Sure, I checked last night that The New Kids was a thriller movie. But still, the name sounds quite harmless, doesn't it? Anyway, I didn't expect sitting here as horrified as when I saw Silence Of The Lambs for the first time.
The New Kids is about Abby and Loren. After their parents die they move to Florida, to live with their uncle, who is building an amusement park. Local gang starts to coax Abby, since they had a bet on who would get into her pants, but when Abby turns them down, they start tormenting them both.
And again I feel like I don't give the writers justice by my stupid summaries.
One thing that bothered me was how the music was used. Most of the time it was very well used, but sometimes it just didn't work. And sometimes that's good, like it gives some weird contrast. But here it was... just... really bad. Like if it's a really terrifying scene, you shouldn't use some almost cheerful music just to... I don't even know what they were trying to accomplish with that choice of music.
Another thing was how Abby mostly had to rely on her brother and kind of never stood up for herself. It's kind of depressing, it sends out the idea that girls really can't do that, they have to have an older brother or something. I mean sure, there are a lot of girls, who probably couldn't stand up for themselves if some crazy high school gang was trying to get them, but if that's mostly what's shown in the movies it's... well it doesn't really send out a good message, you know. But then afterwards Abby did stand up to herself, but it was mostly when a certain somebody was there. I'll get to that character later.
Well, I was comparing this to The Silence Of The Lambs. Mostly because these two have been the only thrillers that have made me squirm in my chair going "no no no no no no no". Well obviously The New Kids isn't as good as The Silence Of The Lambs, but I think it might be more terrifying. Because in Silence Of The Lambs, the scariest people are serial killers. The chances encountering one - especially as tremendously imaginative and sick as Dr. Lecter and Jame Gumb. But in The New Kids... somehow everything seems like something that could happen - and is probably more likely. Even though the "bad guys" aren't exactly serial killers, they might be as sick as those. There are men, who really... well they turn from nice to almost scary when a woman turns them down. (That might also work both ways, but still, which happens most often?) But that hardly goes as far as the whole situation in The New Kids.
And the gang... There are four brunets, who together are just annoying and hostile. Of course they can go as far as being scary. But what was really scary about the gang was the leader (who's name is so weird I don't remember it, I have to check it.) - Dutra. I mean the other ones would be disorganised and probably a lot less dangerous if it wasn't for him. But Dutra seems to be dangerous, violent and almost organised. And when the four are beating Loren up, I got a lot more concerned when Dutra showed up. And that happened several times. Alone the four are something Abby and Loren might have handled, but then there's Dutra and everything is fucked up.
Once I thought that I was actually scared of Dr Lecter. That was before I was introduced to Dutra. The difference is that there is absolutely no one out there who is like Lecter. So that's a relief. (Well I guess there could be, but they wouldn't have all the features that make Hannibal Lecter as scary as he is.) But Dutra... There could be people like him, probably there are. If you take one regular, everyday misogynist, violent person, and just get them a bit more fucked up, that's Dutra. But yeah, wow, James Spader was absolutely marvellous, I mean it's weird how different he can be from Tuff Turf - movies came out same year, and Spader is like a totally different person. ... Which is actually actors' job...
If I can describe this movie in three words, they would most likely be: "What the fuck".
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
8 / 10
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