In switching from haunted house yarns to a post-possession tale, the movie gets stuck in the slowness of a procedural investigation padded with yawn-worthy exposition.
THE AMUSEMENT PARK (1973)
“The Amusement Park” remains a fascinating film for fans anxious to peek at a young George A. Romero still finding his filmmaking footing.
CAVEAT (2020)
Ignoring shaky late-stage storytelling, “Caveat” capably coughs up macabre moodiness and sinister suggestiveness like few low-budget fright films can.
THE DEEP ONES (2020)
The film’s unknown cast and shot-on-digital sheen give it more in common with the shagginess of “Gingerdead Man vs. Evil Bong” than with the late-night Lovecraftian allure of “Castle Freak.”
ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021)
“Army of the Dead” qualifies as “big, dumb fun.” Unfortunately, it’s disproportionately heavy on two of those terms while having nearly none of the third.
AMITYVILLE POLTERGEIST (2020)
“Amityville Poltergeist” is another disposable DTV’er that became an Amityville movie after the fact, meaning it has as much to do with Amityville as it does with Ypsilanti, Michigan.
SEANCE (2021)
Horror fans might afford “Seance’s” boilerplate boos a little more leniency when they realize it’s Simon Barrett’s feature film directorial debut.
OXYGEN (2021 - French)
An “I’ve been down this road before” ghost haunts “Oxygen,” holding back any ingenuity from feeling truly original or imaginative.
DEATH RINK (2019)
I equate rental prices to how much I’d pay for a drink at a bar. If I had it to do over again, I’d rather have half of a beer than 75 minutes of “Death Rink.”
THE DJINN (2021)
As long as you have an appetite for quick, classic chills, “The Djinn” offers a modestly macabre meal you can gobble up while having dinner in the dark.
FRIED BARRY (2020)
“Fried Barry” is “filthy,” and your personal proclivities for tastelessness will dictate whether that word earns the adjective “delightfully” or “despicably.”
THE LOCKDOWN HAUNTINGS (2021)
How can I put this nicely? I don’t think I can. Bottom line, “The Lockdown Hauntings” is scatterbrained claptrap that is dull as dirt.
INITIATION (DEMBANGER) (2020)
Even with some jagged hangnails, “Initiation” still gets a good deal of the way there as a prettily polished indie with several surprises up its sleeve.
THE RESORT (2021)
If you forced a bot to watch 100 of the blandest indie horror movies imaginable, then had that bot generate a generic horror movie of its own, the result would be “The Resort.”
MORTAL KOMBAT (2021)
I don’t see how “Mortal Kombat” can be anything other than this movie because of how inherently silly the source material is for a live-action adaptation.
SOUND OF VIOLENCE (2021)
At a time when microbudget thrillers mostly play it safe, it’s worth appreciating an underdog oddball that dares to do things a little differently.
THE POWER (2021)
“The Power” is the kind of movie that can be described with a number of “the kind of movie that” observations.
THE SPINE OF NIGHT (2021)
Philosophically sophisticated, yet fully entrenched in Saturday morning sensations tailored to adult tastes, there hasn’t been anything like “The Spine of Night” in decades.
HONEYDEW (2020)
Clips of the spinach-eating sailor appear so frequently, I’m shocked Popeye doesn’t have top billing because I’d swear he appears onscreen more than anyone else.
GODZILLA vs. KONG (2021)
The way to take “Godzilla vs. Kong” is as a modernized riff on classic mutant monster movies made for date night at the drive-in.
Somewhat swiftly, “Bloody Axe Wound” sheds the skin of a slasher spoof to morph into a more intriguing inversion of a coming-of-age tale.