Many a teleplay for The Twilight Zone threatened atomic Armageddon, and though Frontier(s) director Xavier Gens nukes New York in the opening shots of his latest thriller, he finds more inspiration in the horrors of human nature as seen in the old TV show's episode "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." Too bad he lacks Rod Serling's genius for delicious irony. Mind you, there are tasty touches to be had (if you're up for some ham and cheese), beginning with a cascade of missiles raining on Manhattan reflected in the eyes of Eva (Lauren German) before she's swept along by panicked neighbors into their building's bunker-like basement — setting of the physical, psychological, and sexual atrocities to come. Of course, even before the line "Nobody, but nobody, eats Bobby's penis" is uttered, it's clear this group (including Rosanna Arquette, Milo Ventimiglia, and James Cameron regular Michael Biehn) wasn't the most stable to begin with. Hey, they're New Yorkers.
