The movie is one massive build up. From the moment we see our girl sitting in her apartment staring holes through the phone waiting for the call--only to learn she has a guy tied up in a laundry bag in the background--to the climax, this movie is filmmaking gold. It also scores big points from me because I have a phobia for needles, which is good because I like it when a movie gets under your skin and tortures you, because well, it's a movie, and a horror movie at that, which is exactly what movies should be.

This was my first Takashi Miike movie (my second was "Ichi", kinda' a tone shift there), and I've been a big fan of his ever since. He knows how to make one hell of a good movie, and this is probably his finest in terms of raw, jagged, nerve-shredding terror.

The original "Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is a cinematic steak, while this is a good fast food hamburger: both satisfy but you can't confuse one for the other. This movie scores points in the gratuitous department: you have lots more chainsaw killings, actually turning it into a chainsaw massacre, buckets more gore, and lots of Jessica Biel running around in a tank top and low rise jeans. It is junk food cinema, no doubt about it, but it never infuriated me in the ways, say, the "Friday The 13th" remake-reboot-reimagining managed to do by sucking all the fun out of the movie.

In the world of remakes, "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is king simply because it didn't completely botch the job. I will totally understand how people will not like this movie for its gratuitous nature and simply because it lacks the artistry of the original, but as Platinum Dunes films go, this is about as artistic as they will ever get.

I was really impressed by this one, I had been hearing the hype going on for months and whenever I hear hype I immediately take the movie down a grade or two simply because to me hype is always trying compensate for the movie's glaring flaws (this is one of the lingering effects of "Episode 1" to me, the more anticipated a movie the less I know I'll like it, thanks George). But this actually impressed me. It really taps into the fun, mischievous spirit of Halloween. It isn't too gory, too scary, or too violent, because Halloween isn't the Spanish Inquisition (because nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!). It is about tricks and pranks and spooky stories, not chainsaw massacres, so in that way I think the movie really finds its vein.

Halloween has always been my holiday, more than Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Fourth of July, or Earth Day. My holiday has always been Halloween, and a movie that loves the holiday with the same verve and gusto as me will always find its way into my heart. It reminded me a bit of a live action "Nightmare Before Christmas" in that same Halloween reverence and energy. This is a must watch for Halloween fans the world over, and is perfect viewing for Halloween night.

It is a silent film and I have found it takes a certain type of person to really enjoy a silent film. It is much more of a visual medium rather than a multimedia experience of modern film. "The Lodger" does run a little long for a silent movie, I've found the best silent movies run an hour to an hour twenty, but this one goes the feature length distance at an 108 minutes, which will be a tough row to hoe for many--especially those who've never seen a silent film before. But what it lacks in dialogue and soundtrack it makes up for with amazing visuals and some great trick effects. My favorite scene in the movie is when the lodger is pacing about his room and the floor dissolves to a clear plate of glass so the audience and the people below can watch him pace about.

Not for everyone, but I've found that I can really sink my teeth into a good silent movie, and this is one of the greats.

Ultimately this is about as "true" as the "Amityville Horror" is, but who says that doesn't make a good movie? Unfortunately neither this nor the two "Amityville Horror" movies (1979 and 2005 versions) make a good movie. The biggest problem with this movie was its inability to create atmosphere. It tried in some spots, but then screwed it up with the need to inject some startle-scares. Almost the first full hour is more of a Lifetime cancer drama about a crusading mother and her sick boy. But finally, an hour in, the other girl plays Nancy Drew and the movie gets good for a bit before screwing it up with more drama and cheap scares.

Buried underneath the movie's quest for mediocrity and safe scares is a really cool idea--an idea that if they had fleshed it out a bit and shed some of the unnecessary family drama could have made this a really great movie. All in all it's technically competent, cheap, disposable Hollywood Muzak.

After first seeing it I was rather impressed by it and enjoyed the conversations with the people who were 100 percent convinced it was totally and absolutely true. But over time I came to be rather put off by the shaky camera and the fact that the last half hour is pretty much one or two characters constantly screaming the names of the other two over and over and, after a dreadful sequel, came to hate the movie. I didn't see it again for something like seven, eight years until catching it on TV late one night. While watching it all alone in a darkened room I realized how incredibly spooky the first 45 minutes of the movie was. By the time they get to the square of stones in the woods, I actually caught myself looking over my shoulder into the darkness, which is always a good sign of a really effective horror movie. If you can creep me out on my couch in my home, you are doing something right. The last 45 minutes are still nothing but lots of screaming, but those first 45 minutes are pure horror gold.

This probably is and will remain the best of the pseudo-docu-horror movies out there. While the others get the nauseating camera blur and the screaming at each other down, they never manage to capture that raw reality of being all alone in the woods, stalked by something truly awful that you never see.

The original just felt really, really cheap--cheaper than it probably should have been. This one fixes all of that, giving you more guts and gore thanks to "Haute Tension's" Alexandre Aja, who knows a thing or two about gore. This movie just works better on all levels than the original, but its only drawback is that many times the movie's sets were too obvious, the setting was just too overly done. The weird 50s model home the cannibals lurk about was too Hollywood to be real, but aside from a few quibbles about the loss of an overall authentic quality the first had simply by shooting in the middle of bloody nowhere, this movie outperforms the original in every way.

If you want a good suspenseful gore film that doesn't get as excessive as other gore films do, then you will enjoy this one.

First off it is a Bollywood movie, so we have three complete musical numbers that appear pretty much out of nowhere but add that extra special "Huh?" factor to the movie. Then we have mustachioed bad guys who mug for the camera every time they finish speaking a line. There are kung fu fights where the blows land a very safe six inches from the person despite the fact they still fall down. Also we have a wookie from hell, the wildest killer suit of armour (it looks like it fell straight out of the 60s and should be chasing the Monkees around in this haunted mansion), and then to top it all off we have the Indian version of Lou Costello who lacks both Abbot and any sense of comic timing.

Put this all together and you have one of those wonderful "out there" kinds of movies that needs to be seen to be believed. It does come in at a hefty 2 hours and 15 minutes, which is an awful rough ride because this movie drags and drags and drags through the same stuff over and over. So I wouldn't fault you if you didn't make it all the way to the end. This is my first Bollywood film and I have to say I am both bewildered and amused by its very unique brand of entertainment.

I went into this like many thinking, "Hey, it's Switchblade Pictures, another chance for some cheap thrills and naked girls." Admit it, you all did. But there is nary a bare breast to be seen between the two movies, so if you are in search of skin, sorry you'll need to look elsewhere.

I was impressed by how they made the most of their budgets. I'd love to know how much, because I'm betting between the two movies they spent less than 20 grand and yet manage two solid films. I am a big fan of the world of low budget movies, it is a high stake of gambling but often you can find movies with a lot of heart for the horror movie genre instead of movies that just hurl money and music video directors at a horror project until you get something to churn out onto DVD or into theatres for a week. Usually the low budget adventure is fraught with awful lighting, inept acting, and big ideas that fall apart in the details, but sometimes you get movies that understand their limitations and do the best they can with what they have and not try to remake "Gone With The Wind" with zombies (you know that doesn't sound like a half bad idea).

It starts off really well: a ridiculous over the top attempt to kill Jason, complete with airstrike (I can just imagine the FBI going to the air force and saying, "Look, we need to borrow a fully loaded fighter so we can blow up this one guy"), but then it starts to slip where Jason's heart is the real evil and if you eat his heart you become Jason. It is a really half-assed attempt to explain why Jason keeps coming back. But then it has a great sexy-teens-getting-killed moment that makes you think, "Okay, we're back to the good old Jason ways"; but no, now we have Jason, or the evil slug of Jason jumping from body to body trying to get to a blood relative. It is a very poor attempt at jump-starting the franchise by busily stealing from every other franchise out there from "Halloween" to "Terminator". It tries to be something new by doing things everyone else has already done. There are a few funny moments. The diner and all its Jason specialties is really amusing, but there aren't enough amusing little bits to paper over the long unbearable sections.

This movie does divide horror fans. On the one side you have "Friday The 13th" fans who hate this movie because, well, aside from the kockey mask this movie isn't a "Friday The 13th" movie, instead it is a shoddy jumble of every other horror franchise. But on the other hand you have people who dislike the "Friday The 13th" series who applaud it for trying to break the mold. I'm in the first camp. When I watch a "Friday The 13th" movie I want a "Friday The 13th" movie for all its cliches, machetes, naked teens, and gore, not a jumble of half-baked ideas that don't add up to a good movie in the end.

Much like "Inside" and "Haute Tension", this movie is almost too much to watch. Taking liberally from "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" and then throwing in a healthy dose of "Ilsa: She-Wolf Of The SS"; mainly because, hell, if you are going the distance, throw some Nazis in too. I think the inclusion of the Nazis was a bit of a statement from the director in relation to current French politics, which take up the credit sequence.

Every death in this movie is two steps over the top, which, if you are a gore hound, will be a treat. Unlike "Hostel", where the torture felt controlled, this is completely out of control with bolt cutters, enough guns to make Rambo blush with envy, knives, pigs--this movie out-Hostels "Hostel", which really isn't difficult. All you need is one character we care about and voila, you have a better movie.

I can really see where people won't like this, a bit heavy on the "Texas Chain Saw Massacre", but pound for pound this rivals any film for the sheer about of blood, guts, and creatively brutal deaths.

This movie is almost 45 minutes too long, made up of scenes of people yelling at each other. Everybody in the movie is a walking, talking cliché--especially Marsha Gay Harden, who is supposed to be the real villain of the movie, not the tentacled rambling bug creatures, which, like another vastly overpraised movie, "Cloverfield", you really only see once. The movie fails by having too many characters, wasting too much time on giving each character his five minutes to ramble on and on, and by delivering its message in heavy one-two blows like you're in the ring with Mike Tyson.

The ending is a real corker, which I think I ruined by laughing at the absurdity of it. This isn't Darabont's "Shawshank" or "Green Mile", this is a second rate monster movie that gets lost in its own mist of a tirade against organized religion brainwashing everyone.

A bit like the original "When A Stranger Calls", where the first 30 minutes completely outclasses the following 60. This was an early venture into the realm of exploitation on my part, and I still feel the same shocking empty feeling when I realized the movie took a hard shift on me and wasn't the fun exploitation picture it had been for 30 wild minutes--a Jekyll and Hyde kind of shift where Hyde is a sleazy exploitation king and Jekyll sells insurance in a strip mall.

Now this rule is starting to bleed into the world of martial arts. (Yes, "Iron Monkey" is the exception, but there are always exceptions.) While the kids in "The New Legend Of Shaolin" weren't exceptionally annoying, they added nothing to the movie, and frankly it would have been better off without them. Jet Li is the definitely not going to win parent of the year--he can never seem to make friends because everybody is busy trying to kill him.

The plot goes too many different ways at once and feels schizophrenic. The fighting is decent if a bit sparse. I did like the main villain just because you don't see a lot of crispy bad guys in martial arts movies--poisoned ones yes, scarred ones yes, ones missing limbs but never horribly burnt.

Not as poisonous as other reviews have made it out to be, it's definitely not Jet Li's best but I've seen a lot worse, and it usually stars Steven Seagal.

The fights are better than the first, thanks in no small way to Donnie Yen's excellent choreography, with the exception of the rather laughable CG fight early in the movie where it makes the original "Street Fighter 2" look cutting edge. I liked the story more. While it was predictable, it worked better than the completely predictable original. But probably what makes the movie better is the lack of the long unbearable sections in the original where Blade heaps exposition on the audience with a dump truck that drags the movie to the ground. Here the exposition is peppered thorough the big action sequences and you aren't stuck in these long draggy parts as much.

Director Guillermo Del Toro really brought the entire package deal here, and his success with this translated into making "Hellboy" even more popcorn fun. Extra points go to "Blade 2" for having Ron Perlman, who is always a going to give a good performance.

My favorite scene in the movie is when Dallas is in the air ducts hunting the alien. Even after all these years that scene still gets me on the edge of my seat. The reality of the setting and the characters really grounds this movie and really gets you into it. Scant few sci-fi movies since have really done as good a job as this in delivering the thrills and the horror in what is essentially a haunted house movie in space. Remember, in space no one can hear you scream.

I was always more of a Jason fan. His movies are simpler, easier to get into. It's just sexy teens and death (that's a good name for a punk band, in my opinion), while the Freddy movies always required more setup and execution that often didn't work as well, especially in the later sequels. In this they do an excellent job of getting the two together, and while they don't go at one another until the end, it is fun to watch them competing to see who can rack up the bigger body count.

I was pleased with Ronny Yu's direction. When I heard he was making this, I was dubious (force of habit--since the "Star Wars" prequels I am extremely skeptical of all super-hyped movies) because he didn't feel like a slasher movie director, but it worked quite well.

This isn't perfect but it's in the vein of "Jason X" that it knows its audience and plays to them. So it really helps that I am part of that audience. This is a fan movie, people on the outside can come and watch, but it is more for the fans who'd followed the series for all those years and now get a treat for their loyalty.