Loving The Skeleton

Directed by Wes Craven, Scream is a 1996 slasher film starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowen, Skeet Ulrich, and Drew Barrymore. The film is set in the town of Woodsboro, California, where a masked killer with an affinity for horror trivia is picking off teens one by one. Sidney Prescott is the main protagonist. We follow Sidney as she tries to survive and figure out who the killer is. The film has an all-star cast, a fantastic screenplay by Kevin Williamson, and an iconic director at his very best. When the film released in 1996, it was released at a time when the only major horror films releasing were straight-to-video, or sequels to franchises, the horror genre was dead, until Scream. The film, while turning traditional horror tropes on their head, found a way to appeal to nearly every fan of the genre: the film has a different style to its violence, it’s not a hulking supernatural beast stabbing camp-counselors or b...

I recently sat down to watch Michael Dougherty’s Trick ‘r Treat. I’d never seen the film, never even heard many people talk about it… Sure, I’d seen the DVD at Blockbuster back in my younger days, but I knew very little about it. I found what is likely to be one of my absolute favorite horror films, and a necessity every time we approach Hallows Eve. Before I watched it I saw it billed as a horror comedy, and usually, I associate that with a solid laugh, and a lot of camp (I.E. Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Shaun of the Dead) and yet I was met with a very grim tone, the humor in the film isn’t designed to make you laugh, rather it feels organic within its world. When we start the film, we’re met with an anthology format, albeit one of the most connected I’ve seen, we’ve got poisoned candy, clever reversals on Grimm’s fairytales, father-son bonding over pumpkin carving, Werewolves and demonic, lollipop-wielding pumpkin boys (I don’t think I could think of a better combin...