Horror

One of the most popular and influential video games ever makes its way to the big screen in this sci-fi thriller. A coalition of Earth's scientific and military interests have established a research colony called Olduvai on the planet Mars, but one day all communication from the outpost stops and no one can tell what has happened -- though the final messages suggest it's not good. Believing foul play may have overtaken Olduvai's crew, the Rapid Response Tactical Squad, a team of specially trained military personnel, are deployed to investigate the situation and, if necessary, eliminate the invaders. But Sarge (Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock) and Reaper (Karl Urban), leaders of the RRTS team, soon discover the situation is far more grim than they could have imagined. An experiment on Olduvai has very literally opened a portal to Hades, and a variety of savage and demonic creatures have overtaken the colony. Now the RRTS must seal off Olduvai, close off any access to Earth, and exterminate the satanic beasts before they can kill again. Doom also stars Rosamund Pike (as Dr. Grimm), Dexter Fletcher, Ben Daniels, and Deobia Oparei. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

An aspiring writer and inner city grocery clerk discovers a dark secret about the elderly former scientist who employs him in this chilly shocker inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's Cool Air. Attempting to make ends meet while he works on his latest novel, Sam Jackson lands a job in a run-down grocery store owned by the eccentric Dr. Munoz. A retired scientist who claims to suffer from a rare skin condition that requires him to live in sub-freezing temperatures, Dr. Munoz harbors a satanic secret that may ultimately cost Sam his life; the truth is, Dr. Munoz has been dead for years. Having previously made an occult pact that allows him to remain undead as long as he continues to harvest flesh from the living, Dr. Munoz soon captures Sam and gives him a horrifying ultimatum: join him in his dark quest for eternal life, or suffer the slow, painful death in order to provide him with the flesh he needs to continue walking the Earth. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A top-secret government agency has unleashed a highly contagious chemo virus with the power to reanimate the dead, and when the bug begins to spread through Sartre, Nebraska's most popular gentleman's club, the sexy dancers get an insatiable appetite for human flesh. Rhino's is the underground strip club of choice for men in search of some small-town excitement, and when one of the dancers is infected with the deadly virus, she quickly becomes the most popular dancer around. Before long, the rest of the strippers are struggling with the decision whether to stay human and keep collecting meager tips, or allow themselves to become infected and start raking in the cash. Robert Englund, Jenna Jameson, and Roxy Saint star in a zombie film that aims to titillate and terrify at the same time. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Director Peter Jackson's second feature cheerfully trumps the gross-out quotient of his splatterfest debut, the appropriately named Bad Taste. The tone is cartoonishly comic, and the premise is simple: The village dweeb (Timothy Balme) is trying to maintain a budding romance with the sweet Paquita (Diana Penalver) while concealing the fact that his overbearing mum (Elizabeth Moody, in an amazing good-sport performance) is a flesh-eating zombie. (She owes her condition to a bite from a "Sumatran Rat Monkey" at the local zoo.) Complicating matters even further is Les, a greedy uncle (Ian Watkin), who suspects that his sister has died and is eager to occupy her elegantly furnished Victorian mansion. The climax is a housewarming party Les throws to celebrate his "inheritance;" what he really gets is his comeuppance, thanks to his sister and her similarly afflicted zombie pals, who burst out of their basement prison to turn the guests into appetizers. Our hero finally cuts a wide swath through the zombie party crashers with the help of a rotary blade lawn mower, leaving the house awash in blood and body parts in order to save his romance. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

A man locked away in a mental health hospital on suspicions that he murdered his girlfriend vows to reveal the infernal truth behind the young woman's agonizing death in British horror specialist Adam Mason's satanic shocker. Nick (Andrew Howard) and Sammy (Polly Brown) were just two horny with time to kill and a pocket full of drugs. Upon discovering an abandoned asylum, the pair ventures inside and finds a bizarre contraption that appears to be a cross between an electric chair and a sadistic fetish device. It seems that this chair has the power to transform chemical bliss into unimaginable despair, and when Sammy is assaulted and brutally slain by an unknown force Nick becomes the number one suspect in her murder. Years later, after being held in a high security mental hospital, Nick is released into the care of his psychiatrist Dr. Willard (David Gant). Dr. Gant suspects that there is more to this murder than the authorities realize, and in order to prove it he organizes a special field trip to the decrepit asylum where Sammy was slain. Accompanying Nick and Dr. Willard on their excursion are a group of Dr. Willard's most prestigious students. But Nick has been diagnosed as clinically insane, and years of psychiatric treatment have irreversibly altered his perception of reality. Now, as the brutal, blood-soaked truth emerges from the darkness intent on destroying everything in it's path, Nick will have to overcome demons of both the psychological and supernatural varieties if he holds out any hope of ending the slaughter and proving his sanity. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide