The aspect of an 80s tinged horror film is knowing how to balance the style with a lighter sense of terror while still maintaining a sense of dread. "Night Of The Reaper" works well because it understands its working expectations and then switches it without trying to be overly clever...but yet becomes that because it is less assuming than others.

"Clown In A Cornfield", premiering on Shudder, mixes some "Children Of The Corn" with a bit of "The Purge". Quinn (Katie Douglas) moves to Missouri with her dad (Aaron Abrams) to get away from a tragedy that happened. At school at detention (an ode to "The Breakfast Club", she integrates with a couple kids making viral videos including one whose family created the syrup empire in town which keeps everything running. A clown is on the label.

The aspect of an island of terror is nothing new but the structure of any horror movie in this vein depends on context. With "Monster Island" which premiered on Shudder, it follows a crew marooned on an island during the latter part of World War II off of what was called a "hellship" which was a POW prisoner camp on the water. Often the Allies would sink these boats not realizing it contained their own.

"Stopmotion" wants to exist in Lynchian world where all paths lead to either realization of ruin. The context of the journey follows a young woman who seems to searchng for something but comes to conflict with something she can't control. The beginning is wrapped in an idea of an overbearing mother who seems to exert a sense of intent with her daughter to make a animated stopmotion film which seems to fuel her psychosis.

The concept of demon possession can be an interesting mode of psychological tells depending on how the story is told. With "The Puppetman", premiering on Shudder, it is about taking on a protagonist that doesn't quite know where the antagonist fits into the story.

The essence of the Djinn mythology has played a large part in the context of Far East mythology specifically in Indonesia and the Indian subcontinent. Using this element in a horror structure while surrounding it with social context, conscience and battles of good vs. evil creates complex ideals that are both intense and yet mythic and thematic

With a film like "Mosquito State", the horror is bathed more in the metaphor of the life it is building and destroying at the same time.

With "Kandisha" it is a mix of many different elements both with textures of Islam but also mythology. In a modern context it is intriguing because this mythology in general talks about a female almost centaur coming to take the lives of the men because of their transgressions.

Chester Rushing plays the other lead Chris and, while he is supposed to be the fresh eyes, his texture of guilt, while prominent, isn't taken to its full possibility either [but Sanders would have been the real breakout]. "The Call" had potential but simply delivered on its base line, which is not a criticism but a fact.