[8] An orphaned teen (Jimmy McNichol) becomes fearful of his aunt (Susan Tyrrell) after she kills a man in their home. But that just scrapes the surface of Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker. Add in that the aunt has incestuous desire for the boy and plans to keep him with her forever — full athletic college scholarship be damned. She even starts poisoning him. Also add in that …
[5] Happy Death Day is Groundhog Day meets Scream, but not as interesting as either of those films. Jessica Rothe stars as a sorority girl who relives her birthday over and over again, each time ending in her death at the hands of a mysterious baby-masked killer. I’m not a fan of cyclical narratives or gimmicky movies, so to be honest, I was already dreading …
[4] A motley group of townsfolk fall under siege at a nearly-abandoned hospital surrounded by mysterious, hooded cult figures brandishing knives. Before they can figure out who the cultists are or what they want, strange creatures start popping out of the shadows inside the hospital that like to eat and transform their victims. Also, the hospital has a weird secret lower level to it, where …
[8] Twenty men who work menial jobs participate in an 11-day sociological experiment in which they are divided into two groups: prisoners and guards. The prisoners are told they will not have civil rights during the experiment and the guards are told they must maintain order without inflicting violence. The experiment spirals wildly out of control in just two days, ending not just in violence, …
[7] John Malkovich stars as renowned German film director F.W. Murnau during the making of the seminal 1922 horror movie, Nosferatu. Willem Dafoe co-stars as enigmatic, creepy-as-shit Max Schreck, who played the vampire in Murnau’s classic. But that’s just the springboard for Shadow of the Vampire, which is really more concerned about creating its own fiction than depicting any behind-the-scenes reality. The gimmick here is …
[6] Jacqueline Bisset (The Deep, Bullitt) stars as the wife of a music journalist who becomes convinced her husband’s body has been inhabited by another man, a famous concert pianist, through the use of dark magic. Alan Alda plays the journalist, whose beautiful hands strike the fancy of the aging pianist, played by Curt Jurgens. Bisset’s character goes through a lot, first noticing odd behavior …
[2] This low-rent, paint-by-numbers snooze-fest features a foursome of estranged family members brought together to the eponymous location after the death of their matriarch. But little do they know someone in the house is practicing voodoo magic to kill everyone off one by one. Will they find out who the killer is? Will you give a shit if they do? I didn’t. The House on …
[6] This is a SPOILER REVIEW. Writer/director Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Requiem for a Dream) makes a claustrophobic allegory of the Bible’s story of creation, the fall from grace, all the way up through the birth of Jesus and beyond. He does it with Javier Bardem playing God and Jennifer Lawrence playing a hybrid of Mother Earth and the Virgin Mary (or women/mothers in general?) …
[8] Aussie director Phillip Noyce (Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger) spins a Hitchcockian yarn based on a novel by Charles Williams. Dead Calm is a solid thriller that takes place almost entirely on the open waters of the Pacific. Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman play a couple trying to overcome the loss of their child, when up to their boat rows beautiful but psychotic …
[6] The third Evil Dead film gets a bigger budget and a more traditional plot, but the polish and structure don’t compensate for low-budget invention and madcap inspiration. Bruce Campbell is prime here, delivering a smattering of memorable lines and a few good scenes of physical comedy as a department store employee whisked back in time to 1300 AD where he must battle an army …
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