Matt Donato

Your enjoyment of Child's Play will depend on if "Chucky 2.0" is funny enough for your horror comedy tastes, because without investment in Kaslan's "Buddi," there's not much to appreciate beyond a few gnarly slasher deaths.

Dark Phoenix takes arguably the most heavily thematic X-Men comic arc and delivers the most dully procedural, chopped-to-bits cinematic franchise entry in Fox’s mutant canon.

The Dead Don't Die is a procedurally bland zomcom with little genre personality, playing as if Jarmusch invents a subgenre horror fans haven't been watching for decades.

Godzilla: King Of The Monsters lays many a colossal Kaiju smackdown, but human arcs crumble under the heavy weights of those 'Zilla-sized behemoths they're forced to shoulder.

Ma is a showcase for Octavia Spencer's ability to turn her typecasted traits into utterly disturbing obsession destabilization, but the film's less potent genre punch never lives up to its main character's psychotic allure.

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.

Something Else promises monsters but delivers more demons of the human experience variety, as this sweet and sincere creature feature is far more romantically heartfelt than expected.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is a gunsmoke hazy, bloody-knuckle ruthless, impossibly badass Wickian continuation.

Hellboy feels editorially chopped to bits, tonally disjointed and created from clashing perspectives that make for the type of "dark, gritty" reboot that misunderstands why certain "dark, gritty" reboots end up working.

A Vigilante succeeds not by exploiting torture, but instead shifting focus to Olivia Wilde's painful, so very real performance.

Shazam! proves that the DCEU has a sense of humor, can execute on it and *deliver* an electric punch of uber-fun comic book action, too. Heart, humor and heroics – can I get a hell yeah?

Pet Sematary is proficiently tense, dashingly macabre and soaked in nightmarish tones that thrive on audience screams.

Little Monsters is a must-see horror comedy that proves Lupita Nyong'o should be starring in far more horror movies than she's been offered at this point.

Us is an impressive and astonishingly hair-triggered sophomore feature squarely positioned to decimate genre audiences. It’s purposefully vague, but jam-packed with more memorable genre imagery and inquisitive discussion starters than most braindead by-the-book cinematic offerings beholden to formulaic blueprints.

Captain Marvel is a recorded mixtape of familiar MCU beats that sets Carol Danvers up for success, but as a period standalone, struggles to be anything we haven't yet seen from superhero cinema.

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.

The Amityville Murders wastes historical reverence on a paint-by-numbers ghost story that relies too heavily on eyesore animated effects.

Once Upon A Deadpool supports the worthiest of causes, but "PG-13 Deadpool 2" is a much duller, hacked-up sequel than this year's *already inflated* R-rated release.

Aquaman is imaginatively ambitious superhero cinema with no rules, which is more positive than negative as Wan's vision is realized like an underwater laser light spectacle that the DCEU so desperately needs right now.

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse is a celebration of limitless creativity that honors comic book runs of the same freeing mentality.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald is two-plus overstuffed hours worth of too many characters fighting for screen time that no enchantment can salvage.

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

Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria will divide fans of the original and those excited for something fresh as a testament to long-form (2+ hour) filmmaking that holds together impressively well.

Gareth Evans’ Apostle is The Wicker Man, Safe Haven and Silent Hill thrown into a boil that bubbles over during a ruthless third act that certainly delivers if you have the patience.

The Predator guts and slashes its way to gory sci-fi mediocrity, but is further failed by abysmal pacing that loses characters, subplots and interest along the way.

Anna And The Apocalypse is an enthusiastic coming-of-age musical that cares just as much about bellowed heart and soul as it does keeping horror fans entertained.

Scares are often on the generic side (pitch-black doorway, hand reaches out), and while some wild effects work enjoys the zanier side of Hell’s mouth opening up to spit venom across Earth’s surface, it’s missing the masterfully torturous tone that Wan’s universe otherwise aims for.

Let The Corpses Tan is a stunning display of visual seduction and slaughter-first gunplay, if not somewhat distracted by a skeletal script that’s been stripped of all meatiness.