Matt Donato

"Deadstream" is a cheekily chilling vlog-life satire that scores its shivers and smashes more than like buttons — I can't wait to cram this one into my Halloween movie marathons as a goofball, gross-out, grim-but-gleeful crowd pleaser.

Everything I’ve been asking for from a Resident Evil movie? Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City accomplishes.

There's something to be said about the way Sakamoto depicts how the newer Japanese generation is left to fight for success amongst themselves — misled by older handlers and governing bodies — but you're ultimately here for ha-has and beatdowns, and neither disappoints. If there was ever an action movie that'd slay at a teen girl sleepover, it's Baby Assassins 2.

In the hit-and-miss subgenre of horror anthologies, V/H/S/85 is a shining beacon. Filmmakers are given the space to explore a gamut of ideas, none of which feel restrained to fit a specific anthology mold.

Drunk Bus straps you in for a semi-wild, uplifting ride out of somber darkness and into speedy reclamation.

Fences is old-school Americana that's driven by dynamite performances all around, albeit a bit stuffy in nature.

The craziness of David Leitch's train never goes off the rails nor reaches top speeds but still brings us along for a smooth and stable joyride that outshines its recent American action counterparts.

Ingrid Goes West is the kind of social media satire we need, even if a tone-shifting second act drives focus from mental health to less interesting criminal goofiness.

Keaton’s hazy wading through Kroc’s McDonald’s takeover is a dynamic performance that drives moral emptiness, but remains so poisonously watchable.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter should delight horror fans raised on Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and offers an R-rated bite of vampiric brutality for genre fans with a stronger bloodlust. Øvredal does well to transport his cast to a time when scary stories were told around lanterns in the dead of night, and even if the moodiness evaporates due to a protracted runtime and the foregone conclusion of Dracula’s landfall, the director accentuates the basics of violent feeding sessions in hair-raising fashion.

Officer Downe is a vicious, violent bit of midnight madness that shoots first, and then shoots again for good measure. No need to ask questions.

Nanny seeps into your pores, stings like salt in a throbbing wound and doesn’t require what some horror fans might—conversely—wish appeared.

Linoleum is a heartfelt story about making every day seem like something fantastic.

Leigh Whannell does a damn fine job manifesting unnerved tension and sustaining Cecilia’s downfall right in front of everyone’s eyes.

Though Green may alienate some audiences with choices nowhere near as terrifying as William Friedkin’s original, something about the film’s heart endears beyond another exorcism retread satisfied to follow the same blasphemous beats.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an accessible fantasy adventure that both roasts and respects D&D culture without losing newcomers along for the ride.

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.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F is a standardized comeback that moderately succeeds in balancing tradition with reinvention. The film doesn’t kick your door down and challenge your Beverly Hills Cop fandom—Molloy knocks politely on your door and shows you what you want to see. It’s a humble nostalgia bomb à la Live Free or Die Hard, one afraid to upset the apple cart and detrimentally one-note. But Eddie Murphy’s still Eddie Murphy, and that’s like sneaking in a cheat code.

There’s nothing exceptionally freaky outside one or two practical effects of bodily implications, and yet Good Madam still finds nationally significant ways to summon societal fears.

Black Phone 2 is a template for how sequels can reach further and push for standalone appeal, bringing us as close to Freddy Krueger as we'll get until there's another A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Most Beautiful Island summons viewers into its seductive web, lashing out with teeth-grinding tension when you least expect it.

Brightburn doesn't ask if you want blood, but you've damn-well got it in this nastily gruesome superhero hack-n-slash that's a nightmare for parents everywhere.

While West’s sleazy ‘70s slasher remains one of my champion horror titles of 2022, Pearl is more like giddily deranged add-on downloadable content that makes for an unexpected bite-sized treat. Kudos to the accomplishment, and it’s an ax-swinging slice of bad-vibes hoedown kookiness, but there’s a particular substance missing that X oozes.

Totally Killer tries to skirt responsibilities by having you laugh at its self-awareness, which works as much as it doesn't. Kiernan Shipka will be the reason people talk about Totally Killer, even if the film's foundation of paper cards is one strong gust away from collapsing at any second.

King Cobra has the intensity, excitement and poison every thriller needs, and wild, engaging performances to boot.

Bell and Allen employ big ambitions in a confined area, treating stranger-danger paranoias with an elevated supernatural presentation that’s frightening—maybe a bit overlong—but undeniably effective.

Happy Death Day 2U is a more ambitious, more entertaining - albeit less horror powered - time-warp sequel that proves Jessica Rothe's blinding talent no matter what dimension she's in.

Submerged is a whole mess of tension primed to leave viewers in an anxiety-induced pile of helplessness, which means it does its job pretty damn well.