There’s nothing fresh, exciting, or particularly unique about Nicolas Pesce’s take on The Grudge. His passion for character-focused drama fails to spark in a barrage of scenes that feel like tedious outtakes from Lifetime movies.

A lesser installment in the series.

The problem is – the film plays more like a brainstorm exercise than a feature length film. There are gobs of great ideas here, but none of them connect in the way fans likely wanted.

This belated sequel lacks the wit and charm of its predecessor, resulting in a po-faced action flick that has "straight-to-DVD" written all over it.

The last thing a filmmaker wants to hear about their horror movie is that it was boring. Unfortunately, that word best describes Malevolent. Void of scares, its few engaging moments early on – and Celia Imrie’s acting – just aren’t enough to help Malevolent rise above its stilted performances and nonthreatening ghosts.

MiB: International tries to invoke the original, but fails to match its key achievements: it isn’t funny or exciting.

Despite some terrific race sequences, which Corman shot beautifully, the film, itself, is just a total bore.

What you don't expect is for the monster to look like (and be as harmless as) a hermit crab on steroids.

The movie doesn’t end up going anywhere and serves as little more than an excuse to get the movie’s stars into dapper suits and flat caps.

This extremely generic plotline feels very underwritten, almost as if it was one of many episodes of a Witch Mountain TV series rather than a three-years in the making sequel to a successful children's sci-fi adventure film.

Blumhouse’s theatrical adaptation of the TV classic Fantasy Island never quite works as a horror film, a comedy, or a melodrama despite its attempts at being all three. It works marginally better as a mystery but by that point, you’re not as invested in the story’s outcome or its generic protagonists to muster much of a reaction.

The Matrix Resurrections is a bunch of really good ideas stacked together to make a bad — and sometimes ugly — film.

The made-for-TV feel of the production, bland characters and familiar story leads to a pretty forgettable outing.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions twists the puzzle premise of its hit predecessor into an unsolvable slog.

Simon Pegg and Lily Collins act the hell out of a script with a fun set-up and a lazy payoff.

Disney's Artemis Fowl is an empty science fantasy tale with forgettable characters and an uninspired story.

The subpar tech-horror film Come Play is as boring as it is painfully outdated.

Perhaps a slightly more engaging, focused narrative would have saved the film. As it stands, we're treated to 82 minutes of confused storytelling that spends the entire first half torturing our two principal leads in the most bizarre ways imaginable. Perhaps Corman fans should skip the first half of the film and simply watch the actual "Deathsport" sequences instead. The film will likely play much better as a 40-minute short.

Even without the content of 2020 making the film feel even more unpalatable, Netflix's The Last Days of American Crime is a distractingly dull dystopian thriller with drab (and/or extraneous) characters and a squandered premise.

Deep Water aspires to be a boundary-pushing erotic thriller but is stuck treading water in the kiddie pool.

Grimy, "topical" pandemic adventure Songbird is pretty much D.O.A. It struggles to find life in its secluded settings while also, overall, just leaving a bad taste in your mouth. The love story never catches hold, the ensemble never gels, and the contrivances pile up beyond all repair.

Cannibal Women In The Avocado Jungle Of Death would be one of those B-movies that has a message to get across, and it does so with a few actors and a script that's surprisingly well thought out, if to a cornball degree.

Melissa McCarthy and Octavia Spencer have sparkling screen presence, but can’t thrive under Ben Falcone’s utter lack of vision. Thunder Force doesn’t work as a superhero movie or a buddy comedy, as it refuses to revel in the big moments of either.

Curse you and your vile coma-inducing powers, Jennifer 8!

Not even John Boyega’s solid performance can salvage Naked Singularity, a thinly sketched, disappointingly generic crime thriller.

Jennifer Lopez and Josh Duhamel try their best with an interesting premise that’s squandered by script with barely any laughs, gratuitous violence and unconvincing action.

Sylvester Stallone doesn’t seem thrilled to be playing a superhero in Samaritan, a hodgepodge of non-ideas borrowed from better movies.

The cast is wasted in such lame roles, and the horror story’s uncertain tone falls far short of intriguing. So, despite one supremely frightening moment, this movie is not scary. It just stinks.