Assuredly one of my favorite horror films of the year, it’s safe to say that director Wes Craven never stood a chance. With the creators of “Paranormal Activity” and “Saw” behind the horrific “Insidious” it was a safe bet a classic story about ghosts and goblins would do wonders over mere films about slashers and the modern internet age. One part “Poltergeist” and “Altered States,” and two parts “The Haunting,” director James Wans’ ghost story is the classic creaks by the stairs story about an average family who move in to a house and discover that the past residents of the house have decided they want to stay.
Teddy (2011)
The funny thing about “Teddy” is that there is no reason for it to go beyond an eleven minute run time. This film’s premise is so hackneyed and predictable, it’d barely make a decent feature length film. Which is not by any means a criticism, just an honest observation. You have to respect Slasher Studios for comprising an entire narrative and condensing it in to only eleven minutes.
Wake (2009)
It feels as if “Wake” has come from a deep place in director Dan Marcus’s life and it shows in one of his first short features about a young man whose relationship with his parents may be damaged. And even worse, irreparable. That’s the genuine premise behind “Wake,” a movie that touches on what happens too often in this life. How we take for granted love and affection and view it as weakness and annoyance.
X: Night of Vengeance (2011)
Filmed over the course of one night, it’s hard to imagine “X” being thought of as anything other than a bona fide action thriller that teams two powerful female entities together to battle misogyny and abuse that plagues their life. Though described as this sex filled romp, “X” is so much more in the end. It’s about empowerment and survival and at best, I can peg it as an Australian female version of “Judgment Night.”
Super (2010)
Why wasn’t “Kick Ass” this kind of movie? I mean granted I loved the comic book from Mark Millar, but “Kick Ass” the movie was not what I originally envisioned. “Super” from director James Gunn is what a movie about a regular man fighting crime should be. Funny, original, inventive, and dark, “Super” is that movie the big budget spectacle should have been, a story about a demented individual who tracks his sheer insanity with the use of his red costume and monkey wrench, fighting crime, and inevitably coming across real evil in pursuit of his own form of identity.
Scream 4 (2011)
What with so many horror movies offering up a surprise ending we will not see coming for the last ten years, it’s a given that the lure for “Scream 4” is not so much the surprise ending and the revelation, but the nostalgia. Hallelujah Wes Craven on the way to career hell is finally taking “Scream” seriously again in what promises to be a reboot to please the fans and no one else. The problem with “Scream 4” or “Scre4m” is the inability to be about as entertaining as it possibly can. The only thing worse than a bad horror movie is a boring one and “Scream 4” manages to be boring in about as many wave lengths as possible, delving in to the same old tropes we saw in the original series, and lacking the balls to even off core characters to keep us grinding our teeth and our guards low.
Lemonade Mouth (2011)
One of my misapprehensions going in “Lemonade Mouth” was that ultimately the film would serve as a function to promote the lovely Ms. Bridgit Mendler. And while yes that is true, “Lemonade Mouth” holds true to the characters’ ideals that this is a group story about a group of people who come together to make some damn fine pop music and as such while Mendler is the spotlight player (being Disney’s now go to gal for a franchise), she’s not the highlight. Why did I watch this? Admittedly for Hayley Kiyoko who above all is one groovy mama jama whose own life is like a rock fantasy. Thankfully, she’s also not the sole highlight of the film.