Happy belated New Year, my friends. Here’s the January roundup in alphabetical order.

House on Haunted Hill (1959)

written by Robb White

directed by William Castle

In the B movie frightener House on Haunted Hill, millionaire Frederick Loren (Vincent Price) invites five people to spend the night at an alleged haunted house, promising $10,000 to whoever makes it to sunrise. It’s a horror movie fan’s dream scenario, and I was indeed pretty excited to find out what ghostly terrors and evil ghouls awaited inside. But alas, the film’s gimmick is that Loren’s wife Annabelle (Carol Ohmart) is staging it all to get rid of her husband… and he knows, so he plots to kill her instead. House on Haunted Hill starts well but becomes rather tacky and bland. I’ve seen better… and so have you.

Rating: **

In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50 (2022)

written and directed by Toby Amies

Any King Crimson fans in attendance? I’ve been a huge Crimson disciple since I first heard the 80s lineup playing Sartori in Tangier, and I still find it pretty impossible to explain this prog “band” whose sole constant over the years has been its founder, guitarist Robert Fripp. This doc tries to look under the veil – interviews with musicians past and present, Fripp’s unending perfectionism, the call for members to push their own individual skills yet be part of an egoless collective – and it somewhat succeeds, but at roughly an hour and a half, it’s too short to really dig deep into the band’s genius. Still, watching the fastidious Fripp utter remarks such as “I don’t have the problem, the problems lie elsewhere” is more than enough for die-hard fans like me. Long live the Crimson King!

Rating: **½

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

written by Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthymis Filippou

directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

If you need a dose of Stanley Kubrick but are tired of rewatching his filmography, give writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos’ bizarre The Killing of a Sacred Deer a try. In it, wealthy surgeon Steven Murphy (Colin Farrell) is seemingly “cursed” by the son of a patient he accidentally killed at the operating table. The long shots, stilted dialogue, gliding cameras, and prolonged editing are all distinctly Kubrickian, but Lanthimos still brings a level of surrealism all his own (even refusing to explain the narrative). The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a bit on the artsy-fartsy side, but it’s well worth a look.

Rating: **½

Pet Sematary (2019)

written by Jeff Buhler

from a story by Matt Greenberg

based on the novel by Stephen King

directed by Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer

This new adaptation of the Stephen King novel in which a mourning dad (Jason Clarke) plays Frankenstein with his child doesn’t veer too far from the 1989 version directed by Mary Lambert, despite a gender reversal in the inciting tragedy and a slightly different ending. And sure, the original might belong in the category of lesser King flicks such as Firestarter (1983) and Silver Bullet (1985), but it was still shlocky entertainment; this one is just another tedious remake. Sometimes dead is indeed better.

Rating: **

Sea of Love (1989)

written by Richard Price, based on his novel Ladies’ Man

directed by Harold Becker

Sea of Love is an erotic thriller about a burnt-out detective (Al Pacino) on the hunt for a serial killer. He ridiculously falls in love with one of the suspects (Ellen Barkin) and spends the rest of the movie wondering if he’s next, all the while having steamy sex with her. It’s not particularly well written but it’s efficiently produced, and the scenes between Pacino and a fellow investigator (John Goodman) elevate the half-baked premise. Plus, Tom Waits’ unique cover of the Phil Phillips song in the end credits is worth the wait.

Rating: **½

The Social Network (2010)

written by Aaron Sorkin

based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich

directed by David Fincher

This film about the rise of Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg could’ve been one more Hollywood cookie-cutter biopic, but at the hands of writer Aaron Sorkin and director David Fincher, it’s an absorbing study of power, narcissism, and loneliness (Sorkin would repeat the formula with the similarly themed Steve Jobs in 2015). The acting is also great, particularly from Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, the irritating nerd who dreams of being cool, and Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin, his sensitive friend and business partner. The Social Network makes me like social media even less… and that’s a good thing.

Rating: ***

Uncut Gems (2019)

written by Ronald Bronstein, Josh Safdie, and Benny Safdie

directed by Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie

I’ve never liked Adam Sandler. I find his brand of humor annoying, his delivery grating. Yet somehow, the filmmaking team of brothers Josh and Benny Safdie have zeroed in on these attributes and cast Sandler perfectly as Howard Ratner, a manic jeweler whose gambling addiction gets him way over his head. The Safdies are clearly influenced by gritty NYC flicks (check out their 2017 crime flick Good Time) and here they create a tense, anxious character study of a man who’ll sacrifice everything – family, job, relationships – to chase the next score. Despite an ending that I saw coming a mile away, Uncut Gems is riveting.

Rating: ***

Carlos I. Cuevas