Fifteen years ago, a movie came that changed the slasher genre forever. Not only did the original Scream give us smart and witty characters, it existed in our world. Freddy, Jason & Michael were all there at the local video store. There was a copy of Clerks on VHS at Stu’s house (look for it in the scene when Gale places the hidden camera). They were aware of “The Rules” to surviving a horror movie. It was, in fact, our world. And as we all know, someone took their love of scary movies too far.

Now, fifteen years and two sequels later, Sidney, Gale & Dewey, along with a group of scrappy new teens are back in Woodsboro. And so is Ghostface. Now, the ghosts of one generation have come back to haunt the next.

Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has decided to make Woodsboro her last stop on the “Out of the Darkness” book tour. The book tells her story of self-realization and how she replaced her role of victim with that of survivor. The Stab movies have seen four sequels that have departed from the true story and have turned very much into a campy self-parody. The students of Woodsboro High embrace their hometown’s haunted tale and even use a Ghostface app on their SmartPhones to prank call their friends. While in town, Sidney is staying with her Aunt Kate and cousin Jill (Emma Roberts). As soon as Sidney returns, murders start to happen again. Dewey Riley (David Arquette) is sheriff and is once again in charge of bringing the killer (killers?) to justice.

True to the nature of the origianl film, this is very much an ensemble piece. Some of the cookie cutter characters are here in the shape of red herring boyfriend, inept cops and disposable friends. Having said that, the majority of the cast is refreshing. Courtney Cox’s return as Gale Weathers-Riley feels very phoned in. Not at all the ballsy force of nature we have seen in films past. You can tell that staying in Woodsboro without any action has crushed Gale, yet something about the performance doesn’t resonate with me like I felt it should. Marley Shelton, whom I adore in everything she is in, played the deputy role with just a pinch of comic relief, leaving plenty of the forboding nature of her character on the table for closer examination. Hayden Panettiere’s Kirby was a wonderful one-two combo of the loveable quirkiness of Randy from 1&2 paired with her own ability to bring something new to the table. A new movie buff for the Facebook generation.

The plot is very much like a reboot without feeling so much like a reboot. We have new high school kids being chased down by Ghostface, while the original cast is there to help you remember why you came to see this movie in the first place. Ghostface is filming the murders, kids are living their lives 24/7 online and the web is buzzing with the happenings of the case before police have a chance to put a lid on it. Once again, they have pinpointed what is taking place in today’s youth culture and throwing it back in their faces. That said, the middle of the movie is kind of weak sauce and wears itself thin way too fast with jokes that don’t work and typical “boo” scares. However, by the time we get to the finale, we are made very aware that part four remembers where it came from and that is when this baby truly shines.

My only real complaint with this film is Anthony Anderson. The fact that he has appeared in the Scary Movie parodies which were inspired by the original Scream only furthered my unease about his casting. Though he is only in a handful of scenes, you cringe when you see him because you know he is there for laughs alone. I have seen him play a serious actor on Law & Order so I know he has the chops and he is honestly too old and too well known to play such one dimensional characters. Especially a bit part like this one.

I have been a fan of horror since I was fifteen years old. I have lived and breathed it since the first time I caught wind of it. The first Scream was responsible for that. Williamson and Craven have somehow found a way to bottle the lightning once again and give us a smart, funny and most importantly suspensful & scary film that I felt was so good you could watch it without having seen the second or third movies. While this sequel was not necessary, it is very much welcome. I can only hope that if they go ahead and make a new trilogy, the magic that has somehow been recreated has some staying power. This one was too good to close the chapter here. So, what’s your favorite scary movie?

Have you ever tried to call your friend’s pretending to be Ghostface? I know I did. Scared the shit out of my high school girlfriend. It was pretty sweet. Then she told me she was a lesbian. How did that happen?

Anyway, now you can screw with your friends using actual messages from Ghostface! Canada has it’s own Scream 4 website and has the added feature of letting you prank call your friends. After they’re done crawling out of their skin, a friendlier voice tells them to go see Scream 4. You can pick from three different messages, including the (in)famous “What’s your favorite scary movie?”

Scream 4 debuts in theatres April 15th.

Sidney Prescott, now the author of a self-help book, returns home to Woodsboro on the last stop of her book tour. There she reconnects with Sheriff Dewey and Gale, who are now married, as well as her cousin Jill and her Aunt Kate. Unfortunately Sidney’s appearance also brings about the return of Ghostface, putting Sidney, Gale, and Dewey, along with Jill, her friends, and the whole town of Woodsboro in danger.

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www.zombiedoomsday.com

Imagine I called you today and said “I’ve got an idea for a movie. It has no script, we have two weeks of pre-production and we’ll shoot the whole thing in 24 hours.” Now imagine you went along with it. That was how director Tom Townsend pitched Zombie Doomsday. A horror film shot in one day at one location with all the dialogue being improvisational. We are left with a one of a kind film that should stand as one of the indie greats.

Chad Worthington is a former movie star that has been reduced to shooting a reality show pilot where he visits his hometown and shows America his humble beginnings. He brings his airhead girlfriend Tiffany to see his first job, a sports bar called “The Ballpark”. He starts talking with the townspeople and within moments of arriving gets his ass kicked by a biker, chewed out by his ex and told he isn’t recognized by practically anyone in the restaurant. After he berates the help and the patrons, the eatery is robbed at gunpoint. The assailants instruct them all to get into the freezer and, as the wait to be released, experience an earthquake that (literally) wakes the dead. Now they all have to come up with a plan for survival, or die trying.

This movie did with about $100 what most horror movies cannot do with $100 million: make a great film. While the majority of the characters don’t even have names that are uttered onscreen, you feel a connection with all of them. The actors are making things up as they go along, passing a baton to their costars and hoping that they are carried through the scene. And it works, plain and simple. ZD is light on the blood and gore factor, but trust me, you don’t miss it. It almost feels like a documentary of things that have actually taken place, thanks to the help of the gifted actors and actresses.

What’s more fascinating is the feature lenght documentary that comes with the movie. Titled “Another Zombie Flick”, it shows everything that went into the movie throught cast and crew interviews. Some of the cast was pulled out of the crew in order to fill gaps left by no shows. Cast members went onto the set only knowing what they were bringing to the table and the basic plot.

I will say that being in close quarters on the set puts the audio at a slight disadvantage. Some of the actors reactions, real and improv, we so loud that it is hard to hear the reactions of others, even carrying into some of the dialogue. The character of Chad Worthington almost became a caricature so to speak of everything one can hate about a character on screen. He was over the top in some respects, but after the zombies come to play, we are treated to more of an ensemble piece, so you tend to forgive and forget with the character.

A charming, witty and scary film is difficult to come by in mainstream horror today. Yet Zombie Doomsday proves that an unconventional concept to achieve incredible results.

Half Moon tells the story of a city gripped with fear because of a man killing prostitutes. When down on her luck prostitute Rose (Shellie Chapman aka Tori Black) goes to a hotel to meet a man who seems like the perfect guy things soon change and she suspects he could be the killer …or worse a Werewolf!

Above is the synopsis of Half Moon as taken from IMDb.com. The only thing that is true is the word “prostitute”. While we are told by Rose’s pimp who, for the record, is the only decent character in the film, that one of his girls had been killed and he was establishing a new set of rules. A friend of Rose’s who is not under the thumb of a pimp, gets busted by the cops and leaves her cell phone behind. She takes a call to go see a John who will pay her $3000 just to keep him company. The John, whose name is Jacob, might be a werewolf. Having said that, this movie has no werewolves.

We actually sit through Rose and Jacob’s “date” in real time. They have dinner, make small talk and, after Rose begs him to, they have sex. The hooker in this movie does not have to have sex to get paid, yet she insists upon it. So far, the lack of a plot is giving me a headache. After they have sex, she walks into the bathroom and finds tranquilizers, cocaine, rope and a gun. Rose assumes Jacob is the killer and injects him with the tranquilizer, then sits in the room and waits for him to wake up. Go back and read that last sentence again. I love horror movies. I love the cliches and the stupid actions of the lead girl. But it still makes no sense for her to wait for the killer to wake up. Even worse, she calls her pimp and tells him to come help her with a man that she knocked out and still has not gotten any money from. Naturally, he comes to the hotel and punches Rose in the stomach. His pimp hand is strong, but his hatred of bull shit is stronger. The pimp decides to get his tools and break into Jacob’s hotel safe. He leaves for thirty minutes. I’m not a criminal mastermind, but I think if I’m going to own tools so the purpose of breaking into hotel safes, I would take them with me when I went to a hotel. Yet he clearly drives all the way back to his apartment to get them.

So they tie him up with the rope and he explains that he has Lycanthropy, a disease which causes him to become a werewolf. He has a special doctor coming to cure him of his ailment, which is why he needed the tranquilizers and the cocaine. Wow, I have heard plenty of stories about why people are in possession of illegal drugs, but “my doctor prescribed it because I am a werewolf” might be the greatest thing I have ever heard. He finally convinces Rose to untie him, which is right around the time the pimp comes back. Without asking questions, he throws Rose into the bathtub and beats the unholy hell out of her. I have not seen such a beating on screen since “American History X”. Hearing this beating triggers some kind of Incredible Hulk-ish part of Jacob’s brain and, despite there being a full moon the entire night, just now turns into a werewolf which is comedic in its crapiness. The Creature looks like something out of Howling III: The Marsupials. The Creature rips the pimp’s hand off, then bites Rose’s knee and leaves the hotel, never to be seen again. The doctor finally shows up and while he treats Rose’s wounds, Rose makes fake orgasm noises. Not joking here. It’s terrible.

With a runtime of under 90 minutes, a slow moving plot, a cameraman with the shakes and jumps in audio quality every ten minutes, we are looking at a real stinker of a movie. I really had high hopes for this one. Normally when an adult film star picks a mainstream film, especially someone who has made a name for herself like Tori Black has, they at least go for a lousy SyFy channel picture. She must have owed the director a favor as this is his only directing credit. Hopefully Half Moon can be a learning experience Jason Toler. If he doesn’t learn from this, we will never hear from him again.

When people asked me what I would be reviewing next on this site, I said The Roommate. Both my brother and my sister-in-law said they saw that movie when it was Single White Female. And it would be easy to say that. Both have similar plots and character arcs. Lucky for me, I have yet to see Single White Female. So here comes an unbiased review of a movie that even IMDB classified as a SWF remake.

Minka Kelly plays Sara, an aspiring fashion designer who comes to University of Los Angeles hoping for the experience of a lifetime. She becomes friends with Tracy (Alyson Michalka) who is your average college slut. Soon after, Sara’s roommate Rebecca (Leighton Meester) shows up and puts the screws to everybody. But not really. It almost starts to look like a fun college romp for a while. Rebecca actually doesn’t seem all that bad and you start to wonder when the crazy happens. The movie doesn’t got from 0 to full crazy bitch in moments like some movies tend to do. It’s at a snail’s pace that the crazy starts to come out. Meester does a pretty good job with the character and Kelly’s bubbly & innocent performance as the small town girl in the big city is believable. Throw in Sara’s lesbian friend Irene (Danneel Harris), her ex-boyfriend, her new boyfriend and Billy Zane(!), then we have plenty of subplot to sink our teeth into. The story relys only on crazy, which is a refreshing change from all the “boo” scares most PG-13 fare offer us. There is only one real “boo” and it works the first time you see it. The tension and pacing are a little slow, but it plays out in such a way that you aren’t checking your watch so much as waiting to see what will happen next.

My only complaint is that I don’t think the movie went far enough into Rebecca’s story. I understand that sometime’s crazy is just crazy for it’s own sake, but give me a little more than that. Also, there is a scene of animal cruelty which is where I personally draw the line. I noticed a lot of tilted camera angles, causing uneasiness and disorientation among the viewers. It was nice to see that a least a bit of style was used.

It would be easy to compare The Roommate to Single White Female for more reasons than one. While it does pay homage to the ones that came before it, it stands on its own with a new take on an old tale. Besides, who doesn’t love a crazy bitch?

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In 2003, Leigh Whannell and James Wan shot a 10 minute short (watch 10-minute short) that would change the face of horror as we know it. That short was called Saw. Whannell played David, a man who was speaking to the police about being abducted and forced to play a deadly game of survival. The short film would be used as a tool to further develop a feature for Lions Gate Entertainment; it was also the basis for several scenes in the feature length film, also titled Saw.

The movie, which was originally slated to go straight-to-video, was given the okay to become a feature film after positive screenings. With a 1.2 million dollar budget, it would go on to make over $103 million worldwide. Combined with the success of Eli Roth’s Hostel, the genre now referred to as “torture porn” began to breathe new life into the once feared dead horror genre. With it’s incredibly grisly scenes and it’s still classic twist ending, the original Saw blazed a trail that is, if I may be cliche, often imitated but never duplicated.

Jigsaw has become a one word household name, just like Freddy, Jason, Michael and Leatherface. And just like Saw’s predecessors, despite lackluster entries in the franchise and it’s bandwagon jumping 3D finale, horror fans stepped out in record numbers, leaving the Saw films with the honor of Guinness World Records entry for Most Successful Horror Movie Series.

The franchise revolves around John Kramer, also called “Jigsaw.” He was introduced briefly in Saw and developed in more detail in Saw II. Rather than killing his victims outright, Jigsaw traps them in situations that he calls “tests” or “games,” to test their will to live through physical or psychological torture. Despite the fact that Kramer was murdered in Saw III, the films continue to focus on the posthumous effects of the Jigsaw Killer and his apprentices by exploring his character via flashbacks.


In addition to the films, Saw has branched out into several other mediums. Saw: Rebirth was a one-shot comic book released by IDW to promote Saw II and was later made a motion comic. However the comic’s canonicity is contradicted by the events in Saw IV.

In addition to Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights having a Saw-based maze (Inside The Saw Horror Maze) throughout October, Thorpe Park in the UK has two Saw attractions year round. Saw Alive is a maze similar to one you would find at HHN in Universal, but Thorpe also has Saw: The Ride, a rollercoaster with rotating saw blades and a fantasticly steep drop.

Konami has released two Saw video (Trailer) games. The first game focused on the game played by Detective Tapp, Danny Glover’s character from the first film. The second, subtitled Flesh and Blood featured Tapp’s son and was released shortly before Saw 3D.

Even reality TV jumped onto Saw with VH1′s Scream Queens. It focused on a group of aspiring actresses who worked with an acting coach and director in each episode trying to earn a role in the Saw franchise. Shawnee Smith, who played Amanda in the Saw films, hosted the first season. Tanedra Howard, winner of season one, was featured in the opening scene as well as another scene in Saw VI. She returned for a smaller role in Saw 3D. Season two’s winner, Gabby West was also featured in Saw 3D.

On July 22, 2010, producer Mark Burg confirmed that Saw 3D would be the final film in the highly successful series. But if the horror genre has taught us anything, as long as the fans thirst for it, there will be blood.

Another tragic loss is added to our Celebrity Death List for 2010 in actor Leslie Nielsen. He died Sunday at 5:34pm in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, with his wife at his side. He was most famous for playing Lt. Frank Drebin in the Naked Gun movies.

So why is a comedic actor’s obituary on HYB? Before he went all comedy, the Candian-born Nielsen was a dramatic actor and was featured in the sci-fi classic Forbidden Planet. He was also in the 1972 disaster film The Poseidon Adventure. But most notably to genre fans was his 1980 role in the original and still classic Prom Night as Mr. Hammond, the school principal and father to Jamie Lee Curtis’ character. He would combine his comedy chops with horror in 1990′s The Exorcist parody, Repossessed as Father Mayii, and again in Mel Brooks’ Dracula: Dead and Loving It. He will be greatly missed.

To keep updated on all of this year’s celebrity deaths, visit and bookmark our 2010 Celebrity Death List.

Let’s face it. Vampires have been done to death, no pun intended. We could sit here for days and discuss sub-genres in the vampire community. With all of these movies becoming so popular, especially with the teen crowd, it’s hard to pin point a refreshing take on the lore in the last fifteen years. That’s why I was relieved to see Shadowland. A bold vision that puts vampires back where they belong; as the tragic hero(ine). Caitlin McIntosh is Laura, a young woman at the turn of the century who has fallen in love with Lazarus (Carlos Antonio Leon). Lazarus is a vampire and wishes to make Laura his eternal bride. She is turned, but very shortly after is buried alive by a priest. Accidentaly unearthed in present day, she has no memory of who she is, where she is or what she has become. As she is putting the pieces back together, a vampire hunter named Julian (Jason Contini) begins tracking her on behalf of the church.

I enjoyed this movie a lot because it told a different story. While it is marketed as a horror movie, it is clearly a thriller with vampires along for the ride. No real scares to be seen here. Laura is a great character whom you actually feel sorry for as the story goes on. The effects in the movie are done on a low budget, with very little CGI, which I found to be quite refreshing.

The acting by the supporting cast is just okay. Contini does an amicable job as the hunter Julian, but his dialogue occasionally felt silly. Most of the minor roles were very theatrical, showing almost a cartoonish level of emotions. The flashbacks that are used throughout are well done and tell a great story of gender roles and family life in the late 1890s. Most people would knock this movie without giving it any thought after, but that isn’t being fair to the material.

An original story in the hands of a capable writer/director with vision is something that Hollywood hasn’t seen too much of lately. To Wyatt Weed, my hat is off. I’m looking forward to seeing other ideas that he may bring to the table in the future.

The end of an era is upon us. For now, anyway. Yes, friends and neighbors, the seventh and (alleged) final Saw film has been released. The game has been played one final time. In 3D no less. And yet it still feels like something is missing. We’ve all seen so many sequels and thought ‘Oh, that’s it. There is no way they can make another one.’ Then suddenly, another pops up. That is not the case here. They could make one more if they try, but they’re promoting part 7 as the last. Since my reasons for feeling this way involve spoiling the ending, I’ll stop here and get to the review.

The film picks up exactly where the sixth film left off with Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) being tested with the reverse bear trap from the first film. He survives his test and begins a new game, all the while going after Jill (Betsy Russell), John/Jigsaw’s widow. She runs to the police begging for protection and immunity and Detective Gibson (Chad Donella) plays ball. He also has a grudge with Hoffman and hopes to bring him down.

As for the game itself, the player is Bobby Dagen (Sean Patrick Flanery), a man who has made money as an author & motivational speaker, claiming to have been a survivor of one of Jigsaw’s traps. All of his “Yes” men and women are in on the lie except Bobby’s wife Joyce (Gina Holden), who believes her husband to be a survivor. Now Bobby has to save his friends and wife and truly become the man he claims to be if he wants to make it out alive.

As far as this film goes, I was very impressed. Not necessarily with the premise, which has fallen flat (someone pays for their sins, goes room to room, makes choices, people die). But the traps were pretty inventive. The one at the beginning was great. The trap at the junkyard was by far the best. As far as the 3D effects, a few explosions and some saw blades coming at you. Nothing that really stands out, but better than My Soul to Take. The acting for the most part was on par with the other films. It was nice to see Cary Elwes bring Dr. Gordon back, if only for a moment. Flanery shines as the predator turned prey. You really hope for this guy because he isn’t so much a villian as someone who was caught taking advantage of a situation. But we’ve all learned that no one goes untested.

I know I can get nit-picky in my reviews, but I honestly don’t have many unkind words for this one. All around we’re given a great show that ties up all the loose ends, but still gives some wiggle room for another if they feel like it. For now, it looks like the game is over.