“Arbor Demon” is simply too sparse in both setup and staging to make a mark in the memory as a thriller whose teeth have bite.

I nearly overlooked “Eloise” because the title sounds like a screwball comedy with Melissa McCarthy in old age makeup playing a goofy granny.

Los Angeles can’t keep it together when the Lakers win a championship. As if the city could be this calm when facing impending Armageddon.

A predominantly two-person exorcism/haunting story done on a dime doesn’t stand much chance of being a barnburner to begin with.

Many will find “iBoy” content with convention when it could unleash the kraken of its crazy concept if only it had flair or ferocity.

Even with some dull stretches and dodgy dot-connecting, there remains a witchiness in its air that keeps “Don’t Knock Twice” creepily compelling.

Creative energy puts fun into the frights, capturing the kind of ‘anything goes’ enthusiasm that makes us want to see two franchises fused in the first place.

Like a 'hungry' on a human neck, “The Girl with All the Gifts” offers something meaty and meaningful that can be chewed on as entertainment or introspection.

“Justice League Dark” is everything I loved about animated adventures as a kid, but with a dark edge of horror appealing to more mature tastes.

“Arrival” captures the wonder of first contact in its first moments with an authentic air of astonishment, awe, apprehension, and terror.

“Rats” treats its titular topic not as a subject to be explored academically, but a babadook to be feared and frightened of.

“Split” is precisely the type of trip into tension once synonymous with Shyamalan's name, and a more consistently entertaining thriller too.

Forced to summon a non-Crichton simile, one might say “The Rezort” is something like the idea behind “Hostel” meets video game “Dead Island."

For anyone fascinated to see the difference ten story years makes, “Stake Land II” is a suitable sequel good for 90 minutes of melodramatic horror entertainment.

If “Zombieland” wasn’t a comedy, or “The Road” had slightly less somber drama, their similar setups would fall right in line with “Stake Land’s.”

It’s a Tin Man built from a cold frame containing the necessary limbs to be a basic movie, but missing internal guts giving it life beyond being average entertainment.

“Before I Wake” leaves an impression of being the movie the director wanted, though not necessarily what accustomed viewers expect.

If you want to revel in as much material about making “Pet Sematary” as is currently documented in film format, you really don’t need anything that “Unearthed and Untold” doesn’t have.

Watering down the title to “Hunting Grounds” makes strange sense because it speaks to how interchangeably tame the well-meaning movie is.

As far as standard cabin-in-the-woods creepshows go, “Bornless Ones” is one of the better-acted and most efficiently executed productions out there.