Films: October 14 - 20

Trancers (1984) 

Trancers II (1991) 

Trancers III (1992) 

The Prophecy (1995) 

The Vanished (2020) 

Double Jeopardy (1992) 

The Leopard Man (1943) 

The Spiral Staircase (1946) ///

Trancers (1984) Grizzled future cop Tim Thomerson travels back to 80s Los Angeles and gets help from giddy Helen Hunt to prevent a villain changing history and raising a zombie army. With the accent on humor and an appealing cast, the action and narrative zips by with low-budget momentum.

Trancers II (1991) A belated sequel maintains efforts at humor while increasing the violence, as Tim Thomerson and Helen Hunt face not only crazed Richard Lynch's efforts to create a trancer army but also our hero's presumed dead wife Megan Ward from the future. Mildly diverting.

Trancers III (1992) A Helen Hunt cameo bids farewell as Tim Thomerson flips forward and back in time to combat deranged Andrew Robinson's new army of killers. A franchise running on genre fumes, lacking creativity and budget, still finds time for its leads to have a good time.

The Prophecy (1995) A good cast can't define the mess of ideas or clarify genre confusion as a war between angels threatens the earth. Vicious Christopher Walken consumes souls, playful Viggo Mortensen is the Devil, Virginia Madsen a defiant teacher. Isolated visuals and sequences excite.

The Vanished (2020) Featuring an evocative soundscape and score allied to a sure sense of visuals, the story of progressively unhinged parents Thomas Jane and Anne Heche searching for their disappeared daughter rapidly goes off the rails. Plot holes and murders pile up.

Double Jeopardy (1992) Midlife crisis leads weak Bruce Boxleitner into a shower with manipulative ex Rachel Ward while his progressive lawyer wife Cela Ward represents her for murder. Expected twists bookended by cliff climbing stunts, told with an anonymous sheen and an effective pace.

The Leopard Man (1943) Creaky plot mechanics can't diminish the eerie beauty of the visuals or effectiveness of murder set pieces when a leopard escapes in small town New Mexico. The ultimate killer not really in doubt, desolate characters trapped in the desert provide added potency.

The Spiral Staircase (1946) Gilded period design, Gothic melodrama and noirish visual style fuel the tension of a fiendishly packaged thriller. As sympathetic female characters Dorothy McGuire, Ethel Barrymore and Rhonda Fleming face a serial killer, sound and music spur pacing and scares.