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.com

Mainstream 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 Zone

It’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 Synopsis

We’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 Commentary

A 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 Commentary

Hmmm. 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 Zone

There’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 Synopsis

We 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 warnin