back to list

The motive ruined it for me...

damehelsing at 12:00AM, Oct. 17, 2021
likes!


I want to play a game…

Here we go lads, lasses, dummy thicc axes, I meant to do a movie review for Scream last week but I saw The Ruins and just felt the need to get into it.

Anyway for Scream! So, be warned, there are spoilers, probably bad jokes and whatever else that I normally do.

Also, just a heads up, I don’t have the movie, I did watch it earlier this year but I’ve only watched it twice ever in my life soo… if I get some things wrong, I am sorry, I am entirely basing this review off of my memory of it.

Now, let’s dive into it!

Synopsis

The story starts off with what I say is probably the most iconic part of the movie ever, Dylan from Charlie’s Angels making some sweet classic style popcorn, seriously, I love making popcorn like this, it’s way more exciting than just popping it in the microwave.

And then of course, the phone rings and who is it?
It’s Charlie with a new assignment.


Jk. It’s Ghostface wanting to see the Angel’s insides.
After some taunting and Casey (Drew Barrymore) finding her bf is completely clapped from Ghostface outside her house, a very decent fight and chase scene happens, seriously, I think she actually did really well and it sucks that she had to die.

That same night we get to see this gorgeous human being:
who is Sidney
and we find out she’s dating some dude named Skeet – I mean Billy, Skeet is the name of the actor.
what kind of name is Skeet?
after Billy manages to get into her room, and causing a scare out of Sidney, Sidney’s dad checks on her and he mentions about a trip he’s taking for the weekend and just in general, like a good dad, making sure she’s okay!
We learn that the relationship between Sidney and Billy used to be very hot and heavy but Sidney has an underwear rule.
DON’T TOUCH THE NO-NO ZONE BILLY.


The next day police and camera crew are everywhere. We meet Monica from Friends, where I guess she decided to quit her dream as a chef to become a reporter. She informs the world about the murder of Casey Becker and her bf (I forgot his name) and soon after we see Sidney get jumpscared by Tatum where Tatum provides Sidney with the information about everything that went down, who was killed and how. Through this we learn that Tatum has a brother named Dewey, who works with the police and we also learn that Sidney’s mom died and her death was tragic to the point it really impacted the town and kind of forever shined a light over Sidney wherever she walked.

The police are interrogating the whole school and now when it’s time for Sidney to go we don’t learn much besides that her principal is kind of a creep. Seriously.

Then scene changes to a group of friends hanging out. Even Shaggy is here. Where the eff was Shaggy for “I Know What You Did Last Summer”???
The friends are: Sidney, Tatum, Billy, Stu and Randy.

Anyway, their conversation is graphic and Sidney recoils to basically everything so it really gives us an idea of what happened to her mom and how this affected her.

After Sidney gets home and night falls she gets the phone call too.

“Sidney, this is Charlie and I want you to become my newest Angel.”

A new fight scene occurs and Sidney puts up a good fight and uses her smarts to escape, she locks herself in her room using her closet door but soon after Billy shows up at her window. CONVENIENT TIMING THERE, BILLY BOY.
After Sidney is comforted by a sweaty Billy she sees he has a cellular phone which… I guess… makes him the killer automatically? If he had dropped a knife that would have been one thing but a phone is just.. a stretch?? But I guess given the convenient timing it makes sense.

Sidney runs and luckily the police arrive in the nick of time and in poor taste…

but unintentionally poor taste I hope.

They arrest Billy and he’s taken away.

Tatum arrives late because of course she does, and she highly disrespects her brother in front of his colleagues and it’s just super bitchy of her.

At the police station it’s revealed they can’t get a hold of Sidney’s dad, and they’re also questioning Billy which makes this scene super awkward and I imagine incredibly scary for Sidney.
They have plans to use the phone records to see if Billy made those calls or not.

Afterward, Sidney is escorted out the back way of the police station by Dewey and Tatum but unfortunately Gale (Monica) uses her big brain and goes that way too where she finds Sidney.
Sidney let’s Gale question her because she’s got built up rage and asks about the book Gale is writing, when Gale mentions sending a copy to Sidney, Sidney gives a good punch straight to the face which was sooo satisfying to watch.

Sidney is sleeping over at Tatum’s where she gets another phone call, revealing that it wasn’t Billy because he was being held until they had a copy of his phone records.
This killer also taunts Sidney, saying she got the wrong guy… again, referencing her mother’s murder.

The next morning, the news is discussing Sidney’s attack and they go into what happened to her mother, revealing she was raped and murdered. Which, would traumatize any child and I totally get her underwear rule and probably super discouraged attitude towards having a sexual relationship.

Sidney is informed by Dewey that Billy was released, his records were clean. Awkwarddddd.

Before Sidney goes to school she has a talk with Gale, unfortunately we don’t get to see her with a shiner, either “make up” or the punch wasn’t that hard. They talk about the murder of Sidney’s mom and Gale says she still believes Cotton (the guy who Sidney identified as her mom’s killer) was falsely identified and now Sidney even doubts herself after everything that’s going.
Gale is determined to find proof that Cotton is innocent because book salesss yasss queeen, get it.

I’m gonna try to speedy with this, during school, kids are being assholes, running around with the ghostface mask, Sidney bumps into Billy, she says she doesn’t think it’s him, she tries to apologize and ask him to understand her side but he’s salty about what happened, understandably so, then he tells her to get over her mom’s death that it’s been a year which is really fucked up, he tried comparing it to his own situation how his mom left his dead and Sidney is like “That’s not the same thing.” and it’s not, leaving your family is far different from dying. Ok my dude? Ok.

The Principal seizes the masks that the kids had, expels them and moves on, Sidney heads to the bathroom where she hears girls talking crap about her and this absolutely destroys her, because they’re being really fucking cruel. Then she hears whispers in the bathroom and she’s being taunted again and chased.

Then comes Gale, she’s here to seduce Dewey because that poor man is so damn gullible. She gets minor information out of him but this is where she begins to use her powers as a woman to get what she wants.

After what happened with Sidney, the school decided to suspend classes until further notice and a party is promised later on that night.

While in the school, the principal goes on with his title of creep and wears the mask, but then gets butchered. Because why not? I think it was to cross him off of the list of suspects for the audience.

At a video store, where one of the friends works, Randy, starts dishing out his theories, saying that he thinks its Billy because it just makes sense in a weird way, and… statistics do show that you’re more likely to be murdered by someone you know.

At the police station, Sheriff Burke and Deputy Dewey are having a conversation where it’s stated that the calls made to Sidney were actually by her father, Dewey is a little sus, but Burke mentions that the very next day is the anniversary of Sidney’s mom.

Later, it’s night time and partying has begun. Dewey arrives with Gale because he has the dumb-dumb brain. Gale sneaks a camera into the house so she can watch all the movements of the teens.

Tatum goes to get her boyfriend a beer because… sexism. I think. She gets the beer and soon she’s also attacked but she does a decent fight, really hits the killer where it hurts,

unfortunately she’s clapped by the garage door.
No one notices and the night goes on.

Billy arrives at the party, convenient timing yet again, to talk to Sidney, Sidney takes him upstairs to a bedroom and they go from PG-13 to a good old Adult rating.

Funnily enough, downstairs their watching Halloween and Randy, being the movie nerd that he is, lists the rules that one must abide to survive a horror movie, one of them happens to be “being a virgin” WHAT IS SIDNEY DOING RIGHT NOW? SHE’S GETTING THE D.

While Gale and her cameraman are watching the video feed (which FYI, there is a 30 second delay) Dewey knocks on the truck and informs her that a car has been found in the bushes and invites her to go check it out with him, she accepts and they go. This is where Dewey sees that the car is Neil Prescott’s car, Sidney’s dad.

We go back to Sidney and Billy, they just finished doing the nasty and immediately after, Sidney wants to know who Billy called, since you’re allowed one phone call when detained. Normally you call your lawyer I think? I’m not 100% sure but Billy is acting sus and says he called his dad and Sidney just mentions how if he called her while he was detained, it would have been a smart move to throw her off.
Billy is upset and gets close to Sidney, asking what does he have to do to make her believe it’s not him? That’s when Ghostface shows up with perfect timing for the stabbing.

A NEW CHASE SCENE HAS BEGUN. Sidney, using her extremely big brain outruns the butt-stabber and fucks off.
While Sidney is off running, Ghostface goes downstairs to murder Randy who is drunkenly watching Halloween, but Ghostface gets distracted by Sidney’s screams for help.

Sidney arrives at the news crew van where the cameraman obviously let’s her in, he shows her the camera they have at the house and that’s when the cameraman remembers the 30 second delay and because of this is murdered.

Gale and Dewey arrive back at the house the party was taken place, Dewey goes inside the house and Gale goes inside her van to realize her cameraman was murdered. By the way, the camera man’s name is Kenny, I just had to look it up. Let’s give our thoughts and prayers to Kenny, he was the main star of this movie. Best character.
Anyway, Gale almost runs Sidney over but dodges and instead goes off the road and crashes.
Sidney runs to the deputy’s car, and then to the house to see Dewey leave the house with a knife in his back, so Sidney runs back to the deputy car for safety. She tries to start it but Ghostface taunts her with the keys to the car.
She has a struggle inside the car and soon runs back to the house to grab the gun from Dewey’s corpse.

Sidney then finds a fucked up Randy and sweaty Shaggy, they’re accusing each other of being Ghostface, unsure what to do Sidney gets inside the house and locks them both out.

Billy comes out from the bedroom and falls down the stairs and Sidney immediately runs to him, she hands him the gun and Randy is still at the door, Billy lets him in and then reveals he’s a fucking psycho and shoots him.
Sidney runs the opposite way and runs into Shaggy, who we also learn is in on it.

I’m gonna keep this short, basically we learn that Billy killed Sidney’s mom because Sidney’s mom was getting it on with Billy’s dad which made his mom leave or something and now he’s out for blood because he’s fucking crazy. We also learn the dad is alive and has been hidden by the duo this whole time. Anyway, Sidney wins with the help of Gale and a TV, Sidney, her father, Dewey and Randy make it out alive.

Gale gets to be the legendary reporter that she always wanted to be.

End.

TEARING THIS MOVIE APART.

Ok, so… actually, I didn’t like this movie for one reason, the motive behind the killings is dumb, the whole reason Billy did everything was because his mom abandoned him which, okay, I know things like that can absolutely fuck up a child, but it was just… a bad angle?? And Stu was just in it for the ride.

I guess Shaggy got tired of solving mysteries and wanted to make one.
I’m also still not sure if the Sidney’s mom was sexually assaulted because she did have sex with Cotton that night, so depending on what happened and how soon it was, yes, it could be viewed as sexual assault, but once again, it’s been awhile since I’ve seen this movie and… I just didn’t enjoy it so I don’t remember the details, really.

I think all characters put up a good fight, they did some smart things and some dumb things.
The only fight scene I hated was Tatum’s because… I just don’t know why she didn’t open the garage to escape?? The garage opens fairly quickly and she’s a small enough girl where when it got to a decent height she could have for sure squeezed out… but she went for the doggy hole which just wasn’t a good idea, at all. Also, THERE WAS SO MUCH STUFF IN THAT GARAGE SHE COULD HAVE USED AS A WEAPON.

The big twist of this movie for me was learning that there were actually two killers and not one, I thought that was clever.

Honestly, this movie is cleverly done but I just hate the motive. I think it sucks.

Would I rewatch this movie? No. Would I rewatch it with friends? No.

Would I recommend it to someone who hasn’t seen it before? Sure, but only if they watched other movies I listed before this one. :p

I'm sure you can all tell I really did not care for the movie too much with the amount of very obvious love I poured into this review.
It's just… meh. The ending is really what ruined it for me. I enjoyed the whole thing but the ending was poopoo.

I hope you enjoyed the movie review and I'll see you next Sunday ;)

comment

anonymous?

EssayBee at 5:09PM, Oct. 17, 2021

As for the rules--the did exist. Even back in the early 80s when Sam Raimi was conceiving The Evil Dead, he named the hero Ashley as a nod to the final girl trope, but turned it on its head by having Ashely be male. That was in 1982. True, there wasn't a bible on how to do a slasher movie, but the tropes were really well established, and calling them "rules" is really just a matter of semantics. I do agree Scream isn't horror--it's a thriller.

EssayBee at 5:05PM, Oct. 17, 2021

Good memories of seeing the first two Screams in packed theaters of rowdy college kids. They were great at deconstructing and having fun with the genre while staying true to the rules and not becoming parody--a very difficult line to walk. Plus, some scenes are brilliantly staged. The opening phone and its quickly mounting dread is incredible, and the game of unlock the door is great. Although it has numerous kills, it's one of the few slashers where the prey gets away from time to time or puts up a good fight. And the "bored, privileged white kid" killer angle was pretty relevant in the 90s, with cases like the Menendez brothers.

hushicho at 2:10PM, Oct. 17, 2021

I always hated all the Scream films. They think they're much cleverer than they are. Scary Movie really is much better, and plus, Scary Movie has characters like Brenda you actually want to see and enjoy when they're on the screen. One of the things I hated most about Scream was how it presumed to establish "rules" that were mostly never anything of the sort, but stupid people got on the bandwagon as stupid people do, and now we have so many movies presuming that those rules are real things and either playing exactly by them, or subverting rules that don't exist. Scream had a fine cast, but it was a badly-written attempt at slasher horror comedy that was neither horror nor comedy, it was just appalling and off-putting. In my opinion, anyway.

Banes at 7:32AM, Oct. 17, 2021

I've got Scream on the brain again lately, not sure why. Then seeing the trailer for the new one has brought it even more to my thoughts. You have a good memory for a lot of details, having only seen the flick twice!

Andreas_Helixfinger at 1:36AM, Oct. 17, 2021

Hey! We all knew Shaggy was gonna snap at some point. One spooky mystery with the scooby gang was gonna be one too many for the guy one of these spooky nights^^

bravo1102 at 12:35AM, Oct. 17, 2021

You forgot to mention that the principal was Fonzi. The only reason I saw this was to better understand the gags in Scary Movie-- a much better take on the story. Wazzzz uuuupp


Forgot Password
©2011 WOWIO, Inc. All Rights Reserved Mastodon