MALEVOLENT — SHOCKTOBER!

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Icelandic director Olaf de Fleur Johannesson takes too long in getting around to the point in a slasher film single-handedly carried by Florence Pugh's sturdy performance.

Angela (Florence Pugh) and her brother Jackson (Ben lloyd-Hughes) are an American brother/sister ghost-expelling team who take their game to Scotland where they plan to run one last scam.

Angela, Jackson, and their teammates Elliot (Scott Chambers) and Beth (Georgina Bevan), bite off more than they can chew when they take on Mrs. Green (Clia Imrie) as a client.

Angela ignores a ton of red flags to interact with the ghosts of children found murdered with their mouths sewn shut 15 years ago.

Olaf de Fleur Johannesson ramps up the tension but plotholes let out most of the steam.

"Malevolent" is based on the novel "Hush" by Konstantopoulos, although you'd never guess that this lightweight ghost story/slasher pic was based on novelistic source material.

TV-MA. 89 mins.

THE MACHINIST — SHOCKTOBER!

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The ever intense Christian Bale plays Trevor Reznik an emaciated factory machinist who hasn't slept in over a year.

Trevor’s constant eerie hallucinations cost a coworker his arm.

Damn.

This is one tightly wound horror movie that will send cold chills down your spine.

"The Machinist" is a well-crafted psychological thriller about self-deception and tragedy, told against an eerie landscape of terrifying dislocation and isolation.

This is one effed up horror movie.

Director Brad Anderson ("Session 9") goes too heavy on the film's trendy blue-gray color visual scheme, but nonetheless delivers Scott Kosar's hip script in film that's sure to inspire a cult following.

“The Machinist” will withstand the test of time.

Jennifer Jason Leigh is persuasive as Reznik's prostitute girlfriend.

Christian Bale's acting efforts border on dementia.

Burner.

Rated R. 102 mins. (Paramount)

HARD CANDY — SHOCKTOBER!

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Strikingly filmed and exquisitely performed by its principally two-person cast (Ellen Page, Patrick Wilson), "Hard Candy" is an intense reversal on the Little Red Riding Hood story.

Hayley Stark (Page) is a 14-year-old proto-feminist rebel who ensnares 32-year-old fashion photographer/potential child molester Jeff Kohiver (Wilson) in an online chat room before working Jeff over in a furious castration revenge scenario in the comfort of his California luxury house.

Ellen Page is a divine manifestation of intelligent female fury that ups the high watermark set by Abel Ferrara’s exterminating angel revenge fantasy "Ms. 45."

British director David Slade announces himself as a master of economy and discrimination by leaving the horror to the audience’s imagination.

This movie will make you squirm like you’ve never squirmed before.

Rated R. 99 mins.