It isn’t really giving anything away to say that RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE ends with an explicit setup for a fifth film in the franchise, promising that it will start with a pretty epic action setpiece. But any excitement about that is tempered by the fact that AFTERLIFE’s predecessor, EXTINCTION, also concluded by laying some exciting groundwork for this follow-up—but after paying it off in spectacular fashion, AFTERLIFE spends the next 80 minutes running on fumes.

Here’s one of those movies that I might give two-and-three-quarter skulls to if the format allowed. But I’m giving FEAR OF CLOWNS 2 (available as a limited DVD and download at Amazon.com, coming to iTunes this fall) the benefit of the doubt upward because writer/director Kevin Kangas’ follow-up to his previous coulrophobia opus represents a step up from its already entertaining predecessor in a couple of significant areas.

I try not to let the circumstances under which I see movies affect my reviews of them, but I must say that having viewed Robert Rodriguez’s MACHETE in a screening room, it’s hard not to imagine that catching it in a packed house of enthusiastic fans would have enhanced the experience. Feel free to add a half-skull to the rating below if you plan to see it at a crowded late-night theatrical showing this weekend, perhaps enhanced by a Corona or tequila or two.

At first glance, William Clift’s BABY JANE? looks like an over-the-top send up of 1962 Grand Guignol/black-comedy classic WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE?, which united Hollywood legends Bette Davis and Mommie Dearest herself, Joan Crawford. But appearances can be deceiving. It is much more a reimagining of that film, with male actors taking on the roles originally portrayed by women. Sure, there is humor throughout the movie, but much of it is sly and subtle, not the extravagant, flamboyant type often seen in drag cinema.

THE LAST EXORCISM is an exciting film. It’s exciting to watch, be a part of and then eagerly discuss after. It has an incredible amount of merits and no matter what you think of the now much discussed last 10 minutes, you’ll leave the theater with some sort of stimulation and lasting impression. A fresh story in an old subgenre; a new, talented director; excellent acting; developed characters; an overall sense of craftsmanship and eerie atmosphere make THE LAST EXORCISM a movie that horror fans have very much been asking for.

So here’s what’s up: PREDATORS was merely OK, and THE EXPENDABLES was a goofy piece of crap. The two summer films that promised genre fans guilt-free, explosion-laden, over-the-top violence ended up letting us down, basically saying we would’ve been better off at home with burritos watching DEAD ALIVE and COMMANDO again. And now it’s come to this: the fate of summer 2010 and its ability to satisfy the bloodlust of a nation of fright fans rests on the shoulders of a film about savage, prehistoric piranha and their full force assault on spring break. Get excited.

I guess I should hold myself, in some small way, partially responsible for this. Back in 2006, the actually-funny trailer for DATE MOVIE tricked me into seeing the film, little knowing that said preview consisted of the flick’s opening minutes, and that the laughs would cease immediately thereafter. But by the time its first weekend was over, $19 million worth of suckers had seen DATE MOVIE, thus paving the way for writer/directors Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer to follow up with EPIC MOVIE, DISASTER MOVIE, MEET THE SPARTANS (since HOMOEROTIC PERIOD ACTION MOVIE apparently didn’t have the right ring to it) and now the equally, appallingly awful VAMPIRES SUCK.