Tag: social commentary
2051 – No Exit (2022)
timespace coordinates: isolated highway rest stop in the mountains somewhere on the road from Sacramento to Salt Lake City
No Exit is a 2022 American thriller film directed by Damien Power from a screenplay by Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari, based on the 2017 novel of the same name by Taylor Adams. It stars Havana Rose Liu as a recovering drug addict who discovers a kidnapping in progress while stranded at a rest stop during a blizzard. Danny Ramirez, David Rysdahl, Dale Dickey, and Dennis Haysbert co-star as the four suspects while Mila Harris plays the victim. (wiki)
2049
timespace coordinates: 1990’s / 2020’s Woodsboro, California
Scream (1996 film)
Scream is a 1996 American slasher film directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. The film stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich, Jamie Kennedy, and Drew Barrymore. Released on December 20, it follows Sidney Prescott (Campbell), a high school student who becomes the target of a mysterious killer in a Halloween costume known as Ghostface. The film satirizes the clichés of the slasher genre popularized in films such as Halloween (1978), Friday the 13th (1980) and Craven’s own A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984). Scream was considered unique at the time of its release for featuring characters aware of real-world horror films who openly discussed the clichés that the film attempted to subvert.
Inspired by the real-life case of the Gainesville Ripper, Scream was influenced by Williamson’s passion for horror films, especially Halloween (1978).
The soundtrack by Marco Beltrami was cited as “[one] of the most intriguing horror scores composed in years”. The score has since earned “cult status”. Scream marked a change in the genre as it cast already-established and successful actors, which was considered to have helped it find a wider audience, including a significant female viewership.
Scream was credited with revitalizing the slasher genre in the 1990s, which was considered to be almost dead following an influx of direct-to-video titles and numerous sequels to established horror franchises of the 1970s and 1980s. Scream‘s success spawned a series of sequels. (wiki)
Scream (2022 film)
Scream (also known as Scream 5) is a 2022 American slasher film directed by Radio Silence (Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett). It is the fifth installment in the Scream film series. Though billed as a relaunch of the film series, the film is a direct sequel to Scream 4 (2011) and is the first film in the series to not be directed by Wes Craven, following his death in 2015. The film is dedicated to Craven at the beginning of the closing credits.
The film stars Melissa Barrera, Kyle Gallner, Mason Gooding, Mikey Madison, Dylan Minnette, Jenna Ortega, Jack Quaid, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Sonia Ammar, alongside Roger L. Jackson, Marley Shelton, Skeet Ulrich, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, and Neve Campbell, who reprise their roles from previous installments. The film takes place twenty-five years after the original Woodsboro murders, when yet another Ghostface appears and begins targeting a group of teenagers who are each somehow linked to the original killings. Similar to previous entries, Scream combines the violence of the slasher genre with elements of black comedy and “whodunit” mystery to satirize the trend of reboots and legacy sequels. The film also provides commentary on fandom culture and the divide between “elevated horror” and classic slasher films.
Scream was praised by critics for honoring Craven’s legacy and offering thoughtful meta-commentary on horror films, with some calling it the best of the Scream sequels. The development of a sequel was announced in February 2022. (wiki)
2041 – The Village (2004)
timespace coordinates: small, isolated, 19th-century, Pennsylvania village of Covington
The Village is a 2004 American period thriller film written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, and Brendan Gleeson. (wiki)
2040 – Last Survivors (2021)
timespace coordinates: early 2020’s Montana
Last Survivors (formerly titled SHTF) is a 2021 American thriller film directed by Drew Mylrea and starring Drew Van Acker, Alicia Silverstone and Stephen Moyer. (wiki)
2026 – The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a 2021 American historical thriller film written and directed by Joel Coen and based on the play Macbeth by William Shakespeare. It is the first film directed by one of the Coen brothers without the other’s involvement.
The film stars Denzel Washington, Frances McDormand (who also produced the film), Bertie Carvel, Alex Hassell, Corey Hawkins, Harry Melling, Kathryn Hunter, and Brendan Gleeson.
Leah Greenblatt wrote in Entertainment Weekly that the production designer Stefan Dechant “sets the idea of Sir William’s [sic] traditional Scottish moors against a kind of surreal Calvinist dream world of screaming birds and sharp geometries” (wiki)
2025 – Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a 2021 American supernatural comedy film that was directed by Jason Reitman. The film, which stars Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Bokeem Woodbine, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, and Celeste O’Connor, is the sequel to Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989), and the fourth film in the Ghostbusters franchise.
Thirty-two years after the events of Ghostbusters II, the Ghostbusters have disbanded and their legacy is mostly forgotten. After a single mother and her children move to an Oklahoma farm they inherited from her estranged father, whom they discover was once a Ghostbuster who went on a mission to prevent an apocalypse. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, and Sigourney Weaver appear in supporting roles, reprising their characters from the earlier films. The film is posthumously dedicated to Harold Ramis, who is commemorated in the closing credits. (wiki)
TimeSpace Warps 