The First Omen + Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire + Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire + Monkey Man
A breath of devilishly rancid air after weeks of frustration and ineptitude on the mainstream scary movie front, Arkasha Stevenson’s The First Omen resurrects nun horror with a well-made mystery rich in freaky imagery and not reliant on jump scares. As sister-to-be Margaret, a magnetic Nell Tiger Free (Myrcella Baratheon from Game of Thrones) toes the line between religious devotion and terror at what she witnesses in a Rome orphanage, and though certain visuals in her quest to help root out a great evil don’t make sense in the moment, every single detail pays off.
Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.
Warner Bros.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire serves up big dumb fun, meant to be enjoyed on the biggest, dumbest, funnest screen possible — ideally in 3D while sitting next to friends who enjoy cackling at giant apes, lizards, and other creatures knocking each other around like pro wrestlers.
Adam Wingard’s latest Monsterverse entry packs even more entertaining action than Godzilla vs. Kong, but this time the screenwriting team led by Terry Rossio remembers to spend time on the script and give the human characters amusing things to do and say — and no one benefits more than Dan Stevens’ eccentric, Titan-specializing veterinarian Trapper.
Grade: B-plus. Rated PG-13. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.
Jaap Buitendijk/Sony Pictures Entertainment
While it’s a pleasure to be back in this world, watching ECTO-1 tearing down New York City streets, and though Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire generally does right by the nostalgia, this legacy series is increasingly becoming Ghostbusters: The Next Generation — and the kids aren’t quite ready for prime time.
Directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House), who also co-wrote this and Afterlife with Jason Reitman, this sequel about yet another ancient evil threatening to return largely sidelines the adult characters, though it’s nice to see Kumail Nanjiani be funny again and the inclusion of the original Ghostbusters is far more organic than in Afterlife.
Grade: B-minus. Rated PG-13. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Asheville Pizza & Brewing Co., Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.
Universal Pictures
Dev Patel shows immense promise as an action filmmaker and star in his feature directorial debut, Monkey Man, but innovative as many of his fight sequences are, they’re in service of a pretty basic revenge tale that’s about 30 minutes too long. Noble as taking down corrupt forces can occasionally feel, it takes ages for the backstory to click into place and, once it does, the lengthy detours have blunted much of its impact.
Grade: B-minus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.
(Lead photo: Moris Puccio/20th Century Studios)
