Paranormal Activity (2009)

A haunted house makes no secret of the fact it is not pleased with its new tenants in this independent tale of supernatural horror. Katie (Katie Featherson) and Micah (Micah Sloat) are a… A haunted house makes no secret of the fact it is not pleased with its new tenants in this independent tale of supernatural horror. Katie (Katie Featherson) and Micah (Micah Sloat) are a twentysomething couple who’ve just moved into a new home in San Diego, California. Katie has an interest in the paranormal and believes that malevolent spirits have been following her since childhood, though Micah is not so easily convinced. However, after several nights of loud noises and strange happenings, Micah starts to agree with Katie that some sort of ghost may have followed them to the new home. After a paranormal researcher tells the couple he can’t help them, Micah decides to take control of the situation and sets up a battery of video cameras so that if a spirit manifests itself, he can capture its behavior on tape. Once the surveillance cameras are in place, Katie and Micah bring in a Ouija board in an effort to talk to the spirits, a move that deeply offends the ghosts. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY was the first feature film from writer-director Oren Peli.

The Box (2009)

What if someone gave you a box containing a button that, if pushed, would bring you a million dollars…but simultaneously take the life of someone you don’t know? Would you do it? And what would be the consequences? The year is 1976. Norma Lewis is a teacher at a private high school and her husband, Arthur, is an engineer working at NASA. They are, by all accounts, an average couple living a normal life in the suburbs with their young son…until a mysterious man with a horribly disfigured face appears on their doorstep and presents Norma with a life-altering proposition: the box. With only 24 hours to make their choice, Norma and Arthur face an impossible moral dilemma. What they don’t realize is that no matter what they decide, terrifying consequences will have already been set in motion. They soon discover that the ramifications of this decision are beyond their control and extend far beyond their own fortune and fate.

Orphan (2009)

The tragic loss of their unborn child has devastated Kate and John, taking a toll on both their marriage and Kate’s fragile psyche as she is plagued by nightmares and haunted by demons from her… The tragic loss of their unborn child has devastated Kate and John, taking a toll on both their marriage and Kate’s fragile psyche as she is plagued by nightmares and haunted by demons from her past. Struggling to regain some semblance of normalcy in their lives, the couple decides to adopt another child. At the local orphanage, both John and Kate find themselves strangely drawn to a young girl named Esther. Almost as soon as they welcome Esther into their home, however, an alarming series of events begins to unfold, leading Kate to believe that there’s something wrong with Esther—this seemingly angelic little girl is not what she appears to be. Concerned for the safety of her family, Kate tries to get John and others to see past Esther’s sweet facade. But her warnings go unheeded until it may be too late…for everyone.

Drag Me To Hell (2009)

Director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man trilogy, Evil Dead series) returns to the horror genre with Drag Me To Hell, an original tale of a young woman’s desperate quest to break an evil curse.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is an ambitious L.A. loan officer with a charming boyfriend, professor Clay Dalton (Justin Long). Life is good until the mysterious Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver) arrives at the bank to beg for an extension on her home loan. Should Christine follow her instincts and give the old woman a break? Or should she deny the extension to impress her boss, Mr. Jacks (David Paymer), and get a leg-up on a promotion? Christine fatefully chooses the latter, shaming Mrs. Ganush and dispossessing her of her home.

In retaliation, the old woman places the powerful curse of the Lamia on Christine, transforming her life into a living hell. Haunted by an evil spirit and misunderstood by a skeptical boyfriend, she seeks the aid of seer Rham Jas (Dileep Rao) to save her soul from eternal damnation. To help the shattered Christine return her life to normal, the psychic sets her on a frantic course to reverse the spell. As evil forces close in, Christine must face the unthinkable: how far will she go to break free of the curse?

The Last House on the Left (2009)

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Masters of horror Wes Craven and Sean Cunningham revisit their landmark film that launched Craven’s directing career and influenced decades of horror films to follow: The Last House on the Left. Bringing one of the most notorious thrillers of all time to a new generation, they produce the story that explores how far two ordinary people will go to exact revenge on the sociopaths who harmed their child.

The night she arrives at the remote Collingwood lakehouse, Mari (Sara Paxton) and her friend are kidnapped by a prison escapee and his crew. Terrified and left for dead, Mari’s only hope is to make it back to parents John and Emma (Tony Goldwyn and Monica Potter). Unfortunately, her attackers unknowingly seek shelter at the one place she could be safe. And when her family learns the horrifying story, they will make three strangers curse the day they came to The Last House on the Left.

The Unborn (2009)

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Sometimes the soul of a dead person has been so tainted with evil that it is denied entrance to heaven. It must endlessly wander the borderlands between worlds, desperately searching for a new body… Sometimes the soul of a dead person has been so tainted with evil that it is denied entrance to heaven. It must endlessly wander the borderlands between worlds, desperately searching for a new body to inhabit.

And sometimes it actually succeeds.

Writer/director David Goyer (Blade: Trinity, The Invisible, Batman Begins) gives a terrifying glimpse into the life of the undead in The Unborn, a supernatural thriller that follows a young woman pulled into a world of nightmares when a demonic spirit haunts her and threatens everyone she loves.

Casey Beldon (Odette Yustman) hated her mother for leaving her as a child. But when inexplicable things start to happen, Casey begins to understand why she left. Plagued by merciless dreams and a tortured ghost that haunts her waking hours, she must turn to the only spiritual advisor, Sendak (Gary Oldman), who can make it stop.

With Sendak’s help, Casey uncovers the source of a family curse dating back to Nazi Germany–a creature with the ability to inhabit anyone or anything that is getting stronger with each possession. With the curse unleashed, her only chance at survival is to shut a doorway from beyond our world that has been pried open by someone who was never born.

Friday the 13th (2009)

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After making a bloody splash with his redo of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, director Marcus Nispel tackles another beloved horror franchise with FRIDAY THE 13TH. SUPERNATURAL’s Jared Padalecki,… After making a bloody splash with his redo of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, director Marcus Nispel tackles another beloved horror franchise with FRIDAY THE 13TH. SUPERNATURAL’s Jared Padalecki, DISTURBIA’s Aaron Yoo, and CLOVERFIELD’s Odette Yustman star in this remake that finds camp counselors being picked off one by one. FREDDY VS. JASON screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift provide the script, while Michael Bay serves as one of the film’s producers.

Dorothy Mills (2008)

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Jane Morton, a psychiatrist from Dublin in deep mourning following the accidental death of her husband and son, is assigned to work on the case of Dorothy Mills, a teenaged girl in a small village who tried to strangle a baby. After miraculously surviving a car accident, Jane discovers a village darkened by strange events and meets a very nervous Dorothy, who swears she never touched the baby. After analyzing the teenager, Jane makes a diagnosis of multiple personality disorder until the day that Dorothy speaks with the voice of David, Jane’s dead son.

George A. Romero’s Diary of the Dead (2008)

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Director George A. Romero returns to the subject matter that made him famous with this postmodern take on the zombie genre. DIARY OF THE DEAD begins in innocuous fashion as a group of film students… Director George A. Romero returns to the subject matter that made him famous with this postmodern take on the zombie genre. DIARY OF THE DEAD begins in innocuous fashion as a group of film students head out into the woods to make a low-budget horror film. This film-within-a-film is directed by Jason Creed (Joshua Close), who draws on a group of friends, and his college professor, to get the job done. But the filming comes to an abrupt halt when news comes in that the dead are springing back to life, devouring people, and taking over the world. Film obsessive Creed doesn’t put his camera down for long, and he’s soon heading out on the road with his friends in a quest to document the real-life carnage as it unfolds. The film is shot entirely from the point of view of Creed and his camera-wielding friends, and in a neat nod to contemporary technology, Romero’s feature is full of references to websites such as MySpace and YouTube. This interesting sidestep from Romero’s long-running zombie saga is a 21st century take on the initial zombie outburst that occurred in the director’s 1968 classic NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. Romero unleashes much of his trademark gore and violence as the film progresses, and there are some increasingly witty and inventive ways in which characters become zombiefied. The cast of young unknowns fit snugly into their roles, particularly Michelle Morgan, whose character is in charge of piecing together Creed’s film in the editing room. But what really sets DIARY OF THE DEAD apart from its horror-movie contemporaries is the hefty dose of social satire that Romero works into the film, making this a welcome return to the director’s trademark style following the more straightforward gore-fest of 2005’s LAND OF THE DEAD.