Bob Engelman Movies

A quiet but disturbed young man puts the life of a woman he's obsessed with under a virtual microscope in this independent psychological thriller. Amy (Ana Claudia Talancón) is an attractive young woman who has recently broken up with her boyfriend and is feeling a bit lonely. Amy isn't so sure she's ready to start dating again, but she keeps bumping into Doug (Colin Hanks), a geeky but friendly guy who goes out of his way to be nice to her and seems to have very similar tastes and interests. Amy establishes a friendship with Doug even through he's awkward and not really her type, but Amy's best friend, Jennifer (Jordana Spiro), senses that there's something not quite right about Doug. And Jennifer is right -- Doug is a high-tech stalker who has wired Amy's apartment with a number of inexpensive security cameras and listening devices and constantly watches her, studying her tastes, her habits and her emotions as well as looking in as she sleeps and showers. Alone With Her is shot entirely from the perspective of Doug's cameras, so we see the film's events as he sees them, and are frequently made aware that each scene represents another invasion in Amy's privacy. Alone With Her received its world premiere at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Obsessed with death after losing his rock star older brother, a troubled sixteen year old is sent to a youth boot camp and haunted by the spirit of a former inmate who perished under mysterious circumstances in this atmospheric horror film from director Tim Sullivan (2001 Maniacs). David Forrester (Rocky Ullman) never thought that he would lose his brother at such a young age, but now the worst has happened. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the burden of guilt becomes too heavy for David to bear and his mind continually drifts to thoughts of death. Not knowing how to move beyond their own grief so that they can emotionally support their surviving child, David's misguided parents send him to an "Attitude Adjustment Camp for Troubled Youths" called Driftwood presided over by the cruel Captain Doug Kennedy (Diamond Dallas Page) and his sadistic young protégé Yates (Talan Torriero). Now confined to the same darkened hallways where a former inmate named Jonathan (Connor Ross) met his grisly demise some years back, David quickly realizes that his only hope for survival is to solve the mystery of Jonathan's death so that the tortured teen's soul can finally rest in peace. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

British director Stephen Norrington helmed this David S. Goyer adaptation of the Marvel Comics character created in 1973 by scripter Marv Wolfman and artist Gene Colan. In the Tomb of Dracula comic book origin, just before Blade's mother gave birth to Blade, she was bitten by a vampire, which made Blade immune to vampires. Now a vampire hunter, Blade, joined by vampire detective Hannibal King and Dracula-descendent Frank Drake, stalks vampires. In the 1990s (in Marvel's Nightstalkers), Blade teamed with Drake and King in an agency created to fight a variety of supernatural beings. The Marvel origin is retold in this 1998 Norrington film, with Blade's mother dying as he is born. Thirty-some years later, Blade now exists somewhere between the two worlds, not human but not fully vampire. He has become a relentless and superhuman vampire hunter, out to avenge the death of his mother and protect the rest of humankind from the evil vampire race. In this pursuit, Blade storms a notorious vampire nightclub and in a virtual bloodbath manages to wipe out most of the blood-lusting denizens. But the burnt corpse of vampire Quinn (Donal Logue) is reanimated at the hospital morgue and bites hematologist Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright). Blade magically appears at the hospital just in time to whisk Karen to his hideaway, a machine-shop run by his mentor Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), who once rescued Blade and who now produces a antidote to keep Blade from turning into a full-fledged vampire and who builds custom weapons for Blade to use against his evil foes. Meanwhile, Blade's vampire arch-nemesis Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) uses computers to translate the Book of Erebus, with the ultimate aim of bringing down the old-guard vampire council, headed by Dragonetti (Udo Kier), and triggering the Blood Tide -- an event in which everyone in the world becomes a vampire. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

A reporter (Ally Sheedy) sneaks into a lab to investigate animal cruelty, and emerges from the ordeal with a mastiff named Max in this 1993 thriller. The dog, which has been genetically enhanced, makes her life miserable while they are being chased by the owner of the lab (Lance Henriksen). ~ John Bush, Rovi

Wes Craven's Shocker takes media manipulation to a new level in this story of an evil force emitted from television sets that has the power to kill. The film centers on high school athlete Jonathan Parker (Peter Berg). His estranged father is homicide detective Don Parker (Michael Murphy), who has been working on capturing an elusive serial killer plaguing the town. One night, during a particularly vivid nightmare, Jonathan dreams that while Parker is away on an assignment, his family is murdered by the serial killer. In the dream, Jonathan can identify the killer -- local television repairman Horace Pinker (Mitch Pileggi). Amazingly, it turns out that Jonathan's nightmare was reality. Using Jonathan's dream as evidence, Pinker is brought to trail, found guilty, and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Before his execution, Pinker makes a pact with the devil so when he is electrocuted, the electricity from the chair will give his spirit powers of evil. At first, Pinker's murderous spirit travels in and out of people's bodies, prompting the host to commit murder. But when it seems more effective to communicate with people by television signals, the spirit is willing and soon people suddenly become possessed by Pinker's spirit through TV screens and engage in murderous atrocities. All this is done by Pinker to exact retribution upon Jonathan, who was responsible for sending him to his death. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi