“Jack Goes Home” is an introspective character deconstruction with an arthouse indie skin first, and a psycho-thriller with slight swaths of commercial horror second.

Putting it in a peanut shell, “The Windmill” trots out more than a few tropes and predictable plot beats, yet it’s got gory guts and gusto where it counts.

What you end up getting out of “Phantasm: Ravager” is proportionately related to how much nostalgia you have for the franchise.

Will you want to own it on home video for repeat viewings every Halloween? No. But for a one-and-done viewing to kick off October? Sure, why not?

While its slow roll and tame terror keep menace at a minimum, the movie has a thematic backbone where comparative thrillers have only hollow horror.

No matter how mundane the “To Do” list task, “Ouija Summoning” is all the motivation you need to do anything that isn’t watching this movie.

With six consecutive features now tapping into this telltale brand of roadside hillbilly horror, following formula no longer challenges audiences to be shocked.

“Wolf Creek: The Series” may not be essential viewing, but it is entertaining, provided there exists a willingness to overlook implausible plotting.

If you’ve seen the first film, then you’ve seen this sequel’s identical plot beats of getting lost, yelling, being chased, becoming separated, and concluding in a creepy old house.

“The Purging Hour” is too vague about its mythology and too dull as a movie to come anywhere close to earning a recommendation.

It’s fine as the kind of movie you land on by happenstance and opt to stay there out of curiosity, boredom, or because you dropped the remote and don’t feel like picking it up.

As a monument to the man Leonard Nimoy, the myth of Mr. Spock, and the legend of how the two intertwine, the film is absolutely on point.

On a scale of sighing yawn to jaw on the floor, “it’s fine, I guess” is the maximum amount of enthusiasm to be marshaled for “The Shallows.”

While its soap opera satire might fizzle, the enchanting artistry behind Anna Biller’s Technicolor romance mixed in a pulp fiction mood sizzles.

"The Purge: Election Year" inspires minor food for thought while entertaining with a vibrantly violent blend of suspense and satire.

The movie is marred by the distinguishing characteristics of something that went through a wringer of rewrites and re-edits, paring it down into a predictable supernatural drama.

“The Remains” is equivalent to nondescript tract housing created from prefab components included in every other bland building already on the block.

“Doomed” is an emotional portrait of a close-knit cast and crew finding camaraderie in a common cause under unusual circumstances.

Penned by “Feast” co-writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunstan, “The Neighbor” is a spiritual successor of sorts to the pair’s “The Collector” and “The Collection” movies.

The actors’ earnestness balances with the filmmakers’ sarcasm to strike the right mood of weirdness that is sometimes amusing, sometimes revolting, but usually entertaining.