Horror

[7] Writer/director Jordan Peele follows up his sensationally well-received Get Out with Us, the story of a vacationing family who are attacked by doppelgängers  — four, strange characters who look just like them. What begins as a mysterious home invasion thriller becomes a revenge movie, and then it goes in other places that one dares not discuss for fear of spoilers. Lupita Nyong’o (Oscar winner …

[7] Isabelle Huppert (Elle) and Chloë Grace Moretz (Kick Ass) co-star in this satisfying horror-thriller about a naive young woman (Moretz) who returns a lost purse to a lonely widow (Huppert). The two strike up a friendship, but Huppert becomes too needy. When Moretz tries to break off the relationship… well, let’s just say a lot of bad things start to happen. Greta starts out …

[7] A father and daughter are on the run from a secret government group that experimented on them, giving them frightening powers of telekinesis and spontaneous combustion. David Keith (An Officer and a Gentleman) and Drew Barrymore (E.T.) play our fleeing heroes, while the evil government agency is represented by a terrific roster of actors that includes George C. Scott, Freddie Jones, Moses Gunn, and …

[7] Ethan Embry stars as a husband and father who moves his family to a new home where a mentally ill man (Pruitt Taylor Vince) committed murder. Embry’s character is a painter, and through supernatural means, develops a connection to the killer through his paintings. Before long, the killer begins murdering children and directly seeks out Embry’s daughter (Kiara Glasco). After repeated encounters with the …

[8] Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg star as a man and woman who retreat to their cabin in the woods to grieve the death of their young son. Dafoe’s character is a therapist and tries to offer techniques to help Gainsbourg’s character cope with the tragedy. But Gainsbourg spirals beyond grief and into insanity… and violence. Writer/director Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark, The …

[6] Margot Kidder (Superman: The Movie) and Jennifer Salt star in director Brian De Palma’s blatant love letter to Alfred Hitchcock. De Palma starts the movie off in a Psycho-like fashion, introducing us to an actress (Kidder) who takes a man home for a one-night stand. After we spend a good twenty minutes or so with the lovers, a woman in an apartment across the …

[2] When this Italian flick (originally titled Island of the Fish Men) was picked up for North American distribution, a new opening featuring some gloppy special effects and a handful of kills was added. That opening is the best part of this movie, even if it’s merely a visceral victory point. Once the opening characters are all killed, the story follows a small boat full …

[7] Jamie Lee Curtis returns to the franchise that launched her career in Halloween (same title, 40 years apart). This new film ignores every single sequel in the franchise and serves as a direct follow-up to John Carpenter’s original 1978 film. And it’s just as well, because the Halloween ‘franchise’ is shaky at best. Curtis’ teenaged babysitter from ’78 is now a gun-toting grandma whose …

[7] Mickey Rourke stars as a ’50s detective hired by a mysterious client (Robert DeNiro) to determine whether a missing man is living or dead. Rourke travels from New York to New Orleans interviewing characters played by Charlotte Rampling, Lisa Bonet and others, before realizing his subjects are all getting murdered and that the case might be a supernatural one involving witchcraft and the Devil. …

[1] When I heard Shane Black (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, screenwriter behind Lethal Weapon) was directing and Fred Dekker (The Monster Squad) was cowriting, I thought The Predator would have the right ingredients for a successful relaunch. I don’t know to what extent studio interference played a part, but if I were Black or Dekker I would have had my name removed from this film …

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