Tag Archives: horror

Movie Review: Scream VI

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By Adriana Zaragoza

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Scream VI, surprisingly, was one of the biggest, and most thrilling additions to the franchise since Scream 4. As a horror movie lover, who loves keeping up with the Scream movies, I was excited to see this. Promotions for this movie were thrilling and exciting, as they had people dress up as Ghostface in public areas around the world.

  • Cast: Jenna Ortega (Tara), Melissa Barrera (Sam), Hayden Panettiere (Kirby), Mason Gooding (Chad), Jasmin Savoy Brown (Mindy), Courtney Cox (Gale), Liana Liberato (Quinn), Devyn Nekoda (Anika), Dermont Mulroney (Wayne), and Jack Champion (Ethan)
  • Directors: Tyler Gillet and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin (directors of Scream (2022) and Ready or Not)
  • Distributed by: Paramount Pictures

I saw Scream VI on its opening night. I went with a friend who I previously saw Scream (2022) with. As the famous opening scene took place, it definitely had us hooked. Keeping you on your toes, it takes complete turns left and right. Having one of the best opening scenes, and opening line to a Scream movie yet!

We now see the new characters–introduced from the last movie–take full control over this new movie. These characters are now the “Core Four” in Sam, Tara, Chad, and Mindy. All played fabulously by Melissa Barrera (Sam), Jenna Ortega (Tara), Mason Gooding (Chad), and Jasmin Savoy Brown (Mindy). We also see great, new additions to the cast and character list, such as Dermont Mulroney (Officer Bailey), Liana Liberato (Quinn), Jack Champion (Ethan), and Devyn Nekoda (Anika).

 I thought Jenna Ortega brought great acting skills playing an emotional sister, barely getting over the last attacks of Ghostface. Melissa Barrera, playing Sam, Billy Loomis’ daughter, brought her full strength to this movie. As she is now basically the new Sidney, and “final girl” to the Ghostface killers, because remember, there is never one.

One of my personal favorite parts would be the upcoming release of the new Kirby Reed, brought back from Scream 4. Grown, she is now a detective putting herself in this specific case due to her past connections with the Ghostface killings. Her addition added so much suspense to this movie. Along with Gale’s hilarious return.

Now as they explain in the movie, they tell us how we’ve now entered a franchise within the Scream universe, creating new rules, new kills, new killers, and a new setting. We follow this group in their college years, set in New York City. This is a new environment for the killer Ghostface, as we usually see him in Woodsboro, a small town. This changed the movie up immensely. It was incredibly exciting seeing this NYC setting, creating new and interesting kills we’ve never seen from a Ghostface killer before.

Melissa Barrera (“Sam Carpenter”) stars in Paramount Pictures “Scream VI.”

As we reach the core part of the movie, or the unraveling of the mystery, we are introduced to a whole new “stab” obsession and motivation. Now if you love the Scream movies, you are absolutely going to love this collection the killer’s have created, and you are going to love the outcome of this film. Again, keeping you on your toes, you will continue to be completely tossed and turned in your seat as the killers are revealed, with new backgrounds connecting their motivations as one.

Overall I guess you can say I really enjoyed this movie. The nostalgic feelings they brought from the first original Scream movie was so amazing to see. I am very excited for the turn this franchise took and I have faith in this new group of survivors. Scream VI is a genuinely good slasher film, and a Scream fan’s dream.

Film Review: Halloween Ends

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By Karissa Meno

If people ask me if I would recommend Halloween Ends I would just tell you, “Only if you want to see if Michael Myers is really put to an end.”

•Halloween Ends was released October 14, 2022 almost a year after Halloween Kills (2021). It was directed by David Gordon Green, edited by Tim Alverson, with music by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, and Danial Davies.
•The cast included Jamie Lee Curtis (Laura Strode), James Jude Courtney (Michael Myers), Andi Matichak (Allyson Nelson), Rohan Campbell (Corey Cunningham), Kyle Richards (Lindsey Wallace), and Will Patton (Frank Hawkins).

Halloween Ends needed a more consistent and overall better storyline, and here’s why.

Official film poster

Summary:

Halloween Ends takes place four years after Halloween Kills, but they first introduce a new story and character jumping back to Halloween night in 2019.

The movie introduces Corey Cunningham, a babysitter for the neighborhood. While the parents are away, the kid and Corey are left all alone in the house with the terrifying thought that Michael may have come for them. After a terrible accident, Corey is now back in society facing the aftermath of Michael Myers.

Meanwhile, Laurie and Alison have made a new life for themselves with a new house and Alison has become a nurse. With Corey back in town he is introduced to Laurie and Alison and instantly falls for Alison. Later that Halloween, Corey discovers a shocking new friend hidden away. Over the course of a few days Laurie and Alison now have to live with the consequence of bringing Corey into their lives.

Opinion:

When the movie first started I noticed that Halloween Ends teamed up with Blumhouse Productions and I was a little terrified knowing Blumhouse’s reputation. It was a good idea to bring them in, due to their improvement in jumpscares, or maybe it was just the loud sound system. Overall the jumpscares were much improved and it felt a little more like a scary movie.

As me and my friends described during the movie, it felt like they needed to waste time in the beginning and middle of the movie in order to actually get to the most important part, the end (no pun intended). Everything felt so out of place and nothing really seemed to fit together.

My friends and I would even catch ourselves asking, “What is happening?” It felt more like a drama heading towards the middle of the story rather than a slasher film. In my opinion, the only enjoyable part was the ending; it gave action and suspense. The end had me and my friends cheering for Jamie Lee Curtis.

The theater experience was also uplifting, not only did we laugh together we were able to make jokes together. All I can say is it is always a good time watching scary movies with friends.

Halloween Kills: Film Review

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By Karissa Meno

Halloween Kills was an eventful horror movie and a fun addition to the Halloween series. 

How to Watch 'Halloween Kills' for Free from Home | IndieWire

A Blumhouse, International Pictures, Rough House, and Miramax Production. Directed by David Gordon Green and produced by Malek Akkad, Jason Blum, and Bill Block.

Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis (Laurie Strode), James Jude Courtney (Michael Myers), Judy Greer (Karen Nelson), Andi Matichak (Allyson Nelson), Anthony Michael Hall (Tommy Doyle), Kyle Richards (Lindsey Wallace), Robert Longstreet (Lonnie Elam), Nancy Stephens (Marion Chambers), Dylan Arnold (Cameron Elam), and Omar Dorsey (Sheriff Barker). 

Some can argue that Halloween Kills is “good,” “okay,” or “terrible,” but I would describe the overall experience of Halloween Kills as simply “eventful.” The movie offers a very eventful and fast-moving story. Sometimes you can find the story irrelevant but still enjoy the aspects of the movie.

The beginning felt very rushed, seeming like they wanted to get straight to the point with the movie. It’s very hard to keep up with the actual story of Halloween, but the best part is watching Michael go around on his traditional killing spree. Some scenes felt very dramatized and not involving itself to actually stopping Michael. It was very eventful to watch how Michael catches his prey–idiotic but eventful. The movie isn’t particularly scary except for the loud bumps and loud music, and no real jumpscares. The movie also offers little flashbacks and even characters from previous Halloween movies. Many scary movies nowadays feel like an action movie. Halloween Kills doesn’t truly give you that feeling but it gives you the thrill of watching Michael.

Halloween begins with looking at the story of Lonnie Elam (Robert Longstreet) and his encounter with Michael Myers, as well as the story of two cops who encounter and battle against Michael. The movie then gives you the traditional Halloween opening credit scenes with lit up pumpkins and the familiar music.

The movie starts exactly where it left off with Laurie (Jamie Lee Curtis), her daughter Karen (Judy Green), and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) going to the hospital after a battle to get rid of Michael. As you can already tell if you’ve seen the trailer or knew about another Halloween movie, Michael is obviously not dead nor is his terrorizism on Haddonfield. An amazing opening house fire scene shows you exactly the kind of treat you’re in for the rest of the movie.

We continue to see scenes at the hospital as we follow Judy and Karen. At a bar on Halloween night, we are introduced to some of the old survivors from previous Halloween movies, as they and others at the bar find out Michael is very much still alive. The town becomes determined to end Michael’s reign of terror and goes on a town watch to find him. We start to see Michael take out many of his new and old victims throughout the manhunt. Laurie and the rest of the hospital also become involved with the finding and ending of Michael.

Halloween Kills marks new high in 'horror renaissance' | Horror films | The Guardian

Allyson and Cameron, with Cameron’s dad (the little boy Lonnie all grown up) also become involved with the manhunt for Michael. With the escape of an asylum inmate, it creates complications for the town as they mistake him for Michael, dividing the town in half. After realizing Michael’s plan, Allyson and Cameron head to the original Myers house to put a stop to Michael. The end is near and we see little hope of Allyson stopping Michael, but help comes to step in ultimately stopping Michael but not truly stopping or ending the Halloween series, yet.

Halloween Kills was a very eventful and fun Halloween movie to watch. It doesn’t particularly give you that scare factor or have you sitting on the edge of your seat, but it is still eventful to watch. It felt as if it were missing important factors to make it more of a “scary movie” and not like an action movie. The scenes with Michael were great and the suspense factors were sort of lacking. Many of the actions characters take feel as if they were not involved in stopping Michael and more for the drama of the movie. Even though the logic of the victims wasn’t the best, it was fun to watch and made you want to scream at them, “No don’t do it!” or “Why would you do that?” I couldn’t remember the last time I had fun watching a horror movie, and even if movies like this aren’t scary enough for you it’ll still be very enjoyable to watch. Many of the scenes and actions taken can have you waiting for more, or not waiting at all.
Halloween Kills is an exciting start to the Halloween season.

And just in case you wanted to know, in 2022 the finale to the Halloween series will be released: Halloween Ends gives me the excitement to see how it all finally ends.

HALLOWEEN KILLS - Michael Myers Halloween Horror Movie T-Shirt – Fright-Rags

Candyman: Film Review

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By Karissa Meno

Candyman (2021) a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Monkeypaw Production, and Bron Creative Production.

•Director: Nia DaCosta. •Producers: Ian Cooper, Win Rosenfeld, and Jordan Peele. 

•Cast: Tony Todd (Candyman), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Anthony McCoy), Teyonah Parris (Brianna Cartwright), Coleman Domingo (William Burke), Nathan Stewart Jarrett (Troy Cartwright), and Vanessa Estelle Williams (Anne-Marie McCoy)

I started off my Saturday night with the sequel to the original 1992 Candyman. This movie gave me high hopes but I started to slowly become less and less invested. The movie did have some ominous visuals, and great paper-craft like puppet storytelling. The plot and story of the movie were very clear laying all out on the table, but the movie itself was still missing something. The movie did not give me that horror and suspense that I was looking for. The gore scenes were pretty eventful, but not as horrifying as I wished.  

The movie begins with a puppet show recap of the 1992 Candyman with Tony Todd and Virginia Madsen, the story of Helen becoming insane and taking baby Anthony into a giant bonfire under the attack and terrorism of Candyman (Tony Todd). This is the story of Anthony McCoy, a struggling painter who finds inspiration from his girlfriend Brianna Cartwright (Teyonah Parris) and her brother Troy Cartwright (Nathan Stewart Jarretr) and the story of Helen and Candyman one night as they all drank together. Anthony gets inspiration from the neighborhood where Candyman was originally found or where he lives.

This movie tries to involve the arts like painting along with the story of Candyman; that just doesn’t sit right. The movie does, however, make a clear reference to the mirror scene in the original, showing what’s behind the mirror. Much of Anthony’s story relates to much of Helen’s story, but instead of being a more eventful story, Anthony’s story feels more like trying your best to make a five paragraph essay sound smart without any background information. I found that the original provided a more eventful story than the sequel did.

The movie shows the slow process of the transformation for Anthony to become Candyman himself. Even if the Candyman story didn’t make sense, how simple it is to turn a normal person into a bee-infested, hook-for-a-hand killer doesn’t make sense. Anthony starts his research on Candyman at the abandoned building where the 1992 Candyman was set, and at an almost-always-empty laundromat, Anthony runs into William Burke (Colman Domingo) who explains to Anthony the story of his run-in with Candyman. Anthony is having trouble creating new paintings to express his racially-involved emotions. With his piece of a mirror with a description of how to “summon” Candyman, many people follow with this “legend” or “rumor,” with both a couple and a few teenage girls being slaughtered in the bathroom. During this, Anthony continues his research on Candyman in what seems to be a library with a chilling and horrific elevator scene.

Throughout the movie, we see the process that Anthony and Helen both experience with the terrorism of Candyman, as we watch Anthony become horrifically involved with Candyman affecting his relationship with Brianna and causing her to leave. Later, Brianna converses with her brother Troy as he convinces her to go to Anthony. On her way to see Anthony she is taken as the sacrifice for Anthony to become the Candyman. Resulting in a very fatal and mysterious ending.
This movie isn’t slow-paced, but is still uneventful. The horrific and halfway suspenseful scenes are fun to look at but were not keeping me on the edge of my seat. Even the ending felt unnecessary and was also possibly teasing yet another Candyman movie. I wouldn’t completely recommend this movie to others, but I would recommend the original 1992 Candyman over 2021 Candyman. This movie, along with many others, can’t grab my attention like older ones can.