Drag Me to Hell (2009)
After denying a woman the extension she needs to keep her home, loan officer Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) sees her once-promising life take a startling turn for the worse. Christine is convinced she’s been cursed by a Gypsy, but her boyfriend (Justin Long) is skeptical. Now, her only hope seems to lie in a psychic (Dileep Rao) who claims he can help her lift the curse and keep her soul from being dragged straight to hell.
iMurders (2008)
When a cunning serial killer begins picking off the disparate users of a popular Internet chat room, it’s up to FBI agents Otis Washington (Tony Todd) and Lori Romano (Brooke Lewis) to bring him — or her — down. This suspenseful thriller also stars Gabrielle Anwar (“Burn Notice”) as reclusive former model Lindsay Jefferies, William Forsythe as the calculating professor Uberoth and Billy Dee Williams as the enigmatic Robert Delgado.
The Objective (2008)
Two months after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, CIA agent Ben Keynes (Jonas Ball) journeys to Afghanistan to lead an elite special forces team across the barren desert sands in search of a mysterious man named Mohammed Aban. But as the crew slowly divines the real purpose of the mission, they are drawn into a stranger, darker and deadlier world than they had expected in this wartime thriller from the director of The Blair Witch Project.
The Killing Room (2008)
Hoping to make some quick cash, four ordinary citizens volunteer for a run-of-the-mill paid research study only to discover that it’s actually a nightmarish government experiment that threatens their sanity — and their lives. As the subjects try to obtain the correct answers for a series of devious tests, they are forced to make unthinkable choices with terrible consequences. Jonathan Liebesman directs this dark psychological thriller.
Oral Fixation (2009)
Rachel Marks (Emily Parker) has developed an unhealthy obsession with the most unlikely of targets — her dentist (Kerry Aissa) — and like many a sexy stalker, she’ll stop at nothing to make the object of affection hers, and hers alone. As the blood flows and the body count mounts in this dark suspense thriller, you can bet that the dentist won’t be the only one doling out the pain. Writer-director Jake Cashill makes his feature debut.
The Stepfather (1986)
In this acclaimed horror classic, Jerry Blake (Terry O’Quinn) expects only one thing from his family — perfection — and when he doesn’t get it, he doesn’t just get angry, he goes mad: completely, psychopathically, homicidally mad. After brutally dispatching one clan, Jerry sets up shop with a single mom (Shelley Hack) and her brooding teen daughter (Jill Schoelen), who immediately suspects there’s something not quite right about her dear old stepdad.
Satanic Panic (2009)
Inspired by true events, this bloody chiller tells the story of young Toby and Cindy Richards, who are abducted by a satanic cult. Although Cindy escapes, Toby is never found, and Cindy remains haunted by the ordeal. Twenty-five years later, a group of friends reunites for a camping trip, which goes horribly awry when they’re stranded near the site of Cindy’s abduction and terrorized by fiendish satanists looking for sacrificial victims.
Infestation (2009)
Prepare for global swarming. The innocent slacker Cooper (Chris Marquette) begins a new job and shortly enters a mutant nightmare, waking up to find himself trapped inside a gooey cocoon spun by a gigantic mutant insect. After freeing himself, Cooper must find a way to rescue the other people trapped with him and team with them to battle flying, flesh-eating bugs and human hybrid mutants in order to save the planet.
Gnaw (2008)
Six friends head for a holiday in the English countryside. From outside, their remote cottage seems drawn from a picture book. But inside is another matter, as the vacationers find they’re on the menu for the dwelling’s resident family of cannibals. Sara Dylan, Oliver Lee Squires and Rachel Mitchem star in this tongue-in-cheek British chiller, an official selection at Portugal’s 2009 Fantasporto festival.
How to Be a Serial Killer (2008)
Meet Mike Wilson (Dameon Clarke). He’s charming. He’s smart. He’s a serial killer — and a very happy one, too. Determined to share the secrets of his satisfying career, Mike enlists sad-sack video store clerk Bart (Matthew Gray Gubler) as his star pupil. Mike enlightens Bart on the finer points of body disposal and other tricks of the trade, but it’s not long before Mike’s girlfriend catches on to his very odd job in this hilarious dark comedy.
I Spit Chew on Your Grave (2009)
A group of buxom prostitutes under the employ of a warlock pimp lands in big trouble when they accidentally rape the wrong man. And it isn’t long before our chesty heroines must suffer the consequences of their misdeeds. Director Chris Seaver puts the 1970s grindhouse experience through the grinder in this low-budget, over-the-top spoof, which takes aim at such exploitation gems as I Spit on Your Grave and Poon Academy.
Happy Birthday to Me (with restored score) (1981)
Certainly the low point in Glenn Ford’s acting career, this Canadian production is, nevertheless, one of the slickest-looking slasher films from that subgenre’s early-’80s heyday. The plot (what one can make of it) involves an unseen killer stalking a group of college students at the prestigious Crawford Academy. The well-staged murders are mysteriously linked to the slightly off-kilter Virginia (Melissa Sue Anderson, formerly of Little House on the Prairie), whose disturbing past holds the key to the killer’s identity.
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