Scream (TV Series) Review

It's over. The first season of this attempt to bring Wes Craven's slasher love to the MTV is ended and it has bring us some fun, laughs, scares and disappointment. Sometimes teen meolodrama looking, sometimes soft tribute thriller, there's at least something really  good to say about Scream: it's fun as hell at some points. Yes, obviously the show does not keep that level at all of its 10 episodes, but pilot and last four episodes maintain suspense, jokes and reference. If we really take account that this is an almost 8 hours of approach to a 4 movie saga, this is quite admirable.



Introducing is half of a victory, and Pilot was something peculiar, fancy and mid interesting. Even when myself (who really enjoyed Pilot) claimed about no-phone call at the very first murder, there was still a really cool exposition about new suspense tricks taking new social networks as an useful tool. Never thought Snapchat could have a profitable existence. Also, we didn't have to wait so long for the first creepy psycho phone call, as we had that 'You gotta ask yourself: did you lock me in or out?' at the very second episode.



Characters: Here we got something kind of complicated, as Scream saga used to create stereotypes as part of the parody movie was. However, here we have really mediocre actors along some who are not so bad playing the stereotype. Shameful or the perfect cover? The point is not such a big deal when it comes to tense and funny scenes, but it's when drama comes around (along death, obviuosly) when this all deliberate ridiculous acting falls apart.


Story: The fact that this new version turns into pyschokiller mythos positively affects on the references (Friday the 13th is one of the biggest examples) but it carries the story into more predictable fields and less surprising and shocking moments. I'm not going to spoil you guys anything but if you pay attention careful, there's a huge hint in the middle of the season about who the real killer is, and it only happens cause they show too much background of the original murders.

But, don't get me wrong, it's still really fun to play with the mystery. And yes, as we all supposed even before first episode came out, best part of the show is the new Randy, here called Noah. They've added something even more interesting to the character. While at the first three movies (I don't count that double Randy at the fourth one, that didn't work for me at all) Randy was aware that the killer was using clichés for the murders, this Noah sometimes gives the impression of actually being aware of him being inside a slasher tv show. That meta approach is definetly one of the coolest moment.

Basically, Scream the TV Series achieve on twisting the saga into something fun, enjoyable, not so scary, that creates an entire new universe for his own purpose. They could definitely do better in casting and being more careful with hints they show during season. But, anyways, it has a cool cinematography if we consider that is MTV the one behind the project and, in opposite to show writers' opinion, second season should totally be based on college enviroment. That could give you wider options in cast and it would create a marvelous parallelism with movies.

Top 5 Found Footage Horror Movies

Here we are! Summer is about to finish and it seems it's the best time to keep our promise of talking here about Horror Movies (as we mentioned it in our 'Who we are' section). There's something about found footage movies that make everyone talk about it, as it is in a bad way or a good one. Many fans see this 'new' genre like something positive as makes easier to emphatize with characters and a very good approach to the experience. However, lots of critics and purists just complain about how companies just draw upon this new technique as it does not requiere a very good cinematography and photograpy skills. Also, this implies that they can be done on ridiculous budgets. The best example for that is the 'Paranormal Activity' saga, which take advantage on how easy are some audience to scare and the low budget require for release on chapter every year.

BUT, there's still hope. Found footage movies can be good and we've got the proves for that, movies that really understood what this was all about, and yes, THERE'S A SEQUEL ON OUR LIST. Amazing, huh? Life can be wonderful (in this case, horrifying).

5. Willow Creek (2013)

This movie basically follows the outline of The Blair Witch Project, which practically started the BOOM (yeah, Cannibal Holocaust...whatever). A small group of people decide to adventure into the woods in order to unsolve an horrofying myth. In this particular case, the group is reduced to a couple, what actually improve the situation and rise the stress, so they have to protect each other. Other winning move is actually something is becoming more and more popular as time goes, and it is giving characters at least 45 minutes to build their situation, emotions and reasons. In other words, create a connection between each other, even if it's based on something so ordinary as a honeymoon, it works. And that's something Bobcat Goldthwait does really good in this movie. But that's not the main reason Willow Creek is ranked as the fifth one instead of The Blair Witch Project. Its succes comes from creating great suspense in something so simple as 15 minutes of a couple recording each other into a tent. At the end, climax is not as good as we could have expected, but it cannot erase what it has already achieved.

4. VHS 2 (2013)

For those who have seen this movie, it's as simply as the short (actually is way longer than a short, but let's consider it a short as this movie is an anthology) Safe Haven directed by Gareth Evans, whom we can also thank for The Raid awesome movies, could make itself an amazing movie. Simply espectacular. That short is something crazy, inspired and with a great taste for bizarre. Besides it, Adam Wingard's short is pretty solid as a mix between a ghost night and surrealist comedy. Also, Eduardo Sanchez makes a very clever flick in Z genre, putting viewers into unbrained POV. Putting them together as a whole movie, it's not so well balanced as it should be, and the tone becomes even more separated between one short and another, but still some of them keep a heart that obviusly love horror legacy.

3. [REC] (2007)

Waiting for Amenabar's Regression and next J.A. Bayona movies, we can say that the main name in spanish horror movies panorama is Jaume Balagueró. Actually, Balagueró crashed in his first tries. Darkness and Fragile, counting with a solid american cast, couldn't end up in an envolving and terrorific story. But, in [REC] he achieved to fright a whole generation in a way no one could before: during the entire movie. Passing the first half of the movie, Balagueró give us a claustrophobic non-stop horror trip situated in these kind of historical spanish building he also used for Sleep Tight. Locked in the building with a bunch of crazy and superhuman zombies (in the sequel they happened to be possesed) movie use screams and on of the best monsters I ever seen to scare us as hell. Such a huge succes was this movie that it had a remake, two sequels (directed by Balagueró itself) and a prequel.

2. Creep (2014)

While in just three days this movie hits theatres, some of us have already the privilege of watching Creep, directed by Patrick Brice. And yes, it's one of the best found footage ever made. Why? Because it doesn't put its effort only in looking creepy (hahahaha TITLE), Brice also give us a reflection about insanity. How far can a person with a mental ilness go? Should we let our pitty act if this person is, in some way, not guilty of his actions? Should we care about him or just run away? These are some of the questions exposed in the film, all situated in an uncomfortable situation. Although there's a few moments when found footage really feels forced and non-sense, those are the moments that you really feel in a true horror movie. But the truth is Creep doesn't need to be a classis standard horror movie, because the amazing Mark Duplass performance is more than enough.

1. VHS (2012)

And here we come to the top of our list! Our pick for the best found footage horror movie goes to the first part of this particular horror saga. Why the first one? Because the level of all of the short is completely amazing, but that's not something that should surprise. There're 5 shorts in this movies, and only with the exception of Radio Silence (and whose short is one the best), the rest of them are citically acclaimed directors. Ti West (House of the Devil), Glenn McQuaid (I Sell the Dead), David Bruckner (The Signal), Joe Swanberg (Drinking Buddies) and Adam Wingard (You're Next). All of them with great movies on their credits, they don't dissapoint on this anthology where we can find stories such as vampire-succubus horror, road trip thriller, 80's slashers tribute, first Teamviewer horror movie before Unfriended and a fun and creepy haunted house story. Even producers are planning to turn David Bruckner short "Amateur Night" into a 90 minutes movie. To be fair, I have to say that it won't keep you awake at night, but it is incredibly fun.

What do you think abour our list? Do yo miss any other found footage horror movie? Leave a comment below!