There are moments Child’s Play feels like the Jackson Pollock painting of modern-day horror remakes, and I can’t help but imagine Klevberg and Smith throwing general ideas, plot developments and various character interactions at a blank canvas as if they were swatches of paint.

But it’s all haphazardly thrown together and never coherently focused, Jarmusch allowing The Dead Don’t Die to have a disheveled lackadaisical momentum that’s too nondescript to resonate and too messily pieced together for events to emotionally matter.

In typical Hammer fashion the actual climax is a bit sudden (and, in this instance at least, slightly underwhelming), and I can’t say all of the East-meets-West storytelling elements work as comfortably as I frequently wanted them to. None of which makes The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires any less entertaining, discovering this Hammer/Shaw Brothers production a true joy and am glad the folks at Scream! Factory took the time dig this one out of the vaults for all of us to see.

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.

I Trapped the Devil is an austere shocker worth checking out.

I honestly wish The Intruder stuck the landing because, as mindless and as absurd as this thriller might be, it’s fiendishly well directed, craftily scripted and rarely takes itself so seriously that its more insidiously inane qualities become almost endearing.

The Curse of La Llorona is a massive missed opportunity that failed to maintain my interest, this latest entry in producer James Wan’s spookily successful ghost story universe conjuring up a profound sense of disappointment that left me dejectedly frustrated.

The Wind is a haunting foray into isolation and madness that has far more to say about what it is to be a strong, resolute woman than some may initially think it does, its windswept howls for acceptance and understanding helping make this motion picture a timeless stunner I’ll be thinking about and deconstructing for a very long time to come.

The first wide release of 2019, director Adam Robitel’s Escape Room is an inventive little horror-thriller that has a fair amount of fun with its somewhat familiar premise.