Based on a True Story: Scream 3

Did you know that Scream 3 is ACTUALLY based on a true story? Well, not the murders, 3rd act storyline with Roman, or Sydney Prescott. 20 years ago, screenwriter Kevin Williamson called out Harvey Weinstein for his abuse on women in Hollywood and nobody listened. Well don’t worry Kevin, I heard you loud and clear 20 years after the fact.

Tops to Kevin, because he was literally WORKING for Weinstein when he crafted the script.

If you want to rewatch Scream 3, it is currently on Netflix! Celebrate Weinstein’s sentence of 24 years today (personally should be life IMO) by realizing that Scream 3 is based, on a true story.

New To Netflix February 2020: Horror, Mystery, & Thriller Content

There’s a bunch of new content that dropped in January and February, so today, we review what is the worst to the best for Horror, Mystery, and Thriller content. A new grading scale is presented in this video, let me know what you think of it instead of a top 5 list!

There are a total of 8 films, so stick around and find out what is the best to watch on the streaming giant and what to avoid. We examine old thrillers like Raising Cain and What Lies Beneath, classic horror gems like Evil Dead and Tremors while looking at the new mysterious content like Horse Girl and the Girl on the Third Floor while keeping you far away from horror shite like a Nightmare on Elm Street remake and Polaroid.

We tried a new editing tactic too, love to hear feedback. Was there something else that dropped in these categories in January and February that we should have discussed? Drop a comment below and tell us how we screwed up!

New Blogging Format -Top 5 Infection Movies

Hi long time fans of Reel Thoughts! I thought I’d let you all know I’ve taken to a new format of blogging. I wanted to try my hand at video editing to make myself more desirable in my field of public relations and marketing, so I’ve evolved into a YouTube Platform! I’m still scripting all of my content, it is still all very movie based. I hope you take the time to go check them out. I love doing them and would love your support with views, comments, and likes.

My editing skills are growing but my scripting it getting better each time! Enjoy my most recent video about the top 5 Infection movies, perfect if you’re in the mood to get your spooks on during the coronavirus hype! Stay healthy and scared Reel Thoughts Fans, and hopefully, I’ll see you become an “Honest Pop Culture Fan” on YouTube.

 

Tragedy Girls (2017) Everything You Want & More for Todays’ Horror Fans

Last year I heard rumors of a film festival horror movie that I knew I’d enjoy. Two teenage girls obsessed with the macabre who are trying to make it in the blogging world. Whose obsession just so happens to borderline the psychotic. PERFECT! Exactly what I want to watch to get my horror fix in. But dammit I can’t find it on Kodi anywhere. Flash forward a year later, Terrarum is the new Kodi, and Tragedy Girls is finally available to stream.

At this point, I’d forgotten about the movie and the poster artwork had changed online. I did no research aside from reading the short summary and decided to toss it on, hoping that it could be bearable for more than the usual 10 minutes I’d give a no-name horror movie a chance to hold my attention.  And whoo boy did it deliver.

We open with two teenagers making out in a secluded lover’s lane on a bridge reminiscent of My Soul to Take. The blonde girl hears something spooky outside. She literally has to call her date a pussy and tell him to man up to do the horror cliche thing and go check on the spooky noises. Because for once it seems like you have a smart character in a horror movie. It doesn’t take but a mere minute for the poor boy from being stiff to being A stiff, as the Killer emerges and takes care of business.

The Killer chases the young girl screaming through the woods, you assume, she will be an easy next, but this isn’t your typical horror movie. A trap is set, but it’s not BY the Killer, it is FOR the Killer. The blonde captures the Michael Myers knockoff with her best friend who emerges from the dark. And then, as they cut to black and open on the tied up Killer, bombard him with questions, and then finish off his dirty work on the blonde’s date, you realize, this movie is so much more than your typical slasher flick.

Brianna Hildebrand (also known as Negasonic Teenage Warhead) plays Sadie Cunningham (named after horror director Sean Cunningham, of Friday the 13th‘s fame)  and Alexandra Shipp (also a character in the Marvel universe as a young Storm) plays her best friend McKayla Hooper (named after Tobe Hooper of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and the Poltergeist fame) who grew up together and have a pretty sick hobby in common, their online personalities known as The Tragedy Girls who consider themselves small-town detectives of their local serial killer (seen above).

At first, you believe okay, they’re just putting the first boy toy out of his misery, but soon, as they attempt to murder Alexandra’s moony ex-boyfriend (played perfectly satirical by an uncredited Josh Hutcherson) and frame the serial killer they just kidnapped in the process you come to the conclusion, this is the best final girl movie twist that you could have ever since Cabin in the Woods. 

Not only are there nods to all the great slasher films, but even at moments you think they’ll pull a Carrie, and then you’re like nope this is more Prom Night, they shock you all over again. Much of Tragedy Girls can seem trite or predictable, from the upcoming kills and who they victimize, but it’s wrapped up in such a wonderful candy covered exterior, that you don’t even mind. If you’re looking for a fun slash film that you and your horror friends can giggle at, adore, and try to guess the next gory scene, the familiarity but newness of Tragedy Girls is the perfect film for you.

The cast is marvelous, the writing makes the over-used horror cliches fun, and the overall cinematography is fun and hard to peel your eyes away from. I give it a full 5 eyes of attention span and highly suggest you give this fun movie a run for its money.

A Father’s Influence: RIP Wes Craven

Just this week, an incredibly influential man in my life passed away. This man pushed my creative depths and made me see the world in a different light when I was in high school. Maybe even JR high. I was kind of popular, but just weird enough that I wasn’t really invited to the in-crowd’s parties.

I liked horror. I enjoyed movies that were based around a monstrous being terrorizing a group of teenagers. I wasn’t Goth by any means, but my obsession with blood and guts made me just odd enough that I was labeled as a freak. But I didn’t care about any of that. Because neither did either of my fathers.

My Father and I

Now let me explain when I say fathers. Plural. I was part of a nuclear family. One mom, one dad, a brother and a dog. But my curiosity and passion for movies and Halloween were deep. I dressed up as a countess, a witch, and a devil when I was younger, I think the only time I was a princess was in the 3^rd grade because I felt the pressure of my peers baring down on me.

But my Dad taught me at a very young age to not care what others thought of me, because honestly, my Dad was the weirdest guy I knew. Out there and opinionated every day of my life. He adored Halloween and his love was passed down to me. Through the womb, because I’m told I came out looking like a monkey. Happy Halloween Mom and Dad! In the middle of May.

I carried around a little ugly deformed baby doll, and it was my favorite. Snot hanging out of its’ nose and the most contorted face of what must have been a dirty diaper. I think my dad actually had it before I was even born and at the age of 3 I fell in love with it.

Even though my Dad was really into Halloween. I mean, this guy turned our home into a haunted house for all the kiddies and adults every year for Trick or Treat night. He insisted that regardless of what night the 31^st of October fell on, that would be the Town’s Halloween. Oh, he was also totally the Mayor of my small town for nearly my entire life, since I was the age of 2. But he wasn’t into Horror movies.

A foreign concept, I know! I didn’t get that quirk from my real father. I got it from the late great Wes Craven. Master of horror and the meta. My brother showed my A Nightmare on Elm Street when I was like 8. And Freddy didn’t even phase me. It was then I knew my passion of horror. Wes created my high school career; I can’t even begin to explain how he influenced my perspective of life at one of the most influential ages of a young teenager.

On Sunday, he passed in the comforts of his home after losing a battle to brain cancer. This news rocked me to the bone, because this man who made my high school career, who influenced the “freak” in me, passed from the same illness as my father.

My Dad died in October 2013, one month after his diagnosis of brain cancer. My Father didn’t even get a chance to battle it, I saw him wither away in front of my eyes. The man who taught me to read. This six foot plus guy who dressed up as Frankenstein’s monster the year I wanted to be the Bride of Frankenstein.

I lost myself at the age of 23, two years ago. I finished graduate school on time. A feat that many were surprised by. But I stopped blogging as much. I didn’t analyze movies like I used to. I would vedge out in front of Netflix and pity myself because my dad would never walk me down the aisle. Now, my media father has passed. A man I always dreamed of meeting. Some day and shake his hand and tell him how he shaped my life. Shaped me.

But with the sadness of his death, my life has re-awoken. Losing both my “dads” to the same illness 2 years apart. Fuck that! I mean it! I’m done feeling sad for myself. I have a talent. Writing. Story telling. Pop culture. Using pop culture to my advantage while writing my stories.

I’m not going to hide it any more. I’m going to hit that keyboard hard this weekend. And I am going to write something that both Wes and my Father would be proud of. Because a Father’s influence …. It will never fade.

Phantoms (1998)

Phantoms Poster

Phantoms is a horror, sci-fi, thriller set in a ski town of Colorado that is very much dated by the decade of the 90’s; if not by just the cast but the special effects alone. The movie is based off of a novel by horror writer Dean Koontz who also happened to pen the screenplay. The movie is a bit of a cross-over between The Thing (1982) and Scream (1996); it’s pretty much a small group of 90’s arch-type characters being picked-off one by one by creatures from another world that they can’t really identify. It even casts Rose McGowan as the classic whore, a Skeet Ulrich look-a-like Ben Affleck, and a young Liev Schreiber; so as you can tell, they are trying hella hard to replicate the success of Craven’s Scream. 

Overall the film is lack-luster with time. It did not age well in the last 17 years; the scares are dismissive, the creature are un-realistic and poorly construed, the cast only called in on half the days, and the story holds no real sense of believable urgency. It’s a bummer as my boyfriend highly recommended the film as a fun, campy 90’s classic; for me it missed the mark, which is disappointing as I am a very big fan of Koontz’ Odd Thomas which is also on Netflix as of May, 2015.

Stitches (2012)

A Clown with a Killer Attitude

Stitches is a a fun clever horror movie that delivers on so many damn levels it’s hard to believe that is took my this long to watch it. The comedy, horror was recently added to Netflix this year, and had been in my queue for a hot minute. The film begins brilliantly, with a clown fucking his mistress in full get-up, to only be disrupted with an alarm reminding him of a bastard’s party he has to entertain at. And even though Stitches, our clown (Ross Noble), isn’t the best entertainer, the kids at the party are just the worst! While the kids razz both Stitches, his jokes, and his tricks, they decide to play a mean joke on him and knock him over after one of the ass hole kids tie up his over-sized shoelaces.

Unfriended (2015)

Poster

Unfriended is a new type of found footage supernatural horror movie from the mind of Nelson Greaves and Levan Gabriadze, two relatively unknown Hollywood players new to the playing field. The story follows a group of friends who possibly bullied a girl enough to commit suicide. A girl, Laura Barns, who was supposedly a friend of theirs. The poor thing had a nasty video posted online of her, I will exclude the details of said video, as the mystery is part of the fun for the film, but even though the video itself isn’t that terrible, the bullying that follows is. 

Unfreinded is a film that represents today’s young adults in a clever and jaunting manner. A certain genre of horror has always represented what today’s youth use on a regular basis. The horror manifests from the seemingly daily objects that have become a HUGE part of their daily lives. See Paranormal Activity, One Missed Call, The Ring, Poltergeist, and Christine as a reminder for nearly every decade. And for that reason alone, Unfriended, which takes place all in one take while on a group Skype call between high school friends, is a brilliant movie for teenagers. There’s a bit of sex, enough gore, and just enough social satire to wake up the youths of today about show shitty cyber-bulling can be….. And that the dead bullied will return from the dead to kill off her bullies in by far the most deserving manner.

IT FOLLOWS (2015)

It Follows Poster

It Follows, directed and written by David Robert Mitchell, is an urban legend gone wrong, by actually happening to poor Jay (Maika Monroe). Our protagonist Jay (possible short for Jamie *cough, Jamie Lee Curtis, cough*) is followed by what could be cleverly called a Sexually Transmitted Demon, after sleeping with Hugh (Jake Weary), a guy she presumably thought she knew. Jay and her family believes that Hugh (real name Jeff) just fucked with her mind, telling her that this shape-shifting supernatural being that was walking slowly towards Jay while Hugh had her drugged and tied to a wheelchair, would come after her and kill her. If it killed her it would come back after him and it will never stop walking towards its’ next victim. It’s slow, but never put yourself in a room with just one door, because it will get ya! But Hugh/Jeff wasn’t just fucking with Jay, Jay was about to learn quickly that this demon that only she and other infected’s could see was very real. 

It Follows works so well, and is legitimately “one of the most striking American horror films in years” because of the cinematography choices and musical score. You remember how you felt the first time you watched John Carpenter‘s Halloween? How you were looking for “the shape” in the background of every scene? How the music put you on edge and made you fear for the lives of the babysitters on screen? How just the right influx of music made you shiver at the pure thought of this thing getting closer to you? That’s what It Follows does, and it does it spectacularly. It also makes me nervous about sleeping around with people I hardly know. Luckily I am in a stable relationship and don’t have to worry about this demon that can look like anyone I know popping up in my life anytime soon. Because It Follows is spectacularly spooky. 

Wolf Creek 2

So last night my remote decided I wanted to watch 2013’s Wolf Creek 2. I was like:

Sure why not,  it may or may not be torture porn but like, it has 2 stars,  I’ve watched horror movies with a lower recommendation than that.

Now I’ll admit,  I’m not the biggest fan of the torture porn genre of horror.  It’s by far the lowest point of the genres,  but it takes a lot of balls and creativity to come up with some of the ways the killer massacres their victims. That is one point I’ll always give ’em. I also have not watched the original Wolf Creek from shit, was it 2005? I’m writing this on the mobile app,  tough to check that shit.