For as much love, passion, and nostalgia is evident in this movie, it’s also a film very palpably made from a place driven by fear of disappointing the audience, and that anxiety fuels a lot of the story’s curious creative choices and unwieldy execution.

Project Wolf Hunting goes for broke in terms of exquisite beatdown violence in the pursuit of primal genre happiness. Writer/director Kim Hong-seon executes like there’s a going-out-of-business sale on fake blood, and we reap the benefits as showstopping displays of action-horror devastation take center stage.

The scares are ridiculous, the plot makes no sense, and you’ll probably spend the whole running time wishing someone would spill a drink on their keyboard and erase the movie's hard drive.

Annabelle Comes Home offers more humor in addition to the supernatural terror the Conjuring franchise is known for.

Taken for what it is, Logan's Run delivers a fun ride and a glimpse at another era, even if it's probably not the time frame the producers had in mind.

Destroy All Neighbors is a horror-comedy with a fun premise and creative effects but it’s messy in too many ineffective and wrong ways, like listening to a 20-minute jam session that never finds its hook.

Trolls Band Together hits its chosen notes with its trademark glitter-drunk energy and some bonkers visual invention, but its mashing up of shiny pop hits (not to mention past Trolls movies) approaches exhaustion.

While Smith does fine work, how reliant this Genie is on Smith’s personality does make you wonder if an actor pushing farther out of their comfort zone would have gotten us closer to the boundless creativity that made Robin Williams’ performance so memorable.

Killing Gunther is an astonishingly unfunny film considering the level of sheer comedic talent involved in it. Its lack of energy or character development keeps the film from ever finding its groove.

The dystopian fantasy elements of the saga are now at their thinnest, painting a cinematic world that may hit too close to home for some. Ultimately, it's a solid entry that can either act as an ending or a new beginning.

There’s plenty to giggle at throughout, and even a few moments that might just give you goosebumps. Those qualities alone, despite the film’s flaws, make Ma an almost endlessly entertaining watch.

While Race with the Devil is a bit slower, it's a haunting, unforgettable experience.

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.

We Have a Ghost is a mostly bland movie, elevated by a few good performances and an intriguing premise that doesn’t go as far as it seems like it should.

Lilo & Stitch is one of the stronger results of Disney’s non-stop remake campaign, taking the emotional core of the original and amplifying it in a stirring manner.

Filled with never-ending voice over and exposition, utterly vapid and personality-free characters, and dull action beats, In the Grey is a low point for director Guy Ritchie, who’s proven in the past he’s capable of delivering much more entertaining films.

If you're able to suspend disbelief, the film's strengths outweigh the many weaknesses. The action sequences are a lot of the fun. The adventure is exciting. And the story perfectly replicates the style and tone of a classic adventure or Saturday matinee serial.

While the movie's points are clear, they're also cliché – as is the movie's horror. The director's ambition exceeds his grasp, telling a story about characters who are not well-drawn enough to feel either universal or specific. The result is a fraught romance that should be nerve-wracking but instead is mostly dull.

Landscape with Invisible Hand is brimming with ideas and storylines, but they never come together as a satisfying whole.

Less neurotic than Woody and more fun than the average Sandra Bullock flick, it's a guy flick disguised as a chick flick.

As is often the case, what makes this film so enjoyable is the cast.

Renfield makes a mess of its story at times, but does a good enough job getting gorgeously gruesome with its vampire action sequences to win us over with cartoonish gore – and Nicolas Cage's Dracula is one for the ages.

The Halloween monster mash iconography is incredibly strong and the cast is excellent, but Goosebumps 2 is in far too much of a hurry – and perhaps too eager to be widely accessible – to be actually scary or wholly effective.

Despite its limited scope and predictable plot, The Magician’s Elephant succeeds at being a quaint animated film with a positive message.

The Tender Bar is a coming-of-age dramedy that sails on the backs of the exceptional ensemble cast.

Silent Night, Deadly Night is rare reboot that manages to be naughty and nice.

Though The Devil Made Me Do It is a smart recalibration for The Conjuring series, its successes have little to do with its strengths as a standalone horror movie. Ed and Lorraine Warren's investigation may be an engaging mystery, and their opponent is a franchise-best, but the scares are just not as potent in part because half of them center on a possession victim who’s really not easy to root for.

Hypnotic, starring Ben Affleck, is a sci-fi thriller by Robert Rodriguez with few hints of sci-fi, thrills, or Robert Rodriguez.