NIMs Island

Starring: Jodie Foster, Abigail Breslin, Gerard Butler, Maddison Joyce, more cast
Directed By: Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin
Released By: Fox
Theatrical Release Date: 04/04/2008
Run Time: 95 min.
Genre: Family and Children, Action and Adventure, New Release

Synopsis : A young girl living on a tropical island with her scientist father is left to fend for herself after dad’s boat leaves him stranded far away and careless tour companies wreak havoc on the secluded paradise in directors Mark Levin and Jennifer Flackett’s adaptation of the popular children’s book by author Wendy Orr. Realizing that she will need adult assistance if she truly hopes to save her home, the resourceful youngster soon begins exchanging e-mails with the author of a book she has been reading

TEETH

Starring: Jess Weixler, John Hensley, Josh Pais, Hale Appleman, more cast
Directed By: Mitchell Lichtenstein
Released By: Roadside Attractions
Theatrical Release Date: 01/18/2008
DVD Release Date: 05/06/2008
Run Time: 88 min.
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, Comedy

Synopsis :The story of a Christian high school girl caught up in her school’s purity campaign–saving herself for marriage, as it were–is part horror film, part erotic/moral debate, and part outrageous assault on male vulnerability and fear.

Mitchell Lichtenstein’s extraordinary feature debut is galvanized by the vagina dentata mythology (if you don’t know what that is, ‘Teeth’ will forever imprint it on your psyche). The innocent teenager, Dawn–so innocent she’s not even aware of her own basic bodily functions–discovers quite by accident that she is anatomically very unique, a state of being that is both victimizing and incredibly empowering. Her boyfriend is getting a little aggressive, and her bad brother is the poster child for immoral teenage conduct. Writer/director Lichtenstein has created a deliciously enjoyable, yet symbolic, tale that will transform even the most resistant viewer into a rapt student of ancient taboos.

The Orphanage

Starring: Geraldine Chaplin, Belén Rueda, Fernando Cayo, Roger Princep, more cast
Directed By: Juan Antonio Bayona, Ramón Martos
Released By: Picturehouse
Theatrical Release Date: 12/28/2007
DVD Release Date: 04/22/2008
Run Time: 105 min.
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, Crime and Mystery, Drama

Synopsis : Pan’s Labyrinth director Guillermo Del Toro produces director Juan Antonio Bayona’s gothic frightener about a long-abandoned orphanage with a particularly troubling past. As a child, young orphan Laura spent her formative years being cared for by the staff of a large orphanage located by the Spanish seaside. Those were some of the happiest years of Laura’s life, and now, thirty-years later, the former charge returns to the dilapidated institution with her husband Carlos and their seven-year old son Simon to re-open the orphanage as a facility for disabled children. But something ominous haunts the darkened hallways of this silent, stately manor. When Simon’s behavior begins to grow increasingly bizarre and malicious, Laura and Carlos start to suspect that the mysterious surroundings have awoken something ominous in the young boy’s imagination. It’s not long before Laura, too, is drawn into this disturbing web and the repressed memories of the past come flooding back in a terrifying torrent of tension and deeply disturbing revelations. With opening day drawing near and their situation growing increasingly grim by the hour, Simon attempts to write off their son’s bizarre behavior as a desperate bid to get more attention from his distracted parents. Laura isn’t so easily convinced of this theory though, and soon embarks on a desperate quest to unearth the terrible secret that lurks in the old house waiting for just the right moment to inflict devastating damage on both her and her family.

One Missed Call

Starring: Shannyn Sossamon, Edward Burns, Ana Claudia Talancón, Ray Wise, more cast
Directed By: Eric Valette
Released By: Warner Bros.
Theatrical Release Date: 01/04/2008
DVD Release Date: 04/22/2008
Run Time: 87 min.
Genre: Horror, Science Fiction, Crime and Mystery

Synopsis :Shannyn Sossamon and Ed Burns star in director Eric Valette’s remake of Takashi Miike’s frightful tale about a cell-phone call from the future that foreshadows one’s own death. Beth Raymond (Sossamon) is a college student whose friends have all been dying in droves, and the one connecting factor between all of the incidents is that just before their deaths, each of the victims received a message in which they heard themselves being murdered. Upon receiving her own frightening phone call, Beth has only three days to solve the mystery and cheat death. Burns co-stars as a detective who is deeply troubled by the recent spate of deaths