The use of reenactments cheapens certain documentary films. These moments are sometimes shot haphazardly and cause even the best documentaries to lose their impact. Chris Holt does indeed pepper his new film, “The Devil on Trial'', with scripted re-enactments, but the director breaks the mold, using the operating mode sparingly.

Though successfully used (more than once)

Pedro Almodóvar’s thirty one-minute serving of cinematic tapas, “Strange Way of Life," is his first Western, of sorts. The picture has guns and horses and rugged men on both sides of the law, but there is also a burning sexuality to the piece. After all, this is Almodóvar. Fans of Almodóvar films should be aware this is not a subversive and comedically flamboyant look at Westerns but a subdued motion picture. What may seem a simple tale at surface level, breathes

A super soldier genetically enhanced for maximum power; a living, breathing killing machine. The soldier escapes from a laboratory and must be stopped. Who is the real villain, the soldier or the scientists who created him? The new action film “Dark Asset” knows audiences have been here before and doesn’t seem to care. Writer/director Michael Winnick plays with time, and fills the screen with gunplay, hand-to-hand fights, and an almost constantly

Writer/director Karen Lam’s “The Curse of Willow Song” is an interesting character study and effective horror film crafted with an artful eye and the kind of picture modern horror (nay, modern film, in general) needs badly. This is a well-written film that doesn’t trade chills for logic and one that respects its audience by creating adult characters presented with honesty.

Shot in black and white

Inspired by the true story of the “Butcher of Mons” who murdered five women between 1996 and 1997 (and was never caught), the new Belgian thriller “Megalomaniac” is an artful and unrelenting look at madness and murder through the eyes of a psychopath. What sets this film apart from the tonnage of serial killer films in existence, is the fact that writer/director Karim Ouelhaj examines the “sins of the father” rather than going for another procedural.

Stewart Thorndike, the writer and director of the new horror film “Bad Things” loves “The Shining.” Thorndike really loves that picture and doesn’t want his audience to forget it, so he reminds us over and over again.

While many a great film has been crafted out of homages to other works, it helps to have an endgame regarding your screenplay.

These proceedings start out well enough

The creators of the new horror film “Cobweb” and I are simpatico regarding the sad state of the modern horror film. My lack of patience with the unoriginality and lack of craft in most of today’s horror pictures is never-ending. In the twenty-first century it is rare to find a filmmaker who knows how to use mood to right effect. Make no mistake, there are some very talented horror filmmakers working today. Directors such as Jennifer Kent, James Wan