Wes Craven was a man who managed to re-invent the horror genre at least three times during his entire career. Craven was a man who helped define a lot of the modern tropes we take for granted, and yes, even brought the nineties out of the drudges with his jolt of adrenaline known as “Scream.” However, sometimes Craven’s efforts didn’t always click, and while he had a knack for fascinating characters and complex situations, “Deadly Friend” is one of his more notable genre misfires.
Tag Archives: Revenge
1981’s “Dark Night of the Scarecrow” is the Perfect Halloween Tale
You could pretty much build an entire library of horror films based on or around scarecrows and their tendencies to provoke or be involved in inherent horror or the supernatural. There’s just something so mystifying about the scarecrow where horror creators always go back to that same device, and most times it works. Take 1981’s “Dark Night of the Scarecrow.” The horror thriller by Director Frank De Felitta and writer J.D. Feigelson, celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, was unleashed on the CBS Network and managed to build a pretty loyal cult following over the years.
Slumber Party Massacre (2021)
Amy Holden Jones’ original 1982 “The Slumber Party Massacre” is considered one of the great trashy slasher classics of the 1980’s. It’s a movie that’s so irredeemably stupid but is still celebrated by many fans. I personally think the sequels are better, if infinitely stupider, but that’s neither here nor there. 2021’s “Slumber Party Massacre” is both a meta-satire and re-imagining that follows up on the original events of the premise of the original movie and turns it on its head.
The Retaliators (2021) [Screamfest 2021]
A pastor loses his daughter to a violent killer. After the justice system fails, he is approached by someone who may have a solution.
“I Know What You Did Last Summer” Is a Failure on Every Level [Digital]
After whatever that MTV reboot of “Scream” was, networks and companies seem to be learning all the wrong lessons from it. Rather than breathe new life in to a once solid slasher series, Amazon has botched it from out the gates. Instead of a tense, white knuckle slasher/murder mystery, Lois Duncan’s novel is adapted in to an erotic teen drama thriller. Think less “Slasher” and more “Riverdale.” It’s a glacially paced glorified drama with a horror tint that downplays the horror and slasher aspects of the aforementioned movie series in favor of gratuitous sex, pointless nudity, and droning dialogue.
Alone in the Dark (1982): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]
It’s too bad that in the eighties, in the midst of the big slasher movie boom, that “Alone in the Dark” was almost completely lost in the shuffle of the endless genre titles thrown in to theaters. At a time when audiences wanted splatter films and masked slashers, “Alone in the Dark” snuck by them for too long. Whole it’s not nearly the slasher that the original art for it implies, what we actually get is a chaotic home invasion horror movie with a sick sense of humor.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) [4K UHD/Blu-Ray/Digital]
“The Conjuring” cinematic universe/series has been a horror ride of varying degrees. It’s had its great highs and its depressing lows (Ahem—“Annabelle”), and in spite of delivering two genuine horror classics, the mainline movie series can’t quite escape the dreaded curse of the third film. While “The Devil Made Me Do It” is not at all a bad movie per se, it’s not high in scares or tension as the first two films. The first two movies relied on mounting tension and absolute terror, while “The Devil Made Me Do It” feels a lot more like if they took the series and tried to turn it in to a crime procedural.