This quiet pastoral horror movie takes place in the 1960s, but there's only one shot that gives that away, and if not for that shot, it'd be easy to assume it was set sometime in the 1800s. The feature directorial debut of Sergio G. Sanchez, the writer of The Orphanage (one of my all-time favorite horror movies) and The Impossible (which I still haven't seen), Marrowbone is visually gorgeous, an Old Masters painting brought to life with natural light in…

I'm a sucker for Dwayne Johnson's smile and for stories about people trying to save animals, but that's about 5 percent of this movie, and a lot of the rest is running and yelling, things blowing up, and some very dumb villains expounding on their eeeeevil plans. I'd say it's a fun dumb time at the movies, watching monsters wreck buildings, but the problem is that it's a fun dumb time we've been seeing a lot of lately, in plenty…

This movie is funny. This movie is political. This movie is intelligent and wicked and very, very calculated. This movie is sometimes visually stunning, and impeccably acted.

But mostly, it's scary as hell.

For the love of cinema, do not watch the spoilery-ass trailers. Do not read any reviews unless you trust the reviewers to be circumspect about giving away the plot. Go in as blind as possible and just let the story's surprises unfold. Assuming you're okay with scary…