This is a very strange movie, but I'm shocked to say that I think I like it a tad better than the first film (which I realize may not be saying much).
They go harder on the meta elements here—the whole thing is centered on a group of film students, and coming from an arts background, I probably enjoyed it too much—play up the camp more and pay only cursory attention to the urban legend stuff, but it ends up…
24 years later and this is just as lackluster and mildly annoying as I remember it being.
I am hardly the first person to remark that this is basically a watered down Scream knock-off, so I won't dwell on that. You can throw in all the genre legends you want—Robert Englund as a college professor, Danielle Harris as an angsty Goth roommate, a brief cameo from Brad Dourif as an unhinged gas station attendant—but they can't save mediocrity. (See also:…
REPORTER: Are they slow moving, chief?
POLICE CHIEF: Yeah, they're dead. They're...all messed up.
Viewed -- finally! -- on the brand new and long awaited Criterion blu-ray with a 4K transfer from the original film negative. Needless to say, NOTLD looks and even sounds better than ever. And after 50 years of public domain hell, it even has a proper copyright now.
Sure, the film is probably not absolutely 100% flawless, but in terms of independent films (particularly of the…
Ed Wood is a film that gets better and better every time I watch it...and I pretty much loved it from the first time I saw it. I came to it a few years late, as I was busy being obsessed with a little Quentin Tarantino film back in 1994, but was happy when I finally did. While it's my second favorite Tim Burton film (Pee-wee will forever be my #1), you could make a strong case that it is…
