Confessions (2010)

Yuko Moriguchi is a teacher who spends her days looking after a class of frequently unruly seventh graders. One day, Yuko calmly announces to her class that she's leaving her job soon as she's still struggling with the recent death of her young daughter. She adds that she knows who was responsible for the child's drowning, they happen to be among the students in her class -- and that the milk they're drinking may just be infected with a deadly disease. Though a series of flashbacks, we become witnesses to Yuko's difficulties with her students, the actions of the nameless students she believes are guilty of murder -- one of whom is planning vengeance against Yuko, while the other sinks deep into paranoia -- and the incidents that suggest the likely innocence and guilt of the parties involved.

Director: Tetsuya Nakashima
Writers: Kanae Minato (novel) and Tetsuya Nakashima (screenplay)
Stars: Takako Matsu, Yoshino Kimura and Masaki Okada
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1590089/

Mystery Team (2009)

When they were seven years old, "the Mystery Team" were three kids living in the same neighborhood in Oakdale who played at being precocious preteen detectives. With Jason as "the Master of Disguise," Duncan as "the Boy Genius," and Charlie as "the Strongest Kid in Town," they would spend their afternoons getting to the bottom of such crimes as missing tricycles and stolen pies, charging ten cents (or some fruit roll-ups) for their services. However, while their peers have moved on to more mature pastimes now that they're 18 years old, Jason, Duncan, and Charlie are hopeless nerds stuck in preadolescence as they prepare to graduate from high school. Convinced that all they need to do is prove their crime-busting talents to regain the respect of their peers, the Mystery Team step into a new class of detective work when a little girl asks them to find out who killed her parents. The guys are up for the challenge, but it isn't long before dealing with real (and truly dangerous) criminals gets them in hot water.

Director: Dan Eckman
Writers: D.C. Pierson and Donald Glover
Stars: Donald Glover, D.C. Pierson and Dominic Dierkes
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1237838/

The Other Man (2008)

In Cambridge, the software engineer Peter and the shoe designer Lisa are successful in their careers and have been happily married for twenty-five years. They have an adult daughter, Abigail, and Lisa frequently travels to Milano to do business with the Gianni & Gianni Company. When Lisa is gone, Peter finds a message in her cellular and decides to snoop her e-mails and discovers in a secret folder named Love that she had a lover, Ralph. Peter travels to Milano and stalks Ralph; he finds that the man plays chess in a bar. Peter gets close to Ralph and discusses his relationship with Lisa without knowing that he is her husband.

Director: Richard Eyre
Writers: Richard Eyre (screenplay) and Bernhard Schlink (short story)
Stars: Liam Neeson, Antonio Banderas and Laura Linney
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974613/

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)

In the early 1970s during the Cold War, the head of British Intelligence, Control, resigns after an operation in Budapest, Hungary goes badly wrong. It transpires that Control believed one of four senior figures in the service was in fact a Russian agent - a mole - and the Hungary operation was an attempt to identify which of them it was. Smiley had been forced into retirement by the departure of Control, but is asked by a senior government figure to investigate a story told to him by a rogue agent, Ricky Tarr, that there was a mole. Smiley considers that the failure of the Hungary operation and the continuing success of Operation Witchcraft (an apparent source of significant Soviet intelligence) confirms this, and takes up the task of finding him. Through the efforts of Peter Guillam, Smiley obtains information that eventually leads him to Jim Prideaux, the agent at the heart of the Hungary fiasco.

Director: Tomas Alfredson
Writers: Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan
Stars: Gary Oldman, Colin Firth and Tom Hardy
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340800/

Dark Country (2009)

A newly married couple takes a honeymoon hell-ride through the Nevada desert after hitting a mysterious car crash survivor under a starlit sky. When their injured passenger suddenly turns on them, the couple instinctively fights back with lethal force, and attempts to cover up their crime from the local police. But there's no escaping fate, and with every move they make the pair only manages to wind ever deeper down a darkened path. 

Director: Thomas Jane
Writer: Tab Murphy
Stars: Thomas Jane, Lauren German and Ron Perlman
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0469318/

The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009)

Follows The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009) and followed by The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (2009). Having returned, Lisbeth Salander falls under suspicion of having committed the murder of a journalist and his girlfriend as well as her guardian Nils Bjurman. Meanwhile, the publisher of "Millennium" magazine, Mikael Blomkvist, has built an empire on his ability to shake up the establishment. Approached by a young journalist with evidence that high-ranking Swedish officials are involved in sex trafficking and crimes against minors, the incensed magazine publisher launches a comprehensive investigation that threatens to implicate some of the most powerful politicians in the country.

Director: Daniel Alfredson
Writers: Jonas Frykberg (screenplay) and Stieg Larsson (novel)
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist and Lena Endre
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1216487/

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2009)

Followed by The Girl Who Played with Fire (2009). Forty years ago, Harriet Vanger disappeared from a family gathering on the island owned and inhabited by the powerful Vanger clan. Her body was never found, yet her uncle is convinced it was murder and that the killer is a member of his own tightly knit but dysfunctional family. He employs disgraced financial journalist Mikael Blomkvist and the tattooed, ruthless computer hacker Lisbeth Salander to investigate. When the pair link Harriet's disappearance to a number of grotesque murders from almost forty years ago, they begin to unravel a dark and appalling family history. But the Vangers are a secretive clan, and Blomkvist and Salander are about to find out just how far they are prepared to go to protect themselves.

Director: Niels Arden Oplev
Writers: Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg (screenplay), and Stieg Larsson (novel)
Stars: Noomi Rapace, Michael Nyqvist, and Ewa Fröling
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1132620/

Mirrors 2 (2010)

Follows Mirrors (2008). While driving on the road with his fiancée Kayla, Max Matheson has a serious car accident and they both die. However, Max is resuscitated and one year later he is an emotionally disturbed man with the guilty complex for the murder of his beloved fiancée and under psychological treatment with Dr. Beaumont. When his father Jack Matheson reopens the Mayflower Department Store in New Orleans, his security guard Henry Schow has an accident and Jack invites Max to be his replacement to help in his cure. Max accepts the job and his father introduces him to the store manager Keller Landreaux; the buyer Jenna McCarty; and the vice-president of operations Ryan Parker. Max has visions of a dead woman and he foresees the death of Jenna and Ryan in the mirror. Sooner Max finds that he has the ability to see Eleanor Reigns, an employee that is missing, and he contacts her sister Elizabeth Reigns to know details of her disappearance...

Director: Víctor García
Writers: Matt Venne and Sung-ho Kim
Stars: Nick Stahl, Emmanuelle Vaugier and Evan Jones
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1576699/

Mirrors (2008)

Followed by Mirrors 2 (2010). Ex-cop Ben Carson takes a job as a night watchman at the burned-out ruins of the Mayflower department store. As he patrols the eerie, charred remains of the store, he begins to notice something sinister about the ornate mirrors that adorn the Mayflower walls. Reflected in the gigantic shimmering glass are horrific images that stun Carson. He soon discovers that a deadly threat looms, trapped within the mirrors and reflective surfaces that pervade his everyday life. And if he has any hope of saving his wife and children from a horrifying death, Carson must somehow uncover the truth behind the mirrors - and battle the greatest evil he has ever faced.

Director: Alexandre Aja
Writers: Alexandre Aja and Grégory Levasseur
Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Paula Patton and Amy Smart
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0790686/

Mother of Tears (2007)

Follows Inferno (1980). An ancient urn is found in a cemetery outside Rome. Once opened, it triggers a series of violent incidents: robberies, rapes and murders increase dramatically, while several mysterious, evil-looking young women coming from all over the world are gathering in the city. All these events are caused by the return of Mater Lacrimarum, the last of three powerful witches who have been spreading terror and death for centuries. Alone against an army of psychos and demons, Sarah Mandy, an art student who seems to have supernatural abilities of her own, is the only person left to prevent the Mother of Tears from destroying Rome. 

Director: Dario Argento
Writers: Dario Argento and Walter Fasano
Stars: Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno and Adam James
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0804507/

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

Followed by The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2004). The year is 1969, and despite the fact that the Vietnam War is raging halfway across the globe, all is ominously quiet on the back roads of America. Eighteen-year-old Dean Hill has just received his draft notice, and his older brother, Eric, is determined to watch out for his younger sibling by ensuring that Dean enroll in the Marine Corps rather than risking his luck at the local induction center. Dean has other plans, though, and as soon as the pair and their girlfriends, Bailey and Chrissie, return from their final fling in sunny Texas, he plans to confront his brother with the prospect of dodging the draft. When an unsettling encounter with malevolent bikers Holden and Alex results in a serious car accident in which Chrissie is thrown from the vehicle, the arrival of Sheriff Hoyt at first appears to be a moment of divine intervention. However, when Sheriff Hoyt murders thieving Alex in cold blood and then shepherds her friends into the back of his police cruiser as Chrissie watches from the brush, their momentary reprieve soon gives way to an unimaginable terror. As Hoyt transports her ailing friends to the Hewitt home, where a childlike man named Thomas is currently undergoing the transformation into cannibalistic madman Leatherface, a desperate Chrissie attempts to enlist the aid of Holden in rescuing her friends from a fate worse than death.

Director: Jonathan Liebesman
Writers: Sheldon Turner
Stars: Jordana Brewster, Matt Bomer and Diora Baird
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0420294/

Hanna (2011)

Hanna is sixteen years old. She is bright, inquisitive, and a devoted daughter. Uniquely, she has the strength, the stamina, and the smarts of a soldier; these come from being raised by her widowed father Erik, an ex-CIA man, in the wilds of North Finland. Erik has taught Hanna to hunt, put her through extreme self-defense workouts, and home-schooled her with only an encyclopedia and a book of fairy tales. Hanna has been living a life unlike any other teenager; her upbringing and training have been one and the same, all geared to making her the perfect assassin. But out in the world there is unfinished business for Hanna's family, and it is with a combination of pride and apprehension that Erik realizes his daughter can no longer be held back.

Director: Joe Wright
Writers: Seth Lochhead and David Farr
Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0993842/

Disturbia (2007)

Kale is a high-school senior who has yet to come to terms with the fact that his father is gone, the tragic victim of a fatal accident. As Kale's mother struggles to pay the bills by picking up extra shifts at work, her son's behavior grows increasingly erratic. When an altercation at school finds Kale placed under court-ordered house arrest, the homebound student teams with newly arrived girl-next-door Ashley to investigate the suspicious neighbor whom Kale believes to be an elusive and wanted serial killer. Their attentions focused intensely on the man they believe to be a murderous maniac hiding in broad daylight, Kale and Ashley trespass down a dangerous path while attempting to discern whether his suspicions are grounded in fact or just a combination of deep depression and suffocating cabin fever.

Director: D.J. Caruso
Writers: Christopher Landon and Carl Ellsworth
Stars: Shia LaBeouf, David Morse and Carrie-Anne Moss
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486822/

Buried (2010)

Paul Conroy is an American truck driver who has been contracted to work in Iraq, and while delivering a load of kitchen equipment as part of a humanitarian aid program, he's captured by insurgent guerrillas who intend to hold him hostage. Paul is struck unconscious, put into a coffin-like box, and buried, and when he comes to, all he has to help him get out is a lighter and a cell phone. Trapped underground with a limited supply of air, Paul frantically calls his family, his employer, and American military and political representatives, trying to remain calm as his chances of survival slip farther away with each passing minute.

Director: Rodrigo Cortés
Writer: Chris Sparling
Stars: Ryan Reynolds, José Luis García Pérez and Robert Paterson
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1462758/

Shadow (2009)

The soldier and biker David is serving in Iraq and misses biking. He rides his bicycle in Europe heading to Shadow and when he stops in a bar, he meets the beautiful Angeline. The troublemaker hunters Fred and Buck bother Angeline and David and the bar owner defend her. When David camps in the woods, the wind carries his tent and Angeline invites him to share her tent with him. On the next morning, they ride their bicycles together and enjoy the wilderness. Fred and Buck chase the couple with their truck and the quartet have accidents and need to walk through the woods. Sooner they are captured by a strange man that lives in an isolated house and are tortured in the basement. David manages to escape and helps the hunters to leave the place, but they are hunted down by the freak. When David wakes up, he learns that the reality is worst than his nightmare.

Director: Federico Zampaglione
Writers: Federico Zampaglione and Domenico Zampaglione
Stars: Jake Muxworthy, Karina Testa and Nuot Arquint
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1425253/

Joy Ride (2001)

Followed by Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead (2008). Lewis Thomas is college freshman embarking on a cross-country road trip during summer break to pick up his girlfriend Venna. Along for the ride is Lewis' brother Fuller, a practical joker who uses the car's CB radio to play a cruel prank on a lonely trucker known only by the handle Rusty Nail. The victim of Fuller's gag turns out to be a psychotic murderer and soon the brothers are being pursued by the relentless stalker, who gets his revenge in gruesome fashion.

Director: John Dahl
Writers: Clay Tarver and J.J. Abrams
Stars: Leelee Sobieski, Steve Zahn and Paul Walker
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0206314/

The Million Dollar Hotel (2001)

Tom Tom takes a flying leap off the roof of the Million Dollar Hotel, an ironically titled dive in the seedy section of L.A. Told in an extended flashback, Tom Tom recounts the murder investigation of a down-and-out artist and son of a media mogul, Izzy Goldkiss, who also fell off the hotel. FBI special agent Skinner, sporting a neck brace, looks into the death only to discover that the building is teeming with weirdos and losers. There is Vivien, who claims to be the fiancée of the rock star; Geronimo, a huckster trying to make a buck by selling Izzy's abstract painting; Eloise, a burned out prostitute with a passion for intellectual literature; and Dixie, who swears up and down that he is the fifth Beatle. As the film progresses, Skinner proves to be just as much of a freak as the hotel tenets -- he was born with a third arm that was surgically removed from his back.

Director: Wim Wenders
Writers: Bono (story) and Nicholas Klein (screenplay)
Stars: Jeremy Davies, Milla Jovovich and Mel Gibson
More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120753/