Horror

Tourneur's classic "Cat People" gets the Criterion treatment with stunning results.

Bones will break, blood will flow, and "Don’t Breathe" pulls none of its punches.

Robert Eggers’ “New England folktale” The Witch is the most highly regarded horror film in years. It is so highly regarded that some critics who dismiss horror as mere shock and exploitation place The Witch outside the genre due to its thought-provoking artfulness. Ironically, on the opposite end of the spectrum, some horror fanatics, red of tooth and claw, also dispute the film’s horror bona fides, seeing its slow-burn moody virtues as pretentious and dull.

Young (born 1984), twin (Matt and Ross) upstarts, the Duffer Brothers seem to have come out of nowhere, but of course they didn’t. The Duffer Brothers began making films in 3rd grade, and not long after they graduated from film school, they had written and signed on to direct virus-apocalypse horror/thriller Hidden for Warner Brothers. Hidden cleverly and with deep empathy takes the familiar zombie apocalypse survivor scenario and flips it on its head, calling into question all of our usual preconceptions about good guys, bad guys and the ethics of survival.

The Evil Dead universe consists of the original film trilogy, all starring Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams – The Evil Dead (1981), Evil Dead ll (1987), Army of Darkness (1992); video games; comic books; a musical; film reboot (sans Ash) – Evil Dead (2013); and now a hit television series on Starz – Ash vs. Evil Dead.

An extra helping of violence toward children keeps the creep factor stay high.

The most interesting Draculas of the 2000s are Jonathan Rhys Meyers' principled, love-sick, brilliant inventor/entrepreneur in the short-lived NBC TV series; Richard Roxburgh's rattled, sardonic, paternal, philosophical, yet ultimately villainous portrayal in the vastly underrated Van Helsing; and Luke Evans' family man and conscientious prince who must sacrifice his own humanity to protect his people from the rapacious Ottomans in the 15th century of Dracula Untold.

A film must have strong characters to be remembered. I will remember 'The Waiting' for a long time, not only because of its characters, but because of how well they were used to explore human depravity,

J.J. Abrams joined SXSW attendees and writer/director Don Coscarelli for the debut of Phantasm – Remastered at the Stateside Theatre in Austin. The debut was part of the SXSW Midnighters series which is billed as “Scary, funny, sexy, controversial – provocative after-dark features for night owls and the terminally curious.”

The bad boy son of a West Texas preacher, returns to his hometown to become its preacher and to keep a promise to his father. His past and a variety of bad things, including a mysterious cosmic force, an ex-girlfriend, and a psychopathic vampire complicate this for him.