ALSO SHOWING
THE DEAD DON’T DIE (15)
★★★ ★★
THE living are mean-spirited, spiteful and lonely, and might as well be dead, in writer-director Jim Jarmusch’s off-kilter comedy.
Environmental damage wrought by fracking at the magnetic poles shifts the Earth off its axis. Centerville police chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray, pictured) and officers Ronald Peterson (Adam Driver) and Minerva Morrison (Chloe Sevigny) respond to a gruesome attack at the local diner and calls about disappearing livestock.
Nearby, quixotic undertaker Zelda Winston (Tilda Swinton) practises her samurai sword skills in the back room of The Ever After funeral home.
When night falls, corpses reanimate. Hermit Bob (Tom Waits) witnesses the devastation through binoculars while residents including Hank Thompson (Danny Glover), Bobby Wiggins (Caleb Landry Jones) and farmer Frank Miller (Steve Buscemi) arm themselves against the slavering predators.
ANNABELLE COMES HOME (15)
★★ ★★★
THE Conjuring franchise’s seventh instalment in as many years is a curiously old-fashioned story of things that go bump in the night.
Paranormal investigators Ed and
Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga) take possession of a creepy doll, which has exerted a malevolent grip on the home of two nurses. Lorraine places Annabelle inside a special glass case in the couple’s room of artefacts, which is regularly blessed by a local priest (Steve Coulter).
One year later, Ed and Lorraine are called away on business and they leave their young daughter Judy (Mckenna Grace, pictured) in the care of babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman). The girls bake a cake to celebrate Judy’s birthday.
Mary Ellen’s friend Daniela (Katie Sarife), who is desperate to channel spirits and contact her late father (Anthony Wemyss), gatecrashes the celebration and secretly attempts to gain access to the room where Annabelle is stored, unknowingly leaving Annabelle’s glass case ajar.
STUBER (15)
★★ ★★★
A MILD-MANNERED driver becomes an unwitting accomplice in a high-stakes police investigation in this unsatisfying action comedy.
Nice guy Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) juggles full-time work at a sporting goods store with weekend and late-night shifts as an Uber driver.
He is stretching himself financially to invest in a women-only spin class run by his best friend Becca (Betty Gilpin), who he secretly loves.
Stu (pictured) accepts a fare from a passenger called Vic Manning (Dave Bautista), who turns out to be a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Vic needs Stu to ferry him around the city in an effort to capture drug dealer Oka Tedjo (Iko Uwais). As bullets fly, Stu enjoys a flirtation with Vic’s daughter (Natalie Morales) and takes booty calls from Becca.