Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Stars: Jamie Clayton, Odessa A'Zion

Budget: unknown 

Directed By: David Bruckner

Hating lately that so many films, mainly streaming are so hard to find budgets for. Guess it's a good way to beat them taxes right?

Aside from that we've had a pretty decent year of reboots and reimaginings so far. With Prey being one of them. We have Halloween Ends up coming too ending that rebooted franchise.

Not been all sing song though, Hocus Pocus 2 was a soulless sequel/reboot, the best part being the witches. So let's take a dive and see if Hellraiser 2020 bares fruit.

First up some people seem to have said there's links to the old ones in this, it's not there's some tenuous nods at the most but it's its own thing. It's a totally new retelling of the old law.

Which isn't a bad thing as it keeps it's roots firmly in the source material but tells a new story in it.

I'll get to the elephant in the room here before anyone starts anything. Yes pinhead is played by Jamie Clayton a trans actress not Doug Bradley. Get over it, like Robert Englund he's getting old. Yeah the last few hellraiser pinheads have been abysmally poor especially fathead from revelations.

The cenobites are meant to be androgynous in nature alluring to both female and male alike. The new designs are fantastic from the box to the new and existing cenobites. Jamie Clayton is by far the best since Doug.

This movie has a heavy emphasis on addiction, in every sense of the word. From drugs, pain, love to solving puzzles. Usually one taking place of another too.

As notes the lament configuration box is different it now takes on several different forms. But to change its form you need to feed it a soul as sacrifice, usually the person unfortunate enough to solve it.

This is shown quite quuckly at the beginning our main bad guy (Voight) makes a sex worker open the box. He is quickly torn apart by the chains. Our big bad then asks to see leviathan, which I'll get to later.

A few years later Riley a recovering drug addict is living with her brother (Matt) and his boyfriend (Trevor). There's another room mate Nora. Her brothers boyfriend persuades her to help him break into a warehouse where he's heard a rich guy keeps a load of valuables. Of course she finds the box there, unfortunately on returning home her brother finds out and scolds her about relapsing and her old shitty ways. She runs off to the park and manages to solve the box without cutting herself (The soul is only sacrificed if the box takes a blood toll).

After an encounter with the cenobites she passes out. Matt finds her then cuts himself on the box, he heard screaming from a nearby restroom then vanishes.

Knowing the box is to blame she takes Trevor to find someone who can explain things. Voights ex lawyer had the box hidden there. She explains things but tries to take the box, in the process cutting herself too. When the two leave for Voights mansion the cenobites come for her too.

Breaking into Voights house Riley finds his journals on the box. About it's different configurations, there's seven and each has a meaning. Though it must take a soul as offering if they bleed from the blade.

Here's where it differs quite a bit more now, the seventh configuration is leviathan. Leviathan is the entity that watches over hell, if you get that configuration you can have an audience with it. Then ask it for a wish/gift, she then sees Matt flayed alive.

I'll leave it here so I don't spoil to much more of the film. It really is worthy of a watch especially if you like up to the 4th film in the OG series. Take heed though this is more like Hellraiser 1&2 much more serious.

Is it flawless? 

No, it's by far an improvement since part 2 though, THN awards this movie a strong 4 out of 5 stars.

Review: The Omega Man (1973)

Stars: Charlton Heston, Rosalind Cash

Budget: ?

Directed By: Boris Sagal

Very apt for today's situation too, if your reading this some time in the future, in 2020 we had a global pandemic from a virus named covid 19, or corona virus.
In this movie (an adaptation of the book I Am Legend by Richard Matheson) a disease has turned people into freakish white, scared very single minded monsters.

Nothing like the book that turned people into very basic minded vampires. The second in adaptations of the book the first being 1964's last man on earth, which i'll do at some point. the third being Will Smiths I Am Legend in 2007. None of them bar the older version follow the book very closely.
I can't find concrete release dates for this some places say 71' others 73', also no budget for it either?

There is another version, an asylum flick, starring the one the only Mark Dacascos. I might, might do it one day too i've seen it and it does not follow the book very closely either.

The book follows one Robert Neville who is seemingly immune to the disease and they also don't know where it originates from 100% either. though throughout the book he starts to learn all he can from books on the subject. The same with the infected, they are not vampires, nor like in the book do they suffer from the same weaknesses as vampires either (like crosses, garlic, mirrors etc). They are also very susceptible to being killed by conventional means.
That's some of the main things changed in the film from the book, It's now military scientist Richard Neville, the virus was known and he's not naturally immune. He inoculates himself with an experimental serum only moments of not being infected left. It works and he becomes immune to the virus.

Months later we join Neville as he tries to occupy his mind, like the book he has succumbed to being alone for a long time. He goes around like the book killing members of the infected who now call themselves 'the family' they are very anti science and see it as the reason for the downfall of humanity now. Neville being 'normal' is the embodiment of all of this too so they naturally hate him.
the film deals with the isolation and loneliness one would face by being the last person alive, going through phases of madness, alcoholism even suicidal. practically being a prisoner of your own mind/devices it's a scary place and one i'm sure people are feeling a lot today.

One day Neville thinks he see's someone else while he's raiding a store chasing the person he loses them, coming to the conclusion that he was just seeing things. Neville is eventually captured by the family and almost burned alive for his technological sins. He is saved by the person he seen, one Lisa and her friend Dutch. In a massive departure he is taken to a place where children are, they are infected but do not totally succumb to the virus until they hit adulthood.
He decides to try and use his blood to synthesis a working serum to help the children, saving the rest of the world would take forever though. throughout the rest of film Neville falls for Lisa, continues his work on the serum and occasionally gets attacked by the family from time to time.

They all come to conclusion that if he does manage to make a cure they will leave the city and make a new home out in the wilderness somewhere. Lisa succumbs to the virus later on helping the rest of the family infiltrate his home. Here we leave off telling you the end of the film like we do in THN as The Omega Man is definitely a classic piece of cinema to be watched.
We award this film a strong 3 out of 5 stars as some of the political messages haven't aged well, the situation however is to real at the moment.

Review: Ernest Scared Stupid (1991)

Stars: Jim Varney, Austin Nagler 

Budget: 9.6 million

Directed By: John R. Cherry III

I know this isn't what you'd call a horror film but it is a spooky addition to the Ernest series of films. Now I live in the UK and these films weren't as well known over here as the US. In fact this was the only one I knew about for a little while, hey I was 9 in 91' lol.

I do have to say after seeing a few more Ernest films that this one was my favourite, though I don't outright hate any of the others I've seen. Ernest goes to Jail at this time is the only one I remember almost as well as Scared Stupid.

So the premise, our lovable fool Ernest accidentally frees a troll demon from a cursed tree. That was trapped in the 19th century this troll kidnaps kids and turns them into little wooden figures. See the Worrols were cursed to be the only ones who could free it.

Ernest breaks the cursed looking tree it was trapped in. That's how it escapes.

The rest of the film is played out with him trying to find out how to retrap the troll and convincing some of the other people in town. The one thing that sticks in my memory and I don't know why is looking for a weakness Ernest sees something called Mi_k and instantly thinks it's a rare bulgarian chutney or something called miak. The troll actually grossed me out as a kid too.

I liked this film quite a lot and THN awards Ernest Scared Stupid a good 4 out of 5 stars.

THN News: Everything We Know About Halloween Ends

Okay so October is quickly descending upon us. With it a whole slew of new horror movies, including a lot of sequels and remakes. Though thanks to it actually getting a theatrical release evil dead rise has been pushed back to April next year. Something I'm both loving and hating.

Then we have the hellraiser remake/reboot which I'm quietly looking forward to. Jamie Clayton is by far the best looking and most unique pinhead since Doug Bradley gave up. The new mask cenobite looks spooky as hell too.

Our main news is one of the biggest things though is the new Halloween Ends film. The last chapter in the franchises newest timeline. It'll be going on peacock which I don't think we have here in the UK. As well as in the cinemas.

There's a 4yr time jump where Laurie is living with her granddaughter. She's wrote a memoir and trying to live as normal as possible. Supposedly a kid dies in the care of a babysitter and boom everything kicks off from there.

Touting that this is the definite end for one of them, that we'll have to wait and see. Theres also rumours that the cinema and peacock version will have different endings too, hope we don't get a Army of Darkness type deal with that lol.

Well that's all we know so far Halloween (the holiday) is looking very good for 2022.

Review: Wes Cravens Shocker (1989)

Stars: Mitch Pileggi, Camille Cooper

Budget: $10m

Directed By: Wes Craven

So Shocker, yeah Wes Craven. Sorry and i know this is going to get me some ire from horror fans especially the die hard fans of this film, of which i know there's a dedicated following.
I did not like this its a mixed up jumbled mess of a film to me. Released at a time where quite a few films had electric chair based horror bad guys.
House 3 (or the horror show), this and The chair a few months earlier.

Like i said this film doesn't know whether it's coming or going in the plot with fake outs, dream sequences and other ways to confuse you.
Now i would expect Wes to pull this out of the hat, the guy was a amazing writer, with Nightmare on elm Street but this was just no where near that level.
As you can tell by the lack of franchise. It does have some performances especially from Mitch Pileggi as the titular bad guy. I'm just happy that this little hiccup led to Wes doing things like new nightmare and the whole slasher revival phase in the 90's.

right just to really summarize this film, after a few fake out dream sequences of varying people being killed. The main cops son (Jonathan) somehow gets linked mentally, psychically?
To Mitch's killer Pinker, this leads them to apprehend him as he's a serial killer anyway.
Pinker reveals he's electrocuted that he's Jonathan's dad.

Pinker has somehow made a deal with the devil that allows him to come back as electricity?
Somehow this allows him to possess others, double ??
I don't get it either, he starts killing others while possessing these people. One person possessed Lt Parker manages to fight off Pinker's control. Now they know Jonathan and some others concoct a plan to try and fight back now.
As with a lot of these films the beating of the bad guy involves making back into a physical form again so they can kill him properly. But that's not actually how they beat him in the very end.
Despite not being overly fond the film it's not bad enough to spoil the ending for you, you might like it after all.
THN awards Shocker 2 stars out of 5.

THN Exclusive: Sideworld Series

Sideworld Documentaries

I recently got sent a screener for a documentary called Sideworld: Terrors of the Sea. I admit a pretty unknown, to me at least, chapter in a series of documentaries looking at stories that blur the line between reality and fiction.

Terrors delves into everything nautical, explaining things like the Mary Celeste to the flying Dutchman, though both those are just used as reference.

I'm glad they got in touch with me because I love wrapping myself up in a quilt (well maybe not in summer) and watching real life spooky stuff. (Not fake shit like most haunted but things really grounded in reality). Goodwins Sands is the first story on there, a terrifying expanse responsible for the disappearance of many ships over time.

The next creatures from the depths, deeply grounded in facts, the deadalus serpent sounds like something I wouldn't want to see!

Through this I also found one on forests and possible cryptids or animals reportedly living in them.

George Popov is the director and narrator of the series as well as Jonathan Russell. Both work at Rubicon films which can be found @RubiconFilmsUK. Both put in months of research into each of the sections in the documentaries. Evident by the amount of information George gives on each piece/chapter. Even some guest narration/appearances by William Poulter (a friend not well known Adam Warlock Will) and Suzie Frances Garton of Haunting at the Rectory.

Rubicon Films also has some other narrative films under their belt too. Hex a 2017 movie and 2020s The Droving too. 

Give support any way you can by watching these very interesting pieces. You'll find them on Amazon and through links on their Twitter.

THN awards Both pieces a strong 4 out of 5 stars, if only because I have to be in the right mood for a Documentary, otherwise flawless execution.

Review: Prey (2022)

Stars: Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers

Budget: Unknown 

Directed By: Dan Trachtenberg

 

Wow I wasn't expecting this to he anywhere near as good as it was. In today's time I was expecting at least a little perfection or some kind if writing that made this beyond the realms of believability.

Gladly I was wrong (that believable in the predator world that is.) This proved to be a very decent sequel.  Possibly the best since predator, that's coming from a guy who loves predator 2 mind, fukin' voodoo magic, hahaha.

Put into production near the end cycle of the abomination that was The Predator, (Shane Black you're dead to me). Under the working title of skulls back then. Very little was known, even if it was a predator film or not, just rumours. 2018 passed and everything went to shit for 2 years but they then pressed on with this. Things came out that this was set many years ago with the native Americans, the Comanche.

Then the dreaded word that frightens so many people today. A female lead. I mean I can sympathise with them, some roles and movies have been terrible due it around that time. (Cough star wars).

Then more came out and Dan Trachtenberg was connected and one thing I can give that guy a credit for is doing a good but flawed female lead. Never no super human unrealistically knocking down men twice their size, just using their brains. Even though I wasn't a fan of it 10 cloverfield lanes Mary Elizabeth Winstead was a great protagonist.

Then within the last year we've got stills and concrete plotlines. Set in the 1700s almost 300 years in the past from 1s date, it was a direct prequel too, so still in continuity. Amber was indeed playing a Comanche woman defying her background, but not completely as it wasn't entirely frowned upon just rare that a woman would become a warrior. I haven't as always with streaming services been able to find a budget for this but I know it wasn't a massive amount. 

A few gripes I had about this film were few and very minor. Mainly it's the cgi animals they look very uncanny valley, especially when they move. Also that the predator was clearly getting hurt but healed/stopped bleeding in the next scene. Yes we know predators can heal, but we 

A. Only see it once

B. It takes time in all the older films

C. His technology was older

But that's about it honestly.

Anyway on with the film, beware spoilers though as always I won't spoil the ending, or at least not to much. Naru is our main character she is trying to prove herself to her tribe as a warrior. Her brother Taabe seems to believe in her though others try to tell her not to bother, or worse.

She's not perfect but she's very observant and learns very quick. Unlike most female recent characters she's not perfect. She gets her chance to prove herself when a tiger attacks. Though she notes other things happening around too, she's very observant. Though even sometimes to her detriment. Shes

While hunting the lion she notices something in the forest. The lion attacks and Naru seems to hit it but falls from the tree and gets knocked out. 

She gets told off by her mother and that Taabe had to carry her back. Then we see Taabe bringing back the dead tiger. Which completes his hunt.

As for other things, Naru goes back out to hunt a bear. While doing that she falls into quick sand/mud and nearly dies. She's only saved by her rope axe weapon she created. This then echoes back to Taabe telling her about wet bowstrings. When she goes to shoot the unaware bear her bow string snaps.

Said bear then attacks Naru (in awful cgi) lucky her dog makes it chase him. After a few failed attacks Naru hides in a beaver dam. The bear almost kills her when the predator catches and kills it.

She's caught up by the others by then, actually being bullied quite badly chastised and beaten up. A little later though she and her tribesmen are attacked by the predator. It takes out most of them, then Taabe and Naru get caught by French fur trappers.

Next is pretty much the end of the movie, after the predator kills all of the trappers. Naru and Taabe have a good go against it until it's just left Naru on her own.

I'll leave it there as we don't spoil endings here at THN. One more thing I will say is it's obvious to see why predators changed one weapon to a plasma caster after this.

THN awards Prey a strong 4 out of 5 stars

Review: Fear Street 1978 (2021)

Stars: Sadie Sink, Emily Rudd

Budget: Unknown 

Directed By: Leigh Janiak

This one was my favourite of the three movies. This is more like a straight up killer slasher flick. Again these movies seem like a vehicle for stranger things actors. Max actor Sadie Sink showing up in this one as a troubled teen 

Ziggy Berman.

This one as the title would suggest is set in the 70s in a camp ground that seemed popular with kids back then. Though talking to American friends seem to have died off now. Again an adaptation of an R. L. Stein book in a series that follows a story about a potentially dangerous witch.

So this is the last time the killings happened (78), except this time its different to the past someone survived.

One of two sisters. This is who the survivors of the last movie go to, to get help with their current problem, the witch possessed girlfriend.

She's very reluctant obviously thinking they should just kill their friend and get away from her and the town. There's a few twists and turn here, Ziggy is accused of being the witch by the bullying town overs kids. They even attempt to set her on fire until she's saved by one of the counsellors.

She's the outcast always in trouble sister of course, her older sister being the good more popular one. Ziggy does make friends with a boy though (who ends up being the sheriff in the first and third films). They plat a few pranks on the other kids.

The movie is quick to get to the killing which is good in my eyes, it's initially the possessed boyfriend of the good sister. Then later on when they try to solve the problem some of the past killers start to turn up too.

There's two twists which I saw a mile off but it's a decent story so I won't spoil them. The future kids do glean some useful information from the story though. These lead into the 3rd movies plot and direction.

Fear Street 1978 is a decent slasher flick and maybe even with a few changes could be a stand alone story too. THN awards this movie a strong 3 out of 5 stars.

Review: Fear Street 1994 (2021)

Stars: Maya Hawke, Kiana Madeira

Budget: As with most Netflix unobtainable 

Directed By: Leigh Janiak

Okay a bit late to this party but I haven't had Netflix for a while. I've been broke and can usually only afford 1 streaming service at a time here in the UK.

These are a series of books by R L Stein,  yes the prolific teen horror story writer. I think this is a forray into more young adult like horror. I enjoyed R L Stein books as a kid bit they were never as popular here in the UK as in the US.

This book series follows a town in America Shadyside, paired with its neighbouring town Sunnyside. Bad things happen in Shady like people going bananas every few years and killing up some folk.

Some say it's a curse from a witch killed more 300 years ago called Sarah Fier but who believes spooky stories like that?

Due to this there's an underlying feud with Sunnyside who believe they're better. Though this is mostly only brought up in the 1st two films.

Maya Hawke stars in this for all on 5 minutes too, surprising from her role in stranger things she's nerfed in the beginning after making you think she might escape or be the main star.

This one is more the Halloween movie of the bunch. Though I wouldn't typically compare it too much as even though this is a more residential set movie it's multiple killers pretty much from halfway in. The killers are all past killers seemingly brought back by the witch to kill the teens.

Set pieces and effects are pretty decent from cg to practical, with the practical shinning as one of the best parts of this film.

For the first 1/3 of the film we get a girl, Deena fawning over a Sam. She sees lovers everywhere she looks. This Sam moved to Sunnyside and Deena broke up with them.

Then twist!

Sam us a girl and this was more frowned upon back in the archaic times of 90s America.

Apparently more in smaller towns too. Anyway we get the usual team of teens trying to survive/beat the bad guys with some pretty gruesome deaths. It's kind of nasty how some of the cast is knocked off one by one as they learn more and more about the witch and the curse. Then they finally think they're safe, shock twist at the end!

Acting was okay in this, do I think Its fawning?

Not so much in part one, it's a pretty solid base, unfortunately by the time the 3rd movie comes around this is different.

I know I said about a twist but trust me that's not spoiling the end, especially as you know this movie has 2 more parts.

THN awards Fear Street 1994 a decent 3 out of 5 stars.

Review: Fear Street 1666 (2021)

Stars: Kiana Madeira, Emily Rudd 

Budget: Unknown 

Directed By: Leigh Janiak

Well, well the 3rd movie in the series of books by R L Stein. This one is mostly set in 1666 showing what happened to the witch and the truth about it all.

This is where it goes a little to I hate to use the word, but this was the biggest inclusion of "wokeness" I've seen in any movie to get their point across. I say this as identifying as an asexual romantic myself, but thats enough about me.

It does do well to bring all the past storylines together but I think that's it's only bonus. So back in 1666 (being played by everyone from past movies, though they do have their own faces too) two friendly girls, one the supposed witch find themselves in love. Now back in 1666 this was considered a satanic malady. Of course it was pretty biblical back then. But here's my problem with that, it was 1666! You can't retroactively say oooh that was bad back then and it still is.....

I'm sorry but being called something occasionally and I'm from the 80s mind, is a damn sight massive improvement over being drowned, burned, hanged, all three or something worse back then. But enough of that, it's a weak plot too. But that's not just it, she's not the witch, it's one of the sheriffs decendants who seemed good through most of the 3 movies. No i saw it a mile off too despite never reading or hearing about these books befode this film series.

They do ultimately solve the problem which is witchcraft but more warlockcraft now. 

THN AWARDS fear street 1666 a decent 2 out of 5 stars watch if you've committed to the series of 3 films.

Review: The Banana Splits (2020)

Stars: Dani Kind, Finlay Wojtak Hissong

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: Danishka Esterhazy

Wow so who thought this would ever happen hey?

One banana, two banana, three banana, four. That's right that old Hanna-Barbera live action show with the people in big furry suits.

One of their first live action programs too, the splits were a fictional band. It ran in 1968 for 31 episodes.

This is a strange horror re-imagining of that program if it had lasted until today's time. Though it was revived in 2008 too, though very briefly.

It definitely has five nights at freddy's vibes as the splits are now, spoiler, robot Animatronics. I can't find any budget news on this either, only that it did poorly even in dvd/bluray sales.

I do believe it found a home on streaming services in some countries too.

It's not a long movie either but I have seen two different running times too, one coming in at 72 minutes and another at 89.

I can't find any reason why unless the comic-con version was shorter?

As with 90% of horror films ever made we join a family that is on the surface seemingly normal, though we quickly learn the Dad is a cheating ass hole. The Kid Harley, (played by Finlay) is a massive fan of the still popular splits program.

It's the boy's birthday and the dad pulls some strings to get him onto the set of the show while they do some filming. The whole family go including the older brother Austin and a reluctant class mate of Harley's Zoe, though she seems to think it odd that he still likes them at his age.

The four splits Fleegle, Bingo, Drooper and Snorky are animatronic now, though they still have a human co-host called Stevie. We learn he hates the show and only does it for the money. He's bitter and resentful which makes him an asshole to everyone else. In the waiting line we are introduced to the rest of the cast, a blogger couple, A controlling father more interested in making his daughter a star than her feelings. Then there's the hostess Paige who Austin takes a liking to.

Just before the show airs Stevie learns from the new channel executive that he intends to cancel the banana splits show. Taunting the splits something seems to happen to their programming, as the show goes on they seem to get more and more violent.

Strangely the super fan kid Harley seems to notice first, then the body count starts to rise. His mom finds out about the cheating dad, he then gets amusingly run over by the mini car. The blogger couple boyfriend proposes to the girlfriend and promptly gets sawn in half. the gore effects are quite good as well as practical too. If your wondering why they don't call anyone they had their phones confiscated so as not to film or disturb the show while filming.

The splits kill the older folks and kidnap the kids so they can perform for them forever.

I won't spoil anymore as I enjoyed this and i think you will too, there's some interesting twists with some of the characters and the splits too with strong sequel baiting.

THN awards The Banana Splits Movie 2020 4 out 5 stars.

Review: Hatchet 4: Victor Crowley (2017)

Stars: Kane Hodder,  Laura Ortiz

Budget: $400,000

Directed By: Adam Green

The fourth film in the hatchet series, shown as a surprise reveal to some fans. Done on a tiny budget it does show. Compared to the other movies there's less kills and the majority of the film uses the cheap movie trope of sticking to one location mostly.

The effects are pretty standard for the series too. Acting good, mostly, as well as comedic, maybe even more than any of the other films.  Kane Hodder returns as the deformed psycho killer Victor, imposing as always.

The start of the film is a small scene in addition to the end of part 3. Some lovers are killed after one of the hunters warns them. Then 10 years later we join Hong on a talk show bigging up his new book about surviving the night.

However some people believe he's the killer and blame him for the deaths of loved ones. We also see a small group intent on making a low budget film based on Crowley. They try to get Hong to help them but he's dragged away.

Hong is coerced into going back to the swamp with $1m dollars (though it's a lie). The friends also find themselves in the swamp at the same time. Oddly the plane crashes into the swamp, most of them survive. But in order to make her film more authentic the producer plays the original curse from a YouTube video. As is in horror films this brings Crowley back to life.

He kills them all one by, in a by the numbers affair.

I won't spoil anymore as it's worth a watch especially if you enjoyed 1-3. So I'll leave it to you to see who dies or not.

THN awards hatchet 4 a steady 3 out of 4 stars.

Review: The Dark (2018)

Stars: Nadia Alexander, Toby Nichols

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: Justin P. Lange

Noticed a trend with a lot of smaller productions from the past 5 years or so, a lot seem to have little to no budget info. With these more b-movie type films I like to know what's done on what they had to hand, allows me to shower more praise too if it's done on a smaller budget.

Anyway this movie is a strange one, a very authentic storyline of the likes I haven't seen before. I've seen similar yeah bit this seems almost dare i say it, original, gasp!

A very mixed up production as far as I can see too. Austrian film, filmed in a lot of Canadian locations with mixed actors.

This doesn't detract from anything though, in fact writing and acting is one of the most strongest points of this film (for the most part). It was originally shown at the 2018 Tribeca film festival, then shown officially in October 2018.

Actors wise the chops on some of these people is reasonably expansive, though I haven't seen any of the things they've been in before. Nadia has been in episodes of Elementary, Law&Order, Boardwalk Empire as well as other things and a few other festival type films. She seems the one with the most acting credits and it shows.

The film starts off like it's going to be a haunted house type affair. Even setting up a story that the house the guy is going to is your usual people vanishing type.

When the shop/gas station owner finishes telling our seeming protagonist this news the TV shows him as a wanted man. He blows away the owner with a revolver, putting us in mind that he might not be a protag we want to back.

Arriving at the house the guy is quickly freaked out by a ghastly looking girl. Not sure if she's a zombie it's never really stated and if she is she still has her faculties and can actually get hurt too, though this might be for a later reason.

He tries to run into the forrest to escape her but is slowed by traps she's set up, the blammo she's axed his face a question. She then proceeds to eat some his guts, very zombie like.

A little later she discovers a blinded boy in the back of his car. He's also severely atrophied and shit scared that Josef will get him. He's called Alex and the girls comes close to killing him but something stops her from doing it. From here on they form a steadily increasing friendship as they run and hide from people who are looking or hunting for Alex. The girl, Mina syarts having flashbacks to her previous life and it seems she was abused. Then fighting back one night her abuser kills her.

Yet somehow she returns from the grave kills him and her mum and goes to live in the woods as a monster.

One thing that did grind my gears, Buuuut I did understand as the kid was severely mentally scarred, is that Alex keeps thinking Josef is coming after him long after Mina has told him (multiple times) he's dead.

Also he says Josef has people that will come looking, I'm pretty sure no one does as the only other people are a search team out searching for the kid (after Mina kills a cop).

Now throughout the film Mina actually seems to be becoming less gross almost healing too, as in like a grinch type action of helping Alex is repairing her. This is the reason why I think she gets hurt some later on in the film.

Now it is a slow film, it's got good kills and goes when it does pick up though, it's also nice to see a friendship maybe even a relationship of sorts form between Alex and Mina but I'll leave it there as THN doesn't spoil endings as you know.

THN awards The Dark 2018 a strong 3 out 5

Review: Firestarter (2022)

Stars: Zac Efron, Sydney Lemmon

Budget: $12 million 

Directed By: Keith Thomas

Another classic remade by the mighty horror moguls at Blumhouse pictures. Following their footsteps of invisible man they've taken the Stephen King novel Firestarter. Last handled way back in 1984 and starred a very young Drew Barrymore as the center stage Charlie Mcgee.

I've watched the Original but not for like 20 years, it's also one the very few King books I haven't actually read, so can't make any comparisons there. What I do know is this leans very much more into the psychic powers aspect that the original didn't though. Zac Efron plays the father and I totally didn't recognise him in the trailer and only realised when my friend pointed it out. He's looking more like Rylan Clark lately. The acting isn't one of the bad points in this though, but we'll get onto the bad points later.

Seems that John Carpenter is getting comfortable with Blumhouse lately too. What with the Halloween redo, now doing the music for this. Though this is in no way a bad thing. In fact the music is pretty banging in this film, alleviating some parts of the movie from drab to good.

I felt certain part of this movie that were meant to be shocking or hitting came across totally opposite. Like the scene where the clearly fake baby bursting into flames in the dad's dream at the beginning. People actually laughed in the cinema too. I usually can't handle babies in danger in films, for personal reasons, it even didn't trigger me.

There's a scene where Charlie sets fire to her mother's arms, now they know about her powers by the way. She just stares at her arms in flames until the dad puts them out, WHY put your arms out ffs don't just stand there, don't blame 'surprise' either, like I said she knows. One more scene is where Charlie is trying to pet a cat, it scratches her then the toasts it, again people (and me this time, maybe it would have different if it was a dog) laughed at that too. This is what I mean at some things. Zac does this silly neck cracking thing when he's using his abilities too, I don't know if this is in the book and can't remember if it's in the old one, plain and simply it's silly though.

Now it's not all bad and silly,  when people are using their powers the Carpenter tunes pump and it's almost like a different movie. Yes I suppose it's more like a superhero film, strangely enough this referenced later in the film, saying Charlie is like a superhero.

There's a LOT of differences in this film compared to the original too, such as Charlie isn't abducted her dad is, the farm ends up a massacre scene also there's another psychic hunting them from the shop rather agents.

So the premise under the guise of a clinical trial people deemed to have telekinesis, psychic or other powers are drawn in to use a special drug called LOT6. Two of them are a young couple who end up being Charlie's parents later, also some of the only survivors of the trial. 

Cut to years later they have a baby who grows up into 11yr old Charlie. She has the power of pyrokineis, telepathy and slight precog too. Yeah she's like super powerful. They've been on the run, don't use much technology like internet, smart phones etc. This is because they're hiding from Charlie that they are on the run.

She's in school trying to have a normal education etc, but there's bullies, of course its always bullies. One day they fet the better of her coping mechanism and charlie explodes a bathroom stall. This puts the Shop on their trail. The parents constantly bicker about helping charlie either use her powers or have the dad use his ability to make her forget about them. Though they flip flop about this until the mum is killed by the shops assassin psychic.

Her dad can't use his power to often as it's draining/hurting him now, thanks to Charlie they escape.

Charlie and dad go on the run when they meet an old guy who takes him back to his farm. Charlie finds his bed ridden wife who years before was in an accident. When the news shows them as fugitives she prices they're innocent by proving her powers telling him his wife forgives him. He tries to tell the arriving police he made a mistake then the psychic assassin guy turns the cops heads into Swiss cheese with a sniper rifle.

Charlie escapes and daddy Zac is taken back to the shop.

I was impressed by her going to free her dad like he freed her in the original, except this is the end of this movie.

I won't give away much more except it's a great scene with the tunes blasting too. BUT one major retraction to me was that the dad uses his powers one last time to MAKE Charlie destroy the facility, I didn't like that after his reluctance to do it before has he just turned his little girl into a killer?

I get it why he used his power so it would allow her to do what she did right after it with a clean conscious. As you can tell I'm trying to spoil to much as I never do unless a film is super dire.

So that leads onto my ranking and I've been thinking really hard on this. I really liked a lot if aspects of this movie but also really hated others. So after deliberation THN is awarding Firestarter 2022 a 2 out of 5 stars but say it's worth a watch if there's nothing else, maybe I should read the book?

THN Ramble: My Fave Streamers

Something I do a lot of is watch (mostly horror) movie streamers on the old YouTube. I really wish I had gotten into it a long time ago but the state of strikes and people out to fuck you over from what I see on these people's channels makes me have a lack of want for it.

So I turn to these 5 reviewers, now I love these 5 the most because they have a shtick. A good one too that adds and entertains on their channels. Here are the 5 that entertain me the most in no particular order.

1. Decker Shado

Hes the internet personality with the best hair, he certainly has amazing flowing locks too. I like Deckard as he puts a lot of himself into his videos, he's very down to earth.

He reviews some very off the wall or low budget films too that I might not of even known of if he hadn't.

Not only that he explains things very well no matter what he's reviewing. He's doing what he loves and you can tell because he's very annoyed by copyright claims, rightly so as he's doing it fair use. Not only that SOME of these places should be thanking him for exposure. I don't think he's had a good past from things he's said so I'm happy he's keeping this up and entertaining us all. Hope he never loses them locks lol.

2. Mike Bracken aka The Horror Geek

Damn I'm old, is one of my favourite lines from Mike. Usually so because I know exactly what he means lol. Mike very down to earth too and relatable in his love for gorehound movies.

Which is Mike's thing, he rates his movies on barf bag ratings. I like this because sometimes I just want to watch a splatterhouse kind of movie i can turn off too. Please take this the right way too, Mike's very informed compared to some Americans I even know personally. For a start he knows wales lol. He also suffers from the tyranny of YouTube censors. His channel also feels as close to something that I would like to make.

3. Brandon Tenold

Brandon is a Canadian who reviews a diverse number of films. From monster flicks, both sci-fi and horror to plain horror also. He's one of the more set in stone Tubers, he's even made documentaries on them, or at least had some input in them.

Everything from Decapitation! To him changing a music track makes me smile.

Also his extreme dislike of Kenny's in kaiju movies (watch them you'll get it then).

Another thing is he has a dry sense of humour which is something I like, he says everything so straight laced and serious but in a comedic way. Again thanks to him I've now seen some really obscure knock off films I don't think I ever would have otherwise.

4. Stitched Together Pictures

Or the maniacal cinephile, or Andy lol. A bandaged guy with multiple personalities, kind of reminds me of the guy you play in nightmare creatures 2. His thing is as said the multiple personalities, good Andy, normal Andy and evil Andy.

He's a functional schizophrenic as he knows about them and regularly converses between them. Despite normal Andy usually doing the bulk of the reviews we also get a simplistic good view smattering from the child like good Andy. Then a growling masochistic view from bad Andy. These are all of course done in a tongue in cheek comedic style.

In skits we learn Andy is a somewhat escaped asylum patient. We see in small skits from time to time. Often bad Andy has killed people to get them (or himself) something. Despite this he gives honest opinions on things he reviews. One of my favourite things he does is boots to reboots where he compares two movies usually the OG film compared to a more recent remake.

If he deems them bad he stamps on them with a big heavy metal boot destroying them in the process.

Would like to see more of his channel but I guess he's a busy guy, also I suspect his videos take a while to put together.

5. Fanboy Flicks

Is a newer one to me, Mark is also a Canadian I have fallen in love with very quickly. Again it's the dry sense of humour, there's a difference though. Every now and then Mark will break into laughter at his own jokes or at the scene he's trying to review.

One of my favourite things he does is put himself inside of the film in scenes. Very effectively to great comedic effect most of the time. Again a great source for more obscure films, espcially older ones.

Again a little sporadic with uploads but I'm also guessing all the work he puts in takes a lot of time too. If that means a sporadic upload then that's fine with me.

Since I'm writing this on a phone if any of the people mentioned read this please feel free to put your links in the message box. It's very hard for me to link so many on my phone, if I can re-edit this at some point on a pc or laptop I'll put in more stuff like pictures, links etc.

To anyone else since I'm in no way able to help monetary wise with these folks, please go find their channels and subscribe you won't be disappointed.

Review: Flight 7500 (2014)

Stars: Amy Smart, Ryan Kwanten

Budget: est. 5million

Directed By: Takashi Shimizu

A thriller/horror from Mr Shimizu of the Ju-on fame. Film in 2014 it took till 2016 to be widely released.

It stars a host of recognisable faces from around that time too. Such as Amy Smart and Leslie Bibb as well as others.

I'm surprised I've never seen or even heard of this movie before. It has a weird kind of Ghost Ship or house on haunted hill vibes for sure when you start watching it.

It actually had me guessing too as to what the he'll was actually going on, I mean I had 3 things in my head.

1. It's a monster

2. They are all dead

Or

3. Its a hallucinogenic experience.

I'll get more into it later but I was right with one of them so I wasn't to clueless. Quite seasoned to acting everyone does a good job in their roles.

So there's a flight, 7500 in fact we see many of our protagonists boarding the plane as the crew go through preflight.

They all seem to have something up with them. The newly weds but the wife is a hypochondriac. Smart and her partner have something in their past too. These all come up into focus at later times in the film. 

One of the more mysterious of the bordees is a man with a weird box. He later dies due to some complications. This is a little odd with it's timing and the overall plot of the film as I couldn't work out if it was due to this, after this or because of this other things happen.

Anyway this freaks out a few people as is course of things. Now a plot point introduced earlier comes into play.

When a seemingly drop in pressure endangers everyone, Smarts boyfriend (who us a paramedic and tried to help the guy eaflier) dashes around trying to help people again. There seems something wrong with the air masks too. Anyway after some worry it all calms down. Weird shit starts happening and they believe it's to do with the guy who died.

So some people vanish or are supposedly killed along the way. They look through his stuff and find a Shinigami death doll. If you know anything this solidified one of my theories if you know what that doll means. 

I want spoil anymore as usual, this film was pretty okay if you like any of the earlier movies I mentioned. THN awards Flight 7500 a reasonable 3 out of 5 stars.

Review: Killer Weekend (2018)

Cast: Mark Heap, Danny Kirrane

Budget: Unknown

Directed By: Ben Kent

Made for frightfest by Ben Kent I'm suspecting on a reasonably low budget as the only person I really recognised in the ensemble was Mark Heap, from Spaced, Big Train and a few other UK comedy programs. It has another working name FUBAR too. I enjoyed Mark in this though his part is relatively small.

I went into this knowing nothing about too, which I think is the best way to watch this film. So if you haven't seen it I suggest you don't read the lower half of the review. Mainly because I started watching this film thinking something else was going to happen that never did, which I actually liked. I'll expand on that later. 

So on with the movie. We join a group of lads going on a stag weekend. They've planned a zombie paintballing weekend for the groom. The friends are your usual group the one who's grown up has a family kid, the rich stuck up asshole, the still immature idiot who never grew up. Also on the trip is the groom, the father in law to be who doesn't really like the groom, a guy he knew in a job who is delusional that the groom is his best friend. Also his sister's boyfriend who doesn't really him either. Finally the friend who is a massive drug head.

They meet up with the other half if the group in a small cafe off the motorway. In there the ass is loud and obnoxious.  They get the ire of the waitress, then notice a large gentleman staring blankly at them who they also bad mouth.  When they get to the retreat the people running it are ex military (there's also a running joke the father in law was some kind of specail agent, though not disproven its highly hinted hes lying).

Anyway it seems one of the 'zombies' is the large blank faced man. This shits up the groom whose told to attack him with a soft baton. It doesn't go well.  Out in the forest they are attacked by the zombies the large man goes for the groom knocking his baton away then knocking him on his ass. Reaching for the baton the groom accidentally pick up a stick as he leaps on him impaling himself on it. Accidentally killing the man, though when he's not dead (just severely hurt) the idiot friend mistakes him for a zombie and finishes him off with a knife to the head.

They come to the conclusion to hide the body, they get him but take his phone. When the leader of the retreat texts him the idiot friend replies with a phrase that later he recognises when he says it. Anyway they go about and accidentally kill a few more people in the process. The other ex soldiers find the (poorly hidden) corpses then proceed to hunt the rest of the group.

I'll leave it there as the rest is a pretty decent watch, comedic but also quite gory in places, also the ending is pretty realistic in they pretty much say about the killings and consequences. Now I went into this thinking maybe the people really turn into zombies, there's a few flags through the film that suggest this is the case too, the way the initial guy is staring all blank and weirdly, they find nuclear warning signs in a building too. But it isn't, hope your haven't read this before watching it as I'm sure it'll trick you too.

It's nothing special unless you don't know what's going on. It's a decent film to pass the time too. THN awards this film 3 out of 5 stars.

Review: Werewolves Within (2021)

Stars: Sam Richardson, Milana Vayntrub

Budget: $6.5 million

Directed By: Josh Ruben

A gleefully fun film that is apparently based on a video game of the same name. I've never played it but the premise is pretty much you have to guess who the werewolf is.

This was unfortunately released at a time that movies weren't doing to well in the cinemas still so did not make it's budget back.

Whether this was truly to blame or that it just wasn't that great I'll get to a bit later in my review.

One thing I really did enjoy a lot though was the clue/cluedo vibe it gave me especially when they are all together in the hotel.

Though as always I did kind of guess who was what about halfway through, though it did throw me a few curve balls up until then which I enjoyed.

Was nice seeing Harvey Guillen in here from what we do in the shadows too. All the roles are pretty well acted and Milana exudes backwater sexiness despite being covered up a lot in this movie. All in all everyone is very believable in their given roles.

There's a few story lines going on in the film which i'm guessing is to throw you off who is what, but can some times bog down the pacing making the film a little all over the place from time to time. So lets get on with the main plot and a few tidbits from the story.

We join Sam Richardson playing Finn Wheeler a forest ranger travelling to a new area he's been assigned too. From the off we see Finn has confidence problems as he's listening to self help tapes about being more assertive. He's clearly had some relationship troubles too.

We are quickly introduced to the whole town as Milana's character Cecily, a mail delivery woman shows him around town. We see there's a dispute about with folks as a local businessman Sam Parker wants to set up a pipeline We have lots variety in the townsfolk a gay couple, the angry wife with cheating husband and your typical loudmouth hicks, lastly they go see Emerson Flint a crazy out of town loner hunter.

There's also the hotel owner Jeanine who thinks her husband ran off with someone, though we know from an earlier (that he was indeed going to cheat) scene that he was killed by, something.

There's also a environmentalist Dr Ellis staying at the hotel advising about the pipeline. When the one couple with the cheating husband dog is killed they go searching for who done it.

As more bodies appear and the electric gets knocked out seemingly by a blizzard then we later find out the generators were also slashed with giant claws.

This is where the film for me did pick up a bit as up until now I had guessed what was what but in a shocking twist the film makes you even question the existence of a possible werewolf and is it all just a set up?

So yeah really appreciated that, so as not to spoil anything I'll say no more other than, after a slow start I really did enjoy this film.

THN awards Werewolves Within a strong 3 out 5 stars

Review: Sanitarium (2013)

Stars: John Glover, Robert England, Lou Diamond Phillips

Budget: not found

Directed By: Bryan Ortiz, Brian Ramirez 

An anthology film featuring some actors you haven't seen for a while and some that become staple in these B-movie affairs.

It's based in a sanitarium where we have Malcom McDowell as a kind of narrator introducing us to the patients that the segments are based on.

I couldn't find any budget info anywhere but it's probably not a major amount. I'm always amazed by the people you see turn up in things like this these days. Always nice to see John Glover show up in things he's a good emoting actor in my books.

So we have 3 stories in this anthology 

1. John Glover is an artist who's a little delusional over his models. It's clear he's a big thing but he's paranoid everyone wants his models. Roberts also in this one as the curator to the gallery. When an offer for him to get bigger crowds in for $6 million but he refuses, his friend/aide doesn't seem to like this but says he says he trusts his judgement.  We have some shenanigans as Johns character seemingly loses the plot is it real or all in his head?

2. A bullied kid stars in this one I recognised some of the actors but none I really knew in this segment. He's not bullied at school but by his abusive single father, I'm not sure if he's supposedly sexually abused too or it's just his father taking of his belt to beat him. I suspect it's the former though, Malcolm introduces him as a multiple personalities schizophrenic. He's also adult by the time we see him in the asylum. One thing I did wonder while watching this if the other kids were real or not, the ones he was in a group with. Anyway a strange dark shadow that scares him throughout pops up in the end!

3. Lou Diamond Phillips stars in this one, u haven't seen him in anything significant since labamba or young guns this was a paranormal snoozefest, that's the best I can say about this one.

So overall it was nice to see some familiar faces in these, the film does have another title if you can't find it under this, in the US as monsters are real, which is one of the segments names. It's also on Pluto Tv at the moment too.

It wasn't anything special but worth a time wasting 90 minutes or so if you're bored. THN awards this 2 out 5 stars.

Review: Happy Birthday To Me (1981)

Stars: Melissa Sue Anderson, Matt Craven

Budget: $3.5-4.7 million

Directed By: J. Lee Thompson

nearly every holiday has a horror film based around it, but who ever thought that you most sacred of holidays, personal even, would be haunted by a killer nutcase.

The 80's was indeed a time of basing multiple horror films on holidays, from Halloween to even Friday the Thirteenth. Later things like even valentines day would see slashers based on them.

Made on quite a large budget for an 80s film, people like I wrote earlier say this film might be influenced from other slashers, but being released in 81 it was actually in pre-production before those films were released.

Unfortunately this film was seen as a video nasty and also was widely panned by critics. It has since gained a cult following like most things do as time goes by.

A lot of the money was used in promotions too which was a big foe-par. the studio did think they had something akin to Ft13TH on their hands.

So we join a group of students who are totted as the top ten in their school, each excelling at their chosen academics. This makes them appear privileged and popular to other students. The first kill is one of these students who is chased and harassed until she plays dead in her car, then running again she bumps into someone she apparently knows and gets herself murderised.

The rest of the gang become concerned when she, Bernadette doesn't show up to the pub, as they are all swots and generally never miss anything even a pub trip. It's quickly glossed over though. They leave the pub later and get silly playing chicken with a raising bridge.

Later our main girl Ginny stops in a graveyard to pay respects but as she is another member Etienne break int her room and steals some of her underwear. When Bernie fails to show for school the next day they all realise something is very wrong now, she wouldn't miss classes.

We also find out Ginny has a troubled past, she has repressed memories that keep surfacing to trouble her. We also find out she had some kind of operation after an accident with a drawbridge, which is why she was so freaked out earlier.

The rest of the top ten start to get murdered in a variety of different gory ways, one gets his scarf caught in a motorbike wheel. Another gets his neck crushed. The film tries it's best to put the blame of killer on a variety of other folk in the picture. Some, well most of which end up murdered themselves. Even Ginny at some points. But the film does end with a very odd twist that pretty much comes out of no where.

Which is where THN stops I though Happy birthday to me was okay, it's nothing special when compared with other slashers but I can see it being quirky enough to gain the following it has gained, you know I don't do half stars here so it does unfortunately miss out on 3 out of 5 for me, but really it's worth a watch if you haven't seen it then chalk it up to how you feel about.

put it in your menagerie of films 

or 

chalk it up to i've watched it now status.

THN awards Happy Birthday to Me a strong 2 out of 5 with recommendation to watch.

Review: Scream 5 (2022)

Stars: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox

Budget: $24 million

Directed By: Tyler Gillett, Matt Bettinelli-Opin

Well, well this got made didn't it, did we need a 5th scream movie? 

Probably not, but we got one anyway. I do like the dedication to Wes at the end it was very fitting. Now there's things I had heard from various sources about this film before I watched it.

Things like it was going meta like new nightmare etc but thankfully it didn't. This however is a double edged sword in this franchise, a franchise that tries to step out of the box with each part. Unfortunately only the first 2 ever coming close to this.

So 3, 4 and yes even this one become run of the mill who dunnit slasher flicks. Thankfully I went in spoiler free, so it did take me about 1/3 of the movie to guess at least one of the killers. Unfortunately this movie does the thing, you know white men not allowed to live or being the bad guy thing.

So from here out spoiler territory Dewey dies, yes the guy who has been stabbed in the back every movie before this yet lived meets his final stabbing. They do play it off in a nice send off for him in the end though, though I'd have preferred Gail to die myself. It's not particularly gory either though by today's standards the past films aren't to bad either but it's certainly tame, which may have helped a bit with OMG factor, but sadly not.

I won't spoil to much more other than once you guess who the killers are you'll be left scratching your head as to motive, though not entirely outlandish it just comes off as bland and by the numbers these days reasons for anything like that.

In film order I used to rank scream as 1-2-4-3 I now rank it as 1-2-4/5-3 why? Because as to now I'm flip flopping which I prefer/dislike the most. This did reasonably well at the box office with its smallish budget, we may see a 6 but I can already see the formula if they keep making them now, it'll be each older actor left killed off at some point in each subsequent movie.

THN awards Scream5 a meh-ish 2 out of 5 if you just want a slasher flick to watch.

Review: Scream 4 (2011)

Cast: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox

Budget: $40 million

Directed By: Wes Craven

after an 11 year hiatus Wes Craven comes back to direct his franchise with writer Kevin Williamson at the helm and not multiple writers. Only a few rewrites and some last minute reshoots were needed this time, not on the day changes like in 3.
Also Wes dedicated himself this time, unlike with scream 3 where he was basically on and off the set quite a lot.

This time the story seems to play on remakes and reboots. Though they also throw in the effects of social media as well as internet fame in the mix.
Despite this movie being more universally liked by both critics and fans of the franchise it did end up being the lowest grossing of the four films, guess even after 11 years sequel fatigue can set in.

It may have been also been that it faced some of the same criticisms of the last using cliches that coupled with not enough scares!
I do find this entry maybe a little better or at least on par with part 3, both have strengths and weaknesses that seem to either lower or increase them to just about as good as each other in my eyes.

So spoiler time as we head into the movie, Sidney now 32 years old and famous from her own book is this time suspected in the murders. Two school girls are killed when Sidney and her promotion manager come to promote her book in her old town. Police find evidence in her car.
She is then forced to stay in the town due to be suspected in the murder, staying with her aunt Kate and cousin Jill. Jill we find out is having problem with her boyfriend. Jill and her neighbor Olivia both get threatening phone calls from Ghostface later on.
We then get introduced to the new town sheriff, none other than Dewey!
He questions the girls and also their other friend Kirby about the calls, he's being assisted by Judy Hicks his deputy. He is now Married to Gale, who we meet next. he's suffering from writers block so decides to get involved in the murder case too.

Later on Olivia is being murdered in front of Jill and Kirby, Sidney rushes in with the help of Jill to try and save her but they are both hurt and the killer gets away. Sidney sickened by her agents use of the kills to promote her book fires her, she is then subsequently murdered.
Gale uses the help of two high school movie enthusiasts, they tell her that the killer is now using the tropes of remake horror movies. If that's so he will probably strike at a party being held that night.
Gale goes to the party where indeed the killer does strike and almost kills her, she is saved when Dewey shows up scaring the killer away.

At Sidney's aunts house, Sidney discovers that the two guards sent by Dewey have both been killed by the murderer and that Jill has vanished. When she goes to tell her aunt the killer shows up, they end up killing Kate only to vanish again. Deputy Hicks arrives advising Sidney to stay put but she goes to Kirby's to try and save Jill.
A bunch of people at Kirby's house partying when Robbie (one of the film buffs) is cornered by the killer. He tries to use a movie trope by saying he's gay so the killer won't kill him, it unfortunately does not work. Sidney shows up to get Jill but they are chased by the killer, Evading him Sidney manages to call Dewey.
In a scene reminiscent of the first film Kirby is forced to answer horror movie trivia to save a tied up Charlie. While this is happening Sidney is still looking for Jill. After answering the question correctly Kirby goes outside to untie Charlie, he stabs her in the stomach revealing he is the killer leaving her to bleed out.

Now there is a large chunk of the films ending left but if i go any further it will spoil the ending for people who haven't seen it. As you know we don't spoil endings unless the film is so bad we don't warrant it even watchable. So in conclusion Scream 4 scores a steady 3 out of 5 stars at THN.