“Ghoster” (*1/2 out of four) was a synthetic children’s story about a young girl (Sophia Proctor) and her father (J.R. Brown) who attempt to unravel the secrets of an extravagant mansion they are residing in while an evil spirit named Yuto (voiced by Cory Phillips) attempts to wipe all of them away in his quest for immortality. Lame attempt to rehash the elements of “Casper”, right down to its poster design and honestly “Casper” wasn’t that great to begin with. Only some sweet moments at the end have any real connection. For very undemanding kids only.

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“Deadstream” (0 stars out of four) was an absolutely worthless horror thriller about an obnoxious internet personality (Joseph Winter) who attempts to film a live comeback of himself surviving a night in a haunted house but he soon finds that he has aggravated an evil spirit which causes all Hell to break loose. Star/co-director/co-writer/co-producer/co-editor Winter bears all the blame for this unwatchable film; his annoying character (and performance) is so off-putting that you’ll literally be rooting for the evil spirit to put him (and the audience) out of their misery. It’s movies like these that make the original “Blair Witch Project” and “Paranormal Activity” look like classic Hitchcock by comparison.

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“Stay The Night” (**1/2 out of four) was a mildly engaging character melodrama about a career-oriented and emotionally guarded woman (Andrea Bang) who encounters a setback at work which prompts her to have a one-night stand with a professional athlete (Joe Scarpellino) but this gets complicated when they both develop a strong bond and feelings for one another. Writer/director Renuka Jeyapalan works in a dreamlike style and mood that holds your interest but can’t transcend film’s pat and predictable story elements which derive from “Before Sunrise” and “Love Story” among others. Bang and Scarpellino’s involving chemistry overall makes this worthwhile and worth “staying” through.

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“MK Ultra” (* out of four) was an ultra-dull suspense melodrama set in the early 1960’s based on the true stories of the C.I.A. and how they performed drug experimentations on various prisoners and political officials and how one young psychiatrist (Anson Mount) was recruited by the agency to run an experimental unit in a Mississippi hospital and found his moral/personal/ethical boundaries pushed to the breaking point. Viewers will likely reach their own “breaking point” with this long before film is over. Wooden and superficial treatment of an interesting part of C.I.A. history but all of the “Bourne” films covered similar territory with far more vigor and intensity. Jason Patric plays a nefarious agent involved in the program but based on this and other recent films he ought to possibly get a new film agent to get him better roles.

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“Werewolf By Night” (** out of four) was a lukewarm horror thriller about a lycanthrope superhero (Gael Garcia Bernal) who utilizes a curse in his bloodline to fight the forces of evil but encounters a woman (Laura Donnelly) who is one tough cookie and they both have to utilize their strength and sources to stay alive and save humanity. Disappointingly ordinary Marvel Halloween special is a half-baked homage to monster/vampire movies of the 30’s and 40’s. Impressive black-and-white cinematography by Zoe White is alluring at first but that too becomes monotonous after a while, just like the film itself. Inauspicious directing debut from Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino.

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“Dead For A Dollar” (*1/2 out of four) was a disposable Western about a famed bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) who runs into his sworn enemy (Willem Dafoe) who is a professional gambler and villainous outlaw whom he had sent to prison years earlier and things start to get really ugly in the old West with various townsfolk (Rachel Brosnahan, Benjamin Bratt, and others) taking sides. Big-name cast fails to elevate by-the-numbers and weak material. Most Westerns at least are visually beautiful but the cinematography here is blurry and ill-lit and Walter Hill’s direction is surprisingly amateurish. His earlier Western efforts “The Long Riders” and “Extreme Prejudice” were far more involving.

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“The Luckiest Girl Alive” (* out of four) was a punishing adaptation of Jessica Knoll’s best-selling novel about a socialite (Mila Kunis) who seemingly has the perfect life and everything seems fine on the surface but underneath hides crippling personal pain and trauma that threatens to upend her existence when she has to unspool all of this to a documentary filmmaker (Dalmar Abuzeid). How such an awful adaptation could be made is hard to fathom since Knoll adapted her book and wrote the screenplay herself. Kunis remains a terrific actress but is completely undone by static direction and storytelling. Film’s cutting back-and-forth in time structure is really annoying also and it goes on forever (two hours but believe me- it feels much longer). By the end, it seems bewildering and pointless. An unlucky and complete misfire.

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“Among The Living” (*1/2 out of four) was a dreary horror thriller set in (yawn) the midst of a deadly worldwide outbreak in which an older brother (Dean Michael Gregory) fights to protect his younger sister (Melissa Worsey) while they are isolated at a cabin from ravenous zombies who have a predatory thirst for blood. Yet another in the derivative vein of “28 Days Later”, “Cabin In The Woods”, and (of course) “Night Of The Living Dead” and not all that different from this week’s similar (and better) “In Isolation.” It’s horror filmmakers themselves who need to thirst for new blood and new ideas. Gregory’s strong performance is one of film’s few vital signs.

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“In Isolation” (**1/2 out of four) was a better-than-average horror thriller about four friends (Darya Avratinskaya, Valeria Lugai, George Rakito, and Ilya Ilinykh) who go to a remote countryside for a vacation which is interrupted by a severely injured man who informs them that there is a worldwide pandemic that has just started and they have to fight together against looters even as they find themselves falling apart mentally and psychologically and turning against each other. Director Alexey Meets reframes horror genre cliches with mood and style and with proficient scares and tension at a very economical 87 minutes. Film can’t quite transcend its predictable and familiar roots but doesn’t waste time or scenes and is overall worth checking out for genre fans.

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“The Inhabitant” (*1/2 out of four) was a listless horror thriller about a troubled teenager (Odessa A’zion) who encounters a series of supernatural events that threaten to tear apart her sanity and her turbulent family (Dermot Mulroney and Leslie Bibb) and she has to sort out her personal demons in order to psychologically/physically/personally stay alive. Molasses-moving movie moves in all different directions, none of which are engaging or you haven’t seen done before and far better. Mulroney is wasted as her sinister dad. A’zion is having a bad week after “Hellraiser” and now this and hopefully she’s able to “inhabit” some better roles in the future.

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