REVIEWS
STORIES
The Douglas Murders 5
by Scott
Reviewed by Amanda Hugginkiss
I cringed as my bosses at Hollywood Insider gave me my latest assignment: review the 5th chapter in the Douglas Murders series. I was suddenly horrified by memories of that series of mediocre stories.
In DM1, Scott was too inexperienced and he was trying too hard. DM2 copied too much from other movies. DM3 was a self-referential mess, and DM4 was just, well, actually kind of boring.
The whole series is about a real group of kids in a real high school (Douglas High School), BUT in a totally hypothetical situations as they battle with the Scream killer and the deadly fisherman from I Know What You Did Last Summer. Sounds kind of interesting, but the whole series isn't really worth it.
In many ways, The Douglas Murders 5 commits the same mistakes made in DM3, and I'm not just talking about the fact that Scott's promising this is the last one. This one wraps up many of the loose ends left in the subplots in the previous DMs, but is SO self-referential to the point where the last 4 DMs are almost required reading (something I wouldn't recommend).
However, besides those flaws, this time it looks like Scott finally got it right. This time, the characters (at least the main ones) are really characters, not just extras put in to wrack up the body count. They even have actual interaction with each other, not just the usual, "Oh no, there's a killer!" And this time the mystery is really fascinating.
Then there's the ending, which you'll either really love or REALLY hate. Without giving away anything, let's just say it goes WAY over the top. I actually enjoyed it, but those wanting a more grounded experience may be dissapointed with it.
Overall, DM5 is probably as good as this series is ever gonna get. So if you have nothing better to do, then coming to our site to read it may not be such a bad thing.
THREE STARS (out of four).
MOVIES
Scream 3
from Dimension Films
Reviewed by Hugh Jass
Here we go again, another Scream. I actually liked the first two Screams, so sorry if that opening line sounded sarcastic.
This is the last (?) edition in the horror trilogy, about Sidney Prescott and friends trying to survive killing sprees by mysterious masked figures who call you up on the phone before hunting you down and murdering you.
In this chapter, Sunrise Studios is making the film "Stab 3", a sequel to a movie that was based on Sidney (Neve Campbell) and Gale Weather's (Courtney Cox) horrific experiences. Unfortunately, another masked psycho is on the rampage again, killing off cast members and leaving clues that *maybe* he might be wanting to get Sidney, who is hiding out as a phone crisis hotline operator.
The imaginitive chase scenes are enjoyable, as are the skirmishes between the characters and the actors who portray them in Stab 3. But the whole thing about Scream was that it sort of poked fun at the whole slasher-flick thing, and usually the Scream movies had all kinds of fun references on other horror movies. This is sadly missing in Scream 3, especially when you wanted to see what Wes Craven thought about The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense.
Everything builds up very nicely, although it is building up to a "surprise ending" that's, well.... not really surprising, to say the least. The movie is like a football game where a player intercepts the ball and almost makes a touchdown only to get tackled a split second before he can. It's a real cop out.
So the Scream Trilogy ended on a mixed note, but we should be glad this was the last one. With each Scream being just a little worse than the one before, then we would've gotten to the point where the Scream movies would've turned into crap. So it's a good thing that Scream is over.
THREE STARS
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