We watch several movies a week. Every Friday, we'll talk a little about some of the movies we watched that we felt were Worth Mentioning.
SCREAM 7 (2026)
When Scream was released in 1996, it was something fresh. A generation of horror fans had just grown up on the slasher movies of the ’70s and ’80s, and now here was a new slasher movie that played into our shared knowledge of the sub-genre, pointing out and having fun with the formula and clichés. That film spawned a franchise – and the deeper into sequel territory we get, the more Scream has become just another cliché-ridden, formulaic series... but at least I enjoyed the latest formulaic sequel more than I enjoyed the previous two.
After lying dormant for eleven years (following a sequel that came along after the franchise laid dormant for eleven years), the Scream franchise was revived with a pair of back-to-back sequels: 2022’s Scream, which was the fifth movie in the series, and 2023’s Scream VI. And unlike the previous films, I just couldn’t really get into these new movies, mainly because I didn’t care about the lead characters.
While the first four movies were directed by the legendary Wes Craven, the duo of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett took over for the fifth and sixth movies (because Craven passed away in 2015). Following the success of those movies, the companies behind the films wanted a seventh movie as soon as possible... so soon, they couldn’t wait for Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett to finish working on their “Dracula’s Daughter” movie Abigail. They hired Happy Death Day and Freaky director Christopher Landon to replace them, a great choice. Then, the project crumbled out from under Landon as it lost returning stars Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega, who had played major roles in the fifth and sixth movies.
What do you do without those characters? Well, you go back to where it all began. The companies crawled back to original franchise star Neve Campbell, who had been in all of the movies until a pay dispute kept her out of Scream VI, and agreed to pay her $7 million to reprise the role of heroine Sidney Prescott. Then, they took a step further and asked original Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson (who also wrote Scream 2 and drafts of Scream 4) to not only direct the film, but also do rewrites on the script crafted by returning 5 and 6 writers Guy Busick and James Vanderbilt.
So, for the first time in a long time, we have a Scream sequel with Sidney back where she should be: front and center. And as a middle-aged person who grew up on the original trilogy of films, I welcomed her back with open arms. This movie brought me back to the good ol’ days of Scream; this felt more like what I want out of a Scream movie than the previous two films ever did.
Sidney is living in Pine Grove, Indiana with her police officer husband Mark Evans (Joel McHale) and their three children, although the little ones are off staying with Grandma Evans during the events of this film. The only kid who stayed behind is teenager Tatum (Isabel May), and Sidney starts receiving not only the usual Ghostface phone calls, but also videos that show an older, scarred Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) – one of the killers from the original film, who has been believed to be dead for thirty years – threatening her daughter.
And we’re off, with a Ghostface killer slashing their way through Tatum’s friend group and attacking her family. The new batch of characters don’t make much of an impression at all, but they get killed off in some fun ways, and there are some great Ghostface action and suspense set pieces in this movie, including one where Sidney and Tatum try to navigate through the walls of their house without being heard by the killer (they don’t succeed) and another where Sidney has to watch an encounter between Tatum and the killer through the security cameras of the coffee shop she owns, while talking to Tatum on the phone and telling her where the killer is in the building.
The relationship between Sidney and Tatum is the heart of the movie, and I was perfectly satisfied with that. The side characters didn’t matter much to me. Of course, Courteney Cox is back as reporter Gale Weathers (she hasn’t missed out on any of these films), and she also has some good interactions with Sidney.
Four characters introduced in the fifth movie referred to themselves as the “Core Four” in Scream VI, and two of the four are back for this movie – Jasmin Savoy Brown and Mason Gooding as twins Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin. They enter the picture with Gale, and while I never liked these characters very much, at least I didn’t find them annoying in this movie like I did previously. I get the feeling that Williamson didn’t care much about them, either, because they’re around for a little while, have some decent scenes, then disappear.
For years, fans have been theorizing that Stu Macher might still be alive. Those theories were acknowledged in Scream VI, and now Scream 7 plays right into the idea with the Stu video calls. Sidney tries to solve the mystery of whether or not Stu is alive, and the answer might please some fans while disappointing others. (Williamson has said that test screening audiences made the ultimate decision.) I will say that the final reveal of Ghostface’s identity is incredibly underwhelming and almost feels like it was just dropped in as an afterthought. “Oh, we have to reveal the killer’s identity, don’t we?”
For me, one of the most irritating elements of the Scream formula are the over-the-top endings where the latest Ghostface killer is (or killers are) revealed so they can monologue about their motivations. These scenes have gotten tired and ridiculous. I didn’t like them in the previous two movies, and this one follows suit.
And yet, that didn’t bring down my overall opinion of the movie. I had fun with Scream 7 and thought Williamson did a good job directing it, shooting some Ghostface scenes in a way that brought to mind Michael Myers scenes in the Halloween franchise and even dropping in a My Bloody Valentine tribute kill.
PRIMATE (2025)
I’m starting to feel that Johannes Roberts is one of the most underrated genre filmmakers working today. You don’t hear much talk about him, but he has been making movies for twenty-five years now, and I have been particularly impressed by the work he has done over the last decade. In that time, he has delivered a great shark thriller with 47 Meters Down, a good follow-up with 47 Meters Down: Uncaged, the fun sequel The Strangers: Prey at Night, a Resident Evil movie (Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City) that was closer to the source material than the previous live-action films (and probably would have had a better reception if it had been released twenty years earlier), and now Primate, an “animal attack” horror movie that is an absolute blast. In fact, the review we ran on JoBlo.com called it “a bloodbath of fun,” and I completely agree with that.
The story takes place in a cliff-side mansion in Hawaii, where Lucy Pinborough (Johnny Sequoyah) and her younger sister Erin (Gia Hunter) live with their wealthy author father, Adam (Troy Kotsur)... and their pet chimpanzee, Ben. Lucy and Erin’s late mother was a linguistics professor who taught chimps to communicate and brought Ben home from work with her. He’s a nice little guy – but by the time we meet him in the movie, he has already been infected with rabies thanks to a sick mongoose that got into his enclosure.
Lucy has come home from college accompanied by two friends, Kate (Victoria Wyant) and Hannah (Jessica Alexander). While Adam is out at a book signing, the girls plan to party with Kate’s brother Nick (Benjamin Cheng) and maybe a couple of guys they met on the plane – but the good times end and the characters are dropped into a terrifying living nightmare when the sick Ben turns violent.
The majority of the film has characters trapped on the Pinborough property with a very pissed off chimp and trying to figure out how to escape from this scenario, retreating to the swimming pool (because rabid animals hate water, and Ben can’t swim anyway) every time an escape attempt falls through. Roberts and Ernest Riera make this situation riveting – which isn’t surprising, since they also managed to make an entire movie (47 Meters Down) about two characters trapped at the bottom of shark-infested waters.
Not everyone is able to avoid Ben’s grasp throughout the movie... in fact, several of them are on the receiving end of the chimp’s sickness-fueled violent rage, and he makes a bloody mess of them. Thus the “bloodbath of fun” description.
Primate is an awesome, unnerving, entertaining movie with a cool synth score and some nice lighting. While the movie is firmly set in modern day, complete with smart phones and text messages, the music combined with the look of it, where many scenes are bathed in blue glow, give it a sort of dreamy ‘80s feel. I loved it.
I have to note that I have met Johannes Roberts in person, as I visited the set of The Strangers: Prey at Night and he was kind enough to answer my (most likely lackluster) questions while having his lunch on set, but the fact that I met him has no bearing on the fact that I think he's underrated. I just think he makes enjoyable movies and deserves more credit for them.
TERMINAL INVASION (2002)
2002 was a big year for Sean S. Cunningham, the producer/director of the original Friday the 13th. After skipping the sequels of the ‘80s, he had returned to the F13 franchise as a producer, and in 2002 the delayed sequel Jason X was released, the A Nightmare on Elm Street crossover Freddy vs. Jason went into production – and he produced and directed the sci-fi horror film Terminal Invasion, which made its debut on the Sci-Fi Channel the week Freddy vs. Jason started filming.
Scripted by John Jarrell, Robinson Young, and Lewis Abernathy (who wrote an early rejected draft of Freddy vs. Jason), the story begins with a pair of police officers transferring a convicted murderer who’s named Jack and played by Bruce Campbell (best known for being the hero Ash in the Evil Dead franchise) to Death Row. Icy conditions and a coffee mishap cause their vehicle to crash off the road, and they trudge their way to a nearby small airport while a blizzard blows in.
By the 11 minute point, we’ve already been introduced to the handful of characters that are stuck in this airport – and then a preacher attacks and kills the two police officers, confirming that violent, shapeshifting aliens are also hiding out in the airport!
So, we’ve got a twist on John Carpenter’s The Thing going on here, as the characters have to wonder which of the airport inhabitants is an alien. Instead of Kurt Russell as a helicopter pilot, we have Bruce Campbell as a homicidal hero... which, if you’re going to swap out Russell for anybody, Campbell is the actor to go for. As for why Jack was headed to Death Row, don’t worry about it. As he tells another person stuck in this situation, “You don't have to worry about who I killed last, only who I’m gonna kill next.”
The good news for the characters is that these shapeshifters aren’t as monstrous as the creature in The Thing, and when the aliens attack they can be taken down just like the zombies in a George A. Romero movie, with a shot in the head. There’s also a way to tell who’s an alien, and it’s not a blood test like in The Thing: you just have to run people through the airport’s x-ray machine. Of course, the first time the machine detects an alien, that’s the end of the machine.
Terminal Invasion was made on a low budget and has a lot of scenes of people talking in small rooms, but it has its moments of action – and one fun thing about the movie is the fact that nobody is safe. Just because there’s an elderly woman and a couple of children in the airport doesn’t mean there’s still going to be an elderly woman or children around by the time the end credits roll.
Bruce Campbell is the main draw, and if you’re a fan of the man, you’ll enjoy watching him play Jack. He's got some of that Ash attitude, and after he ditches his prison duds, he ends up dressing a lot like Ash, too. Co-star Chase Masterson, who plays pilot / airport owner Cathy Garrett, also has a large fan following, and her character proves to be a good sidekick for Jack to have in this situation.
Terminal Invasion is fairly lackluster, but it’s not a bad way to waste 80 minutes – and not only is it from the director of Friday the 13th, it also sports a score by Friday the 13th franchise composer Harry Manfredini, who recycled some Jason X music here. The movie was a hit for the Sci-Fi Channel, becoming the third highest-rated original movie on the channel at the time, paving the way for Campbell to make a couple more projects for Sci-Fi. Unfortunately, the fact that he had an established working relationship with Sean S. Cunningham did not help convince him to sign on for the proposed crossover sequel Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash a couple of years later.
KISS THE GIRLS (1997)
In 1993, author James Patterson introduced readers to Alex Cross, an African-American detective for the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C. That introduction came in a novel called Along Came a Spider – and Patterson was so successful at getting readers interested in Cross and the mysteries he crafted around the character, Along Came a Spider launched a franchise that now consists of more than thirty novels. But that wasn’t the first book to receive a film adaptation. Cross was first brought to the screen in a 1997 adaptation of the second novel in the series, Kiss the Girls, which was published in ‘95.
Director Gary Fleder and screenwriter David Klass had a 460+ page book to work with, so they had to pare things down, dropping subplots and removing some characters (don’t expect to see Cross’s two children or grandma in this movie). But they kept the most important elements from the book – and ended up delivering a great thriller.
Morgan Freeman turned sixty the same year this movie was released, so he was a couple decades too old to be playing Alex Cross... but really, age be damned. If you have the chance to cast Freeman as the intelligent, empathetic lead character in your ‘90s thriller, you cast him.
The story gets rolling when Cross is informed that his niece Naomi has been taken by a serial killer in North Carolina. This guy calls himself Casanova and thinks he’s a great lover of women. He keeps multiple women captive at the same time, hidden in an underground lair... And when he falls out of love with them, he takes them out into the woods and murders them.
Cross goes to North Carolina to participate in the investigation. Around the time of his arrival, another woman is abducted: Doctor Kate McTiernan, who’s a kickboxer in her spare time. It doesn’t take long for Kate to escape from Casanova’s clutches in a sequence that features an excellent stunt. Kate doesn’t just go over a waterfall, she jumps from a higher point and falls through the waterfall on her way down. But once she’s back in civilization, she doesn’t know where the killer’s lair is. She can’t lead the authorities back to his door. That doesn’t keep her from helping out in the investigation, befriending Cross, and even accompanying him on a trip to California, where it’s revealed that there’s a second serial killer, the Gentleman Caller, who is in contact with Casanova. They share the twisted details of their crimes with each other.
A great supporting cast was assembled around Freeman. Tony Goldwyn plays the Gentleman Caller, and has a great voice for voice-over moments. Cary Elwes and Alex McArthur play cops Cross works with in North Carolina. Bill Nunn appears as Cross’s best friend and partner. Brian Cox is a police chief. Jeremy Piven has a small role as a California cop. William Converse-Roberts plays a suspicious professor. Gina Ravera is Cross’s niece, with Richard T. Jones as her boyfriend. Jay O. Sanders plays FBI agent Kyle Craig – a recurring character in the novels who turns out to be a very bad guy and, ultimately, Cross’s arch-nemesis.
Ashley Judd was cast as Kate McTiernan and turns in a great performance. At the time of the film’s release, she proudly promoted it as an old-fashioned thriller, and was happy to hear when viewers were scared by it. Or when the events on the screen sent a chill through them. She just doesn’t want viewers to enjoy the movie too much – and these days, she might question any fans who cross paths with her because “male sexual violence and male torture of women is not entertainment, and that’s what that movie is about.”
It’s certainly not nice to see what happens to the female victims in this film, but viewers who enjoy a good, old-fashioned thriller shouldn’t have their taste questioned. Kiss the Girls is a well-crafted movie and the mystery of the killers’ identities plays out in an intriguing way. That’s what’s entertaining about it. And in the end, you get to see the bad guys receive comeuppance for what they’ve done.
Almost thirty years after it was released, Kiss the Girls still holds up as a good, old-fashioned thriller that’s worth revisiting.
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