A brother, his girlfriend, his sister and two friends all meet in a derelict cabin in the woods. It is a beautiful place. Rustic and isolated. The perfect location for the sister to kick her drug habit. They struggle as she trembles under the withdrawal. Then the devil arrives.

A playful, elegantly made little horror film,“Mama” teasingly sustains a game of hide-and-seek as it tantalizes the audience with fleeting apparitions of the title character while maintaining interest in two deeply disturbed little orphan girls.

If you are in the mood for a demonic possession/Jewish exorcism movie this year, “The Possession” may be the one for you. Swap the clerical collars for a yarmulke, change the sacred incantations from Latin to Hebrew, leave out the pea soup and you've got a passable PG-13 version of “The Exorcist,” the granddaddy of all exorcism movies.

“Red Lights” culminates with a twist ending that doesn't just change everything that came previously, it actually negates the entirety of the film. Rather than leaving you in an awe-struck state of “A-ha!” it's more likely to make you wonder in annoyance, “Really?”

Nothing could possibly satisfy the fervent expectation that has built for Ridley Scott's sort-of-prequel to his genre-defining “Alien,” but “Prometheus,” the director's return to science fiction for the first time in more than 30 years, comes close.

Stop reading this review right now. Go see “The Cabin in the Woods,” then come back and we can have a conversation about it. Just trust me on this. The less you know going into it, the better.

The words, somber and undeniably true, hit the screen: “The Vatican did not endorse this film nor aid in its completion.” No, the Holy See apparently is waiting to back an exorcism movie that's a little less hilariously lame.

The bottom line on any horror picture is clear-cut and simple. How many times does it raise the hair on the back of your neck? How often do you jump?

Size shouldn't matter when it comes to scary creatures. After all, plenty of people are terrified of rats and spiders.

If there was any lesson to draw from the first “Paranormal Activity,” it would be that men should take their girlfriends' worries seriously, especially when it comes to encounters with the demonic.