Weekend Movie Viewing: Communal mental illness

Seems I spent a lot of time in the boonies over the weekend

Sparks: Terence Howard stars as Byron and he's driving his girlfriend cross country to college in California. Their car breaks down in a redneck town. There's this weird paranoia. Who is racist? Who is not? Is Byron just antzy and paranoid and is he paranoid about the wrong people? A mechanic price-gouges him for his car, and they get stuck in the town. I thought there'd be some racism issue but what happens is something else. It actually works. Tense little indie flick.

Skinwalkers: A real salvation by the blood kinda movie. Two packs of werewolves live in a small town. A little boy is born in one town. It's one of those Moses/Jesus slaughter of the innocents cases of "Give us the boy, we just want the boy." One bunch of werewolves (skinwalkers) like being cursed with the urge to drink human blood. It's an addition. The others look forward to being saved by the special little boy.

Population 436: A census taker is sent by the feds to a town that strangely always has the population of 436. When he gets there, he discovers the town has made a deal with the almighty. If the pop remains 436, all will be idyllic. Kinda like a Logan's Run meets the Lottery meets Stepford Wives kinda flick. Very American gothic small town. Because he has arrived and is now a member of the town (not that he wants to be) the town must lose a member. Someone happily volunteers. Very scary because it's not aliens and it's not mean-spirited people. It's just the idea that when you're surrounded by folks in a culture who believe something totally different than you do, it's eerie. The folks in this small town are sweet folks.

Arachnophobia: Oh, I love spider movies! And mega Julian Sands crush!