Title: Kidnapped (Secuestrados) Director: Miguel Angel Vivas Starring: Fernando Cayo, Ana Wagener, Manuela Velles, Guillermo Barrienttos, Martijn Kuiper, Dritan Biba, Xoel Yanez A slick Spanish-French coproduction that was named Best Horror Film at Austin’s Fantastic Fest last year, ‘Kidnapped’ (‘Secuestrados’) is a gritty, efficient home invasion flick that should serve as a solid cinematic calling card debut for co-writer and director Miguel Angel Vivas. Set on the outskirts of Madrid, ‘Kidnapped”s narrative is fairly pedestrian and familiar, and predicated on an audience’s enjoyment of the picture’s propulsive momentum as much as anything else. After a discrete opening segment which finds a bloodied man with a bag over his head stumbling…

Title: The Corridor Director: Evan Kelly Starring: Stephen Chambers, James Gilbert, David Patrick Flemming, Matthew Amyotte, Glen Matthews, Mary-Colin Chisholm, Nigel Bennett Enough films — mostly horror, but inclusive of all sorts of reunion movies — unfold in and around secluded cabins in the woods that it would probably not at all be a stretch to program a festival comprised entirely of said offerings. A lot of times this setting is the result of writing to a single, accessible, low-budget location, and there isn’t a whole lot of imagination or quality of performance that then raises the material, and argues for either the talent or continued professional opportunity of those…

Title: Fertile Ground Directed by: Adam Gierasch Starring: Gale Harold, Leisha Hailey and Chelcie Ross Running Time: 95 minutes, Rated R After Emily Weaver goes through a gruesome miscarriage, she and her husband Nate decide to move to a rural town where his family’s ancestral home is located. As they are settling in, Emily begins to have horrifying visions and ghostly encounters. Part of the DVD extras has the story-boarding, which I thought was brilliant to show the viewer how they plotted out their beautifully filmed cinematography.  It really was great for a modest budget horror film.  The commentary by director Adam Gierasch, writer Jace Anderson and lead actress Leisha…

Title: I Am Number Four Directed by: D.J. Caruso Starring: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant and Dianna Agron Rated PG-13, Running Time 1hr 49min, Available on Blu-ray An extra-terrestrial teen posing as a high school student (Alex Pettyfer) and his guardian protector (Timothy Olyphant) seek out fellow aliens on earth while eluding an enemy alien race who are hunting them down. He is “Number Four” on the enemy hit list. Anybody who wasn’t entertained by this film needs to remove the stick from their bum. This isn’t Academy Award material, its fun escapism. I am a little annoyed they put an Adele song in the soundtrack, this film is not worthy…

Title: Elephant White Directed by: Prachya Pinkaew Starring: Kevin Bacon, Djimon Hounsou and Jirantanin Pitakporntrakul Running Time: 90 minutes, Rated R, Available on Blu-Ray An assassin is hired to kill sex slave traders who murdered a girl in Thailand. Djimon Hounsou is Curtie Church, the assassin and Kevin Bacon is a sly arms dealer Jimmy the Brit. One of the most excruciating scenes besides watching Hounsou repeatedly shove a gigantic dirty rag into a Thai prostitute’s mouth as she’s going through heroin withdrawals is hearing Kevin Bacon’s version of a British accent. What the hell happened to Kevin Bacon? He used to be a bankable actor, but now he’s fallen…

Title: Husk Directed by: Brett Simmons Starring: Devon Graye, Wes Chatham and C.J. Thomason Running time: 83 minutes – Rated R A group of friends traveling on a private road near a massive cornfield get forced off the road by a murder of suicidal crows. They look for help at the only farmhouse in the area where they discover some supernatural force had caused them to be there. There are several things that made this movie a bit of a cliché: One of the character’s names is Johnny, an emotionally disturbed girl, a jock, a guy who can’t see without his glasses and an angst-y emo; add all those to…

Title: Black Swan Director: Darren Aronofsky Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder Black Swan will be the most memorable flick you’ll see this year. Due to it being so amazingly strange! It’s a 107 minute marriage of Fame meets Poltergeist. Which basically equates to a psychological horror piece, with a Japanese flare. Director Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream) brings his patent cinematography and fuses it with an acid-laced script. Audiences with either think he has created a masterpiece or a disaster-piece. Much like the ballet, one may or may not appreciate what is on the screen. And that’s fine because there may…

Magnolia Pictures just sent us this brand new movie poster for the upcoming Joon-ho Bong (The Host) film “Mother” which opens in theaters March 12, 2010. Synopsis: Hye-ja is a single mom to 27-year-old Do-joon. Her son is her raison. Though an adult in years, Do-joon is naïve and dependent on his mother, and a constant source of anxiety, often behaving in ways that are foolish or simply dangerous. Walking home alone one night down a nearly empty city street, he encounters a young girl who he follows for a while before she disappears into a dark alley. The next morning, she is found dead in an abandoned building and…

According to Variety.com, Bradley Cooper has signed on to star in the suspense thriller “Dark Fields” for Relativity Media. Neil Burger is directing, from a screenplay adaptation by Leslie Dixon. The project is based on a novel by Alan Glynn. The film is about a man named Eddie (Cooper) iwho is a down-and-out writer who comes into possession of a drug that greatly boosts his mental faculties, helping him become enormously successful. However, he soon discovers that there is a dark side to his newfound power and success. The film is set to start filming in Spring 2010. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for more on “Dark Fields”. By Costa Koutsoutis…

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Ron Perlman, Josh Lawson, and Emma Lung have been cast in the upcoming indie thriller “Crave.” The directorial debut of Charles de Lauzirika, who also wrote the script alongside Robert Lawton, the film is about a troubled photographer (Lawson) whose dangerous visions begin to destroy his relationship with a beautiful young woman (Lung), and end up getting him pursued by a dark and cynical detective (Perlman). Lauzirika is also producing “Crave” alongside with Robert Green, Scott Robinson and Marissa Neiman. The project will begin shooting this Friday in Detroit. Stay tuned to Shockya.com for more on “Crave”. By Costa Koutsoutis (Source: The Hollywood Reporter)