This is what a 1960s satanic thriller looks like when painted with a fresh coat of 21st-century cinematic sensibilities.

The horror is so hollow that “Ouija” never does anything more than sleepwalk through the motions of being a mediocre movie.

“Jessabelle” is a good old-fashioned alone-in-the-dark ghost story highlighted by talented performers, rich cinematography, and a screenplay built on clever surprises and tautly delivered chills.

This is how creative filmmakers mold meh material into a movie that audiences will talk about after, regardless of how they may have felt about the film itself.

You name it, “Hollows Grove” has it.  That is, as long as you don’t name anything like interesting backstory, compelling characters, or original ideas.

25 years from now, “The Butchers” might well fit as the type of midnight movie where audiences marvel, “can you believe people actually made movies like this back in 2014?”

While “The Killer Shrews” bears enough snicker-worthy moments to have earned itself a lampoon on MST3K, the truth is that it’s not that bad, not particularly good, just somewhere in between.

Perhaps taking inspiration from their film’s antagonists, it’s no wonder why the filmmakers rang a doorbell and walked away whistling, hoping no one would notice who was responsible.

“Halloween 4” stands as a serviceable sequel, although it is closer to being a formulaic “Friday the 13th” slasher than a tense “Halloween” suspense thriller.

Good intentions and competent execution go just so far, only to be unmet in the middle by a concept that cannot be recreated onscreen as effectively as one might suppose.

Through the lens of nostalgia, “Halloween II” as a movie surprisingly does not stand out as a bad entry in the series, especially when viewing the entire “Halloween” canon as a whole.

With a slipshod approach to technical execution and corner-cutting screenwriting to splice together a story, “Fear Clinic” just can’t pull it itself together.

Whatever it is trying to say about female empowerment is not effectively communicated through vibrantly colored slow-motion sequences set to classical music.

Even if it stood alone in the ever-expanding subgenre of home invasion horror, “White Settlers” is too slow and too narrowly focused in scope to earn a recommendation.

Its streamlined approach to slick slasher style can still tickle a palate in the same way that a wine snob enjoys a slug of Charles Shaw when no one is around to judge.

Countless imitators have laid claim to being a throwback 80s slasher homage with an authentic retro feel, but “Lost After Dark” is the real deal.

If the tales told are to be believed, then Art Nelson may have been the most interesting miscreant to ever darken the backstreets and alleyways of Tinseltown.

“I Survived a Zombie Holocaust” isn’t a fresh enough concept, and ... you won’t be reaching to put your copy of “Shaun of the Dead” into the trash bin anytime soon.

“Refuge” is what the standoff between Tom Savini’s motorcycle club and Ken Foree’s quartet would be like if there weren’t shambling corpses banging into the glass doors of the Monroeville Mall.

“Suburban Gothic” carries a vibe of what a Scooby-Doo mystery might be like if it was drunk on Maker’s Mark and fueled by a Pixie Stix sugar high.