Transsiberian. Director Brad Anderson has a growing number of fans—finally I had to admit to myself that, yeah, I’m one of them—who admire pretty much everything that he does, even the Masters of Horror episode “Sounds Like.” We’re partial to the intelligence and sharpness of his storytelling, and Transsiberian delivers those big-time. Watching Anderson take a trip into Hitchcock territory with this train-set thriller and a big-name cast that includes Ben Kingsley and the always-wonderful Emily Mortimer is a real treat. But really anyone who simply appreciates a thriller in the classic mold, meaning that it’s equal parts character- and plot-driven, won’t go wrong with Transsiberian, which I caught during its theatrical run this summer. Memorable thrillers make effective use of their settings—I’m not sure why, but that seems to be a requirement—and this film does so beautifully. The script by Anderson and Will Conroy also employs standard elements such as a “normal” couple traveling abroad, crooks who want to take advantage of their innocence Eric Ambler-style, and a dedicated, unflappable cop (Kinglsey). Similarly, the plot provides genuine twists that are for once neither gimmicky nor dependent on some recursive flashback-laden structure: Transsiberian simply represents vintage suspense and international intrigue handled masterfully. But lest I give the impression that the film is totally old-fashioned, be aware that at its heart there’s a considerable amount of, if not moral ambiguity (the bad guys are definitely bad), then perhaps moral relativism of a strikingly contemporary type. Release date: November 4

Visits: Hungry Ghost Anthology. A quartet of Chinese-language (the copy says Cantonese but I heard Mandarin) J-horror tales from Malaysia sounds like just the sort of thing that I’d fall in love with. “Malaysia?” I’m thinking, “Is that the next big center of Asian genre film?” It very well may be, but not based on the evidence here. Sure, the anthology format ensures a variety of approaches to the ghost story subgenre, but none of them truly scared me. If you’re deeply interested in world horror, or if you’re looking for ghost stories marginally better than what you might find on TV, then Visits is probably worth a rental, but be guarded with your expectations. You also might want to be selective and not screen the entire film. If so, here are some tips…

“Anybody Home?,” the final short film that I saw, is by far the most compelling. Using a security-cam conceit similar to that in Adam Rifkin’s Look, this segment builds atmosphere in an austerely creepy, sans-music, sans-dialogue kind of way. Unfortunately, the supernatural elements, when they appear at the eleventh horror, are not handled nearly as skillfully. “Nodding Scoop” is also interesting (if not particularly scary), especially in the first half, which has an emphasis on the naturalistic and dramatic that makes me think that director Ng Tian Hann may eventually do his best work outside of horror. Its ending was a bit baffling, but that could just be me. “Waiting for Them” is far too slow and straightforward for me, but without question it’s got a few arresting images. Finally, the opening segment, “1413,” amplifies the faults of the other segments but presents very few of their virtues. The acting is simply horrendous and the dialogue (at least in translation) often awkward, and together they irreparably drag Low Ngai Yuen’s visual ambitions crashing down to earth.

I know there’s subtext everywhere in this film, but the limitations of the digital production didn’t allow me to engage with the material on a deeper level; I have nothing against video’s dilute colors and flat lighting, but instead of making Visits look more real, they just make it look cheap. So while I applaud Tidepoint/Bone House Asia for making the film’s flashes of creativity available to Region 1, too much of the time the movie hovers only just above the student-film level. Some of the most unsettling moments came after the four stories, via a quick, throw-away resolution to the framing story, but I’m not sure many viewers will stay with Visits long enough to get to that point. Release date: October 28

Stuck. Occupying a space somewhere between honestly-direct-and-refreshing and crassly-calculated-to-shock, this unrepentantly moralistic fable manifests as neither fish nor fowl from conception on. A black comedy? A horror flick in the form of social commentary or message movie? A halfway crime thriller? Of course had Stuart Gordon, one of my favorite American directors of the past couple of decades, provided a finished product just a tad more satisfying, I’d now be singing the praises of how “genre-bending” and “unclassifiable” Stuck is. Gordon does his typically admirable job of eliciting raw, watchable performances from his actors, whom here he puts through a kind of Theater of Despair: sometimes the misfortune is lacquered on so heavily that you can’t tell if the script is winking at you. But what starts out on a broad social canvas becomes a chamber piece with three main players, scrupleless Mena Suvani, luckless Stephen Rea, and clueless Russell Hornsby (a good actor who seems miscast here). Although Stuck is ostensibly based on the real story of a woman who left a crash victim wedged in her shattered windshield while she went about the rest of her life, we’re all in trouble if this is the way the world really is.

The challenge Gordon and writer John Strysik face is that it’s hard to pull off full-bore moralistic horror—a better strategy, usually, is to go heavy on the horror and tread lightly on the moralism, as in Gordon’s excellent King of the Ants. Like that film, Stuck draws heavily on crime-suspense elements to supplement a central dramatic situation which is essentially horrific; the former is about slow brain death via torture while the latter concerns slow physical death via me-first apathy. And while Strysik’s script has plenty of efficiency and sharp dialogue—he’d be great writing for series television—he and Gordon (who wrote the story) have saddled Stuck with so much top-heavy social commentary starting in the first act that the movie never quite fully recovers despite its exciting, bang-up finale. As just but one of the more glaring examples, we’re treated to a drug dealer and would-be murderer who provides a rationale for his actions by referencing those of the current U.S. president (presumably G.W. Bush). Such awkward soapboxing, plus many very standard and predictable suspense elements—will Suvari’s crime get discovered by a curious cab driver? take a guess—undercut what could have been a much more memorable film, maybe even a powerful one. Recommend for those whose cynicism runs deep and who value dramatic validations of it. Release date: October 14

The Strangers. There are several effective sequences early in Bryan Bertino’s film, nearly all involving star Liv Tyler being frightening teased by the malevolent title characters.

But do these moments really justify sitting through the rest of the somewhat unoriginal survival-thriller machinations that follow? To me this is a film made for North American audiences who aren’t sure if they can handle the deeper end of the horror pool, where the water tends to coagulate. With The Strangers they get to dip their toes, maybe their ankles, into the nasty stuff, but there’s really not much to shower off when done. Yes, the film is nihilistic, which I half admire just for being in the context of a studio release, but it’s without question the most inoffensive nihilistic horror movie I’ve ever seen. Indeed, the movie starts with some text-on-screen that cites statistics about violent crime and serves to frame the ultra-violence that follows as part of a twisted PSA. It was a similar “social consciously” attitude that Roger Ebert took Dave DeFalco’s Chaos to task for (among other things). But that film, which is arguably unadulterated exploitation, still managed to be authentically disturbing despite its flaws: you were left with a feeling of true disgust, not just the sense of “Hmmm, this is pretty edgy… for a Liv Tyler movie.”

The Strangers often seems to take on the trimmings of the horror genre as a kind of a pose, and I think that’s what’s objectionable about the movie despite all the evident care that went into it. This becomes clear when checking out the DVD’s featurettes, where the production designer provides the self-congratulatory remark that unlike other “dark house on a hill” movies, here the danger comes from without, not within, as if that’s unique in the genre. Well, the isolated-rural-house-under-siege also happens to be setting for a modest little forty-year-old flick entitled Night of the Living Dead as well as countless others. Indeed, I really loved The Strangers when it was released in its original European version from ’07—that is, when it was called Them. Sarcasm aside, if you haven’t seen that film, bypass The Strangers immediately. And if you have seen it, consider catching The Strangers to keep your engine running until the next movie that’s like Them arrives on the horizon. Release date: October 21

Patrick. Another fascinating Ozploitation flick that shares many of the traits of other recent Synapse releases such as Thirst and Dark Forces: originality, intelligence, and a climax that is oddly subdued given all that leads up to it. Patrick, about a coma patient who happens to be telekinetic, boasts both literate dialogue and a grown-up frankness when it comes to sexuality, and this combination in a horror movie is quite disarming. What the film is really about is anyone’s guess, but I’m wondering if it has to do with the power of infantile wish fantasies, in which as young children we know we’re dependent on others for our care but simultaneously feel omnipotent, as if our thoughts alone could affect reality. But while the material is often quite potent in concept, the particulars often don’t stand up as well: in one scene that’s especially unremarkable visually, one of the characters suffers cramp-like pains in a swimming pool, apparently the victim of a half-hearted drowning attempt by Patrick. If you like genre films that are seriously off-beat, not just posturing as such, then Patrick is probably a must-see. Just be warned if, like me, you’re put off by the sight of real-life animal suffering on screen: there’s a sequence in which a frog is methodically paralyzed before our eyes which left a bad taste in my mouth for quite a while. No, Patrick is not Cannibal Holocaust by any means, but I’m glad that horror no longer has to be so callous in order to depict cruelty. Release date: October 28

Chill. There’s a nifty idea here, one that I think various festivals have responded to in awarding a few prizes to the Lovecraft-inspired Chill: take an archetypal Mad Scientist/Necromancer character and transplant him into urban streets populated by pimps, hookers, stalker cops, down-and-out types and other vaguely noirish characters. Indeed, the department in which Chill is undeniably strongest is setting, creating a hidden yet believable dark side for the lonely storefronts one sees in desolate, industrial-looking neighborhoods where foot traffic is low. Where the film is weakest is when it tries to go visceral, from the poorly-timed sound effects in its scenes of violence, to the woefully inadequate gore effects, to its uninspired adherence to slasher/torture film tropes (which, in a particularly ill-advised decision, happen to open the film). However, director Serge Rodnunsky shows a lot of talent in working with actors, particularly with heavy Shaun Kurtz, who miraculously avoids hamming it up while delivering his urbane/arcane dialogue. James Russo also delivers as the slimy cop, but his character is sadly underused. The lead is Thomas Calabro, who plays a whatever-happened-to? version of his doctor character in Melrose Place. His performance contains a certain amount of low-key charm and effectiveness, but for some reason he seems about half-awake when supposedly screaming for his life—and unfortunately the same could be said for the movie as a whole. Release date: November 4

Elite Squad. I’d been looking forward to this film since it won Berlin’s Golden Bear, so please know that my disappointment can largely be explained by my high expectations. I should start, though, by mentioning that director José Padilha’s ample talent is evidenced throughout, from the realism of the shootouts to the breathtaking evocation of near-anarchy in Rio’s streets and institutions. But without its flash and exoticism, and perhaps without its complex political subtext, too, it’s hard for me to grasp what exactly the film’s champions see in it. To be sure, the story is stunningly ambitious, tracing the course of crime and corruption through multiple layers of Brazilian society, but in the end none of these dramatic strands packed enough punch on its own to resonate with me. In the beginning we’re teased with an explosive premise: the Pope is coming to the city, and he insists on holding a mass in one of the most crime-ridden slums. It’s up to the Elite Squad of the police (think more military than paramilitary) to make sure some drug kingpin doesn’t take him out just for the bragging rights. The problem, though, is that eventually the film abandons this idea for supposedly more compelling fare, such as what will happen when the girlfriend of a new squad member learns he’s not a law student, but a cop? Well, what do you think happens when the truth is revealed? If you guessed that they scream at each other a bit but that otherwise this development doesn’t impact their lives much, you’d be right. Similarly, what happens when the same cop has a chance to assassinate in cold blood the dealer who killed his best buddy?In short, there are so few surprises in terms of plot, character, or action choreography that Elite Squad almost seems to forego its status as a thriller intentionally. But if it’s not a thriller, what is it? Actually, the film plays more like an excellent pilot for a TV series that one can only fantasize about actually being produced. So for fans of The Shield, yes, Elite Squad is the equivalent of one or two above-average episodes. And those who loved City of God’s similar subject matter should probably check this title out as well, but they should also be aware that the superb dramatic instincts and carefully controlled narrative of the earlier film are largely absent here. Release date: October 14