It Came From The Archives 31.1

Hey all! Today, I give you, as promised, some more relics from the Archives. I've showcased old horror newspaper and magazine clippings before, but these below are from a scrapbook just recently unearthed. This will be the first of three parts with this one mostly consisting of old nineties articles and reviews from The Toronto Sun. As always, click to enlarge.

You know, I'm going to pause here. I didn't mean for this to morph into a critique of pre-Internet movie journalism, but the pair of reviewers above, for lack of a better term, sucked balls. Bruce Kirkland was a goof who seemed to actively avoid researching the movies he reviewed (I remember drafting an unsent email about his insipid and misinformed review of Resident Evil) and Liz Braun was the absolute worst. I spent more than a decade incensed by her witless and snide comments about genre films. The above sampling of her scribbles all contain some form of dismissive “well, it's not for me, but if you're into it I'm sure it's fine.” comment. Hey, here's a fucking idea, Sun. Why not employ a third voice that actually knows a thing or two about, or at the very least appreciates, horror films?

Nowadays, film opinions and info are everywhere, but back then, apart from Fangoria and the occasional free mag at the cinema, the Sun was one of the only places you could get regular info about new horror movies and it burns my ass that said info was being doled out by these two buffoons. 

Anyway, vent over. More stuff from the past.

Check back tomorrow for some clippings featuring interviews with the likes of John Carpenter, Stephen King and Clive Barker.

To dive into the archives, click here.

Who Killed Who?

My friend Serena turned me on this cool breakdown of the 1996 meta slasher Scream. Our host Zack Cherry illustrates, rather convincingly I might add, when Billy & Stu were each stalking victims as Ghostface in the film. This video is incredibly thorough and I guarantee even the most avid fan of this series will discover a thing or two while watching it. Check it out below.

I'm Into Survival.

Last Tuesday night, The Black Museum held its third debate, this one featuring a quartet of pairs arguing the Greatest Final Girl. It was a rather contentious affair that saw the closest contest yet.

This one was a little different for me, as two weeks out I became a part of it after debate regular Steve Kostanski had to drop out. This involved me doing a shit-ton of research and when the time came, I actually forgot to record the damn thing. So, alas I won’t have any quotes this time around, but I can still give you the gist of what went down.

This iteration of the Debate Club saw some more new faces in addition to my own. Here were the teams fighting for their chosen character's honour.

Returning champions Alison Lang (writer, Women With Guts) & Simon Borer (musician, Entire Cities) were Team Thomasin from 2015's The Witch.

I was partnered with Tal Zimmerman (filmmaker Why Horror?) as Team Sally from 1974's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Joshua Cross (film programmer, Queer Fear) & Cameron Crookston (horror academic) made up Team Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Alicia Faucher & Larissa Thomas (co-creators, Allie & Lara Make a Horror Movie webseries) comprised Team Gale from the Scream series.

Left to right, Team Sally, Team Thomasin, Team Nancy & Team Gale.

Taking over judging duties from Stuart “Feedback” Andrews was another Rue Morgue alumni in Liisa Ladouceur. After some event housekeeping, the opening statements got underway.

Team Thomasin came out strong right of the gate. Due to their unorthodox choice, they had to immediately convince everyone that she was indeed a Final Girl. To do so, they went about listing all the ways she met the criteria laid out by the originator of the term Carol J. Clover. They then put forth the clever idea that Thomasin’s family in the film were the oppressors and the rejection of their puritanical ways was her particular triumph over adversity.

Thomasin from The Witch

Team Sally took a more literal approach. We had to lean on the fact that Sally was the pioneer and also cribbed passages from Clover’s tome to back up she was the truest definition of a Final Girl. Mainly we argued that Chainsaw was the most dramatically potent, and Sally endured the worst of all the characters being discussed.

Sally from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Team Nancy had the valid point that she actively fought back against Freddy. She pro-actively investigated and challenged him while her friends rejected or ignored that they were being stalked.

Nancy from A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Team Gale took things up a notch with their presentation. Having baked cookies for everyone beforehand and streamed the event using a selfie-stick camera dubbed “Kenny”, these two took over the whole stage and posed that Gale's take charge attitude and willingness to run toward danger instead of away from it made her the best.

Gale from Scream.

After the video presentations (which gotta say wreaked havoc with my neck as it is a lot harder to watch them when you are actually onstage), Team Thomasin & Team Nancy led the way. Next came the rebuttals.

Having the least evolved Final Girl of the four, Team Sally knew we had to bring it here. Thankfully, we crushed it and made some headway. Again, a lot of it was adherence to the literal meaning of the term – two final girls in Scream, only one qualifying character in The Witch and the fact that Nancy ultimately dies disqualifies her etc – but Tal did slay with the crowd with a joke about Nancy being held back a few grades because canon tells us she was actually a nineteen-year-old high schooler.

The other teams all suitably shot down each other’s arguments, but fortunately the judge came down in favour of Team Sally this round. After the closing arguments, Team Thomasin & Team Nancy were still battling for the top.

Fortunately, there was trivia. Tal had won this round at the previous two debates and I fancy myself fairly knowledgeable so we racked up points here and again got within striking distance.

It all went to hell (for us) during the audience vote though when the crowd largely got behind Nancy & Thomasin. In the end, a tie-breaking lightning round was needed to declare a winner – Team Nancy!

Joshua and Cameron walked away with the coveted Golden Tentacle Trophy and in hindsight, Nancy does seem like the obvious choice. However, I was surprised by Team Thomasin’s game. I guess the fact that The Witch can be interpreted two completely different ways just speaks to how fantastic the film really is.

For me, it was a surreal experience for two reasons. First, I have seen perhaps hundreds of movies at The Royal Theatre, but looking out from, instead of looking at, the stage this time was a trip. I'm glad I had so many facts swirling around in my head that night to keep my anxiety from getting the better of me. Second, it's counter intuitive to argue against films that you adore. Four important titles representing four decades of horror were showcased that night and the debaters were constantly saying “I hate to say this because I love this movie, but…”

At the end of the day, it was fun. I got to re-watch some movies I cherish and also did a lot of book learnin’. I believe the Debate Club will be returning in the Spring and I’ll be there – in whatever capacity – for certain.

Fred-A-Thon

No sooner had I recovered from Laser Blast's Hellraiser marathon, my friend Serena hosted a similar event for the Nightmare On Elm Street franchise. Eight movies in fifteen hours. That's a lot of one-liners, folks!

I grew up with Freddy Krueger, and though I really responded to him then, I've found as I've gotten older I have lost touch with the films. I often re-watch entries of the Friday the 13th and Halloween (the first three anyway) series, but it's been decades since I've seen the middle chunk of the Nightmare series.

Serena put her own flourishes on the event, with fifteen minutes of old Freddy videos, promos and other parodies in between each feature. We even watched the origin story episode of Freddy's Nightmares, No More Mr. Nice Guy between Parts 4 & 5.

When you view all his content at once, you can really see how ingrained Freddy (brought so wonderfully to life by Robert Englund) was in the public consciousness back then. He might not have the same resonance with younger generations now, but in the late eighties/early nineties he was as ubiquitous as Santa Claus. He even had his own telephone number!

I called it yesterday for shit and giggles, but sadly it is no longer in service. Thankfully though, a kid recorded a bunch of them with his Darth Vader microphone back in the day. Can you imagine what happened when his parents got the phone bill??? 

Let's get back to the task at hand though. We kicked things off at eleven a.m with Wes Craven's 1984 classic, A Nightmare on Elm Street. 

It still remains my favourite. Craven envisioned a film with a killer concept. Freddy was a boogeyman that wasn't held back by the same constraints as his contemporaries like Jason and Michael. Everybody has to sleep eventually. I also love the dream-like quality of the film itself. It has a pace that makes it inherently watchable and Heather Langenkamp as Nancy still remains one of the greatest final girls of all time.

Heather Langenkamp in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

It was during this movie that we reached our first point of contention. Serena & I have watched this movie together a few times now and every time, she can't help but bring up how terrible Ronee Blakely's acting is as Nancy's mom. I don't see it myself. I never really thought about it growing up. I guess I just figured her glazed-over expression was from years of drinking from linen closet vodka bottles. Serena tells me I'm in the minority. Maybe so. It's still my favourite.

I think rather than go in chronological order (which was how we watched them, no Kirstie tricks this time!) I'm going to rank them from my best to worst. Which leads me to-- (cue Dokken)

Nightmare 3: Dream Warrrr-i-orrrs! I think it's safe to say this is the movie launched that Freddy into the pop culture stratosphere. The first sequel hadn't been as well received, so this one was considered to be a return to form. It had a great hook with teenagers who were ready to fight and benefitted from some great direction by Chuck Russell, who followed this up with one of the best horror remakes of all time, The Blob. 

With the three-pronged awesomeness of Screaming Mad George's effects, Angelo Badalementi's score and the tandem of Patricia Arquette as Kristen, along with the returning Langenkamp, this movie delivers in every way. Oh, they finally bent to peer pressure and put some honest-to-goodness boobies onscreen, as well.

Right under Dream Warriors for me, is the follow-up Nightmare 4: The Dream Master.

It had been a long time since I'd seen this, but it really held up for me. This one was the first Nightmare movie I was able to see in theatres, so it holds a special resonance with me. A lot of people (including some in attendance) don't like the fact that the survivors of the previous movie are killed off – a possible response to Arquette's absence – but surprisingly I'm okay with it. It might have something do with the fact that the Dream Master's roster of teens were equally as likable. Alice (Lisa Wilcox) who inherits Kristen's powers, her brother Rick (Andras Jones) who deserved a better death and Debbie (Brooke Theiss) who had great taste in music were easy to root for. I may have had a small crush on Tuesday Knight (Arquette's replacement as Kirsten) as well.

Tuesday Knight in Nightmare 4: The Dream Master

But it goes deeper than the cast. I feel Part 4 was when the effects – shepherded by gore guru Kevin Yagher – hit their peak with the Crave Inn, roach motel and Freddy's death sequences. In addition to the rocking soundtrack – the best of the bunch – I thought Renny Harlin also brought a real energy to it. I think Part 3 & 4 link together as well as 1 & 3, and 1 & 7 do.

Part 4 was the most commercial of the franchise, which is likely the reason it was, at least until Freddy vs Jason came along anyway, the highest grossing one.

Moving on from the eighties for a bit, we get to the seventh movie in the franchise, Nightmare 7: New Nightmare.

This was a really interesting film that was way ahead of its time. Though it may not have as been as well received as it should've been, Craven laid the self-aware horror seeds that would germinate two years later with Scream. Watching it within twelve(!) hours of the first one, you really notice all the wonderful callbacks to the first film.

It's a great piece of work with some really cool ideas with a retooled Freddy make-up that didn't suck. I have to say that are a few characters in this series I was sad to see killed off and Julie, Nancy's nanny (Tracy Middendorf) was certainly one of them. But I guess somebody had to recreate Tina's death from the first film.

Fifth on the list is Nightmare 2: Freddy's Revenge.

Man, this movie is chock full of gay. It's been talked about at length in the exhaustive Nightmare documentary Never Sleep Again, but it still wows me that anyone could contend this wasn't intentional. Homoerotism permeates almost every frame of this movie. Sweaty dudes. The Probe board game in Jesse's (Mark Patton) closet. The rainbow sticker in a random car window. And then lines like;

Jesse: He's inside me, and he wants to take me again!

Jesse: I'm scared, Grady. Something is trying to get inside my body.

Grady: Yeah, and she's female, and she's waiting for you in the cabana. And you wanna sleep with me.

I could go on. Aside from that though, this movie was a strange way to follow up the original film. It may have not been as well received on release, but time and re-evaluation have warmed to it, much like they have to Halloween III.

I also noticed two connections to the Hellraiser series, as lead actress Kim Myers (or Meryl Streep lite as I like to call her) was also Hellraiser 4 and composer Christopher Young did scores for the sophomore efforts of both franchises. Just a little trivia for you there.

Next on the list was the last movie we watched that night, Freddy vs. Jason.

Quality-wise, this is where we start our sharp decline. This movie is largely a mess, but I can't help but marvel that this finally happened after over a decade of half-starts and discarded scripts that included everything from a Freddy cult – which actually sounds a lot like Hellraiser 7 – to Freddy being revealed as Jason's father. Freddy vs. Jason is problematic, because every good thing is counteracted by something shitty. Jason on fire at the cornfield rave is great. The previous scene where Jason ostensibly “saves” Gibb (Katherine Isabelle) from being date-raped by skewering her is... not so great.

There's also the fact that this movie features some of the worst dialogue of both franchises. Choice cuts like Lori's (Monica Keena) epiphanous;

Wait a minute! Freddy died by fire. Jason by water. How can we use that?

Or when Blake (David Kopp) lets us know he narrowly escaped death from Freddy's as yet non-corporeal glove by needlessly exclaiming;

I'm okay! I'm all right!

And let's just forget anything that comes out of Kia's (Kelly Rowland) mouth. Obviously, the biggest faux-pas is that Kane Hodder wasn't cast as Jason Voorhees. They went with Ken Kirzinger, who was a tall fucker to be sure, but just doesn't have the swagger. Also, I really didn't care for the design of Jason and the blackened glossy look of his head.

Having said all of that, the final fight between the two of them made it all the crap worthwhile. They beat the ever living shit out of each other, battling to an inevitable stalemate.

Now we move onto the legitimately bad ones with Nightmare 5: The Dream Child.

I think it had been even longer than Part 4 since I had seen this one. I remember being disappointed, but was willing to give it a chance. Fellow marathon participant Matt Therrien spent a good deal of the first four movies talking about how much he hated Part 5. He's right, it's not good, but still better than some of the entries in the Hellraiser & Halloween franchises.

I was actually on board for the first half of this movie. I still dig the Dan (Danny Hassel) and Greta (Erika Andersen) death sequences – though they were cut down in the theatrical version we watched – but yeah pretty much when Jacob (Whit Hertford) shows up, the movie takes a nose dive.

Freddy (Robert Englund) & Jacob (Whit Hertford)

The franchise had been playing fast and loose with Freddy's weaknesses, but this one just gets nonsensical. Lisa Wilcox, reprising her role as Alice, tried her best to hold things together, but the last act of this movie has already left my brain. It's evident that the franchise was running out of ideas. They should have sent Freddy to space and got ahead of the trend!

After much thought – it really was a dead heat – I have to say Nightmare 6: Freddy's Dead is my least favourite of the bunch.

An unpopular opinion, as most in attendance thought Dream Child was the biggest stink pile, but I'm not convinced. Freddy's Dead seems so apart from the rest of the series and bordering on parody. There are callbacks to the series, but they are so on-the-nose and not nearly as clever and fluid as they are in Part 7. And this Escape From New York opening was so ridiculous.

It also featured the worst sequence in any of the movies – Spencer's (Breckin Meyer) video game death scene. This shit was so fucking dumb that it literally hurt my eyes to look at it.

I spoke about that Cops vs Cenobites scene in Hellraiser 3 was what broke that franchise. Well, that “great graphics!” scene is Nightmare's equivalent. I'll take anything in Part 5 over that idiocy.

Oh, I forgot to mention. In keeping with Serena's movie night traditions, Freddy's Dead (and New Nightmare) were also drinking games with the usual personal and secret drinking rules.

Nine, Ten... Never drink again...

So yes, this is what you would call taking it up a notch. I'll tell you one thing about this movie. You'll really notice just how much Doc (Yaphet Kotto) says the word “dream” in this movie when you have take a swig every time he does so.

I will say there were two glaring positives to Freddy's Dead though. To my surprise, the Girl #2 of this entry, Tracy (Lezlie Deane) survived the movie. I was happy about that. Second, the last act – the 3D section – brought me back in. I remember seeing this back in 1991 – after my brother snuck me into the Drive-In – in all its 3D glory, so that was a nice bit of nostalgia.

So, just after the clock chimed two a.m, there remained just three dream warriors in Serena, Matty and myself. It was good to revisit some of them and in terms of overall quality, I think it beats out the Hellraiser franchise. Nightmare has more of a through line and none of the re-appropriation that befell Clive Barker's baby.

Oh, and in case you're wondering about the remake. We didn't do that one. Michael Bay can ess a dee.

I'm not sure what will be up next. I think Halloween is on tap for next October, and maybe I'll pitch the Fridays for the fourtieth anniversary. Until then, sweet dreams, kiddies.

#StabAThon

It's gonna be a day of recuperation today. My friend Serena had one of her movie drinking game affairs last night and everyone got wrecked.

That's right, somehow I was able to drink my way through all four Scream movies. And with rules like; drink every time someone screams, a phone rings or there's a movie reference that is no easy feat. We didn't all make it.

Do you want to die tonight?

Those cups of bad news were for the secret rules when peeps got caught for stuff like; mentioning a TV show any of the actors were in, feeling sorry for Randy, or pondering just what the fuck was going on with Courteney Cox's hair in Part 3...

This edition was pretty epic. And the cookies were good too.

So, now I rest.

Trailer Tuesdays: Scream

Good afternoon! Since Wes Craven's classic nineties slasher Scream turned twenty a few days ago, it makes sense to mark the anniversary here on ye olde Trailer Tuesdays.

As you may remember, the coming of Scream was a much needed shot in the arm for the horror industry. Though there were some very cool genre pictures made in the early nineties it was a somewhat stagnated time and Scream brought horror back to the forefront. That is why I can forgive them for bringing the “floating heads” coverbox art trend with them.

Horror Overload, Part 2.

As promised, here are some of the highlights from the Horror-Rama Q&A's. I sadly missed a few (Sybil Danning & Tristan Risk among them) due to my other responsibilities at Toronto After Dark, but I was really glad I got to see some of them.

The first one was filmmaker Mick Garris, which was really great. He's perhaps best known for being Stephen King's go-to adapter, but you don't really realize just how much stuff he's been involved with until it's all laid out. The talk did obviously begin with his dealings with King though.

On adapting The Stand;

“Adaptation is a difficult process. Film is external and fiction is internal. As for The Stand, when you look at polls of King's favourite books, The Stand always tops the list. So yes it was intimidating! I mean, imagine, I'm a relatively new filmmaker, the guy who'd made Critters 2 and Psycho 4 and this was (an adaptation) of the great American novel. But the good news was, I am not just a huge genre fan, or a huge King fan, but a huge Stand fan, so I cared about what happened to it as much as anybody else. The other thing that made it a lot better was that King wrote the script himself and it was phenomenal. That was the blueprint, and if you start with a good script you, if you're any good at all, or care at all, it's really hard to mess it up.”

Filmmaker Mick Garris.

On adapting The Shining;

“The Shining was my favourite book ever, certainly favourite horror book. And when I saw that movie (Kubrick's The Shining) I was so disappointed and so upset and angry and let down. Because, and I've learned to appreciate over the years as a great Kubrick film, but it's not a great King adaptation. So, when we went to do the miniseries, we didn't see it as remaking the Kubrick film. I was so passionate about the book, so when the reviews of the miniseries came out and they were really positive, it got even better reviews than The Stand which were overwhelmingly good, I felt satisfied that we finally got the tell the story in the book.”

He did say that he got maligned by some for that miniseries though.

“Some people hated me just for doing it, they said 'how dare you remake Kubrick'. We weren't remaking the movie, we were doing the book! I'll never forget one review I got. It said 'Garris is to Kubrick, as Peoria is to Paris.' Ouch! That's why if you're going to make material for public consumption, you need the skin of a rhinocerous.”

Those hedge animals though :/

When asked if he could adapt any story of King's, what would it be, he said;

“Gerald's Game. Easy answer. I love that book.”

And when the moderator brought up The Long Walk;

“Well, it would be an amazing movie, and everybody seems to want to do it, but nobody ever does it. But, it's funny, it comes up every time I talk to someone about doing Stephen King.”

After talking about a few other King projects, Garris took the opportunity to announce a new project he has in the works called Nightmare Cinema;

“It is sort of a miniature Masters of Horror, we're doing five stories all together with five filmmakers. We're doing it on a very limited budget, and I'm not gonna tell you who they are, but I will say it is two Americans, including me, one Japanese director, one Cuban director and one British director. I'm really excited about this.”

The Q&A concluded with Garris speaking up bringing back his Post Mortem interview series.

“We are going to do a new series. It's not official, but I am going to start chasing some new interviews at the end of this month down in Mexico at a film festival there. I'm excited about doing these. This one will be a bit more travelly, we won't do the Charlie Rose-type black set and very formalized, it will be in somebody's house or office or hotel room, things like that.”

That night, there was a screening of Luigi Cozzi's 1980 Alien rip-off Contamination. As a special treat, star Ian McCulloch and composer Maurizio Guarini were in attendance to conduct a pre-show Q&A.

Maurizio Guarini (left) & Ian McCulloch (right)

McColluch was honest about his work on the film;

“I did it for the money, and the locations. I must admit when I finally saw the film I was expecting the worst. But even though it's now quite cheesy and dated, it was thirty-five years ago after all, I must say it is rather enjoyable.”

Guarini had to agree and said that he'd forgotten most of his time working on the film;

“But with the Internet, and seeing photos, the memories are coming back to me. I remember getting left alone while doing the music. But yeah, the film isn't bad.”

It had been a very long time since I'd seen Contamination, as well. In fact, truth be told, this was my first time seeing an uncut version as what I watched circa 1992, was the one featured on Elvira's Movie Macabre. McColluch & Gaurini are right. It's a little rough, but it's not without its many charms. And of course, the score is bangin'.

On Sunday afternoon, horror icon Michael Berryman took to the conference room to share his countless anecdotes.

He began with his time working with the late Wes Craven, relating a story about how the snake wrangler in charge of a deadly “Super Rattlesnake” on the The Hills Have Eyes was not a snake wrangler at all, but just a dude with a pet snake a crew member had grabbed from a local bar.

Actor Michael Berryman

Berryman also talked about his predilection to please when Craven suggested they go to a Drive-In where Hills was playing, have him dress up as Pluto and sneak up on the patrons in their cars. It was all in good fun until a seven-foot-tall thug came after him with a bat for “scaring his girlfriend”.

He talked at length about the upcoming release he was very proud of called The Storyteller, a feature film by the late Andrew Getty;

“This film is incredible. We saw it for the first time last week. It is so absorbing, it captures you. There are some camera moves... man, if you're into film at all, you gotta see Storyteller. The editor was working on this thing for ten years!”

He was asked about his experience working with Brandon Lee on The Crow;

“I was the Skull Cowboy, but the scene was cut from the movie. But I got to meet Brandon Lee. I got to work with him. I sat in his trailer with him for hours, we'd talk about his dad and where our futures were going and how much we appreciated this script for a movie we knew was going to be fantastic.”

Berryman as the Skull Cowboy in The Crow.

“Brandon, in my opinion, died because of greed. It's not the company's fault. It's because it was a state that didn't want unions and outside labour. For instance, our armourer, our gun guy, was from California and well qualified. But legally they had to send him home and hire a local guy. Now you got a guy who's working on a major motion picture, and I'm sure he did the best he could, but the suits were pushing and in the end, it cost them a lot of money for the lawsuit in Brandon's death.”

Things got a little lighter when someone asked about his experience working with Ruggero Deodato;

“You're in a supermarket. You're looking at the cans. Ruggero would be the one with a dent in it.”

Last, but certainly not least, was perennial Scream Queen Linnea Quigley. The moderator ran down her greatest hits and she related tales from her time on classics such as Return of the Living Dead and Night of the Demons, as well as the cultier stuff like Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama and Creepozoids.

When someone asked about how she got into the business, she said;

“I got into acting, kind of by mistake. I was working at a health spa in L.A and I worked with some models and they told me they were making a hundred dollars a day. That was a lot of money then, in the late seventies or whatever. So, they said 'why don't you come with us to our agent'. I did thinking nothing would come of it, but I started getting certain things. I started out doing modelling for movies that hadn't been made, they used to do the artwork first and sell the movie upon the artwork. Then I started getting like little roles, like where I'd have a line or be a featured extra. I took acting classes and did my homework too. It was a really slow climb, it wasn't overnight or anything, that's for sure.”

Actress Linnea Quigley.

On reuniting with old friends on Trophy Heads;

“It was a really weird experience. Michelle & Brinke and I hadn't worked together in twenty-five years before David Decoteau's 1313 Cougar Cult (laughs) and it had been thirty or more since we all worked with Charlie Band. It was really nostalgic to do it. It seemed the same but different, you know? Everything was video now and instant and moving faster. It was really nostalgic, but in a good way, it wasn't like noooooooo.”

On working with young directors who grew up watching her films and if she finds they are better or worse than the old guard;

“Well, sometimes it's hard when the people that were fans are directing you because they're a little bit intimidated by you. And then they think you don't need any direction, or they're scared to give you direction, which is what you want. You want them to direct you, because you want to do a good performance. It's hard to say. On film it was such a harder medium, I think they were more dedicated to it. You couldn't do it again and again, so you had to do it right. One or two takes, or forget it. I don't know, there are some great directors that have come up now too.”

So, that was all I was able to sit in on. Thanks again to Chris & Luis for gathering all these great icons under one roof.

The Camera Doesn't Lie.

Next up at Midnight Madness was the Nick Simon directed slasher The Girl In The Photographs about a grocery store clerk named Colleen (Claudia Lee) who becomes the target of a pair of serial killers who like to photograph their victims.

Despite all the talent behind this picture, I felt this effort was decidedly mediocre. There was much said during the Q&A about how unconventional this film was, but I didn't see it. The killers' graphic photograph modus operandi was an interesting hook, but beyond that everything was pretty standard. I suppose the ending was somewhat unique, but that was my least favourite part. I had to think real hard to find a film I enjoyed that ended similarly, so perhaps it came down to personal preference.

It has been a while since I have encountered characters so empty and grating. I imagine that was by design, but that doesn't really work in a slasher movie where you are supposed to be rooting for their survival. The worst of the bunch was Cal Penn as a douchebag photographer named Peter Hemmings, although I must admit – and to paraphrase him in the movie “things are awful, but I'm waiting for things to come back around to good again” - that he did become mildly amusing leading up to the point of his demise. It was sad how much I liked when the movie shifted gears and became extremely violent and bloody, but the characters were so inherent unlikable, it was almost a release. However, I must exclude Claudia Lee in that statement because she made a fine Final Girl.

Claudia Lee as Colleen in The Girl In The Photographs.

Being that this film was co-written by Oz Perkins, I find the stark contrast between this and February fascinating. That film had three female characters who were likable, or least sympathetic due to their vulnerabilities, whereas the majority of the people in Girl were obnoxious shells. While it is true Perkins was only one of three writers on the project, I didn't really see anything of him in there. Even the late Wes Craven – who was an executive producer on the film – had more of a presence here, as seen in the opening nod to Scream where Katherine Isabelle appeared in the thankless role of the first victim.

I guess I'm struggling to find what attracted everyone to this project. It is a perfectly functional slasher film, but I can't say that, beyond Lee as the beleaguered Colleen (and some admittedly solid gore effects) there was really anything for me to connect to here.