We continue our journey through a month of frightening, bloody and violent films. For more, check out our 31 Days of Horror homepage. Synopsis: Hipster scientists Clive Nicoli (Adrien Brody) and Elsa Kast (Sarah Polley) have humanity’s best interest in mind as they try to genetically engineer animals that can revolutionize medicine. After their would-be humanity-saving experiments tear each other apart, Clive and Elsa create a new creature with human DNA. Thus the couple begins a downward spiral of bad decisions with the best of intentions. Miraculously, this new creature doesn’t die, so they secretly keep it alive in the lab, hoping it can lead to medical advancements. Silly hipster scientists. As the experiment (which they’ve affectionately named Dren, which is “nerd” spelled backwards) matures, Clive and Elsa soon realize they are in way over their heads… and maybe a little turned on.

Being a heavy horror fan is a tough gig. Most producers look at horror as a quick buck genre, a franchise to be used, abused, ridden hard and put up wet to make a profit. They don’t really care too much about putting out quality product, instead they just opt for product. Or at least that’s how it seems. 2010, to me at least, felt like one of the weakest years on record for horror. I thought last year was bad, but then the past 350 some odd days happened. I’m pretty confident I could say that this is the worst year for horror since the birth of Film School Rejects. It felt that bad. Regardless of my own disappointment in the movies this year, and in myself for missing a few releases, I scrapped the bottom of the barrel barren and plucked out ten (plus one!) [that means 11] horror movies that aren’t complete wastes of your time. Then again, you might just be better off buying all the Roger Corman Cult Classics for sale from Shout! Factory.

The winds of change are blowing here in Austin, Texas. With Fantastic Fest over, a tad-bit of emptiness has washed over the land and left me yearning for more great genre experiences. Which brings me to this week’s selection of Blu-ray releases — one that includes a few unique genre flicks and one lovable turd that reminds me of a documentary that was launched into the stratosphere by the film community here in Austin. Also, there’s this animated movie from the Mouse House that will absolutely blow your mind on Blu-ray. It’s as if the cosmos has looked down upon us in our post-Fantastic Fest haze and said “hey, here are some good movies to satiate your need for the good stuff.” It’s a week full of releases that are delivered right on time, just as the leaves start to change and Halloween begins to peek its head around the corner. Time to spray blood on the walls and fall in love again with a tale as old as time, or some other confused multi-metaphor. It’s another round of This Week in Blu-ray.

For better or worse, this summer of movies is over, and now we’re in the early-Fall transition into the inevitable season of so-called “serious” awards-friendly films, films that supposedly say a lot about human nature and our time and place as a culture. However, I’ve always contended that it is often the films that seemingly exist only for “entertainment’s sake” that have the most to say about culture, mainly because they operate in such a way that allows us to turn our minds off, passively consume them, and therefore go along unquestionably with the socio-political presumptions explicitly or implicitly embedded within their narratives. Such films that purport to exist solely for entertainment value often end up telling us a lot about how and what we think about the present, and it just so happens that these types of films are most often relegated to the summer months. Summer movies in 2010 ranged from highbrow to lowbrow, blockbuster to indie to sleeper, with head-scratchers and brain-cell-killers alike, but many of these films, intentionally or not, had something to say or assume about the present cultural moment.

This week, on a very special Reject Radio, Scott Weinberg drops by and watches the Philadelphia Flyers game.

Princes from Persia and Cougars from the City couldn’t take Shrek down, so no one was expecting talking dogs, annoying killers, genetic mutations, or even British rock stars to get the job done, either.

You wouldn’t know it if you aren’t a top-ranking member of the FSR staff, but it’s been a busy week around here.

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr grades four new films: Get Him to the Greek, Splice, Marmaduke and Killers.

Jack Giroux sits down with Splice director Vincenzo Natali for a spoiler-filled conversation about his new movie, his ability to capture tone, and his love for some classic Universal monsters.

Neil makes a triumphant return to the Magical Studio in the Sky and celebrates the occassion by seeing one of the four movies opening this week. Sadly, Kevin is not that much farther ahead, having only seen one and 9/10th of another due to a freak lightning storm.

I demand some sort of concrete idea buried within the futuristic society or the advanced science that is metaphorically explored or I expect it to pull double duty as a good horror film. I think Splice does both remarkably well. In fact, it’s one of the better Sci-Fi films I have seen in quite some time.

This weekend at the box office, Shrek faces a four-on-one onslaught of newcomers, each backed by a different genre, and each bringing their own demographic. In the end, they all agree DREN is pretty damn cute.

Warner Bros. has released one final internet only trailer for Splice in their desperate grab for attention at the box office this coming weekend. We can’t blame them.

Now that American Idol and Lost are over, you have the entire month of June free for movies. What the hell are you going to watch?

If you live in DC, love science fiction, enjoy free things, and can skip that bar mitzah on June 1st, have we got a deal for you.

It’s that time again. Every year, Film School Rejects is looked to by readers the world over to be the guiding light for summer movie-going. What can we say? We just have a knack for it. And this summer, we’re excited…

As you’ll see throughout the day, I’m catching up on a weekend lost to travel and various events of boozing, which means that we’ve missed a few really great trailer releases. I wouldn’t hold these from you, dear reader, as even if they are late — they are still very interesting.

WonderCon 2010 hits San Francisco this weekend, and once again I’ll be there soaking in the movie previews, hot cosplay ladies, and eclectic merchant booths. And unlike last year I’m determined to enjoy it all goddammit.

‘Splice’ recycles a lot of horror movie conventions, but does so in a unique, genuinely weird way.

Yesterday we were happy to bring you the Competition Line-Up for the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, which we’ll be covering in January live from Park City, Utah. And today we’ve got the rest of the films, including the Premieres, Spotlight, Next, Park City at Midnight and New Frontier selections.