You’d be hard pressed to designate “Doctor Sleep” as anything other than a directorial success as far as an achievement to ambition ratio goes.

No matter how much I mull over “Wounds,” I’m no closer to concluding whether Armie Hammer’s performance is brilliantly bland by design or just boringly blah.

Aster delights in deliberately trolling “it’s not horror!” TruFans who exhaustingly reduce his “adore it or abhor it” aesthetics into supposed evidence of overhyped boredom.

The movie mushes around unconscious content like Play-Doh while only making vague shapes of tangible storytelling.

Whether it’s uncreative kills, cursory characterizations, or totally telegraphed beats, “Ready or Not’s” real issue is that it doesn’t put any inventive spins on standards setups.

This was doomed to be detonated as a total bomb from the get-go, and I’m flabbergasted anyone could have believed otherwise.

“Resin” demands to speak in its own voice. What it says might be music for some, but will sound like harsh screeches for others.

Everywhere you turn, a lack of snap in the tempo threatens to render audiences unconscious with carbon monoxide contagion.

“Countdown” answers the question, what would a cheap Little Caesar’s Hot-N-Ready look like in PG-13 horror film form?

Against my external uncertainties, “The Fare” won me over by its conclusion, primarily through persuasive performances built around a suspenseful setup.

If there were any other way to critique “Eat, Brains, Love” without singling out a specific someone whose career isn’t fully established, I would take that alternate route.

“Don’t Let Go” uses a classic paradox premise to spin an unexpectedly moving fable where powerful family bonds break restricting rules of reality.

Even with a number of prime pieces to play with, “Antrum” takes a wrong turn by building around a tame story that isn’t nearly as intriguing as the background bits.

A casual charm emerges from unusually down-to-earth fiction that makes “The Shed” endearing without being cutesy or comedic.

Distinctive films like this one reward those who go out of their way to get to it by beautifully, and bizarrely, broadening their horror movie horizons.

If “The Wretched” is indicative of the stylish creepy-crawling The Pierce Brothers can deliver, expect to see even bigger and bolder productions in the duo’s future.

You’d better be in a merry mood if “Holiday Hell” is to have any hope of spiking your egg nog with entertainment.

“Rattlesnake” might be a ringer released by Netflix to illustrate exactly why we need the ability to blaze through boringness on our own terms.

Ably aided by her two co-stars, Caitlin Stasey’s highlight-packed performance tows “Kindred Spirit” through its troughs and jets it right over each peak.

Once “Girl on the Third Floor” trades its first act foundation of cinematic convention for a second act of thematic reflection, shed skin reveals bones of infinitely more intrigue.