Filmmakers who really ought to know better are still plopping out redundant first-person flicks like cinema sadists taking their whips to Secretariat’s corpse.

Slow and steady may win the race, but it doesn’t make for an energetically engaging movie.

Why did I watch “Char Man?” I want to work out what would possess me to make such a terrible choice for an evening’s entertainment.

The film refrains from hitting a high heat, bubbling on an acceptable simmer that can singe fingertips without peaking into a full fire.

“Dry Blood” includes an almost equal number of plusses to its minuses, basically becoming a decidedly average microbudget horror movie.

You’d have to be a complete Grinch to be immune to the movie’s ability to melt icy hearts with its punchy spirit and cheeky splatter.

What exactly does anyone want out of a Predator movie that this film doesn’t deliver?

Bursting with black lights, strobe lights, skipped frames, and Stargate wormhole whips, “The Hive” exhibits the ADD energy of a music video on methamphetamines.

Whenever I reflect on the unusual appeal of its mesmeric allure, the more I appreciate “Under the Silver Lake” as a unique travelogue through a weird waking dreamscape.

I can’t think of a plausible scenario to explain how six writers became creatively involved in something so formulaically flavorless.

Looking at “Bird Box” solely through a lens comparing it to “A Quiet Place” kneecaps the movie’s merits as sharply produced, well-acted drama.

I wish there was something more than stage-setting to the first 60 minutes so that “One Cut of the Dead” didn’t take so long to win me over.

You could fill an ocean with the classic Universal and Hammer monster movie atmosphere pouring from “The Nun” like a waterfall.

If “Hurt” has a specific style in mind, message it wishes to impart, or artistic objective it aims to achieve, I can’t tell what any of those might be.

If you want to watch a nondescript woman unhurriedly explore an unremarkable house for the better part of an hour, “The Haunted” has you covered.

I can’t imagine how Apple ever allowed You Die onto iTunes, much less what kind of paranormal programming would be required to produce such an app in the first place.

“Goosebumps 2” mixes typical teen drama with a Spielberg-style childhood adventure to achieve its vibrant vibe of harmless horror and fright-spiked fun.

For one hell of a messily mediocre movie, “Venom” can still land more than a few raw punches of enjoyable nuttiness.

“Discarnate” comes across as the kind of dreamily discombobulated indie horror movie you might imagine could only come from the vision of an Italian fashion photographer.

“Draug” retains a sharp edge of distinctness as supernatural suspense stories go, with the period setting providing ample panache.