Horror films, good and bad, scream for attention

Halloween is coming early this season – at least in theaters and on streaming platforms. Here's a look at a variety of new movies to get you in the mood.

“It’s what’s inside”: Director/screenwriter Greg Jardin's smart and clever feature debut shakes a finger – you know which one – at the cruel head games selfish lovers and jealous boyfriends sometimes resort to. A group of close friends gather the night before the wedding to celebrate at the mansion of the groom-to-be's late mother (Devon Terrell). Old jealousies, long-time crushes and dirty secrets come to the fore when a tech-savvy inventor (David Thompson) produces the ultimate party trick – an electrode he invented in Silicon Valley that jumps each “player's” soul into another's body. The game begins as strange drunken fun, but takes a serious turn as the role-playing reaches new extremes and widens an already deep rift in the tentative relationship between Shelby (Brittany O'Grady) and Cyrus (James Morosini). Jardin exploits the scenario with all his creativity, keeping the audience off balance throughout (even the camera angles are substandard). Executive produced by Colman Domingo, It's What's Inside refuses to be pinned down to any particular genre, jumping from horror to sci-fi to drama and beyond. The ensemble is perfect. I had so much fun watching it and I can't wait to watch it again so I can see how the hell Jardin pulled it off so successfully. Details: 3½ out of 4 stars; will be released on Netflix on October 4th.

“Salem’s Property”: After a flurry of release dates that ebb and flow, this beleaguered version of a Stephen King bone rattler awakens from a two-and-a-half-year slumber in a studio coffin. Should it have stayed dead and buried? No. But neither are they major shockers, more of a minor effort (there have already been two TV series) that botches the King of Horror's zany Drac premise about a best-selling author visiting his small hometown in Maine, where a bloodsucker reigns. There are some wacky moments (a floating dead boy tapping, tapping, tapping on an upstairs window makes you shine) and a fiery finale at a drive-in theater that's pure popcorn fun. But most of the time it's more silly than scary, and a lot of it is downright stupid (did anyone see this as a vampire movie, for God's sake?) when writer/director Gary Dauberman deviates from the vampire story (a halfway passable movie). “Salem’s Lot” comes to life. However, it is all too often listless and overloaded with anemic characters. Lewis Pullman as author Ben Mears remains largely unscathed, while the great Alfre Woodard as the town doctor is limited to exclaiming and explaining. She deserves better. This also applies to King fans. Details: 1½ stars; available from October 3rd on Max.

“House of Loot”: Directors/screenwriters Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy's feminist cooking horror story, which is more creepy than frightening, has a recipe for success: A “chef” (Ariana DeBose) who feels like a fraud realizes her dream/ Nightmare when she gives up a vaunted restaurant gig and then opens a state-of-the-art farm-to-table dining experience in a run-down property as executive chef. The catch? The area is deeply rooted in witchcraft. All is not well for her and her business partner (a very entertaining Arian Moayed), as beetles, cockroaches and other creepy crawlies emerge from freshly prepared entrees, while mold ruins other delicacies. Are the bugs real or the product of the chef's obsessed, paranoid mind? “House of Spoils” far surpasses the most recent Blumhouse films and takes into account the insane pressures of the restaurant business (“I haven’t had a day off in seven years,” Chef notes). It's spiced up by engaging performances, including from Barbie Ferreira as the chef's questioning sous chef. But it under-spices the scares and should have taken more time to explore the past of the faulty kitchen and garden to make it a complete, more satisfying meal for horror fans. Details: 2½ stars; will be released on Prime Video on October 3rd.

“Hold your breath”: An overprotective mother (Sarah Paulson) is stuck with her two daughters in a tiny, threatening community in the dusty Oklahoma Panhandle in 1933. In an ambitious narrative arc, she senses a threatening presence in all the dust – or is she going crazy? The mystery characterizes the psychological horror parable from directors Karrie Crouse and Will Joines. It works most of the time, even if it shoots in too many directions that lead nowhere. Paulson is compelling in the role of an unhinged, sleep-deprived mother who becomes increasingly nervous and agitated by outside forces – including a drifter preacher (“The Bear” Ebon Moss-Bachrach). “Hold Your Breath” taps into a nationwide mood of paranoia and escalating fear, and that makes it all the scarier and more relevant. Details: 3 stars; arrives October 3rd on Hulu.

“V/H/S Beyond”: A lack of consistency often proves fatal in horror anthologies. But in this explosive seventh installment of the popular found footage series, every chapter is a blast. Of the six horror stories, all of which revolve around alien encounters, my four favorites are: Justin Martinez's unhinged “Live and Let Dive,” in which a 30th birthday skydiving party goes horribly wrong; Christian and Justin Long's demented “Furbabies,” which uncovers the devious motives of a chirpy doggie daycare worker; Virat Pal's super smart 'Dream Girl' featuring a Bollywood celebrity seizing the moment after being stalked by jealous paparazzi; and Kate Siegel's unsettling “Stowaway” – written by husband Mike Flanagan (“Fall of the House of Usher”) – in which a vlogger in search of aliens heads to the Mojave Desert, where she has an encounter that leaves her maybe you'll regret it. “V/H/S Beyond” blew me away, made me laugh, and made me jump – and it set the bar very high for subsequent entries. Details: 3 stars; will be released on Shudder on October 4th.

Gremlins: The Wild Batch Season 2: A magical portal beneath a cinema in Shanghai whisks 11-year-old Sam (voice of “Didi” star Izaac Wang), his girlfriend Elle (Gabrielle Nevaeh Green) and mischievous furball Gizmo to Alcatraz Island, where they meet the handsome, but meet unsuspecting Chang (Simu Liu) and then continue to Chinatown. The second season of Max's animated series (executive produced by Steven Spielberg, live-action director Joe Dante serves as consulting producer) is crisply animated (particularly when it ventures into SF's Chinatown) and brings us a multi-layered fantasy that's unpredictable and even appealing are topics such as racism, sacrifice, family dysfunction and the rejection of labeling others – without becoming pedantic. The impressive voice cast includes BD Wong, James Hong, George Takei and Lafayette native Will Forte (in one episode). Guaranteed entertainment for children and adults. Details: 3 stars; The first five episodes will be released on Max on October 3rd, with the second half coming later this year.

“Little Bites”: Cher and her son Chaz Bono (who also stars) were the executive producers of this all-over horror entry, which thwarts a promising premise: Single mother Mindy Vogel (Krsy Fox) allows a ravenous, vampire-like demon to take hold nibbles on her, hoping to kill her to stop him from consuming her daughter. The third feature film by the musician Spider One fails not because of its macabre concept, but because of its implementation, as it rambles on for too long in some scenes and then rushes through too quickly in others. An awkward third act culminates in a respectable twist that deserves more than this film. A climax comes when Mindy lures a lonely man (a great Chaz Bono) to her home as a food substitute. There is an attempt to comment on the sacrifices mothers make, but it is suppressed by its own unevenness. “Little Bites” doesn’t lack bite, but it does lack clarity of purpose. Details: 1½ stars; available for rent from Oct. 4th.

Contact Randy Myers at [email protected].