Matt Donato

Martyrs is the exact movie we feared it'd be - a forgettable remake of a far more prolific foreign success story.

From start to finish, Fantasy Island is lacking wicked wonderment and poignant reboot vocality. You'd be best off skipping it.

When people complain about the death of mainstream comedies, it’s bottomfeeding films like Playdate that are the genre’s executioner. No energy, no wit, just a tasteless and tacky sequence of events that barely manages to clear the bar for what’s still considered a movie.

Hellraiser: Judgment is a stuffy police procedural masquerading as a torturous Pinhead franchise entry.

It's a shame Silent Hill: Revelation suffers the same doomed fate as most modern horror movies, bumbling through a shockingly disconnected screenplay which strings together moments that could have been salvaged otherwise.

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey is noteworthy only for its name, as it turns out that blending slasher blood with Pooh’s honey together is like oil and water: it just doesn’t mix.

Even those who are deathly afraid of clowns will have trouble finding enjoyable bouts of horror in this survival thriller.

Fear Inc. wastes a devious idea on a slew of reveals that bring momentum to a crushing halt.

The Windmill is all about kills, but can't generate enough energy to power this derivative, sometimes nonsensical plot.

Plainly put, Last Girl Standing explores a unique horror convention from a fresh angle, but can’t execute when it counts.

The Frontier is a stale film from another era, with an unfortunate story that's about as frail as a tumbleweed.

The Axe Murders Of Villisca is too familiar a haunted house story to be anything more than generic.

Pitchfork is defined by a country dance sequence with full boot-stomping choreography - not a great sign for a horror movie.

The Snare is so without substance that you might not even remember watching it.

Don't Kill It is some DIY insanity that leaves more scattered limbs than an overturned Halloween decoration truck.

No ifs, ands or Bubs about it, the memory of Day Of The Dead: Bloodline will decay at lightning speed. There’s nothing new here that Romero didn’t do better, only a downgraded horror watch with lesser value.

The Pool is a bonkers blast from beginning to end. Each wave of misfortune crashes down harder than the last, pummeling a walled-in main character with sadistic spite.

Expressive and appropriate costume design looks the part, but the experience doesn’t fully embrace what kill-or-be-cracked-open thrills are openly promised.

Writer/director Kipp expands his short into a feature that at times struggles to elongate an otherwise poignant message, leaving other worldbuilding details behind in a way that undercuts structural integrity. I’m all for awareness, but wonky narrative stumbles aren’t ignorable.

They Live in the Grey is a modest indie with thematic layers and evergreen mortal dread that could use two or three more editing bay passes.

With shades of Get Out, Culture Shock, and The Forever Purge, American Carnage is yet another frightening-enough, albeit bogged-down, tale about how the American Dream is no longer for everyone.

Unhuman is a good-enough breed of afterschool special horror that succeeds in championing positive messages between sloppier fights with the risen dead.

Shady lunatics are stuck in a lavish woodsy manor where they’re encouraged to explore their repressed issues to their most destructive ends — and that’s not even all of the devious entertainment available. It’s got storytelling hiccups along the way as Meir favors the absurdity of singular moments over and over, but that’s also part of its sharp-toothed charm. Come curious, leave bloody. That’s the path to enjoyment.