There are dumb horror movies where you yell at idiot characters for exploring the creepy mannequin room alone, and then there are dumb horror movies that make you think too hard about why the idiot characters have a creepy mannequin room in their house to begin with. David Gordon Green's stab at the Halloween franchise shows flashes of inspiration, but these serve mainly to illuminate all the plot holes and structural flaws. John Carpenter's original (which I admire but don't…

Almost two months after I've seen this movie, I'm still trying to decide what I think of it. It's certainly effective, accomplishing everything it sets out to do. Robert Eggers is scarily self-assured at the helm of his first feature film, creating an atmosphere of uncanniness and spiritual dread that is unwavering and flawlessly oppressive. If The Exorcist is a horror movie for Catholics, then The Witch is a horror movie for Protestants: Because the individual (not the institutional church)…

The plot is the weak link in Midnight Special: try not to think too hard about how and why Alton's special abilities work the way they do, or about why the cult just sort of evaporates as the story proceeds toward its climax. The film is much more concerned with atmosphere (David Wingo's score is the highlight here), character, and emotion. Witness Roy's (Michael Shannon) final moment with Alton, or the halting attempts by Lucas (Joel Edgerton) to explain the…