If The Wind is any indication of the storytelling potential that can be mined from melding the western and horror genres, then we should expect great things to come. Caitlin Gerard (American Crime) stars as a headstrong frontierswoman who fears an entity is terrorizing her and her husband after a newlywed couple settle on a nearby homestead. Ben Lovett’s score is particularly effective at provoking dread in this claustrophobic chiller. While the film loses wind in its third act, viewers who prefer slow burns may appreciate what screenwriter Teresa Sutherland and director Emma Tammi have achieved on a small budget.

Arguably, every superhero is a kid’s movie, or, at least, adolescent wish-fulfillment. But Shazam!, the latest film from DC, is the first superhero movie done specifically as a children's movie. The colors are bright, the plot is breezy, and the entire enterprise is focused on the gee-shucks fun of having superpowers. This also means the film feels less capital “I” important than the latest offerings from either Marvel or DC—and for that, at least, we can be thankful. Zachary Levi’s enthusiasm wore thin for me, but it won’t for eight-year-olds, and that’s all that matters.

Piercing follows married man Reed (Christopher Abbott) who decides to kill a prostitute (Mia Wasikowska) to find the tables turned on him. Adapting a Ryu Murakami (Audition) story, director Nicholas Pesce (Eyes of my Mother) employs graphic horror and dark humor—including a laugh-out-loud sequence of Reed pantomiming his planned murder in slapstick fashion—to good effect, but everything else feels like pastiche: Miniature building sets, split screen camerawork a la Brian De Palma, Goblin soundtrack themes from the giallo classics Deep Red and Tenebre. However, Abbott and Wasikowska’s beguiling on-screen relationship is worth the trip down this rabbit hole of homage.

What is supposed to be Gasper Noe’s most accessible film for someone like myself who hadn’t seen any of his films before, turned out to be a buzzkill for me. While Climax is visually impressive with a free-roaming camera set to a killer soundtrack, the hallucinatory imagery was nauseatingly unpleasant. I did, however, appreciate Noe’s references to Andrzej Zulawski’s Possession. But two scenes—one where a woman who is allegedly pregnant gets repeatedly kicked in the stomach and another where a young kid is locked in an electrical closet—made me mentally check out. I guess I know my limits now.

An array of folktales serve as the bases for this horror anthology. Featuring international directors such as Calvin Reeder (The Rambler), Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (Goodnight Mommy), and Agnieszka Smoczynska (The Lure), each short is visually impressive and atmospheric. For example, one involving goblins in Greece contains vibrant colors reminiscent of The Red Shoes, while another set in India features claustrophobic black and white cinematography. While some get under your skin, they don’t stay in your mind long after. Since most are low-key affairs, they don’t carry much of a pulse. Still, indie-horror fans may relish these intriguing tales.

Jordan Peele’s follow-up to Get Out is a film we all don’t know we need to see until we actually see it. Us is by no means perfect. Peele juggles too many ideas but they don’t all coalesce. But that doesn’t make it a bad movie. While there are instances where Peele’s narrative has us struggling to tether subliminal clues—before attempting to explain the conceit with clunky exposition—there are moments of pure cinematic inspiration. Its humor is pitch-perfect, its cinematography claustrophobic, and its central family comprised of sympathetic protagonists with which we as an audience can become fully invested in.

Appropriately for an action flick about a cyborg, Alita feels cobbled together from spare parts of blockbusters past, but what the film lacks in originality it makes up for in heart - like, seriously, this girl’s heart is a fairly major plot point. Alita’s facial effects may reside in the uncanny valley, but the action is fast and elegantly choreographed (if choreographed is the right word for something this CGI-heavy). Director Robert Rodriguez may or may not get the franchise he’s pushing, but he has at least delivered what might be the most purely entertaining film of his career.

Sam Elliott gives his all as aging WWII veteran Calvin Barr. Barr’s secret assassinations of Hitler and Bigfoot serve as mere bookends to this quiet and moving character study about how his duty to country resulted in loss and regret. While the film has less in common with its Nazi- and Sasquatch-ploitation roots than its title makes out, there is plenty of action. The film boasts luscious cinematography and a stellar supporting cast to dress up writer-director Robert D. Krzykowski’s pulpy script. Leave your expectations at the door and have fun. It’s the most outrageously entertaining genre offering since Mandy.