Cultural Mining

Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

Last Monday, at Toronto’s Paradise Cinema at Bloor and Ossington, I saw Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951) for the very first time (terrific movie). It’s about a psychopath who kills a stranger’s wife in what he thinks is the perfect murder. Movies about killers are still popular and a lot more violent than they used to be. So this week, I’m looking at three movies about killers and the people they kill. There’s a barista mom who will stop at nothing to unmask a serial killer; a band of high school students fighting off an army of killers; and the heir to a fortune who might become a killer himself.

How To Make a Killing

Wri/Dir: John Patton Ford

Becket Redfellow (Glen Powell) is a rising broker on Wall Street. He plans to make a lot of money, but not by trading stocks. He wants to inherit what is rightly his, and, as his mother made him promise on her death bed, to stop at nothing to get the life he deserves. But standing in his way are six people: his uncles, aunts and cousins, all of whom are ranked higher than he is in the family will, and destined to inherit a veritable fortune. The Redfellows control vast interests worth tens of billions worldwide. But his mother was kicked out of their palatial mansion when she was still a teen. Why? She was pregnant and in love, and refused to give up her son. She introduced him to high society despite their lack of wealth. And there he encountered his childhood crush, a girl named Julia (Margaret Qualley). But Becket’s father dies at his birth, and his mother when he was still a young man, leaving him a  penniless orphan at the mercy of the odious foster system. He still remains on the family’s will, but can only inherit if he’s the last one standing. So will he kill the other heirs, one by one? Or will his moral integrity trump his greed? But now he’s on death row for a crime (he says) he didn’t commit. Is there anything he can do to  stop it?

How to Make a Killing is a fast-moving thriller with a broad streak of black humour throughout. I love the Dickensian plot, though this David Copperfield is morally questionable. Though the story is ostensibly contemporary, it has a decidedly retro feel with its hairstyles, suits and “greed is good” attitude from the 80s and 90s filling boardrooms with more American Psychos and Gordon Gekkos you can shake a stick at. It’s narrated in the form of a confession to a priest on death row hours before his planned execution, which keeps the tension building until the very end. Glen Powell and Margaret Qualley combine their usual charismatic good looks with unsavoury attitudes, giving the film an unusual tenor. 

I quite like this movie.

This is Not a Test

Co-Wri/Dir: Adam MacDonald

It’s a typical sunny day in the Canadian town of Courtège. Five high school students are hanging in the school auditorium, talking about life and scarfing snack-packs in the cafeteria. What’s unusual is the five teens aren’t friends, and they’re the only ones left in the building. There’s Sloane (Olivia Holt) the shy girl who rarely speaks. (Her father is abusive —  her mom moved away a long time ago — and her beloved sister Lily left for good just yesterday.) Grace (Chloe Avakian) is the popular one with an outgoing personality but upset because she misses her mother. Rhys (Froy Gutierrez) is sort of an emo — a sympathetic guy who, it turns out,  is crushing on Sloane, even though they never really met before. Cary (Corteon Moore) is a jock, and the group’s self-proclaimed leader. And then there’s Trace (Carson MacCormac), a regular guy, and the one who questions Cary’s qualifications. 

What has brought them together is a strange disease ripping through their town like a plague. It’s highly contagious, not by coughing or touching, but by biting. Yes, you guessed it, there are zombies in this town… the fast kind. They stumble around aimlessly, or even sleep standing up… until a loud noise gets them running again. And watch out: they’ll attack you and eat you alive if they can catch you. For now, they’re safe: all the doors and windows are blockaded by desks and chairs, the hot water’s still running, lots of food in the cafe, and the electricity still works. And these very different 5 teens are getting along with each other, even pairing off for some fumbling in the dark. But everything goes tits up when their English teacher, Mr Baxter (Luke Macfarlane) invades their space. Is he a perv? Is he infected? Should they let him stay or throw him out to the monsters? And what will the rest of them do, now that the world is ending?

This is Not a Test (the title refers to the repeated government warnings on TV and radio) is a post-apocalyptic drama about a bunch of teens trying to survive in a new reality. Based on the YA novel by Courtney Summers, it feels like The Breakfast Club, but with zombies. I like the tension and the conflict the main characters generate, and the realistic situations, though none of the characters seem all that sympathetic, with self-interest rising to the surface in the face a crisis. I love the austere familiarity of the locations (it was shot in Hamilton, Ontario) and the cold Canadian afternoon moon. The acting is good, too, and I generally like the genre, which means I’ll watch any half-decent zombie flick, and this one’s above average.

I just wish they’d been a bit more creative with the zombies, to set them apart from any standard episode of The Walking Dead.

Scream 7

Co-Wri/Dir: Kevin Williamson

Sidney Prescott-Evans (Neve Campbell) is a survivor. Thirty years ago, a masked-man started killing her friends and classmates, and terrorizing her with cryptic phone calls. She alone managed to defeat the Ghostface Killer (known for its twisted plastic face and flowing black robes) and unmask him. Now, after countless encounters with copycat serial killers adopting the same disguise, at last she has found peace in Pine Grove, a suburb outside Denver. She’s married to the local chief of police, runs a cafe called Little Latte and is happily raising  their teenaged daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). Tatum has a part in the school play and a close group of friends. Sidney intentionally keeps her daughter blissfully unaware of her mother’s violent past. She has equipped their house with quadruple locks on the doors, cameras all around, and a secret safe room. But Sidney can’t escape her reputation. Horror fans everywhere —  including Ben, Tatum’s boyfriend, and Lucas, the boy next door — are in awe of Sidney’s legendary past. But all is not well in Pine Grove. 

Long-dead killers from her past are leaving messages on her phone with the same whiny, scary voice; are they real ordeep fakes? But when the killings start up again, Sidney realizes she can’t run away from Ghostface, she has to fight back. She is joined by her longtime frenemy, ambitious TV journalist Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) who arrives with her young crew — Mindy and Chad —  just in time to file a story about the serial killer.  Will they team up to fight the baddie? And can they protect the naive Tatum from being slaughtered? Or is never-ending blood Sidney’s curse?

Scream 7 is the latest in a long-running slasher/thriller series. It’s scary, funny, and ironic;  the first horror franchise that makes fun of its own genre, where both the victims and their killers all know the conventions of these movies. (To make it totally meta, past episodes are called Stab, not Scream, but the pop culture all around them precisely mirrors previous Scream movies.) I love the way it returns to its roots by incorporating long dead characters from past movies. Maybe I’ve mentally blocked out previous Scream films, but this one seems particularly gory and disgusting, showing horribly mutilated bodies and faces, where the camera used to turn away (Maybe I’m wrong). But other than that, I found it hugely entertaining. Whether you’re a fan of the series or a first-timer, I think you’ll find it fun to watch.

Scream 7 and This is Not a Test both open this weekend in Toronto, check your local listings; and How to Make a Killing is playing now.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com