Scream 7 Review

 

I first saw Scream at a discount theater in 1997. Like many fans, I enjoyed its playful mockery of the slasher genre, especially since I was a fan of the Elm Street and Friday the 13th franchises. Since then, I’ve seen all five sequels at least once. That’s the background I brought into Scream 7, directed by Kevin Williamson. I didn’t feel the need to rewatch parts 5 and 6 beforehand—the film’s opening sequence does a solid job reestablishing the backstory, with a couple touring a recreation of the original house where much of the first film’s violence took place.

Much of the movie settles comfortably into the established rhythms of the franchise. If you’re unfamiliar with Scream, don’t worry—you’ll get hammered over the head with red herrings and fakeouts in no time. The problem is that the film leans too hard on them. The misdirections are simplified to the point of distraction. Do we really need a zoom-in on a character who’s already clearly visible in a wide shot? Do we need an authority figure to behave unrealistically jerky just to signal they might be a suspect?

By the time the ending rolled around, I realized I enjoyed part 6 more. This one lands at about 3 out of 5 stars for me. It’s a solid Scream entry, just not one of the standouts.

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The Kiesel Connect Experience

    

     On the 24th of this month, I attended the Kiesel Connect event in Escondido, CA. Kiesel is a guitar manufacturer that builds guitars to order at their facility. As many long-time players know, buying guitars is addictive because there are nearly limitless options. Kiesel gives players the ability to create instruments tailored to their preferred specifications.

     The event included a tour of the shop, showing the various stations in the guitar-building process. It was great to see different woods up close, as well as the machines used to shape the instruments. The main draw, however, was the live music on the parking lot stage. Jazz fusion guitarist Alex Sill stood out with captivating phrasing and intriguing rhythms. As a long-time metal fan, it's sometimes hard to find music with phrasing and patterns that truly surprise me. That isn’t the case with jazz fusion—probably because I don’t listen to it often.

     Another cool display was the line up under the tent of various Kiesel, and Carvin (the previous name for the company run by the Kiesel family) instruments through the years. The section from the '90s caught my eye because that is when I started playing Carvin guitars.

    What I was most looking forward to was the discussion hosted by YouTuber Phillip McKnight with President Jeff Kiesel and his father, Mark, who previously ran the guitar division at Carvin before the rebranding. The highlight was the introduction of a retro-styled model Mark designed, the Mark 66.  Since then, I have already thought about possible options to put on that guitar to buy for myself. I’ll resist the urge, unless there are big discounts coming up soon that I don’t know about.

     Unfortunately, I was a bit burnt out after being at the event for six hours and didn’t stay to watch jazz guitarist Greg Howe or blues specialist Eric Gales. Overall, it was a positive experience to see the instruments and the process up close, instead of just viewing them from afar.

#KieselConnect #KieselGuitars #Carvin #PhilMcKnight #Mark66

The Mystery Movie: One Life

         

     I saw a mystery movie last night that is worth writing about.  One Life stars Anthony Hopkins and is directed by James Hawes. It was released last year in the UK and arrives in the United States on March 15th.  All I knew going in was that the movie is rated PG. Expecting a film for children and families, I was surprised to get a gripping story based on true events.  The lead character Nicholas Winton (played in old age by Hopkins) was involved in the effort to transport children from Prague to Britain, for their own safety, due to the Nazi occupation.  This kind of film drives thoughts about my own life and how my daily decisions rarely involve life or death stakes for myself or others. What actions do I take to truly help others? It's nice to be reminded of things outside my world. 4/5 stars. 

#OneLife #AnthonyHopkins #NicholasWinton #RegalMysteryMovie

GenXer Listens to Current Hot Rock & Alternative

 

(Mitski)

     For my first post of 2024, I want to try again to listen to new popular music. This is a challenge for me, being a GenXer sometimes stuck in his old ways. I'll go over five songs that are currently on the Billboard Hot Rock & Alternative Songs chart. 

#5 Mitski - My Love Mine All Mine

    Here we have nice rich vocals with plenty of reverb. There's also some pedal steel. I get why this is considered Alternative. 

#4 Jelly Roll - Need a Favor

     Here we go with some twangy southern vocals. Not into drum beats that sound programmed. There's a powerful chorus and the guitars get louder. I can understand how the lyrics would relate to people in distress. The vocal style doesn't do it for me. 

#3. Billie Eilish - What I Was Made For

     I've definitely heard her before. Breathy vocals are introduced with almost a whisper at times. Here's some soft piano. The song is serious and contemplative. 

#2 Noah Kahan - Stick Season

     Starts with a folksy acoustic fingerpicking guitar. This is fairly catchy. Shallow lyrics, these are not. A banjo kicks in at the end.

#1 I Remember Everything - Zach Bryan featuring Kacey Musgraves

     Now, here's the number one song in this broad category! We start with some folksy breathy vocals. I'm noticing a pattern here. Breathy vocals are popular, perhaps? Kacey sings the second verse and then they join together blending well. Decent mellow music. The hook didn't grab me. It was on a country YouTube channel and sounds very Country. Should it be on this chart?

     My favorite out of these songs is Mitsi's My Love Mine All Mine. What stood out is a unique intriguing atmospheric effect in the production that made it stand out from the other songs. It will go on my Spotify playlist to have something to take away from this experience. The interesting part is learning what is considered Rock and/or Alternative by the music media. Music fans often have their own definitions on what a genre sounds like. That changes over time when public taste changes and new trends are introduced. Usually, I check the Hot 100 every now and then to see what the number one song is. This time I went to a new chart for something different. Feel free to comment. Do these songs come to mind when you think of Rock and Alternative music? 

#Billboard #HotRock #AlternativeMusic #Mitsi #ZachBryan #NoahKahan #BillieEilish #JellyRoll

It's A Wonderful Knife

   Last night I decided to take advantage of my Regal Unlimited membership and see the new horror-comedy It's A Wonderful Knife directed by Tyler MacIntyre.  It was a very relaxing experience since I was the only one sitting in my row. The heroine experiences a traumatic event and then finds out what life would have been like if she was never born. She then teams up with an outcast sidekick to make things right. The overall feel is more comedic than horrific. More wacky than creepy. As I was walking out, a lady said the movie was cute. On my end, there were a few fun moments and not much laughter. For the fun moments, I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

#AWonderfulKnife #HorrorComedy #RegalUnlimited 

Weird Wedding Dream

 

                                                          Photo by Kelly Sikkema

     I had a dream last night I was about to get married. The identity of the woman is unknown, only that I knew her for a short time, and we decided to do it the last minute. We started announcing it to people in the local area to get some people to come. The only family member that arrived was my grandmother. She passed away over 10 years ago. I awoke before the ceremony took place. This is a weird dream because I never think about marriage when I am awake. It has been years since I've been in a relationship and marriage is not a topic ever in my mind. I don't even enjoy traditional wedding rituals since I don't like dancing and cutting oversized cakes. Do I have some unconscious desire to get married? Maybe it's just random crap in my head. 

  #WeirdDream #WeddingDream

The Third Mystery Movie

 

     I decided to go to another mystery movie last night. It was Theater Camp directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman. At first I wasn't sure if I wanted to go because it is a PG-13 film. Would I be able to relate as a male in my 40s? Well...not really. Didn't laugh-out-loud once...but I don't laugh easily. Also, I don't have memories of going to a theater camp as a youth and the wackiness that ensues. The film is done in a documentary-like style with shaky cameras following the characters around. Overall, I do not think it's appropriate to rate this film since I'm not in the target market. People sitting at the other side of the theater enjoyed it much more and applauded at the end. That may be you. Did you go to a children's theater camp? How was it? 

#RegalMysteryMovie #MysteryMovie #TheaterCamp

Another Mystery Movie

      My second mystery movie was the Robert Rodriguez film Hypnotic starring Ben Affleck. That makes it two-for-two with the mystery movie being something I wouldn't have chosen to see on my own.  Mr. Rodriguez did a short introduction asking us not to reveal spoilers due to the amount of twists and turns in the story. I'm not sure what to say even if I wanted to spoil it. 3/5 stars...interesting, but not something I look forward to seeing again. 

#RegalMysteryMovie #Hypnotic #HypnoticFilm #MysteryMovie

My Mystery Movie Night

     Last night I attended my first Mystery Movie Night. That's where a ticket can be bought at a discount price with the name of the movie unknown until the night of the showing. The movie is called Sisu, directed by Jalmari Helander. It has already been released in Finland and comes officially to the United States on April 28th. The protagonist is basically a superhero former soldier with the ability to kill many Nazis on his own. Plenty of violence with heads being stabbed and limbs flying. I don't regret going and may go to another Mystery night out of curiosity as to what movie will be shown. Are they mostly action films? Have you experienced one of these? Feel free to comment. 

#SisuFilm #MysteryMovie

New Band Found - Decadence Dust

      I found a new band. They are Decadence Dust. Clean vocals with some distorted guitar in the mix to make it Metal. Some may not consider it heavy. It's put in the Gothic Metal genre. The song that introduced me to them is Lighthouse.  What made it stand out is the smooth character in the vocals. 

#NewMetal #NewRock #GothicMetal #DecadenceDust
 

Gen-Xer Listens to Newer Stuff - Part 2

 OK....so I listened to five songs from these newish artists.

     Let's start with Katatonia. I listened to the song Flies. It turns out, they aren't a new band at all with their first album coming out in 1993. They didn't chart in my country until 2012. That might be why the name seemed familiar, but the music wasn't. Getting back to the song, it had melody and some interesting progressive elements. I'll probably check out more from their catalog. 

    The other two bands, Ahab and Memoriam, were not my kinda Metal because of the Death Metal growling vocals. I preferred the instrumental aspects of Memoriam because there was more of a groove. I'll move on because it's unfair to judge this genre because of my taste in vocals. 

    It's funny that I ended up picking Inhaler because they aren't Metal and Ranker classified them as Alternative. When skipping to the next page, I must have clicked the wrong thing and got a different list. The lesson learned here is to do more research before choosing what bands to listen to.  That's what I'll do when there's a next time for me to find new stuff.