Scream 2 (1997)

Opening with the original movie reimagined as a movie within a movie, this Scream sequel is certainly a more creative and more self-referential slasher flick than most, but it plays out no more cleverly than that: women are mercilessly taunted, chased, terrified and violently hacked to pieces while men benefit from sudden random death, so while generous critics say this movie (and the series) cleverly subverts the slasher genre, it really only pretends to be clever while mirroring and perpetuating slasher tropes.

★★☆☆☆

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Stigmata (1999)

Patricia Arquette stars as the only person in the world who doesn't know from the outset of this light horror movie exactly what is going on - for 90-odd minutes, she thrashes around like a crazy person on a train, at a nightclub, and in a bathtub surrounded by a silly number of candles, having strange visions, repeatedly running out into Pittsburg traffic, and generally trying very hard to fill the time it takes for stigmata to appear one-by-one on her body while her co-stars, Gabriel Byrne and a string of rosary beads, and viewers, wait patiently for the by-the-numbers demon possession story to finish.

★☆☆☆☆

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