John Sayles

Twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures.

A woman and her new husband returns to her hometown roots in coastal northern Florida, and must deal with family, business, and encroaching real estate development. Real estate developers descend upon a sleepy coastal Florida community with the promise of big money and bigger changes. Torn between honoring family obligations and the lure of quick cash, the locals greet the outsiders with a wildly mixed reception. Marly Temple is eager to give in and sell the family business to start over her life. As caretaker of her father's motel and cafe, she has grown resentful of missed opportunities. However, she finds a glimmer of hope in a tentative romance with a visiting landscape architect. Desiree Perry left town many years ago to escape a scandal and make a name for herself as an actress. Reluctantly returning home, she finds her strong willed mother unwilling to let go of the past. —Susan C. Mitchell <susanm@indirect.com> Ambitious land developers descend on a small Florida coastline community, inhabited mostly by local yokels and elderly African Americans. Many of them don't want to see their homes and businesses sacrificed in the name of progress (a.k.a. condos, hotels, strip malls, and so on). But the city council appears to be all too willing to let them come in and develop the land. In addition, one weary hotel owner is thinking about giving in and selling. Meanwhile, one prominent African American athlete suddenly becomes interested in buying out his aging neighbors. So now that the wheels of progress appear to be in motion, it seems that a minor miracle is the only thing that can stop it. —jgp3553@yahoo.com

In an economically devastated Alaskan town, a fisherman with a troublesome past dates a woman whose young daughter does not approve of him. When he witnesses the murder of his shady brother, he, the woman and the kid run to the wilderness. Limbo tells the story of people trying to reinvent themselves in the Southeastern islands of Alaska. The story revolves around Joe Gastineau, a fisherman traumatised by an accident at sea years before, singer Donna de Angelo and her disaffected daughter Noelle who come into Joe's life. When Joe's fast-talking half-brother Bobby returns to town and asks Joe for a favor, the lives of the characters are changed forever. —Anonymous

Two friends try to kick their drug addiction after a friend overdoses. When they try to enroll in a detox program, things quickly go wrong. After a friend overdoses, Spoon and Stretch decide to kick their drug habits and attempt to enroll in a government detox program. Their efforts are hampered by seemingly endless red tape, as they are shuffled from one office to another while being chased by drug dealers and the police. —Andy Bogursky <bogursky@erols.com>

An intersecting tale with a multitude of characters living lives which, in one way or another, revolve around an old apartment block scheduled to be demolished. City of Hope is a portrait of a typical middle-sized American city of the present day. The crux of the story is an old apartment block which stands in the way of a major commercial development. Joe Rinaldi is the building contractor who owns the buildings and is being pressured to torch them to permit the development to occur. His estranged son Nick soon becomes a pawn in the power politics of the city. Corrupt Mayor Baci and policeman O'Brien are determined to push the development, while idealistic city councilman Wynn soon finds himself torn between what he knows is right and what his Black constituents want. —Reid Gagle John Sayles' urban drama follows the intersecting lives of a dozen or more characters as they move through their lives, affect one another without realizing it, and do their best to survive--both within and outside of legality--in the crumbling cityscape of the ironic title. —Susan C. Mitchell <susanm@indirect.com>

Karen White (Dee Wallace) is a popular television anchorwoman. As the film opens, she is part of a sting operation intended to lead to the capture of a serial killer. The murderer, who has been dubbed "Eddie the Mangler" by the press, has developed an obsession with Karen, sending her messages and making phone calls to her. Under police surveillance, Karen agrees to meet with Eddie, much to the concern of her husband, Bill Neill (Christopher Stone). Wearing a hidden microphone, Karen makes her way to an appointed meeting place with Eddie, which turns out to be an adult bookstore. As instructed, she makes her way to the peepshow booths at the back and finds Eddie's booth. Meanwhile, Karen's wire transmitter has stopped functioning, and without her knowledge, she is cut off from the police. They frantically send out an all-points bulletin to track her down. As Karen talks with Eddie, she sits with her back to him and he does not allow her to turn around and look at him. His sexual obsession with her becomes clear, and something about Eddie seems to change. He tells Karen to turn around and she sees something about him that terrifies her. As she breaks away from Eddie, police arrive and fire rounds into the video booth, gunning down Eddie. Outside, reunited with Bill and her colleagues, Karen can remember nothing about what happened inside the booth. Although Karen makes an attempt to return to work after her encounter with Eddie, she finds she is unable to perform when it's time to go on the air, suffering an embarrassing breakdown during the live broadcast. In an endeavor to recover from her severe trauma, Karen visits her psychiatrist, Dr. George Waggner (Patrick Macnee). Waggner is also a well known author, and has written a popular psychology book that likens modern man to wild animals. Waggner decides to send Karen to the Colony, a rural retreat were select patients go to relax and participate into group therapy. Karen and Bill reach the Colony and discover that it is scenic, but the inhabitants are more than a little strange. The isolated forest location makes them feel cut off from the rest of the world, and Karen is disturbed by the strange howling that she hears at night. Karen befriends a woman named Donna (Margie Impert), and the two of them investigate strange animal noises one night to find a deer that's been torn to pieces by some other animal. Back in the city, Karen's colleagues Terry (Belinda Belaski) and Chris (Dennis Dugan), continue their investigation of "Eddie the Mangler". After finding out where Eddie used to be employed, they are able to locate his former apartment, covered in news clippings of his murders. They also find numerous sketches of people and places, one of them being a sketch of Karen. Terry plans on getting Dr. Waggner on board for a news piece she is developing, and Waggner seems surprised that Terry and Chris have uncovered Eddie's last name, which is Quist. Terry and Chris make the connection between Eddie and werewolves due to his drawings, which depict human beings transforming into animals. Investigating this as an angle to their story, they research the history of lycanthropy. A bookstore owner (Dick Miller) informs them about some elements of werewolf lore, including the fact that they cannot be killed by anything except fire or silver bullets. He even shows them a cache of real silver bullets that a customer ordered but never claimed. Following up on this information, Chris and Terry visit the morgue and ask to see Eddie's body, but it is mysteriously missing, and the door to the freezer compartment is severely damaged from the inside. Karen's group therapy sessions are not going well, as she becomes terrified every time she tries to remember what happened in the video booth. Her relationship with Bill is suffering as well, particularly their sex life. One of the Colony residents, a seductive woman named Marsha (Elisabeth Brooks), seems to have designs on Bill. Karen's new friend Donna says Marsha is a nymphomaniac, but Dr. Waggner says Marsha is simply misunderstood. Marsha seems to disagree with the doctor about his theories; she cares for a brother named T.C. (Don McLeod) who seems to be somewhat deficient, and she reacts with hostility when she finds him reading one of Waggner's books. Bill, who is a vegetarian, is pressured by the Colony men into going on a rabbit hunt with them, and he returns with a fresh kill. T.C. tells him to take it to Marsha and she will prepare it; Marsha instead tries putting the moves on Bill, who is obviously attracted to her. Instead, Bill angrily refuses her out of respect for Karen, and leaves her cabin. As he walks back to his own cabin, he is attacked by a large wolf, which pins him down and bites him on the shoulder. Dr. Waggner administers a rabies shot and bandages the wound. After Bill's attack, Karen is even more distressed, and she makes a frantic phone call to Terry and Chris asking them to come to the Colony. Chris sends Terry on her own ahead of him, planning on joining her there later. Karen is relieved to see Terry, telling her all about the strange things she has seen at The Colony. That night, Bill leaves the cabin after Karen falls asleep and meets Marsha in the woods, where they make love by an open campfire. In the middle of their lovemaking in the moonlight, they both have undergone a frightening transformation into werewolves. The next day, Terry goes out on her own, taking photographs and exploring the resort, and she is startled to discover that a particular vista overlooking the ocean from a cliff is the exact image of one of Eddie's sketches. A voice that seems to call her name lures her to Marsha's cabin, which is now deserted, and while Terry is taking pictures, a raging beast attacks the cabin, unseen by Terry. It chases her from room to room, breaking through each door, until she leaps from a window, injuring her ankle. She climbs inside a basement room for shelter but the beast corners her there, reaching inside with limbs that seem both animal and human. Terry seizes a Swedish carpenter's axe and amputates its hand, and it escapes, howling in pain. Terry watches in horror as the wolflike hand morphs into a human hand. Terry rushes to Waggner's office, finding it deserted. She phones Chris and tells him about how she was attacked, and how Eddie's drawings are of real places at the Colony. She is convinced that Waggner must be in on whatever is going on, and with Chris on the phone, she begins to go through Waggner's files. Terry finds a series of folders labeled Quist, one for Eddie, Marsha and T.C., but before she can look at them, she is confronted by a huge wolflike creature that kills her while Chris listens helplessly on the phone. Panicked, Chris rushes to the bookstore and buys the silver bullets from the shop owner, then rushes to The Colony. Karen has a fight with Bill about the fact that he left the cabin in the middle of the night, and she knows he went to meet Marsha, especially when she sees him without his shirt and realizes he has long scratches on his back. Bill slaps Karen across the face and she leaves the cabin in a fury, taking her bag and going over to Dr. Waggner's office. She finds nobody there, but an examination table is set up with somebody lying on it. She pulls back the curtain and discovers Terry's body, the throat torn out and bloody. Karen is horrified, and suddenly she is confronted with Eddie, in human form. He speaks menacingly to her, angry that she tricked him by arriving with police. "I'm going to give you a piece of my mind," he says, and pulls a bullet out of his forehead. In a long montage, we see Eddie transform from a man into a werewolf. Karen watches in shock, but she finds a bottle of acid and hurls it into Eddie's face, scarring him and allowing her to escape. Chris arrives at Waggner's office shortly after the attack and is confronted by Eddie, who seizes Chris' rifle. Eddie is in human form again, but now hideously scarred from the acid attack. He replays Chris a cassette recording of Terry's murder, relishing her screams, and dares Chris to shoot him with the rifle. Of course Eddie does not realize it is loaded with silver bullets, and he dies when Chris shoots him. Chris meets up with Karen and they try and escape, but they're stopped by the colonists, who take them back to the main meeting barn. Inside is Terry's body, surrounded by all of the colonists, who are all werewolves. Karen is dismayed to realize that even Waggner is a werewolf, and that they plan to kill both herself and Chris. However, Chris still has the rifle, and he begins to shoot the werewolves. They soon realize that the gun is loaded with silver, and they begin to panic, transforming into wolf form and retreating from Chris back into the barn. Chris bolts them inside and together, Karen and Chris pour gasoline all around the barn and set it on fire. Inside, they can hear werewolves screaming in agony as they are burned alive. As they try and escape, they are confronted by more werewolves who try and stop them, but they make it to their car. In one last attack, a werewolf lunges through the back window of the car and bites Karen on the shoulder. They shoot it and it morphs back into human form--it is her husband Bill. Karen says sobbing "We have to warn people, Chris. We have to make them believe." Some time after the ordeal, Karen is ready to return to her news anchor position. She speaks kindly to her colleagues and is introduced to give a news report about her experience at the Colony; the blaze killed many people there, and has made headlines. Karen begins by veering from the approved script that appears on the teleprompter; people think she is having another breakdown, but Chris insists that Karen be allowed to continue. Karen tells the live audience that there is a secret society among them of shapeshifters, and that she has experienced it firsthand. She calls for everybody to aware of the threat, and in a final action, she announces that she will offer proof of her story. Karen begins transforming into a werewolf on live television, and people in the viewing audience give mixed reactions. Some people think it is a movie, while others think it's simply a hoax. After Karen is fully transformed, she looks sadly at Chris, who shoots her with a silver bullet, gunning down her. Watching from a tavern, one man announces that it was real, that Karen really did morph into a werewolf and they shot her. Also sitting at the bar is Marsha, who has obviously escaped the blaze, along with other werewolves. The cycle will continue.

David (Roger Richman) and Barbara (Janie Squire) are two young backpackers who happen upon a military post that seems to be abandoned. They discover a large man-made reservoir and decide to go skinny dipping. Within minutes they are attacked and consumed by some underwater presence, their death screams attracting the attention of somebody still inside the military facility. Maggie (Heather Menzies-Urich as Heather Menzies) is an investigator hired by Barbara's parents to find their daughter and her companion. With financing from her employer Earl (Richard Deacon), Maggie travels to the mountainous area where the two were last seen, and she seeks out the cabin of Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman). Paul is a backwoods type who lives in a log cabin with his young daughter, who is away at summer camp. Maggie convinces him to take her to the military facility, and they discover the pond. Paul notices that the water is salty. Exploring the buildings of the complex, they find a laboratory with numerous strange animals, including a bizarre, lizard-like creation. Maggie decides that it's possible that David and Barbara drowned in the pond, and she takes the initiative to drain the pond to find out. She flips the switch, and suddenly they are confronted by a white-haired man (Kevin McCarthy) who lurches at them in a panic, trying to shut off the drain switch. In the melee, he is knocked unconscious. Paul and Maggie go outside to the empty pond and find the bones of David and Barbara caught in the drain. When the mysterious man attempts to steal Maggie's jeep, he crashes it and injures himself even more. Taking him down to Paul's cabin for the night, the man rambles on about 'razorteeth' and that they are all in danger. The next morning, Paul and Maggie load the man onto Paul's homemade log raft and they set out downstream to take him to town. When he awakens, he reveals that he is Dr. Hoak, and he explains that Paul and Maggie have done something terrible. The pond contained a breed of mutant piranha, which Hoak had been developing for use in the Vietnam War. After the war, the military pulled the plug on the operation, but Hoak remained and continued experimenting with the piranha at the facility after it was closed down. The piranha begin to claim victims immediately. Paul's friend, Jack (Keenan Wynn), dies when the piranha chew off his feet while he sits on the edge of a dock; he crawls away and bleeds to death. Downstream, a father and son are out fishing on the river; the father is killed while trying to fix the outboard engine from under the boat when he is pulled under the water and eaten alive. The boy clings to the capsized boat, but it is gradually sinking into the water. Paul, Maggie, and Hoak come upon the scene and the doctor leaps into the water to save the boy. He manages to lift the child onto the raft, but the piranha attack him. Paul and Maggie pull him out of the water, but his wounds are too severe and he dies before he can offer them any advice about how to stop the killer fish. Paul is especially concerned about reaching the summer camp where his daughter, Suzie (Shannon Collins), is located. The camp is downriver from the piranha, and it is only a matter of time before the fish reach it. There is also a new resort further down the river that is about to open for business. Grogan and Maggie make frantic phone calls to both places, but their warnings are dismissed as fiction. Eventually, the military gets wind of the piranha and they send Dr. Mengers (Barbara Steele) with a group of soldiers to investigate. At first, Mengers denies the piranha exist, but Maggie soon realizes that Mengers and Dr. Hoak were once lovers, and Mengers represents the military's desire to cover up the incident. The soldiers confine Maggie and Paul to their camp, imprisoning them and refusing to let Paul contact his daughter. Maggie and Paul escape the camp, but they are detained by the local police before they can get anybody to listen to them. Paul manages to contact the head counselor at the camp, Mr. Dumont (Paul Bartel), but he dismisses Paul's message due to his reputation of being an alcoholic. Maggie and Paul manage to break out of jail by subduing the officer who is left to watch them and escape in his squad car. The next day, the piranha attack the summer camp. Suzie, who is afraid of the water, is hiding on the shore when the other kids and counselors begin to panic in the water. Suzie bravely tries to rescue her two friends, counselors Betsy (Belinda Balaski) and Laura (Melody Thomas Scott (as Melody Thomas)) by rowing out onto the lake in a rubber raft. She collects Laura, but Betsy falls into the water and is consumed by the piranha. Paul and Maggie arrive at the camp too late, but after ensuring that Suzie is alright, they race off to the resort. The owner Buck Gardner (Dick Miller) refuses to answer their phone calls (under the advice of Dr. Mengers and her commanding officer who is there), but eventually the piranha attack and mass casualties result as dozens of people are wounded or eaten alive by the vicious fish. Mengers' superior is one of the casualties when he falls in the water as people cling onto a ferry boat and he is eaten alive along with several others. During the drive in the stolen police car, Paul remembers that the water in the test pond was salty, but the water in the rivers is fresh water. They conclude that Hoak had bred the piranha to survive in either salt or freshwater, hence if the piranha reach the ocean, they will contaminate the world's waterways, and probably the oceans as well. Paul and Maggie arrive at the resort and commandeer a speedboat to take them down the lake. Paul plans to poison the fish with pollution from a nearby sewage plant, but when they reach the plant by boat, it is now underwater, having been flooded. Paul intends to swim for it, tying a rope around his waist and instructing Maggie to take off if he has not surfaced within two minutes. He swims down to the plant and manages to get inside, opening up the tanks containing the raw sewage, but the piranha approach and attack him. Maggie finishes her countdown and takes off, pulling Paul to safety. Paul is wounded and in shock, but alive. He is tended to by Maggie and Suzy at the resort as the military and other medics tend to dozens of dead and wounded people. As the film closes, Dr. Mengers speaks to the media, assuring everyone that there is nothing left to fear of the piranha who have been killed by the sewage waste at the edge of the lake. But, the open-ended question leaves the end up in the air: have the piranha really reached the ocean as was once feared?