Ben Browning Movies

An intrepid team of explorers gets trapped in a complex underground cave system when a tropical storm makes it impossible to escape the same way they entered in this claustrophobic adventure drama from director Alister Grierson and executive producer James Cameron. Inspired by actual events, Sanctum tells the tale of Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh), a master diver intent on being the first to explore the Esa-ala cave system in the South Pacific. Shortly after Frank descends into the caves with a team that includes his teenage son, Josh (Rhys Wakefield), and expedition bankroller Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd), a massive storm collapses the entrance to the system, forcing the adventurers to plunge deeper into the darkness in search of an alternate exit. With supplies quickly dwindling and water levels rapidly rising, Frank and his team surmise that their best hope for survival is to follow an underground river thought to empty into the ocean. But given that few explorers have ever even dared set foot in the Esa-ala system, no one quite knows for sure whether they're racing toward freedom, or another dead end. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A man makes a startling discovery that may or may not be magical in this drama from writer and director Neil Jordan. Syracuse (Colin Farrell) is a fisherman who lives in a small town on the Southern coast of Ireland. Syracuse is an alcoholic, and though he's been sober for two years, most of his neighbors still remember him as a embarrassing drunk, while his ex-wife now lives with another man. Syracuse tries to scratch out a living from the ocean and help support his young daughter, Annie (Alison Barry), who suffers from a serious kidney ailment, but good luck is rarely with him until one day, when he pulls up his nets and finds what appears to be a woman caught in them. To Syracuse's surprise, the woman is alive, and he brings her to shore. The woman is a mysterious and secretive type who doesn't want to tell Syracuse anything about herself or be seen by anyone; Annie proposes that she's a selkie, a mythic creature of the sea that can take human form when it falls in love with the right person. Syracuse almost believes that Annie is right, especially after good luck and good fishing begins coming his way after discovering her, but unfortunately the woman Syracuse has named Ondine (Alicja Bachleda) has certain concerns more pressing than the good fortune of her benefactor. Ondine was an official selection at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Premonition writer/director Norio Tsuruta directs iconic Japanese author Kôji Suzuki's tale of open-water terror for the small screen as Showtime's Masters of Horror series winds to a waterlogged close. Jack (Daniel Gillies) is an American lawyer working in Tokyo who is terrified of the sea. But a few small waves become the least of Jack's worries when he and the wife of his powerful client Eiji enter into a dangerous affair. Later, when Eiji personally invites Jack to join the couple for an afternoon boating excursion into Tokyo Bay, the shaken lawyer reluctantly accepts. Little do Jack and Eiji's wife realize that their greatest fears are about to become reality when a presumed pleasure cruise turns deadly personal. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A quality-control supervisor and compulsive eavesdropper finds his primary hobby becoming his ultimate curse in director Brad Anderson's (Session 9 and The Machinist) adaptation of a short story by author Mike O'Driscoll. By day, Larry Pearce (Chris Bauer) spends his time listening in on the telephone conversations of his unsuspecting tech support staff. When Larry's son dies unexpectedly, the grieving father suddenly finds his sense of hearing supernaturally heightened to the point where even the smallest sound shakes his whole world. Now, as the raging sounds of the outside world become too overwhelming to bear, all the man who couldn't stop listening wants is a little peace and quiet -- and he's ready to take violent action in order to get it. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

A small Texas town is terrorized by an unidentified monstrous force in this installment of Showtime's Masters of Horror series adapted from an Ambrose Bierce story by writer Richard Christian Matheson, and directed by Tobe Hooper (Texas Chainsaw Massacre). Sheriff Kevin Reddle (Sean Patrick Flanery) may have had a tragic past, but these days he's just looking to find a little peace by starting a family in a quiet Texas town. Any hope for restfulness is soon obliterated, however, when a terrifying entity begins turning brother against brother and parent against child, and an apocalyptic fight for the survival of the human race gets off to a gruesome start. Ted Raimi and Marisa Coughlan co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi