The 2011 found footage survivor flick GRAVE ENCOUNTERS was certainly a worthy entry in the shaky cam subgenre. Despite having some less than stellar CGI, the film felt real and put the characters in a fairly plausible situation, with suspenseful pacing, fun, campy performances and a solid directing debut from Collin Minihan and Stuart Ortiz, collectively known as The Vicious Brothers. That said, the follow-up picture, GRAVE ENCOUNTERS 2  (currently enjoying a limited theatrical run in Canada), is more than a bit of a disappointment.

Imagine that you're the ugliest kid on earth. I'm not talking about a huge forehead or a crooked nose—I mean, “God's playing a trick on you,” ugly. Kids make up songs in your honor and the mere sight of your face sobers a seasoned alcoholic. Well, that's Todd, in a nutshell; a kid so unbelievably hideous that even a serial killer had to pass on him. This new series from Image Comics is a hilarious black comedy about a kid with a bag on his head and the worst luck in the world. Combining an indie vibe with a big publisher debut, TODD, THE UGLIEST KID ON EARTH is bound to be flying off the shelves in no time.

“It's all a blur.” What really happened at the costumed party of a big Polish book publisher? Your guess is as good as mine, even áfter watching the mystery-thriller IXJANA at the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is known throughout the world for its all-encompassing program: all genres, from all seven continents. Well, to be honest we haven't heard anything from Antarctica for a while now, but they'll be back, rest assured. As always the focus in this year's 42nd edition rests on human interest, but as far as genre films are concerned, there's enough to keep us interested. HALLEY, for example, is a very bleak Mexican horrordrama that will make you think twice about dreaming of life eternal.

The most unwieldy sequel title in a while indicates that the movie is not really a sequel at all. While this and the original THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT are based on a pair of Discovery Channel documentary features, the new movie has nothing to do with Connecticut or the events that took place there—and the association is rather unfortunate, since in some ways GHOSTS OF GEORGIA is superior to its predecessor.

To address the most obvious question first: Yes, WARM BODIES is better than the TWILIGHT movies. For one thing, its undead hero has been conceived as a zombie first and a romantic hero second, not the other way around, though it does go on to spin the mythology in ways that benefit the latter.

Some say that the horror comic magazine is as dead as a week-old corpse, never to walk and love again. Few brave souls, however, have taken it upon themselves to ignore such opinions, attempting to give the forgotten medium another shock to its undead heart. Of course, who could really blame them? With comic companies re-printing every old mag they can find, the sudden rise in popularity for the classics has rekindled a love for all things “eerie.” Morality plays, ghoulish hosts, and dangerous women are back with a passion! TALES OF FEAR #1 is a recent addition, a one man's pursuit to cut out a niche into the already huge cake of the horror world. Though the comic is kind of rough to look at, the passion that creator Gary Scott Beatty has for the bizarre clearly shines through.