[7] M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Signs) returns to form after over ten years of sub-par and crappy output. The Visit is a small-scale but clever character-driven thriller about two children who go for a week-long visit with grandparents they’ve never met before. Things are okay at first, but then the grandparents begin exhibiting strange behavior. Then things start to get spooky… and that’s all …
[3] I went into Jaws: The Revenge (the fourth movie in the series) thinking, ‘Hey, it can’t be worse than the third one.’ And I was right. It’s exactly as bad as the third one. Though for slightly different reasons. Part four brings back not only the shark, but the Brody family. Lorraine Gary reprises her role as Mrs. Brody, now widowed, and her two …
[3] The shark is back, this time working its way into Sea World in Florida where it threatens the tourists. Now, I’m okay if you want to keep bringing back the same shark for four movies, even though it is literally blown to bits at the end of all four of them. For some reason I’ll never be able to explain, I’m even okay with …
[5] Dean Stockwell and Sandra Dee headline this so-so adaptation of an H.P. Lovecraft story. I gotta say, I’ve yet to see a Lovecraft adaptation I really like. The internalized dread and abstract horror just don’t translate to film very well. Anyway, Stockwell plays an agent of the Old Ones here, Lovecraft’s big squid Gods from another dimension. He’s trying to get his hands on …
[4] Bill Condon (Gods and Monsters) co-wrote this low-budget horror flick that dovetails two storylines — one involving a scientist medically experimenting on teenagers to turn them into controlled assassins, and one about a widower sheriff trying to solve the mystery surrounding his wife’s death many years ago. Despite competent leads in Michael Murphy as the sheriff and Dan Shor (Tron) as his son-turned-assassin, and …
[4] American International Pictures uses Edgar Allan Poe’s story as a backdrop for what is really an original mystery story about actors in a turn-of-the-century Grand Guignol theater who are being murdered one by one. Jason Robards headlines as one of the troup, someone who may not be who he appears to be. Christine Kaufmann plays his wife and fellow thespian. She’s having dreams and premonitions …
[6] A witch casts a spell on a nasty lord’s family after he slaughters several members of her coven. Cry of the Banshee then becomes a “ten little indians” scenario as the witch’s otherworldly servant of evil dispatches of the lord and his family. Vincent Price headlines as the wicked patriarch and Elisabeth Bergner plays Oona the witch. No one really gets a chance to …
[5] A strict vegetarian (Garance Marillier) attends a veterinary school where bizarre student hazing creates a craving for hunger that can’t be satiated. Raw may sound like a gory horror film, but it really isn’t that sort of movie. It plays out more like a Twilight Zone episode, complete with a cute explanatory epilogue. It takes a long time for the main character to discover her cannibalistic desires. …
[5] {MILD SPOILERS AHEAD!} Ridley Scott returns to the franchise he created with Alien: Covenant, which is equal parts Alien remake and Prometheus sequel. It’s a total retread of the original 1979 film’s narrative — a group of space travelers respond to a signal on a strange planet, discover monsters, and get killed by monsters. The broad strokes are all Alien here, and Scott’s so …
[7] Jordan Peele of Key and Peele comedy fame takes an auspicious stab at writing and directing a horror film with Get Out, the story of a young black man who starts to get the heebie jeebies after being introduced to his white girlfriends’ family. At first, it’s innocent enough — white people making statements about voting for Obama, loving Tiger Woods, and conceding to …
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