Movies: Horror's summer breeze

Hollywood hasn't given me much in the way of chills to get excited about since Dark Water and The Skeleton Key way back last summer. The purveyors of scares can keep all those violent Hostels and Saw sequels – I prefer my scares without bodily mutilation. Slither just almost lured me to the theater, but it seemed a tad cheesy, as much as I hate to use that word. I'll wait for the DVD to find out if it's really this generation's Tremors.

Looks like this dry spell is about to get doused, though, with four potentially memorable fright flicks coming out in the next several months. Here's what has me pumped:

An American Haunting // May 5 // Official site // The melting candles trailer doesn't completely sell me on this one, but it does appear that this one, "based on the terrifying true story," will at least have a sense of style. Its trump card is Sissy Spacek in a leading role, with Donald Sutherland along for the ride, too. Spacek's presence, though brief, helped elevate The Ring Two and will likely do the same here.

The Omen // June 6 // Official site // The teaser trailer is effectively creepy: Damian sits swinging in the distance, causing an ominous, monotonous creaking as the camera approaches from behind, moving past a scary dog and stylized set pieces. Bonus points for the 6/6/6 release date. What doesn't excite me about this movie is the fact that I flat out disliked the original. On the other hand, this one has no less than Mia Farrow in the cast. For movies of a certain stature, you can't pass up the remakes, even if you know they'll probably stink up the joint (e.g., The Amityville Horror), and this is one of them.

Pulse // July 14 // Clever official site // Pulse is yet another J-horror remake, this time with a story involving technology. The original movie gained some Ring-like praise, which raises my expectations. Let's just hope the cleverness is preserved rather than dumbed down for our blockbuster-lovin' audiences.

Lady in the Water // July 21 // Teaser trailer // All of America cries, "Please let it be better than The Village!" M. Night Shyamalan's last outing wasn't a bad movie at all, but its little secret couldn't live up to the expectations bred by his master-of-the-twist reputation. Here, in a story billed as a fairytale and bedtime story, we have a plot involving a mermaid-like something (Bryce Dallas Howard, also a Village player) living in the swimming pool of an apartment complex. There must be more to it than that, eh? I can't wait to find out, though I get distinctly more of a Village than a Sixth Sense vibe from the teaser.