The Thing 2011
Directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Starring: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton

It's not human. Yet. From the producers of Dawn of the Dead comes the chilling prelude to John Carpenter's cult classic film. When paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) travels to an isolated outpost in Antarctica for the expedition of a lifetime, she joins an international team that unearths a remarkable discovery. Their elation quickly turns to fear as they realize that their experiment has freed a mysterious being from its frozen prison. Paranoia spreads like an epidemic as a creature that can mimic anything it touches will pit human against human as it tries to survive and flourish in this spine-tingling thriller.(Universal Studios)

Stake Land 2010
Directed by Jim Mickle
Starring: Connor Paolo, Nick Damici

America has fallen. A vampiric scourge sweeps the nation, turning brother on brother and parent on child as the blood-hungry beasts take deeper and deeper hold upon the land. It s hard for the survivors to know whether to be more afraid of the creatures themselves or the violent religious groups that have sprung up in response, but there is clearly only one choice: fight or die.

Connor Paolo (GOSSIP GIRL) stars as Martin, a young man traveling with only his taciturn mentor a hardened fighter known simply as Mister as protection against this blasted earth in search of the rumoured safe haven of New Eden. Winner of the Midnight Madness Award at the Toronto International Film Festival and hailed as the American horror film of the year (Todd Brown, TwitchFilm.com), STAKE LAND establishes director Jim Mickle as a leader in the new generation of horror. (Darksky Films)

Camp Hell 2010
Directed by George VanBuskirk
Starring: Dana Delany, Andrew McCarthy

At the end of every summer, the children of a local community attend Camp Hope. While teaching them the ways of a proper society, one teacher leads them, unknowingly, into a world of evil. As deep dark secrets are exposed about Camp Hope, the children’s bodies slowly start to be taken over by something evil. What was supposed to be a safe summer camp has now turned into a nightmare that not even faith can end. (Amazon)

Cyrus: mind of a serial killer 2010
Directed by Mark Vadik
Starring: Brian Krause, Danielle Harris

Ambitious television reporter Maria Sanchez (Danielle Harris of Rob Zombie's Halloween, Hatchet 2) is investigating the disappearance of over 200 Midwestern University students when a local man (Lance Henriksen of Aliens) contacts her with information that reveals details of the serial killer and his crimes: His name is Cyrus (a chilling performance by Brian Krause of ''Charmed'') and the murders themselves were brutal. What happened next was horrific but the worst is still to come. Based on shocking true events, this bloody and brutal story of the 'The County Line Cannibal' will leave a taste in your mouth that you'll never forget.(Anchor Bay)

Bitter Feast 2009
Directed by Joe Maggio
Starring: James Le Gros, Joshua Leonard

A celebrity chef turns the tables on his harshest critic. Peter Grey (James Le Gros), an overly zealous television chef kidnaps J.T. Franks (Joshua Leonard), an influential and notoriously snarky food blogger after a particularly nasty review deals the final blow to Grey s already plummeting career. Sequestered deep in the woods of the Hudson Valley, Grey keeps Franks chained up in a basement, presenting him with a series of deceptively simple food challenges - from preparing a perfect egg over easy, to grilling a steak precisely medium rare - punishing him sadistically for anything less than total perfection. A tense thrill-ride served up with wicked wit and culinary flare, BITTER FEAST is an exploration of the creative impulse gone tragically and ferociously awry. (MPI Home Video)

The Roommate 2011
Directed by Christian E. Christiansen
Starring: Minka Kelly, Leighton Meester

She's cute. She's loyal. She's psychotic. And, unfortunately for college freshman Sara (Minka Kelly) she's The Roommate. When Sara arrives at school, she finds new romance with Stephen (Cam Gigandet) and forms a fast friendship with her roommate Rebecca (Leighton Meester). What begins as camaraderie soon turns creepy, and Sara comes face-to-face with the terrifying realization that her new best friend is obsessive, unbalanced...and maybe even a killer!(Screen Gems)

My Soul to Take 2010
Directed by Wes Craven
Starring:Max Thieriot, Nick Lashaway

The supernatural/serial killer thriller My Soul to Take marks Wes Craven's first feature as writer and director since 1994's inventive New Nightmare, and at first blush, it finds him in familiar territory. Here again, as in his iconic Nightmare on Elm Street series, his focus is a vicious murderer who appears to continue his crime spree from beyond the grave, and who concentrates his attention on a group of teens connected to his original crimes (seven of them were born on the night he died). As the seven meet a gruesome end, one boy (Max Thieriot) becomes a likely suspect for the killings--is he possessed by the spirit of the long-dead maniac, or has he picked up where "The Riverton Ripper" left off? The answer, unfortunately, is not worth the time required to piece together the clues; Craven's script is dreadfully leaden, especially in regard to dialogue, and cobbles together disparate elements from his previous works and a crazy quilt of religious tenets to produce a final product rendered suspense-free by its incoherence. The youthful cast is unremarkable, and the 3-D effects are entirely superfluous; in short, My Soul to Take is a place marker for Craven fans until the release of Scream 4. --Paul Gaita

The Wolfman 2010
Directed by Joe Johnston
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Benicio Del Toro

The mist rising over the moors feels right, and so does the slant of moonlight coming over a Victorian village-scape. And if the moon is full, this must be The Wolfman, Universal's 2010 attempt to revive one of the crown jewels in its deservedly legendary horror stable. Benicio Del Toro takes on the old Lon Chaney Jr. role of Lawrence Talbot, an American visitor to his ancestral home in England. Talbot's brother has recently been torn to bits by a beast in the forest, leaving behind a grieving fiancée (Emily Blunt) and a not-visibly-grieving father (Anthony Hopkins). This central situation seems drained of blood even before the full-moon transfigurations begin to bloom, and Del Toro's Talbot--an actor by trade, which raises interesting possibilities for a story of a man divided by different personalities--is mystifyingly blank. The intriguing casting of Del Toro (what an opportunity for a cool werewolf!) comes to naught as Talbot seems to languish on the periphery of his own story. Hugo Weaving tries to generate some interest as the police inspector on the case, but he too is defeated by the combination of mechanical storytelling and bland computer-generated werewolves. The script skips from one exposition scene to the next, but nothing registers long enough to create character, tension, or the slimmest desire to see what happens in the next scene. Every once in a while director Joe Johnston (Jumanji) finds a grand staircase or CGI fog that conjures up the atmosphere of the old Universal horror classics, but otherwise this is a clueless affair--not as bad as Van Helsing, but flat-out dull. The movie can't even find a way to get the old Gypsy lady (Geraldine Chaplin stepping into Maria Ouspenskaya's tiny shoes) to deliver a proper recitation of screenwriter Curt Siodmak's great "Even a man who is pure in heart" doggerel from the 1941 film. Instead, it's thrown away in a voice-over at the beginning--one hairy way to start the movie. --Robert Horton

Blood Creek 2009
Directed by Joel Schumacher
Starring: Dominic Purcell, Henry Cavill

Two brothers embark on a violent revenge mission and discover that long-standing rumors of occult experiments among the Nazis were in fact rooted in reality. Three years before the onset of World War II, the Third Reich contacted the Wollners -- a poverty-stricken family of German-Americans living in Town Creek, WV -- with a lucrative offer to host visiting scholar Professor Richard Wirth. Completely oblivious to the occult experiments that were being conducted by the Nazis and Professor Wirth, the Wollners accepted. That decision would haunt their family and their town for decades to come. Flash forward to 2007, when Victor Marshall (Dominic Purcell) vanishes into thin air while camping near Town Creek. Determined to discover the true fate of his missing brother, floundering 25-year-old Evan Marshall (Henry Cavill) searches for answers. Just when it seems that there are none to be found, Victor suddenly reappears with a claim that he was abducted and then staged a daring escape. He asks Evan to gather some guns, pack the boat, and return to Town Creek with him on a mission to exact justice on his kidnappers. Upon returning to Town Creek, the two brothers come face to face with a terrifying evil born of an unholy union between Hitler's Third Reich and forces beyond human comprehension. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Zombieland 2009
Directed by Ruben Fleischer
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson

If there's been a zombie apocalypse and you're road-tripping alone though the wasteland, you could do worse than run into Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a bourbon-swilling bad-boy butt-kicker with a really cool car. This is where the careful hero of Zombieland, a kid nicknamed Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), finds himself early in the film, and you can hardly blame him for hitching a ride with this swaggering Alpha Male. Still, they have their hands full not only with gibbering zombies but also with two sisters (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) who will stop at nothing to reach a Disneyland-like amusement park in L.A. Although Zombieland gets off to a rocky start with Columbus's overly-cute narration (he's got a list of rules for surviving in the zombie world), it settles into an amusing comedy, regularly interrupted by bouts of blood-letting. The road-trip stuff is enough fun that when the movie does arrive at its version of Disneyland, the air goes out of it a little; sure, there's a giant zombie blowout, with entrails flying, but it's not quite the same. Director Ruben Fleischer keeps the gags coming, although the movie is often funnier in its odd little asides (both Eisenberg and Harrelson are expert at this) than in its official jokes. Comic high point: an interlude at the home of a very famous movie star, who plays himself--and we'll leave the spoiler unspoiled, in case anybody hasn't heard about this funny extended cameo. --Robert Horton