Like I said before, each night of the festival had its departure from the straight up scary monsters, psycho killers, drugs, sex and gore genre conventions in order to do something different with mood or pacing or psychology. The third night’s The Hamiltons surpassed the previous entries by combining that departure with the genre conventions and proving, as happens every so often, that a horror movie can be genuinely good in its own right, not just when measured against others of its type.

The titular family is composed of four siblings making their way in the world after their parents died recently and unexplainedly. David runs the household, though it’s clear he is not very well respected by twins Wendell and Darlene, who mostly seem to live their lives for the pleasure of the moment. And youngest brother Francis is still in school, trying to find his place in the world and trying to understand the place his siblings occupy as well. Because despite how slice of life this all sounds, the early revelation that Wendell kidnaps girls and stores them in the basement turns things on its head. The additional knowledge that everyone in the family is aware of this little secret (and that only Francis disapproves) and that the house has a mysterious fifth resident named Lenny, hidden away behind a different locked door deeper in the basement serves to change it into… well, I suppose you could still call it slice of life, but with an added, slyly macabre definition of the phrase.

Clearly, all these questions about whether nature or nurture rules sway over people and whether family is more important than external morality serve to get in the way of the story, from a drive-in perspective. But at the same time, allowing a movie that has multiple moments of genuine horror to tackle real issues in a thoughtful manner, well, that’s rare enough that I’m willing to let it slide, since the questions didn’t overshadow the story. One breast. Five bodies. Face-chewing. Lead pipe to the noggin. Red Cross fu. Drive-in academy award nominations to Kitty, for triple-daring the twins to make out during a homemade game of Truth or Dare, then saying, “I win. You guys won’t do my dare!”, and then letting her smile slip by confused degrees when she realizes that she didn’t win anything at all, as well as to Kitty’s cousin for his bit part as self-proclaimed security guard of the year. Four stars. I’m going to have to get this one on DVD, too.