Thriller
Rod Lott
I haven't yet seen Cabin in the Woods, next month's much-buzzed-about horror-thriller from producer/co-writer Joss Whedon, but judging from its trailer, the initial scenes of Enter Nowhere ring of visual similarity. That’s likely where all comparisons will end.

Thriller
Rod Lott
From our friends up north — Canada, not Kansas — comes Die, a nearly gore-free take on the rules of Saw. Three decades after his father forces him to roll a die and then fatally shoots himself in the head, a madman named Jacob (John Pyper-Ferguson, Tekken) goes on a mission to teach six clinically depressed people the value of life.

Thriller
Rod Lott
As not-so-boldly predicted, director David Fincher (The Social Network) delivers a superior remake of Sweden’s global hit The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, an adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s phenomenon of a novel.

Thriller
Rod Lott
With A Lonely Place to Die — which is not to be confused with A Horrible Way to Die, which I did for the better part of last year because those titles are just too damn similar — we have an excellent example of why I neither climb mountains nor go hiking.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Containing one of film history's all-time best titles, 1975's Strip Nude for Your Killer is one kinky kicker of a giallo, which is evident from its first shot.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Not to be confused with the subject of a teenager’s wet dream, 1932’s Thirteen Women is a David O. Selznick production that plays like a precursor to Sorority Row. In it, the evil-eyebrowed Ursula Georgi (Myrna Loy) works a secretary for the New York-based Swami Yogadachi (C. Henry Gordon, 1932’s Scarface) and — this is a stretch — alters the horoscopes he sends to her dozen former sorority sisters so that convinces them of impending death, either of someone close or their own.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Not to be confused with 2007’s Steel Trap, 1952’s The Steel Trap is an obscure slice of semi-noir in a Leave It to Beaver world. That’s exactly why I liked it, and it’s made an overdue DVD debut courtesy of Warner Archive, which probably still has vaults overflowing with this sort of stuff.

Thriller
Rod Lott
The less you know about "Rabies," the better. Don't be misled by the title, which suggests some sort of viral thriller along the lines of "Contagion." However, the movie is so clever, so twisty-turvy, you may foam at the mouth in satisfaction.

Thriller
Rod Lott
A slaughtered pig hangs in the middle of a room, at which Inspector Bun (Lau Ching Wan, “Black Mask”) stabs. Then he zips himself up in a suitcase and asks a colleague to push him down a stairwell. Then he cuts off his own ear as a going-away present for his boss.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Not since 2006’s “Tell No One” has a foreign-born thriller overtaken my pulse as handily as Fred Cavayé’s “Point Blank.” Both hail from France. Neither is a hunk of fromage. In fact, they put American thrillers to shame.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Great crime movies run in the family.

Thriller
Rod Lott
Once more, the films Guillermo del Toro chooses to produce, I find more interesting than the ones he chooses to direct.

Thriller
Rod Lott
One of the many joys of “Grindhouse” was Edgar Wright’s fake trailer for “Don’t,” which  hilariously poked fun at the thrillers and frighteners of the 1970s whose titles warned viewers not to go somewhere or do something: “Don’t Open Till Christmas,” “Don’t Go in the Basement,” “Don’t Look in the Attic,” etc.

Thriller
Rod Lott
New Orleans is known for its cuisine: shrimp creole, crawfish étouffée, jambalaya, blackened corpse. That last one may just be for the purposes of the crime drama "Sinners And Saints."

Thriller
Rod Lott
Director Steven Soderbergh's "Contagion" is a super-smart speculative thriller that isn't quite what you'd expect. The trailer kind of telegraphs as much by killing off Gwyneth Paltrow.