I need not have worried about finding good creepy movies for Halloween this year. Already getting decent reviews and set to open this week is The Ring, although online critic James Berardinelli wasn't impressed. He calls it "a sad amalgamation of irritating contrivances and gaping plot holes" -- imagine that, a horror movie with plot holes. I tell you, the spooks don't get no respect. Serious critics aren't supposed to like horror movies, unless it's too artsy and dessicated to provoke a visceral response.

And even without that to look forward to, there are new DVD releases of two of my favorites, Return of the Living Dead and Wolfen. ROTLD is probably the goofiest movie ever made on the subject of brain-eating; it disappoints only because it becomes increasingly grim in tone as it goes along. Wolfen has Albert Finney looking for politically enlightened werewolves (and finding something else) for director Michael "Woodstock" Wadleigh. Both movies, fair warning, include remarkable amounts of blood, much of it airborne, and are not recommended for the squeamish, even if you're just half-squeamish on your mother's side, avid fan of CSI though you may be.