Good morning 🐣

It’s the Year of the Scream here at Cinescape! And now that we’ve crowned the Scream King and Queen, let’s give a standing ovation for the ultimate scream heard round the world, the “Wilhelm scream,” a sound effect that’s been used in hundreds of films since 1951. You’ve definitely heard it before, whether you realize it or not. You might even hear it already in your head as soon as I say those words: Wilhelm scream.

It’s a distinctive cry, the last gasp before certain doom. It can be heard in both Tarantino and Disney movies, “Star Wars,” the Indiana Jones series, “Lord of the Rings,” an endless stream of TV animation, even video games. But it first appeared in “Distant Drums,” a Gary Cooper movie from 1951 in the “Florida Western” genre (it’s a thing), and was voiced by actor Sheb Wooley.

Recently Craig Smith was digging through the archives of Sunset Editorial, a long-gone Hollywood sound effects company, and discovered the original recording session. You can hear someone give the prompt “Man getting bit by an alligator and he screams” followed by Wooley’s various interpretations. Someone corrects him though — “Not an ow, a real scream” — and boy does he deliver.

Now watch this 👀

This week I’m highlighting some new horror movies of varying frights. Let’s dig in!

I love “Happy Death Day,” which you could easily describe as “Groundhog Day” but with a masked killer. It also started a fun though progressively less satisfying trend, as seen with “Freaky” (“Freaky Friday” but with a masked killer) and now “Totally Killer” (“Back to the Future” but with a masked killer).

Kiernan Shipka (“The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”) stars as Jamie, a teenager whose mom’s friends were murdered by the Sweet Sixteen Killer back in the ’80s. Now the killer has returned and Jamie has somehow been sent back in time? I don’t know… but now she has to get close with the teenage versions of her parents while also trying to unmask the killer before it’s too late. It’s a cute little time-travel horror comedy, perfect for your next Halloween movie marathon.

Aliens are secretly invading a small town in “No One Will Save You” and Brynn (Kaitlyn Dever, “Dopesick” and “Booksmart”), a young woman living on her own, shunned by her community for some mysterious past transgression, is having none of it. The movie is almost completely dialogue-free since no one wants to talk to her anyways, so the movie is pure tension from start to finish. It’s a fun cat-and-mouse thriller with perfectly staged moments and a great use of tractor beams.

You’ve all had a few drinks. Now you’re gathered in a circle and your friends have tied you down for safety. You grasp an embalmed hand, supposedly taken from a long dead medium or something. Who really knows for sure?

“Talk to me.” A ghost appears before you, one only you can see. It tells you things.

“I let you in.” The spirit possesses your body and speaks to your friends, maybe even makes you do embarrassing things that you won’t remember later. Don’t worry; it will most certainly be caught on video for the whole world to see.

Blow out the candle. The spirit’s gone. You feel the rush. Pass it around. Repeat.

It’s a fun party game until something inevitably goes horribly wrong.

“Talk to Me” is a solid horror movie, not quite as good as some are hyping it up to be, but a fun time nonetheless with tight character work, excruciating tension, and a well-earned ending.

Cinema is a medium that can literally make dreams come to life, yet we’re constantly demanding realism from it. But if you’re open to a fully realized world that’s just a little… off… then “Dark Harvest” is your kinda place. Based on the novel of the same name, the movie takes place in some small 1960s Midwestern town surrounded by cornfields. Every Halloween night, the high school senior boys have to hunt down some monster named Sawtooth Jack before it reaches the church, which would curse their crops for the whole next year.

Like I said, this movie takes place in its own weird little world, where characters yell out things like “There ain’t no stop signs on the black road!” and “Come on to the violent world with me” while others nod in agreement. The pumpkin-headed (but not Pumpkinhead) creature is a treat and I’m always delighted by an over-the-top geyser of blood. More movies need that honestly. And even with all its weird little eccentricities, brutality, and “The Outsiders” greaser vibes, it finds time to talk about race, sexism, and the dark underbelly of small-town America. It’s a miracle this movie exists and succeeds as well as it does.

All of these movies are fun and scary in their own ways. I hope you enjoy them and I’d love to hear what new movies y’all are watching this Halloween season.

Until next time! 🎃