You’re Next (2011)

You’re Next (2011)

[6]

In this home invasion horror flick from writer Simon Barrett and director Adam Wingard (V/H/S), a group of animal-masked killers armed with crossbows and axes begin preying on a wealthy family coming together for the parents’ anniversary. The film spends a generous twenty minutes or so getting you acquainted with the family — including three sons, a daughter, and everyone’s significant others. But then the shit hits the fan, and it pretty much keeps hitting it for over an hour. You’re Next isn’t a drastic departure from formula, but it has a few surprises in store. If it took itself too seriously, it’d be easier to write it off as just another home invasion movie. But with its tongue-in-cheek humor and increasingly hyper-stylized execution (no pun intended), it reminds me of a good old-fashioned ’80s slasher/revenge movie. Is it derivative or classic? You decide — but nostalgia goes a long way with me.

The Thing (2011)

The Thing (2011)

[4] While it's technically a prequel, this new Thing is a lot like the old Thing, but pales by comparison in every conceivable way. The characters are less engaging, the atmosphere is less palpable, the tension is lacking, and the…
Dead Silence (2007)

Dead Silence (2007)

[7] Ryan Kwanten (True Blood) and Donnie Wahlberg star in this stylish horror film from James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring). Kwanten plays a man whose wife has been murdered by a creepy-looking ventriloquist doll and Wahlberg plays the detective convinced…
The Conjuring (2013)

The Conjuring (2013)

[6]

The Conjuring, written by twin brothers Chad and Carey Hayes and directed by James Wan (Dead Silence, Saw), is an old-fashioned haunted house story that morphs into one of demonic possession. After some clunky exposition, the first half of the film is a solid tension-filled spook fest. Lili Taylor and Ron Livingston play parents of four young girls who unwittingly move their family into an old house where some pretty serious shit went down. With the help of husband and wife paranormal investigators (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) and the superfluous involvement of several horror tropes (a nasty doll, a witch, a music box, etc.), you start to figure out what’s going on and who’s behind it all. Unfortunately, the more you learn, the less interesting the movie gets. By the time Lili Taylor steps into pea soup-spewing territory, the movie’s stock starts to plummet.

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977)

The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977)

[6] An Englishman finds himself prisoner on an island where a mad doctor is mixing human and animal DNA. The fine line between what is human and what is animal is one of my favorite subjects, so I love the…
The Werewolf (1956)

The Werewolf (1956)

[5] A car crash victim (Steven Ritch) is injected with wolf serum by experimenting scientists and before long, hirsute hijinks ensue. This werewolf flick from prolific B-movie producer Sam Katzman plays up the emotional and psychological angles better than most,…
Victim (2010)

Victim (2010)

[7] Grieving the loss of his daughter, a surgeon kidnaps and surgically alters a young man to take her place. Yeah, Victim is creepy and kinky, charging into some subject matter that is sure to make many viewers cringe. The…
Dreamscape (1984)

Dreamscape (1984)

[4] At a government facility where psychics can enter people's dreams, a wave of deadly nightmares begins claiming lives. Once the President of the United States is affected, two psychics square off -- one wanting to save the president, and…
The Other (1972)

The Other (1972)

[7]

In The Other, To Kill a Mockingbird director Robert Mulligan does a great job engendering sympathy for a schizophrenic child who is channeling the spirit of his deceased twin. Chris and Martin Udvarnoky do a commendable job playing the boy and his ‘other,’ and famed acting teacher Uta Hagen is good as the Russian aunt who begins to put two and two together after a series of tragic ‘accidents’ happen on the family farm.

Pacific Rim (2013)

Pacific Rim (2013)

[8]

Pacific Rim is good, dumb summer fun. It’s beautiful, sexy, exciting, funny, and it kinda made me feel like a kid again. The premise involves Kaiju and Jägers… scratch that. Let’s call it like it is: this movie is about big fucking robots fighting big fucking monsters. The monsters come from another dimension, entering our world from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. The robots, each manned by two psychically linked people (often blood relatives), are humanity’s last hope for survival. The concept sounds like the germ of another big, loud, stupid summer movie — you know, the kind Michael Bay makes. But director Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pan’s Labyrinth) handily beats Bay at his own game with Pacific Rim, imbuing the film with more style and substance than any of Bay’s Transformers movies ever had.