Steve Wright Movies

After directing the first two movies in the Harry Potter franchise, Chris Columbus opted to serve as producer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and passed the baton to Y Tu Mamá También director Alfonso Cuarón. Though "immensely popular" is an understatement when it comes to Harry Potter, Azkaban is somewhat of a departure from its predecessors, and particularly beloved among fans for its surprise ending. Prisoner of Azkaban also marks the introduction of Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), who has escaped from the title prison after 12 years of incarceration. Believed to have been the right-hand-man of the dark wizard Voldemort, whom Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) mysteriously rendered powerless during his infancy, some of those closest to Harry suspect Black has returned to exact revenge on the boy who defeated his master. Upon his return to school, however, Harry is relatively unconcerned with Black. Run by Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) -- who is widely regarded as the most powerful wizard of the age -- Hogwarts is renowned for its safety. Harry's nonchalance eventually turns to blind rage after accidentally learning the first of Black's many secrets during a field trip to a neighboring village. Of course, a loose serial killer is only one of the problems plaguing the bespectacled wizard's third year back at school -- the soul-sucking guards of Azkaban prison have been employed at Hogwarts to protect the students, but their mere presence sends Harry into crippling fainting spells. With the help of his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), and Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Harry struggles to thwart the Dementors, find Sirius Black, and uncover the mysteries of the night that left him orphaned. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

En route to her home town of Amphipolis in the company of her daughter, Eve (Adrienne Wilkinson), and her friend Gabrielle (Renee O'Connor), Xena finds that it has become literally a ghost town, populated by corpses, wraiths, and ghouls. In trying to find out what had happened, Xena and her friends are besieged by all manner of horrors, not the least of which is a swarm of flesh-eating maggots. Meanwhile, watching from their heavenly perch, two archangels observe Xena dispassionately and discuss what may become her ultimate destiny -- ascending to the hellish throne of Mephistopheles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Najara (Kathryn Morris), the homicidal religious zealot with whom Xena (Lucy Lawless) tussled in the earlier episode "Crusader," is back with a new look -- and a new message. Insisting that she has forsaken her past strong-arm methods, Najara declares that she is now devoted to a mantra of nonviolence -- but Xena isn't buying. Meanwhile, Joxer (Ted Raimi) must confront his feelings of guilt over his first kill. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Conspiring with Hera, warrior queen Parnassa (Jane Thomas) convinces the amnesiac Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) that he is really her long-dead son, Millius. It is all part of a master scheme to have Hercules lead Parnassa's army into battle -- and to pledge loyalty to Hera on Equinox Day. But though Millius' widow, Kirin (Sam Jenkins), has been forced to go along with this sinister charade lest her children suffer, she tries to save Hercules from the fate in store for him. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hercules (Kevin Sorbo) and Iolaus (Michael Hurst) are confronted with a baffling mystery when they try to find out who has been plucking the dead from the battlefield of Tantalus. In the process, Hercules finds himself in the middle of a war between his friend King Daulin (Erik Thomson) and Daulin's own sister Poena (Amber Jane Raub). Complicating matters is the fact that another of Hercules' friend, Jarton (Reb Brown), is now Poena's lieutenant. Behind all this intrigue and mayhem is the war god Ares -- of whom it can be said that, at the very least, he loves his dog. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this shocking chiller an environmentalist, lecturing at a New York City college begins looking for the brutal killer who has been murdering his students. His search leads him to a psycho technician who has been using long-distance telephone calls to do his dirty work. The story is also known as Bells. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This low-budget, tongue-in-cheek horror film of the slasher genre -- which had recently been popularized by Halloween (1978) -- stars that film's lead, Jamie Lee Curtis, as Kim Hammond, a prom queen who becomes a scream queen. Six years ago, a little girl was taunted by four classmates and fell to her death from an abandoned schoolhouse. The quartet of kids promised to keep their complicity in the accident a secret. Now it's their prom night and they've got the jitters because they have recently been receiving phone calls and notes from an ominous, unknown individual claiming to have witnessed the girl's death and vowing revenge. At the prom, the four become fatal victims one by one of a mysterious, axe-wielding, masked, and hooded stalker. The many possibilities of the murderer's identity include Kim, who is the little dead girl's sister, her school-principal father (Leslie Nielsen), or her disc-jockey brother, Alex (Michael Tough). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi