Scary Movie

No need to explain the plot, but when I first saw this I wasn't expecting much. Probably some random 80's slasher flick, like the so many already existing with over-the-weekend written scripts that just find a way to get a bunch of teens nude and killed. But I was so wrong.

I quickly identified with the main character, Warren, a paranoid young man who strongly believes the escaped psychopath could be living in a haunted house.

This film really takes the time to let you get to know and feel for the characters unlike most other 80's films, and considering the budget was low and this is a hard find, it's worth a look if you ever get the chance.

Now, by looking at the title, you're probably thinking "Scary movie, as in the 2000 spoof to Scream? so wait, is this movie a spoof to the 1985 film, Scream: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086262/ ?" No, it's not. They are in no way remakes or sequels to those movies. This film stands out for its own reasons.

The suspense makes the movie very entertaining and almost impossible to look away from, like a roller coaster ride, you feel as if once you start, you have no other choice but to sit tight and watch it all the way through. I almost find it sad that hardly anyone will ever get the chance to see this great film, it's worked its way into my top 10.

If you ever find it, make sure to give it a chance. It's well worth it. this is one great scary movie.

Nerdy Warren (John Hawkes) is left by his friend to take Barbara into the haunted fun house. People prank on him and everybody including Barbara laughs at him. He overhears a police radio announcing a manhunt for an escaped maniac killer. He tells his friends but nobody believes him. There's a spooky fun house, a serial killer on the loose, and it's Halloween. Nothing could go wrong.

While I like the premise, I never bought the killer. It needs to show someone doing something. Without that, this is just a series of horror rooms with a crazed Warren running away from an unseen boogey man. Hawkes is pretty good and his acting is better than the bad movie production. This idea may work better as a TV episode for Twilight Zone.

This is the type of movie you can turn on and it instantly feels like Halloween. A great film to watch between Sept-Oct or anytime of the year if you are like me. Add it to your Halloween watch list! It will stay forever.

Once again, Turner Classic Movies managed to dig up a real obscurity for their weekly "Underground" period - I hadn't even heard of this movie until I saw it on the TCM schedule, and with my interest of obscure cinema I had to give it a look. Unfortunately, the movie for the most part doesn't work. I will give credit to the filmmakers for taking their extremely low budget and make things look more expensive than they really were. There is even some interesting camerawork that you wouldn't expect. But this movie really needed to have its script punched up before filming started. It's endlessly padded, with almost nothing happen until towards the end, and it capped by a so-called twist that you'll probably be able to predict. The tedium could have been eliminated with a high bloody body count, but the body count is very low, and hardly any blood is seemed. What really irked me, however, was the main character of Warren. Although this nerdy wimp starts off sympathetically, his bumbling and whining eventually becomes extremely annoying. If you want some clues as to what can make a horror movie work or fail, only then should you give this a look.

An unhinged young man accompanies his friends to a haunted house attraction around Halloween right as a deranged mental patient has escaped. As the night wears on, this young man starts to think the mental patient has broken into the haunted house and is going to kill them one by one.

It's amusing to see John Hawkes so young and in such an early role and Scary Movie works mostly due to his bizarre, scared rabbit performance. The Halloween visuals will give you the warm and fuzzies for all of those who love that time of year and it's fascinating to see how many films have cribbed from this later on like the recent Hell Fest and Haunt. Even at about 80 minutes, it's a little too slow and there's not a lot of terror or danger for a good majority of that run time, so less patient viewers might want to sit this one out.