I love Jack Arnold’s Tarantula. It makes me smile. While not exactly up to the high standards set by THEM! or Godzilla, the movie is a smart, well-crafted giant monster yarn that features a handful of engaging performances and one killer titular creature.

A Quiet Place is close to perfect, this monstrously entertaining chiller a nightmare-inducing smash I’m going to be screaming the praises of for many years to come.

Krampus is a naughty little movie, and I mean that in a good way, and once again Dougherty proves himself to be crafty genre-bending filmmaker willing to make old school high-concept thrillers the likes of which studios are now reticent to put into production. As Christmas miracles for horror fans go, this is one stocking stuffer certain to be enjoyed for many years to come.

Again, much like the Empire of the Ants / Jaws of Satan Blu-ray released the same day, neither Food of the Gods or Frogs are very good films. Same time, they make for a much better – and far more enjoyable – double feature, both having just enough charm for genre fans to want to give them a look. Scream! Factory’s presentation is surprisingly strong, while the included extras are excellent.

Monsters: Dark Continent is in many ways an attempt to transpose Full Metal Jacket or Black Hawk Down levels of realism into what initially appears to be nothing more than a B-grade riff on elements drawn from science fiction stalwarts as diverse as Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and “The Twilight Zone,” and for my part at least I found this particular meshing of genres and ideas continually fascinating.

The Bay is a disgustingly suspenseful yarn that got under my skin, and I kept shivering long after I left the theatre.

Cornish has delivered an invigorating, supercharged frolic. Attack the Block is out of this world, and to call it anything else would be a bloody man-eating crime.

For a blissfully exhausting, fast and furious 80 minutes, Reeves pays homage to 1950s giant monster classics while also imaginatively making the genre deviously his own.

30 Days of Night is a marvelously bloodcurdling horror show I can’t wait to sink my teeth into again.