Review: Scream 2 (1997)

Scream 2

IMDB rate: 6,0

Genre: Slasher

I already said in my previous review that I couldn't wait to watch the sequels of Scream and well.. I immediately watched Scream 2 after writing that. I haven't seen Scream 3 or 4 yet though so I still have something to watch besides my little Saw two week marathon thingy. 

It was nice seeing this again and luckily I couldn't remember who the killer was so that was certainly a good thing. This way it was almost like I experienced it all for the first time again. I liked watching it again but it was certainly less entertaining than the first Scream movie. 

It has been two years since the tragic events at Woodsboro. Sidney Prescott and Randy Meeks are trying to get on with their lives, and are currently both students at Windsor College. Cotton Weary is out of prison, and is trying to cash in on his unfortunate incarceration. Gale Weathers has written a bestseller, "The Woodsboro Murders," which has been turned into the film, "Stab," starring Tori Spelling as Sidney. As the film's play date approaches, the cycle of death begins anew. Dewey Riley immediately flies out of Woodsboro to try to protect Sidney, his "surrogate sister". But in this sequel to the 1996 horror film, the number of suspects only goes down as the body count slowly goes up!

It was certainly an enjoyable movie but it can't tip the first movie. What I expected from this movie was the mocking of horror sequels and while it was indeed a bit mocking, it was mainly an alone standing movie. The start was very good, it did tell a lot about the obvious things in sequels and there also happened a lot that was similar to what they just described. But after a while that didn't happen anymore, at least, not noticeably. Like I already said, the movie itself was nice and fun to watch but it was not what I expected from it. 

The acting in this movie is great again, and again you see a lot of familiar faces in this movie. Faces that were not that familiar back then. For example, Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Grudge), Heather Graham (From Hell), Omar Epps (House M.D.) and quite some other famous actors too. The music in this movie is again great and while the dialogues were nothing special, it was not bad.

The story of the movie is quite predictable and obvious but it wasn't bothering or anything. This is mainly because that's what the first Scream movie was about, being a predictable, cliche-filled horror movie. The sequel absolutely fulfilled this purpose. I liked this movie less because after a while it got a bit boring, it was not even because everything was so predictable, it was just going to slow. Also, if you have the killer knocked-out, someone who has been murdering everyone you know, you absolutely pull of his mask! Not only to know who he is, but also to know if the person is waking up again or not. This was one thing that bothered me a lot, a horror cliche they shouldn't have let in.

The kills in this movie were more interesting though, it contained a bit more gore and if it came to the killing scenes this movie would have been better than the original. Unfortunately the story line was kinda boring so that's why I don't prefer this sequel over the original.

Now the sequel rules:

1. The death total is always greater.

2. The murder scenes are always much more elaborate, with more blood and gore.

3. Never, ever under any circumstance assume that the killer is dead.

Words to live by if you ask me.

For a sequel it's certainly a good movie. As you already know, sequels are most of the time terrible but this one was actually quite good. It was definitely not better than the original but it was good enough.

I'm excited to watch the next Scream movies this week, but I guess I'll only watch Scream 3 since I don't own Scream 4 yet. Perhaps I'll find it cheap somewhere.

My personal rate: 7,5

Trailer: Insidious: Chapter 2

Insidious: Chapter 2

Review: Scream (1996)

Scream

IMDB rate: 7,2

Genre: Slasher

I believe Scream was the very first horror movie that I owned on DVD. The first Scream movie I saw was the third one§, and I loved it. Before I saw this movie I saw Scary Movie and while it's just a funny version of Scream and I know What You Did Last Summer I really liked it. Of course seeing Scream afterwards is not very surprising anymore but it was still a nice movie to watch.

Seeing it now again is a complete different experience for me. I noticed a lot of new things and I think watching all the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies has a big influence in that. As you might already know, Wes Craven is the director of both the Scream and the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies. Later on in this review I'll give a few fun facts that I only just noticed.

One year after the death of Sidney Prescott's (Neve Campbell) mother, two students turn up gutted. When a serial killer appears, Sidney begins to suspect whether her mother's death and the two new deaths are related. No one is safe, as the killer begins to pick everyone off one by one. Everyone's a suspect in this case.

This movie is really fun to watch. I've watched it a lot already but for some reason I never fully paid attention to it. It sure has some cliches in it but in this movie it doesn't mind. It knows it has a lot of horror cliches in it, but it's only making fun of it. I absolutely think this movie was purely made to make fun of all the horror movies, only on a different way than Scary Movie. It's on a more serious way but still with a tiny bit of comedy in it. 

The acting is very good and while those actors weren't that well known back then, they certainly are now. It's nice seeing them back when they were still young. The music is also very nice.

In the beginning of the movie you hear Drew Barrymore talk about the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies. She said 'The first A Nightmare on Elm Street was good, but the rest sucked', the fun part about this is that Wes Craven made the first A Nightmare on Elm Street movie but only wrote parts of the sequels, so he made fun of his own movies, partly. Also, at one point you see the janitor of the school cleaning the hallway, he wears a green/red striped sweater with a black hat. Exactly like Freddy Krueger.

The beginning of the movie is also a big reference to When A Stranger Calls, other movies that you can recognize are Halloween, Psycho and Prom Night. There are also mentioned a lot of other horror movies throughout the movie.

Good things to remember:

1. You will not survive if you have sex.

2. You will not survive if you drink or do drugs

3. You will not survive if you say "I'll be right back".

4. Everyone is a suspect

5. You will not survive if you ask: "Who's there?"

6. You will not survive if you go investigate a strange noise.

There you have it, the things that happen in every horror movie. Thank you Scream for listing them for me. 

I'm actually quite excited to watch Scream 2 and 3 again, so I think I'll start watching those quickly. Maybe I also watch Scream 4 afterwards since I have not seen that one yet. 

I really liked watching this movie again, the first time it was a nice movie but when you've actually watched many of the movie they are mentioning it's even more fun. 

I really recommend watching this movie, especially when you enjoy horror movies with a comedic twist. 

My personal rate: 9

Review: Saw IV (2007)

Saw IV

IMDB rate: 5,8

Genre: Torture, Survival, Serial Killer

I already started watching Saw IV, but I had to stop watching. Anyway, today I finally finished watching the movie and while I saw this movie already once or twice before I couldn't remember much of it, since Saw IV, V and VI look a lot like each other. This movie was quite terrible, but since I finished watching all the A Nightmare on Elm Street I figured that watching all the Saw movies shouldn't be that hard. I hope.

This is all getting so confusing. I can't get over the fact that I still have to watch 3 more of these movies, movies that only make all the previous movies more confusing instead of clearer. This movie is already terrible compared to Saw III, so you can imagine how terrible it is. 

The dialogues are so lame: 'What's his problem?' 'Everyone around him keeps dying.' Seriously, that's the best you could do? Isn't it obvious that he has a bit of a problem when he just saw his partner ripped apart? Not only was the dialogue terrible, the acting was awful too. The only reason I'm still watching is because I want to know if the story will even end at some point and if I will ever have all the answers I want. So I'm mainly waiting until I've seen Saw VII. 

Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda are dead. Now, upon the news of Detective Kerry's murder, two seasoned FBI profilers, Agent Strahm and Agent Perez, arrive in the terrified community to assist the veteran Detective Hoffman in sifting through Jigsaw's latest grisly remains and piecing together the puzzle. However, when SWAT Commander Rigg is abducted and thrust into a game, the last officer untouched by Jigsaw has but ninety minutes to overcome a series of demented traps and save an old friend or face the deadly consequences.

I literally have no idea anymore what they're trying to reach with all these Saw sequels. The more I see, the more terrible they get. And I still have three more to go... 

Like I already mentioned, the dialogues are terrible and so is the acting. That's already terrible enough but what's even more important is the storyline. It just hops from one storyline to another. Now they're continuing Saw II again and small parts of Saw III, but the story one got more confusing while the movie was going. 

The first problem with this movie is why Officer Rigg was even chosen to be part of Jigsaw's game. The reason Jigsaw gave for this is that he cares too much for saving people. Why would that even be a bad thing? At first Jigsaw was at least doing things to drug addicts and other bad people, but punishing a cop because he cares too much?! That's seriously the lamest excuse ever. Another thing is, when he (of course) did not make it to safe Eric, it was shown that it was because he shouldn't enter doors that aren't double checked. When the time is running out and you've already seen that many people die in 90 minutes time, you probably only care about saving Eric Matthews, and of course you open that door for doing that. Because any logical person will figure that he will die in those 10 seconds left, right? But no, that's bad because he should have double checked the door and he should be late, because that's what would have saved him. How incredibly un-logical is that. 

It's one thing that the chosen victims don't really suit Jigsaw's own philosophy but his traps are only getting more difficult to escape from too. Trying to be a good cop is not a bad thing that he should be punished for. And trying not to save everybody else is not very logical when all the clues are leading him to the people that needed to be saved. He choose his job because he wanted to save people, what the hell is wrong with that?!

You also saw Jeff for a few seconds, yeah that's the guy from Saw III. He showed up, alive, asked where his daughter was and got shot. Of course, how original, a familiar character that didn't survive the movie. So that's another thing, you still don't know where the daughter is, and you also don't know if you will ever find out. 

The typical Hollywood mistake, every cop is doing everything alone. Even officer Rigg hardly left clues where he went to and what happened. He could have asked for back-up since there was noboby who could stop him, but no, let's all do this alone. Or Agent Strahm, suddenly running off, alone, because he knew where Rigg was (he probably didn't tell anybody), and getting trapped in the building a few minutes later. 

So what's the story now, Agent Strahm is trapped, might become another Jigsaw victim or will just never get out. Agent Rigg is shot but you don't know if he survived. Probably not. Agent Hoffman suddenly appears to be a Jigsaw helper so Saw V will probably tell his story how he became his accomplice. 

Main thing is, it's all very predictable and it's getting very boring by now. I seriously don't understand how they ever came to the thought of making another sequel. All I can hope for now is that Saw V, Saw VI or Saw VII will be a lot less confusing and a lot less boring. 

There are still many things that need to be figures out, here are a few:

• What happened to Dr. Laurence Gordon?
• What happened to Jeff's daughter?
• Why was Kerry even chosen to be a Jigsaw victim? 

I'm not even sure if I will ever find out but I'm hoping that I will, eventually. 

The storyline was terrible, the acting was terrible and the dialogues were terrible. Hell, even the special effects weren't that special. I liked watching Saw III because it was so cruel and filled with torturing and special effects and such. Saw IV unfortunately doesn't even contain that. It has a bit of torturing, but it's very weak compared to what we saw in the previous movie. 

I don't recommend watching this movie, I would just stop with watching at Saw II. Maybe if you like the special effects you could watch Saw III but I suggest that you shouldn't even start with watching that one. Saw IV makes the story only more complicated and not even slightly more interesting. 

My personal rate: 3,5

Review: Saw III (2006)

Saw III

IMDB rate: 6,1

Genre: Torture, Survival, Serial Killer

So I finally watched Saw III, I've already seen this movie a few times and I'm not sure what to think of it. As a Saw movie it's terrible, but as a normal torture/serial killer/survival movie it's reasonable I guess. If you're really fond of torture, gore and such then this movie is quite reasonable. It's nothing special, but the effects look amazing and the story is reasonable too. But since it is a Saw movie we have to look at it another way since it's a sequel and not an alone standing movie.

The first time I saw this movie I was quite impressed, back then, it was the first time I saw a movie like this and I was amazed by it. It contained so much cruelty and torture and I didn't see anything like this before so as you can imagine, it was quite something. Compared with the previous Saw movies, this is the one where the real torturing starts. In the previous ones it was only a 'mild' form of torture while in this movie it seems to be all about torture. You see very device in detail and when the torturing starts, you see everything. I think this movie is acceptable compared with the next coming movies, it's too much and it's going way too far, but it's acceptable. It was not necessary to make but there where still a lot of questions left from the previous movies. They should have stopped after this movie, but of course, it has an open ending and only a few questions have been answered so unfortunately, we have to keep on watching.

Jeff is an anguished man, who grieves and misses his young son that was killed by a driver in a car accident. He has become obsessed for revenge against the man and reckless with his wife and daughter. When Dr. Lynn Denlon, who has troubles with her marriage, is abducted by the deranged Jigsaw's apprentice Amanda, she is brought to a gruesome warehouse to keep John Kramer alive in spite of having a terminal brain tumor. Amanda puts a necklace gadget full of explosives around Dr. Lynn's neck connected to John Kramer's life support system, and tells her that if he dies the device will explode. Meanwhile, Jeff is submitted to a sick game of forgiveness with surprising dark consequences.

The acting is a lot better in this movie than in Saw II. Unfortunately, all the great characters are being killed in this movie so I'm afraid about seeing Saw IV. 

There is a lot of nasty things going on and while I've seen most of the Saw movies, these contained the most scenes that I can't forget about. The nastiest scene of all the Saw movies is definitely the one where Troy is attached with his body to chains. He needs to rip himself loose from the chains. I can watch a lot of stuff without looking away but this scene always makes my eyes twitch haha. It's disgusting. Also, the scene where all parts of the body is being rotated 360 degrees is terrible to watch. And of course, the pig juice scene. Yuk. This movie is definitely one of the nastiest movies I've ever seen. 

There were a lot of things again that did not fit the story. Or gave a lot of new questions. Like the scene where Agent Kerry is in Jigsaw's game. Even when she got herself the key, she could not escape. I know that it was Amanda's plan but why did Jigsaw not do anything about it? The whole point of Jigsaw's games are getting a second chance, but even then it was impossible for her to get away. And another thing, why did Agent Kerry even get in one of the games? She never did anything wrong, and was absolutely not a wrong human being. Maybe that she got a bit to close to catching Jigsaw but in that case she should have killed the entire police corps. It's getting a bit annoying that every time that you get to know a main character, they are being killed again. It's the typical never ending story of the Saw movies, constantly bringing new characters (or killers) in the movies. It's getting a bit predictable and annoying. 

The movie was a bit slow, they filled up quite some time with slow motion scenes and especially the operation of Jigsaw took ages. 

The things that I did like was seeing parts of Saw 1 again. We still don't know what happened with Dr. Gordon and I guess we'll have to wait till the last Saw movie to find out. Also, the woman in ice looked kinda cool. Every effect in this movie looks way too real and amazing, but unfortunately, that's the only  nice thing about this movie.

If you like torture movies than this is an excellent movie. It's filled with all kinds of torturing devices and the special effects look amazing. But don't watch it like a Saw movie because everything is only getting more confusing with all those story lines. I personally did not like this movie because it was slow and seemed a bit useless to me, the one thing that I did enjoy was seeing a whole level of cruelty in a horror movie, but this was mainly the first time I saw it.

My personal rate: 5/10

Please?

If everybody could stop giving spoilers from Game of Thrones I would be so happy.

Review: Saw II (2005)

Saw II

IMDB rate: 6,5

Genre: Torture, Survival, Serial Killer

Finally got around watching Saw II. It's definitely a lot less good than the first Saw movie, but still not as bad as the movies that I still need to watch. 

The first time I saw this movie I thought it wasn't that bad, but after there were released so many sequels it somehow had an effect to the original movie and Saw II. I don't know why but knowing that Dr. Gordon comes back in Saw 7 (?) is a bit a bummer. Anyway, I should be talking about the sequel so that's what I will start doing. This movie isn't that bad but I certainly don't enjoy it as much anymore as I did the first time. The story is reasonable, some parts don't really fit but that's forgivable. Most of the acting is good and the camerawork is great. The violence is a bit overdone, and a few of the actors are annoying as hell, but for a Saw movie, it's just a reasonable movie.

When detective Eric Matthews (Donnie Wahlberg) is called to a crime scene of a victim of Jigsaw, he finds a lead to the place where he is hidden. Once there, he realizes that Jigsaw trapped his son Daniel Matthews with three woman and four men in a shelter, and they are inhaling a lethal nerve gas. If they do not use an antidote within two hours, they will die. Eric follows with increasing desperation the death of each member of the group in monitors, while trying to convince Jigsaw to release his son.

As I already said, some of the actors were quite annoying. Like Xavier, he was the 'badass' of the prisoners and is constantly trying to prove his toughness. In the beginning it was understandable but after a while his role became really annoying. Also, why did he need to kill Jonas? He only needed the number on the back of his head, so why not tell and ask him to turn around? No he will just smash his head in because he's just that badass. 

Also, did nobody notice that everybody is getting weaker and keep on coughing except Amanda? It was quite obvious that she was perfectly fine, even after she was thrown in the hole with needles she only bled a bit, but that's all. Also, she seems to be the only one that finds clues, and figures everything out. It was quite obvious that she was part of Jigsaw's plan.

The torturing is becoming a bigger part in this movie. Not as bad yet as in the next coming Saw movies, but still a bit more than the first Saw movie.

It's a bit weird because it's said that Jigsaw gives them a chance but if there are two antidotes in an oven and by getting the second one the oven is set on fire it's a bit weird, since they don't have a chance to get out in that case. He will burn to death and nobody else is getting better because of that. Or like what's shown in the picture above, even if she didn't mess the antidote up, she would never have a chance to get out of that device without bleeding to death, so she never had a chance anyway. I also noticed this in the first movie, Amanda needed to kill the other person so she could get out, so that was her chance, but what about the life of the other person? Why didn't he get a chance? It's all a bit vague, but perhaps I will find out in one of the sequels ;) (I don't think so). 

The thing I liked about this movie was when they arrived at the bathroom. It was kinda cool that they returned back there, with a sawn off foot and a dead Adam. I also liked it that you heard samples of the previous movie while they showed things in the bathroom. It was a short flashback and it gave a cool effect. Another cool scene was when Eric Matthews arrived at the house and they switched back and forth between the 'group' but in a way that you couldn't tell if it was at the same moment or not.

I was a bit sad to find out that now Eric Matthews is locked up in the bathroom. This way it can go on forever of course. Well, it will go on forever but from what I can remember they won't show the bathroom anymore, but I'm not sure about that so I'll have to find out in these weeks ;). At this point I don't know yet. I do know that not much of this movie fits together. Why did nobody look for Adam, Detective David Tapp or Dr. Gordon? I can't imagine it would take that long to find the place. At least, if you look at Adam in this movie, it seems like it has been a while. There are so many things that I wonder about, and I can look around to find the answer but I'm still hoping to find all the answers eventually when I've seen all the Saw movies. 

All together, this movie isn't too bad compared to the sequels, but it's still not good. The story does not fit together and some of the actors were not that good, but there were also good things in this movie like when the camera switched between Eric Matthews and Xavier, Daniel and Amanda. I'm not sure if I can recommend it, since my thought about it are a bit mixed. Anyway, it full of blood but this movie is not as bad as the sequels yet. This movie is not all about torturing yet, so I guess it's watchable.

My personal rate: 5,5