When it comes to low-budget horror entertainment, having a few familiar faces around certainly helps to keep attention on the screen. For “The Call,” the production hires Lin Shaye and Tobin Bell to handle acting duties for the endeavor, with director Timothy Woodward Jr. wisely using his stars as much as possible before the feature is handed over to a younger, decidedly less seasoned cast. The bump in professionalism helps, but “The Call” isn’t worth saving, with writer Patrick Stibbs doing an adequate job setting up a disturbing story of punishment from beyond the grave, but the payoff is limited at best, recycling haunted house ideas and thinly defined psychological trauma to launch a fright film that doesn’t have much of a bite. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“The Rising Hawk” takes its inspiration from an 1883 historical fiction book by Ivan Franco, a Ukrainian author, which was previously explored in a 1971 production. For a new take on an old tale, director John Wynn focuses on upping the intensity of the war story, simplifying conflicts to connect with the audience, giving the material a slight “Braveheart” makeover. While other productions have attempted to deliver sword-and-arrow adventure, “The Rising Hawk” is unexpectedly successful with its offering of violent action and tensions between Carpathian Mountain villagers and an invading Mongol army. It’s basic in many respects, but the picture has an appealing handle on B-movie action and emotional content, while the performances find the vibe of the production with refreshing ease, supporting the effort with enjoyable thespian intensity. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Seth Larney offers some gloom and doom for today’s audience with “2067,” which represents his attempt to create an epic sci-fi story about the end of the world. Missing from the endeavor is scale, with Larney losing budgetary dollars after an evocative first act, soon transitioning the tale into a time travel mystery, hoping to satisfy viewers with a brain-bleeder concerning one man’s visit to his future. The helmer isn’t exactly achieving anything original with “2067,” which starts off strong while focusing on a ruined Earth and a relationship facing an incredible challenge of separation. Larney can’t sustain what works well for the picture, which eventually becomes a video game-esque adventure that loses interesting elements of discovery as it goes on for much too long and without proper thespian support. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Despite a 13-year-long break from box office performance, director Darren Lynn Bousman has managed to keep working, remaining in the horror genre, where the budgets are usually low and the distribution deals are marginally profitable. He’s not an inspired architect of doom, riding his early success with the “Saw” franchise into forgettable efforts such as “Abattoir,” “St. Agatha,” and “The Barrens.” He returns to spooky stuff yet again with “Death of Me,” and despite the presence of three screenwriters and 20 producers, Bousman is basically remaking “The Wicker Man,” hitting similar beats of dread and community coercion. “Death of Me” has the benefit of an exotic locale in Thailand and a story that details early confusion with a found-footage-y twist, but there’s little presented here that’s original or even all that interesting, with the script running out of ideas long before the movie reaches its climax. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

It’s probably not the best time to release a movie that depicts frontline health care workers as corrupt, depraved individuals bent on harming their patients, but “12 Hour Shift” isn’t a documentary. It’s a low-budget, darkly comedic thriller from writer/director Brea Grant, who’s in the mood to deliver something slightly twisted with the picture, offering time with dim-witted, addicted, and diseased characters dealing with a particularly active night inside an Arkansas hospital. “12 Hour Shift” isn’t sharply made, missing a roaring engine of chills and near-misses that normally accompanies such a viewing experience. Grant is trying for something more offbeat and unsteady, clearly enjoying a chance to play around with bad people and buckets of blood. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Eternal Beauty” comes from writer/director Craig Roberts. He’s best known as an actor, appearing in the television show “Red Oaks” and movies such as “Neighbors,” “Submarine,” and “Tolkien.” He’s been in the business for quite some time, starting out as a kid, and now he’s trying to make something happen behind the camera, previously helming 2015’s “Just Jim,” and now he’s presenting the claustrophobic viewing experience of “Eternal Beauty.” A look at the winding ways of a paranoid schizophrenic woman and her family ties, the picture enjoys keeping the audience immersed in self-destructive behavior, with Roberts searching for the glory of empowerment in the darkest corners of the human mind. He hires top talent to realize such immense pain and confusion, and slams a visual stamp on the project, but this is a tough film to watch on many levels. It’s a respectable attempt to visualize mental illness, but asking people to sit through 105 minutes of restless hell is a big ask from Roberts. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

An artist to her core, director Julie Taymor seldom makes movies, but when she does she puts in a muscular effort to visualize the extremes of drama and music. Taymor hasn’t made a feature since 2010’s “The Tempest,” making “The Glorias” a rare event, and one she clearly doesn’t want to overwhelm with her usual gusto. It’s the bio-pic for author and feminist Gloria Steinem, with writers Taymor and Sarah Ruhl adapting the icon’s 2015 autobiography, “My Life on the Road,” trying to transform an extensive list of experiences into a single picture. It’s not an easy task for the pair, but they come up with inventive ways to connect four eras from Steinem’s life, celebrating her accomplishments and leadership while feeling the pain of her upbringing. It’s a long haul at 150 minutes, but “The Glorias” is immensely respectful of its subject, with Taymor muting her need for bombast to craft a loving portrait of a woman who changed the world. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

While primarily dealing with intense dramas and topical thrillers, Jessica Chastain has attempted to expand her range in recent years, taking on a few genre pictures to seek new creative challenges and beef up her box office draw. Last year, Chastain participated in “Dark Phoenix” and “It: Chapter Two,” and for 2020, she takes control of “Ava,” an actioner that also finds the actress in a co-producer role. Reminiscent of the Europa Corp heyday of slick bruisers with unlikely stars, “Ava” strives to deliver a stunt show with plenty of character layering to help give the brawling some substance. Chastain is a good fit for this style of steely aggression, and the film does well with family ties and professional paranoia, giving the titular assassin plenty to deal with while destroying enemies. However, not everything works in the endeavor, and when it hits the wrong note, the script (by Matthew Newton) threatens to ruin the whole viewing experience. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The messy art of revolution and the origins of a movement are charted in “Misbehaviour,” which recounts the efforts of the Women’s Liberation Movement as they attempted to disrupt the Miss World 1970 beauty pageant. The screenplay by Rebecca Frayn and Gaby Chiappe is based on a true story from 50 years ago, but it plays into topics of equality and objectification that remain in play today, creating a fascinating look at attitudes and offenses. Director Philippa Lowthorpe (“Call the Midwife” and “The Crown”) maintains a period look and guides a number of strong performances, but the core experience of “Misbehaviour” is unrest, watching those who dream of a better, more just world setting their sights on a British television institution, and, wisely, the writing manages to understand both sides of the argument while still remaining supportive of a team of twentysomething women and their battle to bring equality to England. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Writer/director Miranda July enjoys making very strange movies about universal issues concerning relationships, but she hasn’t been around in quite some time. She won cult appreciation with 2005’s “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” and pushed her eccentricities to the breaking point in 2011’s “The Future.” July is back with “Kajillionaire,” which is a more mainstream effort from the artist, who hasn’t shed her obsessions with idiosyncrasy, merely muting them to a certain degree with her latest offering, which examines the eternal struggle of family from the POV of a young woman who doesn’t understand her precipitous situation. “Kajillionaire” is unusual, which is the July way, but it’s certainly the most approachable offering in her limited filmography, with much to share on the camouflaged ways of familial abuse and the healing power of love. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

A vision for dystopian misery is interrupted by a domestic drama in “LX 2048,” which invites audiences into the future to observe the next generation of marital strife. Writer/director Guy Moshe attempts some early razzle-dazzle with visual effects and low-budget design ideas, trying to sell the dangers of the day after tomorrow, imagining Earth as a polluted hellhole where life only really exists after the sun goes down, while humans have tapped into cloning to solve a few of their problems. Moshe has provocative ideas on the state of household divide due to technological advancement, and he brings in James D’Arcy to deliver the most emphatic performance of his career in the lead role. However, initial promise and some degree of expanse slowly diminishes as the movie unfolds, with “LX 2048” having trouble developing what appears to be a short story idea into a fulfilling feature. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

The massive success of 2017’s “Get Out” has cleared the way for filmmakers to explore racial tensions using genre storytelling. This allows the audience to participate in the tale as it weaves around fantastical turns, giving them a ride before hitting them with doses of reality. Jordan Peele found a way to give his lesson some big thrills, continuing his odyssey in the similar 2019 effort, “Us.” Screenwriter/directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz have the same idea with “Antebellum,” which surveys the horrors of slavery and its continued presence in 21st century America. It’s an unexpectedly grim feature, and one with surprises viewers will either tolerate or reject in full. If Peele and M. Night Shyamalan had a baby, it would be “Antebellum,” which is at its most successful when toying with reality, providing a puzzle to solve while reinforcing the lasting wounds of an unforgiving nation. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com