... if you can look past tearing seams in the visual effects and an occasionally spotty structure, a solid story and a splendid cast make “Sparks” a surprisingly entertaining superhero alternative to summertime Cineplex fare.

... there is no mistaking the throwback vibe of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” meets “The Thing” that triple threat writer/director/producer Joe Begos wishes to evoke with his debut feature.

While my appreciation of the film’s merit has increased marginally, my conclusion is still that “Here Comes the Devil” is an over-interpreted example of ambiguity confused for artistry.

It makes sense that Cristian Toledo and Lucio A. Rojas are the writers, directors, and producers of “Zombie Dawn” because it is difficult to imagine them being able to get anyone other than themselves interested in their project.

“Holy Ghost People” appears to position itself as a psychological thriller when it is really a character study about purposeless people struggling to change that descriptive adjective.

“Patrick: Evil Awakens” walks in stride with its predecessor while adding a new layer of appeal for audiences accustomed to the increased visual shocks and faster step of 21st century horror.

Genre film fans walk away with newfound appreciation for an overlooked era of movie culture and a slew of suggestions sure to influence Netflix queues for many weeks to come.

In addition to being well-covered ground premise-wise, there is little here besides one actress and one ghost, which is one more reason why horror veterans are unlikely to find anything of interest.

Like it or not, the indescribable nature of “Patrick Still Lives” makes its quality debatable, but its entertainment value assured.

Films like “VHS2,” “The ABC’s of Death,” and even “Chilling Visions” have set a higher standard, and “Penny Dreadful” is neither polished nor tight enough to meet that same bar.

Franklin and De Roche are in no rush to push the plot towards the finish line, though this intention is deliberately styled from Franklin’s fascination for Hitchcockian suspense rather than a mistimed sense of pace.

“Stitch” is either a decent movie felled by too much ambition and tremendously bad visual effects, or it is a bad movie modestly elevated by decent performances from a capable cast.

“Silent Night, Bloody Night” is an unusual mix from a time when dramatic theatricality went beyond snarky one-liners and creative kills.

The hodgepodge of varied ideas is so mismatched that it has to be asked, who is the target audience for “20 Ft. Below?”

“Bloodlust!” delivers satisfying late night chiller charm that is surprisingly daring for an overlooked sixties schlocker unjustly derided as a campy disappointment if it is even remembered at all.

(Paz de la Huerta), like ("Nurse 3D"), can remain hotly debated on a quality level, but denying the way that both demand eyes to be turned towards the screen is a much harder argument to win.

It is difficult to conceive of a pitch meeting where the studio didn’t ask, “how is this any different than Rosemary’s Baby?” and the filmmakers weren’t caught with the only possible response of, “well this one is shot as found footage.”

Could “I, Frankenstein” really be as disappointing as its 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes would suggest? Yes and no. Although mostly yes and only a little bit no.

It may have needed another helping hand from a dark streak of black comedy, but a cleaner execution, a sleeker script, and an intelligible lead could have made all the difference in making “Deranged” better than it is.

When it is all said and done, “Fields of the Dead” ends only after confusing the story to a point that would blow a robot’s brain with a “does not compute” error.