Because the competition is so fierce, it's hard to say which scene in director Scott Waugh's action sequel Expend4bles is the most repellent. And for the sake of time and our collective sanity, I'm going to ignore every multitudinous instance of brains being splattered via gunfire, the effects for which look like they were added post-production with a red magic marker.

Lauded by Variety as "a tender, tactile, and just-sweet-enough story of hidden love, challenged faith, and unwittingly shared grief," writer/director Ofir Raul Grazier's The Cakemaker enjoys a special October 5 screening at Davenport's Figge Art Museum, the 2017 romantic drama also praised by the Los Angeles Times as a work in which "a most fascinating kind of tension results -- an unusual state of affairs that plays fair with the characters, and with us."

A premier autumnal event for fans of all things horror, the 2023 Midwest Monster Film Fest takes over Davenport's Village Theatre on September 23 and 24, this terror- and fun-filled weekend filled with special guests, vendors, live music, a panel discussion, an awards presentation, and scream-ings of more than two dozen features and shorts, among them a full-length creep-out starring famed critic and cult-film aficionado Joe Bob Briggs.

Honestly, it sometimes feels like the only thing getting me though the extended Conjuring Universe, which is now nine films old and counting, is Wikipedia.