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Hello and welcome to another edition of future Pulitzer-winning series New in Cairo Cinemas: What to Expect From This Week’s New Film Releases. This week, boys and girls, we have one of the year’s most controversial and anticipated films of 2017, the week’s dose of horror and an erotic thriller that has something of the Single White Female vibe about it. Sounds ever so fun, right? Without further ado, here’s what to expect. 

Ghost in the Shell

What’s it About? It seems like Hollywood is running out of fresh ideas; since the beginning of this year, we’ve been blessed with remakes and adaptations, from Beauty and the Beast, to Power Rangers and now Ghost in the Shell – an adaptation/remake of the famous 1995 Japanese anime. The film follows a half-human-half-machine policewoman who, along with her partner, hunts down a a dangerous hacker.

Why it Might Be Good: We sought a way to drop the hint candidly but to no avail, so let us just admit that Scarlett Johansson is one of the main attractions of this version of Ghost in the shell; she’s hot and she’s a good actress. Speaking of good actors, the cast also includes Michael Pitt, who starred in The Dreamers and Murder by Numbers. 

Why it Might Be Bad: We regret telling you this, but 2017’s Ghost in the Shell might be a masterpiece knockoff, in which the makers have adjusted a couple of ingredients, to make it more digestible for the average moviegoer.  And, of course, anime fans, don’t even try to watch it.

Unforgettable 

What’s it About? Described by its makers as an ‘erotic thriller’, Unforgettable tells of a recently divorced woman not only coping with the end of her marriage, but with her ex-husband getting engaged. How does she cope? Well, she doesn’t. Things take a turn for the pathological and all kinds of crazy stalker-lie behaviour ensues.

Why it Might Be Good: How good this film is depends almost completely on the two female leads, Rosario Dawson and Katherine Heigl. Dawson is an underrated talent who hasn’t quite been able to break through into Hollywood’s elite, but always does well with the wholesome victim role. Heigl on the other hand does ‘crazy’ surprisingly well.

Why it Might Be Bad? The words ‘erotic’ and ‘thriller’ are never a good sign. How erotic can a film like this possibly be? Does it need to be sexualised? Because the basic premise works without any eroticism whatsoever. And if there scenes of an erotic nature, then expect censors to edit the film into oblivion.

Eloise

What’s it About? Four idiots, sorry, ‘people’, break into an old, abandoned insane asylum in search for a death certificate that will get one of them a huge inheritance. Naturally, the search for the certificate turns into a fight for survival as they discover that there’s much more pressing things lurking within. 

Why it Might Be Good: Hmm, this is a tough one. Well, Eloise marks the directorial debut of three-time Oscar-winning special effects wizard, Robert Legato, who has worked on the likes of Titanic, Hugo, Apollo 13 and The Jungle Book. So there’s that. But horror fans might enjoy the inevitable string of jump scares. 

Why it Might Be Bad? It’s been universally panned and you can understand why. It’s been described as been so bad that it invites sympathy by one review, while other criticism levelled at it has mostly revolved around the fact that its bland and unoriginal. 

Stay tuned for all the info you need for this week’s new films with the Cairo 360 Cinema Guide – showing times, cinema locations, reviews and more.