Horror

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Review: The Woman in Black

James Watkins's old-fashioned ghost story
After 10 years battling supernatural creatures, you'd think Harry Potter would be better equipped to deal with the paranormal pests he faces in James Watkins's old-fashioned ghost story.
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | February 02, 2012

Review: The Innkeepers

Ti West's spook show
Ti West's spook show is atmospheric (thanks to the terrific hotel setting) and frequently funny; but the plot line is choppy, the dialogue often unnecessary, and the scares too sparse.
By PEG ALOI | January 31, 2012

Review: Underworld: Awakening

Brief but bloody
The Underworld series got long in the tooth early, but here, in the fourth installment (directed by Swede Måns Mårlind), it grows new fangs.
By TOM MEEK | January 24, 2012

Review: The Devil Inside

William Brent Bell's limp mockumentary
William Brent Bell's film opens with a disclaimer that "the Vatican does not endorse this movie." No kidding — the Catholic Church isn't exactly known for its sense of humor.
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | January 10, 2012

Review: The Divide

The horrors of human nature
Many a teleplay for The Twilight Zone threatened atomic Armageddon, and though Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens nukes New York in the opening shots of his latest thriller, he finds more inspiration in the horrors of human nature as seen in the old TV show's episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street."
By BRETT MICHEL | January 10, 2012

By | January 01, 0001

Review: Weekend

Jean-Luc Godard's 1967 opus
Among the world's masterpieces of misanthropy, Jean-Luc Godard's 1967 opus follows a loathsome, greedy, sexually perverse bourgeois married couple on a weekend jaunt into the French countryside during which they plan to murder the wife's dying father, and then, perhaps, turn viciously on each other.
By GERALD PEARY | December 06, 2011

By | January 01, 0001

Review: The Skin I Live In

A sensuous, sinister tale of a plastic surgeon
Pedro Almodóvar applies all his hypnotic control to a sensuous, sinister tale of a plastic surgeon who kidnaps a beautiful woman in order to shroud her in experimental skin.
By SHEILA JOHNSTON | October 25, 2011

Review: Paranormal Activity 3

Little to offer
Aside from the fan-cam, 3 has little to offer: the camera is shakier and 2 's ludicrous backstory is continued.
By ANN LEWINSON | October 25, 2011

Review: Take Shelter

Mid-life breakdown
Shannon's got the crazy bit down pat, and director Jeff Nichols has an eye for turning everyday items — a pile of trash, a clear sky, a barking dog — into signs of immanent doom.
By PETER KEOUGH | October 18, 2011

Review: The Thing

Alien meets 30 Days of Night
It's Alien meets 30 Days of Night when a crew of Americans and Norwegians dig up something otherworldly in the Antarctic ice.
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | October 18, 2011

Review: Trespass

Home invasion
If Rod Lurie's errant remake of Straw Dogs didn't tickle your morbid fear of home invasion, then perhaps the latest from Joel Schumacher ( Falling Down ) might do the job.
By TOM MEEK | October 13, 2011

Review: The Human Centipede 2: Full Sequence

Tom Six's version of a love train
Those who lost their cookies over "Two Girls, One Cup" should stay away from Tom Six's twisted follow-up to one of the sickest — and most ingenious — contributions to torture porn in some time.
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | October 13, 2011

Review: Dream House

Haunted house chills and mind games
You'd have to be crazy to quit your job in the depths of the recession, but that's just what New York publishing exec Will Atenton (Daniel Craig) does in Dream House , planning to write that novel and spend more time with his wife (Rachel Weisz) and kids in their new house in Connecticut.
By ANNE LEWINSON | October 04, 2011

Review: Dream House

Review: Abduction

Beautiful but boring
Taylor Lautner plays characters with mysterious origins and makes them boring.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 27, 2011

Review: Manhattan Short Film Festival

Running the gamut
This selection of 10 short films from around the world runs the gamut of genres, from a brisk actioner to a political documentary to playful horror.
By MICHAEL C. WALSH | September 20, 2011

Review: Straw Dogs

Rod Lurie's new version of the Peckinpah classic
Remaking, polishing, and in effect housebreaking what should've remained untamed and feral, Rod Lurie's new version of the Peckinpah classic follows the original's story beats closely, and so the devil is in the details.
By MICHAEL ATKINSON | September 20, 2011

Review: Contagion

The Traffic of viral outbreak movies
For all the death and panic, this is a relatively quiet film.
By BRETT MICHEL | September 13, 2011

Old friends return

Wax Tablet
The sinewy post-punk group HUAK drop Yorba Linda , their first full-length, named for the birthplace of Richard Nixon.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX MUSIC STAFF | September 07, 2011

Review: Apollo 18

López-Gallego's inert thriller
Officially, the final lunar manned launch was Apollo 17 in 1972. But what if there was another, secret one, and footage from it was "found" somewhere?
By PETER KEOUGH | September 06, 2011

Review: Don't be Afraid of the Dark

Don't call it a comeback
Katie Holmes plays Kim, a wannabe stepmom, in this lame remake of the 1973 Don't Be Afraid of the Dark .
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | August 23, 2011

Review: Fright Night

Friendly neighborhood vampire
Set in the sun-bleached city of sin, Las Vegas — where many of the strip's denizens are already dead inside — Fright Night plays upon elements of darkness and indulgence.
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | August 16, 2011

Review: Final Destination 5

3D splatter-fest
Are we dead yet? It would appear not, as the Final Destination franchise keeps slogging on, like a cross-country family road trip from hell (spoiler alert: somewhere around mile 600, Mom's going through the windshield).
By ALEXANDRA CAVALLO | August 16, 2011