Are you fed up with sparkly, sex-adverse vampires? So is Xan Cassavetes apparently, because her enjoyably sleazy new vampire drama Kiss of the Damned embraces the inherent carnality of these monsters (albeit in a primarily heternomative way) with an enthusiasm that thankfully has more in common with Interview with the Vampire than Twilight.

I don't have much to say about the Evil Dead remake that's opening in theaters today. It's a film that Hollywood has been threatening to produce for years and finally did and the final result is... fine. Neither an epic fail nor a bold reimagining that tops the original, Evil Dead 2.0 is content to go about its business with minimal fuss and maximum gore for its slender 91-minute runtime. And I suppose that's all Sam Raimi -- who produced the film along with fellow Evil Dead veteran Bruce Campbell and personally handpicked its director, Fede Alvarez -- really wanted from this unnecessary remake of the 1981 bloodbath that launched his career: a movie that kept the brand name alive without taking any significant creative risks that might scare away mainstream audiences and studios. I walked out of the movie moderately entertained, but also wondering "Is that all there is?"

I generally try not to be too persnickety when creative types take liberties with long-established mythologies. Vampires that sparkle in sunlight instead of burn to a crisp? Kinda stupid, but okay. Peter Parker gains his web-shooting abilities organically rather than through invention? Not ideal, but I'll run with it. So I went into the new zombie rom-com Warm Bodies with an open mind, not thrilled about the improbable idea of watching a member of walking dead fall in love with a living, breathing human, but willing to be persuaded that such a thing might be possible. Unfortunately, not only did Warm Bodies -- which writer/director Jonathan Levine adapted from a book by Isaac Marion that, full disclosure, I haven't read -- fail to convince me of its central conceit, but the movie's general depiction of zombie life is shoddy, inconsistent and often downright dumb. As silly as I felt muttering to myself "But a zombie couldn't/wouldn't do that!" at every turn, that's how much the movie got on my nerves and made it almost impossible to enjoy its few modest charms. Here are the most irritating changes Warm Bodies makes to zombie lore.

With Mama, horror movie maestro Guillermo del Toro continues to give back to his favorite genre, using his significant influence within the film industry to give new directors the opportunity to freak audiences out. Mama, the feature filmmaking debut of Spanish director Andrés Muschietti, is the third scary movie to be released under the "Guillermo del Toro Presents" banner after 2007's The Orphanage and 2010's Don't Be Afraid of the Dark. It's also the first horror movie for dramatic heavyweight (and current Best Actress Oscar nominee) Jessica Chastain, who gets a Goth makeover to play the edgy rocker chick-turned-reluctant guardian of two little girls recently returned to civilization after five years spent living like animals in a cabin in the woods, with only the ghost of a long-dead mental patient for company. Even if del Toro's name by itself is enough to lure you into the theater, here are five additional things you should know about Mama:

Another October, another Paranormal Activity sequel. Having already ended the reign of the previous premiere Halloween horror franchise (those infernal Saw movies), Paranormal Activity is now the scary movie season's big kahuna -- the film that other studios go out of their way to avoid competing against. Which is why Paranormal Activity 4 is flooding the multiplex unopposed two weeks before the trick-or-treating and/or costume party debauchery begins. Since, as always, the details of the movie have been kept shrouded in secrecy, here are four things you should know about this fourth chapter before you head off to the theater. See you back here -- same spooky time, same spooky channel -- in October 2013 for Paranormal Activity 5.

With Halloween on the horizon, horror movies are crawling out of the woodwork to seize on the public appetite for all things spooky. Last week, the excellent anthology V/H/S opened in limited theatrical release following a run on VOD, while next Friday brings the return of the powerhouse Paranormal Activity franchise, now in its fourth edition. Before that well-known brand name clogs up multiplex screens in a week's time, three lesser-known horror titles open today to get a jump on the competition. One of them is actually spooky, while the only scary thing about the other two is that someone thought they were worth making.

After a fallow period dominated by increasingly tired torture porn antics, American horror movies are starting to bounce back in a big way, thanks to clever, fun and genuinely scary titles like Silent House (minus the last ten minutes), The Innkeepers and even Paranormal Activity 3. One thing the genre's fans have still been waiting for, though, is the return of those great horror anthologies that were churned out with regularity during the '70s, '80s and early '90s -- think films like Trilogy of Terror, Creepshow or my personal favorite, Tales From the Darkside: The Movie. Well, the wait is finally over. Last Thursday, the omnibus production V/H/S arrived on VOD (it opens in theaters on October 5) and instantly establishes itself as 2012's finest horror movie so far and one of the best of the past few years. With V/H/S literally at your fingertips, there's no reason to throw your money away on recent theatrical horror releases like The Apparition and The Possession.

While it's often unavoidable, it can be dangerous to go into a movie with too many preconceived expectations. Case in point: I walked into the new stop-motion animated paranormal adventure ParaNorman expecting one kind of movie and instead discovered it was actually something quite different. Reconciling the movie that was in my head with what was onscreen took some time, especially when what was onscreen wasn't quite clicking. But I warmed up to the movie and its pint-sized, spiky-haired hero by the end and, thinking back on it, I admire a number of the creative choices that directors Sam Fell and Chris Butler made, even if their ambition sometimes outstripped their execution. To help other moviegoers (especially those with kids) avoid falling into the trap of expectations not being met, here are a few things you should know about what ParaNorman is... and what it isn't.

When the movie you're going to see is called Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, you don't exactly head into the theater expecting great art. But you do hope for a rollicking genre mash-up that delivers on the goofy fun promised by the title. I'm sorry to say that, in this case, the finished product is plenty goofy, but not a lot of fun.

Few collaborators have seemed better matched than the minds behind Prometheus, writer Damon Lindelof and director Ridley Scott. After all, both men are big picture guys who enjoy building worlds that viewers can lose themselves in for two hours or six seasons. In movies like Blade Runner, Legend and even the otherwise lackluster Robin Hood, Scott paints on a giant canvas, transporting audiences to the past, the future or a fantasy realm. Meanwhile, throughout the run of Lost (particularly in its early seasons), Lindelof and his co-executive producer Carlton Cuse successfully created an environment where mysteries and secrets seemed lurked around every corner and down every hatch. So unleashing these two on a tentpole sci-fi blockbuster, with an apparently limitless amount of resources and money at their disposal, sounds like a recipe for an enormous spectacle of epic proportions -- one of those films that's simply bigger than life. [Warning: Spoilers Ahead]