The Hospital (1971)

Director: Arthur Hiller

Starring: George C. Scott, Diana Rigg

You take a risk every time you enter a hospital, be it from the germs you might catch from any one of the dozens upon dozens of patients who are shuffled in and out, or from doctors/nurses whose lackadaisical approach towards their profession gives you a new appreciation for the term ‘medical practice.’ You also take a risk, albeit a non-life threatening one, each time you decide to watch a movie you know little about. Occasionally I find one so toxic that I wonder if there’s any way to somehow magically restore the hours of my life that were wasted in the process. Most of the time, I find ways to be entertained. Every so often, a movie like 1971’s “The Hospital” comes to my attention that is not only great but also reminds me of how rarely we still find actors and screenwriters with this much collective talent.

Dr. Herbert Bock (George C. Scott) is the chief of staff at a teaching hospital in Manhattan. Bock loves this hospital above all else. That helps explain why the former family man is now living alone. His wife left him, and he and his children are no longer on speaking terms… especially his ‘pinko commie hippie’ son, whose challenge against his father’s manhood has left Dr. Bock feeling impotent. That the hospital is also going to the dogs doesn’t come as much of a surprise to Dr. Bock. The method by which it is happening, however, does. Members of the hospital staff are dying, their expiration apparently the result of mistaken identity and incorrect diagnoses. Outside, the situation is just as chaotic. The hospital’s annexation of a nearby, rundown apartment complex has drawn the ire of its residents… and they are not about to have their voices go unheard.

Dr. Bock is on the verge of suicide when, in the middle of all of this madness, he meets Barbara Drummond (Diana Rigg), the daughter of a coma patient and an ex-nurse who these days is a free-spirited woman living with her father on an Indian ranch. I’m left a little uncertain as to whether Barbara was supposed to be American or British, as Rigg’s accent appears to fluctuate until late in the movie where she just seems to declare, “Screw it, I’m British. Deal with it!” The two have a long talk, after which a thoroughly drunk Dr. Bock tears off Barbara’s clothes and has sex with her… three times. Looks like that pesky impotence is cured! Moreover, the good doctor finds that he loves Barbara, and even considers the possibility of leaving the hospital with her.

Eventually it is revealed that, unbeknownst to Barbara, her father is not only not comatose but is in fact the person responsible for the dead doctors and nurses. Showing himself to be quite mad, Mr. Drummond (Barnard Hughes) essentially uses the “God told me to” defense, claiming that he’s been instructed to pass judgment against the corruption and indifference of modern medical practice. As the protesters make their way inside the hospital, Dr. Bock conspires to help Barbara get her father out of the building with the intention of high-tailing it for Mexico. At the last moment, as he takes a look at the growing hysteria, Dr. Bock realizes he can’t leave his beloved hospital behind, and instructs Barbara to go on without him.

As seems to have been common with screenplays written by Paddy Chayefsky, “The Hospital” is darkly humorous and disturbing all at once. One example of this is the scene where the super-annoying nurse is seen badgering a man, only to declare him dead. When asked how she has come to such a conclusion, she observes that he must be dead “because he wouldn’t give me his Blue Cross number.”  The man renowned also for films such as “Marty” and “Network” could have had even more brilliance to offer the world if he hadn’t died at the young age of 58. Ironically, given the subject matter of “The Hospital,” the cancer that killed Chayefsky in 1981 might have been curable if only he hadn’t refused treatment.

Bringing life to Chayefsky’s Oscar-winning script are two equally important cogs in this machine, actors George C. Scott and Diana Rigg. The best scene in the movie is the one in Dr. Bock’s office where he and Barbara trade their origin stories. If the whole movie consisted of just these two alone in a room talking to one another, believe me, I’d watch. Their caliber of actor is an endangered species among the current generation, and it’s even more rare to find two such talents paired up in the same movie.

Mitchell (1975)

Director: Andrew V. McLaglen

Starring: Joe Don Baker, Martin Balsam, John Saxon, Linda Evans, Merlin Olsen

A movie about a cop who champions the side of law & order by working slightly outside the confines of both shouldn’t be that hard to pull off. Clint Eastwood did it, turning 1971’s “Dirty Harry” into a classic and reprising the role four more times. But, while Harry Callahan’s methods were at times questionable, he was always a likeable character. Joe Don Baker did it with 1973’s “Walking Tall,” likewise playing a sympathetic hero. The title character of “Mitchell,” also played by Baker, is anything but that. The end result is less surprising than it is (unintentionally) amusing.

Mitchell, an out-of-shape plain-clothes detective, begins investigating the shooting death of a burglar at the home of Walter Deaney (John Saxon). Mitchell belives that Deaney did not kill the man in self-defense as is his testimony. We know that Mitchell’s suspicions are correct, because we see the unarmed trespasser being shot by Deaney in the film’s opening scene. However, Mitchell is discouraged from pursuing the case any further due to Deaney being under the watchful eye of the FBI. Naturally, Mitchell is bullheaded enough that he prefers to continue his pursuit of Deaney, but he reluctantly takes a stakeout job at the home of James Arthur Cummings (Martin Balsam), a smuggler of various illegal items (including drugs). While all of this is going on, Mitchell is also fooling around with Greta (Linda Evans), a “hooker with a heart of gold,” who looks less like a hooker and more like a centerfold for one of the many porn magazines in Mitchell’s home. Once Cummings is introduced, the only real contribution to the film that Deaney has left is to be the guy paying Greta’s bill before he unceremoniously disappears from the movie.

On the condition that Mitchell would allow him to go free, Cummings opts to use Mitchell as a chauffeur in a drug trade so that Mitchell can arrest Mistretta (Morgan Paull) instead. However, the sly Cummings pulls a double-cross on BOTH men, alerting Mistretta to Mitchell’s true identity and replacing the heroine shipment with chalk. After Mitchell fights off and kills Mistretta and his men in a gunfight, he goes after and kills Cummings and his bodyguard on their boat.

Filling the requirements of a movie set in December with the inclusion of a decorated tree in one scene and two other mentions of the word “Christmas,” there is very little about the original release of Mitchell to recommend it unless you’re a John Saxon fan who just has to see everything the man’s been in. The story itself is boring as hell. Joe Don Baker is certainly no help, playing a complete swine of a lead character. Nope, when a movie is as lame as “Mitchell” is, you have two options left available. Either you can eject the video and forget you ever tried to watch it, or you can stay the course and laugh your way through the grueling experience. That’s where “Mystery Science Theater 3000″(MST3K, for short) comes in.

Picked as the subject for the twelfth episode in the fifth season of MST3K, “Mitchell” becomes not only watchable, but downright hilarious as Joel Hodgson and robot pals Tom Servo and Crow T. Robot riff the hell out of it, much to the chagrin of its lead actor. It’s been too long for me to remember which movie wound up as my introduction to MST3K, but I know that “Mitchell” was definitely one of the first. It would probably be advisable to sample a few others first before seeking this one out, though. “Mitchell” is also notable as the episode in which series creator Joel Hodgson handed the reins over to head writer Mike Nelson, who would continue watching crappy movies with his robot companions throughout the rest of the series’ run. To this day, “Mitchell” remains one of my favorite MST3K episodes, and is the ONLY way that one should EVER watch this Christmas turkey.

31 Screams in October, Vol. 2, #23: Child’s Play (1988)

Director: Tom Holland

Starring: Catherine Hicks, Chris Sarandon, Alex Vincent, Brad Dourif

There are some children’s toys that are just plain creepy, especially the ones that talk. Maybe they don’t seem that way when you’re young, but the memory of them can linger. I think it’s the blinking, lifeless eyes. In the end though, they’re just hunks of plastic that sucks the juice out of a battery like a car with shitty gas mileage. Nothing threatening here. It’s only psychological… Right?

Andy Barclay (Alex Vincent) is turning six years old, and what he wants most of all is a Good Guy doll… sort of a Teddy Ruxpin/My Buddy combination, but with a cartoon tie-in. Karen (Catherine Hicks), Alex’s mother, didn’t know about the doll in time to save up for it. However, the stars have aligned to present her with the opportunity to purchase one from a street peddler behind the department store where she works. However, her assface of a boss only allows her enough time to pick up her son and present the doll, named Chucky, to him at home before she has to return to work. Maggie, her friend and co-worker, volunteers to babysit Andy while Karen remains at work. Riding the bus home, Karen arrives to the scene of a crime. Maggie is dead, having fallen to her death from the apartment window.

Police on the scene note the child-sized footprints on the kitchen counter, and Detective Mike Norris (Chris Sarandon) sees that the soles of Andy’s sneakers happen to match the footprints. Incensed by the insinuation that Andy could have had anything to do with Maggie’s death, Karen demands that they take what evidence they’ve gathered and leave at once. Just before they do, Andy notices some stains on the bottoms of Chucky’s shoes, which indicate to him that it was Chucky who was up on the counter. Of course, none of the adults believe him. Later, when his mother overhears him talking to Chucky, Andy says that Chucky has been telling him all sorts of things, well beyond the three sentences that he’s supposed to be pre-programmed to say. For instance, Chucky’s real name is Charles Lee Ray, which it just so happens is the name of the infamous Lakeshore Strangler, who was killed by Det. Norris during a shootout inside of a toy store. When Andy also relates disparaging remarks Chucky made about Maggie, Karen insists that Andy must stop making up stories.

Andy certainly doesn’t help his cause by ditching school to take Chucky downtown to where Charles Lee Ray’s former accomplice lives. Soon after arriving, the place explodes, the result of gunfire igniting the gas from the kitchen stove. It seems that Chucky sought revenge for having been left behind to die. At the police station, Andy once again blames Chucky for everything, and is sent to the mental hospital for a few days. But that night, Karen makes a startling discovery: Chucky’s been moving around all this time without any batteries (the two that were included in the box he came in were still there). Karen threatens Chucky with being set on fire unless he talks. That’s when he comes alive in her hands, bites her on the arm, and exits the apartment building. Karen tries to make Det. Norris believe what’s just occurred, but he doesn’t until he is almost killed in his car.

Chucky, having suffered a bullet wound from Det. Norris’s gun, is surprised to learn that not only can he be injured, but that his current body is becoming human. If he doesn’t find the first person he revealed his true identity to (that being Andy) and transfer his soul into them, he’ll be stuck in doll form for good. Dr. John, the witch doctor who taught Chucky how to do this is the one who, under duress, offers up this latest bit of news. Chucky repays his cooperation with death. Det. Norris and Karen find Dr. John just before he dies, are warned of Chucky’s plans, and are instructed to destroy Chucky’s heart, as this is the only way to kill him.

Chucky heads for the mental hospital and kills the doctor, but Andy escapes and heads for home. Intercepting him there, Chucky begins his soul transference spell, but is stopped just in time by Karen and Det. Norris. Chucky wounds Norris, but is then trapped in the fireplace by Karen and burned by Andy. But, there are ten minutes remaining in the movie, so you know Chucky, despite being horrifically burned, is not quite dead yet. Karen shoots him to pieces, but he’s STILL not dead. Det. Norris’s partner shows up and disbelieves the explanation of what’s just happened. The now headless, mostly limbless and extra crispy torso of Chucky attacks him, but is finally killed when Det. Norris shoots him through the heart.

Admittedly, the concept of a killer doll is pretty silly. It takes a movie like “Child’s Play” with a cast such as this to make it worth your while. Both Chris Sarandon and Brad Dourif can make anything they appear in that much better just by their presence. Dourif in particular is so talented that he can make even the most inane slasher film dialogue sound vaguely Shakespearean. To date, “Child’s Play” has been followed by five sequels, each one more far-fetched than the last (although some benefit by trying to laugh at themselves). As with most horror franchises, the first is by far the best. But what could have made “Child’s Play” even better is if it had teased the audience just a little more with the idea that Andy might be making up everything he’s saying about Chucky. It could have gotten away this with if we weren’t explicitly shown right off the bat how Charles Lee Ray becomes Chucky. This would also allow for the big reveal at the midway point to be more of a genuine surprise. That aside, “Child’s Play” is a cut above most late 80’s horror movies, and one that I like to return to time and time again.

31 Screams in October, Vol. 2, #22: May (2002)

Director: Lucky McKee

Starring: Angela Bettis, Jeremy Sisto, Anna Faris, James Duval

Were I allowed only one word to describe this movie, it would have to be “awkward.” That word perfectly sums up both the lead character and the way she makes the audience feel throughout most of “May.” The most hard-to-watch aspects of horror movies are generally found either in their levels of gore or (in the case of ghost stories) their “BOO!” moments. Neither is the case, here. Oh, yes, there will be blood, but it’s strangely calming. It’s the awkward, anti-social behavior of May which has me wincing and looking away from the screen.

May Canady (Angela Bettis) came into this world with bad luck. She was born with a lazy eye which, as a child, she kept covered up with an eyepatch. This inspired the kids at school to inquire as to whether she might be a pirate. Judging by their visible disappointment in her negative reply, it makes me wonder if we’re supposed to believe they were hoping she was one. Just like every other socially awkward girl in a horror movie, May also had a certifiably insane mother. We only see her at the beginning, and never discover whether she’s dead or if May simply no longer lives with her, but the crazy bitch does her damage early, giving May a creepy looking doll that she says was hers. She tells her daughter that the doll can never come out of its box, that it’s special. Worst of all, she offers this horrible advice: “If you can’t find a friend, make one.” A surefire path to loneliness for a sane person, but guidelines for homicide to someone more unstable.

May’s biggest problem with social contact is that no one is “perfect.” There’s always an aspect of an individual for her to fixate on, but then something else about them ultimately disappoints her. She’s never been in a relationship before. Probably because she can’t even get through the talking stage. Often, someone will try to start a conversation with May, which is then followed by a period of silence before May finally finds the courage to speak. One of these people is Adam (Jeremy Sisto), a hunky young man whose most distinguishing feature, May has decided, is his hands. With Adam making the majority of the moves, the two begin dating. Eventually, May screws it up, first by obsessively calling him and showing up at his house unannounced, openly admitting to standing outside his front door for hours. But the dealbreaker comes after Adam shows his college student horror short film. Not freaked out at all by the sight of a romantic couple literally devouring one another, May bites Adam’s lip during a makeout session, smearing his blood on her face just like in the movie. He’s done with her after that.

Injured by Adam, May turns to Polly, a lesbian co-worker at the pet hospital where May is employed. Polly, excellently played by Anna Faris (still sporting her “Scary Movie” jet black dye job), is a little ditzy and a lot flirtatious. Polly’s most attractive feature is her neck. Her imperfection, May points out, is the mole on her hand.She’s also not one who takes relationships all that seriously, which is more unfortunate for her than it is for May. When May catches Polly with another woman, she takes it as a betrayal, and drops from social inadequacy to total numbness.

Even working with a group of blind kids has ended in disaster, with May foolishly bringing her doll to introduce to the children who cause her to drop it and smash the glass case. A fellow misfit named Blank (James Duval, decked out in full punk gear) tries to befriend her, but May’s only interest is his Frankenstein tattoo. At May’s house, Blank finds Polly’s cat in May’s freezer, May having killed it in a fit of rage. Disgusted, Blank calls her a freak. For May, this is the last straw, and she kills him with a pair of scissors to the head. May undergoes a bit of a transformation after this. On Halloween night, she dresses up like her doll and her personality changes. Gone is the stammering and the inability to look people directly in the eyes. May is now calm, confident… and evil. She visits Polly first, slitting her throat with scalpels stolen from the animal hospital, using them again to kill Polly’s girlfriend, Ambrosia. She next visits Adam and his new girlfriend, killing both of them as well.

All through these events, she has been dragging a cooler around. When she returns home, she opens the cooler to reveal the various body parts she has taken from her victims: Polly’s neck, Ambrosia’s legs, Blank’s arms, Adam’s hands, and Adam’s girlfriend’s ears. May has decided to take her mother’s advice quite literally and, using her sewing talents, fashions a patchwork “friend.” But something is still missing. Her new friend cannot see her, she cries. So, May makes a personal sacrifice, giving the doll her own lazy eye. The movie ends with May’s Frankenstein-like “friend” seemingly coming to life, raising a hand to comfort her. I don’t see how this can be taken literally, as May had been seen earlier hearing and seeing cracks appearing in her doll’s glass cage that weren’t really there, and talking to the doll as though it were talking back to her… which it was not. So, why then should we believe that her “friend” could come to life despite the absence of internal organs?

Despite the ludicrous final image, and despite how difficult it is to watch May stumble through her own awkwardness at times, “May” is a strange hybrid of slasher movies and the Frankenstein legend. That makes it unique, which I can’t help but be pleased with. I’m also pleased with the casting of recognizable actors as May’s victims. Anna Faris almost steals the movie as Polly. Angela Bettis is the one actor in the film with which I was the least familiar. I was certain I’d seen her in at least one other thing. But I didn’t know until I checked IMDb that she’d made two guest appearances late in the fifth season of “Dexter,” as the first victim/devotee of that season’s main villain. If it looks like she’s auditioning for “Carrie,” here, you’re not far off; Bettis actually starred as Carrie White in the 2002 TV remake.

I can only give “May” a halfhearted recommendation. I’m impressed that it goes places which I haven’t gotten used to seeing in a horror movie, even as it does use some conventional methods to take us there. However, the characters in this movie are just so hard to care about. They’re all either too crazy or too shallow. You should have at least one relatable character in any story, and I don’t personally see “May” as having one. Should curiosity prevail, go ahead and check it out. Otherwise, there are plenty of other, better horror movies out there for you to seek out first.

31 Screams in October, Vol. 2, #20: Scream (1996)

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Drew Barrymore

Horror movies don’t turn people into killers. They inspire talented screenwriters to become more creative. The slasher films of the 1980’s had captured the attention of millions, to the bewilderment of parents and critics alike. But, but the mid/late 1990’s, the effect had become watered down, the clichés all-too familiar, and audiences were dwindling as a result. However, the “fad” was not coming to an end, merely taking a siesta. Meanwhile, the titles which which made this craze what it was were readily available to rent or own on home video, to be viewed whenever its fans damn well pleased! The key to bringing them back from their couches to the theaters was a screenplay (originally titled “Scary Movie”) by Kevin Williamson, in which its characters have every bit as much knowledge of horror movies as the audience. Part of the success of “Scream” was in its casting of established young actors, instead of unknowns. This much is evident by the time of the first ringing telephone that opens the film.

On a seemingly quiet evening in the town of Woodsboro, high school student Casey Becker (Drew Barrymore) is about to sit down to watch a movie when she receives an anonymous phone call. Playfully, the voice asks her what her favorite scary movie is. Because she’s not looking to spend the night on the telephone, Casey hangs up before the conversation is allowed to get much deeper. The phone rings again. It’s the same guy. She hangs up again. But he won’t stop, and the voice’s tone turns threatening. He has her attention now. Eventually, it’s revealed that he has her boyfriend tied up in a chair on the front porch. In order for the boyfriend to survive, Casey must first answer some horror trivia. She gets the “warm-up” question right, but fails the “real” question. Casey watches in horror as her boyfriend is disemboweled. Time for the next question, but Casey refuses. The caller, dressed in a black hooded costume with a “Ghostface” mask, responds by chasing her down and murdering her. Casey’s parents arrive home to find the place trashed and their daughter’s mutilated body hanging from a tree.

After this harrowing, bloody beginning, the scene shifts to the next day. Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell), who until today sat next to Casey Becker in English class, has suffered personal tragedy of her own. Almost exactly one year earlier, her mother was raped and murdered. Sidney’s lingering grief has caused her relationship with Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) to suffer as a result. Billy, who bears a slight resemblance to Johnny Depp, has recently taken to climbing through his girlfriend’s bedroom window, the same as Depp’s character did in director Wes Craven’s “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” One of these spur-of-the-moment climbs happens to coincide with a phone call/attack from the Ghostface killer. When Sidney spots a cell phone dropping from Billy’s pocket, it leaves her with the suspicion that it’s Billy she should suspect and fear. Billy is then taken into police custody, and Sidney retreats to the house of her best friend, Tatum (Rose McGowan). However, a phone call from the same sinister-sounding voice lets Sidney know that, whoever the killer is, “he” is still out there.

At school, several tactless students dress up in the widely sold Ghostface costumes and run amok around the halls. Principal Himbry (Henry Winkler) is not well pleased, expelling the offenders and cancelling all classes until further notice, after which he is dispatched in his office by the real killer. To celebrate the school’s closure, Tatum’s boyfriend Stu (Matthew Lillard) hosts a party at his house. In addition to several other students, attending this party are Sidney, Tatum, and horror film connoisseur Randy (Jamie Kennedy). Outside, Tatum’s brother Dewey (David Arquette), a deputy sheriff, is standing watch for anything suspicious. He’s also watching for signs of Sidney’s father, who has gone missing and is now topping the list of suspects. Also staking out the party is reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), whom Dewey has a crush on and with whom Sidney has an antagonistic relationship due to the book she wrote about Sidney’s mother’s murder case.

After Stu sends Tatum out to the garage for beers, she is killed while trying to escape through the garage door flap (which, as it turns out, was easier for actress Rose McGowan to fit through than she makes it appear in the film). Curiously, just after this latest murder, Billy shows up. He and Sidney go upstairs to talk in private… and wind up doing more than talking. The phone rings, answered by Randy, who reports the news of the principal’s murder. Most of the party guests leave the house, nearly running over both Dewey and Gale, who discover Sidney’s father’s car abandoned by the side of the road near the house. Inside, Sidney and Billy are attacked, with Billy seemingly left for dead. Sidney flees the house, Gale’s cameraman is killed, Dewey is stabbed in the back, and Gale herself crashes the van after almost running over Sidney, who has no other alternative but to return to the house. Grabbing Dewey’s gun, Sidney shuts the front door in the faces of both Stu and Randy, who are each accusing the other of being the killer.

Billy suddenly emerges alive, takes the gun and opens the door to let Randy in. To the shock of both Sidney and Randy, Billy turns the gun on Randy, revealing his own injuries to be fake. Billy is the killer. Stu also shows up, announcing himself as an accomplice. The duo take credit for the death of Sidney’s mother, with Billy revealing that his parents’ separation was due to Sidney’s mother having an affair with Billy’s father. Billy and Stu plan to kill Sidney, frame Sidney’s father (whom they have captured), and then act as the survivors of the whole bloody massacre. With an assist from Gale, however, Sidney is able to foil their plans and kill both men. Although lives have been lost, Sidney, Gale, Dewey and Randy will all recover from their injuries and live to scream another day.

“Scream,” which writer Kevin Williamson based in part on the very real story of the Gainesville Ripper, but which was also born of Williamson’s long-standing love of horror movies, gets away with its graphic depictions of murder by balancing them with witty, self-aware dialogue. The deconstruction of the slasher film, perpetrated by “Scream,” was so popular that it led to a new direction for the subgenre and plenty of work for Williamson, with several other similarly-themed films like “I Know What You Did Last Summer” (starring Neve Campbell’s “Party of Five” co-star, Jennifer Love Hewitt), as well as three Wes Craven-directed “Scream” sequels. Like all imitators, none ever quite matched “Scream” in terms of writing, acting, directing, music (especially “Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave), and mood.

It’s been long enough that I actually can’t remember whether I originally saw “Scream” before or after “Halloween” (which “Scream” references often). Whatever the sequence may be, I hold “Scream” largely responsible for kickstarting my interest in slasher films, and in the horror genre in general. You may want to see a few of the films it references first just to appreciate this one a bit more, but it won’t hurt at all to make “Scream” a priority.

31 Screams in October, Vol. 2, #18: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Director: Renny Harlin

Starring: Robert Englund, Rodney Eastman, Danny Hassel, Andras Jones, Tuesday Knight, Ken Sagoes, Lisa Wilcox

Once again, I find myself drawing unpopular conclusions about a “Nightmare on Elm Street” sequel. In “Freddy’s Revenge,” I found a movie which fails as a follow-up but which works as entertainment. “Dream Warriors,” while mostly a good sequel, tries to be both dark and funny without finding the right mixture, and insults my intelligence in the finale. “Dream Warriors” is also responsible for bringing its immensely popular villainous dream demon out of the shadows and into the spotlight, giving him more one-liners and making the murder sequences less gruesome and more cartoonish. For good or ill, this would be the path that the “Nightmare” films would follow until Wes Craven’s return in 1994. But, with both Parts 2 and 3, the series was still trying to hold onto the creepier elements with which it began. It wasn’t until “A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master” that the commitment to pure entertainment over horror was made in full, and that’s what helps to make it my favorite of the “Elm Street” sequels.

The three surviving “Dream Warriors” have all been reasonably reintegrated into society, back in high school hoping to get on with their lives. But Kristen (Tuesday Knight, replacing Patricia Arquette) has her doubts that Freddy Krueger is really gone for good. Her friends Joey (Rodney Eastman) and Kincaid (Ken Sagoes) are convinced he is, and they aren’t taking too kindly to being dragged into Kristen’s dreamworld every time she has a problem. The casting change had me fooled the first time I saw this movie back in the fall of 2000. Both Knight’s appearance and her performance as Kristen differ so greatly from that of Arquette that I didn’t realize I was looking at the same character until the first scene she has with Joey and Kincaid.

Eventually, Kristen’s fears are realized, and Freddy returns to take out both Kincaid and Joey, and to further terrorize Kristen. Her boyfriend Rick Johnson (Andras Jones) and his sister, Alice (Lisa Wilcox) grow concerned, especially after the deaths of Kristen’s two remaining friends from Westin Hills. They go to the house at 1428 Elm Street, still as unoccupied and dilapidated as it was in the last installment, where Kristen utters her worst line of dialogue: “It’s not just a house… It’s his home!” I honestly don’t know where to begin with what’s wrong with that line or how badly it’s delivered. After Rick quickly gives his friend Dan (Danny Hassel) the Cliff Notes version of Freddy’s origin story, Kristen’s mother (Brooke Bundy, reprising her role) shows up. Oh, god, not her again! Fortunately she’s gone as soon as she’s satisfied that she’s tugged on Kristen’s chain hard enough to force her to return home. That leads to Tuesday Knight’s one decent scene in this movie where, upon discovering that she’s been force-fed sleeping pills in her drinking water, Kristen tells her mother “You just murdered me!” Ouch. Could that have been any more harsh?

Kristen falls asleep, and Freddy shows up for one final confrontation. Being that Kristen represents the last of the Elm Street Children, Freddy needs a way to get to the other teens, so he gets Kristen to bring Alice into the dream and hand over her powers before Freddy tosses Kristen into a boiler. Alice wakes up and goes with Rick over to Kristen’s house. There, they discover in horror along with Kristen’s mom that her room is set ablaze and they are too late to save her. Alice, it seems, is set up now to serve as the Dream Master, or Freddy’s spiritual opposite.

Alice soon discovers that her new powers not only bring other people into her dreams, but they also give Alice herself certain character traits of Freddy’s victims. It’s unclear whether or not Kristen’s abilities included that little bonus. It certainly didn’t seem that way in the last movie, but maybe it would help to give an explanation within the film as to why Kristen was acting so differently. Next on the chopping block is Sheila (Toy Newkirk), an asthmatic who Freddy kills by sucking all the air out of her. Rick falls soon after, stabbed by an invisible Freddy who turns Rick’s novice martial arts skills against him. After the loss of her brother, Alice devises a plan involving herself, Dan and their friend Debbie (Brooke Theiss). But Freddy is able to single out Debbie, using her fear of cockroaches against her by turning her into one and crushing her inside a roach motel. At the same time, he puts Alice and Dan in a time loop so he can finish Debbie off uninterrupted. Still asleep while driving Dan’s truck, Alice and Dan attempt to run over what she thinks is Freddy standing in front of them. In reality it’s a tree, and the resulting wreck lands Dan in the hospital under sedation on the operating table.

Knowing that Dan is prone to an attack from Freddy at any moment, Alice hurries home, takes some sleeping pills, and goes into the dreamworld to kick a little Krueger ass. Specifically, Alice enters Freddy’s domain through her bedroom mirror, or “looking glass.” The Lewis Carroll reference should not be lost on anyone. Dan is injured inside the dreamworld and is awakened by the doctors, leaving Alice and Freddy to go one-on-one. A fairly one-sided battle ensues, with Alice getting the upper hand, but Freddy shows no signs of fatigue or lasting injury. Alice is finally able to turn the souls Freddy has collected against him, and they tear him apart before freeing themselves.

Honestly, I’m amazed to find that “The Dream Master” doesn’t have as large an amount of fan support as its immediate predecessor does. It’s never boring, for one thing. I’ll address the four most common marks against it individually:

• Freddy’s revival. In Kincaid’s final dream sequence, his dog shows up to spray a stream of flaming urine onto Freddy’s resting place, thus reviving him. The thing is… A) It’s a dream sequence and B) Freddy’s a showman, and as such, loves a flashy entrance. C) This was the late 80’s, after all.
• The early exit of the “Dream Warriors.” This group of misfits were never that strong individually, nor were they that great as a cohesive unit. They only survived this long because of Nancy (R.I.P.). With her out of the picture, Freddy was free to pick them off as soon as he’d regained his strength. No big shocker, there.
• The outlandish dream sequences. The ones I hear people complain about are the roach motel and Joey’s waterbed. The waterbed isn’t any more over the top than Johnny Depp’s demise in the original “Nightmare,” nor is it any more implausible than Jennifer’s TV death in “Dream Warriors.” As for the roach motel, yes it’s a little out there, but so are most of our own nightmares. Not to mention that this is miles above some of the kill scenes in the next couple of sequels. The only one that truly fails in its execution (no pun intended) here is Rick’s death, made less elaborate than intended due to the limitations of the film’s budget. Alice and Dan’s time loop, along with the previous sequence where Alice gets pulled through a movie screen and ends up at the diner where she works (where Freddy orders “soul food” pizza) are the two best dream sequences in any of these movies.
• The final confrontation. I guess, after all the insanity that had come before, the finale wasn’t big and broad enough. The way that Alice deals with Freddy here is sort of the complete opposite of Nancy’s solution from the first film. Both women find a way to rob Krueger of his power, only he’s too strong now to simply be evaded or ignored. Alice, in a move that smacks of “old school” horror, defeats the monster by revealing to him his own ugly reflection. It’s never a bad thing to rely on old school methods.

My only personal complaint is the unavoidable re-casting of Kristen. Tuesday Knight does nothing to make me believe she is the same person as Arquette’s version, although I do appreciate Knight’s contribution to the soundtrack (the song “Nightmare,” which plays over the opening credits). It’s all good clean popcorn fun at this point. These movies have always been more fun than scary, and this is the one that finally stopped tap-dancing around that fact. The series probably could have ended on the high note that “The Dream Master” provides. If you’re seeing these movies for the very first time, whatever your opinion of this one, you’re likely to agree. Fortunately, series creator Wes Craven had other ideas.

31 Screams in October, Vol. 2, #15: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

Director: Wes Craven

Starring: John Saxon, Ronee Blakely, Heather Langenkamp, Amanda Wyss, Nick Corri, Johnny Depp, Robert Englund

I still have fond memories of the first time I ever watched “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” A senior in high school at the time, it had me hooked from the opening title sequence when the series’ infamous theme is heard for the first time. As I have seen the film many times since the fall of 1999, I’ve noticed more and more a few standout flaws here and there within the overall plot, which I’m not surprised to learn came up as a result of creative differences between the heads at New Line Cinema and director Wes Craven. This knowledge, however, has not diminished my enjoyment of “A Nightmare On Elm Street,” nor my appreciation for its iconic status in the genre.

A blonde teenage girl named Tina (Amanda Wyss) is becoming increasingly disturbed by nightmares of a horribly burned man in a brown hat and red & green striped sweater, who wears a glove on his right hand with blades attached to all of the fingers except the thumb. The recurring nightmare seems to always take place in some kind of boiler room. She’s so frightened that she asks friend Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) and Nancy’s boyfriend Glen (Johnny Depp, in his first movie role) to stay the night so she can feel safe. From the way they react to Tina’s story of the man in her nightmares, Nancy and Glen are both clearly having dreams about the same mysterious person. Tina’s boyfriend, Rod (Nick Corri) crashes the party, and takes Tina up to her parents’ bedroom. Sometime after they both drift off to sleep, Rod is awakened in horror as he watches Tina being slashed by an invisible presence and dragged out of the bed, up the wall and onto the ceiling where she is finally killed, her lifeless and bloody corpse falling back down to the bed in a sea of red. Certain he’ll be accused of Tina’s murder, Rod further incriminates himself by opening the bedroom window and escaping out into the night, leaving Nancy and Glen to discover what’s left of their friend. The next morning, Rod is captured by the police which include Nancy’s father, Lt. Donald Thompson (John Saxon), after Rod has confronted Nancy on her way to school and tried to convince her that he had nothing to do with Tina’s murder.

In her English class, Nancy drifts off to sleep, sees Tina in a body bag just outside the classroom, and walks out into the hallway following a trail of blood down to the school basement. This quickly transforms into the same boiler room seen in earlier nightmares. Nancy escapes by burning her arm on a nearby pipe, awaking with such violent screams as to disturb the entire classroom. Deciding to leave for home straight away, Nancy notices that the burn she suffered in the dream has appeared on her arm in the waking world. She later goes to visit Rod at the jail. Unsure at first whether to believe him, Nancy is convinced once Rod describes the way he saw Tina die and most especially after revealing that he has been dreaming about the same creep that she, Tina and Glen all had been. Later that night, Nancy falls asleep while in the bathtub and is almost drowned by the dream demon.

Close to falling asleep again in her room, Nancy is startled by Glen who has made the unusually brazen move of sneaking through her bedroom window. She asks him to stand by as a guard while she goes looking for the monster in her dreams. While in dreamland, Nancy discovers the man appearing to be going after Rod next. Glen of course has fallen asleep too, and is scolded by Nancy once she’s able to regain consciousness. Together, they rush down to the police station in the middle of the night, but arrive too late to save Rod, who appears to all but Nancy to have hung himself with his own bed sheets. At Rod’s funeral, Nancy tells her parents about the dream monster, and it’s as clear as when Nancy and Glen listened to Tina’s story that Nancy’s mother and father know exactly who she’s talking about. But, instead of coming right out and saying so, Nancy’s mother (Ronee Blakely) takes her to a dream therapy clinic, where she experiences yet another nightmare. This time, Nancy develops a grey streak in her hair, has a very bad cut on her arm, and has also managed to pull the hat off the man’s head and bring it forth into the waking world.

After an argument about the hat and the discovery of the name “Fred Krueger” written on the inside, Nancy’s mother is forced to reveal the truth: Yes, she’s known about him all this time. Freddy Krueger had been a child murderer who was brought to trial but got off on a technicality. The parents of Elm Street had gotten together and tracked him down to the boiler room where he took the kids he abducted and killed, where they burned the whole place down with Krueger inside it. Nancy’s mother then produces the familiar bladed glove which she personally took and has kept hidden in the basement ever since.

Nancy and Glen come up with a plan whereby she would go into the dreamworld, extract Freddy and have Glen stand by with something with which to bludgeon him to death. Sadly, Glen falls asleep before the two can set their plan in motion. Glen is dragged down into his bed, and all that exits the gaping hole is a seemingly endless geyser of blood. The scene was to have been even gorier than it appears in the final product, but they only had the one shot of making it work because the fake blood caused a short circuit which could have been a health hazard to all involved. Booby trapping the house, Nancy goes into the dreamworld alone, pulling Freddy out as planned and forcing him into all her traps. Eventually, Nancy sets Freddy on fire and persuades her father and the cops to break down the front door and help her out. But in the time it takes for them to get there, Freddy makes his way upstairs and burns Nancy’s mother to death. Nancy sends her father out of the room and deals with Freddy one last time by herself. Her final solution is simply to turn her back on him and reclaim all the power she’d given him through her fear.

The inspirations for “A Nightmare on Elm Street” are far more creepy than anything you’ll see in the actual movie. Freddy Krueger comes from Craven’s memories, named for a kid who used to bully Wes, and his appearance from a fedora-wearing hobo who once frightened Wes as a child. The story itself is inspired by newspaper headlines. Three men who were refugees from Cambodia, having escaped the Pol Pot regime, were nonetheless still traumatized. Within the space of twelve months, each man was dead. They had all done everything they could to keep from dreaming. When they finally did fall asleep, each man woke up screaming, and then expired.

I’ve personally watched “A Nightmare on Elm Street” enough times to know it frontwards and backwards. The movie is nearly flawless. It’s the ending that keeps perfection just out of reach. This comes as the result of the conflicting ideas of two men: writer/director Wes Craven, and producer Robert Shaye. Craven was more interested in telling one complete story with a closed loop. Shaye, who was looking to bring New Line Cinema (the company which he had founded) out of financial dire straits, didn’t want Freddy Krueger as a mere one-off villain and so, upon his insistence, a new ending was tacked on to tease the possibility of a sequel. As an ending, it doesn’t work because there’s zero build-up to it. Meanwhile, Craven’s intended conclusion (wherein Nancy turns her back on Freddy) is foreshadowed on three separate occasions. But don’t even think about letting this discourage you! There’s so much that’s iconic about “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” from the music, to the elaborate dream sequences to Robert Englund’s memorably creepy performance as Freddy Krueger, that make it one of the top must-sees in all of horror.

31 Screams in October, Vol. 2, #8: Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Director: Robert Hiltzik

Starring: Mike Kellin, Katherine Kahmi, Paul DeAngelo, Jonathan Tierston, Felissa Rose, Christopher Collet, Karen Fields

By 1983, the slasher genre was in full swing, and most if not all horror movies which fit this title were deliberate clones of “Friday the 13th” (amusing when you consider that “Friday the 13th” itself was little more than “Halloween” set at a summer camp). One of these clones was 1983’s “Sleepaway Camp.” By then, the film it sought to copy had already spawned two sequels, and was working on a third (out of an eventual nine!) But “Sleepaway Camp” was and is not satisfied with simply being just another slasher. Before arriving at one of the most jaw-dropping, unforgettable conclusions to any movie of its kind, “Sleepaway Camp” offers up an unique set of murder sequences and an absolutely nutty backstory.

Rather than opening with a hack/slice/stab murder like its role model, “Sleepaway Camp” instead opens with tragedy. A father and his son and daughter are enjoying a nice boat ride. One of the children plays a prank, rocking the boat until it capsizes, sending all three passengers into the lake. Nearby, a couple of carefree teenagers are piloting a boat, though not paying near enough attention to their surroundings as they should. Alas, even though they do realize their mistake, they are unable to swerve in time, and the father and one of his children are killed. Flash forward a few years where Angela (Felissa Rose), from the opening scene, is being prepared by her Aunt Martha (Desiree Gould) to attend summer camp at Camp Arawak, along with her cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten). Angela is painfully shy. She barely speaks, in sharp contrast to her Aunt who, from the things this woman says, leads one to believe she’s not in her right mind. Hmm…. Oh well! Off to Summer Camp!

Camp Arawak is full of quite a few… well, characters. There’s the princess bitch, Judy (played effectively by Karen Fields), who from the sound of things has a past with Ricky. I say she’s the “princess bitch” because the queen bitch is the camp counselor Meg (played alternatively sexy and cruel by Katherine Kamhi). Also there’s fellow camper Paul (Christopher Collet), the pervert pedophile cook Artie (Owen Hughes), head chef Ben (Robert Earl Jones, father of James), and Mel (Mike Kellin), the man in charge of Camp Arawak (and a rather paranoid individual, I must say).

It isn’t long before Angela’s shyness (and occasional evil eye) gets on the nerves of both Judy and Meg, who on more than one occasion conspire against her. Angela doesn’t get much better treatment from the boys, who at one point commence to throwing water balloons at her. Ricky is quick to come to his cousin’s defense, attracting Mel’s attention with his foul mouth. Mel wants things to run as smoothly as possible at Camp Arawak. Guess he should’ve been in a different movie, eh? Indeed, almost simultaneous with Angela’s torment, people start getting hurt…. or worse. The first casualty is Artie, who makes some pretty disgusting sexual advances towards Angela. Once again, Ricky steps in just in time and the two kids run for the hills. Shortly afterwards, Artie meets with an “accident.” As he stands on a chair working over a giant vat of boiling hot water, preparing to toss in some corn cobs, someone comes up from behind to pull Artie’s chair out from under him. Probably the entire special effects budget is used up in this one scene, as Artie’s burns indeed look horrific.

The bodies start to pile up, with Mel still trying in vain to keep it all under wraps. But he’s formed his own suspicions, and he’s just sure that Ricky is the one responsible for all of this. When Meg is killed “Psycho”-style in the shower, Mel sets out to stop Ricky once and for all. Satisfied after beating Ricky into unconsciousness, Mel trots off…. and is met with the REAL killer! Meanwhile, Angela is meeting up with the only boy she’s opened up to all summer, Paul, whom she has seemingly forgiven for swapping spit with Judy (thus having revealed himself to be a typical horny male teenager). After the horrifying discovery of body after body, the remaining counselors track down the surviving teens, and the last ones they find are Angela and Paul.

We had our suspicions early on, and it’s pretty much narrowed down after Mel’s murder as to whodunnit. It is at this point that the movie delivers its twist ending. That one of the kids is the killer isn’t the only secret they’ve been carrying. The big reveal at the end might seem like it comes out of nowhere, but if you’ve been paying attention for more than just nudity and gore, you may have noticed hints being dropped here and there with what were seemingly nonsensical flashbacks/interludes. It’s a brilliant twist, both because it leaves the audience speechless (and perhaps even motionless), and also because it raises “Sleepaway Camp” above the average, amateurishly acted slasher flick. (The acting in this movie IS mostly horrible!) I would elaborate further but I’d prefer that anyone reading this review who isn’t familiar with the film or its ending, in order to get the full effect, should remain as oblivious to it as I was. Be sure to stick around and listen to the song playing over the end credits. Though cheesy in an early 80’s sort of way, it adds a little something extra to the already creepy atmosphere created by the final moments of the film.

31 Screams in October, Vol. 2, #7: Tourist Trap (1979)

Director: David Schmoeller

Starring: Chuck Connors, Jocelyn Jones, Jon Van Ness, Robin Sherwood, Tanya Roberts, Dawn Jeffory, Keith McDermott

Actor Chuck Connors is the answer to the trivia question of who was the first NBA player to shatter a backboard. This occurred during pregame warmups in 1946 while Connors was playing for the Boston Celtics (my personal favorite NBA team). Unlike most other instances of basketball goal obliteration, Connors was not performing a slam dunk, and the backboard technically broke due to improper maintenance. This would have absolutely no bearing whatsoever on Connors’ subsequent acting career, except that the story adds to his already intimidating presence. Personally, I like to think that the backboard shattered out of fear.

“Tourist Trap” begins with five friends traveling in two separate cars when one of them experiences a flat tire. Always a bad omen in a horror movie. Woody (Keith McDermott) goes wandering off to find a gas station, which he eventually finds, but the place looks deserted. Woody becomes locked in the back room, after which everything starts flying at him. One of the objects, a metal pipe, impales Woody as he’s trying frantically to open the door. Can it be that the place is haunted by ghosts/evil spirits? No, because that’d be silly… Meanwhile, the second car catches up to Eileen (Robin Sherwood), still waiting impatiently for Woody, and they all drive off together to look for him. They come across the tire which Woody was last seen pushing along the road, and assume that he must have ended up at the nearby tourist trap. It’s at about this time when their Jeep inconveniently breaks down, which would make it difficult to flee if the tourist trap turns out to be a shady place. Jerry (Jon Van Ness) tries to figure out what’s wrong with the Jeep and if he can fix it, while the girls all go swimming. Their skinny-dipping session is brought to an awkward halt by the appearance of the tourist trap’s owner, Mr. Slausen (Chuck Connors).

Slausen comes across as a nice enough fellow, whose only real problem is that his establishment doesn’t get the traffic that it used to. He offers to help Jerrry with the Jeep, while the girls wait inside the tourist trap, which they notice is filled with amazingly life-like wax figures. Out the window, they notice a big house, which Slausen flatly denies living in, and adds that no one else does, either. Since the only phone in the tourist trap doesn’t work, Eileen wonders if perhaps there might be one inside the house so she goes up to investigate, leaving Becky (a dark-haired Tanya Roberts) and Molly (Jocelyn Jones) to fend for themselves. Eileen is met with a fate similar to Woody’s, as she is strangled to death by her own scarf. A masked individual, who will soon come to be known as “Davey,” is responsible. However, Davey never touches Eileen, and it is then that we realize that he has the power of telekinesis.

After some further miscommunication with Mr. Slausen leaves Becky and Molly frustrated, the remaining girls go looking for Eileen. Only Becky is dumb enough to go trespassing into the house, and she gets attacked by Davey, waking up tied up in the basement, along with Jerry and another girl, who is strapped to a table. The girl is suffocated when Davey covers her face with plaster. Jerry frees himself, but his and Becky’s escape attempt is put on hold when Davey once again displays his telekinetic talents. Outside, Molly is met by Slausen who hands her his gun and goes inside the house. Molly gets the chance to use her gun a few minutes later when Davey shows up, but it has no effect because the bullets are blanks. Molly uses the butt of the gun to strike Davey in the face, after which he removes his mask to reveal that Slausen has been “Davey” all along. Slausen had earlier told of a sad story about how his wife had died of cancer and he’d made a wax figure to keep her memory alive. That was only half-true. He’d made the wax figure after she’d died all right, but only after he’d caught her and his brother Davey having an affair and murdered the both of them. Slausen’s elaborate backstory and Chuck Connors being Chuck Connors make Slausen by far the movie’s most interesting character.

Sadly, the movie takes a few wrong turns that hurt its overall grade. The plot is a slow-burning one, so you’re left waiting for things to happen the same as the characters are. Becky and Jerry spend WAY too much of the film tied up in the basement. When they do finally get free and split up, Becky’s death at the hands of Slausen’s Western-themed wax figures is a bit anti-climactic. Speaking of climaxes, the film’s ending is just plain stupid. Molly gets captured by Slausen and appears well on her way to joining his cast of wax characters when Jerry shows out of nowhere with an axe to save the day. Only thing is he can’t save the day because, unbeknownst to him, he’s been made into a wax figure and is only doing as much as Slausen will allow him to do. In his arrogance, Slausen still allowed Not-Jerry to have the axe, which Molly is able to use to ultimately kill Slausen and escape.

Finally, lets talk about the whole telekinesis angle. I have a big problem with this because I thought having this movie be a hybrid of “Psycho” (1960), “House of Wax” (1953), and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) was enough. The link to “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” is especially fitting, since it shares in common the same art director, Robert A. Burns, with “Tourist Trap.” How Mr. Slausen developed his talents, or how it’s even possible for him to have these powers is never explained. It’s not even used very effectively, since the only reason we have it is to bump people off without the need for the killer to be in the same room. That’s cheating. Besides all that, when you’ve got Chuck Connors, you don’t need for his character to have mental powers for him to appear nigh invincible. As endearing to the public as he is for the TV series “The Rifleman,” Connors also had the ability to play creepy bastards, like the slave owner he played in the miniseries “Roots.” Just thinking about that guy gives me chills. Mr. Slausen isn’t nearly that creepy, but he remains an extremely effective villain. Fans of gore and of fast-moving plots will be disappointed by “Tourist Trap.” (I know I was the first time I ever saw it!) However, if you’re lucky enough to focus your attention on the right part of this movie, which is Chuck Connors’ performance, you might enjoy yourself.

31 Screams in October, Vol. 2, #5: Ab-normal Beauty (2004)

Director: Oxide Pang

Starring: Race Wong, Rosanne Wong, Anson Leung

Several clichés exist regarding photography. Among them, two of the more prominent ones are “A picture is worth a thousand words” and “Take a picture! It’ll last longer!” Moments in time can fade from memory forever without this visual aid. Even in the case of a movie, if it goes unseen for long enough, it can be forgotten. I don’t know exactly how many years have passed since the one and only time I had previously seen “Ab-normal Beauty,” but it was long enough ago that I had managed to combine my recollections of it with another movie all-together. What that other movie is, I still don’t know (and that will be an investigation for another time), but what I do know is that the overall tone of “Ab-normal Beauty” and the film’s final thirty minutes or so took me completely by surprise.

Our main character is a real piece of work. Jiney (Race Wong) is a talented, award-winning art and photography student, and yet she’s unsatisfied. She has grown tired of taking the same boring nature photographs, looking for inspiration elsewhere. Jiney finds it at the scene of a fatal car crash (the same one depicted in “Leave Me Alone,” directed by Oxide Pang’s brother, Danny). Jiney’s inspiration grows into obsession, as she actively seeks to capture “the moment of death” wherever she can find it. At first, this is limited to the killings of chickens and fish at a food market, but soon even that is not enough. Eventually, Jiney is able to film the before, during and aftermath of a suicide, the deceased having jumped from the roof of a tall building.

I would say that this has been a slow descent into madness for Jiney but, in reality, the movie begins with her coming off as somewhat unhinged. Her lesbian friend Jas (Rosanne Wong, Race’s sister) worries for her, especially when Jiney turns the topic of conversation towards suicide. At first, it sounds like it’s just a matter of not being loved enough by her own mother, but it goes deeper than that. Some emotional scars were developed at an early age when Jiney’s cousin raped her, after which she pushed him down a flight of stairs, killing him. When she tried to talk to her mother about it, she was believed to be making it all up. That doesn’t leave much room for her mental anguish to do anything but stay bottled up.

Just when Jiney’s death obsession seems poised to carry her into the next step of committing murder in order to get her next great photograph, with Jas’s help she removes the temptation by destroying all of her macabre work. But all is not over, as shortly thereafter Jiney receives a package in the mail containing a videotape. When she watches, what she sees horrifies her. A girl is chained to a chair and slowly beaten to death by an unknown assailant. Jiney and Jas come to believe that the person responsible has to be someone who knew of Jiney’s obsession. Their one and only suspect is Anson (Anson Leung), a fellow art student whose only crime was being interested in Jiney. He did send her a video, it’s true, but by e-mail. The video in question was a music video meant to impress Jiney, not frighten her.

This is where the final, dark half-hour kicks into gear. Jiney later receives a second videotape from the same source. Another girl is shown chained to a chair and is beaten to death. Jiney recognizes immediately that the girl is her friend, Jas. She has no time to grieve before she is taken by the killer, and becomes the next girl to sit in the chair. With several cameras pointed at her to capture every angle, Jiney begins to understand what’s going on. The killer intends to show Jiney that, unlike her, he is committed to his obsession with death. Upon getting him to drop his guard, Jiney manages to break loose and hang him with his own chains. His identity concealed, Jiney removes his mask to reveal a face she recognizes from a prior meeting. The flashback is so brief that it leaves me a little confused. I think that he’s meant to have been the waiter at Jiney and Anson’s lunch date, but I’m not 100% sure. I suppose I could have gone back and checked, but I didn’t bother.

I’ve had my fill of Asian supernatural horror, which includes “The Eye” (another film by the Pang brothers). Thankfully, there is nothing supernatural about “Ab-normal Beauty.” There is, however, a certain disconnect created by the Cantonese-to-English translation, resulting in subtitles that often make no sense. Still, this robs nothing from Race Wong’s strong performance as Jiney. Pretty good for a Cantopop singer (she and sister Rosanne form the group 2R). It’s also clear that the people behind the camera have just as good an eye for what makes for good imagery as does Jiney. It’s just too bad that the story wrapped around them isn’t a more compelling or memorable one. I’ll be more likely to recall the basic elements of “Ab-normal Beauty” this time simply because I’ve chosen to write about it. Taking a mental picture helps the memory last longer.