Final Destination 2 (2003, Ali Larter)

I remember first hearing about Final Destination 2 and being glad that the series was back. I was curious to see how the story of cheating death would continue and honestly didn't have my hopes too high.

This time, a young girl named Kimberly (A.J. Cook) is driving down the highway and witnesses a disastrous multi-car accident. As it turns out, Kimberly was actually daydreaming. She stops traffic, believing that it was a sign just as the accident she envisioned happens. Soon after, everyone whose lives she saved start dying. She learns about a similar occurrence that happened a year before and seeks out the only survivor, Clear Rivers (Ali Larter). Together, they try to cheat death before it is their turn to meet the reaper.

Final Destination 2 is a solid follow up to the first. The deaths are great and there is a lot of suspense. It is good to see Ali Larter back and the car crash in the beginning of the film is mind blowing. There are some aspects of the story that get a little contrived, but overall it's a solid film.

RATING: 4/5

Final Destination (2000, James Wong)

Another teen horror movie from the "Dawson's Creek era" (including a cast member from Dawson's Creek). This one I remember seeing when it first came out on DVD. The story sounded intriguing and original, not just your typical killer hunting teens. This time the killer was death itself.

High School student Alex (Devon Sawa) is about to go on a trip to France with his French class. Before boarding, he falls asleep and dreams that the plane is going to blow up. When he wakes up all of the occurences leading up to the plane crash start happening. Alex, one of his teachers and some of the students get off the plane just in time to watch it explode. The survivors then start dying horrific accidental deaths. Are these accidents just a coincidence or has death come to claim the lives of those who cheated their fate?

Final Destination is a clever, fun and scary film filled with gory deaths and lots of surprises. The cast are all perfect and the set ups are well thought out. The thought of death itself being the one in charge of the deaths is really frightening and different.

RATING: 5/5

Scream 3 (2000, Wes Craven)

The Scream trilogy comes to an end with Scream 3 (duh, its a trilogy). By this time, the horror market was boiling over with Scream ripoffs, spoofs and even veteran horror series making "Scream-like" sequels (for instance Halloween H20 - even the poster made it look like a Scream film). When this film came out, I really had no interest in the series anymore so it wasn't until very recently that I watched it for the first time.

Scream 3 again follows Sidney Prescott, who is now living in seclusion due to her past run-ins with psycho killers. She is called upon when the cast members of a film based on her life start popping up dead. Along for the ride is the deputy from Sidney's hometown (David Arquette) and the reporter/author (Courtney Cox-Arquette) whose book the cursed movie is based on. Can Sidney finally stop the killings once and for all?

Scream 3, though not a bad film, is basically just more of the same - with lesser results. The new characters (mostly portraying actors in the film within a film) are boring and don't carry the story very well (I wanted to stab Parker Posey about 5 minutes after her character first appeared). Only the returning characters are worth the watch. One last thing I'd like to mention is that Courtney Cox-Arquette's haircut in this film is one of the worst in film history - tied with Harrison Ford in Presumed Innocent and Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men.

RATING: 2/5

Scream 2 (1997, Wes Craven)

Due to the success of Scream, a sequel was not only inevitable, but hungered for by a whole new generation of horror fans. Wes Craven was back again, as was writer Kevin Williamson and most of the survivors from the first film. The only question is could they pull off the success of the first, in terms of dollars and quality?

Sidney Prescott - now attending college, finds herself once again as the target of a killer. This time though, a film is being made about the killings in the first Scream, which seems to be inspiration for the new murderer. As with the first, there are several suspects - a new boyfriend, a mysterious classmate, as well as Sidney's father and Cotton Weary, the man she wrongfully accused of killing her mother.

Scream 2 proved to be a decent follow up to the first, providing lots of tense moments and gory kills. The opening scene, which takes place in a movie theater, was especially scary (even more so when you see it on the big screen, as I did when it first came out). It was definitely a step up from most of the other Scream ripoffs at the time but fell a little short of the original's creativeness.

RATING: 3/5

Scream (1996, Wes Craven)

The time span from 1986 to 1996 was (in my opinion) relatively dull for horror. The genre had changed from the low budget, sex filled gorefests of the early 80's to a new breed of hi-tech, fantasy-based, special effect-laden horror. For the most part, horror was pretty much dead at the box office, with countless sequels polluting the big screen with half baked attempts at originality. Then out of nowhere, the creator of one of the most popular horror series of all time, made not only his biggest comeback, but one of the biggest comebacks for the horror genre. The man - Wes Craven. The film - SCREAM.

Scream is the story of a town being terrorized by a killer in a ghost faced halloween costume. High School student Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) finds herself the target of these killings and starts witnessing her friends and classmates being butchered. Could these killings be related to her mother's murder a year before? Who could be behind these killings? Sidney's mysterious boyfriend Billy (Skeet Ulrich)? The man she accused of murdering her mother, Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber)? Her father who seems to have disappeared?

To say Scream revitalized horror is a gross understatement. Reinvented is a more appropriate term. Scream combined everything that was great about the old slasher-whodunnits of the early 80's (gore, scares, mystery, sex) with the popular (twenty-something) teen actors of the time and an important new ingredient - humor. The film is more than just a self aware spoof of the genre, it became the genre. As with most defining films of any genre, a buttload of copycats appeared almost instantly, very few of which came anywhere close to the originality or creativity of Scream.

RATING: 5/5

Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999, Kevin Williamson)

I recently had some strange desire to revisit a very peculiar time in film history. I like to call it the "Dawson's Creek era". This span of time from around 1996 to somewhere in the early 2000's gave birth to a whole slew of films aimed at teens featuring many of the (20 something) teen actor's from Dawson's Creek and other popular hour long prime time TV dramas. I was first introduced to this sub genre with Scream in '96 and before I knew it, these films were multiplying faster than a wet mogwai. Teaching Mrs. Tingle is a prime example of this type of film.

Leigh-Anne Watson (Katie Holmes) is a poverty stricken student who needs a certain grade to become valedictorian and therefore get a college scholarship. But when she is erroneously caught trying to cheat by the wicked Mrs. Tingle her future looks bleak. She decides to visit Mrs. Tingle at her home, accompanied by the school bad boy Luke (Barry Watson) who was responsible for her getting in trouble and her best friend Jo Lynn (Marisa Coughlan) who has the hots for Luke. One thing leads to another and they end up holding Mrs. Tingle hostage in her house with a crossbow. Wait...WHAT? You read it right. Don't ask me, I didn't write the script.

That's about the whole plot right there. Yeah, a little wacky (and stupid) if you ask me, which is surprising considering it was written and directed by Kevin Williamson, the creator of Dawson's Creek and writer of Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer. I thought the film was actually hard to watch, mainly because the characters were unlikable and annoying. Helen Mirren as the wicked Mrs. Tingle was the only really entertaining thing about the movie, but even she couldn't save this offbeat snoozefest.

RATING: 2/5

Friday the 13th (2009, Marcus Nispel)

So last night I was fortunate enough to see the midnight showing of the new re-imaging/remake/reboot/re-whatever of Friday the 13th. The theater was about 3/4 full of mostly eager teens excited to see the newest installment of one of the most popular horror franchises of the last 30 years. As the lights went down after the seemingly endless barrage of previews, the momentous occasion began.

Friday the 13th begins in 1980 with a killer running loose at a summer camp. It is soon revealed to be Pamela Voorhees who is avenging the death of her mentally retarded son Jason caused by the negligence of a group of camp counselors. After one of the counselors kills Mrs. Voorhees, we discover that young Jason is still alive. Now it's his turn to get revenge. After years of living in the woods surrounding Camp Crystal Lake, Jason emerges and attacks a group of teens in search of a huge crop of weed hidden near the camp. Soon after, another group of co-eds come to stay at a nearby cabin and one by one they start getting knocked off by Jason. Can the brother of one of Jason's supposed victims be their only hope?

Well Jason, it's good to have you back. The biggest complaint most people will probably have is that the film is just more of the same. Jason stalking promiscuous teens in the woods. At the same time though, that is what the whole series is and that's what makes it popular and so beloved by fans. Without that basic outline it just wouldn't be a Friday the 13th film. Marcus Nispel's direction serves the film very well, not too far off from his ultra-gory Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake from a few years back. The film is very dark, there is lots of gore, T&A, and best of all - legitimate scares. The cast all do a decent job and the dialogue is surprisingly funny. It would have been nice if there were a few twists and it wasn't completely predictable, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see what direction the series goes.

RATING: 3/5