Peter Locke Movies

Alexandre Aja directs this remake of Wes Craven's film The Hills Have Eyes. In this update, a family is taking a cross-country road trip when their trailer breaks down, leaving them stranded in the desert of New Mexico. There, they find themselves under attack by the savage "hill people," who were deformed by radiation during nuclear testing. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

Snuff-Movie, an outing by the celebrated music video-director-turned-horror maestro Bernard Rose (Paperhouse, Candyman), references both the Charles Manson/Sharon Tate murders and Michael Findlay's notorious grindhouse film Snuff (1974), in its tale of a slasher movie director's involvement with off-camera butchering. Jeroen Krabbé stars as Boris Arkadin, the popular creator of stomach-churning cinematic gore fests. His life takes a dark turn late one evening in 1975, when, after a private screening of his latest opus, a group of maniacs turn up at his mansion and slaughter all of the overnight guests -- including Boris' pregnant wife, Mary (Lisa Enos). Cut to the present day, in London. A young actress, Wendy (also played by Enos), decides to audition for one of Arkadin's films, and accepts the director's subsequent invitation (despite the admonitions of her boyfriend, Andy) to stay at the Arkadin mansion overnight. Soon, Andy is wracked with horror to discover that additional murders are occurring and being broadcast live, online. But are these homicides real or simply staged contrivances for another film? Teri Harrison and Alastair Mackenzie co-star; Rose authored the script. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Director and screenwriter James Toback used his own experiences as a college student in the 1960s as the basis for this drama about a present-day student athlete who's bitten off more than he can chew. Alan Jensen (Adrian Grenier) is a college sophomore struggling to keep up with an unusually busy schedule -- while studying philosophy as a Harvard undergrad, he's also a point guard on the school's basketball team, and is juggling two girlfriends, cheerleader Cindy Bandolini (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Chesney (Joey Lauren Adams), a professor ten years his senior. As Alan tries to stay on top of his classes and keep his love life sorted out, he receives some bad news from his parents -- a tornado has devastated their home, and they need $100,000 to rebuild. Alan wants to help his parents, and as it happens, Cindy's father is a Mafia boss tied in with a number of powerful bookies. Cindy uses her family's connection to put Alan in touch with Teddy (Eric Stoltz), a bookie who's willing to give Alan $100,000 in exchange for throwing a few games and shaving some points. Cindy also uses her dad's bankroll to place a quarter-million dollar bet on the upcoming Harvard-Dartmouth game, certain Alan can ensure a predictable outcome. But when the games don't go quite the way Alan expected, despite his best worst effort, he finds himself in dutch with the Mafia, while also attracting the attention of FBI agents who've been investigating Teddy and his associates. Amidst this chaos, Alan hops a jet home to give his parents the ill-gotten $100,000, and on the flight back decides to relax mid-flight by dropping a heroic dose of LSD, which turns out not to be one of his better ideas. Harvard Man was originally intended to star Leonardo DiCaprio as Alan, but after the project was put on hold in 1994, DiCaprio rocketed to fame in Titanic, which priced himself out of the project by the time James Toback was able to return to it years later. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A mutant African cockroach infests a remote Maine island just as young Dr. Ben Cahill (Thomas Calabro) goes there to shake off the effects of his heavy drinking. His first encounter is with Jack Wolk (John Savage), a local who resents Cahill buying his family's dilapidated house. The resentment turns violent and Sheriff Hobbs (Dean Stockwell) is called in to cool things off. When his house turns out to have problems he can't fix, Cahill meets handywoman Nell (Kristen Dalton), who helps him out. But meanwhile, beneath the surface, those cockroaches begin reaching critical mass, attacking first animals and then humans as their numbers increase. The bugs use carcasses in which to breed, and soon they not only cover the ground, they also begin to fly. ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi

In this satire, parents who are worried that their children might not be walking the straight and narrow path discover a rehabilitation camp designed to curb alternative lifestyles. Megan (Natasha Lyonne), a high school student and member of the cheerleading squad, seems like an ordinary enough teenage girl, but her habit of honestly expressing herself and lack of romantic enthusiasm for her boyfriend convince her very repressed parents, Peter (Bud Cort) and Nancy (Mink Stole), that Megan is becoming a lesbian. So Megan is shipped off to True Directions, a camp for gay and gay-leaning teens, where Mary Brown (Cathy Moriarty) attempts to deprogram kids with homosexual tendencies. The first step in the process is to get each teen to admit to their homosexuality, which Megan is loath to do, since she doesn't believe she's a lesbian -- or at least she didn't think so before she met her new friend Graham (Clea DuVall), who seems quite sure that she likes girls. Meanwhile, Mary's son Rock (Eddie Cibrian) may be exempt from the camp's activities, but he turns more than a few heads among True Directions' male inmates. Noted female impersonator RuPaul appears as a camp guide, and Julie Delpy has a cameo as a "lipstick lesbian." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Jeff Burr's family friendly science fiction film The X-Treme Teens stars Bryan Neal as Andy, a teenager who one day discovers a special pair of powerful glasses. Not long after that, he is approached by aliens who need his help in order to retrieve a lost item that, in the wrong hands, could destroy Earth. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

The epic eighth-century poem of Saxon lore gets moved into the Scandinavian future in this science fiction adaptation of Beowulf. Here, Beowulf (Christopher Lambert) rescues a damsel in distress, Pendra (Patricia Velasquez), who is being menaced by two men with large swords and bad tempers. Beowulf hears tell of Grendel, a force of evil that feasts on the flesh of warriors of Hrothgar (Oliver Cotton), who are holding their ground in the Outpost. Before long, Beowulf finds himself doing battle with Hrothgar's daughter Kyra (Rhona Mitra), Hrothgar's master of arms, Roland (Goetz Otto) and even Grendel's mother (Layla Roberts). Patricia Velasquez appeared in Beowulf shortly before she filmed her showy turn in The Mummy, while Layla Roberts's resume includes an October 1997 appearance as Playboy's Playmate of the Month. Beowulf was completed and released in Europe before another version of the same story hit the screens, Disney's The 13th Warrior (aka Eaters Of The Dead). ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this horror-western with a dash of offbeat humor, three kids arrive in the town of Longhand looking for their missing parents, only to discover the town is overrun with people who behave more like zombies than humans. They eventually discover that the city is a haven for body snatchers and, if they're not careful, they could be the next targets. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

J. Max Burnett made his directorial debut with this family drama about a small-town sports announcer and a high school football team, the Possums. In the dying town of Nowata, Oklahoma, the giant retail Maxi Mart threatens to destroy the local hardware store run by Will Clark (Mac Davis), a lifelong Possums supporter. Life in Nowata is such that mayor Charlie Lawton (Andrew Prine) is on the brink of cancelling the school sports program. To save the Possums, Will goes on the air at the local radio station, fabricating fantastic Possum plays that never happened. In these imaginary games, the phenomenal fantasy team goes on a winning streak and is headed toward the finals. Ignoring the reactions of his wife Elizabeth (Cynthia Sikes) and others, Will soon has the support of the locals. As the Possums peak, the legit champions in neighboring Pratville are not pleased -- and the final showdown happens in a gridiron confrontation. Shown to an enthusiastic audience at the 1998 Seattle Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi

Mowgli helps a pair of resourceful kids outsmart a greedy diamond thief in this jungle adventure inspired by Rudyard Kipling's beloved story. Lindsey and Travis are best friends, so when their fathers set out in search of the famed Elephant Eye Diamond, the two youngsters naturally tag along. Little does Lindsey, Travis, or their fathers realize that local thief Kohabeez seeks the Elephant Eye Diamond, too, and he'll do everything in his power to get it. When Kohabeez abducts Lindsey and Travis' fathers in a malicious bid to track down the priceless gem, it's up to Mowgli and his animal friends to save the day. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Ted Nicolaou's family friendly fantasy film Dragon World concerns a teenage magician who must utilize his growing talent in order to protect the only dragon from people who wish to dispatch the creature. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

In this youthful fantasy adventure, the ghost of a long-dead little girl returns to befriend a lonely boy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi