Halloween Ends (2022):

After 45 years since the first "Halloween" movie appeared, starring Jamie Lee Curtis as the babysitter in the sights of the evil and seemingly unkillable violent serial killer Michael Meyers, we pretty much know what to expect, and that's exactly what gets dished out. As Laurie Strode, Curtis has been through the mill with this franchise having been beaten, strangled, stabbed, burned, and thrown around like a rag doll. Finally, after all these years, she is looking for some peace from the homicidal maniac who set things off with an escape from a mental institution in the original, and seemed to have a fondness for targeting babysitters. That's what Laurie Strode was doing when she first encountered the killing machine, and now, four years has passed in her time since the last movie, "Halloween Ends" from last year. The four-year time-jump has allowed Laurie to heal, to recognize the fact that there has been no word or sign of Michael Meyers since the events of the last movie, and she is writing a memoir explaining the entire ordeal. Her granddaughter Allyson lives with her (Andi Matichak who has appeared in three "Halloween" films), and their existence is somewhat strained because Allyson does not believe that her grandma has really let go of Michael Meyers. Across town a 20-year-old named Cory (Calgary's Rohan Campbell) is babysitting for a couple's young son. For them, like most families, they are getting on with their lives now that Michael Meyers seems to be out of the picture, but the family comes home to a dead child, with Cory begging them to understand that it was an accident. That's the first murder, and there are many more to come. Soon we learn that Michael Meyers is Cory's mentor, and that Cory is taking up the trail of blood where Meyers left off. The obvious showdown with Laurie Strode is bloody and violent, which is what audiences for this kind of film want to see, and they get their money's worth. While Jamie Lee Curtis says that she is all done with this franchise, producer Jason Blum says that there are still stories to tell ... so, next Halloween? Rated 14A for extreme violence.

The Lair (2022):

This direct-to-video horror thriller has its atmosphere, its look and its feel significantly influenced by the location shooting in Budapest, Hungary, giving the bleak, frightening look necessary for a film such as this. British actress Charlotte Kirk, who also co-wrote the script, is Sinclair, a military pilot in the present day, shot down over Afghanistan. She is able to bail out, and hunted by the enemy, she finds refuge in the depths of a dark bunker left over from a previous war, as Afghanistan has been under siege for generations. Just when it looks is if she might get away, she finds that there are other inhabitants in her hiding place – two kinds at least. One faction is a group of enemy fighters that have also sought shelter in the place, and they want a piece of her. The other faction is a monstrous group of mutants who are the result of medical experimentation for biological warfare. They are half human, half alien, and they are out for blood, literally. It falls to Sinclair to build some kind of truce with the enemy humans in order to escape from the non-human pursuers. A pretty standard horror film with some interesting background. Rated 14A.

Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend (2022):

Frank Grillo is excellent here as Ferruccio Lamborghini, the man who, in post-War Italy, created a company that built tractors to help with the need for heavy equipment to assist in the reconstruction of the country after WWII. He was a designer, an inventor, a mechanic, an engineer, an industrialist, and a winemaker, often all at the same time. His fierce competition with Enzo Ferrari was a well-known rivalry in Italy, and eventually around the world, began because he severely criticized the workmanship of Ferrari automobiles, and added his own modifications to make them acceptable. By the 1970s Lamborghini’s businesses were spread worldwide, and his span of control made it difficult to manage them all with the level of success that he expected, and in a surprise move to the world, he began selling them off and ultimately retired to Italy to his winemaking business which was where his life ended when he passed away at the age of 77. Rated 14A.

The Swimmers (2022):

Yusra and Sara Mardini are a pair of Syrian sisters who, in 2015, fled the civil war in their home country to find themselves on a rubber raft in the middle of the Aegean Sea with a number of other refugees who had fled to Lebanon, then to Turkey, and ultimately to Greece when the overloaded raft ran into trouble. The two sisters, along with another two people who could swim, were responsible for saving the lives of all on board. One year later, Yusra was competing in the Olympics in Rio as part of the 2016 Refugee team. This dramatic biography was shot on location in all the places that the girls had fled, hidden in, and looked for salvation in before becoming heroes. Rated 14A.

Slumberland (2022):

A good cast shows up for this adventure story that will appeal to children 8 or 10 and up. Based on the comic book series "Little Nemo in Slumberland '' by Winston McClay, we follow the adventures of a tweenage girl named Nemo and her eccentric companion Flip (Jason Mamoa) who come together after Nemo's father Peter (Kyle Chandler goes missing at sea. Set in the Pacific Northwest, but shot in Toronto, we follow Nemo as she is sent to live with relatives in the big city, a place foreign to her after the coastline life she had been living. While struggling in a new school with new people all around her, Nemo finds a secret map which hooks her up with Flip, and begins a challenging journey through lands of dreams and nightmares that she believes will help reunite her with her lost father. Rated PG.