Horror
Rod Lott
My problem with most found-footage films is that there's not much to them. Most can be described legitimately as an hour of buildup for one scene of payoff. When you shorten the stories, however, as is done in the horror anthology V/H/S, you have a handful of payoffs without all that pesky incidental padding.

Comedy
Rod Lott
It’s kind of amazing how far $5,000 can get filmmakers these days, especially when Dustin Mills is in charge of the cash. Having helmed the inventive Puppet Monster Massacre and, less effectively, Zombie A-Hole, he now sets his deranged sights on designer drugs in Bath Salt Zombies. As one could surmise, it, too, sits squarely in the DIY horror-comedy realm.

Horror
Rod Lott
Eduardo Rodriguez has put three pictures in the can (including the upcoming Fright Night 2) since completing his directorial debut, Curandero: Dawn of the Demon, in 2005. Why, then, has it taken roughly eight years for Curandero to hit DVD? You got me; it’s not as if a lack of quality has stopped any flick before.

Sci-Fi
Rod Lott
Britain’s on high alert after a plane falls from the sky from unknown causes. Terrorist attack, perhaps? At a 24-hour storage facility — hence the film’s title, Storage 24 — the ensuing crash has locked down its security system, effectively trapping people inside. Oh, and one gnarly alien.

Comedy
Rod Lott
Better than the hit novel on which it’s as faithfully based as budgetary issues allow, John Dies at the End is one of those movies that tries really hard to be a cult movie. In this case, however, the goal has been met; I suspect that, as with most of director Don Coscarelli’s work, from Phantasm and The Beastmaster to Bubba Ho-Tep, we’ll still be discussing this one decades later. That’s not to say it’s without faults.