Scream [MA]  Kevin Williamson's screenplay Scary Movie was the object of a bidding war between various studios in Hollywood. Eventually Miramax grabbed it and hired Wes Craven to direct the film, later retitled Scream. As quoted in Fangoria, Williamson wrote Scream as a tribute to Halloween and slasher films in general, and while the script certainly rocks – justifying the brawl in Hollywood over the property - Scream as a serious horror film failed to impress me the first time through. Surprisingly, it does improve with subsequent viewings as Williamson's cynicism and sarcasm became easier to appreciate.
   Wes Craven capably directed the golden screenplay without spilling his own wonky interpretations into the mix. Remember People Under the Stairs? I mean, even the much-lauded A Nightmare on Elm Street has enough warped beams and ill-fitting joints to drive a thousand carpenters mad. For Scream, Craven focused on his actors and the crew, although one can imagine that he was attracted to the script because it echoed his equally self-conscious metafilm Wes Craven's New Nightmare. Looking back over a patchy career quality-wise, Scream is easily his best film since The Serpent and the Rainbow.
   So yes, I grudgingly admit to liking Scream. It has a brilliant opening scene, good pacing and cinematography, dramatic conflict that actually works, and it is quite vicious – on multiple levels. At least one commentator has used the 'C' word in conjunction with this film. I wouldn't go that far, but if the director's cut is distributed on platforms such as VHS and DVD, it would certainly be a popular sell-thru item.
   After taking more than $60 million at the box office, Scream is now the second-top grossing horror film of all time; The Exorcist still holds on to pole position with a $160 million dollar death grip. Big surprise: Scream II is now out. Neve Campbell (Sidney) and Courtey Cox (Gail Weathers) reprise their roles, as do Williamson and Craven. Kev-bo's other script I Know What You Did Last Summer is currently doing frightfully good business at the box office.

Skintomb's DeathFilm 
of the Year – 1997

Crash [R]  David Cronenberg's adaptation of J. G. Ballard's offbeat novel remains faithful to the book's themes of psychosexual and technomechanical transformation, familiar territory for Cronenberg to be sure. Ballard was "abolutely stunned" by the adaptation after attending the premier at Cannes.  I urge you to see it, even though I cannot guarantee that you will enjoy it. All I can say for certain is that its mood and imagery have stayed with me: the lazy tracking shots, Deborah Unger's sidelong glances, the carwashing sequence, and much more. And in light of Princess Diana's death in Paris, Crash assumes a further note of grim significance.

Freeway  Loosely inspired by 'Little Red Ridinghood', Freeway has the right ingredients to make it a cult film, but there are problems. With Resse Witherspoon in the lead role as a short-tempered delinquent, I felt as though someone was rasping a cheese grater against my skull every time she was on screen. Writer/ director Matthew Bright thought she was heaven on a stick. I beg to differ. She certainly has talent, but in this role, with those severe looks of hers and that whining Southern twang, she was more like hell in a jumpsuit. Not only that, the contrived story told in Freeway has none of the subtle tension of Kalifornia, or the kinetic predestination Natural Born Killers. No, in terms of narrative cohesion Freeway has more in common with Ridley Scott's irritating Thelma and Louise, which also strung together a dog's breakfast of illogical situations. First-time director Matthew Bright has potential, that much is clear. It remains to be seen whether he can keep his self-indulgences under control from now on. Also stars Kieffer Sutherland, Brooke Shields and Amanda Plummer.

Apollo 13 [PG]  There is something about this Ron Howard film that captivates me every time I watch it . . . something more than Tom Hanks's presence, or the feel-good ending, the authentic art direction, the CGI special effects, the ensemble cast (cop the look on Gary Sinse's face when he is booted off the mission), or the fact that I've always had an interest in astronomy ? I just can't nail it. Is "epic drama" the phrase I'm looking for? Whenever the movie starts I automatically morph into this unmoving, silent thing on the couch for the next two hours. Damn, I wish I'd seen it in the cinema.

Ransom [MA]  Ransom is Ron Howard's follow up to Apollo 13, and while both films are as mainstream as they come, Ransom's necessarily happy outcome (the child will live) defused much of the tension. This was not a problem in Apollo 13, which had an episodic structure, whereas Ransom's only motivating force was to Save the Cute Kid at all costs. However, this is not to say that little twists like Mel Gibson's stunt to put the kidnappers into hot water weren't entertaining. The NTSC laserdisc release of Ransom features 18 minutes of addition scenes.

Dead Man [R]  Slow as syrup, Dead Man is saved by the amazing photography and quirky violence. It's a good film, but I can't bring myself to write another syllable about it!

Face/Off [MA]  Woooooo! Mr Action is back with his best film since 1992's ballistic masterpiece Hard Boiled. Like the earlier Bullet in the Head, Face/Off runs its audience through several different emotional states in what is, by the end of it, a well-rounded if exhausting viewing experience. A good script never hurts a movie, and in Face/Off we have a solid action-thriller laced with both tender and stomach-churning moments. Even though John Woo's sentimentality jars the senses here and there, he generally lets the story and lead characters, played memorably by John Travolta and Nicholas Cage, run on their own steam. Discounting the surgery sequences (great FX by Kevin 'Freddy' Yagher), Face/Off is not as violent as The Killer or the two films mentioned earlier, but there's enough gun-fun to keep fans happy, although to me the shoot-outs didn't flow as smoothly as in Woo's Hong Kong productions.

Independence Day [PG]  As with Scream, I initially hated Independence Day. After buying a sell-thru copy and watching it a couple of times, I confess that the bloody thing has charm. Eye-popping special effects, reasonable dialogue, Will Smith, and a fast-moving story somehow saves IQ4 from the zombification that befell Stargate. Even Moon 44 had more juice flowing through its veins than that travesty!
   But for what it's worth, Independence Day is Dean Devlin and Roland Emerlich's most accomplished project to date. If anything, they have proven themselves capable of delivering a big-budget production with minimal fuss and no crippling (unintentional) problems in the finished item. Sadly their ambitions seem limited to refurbishing chestnuts of old, first War of the Worlds and V The Series with IQ4, and now Godzilla, due for release in 1998. When will these 'boys with toys' grow up? In the short term I guess we'll just have to kick back and soak up all that wonderful CGI.

The Fifth Element [PG]  Luc Besson's vibrant SF actioner spent much of its time flirting with greatness - it certainly had the look, the feel, and the quirkiness to be a cult hit. Perhaps like Scream and IQ4 it will prove to be home video-friendly. Based on one cinema viewing, however, I felt that The Fifth Element lacked cohesiveness and credibility. Modelled as a live-action Heavy Metal comic, the plot and characters never really punched their way out of that cartoonish two-dimensional cast, a problem shared by Batman, Judge Dredd and, to a lesser extent, The Crow. Once again the same old criticism applies: terrific special effects, larger than life characters, dumb plot. Keep a barf bag handy for when the coveted "fifth element" is found.

Men in Black [PG]  Yeah, it's actually good! But will it hold up to repeated viewings? Sounds doubtful. Anyway it has Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones (whom I usually despise), good special effects, a cute pathologist with nice legs, Sly Stallone as an alien, stupid guns, and best of all a cool idea – based on a comic book no less. All of this adds up to a fun movie that could have easily accommodated an extra hour or two if more money was available. For once I want to see a sequel. "Elvis? He just went home."

The Addiction  Abel Ferrara returns with a small-scale vampire fable, filmed in black and white. When a young student is infected by a vampire, parallels are drawn between her bloodlust and drug addition; she even 'shoots-up' with blood in one scene. This innovation is not enough to sustain the story, which drags out many standard vampiric incidents to keep the narrative rolling along, for example the stalking of victims and discovering the local vampire community. The lack of impact Christopher Walken has during his brief role as the vamp's mentor sums up the unaffecting nature of The Addiction. If it was never made the world would be no worse off. Whatever you do, don't watch it in the dark. You'll fall asleep.

The Lost World [PG]  This ill-advised sequel to Jurassic Park is simply King Kong capering around in a dinosaur suit, with a CGI Tyrannosaurus Rex in the gorilla role. Instead of a film crew, you've got a berserk hunting party. As in Kong it all takes place on a remote island, except when Momma T-Rex is shipped to the US. Causing chaos and destruction, she chases her baby around the city – remember that Kong loped after Fay Wray all through New York. There's also a hero (Goldblum), tense moments in high places, additional monsters roaming the island, violent death, etc. The scientists may even be substituted for the natives of the island; both groups understand, respect and worship - or are in awe of – their respective deities. While it's all been done before, The Lost World is a passable waste of 90 minutes: flawless effects, lively digital surround sound, tons more dinosaur footage, Goldblum again, and a cool scene in which a man is torn in half. Tasty.

Lost Highway [R]  The results are back from the photolab: it's a dead heat between Lost Highway and Dead Man for the Slowest Film of the Year. Filmed partly inside one of David Lynch's residences, Lost Highway is two narratives glued together, both featuring the same lead characters. I would have liked Lost Highway more if the cinema I saw it in (Kino #4, Melbourne) was in better shape: not dark enough, creases and distortions in the screen - it wasn't perpendicular with the projector, making one half of the image blurry – and sub-zero airconditioning only makes you grumpy. I should have seen it at the Hoyts Regent in Brisbane when I had the chance. For a partial explanation of what it's about, look at Cinefantastique #99. I'll be watching Lost Highway again on video or laserdisc – in an environment I can bloody well control! In fact there's a package on my doorstep. That could be it.

Mars Attacks! [M]  Many intelligent punters swear that Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! is a brilliant knock-your-socks-off satire, and the funniest thing since Billy Connelly's last concert. Several other equally-intelligent commentators insist that Mars Attacks! is an overdone squirt of pigeon poop, and the saddest 'comedy' since Mel Brooks' Robin Hood: Men in Tights. One person's funny bone is the next person's compound fracture. Well, I thought it sucked lemons. The jokes were lame and the story pitiful. The reliance on cameos, for example Danny Devito's shmucky walk-on-and-die role, highlighted Burton's reluctance to handle the humour seriously. Technically it was excellent, and I loved Danny Elfman's score, which I admit was funny. Anyway, check out Mars Attacks! for yourself.

Event Horizon [MA]  More like a non-event, this SF horror film stole riffs from several other genre movies, most notably Alien and Aliens (from which whole melodies were lifted) as well as Total Recall (rope grabbing), 2001: A Space Odyssey (computer crawlspaces), The Shining (spill-ing blood), Apollo 13 (broken carbon dioxide fil-ters), The Black Hole (ship design, rubber science), Stargate (liquid portal), and Hellraiser (the gore). Larry Niven's short story 'One Face' also came to mind for the ship's faster-than-light mechanism.
   Event Horizon's one inspired moment – a freeze-dried corpse shattering after falling out of zero-gravity – stands alone amidst a narrative that derives its minimal suspense from sudden noises, murky lighting, baroque set decorations, and gruesome hallucinations. Spooking the audience is fine, I'm all for it, and I'm glad director Paul Anderson took the time to do this. But if the story is as retarded, plagiaristic and imaginatively deadshit as Event Horizon's halfbaked plot, then the audience has good cause to riot: slashing the cinema screen, killing the projectionist, raiding the cash registers for their money back, and torching the cinema so that only ashes remain.
   Event Horizon is further proof that the rules of B-grade horror movie making have been inverted – the bigger the budget, the worse the film. More alarming still is the shameless pilfering of ideas from other works, which now seems to be a perfectly acceptable practise. The director of the leaden Golden Eye even boasted stealing several moments from film history, shoring up the notion that Hollywood is artistically fucked.
   (Minor note for trainspotters: The Aussie flag on Sam Neill's shoulder patch has the Aboriginal flag in place of the Union Jack, Neill's idea of an "Australian flag of the future.")

The Relic [MA]  More inept shite. These days it is a mistake to watch modern horror flicks without expecting Z-grade fare. With a title that alludes to its originality quotient, Peter Hyams's The Relic is a tedious, emotionally uninvolving monster on the loose yarn set inside a museum. Aided by sloppy editing, the lizardly beast is able to crash into any scene, no matter how labyrinthine the location. The CGI decapitation was mildly riveting; pity about the remaining off-screen kills. Come on arseholes, forget demographics and give the audience what it really wants: serious, intelligent terror, and/or wall-to-wall bloodbaths. Dumb, goreless horror is about as much fun as cleaning windows. Was Anaconda this bad? That one slithered by me.

Hellraiser IV – Bloodline [MA]  While it's marginally better than Hellraiser III, Kevin Yagher's sequel still smacks of dead-horse flogging – more the studio's fault than anything else. The franchise's owner New Line seems hellbent on wringing a few more droplets of blood from the Cenobite mythology, and thus a few more coins from the audience. Indeed, Pinhead's talent for inflicting pain upon others pales by comparison! New Line even re-edited the ending, causing Yagher to disown it in the time-honoured fashion of assigning "Alan Smithee" as director. Not that the rest of the film is anything special, mind you.
   Pete Atkin's screenplay, showing the origins of Le Marchand's box and his ancestor's efforts to destroy it, would have been better if the characters were motivated by traits more realistic than the post-graduate nastiness or wholesome goody-goodness on offer here. The first Hellraiser blurred these distinctions, painting them as by-products of selfishness, lust and obsession.
Doug Bradley's enigmatic Pinhead persona is as wearisome as the human mortals in this sequel – he's lost all enthusiasm for the role, and who can blame him? With Barker watching from the sidelines as co-Executive Producer, and censorship restrictions crippling Atkin's imaginative range, who could be proud of this or the other Hellraiser sequels? Pitched at adults, the movies lack the blind adoration of teenagers who worship that triumvirate of blade-wielding terror: Jason, Freddy and Michael Myers. And when even lowly fanzine writers dismiss Hellbound, Hell on Earth, and Bloodline as lame washouts, what satisfaction can be gained from it all? It pays the rent, I guess.
   With Hellraiser IV the Pinhead saga is concluded. Another sequel set before the 21st century destruc-tion of the puzzle box, Pinhead, and the gateway to the Hell, would be laughed at. Then again, the threat of ridicule has never stopped the studios before. Finally, I'll judge the gore content after I've seen Mr Yagher's cut.

Contact [PG]  By far the best science fiction film of the year, Robert Zemeick's Contact is flawless right up to the teleportation sequence. As the brilliant story unfolded and achieved epic proportions, I realised that the climactic trip to "Las Vega" was going to cop-out in a similarly spectacular way, and it did. Too bloody soppy! Without having read the book, I can only assume that the Machine was rigged for one transport, otherwise a second trip would have substantiated Cathrine's testimony. Flawed as it is, Contact is serious science fiction cinema – an oasis in a desert of science-dribble. It's a pity that the adaptation of SF novels may stall, because advance Internet gossip on the adaptation of Heinlein's Starship Troopers by Paul Verhoven says it sucks.

The Arrival [M]  I saw this just after Contact and went dizzy with de ja vu. The Arrival is pretty much the same as Contact until the half way point. From there a less credible scenario is pre-sented, and one that concludes in a stupidly open, TV-pilot manner. I still prefer Contact, but I doubt it would have affected me as much if I'd seen The Arrival first. Since Contact is the genuine Sagan adaptation, I recommend seeing it before The Arrival, which has less to offer, even after making allowances  for budgetary differences.

The Rock [MA]  Total testosterone meltdown.
   The metaphor: Alcatraz is a rock-hard penis spurting white missiles ladened with a flesh-eating virus. Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery, both hav-ing impregnated their girlfriends by accident, must pay retribution by disarming the mutinous Marine's threat to rape San Francisco with their AIDS-infected phallus. Both hero's emblematic vasectomies on themselves (and the danger) negates their guilt: their loved ones are saved from certain death. Thus, emotional mortgages are repaid.
   Meanwhile, the empathy Ed Harris feels for the gay population of San Francisco causes him to question his intentions, since he himself is gay, a single bloke who relishes the company of macho sailors. Realising that the AIDS-like horror he has created will exterminate the world's largest concentration of horny homosexual men, Harris opts to die a martyr to his newfound sexuality – to the thousands of men he could have loved – rather than let the violation proceed. Before his tragic death, he triumphantly stops one deadly sperm projectile from penetrating a ring-shaped football stadium, thereby saving countless lives. No matter what happened from that point on, his conscience would be clear.
   During the climax, when a young fighter pilot shows wisdom beyond his years by dropping a symbolic, spermicidal condom-bomb on Alcatraz against the wishes of the Patriarchy, Connery slips away – just as he did after that one-night-stand so many years ago. Now sterile, impotent, and moral-ly corrected by Nicholas Cage's exemplary sacri-fice to stay with his pregnant girlfriend, Connery feels for the first time the responsibility that eluded him all those years ago. He will emerge from San Francisco Bay one step higher on the evolutionary ladder: New-age Man, or, homo sensitivus.
   The Rock is a modern parable concerning the abuse of male power, and the emotional and sexu-al losses such abuse can incurr. The tropes are clear, the lessons invaluable. Watch it, and be thankful that at least one man cared, that one man possessed the decent humanity to create this film – this vision – for the greater benefit of all mankind.

LA Confidential [MA]  The generic trailers and TV guest-spots by the Aussie leads (Guy Pearce and Russell Crowe) didn't foster much enthusiasm in me for this film. Good word of mouth from reliable contacts eventually prodded me to the multiplex, and I was pleasantly surprised. This is an earnest, well-acted version of the Elmore Leonard's crime novel, one of the best screen adaptations I have watched for ages, in fact. Not that I've read the book (!) but the movie feels right; it bloody well works. Don't miss LA Confidential. It's a big step up from the director's previous effort The River Wild.

Films I Enjoyed But Can't Be Bothered Discussing:

Carlito's Way, Trainspotting, Maitresse, Naked, The People vs Larry Flynt, Desperado (even though it's censored), The Toxic Avenger and Bloodsucking Freaks (local re-releases), Toy Story, Rumble in the Bronx, Traces of Death 1-3, Spice Girls in Concert, Fargo ("Yah"), Hardcore 1-2 (Richard Kern compilations), Burning Paradise.

Films I Hated But Lack The Space to Condemn:

Terminal Velocity, Blown Away (I wasn't), Jack (kiddie porn incognito), Creepozoids, Village of the Damned, The Black Cat, Romeo + Juliet, Tromeo and Juliet, Cable Guy, Under Siege 2, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Kiss the Girls, ST: First Contact.