Sophia Lillis and Samuel Leakey star as youngsters in the forest who are enticed by a witch (Alice Krige) in the horror film "Gretel & Hansel." USA TODAY
Horror movies aren't just for Halloween anymore. They're year-round extravaganzas of bloody gore, crazy villains and high-concept stuff that'll freak you out and make you think about the world around you.
There's also some absolute dreck, but, hey, you take the good with the bad.
Even some top-notchstuff can come out in January, Hollywood's annual wasteland of badness:Directed by Osgood Perkins (son of "Psycho" icon Anthony Perkins),"Gretel & Hansel" (in theaters Friday) offers a delightfully twisted and visually stunning take on the old Brothers Grimm fairy tale about two kids and a cannibalistic witch, starring Sophia Lillis ("It").
This year, we're taking on the task of definitively ranking every new horror movie, and here's how "Gretel & Hansel" stacks up with what's come out thus far:
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Mackenzie Davis plays a governess hired to take care of a young girl and finds weirdness all around her in "The Turning."(Photo: PATRICK REDMOND/UNIVERSAL PICTURES AND DREAMWORKS PICTURES)
The horrid adaptation of Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" stars Mackenzie Davis as new governess Kate who's been hired to take care of a young girl (Brooklynn Prince) who's parents have died. The estate is huge but weird, the girl's teenage brother (Finn Wolfhard) is a violent malcontent, and Kate feels like she's going nuts seeing ghostlyfigures and hearing things that go bump in the night. Way more frustrating than freaky, the film also has one of the worst endings in recent memory.
Poor Faith (Lin Shaye, left) comes face to face with a vengeful spirit (Tara Westwood) in the newest redo of the Japanese horror movie "The Grudge."(Photo: ALLEN FRASER)
In the latest (and forgettable)redo of the Japanese horror movie, a couple of cops (Andrea Riseborough and Demian Bichir), a realtor couple (John Cho and Betty Gilpin) and others come to face to face with a vengeful phantom that attaches itself to houses and people, and haunts them until their unavoidable doom. The filmoffers nonlinear intertwining storylines, ghosts coming out of bathtubs, and littleelse.
Freya Tingley plays a gifted violinist who inherits her late composer father's gothic castle and unpublished masterwork in "The Sonata."(Photo: SCREEN MEDIA)
Freya Tingley plays a gifted violinist whosecomposer father (the late Rutger Hauer), once thought of as a industry-changing genius before dropping off the classical-music map, dies extremely violently. She inherits agothic castle and an unpublished masterwork filled with weird symbols courtesy of dad's dark interests in a movie with cool classical music but no real scares.
Kristen Stewart takes on mysterious creatures seven miles below the ocean surface in the sci-fi thriller "Underwater."(Photo: ALAN MARKFIELD)
The "Alien" influence isn't at all subtle in the action-packed thriller starring Kristen Stewart as a mechanical engineer on a doomed drilling team (featuring T.J. Miller and Jessica Henwick) seven miles below the ocean surface.There are lots of claustrophobic escapes, crushing deep-sea dangers andneato monsters, plus Stewart with cropped hair and a bunch of derring-do does a decent job rocking a modern Ripley vibe.
Gabrielle Elyse (left) and Mary Nepi star as estranged childhood friends who reunite when one of them loses her virginity and becomes pregnant with an alien baby in "Snatchers."(Photo: GREGORY E. PETERS)
"Booksmart" meets "Shaun of the Dead" with a dash of "Gremlins" in the teen horror comedy centered on popular high schooler Sara (Mary Nepi), who loses her virginity, becomes pregnant with an alien baby, and gives "birth" to a creature that tears up their town. Come for the gruesome shenanigans of a monstrous critter that attaches itself to people's heads, stay for Sara and her estranged childhood pal Hayley (Gabrielle Elyse) becoming creature-hunting BBFs again.
A New England alpaca farmer (Nicolas Cage) has a meteorite land in his yard in "Color Out of Space."(Photo: RLJE FILMS)
In this trippy, slow-burngore-fest based on an H.P. Lovecraft short story, a New England alpaca farmer (Nicolas Cage), his workaholic wife (Joely Richardson) and his kids have ordinary, everydayproblems that get exponentially weirder when a meteorite lands in their yard and they're taken over by an alien presence. The invasion creates a sumptuous color palette for some stunning visuals, and Cage going absolutely bonkers never gets old.
"It" actress Sophia Lillis plays a teen girl whose brother wanders into the home of a witch in "Gretel & Hansel."(Photo: PATRICK REDMOND)
In this fairy-tale reimagining, Gretel (Lillis) and little brother Hansel (Samuel Leakey) leave home and their insane mother behind and set into the forest. Hungry, they find a super-weird house and are enticed by an ornate feast inside, where they meet the witch (Alice Krige) who runs the place. Suffice it to say, she's not on the up-and-up. The film features wonderfully unnerving sights, a nuanced narrative and an intriguing empowerment story that also explores the consequences of having power.
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