The Witch is as creepy and atmospheric as I had hoped, building tension and horror with a growing sense of dread throughout. The score is especially effective. Anya-Taylor Joy is perfection in the role of Thomasin, the daughter who must fight off accusations of witchcraft from her own family, although the entire cast is superb. It's massively difficult to find one young actor that excels, but each kid gives a strong performance. I chose The Witch to open the month of horror and my choice paid off. Excellent horror that I'm eager to re-visit. Grade: A-

Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, I'm feeling mixed on whether I should review it. The film is beautiful and eerie as it flows dreamlike through each scene, however I spent the first 30 minutes trying to get a proper feel for the film. I had expected it to be one thing and when it wasn't, I was a tad thrown. By the time I had adjusted, the film was close to its end, running at barely over 70 minutes. What I was left with was a feeling of disappointment, especially considering reviews I had read, so I think I'll have to give this a second watch someday so properly absorb it.

The Pack is everything you want it to be. The plot is simple: rabid abandoned dogs terrorize people on a remote island. It's silly, it's scary, and it takes itself just the right amount of serious. It's a welcome surprise at how well-made the film is. It does have its flaws: the characters are poorly developed. I get that in a movie like this, I can't expect a ton of love and care to be put into the script, but something a tad extra would have been appreciated. And the film's climax unnecessarily drags on for a good two minutes (those who have seen it will know what I'm talking about). The same could have been achieved in a fraction of that time. Still, this was genuinely fun. It knew what it was meant to be and achieved it. Grade: B

The Stepford Wives is a clever, 85-minute sci-fi horror satire masked as a bloated 115 minute meandering story. Let's be clear: the final third of Stepford is excellent and actually creepy in spots. It's just that the movie takes so long to get there, I ended up losing a lot of interest in the story. I believe in properly development but somewhere in there, it just loses any level of pacing that could make it interesting to me. But the idea of it and the satire of it are spot on. It's just too bad the first half of the movie couldn't properly hold my attention. Grade: C+

I love The Babadook. This is my second time watching the film and my interest didn't diminish at all. There are so many genuinely creepy moments, much like Insidious, that didn't cease scaring me on the repeat viewing. Perhaps it's what the film does in its climax, making it abundantly clear what The Babadook represents, that really hits home for me. Losing my father six years ago was a difficult experience. Interestingly, my brother hates this movie. Funny how two people with the same experiences can feel differently about this type of movie, but such is life. Grade: B+

An actual conversation took place prior to this film being made. Here it is:

"Hey. So I like Poltergeist, the original. I want to make a new version."
"Why would we finance a Poltergeist remake?"
"Well... I just watched the original, so. It's sort of fresh in my mind."
"OK, $35 million budget."

That actually took place, because if it didn't, explain how this was made please. Because I don't buy that anyone made this movie with any sort of love and respect for the original, the horror genre, and especially not the audience. This wasn't inexplicably bad, it's inexcusably bad. There's no reason this couldn't have been decent at the very least. To list every reason this one sucks would be to just ask you to watch the movie and I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

But let's go with a brief rundown: it's a horror movie and there's nothing remotely scary about it. I hate Sam Rockwell. The kids are terrible. The special effects are not just bad, they're distracting. The climax takes the film away from horror into action adventure. I expected Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz to swoop in to save the day (note to self: update movie references). The ending isn't just groan-inducing in a funny, "I'll say that in the review and it'll be a good description of how I felt" thing. No, I actually groaned.

I can't properly describe how low my expectations were and this still didn't meet them. Grade: F