Movies for a stormy night.

I love a well done ghost story. There's something about a movie that doesn't rely on copious amounts of mindless gore or Rube Goldbergian style death scenes. Give me a good old fashioned scarefest, one complete with well executed jump scares, creepy iconography and the kind of haunted house ambience that makes me sleep with the light on.
Well this movie hits the spot as the story of a family who move into the old orphanage that the matriarch once live in. Immediately the spookfest gets going with the son of trio playing "games" with the other children. His parents naturally assume that they are imaginary but the mother changes her mind once the boy disappears.
With an ending that will draw tears from you, unless you're doesn't exist, this is one tale that you'll enjoy all the way to your well lit bedroom.

Carpenter, eat your used to be talented heart out. This was the movie that deserves the credit that the original one got. What really annoys me is how most of the reviews I read on this film refused to comment on the qualities Zombie brought to this tired and overrated franchise just because they were to busy jerking Carpenter off. Zombie introduces to a real narrative where the villian has a real reason to become the monster on the poster. Each shot is filled with both tension and discomfort, and the film isn't as gory as one might presume, unlike Hostel(CRAP) and The Hills Have Eyes 2(CRAPPIER) who use gore as the gimmick it has become. In this film, the director instead focuses on the nuances of the murder's reaction to the violence he commits instead of creating stomach turning wince inducing shots that look fake anyway. If you can watch Myers take out his first victim without a feeling of unease, you are an unfeeling heartless person. Similarly the rape scene in the asylum was just as unexpected and brutal without having to show blood and guts. Eli Roth, you and your friends can learn something from this page in the book of horror.

Frank Darabont's acerbic dark tale of morals and claustrophobic panic is a wonderful excersise in self preservation. I love watching films that make you think about how you would react put in a survival pot boiler of a sitaution with a handful of people who are both like you and also the complete opposite of you. The film, based on a short story, not a book like some of you reviewers are convinced of, is a tense narrative of the worst traits of humankind when they have their backs to the wall and their lives are at stake. The creatures are the stuff of genuine nightmare construct, one creature in particular, a acid web shooting spider with a mouth full of human teeth, really unnerved me.
Tense, scary and ultimately very brave with it's resolution choice, this one will make you sleep with the lights on and the windows nailed shut.

Great creepy spookfest from Pedro Alomodovar, this one featuring an icily cold performance from the queen of ice and style, Nicole Kidman.