You wouldn’t have to hit many film festivals to become a fan of the filmmaking couple known as Katie Aselton and Mark Duplass. He, along with his brother Jay, brought us low-budget winners like The Puffy Chair, Baghead, and Cyrus, while she directed The Freebie not long ago and has graced many an indie project with her own lovely style of matter-of-fact femininity. (Plus she’s freaking hilarious on The League.) More

The latest “home invasion” thriller The Purge can be approached like that old cliché about optimists and pessimists. Those who say the glass is half empty may dismiss the flick as a clever sci-fi concept that gets wedged into a very conventional horror story. Those who think the glass is half full will believe that The Purge is (yes, another) “home invasion” thriller that earns a lot of points for introducing a few novel ingredients into a potentially stale concept. More

Seasoned horror fans will no doubt recognize the irony in today’s vampire cinema. The “romanticization” of the vampire has been evolving since (at least) John Badham’s 1979 rendition of Dracula — but we never saw our beloved cinematic bloodsuckers lose their teeth like they did in the feckless Twilight movies. What used to be sexy but scary became gothic romance, which led to pop-culture overkill: the vampire became neutered.  More

We don’t get a whole lot of independently-produced disaster movies, and it’s pretty simple to figure out why that’s the case. Of all the action film sub-genres, the “disaster epic” is easily one of the most ambitious and expensive, and filmmakers like Irwin Allen and Roland Emmerich clearly need a whole lot of cash to deliver massive cinematic destruction on a huge scale. The fact that Nicolas Lopez’s Aftershock is, in every way, an indie disaster flick, makes it sort of unique in today’s film festival landscape, but do ambition and novelty automatically translate into a good film? In this case, it’s a mixed bag. More

It seems that the producers’ goal in following up The Haunting in Connecticut with Ghosts of Georgia is to produce a series of creepy horror movies that are based on documented events of the supernatural. That’s all fine and good, but it doesn’t make a title like The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia a good idea. Yes, you need to wedge your “Part 1″ title into the “Part 2″ title somehow, but let’s be honest here. Georgia and Connecticut are pretty much opposites. But enough about the goofy title. The movie’s the thing, obviously. More

One does not call their film “Evil Dead” without expecting some serious scrutiny from the old-school horror fans. It doesn’t matter if names like Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert are on board for your remake, and it makes no difference that you went for a “hard-R” rating and delivered a pretty kick-ass trailer. That’s all just conversation fodder. If you’re going to remake one of the finest indie horror films of the 1980s, you better be prepared to roll your sleeves up, do some heavy lifting, and get your hands dirty. More

It doesn’t take a genius to combine the basic trappings of a standard “haunted house” story with the well-worn convention of “alien invasions,” but it’s nice to see that some filmmakers are still willing to give it a shot. Although clearly inspired by the recent and endless litany of paranormal-centric horror flicks and a big handful of science fiction films you’ve probably already seen, Scott Stewart’s Dark Skies still works perfectly well as a turn-off-the-lights (and be-willing-to-play-along) piece of sci-fi-sprinkled horror amusement. More

If you don’t think this one is a horror film, stop fooling yourselves.

Ever get yelled at by an angry policeman? It’s not a pleasant experience, especially if you didn’t do anything wrong. The power of authority is a dangerous thing, especially in a society as dense and confused as America. Given too much authority, a nice person can commit horrible atrocities, and nowhere is that theory more visible than in the fascinating new thriller called Compliance. More