If you’ve seen one, you haven’t seen them all. But you should, and The East — unjustly ignored in theaters earlier this summer amid such competition as Man of Steel, This Is the End and World War Z — is now available on Blu-ray from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment. It’s still one of the 10 […]
thriller
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Corruption
One of the first I added to my list was 1968’s Corruption, a mad, mod thriller starring Hammer horror icon — and later Star Wars‘ Grand Moff Tarkin — Peter Cushing. As luck would have it, Grindhouse Releasing has made my search nonexistent with a Blu-ray/DVD combo that marks its North American video debut. Another […]
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Shiver
That’s where the fun of Shiver starts. That’s where the fun of Shiver stops. In Portland, a killer (John Jarratt, Wolf Creek) who calls himself The Gryphon (sounds like “Griffin”) delights in offing women and, as the aforementioned line has it, keeps their heads in jars as trophies. His latest target is a secretary […]
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Scenic Route
The indie dramatic thriller casts Duhamel as Mitchell, a finance exec/family man on a road trip with Carter (Dan Fogler, Take Me Home Tonight), an old friend from whom he’s grown apart of late, due to the vastly different directions their lives have taken. Carter lacks everything that Mitchell has: a wife, a kid, a […]
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Wish You Were Here
Jeremy’s girlfriend, Steph (Teresa Palmer, Warm Bodies), is the younger sister of Alice (Felicity Price), who also went on the trip with her husband, Dave (Joel Edgerton, Zero Dark Thirty). One of those three knows more than he/she lets on; furthermore, two of the three hold an additional secret from the other. Price co-wrote the […]
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Targets
Fearing he’s an anachronism, aging horror star Byron Orlok (the legendary Boris Karloff in one of his final roles) announces his retirement, effective immediately. He doesn’t even want to make the next night’s scheduled promo appearance at the local drive-in theater. After all, “no one’s afraid of a painted monster” when the headlines scream of […]
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Now You See Me
In this summer’s sleeper hit, four magicians of varying specialties and egos are brought together by a mysterious, hoodied benefactor. Played by Jesse Eisenberg (30 Minutes or Less), Woody Harrelson (Seven Psychopaths), Isla Fisher (The Great Gatsby) and Dave Franco (21 Jump Street), they perform a live trick to end all tricks: robbing a bank […]
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Hands of a Stranger
The Hands of a Stranger fuse nicely, but there’s one unfortunate side effect: Vernon now tickles the ivories with as much finesse as a kindergartener who forgot his Ritalin. Make that two side effects: He also kinda sorta becomes a killer. In the Hands of writer/director Newt Arnold (Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Bloodsport), the 1962 chiller […]
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Drinking Games / From the Head
Not the psychological thriller it pegs itself as being, Drinking Games takes place largely in a college dorm room the night of Snowmageddon, the big party before winter break. Richard (Blake Merriman, who wrote it) is writing a paper and dealing with a family tragedy, whereas his roommate, Shawn (Nick Vergara), wants to use their […]
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Magic Magic
While you’re at it, give Magic Magic credit for being something different, even if it ultimately proves a disappointment. Written and directed by one Sebastián Silva, the Chilean-set chiller sends Alicia (Juno Temple, Killer Joe) on her first trip outside the United States. She joins cousin Sarah (Emily Browning, Sucker Punch) and a few of […]