Whoever selects Barbara Crampton¡¯s projects needs to turn down things like ¡°Sacrifice,¡± a waterlogged thriller that¡¯s as pedestrian as its recycled title.
THE RECKONING (2020)
Marshall and Kirk made a two-hour snoozer whose primary value is as a surefire solution for shooting your attention span to ribbons.
SAINT MAUD (2019)
I imagine there was a river of drool in the theater row where A24 buyers sat during the film¡¯s festival debut. ¡°Holy sh*t! Did Rose Glass make this movie specifically for us?¡±
A NIGHTMARE WAKES (2020)
In keeping with ¡®90s cinema references, ¡°A Nightmare Wakes¡± is essentially a horror-tinged arthouse biopic by way of Merchant-Ivory on a budget.
THE FUNERAL HOME (2020 - Spanish)
Appreciators of smoldering suspense, indie aesthetics, and foreign flair will be pleasantly surprised at how much polish ¡°The Funeral Home¡± puts on a traditional haunted house yarn.
THE NIGHT (2020 - Farsi)
Knocks at the door when no one is there can only take a horror movie so far, and that distance has difficulty covering ¡°The Night¡¯s¡± runtime.
PSYCHO GOREMAN (2020)
¡°Psycho Goreman¡± is kind of a kooky kid flick for adults who fondly remember ¡®The Neverending Story¡¯ and want to see dark fantasy like that with the gnarliness ratcheted up to 11.
DON'T TELL A SOUL (2020)
I preferred ¡°Don¡¯t Tell a Soul¡± when it was being a drama over when it was being a thriller. And I think its solution for a solution is more of a copout than a clever twist.
SMOKE AND MIRRORS: THE STORY OF TOM SAVINI (2019)
Tom Savini¡¯s fire appears impossible to distinguish, and ¡°Smoke and Mirrors¡± makes sure everyone can see how brightly that blaze burns.
HORIZON LINE (2020)
It¡¯s fluff you can watch on fast-forward and the only side effect is how much faster the film will evaporate from your memory.
ANNIHILATION (2018)
Sometimes, one person¡¯s impressively contemplative sci-fi is simply another person¡¯s superficially padded speculative fiction.
HUNTER HUNTER (2020)
You¡¯ll certainly carry it with you in your mind¡¯s eye. If not for the full movie, then for the vicious visuals of the finale.
SHADOW IN THE CLOUD (2020)
Whether it was Max Landis¡¯s doing or director Roseanne Liang¡¯s, the film¡¯s ¡°women first and forward¡± attitude proves to be more fun than the few and far between action scenes.
BREACH (2020)
The obvious question on everyone¡¯s mind is, ¡°What the hell is Bruce Willis doing in direct-to-streaming slums?¡±
LETTERS TO SATAN CLAUS (2020)
There¡¯s something cozily comforting about a workaholic woman reluctantly returning to her hometown, rekindling an old flame, and saving an artisanal cheese shop from foreclosure.
DON'T CLICK (2020)
Man, Valter sure did draw the short straw among the four Skarsgard brothers who became actors, didn¡¯t he?
ARCHENEMY (2020)
While its contemporary relevance can be questioned, ¡°Archenemy¡± at least has enough energy to be enjoyable, even if goofiness sometimes waters down grittiness.
SONGBIRD (2020)
¡°Songbird¡± is something of a cinematic cousin to that celebrity cover of ¡®Imagine,¡¯ i.e. perhaps good intentioned, but not exactly a powerhouse piece of well thought out entertainment.
BLADE: THE IRON CROSS (2020)
¡°Blade: The Iron Cross¡± pours two tons of cement over Full Moon¡¯s grave to ensure the corner-cutting company has no chance of rising to its former B-movie glory ever again.
FREAKY (2020)
Whether it¡¯s being sassy, silly, stabby, or even sentimental, the breeziness behind ¡°Freaky¡± makes the movie¡¯s mixture an easy treat to swallow.
¡°The Power¡± is the kind of movie that can be described with a number of ¡°the kind of movie that¡± observations.