Even when the movie follows expected conventions, it does so creatively, and always with an eye for maximum cinematic suspense.

It’s all a whole lot of basic blah blah blah, unsurprisingly resulting in a movie that’s just as blah as everything in it.

“Amityville Uprising” plays like ‘A Day in the Life’ of an average neighborhood police station, with all of the dull drama that entails.

When it comes to a blind person battling a trio of thieves trying to rob an isolated house, “See for Me” leaps high above “Don’t Breathe.”

The more of these DIY Amityville junkers I sit through, the more they violently rub sandpaper all over my lifelong love of horror.

“Spiral” appears to instead come “From the Book of Dick Wolf,” as it plays like a pedestrian police procedural infrequently peppered with gobs of gore.

“Antlers” isn’t at all equipped to sustain a spot in pop culture’s consciousness for longer than it takes the end credits to finish scrolling.

“Resident Evil” might be under new management, but “Monster Hunter” delivers familiar flavors from the chef’s signature menu.

Benson and Moorhead have been building a uniquely identifiable brand of eeriness that could be called “cosmic horror for the new millennium.”

If I didn’t know differently, I’d have guessed it was the other way around, and that “Scare Me” had been adapted from a live theater show.

Ironically, having nothing better to do is how people ended up making this movie in the first place.

If “Aliens” is letter A, and a $900 DIY-er shot on a cellphone in a cardboard tube passing for a tunnel is letter Z, then “Death Valley” is somewhere around P.

“Venom: Let There Be Carnage” turns into a real ripper exploding with cool creatures, hilarious laughs, and a Hallmark holiday movie’s worth of heart that’s unexpectedly charming.

Not only is it one of the best thrillers of the year, “The Advent Calendar” might have a prime place on the list of perennial holiday horror hits to revisit every December too.

“Black Friday” settles for being a hollow horror-comedy that just acts slightly silly instead of actually loading up on sharp jokes and good gags.

Set your standards to meet the movie’s lowered level and you might find its occasional kookiness to be intermittently captivating.

When I exited at the other end of a finely tuned yet relatively ordinary haunter, I found myself asking, “That’s all?”

“Apex” is like watching cellphone video of average H&R Block employees playing paintball while lightly jogging around 40 square feet of forest.

Flashes of clever creativity lead me to believe if it didn’t fight so hard to be ordinary, bigger risks might have paid off with an “extra-” to put in front of that word.

The Theatrical and Extended cuts of “Escape Room: Tournament of Champions“ make for a fully fascinating watch purely from a filmmaking “what if?” perspective.