Daybreakers (2010)
[7] This vampire flick from the Spierig brothers (Undead) is good old-fashioned B-movie fun. The concept of a world full of vampires on the brink of a blood shortage is interesting, even if the plot goes silly at times. I…
20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)
[6] An army rocket returning from Venus crash lands in the Mediterranean, releasing a Venusian creature that wreaks havoc in Italy. This matinee monster movie is better than most of its kind. The first thirty minutes are surprisingly strong, building…
28 Days Later (2002)
[7] 28 Days Later is a bright feather in the multi-colored cap of director Danny Boyle, who also gave us Trainspotting, Sunshine, and Slumdog Millionnaire. Cillian Murphy wanders post-apocalyptic England after a virus has turned most of the population into…
Moon (2009)
[7] Sam Rockwell plays a lone astronaut working at a lunar drilling station in Duncan Jones' solid feature film debut, Moon. Moon is a story in the classic sci-fi tradition, spurred by Rockwell's encounter with a mysterious stranger who shatters…
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)
[5] This monster romp was the first solo effort by effects wizard Ray Harryhausen. All the stop-motion animation has the usual Harryhausen charm, including a famous scene where the dinosaur rages down Wall Street and chomps on a policeman. Unfortunately,…
Event Horizon (1997)
[7] A rescue team investigates a seemingly abandoned spacecraft that has been inside a black hole and discover that its... well, basically it's haunted. Sam Neill and Laurence Fishburne star in this haunted spaceship flick that plays like a cross…
Kingdom of the Spiders (1977)
[6] Lethal tarantulas take over an Arizona town in this remarkably well-paced, well-put-together little B-movie. And William Shatner is the star! How frickin' cool is that? He actually delivers a decent performance. And Shatner fans will be happy to know…
9 (2009)
[6] Shane Acker's computer-animated post-apocalyptic fantasy is visually interesting, but the characters are bland and the story is wobbly. The movie is a tonal quagmire, trying to balance its dark and dreary subject matter with a kid-friendly PG-13 rating. The…
Cocoon (1985)
[7] Ron Howard (Splash, A Beautiful Mind) directs this sweet story about a group of nursing home residents who discover a 'fountain of youth' in a nearby pool. Turns out, though, that the pool's power is extra-terrestrial. Soon the old…
Splice (2010)
[7] Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley throw moral caution to the wind by creating the first animal-human hybrid, a creature they call Dren. Of course, once they open their genetic can of worms, things begin to go very badly. Dren,…