Quick Licks: creep-fest CIRCLE, having played L.A., should be arriving on DVD soon

CIRCLE, from the filmmaking team of Michael W. Watkins (director) and Brad  Tiemann (writer) opens with an extremely creepy scene of what appears to be some kind of ritual murder in which most of the victims (a group sitting in a semi-circle) are nearly dead. Then the killer (an even creepier actor named Silas Weir Mitchell) finishes off the last one. Soon we're visiting academia, a local police department, and a mental institution from which said creep has just escaped. All three venues quickly come together, as does this move, which combines family, graduate students, murder, birth, death and DNA into a somewhat suspenseful and interesting tale.

Some of  the details here are simply dumb (that mental institution, its nearly-non-existent rules and silly woman-in-charge, played as well as possible under the circumstances by Gail O'Grady), while the surprises in store -- who is who, and why -- are far too easily and quickly figured out. But the movie does have some merit and a fairly high fright quotient. Plus, there are decent performances (Peter Onorati and Michael DeLuise, as the cops) and an attractive cast -- most of whom exist mainly to provide the bodies that will close the rest of that circle. This film is one of several that are currently screening theatrically, or upcoming on DVD (from Indican Pictures and Redwire Pictures), about which I'll have more to say semi-soon....