Shawn Van Horn

The Pout-Pout Fish is not bad by any means, but don't go in expecting a new animated classic. Little kids will probably enjoy it for the innocent, lesson-filled, mild fun it is, especially if they've been introduced to what inspired it first. There's nothing wrong with that. It's what The Pout-Pout Fish aims for, and it achieves the goal.

The best thing Whistle has going for it is that the "monster" is actually pretty creepy, and the rules created behind what it does are intriguing enough. The gore and death scenes are effective, pulling in the viewer, as the character building pushes them away.

It's well-acted and not schlocky, but it's one of those presents you open on Christmas, excited to receive it, only to forget about it the next day.

You won't forget Alan Ritchson. If he can make crap entertaining, imagine him in a comedic role with a much better script

Trap House is a fun enough time worth watching, but it traps its star and doesn't let him out.

There is fun to be had here, but it's spread too thin in a movie where even 90 minutes is too long.

There are more misses than connections in the third act, and for its title, it's never really vicious enough despite the blood and gore to come. Still, it'll keep you on your toes as it's cutting off someone else's.

V/H/S/Halloween is dark and demented, and is the funniest movie of this franchise. But if the V/H/S series just turned it down a notch and tried some different storytelling formats, the next one could be even better.

Killer coyotes aren't all that scary, and the comedy of the supporting characters feels forced and overly written. Kudos to the crew for coming up with a premise and refusing to send it off the rails into fantastical absurdism. Still, just because you keep the plot grounded doesn't mean that there is enough to keep up the tension.

It's content with being simply silly when it could have been so much more. Still, Doin' It will make you laugh out loud throughout its runtime, and Lilly Singh shows that she has what it takes to succeed on the big screen.

A short runtime kills any character development and tension.

Trust does a great job of showing what Turner is capable of. The problem is everything around her. Pardon the pun, but it takes an interesting premise and doesn't trust itself to craft a compelling story with interesting characters around it.

If you're a moviegoer who desires smart, original horror, skip Witchboard. You're better off just watching Sinners or Weapons again.

The Old Guard 2 feels like nothing more than setup, with scene after scene of dialogue and exposition and little actual fighting.

Lilly becomes a chiseled-down Wikipedia summary version of a life, dipping in here and there to show you the big moments, but in the process, characterization and emotion are stripped away.

If you haven't seen many demon possession movies, or on the opposite spectrum, if you can't get enough of them, Rosario is a decent 90-minute watch. It's not awful, it's not going to insult you, but it's a retread of better movies with every predictable plot point you can imagine.

Dark Nuns doesn't reinvent the wheel. If you're seeking out an exorcism film that's going to shock you and be vastly different from what you've seen before, you're going to be disappointed. But what Dark Nuns does have are two central characters of the like that we don't often see.

It's a nice slice-of-life character-driven film, which is always great to see, but there is very little drama or conflict to keep the viewer invested past the colorful animation.

If anything else, Abruptio will make you highly uncomfortable, and it's so unnerving that it will give you nightmares. Perhaps that's the whole point of using puppets.

Elevation is a thin story with every trope and stereotype you've seen from better monster movies

In the moment it works, and despite its flaws, Goodrich is just more proof of how good we've got it that we get to witness an actor like Michael Keaton.

Puzzle Box is a middle-of-the-road found footage film; not great, and not horrible, but it's the characters that make it memorable.

V/H/S/Beyond falls in the middle of the pack for the franchise. It's not as terrifying as the first film, and nowhere near as bad as V/H/S/Viral. Instead, it's more on par with recent entries.