It is a slow story with unpolished edges in its delivery, but “The Invoking” is far from being a phoned-in effort from filmmaking newcomers putting their hearts into a film that costs less to make than it does to buy a pre-owned Toyota.

... this is one of those movies where once it drops out of the New Release section of VOD streaming and DVD listings, it may as well disappear from planet Earth entirely.

If “Spinal Tap” is the Titanic striking a comedy iceberg in a thunderous crash, “Incident” brings that iceberg on board to melt at a steady pace.  It takes more effort to notice the rising water, but passengers end up wet all the same.

The only thing disregarded more than the material being ripped off is the willingness of an audience to sit through a movie too lazy to stay on the line even when it is just phoning it in.

There might be just enough edge in the soap opera styling to make it mildly worthwhile as a period police procedural with a tawdry courthouse conclusion.

Completing the quadfecta of insulting homage is a climax so brazen that the film ends on an impression that everything offered is a patchwork quilt stitched from other people’s ideas.

... filmmakers Aharon Keshales and Navot Papushado slide so much casual intensity into such simple concepts that their film transcends the tropes and transforms into a wickedly stylish thriller.

Irredeemable as art and as entertainment, “The Ganzfeld Haunting” is an insultingly disastrous way to spend an hour and a half, and a dangerous way to dumb down one’s own senses.

“Flowers in the Attic” is overacted, on the nose, and at times eye-rollingly indescribable.  And yet ... I find myself ashamedly eager to bite Lifetime’s next ham and cheese sandwich in wonderment over what happens next in this absurdly intriguing saga.

“Quarantine” mirrors the story and format of [REC] while injecting its own moments of well-executed “found footage” horror, but it falls short of duplicating the same overall level of exceptional appeal that [REC] achieved.

The fact that it does “found footage” so well is just one more jewel in a crown that [REC] wears proudly as a truly great horror film no matter what format.

Those looking for Sasquatch suspense will leave feeling cheated and those onboard with the switcharoo will have their attention spans depleted to zero before the climax can pay off.

“Dead of the Nite” does have an honest attempt on display of trying to liven up the tired haunted house investigation formula, yet its experiment of dabbling in multiple formats never fully succeeds in creating an enveloping experience.

It is not true that if you’ve seen one zombie movie, you’ve seen them all.  But if you have seen one zombie movie, then you have seen “The Last Days on Mars.”

Part psychological thriller and part cold case murder mystery, the temperature is only lukewarm enough for a cable television movie and never anything more.

“Raze” is an intelligent action movie deliberately dipping its toe in only enough depth to prevent it from being empty girl on girl violence.

“Carrie” plays it far too safe to ever have a shot at standing out for audiences en masse, but it finds more than one way to work as big budget entertainment telling a relatable story to a modern audience.

Killer scarecrows are to horror movies what Arby’s is to cuisine. We know better than to indulge in something we will regret later, but we just cannot help ourselves and do it anyway.

It is fittingly appropriate that voodoo is occasionally debased as “mumbo jumbo” because “Voodoo Possession” has plenty of it.  Mumbo jumbo, that is.  Voodoo, not so much.

... in between the doldrums of whiny voices and overexposed views out a windshield, the too real terror of helplessness at the hands of a twisted stalker reflects a grim depiction of frighteningly relatable horror.