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Faster (2010): C-
The Rock cooks up a return to kick-assery in Faster, and the smell is borderline-rank. A transparent bid by its star to reestablish his badass credentials after a string of family films, George Tillman Jr.’s B-movie is a revenge saga about Driver (Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson), who gets out of prison hell-bent on killing those…
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Incendies (2010): B+
The last will and testament of an emotionally remote mother sparks an investigation into the past in Incendies, Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of Wajdi Mouawad’s play. That inquiry is carried out by French-Canadian Arab twins Jeanne (Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin) and Simon (Maxim Gaudette) after they hear from notary and family friend Jean (Rémy Girard) that their mom…
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Fright Night Part II (1988): C-
Nothing more than a cheapo regurgitation of its predecessor, Fright Night Part II once again finds teenager Charley (William Ragsdale) enlisting the help of TV horror-movie host Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall) to combat the forces of vampiric evil. This time, that bloodsucker is a woman, Regine (Julie Carmen), and she temporarily gets her fangs into…
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Fright Night (1985): B
Charting meta-horror terrain nine years before Scream would make it ubiquitous, Fright Night celebrates genre clichés even as it exposes them as such. In anonymous Small Town, U.S.A., teenage scary-movie buff Charley (William Ragsdale) turns away from his frigid girlfriend Amy (Amanda Bearse) at the moment she’s about to spread her legs so that he…
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My Soul to Take (2010): C
Wes Craven’s My Soul to Take opens promisingly, with a husband going mysteriously schizo – or is he actually possessed? – with a knife featuring “Vengeance” etched on its blade. After a frenzied murder spree ends with the serial killer, dubbed “The Riverton Ripper,” disappearing into the night, Craven’s story (the first one he’s penned…
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Trollhunter (2010): C
Yet another faux-verité action-horror effort that manages to be clever without being actually terrifying or thrilling, Trollhunter offers up the tale – culled from “found footage” – of three student filmmakers who, while investigating a series of strange bear killings in Norway, discover that the true cause of these incidents is the country’s suddenly out-of-control…
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Rabies (2010): C+
Israel’s first horror film, Rabies turns a caustic eye toward its citizenry, all of whom – through circumstances that lead to fatal miscommunications, selfishness, exposed secrets and exploited fears and hang-ups – prove comfortable veering from sociable to sinister. Opening on Tali (Liat Harlev) awakening to find herself in a narrow trap dug in the…
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Beyond the Black Rainbow (2011): A-
A reverential ode to Kubrick, Argento, Cronenberg, Altered States, John Carpenter synth scores, ‘70s sci-fi and ‘80s fantasy, and mind-boggling, hyper-stylized madness, Beyond the Black Rainbow simultaneously pays homage while blazing its own uniquely insane trail. Director Panos Cosmatos (son of Rambo: First Blood Part II and Tombstone helmer George P. Cosmatos) holds little back…
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Paranormal Activity 2 (2010): C
The shadowy demon is back in Paranormal Activity 2, and this time, IT WANTS THE BABY! Unfortunately, the good ol’ child-in-peril gimmick is the only new thing offered by Tod Williams’ follow-up to Oren Peli’s 2007 hit. Primarily taking place in the two months prior to the first film’s events, this sequel charts the supernatural…
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Robocop 2 (1990): C
Frank Miller’s nasty wit occasionally offsets typical sequel redundancy in Robocop 2, a needless follow-up that rehashes the satiric and character-based concerns of its superior predecessor. Directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back), the film revolves around the efforts of Robocop (Peter Weller) to squash the spread of new designer drug Nuke, which is…
