Mid March Movie Reviews: Scream, Sinister, & Fresh
I watched three horror movies with one-word titles to start out the month of March!
Scream (2022)
Paramount Pictures, 114 minutes
Scream is about as good as the fifth installment of the Scream franchise could be, which is to say that it’s pretty decent. While Scream doesn’t really add anything new to the formula of its predecessors, this is still an above average slasher that’s fun and self-referential at points, like you’d expect from a Scream movie.
It’s probably helpful to have at least some knowledge of the prior movies before watching this one, and, if you haven’t already seen Scream (1996), that’s definitely worth a watch instead of this as it’s a much better and at the time was a more original film. I’d rank Scream (2022) as not nearly as good as the original Scream, not quite as good as Scream 2, drastically better than Scream 3, and an improvement over Scream 4.
The movie features a new cast of young potential victims for Ghostface in addition to three returning characters, all of whom deliver solid performances. If you’re looking for a fairly mindless slasher to watch, you could do a lot worse than 2022’s Scream.
Grade: 6.5/10
Sinister (2012)
Summit Entertainment, 109 minutes
I was inspired to rewatch Sinister after watching Archive 81 on Netflix, which also features a protagonist going through creepy old footage to uncover a mystery. Sinister though is better (and much scarier) than Archive 81.
Sinister follows a true crime writer, played by Ethan Hawke, who’s desperate for a big hit. He moves his family into a house where a family was killed and soon discovers a box of super 8 home movies in the attic, each featuring disturbing killings.
Sinister isn’t a great movie, but it is very scary. In one study that tested people’s heart rates while watching horror films, Sinister was deemed to be the scariest movie ever made. I’m not so sure I’d go that far, but it definitely ranks up there with films like The Descent and The Babadook (though it’s not on par with either of those in terms of quality) as one of the more frightening films I’ve seen.
Grade: 7/10
Fresh (2022)
Searchlight Pictures (Hulu Release), 114 minutes
Fresh is a well-done black comedy horror film with really good performances from leads Daisy Edgar-Jones and Sebastian Stan. Edgar-Jones plays Noa, a young woman who can’t meet any worthwhile men through online dating. When she meets Steve at a grocery store he seems like a great, charming guy and they go on a few dates. This all occurs over the first 30 minutes of the movie and, at this point, if you didn’t know this were a horror film, you might think you were watching a quirky romantic comedy.
After the first act though, when Steve’s true intentions become known, Fresh reveals itself to be both dark and disturbing. Overall, I really enjoyed Fresh— it’ll definitely have you on the edge of your seat nervous about what’s going to happen.
Unlike a lot of horror movies, Fresh also has a really good protagonist. Noa is likeable and smart; she realizes she’ll have to outwit an adversary who’s physically stronger than her. This is also the type of horror movie where the writer and director are trying to make a point about a larger social issue, but that never really detracts from the enjoyment of the film. If you don’t mind a little twisted horror, Fresh is well worth a viewing.
Grade: 7.5/10