RIP Wes Craven

There is not much more I can add to the heartfelt tributes coming out today about Horror Maestro Wes Craven.  He was universally loved in the horror community and his impact on the genre is without question.  By all accounts he was a really nice, cool guy who loved what he did.  That sounds like a pretty good run of it to me.

It broke my heart to heart to hear the news.  Wes Craven's films had a dramatic impact on my horror loving soul.  I remember when A Nightmare on Elm Street came out.  First thing I remember is seeing that terrifying poster.  I was repulsed and attracted at the same time.  I was 10 and still slept with the lights on.  Everything scared me: Ghosts, Frankenstein's monster, Vampires, Zombies....I knew these things were not real but that didn't stop them from haunting me every night.  When I finally saw Nightmare I met the new monster who would haunt my dreams.  For months I wouldn't fall asleep without the TV on.  The channel couldn't be on MTV: that was the channel Depp was watching when he was sucked into the bed.  Despite the trauma I watched this film again and again.  To this day it is one of my favorites and although I don't have to sleep with the light on any longer, Freddy still occasionally pops up in my dreams, along with the rest of my friends.

Thank you Wes Craven.  

Scream 4: Meta Whateva

I am not going to go in depth on my feelings about the original Scream film or the subsequent sequels.  As usual, another blogger did that much better than I could.  Please check out:
Dinner with Max Jenke
He pretty much says everything I would about the franchise but with much more art.  What I will share is my own personal Scream story.  First of all, let me say that I have never felt older than I do now.  Everyone (bloggers that I admire) is talking about Scream.  For quite a few of them, it is a seminal film.  Because they saw it when they were 12!  I was already a grown ass woman when this film came out.  I can't believe people are talking about it like its the fucking Exorcist!  Really, a retrospective for a film that seems to my old ass like it came out yesterday?  Whatever.  Not that I am done with that rant, let me say I am 36 years old.  When the original Scream was filming I was working at the front desk of a very swanky hotel in Santa Rosa, California.  Yes, the same Santa Rosa they filmed Scream in.  Now a confession: I wasn't the awesome horror geek then that I am now.  But I was a pretty big film nerd and was very jazzed that they were filming a major Hollywood film in my town.  I was even more jazzed that the producers of the film were staying at my hotel.  The cast was stuck at the cheaper hotel up the hill.  Nevertheless, I got to make copies of the script, I met the producers, I "saw" David Arquette and Neve Campell briefly, and I got to listen in rapt attention while the bellboy I had a crush on told me about running into the cast at the local bar and pissing off David Arquette.  It was a pretty exciting time in my young life.  I don't think I even owned a computer yet.  And I had yet to embrace my inner Horror geek.  What a shame.

That is my Scream story.  I loved the first film.  The sequels kind of sucked.  I remember being disappointed.  The first film was original and funny.  You really had the feeling that anyone could die at anytime.  The sequels?  Not so much.  Now we come to the "reboot."  New Decade, New Rules as the tag line says.  Really, just more of the same.  The opening scenes I thought were stupid as I was watching them and after some reflection I decided they were the best part of the film.  Sidney returns home after 10 years to promote her self-help book.  Sid's cousin, Jill, is pretty much a carbon copy of Sid at that age.  Sure enough, old Ghostface returns, now armed with Facebook and Twitter.  He targets Jill and her media savvy friends.  His intention is to torture Sidney, the ultimate Final Girl.  Blah, blah, blah.  There is nothing new here, except the revelation that Julia Roberts' niece is actually a decent actress and that Hayden Panettiere is not as annoying as I had suspected.  Also, Rory Culkin should consider a new career.  I wish I could say this was mind blowing, funny, or even scary.  Can't say it is any of those things.  Go see it.  Scream is now like the Saw films (which it mocks).  You have to see it.  You have invested the time.  Might as well see what your old friends are up too.  Like a class reunion.  My suggestion: get Stinko.

Flowers in the Attic

I was going to subtitle this post "Guilty Pleasures" but that really goes without saying.  To girls of a certain age the novels of V.C. Andrews were as important to their development as Seventeen Magazine or the original Degrassi.  Well, maybe just to girls like me.  Andrew's Gothic novels served as a "gateway" for me into proper horror.  I will always hold them in my heart with affection, much like I will the film version of Flowers in the Attic that was released in 1987.

I chanced upon a Video Store going out of business sale.  Most of the good stuff was gone but they did have copy of Flowers available for 5 bucks.  What a joy to watch it again!!  The bad acting, the overacting, the stunt people that look nothing like the actors!  Kristy Swanson!!  Academy Award winner Louise Fletcher as Grandmother!!  Queen Bitch Victoria Tennant (on film, I am sure she is a lovely person) as Mother!! 

The four Dollanganger children, Chris, Cathy, Cory and Carrie are taken to their Grandmother's house after their Father dies in an accident.  Their Mother is going to try to win back her Father's love after royally pissing him off by marrying his Brother (this is V.C. Andrews, this kind of thing happens often.)  The children are locked in a room upstairs.  If Grandfather knows they exist, he will cut their Mother out of the will.  What the children don't know is that Mother has no intention of ever letting them leave that room. 

As I said, I was going to subtitle this "Guilty Pleasures."  But, upon research, the more appropriate subtitle would have been: "What could have been..."  Wes Craven was planning to direct this film, and he wrote a script that was so violent and "incest-laden" that V.C. Andrews herself rejected it.  The Producers ended up giving directing duties to Jeffrey Bloom.  I WANT TO SEE CRAVEN'S VERSION!!!!!!  They remake everything, why not remake this?