Thriller
Rod Lott
At least All Superheroes Must Die isn't like every other comic book-inspired cinematic vision that currently serve as the buttered bread to Hollywood's rumbling stomach. That alone is not enough to make for a good movie, but it's a head start.

Horror
Rod Lott
When I first heard of Mimesis, I thought it was a great idea: horror fans unwittingly participating in a live role-playing game that plops them into the classic film Night of the Living Dead. Now that I've seen it, however, I realize I was wrong. It's a terrible idea, and one executed poorly by Dark Fields director Douglas Schulze.

Horror
Rod Lott
Lake Placid: The Final Chapter has swam to video shores, losing the numeral “4” somewhere along the way. Haven't seen Lake Placid 2 or 3? Didn't know they existed? Ooh, you are going to be so lost!

Horror
Rod Lott
What began as an intended Saw prequel has spawned a franchise of its own, now that 2009’s The Collector has begat The Collection. I hope in my heart of hearts that The Collection begets a third chapter — The Collective, perhaps?

Horror
Rod Lott
Grudge guru Takashi Shimizu isn’t at a career apex. His 2009 film, The Shock Labyrinth, was a dud. His latest American effort, the airline ghost story 7500, was supposed to come out in theaters last summer, but got pushed to next month. So I hoped Tormented, a 2011 J-horror effort fresh to Blu-ray on these shores, might mark a return to form.

Comedy
Rod Lott
We’re slipping, America. It look to Ireland to make the best horror comedy in recent memory, Stitches. The subgenre is one of the toughest to pull off — a feat about as rare as finding a four-leaf clover.

Action
Rod Lott
Not only is The Sweeney one of the best TV-to-film adaptations in history, but quite possibly the best adaptation of a TV series you’ve never heard of ... unless you’re British.

Horror
Rod Lott
Let’s forgive the ridiculousness of the state-confused title that is The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia, in order to focus on the film itself.

Said film means well, yet is terrible.

Action
Rod Lott
One easy way to review The Four would be to call it a kung-fu X-Men. Hell, director Gordon Chan (The King of Fighters) already has a pair of sequels planned. The big difference, of course, is that this Chinese/Hong Kong film is a period piece set nearly a thousand years ago. Therefore, it’s not interested in adamantium blades, but counterfeit coins.

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.