Neil Jordan’s new vampire film BYZANTIUM takes its name from the ancient Greco-Roman city that later became Constantinople, known today as Istanbul, and like the city, its layers are deep and rich.

Full Disclosure: This writer was not a fan of the “Twisted Twins’” maiden cinematic voyage, DEAD HOOKER IN A TRUNK. Made on a budget by Vancouver’s Jen and Sylvia Soska, the cheapie action comedy is scrappy and full of indie energy but is also shrill, choked with gratuitous, numbing profanity and–outside of the twins themselves—generally poor performances. But what did appeal was the maverick way the sisters managed to push their product, using social media, forums and general upbeat fan-friendly enthusiasm to build a legacy as not only burgeoning filmmakers, but masters of entrepreneurial business sense, whipping up a mass frenzy about their next project, something called AMERICAN MARY….

The word “homage” is a battered old mare when it comes to horror, with many a filmmaker confusing the term—which can most appropriately be applied to directors like Brian De Palma or Quentin Tarantino, who graft elements and DNA of pictures they admire onto fresh frameworks—with ripoff. Look at the “grindhouse” phenomenon, a dubious and meaningless label that has given birth to an endless parade of pink-tinted, fake-aged visuals and replicant movements creating works that are by now rather tired, unimaginative and poor Xeroxes of the accidentally awesome trash classics they ape.

THE POSSESSION is a far more generic title than the film’s original moniker THE DIBBUK BOX, and it’s a transition reflected in the movie itself. What starts out with a fairly distinctive scenario and threat eventually segues into overly familiar territory, though not without occasional chilling pleasures along the way.

I’m a ridiculously passionate fangirl when it comes to supernatural movies. They are the equivalent of my horror turn-on. Where monsters and psychopaths might leave me giggling like I just got off a good rollercoaster, ghosts, demons or poltergeists cause me to glow euphorically.

Introducing his directorial debut THE VICTIM at Montreal’s Fantasia festival this summer, Michael Biehn described it as the cinematic equivalent of “cotton candy.” The movie may not be sweet, exactly, but it does deliver a sugar rush for exploitation fans.

Most horror films deal with threats from without—monsters or ghosts or psychos that represent an external danger. COMPLIANCE, which some would label a drama but is as chilling as films get, creates that effect by finding the “monster” within characters who could be any one of us, at the wrong time and under the wrong circumstances.