Horror Weekly

We’ve got another mostly random mix this time around. We’ll start off with the weird BDSM-gone-wrong film, “Bight” from 2026. We’ll then watch Seven Samurai— no, “Seven Cemeteries” from 2024. We’ll force ourselves to watch the infamous “Troll 2,” finish up the franchise with “Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud,” and then continue our big lizard coverage with “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla.”All this as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #53, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 Bight* Directed by: Maiara Walsh* Written by: Cameron Cowperthwaite, Maiara Walsh* Stars: Cameron Cowperthwaite, Mark Hapka, Maya Stojan* Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneTwo artsy couples get together for an evening of bondage, photography, sex, and emotional exploration. It takes a while, but it does eventually get to some horror-adjacent elements. It’s more of a drama thriller though, and it’s quite good. It wasn’t quite what either of us expected.Spoilery SynopsisTwo people hug in the shower as they wash blood off each other’s bodies. Credits roll.Charlie gets a call from her boss, Ariana, and she’s not happy. Her artist boyfriend, Atticus, works in the living room. The couple is not getting along very well. They’re going to Sebastian’s party, but neither of them want to go to this one.Turns out, this party is just for them. Sebastian and Naomi have invited only Charlie and Atticus. Charlie keeps getting texts as the men talk about photography. Charlie and Atticus argue some more, and then we see that Sebastian and Naomi aren’t getting along so well either.Sebastian gets all pretentious during dinner and we get a flashback to the last time the four got together; it was an orgy. This time, he wants to use his two guests as nude models. Charlie is all in, but Atticus doesn’t want to participate; they’ve done this before, and he doesn’t want to repeat last time. They decide to go for it.Sebastian puts something in everyone’s tea. He explains the rules of his work with ropes and then everyone splits up to get ready. Naomi ties Atticus’s hands behind his back as the drugs start to kick in. Soon, they’re both bound up, naked, with ropes, and Sebastian starts to take pictures. Naomi, in the meantime, covers them with red paint.Neither Charlie nor Atticus are really into this, and both are really uncomfortable, but it’s hard to argue with Sebastian. As they all take a break, Sebastian gets with Charlie, while Naomi goes for Atticus.We then cut to a bedroom scene with Atticus tied up on the floor and Naomi suspended by ropes from the ceiling above them. Sebastian has sex with Charlie as the other two watch in restraints. Naomi wants to be released, and Sebastian says no way; he’s punishing her for having sex with Atticus. This is all some kind of elaborate revenge plot by Sebastian against the cheaters. When Atticus realizes Naomi drugged him, he urges Sebastian to spin her ropes some more.Charlie has seen enough and wants to leave, so Sebastian just knocks her out. He puts her in a gas mask and ties her up. He then cuts Naomi’s throat and lets her bleed all over Atticus, who is still tied up beneath her.As Sebastian menaces Charlie, Atticus breaks out of his ropes and intervenes. In the struggle, Sebastian gets stabbed numerous times with a box cutter and then strangled with a rope.Atticus apologizes to Charlie and unties her. The two of them then clean up the mess. Then when they get to their car in the morning they have wild sex; their romance has rekindled.Some time later, at one of Atticus’s art shows, he reveals his new works; at least in his mind, Sebastian is still with him.Brian’s CommentaryBight: a loop of rope, as distinct from the rope’s ends.This film looks great. It’s colorful and is very interestingly shot. The dialogue is clunky and pretentious, but the characters are all “artists,” so that’s probably just realism.It took a very long time to get to anything that might be considered horror, but it did get there eventually.It’s weird, a little dull and draggy in the first half, but overall, I liked it.Kevin’s CommentaryThe bight/bite play on words is clever.It flowed along with a lot of talk, and then it got realer than I expected when Sebastian stepped things up a bit. All in all, it wasn’t what I expected, and I liked it quite a bit.What a way to rekindle your relationship.2024 Seven Cemeteries* Directed by: John Gulager* Written by: John Gulager, Joel Soisson* Stars: Danny Trejo, Sal Lopez, Samantha Ashley* Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThe plot is simple. A recent parolee gets a Mexican witch to resurrect his old posse so that they can help him save a woman’s ranch from a ruthless drug lord. So it’s an action crime drama with magic and lots of dark humor. We both thought it was really good.Spoilery SynopsisIn Diablo County, Texas, men come to an isolated ranch, and Matteo, the man who lives there, grabs his gun. The old man in the car wants to buy the farm, and he’s not going to take no for an answer. That goes really bad for Matteo.We cut to Santana Bravo, being released from prison, where he’s been since 1973, as credits roll. We’re told he was falsely accused of murder and spent 41 years in prison. He goes to Diablo County and goes to that same ranch for a job from Matteo. Matteo’s wife, Carmela, wants to hire him for protection from the old Abuelo.Sheriff Jake shows up, and oddly, all their body cameras aren’t working. He marches Bravo out into the field, and shoots him in the back three times.Bravo wakes up some time later in the home of a bruja, an enchantress, and her husband, Miguelito is a zombie. She also wants him to stand up to Abuelo. Back in the day, Abuelo killed Bravo’s wife. He became a legend in the region for standing up to Abuelo back in ‘73. He’s old now, and not up to the fight anymore. She says he “needs a crew” and can make one by standing over a grave and bleeding.Bravo goes off to do the job, and he takes Miguelito with him. Miguel explains what it’s like to be dead, and he doesn’t mind it too much. They head to cemetery number one and Bravo cuts himself and bleeds into the grave. His blood explodes dramatically, and when the fire clears, dead Eugene is back, out of the grave, awake, and not too happy to be there.At the next cemetery, they wake up another corpse, Tommy LaSorda. Tommy and Eugene don’t get along, and they wreck their truck. They quickly manage to steal another one. They all drive to another cemetery and dig up Quasimodo, the dead professional wrestler and his girlfriend Delores, both buried in their luchadore costumes.At the fifth cemetery, they wake up Stickface, a homicidal hockey player.Meanwhile, back at the farm, Camela and her mother get ready for a fight when Abuelo returns in the morning. Sheriff Jake and his men arrive in force, and they want trouble. Jake is the first to die in the ensuing fire fight.Then the dead arrive and mess up the killers. They are not gentle, and there’s some great carnage. Carmela is a little surprised to find Bravo with an army of zombies who all introduce themselves. “One problem at a time,” she tells her elderly mother.As everyone gets set working to reinforce the house, Quasimodo sings to Delores. They learn that there are tunnels under the farm that leads across the border.Hector reports to El Abuelo about their defeat at the ranch earlier in the morning, and the old man is not happy. El Abuelo then grabs Miguel and plays the accordion for him. Miguel doesn’t torture well. He warns Abuelo that the others are “Way less chill.” Then they put him through a wood chipper.At cemetery number six, Bravo and Carmela visit Matteo’s grave. They talk about Guadalupe, Bravo’s long-dead wife.The bad guys grab the bruja and drop her off at the ranch. She’s wearing a big bomb, the same way Abuelo killed Guadalupe many years ago. She goes boom, and the zombies are not pleased. Bravo’s got nothing to offer them now; he had promised that the bruja would restore them to real life, but that’s not gonna happen now. That’s OK, as they all want revenge now.The baddies return with missiles, and they blow up Stickface. The gang heads down to the cellar and the tunnels to head for Mexico. All the zombies want to blow up the tunnels and bury themselves to save Bravo, Carmela, and the old lady.Bravo is killed anyway, but Carmela’s mother revives him. When they get to the other side of the tunnel, Abuelo is waiting for them. The old man gets the drop on them, but then, out of nowhere, Miguel’s severed hand crawls up the old man’s pants and does bad things to him. Bravo and Carmela finish him off.At cemetery number seven, Bravo reburies all his zombie friends. Bravo and Mihuel’s hand walk off to have further adventures.Brian’s CommentaryThis is great, it pokes fun at westerns, Mexican wrestlers, revenge films, zombie tropes, and everything else it can throw in. Mostly, though, it follows the basic plot of “Seven Samurai.” It’s more comedy than horror, but it’s about zombies, so there’s that. Danny Trejo’s getting a little old to be doing physical stunts and violence, but as the leader of the group, he does well here. The array of dead characters is fun, especially Lew Temple as Tommy Lasorda.Kevin’s CommentaryI thought the humor in this was excellent. The script is very good, taking an old idea and adding the element of the undead to liven it up. I’d say it was my favorite Danny Trejo movie that I’ve seen.2007 Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud* Directed by: Michal Hurst* Written by: Michael Hurst* Stars: Lance Henriksen, Rob Freeman, Amy Manson* Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneWhen a young McCoy loves a young Hatfield, their family feud works to keep them apart. When a younger McCoy is killed, it’s revenge time! Which in these parts means it’s time for Pumpkinhead again. Th

We watched the original “Anaconda” (1997) film a couple of years ago, but this week, we’re completing the series.We’ll start off this time with the second film, “Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid” (2004), then the two real sequels, “Anaconda 3: Offspring” (2008) and “Anaconda: Trail of Blood” (2009). Then we’ll watch last year’s Chinese remake, “Anaconda” (2024). Lastly, we’ll watch the recently-released mostly-comedy, “Anaconda” (2025).All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #53, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2004 Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid* Director: Dwight H. Little* Writers: Hans Bauer, Jim Cash* Stars: Morris Chestnut, KaDee Strickland, Eugene Byrd* Runtime: 97 minutes* YouTube Trailer Link:Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneWhen a pharmaceutical company gets information on an orchid that only blooms for a limited time, only grows in Borneo, and could have incredible medical uses, a group goes off on an expedition to collect some. As the title hints, there are big snakes in the mix. And human mistakes and greed. It’s not a great film, but it’s well put together and managed to entertain us both.Spoilery SynopsisAs credits roll, we open on some jungle people hunting a tiger, or maybe it’s hunting them. The tiger might be the least of these guys’ problems, as a giant anaconda eats them instead.In the big city, Gordon is about to lose his pharmaceutical company for lack of performance. Jack explains about the blood orchid, a plant in Borneo that’s extremely rare and might be able to extend human life indefinitely. The orchid is only in bloom for another two weeks, so they need to hurry to Borneo and find some more.In Borneo, there’s trouble with the charter boat; no one will go upriver until the rainy season ends… in three weeks. There’s one guy who will do it; Gordon, Gail, and Jack go into a seedy bar and find Bill Johnson, who wants fifty thousand for the journey. Ben, Cole, Tran, and some other characters introduce themselves at the docks the next day. There’s some banter and hijinks as we get to know the characters a little.Bill’s little monkey pet takes a side quest and runs into trouble. They can hear the screams on the boat. In the morning, they all wonder where the monkey went.Gail falls overboard and runs into a crocodile. Bill shows us that he’s a badass and fights it. We see, but the characters don’t, as the anaconda eats the whole dead crocodile. Also, the not-so-dead monkey comes back for an unexpected jump scare.Because of the rainy season, the river is flooded, and debris jams the propellers; now they’re headed towards a waterfall in the broken boat. There’s literally no possible way the boat could survive going over the waterfall, and we were pleasantly surprised that it didn’t. With everyone in the water, we see the snake again, but it doesn’t get anyone.Bill has a plan to hike to a place where they can be rescued. It only involves a short walk through the jungle. Bill calls his friend John to come and pick them up at a rendezvous point. The group then has to walk through a flooded region, and we see the snake is right alongside them. When the snake reveals itself and eats Ben, everyone sees it.Bill says that was the largest he’s ever seen, a real freak of nature. Fortunately, they’re very territorial, so there won’t be another one for miles. Gail calls off the expedition, but Jack and Gordon refuse to stop. They all argue about how much is riding on this expedition. Cole is the “We’re all gonna die” guy, and he gets annoying fast. He shuts up when he finds leeches all over his body.Meanwhile, at the boat, John is attacked by the anaconda and crashes the boat. The group finds the wreckage and manages to salvage a few things. Tran mentions that maybe they can find help with a nearby tribe of headhunters. When they find John’s body, Bill explains how anacondas spit up their food, also how they all congregate during mating season, so there may be more than just one.They come to the tribe’s camp and it smells bad. There’s a dead anaconda there with half a man hanging out of it. The villagers are all gone now. Jack figures out that these anacondas are so big because they’ve been eating the orchids and have become immortal: they may never stop growing.Jack unleashes a poison spider on Gordon, who tries to use the sat phone to call for help. Jack doesn’t want to quit just yet. The snake shows up and eats Gordon, who is too paralyzed to fight back. Jack then steals the raft while everyone’s distracted.The others try to follow Jack on foot, and naturally, they get separated. Tran gets eaten, but Sam beheads the snake. Whoops- another sneak jumps out and grabs Cole, who miraculously survives.Jack, Meanwhile, heads downriver and finds his orchids. The others soon catch up, and they all know what Jack did. The flowers are surrounded by baby anacondas, and Sam is forced to retrieve them. There’s a struggle over the bag of flowers and Jack is bitten by one of those spiders and falls into the nest. The snakes are all so distracted by eating him that Sam escapes.Bill shoots a flare gun, and the whole rain-soaked hillside explodes, burying the nest, the flowers, and everything else. Bill, Sam, Cole, and Gail all laugh at their luck as they row the raft further downstream.Brian’s CommentaryIt’s got a very “TV Movie” vibe to it, but it was, in fact, a theatrical release. It’s also the last film in the franchise to focus mostly on practical effects, but there’s still plenty of CGI going on.The story is very predictable, and you know how it’s all going to play out. Still, it’s nicely paced, the characters are distinctive, and it more or less all makes sense.It’s not great, but it’s entertaining if you like big CGI snakes.Kevin’s CommentaryI was bracing myself for awfulness and was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t too bad. Quite entertaining in fact. The use of CGI is heavy and obvious, but the story moves well and the cast does a decent job. Watching it was a pleasurable experience.2008 Anaconda 3: Offspring* Director: Don E. FauntLeRoy* Writers: Nicholas Davidoff, David C. Olson* Stars: David Hasselhoff, Crystal Allen, Ryan McCluskey, Patrick Regis, John Rhys-Davies, Anthony Green.* Runtime: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes* YouTube Trailer Link: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThe blood orchid from the previous movie only works on snakes, and works very well, in the lab - which they bust out of. The company wants to keep it quiet, so a team of expendables are sent to retrieve them. It’s watchable, but pretty low effort and mediocre. The sequels are not heading the right direction in quality.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on four men walking through the woods (it doesn’t look like the jungle), and there’s a big snake crawling through the trees above them. Suddenly, they’re attacked by the snake, and there’s a lot of shooting. Credits roll.Mr. Murdoch listens to a report on the testing of a new drug that had horrible results. He tells Pinkus that PETA has been complaining about the company and the leak that told them about it. They have a queen anaconda in their lab. They’ve been working on blood orchid extract, and it seems to be working, but only in snakes right now; it’s lethal in humans.They’re experiments with the serum have made aggressive giant snakes. Amanda Hayes is the herpetologist of the facility, and she wants bigger, stronger cages. She picks up right away that Murdoch is dying and wants the serum to live longer.The big snake breaks through the glass and kills a technician. The base goes on lockdown as the snake disappears. It bites the head off a security guard on the way to the queen. Amanda goes to the main lab, but the queen is now gone. The snakes were smart enough to break out. Murdoch orders Pinkus and Grozny to take control of the situation.We cut to Hammett, the guy we saw in the opening scene, selling rhino horns on the black market. We see that he’s a badass even without the wild animals. Pinkus calls him to hunt the snake. The ragtag collection of diverse caricatures heads off to hunt the snake.Elsewhere, a farmer has some misadventures and finds himself inside a snake. The team shows up, searches, and Grozny is impaled. Everyone blasts the snake with machine guns, but nothing stops the snake.Amanda and Pinkus come face to face with the huge snake. Hammett finally shows up and immediately explains a plan and starts giving orders. There’s an extended chase scene through the woods. Victor and Sofia don’t last long against the snake. Amanda escapes but then has a flashback to all the people she’s watched die.Everyone comes to the conclusion that Amanda knows more than she’s telling. She admits that they messed with the snake’s DNA and it got a little… mutated. Also, the queen is pregnant and will be giving birth very soon. The offspring will be useful in developing the health serum. But they all know that would be bad news for the country if they are allowed to live free.The snakes arrive, and Pinkus dies. Hammett calls the local army guy and asks for backup, but he’s clearly not into that and might have faked the call. The snakes, meanwhile, slither into the local lake that’s really near the town.Amanda and Nick follow the snake into an old factory, and there’s a lot of hide-and-seek. It finds Nick first, but he feeds it a grenade. That’s one dead snake, but the queen is still out there.We cut back to Murdoch, who’s on the phone with someone we don’t know, making some kind of plan.Hammett shoots Andre in the back and holds Amanda at gunpoint; he wants those baby snakes - he’s been promised 10 million bucks for one. He and Amanda fight, but he doesn’t see the big snake behind him until it’s too late, or her knife stabbing him in the belly. Amanda throws a bomb at Hammett, the queen, and the baby snakes. The bomb blows up everything as Amanda walks back to the car.Murdoch’

Two new films and a handful of weird oldies. We’ll open with “Grizzly Night,” a new dramatization of a true event. Also, we’ll take a look at the sci-fi “Merge” which hopefully isn’t based on true events. We’ll continue looking at the Pumpkinhead series with “Ashes to Ashes” and then the really old “It Came From Beneath the Sea” from way back in 1955. Lastly, Godzilla Returns with “Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack” from 2001.All this as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #52, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 Grizzly Night* Directed by: Burke Doeren* Written by: Bo Bean, Katrina Mathewson, Tanner Bean* Stars: Charles Esten, Oded Fehr, Brec Bassinger* Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIn August 1967 in Glacier National Park, Montana, there were two fatal attacks by two different grizzly bears. Here they have milked this story into an hour and a half movie. It’s well made and the acting is decent, they captured 1967 pretty well. Brian liked it a lot, and Kevin says it feels like there’s a lot of filler that bored him some.Spoilery SynopsisA couple in a tent are harassed by a nosy grizzly bear as they hide in terror. This goes badly as credits roll.It’s 1967, and this is based on a true story.Eighteen hours before the attack, a woman files yet another report about the bear that’s been terrorizing the campers. The rangers are all busy with a firewatch and fire fighting after the lightning storm last night.Joan, the new girl, gets assigned to lead an overnight hiking group since all the “real” rangers are busy. Julie calls her mother from the camp store; she’s going camping with Michelle, Paul, Denise, Raymond, Ronald, and Roy this weekend, since there’s nothing else to do. Everyone sets off on their respective hikes.At the chalet, Joan stops with her group. Julie and Roy stop in, but there are no rooms available. Her and a few others have to sleep outside since the place is all booked up. Paul and Michelle’s group go to the lake and do some fishing.Michelle’s group runs into a bear, and it takes their dinner. It’s too late to head to the ranger station, so they just hope it doesn’t come back. Roy staggers into camp and says a bear got Julie. The screaming wakes up Joan and the people at the chalet. We get a flashback, and see that they were the couple screaming before the credits.Joan calls the main ranger, Gary, and reports the bear attack. He promises that help is on the way, but he’s a long way off. Gary then takes a helicopter to get there faster, but it’s awfully dark outside. Joan gets the people on the ground to light fires to give the copter a place to land, which finally works. The doctor patches up Roy and they load him onto the helicopter to the hospital.Meanwhile, nine miles away, Denise wakes up, and the bear they saw earlier is back. The bear drags off Michelle, sleeping bag and all.Gary, Joan, and the others search for Julie, and soon find signs of the attack in her campsite. They soon find her, still alive but wounded. Gary and Joan talk about leadership. Julie’s too far gone, so the priest moves in to do his thing as she dies. Gary explains that in 57 years, there hasn’t been a single grizzly attack until now.In the morning, Michelle’s group is still out there, but they haven’t found her yet. They decide to walk to the ranger station and report what happened. Two attacks should be impossible, and the ranger there is skeptical at first. They search the woods and find… parts.Many rangers show up, all armed; it’s time to kill the bears. Joan and Leonard talk about the likelihood of two bear attacks and whose fault this was.Brian’s CommentaryThis isn’t so much a horror movie as it is a drama about a terrifying situation. It starts out with all the horror movie tropes and characters, but then just focuses on what happens without playing up the bear or the drama excessively. It’s based on a true incident, and it doesn’t stray too far from the actual case.It was quite good!Kevin’s CommentaryThis is indeed based on a true event. On the night of August 13, 1967, two young women were attacked and killed by two different bears miles apart in Glacier National Park, Montana - a heck of a coincidence. There’s an online article about the real thing that’s interesting - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Grizzlies.Here they expand the story out into a movie almost an hour and a half long. The sauce is spread mighty thin. It’s well made, but there isn’t a lot of substance. After the attacks, I found myself getting fairly bored.2025 Merge* Directed by: Bela Baptiste, Dalano Barnes, Richard Fenwick* Written by: Bela Baptiste, Dalano Barnes, Richard Fenwick* Stars: Achmed Abdel-Salam, Tatjana Alexander, Bela Baptiste* Run Time: 1 Hour, 17 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s an anthology of science fiction short stories, each heavily depending on technology far ahead of where we currently are. It shows various ways humans could interact with such technology, and how it can interact with us when it has a mind of its own. The stories are pretty gentle, sweet, and romantic, with a zero body count. But there is uncertainty, a lack of control, and the potential for disaster making an undercurrent of horror if you look for it. The stories are all well written, well acted, and well directed. The CGI is a little heavy handed and obvious, but it’s entertaining. It reminded us of “Black Mirror.”Spoilery SynopsisA man has breakfast in a futuristic city and suddenly starts screaming.AngstA narrator explains that everything is perfect and everyone is happy now. Fear no longer exists, and that’s how he makes his business. He gives people phobias for excitement. We see a man become terrified of his own pet spider and a woman becomes claustrophobic. We return to that screaming man and see what he thinks he sees. “Embracing your fear allows you to be reborn,” he explains. The man offers the drug for free. Credits roll.SoulmateA couple talks in bed. He’s so glad he found her, he bought her a book. Turns out, this is a virtual world, and only the girl is real. She’s not allowed to be in there, and there’s an investigation into the illegal avatar. She goes back inside to break up with the man, who doesn’t understand. When she arrives back at work, the boss is sitting at her workstation; she’s going to be caught– but she isn’t. As the boss goes for a break, she deletes the AI logs.The investigation eventually ends, and Anna goes back to work. She restores the deleted information and goes back inside for Neil, who no longer recognizes her. She gets a message: “Scenes no longer compatible with current software version.’ She deletes this newest meeting and then goes back in time to their first meeting. Anna meets Neil for the first time– again.When Unfettered Two men sit by their father, who dies. The father’s robot assistant, Ash, walks them through the process. The girls decide what to do with the house and also what happens with Ash, whom they don’t really want anymore. Ash goes outside for a walk, and she’s a lot more human than people expect. She meets a handicapped boy in the park and plays with him. Everyone thinks she’s great until the mom finds out she’s an AI, and then she gets rude. Then she meets and helps an old couple who are very nice. Ash decides to never go home.The First Time I Never Met YouJohn listens to recorded messages from his dead wife. He’s so broken up that he’s lost his job. Overdue notices litter his desk. He’s got some kind of plant that sends him back in time to the first time he met her. Their “first” date goes well; he’s a physicist, and she’s an evolutionary biologist. He talks about “rewinding” time. He’s so in awe at seeing her again that he acts strangely, knowing too much about her that she’s never told him. She’s so creeped out that she breaks it off and goes home.Suddenly, he doesn’t remember why he’s there. He forgets his children and whole life, since now, none of that happened. He leaves the bar and goes back to his new, old life.SubscribedWe open on a commercial for Vitalus, a new AI product. “Your life, upgraded!” We soon see that all the AI just lets people stay inside all the time. Carol gets a phone call, and it appears that maybe Vitalus is censoring the news and information she gets to keep her inside and addicted to the AI. It watches all her body functions everywhere, even on the toilet, and in bed. Luke keeps trying to get through to her, both on the phone and in-person, but the AI keeps dropping the call and running him off. The AI does not want her talking to him any more.She wises up to all this, but “Vicky” still won’t let her out the front door. She shorts out the power and runs outside, where Vitalus Tases her and sends her back inside. She wakes up, and Vicky says it was all just a nightmare.The Man Behind the MachineMartin lives in a warehouse; a man from the Turing company comes to repossess his android. He’s an older model and is returned to Turing, where he meets a newer model. His signal is different; he’s malfunctioning and escapes back to Martin. He wants to choose what he wants, which is unique.Brian’s CommentaryIt’s way more sci-fi than horror, but these alternate, high-tech futures have a lot of overlap with horror. The first segment of this anthology has dodgy CGI and voice dubbing, but the others mostly look good and are well-acted. I have to admit, I didn’t really understand the final segment. The middle segments are the best of the bunch,If you like “Black Mirror,” then you’ll probably enjoy this.Kevin’s CommentaryThe CGI was a little overused and obvious at times, but the technologies and stories were cool.The stories were all at least pretty good. The last one was a bit confusing. I especially liked “When Unfettered.” What’s an autonomous AI robot to do when t

Trash and treasure this time. We’ll open with “Killer Whale,” our first film released in 2026. We’ll then watch a fun zombie film, “Queens of the Dead” from last year, as well as “Dust Bunny” just recently released. For our oldies, we’ll contend with “Godzilla vs Megaguirus” from 2000 and “Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings” from back in 1993.All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #52, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 Killer Whale* Directed by: Jo-Anne Brechin* Written by: Jo-Anne Brechin, Katharine McPhee* Stars: Virginia Gardner, Mel Jarnson, Mitchell Hope* Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneTwo young women end up trapped on a tropical atoll by a killer whale with a thing against humans. The acting is a moderately bright spot in a slog of bad pacing, a lame simple script, and way too much CGI and greenscreen. We didn’t care much for this one.Spoilery SynopsisWe open with some discussion of Orcas, killer whales, and the whale at the Sea World-ish amusement park. Chelsea and her friend Dana, who work there, talk about how their whale, Ceto, just isn’t the same since they took away her baby. The whale eats Chelsea, and the credits roll.Maddie and Chad talk about Trish, who’s busy with school. He gives her a cello necklace and leans in for a kiss, just as a gunman comes into the place to rob them. There’s a struggle, and the gun goes off, damaging Maddie’s hearing. Everyone survives the attack, but, from out of nowhere, Chad is killed by the robber’s truck.One year later, Trish comes to visit Maddie and offers to take her on a trip. Maddie doesn’t want to go, but Trish is persuasive. They fly to an island resort in Thailand.On the beach, Trish brings up the topic of Ceto, which disturbs Maddie. Josh, a local guy, talks about the local whale, Ceto, who has been in captivity for twenty years and lost her baby two years ago. That night, the three of them sneak into the run-down amusement park to see Ceto.Maddie gets to see Ceto up close in the aquarium. She hates that the whale is trapped here, but then she watches as the whale kills a maintenance worker. Maddie, Trish, and Josh are then chased out of the park by a security guard.In the morning, the trio takes a Jet-Ski out to an isolated island. The locals say this place is cursed, and something happened a few years ago, and now no one comes here. In almost no time flat, they lose Maddie’s phone, the Jet-Ski, and Josh to an Orca attack.The two girls are now stuck on a pizza-shaped floatie and can see the giant orca swimming around beneath them. It’s Ceto, the same whale that was in the park last night, somehow. They can tell by the distinct dorsal fin. Trisha jumps off the pizza and swims to a big rock, Maddie chickens out. There’s some quick drama, and Maddie soon ends up on the rock as well.The two eventually calm down and talk about how Ceto could possibly be here. “Orcas have never ever killed anyone in the wild.”The girls take a nap, and when they wake up, they see a boat, but it’s too far away to see them. We’re reminded that Maddie is deaf, which is probably going to mean something later.One of Josh’s arms floats by, and Maddie snags it with her bag. It’s not for lunch, she wants his wristband flashlight. When night falls, they use it as a signal, but no one comes. The girls talk about Maddie playing the cello again and going back to school.They use Chad’s cremation stone to break open a shelled thing to have something to eat. Afterwards, she decides it’s finally time to throw the stone away. Trish admits that she put the robber up to the robbery that night; it’s her fault Chad was killed. We get a whole dramatic guilt-spiel from Trish. Again, we’re reminded about Maddie’s hearing aids.In the morning, Trish explains her plan to swim to the atoll surrounding their rock, but Maddie has her hearing aids off and doesn’t even know what’s going on. She makes it, but Maddie only makes it to another rock. When Trish is distracted by a plane flying over, the orca jumps up into the shallows and drags Trish back into the water– and bites her leg off. She crawls back up on the beach but soon bleeds to death.Night falls, and Maddie decides to swim to the atoll. She makes it without too much issue and then makes her way around to where Trish’s body is and buries her in the sand.Maddie remembers that Trish said her phone was waterproof, but it went down with the Jet-Ski. Can she retrieve it? She does. Rather than get out of the water, she activates the phone right there, in the water. It’s unclear if she sent an SOS or the phone didn’t work.This is followed by a string of ridiculous underwater hide-and-seek, resulting in Maddie stabbing the Orca in the eye with her broken Cello bow stick.When the sun comes up a helicopter arrives; the phone’s SOS did work after all.Brian’s CommentaryBrian’s Rating:**Although the whole thing probably wasn’t filmed in front of a green screen, it seems like most of the outdoor scenes were. There are a lot of outdoor scenes, so… ouch! The whale is either as large or as small as the plot requires; sometimes it’s huge, and other times it squeezes right up to the rock.I’ve seen this compared to “Fall” (2022), and it is a very similar theme: two girls stuck in a bad place. The other film did it better.It’s contrived, the characters make one stupid decision after another, and the whole thing with the whale’s location makes no sense. The acting and dialogue are atrocious as well.It’s pretty terrible.Kevin’s CommentaryKevin’s Rating: *So much green screen and CGI. It is so, so obvious and overused.I agree with the comparisons to “Fall” and that movie did it better. The three leads have some skill, but they can’t overcome the effects, direction, and script. It gets worse as it goes along until it culminates with a weak ending.I didn’t like it.2025 Queens of the Dead* Directed by: Tina Romero* Written by: Erin Judge, Tina Romero* Stars: Jaquel Spivy, Kay O’Brian, Quincy Dunn-Baker* Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s drag queens, with their friends and family, versus a zombie outbreak. Holed up in a club against the backdrop of a larger apocalypse, there’s a lot of humor with a body count that racks up. The pacing is a little draggy in places, and the zombie action is pretty low for most of the movie, but it’s a fun watch.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on an over-the-top drag queen walking down the street on the way to church. When she goes into the church, her Grindr alert goes off. She finds the man’s phone, but it’s covered in blood. Then she finds him, but he doesn’t look quite alive anymore. She’s bitten by the zombie priest. Credits roll.We cut to a musical number interspersed with scenes of a dancing nurse, Sam, at the hospital. Sam talks to Jane, a patient with issues, who wants to leave.On the stage, Kelsey and Ginsey argue with dancers in the show. Yasmine phones Dre that she’s too sick to do the show tonight, but she’s obviously faking it. Jax and Nico are dancers, and they’re elevens on the gay scale. Jane watches their livestream and tells Sam about it. Sam knows Yasmine and Dre, but that was another time. Jane wants to meet all of them and tell them they’ve got bad drugs. Nurse Lizzy tells Dre that Barry is coming over to unplug her toilet. There’s a lot going on.Everyone’s ready for the big show, and Dre breaks the news that Yasmine’s not coming tonight, so Ginsey will have to headline the act. Nico’s more than willing to step up. They’ve presold a ton of tickets, but hardly anyone has shown up. Barry gets all the pronouns mixed up. When Sam shows up, just as a guest, everyone knows him. Sam used to be “Samonsay,” a major drag star.Barry finds a dead rat in the toilet and takes it out to the garbage. As he’s out there, we see that pre-credit drag queen stumble in.Sam tells Ginsey why he’s been out of action for a while. It was stage fright, and he just couldn’t do it anymore. He starts to change into his costume but then chickens out again. Barry gets a bit of news on his phone about disturbing events in Manhattan. Out on the dance floor, the zombie queen starts looking for people to eat. Barry grabs an axe, but it’s Kelsey who gets hacked. Things go South from there.Sam goes into nurse mode and works on Kelsey’s chopped up leg. Dre tries to call an ambulance and gets a busy signal for 911. Then a shelter in place alert sounds over all their phones. Everyone argues about what’s going on, but it’s all over the news and social media, so they don’t argue long. Jimmy, the bar owner, has some weapons hidden. The Mayor, Tom Savini, comes on and tells everyone to stay home, “This is not a George Romero movie!”At the hospital Jane and Lizzy see that it’s happening there as well. A man in a bloody bunny suit attacks them.At the club, Jax the dancer is clearly a zombie now, and the others all see what he’s become. They all argue some more about what to do about him. They lock him in a dancer’s cage. Next, they catch Yasmine sneaking in through the window. Jimmy is pulled out the window and bitten.The front door is cut open, and new people come in, led by Pops, Kelsey’s girlfriend and fiancee. She mentions a boat waiting for them. Dre wants to wait for Lizzy to arrive, but most of the rest want to go to the boat. A zombie stumbles in, and she drills him through the head.Sam and Dre put Jimmy in the freezer and talk about how he’s changed. After consulting a paper map, several of the group decide to go for a truck, but first, they all change their outfits. Nico, Sam, and Ginsey all dress up to go out on electric scooters.The group makes their way through the horde of zombies, who are mostly interested in their phones. Sam and Ginsey talk about acceptance and the need for approval. They’re attacked, and with her dying words, Ginsey encourages Sam to be himself.Back

Back to our usual five films this week, and we have an interesting mix of horror and terrifying reality. We’ll start with “The Demoness,” which just came out, along with “Super Happy Fun Clown,” also new. We finally got around to “Megan is Missing” from 2011. For a couple of older films, we went with “Wisconsin Death Trip” (1999) and “Come and See” (1985).All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #52, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 The Demoness* Directed by: Andrew de Burgh* Written by: Andrew de Burgh* Stars: Akihiro Kitamura, Riley Nottingham, Bella Glanville* Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA demoness visits Earth to cause trouble for one couple in particular. A couple with relationship issues. We had issues understanding several of the characters. After the couple, she moves on to mayhem to a series of victims. We both agree that it suffers from too much dialogue that’s difficult to understand, poor pacing, and bad CGI. It didn’t work for either of us, with Kevin being more forgiving of it.Spoilery SynopsisWe open in an apartment as a jerky-moving demoness wanders through the house and stops next to the occupied bed. Credits roll.In the morning, the couple wakes up and complains about the economy and their jobs. They argue about Sarah’s inability to get a job. That night, the demoness comes back into their room, and this time, we see what it does. It wakes up Jack and has sex with him, but Sarah can’t hear them and doesn’t wake up.In the morning, Sarah finds some evidence of sex in the bed and assumes Jack’s been cheating on her. The demoness comes to her and they argue about the sex last night. “Kill him if you want to live.” That evening, she poisons Jack and dismembers him on the autopsy table they have in the garage for some reason. She mumbles in British throughout the process.The demoness returns and bites Sarah on the neck, vampire-style. The demoness then conjures up assistance, and Satan himself shows up, also speaking too modulated to understand more than half of it. She admits that she’s had a great time with Jack and Sarah, but now she wants more. She wants to be able to take human form to make her job easier. He gives her a month to see if she can torture ten people.Now in human form, the demoness heads to Hollywood for victims. We cut to a disco that looks like it was filmed on a green screen without the processing. Two guys hit on an attractive-looking human who’s not at all a demon; she says she’s Charlotte. She’s rude, and they love it. One guy leaves, leaving Steve, a Tech Bro, with Charlotte. The two seem to compare to see who’s the most shallow.She invites him over to her place after dancing. She’s surprisingly philosophical, which puts him off a little. She makes him a drink, and shockingly, it’s drugged. She dresses him up like a clown, puts him back on the autopsy table, and makes a whole unintelligible speech in her demoness form; when she pulls out a machete, we understand that part.In the morning, Charlotte talks to the neighbors, Yagami and Tamara, about moving to Jack and Sarah’s house. They invite her over for dinner. Their daughter has cancer.Charlotte arrives for dinner in a sexy, low-cut dress that Tamara obviously doesn’t approve of. It’s all very awkward. Yagami, on the other hand, says she “looks gorgeous.” It’s an awkward scene that drags on for entirely too long. It soon becomes obvious that they have drugged her. “This will be fun,” Tamara laughs. Daughter Saori says they shouldn’t be doing this just to keep her alive.Charlotte wakes up tied to the wall. The family plans to steal Charlotte’s organs to sell to pay for Sairi’s treatments. Charlotte starts to laugh in a “Do you know who I am” kind of way. She then beats them both to death with a hammer.Steve’s partner, Brad, goes to see a detective about Steve’s mysterious disappearance. They’re hostile with each other for no apparent reason, but Brad seems unhinged.The demoness calls Satan again, and she wants to move on to bigger things; he says no.Brad grabs a gun and breaks into Charlotte’s house. She quickly takes charge of the situation and puts him in a clown costume. Soon after, she eats his eyeball and cuts out his tongue. Then she bites off his toes. The demoness summons Satan yet again, and they discuss the need to deal with Detective Gerrard, the last one alive who knows who Charlotte is. She pays him a visit at his office, and of course that goes very badly for him.And then it was suddenly over, fortunately for all of us.Brian’s CommentaryWas the sound designer for this a deaf person? Both Sarah and the Demoness are nearly completely unintelligible. Once the demoness became human, the voices got a lot clearer. When she was back in the makeup, she was unintelligible again. The demoness creature looks really good, but her voice is awful.That’s the fakest disco I’ve ever seen, almost as fake as the CGI gore effects, which are really poorly done.I like the idea and the basic plot, but it’s a really poorly made film. It starts out hard to understand, and once we get moving, it’s only downhill from there.This is pretty awful.Kevin’s CommentaryWe really could have used subtitles. That conversation between the demoness and Lucifer might have been interesting, but I felt like I missed a quarter of it. But once we got past that and Sarah out of the picture, people’s voices were nice and clear. Until Charlotte went back to her demon form again, sigh. She was good in the role though, and her makeup was cool.This falls in the trope of a killer that is so powerful that the victims have zero chance as they are toyed with, and we know how each confrontation is going to end - it’s just a matter of how.Between the pacing, poor audio, and overacting, I was pretty weary of it as the end approached. And then an abrupt ending happened. I’m going to say I liked it more than disliked it.2025 Super Happy Fun Clown* Directed by: Patrick Rea* Written by: Eric Winkler* Stars: Jennifer Seward, Nicole Hall, Matt Leisy* Run Time: 1 Hour 27 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneJennifer’s had a rough life, but she finds a way to happiness and fame by channeling her clown self. After a slow start, we watch her trip to crazy town progress and leave a trail of bodies in her wake. The pacing is uneven, but it’s a pretty good one.Spoilery SynopsisThe police have the clown and her hostage in their sights. That goes badly, and then credits roll.Back in 2004, we see a clown in the park. Young Jennifer is somewhat obsessed with clowns and homeless people. She’s smart, but her mother is unenthusiastic.Twenty years later, She’s Jenno-The-Clown, doing mime-y things in the park, and the kids love her. Her husband is unenthusiastic. She’s got serial killer posters on her wall, and she likes that as well.Detectives Barnes and Marshall talk about what crimes they expect this upcoming Halloween.Jennifer and her mother talk about her pedo, ex-lawyer husband and badly paying job. Her mother is still unenthusiastic and downright mean. She and her coworker Ryan fantasize about being serial killers. She loves being a clown, but not much else about her life.After a while, Jennifer stops being enthusiastic about being a clown, so she kills her husband. She just lets him decompose in the spaghetti over the weeks leading up to Halloween. After a while, she starts to eat him. Then she buys a tiny little gun.It’s Halloween, and Jen runs over a guy with her car. She goes over to her mother’s house in full costume and shoots right through her mother’s head.The police get a call to do a wellness check on Jen’s rotting husband. Barnes mentions that he’s afraid of clowns; Marshall hates horses. Neither of them appreciate the half-eaten rotten corpse in the kitchen; they also soon track down her dead mother too. Jen, meanwhile, is at Ryan’s Halloween party and has sex with him. Halfway through, she stabs him with an icepick.Jen then goes to a haunted house attraction and jumps the line. She starts killing the “monsters” inside. The zombie and the Phantom of the Opera are the first to die, but several more follow. Eventually, she comes to a woman dressed as a killer clown, and she likes that a lot but only for a minute.The detectives arrive at the theater, and one of them soon becomes a convenient hostage. We’re back at the opening scene, and Jennifer is shot.Some time later, she wakes up in the hospital without makeup. The networks are already asking for interviews. Detective Marshall is not amused that the evil clown has survived.Brian’s CommentaryThe childhood segment was only ten minutes long, but seemed like half an hour. I love the husband’s meal choices. After the slow start, the film picks up the pace and goes pretty well until the haunted cinema, where things seem to slow down once again.For a low-budget indie film, it’s not bad. With the exception of the pacing issues, I was entertained.Kevin’s CommentaryWe have Harley Quinn at home.This spends way too long at the beginning of the movie showing not a whole lot happening in Jennie’s childhood, or it seemed way too long anyway. Once she reaches adulthood things build momentum. The pacing is still uneven throughout, but I thought it was decent overall. I enjoyed it more than disliked it.2011 Megan is Missing* Directed by: Michael Goi* Written by: Michael Goi* Stars: Amber Perkins, Rachel Quinn, Dean Waite* Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a movie entirely on webcam, video, phone camera, and so forth, presented in found footage format. Two “teenage” girls are the main characters, who fall for an Internet predator. It’s drawn out and talky for a long time before the missing part happens. It does finally dial up the horrifying, and hard to watch, up to eleven, but it takes quite a while to get there. It’s bleak

We’re breaking our usual format this week to cover our top picks of the films released in 2025. We’ll each discuss our top ten picks from the 2025 films as well as our favorite things we watched of the older films we watched last year as well. We’ll discuss a handful of short films too!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #52, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comShort Films:2022 Short Film CIMIM* Directed by: Cody Mobley* Written by: Cody Mobley* Stars: Darian Michael Garey, Mike Duff, Daniel Kohl* Run Time: 5 Minutes* Watch it: What HappensA group of campers banter about cats vs. dogs. One girl mentions she has edibles in the truck. She goes to grab them, and when she returns, she finds herself still sitting at the campfire. Her doppelgänger opens her eyes and freaks everyone out. One by one, it quickly picks off the campers…CommentaryThis is all filmed at night, but it’s still brightly lit, and you can see everything that’s going on. We don’t get much explanation for any of it, but then, neither do the campers. It’s very short, but also really well done.And I have no idea what “CIMIM” means.2025 Short Film The Last Thing She Saw* Directed by: Anthony Cousins, Rebecca Daugherty* Written by: Brady Richards* Stars: Bailey Bolton, Agatha Rae Pokrzywinski, Nathan Tymoshuk* Run Time: 9 Minutes* Watch it: What HappensEmmy has ordered a phone charger, and when the doorbell rings, she answers it. Turns out, it’s a home invasion, and now her phone is dead. She’s just the house sitter, so she doesn’t know the combination to the safe.Emmy has seen the face of one of the intruders, so he plucks out her eyeballs. The rest is all shown through the eyeball’s point of view…CommentaryWell, that was different. These don’t seem like smart crooks, and this was not a well-planned robbery. Still, the eyeball on a string is something I’ve always wondered about.This is gross, nasty, and actually pretty funny.2025 Short Film The Convenience Store* Directed by: Julian Davis* Written by: Julian Davis* Stars: Dominic Collantes, Amia Marisa, Max Ptasznik* Run Time: 10 Minutes* Watch it: What HappensKira’s mother doesn’t like her working alone at the convenience store all night, but she needs the money. Kira hears something strange outside, but there’s nothing there when she looks.The door opens, and her friend Tommy comes in. He doesn’t like her working alone either. She talks a bit and then gets to work restocking and stuff. The front door opens, and the security camera is no help at all.She hears something outside again, and this time, it goes differently.CommentaryIt’s well acted, and the set is perfect. It’s the sort of store that’s not at all creepy until it is. It’s another of those shorts where we don’t really know why anything is happening, but we know exactly what’s happening. Nicely done!2025 Short Film In a Nutshell* Directed by: Ryan Valdez* Written by: Ryan Valdez* Stars: Sarah Palmer, Ivan Djurovic, Chelsea Breeze* Run Time: 8 Minutes* Watch it: What HappensWe zoom through what looks like a dollhouse, and then zoom out to see a woman assembling and painting it. She’s making a duplicate model of an actual crime scene. Her husband, Owen, thinks it’s not good for her to be looking at crime scenes and autopsy reports all day. She says it’s a one-time job, and it’ll be done soon.We then see just how accurate Emma’s work really is, as it becomes reality…CommentaryThis is sharp and looks good. At no point are we unclear on what’s happening, but it’s still suspenseful to watch it play out.2021 Short Film Sleep Talker* Directed by: Carl Firth* Written by: Sarah Emery, Carl Firth* Stars: Jessica Saras, John van Putten, Rhys James* Run Time: 7 Minutes* Watch it: What HappensKelly comes home late after work and finds her husband, Curtis, already asleep. Or is he? There are sounds coming from the bedroom, so she checks it out. He’s in there, asleep, but he’s talking. No wait, is that really Curtis doing the talking?CommentaryNo one’s ever going to believe that actually happened, right?It’s pretty dark, but we see all that we need to see. The “intruder” is really well done, and what he does is interesting as well. Creepy!Best of 2025Link to Last Year’s Ratings (2024)This time around, we’ll be discussing our favorite films released in 2025. We made a list of everything we watched that was released in 2025, and we each made a top-ten list. There’s some overlap, so we’ll look at our individual picks first, then look at the ones we both chose. Note that these lists are the top ten for each of us, but we didn’t sort them into any special order: the top of the list isn’t necessarily the best of the ten.At the end, we’ll also discuss some of the best things we watched this year that WEREN’T new releases. Overall, we’ll discuss 27 of our favorite films.Brian’s Favorites of 2025 Films* The Ugly Stepsister ** Dracula: A Love Tale ** Companion* Frankenstein* Keeper* Weapons* Ash* Woken* 825 Forest Road ** The ElixirKevin’s Favorites of 2025 Films* Dracula: A Love Tale ** 825 Forest Road ** Borderline* In Vitro* Monster Island* Self Driver* Sinners* The Monkey* The Ugly Stepsister ** Strange HarvestUnanimous Favorites* The Ugly Stepsister* Dracula: A Love Tale* 825 Forest RoadBrian’s Favorite Not-New films* Boys from County Hell ** A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night ** It’s What’s Inside* The Legend of Boggy Creek* Tucker and Dale vs Evil* Inhuman KissKevin’s Favorite Not-New films* A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night ** Boys From County Hell ** Cube (The original 1997)* Flesh For Frankenstein* Horns* Santa SangreBoth Agree* Boys from County Hell* A Girl Walks Home Alone At NightContact Info:Email: mailto:email@horrorguys.comWebsites:* https://www.horrorguys.com* https://www.horrormonthly.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.horrorweekly.com/subscribe

For our first episode of 2026, we’ve got four new releases and one oldie for you. We’ll open on “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” and “Influencers,” a couple of sequels. Two that aren’t sequels are “Keeper” and “Wormtown,” all from 2025. Finally, we’ll watch “Experiment in Evil,” an oldie from 1959This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #52, should be on sale in a few days! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Five Nights at Freddy’s 2* Directed by: Emma Tammi* Written by: Scott Cawthon* Stars: Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail* Run Time: 1 Hour, 44 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA year after the first movie, the survivors are back with some fresh faces, and there’s another Freddy’s location with intact animatronics plus a new creepy puppet. As you might guess, the problem wasn’t completely solved after the first movie, so there’s another bout of death and destruction. We liked the first one and thought this one was equally entertaining. It’s a bit abrupt in the ending and very obvious there’s going to be a third movie.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on an arcade and a fun place with lots of kids playing. One little girl just sits and waits for the animatronic show. The sad girl, Charlotte, watches as a little boy goes into the back room with the big rabbit. She goes in after him but gets stabbed in the process. Credits roll. “Girl Dies in Fazbear Accident” says the headlines. We also see a marionette, a character who was not in the first film.Twenty years later, little Vanessa has grown up and still remembers all those events. Mike calls; he and Abby have a house now. Mike’s got an upcoming date with her, but his friend says she has crazy eyes after that incident with the killer bear. Abby, on the other hand, tells her story repeatedly at school. No one ever found the real killer, William Afton.Abby’s class is learning about robotics at school, and there’s going to be a science fair. Mr. Berg, the teacher, doesn’t like Abby. Could she fix up the old robots at Freddy’s? Maybe she could. Mike has promised to fix them for years, but he never really does it. The dead-children possessed the robots there, and they were her friends.Mike and Vanessa go on a date, and she’s still messed up from her experiences before. When he gets home, he finds a note from Abby saying she’s gone to Freddy’s to fix up her friends. They go inside to find nothing– the animatronic animals are gone now. She finds a FazTalker, some kind of talking toy, on the floor and keeps it.Elsewhere, a trio of ghost-chasers arrives at Freddy’s; Mike may have invited the “Spectral Scoopers” to investigate. The new security guard is Michael, not the Mike we already know, and he lets them inside. This isn’t the same location as the one Mike and Abby were just in, this one is much cleaner; it’s the original location. The Marionette was unique to this location as well. This one still has the animatronics inside. Lisa, Rob, and Alex explore the place, recording everything for their show. They all die painfully as Michael smiles evilly. Except, Lisa is now possessed by Charlotte.Meanwhile, Vanessa, at Spin Class, hallucinates Afton/The Yellow Rabbit yelling at her, and she’s not all the mentally well. Afton was her father, and he left an impression. She still has nightmares about him.The FazTalker talks to Abby, asking for help. She rides to the other FazBears, where we saw the bad stuff happening. Chica is there, and she’s happy to see Abby.The next day, Vanessa comes over and sees Abby’s robotics project; she says Freddy and Chica helped her build it. This leads to Vanessa and Mike breaking up.Vanessa goes to Freddy’s and talks to Charlotte’s ghost, who wants to get out of this place so that she can hurt people. None of the animatronics can leave, but Charlotte thinks Abby can help her break that limitation. Charlotte/Marionette then capture Vanessa.At the science fair, Mr. Berg breaks Abby’s project, so she goes back to Freddy’s to be with her friends. Chica volunteers to be the new science project, but she can’t leave the building until Abby enters the passcode. The other animatronics arrive just as the lock shuts down. Abby and Chica then take an Uber to the science fair.Mike goes to see Charlotte’s father, who still hasn’t gotten over his daughter’s death twenty years ago. They complain about the “FazFest” that’s coming to town. Mike learns that there was more than one Freddy’s location. The father gives Mike a music box that Charlotte used to like.Mike rushes to Freddy’s, breaks in, and walks right past Lisa’s dead body on the way inside. He does eventually find Vanessa locked in a closet. Vanessa explains it all, but Mike is still skeptical. The only ghost here is Charlotte, not all those other kids.Chica and Abby go to the science fair, and Mr. Berg doesn’t approve. Chica takes care of everything.Vanessa explains that Charlotte is remote-controlling the animatronic to get revenge for her own death. Meanwhile, all four big robots are out and about. Freddy is at the FazFest carnival. When Mike starts hacking into the system Charlotte activates the nasty looking prototypes in the back room.Mike and Vanessa each encounter the prototypes, but they aren’t very smart. Meanwhile, the intact robots are out killing bad parents. As everything starts getting crazy, Mike turns off the wifi and everything stops. Only the one with Charlotte is still active, and it’s at Mike’s house.At home, Abby sees Chica pop open, and the Marionette comes out. When Vanessa reports that the WiFi has come back on, Mike goes to Freddy’s and begs the ghosts of the dead children for assistance.Vanessa gets there first and finds that the Marionette/Charlotte has possessed Abby. Just as she’s about to kill Vanessa, Mike shows up with the music box and puts Charlotte to sleep.The robots then attack again along with Michael, who turns out to be Vanessa’s secret brother. “I’m here to continue Afton’s legacy, just in time for FazFest.” The Animatronics start to attack Vanessa and Mike, but then, out of the blue, the old animatronics, possessed by the dead children, arrive to save the day.One of the ghost boys appears and says they all have to move on, but once they are gone, they “can’t hold him in anymore,” setting us up for a third film. Mike doesn’t want anything to do with Vanessa, who has lied to him repeatedly. Then, the Marionette possesses Vanessa…During an end credit scene, we cut to some looters breaking into Freddy’s before the scheduled demolition tomorrow. They find the yellow rabbit from the first film, the one with Afton inside…Brian’s CommentaryThis is obviously a sequel to 2023’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s.” There’s a lot going on here that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but it’s got enough humor in it that it’s worthwhile. It seems like the whole thing could have been avoided if the characters from the first film would have gone through some therapy afterward.The ending was clearly a setup, but it was awfully abrupt, and more of a cliffhanger than an ending. Still, if you liked the first one and thought it needed more, this is probably right up your alley.Kevin’s CommentaryIt’s a smooth sequel, continuing right along with things after a year passing since the events of the first movie. I thought it was on par with the first movie, just as entertaining. And it very obviously sets us up for a third movie after an abrupt ending.2025 Influencers* Directed by: Kurtis David Harder* Written by: Kurtis David Harder* Stars: Cassandra Naud, Emily Tennant, Jonathan Whitesell* Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a sequel to 2022’s “Influencer,” with Cassandra Naud back at it again. It was a little unclear at first if it was a prequel or sequel considering the ending of “Influencer,” but they decided to just gloss over a major issue with that ending without explaining it. That aside, it was well put together in beautiful settings, and we both mostly enjoyed it.Spoilery SynopsisA woman gets a million notifications on her socials and cries. She then grabs a knife and cuts her own throat.We cut to southern France, where Catherine, CW, is riding her bike. She goes home to Diane and they go out for a date. They have plans for the weekend, and they go to– no, they stop off at an abandoned castle to do some sightseeing. Nothing happens there, so they continue on to the castle that they have reserved.When they arrive, their room is rented, so they get a tiny space instead. Catherine meets Charlotte, another guest, who complains about the size of the pool. She’s the one who got their special room and offers to buy their dinner. Turns out, Charlotte is an influencer. Catherine is clearly jealous, but Diane thinks she’s nice. They talk about how quickly Charlotte would shrivel up and die without her phone.The next day, Catherine tells Charlotte that Diane is ill, and offers to be her photographer for the day. She knows just the place to get some great photos– that old castle again. Sure enough, they go up to the dangerous-looking tower Catherine visited earlier. One short push later, Charlotte is no more. Catherine has Charlotte’s phone and password, so she can use that. They soon end up in that room they reserved after Charlotte “runs off.”Diane goes through all Catherine’s stuff and finds her passport. Her name isn’t even Catherine, and she has access to Charlotte’s account. “You’ve done this before. What were you doing in Thailand? Several girls were killed.” Catherine tries to convince her that she knows nothing about it, but one thing leads to another, and soon Diane is dead. Credits roll (30 minutes in).We cut to a podcast explaining what happened at the end of the previous film. The murderer, CW, somehow got away. Madison White was the only survivor from all that carnage. The podcasters still don’t believe Madison’s story, whose story doesn

As we near the end of the year, we’re going to cover three more newer releases and still do a couple of oldies. Since it’s so close to Christmas, we’ll deal with “The Carpenter’s Son” first, then play a “Werewolf Game” because it’s “In Our Blood.” Then we’ll continue our seemingly eternal series of kaiju reviews with “Godzilla 2000: Millennium” and the classic 1972 film, “The Legend of Boggy Creek.”This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 The Carpenter’s Son* Directed by: Lotfy Nathan* Written by: Lotfy Nathan* Stars: Nicolas Cage, Noah Jupe, FKA Twigs* Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneInspired by “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” where the idea is that Jesus was born with his full powers, in the body of a boy who didn’t know he was Jesus yet or what to do with it. It’s quite slow moving, mostly quiet, and low on action. The horror elements are there a little, some creepiness, and lots of religious elements. It’s well made but mostly we thought it was pretty dull.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on a woman giving birth. The father looks up and sees a bright light from the sky along with Heavenly whispering. The baby is born, and as they leave the cave, they pass a bunch of people screaming and sacrificing a baby. They want the couple’s newborn baby, but they hide it. As the sun rises, the man sees the devil in the desert. Credits roll.The couple and the baby have been in hiding for years, and the baby is now a young man. The father narrates that the son has powers that can’t be explained, but it’s his responsibility to protect him.The father is a carpenter, but the only work he can get is carving pagan idols. The boy watches as the new neighbor, Lilith, a mute girl, takes a shower. He also gets annoyed when his father insists that he pray for forgiveness. The boy has a recurring nightmare about being nailed to a cross with his mother crying at his feet.The boy runs into a girl who wants to play games with him. They find a man with leprosy, and that goes badly. His father still wonders if he’s from the angels or from demons; he’s not really sure. That night, the leper returns and claims that the boy’s touch has healed him. Now all the lepers want to be touched. Later the girl gives the cured leper a peach, and the next day the carpenter and the boy see the leper dead.The girl offers the boy a carved wooden snake and suggests that keeping secrets feels really good, not being subtle about tempting him.Lilith collapses with black stuff coming out of her mouth and bites a chunk off her mother’s face who screams that it’s the boy’s fault. His father finds the toy snake and there’s a whole argument that comes from that. The father insists that the boy would be dead without his protection.The boy sneaks off to meet with the girl, who is busy poisoning more peaches, and she takes him to see a site where prisoners are being tortured and executed for the crime of sorcery. The girl explains that the carpenter isn’t really the boy’s father at all. When he asks his mother, she’s evasive, and he knows she’s lying.The boy is thrown out of school for talking about things he couldn’t possibly know. The boy then goes back to the place of torture and pulls the demon right out of Lilith, who is chained there. He releases her and sends her away. Others there see the whole thing, and they’re gonna talk.The father and the mother argue about the boy’s conception and crimes. The father is bitten by a snake, and the boy heals the wound right away, clearing up any doubt the father had. He also tells the boy who his father really is. The villagers come for the family, and that goes badly for some of them.As the strange girl tells the boy her origin story, the sky turns red. She admits that she’s The Adversary. She then opens up the gateway to Hell and gives him a peek. The father arrives and interrupts this until the boy stops her from killing him. After a brief argument, she stabs the father anyway.This all leads to a serious fistfight between the boy and Satan. The boy wins, but the father tells him not to kill her and forgive her instead. The boy moves to heal Joseph, but Joseph tells him to let him go, and the red sky clears with a beam of sunlight shining down on him as he dies.The boy goes over and forgives the strange girl, who tells him about his own end. The boy, Yeshua, and his mother, wander off into the mountains. We’ve probably not heard the last of these two…Brian’s CommentarySo many flies. If you don’t like flies, then this is definitely a horror movie.Nicolas Cage plays this one mostly straight, although he does get one yelling scene, which is something he’s always good at. The rest of the cast is good too, although the story is a bit weak. Yes, it’s based on one of the apocryphal gospels, but they could have spiced it up a bit more.It was an interesting concept, but a little boring in my opinion.Kevin’s CommentaryI thought this was slow moving almost to the point of boredom but at least it’s only a little over an hour and a half run time. Knowing how it was going to end took away much of the suspense they were trying to build.The cast is good at what they were doing, but it seemed like a wasted opportunity that they could have done more with.2025 Werewolf Game* Directed by: Cara Claymore, Jackie Payne* Written by: Jackie Payne* Stars: Tony Todd, Robert Picardo, Bai Ling* Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneTwelve strangers with various issues are kidnapped and sent to an island for a deadly game of “werewolves” and “villagers.” Kept in line by security devices and guards, they have no choice but to play and gradually eliminate each other. It’s got the horror elements of kidnapping, human prey, and murder, but it’s really not a horror movie. Brian gives it a thumbs up, and Kevin gives it a thumbs down.Spoilery SynopsisAs the credits roll, we get lots of action shots and text that explains “The Werewolf Game” a social game of survival where random people all over the world are kidnapped and divided into two groups: werewolves and villagers. It’s one side versus the other, and only one can survive.We open on a dozen people gagged and tied to little student desks. A man in a mask comes out and welcomes them to the game. Three of them will be wolves and the rest villagers. He explains the rules. One man tries to fight back and loses a finger for his trouble.The Judge in the mask introduces Chris, Monica, Demi, Natalie, Bill, Suzie, Zak, Seth, Pepper, Matthew, Emmitt, and two people whose information is not revealed.Demi doesn’t want to play and tells the others that she’s a werewolf. The others all vote on who the werewolf is, which is really obvious since Demi just admitted it. Demi tells the others all about herself before the final vote; she wants to get it over with. One of the guards then blows her head off. That’s one of the three werewolves discovered.All the other contestants are then released on the island and go their separate ways to cabins. Matt and Raymond, one of the players with no background, talk. Seth and Natalie do the same. Chris grabs everything he can use as weapons. Monica helps Bill with a gunshot he received accidentally.There are three problems on the island. First is the sonic weapon that can kill them. The second is that they’re all going to kill each other. We don’t get to hear what the third one is.Some of the others talk, and none of them remember how they got here. Monica wants to die but can’t make herself jump off the cliff.Night falls, and after 3 a.m. the werewolves are allowed to come out and kill. Everyone is terrified as they wait. A person in a werewolf mask comes into Suzie‘s cabin and kills her.The whole group gathers the next day, and Raymond talks about the company that runs the game. He used to work for them but hacked the system. They’re all skeptical about that. Chris talks big about the traps he’s set; he’s got military experience, but no shirt. He’s not very social, and the others want to “vote him out.”Everyone is called to the great hall for the daily vote. Old Zack won’t answer his door, and he looks very ill inside; the guards violently force him to attend. Now, they all have to decide who to kill. They all vote for Zack, who has just been acting weird throughout.Monica and Emmitt start getting close, which annoys Pepper. Chris finds a shirt and talks to Natalie about winning.On the second night-hunt, Monica and Emmitt spend the first part of the night together, but he goes back to his cabin before the deadline. Emmitt is killed by a werewolf.In the morning, Raymond explains more about the company. It’s all an experiment in mind control and social engineering. Seth gets all argumentative.The group decides to vote equally for Monica and Raymond to die, forcing a tie. They don’t play fair and vote for Raymond to die.Bill says he’s solved it; Matt and Monica are the werewolves. He used to be a detective, so his opinion matters, even though a lot of the others don’t agree with him. That night, the wolf kills him.In the voting the next day, Chris kills two guards and is killed in return. This is the last round of voting, as there aren’t enough players left to keep the mystery up. The group decides to gang up on Seth this time, but he accuses Pepper.Monica, Natalie, Pepper, and Matt are left. Maybe two of them are werewolves, but one certainly must be. Monica thinks Pepper is the werewolf, but she still denies it. Matt blames her as well. Matt and Pepper are the werewolves. Instead of killing Monica and Natlie, the group decides to kill the judge instead.The Judge says the three girls have won the game. He takes off his mask and explains that the brass upstairs requires a big show. He shows them videos of previous winners. He says he’s been rooting for them all alo

We have a fun mix of old and new this week. We’ll start off with two new releases, “The Death of Snow White” and “For God’s Sake Wake Her Up,” both new-ish. We’ll go overseas for a bit and visit “Thelma” from 2017. Then we’ll watch the American remake of Godzilla, “Godzilla” (1998). Finally, we’ll watch a true-crime-sorta film, “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” from way back in 1976. [Except we ended up reading them all out of order on the podcast, sorry!]This, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 The Death of Snow White* Directed by: Jason Brooks* Written by: Jason Brooks, Naomi Mechem-Miller* Stars: Sanae Loutsis, Chelsea Edmundson, Tristan Nokes* Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a dark telling of the classic fairy tale. This is a good one to watch if you really enjoy Renaissance Festivals - it appears to have been filmed at one with that level of realism throughout in all the aspects. The story has the logic of a fairy tale, and it has some entertaining moments and ideas. But we both thought it was a bit long and drawn out, and not an overall winner.Spoilery SynopsisAn old woman chases a young woman up the stairs in the castle. The old woman whispers some magic words, and the other starts to puke up maggots. She makes the guard kill himself. She then goes to the bedroom of a very pregnant woman and stabs her with a poisoned dagger. All the king’s doctors get to work trying to save the baby. The dying queen looks out the window and talks about how beautiful the snow is.On the way out, the witch takes out more guards and encounters a buff dwarf with an axe, and she knows him. They fight epically, and she runs him through and makes her wounded escape. Credits roll.Years later, at what appears to be a still-medieval Renfest, Princess Snow White likes the looks of The Prince. There’s some awkward flirting between the two. Meanwhile, the Queen looks at the results of an experiment of arsenic skin care on a subject. She’ll try mercury next. She looks out the window at Snow and hates her. The magic mirror knows all about her plans.The Queen has lost some blood and wants the huntsman to kidnap one of Snow’s friends to replace it. His group of hunters arrive at the festival and search for a victim. Meanwhile, Snow and the Prince look at sparkly lights in the forest. Huntsman Kaiser kills the girl and attacks Snow and the Prince. Huntsman Gunnar, however, is loyal to Snow and helps her escape into the Dark Forest.Snow and Sophie run into monsters in the woods, and they tear Sophie in half. The Prince and his search party look for Snow White who is wandering through the forest bloody and dazed. Back at the castle, the mirror gives the queen some advice on how to “have it all.”Snow is captured by the huntsmen, who put her to sleep and carry her back. No– they’re interrupted by a pack of dwarves who have come to rescue Snow. None of them like the queen, either, so they all become allies. Many of them worked for her father, the king, and even helped in her childbirth.When the only surviving guard from the dwarf ambush returns to the queen, she orders that his hand be cut off with a very small knife. But he’s still grateful and loyal. Out in the woods, the search party meets up with the dwarves and fights the tree-monsters.Meanwhile the queen casts a spell to transform herself into an old decrepit woman, the powerful killing witch we saw at the beginning. Who goes out into the woods with a basket of apples, encounters the boy from the search party, and kills him after getting information from his mind.The old woman runs into Snow and offers her an apple. This goes badly since the apple is poisoned; Snow goes into a coma. The dwarves and the Prince rush in, and we get a flashback to Snow’s birth. The only way to beat the magic poison is to sacrifice a life. That’s how Snow’s mother really died, she sacrificed herself.Meanwhile, the Queen is young again but still obsessed with Snow White. She has her toes cut off to fit into Snow’s shoes.The Prince’s group manages to break into the castle and confront the Huntsman and the Queen. In the ensuing battle, a few of the dwarves are lost. The battle goes badly for everyone, but the Prince finally manages to carry Snow back out to the woods. He kisses her and takes the poison from her. He dies, and she wakes up.Snow is awake, and now she gets the “epic badass music” as she walks through the continuing battle. She walks into the throne room, where the queen is making the dwarves suffer. The queen orders Huntsman Gunnar to kill Snow; he hands the queen Snow’s heart. No wait– it’s a maggoty mass of decay - the queen was tricked into eating her own poison.The dwarves use the magic mirror to bounce the Queen’s evil magic right back at her. Then the dwarves get all medieval on her. The queen melts as the figures in the magic mirror laugh at her.Snow is now the queen, and everyone is happy. She goes out to the Dark Forest and dances with the ghost of the Prince.Brian’s CommentaryThe story is fine, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. The dialogue and sets seem to come straight from Renaissance Festivals. Most of the scenes with the queen involve some body horror, and there are some pretty cool monsters in the Dark Forest. The dwarves are fun and well done. Some of the “actors” seem to have never spoken on-screen before.Wilhelm and Jacob are really just Timon and Pumbaa turned human, right?The pacing is very slow, however, and it gets a little boring at points. It does pick up a lot in the final half hour, when we finally get some action. It’s… decent once you get through the opening scenes.Kevin’s CommentaryIt’s like a Renaissance Festival. The accents, the costumes, the sets, even the dialogue, all seem put on like a Ren Fest. Where on the surface everything looks and sounds generically medieval, but if you really look and listen you can easily tell it’s a veneer.It’s a fairy tale, not a historically accurate film, I kept telling myself. It’s silly and exaggerated for a reason. There are some entertaining moments and some scenes of real horror and gore. The mirror was cool. The dwarves were badass. So I’m not going to say that I hated it, but it was a bit too long and didn’t do much for me.2024 For God’s Sake Wake Her Up* Directed by: Wayne Moreheart* Written by: James Justin Howells* Stars: Sarah Crawford, Mamie Kakimoto, Queen Legend* Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneTwo young women wandering the city after avoiding one of their mother’s funeral stumble on another woman who is suffering from a severe case of recurring sleep paralysis. They slowly learn it’s not just a simple medical condition. We both agree, it’s a slow moving one but it was very good.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on a videotape of April talking about her sleep paralysis; she’s afraid it’s going to kill her. We then watch it happen as credits roll.We watch as Rizz and Myles walk along the train track past the landfill. They admire the graffiti and then stop to steal some beer. They don’t really like beer, but it’s fun to steal it. They argue about not going to the funeral; Rizz’s mother has recently died, and she has regrets. Myles cheers her up.The two soon wind up in the bad part of town and bump into April. Who is walking around like a sleep-deprived zombie.April goes home to her neglected-looking house. She watches another videotape; she says she hasn’t slept more than an hour in weeks. She’s recording all this before “he takes me.” “This is my final tape,” she explains, “I am the end of the line.”Rizz and Myles wander around through the bad neighborhood, and Rizz decides to go into one of the houses there. Why? Because!Inside, Rizz starts digging through the stuff and finds April’s video camera and TV. She plays the tape and watches as April explains her problem. There are a lot of tapes. They go upstairs and find April in bed, apparently in some kind of seizure. Rizz wants to help the old woman, but Myles just wants to get out of there before the police get them for breaking in.Myles tries to leave but something keeps her from opening the door. Rizz has a feeling that the answer lies in that stack of videotapes. “The entity” took April’s grandmother and her mother as well; now it’s her turn. April has no children, so she expects this will all end with her.Meanwhile, Myles tries to break a window with a stool, but the entity rips the stool right out of her hands. Rizz insists on helping April, who told her the answers are all in the tapes. The tapes are very repetitive and not especially interesting. Finally, Myles cuts the power cord. Now, Rizz reads through April’s “crazy book” and reads it. It’s all about sleep-demons, and people have died from it before.Rizz and Myles argue, again. Meanwhile, April is terrorized by the entity. The entity opens the door and lets Myles out, but then it won’t open again. She runs off to charge her phone and call for help. No– the entity breaks her neck and kills her, then drags the body away. Rizz freaks out until the entity drags her away as well.Rizz watches the rest of the tapes. April explains that the entity is an ancient, primeval thing that kills people in their sleep, an incubus. The voice from the TV helps Rizz translate the words from the book. The entity finally shows up in the real world and attacks Rizz, who reads the words out loud just in time.The sun rises outside, and April wakes up. Everyone is happy now, except for Myles, who is still dead. “We carry the bad things until they eat us up,” April narrates. We look out the window and see Rizz walking away holding the demon’s hand…Brian’s CommentaryIt’s got a tiny cast and obviously a tiny budget as well. Still, it’s well-shot and looks really good. April’s accent makes it hard to fol

This time, we’ve got some fun ones. We’ll start of with some time-loop terror in “Manor of Darkness,” then watch some completely unnecessary, but still fairly entertaining rip-offs of old cartoons: “Mouse of Horrors,” “Shiver Me Timbers,” and “Bambi: The Reckoning” are all up this week. Lastly, we’ll squeeze in a classic sci-fi horror film with “Planet of the Vampires” from 1965.Which one is our favorite? Tune in and find out– it may not be what you expect!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Manor of Darkness* Directed by: Blake Ridder* Written by: Blake Ridder* Stars: Kim Spearman, Louis James, Sarah Alexandra Marks* Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZonePetty thieves meet evil forces when they pretend to be filmmakers and go to a giant manor to rob the place. It went in a direction we didn’t expect and built nicely as they tried to figure a way out. We both really enjoyed it.Spoilery SynopsisA man works in the basement until he hears a strange sound. What he hears finds him. Credits roll.Laura talks to her mother, who needs surgery. Her brother, Chris calls, and he says he’s got something to make everything all right. Laura works at a coffee shop, and she experiences something strange one night. The same night, Chris also experiences some weirdness with Lisa, his girlfriend.Lisa, for some reason, decides to tell Chris about her abusive family and how she ran away from home. Chris tells about what happened with Laura, eleven months ago.Flashback time! Chris and Laura broke into a house. It’s not exactly what Chris told her, so Laura wants to leave. This is the house of Mrs. Wong, one of Chris’s old teachers who gave him a hard time– and she’s still home. When the woman gets up, she finds Laura and grabs a knife. As she recognizes Laura, Chris shoots her.Back in the present, Laura gets a call; she’s lost her job. Chris and Lisa talk about his plan, and how Laura won’t cooperate with him. She goes to the restroom and sees something scary. When she comes out, Chris is talking to Andy, another criminal-type.Some rich man is looking for a film crew to come into his house and film a documentary, and Chris wants to use the job as an excuse to break in and steal a fortune. We then get Andy’s backstory; he’s divorced but wants to be a good father. Later, he gets a scare in the shower. Laura decides at the last minute that she needs the money and will help in the caper.Chris, Andy, Laura, and Lisa arrive at the old manor house and let themselves in, as arranged. They have no cell service there, which even Chris admits is a cliche. They all split up and explore the place.Andy says he feels like he’s been here before. Laura and Lisa check out the basement while Andy and Chris check out the attic. The girls find a tied-up box in the basement that looks too tempting to pass up. They open the box and let out what appears to be the Smoke Monster from “Lost.”In the attic, the guys find a dead body. Suddenly, Lukas, the owner of the house, and the man from the pre-credit sequence, returns home. He talks about “life after death” and his dead wife. He wants the “documentary filmmakers” to capture her spirit on film.When they mention the dead body upstairs, Lukas picks up a knife and kills Chris and Laura. Andy goes next, leaving only Lisa, who is killed as well. There are flashes of another woman being forced to scrub and clean in the past, with religious imagery. No, they’re all fine, and we seem to have jumped back in time a few minutes. They all sense that something weird happened, but they’ve only just arrived at the house. Laura especially seems to feel some deja vu. Chris announces that there’s no cell service here at the old house. They all split up to explore the house (again).The girls find the box in the basement, but it’s already untied and empty. The dead body in the attic is still there. Then Lukas arrives. He asks them if this is “the first time.” He stabs them all again.We again cut to scenes of a man abusing his religious wife, who prays a lot.At the door of the house, Laura knows they’ve all been here before, but the others don’t sense it. “We’re all gonna die… again.” Laura tries to leave, but it’s not that easy. All roads lead back to the manor.She goes into the house and finds that Lukas has killed the other three. She tells him about it, and he knows that she opened the chest. He explains about “The Reset” and that he killed them so that they’d understand the problem. We get a flashback to Lukas and his wife moving into the house. He explains what it is that she released from that box. He has to kill her again to reset the time loop. He does and we see the abusive man and religious woman from the past again. This time, he kills her.Laura, now reset, tells the others not to go into the basement and then hides the knives in a kitchen. She demonstrates her knowledge of the time loop to them. When Lukas comes in, Andy beats him to death. This results in Laura stabbing herself for another reset.She explains the situation, and they mostly believe her, but they still want to remain here to find the money. Lukas arrives, as always, and Laura quickly fills him in. He finally explains what they’re up against, and it’s not good.They all prepare themselves for battle in their own unique ways. Suddenly, the lights go out. Lisa finds herself outside, running from something nasty. Chris is locked in the attic with the body, which gets up and turns into Mrs. Wong, the dead teacher. Andy runs into a sex-crazed version of Laura, who kills him. Laura runs into her mother in the basement, but she knows that’s not real and stabs the woman. Laura dies again, this time at Lisa’s hand, and it all resets again.This time, they all tie up Lukas as night falls outside. Laura goes to stab Lukas, but since her eyes are shut, she somehow stabs Chris instead. The smoke goes back in the box in the basement. We then get a flashback to what happened with Lukas and his wife when they moved in and kept having to stab each other.Laura holds a diamond in her hand, she found the treasure and paid for her mother’s surgery. Andy gets his family back. Lisa is sad.Six months later, a different couple gets invited to the manor and are told to go right on in. They soon find a tied-up box in the basement. Then Chris walks in, he welcomes them to the manor…Brian’s CommentaryWhy were all the characters experiencing bloody scenes of terror before they came to the house? There’s no indication from the trailer that this is a time-loop movie. Still, it’s well done and is paced nicely, which is hard for a time-travel film. The things that happen aren’t really explained at all; we know what happened, we just don’t really know why. It’s pretty good!Kevin’s CommentaryThe manor was a great setting. Cool big place. It seemed low budget with a bit of an indie vibe, but I thought they made the most of it, and it was very effectively done. Their growing frustration with the time loop built nicely.The cast is good, the camera work and music is effective (kept making me think of John Carpenter’s music from the original “Halloween” at times), and the script is clever. I liked it and would recommend it.2025 Mouse of Horrors* Directed by: Brendan Petrizzo* Written by: Harry Boxley, Mac Gottlieb* Stars: Lewis Santer, Stephen Staley, Chris Lines* Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneAn inhuman mouse hybrid is on the prowl for body parts and victims, with much of the action taking place at a carnival - an excellent setting. The pacing is a bit off and so is the sound, but it’s watchable and gory. We thought it was very mid overall, with both of us giving it a dislike.Spoilery SynopsisTwo girls are out at the docks. They’ve gone to the wrong place and gotten lost. They’re here to meet a rich doctor with a boat, and what they find isn’t what they expected. They find the boat, but there’s no one there. Out of nowhere, a giant rat stabs Molly and chases Dana through the shipyards and into a closed-down amusement park. As he kills her and laughs, the credits roll.A man tells his daughter, Chloe, a story about being attacked by flies at the beach. We see the killer is watching them from afar. He’s written a book about “The Mouseboat Massacre” but he doesn’t have an ending for it yet. She goes off with her friend to a bar to meet her other friends, a group of obnoxious teens that the killer can pick off one by one later. They call Dana and Molly, but they don’t answer their phones.Chloe tells the story about the Mouse thing as we see the Mouse killing a jogger with a chain. A mad doctor created a giant mutated mouse that was crossed with a murderous prisoner. His goal was to collect body parts of women for another experiment. The group decides to sneak into the closed-down amusement park for some fun.Meanwhile, at the amusement park, Pooh bear has women in a cage, and it looks like a scene from “Pooh: Blood and Honey” Apparently, Pooh and the Mouse are working together to gather body parts for Dr. Rupert. It’s the crossover nobody expected! The doctor whines about the Mouse bringing him male body parts. How is he supposed to make the perfect bride with the wrong kind of body parts?The Mouse kills a bar owner at about the same time the kids get started at the amusement park. The Mouse shows up and kills the first pair of teens, electrifying one of them with the bumpercars (I don’t think they work like that). He catches and dismembers another girl on the teacup ride. He stabs another on the sidewalk. Another guy falls into a swimming pool full of carnivorous jellyfish (what?).Several of the girls run from the Mouse straight into the workshop of Dr. Rupert, the creator of the Mouse and the Bear. He explains the whole thing with the Mouse’s creation.Chloe’s fath

We’ve got an odd assortment for you this week. We’ll watch the new football-horror, “Him” recently released, as well as “Things Will be Different” from just last year. Then we’ll go way back to 1960 and the “Circus of Horrors.” In honor of Udo Keir’s recent death, we’ll watch his two early breakout hits, “Flesh for Frankenstein” and “Blood for Dracula” from the early 70s.This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Him* Directed by: Justin Tipping* Written by: Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, Justin Tipping* Stars: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox* Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneSet in an alternate reality where the NFL is the USFF, we start out with little Cam who has the perfect combination of football obsession at a young age combined with an athletic physique capable of being a world class athlete. As he is groomed to possibly replace a retiring megastar, things get strange and ominous - or maybe he’s just seeing things from stress and head injuries. We both struggled with this because we give no weight or value to football. They take the obsession, the extremes required to stay at the top, idolatry, and cult level fandom to the extreme. Neither of us fault the acting or production values, but we didn’t enjoy it that much.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on Cam, a little boy, watching football on TV. The whole family gets very excited when their team wins. His hero, Isaiah White, gets injured badly. Credits roll.Fourteen years later, Isaiah is still playing, better than ever, but everyone is talking about when he’ll finally retire - maybe another year at best. Now-adult Cameron Cade is said to be the next star of the game. During an interview with Cam, he says he wants to be the GOAT. One night while practicing, something very strange happens to Cam.We cut to Cam’s brain scans, and something’s not right. He’s had a traumatic brain injury and a stapled wound on his head. On his return to the game, everyone talks about him surviving the attack. Half the family thinks he isn’t ready, and the other half insists there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s not fine.Cam wants to be alone and sullen, so he goes to a big party and ignores everyone. Tom, Cam’s manager, calls and says that Isaiah White himself wants to train Cam for a week. On the way there, we see how cult-like some sports fans are.Cam goes to see Isaiah, who lives in a really cool place. He’s going to put Cam through a special “Boot camp” for football. We then get a training montage. Cam gets a physical exam, and someone steals his underwear. Cam then meets Elise, Isaiah’s wife, who is a power blonde influencer selling jade vaginal eggs and offers Cam one of their anal jades for men before she heads off for travel. Cam talks to Marco, the doctor, about blood transfusions and injections.On the second day, Isaiah and Cam go for a run in the desert, Cam passes out, and he sees something else that’s weird. Now it’s clear that he’s been hallucinating some of the weirdness we’ve seen. Marco gives him another special shot, and he’s suddenly feeling much better. Then things get weird and they torture a man to motivate Cam to play harder. Afterward, he sits in a hyperbaric chamber for several hours, where he hallucinates some more.On the third day, they actually play some football, and one of the players gets hurt pretty badly, which seems to be what Isaiah had in mind. More hallucinations ensue– maybe? Did Isaiah really just kill an overzealous fan? That one seemed more real, as well as the aftermath.The next day, Isaiah and Cam go out to the desert to shoot guns. Cam talks about his father and why he plays the game.Elsie takes Cam to a party in the city. Marco is there, and he says, “Run!” He meets the owners of the team, and they like him. Meanwhile, Isaiah stays home and works out. There’s more hallucinations, and maybe a ritual of some sort. Maybe Marco loses his head. Stuff happens, and maybe some of it’s real.On the next day, Cam starts injecting himself. He confronts Isaiah, who talks about generations of blood, a gift from the gods. The blood of their mentors give them the powers of the chosen one. The trick is, there can be only one, and Isaiah’s contract is nearly up. “You’re gonna have to take it from me.” The two men fight to see who really has the killer spirit. Cam has it and uses it.In a surreal, impossible ceremony, where all the characters gang up on Cam and explain how he’s been groomed all his life for this. Cam instead beats the mascot to death with an ax before killing everyone else with a sword.And then what?Brian’s CommentaryWhat in the hell was that climax???This is one of those is-it-real-or-a-hallucination stories that we’re so sick of. Cam had a head injury, so all the crazy stuff he sees later on is suspect.I suspect the filmmaker is trying to show us everything that’s wrong with the mindset around sports obsession, but maybe I’m being charitable with that.I suppose my problem here is that I have no understanding at all of the screaming, raw, passion and obsession with what is ultimately a pointless game.The ending was cool and over the top, but it made no real sense at all.It’s well made, looks great, and the acting is fine. On the other hand, I couldn’t wait until it was over and was bored half to death with it.Kevin’s CommentaryWell into the movie, I thought there was too much of wondering if things happening are really that strange or if Cam is hallucinating from some combination of stress, obsession, and head injury. Though the effects and visuals are very cool.As a not-at-all football fan who enjoys watching the spectacle of the Superbowl and really nothing else about the sport, it was hard relating to the passion for the game that so much of the movie revolves around.Past the halfway point, I started to suspect that the whole thing, or most of it, was real, staged and arranged by Isaiah who is crazy with a God complex. Right from the beginning with the clonk on the head that Cam got. Isaiah thinks he can do or get away with anything, so he does. And with all the “supplements” and substances being administered to Cam, there could easily be hallucinogens in the mix - augmented by a head injury.I guess in the end, it’s up to the viewer to decide how much of it was real and how much was not. I wouldn’t say I hated the film, but I’d only give it a five or six overall.2024 Things Will Be Different* Directed by: Michael Felker* Written by: Michael Felker* Stars: Adam David Thompson, Riley Dandy, Chloe Skoczen* Run Time: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA pair of siblings go into hiding after a robbery, in a farmhouse that has a time travel feature, which they know about going into. Things get complicated as what they expect to be a short wait turns into a quagmire of overlaps and loops. It’s well made, but too stretched out, and we both thought it would have benefitted from being compacted down. It’s a mystery that unfolds, but neither of us were very satisfied or comprehending of the ending.Spoilery SynopsisAs the credits roll, we hear a phone call between two people planning a hideaway out of town after some kind of robbery; they’re brother and sister, and there are big bags of money involved.We cut to Joseph and Sidney meeting in a diner. When they hear a siren passing by, they clear out quickly. They go to the woods, where Joseph knows of a house they can hide in.They arrive at the house and run off some locals who are there target shooting. The house is trashed inside. They go inside and hear the police approaching. They both know a strange combination trick with the grandfather clocks in the house that unlock a special door. They’ve got a book with instructions along with a phone and some magic-sounding words.When they come out of the closet, it’s winter outside, and the house is all clean and restored. “Now we wait for time to pass in our present, and when we head back, we’ll be clear. Two weeks and counting.”The two talk about their lives and about the bar patron who told Joseph about the magical, time-traveling clocks in this house. It’s noticed that there are no cars, no planes, no signs of other people. When it’s time to go back where they came from, they find “Go to the mill” scratched on a wooden sign.Inside the mill, they find a badly burned corpse. They find another cryptic message that demands their compliance. Sid freaks and runs outside to vomit blood when she crosses the perimeter. The body in the barn was the woman who gave Joseph the book with instructions.They come into a possession of a tape recorder that allows them to have a conversation with… whoever’s behind all this. The man on the tape wants to “wipe” them, painlessly and instantaneously. The man says there’s someone coming to use the time doorway that they can’t see, and he wants Joe and Sid to kill that person. He sends them pistols.They set up outside to watch the perimeter, and nothing happens for a long time. On day 352, Sid has researched that the place has been deserted since around 1955. The “Vice Grip” has since used the place as a sort of time-travelling safehouse. She’s had many theories about all this since they’ve been trapped here.Finally, someone walks across the field toward the house. They get down, loaded with a sniper rifle and aim at Sid. Joe yells, and they both run inside. Joe and the intruder shoot at each other. Sid gets shot in the shoulder as the intruder plays disco music.As Sid talks to the tape recorder, Joe is elsewhere being tied up and tormented. He tells the tape recorder that the intruder is dead– as the intruder controls the recorder for him.The intruder makes a run for the house and gets into a fight with Sid. The intruder is finally unmasked, and it’s Steph (her own daughter, grown up). Joe runs in and shoots

Mostly all new films this time around, and they’re all pretty good!We will start off with “Shelby Oaks,” then have no choice but to take a look at “Compulsion.” “Alma and the Wolf” will be stopping by before “Operation Undead” occurs. All of these are new-ish 2025 films. Lastly, we’ll watch the final film of the second Godzilla era, “Godzilla Vs Destoroyah” from 1995.This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Shelby Oaks* Directed by: Chris Stuckman* Written by: Sam Liz, Chris Stuckman* Stars: Camille Sullivan, Sarah Durn* Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a mix of documentary, found footage, and standard movie format that mixes the three smoothly together. After a quartet of paranormal investigators vanish, the sister of one of them starts an obsessive investigation of her own looking for answers. She finds some, and it’s thoroughly creepy. We both thought the movie improved as it went along, with a stronger second half, and we give it a thumbs up.Spoilery SynopsisWe’re told that Riley, the host of “Paranormal Paranoids,” went missing in 2008. We watch an old video of her talking about being scared. That was the last time anyone saw her alive. In Darke County Ohio, we hear news reports about Riley and her whole team going missing. Could it have been a hoax?Mia, Riley’s sister, has been searching for her for the past twelve years. We cut to people talking about this new thing called YouTube, and how it created a whole new type of paranormal researcher. We watch one old clip that took place in an abandoned prison, and Riley was never the same afterward. They never really got famous until their disappearance.The last evidence of the group was at a place called Shelby Oaks, a modern ghost town. Eventually three of the team were found, dead and mutilated, but Riley’s body was not found. We see that clip again, and this time, we see a creepy figure standing outside the window behind Riley. “Mia, he’s back,” she said. Mia talks about Riley’s visions from when she was little.As the interviewer and Mia finish up, a man comes to the door. “She finally let me go,” he says before shooting himself in the head. Credits roll. In his hand is a tape labelled “Shelby Oaks,” and Mia steals it.Mia watches the tape, which contains missing footage from Riley’s camera. Riley introduces the town of Shelby Oaks, but then gets all serious and wants to leave. She mentions having a dream about the place. They explore the place, but that night, there are weird sounds outside the buildings; howling and whining, like animals. We then see the man who killed himself on their doorstep come into the building and kill some of the crew.Mia sees someone standing outside looking in her window– on the second floor. Riley used to talk about the same thing happening.Detective Burke tells Mia about Wilson Miles, the man who did the killings. Mia still doesn’t tell the police about the tape. She wants to investigate on her own. Miles had been incarcerated in that old haunted prison as well, so that’s all connected. She interviews the former warden of the prison, who talks about how oddly quickly the prison deteriorated after Wilson Miles arrived there. The place literally rotted.Mia tells her husband Robert more of her suspicions, and yes, she’s seen the thing at the window a few times. The thing out there wanted something from Riley, and it’d been stalking her all her life, minus the few years when Miles was in prison. Robert thinks Mia needs psychiatric help.Mia reads about Incubuses and other demons. The pictures look familiar. Later, she sees a demon dog outside on the street. She decides, in the middle of the night, to drive right over to the abandoned CGI prison and break in, alone. Without telling anyone where she’s gone. She tracks down Wilson Miles’s prison cell and it abruptly gets very cold. Suddenly, her flashlight goes out and she sees some surprising things. She wastes no time in leaving the prison.She then drives to the old amusement park and encounters the demon dog again. This time, it leads her into the woods to a house where an old woman lives. She’s Norma. Mia notices that the house is covered in mold and rot, just like the prison. Norma says she lives with her son, who turns out to be Wilson Miles. Mia’s creeped out and sends Robert a text to call the police to her location.She finds photos of Wilson and Riley together, and she doesn’t look happy about it. Oh, and she’s pregnant in the photos. Norma comes out and opens a trap door on the floor and leads the way in. In a cell down there, Mia sees Riley, alive. It also becomes clear that old Norma isn’t human at all, or perhaps is just a human shell.Riley runs upstairs and Mia chases after her. They hear a baby crying and go into the room. Norma is there praying to Tarion, the Incubus of the North. She blesses the baby in his name. There are photos on the wall of Riley, Robert, Mia, and they’re all covered in blood. When the ritual is over, Norma falls to the floor, apparently dead. The baby, on the other hand, looks just fine.Mia takes Riley to the hospital. After twelve years, the news is all over the story. Eventually, they take Riley home, but she’s not adjusting well and is very quiet. “It has to die,” she says about the baby. The two sisters struggle, and Riley gets knocked out a window, where she’s torn apart by devil dogs. We get a good glimpse of Tarion standing behind Mia. Then it puts a hand on her shoulder.Mia then explains that Tarion had been following Riley for decades; this is what it’s always wanted. She screams, and we see that her eyes are glowing now.Brian’s CommentaryA lot of the beginning is found footage, but it moves away from that as Mia starts investigating. After that point, it starts picking up and gets good. I liked the last half quite a bit. The sets, music, lighting, and pacing all lend themselves to a very suspenseful mystery. You see just enough to know what’s going on, but they don’t beat you over the head with monsters and gore.It’s very good!Kevin’s CommentaryHmmm. A found footage documentary movie where a quartet of supernatural investigators have vanished. Will it be good or show us something new? Yes, it was quite good and unique enough to entertain me. I was pleased.The CGI when it’s used is pretty obvious, but the real abandoned locations, the interior of the prison, the town, the amusement park, were perfect.An interesting bit of trivia on IMDB.com says “In one of the posters promoting the movie, there are the names of all people contributing to the movie hidden in the poster. There were over 14,000 people included in (sic) making of the movie (including crowdfunding).”Oof. Sometimes the dragon wins as the saying goes.2025 Compulsion* Directed by: Neil Marshall* Written by: Charlotte Kirk, Neil Marshall* Stars: Charlotte Kirk, Matthew Camilleri, Zach McGowan* Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThere’s a masked and disguised killer on the loose in Malta who does brutal work. It has a hint of the horror elements, but really it’s a sexy and violent murder mystery. The deaths are very bloody, a contrast to the beautiful people and settings. And the script is clever but flawed. We both thought it was entertaining, but had some issues.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on various shots in and around Malta. Someone in a black outfit climbs the ladder on the side of a building at night. They break in through a balcony and skulk around. The person in black watches as the man who lives in the house gets ready for a shower. Then the intruder slashes the man to death excessively. We pull back and see that the killer is a woman in a full-body BDSM suit.Detective Claudia arrives on the scene. The chief explains the case to her; she’s never done a case like this before, so he assigns her to Detective Crawford as a partner. Also, the chief is her father.Evie is on vacation in Malta, just arrived, and she gets an annoying taxi driver. She’s got a rich father, whose isolated country home she’s going to stay at, and an attitude. She listens to neighbor Diane and her boyfriend, Reese, arguing from quite a ways away.Evie runs into Diane at the local store, and they talk. Meanwhile, the two detectives look at security footage of the bondage-killer; the killer is probably not one of the locals. Diane tells Evie about the murderer on the ride back home. Evie mentions that she just broke up with her girlfriend.Back at the house, neighbor Reese invites Evie out for dinner tomorrow night. Evie notices that she can see through to their windows from her room and really likes what she sees.Later, Diane and Reese talk about Evie’s rich father and how to get his money. Reese planned to seduce Evie, but she’s a lesbian, so that’s not gonna fly. They need to devise a new plan, so the next day, Diane goes to see Evie at her house. We get a flashback to Diane watching Evie’s stepfather, Mason, getting into the safe. She scopes out the lock on the safe as Evie gets dressed. Then Diane works on seducing Evie, which isn’t especially hard.Reese goes to see some baddies about the money he owes, and the boss, Fabio, isn’t nice about it. Final warning. He’s got a week before the boss lets a henchman skin him alive.The two detectives show up to question Evie, since she’s a recent arrival to Malta who fits the demographic of the killer. They tell her not to leave the island. They go to Diana’s house right afterward. The police have found several similar murders in neighboring countries over the past few months.Diane and Evie go out for dinner, and run into the annoying cab driver. The outing does not go well for any of them. When they get home, Diane learns the security code for Evie’s house entrance.We cut to the killer’s point of view as she walks through a house

Three new films, one from last year, and one oldie sits in the queue for us today.We’ll start off with the recent-ish “Ziam,” then look at “Bloat.” We’ve got some big stars in “The Ritual.” We’ll then finish up with the comedic “We Are Zombies” and the kaiju-fest, “Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla.”“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Ziam* Directed by: Kulp Kaljareuk* Written by: Vathanyu Ingkawiwat, Kulp Kaljareuk, Nut Nualpang* Stars: Mark Prin Suparat, Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich, Vayla Wanvayla Boonnithipaisit* Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a fast zombie movie, well made and set in Thailand, slightly in the future. The main character is a trained and experienced fighter, so he participates in a lot of combat both before and during the outbreak. It was fairly entertaining, but didn’t feel like much we haven’t already seen before.Spoilery SynopsisWe hear about the collapse of the environment and possibly the end of humanity. The Thai government has been on lockdown for the past ten years, so they still have their resources, or at least that’s what the propaganda on the radio says.Singh is quitting his job and daydreams about his girlfriend, Rin. He might go back to kickboxing, which he’s good at. The two drive into the food-insect farm in the apocalyptic wasteland. As they park the truck, bandits approach, but Singh fights them off. The bandits don’t stand a chance.There are riots and fighting all over Bangkok. Singh’s friend is elated to find that they’ve been carrying a load of dried fish in the truck. We cut to Mr. Vasu, who runs the company and kept the people from starving. We see that Vasu has invented a new kind of “safe” fish, and this is what Singh’s friend got. All the businessmen and investors get a sample, but then the convulsions start.At home, Rin nags at Singh about his dangerous job. She realizes that right now, there aren’t many options. Rin’s a doctor who works at the nearby hospital. She gets called by the hospital administrator for an important case: Mr. Vasu’s wife. Vasu thinks fish liver can improve his wife’s condition, but Rin isn’t sure the fish is even healthy. Meanwhile, Vasu’s partner, Purich, dies bloodily on the operating table, a victim of the fish.Purich then wakes back up, now a zombie. Rin gets a firsthand experience with him in the hallway.Singh hears that there’s an emergency at the hospital. He arrives just in time to watch some people fall off the roof– and keep moving afterward. It’s a fast-spreading outbreak of a fast-zombie virus. Soon, the whole hospital is crawling with zombies, and Rin is pretty much on her own.Singh gets inside and immediately has to start fighting zombies. Rin’s young friend, Buddy, also has to hide from the monsters until Singh shows up to help him.The government decides to blow up the hospital; it’s better than losing the whole city then the country. Demolition level explosives with a nice long timer are placed.Ren and Buddy search for Rin and Buddy’s mom, but there are a lot of zombies to avoid on the way. They find Buddy’s mother, but she’s been bitten and knows how that’s going to go, so she sends the boy with Singh. Singh fights off a bunch of zombies, using just his feet, while carrying Buddy on his back.Rin comes to Mr. Vasu’s room, and he lets her in. He lets her in and says she’ll be safe here. The government sends men to rescue Vasu. They arrive by helicopter and set the bombs for thirty minutes.Singh and Rin are eventually reunited, and he’s shot almost immediately after. Vasu’s men grab Rin and drag her off to care for Vasu’s wife. Singh gets right back up and attacks the soldiers. It’s quite a battle, but never doubt who’s going to win. By the time he wakes up, Rin has him all patched up.Meanwhile, some of the zombies downstairs are getting really messed up. Singh runs into Vasu, who watches his wife turning into one of the creatures. She bites him as many more flood into the ward.Rin and Buddy run as Singh tries to hold off the zombies. Rin and Buddy make it to the helicopter on the roof and work to convince the men there that she’s not infected. Singh makes it up to the roof and staggers toward the helicopter, but the copter takes off and leaves him there.The explosives go off, the whole hospital collapses. Rin and Buddy fly off to safety. Later, back in her small village, Rin is safe.Somehow, we see that Singh has survived the zombies and the collapse of the hospital and is still kicking zombie ass in the city…Brian’s CommentaryIt’s well made, and being from Thailand makes it interesting, but it’s nothing new. The acting looks fine, but we saw a dubbed version, and the voices were less than stellar.Nothing new here to see.Kevin’s CommentaryLike Brian said, it’s Thai, which makes it a novelty for us, and it’s put together well. But it’s just another fast zombie movie.Singh’s combat abilities and endurance after damage weren’t too realistic, but then it’s not a realistic movie. I was going to say they might as well have just had Singh show up at the end. Then they did. Which is completely ridiculous after he was on the roof of a building that was demolished by explosives.I was fairly entertained through most of it, but it wasn’t that memorable.2025 Bloat* Directed by: Pablo Absento* Written by: Pablo Absento, Buddy Giovinazzo* Stars: Ben McKenzie, Bojana Novakovic, Malcolm Fuller* Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis is another “screenlife” subgenre of horror, a film that’s entirely made up of videos, web pages, emails, video chat, etc. And it was brought to us by Apple. A father has to deal remotely with a son in Japan, along with another son and his wife, who are struggling with the supernatural. Bloat is a perfect title - it’s not a bad little story but it’s bloated out into a full length movie that didn’t impress either of us very much.Spoilery SynopsisWe watch a phone video of a woman giving birth; there’s something wrong with the baby. He reads a text “It’s time to move on. Jack, we’ve lost our child. It’s time to move on.” Jack and Hannah then decide to move to Tokyo. We watch a “Trip planning montage” which looks a lot like an ad for Apple. There’s suddenly an attack in the middle east, and Jack’s leave gets cancelled.Hannah and her two sons end up going to Tokyo without Jack. We watch Jack and Hannah talking through Facetime. Suddenly, Hannah drops the phone and runs away, leaving Jack hanging. We then see headlines that four boys drowned that day at the park, and Jack’s son Kyle was one of them, but he miraculously survived.Jack tries to get more information, but it’s hard since Hannah lost her phone and the other son, Steve, can’t use his phone in the hospital. Jack watches news footage over and over. What is that green stuff coming out of Kyle’s mouth?Afterward, Kyle is different. He bites his brother, but Jack is too busy managing drone strikes to pay full attention.Jack talks to a psychologist about Kyle’s weird behavior. We see a video of Kyle discussing his drowning experience with the doctor. He then goes on to research PTSD and a website for “PARENTS OF POSSESSED KIDS.”Kyle wants a drone for Christmas, and he’s also interested in bugs now. Kyle starts texting Jack in Japanese, but he doesn’t speak Japanese. Steve complains that Kyle is different; he eats rotten cucumbers now.Jack watches an old video of Hannah dumping the dead baby’s ashes in the lake and gets depressed. He then watches some clearly fake YouTube videos of supernatural stuff. We then get a long montage of conspiracy videos and blogs.Hannah calls Jack and says that Steve has disappeared. Jack gets a video of what Steve did last night; he followed Kyle out to the woods. Turns out, Steve thinks he’s been hanging out with some kind of little monsters. Steve also thinks his mother is back on drugs.Jack calls his friend Ryan, who’s still in Tokyo, to check on the family. Jack also orders a bunch of “trail cams” for Steve to set up out in the woods. Hannah seems to be in denial about all the weirdness. Ryan goes to see a Buddhist monk, and he says there’s a “Kappa” in one of Steve’s videos. They usually kill children, not possess them. There was another case about 15 years ago, but the old monk doesn’t know much about that time. “The kappa will swallow the boy’s soul. Then it will be impossible to save him.” It can be killed with fire. Jack researches the previous case, but that boy ended up dying. He then calls the father of the dead boy, who is now in prison for murder.There’s a typhoon coming in, so there’s no way for Jack to get to Japan. Ryan has night-vision goggles and wants to go watch the kappa in the forest. Jack calls Hannah, who seems to be out of her mind and likely possessed as well.Ryan sees the kappa in the woods and shoots it, but then his gun jams. Jack watches as the kappa swallows Ryan.Jack deserts his post and flies to Japan. He finds Hannah dead with her face half-eaten. Jack then burns down the house with Kyle inside. Jack runs back into the burning house but still holds his iphone camera up for us all to see. Apparently it was the sweet spot of killing the kappa with fire while saving Kyle.In the morning, Jack is arrested for the murder of his wife and military desertion. There’s a court-martial, and he faces a 45-year sentence. Steve and Kyle both testify at the trial.Brian’s CommentaryTIL what “Screenlife” is. I hate it. It made sense back in the days of COVID when two actors couldn’t be in the same room with each other, but why do it now?The whole thing is told through Facetime, Skype, texts, Instagram, Google searche

This time around, we have four new films and one oldie. We’ll start off with the much-hyped “Frankenstein” which just came out on Netflix. Next, we’ll watch an international film, “The Elixir” and also “The Mannequin,” which are also new releases. Finishing up the new stuff this week, we’ll take a look at “Black Phone 2.” Last, we’ll continue our Godzilla coverage with “Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II” from 1993.“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Frankenstein* Directed by: Guillermo del Toro* Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Mary Shelley* Stars: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz* Run Time: 2 Hours, 29 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneBasically, Dr. Frankenstein assembles a man out of corpse parts and brings him to life. But it’s not a smooth process and things get complicated. This version follows the original book somewhat closer than the classic Hammer and Universal film versions, and it goes much more into the moral and emotional complications. Beautifully filmed and directed, it’s long but entertaining. We both thought it’s really good.Spoilery SynopsisPreludeIn the farthestmost North, in 1857, we open on a ship frozen in the ice. The men work on the ice with axes. They are on a mission to find the North Pole. The men report an explosion and fire about two miles away, and they go to investigate. They find a wounded man who’s lost a lot of blood. They bring the unconscious man back to the ship, but there’s something else out there on the ice. They shoot it repeatedly, but that has little effect. It clearly wants the injured man, and it threatens to capsize the huge ship all on its own to get to him. The men shoot the ice beneath the monster and it sinks to the bottom of the ocean.The sick man, Victor, says the monster will come back for them, “It can not die. I made him.” As he recovers, he offers to tell the captain his story.Chapter 1: Victor’s StoryVictor’s father was a wealthy baron and a surgeon who was away much of the time, leaving Victor home with his mother. The father was abusive, but also taught Victor all about medicine. Something goes wrong with his mother’s pregnancy, and she dies. The baby, William, survives and soon becomes the father’s favorite. His father explains that “No one can conquer death.” Victor then decided to become the greatest doctor of all time.At the medical school, Victor demonstrates a machine he’s made that animates bits and pieces of a corpse. It’s quite a demonstration. The other doctors call it an unholy abomination.Mr. Harlander comes to visit; he saw the demonstration. Victor’s brother, William, is coming for a visit as he’s planning to be married. Harlander is something of a doctor himself, and he’s got new information about the nervous system that can help Victor– and financing as well. Harlander is making obscene amounts of money from weapons dealing because there’s a war on.Victor meets William and his fiancee Elizabeth, who looks exactly like Victor’s dead mother. Victor and Elizabeth start arguing right away. Harlander rents a scary old castle for Victor to do his work in, and it’s… excessive. They start assembling equipment and looking for bodies– even before they’re hanged.Meanwhile, Victor starts stalking Elizabeth. He pretends to be a priest to take her confession– nope, they’re just playing a game; they’re actually getting closer as William is busy managing the assembly of the lab. It’s a lot of work, and Victor is taking him for granted as he steals his gal away at the same time.Harlander catches on to the affair and tells Victor to hurry up before the funding dries up. The war is having one final battle, and Victor gets his choice of all the good body parts. He gets down to the business of assembling the perfect body with Harlander photographing and documenting everything. Harlander reveals that he’s dying of syphilis and wants to be “included” in the experiment - put his brain in the new healthy body. Victor says there’s nothing left of Harlander that’s not infected, so he won’t do it.It’s finally finished, and just then, a thunderstorm approaches. Victor gets the body into the machine and gets everything set up. Harlander, angry about being rejected, threatens to ruin everything, and Victor kills him accidentally. The lightning rod collector piece is damaged in the struggle, but Victor has no time to fix it.Lightning strikes, and all sorts of things happen– except the body doesn’t live. It failed. Victor goes to bed.When he wakes up, the creature is standing next to the bed, very much alive. He’s tall, gray, and scarred all over. He shows it around the castle, and it all goes pretty well for a while. Then he chains it up like a prisoner; he never considered what to do after the creature came to life.Weeks pass, and the creature learns some things, but he still doesn’t speak other than to say “Victor.” He cuts himself and heals almost instantly. Victor’s a rotten parent and teacher. William and Elizabeth arrive for a surprise visit, and she meets the creature accidentally. She thinks Victor has been abusing and neglecting it, and she’s nice to it.One night, Victor is beating on the creature and sees just how strong it really is. He blames Harlander’s death on the creature, telling William that it’s violent and dangerous. Victor sends William and Elizabeth home and then burns the lab, the castle, and the dungeon. With the creature still chained up inside. The whole castle explodes and collapses, and Victor loses a leg in the blast.Back on the ship, the monster arrives and breaks in. The captain wants to hear his side of the story.Part II The Creature’s TaleWe continue with the fire. He broke out of the chains and got out of the castle through the drain. It’s a rough fall, but he survives and walks away. He finds the pile of corpses and body parts that Victor threw out and takes some clothing from one of them. He’s almost immediately chased by hunters and shot.He goes off and hides in the barn of a farmhouse. The family in the farmhouse talk to the hunters. The creature sees and hears them through the cracks in the wall; he especially likes the old blind man, the grandfather. The creature watched and learned as the old man taught the little girl to speak and read. Each night, he did chores and made things for the family, but they never saw him.There’s a wolf attack on the family’s sheep, and most of them plan to hunt them in the mountains all winter. They leave the old blind man home alone, and the creature eventually reveals himself to the old man. The old man is nice to him, which is a new experience for the creature. They have conversations, the creature reads books and gains a lot of knowledge.The creature makes a return visit to Victor’s castle and learns what he really is. He also learns where Victor lives. When he returns to the old man’s house, the wolves have killed him. Just then, the family returns and stabs and shoots the creature repeatedly. It takes a while, but he gets back up, his wounds healed.Meanwhile, Victor is back at the family home; William’s wedding is fast approaching. The creature has tracked him down and watches the house from the nearby woods. They finally meet, and Victor wants the creature to thank him. The creature, on the other hand, wants Victor to make him a companion. “I cannot die, and I cannot live alone.”Victor, unsurprisingly, refuses to listen. Victor then shoots Elizabeth by mistake and the creature kills William. He carries Elizabeth out of the mansion and into a nearby cave. As she slowly dies, Elizabeth tells the creature that she’s happier dead and that she loves the monster.The monster decides that Victor will regret his decision and the hunt begins. Victor chases the monster through the mountains up to the arctic. The monster finally catches him. The monster simply wants to die at this point, and he holds onto a piece of Victor’s dynamite to see what will happen. He goes boom, but that still doesn’t kill him. He starts healing immediately. This is where the men from the ship came into the story.On the ship, Victor apologizes to the creature. They talk about life and death and unending life. The monster then forgives Victor as his creator dies.The captain then allows the creature to leave without a fight. The creature walks out onto the ice and pushes the ship free from where it’s been trapped. The captain announces he will give up his impossible mission and just go home. The creature, on the other hand, walks off into the sunrise…Brian’s CommentaryThe visuals are amazing here, both colorful and drab at the same time. They change around the family dynamic with Victor and the crew, but it sticks pretty closely with the book for the major plot points.Most of the effects are practical, and when the CGI does appear, such as with the wolf attack, it’s noticeably bad. Otherwise, it looks great, the acting is excellent all around, and even though it’s two and a half hours, it never gets boring and never slows down.The ending is different from the book. It’s not exactly a happy ending, but it’s not like the book, either. I’m not sure why del Toro felt the need to change the ending, but he did.Overall, it’s a very good movie, but it’s still not a perfect adaptation of the original book– but it’s close.Kevin’s CommentaryThe director pushed for practical sets, and they look great. Unfortunately, at least when viewed on a television screen, it makes the CGI use more noticeable. And we also noticed how multiple places - such as the lab, Captain’s cabin, and blind man’s house are all bigger on the inside.It’s a long film, but it moves well, and I was never bored.Al

We’ve got a mixed bag this time around: four new films and one classic. We’ll start out with the much-hyped “The Long Walk,” “Dorothea,” “The Benefactress,” and “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” all recently released. For our oldie, we’ll look at “Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle for Earth” from 1993.“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 The Long Walk* Directed by: Francis Lawrence* Written by: JT Mollner, Stephen King* Stars: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing* Run Time: 1 Hour 48 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA group of fifty young men is chosen by lottery to participate in “The Long Walk,” an annual elimination contest with one winner - one surviving winner - at the end. How they get there is surprisingly interesting to watch. And kind of sad and gruesome as you might imagine, and also uplifting and funny at times.Spoilery SynopsisWe read Raymond Garraty’s acceptance letter on screen. He’s been accepted through the lottery, and has a chance to win a wish and a huge amount of money. We hear on the radio that in the past, America had a war that ruined everything, and poverty is rampant but it has been 19 years and things are on the mend.Raymond’s mother doesn’t approve and wants him to drop out, but he says it’s too late. Fifty young men will compete, one from each state, but only one will win. As he checks in, he meets Peter, another contestant. Stebbins, Hank, Mark, Curly, and some of the others make themselves known. We see various other characters as well.The Major pulls up in his jeep. He has them all take numbers to wear around their necks, it’s a lot like a marathon. He explains that the broadcast of The Long Walk increases production, which helps the economy. “Walk until there’s only one of you left. If you fall below three miles an hour, you get a warning. The goal is to last the longest. There’s one winner and no finish line. Remember– anyone can win.”And they’re off! The first few miles, the walkers talk about how desolate the landscape is. They also talk about their strategies. One guy gets a rock in his shoe and stops to fix it; he gets a warning. And then a second warning. The soldier behind him raises his rifle. He gets up and moves on. Raymond talks about how social pressure makes everyone apply to The Walk, so they really don’t have a choice.Eventually, Curly gets a cramp, gets three warnings, and gets shot, the first loser of the race. Yes, there’s only going to be one survivor. Credits roll.Player 1 falls down, foaming at the mouth, he’s having some kind of epileptic seizure of some kind. The soldiers shoot him as well.Twenty-five miles in, everyone’s getting pretty tired. Barkovitch goads another guy into fighting with him, and it goes badly for one of them. Harkness is writing a book, and he talks about the “pooping issue” just as another walker dies because of it.As night falls, The Major gives them all a pep talk. Everyone is more or less walking in their sleep. Ray gets three warnings, but if he can keep walking for three hours, those will go away. They hit a steep grade in the road, and several players are killed; this motivates the rest. This clears out the crowd, as there are far fewer players now, only 18 left.When the sun comes up, they’re on mile 59. Reality is setting in for most of the walkers. Ray and Pete both doubt they’ve got what it takes to win. Harkness has been walking for miles on a twisted ankle, but he’s done. At the 100 mile mark, the group passes through a small town, and it’s extremely poor-looking.The second night, it rains.On day 3, there aren’t many walkers left. Ray tells the story about how his father was executed by The Major for reading banned books. Ray’s secret plan is to kill The Major. The winner gets a wish along with all the money, and he plans to use it to kill The Major. Pete tries to talk him out of those negative thoughts.At the 170-mile point, they lose more people. Hank gives up and they almost lose Baker because of it. As the survivors bond, they’re all getting closer, which makes each loss harder on them.Day 4, 209 miles in, and it looks like there are six left. They’ve all got problems. Barkovitch goes crazy and kills himself, mostly. The third warning finishes him off. At 278 miles, the landscape just gets bleaker and bleaker, with junk bicycles and burning cars. Ray’s shoe wears out, so he goes barefoot; he passes his mother on the side of the road.Baker gets a nosebleed that won’t stop for the next thirty miles or so. He knows he’s done for and asks the others not to watch him die. Stebbins admits that he’s The Major’s b*****d son, and that’s why he signed up. He says The Major has dozens of them and then drops out as well.Now it’s just Ray and Pete. When it’s down to just two, the rules allow for crowds of spectators. Pete stops to let Ray win, but Ray talks him into continuing. They are both on their third warning. The soldiers then shoot Ray who stops walking. The Major comes out and executes Ray.Pete wins, but he’s not happy about it. There are fireworks and everyone sings “American the Beautiful.” The Major asks for Pete’s wish, and he wants one of the soldier’s guns. Pete points the gun at The Major and shoots; this was Ray’s wish. Pete then walks off into the rain.Brian’s CommentaryIt’s an interesting world these people live in, and the plot is very simple. You’d think two hours of people walking would get boring pretty quickly, but the editing and dialogue keep it going quite well. I heard the premise and assumed it would be all about the players fighting and doing dirty tricks to win, but there’s not very much of that here.It’s not scary. There’s very little action. Still, it’s engaging all the way through as you get to know the characters. I think the ending was pretty predictable, but it was good getting there.Kevin’s CommentaryI was a little skeptical going into this, wondering how they could stretch the novella into a movie almost two hours long. But it’s so well made and naturally acted that it flows nicely without being boring. Plus they expanded on the story and changed the ending.The rural and small town settings they walk through are peaceful and beautiful and get darker and bleaker as the walk progresses. A light touch is the world that it’s set in, that doesn’t seem to be the future but more of an alternate timeline of the 1960s.I thought the ending was a little weak, but I liked it overall.2025 Dorothea* Directed by: Chad Ferrin* Written by: Chad Ferrin* Stars: Susan Priver, Pat McNeely, Ezra Buzzington* Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneAn old woman on her deathbed confesses the story of her history as a landlady who took special care of her tenants. It’s grim business with quite a body count, but also loaded with dark humor. It’s kind of a basic story, but we both thought it was very good.Spoilery SynopsisWe’re told the facts behind the “Death House Landlady” who took advantage of old people and cashed their Social Security checks.Dorothea, an old woman in a nursing home, wants to tell her story. We cut to a man beating up a woman. Later, she whacks him with a hammer and kills him. Credits roll.She stages her husband’s body in the bathroom and calls 911. “It was that easy. Worked like a charm. No one suspected a thing.”Dorothea continues telling her story to Patty, and we see that they’re both in prison. She continues by talking about her third husband, much younger and richer than she was. At least until he started cheating on her. The fourth husband wasn’t much better. After all the husbands, Dorothea buys a large house and starts renting out rooms.Ruth Monroe comes to the house to rent a room, and we see some of the other tenants. There’s a smell that Dorothea blames on a sewer pipe. Dorothea tells the handyman, Chief, to dig a new plot for her planting. Ruth pays $800 for the month; she’s had to sell her house to pay for her sick husband’s treatment.We cut to Dorothea putting something in Chief’s booze. He’s given up alcohol and doesn’t want it, but she’s persuasive. As he drinks, Chief tells Dorothea that old Malcolm has noticed things have gone missing and other patrons of the house are unhappy about turning over their SS checks to her. She doesn’t even wait until he’s dead to bury him.Dorothea sees that Ruth is in her room over where she just buried Chief, and she might have seen something. This ends up leading to the second poisoning of the night. She then goes into Malcolm’s room to kill him, but he’s not only moved out, but he also threatens to go to the police over missing items.In the morning, Dorothea finds Ruth’s “suicide” and convinces everyone that it was intentional. The theft problem, however, gets her five years in prison.While in jail, Dorothea writes to various men as pen pals. When she gets out, she meets a sailor who’s a lot older than she expected. He has plans, but she’s not into that. He’s fired the man she had taking care of her boarding house. He wants to sell her house and buy a boat; he’s already cleared out her savings. He doesn’t live long.She gets Ismael, the new handyman, to load the body into a coffin. Either he’s really dumb or really desperate and goes along with everything she does. She goes to the docks to get a refund on the boat he bought with her money. That goes badly for the man with the money and Ismael as well.Dorothea eventually starts renting out rooms to old people again. We meet all the people that we are told are going to die at her hands. They complain about how she’s spending their money, so it’s time to make them shut up. She has the newest handyman dig more grav– er, flow

Fun films this week! We’ll start off with the sorta-sci-fi “Woken” from 2025, then get traumatized by “Traumatika,” also from this year. “Ghost Killer” was released last year in Japan, but it’s also new here recently. “Insidious: The Last Key” from 2018 winds up our coverage of that series (at least until the next one). Lastly, we’ll look back at “Demon Seed” from 1977– does it still hold up?“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #49, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Woken* Directed by: Alan Friel* Written by: Alan Friel, Rebecca Pollock* Stars: Erin Kellyman, Maxine Peake, Ivanno Jeremiah* Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneAnna wakes up pregnant with no memory of where she is or who the people she’s with are. But everything and everyone seems so normal, what could go wrong? Things go slowly until they abruptly don’t, and the tension mounts. It definitely has a science fiction element with low-key simmering horror. We both thought it’s a winner.Spoilery SynopsisAnna runs to the cliff and looks down in a panic. She jumps. Credits roll.Later, she wakes up in a bed with her head bandaged. When she wakes up, there’s a strange woman there who’s taking care of her. “Don’t worry, the baby’s fine,” she says. The woman, Helen, brings in a book with photos of Anna, but Anna doesn’t remember Helen or anything. James comes in and is introduced as Anna’s husband, but she doesn’t remember him. His version of what happened on the top of the cliff differs from what we saw.Helen explains that they’re on an isolated island, and she can help deliver the baby when it comes. Anna meets Peter, Helen’s husband, and he’s a little weird. The group has whole lobsters for dinner, and it’s all pretty revolting to pregnant Anna. She doesn’t know them, so James shows her some videos. Helen and Peter are their neighbors, the only ones on the island.Dr. Henry comes for a visit to examine Anna. He pulls out one of her hairs before examining the baby. It’s due in about two weeks. Anna suggests that a visit to the mainland might help her memory, but James insists they wait until after the baby.Anna sees two people on a swan pedal-boat out on the water. When Helen sees it, she sounds an alarm. When Anna runs to welcome the people, she sees that they’re disfigured and monstrous. Helen shoots both of them, then James burns the bodies and the boats. “You’ve been exposed– We’ve all been exposed” Helen shouts. They all strip and burn their own clothes.James explains that ¾ of the population are dead. You can catch it a whole bunch of ways, and no one knows what started it. They lock her in the bedroom for a quarantine, but they don’t explain much.Some soldiers in hazmat suits come to the house, and James insists that Anna is uninfected. Dr. Henry is with them, and he examines her again. He says that both she and the baby are healthy. He seems excited, but tells her it’s “Nothing for you to worry about.” Clearly, these people still have some secrets.Anna finds the knitting basket, and it’s full of little knitted baby shirts, all identical. Helen and James whisper about Anna when she’s out of the room. She grinds up some pills she was given but didn’t take and puts them into James’s soup, but he’s suspicious and doesn’t eat it.Anna sneaks out in the morning and goes to the part of the island she’s been told not to go to. She passes a “Forbidden” sign and comes to Helen and Peter’s house. Peter complains that Helen’s getting too attached, and this happens to her “every time.” Also, Helen has a small black child that clearly isn’t hers or James’s. And there’s a baby crying– or maybe that’s a goat.Anna sneaks into their house and looks around. She runs into little Joshua, who says she promised to never leave him but did. Helen interrupts and tells her to go back to the cottage. Just as she’s about to get answers, James chloroforms her.Anna wakes up restrained to a table in a lab. James comes in, and he says that’s not his baby inside her, he’s just here to protect her during the pregnancy. He says she doesn’t really want to know what’s going on. Helen and Peter appear to be scientists. “Always a pity to cut you up,” says Peter. Anna gets an arm free and stabs him in the neck with a syringe. Through an accident, Peter shoots himself, and Anna gets off the table.Anna watches videos of her being experimented upon– and dying. She sees computer records of at least 17 past failures where she and the baby died. She opens a machine and sees that they are already working on her replacement.Anna confronts Helen and James, and she wants answers. It’s only a matter of time before humans are wiped out. Anna, and her kind are here to replace us. Helen and Peter are experts in Genetic Cloning and Transmissible Intelligence. Anna is immune to infection, and hopefully her child will be too. Helen says there have been 96 attempts, and the current Anna is only two years old. Joshua was from a previous Anna, and Helen has been keeping him hidden.Anna and Helen lure the doctor and soldiers to the island and then board their boat. They are quickly captured. Anna gives birth to a healthy baby that is quickly rushed away by Dr. Henry.Back at the lab, Henry infects the baby, but it’s immune. He’s also got Joshua as a hostage, but that ends really badly. Henry orders Helen to get the next one ready and to make sure she doesn’t remember anything next time. Helen and Anna shoot the two guards and then infect the rest.Anna comes to Henry on the boat. Helen shoots Henry in the head, and then they burn Joshua’s body. They set sail North on Henry’s boat with the newest Anna on board as well; they heard there are islands up there that aren’t infected.Brian’s CommentaryFor a very long time, we don’t really know what’s going on, other than some of the people on the island are a little off. About thirty minutes in, we both came up with the same theory about a twist that might be coming. We were essentially right, but there was a lot more to it than that.It’s slow moving and creepy. There’s some action at the end, but it’s mostly a mystery as we try to figure out what’s going on.Kevin’s CommentaryAnna wakes up with no memory, but the people she encounters seem so kind and normal. The island is beautiful, and the house is peaceful - through rundown and low tech. I liked the abrupt change of pace and tone. And we see that it’s in the future with medical technology quite a bit ahead of what we’ve got now.I can see where they had the best intentions shielding Anna from reality while her memory was gone. But I was kind of annoyed when the big change in tone happens and they don’t take the time to fully tell Anna what’s going on and continue to keep things from her. And us. Though that did help us come up with a theory of everything.I thought it was pretty cool.2025 Traumatika* Directed by: Pierre Tsigaridis* Written by: Maxime Rancon, Pierre Tsigaridis* Stars: Rebekah Kennedy, Emily Goss, Ranan Navat* Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA demon set free really messes with people over a lot of years. We thought this one was hit and miss. It’s well made, with some good creepy bits and suspense. There are also some places that drag and don’t do much for us. The Horrorguys are split on this one. Kevin gives a moderate thumbs-up, and Brian didn’t care for it much at all.Spoilery SynopsisWe are told of the five forms of childhood trauma, and then we go to Egypt in 1910. A man is walking across the desert, and he doesn’t look to be in very good condition. As he collapses, he unwraps a figurine and says a prayer over it before burying the evil thing. He then stabs himself in grief over his son that the demon in the statue took. He dies as the credits roll.We cut to 2003 in Pasadena. Little Mikey calls 911 about his mother, who is scaring him. We soon see that this is no normal domestic abuse situation as she scurries around after him and pees on the floor. Yeah, she’s demon-possessed.We see Mikey on TV as an abducted child, as he and his demonic “mother” watch the news. The sheriff shows up in response to that 911 call and he insists on coming inside; he knows something is wrong. He finds a tub full of blood, and it’s all very weird. Then he moves down to the basement and finds several bodies. The crazy woman charges at him, and he shoots three times. Then it goes badly for the sheriff.One year earlier, an angry man hangs up the phone and unwraps that statue we saw in the pre-credit sequence. John picks up the phone and talks to Steve, who says there’s some way to use the idol to open a mystic portal - you must not take the head off. The instructions say to keep it away from children. Volpaazu preys on children and then spreads like a disease. Steve clearly believes all this, but the idol is worth $5o,ooo, and he needs the money.What does John do? He immediately opens the idol and breathes the smoke contained inside. He then goes out to the living room and tells his daughter Alice to go to bed. Then he rapes his other daughter, Abigail. We see that Abigail’s mouth looks just like the one on the demon we saw earlier. After, he swears her to secrecy. Later that night, John sneaks into Abigail’s bedroom and pukes demon-juice into her mouth, converting her as well.Abigail runs off in the middle of the night. He calls his ex about the missing daughter, and she’s not pleased. We cut to Abigail, alone in an old house, giving herself a coat-hanger abortion. She calls Alice and tells her to never come looking for her. John then shows up to torture her some more, but we see that she’s really doing it to herself; John isn’t real. “John” says the demon w

That might be the longest title we’ve ever had. We’ll open on the brand-new “Dracula: A Love Tale,” which redoes Dracula yet again. We’ll then go to “Night of the Reaper,” a twisty slasher film. We’ll finally get around to watching “The Velocipastor” from 2018, and then go back in time to “Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah” from 1991 and “Santo and the Blue Demon vs Dracula and the Wolf Man” from 1973.The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #49, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Dracula: A Love Tale* Directed by: Luc Besson* Written by: Luc Besson, Bram Stoker* Stars: Caleb Landry Jones, Christoph Waltz, Zoe Bleu* Run Time: 2 Hours, 9 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis is a big budget production with elaborate costuming, amazing sets, and excellent makeup and special effects. It kept reminding us of 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” but even more so. If you’re a fan of Dracula and vampire movies, you really should check this one out. It’s great.Spoilery SynopsisIt’s 1480 AD, and Vlad and Elisabeta are in love, either that or it’s a teenage slumber party, it looks about the same. Soldiers come to the door and need King Vlad to lead them into battle. He reluctantly gets all armored up and goes with them after getting a blessing from the priest. Vlad makes a deal with the priest to watch over Elisabeta while he’s gone. While he goes off to battle, she’s taken across the country to a safe place, but the party is ambushed.Vlad rushes to the rescue, but she dies in his arms; he is not happy. He goes home and blames the priest. This goes badly for the priest– very badly. Vlad renounces God and bad things happen.Four hundred years later, in Paris, Dr. Dumont welcomes the priest to his church. Dumont has a very strange medical case that he needs help with in his mental asylum. He has a woman, Maria, whom he thinks is possessed. She’s got fangs and glowy eyes. She’s a vampire. She’s the first one taken into captivity, but the priest has seen them before. The doctor finds it all a little hard to believe, but it’s obviously true. The church has been looking for the Master for 400 years. She says the Master is coming to Paris to take a princess soon.We cut to Jonathan Harker, who is visiting Count Dracula’s castle. It’s surprisingly nice inside, and Prince Vlad is looking extremely old– but not monstrous. He has a habit of moving things without using his hands, which Jonathan finds very entertaining thinking it’s magic tricks and not realizing it’s real.The priest goes to see Henry Spencer, Maria’s husband. He goes through the woman’s bedroom looking for clues, like a detective. She has a page torn out of the book that Jonathan is reading back in the castle; it’s a drawing of Princess Elisabeta.Meanwhile, in the castle, Jonathan explores the place and finds Dracula’s tomb. He’s attacked by living gargoyles and hung upside down. Vlad explains himself to Jonathan, and we get a flashback to the rest of his origin story. Vlad’s been waiting for Elisabeta to be reincarnated, and it’s been a hard search. He developed a fragrance into a perfume that made all women love him, as well as some of the men from the look of it. There’s a montage of him combining his mind control with the power of the perfume to make rooms full of people in different eras dance to his tune as he searches for her. That didn’t work out so well for him or the entire court of France. He turned them all into servants and sent them out to look for her. Since then, he’s waited in that castle. Jonathan shows Vlad a picture of his own fiance, Mina, and guess who she looks like?Back in Paris, the priest explains the vampire curse to Dr. Dumont. Dumont’s assistant points out that Mina is in the next room. She’s a friend of Maria, and tells the story of what happened to her. She admits that she’s engaged to Jonathan, but also that she feels like she doesn’t really belong in this time.Meanwhile Dracula gets a bite of food on the road; he drains an entire convent full of nuns. He then travels to Paris, looking much younger now after feasting, and heads straight to the asylum where Maria is held prisoner. He breaks her out and feeds the orderly to her as a reward for her help. The priest and the doctor rush to warn Mina.Along the way, Jonathan makes a difficult escape from the castle.Meanwhile, Maria goes to Mina and says she’s been released from the hospital. They go to a hotel where she meets Dracula. He tags along with them around the carnival like a stalker. It’s all surprisingly romantic, and just maybe it’ll work out for Dracula this time. During their date, she gets repeated flashbacks to her earlier life.When Mina goes home that evening, she finds Jonathan there along with the priest and doctor. The priest explains the facts about Dracula to Mina. Dracula shows up to convince her about his side of the story and about who she really is. She immediately wants him to bite her, and he does.The priest, doctor, and Jonathan go to visit Henry, but Maria has gotten to him first. The group works together to kill Maria, but then they have to go to Transylvania, where the count has taken Mina. They bring the whole army with them, cannons and all.There’s soon an all-out battle between soldiers, gargoyles, and Dracula himself, who’s very efficient at killing soldiers. Soon, it’s just Dracula and the priest, and they talk about motives and philosophy. The priest says Dracula can repent and the curse will end. He needs to let Mina live. There are more troops coming in, and more cannon fire.Mina’s in danger, so Dracula goes to her. He talks about her being free if he dies, as if he knows what’s coming. He goes back out to the priest and surrenders. The priest stakes Dracula, who, after saying how much he loves Mina, turns to dust.Brian’s CommentaryWhat could they have told the Transylvanian army to have them bring cannons to the castle?There’s a lot of borrowing from “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992), and I mean a lot. Even the music seems to steal from that film. I expected to rag on this for being a ripoff, but well, this is actually really good.This one has a lot of intentional humor mixed in, which is probably the best thing about it. I didn’t like the CGI gargoyles at first, but they grew on me. The sets and makeup are impressive. The actors, with the exception of Caleb Landry Jones, are all Europeans, and everyone does the proper accents, unlike the earlier film.This was exceptional, and we’ll certainly be talking about it again in our “Best of the Year” episode in January.Kevin’s CommentaryI too recognized some elements from 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” but this version dials it up to 11. The sets, costumes, and makeup are all very impressive. They don’t shirk at showing the full extent of Dracula’s fighting abilities and powers.I do wonder how the small band of heroes who go to Romania to strike at Dracula when he and Mina get back to his castle persuaded the military to join them in a multi-troop heavily armed assault. “You see, general, he’s a vampire. No really. He is. And we need your help to take him down.”Overall, I’d rank it as one of my favorite Dracula movies. Awesome.2025 Night of the Reaper* Directed by: Brandon Christensen* Written by: Brandon Christensen, Ryan Christensen* Stars: Jessica Clement, Ryan Robbins, Summer H. Howell* Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s set in the 1980s so we can have landline phones instead of cell phones and VHS tapes, both necessary for the plot. And they do a good job of capturing the 80s vibe. It hums along with suspense and some mystery for the first 2/3 or so. It’s well made, but we were both very disappointed with the final act.Spoilery SynopsisA little boy tells the babysitter about the “Skin Eater” that lives in his closet. As the babysitter leaves them alone, we soon see that this couldn’t be more 80s if it tried, and it’s trying hard at least until the parents open the garage door to come home. No, that’s not them, the door just opened on its own. She goes outside to smoke and finds a dead dog in the street. When she goes inside, she finds a note: “Your pretty.” She assumes it’s the kids, but the strangeness continues. When she finds out it’s not the kids, it’s too late for her. The TV comes on, and a man in a cultist’s hood and skull mask is on there. We also see the same man grab her from behind… Credits roll as the grainy VHS-ish footage continues.Deena has come back to town and she talks to Chad and Willis. She’s decided on Criminology for her major. Deena goes to see her hyper friend Haddie, but she hasn’t gone to see her parents yet. Haddie babysits for Sheriff Rodney’s kids, and she’s hoping he’ll marry her eventually.Sheriff Rodney finds a package outside his door that’s got no label on it. Inside, he finds a garage door opener, which upsets him. He and the deputy test the opener on the house where the pre-credit murders happened, and it’s the same one that opened their garage door.Deena goes home to her parents and talks to them, but her father doesn’t respond to her at all. Haddie calls and says she’s sick, so could Deena do her babysitting gig tonight?Sheriff Rodney gets a videotape in a box at the office, and it shows a camper being killed by the same guy who did the babysitter. The sheriff says Connor Davis died in the woods two years ago, but it was assumed to be an accident. He and Deputy Butch find Officer Liz on the road burying a dead dog. The two men drive on to where Connor’s body was found years ago. They find another box there. This box has a videotape showing Emily the babysitter’s death. Also in the video is Chad’s van, which shouldn’t be there.Deena arrives at the sheriff’s house and talks to Max, his son. He shows her all around the house except for the basement, where they never go. Naturally, she wants to go down there and look around. She pay

We’ve got another weird mix of old and new this time around. We’ll begin with the new “Forgive Us All,” then discuss “Insidious Chapter 3,” “Godzilla vs. Biollante” and then both the original “Witchboard” (1986) and the brand-new remake from 2025.The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #49, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Forgive Us All* Directed by: Jordana Stott* Written by: Jordana Stott, Lance Giles, Alex Makauskas* Stars: Lily Sullivan, Callan Mulvey, Richard Roxburgh* Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIn a beautiful location in New Zealand, we see a slice of a zombie apocalypse. And we quickly see that living jerks are just as dangerous as the infected in the aftermath. A woman in mourning finds a wounded traveler being pursued, and we gradually piece together what life and politics are like now. Rather than a non-stop action take, this is more of a story that takes its time, focusing on the people trying to survive. We give it a moderate thumbs up.Spoilery SynopsisA woman cries and screams next to a fresh grave. As she carries her pistol back to the house, we see that a struggle took place that resulted in a shooting. She then looks in on her sleeping child, who is also covered in blood and barely breathing. Although it looks like she’s dying, Maddie sits up and looks possessed. Maddie leaps, and we hear a gunshot. Credits roll.Two years later, Rory still wakes up with nightmares over that whole situation. She listens to a radio report that sounds bleak. She passes Otto on the way out, and it’s clear that they live way out in the wilderness.We cut to a rider leaving Camp 13, zooming right past the sign that says, “GMA Quarantine Processing.” Two other horseback riders are right behind him, in pursuit. The man’s partner gets caught instead. They torture him for the first rider’s location, but he dies rather than give it up.Back with Rory, who still grieves about Maddie, she’s considering killing herself, but doesn’t. She finds the horse, who leads her to the unconscious rider. He looks like he’s dying, but she takes his bag, slings him over the saddle, and sets off leading the horse.Meanwhile, Otto finds a bunch of bones that belonged to their neighbor, Henry. The body appears to be mostly eaten. He sees three men, GMA agents, on horseback and hides, but there’s also something screaming in the woods nearby.Rory takes the wounded man home and looks him over before locking him inside the barn. She opens his package and finds medicine inside that says “Take within 72 hours of infection.” When Otto returns, she shows him the still-unconscious stranger. Otto’s not happy. Also there’s a storm coming, “They’ll be out in force tonight.” At dinner, they argue about life in general.That night, she reminisces about Maddie and her drawing of a dragonfly. Her father was off helping the sick people, but Rory doesn’t know much about the virus. Suddenly, Connor, the father, opens the door, and he’s clearly not right. He jumps at them and– Rory wakes up.She goes out to the barn to check on her prisoner, and he’s up and around now. They hear a “Howler” outside and have a quick scuffle. He’s Noah, and she patches up his wounds. Noah broke into the GMA base and stole the antidote for his own sick son. It’s still dark, so if he leaves now, the Howlers will get him. Still, his time to use the antidote on his son is running out.Not far away, the three trackers, Logan, Scout, and Brooks, find Rory’s house and wait to see what happens. Rory and Otto argue about what to do about the sick boy whose time is running out. As they bicker, the GMA agents ride up.Rory and Noah take the horse as Otto stays behind to stall the agents. There’s a gunfight, and Brooks dies, as does Otto. Logan is injured, but he’ll live. Scout tells Logan she’s not going with him; she doesn’t want to be a part of this anymore, so Logan goes on alone after Noah and Rory.Rory continues on alone as Noah and Logan brawl without their horses or guns. After much back and forth, Noah shoots Logan, which attracts a group of Howlers which finishes him off as well.Rory continues through the dark forest, now at night, and all the Howlers are out at night. She hides and runs from a group of the nasty infected people. In one of the scuffles, she gets bitten. After that, the infected begin to ignore her; she’s one of them now.In the morning, Rory finally comes to Noah’s house. Did she get there in time to save Noah’s son before the infection is too far gone? She leaves the cure with the old woman who’s watching Noah’s son and walks on back to the river.Rory visualizes Maddie as she puts her pistol to her head and pulls the trigger before the disease gets her.Brian’s CommentaryIt’s a just-barely sci-fi post-zombie-apocalyptic story set in the always-beautiful New Zealand wilderness. Everything is filmed with either a brown or green filter, so everything has a very “Western” feel to it.The acting is fine, the situation is interesting enough, but the plot is very generic. It’s more of a good-guys-and-bad-guys movie than really leaning into the zombies, which are just sort of there in the background a few times until the ending.It looks great, has good acting, but it was awfully slow moving.Kevin’s CommentaryWow, the scenery is nice in this one. Lily Sullivan, as Rory, kept reminding me of a young Geena Davis - which is a fine thing. She’s very good in the role, as is the rest of the cast.I liked the direction this one took, with the zombie story a real threat, but not the entire focus. There are plenty of terrifying moments while kind of being on the slow side following the trials of the living. It’s not a happy movie, but it’s quite good.2015 Insidious: Chapter 3* Directed by: Leigh Whannell* Written by: Leigh Whannell* Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson* Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes* Trailer: \Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a prequel to the haunting of the Lambert family, showing how Elise got into the business along with Specs and Tucker. So pretend that they all look younger than they did in the previous movies that take place after this. But age discrepancies aside, it’s well made and works perfectly with the other films. If you’re an Insidious fan, you’ll probably like this one.Spoilery SynopsisThis takes place a few years before the previous films.Quinn goes to see Elise; she’s looking for a psychic. She wants to talk to her dead mother and has been trying to contact her on her own. After a bit of discussion, Elise is willing to help. She contacts the spirit world and senses something bad. She warns Quinn not to call on her mother. “If you call out to one of the dead, all of them can hear you.”Quinn goes home, but she keeps talking to her dead mother. Her father works a lot and her brother Alex is weird. She goes to an audition that afternoon, and doesn’t go well. She whines to her friend Maggie. She sees another strange dead-looking person and then gets hit by a car.Quinn dies on the operating table, but then they bring her back. While dead, she sees something scary. Three weeks later, Quinn talks to an old woman who speaks of the man who lives in the vents. “He up there right now, standing in your room.” Quinn’s in two leg casts and a wheelchair, at least for a while.Across town, Elise goes to bed. She dreams about Quinn. She considers opening up her padlocked reading room but doesn’t.Quinn sees someone on her ceiling, and her father Sean investigates the weirdness. Quinn tells him about seeing Elise a month or so ago, and he warns her not to do that.Elise calls Quinn’s mother on her own one night. She knows someone is bothering Quinn, and it’s not her mother. She sees it, and it’s definitely not a nice ghost. Meanwhile, Quinn has a run-in with the same entity, and she soon realizes it’s not her mother. Around the same time, the old woman next door dies.Quinn has a nightmare about the various creatures and dead people. Sean finds her in the empty apartment upstairs.Sean goes to see Elise, and they talk about dead spouses. She talks about going to “The Dark Place” looking for her dead husband, but some evil woman followed her back to the real world. She hasn’t been able to do a reading since then. Still, she tries, and quickly goes into a trance. She sees all sorts of weird things and is attacked by the woman in black, her nemesis.Sean calls in Specs and Tucker, a couple of ghost-chasers from YouTube. Elise talks to Carl, an old friend, about her spirit problem.Quinn beats up Sean, Specs, and Tucker, and then breaks the casts off her legs. Elise shows up to get rid of the parasite inside Quinn. The group does a seance so that she can go to a different plane, “The Further,” and help Quinn.Elise confronts the ghosts, and this time, she beats up the woman in black and defeats her. She runs into her dead husband, and he tempts her to join him in the world of the dead. She recognizes that he would never suggest she kill herself and that he’s actually the bad ghost in disguise. As she steals Quinn away from “The Man Who Can’t Breathe,” there’s an earthquake in the real world. Elise calls on Lily, Quinn’s dead mother, to help.Quinn returns to the real world, and gets to talk to her mother through Elise.Later, Elise talks to Specs and Tucker about them never having really seen a ghost before. Maybe they could all go into business together? They’d have to wear shirts and ties.Brian’s CommentaryThis is a prequel to the first two films, and the character of Elise is the main thing that ties the films together. It’s got foggy corridors, lanterns, and weird creatures, so it fits in with the other films just fine.It’s not my favorite series in general, but this is a solid entry if you liked the others.Kevin’s CommentaryI recognize that the Insidious movies are well made, and they have a loyal fandom. They are not my cu

All five of our films this week are new releases:We’ll open on a nice dog story; really, he’s a “Good Boy.” A not-so-good-boy is the star of “The Toxic Avenger.” We’ll go back in time and watch the prequel, “Borley Rectory: The Awakening.” Then we’ll watch a couple of documentaries, one real, “Lost Contact: UFOs After Wartime” and one not-so-real “Strange Harvest.”Spoiler: We liked them all!* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #49, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Good Boy* Directed by: Ben Leonberg* Written by: Alex Cannon, Ben Leonberg* Stars: Indy, Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman* Run Time: 1 Hour, 12 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThe main character of the movie is a dog, with everything slanted toward his point of view, which is interesting. His master, Todd, is afflicted with both a terminal illness and dark forces that are working against him. Both things that seem to have been impacting his family for quite a while. But he’s got Indy by his side. It’s unique, which helps it out a lot, but it’s actually pretty slow moving on a low simmer. We both thought it was pretty good.Spoilery SynopsisIndy the dog protects the house at night; he hears strange sounds that concern him. The phone keeps ringing, and it turns out that Todd is having some kind of seizure. His sister, Vera, comes in and calls 911. Credits roll.We watch old footage of Indy being a puppy and growing up with Todd and his family. Todd’s got a lot of health problems, and Indy is a big help.Todd and Vera argue about him going to stay at Grandpa’s house; neither Vera nor Indy think that’s a good idea. The house is very remote in the country. When they arrive, Indy really doesn’t want to get out of the car. The place is a mess, but Todd says it beats the hospital.Todd calls Vera, and they talk. Grandpa used to have a bunch of dogs, but they kept all running away. As he watches old home videos of grandpa, Vera points out that no one has lived in that house for more than a few weeks; she says it’s haunted. Meanwhile, Indy checks out shadows that he doesn’t like. Indy explores the old house, but he doesn’t find anything.The next morning, Todd and Indy go for a walk in the woods. They stop at the family cemetery, and Todd points out that most of them died pretty young. They run into a neighbor, and he mentions traps and snares all over the woods. The neighbor mentions how strange the area is, too. Todd, on the other hand, thinks it’s nice and peaceful.Vera, still on the phone, mentions that dogs can detect all sorts of things that people can’t, so he should be keeping an eye on Indy for signs of trouble. The next day, Todd goes off and leaves Indy at home, and Indy is not pleased. Indy spots another dog in the house and follows it, but all he finds is the dog’s bandana– and a vision of something nasty that “got” the other dog. Todd comes home, unwell; he’s been at the hospital again.Indy has nightmares that night. He wakes up and patrols the house, hearing and seeing things that shouldn’t be there. He watches as Todd goes to the kitchen and bangs his head on a door repeatedly– sleepwalking? There appears to be some kind of black ghost or monster that’s creeping around the place.Todd gets sicker, and the doctor says he doesn’t qualify for her clinical trials. The neighbor, Richard, warns him again about his fox traps. As Todd obliviously works on his Feng Shui, Indy watches all sorts of horrors going on in the next room and especially in the basement.One night, Todd collapses and a door shuts Indy in the next room. Indy notices the window is open and jumps down to get outside. Indy runs through the woods toward Richard’s house to get help but gets caught in a snare instead. The next thing we know, Todd is chaining up Indy outside in the rain. The monster terrorizes Indy, who can’t escape because of the chains. Indy does eventually break loose, and then he finds the skeletal remains of Bandit, Grandpa’s last dog.Inside the house, Todd gets a scare of his own until Indy comes in and comforts him. The monster then grabs Todd and drags him to the basement, but Indy knows another way in. “You’re a good dog, but you can’t save me,” Todd says as he turns into a skeleton.In the morning, we see that Todd has died in his bed. Vera comes to the house and finds Bandit’s bones in the cellar while letting Indy outside. Indy goes off to live with Vera.He was a good boy!Brian’s CommentaryAll Grandpa’s dogs ran off… we see why.It’s told from Indy’s point of view, which is interesting and unique. Dogs do sense things that humans can’t, and this film makes heavy use of that fact. Indy the dog gets top billing here, primarily because we don’t see any shots of the character’s faces through the majority of the film.It’s actually very slow moving and quiet. I suspect some will say it’s boring, but it had my attention throughout. If you’re a dog lover, you’ll like this one.Kevin’s CommentaryIndy the dog, playing himself, does an impressive job and belongs to the director - possibly he was raised with this role in mind. He does indeed seem to be a Good Boy. It was cleverly filmed to accentuate Indy’s point of view, with the human character’s faces shown very little throughout the movie.It’s well made, and the novelty of it saves it. It’s actually kind of slow. There is creepiness that builds some, and Indy having fearful dreams, but not a lot happens for much of the film.I’d mark it as a win that isn’t quite great, but I liked it quite a bit.2025 The Toxic Avenger* Directed by: Macon Blair* Written by: Macon Blair, Lloyd Kaufman, Joe Ritter* Stars: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige* Run Time: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis remake does a good job of paying tribute to the original while being different enough to still entertain. It is still stupid fun and over the top, but with a different vibe. It’s saturated and colorful, almost cartoonish, with less of a thrown together feeling that the original had. When the gore kicks in, it’s the goriest gore. The humor is hit and miss but mostly hit. We both enjoyed it, but it doesn’t quite live up to the original.Spoilery SynopsisWinston narrates his story, which begins on the other side of town. Mel Ferd, the reporter, gets footage from the BTH Headquarters. He’s got evidence that they’ve been dumping toxic waste illegally. Just then, a group of goons break in and kill him. He dies hard. His junior reporter, J.J., gets away. Credits roll.In St. Roma’s Village (or Tromaville), we meet Winston, who lives with his son Wade and can’t cook breakfast. We see there are some really weird people in the town. There are some bad guys who are forcing shopkeeper Daisy to sell her place.Winston goes to work at BTH as a janitor, and it doesn’t look like OSHA would approve of the place at all. He gets a call from his doctor, who says he has an inoperable case of @#$$#@, He’s got six months to a year to live. Winston then calls his insurance company who explains things like insurance companies always do. Yeah, he’s screwed.Meanwhile, at the Garbinger Mansion, BTH Owner Bob may have passed his prime, but he’s getting an infusion of gorilla blood. His brother Fritz comes in, and he’s tremendously weird. Fritz’s friends, The Killer Nutz, were the ones who botched the reporter’s murder. Fritz sends the Nutz after J.J. to finish the job. They are not subtle.Meanwhile, at New Chemical High School (New Chem High), Wade auditions for a talent show. It goes badly. Winston tries to cheer him up, but he’s just not good at that.Bob Garbinger is attending a big fancypants banquet. His business is losing a ton of money, but he’s trying to bluff his way through that. He meets with the town’s big mob boss who wants payment on what he’s owed. Winston interrupts to ask Bob for money for his treatments. Bob promises to sort it all out, but he has no intention of doing anything.Winston goes to BTH, and when he opens the gate, J.J. sneaks inside. Winston dips his mop in the toxic goo and threatens the security guard with it to rob the company’s treasury. The Nutz show up and shoot him dead. They drop his corpse into a big vat of nastiness and throw in the mop for good measure. Down in the vat, Winston is transformed rather dramatically.Winston goes home to Wade, who takes one look at the little monster in the window and freaks out. The real estate swindler is there and shoots Winston. Winston gets angry and rips the man’s arm off. Almost instantly the town forms a mob, complete with torches, to chase the monster away. He passes out.In the morning, Winston wakes up in a hobo’s camp. The man there, Gunther, is pretty crazy. Gunther gives him some wise superhero advice and sets him upon a mission, giving him his mop which he found.Meanwhile, the Miss Meat restaurant, The Nasty Lads, another gang, have taken over the place. They’re angry that the place has changed its name and mascot, and they’re heavily armed. Suddenly, a little green man with a toxic mop breaks in the back door. His mop does some really bad things to the Nasty Lads and saves the hostages.Now a hero, the press starts calling Winston the “Toxic Avenger.” Wade sees all this on the TV and knows who he really is. J.J. comes to the door and explains the whole thing to him. The Nutz show up, and they both run away. But one of the Nutz tags Wade with a tracking device.The mob boss and his son, who lost his arm last night, also see the news and orders his men to kill Toxie. Bob, Fritz, and Kissy also know who he is, and they aren’t happy. His geeks and nerds explain how the mutations happened. Can they reproduce the mutation?Wade and J.J. run into Winston on the street. They talk for a minute until the mob guys show up and shoot Winston again. J.J. gets shot by the Nutz, and everybody runs. Toxie takes out his baddies, and he takes J.J. to Gunther,

Two new releases this week, along with some fun catch-up films.We’ll start off with the brand-new underground tunnel-chase, “Scurry” and then go out to the retro-desert in “Brute 1976.” We’ll take a walk on the silly side with “Lavalantula” from 2015, and then finish off the George Romero zombie series with the final two of his films: “Diary of the Dead” 2007 and “Survival of the Dead” (2010).A bunch of winners this week!* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Scurry* Directed by: Luke Sparke* Written by: Tom Evans* Stars: Jamie Costa, Emalia, Peter O’Hanlon* Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA claustrophobic view of a big disaster event has us following a couple of survivors as they work their way out of an underground obstacle course of collapsed buildings and streets. And is there more going on than just a local earthquake or something? Just how bad could it be? We travel along with them to find out. There are some hints given in the opening seconds.Spoilery SynopsisWe see some kind of apocalyptic disaster happening from out a skyrise window. There are alarms sounding. People are running and screaming. Then we hear growling noises from down the hall and one running woman dies in a wet splatter against the wall. Maybe we aren’t at the top of the food chain any more. We fly over the city, and there is a big blackened pit that is surrounded by burnt out emergency vehicles, and it pans down to a dead man laying there and no, he’s not dead. He wakes up. He’s trapped under a chunk of rubble. He pulls out his cell but can’t get through to anyone. He finally thinks to use his phone as a flashlight and looks around. He finally gets through to his wife’s voicemail and explains what happened from his point of view. He levers himself free..Mark hears a chopper flying over, which is hopeful, but then it crashes right next to the hole he’s in. The hole collapses behind him, trapping him in an underground tunnel. He pulls out a piece of glass that impaled him, but he’s not bleeding too badly.It takes a while for Mark to get his bearings, and he hears rocks falling all over the place. He finds a woman’s purse and digs through it for anything to use. He finds a video camera with an infra-red feature, which is useful.He gets a jump scare when the woman who owns the purse shows up. She’s Sarah. There’s a rock slide or something, and she soon vanishes. No, she’s hiding, “Shhhh. They’ll hear us.” He sets her dislocated bone, but she says everyone up above is dead, no one is coming for them. She’s very paranoid that he’s going to leave her alone. They talk about their kids, but she seems to know a lot more about what’s going on than he does. She’s not really Sarah; that was a stolen purse. Then she pulls a gun on him. And things get complicated.As they argue over who gets to hold the lighter, something growls nearby. “They’ve found us.” Mark uses the infra-red camera but doesn’t see what it is. They run for a while but eventually, Mark gets a glimpse of the creature behind them with the camera. She notices that she’s lost her pills and wants to go back, but he says that’s stupid; this leads to her pulling the gun again. He has to go back for her pills and notices that the creature seems to be stuck in place, so he’s OK for now.Mark wants to know what she knows about the creatures. They killed her sister, dragging her right out of the car. He explains that he was just crossing the street and fell into what he thought was an earthquake sinkhole. “Nothing can survive up there,” she says. He doubts that everyone is dead. They continue to crawl through the tunnel until they see a light; it’s not an exit, it’s just a flashlight someone dropped. They find the flashlight’s owner, dead, and go through his stuff. Turns out, he’s not dead, but when he starts to scream, one of the creatures eats him.Now Mark believes in monsters. They argue over her hard-as-nail attitude since she still doesn’t trust him. As they argue, one of the spiderlike monsters spears Mark and pulls him away. Is this creature an alien, or was it always down here? We don’t know, but the woman’s story makes it sound like they came from space. She continues on, crawling through the tunnel until she catches up to Mark who is lying there; somehow, he killed it with his knife– he’s got to be some kind of marine or special forces.Mark then explains his sad life story. He drunkenly started a house fire that nearly killed his son. He left the family after that, and now he feels he still can’t protect them. She gives him advice, and now they’re friends.After an incredibly long time, they come to a room where they can stand up, and it’s full of bodies. They can hear shooting and bad things happening through the sewer grate above. There are soldiers up there, and they hear the two down below and offer to help. “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be OK,” they say. And then we hear them all die up there; our guys get absolutely drenched in blood.Mark and the woman are forced to keep on crawling through the tunnels since one of the monsters is trying to get to them through the sewer grate. She finally tells him that her name is Kate. Just to make things worse, they both have to swim through a flooded, dark, murky tunnel.They finally find a way outside and see the light. Happy Ending (with forty minutes left). As they crawl to the opening, a creature pops up between them and the light at the end of the tunnel. It takes a look at them and then goes back the way it came, where we hear more screaming.Mark and Kate climb over the open hole, slowly, and try not to wake up the creatures down there. By the time Mark makes it over, Kate has died from her internal injuries. As he climbs over her corpse, we see just how many of the creatures are scurrying around in the tunnels below. Rather than continue to the exit, he goes through her pockets and sets her body on fire… in front of him, blocking the exit. No– he just imagined doing that. Then he lays there within sight of the exit and plays with his phone for a while. I guess her body must be blocking the tunnel, but it doesn’t look like it.Suddenly, Mark’s phone pings; he’s got a message from his wife. “These things are coming from beneath the ground and sunlight makes them grow bigger and bigger. Please come home,” she says. His desire to live re-ignited, Mark goes back to the vertical shaft the alien was in and uses the phone to attract a monster. It crawls up and takes Kate’s body, unplugging the shaft (he could have pushed her body into the shaft much more easily).Mark then crawls up the shaft toward the light. A monster attacks, but Mark sets it on fire with the lighter and alcohol they found; it backs off quickly.As Mark emerges into the daylight, he sees that the monsters have grown to skyscraper size outside, and there are many, many, eggs.Brian’s CommentaryThis is one very dark movie. Make sure you watch this one at night, in a dark room, or you’re likely to miss something. That said, being so dark, they didn’t have to show as much of the creatures. I think they were going for the same kind of scares as “The Descent” (2005), but the characters and tunnels here aren’t as interesting. We get to know more about them as they go along, but the whole film is basically just two characters in a narrow tunnel, so it takes a lot to make that interesting.It was a good concept, but I felt it was too slow-moving. I was yelling at the screen after Mark just lay there talking to Kate’s corpse for like twenty minutes in front of the exit. The creatures do look really good once we get to see them and the ending was bleak enough to satisfy me. Overall, I thought it was entertaining, but there are some issues with the characters making dumb decisions.Kevin’s Spoiling CommentaryI had excellent dim viewing conditions, but like Brian said, it is best in a dark room. Dim room at least. I can still see.Those two must have had really fit legs by the time they were done, as much squatting and crouching they had to do working their way very realistically to an escape.What a situation. Like just surviving an impact like that and having to work very hard to try to dig yourself out isn’t hard enough. Imagine being pursued by meat-eating creatures too. I like how little we see of the creatures for so long. The characters don’t see them either for a long while, only hearing the sounds. It really helps tighten the sense of being there in the same boat with them. And then we all see them. Why did it have to be spiders?I don’t ever want to be in a situation where someone asks, “Is your flashlight waterproof?” That water scene was chilling.The acting is amazing. It’s immersive. I thought it was excellent. Full disclosure, my computer locked up, I was doing remote work, and I didn’t see the last 20 minutes. Right around when Kate died. I won’t mind rewatching the first part to get there.2025 Brute 1976* Directed by: Marcel Walz* Written by: Joe Knetter* Stars: Adriane McLean, Sarah French, Gigi Gustin* Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s another killer family and a group of victims who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. They captured the retro look and feel of this one very well, the acting is good with well-defined characters, and the special effects were very realistic. It wasn’t anything particularly original, but it’s well put together and entertaining.Spoilery SynopsisAugust 19, 1976, in the desert, we zoom into two girls broken down on the highway. The road is completely deserted, so hitching probably isn’t going to happen. “There has to be something off this road,” as June and Raquel begin walking. They eventually come to an old, abandoned mine and go inside to cool off. There are lights already on in the mine, and they stop for some kissin