Don't f*** with old ladies, especially if they have bad teeth and an evil curse up their sleeve. If there's anything new to be learned from Drag Me to Hell, director Sam Raimi's return to horror, it's that loan officers will have hell to pay if they dare to foreclose on your mortgage. It's a lesson that should make everyone stand up and cheer.

The film screened as a "work in progress" late last night at the completely packed Paramount Theater in Austin to a loud, raucous reaction. Some of the finer technical points clearly remain to be tweaked (sound, visual effects, maybe a little editing here and there) and end credits need to be added before its wide theatrical release on May 29. And in its present version, the ratings issue is still cloudy -- PG-13 or R?

On the surface, Nine Miles Down is a take on the drilling-to-hell theme, started by the urban legend of just such an event occurring in Siberia. Below the surface, it's a lot more complex, and intelligent, than that.

Game 2011 Hindi Movie Story
Anupam Kher may be the owner of an entire island in Greece, but the billionaire isn’t exactly a happy man. Why? Because despite his billions, he hasn’t been able to save one of his daughters (Sarah Jane Dias) from the usual fate that befalls hapless young girls, nor is he able to buy the affections of his second daughter (Shahana Goswami) who hates him for abandoning them. But before he can avenge his misfortune and punish the people responsible for it, he is done away with. Who did it? Will chief investigating officer, Kangna Ranaut be able to find out?

Bollywood enters telenovela territory in a hybrid film that takes the heightened emotions, wild tonal ranges and impeccably crisp technique of modern Hindi cinema and puts all that in the service of a tragic love story straight out of Mexican TV. It's perfectly entertaining and lovely to look at, but Kites is not what most audiences think of when they think Bollywood—which despite that industry's wide spectrum and deep output is generally synonymous with lush, opulent musicals set in almost mystically beautiful locales and running at least two-and-three-quarter hours. A romantic melodrama with as much English and Spanish as Hindi, just one dance number—set at a dance contest and so not inherently signifying "movie musical"—and clocking in at just over two hours, Kites does carry one distinguishing feature of Bollywood film: the primacy of fate.

Looks like fish isn't the only thing some Japanese like to eat raw. In Living Hell, Shugo Fujii shows us the family that dines together stays together -- this is, if you're noshing on your grandkids.

The Hughes brothers don't make too many films (it's already been 9 years since From Hell), but when they immerse themselves in a project the end result is often worth pursuing. As proven by their latest film. The Book Of Eli turned out to be a superb post-apocalyptic action flick, borrowing royally from various other sources but fine-tuning the mix to make it into something unique. This is Hollywood at its very best.

The new horror film The Collector doesn't dilute its intense scenes with comedy or cartoonish visuals: it goes straight for the shocks. The pre-credits teaser scene gets your adrenalin going without visible bloodshed, and prepares you for something suspenseful and a bit strange. To set your expectations, it might help to know that writer Patrick Melton and co-writer/director Marcus Dunstan also scripted the Feast films and the third through sixth Saw films. In fact, the script was once considered for a Saw prequel film. Now you know what you might be getting into in terms of horror style.

All her life, Leigh Ann Watson has done the right things. But when she doesnt get an A in her history class which will make her Valedictorian, she immediately blames Mrs. Tingle. Mrs. Tingle is the most cruel teacher in all of Grandsboro High. While Leigh Ann and her friends Luke and Jo Lynn are in the gym, Luke pulls out Tingles final test to cheat off of. Leigh Ann is about to give it back when Mrs. Tingle walks in. She threatens to report Leigh Ann when the principal returns back to school the next day. Unfortunately, Leigh Ann is not going to let this happen and shows up with her friends by her side to confront Mrs. Tingle. Its not possible so just when things couldnt get worse, they drag her upstairs and tie her to her bed. Now, they have forty-eight hours to get Mrs. Tingle to compromise. But, will Tingle give in or have a little fun first?

With Break Ke Baad, I’m officially instituting the two and three- quarter star rating on our show. This is for films, which show promise and sparkle but eventually don’t deliver the goods.

Break Ke Baad, co-written and directed by debutant Danish Aslam, starts off well enough. Over a long title sequence, we are introduced to Abhay, played by Imran Khan and Aaliya, played by Deepika Padukone, both Hindi movie fanatics who share their first kiss during their third viewing of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai.

She’s gorgeous, headstrong and sometimes insensitive or as she puts it during a drunken interlude, she is a soaring kite and he is her strong manjha. Which means he is sincere, committed and pretty dull.

Patrik Syverson knows exactly what stalk ‘n’ slash fans are looking for. His 2008 film Rovdyr [Predator] which was renamed MANHUNT for the rest of us, is predictable, but very well orchestrated. Set in 1974 the film has real low budget grittiness about it. Unlike recent Hollywood attempts at the genre like the remake, Sorority Row, this doesn’t have an MTV style production, it isn’t trying to be glossy – but that’s not what old school horror fans want. What it does deliver is atmosphere, tension and interesting deaths, everything a die-hard stalk ‘n’ slash fan is looking for.

Earlier in the year, eyebrows were raised when Sam Raimi's return to the horror genre, Drag Me To Hell, was awarded a PG-13 certificate in the US. How on earth, after all, could a good, old-fashioned horror movie get such a ‘young' certificate, particularly a Sam Raimi horror movie at that?

Those eyebrow-raisers would, however, do well to note that Robert Zemeckis has now topped this. In adapting Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol into a festive Disney film, he's managed to put together one of the most scary family films in a long, long time. And it's sat there with a PG rating too.

Walk through the racks of your local Best Buy and you'll see stacks of low-budget horror movies you've never heard of. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because fake blood is the cheapest of all props; anyone with ten bucks and a video camera can whip up a miniature splatter epic (for better, or, more likely, worse). A better reason, though, might be that of all the genres, it's easiest to see what horror is doing wrong. Every time I go and see a horror movie, I can't help but wonder why the director caved and put loud stings on the soundtrack during every jump scare and why our "heroes" lack the most basic character development. Even a few directors who claimed in interviews to hate these very things seem oblivious to the fact that their own films commit similar crimes.

KARLOVY VARY, Czech Republic -- Tomas Masin's "3 Seasons in Hell" centers on the terror that ensued in Czechoslovakia in 1948, when, having just emerged from the hell of Nazi occupation, the country was overrun by the Soviet Union.

Born to Raise Hell, or Pensioned off to Eastern Europe to Make Cheap Yet Serviceable Straight to Video Movies, is written by and stars eco-warrior and Aikido master Steven Seagal.

On a quest to shoulder-throw everyone in Bucharest through a park bench; Seagal plays Bobby, the International Drug Task Force’s top drug dealer beater upper.

Bobby and his equally unintimidatingly named partner, Steve, are on the trail of a particularly nasty piece of work called Costel. Aside from drug dealing, Costel also enjoys raping and murdering women, and the order is optional. All of which is just justification for Seagal to beat his way through the majority of the Romanian population and mack on a beautiful and obedient girlfriend, who looks like she should be asking him for one of his Werther’s, not loosening his black belt.

Yes, it's that time again. As soon as the weather gets cold and the trees go up indoors, some Hollywood studio will attempt to make a buck by casting some random stars, throwing them in a house together, and calling them a "dysfunctional but loving" family. The home for Christmas comedy has been around for years, but since there's never been one about a Hispanic family, we now have Nothing Like the Holidays to fill the gap. No better or worse than This Christmas or The Family Stone, it would be inoffensive if it didn't feel so gratingly familiar.