Some SERIOUS HEAVY DUTY spoilers below, son!



It starts out with a large group of kids sitting around a rusty 15 year old ambulance and bonfire at the town river telling the story of the Riverton Ripper...a very active serial killer that met his demise at that very spot 15 years ago and how he may or may not comeback to kill the Riverton 7(A group of kids born on the very night the the killer died; they are all distinguishable by neon necklaces they wear this night.) The kids precede to hold a sort of musical seance welcoming the murderer to rise from the dead. The bash is soon broken up by the cops and we're taken back 15 years earlier

We are now told the story of Abel Plenkov, a man who is living functionally with his multiple personality syndrome (unknown by his 4 year old daughter and very pregnant wife) thanks to his psychotherapist Dr. Blake (very similar to Dr. Loomis in Halloween). But tonights different. Tonight he's battling with a personality he never knew was there who happens to also be the famous Riverton Ripper that he's been  hearing about all over the news.

I feel this part of the script is the best. It's pretty kickass and the pages were flying by. I was grinning the whole time thinking "Craven's BACK!" It all ends rather badly for everyone with a number of shootings and stabbings and slit throats and a even a baby gets saved from his dead mother's stomach (a bit disturbing.) Along the way a story fable is told how Abel may not have multiple personalities but multiple spirits in him and if thats true the spirits would enters the bodies of any newborn babies once he's dead. One of those would be the murderous psycho. After the ambulance is flipped and burned and BUG(the baby) and LEAH(the daughter of Abel Plenkov) are saved we jump back 15 years ahead.

We meet most of the now 15 year old Riverton 7 on their birthdays...most closely on the innocent, naiive, sorta slow BUG and bestfriend ALEX (Also one of the Riverton 7) as they are picked on by most of the other Riverton 7 and FANG(actually Leah, BUG's own sister.) Most of the rest of the script seems to take place during the schoool day following  Bug and ALex as they counter bullying attacks from Brandon (a riverton 7 bully) and spy on Fang and her mean girls/mafia-like clique. Who the hell is this girl and why does she have so much power and why is this even happening? Where's Abel Plenkov? Where's the horror/thriller aspects and the story the was established at the beginning of the script? While the high school scenes are in enjoyable it takes up a lot of the script and there's a long while where you completely forget that this is in thriller/horror genre.

Once we get down to business most of the good stuff takes place off screen. Iwouldn't have a problem with that is there was at least a suspense scene before. A character would completely disappear from the script and you forget they exist and then a character would find them mysteriously dead. A great example is the Character Jay Chan. He has maybe has 2 lines (one being:"Fun fun fun. Good Time") is not mentioned again and then someone finds him dead....and we don't care. Who IS THIS GUY! This happen about 3 times. The 1 suspense/death scene that was shown onscreen I think was really well done. The writing sometimes amazes me. My problem is  that we don't really get to know most of the Riverton 7. Like Jerome a Blind character who plays piano at church and is just there (or not) for the rest of the movie. He does absolutely nothing. Why is he even here? I think there was a great suspense scene opportunity missed with his blindness. That could've be great.

The characters that are focused on are pretty good...especially BUG and his many problems and weirdnesses. (He doesn't know that Riverton 7 is his father). He has a sort of connection with the rest of the Riverton 7 that no one else has. In one scene he's able to eerily act as a mirror to his best friend Alex, duplicating his every move at the exact same time. the bullies also call him retarded (He was cut out of his dead mother and it was said to be a lack of oxygen that makes him a bit slow; innocent. Think a lighter version of Juliette Lewis in nearly every role she plays) and think his best friend Alex is taking advantage of that to act as his "monkey". I really liked Bug and Alex's relationship. It was interesting and they cracked me up a few times. I like the exchange where Alex makes Bug cuss but only he won't stop. Brandon (the bully), Brittany (The blond; Bug has a crush on her), and Fang/Leah(the bitch) all have redeeming values during the end of the script but were only believable with Brandon. Some of the characters had potential but were wasted such as the very Loomis-like Dr. Blake. Just noticed that I remember all the characters' names without having to refer back to the script. Don't exactly know what that means though.

The end to me was most disappointing. It was quite rushed. Bug doesn't know what's happening until a a few moment s before the killer appears(which I guess is consistant with his character). And he does just that...appears out of know where without even a hint that he exists. Throughout the end  of the script Bug or Alex are actually supposed to be red-herrings for the killer (the killer spirit may have entered them at birth) with Bug conveniently being where the latest body was found just moment before.
The final battle scuffle between Bug and His father/the resurrected Riverton Ripper/Abel Plenkov last only a few seconds before he is saved be a cop at the last minute.
There's a little epilogue scene
THE END

Though the high school scenes take up most of the script....it seems like this would take up about 10-20 minutes of on screen time. I think this screenplay feels really short as a movie almost like it's missing a a third act. It was like Wes looked at his page count applied the 1 page= 1 minute rule and said to himself "I'd better be ending this soon it's almost two hours" and just quickly ended it and forgot about the last act. The script length attributes to tons of description and notes and things like that. I'm sure most of this has been changed as this is probably an early draft. The awesomeness of the 15 years earlier section puts the rest of the script to shame. I also really like the nods to the Nightmare series and Scream...most notably when Bug has a few nightmares. Nightmares on his Street. lol. Also there's a doll house shown for Leah that made me think of Kristen's Elm Street house in Nightmare 3
I think this can be a decent movie with a few changes. I'm Still excited for the movie but I hope a few things are corrected and this is an early draft.

-SHAWN

Mirrors was a pretty good movie, even though it's a remake (I've never seen the original but I've heard it's much better).

It had some solid performances and decent story development--however, I felt they overdid it in certain spots (I dunno if it was in the script, but there was a scene in the movie involving Keifer Sutherland fighting a certain...something...which was more hilarious rather than scary).

As for Wes Craven--quite frankly, I do not trust him with Horror anymore. He lost his touch a long time ago.

--Julio