In Paul Verhoeven's appropriately shallow Hollow Man, Kevin Bacon plays a bad-boy egotistical scientist who heads up a double-secret government team experimenting with turning life-forms invisible. How do we know he's a bad boy? Because he (a) wears a leather overcoat, (b) compares himself to God, (c) drives a sports car and (d) spies on his comely next-door neighbour while eating Twinkies. Sadly, this is the most character development anyone gets in this undernourished action/sci-fi thriller, which boasts some phenomenal, seamless and Oscar-worthy computer effects and some amazingly ridiculous plot twists. After experimenting rather ruthlessly on a menagerie of lab animals, Bacon finally cracks the code that will turn the invisible gorillas, dogs and so on back into their visible forms, and promptly volunteers as a human guinea pig. Sure enough he is rendered invisible, organ by organ, vein by vein, and then proceeds to spy on his female co-workers in the bathroom and molest his comely next-door neighbour. Soon, Bacon is thoroughly psychotic, and it's up to Elisabeth Shue (Bacon's co-worker and ex-girlfriend) and hunky Josh Brolin (her current snuggle bunny) to defeat the invisible man, who's picking off the science team one by one. You'd think this would be a prime opportunity for copious amounts of cheesy sex and aggressive violence-which Verhoeven served up so well and so exuberantly in Starship Troopers and Basic Instinct-but if anything, the director seems to tone down the proceedings, and really, who wants a muted Paul Verhoeven movie? -Mark Englehart, Amazon. com On the DVD: In the audio commentary with director Paul Verhoeven and star Kevin Bacon, Hollow Man scriptwriter Andrew Marlowe reveals that the story had been in development for some nine years before it got made, and that he had worked on it for "a number of years". An amazing revelation, given that the main attraction of this DVD is surely the cutting-edge special effects and the fascinating behind-the-scenes deconstruction of them. The DVD viewer cannot help but wonder how anyone could have spent years on a script that looks like it was cobbled together over a weekend as an excuse to play around with some really neat CGI effects. [+]

As remakes go, The Fog has some grisly deaths that gore-mongers will appreciate, and star billing for Tom Welling is guaranteed to attract younger views and Smallville fans; however, the movie will have most horror buffs thinking fondly of John Carpenter's original. A combination of ghost story and slasher thriller, it's a typical example of why remakes are a risky endeavor, especially since the 1980 film does not rank with Carpenter's best. This time, residents of the seaside community of Antonio Island, Oregon, are falling prey to deadly specters that emerge from a spooky fog and are seeking revenge for one of the town's darkest secrets. As the body count rises, Selma Blair livens up this otherwise lukewarm horror pic in the role originated by Adrienne Barbeau, and genre buffs will enjoy in-jokes that refer to the original film and Carpenter's career in general (including one character named "Nick Castle," a reference to one of Carpenter's closest collaborators and fellow directors). Unfortunately, the film's also lost in its own fog of narrative confusion and lack of casting chemistry, but that shouldn't stop die-hard horror fans from checking it out. -Jeff Shannon.

It's hard to imagine how shocking this film was when it first broke on the film scene in 1968. There's never been anything quite like it, though it's inspired numerous pale imitations. Part of the terror lies in the fact that this one's shot in such a raw, unadorned fashion it feels like a home movie, and all the more authentic for that. Another is that it draws us into its world gradually, content to establish a merely spooky atmosphere before leading us through a horrifically logical progression that we could hardly have anticipated. The story is simple. Radiation from a fallen satellite has caused the dead to walk and hunger for human flesh. Once bitten, you become one of them. And the only way to kill one is by a shot or blow to the head. We follow a group holed up in a small farmhouse to fend off the inevitable onslaught of the dead. And it's the tensions between the members of this unstable, makeshift community that drive the film. [+]

Steeped in rain, humidity, and eerie bayou atmosphere, The Skeleton Key is an entertaining supernatural thriller that makes excellent use of its Louisiana locations. New Orleans and the rural environs of Terrebonne Parish are crucial in setting up the creepy circumstances that find compassionate caregiver Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson) newly employed at the backwater plantation home of Violet (Gena Rowlands) and her invalid husband Ben (John Hurt), who's been rendered mute and seemingly helpless by a recent stroke. The place is rife with mystery, shrouded in the secrets of a suspicious past and, under Violet's stern supervision, plagued by superstition involving the use of Hoodoo magic spells (not to be confused with Voodoo, as explored in the similarly suspenseful Angel Heart) intended to protect the house from harm. But Caroline soon discovers the source of the mystery, and why Ben (who can barely utter a word) is so desperate to escape his seemingly comfortable domesticity. There are a few loopholes in the screenplay by prolific horror writer Ehren Kruger (The Ring and The Brothers Grimm), but director Iain Softley (Wings of the Dove) expertly emphasizes the edgy air of mystery, pushing some effective shocks while encouraging fine work from Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard (as Violet's lawyer) and especially Rowlands, who's genuinely disturbing as Skeleton Key nears a twist ending that's undeniably effective. -Jeff Shannon.

Michael Haneke is a modern master, which his spellbinding films Cache and The Piano Teacher proved to an international audience. When it came time for a Hollywood remake of his ultra-disturbing 1997 picture Funny Games, who better than Haneke himself to helm the new version? And indeed, the second Funny Games bears the impeccable sense of control and technique that the Austrian version had: it is a horrifyingly precise account of a family terrorized by two psychopathic young thugs at a vacation home. For anyone who's already seen the '97 film, this new one-a nearly shot-by-shot transcription of the original-will seem superfluous, no matter how impressive the performances of Naomi Watts and Tim Roth are. (Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet are suitably creepy as their menacers, too. ) For newbies, the movie might be as infuriating and thought-provoking as Haneke intends it to be. That's because Funny Games is an intellectual game itself, a direct rebuke to the audience that gobbles up gratuitous violence and cynical manipulation. Haneke sets up our expectations, and then refuses to provide the conventional catharsis. or the conventional anything. [+]

Vampire-slayer Buffy Summers moves to Sunnydale, a Californian community located above the "Hellmouth", a phenomenon which explains the local graveyard's overpopulation of vampires and other supernatural beings. Angel, a mysterious loiterer, starts flirting with Buffy and gives her helpful tips on how to cope with the local nasties. However, he turns out to be a vampire, which complicates the future of their relationship. Buffy makes friends with school outcasts Willow, a computer nerd, and geeky Xander. But she excites the enmity of high-school princess Cordelia. The season's prime villain is the Master, a Nosferatu-looking vampire lurking under the town. Giles, Buffy's mentor, looks things up in books and demonstrates the exact same look of puzzlement actor Anthony Head used to demonstrate in those horrifying instant coffee ads. -Kim Newman.

A stylish sequel though inferior to its classic predecessor, Bill Condon's Candyman 2: Farewell to the Flesh deepens our knowledge of what made the murdered Daniel Robitaille turn into the monster that haunts dreams and mirrors. But some of it is still pretty routine: schoolteacher Annie takes a long time to connect her family's plantation-owning past and her own artistic talent with the legend, and is far too ready to say the Candyman's name five times in a mirror to debunk her pupils' fears. The setting-New Orleans in Carnival time with a disc jockey whimsically reminding us that Carnival is the last farewell to pleasure before the rigours of Lent-and the atmospheric score by Philip Glass give the film some of its class. Tony Todd, who returns as the Candyman, gives the monstrous spectre with a hook for a hand a quiet dignity and sadness which impresses. His life was torn agonisingly from him and he is mad for vengeance, yet he has an artistic temperament and loved Annie's kinswoman Caroline. Condon captures an attractive elegiac tone in much of this, as well as moments of brutal horror. On the DVD: Candyman 2 is presented in widescreen 1. 78:1; there is an attractive crispness to the picture which does real justice to the film's impressive sense of place. The music score comes across well in Dolby Digital stereo. There is a theatrical trailer, but no other features. [+]

"Now you see it. You're amazed. You can't believe it. Your eyes open wider. It's horrible, but you can't look away. There's no chance for you. No escape. You're helpless, helpless. There's just one chance, if you can scream. Throw your arms across your eyes and scream, scream for your life!" And scream Fay Wray does most famously in this monster classic, one of the greatest adventure films of all time, which even in an era of computer-generated wizardry remains a marvel of stop-motion animation. [+]