It can be hard to pick scary movies for a group of adults to enjoy -- unless you go the family film route, and who wants that? Some people can watch an eye be plucked form a skull, or a slow, terrifying scene scored with creepy music and be in heaven; others will squeeze their eyes shut and plug their ears to escape what they consider hell. While brainstorming ideas for Cinematical's month-long tribute to all things creepy, scary, and gory, I had the bright idea to cover scary flicks for the wimpy -- those people who squeeze, plug, and hate to be scared.

I didn't quite think about how antithetical this idea was. If it's scary, the wimpy won't like it, and if it is too watered down, it isn't scary any more. To make things even more difficult, everyone has different ideas about what is scary. For example, I consider Psycho to be scary for its time and not-so-scary now. Chilling, yes. Nail-biting or hair-raising? No. My friend, however, just looked at me like I was insane for including it on this list. Where in the heck do you go from there?

Comedy always works. The funnier the gore, the less scary it is. But this isn't a comedy list, so there has to be some sort of variety, and this is how it will work: the following is a list of movies you can watch with your more wimpy friends, but still have those ever-loved Halloween themes, and at least a little gore or a few jumps. They are listed from wimpiest to least-wimpy -- all of which should fall well below the truly scary films out there. If anyone finds the lower-rated ones too much to bear, you should probably stay away from anything scary, the evening news, and the absolutely frightening Showgirls.

The word 'goth' can be very confusing these days, especially when talking about 'gothic' stories. For example, when Variety mentions that something is a 'gothic love story', is it referring to gothic in the sense of late-18th century British literature? Or is it referring to the current subculture of people who wear dark clothing, listen to bands like Bauhaus and have an interest in macabre subject matter? At first I thought it meant the former in its report that JT Petty was signed on to helm an adaptation of a Japanese novel -- and manga -- titled Goth. But now that I've read about the novel, it is clear to me that this is all about the subculture. The novel, written by Otsu-ichi, is about two teens, both of whom are obsessed with death, one with a fetish of standing in locations a body has been, who end up solving a number of murder mysteries and taking on the serial killer responsible.

Petty has written and/or directed a few horror features, including the straight-to-video Mimic: Sentinel (aka Mimic 3), but he may be best known as the writer of Batman Begins ... the video game. He has also scripted the Tom Clancy-created Splinter Cell games and is set to write the screenplay for a Splinter Cell film. Next up, though, he's got a horror-western titled The Burrowers, which has just recently finished shooting. Goth will be produced by Lauren C. Weissman, Jennie Lew Tugend and Shinya Egawa, all of whom worked on the movie Dance with Me, as well as on Norio Tsuruta's Masters of Horror episode "Dream Cruise".

Considering how popular the gothic subculture continues to be (if it had a tagline, it'd be something like "keeping Hot Topic in business since 1990"), Petty would be smart to up the influence on this adaptation. Obviously he'll be wanting to feature a hot goth-rock soundtrack and a lot of hot goth-chicks, who have always been able to transcend the subculture and appeal to non-goths, boys and girls alike, with their distinct, hyper-sexualized fashions.

Whenever the talk of genetics and ethics comes up, there's lots of chatter around what is allowed, and what isn't. But come on, no matter what the rules are, if a scientist is splicing stuff together, and feels a high at the thought of creating new animal life forms, or other scientific breakthroughs, how can they resist that little human touch? If not the everyday scientist, then maybe some evil, cackling one who fits all the stereotypes and has some sort of evil superfunding. Whatever the case, it's like a dentist living above a candy shop and telling his kids that they most certainly cannot go there for candy. The temptation is too great, no matter what the ramifications are.

This is the environment that Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley are jumping into. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that the pair will star in a new science fiction thriller called Splice, which is being directed by Cube helmer Vincenzo Natali (and Guillermo del Toro is one of the film's producers). The movie centers on "the world of genetic engineering in which two young scientists (Polley and Brody) become superstars by splicing different animal DNA to create fantastical new creatures. They ignore the legal and ethical boundaries and introduce human DNA into their experiment." The script was written by Natali, along with Antoinette Terry Bryant and Doug Taylor, and will find life in front of the camera in Toronto this November. It's a cool idea, and I'd go see almost anything that pairs Brody and Polley, but we have to wait until at least 2009 to see what they'll make of it.

It's a fact I can attest to -- when she walked into the roundtable room for Black Book, every guy shut up immediately, which is pretty rare. But anyway ... some Dutch movie website is reporting that van Houten has cemented her latest leading role in an A-list project, landing the female lead in the crime drama Body of Lies, starring Leo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. (An early pic of the film, which is shooting right now, appeared over at Hollywood-Elsewhere on Friday.) For all I know, this movie website could be the Dutch version of Star Magazine, but JoBlo got someone to translate it and they seem to think it's legit. Either way, I'm starting to wonder -- does van Houten have a publicist? Her last starring role, as poet Ingrid Jonker in the film Smoke and Ochre, was first reported in Time Out, of all places, and now this.

It was also recently reported that van Houten's march to the top will bypass the Bond franchise -- Paul Haggis came out and admitted there was no part for the actress in the upcoming installment. I can't imagine what he's thinking, but then again, I muttered the same thing to myself the whole time I was watching Crash. Perhaps van Houten simply felt Bond was beneath her at this point -- she's already landed a leading lady role in Valkyrie for next year, and now she'll apparently be sidling up to Leo as well. Why would she need the stigma of being a Bond girl? As far as I'm concerned, she's the new Garbo -- the best new star to be found in the last ten years, at least.

A world within a world comes crashing down in the opening sequence of The Kingdom, the new film from director (and uncredited actor) Peter Berg. An American compound inside Saudi Arabia, where ballgames and barbecues are the norm and uncovered female faces mock the law that applies outside the gates, is attacked by men with machine guns and bombs. The details are thoroughly convincing in this scene -- as machine gun fire sends the Americans fleeing in a panic, one of the terrorists, wearing the uniform of a Saudi policeman, falsely beckons some of them his way before setting off a vest of explosives. Later that night, after first-responders have quarantined the crime-scene and set up their own camp, a second-wave attack hits, destroying the entire area and creating a media event that has to be dealt with one way or the other by the American political machinery. This is a decent set-up for a movie, and it's as well-executed as you'd want a set-up to be, but it gives birth to an oddly-schizophrenic film.

You could almost call The Kingdom a double-feature, although it seems blithely unaware of its bifurcated status. To explain: the first half of the film -- actually, closer to two-thirds -- is professorial and serious, going so far as to offer the audience a tedious lecture on Saudi Arabia's history and political situation, balancing Western-style realpolitik with the needs of a population that seems to prefer living by religious teachings. As the aftermath of the compound bombing seeps back to Washington, an FBI team led by steely-eyed Jamie Foxx and comprised of Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper and Jason Bateman, seeks an entry point to the situation; they want to go investigate the bombing, but the State Department prefers to recognize the Saudi government's 'no boots on the ground' mandate, lest they come off as looking like puppets. Much screentime is given over to a scheme by Foxx to blackmail a Saudi diplomat in order to get his team access, and everything up to this point is deliberately structured as a political thriller. That's why the second part of the film is so surprising.

Cinematical was just given an exclusive first-look at the brand new poster for Funny Games (click on the image for a larger version), written and directed by Michael Haneke (who, interestingly enough, is remaking his own film of the same name from 1997). This time around, the English-language version will feature Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Devon Gearhart as a family who've decided to spend a fabulous weekend away at their lakeside vacation cabin. Problems for the three arrive in the form of two white-gloved strangers, as played by Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet, who aren't exactly passing out Girl Scout Cookies. Psychological and physical torture ensues.

I was real fond of the recently-released trailer for Funny Games, which kind of dresses up the horrific premise in a darkly comedic tone. This new poster, which boasts a tagline that reads: "You Must Admit, You Brought This On Yourself," reminds me of the cover of a novel that I'd immediately pick up if it were out on a bookshelf somewhere. I'm also a huge fan of Tim Roth (who's about to hit mainstream audiences in a big way next year, starring in both Funny Games and The Incredible Hulk), dig the role choices Naomi Watts has been making lately and have nothing but good things to say about the up-and-coming Michael Pitt. Funny Games is due out in theaters on February 15, 2008.

We've seen plenty of sports figures go on to make movies (like The Rock in this week's new release The Game Plan), but how often do they become screenwriters rather than actors? That is what happened to former Ohio State center Leonard Hartman. And the guy is really getting a number of breaks, in all sorts of genres. So far his only credit listed on the IMDb is a short called Gray Matter, but he's got a ton of projects in the pipeline. As we told you earlier in the year, he's adapting a Depression-era circus-set drama titled Water for Elephants and he wrote the spec script which became the upcoming Goosebumps movie. He also previously wrote a spec about the Homestead Act, which was to be made by the late Alan J. Pakula, and pitched another period piece idea that will be produced by screenwriter Gary Ross (Seabiscuit). Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Hartman has another spec script called Fury, which was just bought by Universal (also home to Goosebumps and the Ross pic).

Like most projects announced in the trades, there's not much revealed in THR about the plot of Fury. But it is probably good to assume that it isn't a comic adaptation about Nick Fury, nor remake of Fritz Lang's classic (sorry if the photo is misleading, there wasn't anything better to use here). All that is known is that it's an action thriller about a group of special forces, and it has a bit of the ol' supernatural in it. Hopefully it will be about some kind of special forces team with supernatural powers -- you know, like basically a team of superheroes. The movie will be produced by Scott Stuber and Mary Parent, who are best known for You, Me and Dupree and The Kingdom, two very different films, and neither of which is like a comic-book-type actioner. I'm sure we'll find out more about Fury in the coming months or year, so stay tuned.

Italy is an Oscar heavy-hitter. Since the foreign language category was added in 1956, Italy has won it 10 times out of 27 nominations. Only France has more nominations (34), and no one has more victories. Director Giuseppe Tornatore earned one of those wins in 1990 for his sentimental Cinema Paradiso and got another nomination in 1996 for The Star Maker. Now he could have another shot at Oscar gold, as his latest, The Unknown, is Italy's official entry in the 2008 race.

The Unknown (La Sconosciuta), a mystery thriller involving a prostitute, white slavery, and plenty of violence, has been well received in its homeland and at the handful of film festivals it's played. Variety says that Outsider Pictures will release it in the U.S. sometime in February or March -- though you can watch for that to get pushed up if it gets an Oscar nomination.

Italy's last nomination was just two years ago, with Don't Tell. Its last win? Life Is Beautiful, way back in 1998. Time for another one, maybe?

The last remake of Italian cinema I can think of was 2006's The Last Kiss -- and I don't think I was alone in my dislike of that particular flick. But, for most die-hard fans of international cinema, anything that Hollywood can come up with is usually a disappointment. Variety reports that Universal is planning on an English-language remake of La scorta (The Supply). They have already signed Danish director, Asger Leth, and have brought on Peter Craig to write the script. Leth has only directed one other film so far, the documentary Ghosts of Cité Soleil, about two brothers who are leaders of The Secret army of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristrade. Craig has just finished the script for The Town, a romantic comedy with Adrian Lyne attached to direct and an adaptation of his own novel, Hot Plastic, for Radar and Maguire Entertainment. Plastic focuses on the origins of identity theft and the relationship between a father and son. This seems to be a speciality for Craig, since most of his books are centered on family relationships and criminal enterprises.

The scorta update will closely follow the original story "...of four policemen assigned to guard a special prosecutor trying to bring mob bosses to justice. His predecessor was blown away along with a bodyguard. The four guards are conflicted about their jobs and frustrated as they watch government insiders thwart the lawman at every turn". The film was originally released in Italy back in 1993 and was directed by Ricky Tognazzi. The story was inspired by the murder of Judge Giovanni Falcone, a dedicated anti-mafia crusader, who was later murdered along with his wife and three bodyguards in a 350-kg dynamite explosion placed beneath the motorway from Palermo Airport to Palermo. There is no word on a cast yet, but as soon as Craig gets a handle on his script, I would expect to hear something sooner rather than later.

I finally had my annual nightmare-inducing film from Fantastic Fest this year after seeing Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door. It's not a horror film in the traditional sense, but rather an odd combination of family drama and scenes of physical torture -- like a Lifetime movie directed by Eli Roth. The movie is adapted from the 1989 Ketchum novel, which was based on the real-life story of Sylvia Likens. Likens' story was also told in An American Crime, which premiered at Sundance this year.

The Girl Next Door is set in "innocent" 1950s small-town America, structured as a long flashback of David, a guy currently in his fifties. When young David (Daniel Manche) was on the verge of adolescence, two girl cousins moved in with the Chandlers next door, a family of several boys and their divorced mom Ruth (Blanche Baker). The girls lost their parents in a car accident, and the younger one, Susan, wears leg braces and uses crutches. Ruth was always considered a "cool" mom because she let the boys drink beer and talked about sexual matters. Now she starts bullying her nieces in a minor way, slowly advancing to higher and nastier levels of abuse especially targeted at teenager Meg (Blythe Auffarth).

"May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead."

It comes from an Irish toast, that quote, and it's also the first thing we see as director Sidney Lumet begins his latest film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. It's open for interpretation, in the way that it's used here, however Lumet chose to follow up the quote with a graphic opening shot of a barenaked Andy (Philip Seymour Hoffman) on his knees, and a naked Gina (Marisa Tomei) bent over on all fours in front of him. They're having sex. Some of the best sex they've had in years. If only life was always like this for Andy and Gina; unfortunately, it's not. This is vacation sex for a married couple -- away from the hustle and bustle of the big city, where the most important decision of the day revolves around which swanky restaurant to eat dinner at. They're in Brazil; Rio to be exact. And this is heaven. Both enjoy their brief, passionate encounter -- and discuss how great it would be to move to Rio and live out their days on a beach -- but then, eventually, return home to New York City ... where all hell breaks loose.

See, Andy is having money problems. He's got a great job, sure -- as head of payroll for a real estate firm -- and lots of cash to boot, but he's a sneaky crook with an expensive drug habit. Money-wise, his younger brother Hank (Ethan Hawke) is in a similar situation. He's a few months behind on child support payments to his ex-wife, and as much as he loves his daughter -- and would do anything to provide for her -- his drinking problem, a lack of motivation and the fact that he's sleeping with his brother's wife isn't helping put money in the bank. As more and more funds disappear, and as both brothers are forced into a corner they're not sure how to escape from, Andy comes up with a full-proof plan to fill their pockets: rob a Mom & Pop jewelry store. Except, there's one problem -- that Mom & Pop jewelry store is owned and operated by -- you guessed it -- Andy and Hank's own mom and pop.

Cinematical was just handed four exclusive images from the upcoming (and might I add, highly-anticipated) No Country for Old Men, directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Their first feature-length film since 2004's The Ladykillers, No Country for Old Men is based on the book by Cormac McCarthy and has already received tons of praise ("the best Coen Bros. film in years!") since first premiering last May at the Cannes Film Festival. As James put it ever-so-simply in his Cannes review of the film: "An ordinary man stumbles across a ring of corpses surrounding a fortune in cash and a mountain of heroin. A bad man follows in search of the money; a good man follows in search of the man." That's the set-up for No Country for Old Men; from there, I take it a whole mess of trouble creeps into the lives of each man, played by Josh Brolin (the hunter), Javier Bardem (the villain) and Tommy Lee Jones (the Sheriff trying to figure out what in God's name is going on).

These images were released in conjunction with a brand new Red-Band trailer which you can currently check out on the film's official website, http://www.nocountryforoldmen.com/. I'll be seeing the film for myself next week when it screens at the New York Film Festival, and let's just say the geek in me fantasizes about that upcoming screening at least three times a day -- what can I say, I can't wait to see this film. You can check out all four images in our gallery below, and make sure you head on over to www.nocountryforoldmen.com for the Red-Band trailer once you're done. No Country for Old Men arrives in theaters on November 9.

Something about Into the Wild drove massive amounts of people to see it this weekend, propelling Sean Penn's drama into the #1 spot on the specialty box office charts. Playing at just four locations, Into the Wild earned an impressive estimate of $50,310 per screen, according to Leonard Klady of Movie City News.

Cinematical's Kim Voynar described it as "one of the most polarizing films playing at Telluride this year ... even as we feel anger at Chris for hurting his family, or frustration at his choices, or fear for what will happen to him, a part of us has to admire his courage in taking a leap that most of us would never be able to take." James Rocchi had strong feelings as well: "As the credits roll at the close of Into the Wild, you don't feel like you've celebrated a life spent on the road less traveled; you feel like you've just witnessed a slow-motion suicide."

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford was the other major limited release; it performed quite respectably with a per-screen average of $29,460 at five locations. I thought the film was glacially paced, incredibly gorgeous visually, and richly detailed in period authenticity and character. James Rocchi wrote: "Anyone looking for beauty and transcendence and a meditation on the West starring a terrific ensemble will be more than rewarded." Jeffrey M. Anderson was even more impressed: "Certainly one of the year's best films, and the best Western to come across the range since Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven (1992) and Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man (1996)."

With such fierce, big name competition, other indie films opening this weekend fared less successfully. Larry Fessenden's environmentally-themed thriller The Last Winter played at two theaters for a $4,150 per-screen average, while Ray McKinnon's comedy Randy and the Mob brought in an estimated $3,020 at each of five locations. Ann Hu's drama Beauty Remains snagged just $1,310 per-screen at two screens.

It seems that director Tony Scott can't get enough of remakes -- and Denzel Washington, for that matter. Sources for Entertainment Weekly are reporting that Washington and Scott are in negotiations to re-team for the remake of the 1974 action thriller, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. The original film starred Walter Matthau and Jerry Stiller, and was based on the novel by Morton Freedgood (under the pseudonym John Godey). The story centered on a grizzled New York Transit cop sent to stop a group of terrorists who have hijacked a subway car for a million dollar ransom. Washington would reportedly play Matthau's role of the cop. This would be the second attempt at a remake for the film; the first was a made-for-TV movie in 1998 with Edward James Olmos and Vincent D'Onofrio.

So far, Sony has stayed quiet on the rumored Pelham negotiations. But, Washington and Scott have made three previous films (Crimson Tide, Man on Fire, and Deja Vu), so they must enjoy working with one another. Scott still has his other 70's remake reportedly in production; Walter Hill's, The Warriors. Although, it has been a while since anyone has heard a peep out of that project. Washington, on the other hand, has American Gangster (directed by Tony's big-brother, Ridley) headed for theaters on November 2, followed by the family-friendly drama The Great Debaters on Christmas Day. So providing everyone can coordinate their schedules, I wouldn't be surprised if Pelham joins the growing slate of productions headed for the fast-track before the dreaded "Hollywood Strike" begins.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, IFC Films is going to release two new star-driven movies in theaters and On Demand on the same day. The films will be released by First Take, the "day-and-date" division of IFC. Previous attempts at day-and-date films have been extremely controversial with theater owners, who often refuse to book the movies, claiming, perhaps rightfully so, "Why would anyone leave the house and come to our theater if they can get the movie in the comfort of their own home?" Currently, Todd Wagner and Mark Cuban's Landmark Theaters are one of the few chains who will book day-and-date films, and even have their own day-and-date program, Sneak Preview. I'll stop saying day-and-date, I promise. You can read genius Cinematical writer Patrick Walsh's report on Steven Soderbergh's adventures with the distribution practice here, and Ryan's interview with Cuban right here.

What are the two new films? The crime drama Savage Grace, directed by Tom Kalin (his first feature-length film since 1992's Leopold and Loeb story Swoon) stars Julianne Moore and Hugh Dancy. Grace tells the "true story of socialite Barbara Daly Baekeland's 1972 murder," and was a $5 million production. Finishing the Game, a Bruce Lee mockumentary, was directed by Justin Lin (the very cool Better Luck Tomorrow, Fast and the Furious 2: Tokyo Drift). Game features cameos by James Franco and...uh...MC Hammer (how'd they get Hammer to sign on? Offer him a hot meal?), and "imagines the recasting of Lee's final role in Game of Death before filming was completed." You can read Scott's generally positive Sundance review of Death here. Grace will premiere in theaters and on IFC next year; Death next month.