Tim Basaraba – This is the fifth Scream film. Can you believe Wes Craven was able to deconstruct modern horror with FOUR films before he died? This was an especially amazing feat given he helped redefine the genre in the first place. Could a new set of directors, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, tap into what made the originals so special?
Tim Basaraba – After years of explaining why horror films are an important form of art, I’ve truncated my standard long-winded explanation down to this: “Good horror films take otherwise banal stories about human struggles and tell them in a visceral, exciting way.”
Tim Basaraba – Slasher films are my least favorite king of horror movie. Historically, the sub-genre has a history of good first entries followed by a long string of sub-par sequels that almost always fall flat. Great debuts like John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978), Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) and, to a lesser extent, the original Friday The 13th (1980) used the format to offer meaningful social commentary.
Tim Basaraba – May I go on an anti-remake diatribe again? OK, I won’t, but if you want to understand my growing disdain for recycled IP you can read my reviews of Ghostbusters Afterlife, Westside Story, and many more). Is the 1984 version of Firestarter a beloved film that no one should ever attempt to remake?
Tim Basaraba – The high mark for psychological horror in recent years is Ari Aster’s first film, Hereditary (2018). The genre has given us many enjoyable entries since then, but none have delivered as much tension, dread and visual allure as Smile, the first film from Parker Finn.
