PLOT: Bear (Michael Johnston) is a shy music store employee with a monster crush on his long-time friend and co-worker, Nikki (Inde Navarrette). Too shy to confess his feelings—and possibly aware that she only thinks of him as a friend—he innocently makes a wish upon a dime-store “one wish willow” that she’d “love him more than anyone else in the world.” His wish comes true—and the consequences are nightmarish.

REVIEW: Obsession is going to strike a chord with a lot of viewers. I think everyone, at some point in their lives, has had a crush on someone who didn’t share their feelings, making Bear’s initial predicament easy to relate to. Others may also relate to Nikki, who’s perhaps been the object of affection from someone they simply aren’t interested in. Obsession becomes a nightmare for both halves of the equation, with Nikki utterly robbed of her agency, choice, and consent in order to fulfill someone else’s fantasy, while Bear—who thinks of himself as a “nice guy”—becomes a predator, and eventually a victim himself.

It’s a lot to chew on, and it marks the arrival of a major new talent in director Curry Barker. Stylishly directed and often darkly humorous, Obsession is a slow burn that pays off with an increasingly horrific final act. It includes one of the most memorable gore scenes in recent memory—so intense that Barker reportedly had to trim it to secure an R rating, and Focus gave it a wide summer release.

It’s exceptionally well-acted by both of its stars. Inde Navarrette is a hoot as the increasingly unhinged Nikki, yet she maintains your sympathy at all times, as you’re constantly aware she’s being manipulated by a force she can’t control. It’s almost a Linda Blair–esque performance, and it should put her on the map in a big way.

Yet of the two, Michael Johnston has the trickier role, playing a character most audience members will grow to despise without losing his humanity. In many ways—especially early on—Johnston’s Bear is as much a victim as Nikki, initially guilty of nothing more than making a dumb, throwaway wish on a gag toy he never expected to work. Yet at a certain point, he decides to go along with it, with a smash cut at one pivotal moment revealing that, despite thinking he’s a good man, he utterly lacks scruples, becoming a willing participant in Nikki’s tortured existence. Of course, things start to go wrong, and he tries to undo the wish—but as anyone who’s seen a horror movie knows, that’s easier said than done.

Barker guides the film with a sure hand and doesn’t shy away from hammering home his message about the difference between real love and obsession. Many will note the movie’s gallows humor, with gore-heavy moments happening so randomly and brutally that you can’t help but laugh at how demented they are—only to realize moments later that what you’re watching is, in many ways, a classic horror tragedy.

The supporting cast is excellent, with Megan Lawless a standout as Sarah, another record shop employee who would be a much better match for Bear if he could get over his obsession with Nikki. Cooper Tomlinson plays his more effortlessly charismatic friend, Ian. Also keep your eyes peeled for Andy Richter in a small role as the owner of the music shop they all work at (which feels like a cursed version of Empire Records).

If Focus plays its cards right, it might have the next indie horror sleeper on its hands with Obsession. It played like gangbusters at both TIFF and SXSW and is a great movie to see with an audience. It’s a strong communal horror experience and one of the more creative indie horror films to emerge in recent memory.

SXSW

GREAT

8

The post Obsession (SXSW) Review: A Slam-Bang Indie Horror Gem appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: A misanthropic author (Adam Scott) travels to a remote inn in Ireland where his late parents once honeymooned, planning to spread their ashes. Once there, he becomes embroiled in a mystery that may involve a haunting, forcing him to reckon with his tortured past.

REVIEW: Neon has steadily built a reputation as Hollywood’s biggest horror studio, usurping the once-dominant A24. Their taste and track record are so strong that each new release turns into an event for horror fans. As such, among all the movies premiering here at SXSW, none seemed to have the anticipation of Hokum, which was programmed in their midnight section and is directed by Damian McCarthy, whose previous films, Caveat and Oddity, both took on Irish folklore.

Hokum does a similar thing, with it being a tale of Irish spirits haunting a creepy hotel, but by casting an American in Adam Scott’s cynical Ohm Bauman, it’s probably McCarthy’s most accessible work to date, with it being a well-executed ghost story wrapped up in a surprisingly potent morality tale.

Adam Scott is great as Ohm, an author dealing with childhood trauma who hides behind a façade of ego and even flashes of cruelty. Yet, he finds himself unexpectedly owing a personal debt to the hotel’s kind bartender (an excellent Florence Ordesh), and when she goes missing, he seems to be the only one committed to finding her, along with a local derelict, Jerry (David Wilmot), whom she was similarly kind to. The two find themselves working to unravel the mystery of her disappearance, leading to Ohm being trapped in a long-locked honeymoon suite said to be haunted by malevolent spirits.

McCarthy does a good job establishing Ohm as an anti-hero who, while initially insufferably arrogant, proves to have a somewhat brave streak, making this—more than anything else—a redemptive tale. It’s also a very creepy one, with lots of subtle, spooky imagery in the first half paving the way for more grotesque, legitimately scary ghouls as the film goes on, and lots of screaming from the midnight audience I saw it with.

It also proves to be a pretty cracking mystery, even when not considering the supernatural element, which becomes a major part of the film’s second half. McCarthy has made a beautiful film, shot on location in West Cork, with gorgeous cinematography by Colm Hogan. It’s produced by veteran horror producer Roy Lee, with The Conjuring composer Joseph Bishara providing a spine-tingling soundtrack. Hokum, at times, feels almost like an elevated Conjuring installment with a bit of an international, indie flavour, and the local cast is terrific. Wilmot steals scenes as the surprisingly resourceful Jerry, who, like Ohm, is haunted by his own past, while Peter Coonan is good as the hotel manager who may or may not know more than he lets on.

While it remains to be seen if Hokum can tap into the zeitgeist the same way other Neon movies have, the audience at SXSW had a blast with it, and I never found it to be anything less than totally compelling. Neon is giving it a prime early May release date, and it could become a breakout hit, while Scott continues to impress as his career quickly rises thanks to Severance. This is another strong role for him.

Hokum

GREAT

8

The post Hokum (SXSW) Review: An atmospheric horror flick with a strong performance by Adam Scott appeared first on JoBlo.

REVIEW: The passing of James Van Der Beek rocked the entertainment world last month. Thankfully, he did have a few projects that he’d completed before his untimely passing, the first of which being The Gates. Horror isn’t a genre that we’ve seen the actor appear in often so it’s exciting to see him in the part. Let alone as the villain.

The Gates follows three friends as they’re heading out to party for the night. In search of a shortcut, they end up in a gated community and witness a murder. Now, they must try to escape while the murderer, the most trusted man within the community, is after them. We get the classic horror trope of everything starting because of one poor decision: taking a detour. And while there are many familiar elements, I think the execution is what makes the film escape mediocrity.

Mason Gooding is becoming a staple of the horror genre, and I couldn’t be happier about it. From Heart Eyes to the later Scream films, he’s often a highlight and is instantly likable. Here is no different, and he’s very easy to root for. It’s too bad he’s the only one of the friend group that is. Algee Smith’s Kevin is one of the most frustrating characters, constantly pointing at race for all his problems, versus acknowledging his behavior is that of an asshole. He doesn’t know how to engage in any situation without conflict, and it makes him incredibly obnoxious. They try to redeem him but by that point, it’s too late. Keith Powers’ Tyon also has a bit of a tacked-on arc.

James Van Der Beek is really great as the preacher, Jacob, who has done a very bad thing. He is the most interesting kind of villain there is: one that thinks he’s a good guy. His church and what he’s done for the community give him such an altered perception of his own actions. There are some great moments for Van Der Beek to really sink his teeth into. The manipulation of his community is great, and it makes you wonder what other nefarious things he’s gotten away with over the years. I also really enjoyed Brad Leland, whom I’ve been a fan of since his Friday Night Lights days.

I really liked most of the story, but there are times when it stumbles a bit. One of the dumbest moments is when, after trying to get into the gated community, they’re immediately bemoaning that they want to get out. You were literally trying to get in! I’d point more towards the writing than anything because there was a way to go about it without making the characters look so impatient and stupid. Maybe try this thing like continuing to follow your GPS since you trusted it enough to take you into such a place. Plus, it’s hard to believe any map service would send you through a gated community, let alone one that is so locked down.

I also had a hard time really getting a grasp on this gated community, as it seems like it practically has its own economy with a country club, yoga studio, and a house party that implied there were a lot of people living in the area. We don’t really see enough of the place to get a grasp of the scale, and so many of the interactions are just one-on-one, even when it’s a big party setting.

It doesn’t break any new ground, but I quite enjoyed The Gates as it reminded me of 2022’s Emergency. It dealt with race in an interesting way and doesn’t come across as overly preachy (which is ironic, given the subject matter). While I wish he were still with us, this is a respectable role for Van Der Beek to go out on, as he really shows out for it. He and Gooding are clear standouts, and it’s all the more baffling why this is seemingly being shadow-dropped on Friday the 13th of all days. Here’s hoping it finds an audience, because I think this will surprise a lot of people.

The Gates releases to theaters on March 13th, 2026.

The Gates (2026)

GOOD

7

The post The Gates Review: James Van Der Beek’s final film gives him a good send-off appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: A woman hosting a paranormal podcast receives strange recordings involving a married couple experiencing paranormal noises in their home.

REVIEW: The Canadian-made Undertone was one of the big hits of the Fantasia Film Festival last summer, with it being snapped up for a nationwide release by none other than A24. It’s taking a victory lap here at Sundance, where it played as part of the Midnight section. Sadly, this low-key horror film, with the expectations now attached to it thanks to a major horror label putting it out, didn’t do the movie any favors, with it paling in comparison to other Midnight entries like Leviticus, Saccharine, and even the uneven but imaginative Buddy.

Taking a page from Paranormal Activity, this microbudget horror film takes place in a single location and tries to do for podcasts what that movie did for found footage. It follows Evie (Nina Kiri), a young woman taking care of her terminally ill mother, whose only real refuge is the podcast she hosts with her friend Justin (an unseen Adam DiMarco). Kiri is the only person on screen for the majority of the film, with only her comatose mother (Michèle Duquet) also shown.

The two host a paranormal podcast where they examine viral phenomena, with Evie the skeptic to Justin’s believer. They receive an email containing ten audio recordings featuring a married couple, Mike and Jessa, with the latter talking in her sleep. She seems to be saying things backwards, and as they listen, Evie starts to discover hidden messages related to classic nursery rhymes like “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “Rock-a-bye Baby,” which reveal a deep mythology involving demonic possession and human sacrifice.

Of course, this being a movie shot for $500k, all of this is left to the imagination, with Evie listening to increasingly disturbing recordings that seem to be evoking a demonic entity. If Evie had ever seen a horror movie, she and Justin would have stopped listening to these messages as soon as weird things started happening—like Evie’s comatose mother somehow leaving religious icons around the home. But then again, we wouldn’t have a movie.

Undertone is a tough one to review, as I didn’t jive with the premise or style at all, but I can also respect that a certain audience may find this really spooky and hip. To me, it played out as eighty minutes of build-up, followed by ten minutes of belated payoff. The sound design is well done, and director Ian Tuason deserves credit for having made a microbudget movie that connected with a lot of people, but it’s nothing you haven’t seen before—just done on a much lower scale.

It doesn’t help that Nina Kiri’s Evie isn’t given much of a personality, with us learning only a scant few things about her. Mostly, she just listens to the weird recordings and doesn’t make much more of an impression than the unseen Justin. Kiri’s performance is fine; she just isn’t given much to work with beyond the podcast gimmick, with the real focus of the movie being the creepy audio design featured on the recordings—which I’ll admit is impressive.

In the end, Undertone may well find an appreciative young audience, but veteran horror fans will likely be like me, left scratching their heads over what exactly A24 saw in it. It’s familiar and often tedious, but respect is due to all involved for the effort. Were it given a more modest build-up, it might have seemed like an interesting experiment, but given how A24 is positioning it, Undertone just feels like a whole lot of hype.

Undertone

BELOW AVERAGE

5

The post Undertone Review: This A24 movie is a lot of build up with very little payoff appeared first on JoBlo.

REVIEW: A few years ago, we got a supernatural horror film called Body Cam, which starred Mary J. Blige. Now, the Shudder streaming service has teamed with one of their favorite modern genre filmmakers, Brandon Christensen (his previous films, Still/Born, Z, Superhost, The Puppetman, and Night of the Reaper, were all released through Shudder) to bring us another supernatural horror film called Bodycam, which has nothing to do with that Blige movie and presents the title as one word instead of two. So when horror fans have text conversations, we’ll know when Body Cam is being referenced and when we’re talking about Bodycam instead. Another way to differentiate between the two: this is “the found footage one.”

Scripted by Brandon Christensen and Ryan Christensen, the new film tells the story of police officers Jackson (Jaime M. Callica) and Bryce (Sean Rogerson), who respond to a domestic violence call in the early hours of October 13, 2025. After making their way past a group of “tweakers” who are reminiscent of the homeless people in John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness in that they linger around and are directly tapped into the horror that ensues, they enter a rundown home that’s infested with rats and has occult symbols drawn on the walls.

The situation gets stranger the further they go into the house. There’s an injured dog in a crib. A mysterious hole in the basement floor. And a couple of people who do not respond to questions or orders. Things don’t go well. Within minutes of entering the home, there are three dead people on the scene and Bryce is having a meltdown because he shot and killed a man. He thought the guy was armed, but he was actually holding a baby. And the whole encounter was recorded on his bodycam.

In fact, almost the entire movie is presented solely through the bodycams worn by Jackson and Bryce, although other angles are shown when they’re in their cruiser. At first, Bryce’s primary concern is how he’s going to destroy the footage from his camera… although, even after he’s worried about that, he’s still dedicated enough to recording everything that he’ll set the detached camera aside in just the right spot to film himself making a bathroom phone call. Then, as it becomes increasingly clear that something supernatural is going on here, Bryce has bigger concerns to focus on.

I’ll be up front: I am not a fan of the found footage style, and when I watch a found footage movie I’m often left feeling that it was either a complete waste of time or that it would have been a better movie if it was shot in the traditional style. A found footage movie has to be really good to win me over – and sometimes they do. Despite featuring good performances from the lead actors, along with Catherine Lough Haggquist and Angel Prater in supporting roles, and having some creepy moments, Bodycam did not win me over.

The film is just 75 minutes long (72 when the end credits start rolling), but it reaches that length by stretching the concept to its absolute limit. Even with such a short running time, it manages to drag and feel both longer than it is and longer than it should have been. Cut it down and make it part of an anthology, and it might have worked better. (And director Alejandro Brugués, working from a script by The Blair Witch Project collaborators Gregg Hale and Eduardo Sánchez, did make something like this for Sam Raimi’s short-lived anthology show 50 States of Fright.)

Bodycam did do some things that I liked. The situation at the house has completely fallen apart by the 12 minute mark, and I was concerned that the whole rest of the movie was going to be Jackson and Bryce stuck at the house, debating the issue and jumping at strange noises. Thankfully, the story does branch out into other locations, eventually allowing for the best, most effective sequence in the movie, which involves Jackson having an unnerving experience while driving through city streets and talking to his mom on the phone.

The movie has plenty of horrific ideas, but I didn’t find the presentation to be very engaging. In the end, things sputter out in the usual found footage movie fashion and I was left underwhelmed.

Bodycam starts streaming on Shudder on March 13th.

Brandon Christensen

BELOW AVERAGE

5

The post Bodycam Review: There’s Not Much to See Here appeared first on JoBlo.

REVIEW: I’ll always love a movie that isn’t quite what it seems on the surface. Even when you see the poster for Heel, with a family looking picturesque only to notice the chain and dog collar on one of them, and you know you’re in for something different. And with two powerhouse actors at the forefront, it’s hard not to have high expectations. The story follows Tommy, a public nuisance who spends most of his nights partying and being a hooligan. If left unchecked, he’s going to be yet another criminal who makes society worse. He’s kidnapped by a mysterious family and chained up, and they try to teach him how to behave and atone for his past behavior.

Stephen Graham (who was in last year’s fantastic one-take TV show Adolescence) is extremely layered as Chris. There’s something off about him, and it’s all bubbling beneath the surface. Yet there’s still a kindness there, where it feels like he’s genuinely doing this with the best of intentions. When Tommy needs punishment, it’s almost a punishment to Chris as well. I loved his dynamic with Andrea Riseborough’s Kathryn, who plays his voice. She’s very subdued, having lost her son, and is a bit shut off from the world. But she clearly agrees with her husband’s methods and is the ying to his yang.

I can’t remember the last time I disliked a character as much as Anson Boon’s Tommy. He’s such a little shit and the way he treats people is pure selfishness. He thinks of only himself and it works so perfectly for this story. If they didn’t go as far with these qualities, the rehabilitation would have felt out of place or harsh. But this is what Tommy deserves and it really allows for a more nuanced story to unfold. Boon does a tremendous job and has you feeling for him by the end. And it’s extremely impressive what he’s able to do while chained up for most of the film.

There are moments of beauty amongst the dark chaos, and director Jan Komasa refuses to color things black and white. There’s a lot of morality that stays in a uniquely gray area, and it makes everything so much more interesting. It really challenges you as, especially in the first act, everyone seems like an antagonist and seems to fit in a box, one way or another. But perceptions can change as the human element is put more at the forefront and decides to avoid putting things in a binary way.

Even the title, Heel (originally titled Good Boy but changed due to the dog movie from last year) has multiple meanings. You can take it in the professional wrestling way of the name for the antagonist, of which the film has many. Or you can think of it in terms of the command used in dog obedience, where the dog is taught to walk on or off a lead. Like the story itself, it’s really in the eye of the beholder as to which carries the most importance.

Heel does the impossible and actually had me rooting for the kidnappers. As disturbed as they were as human beings, they had the right motivations. Tommy is a misguided and terrible person who was never going to change on his own. Sure, the methods are pretty harsh but he’s far enough gone that it feels like a suitable option. And as dark as the concept is, this is a human story that has deep familial roots. I won’t deny that it’s not dark, but it’s shockingly more heartfelt.

Heel releases to theaters on March 6th, 2026.

Heel

GREAT

8

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REVIEW: It feels like there’s very little effort in putting together a brand new slasher villain, instead relying on relics of the past. Don’t get me wrong, I love the old guard as much as the rest of you, but I’m always craving something new. Thankfully, with shades of other famous horror villains, there’s a new killer in town. And she likes to wear porcelain doll masks and wear dresses.

Dolly follows a couple as they head into the woods to a beautiful lookout, with the prospect of a proposal on the horizon. Unfortunately for them, they’re interrupted by a crazy woman obsessed with dolls and must fight for their own survival. It’s a pretty basic setup, but most slashers are. It’s really about the atmosphere and the tension. Oh, and the kills. Can’t forget about those. Most of the story follows Macy as she’s being held captive by the crazy woman known as Dolly. I always prefer when a film tells a singular story and doesn’t try to add too many elements to try and spice things up.

The film is shot in a bit of a grindhouse style, with proper grain and film imperfections. There’s also what seems to be a bleach bypass, which lowers the saturation and gives the visuals a worn-out look. These kinds of movies will always benefit from being shot on film versus digital, and I wish more would take this path. I really enjoyed it, and it helps with the backwoods aesthetic. All the performances are good, with Fabianne Therese really impressing. Seann William Scott isn’t around as much as you’d think, and Ethan Suplee continues his streak of wonderfully disturbed characters.

Dolly goes in some pretty unexpected directions and can be quite brutal. The deaths are few but very impactful. I was also impressed with how the FX work is handled, with a jaw rip being an absolute standout. They appeared to be practical, maybe with a bit of CGI enhancement, but they always look great. However, some of the blocking when it comes to the kills can be a bit “let me just stand here so you have enough time to kill me.” That will always annoy me, and it feels a bit lazy.

It’s cool to see a slasher villain that’s not just a hulking man (even if instead it is a hulking woman). There is no doubt plenty of comparisons to be made to Leatherface, especially the more Next Generation version of the character. In fact, it can get a little blatant, especially with some of the mannerisms. But I still found Dolly to be creepy enough that she’s able to overcome the obvious similarities. There’s only so much you can do with a brutish slasher villain. Professional wrestler Max the Impaler brings a good physicality to the role. And I like that her main tool of destruction happens to be a shovel, as we don’t see that often.

I think where it stumbles is its betrayal of the grounded nature of it all. As much as the film wants to be on the more realistic side, it can get a bit absurd at times. There’s one moment in particular that had me rolling my eyes with how over the top it got. It doesn’t help that some of the character decisions are just colossally stupid. Especially in the third act. I’ve heard the term “Fairy Tale” bandied about, but outside of a few abstract shots, it doesn’t really fit the motif. I always like a movie that makes me feel like I need to take a shower afterwards, but Dolly feels a bit lost. There are some really interesting ideas here, but it sometimes devolves into dumb slasher territory when it could have stuck with its more interesting cat-and-mouse, psychological approach. And it’s going to be tough to avoid the Texas Chainsaw Massacre comparisons when you blatantly recreate one of the most famous scenes.

Dolly is playing in theaters on March 6th, 2026.

Dolly

AVERAGE

6

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REVIEW: I’ve been a Scream devotee since my mom took me to the original back in ’96 when I was in eighth grade. Since then, I’ve been front and center for every opening night. While I was initially cool on the “requel” era and the Carpenter sisters, Scream VI eventually won me over. Honestly, I felt like their story ended nicely with that film, so walking into Scream 7, I wasn’t mourning the loss of the “Core Four.” I was ready for a proper return of our Scream Queen.

What made this screening hit differently, however, wasn’t just Neve Campbell — it was my son. I got him into the series right before VI, and I took him to see this one in a packed theater. Seeing him experience his first Scream movie on the big screen in eighth grade, exactly like I did 30 years ago, felt like the ultimate full-circle moment. It reminded me why we love these movies: they aren’t just slashers… they’re events.

Of course, going into this event, there is a Ghostface-sized elephant in the room. Let’s get the sour grapes out of the way. Between the behind-the-scenes goings-on and the firing of Melissa Barrera (which was, let’s be honest, completely uncalled for), this is easily the most divisive entry in the franchise. Our own Tyler Nichols disliked it. The low Rotten Tomatoes score reflects a lot of that frustration, but if you let a percentage point sway you from seeing a movie, you’re doing it wrong. I still catch heat to this day for loving Halloween Ends, but at the end of the day, the only opinion that matters is your own.

For me, that opinion is that Scream 7 is exactly the movie I wanted back in 2022. Having franchise creator Kevin Williamson step into the director’s chair brings the series firmly back to its roots. Is it a “step backward” from the massive New York scale of VI? Maybe to some. But to me, it felt like a homecoming. It captures the look and feel of the Wes Craven era, aided tremendously by the return of Marco Beltrami’s iconic score, which wraps around the film like a warm, blood-soaked blanket of nostalgia. It’s a very simple formula, after all.

That nostalgia is anchored by a surprisingly grounded emotional core. Where the movie truly flourishes is in the messy relationship between Sidney and her teenage daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). Sidney is a traumatized, overprotective parent who practically uses the Stab movies and her own survivor memoir as a parenting guide. The dynamic feels surprisingly real, and both Campbell and May deliver powerhouse performances.

Williamson also brilliantly bakes the real-world studio drama right into the script’s DNA. The meta-commentary this time around skewers the very real studio obsession with manufacturing “new demographics” and tossing aside legacy final girls for the sake of a reboot. It takes the controversial clouds hovering over the franchise and weaponizes them into sharp, unpretentious satire. The callbacks are woven deep into the plot, entirely avoiding the cringeworthy, point-at-the-screen pandering that plagues so many modern legacy sequels.

As for the actual mystery, is the reveal here great? No. Not even a little bit, which seems to be the general consensus. But is it the worst? Not even close. That “honor” still belongs to Scream VI, a movie I truly love despite the Bailey family’s logic-defying antics. Most Scream reveals are based on silly motives with even sillier monologues, but what matters most to me is the build and the ride. This one nails the tension. The nearly two-hour runtime flies by, culminating in a third-act monologue that goes so wildly over the top it crosses from silly into genuinely fun, delivering a level of unhinged energy I haven’t seen in the series in a long time.

Bringing that energy to life is a cast that absolutely delivers. Neve Campbell proves once again that she isn’t just a legacy cameo, but the absolute soul of the franchise. The theater went wild when Courteney Cox made her entrance, somehow playing an even more emboldened Gale Weathers, joined by the surviving Meeks-Martin twins, Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown).

While the new “Tatum’s friends” group might not be deeply developed, Williamson understands that we don’t need to know the exhaustive life stories of the knife fodder. They function as perfect red herrings, keeping the whodunit element alive, and serve as fun names to cross off the suspect list. And their exits are spectacular. Ghostface has rarely felt meaner or more sadistic. There are a couple of knife stabbings in this movie that are so visceral and inventive they made me physically gasp.

Ultimately, Scream 7 won’t work for everyone. The critics are already sharpening their knives, and some fans can’t see past the production hurdles. But if you can separate the art from the industry mess, you’ll find a lean, mean slasher that definitively answers the existential question of what this series is. At its heart, Scream is Neve Campbell’s franchise.

Scream 7

GREAT

8

The post Scream 7 Review: A Second Opinion On The Divisive Sequel appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the town where Sidney Prescott has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter becomes the next target.

REVIEW: I absolutely love the Scream franchise. I watch every entry at least once a year and it has elements that have shaped what I love about cinema. Sidney Prescott is the greatest final girl of all time, and Ghostface is such an interesting bad guy with an iconic look. I genuinely can’t think of any other series that has consistently brought such a high entertainment value and incredible theatrical experience. And with Kevin Williamson coming back to the franchise (his first creative involvement since the 4th film) it’s easy to get even more excited about this new entry. But does Scream 7 live up to the great films that came before?

I can’t say I was completely on board with most of the goings on in Scream 7. While there are some elements that are presented well, I found so much to be completely lacking in substance. The story follows Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) as Ghostface emerges yet again and goes after her family. We’re introduced to Sidney’s husband Mark (Joel McHale) and daughter Tatum (Isabel May), and a bunch of other people whose names I can hardly remember because no one is developed in any way. Even the opening kill, which is usually connected with the group of characters we follow the rest of the movie, is just there for spectacle. What happened to giving us people we can root for?

Everything rests on Sidney’s shoulders, and thankfully, Neve Campbell is more than up to the task. She’s still fantastic in the role and brings that final girl energy that we all know and love. I liked the story of her having to teach Tatum how to be strong like her, having shielded her for most of her life. And it was great to see how competent they made her husband, Mark (even if I wish it were Patrick Dempsey in the role). I just wish there was literally any other person outside of them and a few returning characters that actually felt like real people. Gale, Mindy, and Chad are treated well and stand out amongst the much more bland characters around them.

I was shocked by how bad the writing was, whether in the dialogue or in the decision-making on display. This is a Scream movie: you can’t have characters investigating a strange noise at this point. And half the people must be deaf because there are people being murdered in the room next to them, and they’re completely oblivious to it. Scream is supposed to be smart and subvert expectations, yet this constantly just feels like a generic slasher trying to mimic the Wes Craven entries, without actually understanding what makes it great.

One thing that I did enjoy about the film is that Ghostface is violent as all hell. This features his highest body count, and he’s truly going for some gore. I just wish they had gone more practical with the kills. Even the ones that are, have CGI enhancements that completely take the wind out of their sails. There’s also one where Ghostface kills someone by accident that just felt lame. And how many damn tables or chairs is this guy going to go through? It got comical to a point.

While we obviously can’t get into it, there are few things more important to a Scream film than it’s twist/killer reveal. And this may just be the weakest the series has ever seen. No, scratch that: this is easily the weakest and I couldn’t stop rolling my eyes. It feels like they’re doing something a bit different and then it all devolves into one of the sillier killer monologues yet. They took anything that would have been unique and just washed it down the drain for something that really didn’t make a lot of sense. It’s also really dumb how they bring back legacy characters and it all feels like a gigantic waste of time.

Outside of Ghostface himself being a lethal force and his dialogue with Sidney being a true highlight, there’s very little to latch onto here. Most of the new characters are simple set dressing or fodder for kills. I get that this is a slasher but no one even feels dimensional and they hardly get any characterization. With the worst final act in Scream history, I feel like it’s definitely time to put this franchise to bed. Please, our girl Sidney just needs a break.

Scream 7 releases to theaters on February 27th, 2026.

Scream 7

BELOW AVERAGE

5

The post Scream 7 Review: The Worst Final Act In The Franchise’s History appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: A police officer tracks a killer after her husband, a highway patrolman, becomes one of his victims.

REVIEW: Se7en made Andrew Kevin Walker the premier name in serial killer cinema. His script was smart, cutting-edge, and, combined with David Fincher’s direction, provided one of the greatest films of all time. So there’s been a lot of buzz surrounding Walker’s return to the genre with Psycho Killer. But with those lofty expectations, could it ever possibly live up to that level of hype? Well, it’s probably best that you just check those expectations at the door.

I’m actually kind of gobsmacked with just how bad Psycho Killer ended up being. Nearly every single moment becomes so silly in a film that should have been a disturbing look at the mind of a killer. Instead, we’re given tame violence, a laughable bad guy, and a lead that needs some sense shaken into her. The story follows Georgina Campbell’s Jane Archer, a highway patrolwoman who witnesses the death of her husband by a deranged killer. So she goes after him, setting out on a mission of justice and vengeance. This story splits time with her and the Slasher, as he’s busy killing various people along the interstate.

I always find Campbell to be charming, and she does the best she can here, but Jane is just poorly written all around. She’s really hard to root for, especially after finding out she’s pregnant with her dead husband’s baby, and still opts to sloppily chase down a serial killer. Thankfully, she’s has plot armor like she’s a character from Stranger Things. Every performance around her ranges from okay to bad, with some line readings making me literally laugh out loud. The characters are all such cardboard cutouts. Even Malcolm McDowell is in a completely thankless role that comes and goes from the story with very little consequence.

The design of the killer is interesting enough, with the Gas Mask feeling pretty fun and the man himself having a hulking stature. But that’s about where any of the good ends, as the killer himself is so damn lame. He has this insanely low voice that makes nearly every line of his completely laughable. Almost every other scene is the “Psycho Killer” killing someone, and it was shocking just how often it happened off-screen or in a flash. There’s one particular sequence that features some of the worst CGI blood I’ve seen in quite some time. There’s really no excuse for it, and it comes across as pure laziness from the filmmakers. I mourn what this could have been with practical effects and some actual tension. But there’s only so much that could be done with a script like this.

As much as Andrew Kevin Walker’s name carried this film into the public consciousness, it probably would have just been better if he just went by the ole reliable “Alan Smithee” instead. The characters all suck, the dialogue is cringy and the “twists” are hardly even twists. They’re simply stating things that any savvy viewer will have already figured out. This is the kind of screenplay that a teenager writes and thinks they’ve written something amazing, only for it to be ridiculed by anyone with any sense of plot progression, character development, or just how human beings act. And given how much I love Se7en, this all hurts me to say.

Overall, Psycho Killer is one of the most disappointing times I’ve had in the theater in quite a while. I love a good serial killer thriller, and it feels like this took every possible misstep imaginable. For a movie that features so many kills, I can’t believe how little impact they actually left. The film itself was completely barren of any tension, and that’s probably because there was no one to care about. Victims are simply fodder, and we don’t even get names for most of them. That would have been fine if they went for shock value, but there’s not even any of that present. When it’s all said and done, the story is nonsensical and fails in nearly every regard.

Psycho Killer releases to theaters on February 20th, 2026.

Psycho Killer

TERRIBLE

3

The post Psycho Killer Review: A Laughably Bad Attempt At Reinventing the Serial Killer Formula appeared first on JoBlo.

REVIEW: Everyone has had that musician they’ve been absolutely obsessed with. Where they’ve listened to their music and felt like they were genuinely being spoken to through the lyrics. In the day and age of social media and the internet, parasocial relationships with an artist have grown even more extreme. Fans think they truly know these people, who are so larger than life, and would jump at the chance to have a real connection with them. This is at the heart of Sweetness, a tale of misguided fan obsession gone terribly wrong.

The story follows Rylee, a 16-year-old whose bedroom is adorned with posters of a certain rockstar. She goes to see him in concert and, through a series of unlikely circumstances, ends up with the man drugged out in her bathroom. Feeling like she needs to save him, she handcuffs him and won’t let him leave until he’s clean. It’s an interesting concept, and you can feel that Rylee thinks she’s doing the right thing. It’s this moral ambiguity that makes the narrative so intriguing.

Kate Hallett is great is Rylee, the girl absolutely obsessed with Payton. She’s able to exhibit a loneliness, even when surrounded by her friend group, that is palpable. Her descent into madness never feels over-the-top, but it’s not quite circumstantial. She’s pushing herself further into this with both the guilt of her mother’s death and her desire to fix her hero. Aya Furukawa plays her friend Sidney and really stands out. She’s clearly not as on board with the plan as Rylee, and acts more as an audience surrogate.

Herman Tømmeraas‘ Payton is every bit the stereotypical drug addicted rock star. He has a lot of stage presence, so that works well for the concert scenes, and he has a look similar to Yungblud. Justin Chatwin and Steven Ogg are the more well-known names of the cast, but they’re pretty bit parts, playing Riley’s dad and Payton’s tour manager, respectively. It’s so strange to see Chatwin playing someone’s father since I grew up with him as the young adult lead, but he does a good job as a somewhat removed parent.

There are a couple of moments that feel a little stupid, like Payton stopping off for drugs while he has an underage girl with him. The only reason he’s even giving her a ride is so that she doesn’t sue him for hitting her with his car, yet he doesn’t think that this superfan might spread the word about his drug relapse? I suppose you can point to his relapse causing him to not be thinking clearly, but it feels like it’s more done to advance to story versus actually making a lick of sense. There are other instances where these kinds of logic leaps get distracting and writer/director Emma Higgins is a stronger director than writer.

While the music from Payton’s band Floor Plan is actually pretty decent, the soundtrack itself is very distracting. Very loud music that doesn’t always match the vibe of the scene and seems to be going more for irony or on-the-nose than anything else. Sometimes it can work, but it just makes the entire film feel a bit dated, as the music video vibe has been out of style for a while. The score works better and helps add to the uneasiness of the situation, and I wish it were used more often.

Sweetness is a dark look at loneliness and fan obsession anchored by great performances by its cast. It stumbles a bit in its messaging and sometimes cares more about shocking moments than satisfying payoffs. Thankfully, the characters make it all so fascinating, and their development is done so well that it’s easy to let the missteps slide.

Sweetness releases On Digital and VOD on February 13th, 2026.

Sweetness (2026)

GOOD

7

The post Sweetness Review: A Disturbing Look At Fan Obsession appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: When a highly dangerous fungus escapes from a secret laboratory, a former bioterrorism agent is called back into action. Alongside two young employees, he must confront an invisible and out-of-control threat.

REVIEW: Based on the novel by David Koepp, Cold Storage is a tale of government ineptitude, lovable losers, and just trying to do the right thing. The story follows two employees at a storage facility who have to confront a dangerous fungus who’s main purpose is to take over its hosts and spread. They’re aided by a government operative who has a history with the fungus and knows the danger it poses. Think Zombieland meets Evolution. And don’t let the trailer fool you: this is not a zombie tale.

As much as this is an alien/zombie-style narrative, it’s really all about characters. Joe Keery and Georgina Campbell have a really fun dynamic together as Teacake and Naomi. They’re constantly trying to one-up each other, which leads them into their predicament. But smartly, this really just makes them more prepared for the situation at hand rather than the cause of the outbreak. It’s easy to root for them as both Keery and Campbell have such a likability to them. Teacake, in particular, being a bit of a dummy makes him all the more affable.

Liam Neeson’s Robert Quinn is the type of role as a government fixer that we’ve seen time and time again. But rather than straight-faced and humorless, he’s constantly witty and making light of the situation, while still acknowledging its severity. He genuinely has some of the best jokes in the film, and is always ready to take someone down a peg or two. He has back problems, and it’s fun to see how it hampers an otherwise on top-of-his-game operative. As someone who has back problems of my own, it was oddly relatable and had me wincing. He has a fun partnership with Lesley Manville’s Trini Romano, giving us another two-hander outside of Teacake and Naomi.

Sosie Bacon also shows up in a brief role at the beginning. As a big fan of Smile, it’s nice to see her still horror adjacent. Richard Brake also has a small role, and I’m starting to wonder if he’ll ever be cast in anything other than the bad guy role. Thankfully, he always plays those parts well and here is no different. I do wish we got a little more development from some of the side characters, as they’re mostly just fodder and fairly interchangeable.

For the most part, the FX work is all handled incredibly well, with just the right amount of practical and digital. There’s an explosion in this movie that is one of the more impressive that I’ve ever seen. Sure, it’s obviously CGI but it’s so well done with the ground buckling in sections and it looking more photorealistic than you’d expect. They could have easily just done a bright light and cut but the impact is quite impressive. Visually, the film looks similar to Zombieland, only without the excessive text and editing flourishes. The title cards we do get are dynamic, but they never become overwhelming.

I’m pretty tired of the zombie genre by this point so I was a little worried about dealing with more stumbling ghouls. Thankfully, outside of their appearance, there’s nothing particularly zombie-like about them. They’re a hivemind and their sole purpose is to spread. There’s a bit of inconsistency in when they explode and it’s seems mostly story-based, but it’s never overly egregious.

From Jurassic Park to Mission: Impossible, David Koepp is one of the most prolific writers out there, so it’s easy to have a certain set of expectations with his involvement. Adapting his own novel, Koepp has to cut down some of the character interactions that make the book so memorable, but gives us enough to know and like all of them.

Cold Storage doesn’t feel very high stakes with our characters never being in any real danger but honestly, in this day and age, it didn’t bother me. The tone is light and breezy and it’s entertaining to just sit and hang out with these people. I never expected anything bad to happen to them, and just wanted to see them accomplish their goals. And sometimes, that’s all you need from a movie like this.

Cold Storage releases to theaters on February 13th, 2026.

Cold Storage

GOOD

7

The post Cold Storage Review: A Fun and Lighthearted Zombie-Adjacent Film appeared first on JoBlo.

REVIEW: One thing that always cracks me up about the horror genre is how much a similar concept can just pop up over and over again. It’s more about execution than originality, and it means we can see some pretty similar films from time to time. And it certainly feels like we’ve seen Whistle many times at this point. The film follows a group of high schoolers who discover an Aztec Death Whistle, which summons their future deaths to hunt them down. Cursed object killing teens? Tarot and Wish Upon are just a couple that come to mind. The story is very “been there, done that,” but really, how is the execution? Eh…

One of the biggest issues with Whistle is that there’s nothing to gain from the death whistle. Usually, there’s some kind of positive outcome that makes the cursed object seem appealing. Instead, these characters use the whistle, even though it has no actual positive gain for them. So why on earth do people keep using it?! There’s nothing to gain, and it looks creepy. Don’t put your mouth on that thing! At one point, two of the characters hook up in the midst of all this death, and it undercuts the severity of the situation even further.

Which is too bad because the concept of your future self, inflicting the way you’ll eventually die on you is pretty interesting. They take a pretty Final Destination-y approach with it, with some over-the-top deaths, but this does go decidedly more supernatural. This is more like ghosts haunting people and then killing them in an extremely violent way. I suppose this whistle was lucky that none of these kids were just going to die peacefully in their sleep, or it’d have made for a pretty underwhelming kill.

The characters in Whistle are extremely weak and feel like 90s movie stereotypes. We’ve got the new girl, her loner cousin, two bullies, and two popular girls who have a connection with non-popular kids. Why are there multiple of the exact same character type? It’s mind-numbingly stupid, and, for a film where you’re supposed to care about these people, I was just waiting for their eventual demise. The dialogue is so unnatural and often results in more unintentionally funny moments than anything relatable. It’s grating to listen to these high schoolers talk.

I’ve always liked Dafne Keen and Sophie Nélisse but they’re not given much to work with here. Their characters fall in love, but it feels very forced and the two have zero chemistry together. It’s nice that the film treats lesbian relationships as everyday versus something to make a grand gesture out of, but there’s no spark there. Nick Frost also shows up as a character who is nothing more than expositional and an easy kill. And I’m not sure if I can ever take a scene seriously when the character is named Horse and people are exclaiming it in terror.

The worst character is easily Percy Hines White’s Noah Haggerty. He’s a youth leader at the local church who is also…a drug dealer? Maybe it could have been handled well, but he’s so over-the-top evil from his first appearance that it’s hard to even take him seriously. His existence just seems to be a way to wrap up something with the ending, with his evilness helping absolve the other characters of any guilt. But, like so many of the people in this film, he’s just a caricature and never feels like a real living human being at any point. Every character is simply a conduit to tell this story, rather than having these events happen to people who actually have some dimension to them.

It’s not all terrible, as there are some great visuals, with The Spiral maze being a real highlight. Director Corin Hardy has an interesting eye, at times. Some of the deaths are very impressive, taking a particularly violent route with the last couple. The car and machinery accidents were particularly brutal and were pulled off well. If the film were more of that and took a little bit more time with the rules of the whistle, it would have had a little more potential. But the rules are terribly inconsistent. One character dies within an hour of the whistle, while others take days. At first, I thought this had to do with the proximity of when their deaths would have occurred, but no. It’s all completely random.

Multiple horror directors are referenced with Muschietti Cigars (for director of IT, Andy) and Mr. Craven (obviously for Wes). I’m sure there were others that I missed, but it’s just another element that makes this feel like a horror film from an earlier decade, as this is such a played-out trope. I really disliked my time with Whistle. Outside of a couple of impressive deaths, this feels like the kind of movie I would have watched on streaming in the 2010s. The characters are downright unlikable, and it’s hard to care about their fates. Every element is so generic, and it’s hard to get invested in a story that feels so half-baked.

Whistle is now playing In Theaters and comes to Shudder later this year.

Whistle

TERRIBLE

3

The post Whistle Review: Some Creative Deaths Don’t Help This Absolute Dud appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: In the “Strangers” finale, survivors face new threats from masked strangers. Secrets emerge, jeopardizing their lives as the line between reality and peril blurs in their battle for survival.

REVIEW: After nearly two years, we’re finally seeing the conclusion to The Strangers trilogy. It’s been a rough road as the first film was criticized for being a remake of the original, and the second was more lambasted for how little the story advanced. Now, we’re getting the final entry with The Strangers: Chapter 3 and getting a look at how Maya’s story ends. And I’m pleased to say that it’s definitely better than the last outing. But is it too little, too late for audiences?

Chapter 3 follows a much more subdued Maya (Madelaine Petsch) as she’s still on the run from the killers who terrorized her and killed her boyfriend. Story-wise, this entry is easily the most interesting of the three, with the main killer trying to make Maya join him and become a Stranger herself. But the journey is filled with so many downright stupid decisions that I can’t believe they made it past the first draft. Characters that have been set up for three movies are treated as fodder, and many of their deaths lack impact, just sort of happening unceremoniously.

The opening is a classic slasher intro, with a woman going to a hotel and getting terrorized by a Stranger. But it still feels fairly out of place and one of many scenes that feel like detours from the main story. I’m still not sure what this series’ aversion to actual violence is. This would be so much more impactful if it weren’t treated like a CW show. There’s one moment where the film goes further than expected, but otherwise, it all feels very reserved. Give us the red stuff!

I guess one thing that is always going to be inherent in a trilogy that’s filmed back-to-back like this and not really switching locations is the repeat nature of it all. I mean, how many times can we watch Maya get knocked out, crash a car, or just barely escape her would-be killers? It just gets stale after a while. I don’t really know why they decided to make the “Is Tamara home?” dialogue, said in every movie like it’s some tagline. It’s to the point where it elicits more of a chuckle than anything terror-related. It’s beaten into the ground. At a certain point, these Strangers need to come up with some new lines.

Madelaine Petsch is still the best part of these movies but her screentime feels cut down here. We’re following ancillary characters a lot more, though they’re mostly just introduced to give us a higher body count. But anything is better than more Maya just being scared and running for her life again. At least this gave us an intriguing different side to her. Unlike the last film, which gave us unnecessary backstory, this actually adds some layers to the villains that are a bit more interesting. One thing I’ll give Chapter 3 credit for is that it finally makes sense of so many elements introduced in the trilogy, including why the town acts how it does. Their behavior was always a bit suspicious yet they do a good job of explaining what’s going on here.

But despite all the red herrings and different elements at play, they decide to make one of The Strangers someone who isn’t even in the other two chapters. What is even the point of having so many characters behaving a certain way, if you’re not even going to use one of them as a killer? Instead, it’s just a random person and they don’t really even really participate in the story. It genuinely feels like an absolute waste of a character and I don’t understand why they went that route.

I found myself enjoying the high body count and the story finally wrapping up. It avoids just going in circles like the last entry, and feels different enough from the original film that it finally has a unique identity. It even ends on an intriguing note (though I doubt that will ever be explored further given the reaction to the trilogy). Even still, I would consider this to be the most rewatchable of the trilogy. It’s dumb but much more entertaining this time around. Unfortunately it just can’t really get over its sloppy execution.

The Strangers: Chapter 3

BELOW AVERAGE

5

The post The Strangers: Chapter 3 Review – Gives Us Finality But Is It Too Late? appeared first on JoBlo.

PLOT: When a 15th-century prince denounces God after the loss of his wife he inherits an eternal curse: he becomes Dracula. Condemned to wander the centuries, he defies fate and death, guided by a single hope – to be reunited with his lost love.

REVIEW: I’m not sure if there’s any story that’s been adapted to film as much Dracula. Whether it’s Bram Stoker’s novel or more of a focus on Vlad the Impaler himself, it’s popularity has spread over a century. This time, it’s Luc Besson‘s turn and he takes a decidedly more romantic approach, blending Stoker’s book with his unique style. And it’s really a showcase for Caleb Landry Jones as the titular character. Just prepare yourself for plenty of absurdity and even…interpretative dancing?

While I’m sure everyone knows the story of Dracula at this point, Besson’s version only really uses the bones of it. There’s a bit of Vlad the Impaler’s war exploits mixed with the story of Jonathan Harker. But he’s mostly just used as a tool for Dracula to tell his story and the focus is mostly on Vlad’s love for Mina and how losing her caused him to renounce God and walk the earth for centuries trying to find her again. While there’s certainly a monstrous side to Dracula, this is very much a love story, where all of his motivations are centered around getting the love of his life back in some way.

Caleb Landry Jones has always been a great actor, but this allows him to show his commitment in the face of a pretty absurd role. The way he obsesses over his love Mina, never breaking eye contact as his soldiers put on his armor, or the way he bounces about in his full monster form, Jones appears to be having a blast. This manages to give his scenes a lot of energy that is sometimes lacking when he’s not around. Zoë Bleu plays his love Mina and her new incarnation, Elisabeta, but it’s a role that doesn’t really leave much impact. The “Damsel in Distress” archetype doesn’t really work in this day and age, and the character really needed some agency of her own.

Christoph Waltz essentially plays Van Helsing, though in this version he’s simply known as “Priest.” He’s clearly religious but takes a more scientific approach to the vampire plague. It’s an interesting contrast to what we’re used to seeing, though the logical and divine sides are sometimes at odds with each other. Waltz almost feels like an afterthought in the overall narrative, but he makes the most of his limited scenes.

Dracula has an almost playful tone, with similar beats that we’ve seen so many times but Jones is having so much fun, that it translates to the viewer. It’s just unfortunate that they took so many very strange detours along the way. The narrative is told out of order, and you have to play catchup, which feels weird since the beats are well known. Moments are very heightened and, despite trying to ground certain elements, the presentation is very fantastical and almost theatrical in it’s over the top nature. The production design is fantastic, with some gothic sets that feel very lived in. And the score from Danny Elfman is fairly memorable.

There are some alterations, like instead of hounds protecting Dracula, they’re instead gargoyles. But they serve much of the same purpose in the story, keeping watch over the Count and guarding Jonathan Harker. I didn’t mind them until they started doing head-scissors takedowns and fighting like Judoku experts. It just kind of adds to the humor of the story and not taking itself overly serious. But this corniness can sometimes damper the experience and put this in a schlockier category than it likely intends to be. And the ending really makes so much of the journey feel futile.

In many ways, Luc Besson’s Dracula feels like it owes a lot to Francis Ford Coppola’s film, as the visual language and plot beats are very similar. This is more of another adaptation of that film, than one of Stoker’s original novel. Even Jones’ attire more closely resembles that of Gary Oldman’s, with his monster form looking damn near identical. There’s a lot more corniness present here, with random moments of dance, and strange plot contrivances. I enjoyed the silliness overall, but it won’t be for everybody. This is really just a showcase for Jones, and the rest comes second.

Dracula releases to theaters on February 6th, 2026.

Dracula (2026)

AVERAGE

6

The post Dracula Review: Luc Besson’s Latest Is A Showcase For Caleb Landry Jones appeared first on JoBlo.

Review: We live in a pretty fascinating era in which popular digital creators are venturing beyond their usual formats and stepping confidently into legitimate filmmaking. We have seen the Philippou brothers of RackaRacka stun audiences with Talk to Me and Bring Her Back, Chris Stuckmann make the leap with Shelby Oaks (albeit with less fare), and even more recently, Curry Barker move from That’s a Bad Idea sketches to his feature Obsession. With that trend in mind, it felt inevitable that Mark Fischbach, better known as Markiplier, would eventually journey down the same path. This is especially true given the ambitious story of his web series In Space with Markiplier.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you have seen some of his content. If anything, you have at least heard the name. I could lie and say my familiarity comes from my son watching these types of YouTubers daily, but in all honesty, I first stumbled onto him about 11 years ago because I was a grown-ass adult playing Five Nights at Freddy’s, and here was this other grown-ass adult geeking out over the exact same game.

That shared history makes his directorial debut, Iron Lung, feel like a genuine evolution rather than just a novelty act. Adapted from the indie horror game of the same name by David Szymanski, this is a passion project in the truest sense. It’s the kind of thing that clearly ate three years of someone’s life to get right. And honestly, adapting Iron Lung is a huge challenge because it is not a story-heavy game in the traditional sense. It is built entirely on isolation and the dread of doing a job you are not meant to survive. He was not just adapting a plot; he had to adapt an experience. And I’m pleased to report that you can sense all the blood, sweat, and tears he put into this on-screen.

For those wondering if you need to play the game to understand the movie, not really. The film stands firmly on its own. The smartest thing the adaptation does is stick to the game’s core mechanic: the sub has no windows. To see where he’s going, Simon has to snap a grainy black and white photograph, wait for it to develop, and pray nothing is staring back at him. It turns every camera flash into a game of Russian Roulette and forces the audience to feel the same blindness as the protagonist.

The set design and cinematography are the first major indicators that this is a serious piece of filmmaking. The submarine establishes a suffocating claustrophobia that never lets up. It’s all grimy metal and machinery that looks like it is one bad decision away from imploding, with blood dripping from the cracks. The sound design is equally impressive, leaning into a “less is more” approach regarding the outside threats. Instead of constant monster reveals, the movie uses sounds like creaks, groans, and alarms to let the horror play out in your imagination. To go along with that soundscape is a fantastic score by Andrew Hulshult, who did the music for Doom: Eternal, which fits the industrial dread perfectly.

And yes, I have to talk about the blood. Fischbach has openly hyped the fact that Iron Lung used a record-setting amount of fake blood, previously held by 2013’s Evil Dead, and I am here to tell you that it shows. This is not just splashy horror blood used for a gross-out gag. The blood is the environment. It’s oppressive and ever-present, lending the ocean and ship a sense of life and weight, especially in the film’s climax, where it adds body horror.

The lighting also deserves a special shout-out. In this day and age, horror films tend to be over-lit and afraid of the dark. Iron Lung embraces a grimy analog aesthetic that reminded me of the tactile dread of Dead Space or Alien: Isolation. Not because it’s copying those worlds, but because it understands the same rule: what you can’t quite see is often more terrifying than what you can. It’s not just the shadows, though; it’s the texture. We see Simon physically wrestling with rusting valves, toggling heavy switches, and reading analog gauges. It grounds the sci-fi elements in a gritty, lived-in, decaying reality.

Most of all, I have to praise the acting chops of Mark Fischbach. To wear so many hats like writer, director, financier, editor, and star is without a doubt a heavy burden. It could have easily turned into an ego project, but that never happens here. He sheds the high-energy internet persona and anchors the film with a surprisingly grounded performance. It’s not YouTuber acting. It’s the shaky resolve of a man trying to survive a job designed to kill him. Even though Mark is the only face we see for the vast majority of the runtime, he’s not entirely alone. The voice acting from the supporting cast helps flesh out the world outside that metal coffin, adding layers of bureaucracy and desperation that make the lore (yes, I went there with the lore) feel massive without ever showing it.

However, my sole and primary criticism lies with the pacing. I feel like at least 20 minutes could have been trimmed without affecting the movie, and it would have been a near-perfect pressure cooker. The trade-off, of course, is that the length also contributes to the film’s mission statement: you’re meant to feel the time, the repetition, the ritual of the task, the slow grind of paranoia. Whether that plays as hypnotic dread or “could’ve been tighter” will depend on your tolerance for slow-burn confinement horror. That said, I have to give props to the technical editing. While the runtime is long, several transition shots were outstanding, visually blending the nightmare of the sub with Simon’s past in a way that felt incredibly creative.

I am just not sure how the film will play for the general audience. If they are looking for anything beyond a man in a tight metal box, they might be disappointed. Aside from a handful of flashbacks, we never leave the submarine, putting this in the same experimental lane as Buried or Locke. But if you are willing to stick with the ride, Iron Lung becomes a gripping endurance test. There is no doubt his fans will show up and enjoy every second, but what impressed me most is that he does not pander to them like Five Nights at Freddy’s. There are no winks, cameos, or fun callbacks. Instead, he delivers a serious and uncompromising descent into the depths of the blood ocean.

Iron Lung is out in theaters now.

Iron Lung

GREAT

8

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REVIEW: Whenever an actor goes behind the camera, it can be to mixed results. Some flourish while others flounder, and it really seems to be a toss-up. I’m happy to say that longtime comedic actor Jason Biggs does a great job in the director’s chair and gives Untitled Home Invasion Romance a very unique voice. And don’t worry, the name makes sense once you’ve seen the movie.

The film follows Kevin and his wife, Suzie, as they head out on a weekend getaway to try to save their marriage. Kevin has the bright idea of staging a break-in in order to play hero and prove himself to his wife, but things don’t go to plan. To say the least. There’s plenty of murder and chaos, and it always keeps the viewer on its toes. In fact, I was actually quite impressed with how dark the film got, but never became unpalatable. Jason Biggs‘ Kevin is a complete loser, harkening back to his days as Jim in American Pie. I suppose someone who comes up with a plan like this would have to be. But it works for the story and helps subvert certain expectations.

I was most impressed with Meaghan Rath as Suzie, the wife who takes matters into her own hands. There were so many times where I thought I understood what she was up to, only to be thrown off the trail the next moment. And, despite not having a ton of screentime, Arturo Castro steals every scene that he’s in. He manages to bring most of the film’s laughs and, if anything, I wish he could have been used more. Anna Konkle and Justin H. Min both show up in supporting roles and add more layers to what’s really going on.

One of my favorite aspects of Untitled Home Invasion Romance is how it plays with your expectations. A lot of that has to do with Jason Biggs in the lead, following his usual cadences. So when the film turns that on its head, it feels fresh and unexpected. I’m obviously going to avoid spoiling where the film ends up, but it really worked for me. It probably helps that these dark comedies are right up my alley.

Despite this being Biggs first film in the director’s chair, you wouldn’t know it by how well balanced the story is presented. The shifting tones work well and he always does a good job of showing us what we need to see, while keeping other elements just offscreen. The circumstances are heightened but it never feels too over the top. There are multiple switches that are very satisfying and play off of what the audience expects from a Jason Biggs-style character.

I wasn’t sure what to make of Untitled Home Invasion Romance at first, but I really enjoyed where the story ended up going. It’s dark yet still humorous and has a very satisfying conclusion. As much as I love the name, I do think that it will hinder the film a bit, as it is a mouthful and it doesn’t immediately stand out. If anything, it feels like someone made a mistake and forgot to take out the placeholder title. But if you’re willing to take the chance, this is a darkly fun ride that shows Biggs has a lot of potential as a director.

Untitled Home Invasion Romance is out digitally on January 27th, 2026.

Untitled Home Invasion Romance

GOOD

7

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REVIEW: Is anyone else really tired of Post-Apocalyptic creature features? Whether it’s Elevation or Love and Monsters, I’ve quickly found the subgenre to be quite tired and boring. For every A Quiet Place we receive, it seems there are ten other low-quality imitations. Unfortunately, Worldbreaker fits into the latter category, featuring generic monsters and characters that lack any dimension. And if you’re hoping for another “Milla Jovovich kicks ass in a sci-fi world” then you’ll probably want to look elsewhere.

Despite getting top billing, Jovovich is hardly even in the film, with her screentime maxing out at about ten minutes. Even when she’s there, she’s not doing a whole lot. Instead, the story focuses on Luke Evans and Billy Boullet, who play father and daughter. They’ve escaped the mainland and are hiding out on an island, trying to survive. Most of the story is the two family members surviving and training, with some stories in between. Evans sure does love to tell stories here. A girl washes up on shore, and it’s pretty easy to see what’s going to happen with her the moment she’s introduced. But the daughter is so lonely that she tries to keep her hidden and help her out. Evans and Boullet deliver good performances, but their characters are so directionless. And as much as I liked Jovovich in her early career, she’s essentially just the same person in every single film over the last two decades.

It really doesn’t help that the monsters are so generic. They feel like far too imposing a force one moment and are completely gone the next. I’m sure this is budget-related, but it just makes the world feel inconsistent. It doesn’t help that the rules for them don’t make a lot of sense and seem to change based on story needs. Then they introduce this hybrid angle, and it doesn’t really go anywhere interesting. They’re pretty much just smaller versions of the bigger creatures. Everything about them is half-baked and underdeveloped.

Ultimately, there’s really no point in telling this story. Things are damn near the exact same from beginning to end, with one less character or two. There’s not some massive moment of change, and if anything, the film ends up on such a cliffhanger that it makes the storytelling decisions all the stranger. I found myself literally saying “Wait, that was it?” when the credits rolled. This was more of a “day in the life” style film, only none of the characters are interesting enough to follow and make it worth it.

It’s honestly pretty depressing to think that this film was directed by Brad Anderson. Session 9 and The Machinist are such interesting films, and they really feel like an auteur is at the helm. Worldbreaker is often uninspired in both its blocking and its shot composition. It really just feels like a paycheck movie and bears no signature of the director.

I did not enjoy my time with Worldbreaker and every time I hoped it would have some kind of spark, it did nothing with it. The action is unimpressive and it ends right in the middle of what feels like would be the third act action spectacular. If I had to pick one decent thing it’s that Luke Evans can tell an intriguing story. But even then, they bash you over the head with it and he tells them at the most inappropriate times. Maybe someone will come along and breathe new life into this subgenre, but as is, let’s just put this one to bed.

Worldbreaker releases to theaters on January 30th, 2026.

Worldbreaker

TERRIBLE

3

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PLOT: A young woman (Midori Francis) who is desperate to lose weight is given access to a new wonder drug called “The Gray,” which allows her to lose weight—fast—but the consequences prove to be more dire than she anticipates.

REVIEW: We live in an interesting era. A lot of people struggle with their weight (most of us do at one point or another), but now there seem to be pharmaceutical solutions that are helping people lose weight and keep it off, upending diet culture in a real way. Natalie Erika James, who previously helmed the well-received Relic (as well as the misbegotten Rosemary’s Baby prequel Apartment 7A), takes on this new reality head-on with this intriguing new entry into the resurgent body-horror genre.

Our heroine, Midori Francis’s Hana, suffers from severe body dysmorphia. While a more extreme version of this film would have presented her as significantly overweight, Hana starts the movie looking like a pretty average person, although Francis does wear prosthetics that are never quite convincing. Yet she has some family trauma that’s made her fear her growing weight, plus she’s also lusting over a fit grad student, Madeleine Madden’s Alanya, who she feels will never notice her unless she’s rail-thin.

One night, when clubbing with her much more body-positive friend Josie (a likable Danielle Macdonald), she runs into a girl she knew in high school who was once obese but now looks like a model. She’s given some pills called “The Gray,” which she’s told will help her lose weight—although they cost upwards of $5K. Yet Hana also happens to be a med student, and she’s able to synthesize the drug herself, only to discover it contains human ash, prompting her to steal some from an obese cadaver she and her fellow grads have cruelly named Big Bertha. Soon Hana starts losing loads of weight, but also finds herself haunted by Bertha’s increasingly pissed-off ghost—or is she?

Natalie Erika James tackles a lot here—from body dysmorphia to LGBTQ romance to body horror, with a ghost story thrown in too for good measure—but it mostly works. While a little too deliberately paced at close to two hours (there’s a smashing ninety-minute movie in there), Saccharine is always compelling, with some pretty gross gore effects thrown in for good measure. It will also strike a chord with anyone who’s ever wished they could take a shortcut and get the body of their dreams—even as getting the kind you see in movies is ultimately unattainable for a lot of us.

Midori Francis, who was a regular on Grey’s Anatomy, delivers a standout performance as the vulnerable Hana, with whom you always empathize, even if it’s a little hard to swallow that this med student would violate so many ethical lines without ever being caught. She keeps you invested in Hana’s journey, with James also keeping the horror vague enough that for much of it you never know whether the horror is real or just in Hana’s head.

While it’s not The Substance, and isn’t as much of a knockout as another great Sundance body-horror flick from last year, The Ugly Stepsister, Saccharine is always stylish and compelling. It will make its debut on Shudder later this year and seems bound to be one of the streamer’s buzzier titles, with the film received warmly here in Park City. It’s one to keep an eye out for.

Sundance

GOOD

7

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PLOT: A teenage boy (Joe Bird) who’s been relocated to a devoutly Christian community by his mother starts to realize there’s a supernatural force terrorizing many of the town’s teens.

REVIEW: Leviticus is bound to become one of the buzziest horror titles to emerge from this year’s Sundance. We’re living in a time when LGBTQ storytelling is increasingly moving into the genre space, and this film—the feature debut of writer-director Adrian Chiarella—seems likely to strike a chord both within that community and beyond.

The film centers around a kind of supernatural conversion therapy happening in this Christian community, where parents willingly have their gay children infected with a ghostly parasite that’s especially cruel. The presence takes the image of the person the infected individual is most attracted to, and if they give in to their sexual impulses, they are violently assaulted and often killed. It feels cut from the same cloth as It Follows, where the demon was essentially an immortal STD. Leviticus’ demon is even worse, as it guarantees you’ll never be able to actually find love or fulfillment, since it will always take the guise of whomever you love most.

That terrifying idea will no doubt make Leviticus resonate deeply both within the gay community and outside of it. But most importantly—for a horror film—it’s deeply unsettling. The demonic attacks are presented in a brutal, unflinching way. It feels like Chiarella’s horror inspirations run deep, with the movie also often reminiscent of Sidney J. Furie’s The Entity, which is my pick for one of the most disturbing horror films ever made.

Joe Bird, who made a huge impression a few years ago in Talk to Me, delivers a compelling, empathetic lead performance. As a young man, Bird’s Naim is still unsure of his sexuality, but his mother (played by Mia Wasikowska) seems to know exactly what his persuasion is and isn’t having it. While the parents in this community are monstrous, no one is portrayed as especially evil—just close-minded and naïve, but to the point that they’ve doomed their children to a hellish existence they’ll never be able to escape.

Leviticus also shies away from making its leads too star-crossed. A lot of critics seem hellbent on comparing it to Heated Rivalry, but other than the fact that both feature gay characters, they don’t have much in common. After all, these are teens who are unsure of themselves, with the object of Naim’s affections—Stacy Clausen’s Ryan—a little more reckless with his feelings. Likewise, Naim is a believably conflicted teen, not above some pretty stunning betrayals of his own, driven by adolescent jealousy.

Yet, most importantly, you root for both Naim and Ryan to escape their (literal) demons, even if Chiarella’s film is too dark to ever make that notion seem plausible. The cruel, violent attacks are memorably staged and scored by the great Jed Kurzel.

Leviticus feels like the kind of horror film that has a strong chance of being snapped up by a major distributor, as it will no doubt be much discussed once it’s released. It taps into the current zeitgeist in a very real way and seems like one of those indie horror movies bound to break through, like other Aussie-helmed horror films have in previous editions of the festival.

Sundance

GREAT

8

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PLOT: A young girl and her friends are held captive in a 1990s children’s TV program by a psychopathic humanoid unicorn named Buddy.

REVIEW: It’s hard to believe that Too Many Cooks came out twelve years ago. For those of you checking out this review who may be too young to remember, this was an Adult Swim video spoofing ’80s TV sitcom credits which, in the space of eleven minutes, descended into absolutely brilliant depths of lunacy. It was one of the OG “viral” videos, and now its director, Casper Kelly, aims to recapture some of its magic in his ambitious horror flick, Buddy, which made its world premiere here at the Sundance Film Festival as part of its midnight program.

Buddy spoofs 1990s children’s TV programming, in particular Barney & Friends, with the titular character a large, orange unicorn who teaches his child friends about things like chores, baseball, and dancing. Too bad he’s also psychopathic, and when one day one of his young friends decides they don’t want to participate in his latest lesson, all hell breaks loose as a few of the kids start to realize something evil is going on.

The first half hour of Buddy is mostly brilliant. It unfolds as a series of “Buddy” episodes that get progressively darker, leading to a few of the kids, led by the brave Freddy (Delaney Quinn), planning an escape to “Diamond City,” a place outside of the increasingly psychopathic Buddy’s reign.

As voiced by Keegan Michael-Key, Buddy is a dead-on spoof of Barney, who held a special place in pop culture for those of us old enough to remember the nineties. Buddy largely relies on nineties nostalgia to be effective, meaning this film might not appeal to younger horror fans, with Gen X and older millennials more the target audience. Kelly, who clearly has studied all of these shows to death, does a wonderful job creating a sinister variation, loaded with puppets and costumed characters, one of whom — a backpack named “Strappy” — is voiced by Patton Oswalt.

It’s too bad that Buddy goes off the rails in a big way after its terrific first act, as it takes a detour into the “real world” to spend some time with a suburban mom (Cristin Milioti) and dad (Topher Grace) who may have a connection to the Buddy universe. It’s here that Milioti’s Grace emerges as a secondary protagonist to Quinn’s Freddy, and while she’s strong as always, when it’s operating in the “real world,” the movie loses a lot of steam.

Luckily, things pick up in the final act, which is more like the first part of the movie, returning us to Buddy’s world, but it’s never quite as good as it was in that pretty dazzling first act. At ninety minutes, Buddy feels a little too much like a terrific short film that’s been padded out (too much) to feature length, and it drags.

Even still, one has to admire the creativity behind the film, with Kelly crafting a demented satire of children’s TV programming. Keegan Michael-Key is terrific as Buddy, sounding like a dead-on accurate evil cousin to Barney, while Quinn is a likable child heroine. There are also some nifty cameos, including Clint Howard, and a voice role for none other than Michael Shannon.

While it’s inconsistent, Buddy is worth watching, even if only for its absolutely brilliant first act. While it doesn’t quite work as a film and likely won’t be much more than adult curiosity, I imagine a lot of folks who grew up in the nineties will have a lot of fun with it.

Sundance

AVERAGE

6

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PLOT: When a man receives a mysterious letter from his lost love, he is drawn to Silent Hill, a once familiar town now consumed by darkness.

REVIEW: I still remember being blown away by the first Silent Hill movie when it was released to theaters in 2006. It was such a unique experience and, as someone who hadn’t played the games at the time, felt like a glimpse into such a fascinating world. It had a very dark and nihilistic approach, and as a teen, I absolutely loved downer endings. So I was very excited to see director Christophe Gans return to the franchise after 20 years to create another entry with Return to Silent Hill. Only this time, he’s taking much more inspiration from the games.

Return to Silent Hill follows the story of James Sunderland, who travels to the town of Silent Hill after receiving a mysterious letter from his long-lost love. Game fans will notice this is pretty much a retelling of the second Silent Hill game, but it does still take some detours along the way. It’s going to be hard not to constantly compare this to the game since there are so many damn similarities. Even its presentation harkens to visuals from the newer game and recreates shots/locations left and right. So I won’t judge it against that property, but I’ll mention it when it’s obvious.

Jeremy Irvine does a decent enough job as James and conveys his guilt well. However, his accent does slip a few times, which can be a bit distracting. I’ve liked Hannah Emily Anderson since Jigsaw, so it’s nice to see her in a prominent role(s). She fits the world well. Wednesday fans will be excited to see Evie Templeton, but truthfully, she’s not in the film much. Though it is cool to see her in the role of Laura since she also plays her in the game remake from 2024. Everyone feels like they’re straight out of a cutscene, for better or worse.

I’ve always loved Silent Hill‘s aesthetic, with its foggy town and decrepit buildings. I was often reminded of Hellboy: The Crooked Man in that they clearly didn’t have a lot of money, but there was still a lot of creativity in the filmmaking. Sure, some greenscreen doesn’t land, and the FX can be inconsistent, but this sure takes advantage of the creepy visuals. The nurses are absolutely iconic, and they work incredibly well here. I just wish they were around for a bit longer. Even Pyramid Head is a bit underhanded, though it’s nice to have him be more than just a villainous presence and be more of what he was originally intended to be.

Return to Silent Hill finds itself in a strange place: it may be too faithful to the game for general audiences, and too far from it for fans of the series. I found myself still enjoying the film while acknowledging its flaws. It genuinely feels like a video game come to life and has some changes that make the narrative beats hit harder. But I also question how ambiguous much of the film is and whether that will be accessible to those who don’t know the games or understand this world.

I’m not sure Return quite lands in the way that it intends to. It’s a little cornier and cheaper than I would have liked. The acting can be a bit hammy, and it genuinely feels like I’m playing a video game at various points. But I still found myself invested in the story and enjoying James’ journey. This is certainly a lot better than Revelation, but it falls short of the 2006 film. Its messaging is a bit dark, and I’m not sure everything comes together in the end, but I enjoyed the journey itself.

Return to Silent Hill releases to theaters on January 23rd, 2026.

Return to Silent Hill

AVERAGE

6

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REVIEW: Outside of 1977’s Orca there is a severe lack of killer whale movies out there. They are the Apex Predator’s of the ocean after all so they seem like the perfect candidate for an aquatic thriller. With their attacks on various boats over the years, I always expected some films to spring up and we’re finally getting one with Killer Whale. Unfortunately, this one can barely stay afloat and fails to provide anything worthwhile.

I’ve always really liked Virginia Gardner as she’s been a pretty consistent presence in horror. Her character Maddie loses her hearing in the film’s opening, where her boyfriend loses his life in an apparent robbery. Her best friend Trish (Mel Jarnson) takes her to the tropics and they end up getting trapped in a lagoon with a deadly orca. While there is no documented case of an Orca killing a human being in the wild, the lagoon makes the orca think its still in captivity, so all bets are off. We get a few kills, but they’re pretty tame, with the biggest one already being spoiled in the trailer.

Despite the fact that the whale being trapped in the lagoon is a key part of the story, they completely gloss over how it got there. It goes from being in captivity one moment and trapped in a lagoon the next. I’m not even sure you can move a whale that quickly and it seems unnecessary to make the events so rapidfire. This lack of logic is prevalent throughout and you can poke holes in damn near every aspect of the story. They even add drama between the characters because apparently being trapped on a rock with a killer Orca surrounding them wasn’t dramatic enough.

The whale’s appearance is pretty bad most of the time, but there are moments where it appears to be a physical prop that actually looks pretty decent. One small detail that I really liked is that the whale dorsal fin is flopped to one side, as is common with whales in captivity. I won’t deny that the floppy fin does make for an unintentionally funny visual. Especially with how static it is in the water. But I’ll at least give the filmmakers props for getting that element right.

It’s just really hard to look past the very bad special FX constantly on display. It always blows my mind when filmmakers decide to make a movie without having the proper budget for it. It results in some really bad green screen that dominates so much of the runtime. Why film in such a beautiful location if you’re just going to replace the background? It also means the whale itself isn’t very intimidating, as it never looks realistic enough. It doesn’t help that a whale just doesn’t elicit the same level of fear as the maw of a Great White.

There are some obvious parallels with Killer Whale and The Shallows, with our leads being stranded on a big rock with a killer animal in the waters around them. But that’s really where the comparisons end. While that film had a ticking clock with the rising tide, everything that happens to the two leads is completely brought upon themselves. The whale just acts when they’re in the water, and even then, it’s inconsistent. Giving a little bit of urgency could have helped elevate the thrills.

It’s best not to take Killer Whale too seriously and just go along for the ride. Even then, outside of the good performances from Gardner and Jarnson, there really isn’t much here to latch onto. It’s so melodramatic at points and the whale doesn’t feel like the force of nature that it should. It doesn’t help that it just kind of comes and goes, depending on what the story needs at a specific moment. And with some of the worst green screen I’ve ever seen in a major release, I was more distracted than invested.

Killer Whale is In Theaters, On Demand and On Digital January 16, 2026.

killer whale

NOT GOOD

4

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REVIEW: The vampire genre has always proven to be quite pliable in terms of delivering all sorts of different stories featuring bloodsuckers. They often are able to touch on social issues and have a bit more going on than what it looks like on the surface. So it’s intriguing to see Night Patrol use vampires in the conflict between cops and gangs in Los Angeles.

Night Patrol follows an LAPD officer (Long) as he attempts to join the notorious Night Patrol. But when he joins, he discovers the squad is full of vampires and he may have bitten off more than he can chew. This is really an ensemble, so we also follow his partner and a young gangbanger who has a run in with the vampire cops. One of the biggest things I struggled with, was the complete lack of redeemable characters. Jermaine Fowler’s Xavier completely betrays his family for the badge and does some truly stupid things like firing blanks in a school to prove a point. Fowler’s comedy chops aren’t utilized and I mostly just wanted to smack some sense into him.

Justin Long is essentially a horror staple at this point, so it just feels natural to see him show up. But he gets so over the top by the end, that it’s hard to even take him seriously. There’s a certain moment where he’s running that made me laugh out loud, and I don’t think that was intentional. Things go a little off the rails when Dermot Mulraney shows up as it gets a bit too hammy. Think the ending of Scream 6 turned up to eleven. I’m a big CM Punk fan, so I got a kick out of his cigar chomping, coke snorting vampire cop.

RJ Cyler is practically the lead, but there’s no real agency to any of his decision-making. He really just feels like he’s along for the ride. There’s an interesting element at play, as he wants to leave his gang and start a new life, but it feels forgotten about shortly after its introduced. I really enjoyed his mom, who’s the head of the gang and is always ready to kick some ass. Putting more focus on them and their dynamic would have really benefited the film.

Can we stop trying to alter the rules of what a vampire is? I feel like every film that tries to put their own spin on vamps just ends up ruining them a bit. Night Patrol features vampires that can appear in the sunlight and can be completely controlled by the head vamp. The weaknesses are what adds to the intrigue of the creatures and it feels like they’re way too overpowered here. There’s also a big inconsistency with what kills them and what doesn’t. Sometimes simplicity goes a long way.

Night Patrol is bursting at the seams with LA culture. I feel like this is something that LA natives will really take to and there were probably references that completely went over my head. Visually, the film has a lot of parallels with End of Watch. It helps to ground the film a bit but there’s such an awkwardness to most of the interactions. Everyone feels a bit stilted. And despite the life or death stakes, none of the deaths have much impact.

I really wanted to like Night Patrol but it fell flat in many ways. None of the characters really connect and the story feels heightened in a way that clashes with the more grounded visuals. It falls apart the more it goes on, and doesn’t ever manage to pull itself back together. There are too many wasted characters and a convoluted plot that doesn’t hold much weight. It’s fun to see people like Flying Lotus, YG, and Freddie Gibbs but the story lets them down. Stripping this down a bit could have really benefited the overall presentation but instead, it feels like it doesn’t really know what kind of film it wants to be.

Night Patrol releases to theaters on January 16th, 2026.

Night Patrol (2026)

BELOW AVERAGE

5

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PLOT: Young Spike (Alfie Williams), after having survived the events of the first film, is forced to join a Satan-worshipping cult called “The Jimmys,” which is led by the charismatic but evil Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), who considers himself the Antichrist. Meanwhile, Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) forges a bond with one of the infected, Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), and is able to learn crucial information about what the infection does to the human mind and how it may be treated.

REVIEW: 28 Years Later was one of the more disappointing films I saw last year. While it wasn’t actually a bad film, it just felt like an anti-climax and a letdown, considering that we all eagerly awaited director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland’s return to the genre. While excellent in chunks, on the whole the movie felt surprisingly overbaked, and while it did OK at the box office, it didn’t exactly leave anyone clamouring for the release of the already shot sequel, The Bone Temple, much less the planned third film.

Yet, miraculously, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a much better film, with director Nia DaCosta bringing a different, perhaps more classical aesthetic to the franchise, emphasizing horror over the last film’s focus on what living in the aftermath of the decades-long infection would be like. It’s almost as if all the pretentious stuff was gotten out of the way in the last film, with this one focusing instead on a deeply unsettling series of encounters in the wasteland that is now Britain — a place where the infected are less dangerous than the humans left behind.

Once again, Alfie Williams’ Spike is our hero, with him captured by The Jimmys and — after he lucks into killing one of them in a knife fight — is forced to join their gang. Their leader, Jack O’Connell’s Jimmy Crystal, roams the wasteland looking for survivors he can skin alive as an offering to “Old Nick” (aka Satan), who he believes is his father. It’s actually strikingly similar to his recent turn in Sinners, with him once again a charismatic, but unrepentantly evil force battling for the souls of everyone he encounters. Unnervingly, he’s been styled to look like the late Jimmy Savile, a former children’s TV host from Britain (and friend of the royal family) who, after his death, was revealed to have molested somewhere in the neighbourhood of 300 children.

The Bone Temple is significantly gorier than the last film, with Jimmy leading his evil gang in viciously slaughtering everyone they come across, his preferred method being to skin people alive. Poor Spike is an unwilling participant, but lucks out when they spy Ralph Fiennes’ Kelson from afar and believe he himself may actually be the devil.

Fiennes gets to be the lead this time, with the movie focusing on his efforts to help the infected, using the towering Alpha he calls Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry) as his willing guinea pig after he discovers that shots of morphine actually calm his violent nature, allowing him to piece together crucial information about the infection. If the Jimmy chunk of the movie is unrelentingly violent, this Kelson portion is unexpectedly hopeful, and even funny, with it revealed that Kelson has quite a record collection and is fond of Duran Duran and Iron Maiden.

It all culminates in an incredible showdown with The Jimmys that doesn’t play out the way you expect, but is so brilliantly done that when it was over, the audience I saw it with cheered and applauded. It sports a needle drop that any metal fan will go crazy for and, despite being the second film in the trilogy, actually leaves you feeling satisfied, having given you a full experience.

A lot of credit is due to Nia DaCosta, who seems to have toned down some of the more fanciful areas Boyle got caught up in last time. The Jimmys don’t do parkour like they did at the end of the previous movie, and the soundtrack is more conventional, with Hildur Guðnadóttir taking over for the hip-hop group Young Fathers, who scored the last one. The first movie in the series is also given some call-outs I won’t ruin here, but suffice it to say the ending makes one pretty excited for the third film — although part of me also thinks maybe DaCosta would be better off directing it than Boyle, who seems less interested in playing in the genre space these days.

I really was shocked by how much I enjoyed 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, which I found compelling from start to finish. The cast is great, with O’Connell and Fiennes in top form, while Mayor of Kingstown’s Emma Laird also pops up in a great part as one of the more evil members of the gang (whereas Willow star Erin Kellyman is one of the more humane members — and similarly effective). Heck, even if you REALLY didn’t like the last one, give this one a shot. It’s such a huge improvement you’ll barely believe it.

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple

AMAZING

9

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PLOT: A group of teenagers in a remote location must barricade themselves in a pool to escape their rabies-infested pet chimp. No, seriously.

REVIEW: It was hard to know what to expect walking into Paramount Pictures’ Primate at Fantastic Fest, where it premiered a few months ago. All that was known at that point was it was a horror movie scheduled to release in January about a killer chimp directed by Johannes Roberts. When the Strangers: Prey at Night director introduced the film to the audience, he promised a real treat for Stephen King fans. He talked about being inspired by Cujo and Christine and how proud he was of the film and joked that he hoped this would make people forgive him for Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. As silly as the premise may sound, it was clear that everyone involved believed in this film. And it turns out they have every right to do just that.

Primate turned out to be an unapologetic blood bath of fun. The opening scene perfectly sets the tone and lets you know that this movie is going to have you laughing out loud while simultaneously squirming in your seat. For starters, the rabies-infested chimp Ben is amazing. It’s hard to discern exactly how they brought the adorable yet insane animal to life, but Roberts mentioned that they employed a variety of special effects techniques, including animatronics. All I know for sure is that it wasn’t done using very much CGI, if any at all, which brings you back to a better time of ’90s horror and action movies where maybe things didn’t always look perfect, but by God, they were far more entertaining. We also get more of this cute chimp turned sadistic little a-hole on screen than we ever could have imagined. He’s doing it all, from slow-stalking Michael Myers-esque suspense sequences to celebrating his kills in front of the crying friends of his victims. Therein lies the genius of Primate.

It’s an easy movie to snub your nose at if you are inclined to do so. Though our lead actors Troy Kotsur and Johnny Sequoyah are earnestly great, there’s a handful of dumb choices by our teens in peril. There are also some hilariously unbelievable moments involving what Ben is capable of doing. But the kicker is that everyone creating this madness is clearly in on the joke in a very meta way. You know this is the case when one character yells something completely stupid during an intense moment and the entire crowd bursts out in laughter together. It’s Neve Campbell talking about the big-breasted girl running upstairs when she should run out the front door. You’ll be feeling that way while you watch four human beings with at least almost fully grown brains unable to outsmart a rabies-crazed chimp hunting them down poolside. I don’t know what it is with Johannes Roberts and pool horror, but the man does his best work surrounded by floats and the smell of chlorine.

The music in Primate is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. Steve Parr, who worked with Roberts on Prey at Night, returns and leaves his mark yet again. During a chase sequence or moment of over-the-top carnage, John Carpenter-esque synth music raises the stakes and the fun. On the flip side, when something especially messed up and dark happens on the screen, the notes turn darker and invasive in a way that reminded me of Marco Beltrami’s Sidney’s Lament from Scream. Which is the perfect dichotomy of Primate.

Yeah, this is a killer chimp movie with some dumb laughs, Terrifier 2-level kills (it doesn’t go quite THAT far, but it’s in the neighborhood), and is a lot better than should be expected for a dump month such as January. But Primate seems to know all that, embrace it, and deliver an insanely entertaining horror movie. 

Fantastic Fest

GREAT

8

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REVIEW: It’s tough to make an original zombie flick (although hopefully that will soon change). Ever since 28 Days Later reinvigorated the genre back in 2003, we’ve been inundated with movie after movie, not to mention hundreds of episodes of The Walking Dead (and its spin-offs) and others. Into the fray comes the Australian We Bury the Dead, which is an attempt to make an elevated, realistic exploration of the genre. In this one, the undead are never referred to as “zombies” and are unlike any we’ve seen on film before. These undead victims aren’t particularly vicious, nor do they have a hunger for human flesh. They also can’t infect survivors. Instead, when they’re back “online” (which is how the film describes them), they’re relatively passive and sometimes have tiny remnants of who they used to be baked into them. 

Daisy Ridley plays Ava, an American woman whose husband, Mitch (Matt Whelan) was away on a company retreat in Tasmania when an American chemical weapons test went awry and killed millions. She volunteers to be part of a body retrieval unit so that she can have some measure of closure, but soon, she convinces another volunteer, Clay (Brenton Thwaites), to take her to a quarantined area so she can try to find the body of her husband. 

Much of the movie is a road odyssey through the infected parts of Australia. There’s very little in the way of horror, with it more focused on the human aspect. Ridley’s Ava is riddled with guilt over how, in the days before her beloved husband went on his fateful trip, their relationship had begun to curdle for some reason. She’s hoping that if she finds him, and he’s back “online,” she can help him have a more dignified end than what she’s seen, with the military simply shooting anyone who happens to come back. 

Ridley does a great job of evoking the character’s profound grief over both her husband’s death and her need to find out what happened to him. Brenton Thwaites steals scenes as Clay, the party-boy Australian who spends his nights hooking up with other volunteers and doing drugs to deal with the trauma of what they see day by day. 

As a drama, We Bury the Dead works well, with the Australian countryside beautifully photographed and the movie sporting an effective soundtrack by electronic musician Clay. Yet, the film goes awry at times, with writer-director Zak Hilditch unable to avoid falling prey to some cliches of the genre. One of the worst offenders is a lengthy aside featuring an intense soldier, Mark Coles Smith’s Riley, who seems wound too tight to be sane and is soon revealed to be a total psychopath. It’s such a familiar trope of the genre that when it hits, not only is it utterly predictable, but it’s also disappointing, as it makes the movie, for a good chunk of its running time, nothing you haven’t seen before.

As such, We Bury the Dead, for all its ambitions, can’t help but occasionally feel like a retread. With so much zombie content out there, it’s very difficult to add anything new to the genre. Inevitably, this movie doesn’t manage to overcome the familiarity of the genre, but even still, it is mostly entertaining for much of its running time thanks to the ace technical packaging, and good performances from Ridley and Thwaites. It’s solid but unspectacular. 

sxsw 2025

AVERAGE

6

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REVIEW: There’s a reason that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is often near the top of many “Best Horror Films Of All Time” lists. It’s imagery is iconic and its performances are legendary. The film has reached a status that few films can manage. And, despite Stephen King not being a fan of it, I think it actually goes pretty well with the book. There are plenty of little details that are enhanced if you’ve read the novel. But does The Shining hold up as an experience on IMAX 45 years later?

For the select few who are unaware, The Shining follows the Torrance family as they move into The Overlook Hotel. Jack Torrance has taken up the winter caretaker position, as the hotel needs looked after during the long and arduous winter during the off season. Isolation starts to get to the entire family, as weird events start occurring, and Jack’s sanity starts slipping more and more. Their son Danny has a unique psychic ability that warns him of the impending doom.

Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance is still wonderful demented and, despite his big turn towards the end, is much more subdued in the buildup. You can feel the hotel taking him over with each passing day. But this is really Shelley Duvall’s movie. Her performance as Wendy has been criticized over the years but if there’s anything about this film that’s aged well, it’s her take on the matriarch of the family. She plays the emotional abused mother so well, and it’s so gratifying to finally see her snap into action. Young Danny Lloyd is quiet but brings so much to the table, nailing every moment he needs to sell a moment.

Seeing The Shining on IMAX is an otherworldly experience, with so many elements getting a chance to shine on the large format. Kubrick is so intentional with his framing Kubrick and color palette and it’s a lot easier to appreciate on such a big screen. I also really love how much the sound design and score from Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind help to layer the film in such a sense of dread. The atmosphere is truly astounding and really engrosses you. The story aside, it’s easy to get lost in all the technical details as everything that shows up in the frame feels so intentional.

I really love that studios are doing these anniversary screenings as they provide the opportunity to see these films on something more than just the televisions in our living rooms. If there’s any film deserving of the theatrical experience, it’s Kubrick‘s 1980 masterpiece. I find myself jealous of those that may have never seen the film and this was their first time with it, as it’s still so impactful. It takes something truly special to feel so timeless nearly half a century later and this does just that. I can’t recommend this one enough.

The Shining Is Now Playing In Select Theaters For It’s 45th Anniversary.

The Shining

PERFECTO-MUNDO

10

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PLOT: A child witnesses his parents’ murder by a man in a Santa suit. Years later, as an adult, he dons a Santa costume himself and embarks on a violent quest for retribution against those responsible for the traumatic event from his childhood.

REVIEW: The Silent Night Deadly Night Franchise is one of the craziest ones out there. From “Garbage Day” to a killer toymaker to a crazy witch cult that have nothing to do with the other films, it can be pretty all over the place. And with a remake already happening 13 years ago, I’m not sure I was even anticipating another stab at the franchise. But thankfully that has changed with Mike P. Nelson’s Silent Night Deadly Night.

Like the original, we’re following Billy as he goes on a bit of a rampage dressed as Santa. But plenty of the details are changed and is updated for more modern sensibilities. Gone is the rape of Billy’s mother, and the more psychological elements of the story, but there’s still plenty of killer Santa spectacle. It doesn’t all work, and those expecting something deep and meaningful should probably look elsewhere, but if you just want a good time, then this certainly provides that.

Putting aside my feelings on Halloween Ends, I was excited to see Rohan Campbell enter the Billy Chapman role, as it seemed like a part he could really pull off. While the character is very different from the more tormented version we see in the original, it makes up for that by presenting him in a more palatable way. Despite all the killings, Billy doesn’t immediately enter antagonist mode. I’ve been a fan of Ruby Modine since Happy Death Day so it’s nice to see her in a role that’s more than meets the eye. She shows some great emotional depth and is able to make the dialogue feel a little less awkward when she’s around. The movie definitely leans into the love story between those two characters.

There are some fun twists and turns along the way that will make some roll their eyes but I got a kick out of them. There are also really dumb ones that don’t work and are very expositional. Thankfully, even these enter the “so bad it’s good” territory so it’s all very palatable. Even those moments that don’t work entirely, still fit in with the world enough that they never feel overly egregious. Though, the ending is probably going to irk some people as it takes a big swing that isn’t going to work for all.

There’s been a strange pattern lately of “title cards to explain the situation” and I can’t tell if it’s just because of the short attention spans or what. Silent Night Deadly Night does this with nearly every kill, with a “Kill So and So” title card. I got pretty sick of it and it really made me realize how much I hate those in many films. Unless you’re telling us something that the visuals don’t then immediately follow-up with, then it just feels like it’s catering to dummies (which I feel like we need less of in this world).

I was very worried about this film after the Jason Voorhees short film Sweet Revenge released earlier this year as it annoyed me on just about every level. But thankfully, writer/director Mike P Nelson really pulls off the Killer Santa well here. While I do wish that there was some more impactful violence, the tone rides the line of slightly disturbing but always entertaining, very well. I’m sure the budget hampered it at times, but it’s never overly noticeable and I was always engrossed in the world.

It is difficult for me to call Silent Night, Deadly Night a good movie in the traditional sense. It’s melodramatic, over the top and just plain silly at times. But damn if it’s not extremely entertaining from start to finish. This will definitely be entering my annual Christmas rotation as it manages to bask in the Christmas spirit while still giving us plenty of violent mayhem. It’s not nearly as psychological as the original (or as disturbing) but it’s more than deserving of the name. Here’s just hoping there aren’t a bunch of pissed off mothers boycotting it. Or maybe that would be a good thing? Marketing is marketing, especially in this day and age.

Silent Night Deadly Night is playing In Theaters on December 11th, 2025.

Silent Night, Deadly Night

GOOD

7

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REVIEW: Osgood Perkins has quickly become one of my favorite names in horror. He has such a unique voice and vision that he stands out so much these days. And with his rapid output, it’s a good time to be a fan of the writer/director. While he’s proven himself to be quite polarizing, that’s just because he goes so against the grain of what we usually see. And it’s so damn refreshing. Keeper follows suit, giving us a look at a couple going away to a cabin for the weekend, and the strange happenings that occur there. But it ends up subverting damn near every single expectation you could possibly have for it.

There’s something off about the relationship between Liz (Tatiana Maslany) and Malcolm (Rossif Sutherland) from frame one. The marketing has really not given away anything about this film, so I’ll have to be careful about how I speak about it. I would never want to spoil it, as it certainly benefits from going in knowing as little as possible. It’s a film about a struggling relationship, and both actors sell it very well. There’s a strange quality to every character interaction, and it adds to the overall uneasiness of the film.

Keeper is very much a slow burn and lets you soak in the mystery. I was never bored and always so intrigued by what was happening. There are some truly unsettling moments. But those expecting anything too horrific should probably lower those expectations. This falls more under the subtle side of things, with most of the violence happening off-screen. I was really impressed with the creepy imagery, with some of it evoking some classic Japanese Horror tropes. Several moments sent genuine shivers up my spine, and that’s hard to accomplish in this day and age.

Keeper is full of absolutely gorgeous shots, and Perkins really puts a focus on the editing. There are constant fades happening, interweaving the visuals in a way that takes advantage of the shot composition. It really helps keep things interesting while it’s still setting up what’s truly going on at the cabin. The technical side of Osgood’s filmmaking is enough to hide some of the weaknesses of the script, which doesn’t entirely come together with the finale. Even still, I liked where it ended up, and it’s really all a showcase for Maslany, who continues to be one of the best performers out there.

As with any film that takes a big swing, Keeper is going to be polarizing. While I probably wouldn’t rank it as high as Longlegs or The Monkey, it’s still an impressive display of filmmaking. Perkins maintains his uniqueness and gives us something that stands well on its own. It falters a bit with its ending, but the imagery was so great, that it still worked for me. Go into this knowing as little as possible, as it’s clearly meant to be experienced that way. It won’t work for everyone, but in this day and age of sequels and retreads, it’s great to watch something that truly feels unlike anything else.

Keeper Is Playing In Theaters on November 14th, 2025.

Keeper

GOOD

7

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