Scream VI (2023)

Just brutally violent, not scary, this sequel to 2022's "rerequel" Scream and the meta-horror series' sixth entry riffs on the idea that Scream is now a mega-franchise with the momentum to continue even without its legacy characters, so Courteney Cox's investigative reporter Gale Weathers (here, again) and other long-timers are apparently at risk of being killed off - it isn't a big point of difference, and other standard elements, like the opening set-piece, are tired, but the mystery elements of Scream VI and a neat sequence on a New York City subway train keep the bloodletting intermittently interesting.

★★★☆☆

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I Am Elizabeth Smart (2017)

Competently acted with Skeet Ulrich in the role of Brian David Mitchell (the man who kidnapped 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart in 2002 and who over nine months subjected her to rape and torture in the Utah wilderness), this made-for-tv movie is essentially a survivor impact statement with Smart herself appearing between scenes to narrate her oft-revisited real life crime story but this time from her now adult perspective as a mother, wife and activist against predatory crimes. 

★★☆☆☆

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The Craft (1996)

The feminist subtext of 1987s The Witches of Eastwick is thoroughly undone in this misguided teenage witch movie made nine years later: where Sukie, Alexandra and Jane were a unified coven of creators of men, music, sculpture, and babies, here, a group of sullen teenage emos are literally to blame for magicking sexual assault upon themselves, immediately turn batshit crazy when faced with male rejection, are ultimately punished for their black arts by a flippantly introduced omniscient "he", and before you argue that comparison is unfair, it is Skeet Ulrich's high school jock who first uses the unflattering term 'the Bitches of Eastwick'.

★☆☆☆☆

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