We’re heading into the final weeks of October, so that means horror movie season. First up is “The Grudge,” which, like “The Ring,” tries to capitalize on the success of a Japanese film remade for Western audiences. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays an exchange student in Tokyo who stumbles upon a cursed house and the malevolent forces that possess it.

Also opening in Lawrence, finally, is “Shaun of the Dead.” Simon Pegg stars as a slacker who is jarred from his routine when a zombie plague hits London in this hybrid of horror flick and romantic comedy.

In “Surviving Christmas,” Ben Affleck portrays an obnoxious Chicago ad exec whose depression at spending Christmas alone causes him to rent a family for the holidays.

And at the art house, there’s “I Heart Huckabees.” “Rushmore’s” Jason Schwartzman plays a disillusioned do-gooder who hires a husband-and-wife team of existentialist detectives to investigate the meaning of his life and his crusade against a chain of retail stores.

Hey, that sounds just like my experience with Wal-Mart.

I’m Jon Niccum with Screen Scene.

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