my favorite year: serial killer movie reviews

Mindhunters (2004)

Plot: FBI profilers (Mindhunters) in training, obvious leader J.D. (Christian Slater), Cocky Lucas (Jonny Lee Miller), Sara (Kathryn Morris) and others are taken, by harsh, maverick style instructor Jake (Val Kilmer), to a training Island with its own deserted town, Utility works (where most of the action takes place). The plan is to profile & catch a mock serial killer known as The Puppetmaster loose in the town.

The team are made instantly uneasy by the addition of Gabe (LL Cool J) who gives them little information. So my the time they reach the island conspiracy theories about his inclusion are rife this isn’t helped by the major mind fuck of intricate traps & tasks with fatal consequences picking of the Mindhunters one by one in increasingly ingenious ways.

Extreme puppeteering

The fingers point in all directions, they get more & more paranoid. They’re all profilers so they make assumptions about everything that happens, continually leading them to different suspects. Early contenders are newbie Gabe or Jake but this is no training game.

Every attempt to call for help or escape the island leads to another trap

How well do they really know each other? can they really trust anyone?

Cool laser blasters. Must have missed that bit

Is it good: It’s pretty good. Much better than the 25% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, that's harsh (It’s at least average tomato men) The cast has established actors Kilmer, Slater, Miller and Mama said knock you out if it isn’t LL Cool J.

The film flows well and with a fair amount of action & tension to keep anyone entertained and there are enough twists, I genuinely couldn’t work out who was doing what till towards the end, which is rare and appreciated (Usually if a film does this it gives you no clues or brings in someone you’ve never seen before till the end).

Guy at the back Farted awkward.

Turdige: Although the acting is good the characters are very formulaic with obvious blatant, shout out, flaws that will be used against them (Caffeine, cigarettes, water) . The cast outweighs the film really Kilmer & Slater are criminally underused Renny Harlin made Deep Blue Sea if that’s not too much of a clue why. If you can get past the ridiculous opening trap/death on the Island (Just fuckin move dick head).

Overall: More of a TV movie than Hollywood blockbuster but a descent stab at a mystery thriller with a nice serial killer twist, kind of like a TV lite SAW.

Director: Renny Harlin Cast: Val Kilmer, LL Cool J, Christian Slater, Jonny Lee Miller, Kathryn Morris, Patricia Velásquez

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Whoever made this its brilliant

The Slasher movie was born out of the B-movie evolving from the 60's Splatter and the exploitation, Italian Gore Movies of the 70s. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) showed that one character could make a film. It being a whole family of cannibal hillbillies as in the later The Hills Have Eyes (1977) but it was Leatherface who was the most memorable and became bigger than the film. Black Christmas (1974) is widely considered the first pure slasher film. It was the huge success of Halloween (1978) still one of the most profitable independent movies of all time and along with Friday the 13th (1980) unbelievably created popular Icons of its psychopaths and franchises that would last over 30 years it showed Hollywood slashers were worth investing in.

The films had a basic formula
Somebody dies in the opening credits

I made this. Its not

The killer was usually a known urban legend or killer but not believed in
The early victims were oversexed teens (Who were usually in there 30s)
They are dispatched in graphic/Gory scenes
There's someone outside, arrrr shit its just a cat, turn round knife in the head
people tripped over nothing and took ages to get up
One Victim/Hero was left (Usually the least popular Nerd or Virgin)
The killer is fucked up you think hes dead
Oh no hes not your fucked.
Thank god just survived and killed him
The killers body disappears (sequel pending)

Sequel
Survivor dies in opening credits
The killer was usually a known urban legend or killer but not believed in
& repeat.

Blonde good looking you're screwed

In the UK, as it was a new development, the video market was not subjected to the same film censorship & classification reviews as in the cinema so these films found their home totally uncut on the video shelves and where very successful relishing their own controversy. Driller Killer (1979) was the industries dream product the title alone was straight to the point) they tried to use its own controversy to sell its-self in the UK , now a proven selling technique, even anomalously complaining to the protesters of these videos. During the conservative early 80s Britain it back fired. "Mary fucking Whitehouse" Margaret Thatchers' personal Torquemada used Driller Killer (A distinctive title for them as well to push that it was vile, black Christmas or silent night would not have worked so well) she succeeded in championing a protest that coined the term 'video nasty' and led to the "Video Recordings Act 1984". This spoiled every bodies fun apart from the censors as even films already seen at the cinema had to be resubmitted for video release. The term cut for video now became the norm and saw some of the heaviest censorship seen to man (This is what I grew up with films so badly cut they made no sense were very short and were errr shit). Even older films were subject to these video Nazis famously Peckinpahs' Straw Dogs (1971) was completely banned by the BBFC.

The genre was pretty much dead in the UK and similar unpopularity along with boredom in the genre in America by the time of the release of Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1993) it was doomed.

In the UK it took 10 years for things to change The Exorcist was granted an uncut 18 certificate in 1999 & some "video nasties" took even longer but by the mid 90s some had started being re-released uncut which led to a refinding of the genre. This time was met by Scream which in its on self deprecating way breathed new life in the genre seeing the release of Urban Legend, Valentine, Cherry Falls, I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Now Hollywood is remaking many early slasher film (Halloween, Friday 13th, nightmare on Elm street , Prom Night, My Bloody Valentine, Silent Night, House of Wax, Black Christmas, Sorority Row, Maniac and Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Nobody seems to have bothered with Driller Killer though and there were a million slasher movies, when they do Manic Cop I know the world will be due to end.

Even Buffy gets fucked over in slasher movies

The Slasher movie still has its home in the low budget end of the market and because I cant be bothered with explaining splatter movies and their evolution into torture porn I'm going to lump everything in together. If you see any (relatively) high budget films here like the remake of Silent Night its because they should be low budget so errrrrrr that lets me off.