Z/Web

Author: Wes Craven

Director: Wes Craven

What’s the purpose of this film? I don’t know. It’s supposed to be chilling or edgy or innovative or something, but it’s just dumb. The film looks and sounds amateurish, and there are obvious editing mistakes. Craven uses techniques like rapid camera movement, odd cuts, and close ups of unusual cropping to generate “excitement,” but all it does is bewilder the viewer, as you can barely tell what’s going on. The main bad guys are all so much alike it’s difficult to tell who’s who, and the language and style are all so early seventies they’re difficult to understand. The plot is just pointless: a group of prison escapees rape and murder two girls and are then murdered by one of the girl’s parents. Fun. No, just dumb. Theoretically you ought to root for the parents as they take their revenge, but everyone in the whole film is so ugly, evil, and disgusting that you really just don’t care about anyone. Very strange, distasteful, and vile film. Nothing really that shocking about the violence, though it is violent. Might have been mildly impressive at the time of release, but now it’s dated and junk.

Once again, Middlesborough lives up to their name with a lackluster performance. I doubt they threatened the Newcastle goal more than once or twice the whole game. Okay, so they did get a little goal at the very end, when the ball literally trickled over the line, but that was ten seconds before the final whistle. Newcastle dominated, with a goal from Alan Shearer in the first half. (The defense left him alone with the ball, in the penalty area. Smart.) Two more goals in second finished the game nicely. Final 3-1, Newcastle.