Anna: Scream Queen Killer

I really expected this to be a slasher movie, which is sort of how it's marketed. That might be intentional, but it's misleading.

It becomes clear enough this movie is about the abusive relationship between the actress and the filmmaker for whom she's doing increasingly compromising auditions. It works because, as a viewer, I have to take responsibility for my part in that culture.

I consider myself a good person, for the most part. But I have to admit, I'm shallow enough that I often watch movies reviewed as containing female nudity. The single star of this movie is nude a lot, and she's beautiful and that's obviously a draw for a red blooded male. But the movie forces one to accept that very instinct is a driving force of the exploitation of women in movies.

Melanie Denholme is a terrific actress who convincingly carries this movie. I haven't seen her in anything else but I can't believe, given she pulled this off, she's not all over our TV screens.

I gave eight stars of which a few were for the originality of the movie. The others were for Ms Denholme's performance because, well, it was the only other thing in the movie.

Indie horror "Anna: Scream Queen Killer" is another in a series of indie films featuring Melanie Denholme in very stylized experimental theatre. Playing on a voyeuristic fetish theme, "Anna: SQK" follows the title character through an avant-garde journey into the world of indie grindhouse film auditions, but with a twist. A young actress desperate to make it in the movies, is invited to a series of filmed auditions, playing out various scenarios on camera. The problem is, the director is a pervert with only one thing on his mind. As the actress progresses through a bizarre series of roles she slowly realizes all the man wants is sexual satisfaction. Forced to strip, and do carnal things in the name of the art, she eventually flips and takes matters into her own hands. "Anna: SQK" is directed by Denholme along side The Aquinas.

For me personally, "Anna: Scream Queen Killer" is far more art-house than a film that claims to have a plot can handle. I have seen enough of Denholme's work to realize that this is her niche area of genre filmmaking, often the film's prove very expressionistic and evoking, however with this film it just didn't work for me. The voyeurism is a cool notion and aims at a particular fetishized market in indie horror. The thing that makes "Anna: SQK" fall flat is the complete drowning of plot and character building which gets lost in a psychotic flux of surrealistic and almost randomized series of theatrics from the view of the voyeur. Often less is more, except when it comes to plot, story continuity. There should have been more detail and consideration in conveying the story and actual fluid dialog that brings the viewer along on this journey.

"Anna: Scream Queen Killer" isn't really a film that I would suggest to a horror fan who wants to see a movie, it is more a film that I would suggest for fetish fans of erotica artfilms, or fans of Melanie Denhome. That is really a stretch to say considering there are other works featuring Denhome that offer the same atmosphere and themes, but with much more entertainment value. I just didn't get whatever it was "Anna: SQK" was shooting for, nor did I connect with the film desired intent. I don't think this film was executed properly and feel that maybe the creativity overcame the the directors which resulted in total chaos and confusion. This was a really bad movie and not the kind that is so bad it is good-it is just bad!

Stars & Written by: MelanieDenholme.

So,Seen ONE HOUR TO DIE and others of Philip Gardiner's 'Dark Watchers' and' Dead Walkers' …You see a style that in ANNA is attributed to The Aquinas ? Okay,Assuming Phillip had nothing to do with ANNA ( Wink,wink),Melanie has captured his famous style of film-making and built upon.

This actress,A Scream Queen, by all means,Answers an ad for an actress audition like no other.

She has a sheet of one sentence scenarios to be performed in front of a one man camera crew ( Hi ! Philip) .

Okay,Now the good stuff is : 'The Alien Attack while driving her auto' scene is amazing and it was filmed while Melanie is obviously driving In Traffic and does things with one hand that are amazing and wonderful to view.

'The Psychiatrist session about The Alien Attack' Wow,Melanie recreates the above scene for an imaginary Dr. of the mind and performs on him so to fill his hour ! The ending of ANNA was so cool and unexpected.

Not really, more like act exactly in the manner the script suggests. No pun intended of course - and the movie seems to be one long audition tape. While it may be fun to watch audition tapes at times, it only is fun to see portions of them. And while I will not make a judgement on the actress here - I don't think she's doing herself a favor ... having written this and directed it too ... being more or less the only person that has to carry the movie.

There is something missing ... actually a lot is. There doesn't seem to be much sense behind what we see being "played out" in front of the camera ... why would she be willing to go that far? I don't think the twist at the end is .. enough to make sense of it all. On the other hand, if you like a movie that ... actually I don't even know what one may find appeasing here ... but some have found things they like - good for them I say. Everyone else probably should stay away from this ... as far as possible ... 15 minutes of fame are not worth it .. are they? Come to think of it, this can be categorized Found Footage ... which makes it even worse I reckon ...