I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) - The teen slasher favorite

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Pouty-faced teen stars in eerie lighting make up this effective poster for Jim Gillespie's I Know What You Did Last Summer

Two beautiful, promising young high school grad couples are heading to college when on one late, fateful night, they make a terrible mistake, which they pay dearly for the following year ...

 

I Know What You Did Last Summer is written by Kevin Williamson (Scream (1996)), loosely based on the same-titled 1973 novel by Lois Duncan (Killing Mr. Griffin (1978)), and directed by debuting Jim Gillespie (Venom (2005)).

Subtlety is not a virtue that this teen slasher pursues, but it works very well as top-tuned youth horror with four excellent stars, - especially Sarah Michelle Gellar's (Cruel Intentions (1999)) screams are epic, - and a simple premise of transgression and punishment, which is classical for the horror genre and very well made.

I Know What You Did Last Summer is a deeply entertaining minor 1990s classic that merits revisits. 

 

Related post:

 

I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998) - Cannon slashes possible franchise with repititious turkey 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 17 mil. $

Box office: 125.5 mil. $

= Huge hit (returned 7.38 times its cost)

[I Know What You Did Last Summer premiered 9 October (Austin Film Festival) and runs 101 minutes. Williamson had written the script prior to Scream, and with that film's immense success, Columbia Pictures hurried to put I Know What You Did Last Summer into production. Ryan Phillippe (The Way of the Gun (2000)) was paid 250k $ for his performance in the film. Shooting took place from March - June 1997 in North Carolina and California. The film opened #1 to a 15.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends at #1 and then one more in the top 5 (#3), grossing 72.5 mil. $ (57.8 % of the total gross). Roger Ebert gave it a 1/4 star review, translating to 3 notches under this one. Gillespie returned with D-Tox (2002). Jennifer Love-Hewitt (House Arrest (1996)) first returned in Boy Meets World (1998, TV-series) before her theatrical return in Can't Hardly Wait (1998); Gellar in Scream 2 (1997); Phillippe in Homegrown (1998) and Freddie Prinze Jr. (Scooby-Doo (2002)) in Sparkler (1997). Hewitt and Prinze Jr. returned in the sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), and a second sequel is slated for the summer of 2025. I Know What You Did Last Summer is rotten at 47 % with a 5.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of I Know What You Did Last Summer?

Halloween Ends (2022) or, Halloween Snores

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The central two characters of the decades-long franchise stand back-to-back in a fiery darkness on this poster for David Gordon Green's Halloween Ends

Michael Myers and Laurie Strode' decades-long bloody battle in Haddonfield, Illinois finally reaches its conclusion.

 

Halloween Ends is written by Chris Bernier (The House: A Hulu Halloween Anthology (2017, miniseries)), Paul Brad Logan (Manglehorn (2014)), Danny McBride (Your Highness (2011)) and Arkansan master filmmaker, co-writer/director David Gordon Green (George Washington (2000)), whose 15th feature it is. It is the 3rd and last in Green's Halloween trilogy (2018; 2021) and the 13th in the Halloween franchise overall.

The film opens strongly with a pre-title sequence about a young engineer student, who accidentally kills the boy that he is babysitting. The title animation, credits and accompanying, exploding jack-o-lanterns are rad. But the film that follows is an immovable, deeply uninteresting turkey:

It turns out that the guy from the pre-title sequence is to be followed throughout Halloween Ends, despite his being extremely uninteresting. No other characters spark interest or tension, and that leaves one mentally snoring all the way to the picture's overly brutal ending. SPOILER Who wants to see an aging woman get beaten up and then stabbing the perp, her also senior citizen-aged brother, again and again?

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2018) - Great-looking mayhem

Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - Myers returns to turkeyville 

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

David Gordon Green: Halloween (2018) - Great-looking mayhem 

2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

The Sitter (2011) - Green and Hill's inappropriate babysitter movie is a crude hoot 

Your Highness (2011) - Green's dismissed, golden stoner/raunch adventure comedy

2008 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 

Pineapple Express (2008) - Funny people incite laughs in ludicrous stoner comedy

George Washington (2000) - Green's evocative North Carolina youth debut masterpiece 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

 

Cost: 33 mil. $

Box office: 104.3 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.16 times its cost)

[Halloween Ends premiered 6 October (Sitges Film Festival, Spain) and runs 111 minutes. Jamie Lee Curtis (Halloween (1978)) was paid 3.5 mil. $ for her performance in the film. Shooting took place from January - June 2022 in Georgia and Utah. The film opened #1 to a 40 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent 2 more weekends in the top 5 (#4-#5), grossing 64 mil. $ (61.4 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 5.4 mil. $ (5.2 %) and Mexico with 5.3 mil. $ (5.1 %). Green returned with The Righteous Gemstones (2019-22) and theatrically with The Exorcist: Believer (2023). Curtis returned in The Bear (2023, TV-series) and theatrically in Haunted Mansion (2023). Halloween Ends is rotten at 40 % with a 5.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween Ends? 

Halloween (2018) - Great-looking mayhem

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Franchise star Jamie Lee Curtis returns to 'face her fate' - the scarred, menacing mask of her brother Michael Myers, on this dark poster for David Gordon Green's Halloween

40 years after the murders in Haddonfield, Illinois: Survivor Laurie Strode has become a strange hermit living in a kind of fortress, as her mass-murderer brother Michael Myers breaks free from a prisoner transport - right before Halloween ...

 

Halloween is written by Jeff Fradley (Vice Principals (2016-17)), Danny McBride (Your Highness (2011)) and co-writer/director, Arkansan master filmmaker David Gordon Green (George Washington (2000)), whose 13th feature it is. It is the 11th film in the Halloween franchise and a sequel to the original Halloween (1978), which ignores all the following sequels and reboot. 

The film succeeds in giving the languishing franchise a strong dose of fresh juice. The murders are many - really many! The look is dark and deeply professionally done. But the scares are not as palpable for a horror veteran. Perhaps Jamie Lee Curtis' (Virus (1999)) Laurie Strode has become too militant, and everyone else on the contrary, too easily kill-able?

Halloween is highly brutal and has a strong ending. My favorite part, however, was the new score by John Carpenter (Escape from New York (1981)), Cody Carpenter (Masters of Horror (2005-06)) and Daniel A. Davies (Condemned (2015)), which is built around Carpenter's original score and is awesome.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - Myers returns to turkeyville 

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

David Gordon Green: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess

The Sitter (2011) - Green and Hill's inappropriate babysitter movie is a crude hoot 

Your Highness (2011) - Green's dismissed, golden stoner/raunch adventure comedy

George Washington (2000) - Green's evocative North Carolina youth debut masterpiece 

 

 

Watch a teaser trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 10 mil. $

Box office: 259.9 mil. $

= Mega-hit (returned 25.59 times its cost)

[Halloween premiered 8 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place from January - February 2018 in South Carolina, with re-shoots in June 2018. The film opened #1 to a 76.2 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and another one in the Top 5 (#5), grossing 159.3 mil. $ (61.3 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 12.4 mil. $ (4.8 %) and the UK with 11.5 mil. $ (4.4 %). Universal reportedly spent 75.5 mil. $ marketing the film. The film was followed by 2 more in Green's Halloween trilogy; Halloween Kills (2021) and Halloween Ends (2022), both with Curtis as well. Before Halloween Kills Green returned with Dickinson (2019, TV-series) and Mythic Quest (2020, TV-series). Curtis first returned in An Acceptable Loss (2018). Halloween is certified fresh at 79 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween? 

High Tension/Haute Tension/Switchblade Romance (2003) - Aja arrives with suspenseful gore horror

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A young woman sits in a shadowy, creepy space without much clothes on holding a nasty pair of shears on this grimy poster for Alexandre Aja's High Tension

A young lesbian couple venture out into the countryside to visit the one woman's parents for the first time. But a killer in a boiler suit ruins the visit...

High Tension is written by Grégory Levasseur (Mirrors (2008)) and co-writer/director Alexandre Aja (Furia (1999)). 'High tension' is a literal translation of the film's original French title.

It feels like a young filmmaker's first film, (it is Aja's second), and he asserts himself here as a visually talented horror connoisseur. The actors are game, and the film is highly suspenseful in several of its nightmarish scenes, (the title isn't false advertisement in this case.) The highly unpleasant style thank goodness doesn't reach the heights of Aja's fellow Frenchman Pascal Laugier's Martyrs (2008), which just makes High Tension a more tolerable watch. 

The climax has a twist that has some audiences outright reject the film, but I didn't take affront with its nonsense dimension. Rather I relish the visual surplus energy and declaration of love for especially The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) that is clearly visible in High Tension.

 

Related posts:

 

Alexandre Aja: Piranha 3D (2010) - Aja's gory sexploitation remake is a hoot 

Mirrors (2008) or, The Haunted Department Store 

The Hills Have Eyes (2006) or, My Big Fat Mutant Cannibal Family Trip

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 2.5 mil. $

Box office: 6.2 mil. $

= Minor flop (returned 2.48 times its cost)

[High Tension was released 18 June (France) and runs 95 minutes. Shooting took place in Bucharest, Romania. Lions Gate cut 2 minutes from the film to secure an R rating for their wide release in North America, which they spent 14 mil. $ rolling out (English dub, prints and advertising): The film opened #10 to an 1.8 mil. $ first weekend in 1,323 theaters, its peak, grossing 3.6 mil. $ (58.1 % of the total gross. The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Italy with 874k $ (14.1 %) and France with 700k $ (11.3 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 1/4 star review, translating to 4 marks under this one. Aja returned with The Hills Have Eyes (2006). Cécile de France (Loup! (2002, short)) returned in Petits Mythes Urbains (2003, TV-series) and theatrically in Around the World in 80 Days (2004); Maïwenn (Télé Gaucho (2012)) in I'm an Actrice (2004, short) and theatrically in Le Genre Humain: 1ère Partie: Les Parisiens (2004). High Tension is rotten at 40 % with a 5.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of High Tension?

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) - Myers returns to turkeyville

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A new troupe of young stars back franchise cornerstone Jamie Lee Curtis on this ominous poster for Rick Rosenthal's Halloween: Resurrection

Michael Myers irrevocably kills his sister, who is in a mental hospital, where she feigns to be sick (...), and then he throws himself at a group of young fools who are doing an Internet reality show in Michael's dilapidating childhood home.

 

Halloween: Resurrection is written by Larry Brand (Paranoia (1997)) and Sean Hood (The Legend of Hercules (2014)) and directed by Rick Rosenthal (Halloween II (1981)). It is the 8th and final film in the original Halloween franchise, before it was rebooted in 2007 and then again in 2018.

It begins fairly decently but gradually gets worse until a point where it is almost impossible to sit through the stupidities on-screen. There are no-one to root for, and several of the film's grisly murders are involuntarily comical, as when a murder gets cross-cut to Tyra Banks (Glee (2013, TV-series)) making a Milo while dancing in her editing trailer, (don't ask why.)

The very small light points in Halloween: Resurrection are Busta Rhymes (Narc (2002)), who brings a likable energy to the turkey, and Billy Kay (L.I.E. (2001)), who is regrettably only in the film a very brief time. Every one else is at best undistinguished in this horrible film, which even suffers from enormously ugly credits.

 

Related posts:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

 

Curtis candidly explains her troubles with Halloween H20 (1998) and Halloween: Resurrection in this video

 

Cost: 15 mil. $

Box office: 37.6 mil. $

= Even (returned 2.50 times its cost)

[Halloween: Resurrection premiered 1 July (USA) and runs 94 minutes. Jamie Lee Curtis (Love Letters (1983)) was paid 3 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from May - June 2001 and September - October 2001 in British Colombia, including in Vancouver, and in Los Angeles, California. The film opened #4, behind holdover hit Men in Black II and fellow new releases Road to Perdition and Reign of Fire, to a 12.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 30.3 mil. $ (80.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2 mil. $ (5.3 %) and Mexico with 1.1 mil. $ (2.9 %). Michael Myers returned in Rob Zombie's reboot Halloween (2007), now without Curtis. Rosenthal returned with 11 TV and short credits prior to his theatrical return with Nearing Grace (2005). Curtis returned in Freaky Friday (2003). Halloween: Resurrection is rotten at 12 % with a 3.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Halloween: Resurrection?

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) - Precious few cuts from rock bottom

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A child in Halloween costume is set against a giant hunting knife on this dark poster for Dominique Othenin-Girard's Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers

 

Michael Myers again goes on a murderous rampage, despite the fact that he should be dead. His niece Jamie somehow can sense his wrongdoings, and the now mad Dr. Loomis uses her as bait to catch the man he should now already realize is immortal.

 

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is written by Michael Jacobs (Certain Fury (1985)), Shem Bitterman (Peephole (1993)) and co-writer/director Dominique Othenin-Girard (After Darkness (1985)).

The 'plot' of Halloween 5 is wildly ludicrous, as it attempts to precisely reproduce successful sequences from previous Halloween films. There's an embarrassingly bad and tasteless mickey-mousing cop subplot; sudden, unexplained sex, terribly unengaging 'characters', terrible sound work and noise, and futile violence. The only alleviating elements are really the copy-paste scenes of domestic terror.

Poor Donald Pleasence (Eye of the Devil (1966)) and children involved here. Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is really an execrable film.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher 

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) - Evil masks ravage in Wallace's under-appreciated horror 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

 

Watch a short clip of an instance of the 'mickey-mousing' effect used in the film's police subplot here

 

Cost: 5.5 mil. $

Box office: 11.6 mil. $ (North America only)

= Uncertain but likely a box office success (projected return of 2.72 times its cost)

[Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers was released 13 October (USA) and runs 97 minutes. Production was rushed, following the success of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988). Shooting took place from May - June 1989 in Utah. The film opened #2, behind Look Who's Talking, to a 5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 11.6 mil. $. The international gross numbers are regrettably not made public, so it is impossible to say for sure, if the film was a success: But a small international reception to the tune of a 15 mil. $ final world gross would result in the film being a box office success. Othenin-Girard returned with Night Angel (1990). Pleasence returned in Casablanca Express (1989). Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers is rotten at 12 % with a 3.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers? 

House of Wax (2005) - Appreciation for Collet-Sera's horror debut

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A nubile young female is naked and covered in running wax on this eerie and sexually charged poster for Jaume Collet-Sera's House of Wax

A teenage outing strands in a small, deserted town, which has been made by Siamese twins - in wax ...

 

House of Wax is written by brothers Chad and Cary W. Hayes (The Conjuring (2013)) and directed by debuting, great Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Sera (Non-Stop (2014)). It is a remake of the 1953 3D hit of the same title, which seems to only maintain one thing from the original: The culminating wax fire!

The story has several narrative holes, SPOILER and the otherwise cool ending, in which the entire house melts, gets a unnecessary third brother twist added to it, an obvious ploy to entice audiences for a possible sequel. But the special effects are cool and gruesome, the town is cool, and House of Wax is a fun film to watch, even if Collet-Sera doesn't manage to impress as a great director yet here.

 

Related post:

Jaume Collet-Sera: The Shallows (2016) or, Stuck on a Rock 

Non-Stop (2014) or, The Text Messaging Terrorist! 

 

Watch short red carpet interviews with the film's young stars at its premiere here

 

Cost: 40 mil. $

Box office: 70 mil. $

= Flop (returned 2 times its cost)

[House of Wax premiered 26 April (Los Angeles) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place from May 2004 - ? in Australia. A massive fire destroyed most or all of the Warner Bros. studio in Queensland, Australia, and resulted in a 2006 negligence lawsuit to the tune of 7 mil. $. The conclusion is not readily found online. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release Kingdom of Heaven, to a 12 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd weekend and grossed 32 mil. $ (45.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 5.3 mil. $ (7.6 %) and Spain with 3.3 mil. $ (4.7 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 2/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. The film reportedly earned more than 42.1 mil. $ on VHS/DVD rentals. Collet-Sera returned with Goal II: Living the Dream (2007). Chad Michael Murray (Colors of Love (2021)) returned in Home of the Brave (2006); Elisha Cuthbert (The Girl Next Door (2004)) in The Quiet (2005). House of Wax is rotten at 26 % with a 4.40/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of House of Wax? 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) - Myers returns for dull slasher

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The white mask of Michael Myers makes up most of this poster for Dwight H. Little's Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers

Michael Myers is getting moved after ten years in the slammer, but he escapes, and again Dr. Loomis has to alarm the Haddonfield community, who nevertheless go through a raging bout with evil!

 

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is written by Alan B. McElroy (Tekken (2010)), with Benjamin Ruffner, Larry Rattner (Horseplayer (1990)) and Dhani Lipsius (The Greed of Men (2013, executive producer)) contributing story elements, and directed by Dwight H. Little (KGB: The Secret War (1985)).

Formally Halloween 4 may not be too bad, but it bores and fails to affix new relevance to the franchise with a plot that's lacking in surprises, and which doesn't find new scares to compare with John Carpenter's 1978 original.

 

Related posts:

 

Halloween franchise: Halloween (2007) - Zombie's remake is a bloody stinker  

Halloween H20/Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) - Myers spreads fresh terror in Miner's fine sequel 

Halloween (1978) - Carpenter's haunting slasher classic

 

Watch a 3-minute clip from the film here

 

Cost: 5 mil. $

Box office: 17.7 mil. $ (North America only)

= Big hit (returned 3.54 times its cost domestically alone)

[Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers was released 21 October (USA) and runs 88 minutes. After the lukewarm reception to Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), the only Halloween movie not to feature Michael Myers, it was decided to bring him back for the following sequel. Shooting took place from April - May 1988 in Utah, including in Salt Lake City. The film opened #1 to a 6.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another weekend at #1 and one more in the top 5 (#5), grossing 17.7 mil. $. The film's international gross numbers are regrettably not made public. Little returned with Freddy's Nightmares (1989, TV-series) and theatrically with The Phantom of the Opera (1989). Donald Pleasence (Killers of Kilimanjaro (1959)) returned in Paganini Horror (1988). Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers is rotten at 29 % with a 4.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers?