There are numerous ways one could go with an “epidemic thriller” like Contagion. The smash hit Outbreak turned the premise into a goofy little race against the clock affair; last year’s Never Let Me Go looked at the after-effects in personal and heartbreaking fashion; horror flicks like The Crazies are content to roll around in the gore while making a simple point or two. Fortunately the latest example of cinematic diseases gone crazy comes from the prolific and unpredictable Steven Soderbergh, which means his Contagion is a star-studded but sobering affair and a tight noose of tension that never resorts to ticking clocks or unrealistic helicopter chases. More

Horror sequels are a double-edged sword for their producers. Present a series of stand-alone follow-ups, like the old Friday the 13th franchise, and the films end up being little more than carbon copies of one another. On the other hand, if you’re intent on creating an ongoing series that keeps a bunch of plot-threads percolating, you chance alienating newcomers and you risk dangers like silliness or confusion. (Even a relative fan of the Saw series will admit it gets more than a little convoluted the longer it lurches on.) Fortunately the producers of the second Paranormal Activity sequel have found a way to tackle the “soap opera horror sequel” with just a small dose of craftiness and originality. More

One doesn’t like to use the word “quaint” to describe a horror film, particularly if it’s a horror film they’re ultimately trying to recommend. But that’s the word that stuck after seeing the latest Guillermo del Toro production, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: quaint, old-fashioned, sedate, deliberate, quiet — but also good adjectives like dark, beautiful, effective, ambiguous, creepy, and satisfying. Hardly a classic among del Toro’s finest works, but it’s important to remember a few things. One is that Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark is based on a 1973 TV movie from ABC (so we’re not exactly talking hard-edged, in-your-face, gorefest here), and the other is that Guillermo del Toro did not direct this film. More

It may have sounded like a good idea on paper (how else could it attract such talent?), but the recent haunted house thriller Dream House is saddled with bland, outdated concepts, overtly predictable”surprises,” dead-eyed acting performances from generally reliable players, and a relentless intent on wedging as many hoary old cliches as possible into the dreary 92-minute frame. What must have been an easy payday for Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts, and directorJim Sheridan hits the screen with all the freshness and originality as a PBS potboiler of the week. More

One of the coolest things about Ben Wheatley’s debut effort, Down Terrace, was the way it forced an audience to slow down a bit, to get used to the characters and the story threads … and then pull the rug out from beneath the viewer, leaving them to marvel at the weird and darkly amusing machinations that are churning beneath the surface. More

Here we are in Remake County again, population: crappy.

Well, that’s not entirely fair, is it? I know dozens of horror fans who love remakes. The Thing, The Fly, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn of the Dead, Let Me In and The Blob are all remakes, and I’d content that not one of those movies suck anything. Buying a ticket to a horror remake is a lot like tossing the dice at a casino: odds are you’re going to crap out, but you keep trying because this particular game offers great payoffs … sometimes. More

Apparently somebody, somewhere, at one point had a light bulb go off over their head while watching The Blair Witch Project or Paranormal Activity or [REC], it doesn’t really matter. The new idea was this: hey, let’s place a “found footage” horror flick inside the capsule of an ill-fated trip to the moon! Not a terrible concept, truth be told, but one that was probably best left on the back burner until they  could concoct a way to make us actually give a crap about what would happen inside of a flick described as “The Blair Witch Project meets Apollo 13.” There’s nothing inherently terrible about the ideas behind the lame, clunky Apollo 18, but the execution is way off, the threat is virtually non-existent, and the visual gimmick starts out as novel but promptly grows exceedingly tiresome. More

There are many horror sequels that are A) redundant, B) silly, C) uninspired, and D) all of the above — but we like some of them anyway. The problem posed to the producers of horror franchises is this: how to give your money-holding ticket-buyers “more of the same” while still being able to “introduce something novel.” Some of the franchises, like Saw, do a pretty decent job of balancing basic formula with new ideas. You may despise the Saw flicks, but at least one can sense an attempt at relatively cohesive storytelling. Other franchises, like Final Destination, put on no such pretense. We began with a pretty fresh idea (the “slasher-free slasher flick”) that came with some truly creative murder methodology … and now we’re at Part 5. More