Spoilers herein.
We've had four slasher films in a year which use the plot device of a film within a film. Three are ordinary: `Cut,' `Scream 3,' and `Urban Legend: Final Cut.' One, the recent `Hamlet,' is different. This comment covers the three traditional slashers.
Each of the three slashers uses the inside film as a device for a relatively sophisticated distance for humor: they try to scare using established formulae, but at the same time poking fun at the genre, the watchers and the scares themselves.
Cut, Urban and Hamlet are by first-time directors: and incidentally the characters are film students. The lead in Urban is made up to look like Julia Stiles, the Ophelia in Hamlet. The lead in Cut is made up to look like Courtney Cox of Scream. Scream has the highest production values, Urban the lowest.
Cut is the deepest self-referentially: the monster is brought into the real world by the film -- the magic is in the viewing, which makes the audience cocreators of horror. The monster is destroyed when the film is. Plus, Cut has Molly Ringwald playing Bette Midler. She probably knows she's being made fun of as a bag that once was fun, just like the genre.
Urban is the most schoolish in the number of films it references cinematically. Lots of Hitchcock here, some too blatant to be honorable. It makes the most fun of the actors: the bogus film within is really bad and the film crew are bozos; but the `real' film is worth killing for, sort of a `D.O.A' plot.
Scream has the dumbest story; Urban and Scream have scooby-doo plot ends: the bad guy in the costume really is just a bad guy in a costume and we get the detective-story-like explanation.
Scream uses the film within poorly. It is just a place of work: the only clever device is that each `real' character has a pretend one. But this isn't used at all except for a brief shadowing of Gale Weathers. Wes Craven knows better. He used this same notion in the last Nightmare movie where he played himself writing the film. Pretty good actually.
Urban uses the film within only by reference (along with all of the other films that are referenced). Instead, the use has more to do with the making of the film and the trappings of filmmaking -- except for the end where the film within merges with the `real' action.
Cut uses the film within more creatively. By placing the real people in the action of the old film, thus bringing the killer of the old film to them.
None of this stuff is scary any more. When you go, you go for fun. If you were only going to see only one of these 3 films, you should make it Cut.
We've had four slasher films in a year which use the plot device of a film within a film. Three are ordinary: `Cut,' `Scream 3,' and `Urban Legend: Final Cut.' One, the recent `Hamlet,' is different. This comment covers the three traditional slashers.
Each of the three slashers uses the inside film as a device for a relatively sophisticated distance for humor: they try to scare using established formulae, but at the same time poking fun at the genre, the watchers and the scares themselves.
Cut, Urban and Hamlet are by first-time directors: and incidentally the characters are film students. The lead in Urban is made up to look like Julia Stiles, the Ophelia in Hamlet. The lead in Cut is made up to look like Courtney Cox of Scream. Scream has the highest production values, Urban the lowest.
Cut is the deepest self-referentially: the monster is brought into the real world by the film -- the magic is in the viewing, which makes the audience cocreators of horror. The monster is destroyed when the film is. Plus, Cut has Molly Ringwald playing Bette Midler. She probably knows she's being made fun of as a bag that once was fun, just like the genre.
Urban is the most schoolish in the number of films it references cinematically. Lots of Hitchcock here, some too blatant to be honorable. It makes the most fun of the actors: the bogus film within is really bad and the film crew are bozos; but the `real' film is worth killing for, sort of a `D.O.A' plot.
Scream has the dumbest story; Urban and Scream have scooby-doo plot ends: the bad guy in the costume really is just a bad guy in a costume and we get the detective-story-like explanation.
Scream uses the film within poorly. It is just a place of work: the only clever device is that each `real' character has a pretend one. But this isn't used at all except for a brief shadowing of Gale Weathers. Wes Craven knows better. He used this same notion in the last Nightmare movie where he played himself writing the film. Pretty good actually.
Urban uses the film within only by reference (along with all of the other films that are referenced). Instead, the use has more to do with the making of the film and the trappings of filmmaking -- except for the end where the film within merges with the `real' action.
Cut uses the film within more creatively. By placing the real people in the action of the old film, thus bringing the killer of the old film to them.
None of this stuff is scary any more. When you go, you go for fun. If you were only going to see only one of these 3 films, you should make it Cut.