Dipping My Toes in Horror: Scream and Suspiria

One thing that I just realised in this past week is that there are five Wednesdays this month, as Halloween is coincidentally on a Wednesday (talk about a nice way to wrap things up). That means that I have an extra week to catch up with two more horrors, bringing this months tally up to ten horror films. Which is a good thing, since there's so many that I want to see. Still, I need some recommendations. C'mon, people! Anyway, this week on tap we have the 90s horror/comedy Scream and Dario Argento's 70s classic Suspiria.

I love movies that reference other movies endlessly, are completely self-aware, and don't really take themselves all that seriously. It is a pretty tough task to do that all so well, but Scream just about has it down pat. Starting off with the famous phone call that ensures the demise of Drew Barrymore, we're introduced to a killer who likes to ask his future victims if they like scary movies. There's a bit of chatter about scary movies, and then the real scares go on. It has a fairly basic premise, harking back to the popular teen slasher movies that went before it. And yeah, it is quite effective.

Red Eye

Sometimes I find the TV so handy. Just in the midst of my Cillian Murphy obsession, I get a text from one of my friends saying that Red Eye is going to be on TV soon. I'm pretty sure my stomach did a little backflip. I had heard that this was one of Cillian's better movies, and also his real American debut (though Batman Begins was released in the same year). Hey, if looks were anything, this guy has it won.
After attending the funeral of her grandmother in Dallas, the Lux Atlantic Hotel manager Lisa (Rachel McAdams) is waiting for a flight to Miami. Due to the bad weather and consequent flight delay, she meets in the airport bar Jackson Rippner (Cillian Murphy), who is also in the waiting list. They sit together in the plane, and Jack reveals that he wants Lisa to change the room in Lux of an important American politician to facilitate a terrorist attempt against him. Otherwise, Lisa's father will be killed by a hit man. Lisa has to decide what to do with the menacing man at her side.

The one thing that terrified me the most about Red Eye was the fact that Lisa was put under so much pressure on a plane. A plane is like the scariest place on Earth. You can't just run away, because there isn't anywhere to run to. You can't just ask for help, because the only help you are going to get is by being able to run and ask for security guards. You don't have any weapons on you. While the movie isn't overtly gory, it succeeds as being a Hitchcock style psychological thriller, because when you think about it, being in this kind of situation would suck.

Even though I think the film was very well done, I unfortunately felt a little less than satisfied. This could come from my pre-concieved idea that Wes Craven made real slasher type horror films and I thought this might be like a whole plane killing spree. I defnitely thought that Jackson Rippner may have been more evil, but I seriously have nightmares about him with the pen stuck in his throat. I feel like this film will disappoint horror fans, be deemed as stupid by people who don't know a lot about film and only enjoy gross out comedies, but for just normal people who like to watch movies, it will be quite interesting and thrilling.

Rachel McAdams and Cillian Murphy make an interesting pair, and this film was pretty much the beginning of their burgeoning careers. McAdams is the epitome of a sweet and innocent girl under pressure and Murphy is creepy as the bad guy.

A good Wes Craven psychological thriller, just not the scary slasher movie I was expecting.

6/10