A zombie film by any other name—say, The Crazies—is still a zombie film. And a pretty nifty one, at that, with an ample amount of scares and gross-outs and sly humor. But a zombie film all the same.

The film starts with a wink: a desolate, apocalyptic street scene of empty streets, burning cars, and blown out businesses. Then—cue the cheery music—we're practically in Mayberry. The words "Two Days Earlier" flash across the screen.

Sheriff David Dutton (Timothy Olyphant) is watching a high school baseball game when the town drunk, Rudy, stumbles onto the field with a rifle. Rudy has a glazed look in his eyes and David—cool and studly under pressure—can't get him to lay down his gun. Bye-bye, Rudy.

Eventually more townsfolk start acting strange and doing unfortunate things like bleeding from their eyeballs. (I don't want to tell you what one upstanding dad does to his wife and son, but it will make you think twice about hiding in a closet while being chased by a zomb. .  . I mean, a crazy.)

David begins to suspect there's a connection...

I love it when a brilliant director decides to make a good old fashioned genre film: Such is the case with Shutter Island, a twitchy, twisty, psychological horror film, directed with obvious glee by Martin Scorsese with nods to Alfred Hitchcock and the best traditions of film noir and pulp fiction.

In 1952, U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels (Leonardio DiCaprio) and his new partner Chuck (Mark Ruffalo) have been sent by ferry to the Shutter Island asylum for the criminally insane to investigate the escape of a prisoner.

Once they arrive, the "no exit" aspect of this island comes into high relief. And the island becomes its own ominous character—craggy rocks and cliffs, swaying trees, foreboding stone buildings. The patients, likewise, are hunched, toothless, menacing—exactly what the genre calls for.

A film like this is all about paranoia. "You'll never get off this island," one person after the next whispers to Teddy in conspiratorial tones. Does the hospital have secrets? Are they really conducting dangerous experiments on the patients for...

Bit off topic from my usual beat of movies and pop culture, but I wanted to share an amazing experience I had on Tuesday night. I had my debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Well, at least that's the way I chose to word it to family and friends. In fact, I had been asked to participate in a unique program the BSO had cooked up to celebrate their 5th season at Strathmore Music Center—Rusty Musicians. The premise was simple: There are a lot of people who love music, studied music, maybe even went to conservatory, but who aren't professional musicians. Those people would relish the opportunity to get on stage at the Strathmore, be conducted by Maestra Marin Alsop herself, and perform with the world-class musicians of the BSO. Yes, it was like Fantasy Baseball Camp, only better—in Fantasy Baseball Camp, if I have my facts straight, you play with fellow amateurs as well as some retired players and coaches. With Rusty Musicians, you're on stage with the Big Leaguers, essentially backing up Brian Roberts at second base. As you might imagine,...

Edge of Darkness is actually better than its lame title would suggest.

It's yet another vigilante film, this time focusing on Boston detective Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson), who has a still, mournful quality—and this is before his only daughter (Bojana Novakovic) is gunned down in front of him.

At first, Craven and the rest of the Boston PD, think he was the intended target, but as Craven investigates his daughter's murder, he finds himself neck-deep in a tangly conspiracy. Turns out, the nuclear power company his daughter was interning for was doing more than just developing alternate sources of energy for the government. And it turns out, trying to blow the whistle on them was not conducive to staying alive.

This is Mel's comeback film, after his controversial arrest three summers ago, and he's made a solid, if unambitious, choice. His Detective Craven is a stock figure—the loner with a righteous mission to defend his family—but Mel infuses him with a believable air of desperation and gravitas. The film gives him ample...