Category: Film Focus
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What Lies Beneath
Oh, sweet movie title, what a charming little double entendre are you. Robert Zemeckis nakedly apes Alfred Hitchcock in this mystery/ghost story… and the result is one of the best films of the former director’s career. Most of the credit must go to Hitchcock himself for establishing the style of slow-building tension that rightly earned… Read more
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Serial Thriller: Scream 4
The Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull of Scream movies. The one that really shouldn’t have been made. It’s a pity because the story is ripe for parody after eleven years of audiences being fed warmed-up leftovers as fresh meat. It’s a remake that skewers remakes, which isn’t as ironic as the… Read more
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Serial Thriller: Scream 3
Unfairly derided by critics, this film may lack the suspense of the first film, but with its tongue delicately planted in its cheek, it manages to poke fun not only at horror films but at the process of turning a real-life tragedy into tawdry terror. The series is completely through the looking glass now, told… Read more
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Serial Thriller: Scream 2
As clever as its predecessor, with an opening sequence every bit as horrifying. The self-aware references to sequels carry the film throughout and the scares are genuinely frightening and, in the case of the prologue, downright disturbing. Read more
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Return of the Definitive Epic
I’ve made it no secret that I believe David Lean’s epic masterpiece, Lawrence of Arabia, to be the finest motion picture in history. It is the very definition of epic. I have had the privilege of seeing it no less than four times on the big screen. Tonight, to promote its 50th anniversary and November… Read more
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Serial Thriller: Scream
Following on the heels of his very-meta New Nightmare, horror veteran Wes Craven serves up a reflexive revival of the diluted and nigh-dead slasher subgenre. With Scream, he reinvigorated the conventions of horror even as he simultaneously skewered and savored them. Read more
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Paranormal Activity 3
An unheard-of instance of a horror series actually getting progressively better with each episode. Perhaps that’s because this trilogy is told in reverse. This latest installment was astonishingly effective, helped in no small part by some genuine and genuinely funny humor. Read more
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ParaNorman
A terrifying little delight that manages to blend several horror elements into one: The Sixth Sense, Night of the Living Dead , The Crucible and Scooby-Doo, to name a few. One has to be reminded that it’s a children’s film because it can be truly frightening. Read more
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Wrong Turn
When Deliverance meets The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, the result is an unsettling thriller that’s better than it has any right to be. Director Rob Schmidt surprisingly shuns cheap sight gags in favor of mounting tension. It may not be completely unsurprising but neither does it take your viewership for granted. Read more
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Broken men
If P.T. Anderson’s previous drama, There Will Be Blood, was about two men who see each other for exactly who they are, his new film, The Master, shows us two deeply broken men trying to escape from themselves. The master, it turns out, is neither Joaquin Phoenix as troubled World War II veteran, Freddie Quell… Read more