For a film about three people stranded on a ski lift in ice-cold weather with little hope for survival, Adam Green’s Frozen is not without its charm. The picture milks the dire situation for all its horrific worth, even if it stumbles a bit due to the high-concept trappings. Thankfully the great outweighs the few plodding moments, as a new entry in the “danger in everyday places” genre steps up to scare anyone who’s ever put their trust in a tiny seat suspended by razor-sharp cables, with nothing but open air underneath them.

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When District B13 exploded onto the scene in 2004, so did the phenomenon known as parkour (or free-running), where participants move through any situation by adapting to whatever obstacles come in their way with astonishing speed and agility. B13’s director, Pierre Morel, and producer/screenwriter Luc Besson masterfully showcased this art by setting it within the confines of a burnt-out future slum — adding some fantastic fight scenes along the way. Years later, the same slum is revisited in this follow-up, which tries to match its predecessor’s energy but ends up floundering when it should be delivering the action-packed goods.

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The vampire genre is given a novel approach with lackluster results in this noir-ish horror film from the Australian filmmaking team of Michael and Peter Spierig. Existing in the near future, the picture hypothesizes a vampiric takeover of the Earth wherein the fanged population continues to go about their lives while humankind is drained of blood in order to keep the masses alive. The film’s most delectable bits come when the vamps go through withdrawal and transform into blood-thirsty monsters, hungry for sustenance from wherever they can get it — including themselves. These moments, expertly executed with prosthetic FX pizzazz, bring the film to horrific life, yet are too few and far between to pump enough life into this anemic tale.

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Sometimes a film comes along that pushes the boundaries of what moviemaking can yield — the kind of movie that reaches beyond the limits of the medium and blazes a new trail, subsequently allowing others with abundant resources to follow in its path. Despite any nitpicky flaws one might — or might not — find within the picture, James Cameron’s Avatar is absolutely this kind of touchstone. Although audiences have become used to seeing advances in high-end technology, those previous developments haven’t quite added up to this level of razzle-dazzle. For that, the filmmaker and his tireless crew deserve the many praises that they’ll no doubt get. Avatar is a special-effects marvel — and it’s that area of the film that will rule many people’s reactions, even if one may wonder whether a film with as grand a reach as this deserves a bit more scrutiny for falling back on familiar ground story-wise.

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A group of armored-truck guards scheme to steal 40 million dollars in this by-the-numbers pressure-cooker thriller whose heat never delivers enough steam to make a trip to the flick worth it. Hungarian-American Nimród Antal once again heads back to blue-collar ensemble-land, hearkening back to his stellar debut, Kontroll, yet here he finds himself saddled with thinly sketched boneheaded characters surrounding the one sympathetic character in the bunch. The end result is a heavy tale that doesn’t allow the audience to immerse themselves in the drama — annoying instead of engaging the viewer at most turns. It doesn’t help that the marketing for the film basically laid out the entire picture before it was even screened — which, funny enough, doesn’t end up making that much difference since the trailer was just as flat as the film it so succinctly summed up.

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Topical horror doesn’t come around that often — so it’s a surprise when Saw VI targets some real-life, cut-from-the-headlines villainy and goes for the jugular of crooked insurance companies and corrupt loan officers. Even more surprising is how this series somehow found its footing with this entry after waffling in complicated plot-land for far too long. This isn’t to say that Pt. 6 is a fine example of the horror genre — it still utilizes the same polarizing aesthetics that clearly separate its fervent supporters and die-hard detractors (i.e., grimy torture-filled deaths cut with an in-your-face flashy style). Yet sometimes in this all too self-serious franchise, an aura of morbid fun shines through, sometimes unintentionally (these films are not art), and sometimes planned to a perfect T. Thankfully with this one, the production team struck a good balance across the board, delivering a ridiculous concoction that manages to not be as torturous as its predecessors while providing a refreshing time at the gore store.

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Sometimes the setup for a film is so tantalizing that when the picture fails miserably, it hurts that much more. Pandorum is certainly one of these instances — a mysterious sci-fi horror freak-out that misses the horror altogether and bores the audience with asinine characters plodding through all-too-familiar territory. Take one part Event Horizon and equal parts Ghosts of Mars and The Descent, then mix them in a dirty blender, and that’s basically Pandorum. It takes a lot from what came before, then sullies things up by botching the execution, time and again. Instead of tension, viewers get frenzied editing. In the place of horror, there is literally a pool of fecal matter. As far as any kind of satisfying mystery, if the picture didn’t already lose its audience even before the halfway point, the rapid right turns in the finale aren’t going to blow anyone’s mind. Unfortunately for the filmmakers, the only thing they blow is a chance to deliver the goods.

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As a conventional slasher, this update on the original 1983 House on Sorority Row scores fairly big points for its impressive kills, yet it is brought down by the same kind of weak finale that has plagued many of its post-‘90s horrific whodunit peers. With the advent of Scream, the slasher genre has weighed heavily upon the hook of “who is the killer?” A rather delicious concept if done right, it can lead to a mindbender of a good time. Sadly, when this sort of 10 Little Indians plot goes sour, audiences get stuck with lame old men killers (à la: I Know What You Did Last Summer) or main characters who suddenly turn evil at the end, only to be overshadowed by their more frightening costumed selves from the first two acts of the film (My Bloody Valentine 3D). Many times, the poorly structured “reveal” comes complete with a James Bond villain speech about why they did what they did, eating up precious screen time at a point when viewers would rather be amped up than talked at. Thankfully, Sorority Row will still appeal to genre enthusiasts and the young crowd alike, thanks to its taste for bloody scares, T & A, and an above-the-line sense of style that should surprise most who come near.

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