irritating twists and turns in the film.
 
The enjoyable pieces all involve unraveling the secret, the whodunit of the slasher motifs utilized. The annoying parts exist with the development of the characters, both old and new, missing the strong characteristics used so effectively in the past films. Even the return of Sidney, Dewey, and Gail is awkwardly instituted into the narrative; with the exception of Dewey, both Gail and Sidney are afterthoughts until the finale. 
 
"Scream" starts with a bang, a clever and thoughtful reintroduction of the classic horror franchise that revolutionized horror storytelling. The thrills are fun, gory, and violent in the best ways for horror fans. As it namechecks other films, like "The Witch" and "The Babadook," with a mix of admiration and admonishment to serve its meta-narrative causes, "Scream" pushes into a corner with no place to escape. In the process of revisiting, reintroducing, and reforming this continuation of "Scream," it becomes too self-aware of its designs.  

 

Monte's Rating

3.00 out of 5.00

Happy Death Day 2U Review

Happy Death Day 2U

Dir: Christopher Landon

Starring: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, Suraj Shurma, Sarah Yarkin, Rachel Matthews, and Ruby Modine

Take a moment and think of every great movie sequel you have ever seen. Now that you are done listing all the subpar sequels, how many are left on the list that are excellent? The craft of constructing a sequel is a difficult undertaking, especially if the first film is something special. 

“Happy Death Day” was a surprise upon its release in 2017; a film that took the concept of the 1993 comedy “Groundhog Day” and turned it into a clever and unique horror film that delivered some really fun surprises. The turnaround for the sequel happened rather quickly, which is always a little concerning, but “Happy Death Day 2U” takes a route less travelled for movie sequels by twisting the narrative, including the genre, into something completely different. 

Tree Gelbman (Jessica Rothe) lived the same day over and over, dying at the hands of a masked killer every day until she was able to solve her own murder. With the help of her boyfriend Carter (Israel Broussard), Tree thought she had escaped the time loop and could move on with her life. But things take a drastic reversal as a science experiment, conducted by Carter’s roommate Ryan (Phi Vu), creates another time jump that brings Tree back face-to-face with her baby-faced masked killer. But something has changed, things are different this time. 

Christopher Landon directed “Happy Death Day” with a clear understanding of tone for a horror film that offered a few frights, a creepy looking slasher, a charming hero, and some lighthearted humor. It felt like a PG-13 horror film from the 90’s mixed with the science fiction appeal of the 80’s. So, it’s not surprising that Mr. Landon brings the successful qualities back in different doses and combinations while making one interesting and tricky turn in the structure. 

The narrative, which leaned strongly in the horror genre with only a sprinkling of sci-fi for the first film, flips into a straight forward science fiction film with a spattering of horror here and there. It’s a bold move that is somehow surprisingly pulled off. Utilizing a science fiction storytelling theme that feels reminiscent of “The Outer Limits”, “Happy Death Day 2U” refreshingly twists and morphs into a different film. While it still struggles with some shoddy dialog and unusual side character performances, like a wacky college professor who bumbles into the excitement at the worst time, the film still merges its quality elements in an enjoyable way. 

A big part of why this film works so well is the exceptional screen appeal of Jessica Rothe who holds the film together with her tenacity and charisma. Ms. Rothe’s performance is convincing and entertaining throughout; whether she is wielding an axe or waking up with her hair frizzed from electricity, the actor entirely owns it. 

“Happy Death Day 2U” works really well up to a point that it becomes slightly unhinged with its time looping dilemma and wanting to push for expanding its universe beyond the primary character’s life, but it doesn’t derail the fun that this movie is clearly trying to produce. Rarely do sequels work as well as it does with “Happy Death Day 2U”. Blumhouse Productions continues to surprise with their brand of genre films. 

Monte’s Rating

 3.25 out of 5.00