Sorry, this movie sucks

Memorable, crazy movie

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

SCREAM is one of those movies that everyone hates, and it's perfectly understandable why (this is one of the only slashers I've seen where, so far, every single review on IMDb has been negative). However, I managed to find the good in this movie that everyone else is overlooking.A group of people (it's never explained if they're friends, coworkers, family members, or what) are on a rafting trip down the Rio Grande when they decide to spend the night in an abandoned ghost town miles away from civilization. Soon, one of them is killed. Then another. And another. Could it be someone in the group? Or is it an outsider? Or could it even be something that isn't quite human? Yes, SCREAM is indeed one of the slowest slashers of the decade. It is also one of the least bloody. But still, there's a certain charm under all the crap that doesn't quite make its way through to the audience. First off, SCREAM is a slow-burn in every meaning of the term. The film sets its own pace (that of a snail) and follows it all throughout. But you know what? I like that. It's a nice, mellow movie that I would pair with THE PREY (1984) as far as movies I would want to watch at three in the morning go. You fall asleep during HALLOWEEN? You miss plot points! You fall asleep during SCREAM? You miss absolutely nothing! SCREAM is also a movie completely drenched in atmosphere. Any serious-minded horror flick featuring a ghost town is bound to be creepy, and this is no exception. The film opens on a rather creepy note with the butcher, the baker, and the candlestick maker wax figures all in row. The camera zooms in on a clock striking midnight, the camera pans back, the butcher's cleaver has blood on it, and the other two figurines' heads have been lopped off. Then the butcher's eyes move! Another standout scene is when one character finds he is trapped in a room with something in one of the sleeping bags and breathing heavily.Both a good and a bad thing is that the characters are really stupid! They constantly go by themselves into dark rooms after people have been killed, and it is a good thing because it does manage to generate some suspense. I guess we're supposed to assume supernatural forces are making them do this, but it is never fully explained.Another complaint people have is that nothing is ever explained in this movie. I'm guessing the audience is supposed to assume that the ghost of a pirate is killing off these people. Also, the film sets up a huge body count in this large group of vacationers, yet most of them survive, including every single female! That's certainly a rarity in the subgenre, and I liked how they at least mixed things up a little bit (as well as making a lot of the characters middle-aged).The acting was a mishmash of good and bad, with some actors looking really invested in the film and others looking like they're reading their lines off a teleprompter. Some of the bad writing does lead to some pretty unintentionally funny moments (one character screaming is head off and running away when a spider crawls on his hand, then just standing there in a state of shock when one of the characters is murdered just one or two feet away from him), and some funny dialogue ("I won't let anyone tell me what to do, especially a FEMALE!") This isn't really an accomplished film (it's obviously made by a first-time director, actors, and, well, basically everyone) by any means, but I found it to be an alright timewaster, especially if you're feeling drowsy but you need to watch a movie before you go to bed. Or if you have insomnia. Take your pick, but just watch it no matter what the case. Unfortunately, both of this film's titles (SCREAM and THE OUTING) have been taken by later and better films (THE OUTING was a great 1987 killer genie flick).

Starts off with a slow pan across an old room, with a painting of a ship rolling in rough water, and over to a mantel. The mantel has three figurines on it, a butcher, a baker and (I'm guessing) a candlestick maker. Above the mantel is a painting, which we don't get to see, and on the mantel is also a clock that is striking 12 o'clock.The camera then pans back to the figurines, and the baker and candlestick maker have lost their heads. Both heads are at their feet, and the latter's appears to have blood on it, while the former is still rocking. The butcher has blood on his apron. Then in a close-up, his eyes move.From here, there's a rafting trip. They stop in a ghost town to stay the night. None of the people are given any identities. Some people get killed offscreen. The only time blood is seen is when one of the weapons is shown, since the killer apparently can't be bothered to clean the blood off them. The rafts disappear. The people decide to stay in the town, rather than walking to a real town, or just floating down the river without the rafts. A few other people show up, but they're not much help.At the end of the movie, the room from the opening scene is shown again. We see the painting, and also the butcher has also lost his head, and there's some voice-over, but I couldn't understand what it was saying at all. Bad.

Scream, or the Outing as it's known in the UK, has one of the most bizarre opening scenes I've ever seen. A slow moving camera shot over some horrible wallpaper revealing a painting of a boat in an incredibly cheap wooden frame, eventually the camera comes to rest on an antique looking clock (considering the films budget it's probably a fake) which is striking 12 O'clock. The camera then moves along to three doll like figures, two of which are decapitated & the third has splashes of blood on it, then the film cuts to the opening credits & three rafts travelling downriver. At this point I was confused about the painting, clock & figures. Unfortunately the filmmakers don't really care & it never becomes clear what the opening was all about, although I will return to this opening scene later. Anyway, three rafts stop ashore and the passengers get off. They are all on a $100 each tour. The guides, two cowboys called Stan (Etan Wayne) & Rudy (Joseph Alvarado) lead them to a deserted ghost town for the night. Just think of an old western set & your pretty much there. Everyone starts to bed down for the night, in sleeping bags on dusty floors no less. Great holiday choice. While outside on his own having a cigarette an old man named Allen (Alvy Moore) is hung. Some woman whose name is never mentioned finds him. After everyone has finished discussing the situation and decided that there is a killer running around a fat guy with a beard named Ross (Gregg Palmer) thinks going outside on his own in the dark to fetch a can of beer is a good idea, hey this guy deserves to die. Luckily the killer does his job and Ross is dead within minutes. The next morning the rafts are gone, the remaining tourists are trapped. Luckily two bikers show up, Rod (Bobby Diamond) & Jerry (John Nowak). Unluckily their soon both dead, along with another couple of our main group. And that's about it as the film plods along as they try and survive the night, half way through which a man on a horse named Charlie Winters (Woody Strode) and his Rotwieler turns up, tells them a story about how he used to be a Sailor & then rides off again! I really don't want to discuss Scream anymore so if you want to find out how it all comes together and ends then you'll have to track a copy down & watch it for yourself, although I'd strongly advise against it! Executive produced, written & directed by Byron Quisenberry this is one sorry lame excuse for a horror film. First lets talk about the script, most of the characters are never given a name & absolutely no personalities or background. This makes caring and emoting with anyone almost totally impossible, none of the characters are given any human qualities. Nor do we discover anybodies relationship with anyone else. Logic, or a lack of it to be more precise, why do people insist on splitting up all the time when there's a psycho killer running around? The killer or their motives are never revealed, hell we don't even know whether their a man or woman. The film as a whole is also very slow, boring & ultimately frustrating because nothing is explained or revealed to keep anyone unlucky enough to be watching this interested, & I haven't forgot about that opening scene which still baffles me even now! Almost the exact same shot is repeated at the very end of the film too, only this time all three figures are decapitated and the camera zooms in on the painting and reveals the date which is '1891' & then the film finishes and the end credits roll, what the hell is all that about?! Forget about any decent murders or gore, there's a meat cleaver with some blood on it and a decapitation from a really bad camera angle that basically shows the viewer nothing. That's it, I can't remember anything else that might keep you awake. On a positive note, hey I'm trying to be generous here OK, there is a cool shot where the camera moves along a wall with the killers collection of weapons, an axe, a meat cleaver & a scythe which as I said is quite a cool shot, unfortunately the killer doesn't really use them to any great effect. It is also competently made, not brilliant but at the same time not too bad, & that's about it for good points I'm afraid. Scream is absolutely terrible & doesn't deliver anything that a slasher film should, avoid at all costs. Trust me you'll be glad you did.

Dull as ditchwater supernatural adventure which was obviously rush-released to cash-in on the FRIDAY THE 13TH inspired craze that swept the early eighties and gave us many a duff budgie! This was let loose in the US under the moniker of SCREAM, which of course, became the title of Wes Craven's blockbuster slasher some eleven years later.Well it all commences creepily enough; the camera leisurely pans an old looking room until the shot halts at an ancient clock, which stands beside a small statue. As the hour hand on the timepiece reaches 12o' clock, the eyes on the small figure move and suddenly, the words THE OUTING shroud the screen… Skip to 12 tourists heading down the infamous Rio Grande river of Texas, on small boats. The hapless gang of campers - who are cheerily sporting cowboy hats and baseball caps – ditch their rafts and begin to hike up a remote mountain where they find what looks to be a small desolate ‘old western' town. As soon as they've stepped upon the soil, one lassie keeps things routine by stating that she has `the strangest feeling'… Hmmm, indeed! The group set up camp in the abandoned site and settle down to rest for the night. Just after darkness has filled the lonely star studded sky, one unlucky guy heads out for a midnight stroll and to cut a long story short, he ends up hanging from the ceiling with a rope around his neck, killed by an assailant whom we don't get to see! Before long, another victim has been butchered in an inexplicable way and the posse at first suspects that one of there own luckless pack may well be a psychopath. As more of the friends wander off, only to fall prey to the remorseless assassin, it becomes evident that a bizarre supernatural force is at work. Stranded on the secluded region and without any weapons, the band realise that they must somehow defend themselves against this ruthless murderer…It's a real shame that first (and last) time director Byron Quinsenberry didn't make good use of the advantages that his flick had started out with. Although there were obviously visible financial constraints to contend with, the excellent set location could have been successfully turned into a decent backdrop for a satisfying bloodbath. Instead we got a lazy inane mess of a movie that doesn't even manage to resolve itself…With 14 typically hapless cast members to ‘cut up', you'd think that there'd be a body count to rival that of a snuff movie, but I'm afraid you wont find that hidden anywhere near here. Instead we get 5 or 6 meagre murders with no special effects or any engrossing gore at all, whatsoever. In the first, a guy gets hung from the ceiling by a rope. We only see his suspended corpse for half a second, obviously because the dummy that they were using was so unrealistic! Another gripe (and don't worry I've got loads to mention) is how we never got time to get to know any of the cast. The only one who was slightly memorable was the traditional annoying fat guy, who was more or less the star, only because he got at least three scenes to himself! We don't even get an explanation as to who or what is killing everyone and his identity and motives are left unsolved. Towards the finale, an old, strange looking cowboy pulls up on a horse and sits down to talk to the terrified victims. I immediately thought that he would tell us a bit about the assassin or maybe even a loveable clichéd tale starting with something like `Didn't you know the story of…' However as an alternative and totally incoherent gesture, he tells the campers that he used to be a sailor and then gallops off into the gloomy midnight sky! What the hell?! And then to add insult to injury, the most brain boggling ending ever to invade my TV screen left me totally bewildered!Even fans of eighties cheese will be disappointed; there's hardly any un-contemplated laughs, except maybe for the way that the casualties fall prey to the lacklustre killer. It's a real horseplay filled ride. Watch how one guys gets killed, another goes to search for him, and then gets killed etc. And even when the survivors are aware that there's some kind of strange evil surrounding them, they still find time to wander off into doors that mysteriously open by themselves or go out to find out just what that creepy noise was! Maybe one day I'll find a slasher where the victims actually have brains!To be fair, I think that this attempt may have suffered some problems throughout its production. Filming began in 1981, and it didn't come out until '85. Maybe that's why there are so many inconsistencies in the story and why it looks so rushed. Still, that's no excuse to release a film as bad as THE OUTING. At times this felt like a helicopter without a propeller because no matter how hard it tried, it never managed to take off! Unfortunately this is one to be avoided.