Characters are frequently urged to "release the beast" in "The Purge," a high-concept home-invasion shocker set in a future where one night a year, all crime is legal. But what should be a clammy exercise in claustrophobic, queasy tension becomes, in the hands of writer/director James DeMonaco, an underpowered compendium of over-familiar scare tactics and sledgehammer-subtle social satire. The intriguingly nightmarish premise may well rustle up a decent opening weekend for a picture that comes with the imprimatur of producer Michael Bay before the lukewarm word of mouth hastens its trip to DVD and VOD.

You spend time and money to create a nice home. How can you protect it from intruders without it costing a fortune? It’s easier than you think.

They were 12 ordinary citizens who didn't oppose the death penalty. But unlike spectators outside the courthouse who followed the case like a daytime soap opera and jumped to demand Jodi Arias' execution, the jurors faced a decision that was wrenching and real, with implications that could haunt them forever.

Jurors who spent five months determining Jodi Arias’ fate couldn’t decide whether she should get life in prison or die for murdering her boyfriend, sending prosecutors back to the drawing board to rehash the shocking case of sex, lies and violence to another 12 people.

Jodi Arias asked jurors Tuesday to give her life in prison, saying she "lacked perspective" when she told a local reporter in an interview that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in jail.

Complaining that Jodi Arias' sensational murder case has become a modern-day "witch trial," her lawyers tried to quit in the middle of the death-penalty phase Monday, then said they will call only one witness: Arias.

Jodi Arias was convicted of first-degree murder Wednesday in the gruesome killing of her one-time boyfriend in Arizona after a four-month trial that captured headlines with lurid tales of sex, lies, religion and a salacious relationship that ended in a blood bath.

The Jodi Arias murder trial has drawn international attention for its graphic tales of sex and lies. The following is a timeline of some of the key events in the case:

It has become a real-life soap opera watched by people around the world and dozens of fanatics who camp out on a Phoenix sidewalk in the middle of the night to get into the show. One seat even sold for $200.

A prosecutor on Thursday portrayed Jodi Arias as a manipulative liar who stalked her ex-boyfriend and killed him in grisly fashion before courting the media spotlight in her sensational murder case.

As Jodi Arias' trial wraps up this week after four months of testimony, her fate rests in part on the testimony of expert witnesses who have offered up one clinical diagnosis after another for the small-town waitress and aspiring photographer from California to explain why she killed her lover five years ago.

Screening the film adaptation of George Orwell’s “1984” isn’t exactly the most festive way to celebrate one’s upcoming birthday, but after reading the Tribune’s “Nerdvana” column’s recommending it this coming Friday, I couldn’t help but reserve a seat.

An ex-girlfriend of the man Jodi Arias says she killed in self-defense testified Tuesday that with her, the victim was never physically or verbally abusive.

Jodi Arias' defense attorney on Thursday attacked the credibility and findings of a prosecution witness who said the defendant wasn't a battered woman and doesn't suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or amnesia.

Defense attorneys in Jodi Arias' murder trial rested their case Tuesday after about 2 1/2 months of testimony aimed at portraying the defendant as a victim of domestic violence who was forced to fight for her life on the day she killed her one-time boyfriend.

I’ve heard quite a bit lately about how “our grandpa and grandma’s guns don’t cut it anymore.”

The prosecutor in Jodi Arias' murder trial worked Tuesday to portray the defendant as a manipulative liar who "liked to play the victim" as he questioned a defense witness' contention that Arias suffered domestic abuse at the hands of the one-time boyfriend she has admitted to killing.

The prosecutor in Jodi Arias' murder trial spent Monday trying to undermine the credibility of a defense witness who testified the defendant was a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of the victim.

The judge in Jodi Arias' murder case on Thursday denied a defense motion to order jurors sequestered for the remainder of the trial during a bizarre week when one panelist was removed and videos emerged of Arias' parents telling authorities she has mental problems.

The Jodi Arias murder trial became even more of a spectacle Thursday as defense attorneys argued that the prosecutor committed misconduct by signing autographs and posing for pictures with fans outside court.

Jurors in Jodi Arias' murder trial paid close attention to an expert witness who diagnosed her with post-traumatic stress disorder and amnesia as many of the panel's questions Thursday focused on specific details of his evaluation and how he could come to any conclusions relying on Arias' repeated lies.

A prosecutor in Jodi Arias' murder trial is targeting a defense expert's credibility and the psychologist's diagnoses that she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Jodi Arias' murder trial resumes as a defense expert witness explains how she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and amnesia.

A spider crawls up the leg of 18-year-old India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska) early in Park Chan-wook's English-language debut, "Stoker," and she regards it passively, intrigued.