Meat at the Movies: Horror Franchises Return For Halloween

So it is Halloween weekend and there are a couple of horror movies from long-running franchises opening up you might want to check out. The first is called Jigsaw, and yes, this is the eight film in the Saw franchise. The last Saw movie was called Saw: The Final Chapter - evidently, it was not. This picks up about a decade after the death of the Jigsaw Killer when a mysteriously similar set of murders start happening, and police find themselves reopening some old cases. If you've seen the previous Saw movies, you pretty much already know what to expect. The great thing about these movies though is that they're surprisingly smart about continuity, so I think some people will want to see how it builds on the previous movies and where the story ends up going.

The other horror entry out this weekend is Amityville: The Awakening, which is supposed to act as a direct sequel to the original Amityville Horror and ignores all the other sequels and remakes. This stars Jennifer Jason Leigh in the lead, and like Saw, if you've seen Amityville before, you know what to expect. This movie has was originally supposed to come out nearly three years ago, but there's been a whole bunch of delays and it kept getting pushed back. It's in select theaters this weekend, but it's actually also available for free on Google Play for a couple of weeks, so if you're not into going out, it might be a decent option.

But if you're not into horror, there's still a couple of options for you. First is Suburbicon, a new dark comedy directed by George Clooney, written by the Coen Brothers, and starring Matt Damon, Julianne Moore and Oscar Isaac. The premise is that it takes place in the peaceful, idyllic suburb the slowly reveals a disturbing underbelly, and I thought it looked pretty good - but from what I hear, the movie tries to be too many things at once, and ultimately fails at all of them. That's a bummer, but not totally unprecedented - The Coens are some of my favorite filmmakers, but when other people try to film screenplays they wrote, the results usually aren't the best.

Finally, this weekend also sees the release of Thank You For Your Service, a new drama that follows a group of US soldiers returning from Iraq and struggling to return to civilian life. This stars Miles Teller in the lead and Haley Bennett as his wife (also Amy Schumer is in this for some reason) and it's getting pretty solid reviews. It doesn't seem like it's doing anything we haven't already seen in hundreds of other movies, but it at least does those things pretty effectively.

So there's a little something for everyone this weekend, and until next time we'll Meat at the Movies.