Why Valentine is a Respectable Alternative To My Bloody Valentine

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Wicked Horror is the author of Why Valentine is a Respectable Alternative To My Bloody Valentine. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

There are a ton of options for what to watch on Valentine’s Day, but for me it usually comes down to George Mihalka’s 1981 My Bloody Valentine and Jamie Blanks’ 2001 film Valentine. Like many people, I sometimes opt for MBV, however, this year I’m opting to watch Valentine. I’m not saying that My Bloody Valentine isn’t an amazing slasher, I’m simply making the case that Valentine is a perfectly suitable alternative for your February 14th horror fix. With the opening credits of Valentine, we observe an 8th grade Valentine’s Day dance where a young, quiet, geeky boy named Jeremy Melton is looking for a girl to dance with. Unfortunately for Jeremy, every young lady he asks turns him down. Then he meets Dorothy. Dorothy is a quiet, plump girl who all the other boys ignore. So, when Jeremy asks her to dance, she accepts. Soon Jeremy and Dorothy  progress to making out under the bleachers. When a few boys spot the two, Dorothy accuses Jeremy of attacking her. The boys decide to humiliate Jeremy in front of everybody by stripping him down to his tightey whiteys. Poor kid…first he has a terrible haircut and Coke bottle glasses, now this. We then jump forward several years and Dorothy and the girls who said no to Jeremy at the dance are all grown up. The women are now getting twisted greeting cards and gifts with the signature “J.M.” Soon the girls are getting stalked and killed off one by one. Could this be Jeremy back for revenge? The film plunges into the mythology of the holiday. Many people argue that My Bloody Valentine is the best holiday-themed horror film for February 14th viewing. I’d argue that Valentine actually better fits the bill. Now, hear me out before you get your pitchforks. When it comes to My Bloody Valentine, take away the decorations and it could easily fit with any other holiday. However, with Jamie Blanks’ holiday slasher, it’s much more specific to the holiday. In Valentine, the storyline is tied to a series of secret admirer letters and blind dates specifically centered around Valentine’s Day. Even when it comes to introducing the characters in the film, they make reference to the holiday. The majority of the guys in the film are shown as scumbags for not caring about their significant others around Valentine’s Day. While the girls are depicted as bitter for not having dates or significant others. If this was not a Valentine’s Day film, the motivations of the characters would have been entirely different. Sure, Valentine is not reinventing anything in the slasher genre; however, it doesn’t need to. This film was released a couple of years after Wes Craven’s Scream. And what makes it noteworthy is that it was trying to emulate the ’80s slasher in a time when other filmmakers were trying to focus on meta horror. Valentine is a truly conventional slasher that many people dismissed out of hand upon its initial release. Also See: Bad Romance: Horror Couples That Will Make You Happy to be SIngle on Valentine’s Day Some of the dialogue is cheesy, yet a lot of that is intentional. The film has the same sense of humor that was common in 1980s slashers. Combine that with the fact that this is very much like a modern day giallo and you have yourself a solid piece of holiday slasher cinema. As far as the performances in the film, they are surprisingly good, particularly the female characters. The women are effective and intelligent, while the men are depicted as a bit dull, save for one of the women’s neighbors who likes to sneak into her apartment to try on her clothes. A lot of slasher films feature one-dimensional performances. But Valentine has a pretty compelling cast of characters. The moral of this film? It actually featured a pretty strong anti-bullying message before that was particularly commonplace. It warns that if you mistreat someone in your youth, they will come back as an adult with a new name and a new face to kill you and your group of friends. I reiterate that Valentine is a perfectly suitable alternative to My Bloody Valentine for your February 14th horror fix. Valentine is not a perfect film, but it’s a lot of fun and definitely one to which I think people should give the benefit of the doubt.

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Check Out The Trailer For Ma, Your New Most Anticipated Movie of 2019

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Wicked Horror is the author of Check Out The Trailer For Ma, Your New Most Anticipated Movie of 2019. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Everybody’s welcome at Ma’s. But good luck getting home safe. So goes the intriguingly creepy tagline for Ma, the upcoming Blumhouse horror movie starring Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer that we didn’t realize we wanted until, right this second. Spencer is Sue Ann, a loner who keeps to herself in the quiet little town in which she resides. After being approached by a teenager looking for a booze-related favor, Sue Ann seizes the opportunity to make some much-needed friends. All the kids have to do to avail of Sue Ann’s spacious basement, which is free for all their underage drinking needs, is follow the house rules. Namely, one kid has to remain sober at all times, nobody is allowed to swear, and they all must refer to their host only as “Ma.” Naturally, the setup isn’t as cozy or easily-maintained as it seems and soon Sue Ann reveals herself to be an Annie Wilkes-style obsessive with designs on keeping the kids downstairs and under her control…forever. Ma boasts an impressively starry cast, including Juliette Lewis (August: Osage County), Luke Evans (No One Lives), Missi Pyle (Gone Girl), and McKaley Miller (TV’s Hart of Dixie), Corey Fogelmanis (TV’s Girl Meets World), Gianni Paolo (TV’s Power) and Dante Brown (Lethal Weapon TV series) as the local teens/Sue Ann’s captives.   The flick is courtesy of acclaimed filmmaker Tate Taylor (The Help) who co-wrote with Scotty Landes (TV’s Workaholics) and is produced, of course, by Jason Blum. Spencer also executive produces. Ma‘s premise promises “a thriller anchored by a daring and unexpected performance from Spencer, one of the most powerful actors of her generation.” Judging by the initial footage below, it goes super dark, which is always nice to see from an actor of Spencer’s caliber. Expect the movie in theaters on May 31, 2019. Check out the trailer for yourself below.

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Is Scream Based on a True Story?

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Wicked Horror is the author of Is Scream Based on a True Story?. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

It’s August 24th, 1990. Sonja Larson and Christina Powell were friends, roommates and freshman to be at the University of Florida in Gainesville. They had their whole lives ahead of them. But things took a deadly turn when a career criminal broke into their apartment. They were subdued with duct tape, sexually assaulted, and killed. The next day a young woman named Christa Hoyt was murdered in an almost identical fashion. A couple days later Tracey Paules and Manuel Taboad were killed. All the bodies were found posed and mutilated. The murder weapon was always a knife.  And all the victims were killed by the same person; The Gainsville Ripper a.k.a Daniel Harold Rolling. As if that wasn’t enough, Rolling went on to confess to an additional triple homicide in November 1989 and attempting to murder his father in May 1990.  These tragic and almost unbelievable  events went on to inspire the screenplay for Scream, one of the most successful slasher films of all time.  Also See: Hell is a Teenage Girl [Why Jennifer’s Body is Severely Underrated! While there hasn’t been a reported serial killer running around with a voice changer and a cheap Halloween costume gutting people like fish, this real life murder spree did influence screenwriter Kevin Williamson to write the feature film, Scream. When Scream debuted in 1996 it took the world by storm while simultaneously redefining the horror genre. It quickly became a cinematic staple with its all-star cast, witty script, and self-parodizing take on horror movies.  The story goes that Williamson happened to turn on the television one evening and saw an episode of Turning Point, one of those hour long true crime documentaries, all about the Gainesville Ripper, This was just two years before the release of Scream. Williamson went on to sell the script to The Weinstein Brothers for $400,000 and the film grossed over $100 million at the domestic box office.    The plot of Scream is pretty straightforward: Set in the fictional town of Woodsboro, students of the local high school are being hunted down by a masked killer called that has taken his or her love of scary movies a little too far. Seems like your run-of-the-mill slasher, right? Obviously, one can see the differences in these two scenarios, although there are plenty of intriguing parallels true crime enthusiasts can appreciate. Nobody can say Williamson didn’t pay attention to that Turning Point episode.  For starters, both the Ripper’s and Ghostface’s reign of terror only lasted a few days in total. They are also both creatures of habit in terms of where they kill. Both operated in a small geographical region. This is likely because a killer prefers not to stray too far from home; a “comfort zone” of sorts. Another interesting coincidence is that both the movie and the Ripper case involve a false accusation.   Scream’s Cotton Weary was sentenced for the murder of Maureen Prescott. Before Rolling was arrested, police had their sights set on 18 year old Edward Lee Humphrey and honestly? You can’t blame them. Humphrey did have a prior record for beating up his grandmother and he did live in the same apartment building that two of the victims were killed in. The cherry on top of it all? Multiple reports stated that Humphrey had a crush on victim Tracey Paules.  While Humphrey looked like a promising suspect, obviously he wasn’t the bad guy. As if he was also watching a few too many scary movies himself, Rolling claimed at his trial that his motive was to become a “superstar”. As if it couldn’t get creepier the killer even took it a step further on his execution day, his last words being “None greater than thee, O Lord, none greater than thee” over and over again. Rolling died about 12 minutes after the lethal injection chemical entered his body on October 25th, 2006, 12 years after he was sentenced to death. Now all along the University of Florida campus there are memorials to honor the victims, including a series of trees and a mural urging students to never forget.  Also See: A Nightmare on Elm Street was Inspired by These Terrifying Real-Life Events!

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Possum is Pure Nightmare Fuel [Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Possum is Pure Nightmare Fuel [Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Possum has been on my radar for what feels like forever. A creepy little snippet from it played at Frightfest 2017 , and all of the marketing material released thus far just screams “MOST DISTURBING MOVIE OF THE YEAR” (check out the freaky poster). But how often are these things set up to disappoint us? Well, it brings me great pleasure to advise that, actually, Possum really is as dark as it appears. Maybe even darker. The reliably brilliant Sean Harris, whom U.S. audiences will likely know as the bad guy from the two most recent Mission: Impossible films, is Philip, a disgraced puppeteer who returns to his dilapidated childhood home to dispose of the titular puppet. Only, when he gets there, Philip realises that his beloved Possum won’t go away so easily. That’s pretty much it. For most of the film’s run-time, it’s just Harris onscreen, usually accompanied by his terrifying puppet, which is left almost completely unseen. Occasionally, Alun Armstrong’s Maurice pops up to tussle with him — writer-director Matthew Holness has admitted that his character does actually exist but, since fans have been wondering whether he really does, Holness is going to run with that more exciting assumption now. Theirs is an odd relationship, symptomatic of Possum‘s overarching feelings of dread and unease. There’s a sense something terrible happened between them. From the film’s opening moments, which find Harris reciting a horrifying poem in that incredible voice of his, making his presence known before he even appears onscreen, there’s an eerie sense that something is very wrong here. Also See: The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot Does Not Live Up to its Title Something is off about this house, this world that seems so similar to our own and yet clearly exists in some kind of nightmare realm. Possum is pure nightmare fuel from the outset, meaning Holness’s decision to not show the event that ended Philip’s career is totally understandable — it’s not necessary to show anything when the overriding feeling is of pure, inescapable blackness. Even the rain is black here, while cinematographer Kit Fraser (who also photographed the sublime Under The Shadow) works exclusively in a murky pallette of dark blues, greys, and browns. Philip’s world is hopeless and isolated. His battles are mostly in his own mind, but they play out in bizarre visions, the meaning of which Holness leaves unclear. Harris manages to be equal parts empathetic and horrible in the role. It’s a difficult part, and he inhabits it completely, his weird stature, facial expressions, and deep baritone perfectly suited to Philip’s innate oddness. For those who know him purely from Mission: Impossible, it’ll be a major shock to the system. What Keeps You Alive is One of the Best Movies of 2018 [Review] Speaking of shocks, Holness wisely holds back the full reveal of Possum for as long as possible. This monstrosity (“You showed that to kids!?” quips Maurice at one point), with a head modelled on Harris’s own and a collection of spindly spider legs spilling out from underneath, is completely terrifying. It’s genuinely horrible, the product of a dark and disturbed mind. Every time it pops up, even a little bit, you just want it to go away again. Possum is the feature debut of Holness, a writer, actor, director, and the creator and titular character in cult Brit TV series Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. He’s been careful to note that there is no levity in this film, but just how dark it is cannot be overstated. It’s easily the darkest, most disturbing horror movie of the year thus far bar none (Hereditary had more laughs — seriously). Possum will crawl under your skin and lay eggs. It will set up camp in a dark corner of your mind and linger there, its many legs hanging ominously in wait to pounce. It’s shiver-inducing, claustrophobic, hauntingly brilliant nightmare fuel, powered by an engagingly disturbing central performance from Sean Harris. It must be experienced in all its horrifying glory, but beware its dark delights. Possum is now available on DVD from Dark Sky Films. WICKED RATING: 9/10 Director(s): Matthew Holness Writer(s): Matthew Holness Stars: Sean Harris, Alun Armstrong, Simon Bubb, Andy Blithe Release Date: February 12, 2019 (DVD) Studio/ Production Co: Dark Sky Films Language: English Length: 85 minutes Sub-Genre: Psychological

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Happy Death Day 2U [Review]

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Wicked Horror is the author of Happy Death Day 2U [Review]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

In Happy Death Day, a college coed (Jessica Rothe) must relive the day of her death on repeat until she discovers the identity of her killer. In Happy Death Day 2U (which will see release Wednesday February 13th) another time loop is triggered and a new killer is on the loose.  Also See: Happy Death Day is Witty, Amusing, and Fun I loved Happy Death Day. It was enjoyable, funny, and subverted expectations. Unfortunately, its successor didn’t manage to recapture the same magic that made its predecessor a surprise hit. Happy Death Day 2U isn’t a bad film, by any means. It still manages to deliver some laughs and it certainly gets some things right. But the end result still feels discombobulated.  One of my chief criticisms of the film is that each of the three acts feels like a completely different movie. The first act plays very much like a rehash of Happy Death Day, parts of the second act read a little bit like a modern take on Weird Science, and the third act feels like the point where writer/director Christoper Landon remembered that he had to revisit and tie up the masked killer subplot. The final showdown actually felt like more of an afterthought than anything else.  Perhaps Happy Death Day 2U feels a little disjointed because Landon was thrown into scripting a sequel to a film that didn’t really need a follow up effort. Maybe it feels like three different films because  the concept was adequately explored the first time around and answering the question of why Tree (Jessica Rothe) was thrown into the time loop in the first movie wasn’t entirely necessary. In hindsight, I almost liked not knowing.  I was also a little surprised by the fact that in an era of subverting stereotypes and redefining gender roles that the sole female scientist in the film looks and acts like a complete nerd. It almost seems to send the message that a woman can be smart or beautiful but never both. I genuinely don’t think that was writer/director Christoper Landon’s intent but it did come across that way.   There were also some issues with continuity. The film takes place in two separate realities and there is some confusion and or lack of explanation regarding how the two timelines coexist and how making changes in one reality and then resetting the timeline effects the other.   Another small issue I have with Happy Death Day 2U is that none of the characters really grow or evolve. Tree makes a major evolution and learns a series of valuable life lessons in the first film. But other than realizing that dwelling on the past will keep you from living in the present, she doesn’t have that much of an arc this time around, nor does anyone else. This would have been fine if everything else had been solid but there are too many other missteps that keep the film from ever really achieving greatness.  I did really appreciate that the sequel managed to bring back all of the key players from the first film. There are few things I like less than recasting key roles or writing a likable character out of a follow up effort for no good reason. It was really enjoyable to see Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phi Vu, and even some of the characters with smaller parts in the first film (IE: Tenea Intriago as the student protestor) coming back for a second helping.  The other big thing Happy Death Day 2 U has going for it is that when it’s funny, it’s really funny. There are a few legitimately hilarious exchanges, some perfectly timed one-liners, and a death montage that had me laughing throughout.  Ultimately, fans of the original will probably find things to appreciate about Happy Death Day 2 U. But check your expectations at the door. It’s not nearly as well-executed as its predecessor. And if you haven’t seen the original, it’s definitely a prerequisite to understanding/appreciating the sequel. The 30-second recap doesn’t quite suffice when it comes to explaining what transpired in the previous feature.    Happy Death Day 2 U will be in theatres nationwide beginning Wednesday, February 13th.  WICKED RATING: 5/10 Director(s): Christopher LandonWriter(s): Christopher LandonStars: Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, and Phi VuRelease: February 13, 2017Studio/ Production Co: Blumhouse, UniversalLanguage: EnglishLength: 100-minutesSub-Genre: Time loop, Slasher, Horror comedy

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Not Quite Horror: Destroyer (2018)

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Wicked Horror is the author of Not Quite Horror: Destroyer (2018). Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

​Not Quite Horror is back from the dead. After resting for a bit in its kind-of creepy but still-normal-enough-to-pass-as-regular crypt, our biweekly series returns. In each installment, Joey Keogh will argue why a chosen film not generally classified as horror actually exhibits many of the qualities of a great flight flick, and therefore deserves the attention of fans as an example of Not Quite Horror. This week, it’s Karyn Kusama’s masterful study of a desperate woman, Destroyer. Destroyer opens with a sun-bleached shot of Nicole Kidman’s face, blinking into the new day. We blink along with her, not just because it’s a difficult brightness to adjust to but because this isn’t the Kidman we’ve come to know and love. The glamorous Aussie actress who fought off an abusive husband in Big Little Lies and danced to her death in Moulin Rouge is unrecognisable under layers of impenetrable, deliberately unflattering makeup. The character of Erin Bell, a deeply flawed L.A. beat cop with a barely disguised drinking probelm, is an entirely new side of Kidman the performer. Aside from the physical transformation, this is arguably the least likeable character she’s ever played. Bell, as portrayed by Kidman, is a character only a woman could have come up with. That woman just so happens to be horror heroine Karyn Kusama. Related: Not Quite Horror: Widows The genius behind The Invitation, Girlfight, and Jennifer’s Body demonstrably knows a thing or two about complicated, often tragic females. She puts Kidman front and centre in Destroyer and rarely lets the camera stray from her pained, ruined face. T​his is a character ​that’s been played by men ever since the invention of movies, so it’s extra invigorating to watch a woman tussle with such dark material — never mind a star with as much wattage as Kidman. As Kusama’s slow-burn, deliberately confusing story plays out, she takes us into the darker corners of Los Angeles, the kinds of places Bell feels at home because she’s no longer comfortable anywhere else. Whether or not this woman even has a home is left in doubt, waking up as she does frequently in her car. The sun continues to shine as it always does in California, but Bell remains untouched by it. The light may hit her liver spotted visage, but she feels no warmth. Adding to the effect is Kidman’s sloped, stunted posture. Her Bell walks as though tired of dragging this decrepit body around any longer, like she can’t even summon the strength to put one foot in front of the other. It’s an incredibly physical performance, sold from that first image of her face to the last one, a similarly too-bright shot of Bell reclining in her car once more. For a crime movie, Destroyer‘s horrors are, surprisingly, mostly implied. A game of Russian roulette here, a half-hearted hand-job to a dying man  there. But the sense of creeping dread, the feeling that only bad things happen in this universe, creeps under your skin, making a home in your bones until it chills you to the core. Bell’s choice of a heavy leather jacket almost makes sense in a weird way. It’s like a barrier to the outside world. Kusama establishes Bell as the antihero of the piece, but it’s Toby Kebbell’s long-haired gang-leader who’s the real villain. He doesn’t do anything particularly violent until the film’s final act, but he sits, watching everything, like a predator stalking his prey. As soon as he sets his sights on Sebastian Stan’s kindly Chris, it’s obvious the poor guy doesn’t stand a chance, regardless of how convincing his undercover character is. Destroyer flits back between the present day, where Bell is an alcoholic mess barely holding down a job, and 17 years previous, when she and Chris infiltrated Kebbell’s group of low-level bank robbers. It’s a smart choice because it fills in the gaps without the need for Bell to stand around spouting exposition. Her strained relationship with her teenage daughter, for example, is never fully excavated. We intimate what went wrong by what’s not said. As a female director, Kusama isn’t afraid to let Bell get beaten bloody, but she ensures none of the violence perpetuated against her protagonist is exploitative. The effects are keenly felt, but the cop is already so beaten down by the hand she’s been dealt in life, and her self-destructive nature, that she struggles on. In one key sequence, she fights back in a big way against Bradley Whitford’s obnoxious rich guy. In this instance, the camera lingers, giving us a good look at the damage Bell is causing. See Also: Not Quite Horror: The Beguiled Still, she saves the worst beatings for herself and her poor liver, which must surely be working overtime by the time the film catches up with Bell the morning after yet another binge. Kusama and female cinematographer Julie Kirkwood (who also shot Oz Perkins’ stunning The Blackcoat’s Daughter/February) have a light touch, but their L.A. is a fully-fledged nightmare rather than the dream-scape Hollywood often presents as in movies. Destroyer is a real-life horror movie, the kind that doesn’t require anything even resembling an otherworldly threat to sell us on how dark and disturbing its premise is. Kidman carries the whole thing on her back, much like her young daughter in a devastating flashback to the two getting stranded in the snow-covered woods together. Erin Bell is remarkable not least because she’s a female character, but because she’s a believable human struggling to make it through the day. Her horrors are ours.

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4 Dead, 5 Stabbed: Who Else Survived Hell Fest? [Exclusive]

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Wicked Horror is the author of 4 Dead, 5 Stabbed: Who Else Survived Hell Fest? [Exclusive]. Wicked Horror is the internet's only horror fan site for free original horror movies, news, review & more.

Gregory Plotkin’s Hell Fest came out a month before Halloween last year, telling the permagold story of a murderer on the loose at a Halloween festival. Is it a real dead body or a prop? Only the smell will tell! The film effectively mixes in the jump scares of a Trail of Terror with the actual danger of the slashing “the Other.” Plus horror icon Tony Todd hams it up as the Barker! It’s a lot of fun, but in the end [spoilers ahead] observant viewers will notice that the newscast voice over says that there were four killed while five characters were stabbed in the present day story. We did some digging (tweeting at Plotkin late in the evening counts as investigative journalism, right?), and found out who the survivor was! We asked: .@GregoryPlotkin I watched Hellfest this afternoon and I liked it a lot! I was wondering at the end though, why was there a discrepancy between the number dead on the news (4) and those we saw get stabbed on screen (5)? Do we have to wait for the sequel for answers? And he answered: Hi.  I couldn’t stand the thought of Taylor getting killed so she actually survived. (even though it all happens off camera)  Great catch and I’m glad you enjoyed the film! Thanks! So there you have it. Taylor (played by the supremely talented Bex Taylor-Klaus) survived! We’ve got our fingers crossed that we’ll see her in the sequel.  Check out our review of Hell Fest here!

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