Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe) shines a light on the mystery of "the Woman in Black".

For those who live in and around the Dallas area, you might think that growing up in Oak Cliff is a lot like growing up somewhere just outside of downtown Bagdad. While I can’t necessarily speak for the conditions today, I can say it wasn’t as bad as some might expect. We would play in the schoolyard, climb trees and engage in some friendly games of “Oak Cliff freeze tag” – which involves a lot more rock throwing that regular freeze tag. However, there was one thing we didn’t do and that was go anywhere near the old Ravina Mansion.

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Right now, somewhere in the dark, cobweb-dusted recesses of my mind, a rabbit and a duck argue. Familiar voices bicker back and forth…

“Rabbit season!”
“Duck season!”
“Rabbit season!”
“Duck season!”

It goes on like this for some time until a disheveled young girl in a pea soup-stained nightgown approaches, slaps them both senseless and growls, “exorcism season.”

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"All American Zombie Drugs" screening to help Operation Kindness

Most years, the period between Halloween and Christmas was pure seasonal anthrax. Usually, holiday tunes had already bludgeoned us senseless and we were all already looking forward to the alcohol-blasted forgetfulness of New Year’s Eve. This year isn’t a whole lot different but now we have a chance to briefly revisit the halcyon nights of October and get our zombie on for a good cause.
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Dr. Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) brings the heat in "The Thing".

These days, there are two words that can strike fear into the hearts of many movie goers: “horror remake” – especially if those words are immediately followed by the words “from Platinum Dunes.” Usually, these words mark yet another pointless, vapid journey into tedium, 90 minutes that add nothing to the original story and are often worse than what they were trying to improve upon. However, there are rare occasions when Hollywood puts out a remake out that successfully updates and adds to the original.

Such is the case with “the Thing”.
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The lights come on for Kim (Katie Holmes) in "Don't Be Afraid of the Dark".

We live in the age of the Disney fairy tale. In these stories, the heroes and heroines are invariably young and beautiful. A lot of times, they are a bit naïve in the ways of the world and much of the suffering that they do is emotional. At the end of the day, their struggle is resolved with very little mess and they end up living in a castle or some similarly idyllic life.

But this wasn’t always the case.

Long before the “civilized” and sanitized now, fairy tales were not meant for children. They were filled with adults doing adult things learning lessons that usually involved the spilling of blood – much like the Troy Nixey-helmed and Guillermo Del Toro-penned “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”.

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Olivia (Jacqueline MacInnes Wood) gets an eyeful in "Final Destination 5".

Like many parts of the country these days, the horror genre has been firmly in the grips of a drought for the last few years. True relief has been scarce and we find ourselves grateful for even the slightest promise of it we may feel on the wind. All the while, charlatans and assorted snake oil salesmen proffer gimmicks and false hope, which we eagerly accept in lieu of the real thing.

But one day, relief will come.
Just not today.
Today, we get “Final Destination 5”.

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Here it is…
Quite honestly, it’s left me speechless. Not because it’s any great cinematic achievement but because it’s like a monumentally bad cook suddenly discovering he can successfully boil water.

OK, maybe it’s not that bad either.
Still, here it is.

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Chris (Sean Bridger) and Belle (Angela Bettis) and their "perfect" life before "The Woman".

In the beginning, as some people like to say, god created… well pretty much everything. But, it was kinda like throwing a party and nobody showing up, so god created guests: it solved the immediate problem and saved him on the cost of invitations. It wasn’t too long, though, before there was drama. God created man first and then pulled woman from an extra body part: so they were created together but not equally. Man was to be the boss of the woman. And while woman sought knowledge, man, by proxy for god, found that to be evil, they were cast out of paradise and woman was made to bear the burdens for her transgressions.

At least that’s what some people say.

Some people might say that man, in his natural state, prefers the balance found in a matriarchal belief system. Others still might say that man was created as a result of biological happenstance and natural selection. One thing that could be agreed upon is that Lucky McKee’s “the Woman” is a potent movie.

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David (Jayson Champion) tries to survive his last case in "Kodie".

Not long ago, if you wanted to make a movie and show it in theaters, you needed to have a wheelbarrow full of money. Lacking that, the chances of your movie ever seeing the light of day were between slim and none. However, with the maturation of DSLR camera technology, almost anyone can become a filmmaker. I love the fact that technology has taken something that used to only be the only in the hands of a select few and has opened the gates for everyone.

Enter Abel Berry and his latest film, “Kodie”.

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Yep, looks like another needless sequel in "Scream 4".

To paraphrase something a wise woman once said, assumption is a crap-filled Twinkie: it looks great until you take a bite out of it. An assumption is a little bit of mental laziness that circumvents the heavy lifting of critical thinking and just going with whatever’s easiest.

Of course, this brings us to Wes Craven’s latest effort, “Scream 4”.

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