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.

Review: Scream 3 (2000)

Cast: Courtney Cox, Neve Campbell

Budget: $40 million


Directed By: Wes Craven

The third in the franchise and the last one for a little while. Very varied views on this one it's like the Marmite of the Scream series, though it is still generally liked it's most peoples worst of the 4 films.

For me i kind of like the first half, then it seems to go one step beyond the meta of satirizing itself, in my views at least. It kind of comes full circle with it which in the eyes of many who've watched this was it's downfall .
Though if you didn't know it you can't blame it realky especially for the many weird direction changes. You see the script was incomplete at the time of shooting, not only that it also suffered from many rewrites. Many on the same day of filming.
Some of the cast didn't see the script until the time of filming due to these last minute changes.
For this i commend the actors for such a well done job, it was also still directed by the legendary Wes Craven too which also probably helped.

As with the last film they are still doing the in universe film series based on the killings called Stab, the are on to making Stab 3. Sidney has gone into hiding no one knows where she is, so when a supposed 'ghost face' rings in Cotton Weary's new show 100% Cotton asking for her whereabouts.
He refuses to help the possible killer, this leads to him and his girlfriend being murdered in their home later that night. A detective Mark Kincaid contacts Gale to help with the investigation. She travels to Hollywood where in her investigations she finds her old partner Dewey is working on the set of the new movie.

The lead actress is killed which causes a cascade of things to happen, Sidney with a combination of the killings and receiving threatening phone calls decides to get involved. Some of the cast members of the film along with Dewey and Gale stay over the home of Jennifer Jolie, her bodyguard is killed then ghost face causes a gas explosion that kills another actor Tom.
Sidney is contacted by the sister of Randy the horror movie nerd from the first two films (murdered in the last one). She has a video tape that Randy made posthumously, watching it he explains that in horror movies by the third installment all the rules are off. Any one can die even the main star, which he explains is Sidney.

More of the cast attend a birthday for the director where he is also killed off, Gale discovers his body. Then Angelina is also killed after she refuses to join the others. Tyson one of the other actors tries to fight ghost face but loses and is stabbed and thrown to his death.
Jennifer is also killed when she's trying to escape too. The Killer orders Sidney to go to a mansion to save Dewey and Gale. Sidney tries to go prepared with a gun but the killer guesses and makes her drop it. She finds both her old friends and tries to free them but gets attacked, Sidney actually starts to get the upper-hand.
Revealing she had a second fire arm in case something happened she shoots ghost face scaring him off. The detective Mark shows up but is knocked unconscious.

Meanwhile Sidney gets cornered after hiding in a secret screening room, here she learns that this ghost face is actually Roman. He faked his death earlier, also survived the gunshot due to a bullet proof vest, he also reveals that he is Sidney's half brother. He reveals a bunch of things that he was the reason Billy went mad in scream one after showing him footage of his father with Sidney's mother. All over him feeling left out because Maureen wanted nothing to do with him. Sidney and Roman fight again when Sidney gets angry that he's been behind everything.
Roman however this time get the upper-hand and seemingly shoots and kills Sidney in the chest.

I won't spoil any more here as this is near the end but as with all scream films there's still a few small twists and turns before the end credits roll. Whats my overall thoughts on part 3?
It's decent enough for a third film in the franchise, most films tend to try something new around this time in their cycle. this kind of sticks to tried and tested formula which is probably why people think it became a satire of itself. At least it never went into space, even with the later 4th part.

THN awards Scream 3 a reasonable 3 out of 5 stars, don't watch it alone but as part of the full series.