Horror Weekly

We’ve got three new films, one newish film, and an oldie this week. We’ll begin with the much-hyped “Scream 7” and see how that holds up. We’ll then take part in a meta film about a horror writer with “I Know Exactly How You Die” and then go on a “Night Patrol,” all new films. “The Wailing” is from 2024, and the original “Ice Cream Man” from 1995 finishes us off.All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #55, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 Scream 7* Directed by: Kevin Williamson* Written by: Kevin Williamson, Guy Busick* Stars: Neve Campbell, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Anna Camp, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard, Courteney Cox* Run Time: 1h 54m* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneYears have passed, Sydney has a new town, new home, new job, a cop husband, and a teenage daughter in her 20s. Things are idyllic in the affluent area until, of course, the killings start again. And the who-is-doing-it begins again. It’s very well put together with a strong cast, but we didn’t feel like it was much different than the rest of the series. If you’re a Scream fan, you’ll probably like this one too. If you’re tired of the Scream movies, there’s not much reason to see this one.Spoilery SynopsisA couple of influencers arrive at the “Stab” house. It’s a murder house based on the movie series, which was also based on the real-life murders. Numerous murders happened here, but now it’s a themed-BNB museum, with body outlines on the floor and everything. They soon come across an animatronic Ghostface and a shrine to Stu, who legend says is still alive. Scott and Madison get “the” phone call about scary movies, which is a put on for part of the tourist experience. The whole trip goes very badly after that. Credits roll.Ben crawls through his girlfriend Tatum’s bedroom window and points out that it’s just like in the first “Stab” movie. Turns out, it’s Sydney’s house, and she’s wise to his tricks. Her husband, Mark, knows all about Sydney’s past.We spend a while meeting all of Tatum’s friends. Lucas wants to start a podcast about Sydney’s story. They’re all involved in an unrealistically elaborate school play for the theater club. Sydney still gets calls from the Woodsboro killer, but she doesn’t believe it’s really him. The killer Facetimes her, and she immediately recognizes that it’s Stu. He threatens to do something to Tatum at the theater, so Sydney gets the whole police force involved.Ghostface kills a girl on stage, but then Sydney shows up and starts blasting. Tatum turns out to be fine, but two of her friends are killed. Mark, a policeman, swears that Stu is really dead. Ben is a computer whiz, and he could have AI-deepfaked that video of Stu, so he’s Sydney’s main suspect.As Sydney and Tatum argue about leaving town, the killer pops out of the attic, inside the house. They hide in a safe room, but they both decide to sneak out to see how Mark is doing. There’s a lot of cat-and-mouse, but eventually, the killer is run over by Gale, who shows up out of the blue. They pull off the killer’s mask, and no one knows who that guy is. After a bit, we hear that he’s a former mental patient with no connection to anyone. “There’s always more than one,” Sydney points out. Sydney and Gale immediately turn their suspicions on Lucas.Stu calls, and this time, he gets Gale. Gale and Sydney go to the mental hospital to research the now-dead killer, Karl. They show the orderly Stu’s photo, and the man recognizes him as a John Doe patient who spent a lot of years there. He was released two weeks ago. Stu and Karl were close friends.Mindy and Chad, Gale’s intern camera people, talk to Tatum and discuss their suspicions. They talk about how horror-cliched it is that no one recognized Stu after all these years. They say it’s all about nostalgia and old movie franchises.Meanwhile, Ghostface kills Mark. Gale interviews Sydney on TV to draw out the killer. He does call, and he’s right outside where all the kids are. Sydney calls Mark, who doesn’t answer because he’s already dead. Meanwhile, Tatum finds an AI-deepfake that Ben made and smashes his face thinking he’s involved, but there’s still another Ghostface out there. Inside, Mindy points out that they are locked inside and all their suspects have conveniently disappeared. Lucas, Chloe, Mindy, and Chad all die in rapid succession.Tatum, on the other hand, is being chased through town by Ghostface. And since there’s been a curfew established, no one is in the entire downtown to help. Ben shows up and proves that he’s not the killer– by dying. Sydney and Tatum text each other but don’t call 911. Sydney talks to Tatum about how to use a gun and to shoot through the wall where the killer is standing. As usual with a horror movie, that doesn’t kill him. On the other hand, a second Ghostface shows up and they both get her.Sydney runs home and confront

We have a more or less random mix of old and new this week. We’ll start off with the new releases, “Death Name” and “Cold Storage,” both from 2026. We’ll watch a not-so-recent sci-fi movie, “Stranded” from 2013. For an oldie, we’ve got 1986’s Alice Cooper in the not-so-spectacular “Monster Dog.” We will then finish our series on Godzilla with “Godzilla: The Planet Eater” from 2017 (We’ve now seen ALL the Godzilla films!)All this as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #55, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 Death Name* Director: Réi Talas* Writers: Réi Talas and Regina Kim* Stars: Amy Keum, Kevin Woo, and Vana Kim* Runtime: 81 minutes* YouTube Trailer Link: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA young woman of Korean descent tries exploring her family history and accidentally awakens a family curse that followed her grandma to America. It is slow-moving and talky with some suspense and story that builds to a climax. But it’s low on scares, and neither of us were very impressed with it. It’s just middling in pretty much every way.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on an old news report of General Eisenhower and the Korean War. A pregnant woman hides in the closet as a strange man in a hat walks in to find a woman hanging from the ceiling. The man in the hat finds the woman in the closet, and she screams. Credits roll as we see Korean immigrants coming to America.It’s Sophie’s first day of university, and all the good classes have been taken. She asks her mother why they never bothered teaching her Korean, and she doesn’t even have a Korean name. It’s something her grandma wanted. Grandma overhears part of the phone conversation and freaks out. Her father texts her that she was, in fact, given a Korean name, but there was a fight over it. She wants to know her name, and he sends it to her, in Korean text, which makes her phone blink with static.Brian, Kwan, and Ari meet Sophie in class, and they’re all friendly. Professor Lee runs the Korean History class. Some of the students want to be called by their Korean names. She asks them for help translating her Korean Name, since she can’t read Korean. When Kwan tries, the power goes out.Sophie goes home on a break and eats with the family. Grandma is especially interesting, asking the same question repeatedly– she must have some dementia. She mentions thinking about going by her Korean name now, and Grandma insists that she doesn’t have a Korean name– excitedly. Sophie’s parents explain about some of Grandma’s history– her great-grandmother killed herself, which was a big scandal in Korea. Grandma says there’s more to it than that; she’s been trying to protect the whole family from the family curse. “Don’t speak that name!”Sophie goes to a nearby bar and meets Jun, a single guy from Korea. He tells her that it’s never too late to learn Korean. They talk a lot, and he walks her home for a kiss. Later, Ari says Sophie isn’t a real Korean; it’s just trendy for her– she’s been whitewashed.Sophie and Jun have another date, and he admits that he’s got baggage too. Something keeps dripping through the ceiling in Sophie’s dorm room.On the next break, Sophie takes Jun home to meet her parents. Her parents are normal, but Grandma’s taken a turn for the worse. Jun has brought a gift from Seoul for Grandma, and when she sees it, she screams. It’s pearls– no, it’s berries. She calls him an evil spirit.As they talk later, Sophie tells him her Korean name, Park Joo-Hyun. This leads to kissing and sex for some reason. Later, she hears voices calling that name. All her photos of Jun are blurry, but only on his face. Is he real?Sophie gets a flashback to her great-grandmother and the man in the big hat, who has a melted face. When his face is intact, he looks like Jun. Sophie gets a call from her parents; she needs to drive home and check on Grandma. Turns out, Grandma is right there on campus to warn Sophie about the curse. Sophie drives Grandma home, which is a mess.Grandma tells the story about her mother, the man in the hat, and Sophie’s new boyfriend, who knows her Korean name. One of her ancestors caused Jun to kill himself and become a ghost. We see that opening scene again, with more detail this time. She moved to the USA and took a new name; he couldn’t find them under a different name. Now, with Sophie speaking her true name out loud, the ghost has found them.Sophie has to go out to pick up more of Grandma’s medication, and leaves her home alone. When she gets home, Grandma is unconscious on the floor. At the hospital, she sees Jun in the room, and he’s angry. He wants Sophie to be his bride in the afterlife, and she volunteers. She wants 48 hours to tie up loose ends before going with him, and he agrees to the terms.Sophie talks to Professor Lee about some old family tree documents she needs to translate. Back in 1902, Jun committed suicide, and the family had his name cut

Lots of fun things this week. We’ll start off with “Bone Keeper,” a cool monster flick that just released. We’ll then get really weird with a “Dead Lover” that you’ll either love or hate. “The Kinderhook Creature: In the Shadow of Sasquatch” is the newest in a long line of cryptic documentaries. We’ll wrap up the series with “The Strangers: Chapter 3” and then continue the anime Godzilla trilogy with “Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle” from 2017.All this as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #54, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 Bone Keeper* Director: Howard J. Ford* Writers: Howard J. Ford* Stars: Sarah Alexandra Marks, Louis James, Tiffany Hannam-Daniels, and John Rhys-Davies* Runtime: 96 minutes* Trailer Link:Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA group of seven young folks explore a cave infested with creatures that arrived thousands of years ago by meteor. As you might guess, it goes badly for them. The basics are laid out right away.The effects look very good and it was entertaining. We both enjoyed it.Spoilery SynopsisWe watch a meteorite crashing down as credits roll. Whatever it is, it’s got tentacles and slithers into a cave. It’s 400,000 years ago, and the cavepeople of the time fear it since it eats them.In 1976, a woman narrates about her grandfather, a journalist, who went exploring in a cave. He sees cave paintings and skeletal remains. Then the monster gets him.In the present day. Professor Harrison looks depressed. “I’ve killed him. I killed her, too,” he yells.Olivia and Annabelle want to go search for her mother, who has gone missing while investigating the grandfather’s disappearance; the police aren’t doing enough.They, and their friends, a group of monster hunters, head to the remote location and pick up Ashley, a travel blogger. They’re off to find the “Bone Keeper.” With the addition of Ashley, the trip just got a lot less scientific. Ethan, Nick, and Ravi plan to find the monster, and maybe get lucky with the girls in the process.The group goes to the local pub, and everyone watches them as they come in. They look at all the “Missing Persons” posters on the wall. They’re here to meet Professor Harrison, and the locals are strangely hostile.Harrison knew Olivia’s father, and he warns them not to go into the caves. Everyone who has ever gone in there has… stayed in there. He really doesn’t want to tell them which cave has the monster; too many people have died. He even has Olivia’s grandfather’s film footage of what happened in the cave. He even thinks the monster is an ancient alien.The next morning, the seven characters go to the cave that Harrison told them about. They climb, crawl, and do all the usual cave-explorer-y things. They find some slime, and Ravi looks at it in the microscope he’s apparently carried into the cave with him. Ashley stays behind to film some vlogging stuff and the monster grabs her. For some reason, the others can’t hear her screaming as it rips her apart.The others find some hair with a bit of skull attached, so they know someone has died in this cave. Nick goes looking for Ashley, but he finds what killed her instead.Ravi and Nadia actually see one of the tentacles and get all excited. When it grabs and kills Nadia, they get even more excited.Ravi catches up with the others and reports what he saw. There’s a whole nest of the alien creatures down here. They find a huge mound of slowly digesting merging melted bodies, including Olivia’s mother.They decide it might be a good time to head for the exit, but now they’re lost. They find the exit, and Ethan even gets a few photos of what’s left of Nick still crawling around.Outside now, Olivia, Annabelle, and Ethan tend to Ravi’s severe wounds. “It gets inside you. It becomes you,” Ravi rants. Ethan calls Harrison and sends him all the footage he’s taken.The tentacle-monster attacks the girls in the campsite, outside, and Ethan runs to help. It drags Ethan and Ravi back down into the cave. When Olivia and Annabelle see just how big the thing is, they run for the road, but Annabelle is grabbed next.Olivia hears her mother singing and prepares to go back inside. She goes through all the caves, back to the big digesting mess, and retrieves her mother’s necklace.Outside, Harrison and the military show up and plant explosives at the cave entrance. They shoot at the many monsters inside and find Olivia, still alive. Then they blow up the cave entrance.Six months later, Olivia wakes up in the hospital, and the doctor says she’s pregnant. They do an ultrasound, and it’s a little baby tentacle monster. Nope-just a nightmare. She’s with the soldiers and Harrison, who says blowing up the caves may not be the end of the creatures.Naturally, for the final shot, we see that it’s definitely not over.Brian’s CommentaryNone of these people are spelunkers or regular cave explorers, and yet none of them are claustrop

We’ll start off the week with “Whistle,” released this year, along with “The Strangers Chapter 2” from last year and “The Car” from way back in the seventies. Finally, we’ll continue our series coverage with “Return to Silent Hill” and “Godzilla: Planet of Monsters.”All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #54, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Whistle* Director: Corin Hardy* Writer: Owen Egerton* Stars: Dafne Keen, Sophie Nélisse, Nick Frost* Runtime: 97 minutes (Note: some sources report up to 108 minutes)* Trailer Link: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA group of young people come into possession of a cursed whistle that summons the future death of anyone who blows it or hears it. So they learn about the magical situation as they are getting picked off one at a time.It’s a little formulaic, but it’s well made and above average in quality. We were both entertained.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on a basketball game with the Stalkers versus the Wolves. One of the players, Horse, sees something weird up in the audience. As he makes the winning shot, he sees someone who appears to be on fire that scares him off back to the locker room. The player runs into the locker room and smashes an old-looking urn as the smoky-ashy-man approaches. It sets him on fire in the shower. Credits roll.Six months later, Chrys argues with her cousin Rel about unpacking her stuff. It’s her first day of high school after moving here. She’s assigned Horse’s locker and some of the kids take offense to that. We get to meet some of the other “kids” of the school, as well as a teacher, Mr. Craven. Also, Chrys may have a bit of history. Grace tries to be nice to the new girl, but doesn’t get any support.Inside Horses’s locker, Chrys finds all Horses’s stuff, still there, including that ancient urn with an ugly skull-whistle inside. She’s about to blow it when the bell rings.Mr. Craven looks at the whistle, and it’s got ancient writing on the side which he just happens to be able to read. Someone Googles the script and says it means “Summon the Dead.” He blows in it to see if it works and it makes the mirror shatter.Chrys meets Noah, a youth pastor who invites her to church. He’s very sketchy– no, he’s also a knife-wielding drug dealer. Meanwhile, Rel steals the whistle off Craven’s desk. Not long after, a bloody bald man crushes Craven’s lungs and makes him lose all his hair.At Grace’s houseparty, Grace blows the whistle, and they all cringe at the sound. Ellie is nice to Chrys and invites her to the harvest festival tomorrow night. Chrys soon develops a crush on Ellie.Later that night, Grace works on her homework next to the pool. She hears someone scrabbling around on the deck and checks it out. She gets a jump scare, but that’s all.The next morning, Rel and Chrys arrive at school and hear about Craven’s death from lung cancer last night.Chrys and Ellie go to Horse’s house to return the whistle to his parents. His mother, Ivy, is broke and has to sell all her possessions. She’s very self-obsessed. “You didn’t find it, it found you,” she says about the whistle. It doesn’t say “Summon the dead,” it says “Summon YOUR death.” It shows you how you’re going to die. It brings Death to you earlier; you die in the way you were meant to, but much sooner than intended.Could Mr. Craven have used it like Horse did? Ellie works at the hospital, so she checks on Horse’s death records. Horse’s dental records show that he was in his forties, but he was really just seventeen. He would have died in a gas leak at age forty. Mr Craven would have died of lung cancer eventually, but it happened last night because of the whistle.It’s time for the harvest festival, and it’s quite a party. Rel and Grace are there. She buys some weed from Noah, who then tries unsuccessfully to sell some to Chrys. Meanwhile, Grace goes into the scare maze and runs into a terrifying old woman who chases her. It catches her and she ages seventy years in a matter of seconds.Ellie and Chrys explain the whistle to Dean and Rel; they all heard the whistle, so it’ll be coming after them as well. Dean doesn’t believe any of it until he gets home and sees himself after a drinking and driving death.Chrys tells Ellie about how she OD’d last year and her father died on the way taking her to the hospital. This leads to a makeout session. Meanwhile, Rel has visions of his death at the steel mill.The next morning, they all go back to see Horses’ mother about Choka, the whistle of Death. She says there’s no way to stop it, but they can change its course. “Give your death someone else’s life. Offer Choka a new sacrifice. Mark another with your blood and you will be spared.”Alone in his bedroom, Dean dies from a massive traffic accident in the grisliest way possible.Meanwhile, at the church, Rel has decided to trade Noah’s life for his own to break the curse. Noah takes his gun awa

We’ll start off the week with a new folksy-horror film, “The Dreadful.” We’ll then take a look at some rough family life with “The Other” from late last year. “The Hills Run Red” is this week’s lame-o slasher film. Finally, we’ll continue our series coverage with “Silent Hill: Revelation” and “Godzilla: Final Wars.”All this as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #54, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 The Dreadful* Directed by: Natasha Kermani* Written by: Natasha Kermani* Stars: Sophie Turner, Kit Harington, Marcia Gay Harden, Laurence O’Fuarain, Jonathan Howard* Run Time: 94 minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneTwo women in 1400s England live a quiet life on their own on the edges of society. And it’s a quiet and slow build of a movie. But the dread does build and things get darker as things go along. It’s pretty low key in every way, with beautiful scenery and strong performances. We both liked it quite a bit.Spoilery SynopsisAnne goes to church and has Communion. Her mother-in-law, Morwen, is a pickpocket, stealing from young mothers. They’re poor, and all the men from the village have gone off to war.Anne dreams of her husband, Seamus, returning from war, but there’s something very wrong with him. Morwen says, “This war will make us rich.”The next day, she runs into Jago, home from the war. He tells the story of how Seamus was rather brutally killed in the war. She still remembers when they were all little and growing up together. Anne and Morwen take the news badly.Not long after, there’s a shipwreck nearby, and one survivor makes it to the beach. Morwen stabs him in the back, which Anne doesn’t see, and then she and Anne loot the bodies. “God is smiling on us to send such good luck,” Morwen adds. They eat well that night.Jago likes Anne, but she’s not really interested in him. Morwen doesn’t like him either; he was always jealous of Seamus.A wandering priest comes by and shows them his relic. He wants to sell it to them for three silver pieces. As he prays with Anne, Morwen cuts his throat. Anne is horrified, but Morwen justifies it all.Some time later, Anne watches as a knight in armor kills a man in the field. She’s seen the knight before. She runs to Jago for protection, and he likes that. Later, she has a dream where Morwen is eating raw flesh. She sneaks out of the house late at night and goes to Jago; they have sex. He wants her to move in with him, but she thinks Morwen needs her.Anne starts helping Morwen kill and rob travelers of their valuables. When Jago comes around for Anne, Morwen runs him off with her knife. She sneaks off to do her thing with Jago when Morwen’s asleep.Meanwhile, Morwen watches as a knight in armor comes to their house. She follows him and kills him from behind. She takes off his helmet and loots him.Anne tells Morwen that she’s leaving to be Jago’s wife. Morwen does not take it well, and she goes to live with Jago. That night, Anne dreams that the demon knight came and killed them both.Anne notices discrepancies in Jago’s story about her husband’s death. Could he have killed Seamus? He tells the story about how Seamus would kill soldiers and rob their bodies– just like his mother’s been doing. Seamus killed the knight in the helmet and put on the helmet. The helmet burned Seamus and wouldn’t come off; Jago left him there on the battlefield. Anne turns against him and leaves.We get a flashback to Morwen killing the knight, who turned out to be Seamus in that same helmet.Anne goes to the village and finds the priest has been murdered by the knight. She runs to Morwen’s house, but the old woman isn’t home. The knight shows up, and it’s Morwen inside the helmet. She screams that she can’t get it off. Anne rips the mask off, and Morwen is all disfigured under there now. “Now you really are a demon,” Anne says.An actual demon comes out of the helmet, and the two women run for the house. When Anne looks outside, all she finds is the helmet.Anne and Jago talk about demons. He still wants her, but now she’s loyal to Morwen, who has gone blind from what the helmet did to her. Anne goes outside and picks up the helmet…Brian’s CommentaryThis is based on the same Buddhist parable as “Onibaba” (1964). Like that film, this one is slow-moving and atmospheric. There aren’t any jump scares or anything like that; just a slow buildup of dread that you know isn’t going to end well. And it doesn’t.Kevin’s CommentaryThe scenery and quiet of the movie are very soothing. The dreadfulness is there, but it’s pretty low-key. I thought it was a good watch. Excellent cast.2025 The Other* Directed by: Paul Etheredge* Written by: Paul Etheredge* Stars: Olivia Macklin, Dylan McTee, Avangeline Friedlander* Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneWhen a couple brings home a little orphan girl, it’s not a simple happily ever after. There’s a reason she’

We’ve got an interesting batch of films this week! We’ll start with “NFT: Cursed Images,” which explains that some NFTs are even worse than others! “Haunters of the Silence” shows us that grief is the monster we met along the way, and “Forty Five” brings us to the edge of Armageddon. “Obex”, on the other hand, is a fun, techno-fantasy that takes a few dark turns along the way. Lastly, we’ll start watching the “Silent Hill” series, with more of those to come in the coming weeks.All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #54, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 NFT: Cursed Images* Directed by: Jonas Odenheimer* Written by: Jonas Odenheimer* Stars: Najarra Townsend, David Wayman, Mariah Nonnemacher* Run Time: 1 hour 13 minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s 2021 and NFTs are hot. A group of young friends in London start having some big troubles when they receive some that have curses attached. The rules and the ending seemed a little unclear, but we both liked it more than disliked it, with Kevin being a bit more favorable toward it.Spoilery SynopsisA couple walks home late at night. Sue thinks she sees something and gets spooked. She talks about how an NFT scared her. Her friend is making a lot of money with them, and her friend passed one on to her. There are supposed to be dozens of these cursed images that are shared online. Sue can’t get through to her friend now. Suddenly, Mark vanishes. When Sue tries to call the police, all she sees on her phone is that NFT. Credits roll.It’s 2021, and NFTs are still a thing. Kit is a successful NFT trader. Dan complains about being a Millennial and the current job market. There are Boomer and Doomer jokes. The whole group got rich with crypto, except for poor Dan, who’s a whiner.James doesn’t know what an NFT is, and the others can’t explain it to make sense. Julie and Cass arrive, and Kit’s not happy about that. The women have exactly the same thoughts about the men. They all seem to be infatuated with NFTs– it’s even better than crypto!The group talks James and Dan into buying some NFTs right now. They explain the nonsense that is an NFT. Kit suddenly has seven NFTs transferred to his account out of the blue. It’s from a collection called “Crypto Horrors.” Sarah’s heard of those, they’re real cursed images. There are only 666 of them, and they get Airdropped to you at random. He sends each person one of them.The party breaks up, and everyone leaves. Later, Kit wakes up to a weird stretchy-faced ghost woman in his room.Cass remembers that she left her phone at Kit’s place, and Julia suggests asking James to go back and get it. Sarah walks home and gets texts from Kit’s phone, but the person texting isn’t Kit. She soon finds out who’s stalking her.James and Cass go back to Kit’s for her phone. They find the place a mess, and then Cass wants to go check on Sarah, who also isn’t answering her phone.We cut to Dan, who is also walking home in an isolated tunnel. Something is chasing him. Julia: The same.Nes is watching YouTube videos about NFTs and gets a panicked call from Dan, who says he saw his NFT chasing him. Dan believes in the curse now and every one is unique just like NFTs are, but Nes just laughs it off. All the NFTs are based on old legends, and possibly real curses. Julia also comes to Nes, and she’s been experiencing the same thing as Dan. James also calls and tells him that Kit and Sarah have gone missing. Julia leaves, and her monster gets her right after. Nes takes a show and gets his.James arrives at Nes’s house, talking to Dan on the phone all the while. He sees Nas’s NFT there and scares it away by showing it a reflection of itself, like Dan tipped him off should work. Dan says if that worked, then maybe they do have a chance against the curse. Dan looks up Cass’s curse and says it can be stopped by striking it with a sword.Meanwhile, James’s own NFT comes after him, as does Dan’s. Dan is attacked, but his monster goes away suddenly. He gets a notification that his NFT has sold for .5 ETH. He’s free of the curse. Dan calls James and tells him to sell or transfer his NFT right now. James transfers his right then; Dan gets the notification that it was transferred to him. Dan dies right away.Dan calls Cass and tells her to dump that NFT right away. She says she already gave it away to some random guy on Twitter. Cass goes to Sarah’s place and talks to her corpse. It possesses her somehow, which gives James a final scare.Brian’s CommentaryThe background music is occasionally too loud; it’s often hard to follow all the British people talking due to the noise. The visuals are all pretty good, as is the acting. The creatures themselves are not particularly impressive, but we mostly only get glimpses of them.I’ve done crypto, but I never understood NFTs at all. Of course, I was eventually proved right on those. Even today, I s

We’ll finish up the Lake Placid movies this week with “Legacy” from 2018. We’ll also continue our Godzilla sequence with “Tokyo S.O.S.” from 2004. Then we’ll watch three hot new films: “Primate,” “Predator Badlands,” and “28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,” all from 2026.New Book!The Horror Guys Guide to the Tremors Films and TV SeriesAll this as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #53, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2018 Lake Placid: Legacy* Director: Darrell Roodt* Writers: Johnathon Lloyd Walker, Matt Venables, and Jeremy Smith* Stars: Katherine Barrell, Tim Rozon, Sai Bennett, and Joe Pantoliano* Runtime: 93 minutes (or 1 hour 33 minutes)* YouTube Trailer Link:Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis is a sequel to “Lake Placid vs Anaconda” as well as a sequel to the Lake Placid standalone movies. A group of eco-warrior urban explorers FAFO when they break into a fenced off decommissioned research compound. It wasn’t anything we haven’t seen before, but it’s well put together. It moves well and entertains.Spoilery SynopsisWe open in Seattle, WA, where four people sit in a tiny car and conspire about exposing corporate greed. And urban exploration. And hacking. As they break into Wenoco Corp, we cut back and forth with a man running through the woods, terrified. Wenco Corp looks like a Star Trek set on the inside. The eco-terrorists drop a “Wenoco = Death” banner off the roof. Meanwhile, something unseen eats the man in the woods. Credits roll.Alice doesn’t approve of the urban explorer/eco-terrorist stuff that her sister Jade leads. Sam, Billy, and Spencer are just in it for the rush. Sam gets a challenge from Dane for “one last quest” that has a $100,000 prize for the first one in. The place they need to go is off-limits, even deleted from Google Earth. It’s supposed to be a place where a toxic spill happened twenty-something years ago. Pennie and Travis don’t want to go anywhere near a place with radiation, if that story is even true.The group arrives at the electric fence, and there’s definitely no radiation. The electric fence doesn’t work or is turned off for some reason. When they get inside, they do soil samples; there’s no contamination here, either. Why the fence?Pennie and Travis drop the others off at a dock and promise to wait 30 minutes before they leave them. The others walk through a construction site. They soon find Dane’s camp, but Dane isn’t there. The place is wrecked, but they find a camera. It shows Dane being chased by some kind of monster. Then they find body parts, but Spencer thinks it’s all a prank– until they find half of Gomez, Dane’s assistant. They all run back to the boat, which suffers an accident, along with Travis.Everyone talks, whines, screams, and argues all at the same time. The group finds a dark tunnel with a grate that’s been broken through and decides it’s a good idea to go inside. The group gets split up. Billy, Spencer, and Pennie head back to the dock while Sam, Alice, Jade, go deeper into the facility.The inside group finds a lab with power while the outside group tries to boost their cellphone signal to call for help on the dock. Inside, the group learns that the facility was breeding giant crocodiles for some reason. Outside, Spencer and Pennie get eaten.Sam and his group find Dane, still alive, down in the tunnels. They also run into Henderson, whom Dane has tied up for getting them all into this situation. He used to work for the corporation and explains about the genetically modified formerly extinct species that was supposed to cure cancer. He sounds believable with his motivations.Billy calls 911 with his boosted phone, but he’s doubtful they could trace to source. Billy then loses his head, so he’s not gonna try again. In the confusion, Henderson sneaks away. Everyone else has to swim through a flooded tunnel for no obvious reason. The monster catches Dane and tears him up.Henderson, in the meantime, wanders right into the big crocodile’s main nest and is torn in half.Sam comes up with a cockamamie plan to blow up the whole place by sacrificing himself with canisters of propane as the two girls run back the way they came. Sam’s plan fails non-spectacularly.Alice faces the monster eye-to-eye, but then Jade gets in one of the construction machines and starts it right up after being outside, abandoned for twenty-five years. She pins the crocodile and then covers it in fuel. The croc goes boom!The two girls then swim off the island, but then we see they’re being followed…Brian’s CommentaryIt plays fast and loose with the lore from the previous films, as the whole corporate angle only marginally applied to the “Vs” film. On the other hand, the lab and facility were nice sets and they probably hoped there would be more sequels.There’s supposed to be just one crocodile, but it’s both simultaneously inside the tunnel and out eating Billy at the same ti

Back in episode 372, we did all the rest of the Anaconda films. This time, we swap over and do all the “Lake Placid” films, including the crossover with Anaconda. We’ll cover the newer “Lake Placid: Legacy” next week.All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #53, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:1999 Lake Placid* Director: Steve Miner* Writers: David E. Kelley* Stars: Bill Pullman, Bridget Fonda, Oliver Platt, Brendan Gleeson, and Betty White* Runtime: 82 minutes* YouTube Trailer Link:Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a giant creature feature, set in a beautiful location. There’s a lot of violence and gore, but also a lot of dark humor - it’s not quite in the comedy genre, but there are a lot of chuckles to be had. The casting is excellent and added a lot to making the movie more watchable and entertaining. It was a fun watch.Spoilery SynopsisAs credits roll, we see scenes of a very placid lake. The sheriff and a diver are out tagging beavers. The diver goes down and finds an underwater tunnel and checks it out. Turns out, it’s not a beaver nest. The sheriff, aboard the boat, pulls up about half of the diver.In New York City, Kelly explains to Myra that her boyfriend has dumped her; Myra already knows because she stole Kevin from her. Kevin comes in and talks about a probable-bear attack and wants to send Kelly to Maine to investigate a tooth they found in the diver. She’s not really gung-ho about field work, but has no choice but to investigate.Near Lake Placid, Sheriff Hank welcomes Jack Wells, with Fish & Game, to investigate the animal attack.Kelly, Jack, and Hank go out to the lake and talk to an old woman who is the only person who lives directly on the lake. Mrs. Bickerman says her husband died two years ago from an assisted suicide. Kelly, in the meantime, does not enjoy the natural beauty of the place. “I have good hygiene; I’m not welcome here.”Hector Cyr, a rich mythology nut, shows up in a helicopter. He’s obsessed with crocodiles, so that’s weird. There shouldn’t be any crocodiles in this lake, but he’s pretty confident that’s what they have. They go out in canoes, and something knocks over one of the boats. They also find the diver’s toe.Hector’s a party animal, and sets up quite a campsite. Hank doesn’t like him at all.The next day, they use all their equipment as Hector and Jack go diving for the creature. Meanwhile, the monster attacks the boat with Kelly and Hank. They’re fine, but the deputy, on the other hand, loses his head. Hector gives a ridiculous speech about dreaming he’d lost his head.Suddenly, a huge bear attacks! That goes nowhere because even more suddenly, a giant crocodile leaps out of the water and eats the bear– whole. Finally, Kelly decides she’s having a good time.In the morning, they all go croc-hunting. They find another severed head just on the edge of Mrs. Bickerman’s place. They watch as the old woman leads a cow to the beach and feeds it to the enormous crocodile.Mrs. Bickerman admits she’s been feeding the thing for six years; it’s a sort of pet. It was what killed her husband. Meanwhile, Hector goes swimming again and comes face to face with the big croc. The crocodile lets him get onto the helicopter, but then tries to eat that.Hector wants to sedate and capture the crocodile. He doesn’t want it killed, which Fish & Game will do. He’s persuasive. They use one of Mrs. Bickerman’s cows, dangling from a helicopter, as bait. Eventually, the croc takes the bait and crashes the helicopter. It comes up on land and menaces everyone. The crocodile manages to get stuck inside the helicopter and can’t get out. They tranquilize it, so it’s all good. Suddenly, a second crocodile shows up, and Hank gets to shoot that one explosively.As things wind down, Hank and Hector drive off to the hospital. Kelly and Jack get together.Some time passes and we see Mrs. Bickerman, out at the dock, feeding a new batch of baby crocodiles…Brian’s CommentaryThe interplay between Hank and Hector is comedy gold. Actually, this movie is only good because of the stellar cast. The croc is a combination of CGI and practical effects, but it’s all very effective.It’s a great mix of giant-animal horror and comedy. It was successful and then led to a whole batch of sequels.Kevin’s CommentaryI agree with Brian, it was casting done right that added a lot to the movie. It could have been a lot lamer than it was. Okay, it wasn’t that lame, it was pretty entertaining. And the humor helped a lot.The croc is a practical effect - a giant puppet - in many of its scenes, which was much better than having it be purely CGI. Though the CGI is quite good too. Trivia says the croc actually has less than four minutes of screen time.Somehow, I had missed seeing this before now. I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.2007 Lake Placid 2* Director: David Flores* Writers: Todd Hurvitz and Howi

We’ve got another mostly random mix this time around. We’ll start off with the weird BDSM-gone-wrong film, “Bight” from 2026. We’ll then watch Seven Samurai— no, “Seven Cemeteries” from 2024. We’ll force ourselves to watch the infamous “Troll 2,” finish up the franchise with “Pumpkinhead 4: Blood Feud,” and then continue our big lizard coverage with “Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla.”All this as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #53, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 Bight* Directed by: Maiara Walsh* Written by: Cameron Cowperthwaite, Maiara Walsh* Stars: Cameron Cowperthwaite, Mark Hapka, Maya Stojan* Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneTwo artsy couples get together for an evening of bondage, photography, sex, and emotional exploration. It takes a while, but it does eventually get to some horror-adjacent elements. It’s more of a drama thriller though, and it’s quite good. It wasn’t quite what either of us expected.Spoilery SynopsisTwo people hug in the shower as they wash blood off each other’s bodies. Credits roll.Charlie gets a call from her boss, Ariana, and she’s not happy. Her artist boyfriend, Atticus, works in the living room. The couple is not getting along very well. They’re going to Sebastian’s party, but neither of them want to go to this one.Turns out, this party is just for them. Sebastian and Naomi have invited only Charlie and Atticus. Charlie keeps getting texts as the men talk about photography. Charlie and Atticus argue some more, and then we see that Sebastian and Naomi aren’t getting along so well either.Sebastian gets all pretentious during dinner and we get a flashback to the last time the four got together; it was an orgy. This time, he wants to use his two guests as nude models. Charlie is all in, but Atticus doesn’t want to participate; they’ve done this before, and he doesn’t want to repeat last time. They decide to go for it.Sebastian puts something in everyone’s tea. He explains the rules of his work with ropes and then everyone splits up to get ready. Naomi ties Atticus’s hands behind his back as the drugs start to kick in. Soon, they’re both bound up, naked, with ropes, and Sebastian starts to take pictures. Naomi, in the meantime, covers them with red paint.Neither Charlie nor Atticus are really into this, and both are really uncomfortable, but it’s hard to argue with Sebastian. As they all take a break, Sebastian gets with Charlie, while Naomi goes for Atticus.We then cut to a bedroom scene with Atticus tied up on the floor and Naomi suspended by ropes from the ceiling above them. Sebastian has sex with Charlie as the other two watch in restraints. Naomi wants to be released, and Sebastian says no way; he’s punishing her for having sex with Atticus. This is all some kind of elaborate revenge plot by Sebastian against the cheaters. When Atticus realizes Naomi drugged him, he urges Sebastian to spin her ropes some more.Charlie has seen enough and wants to leave, so Sebastian just knocks her out. He puts her in a gas mask and ties her up. He then cuts Naomi’s throat and lets her bleed all over Atticus, who is still tied up beneath her.As Sebastian menaces Charlie, Atticus breaks out of his ropes and intervenes. In the struggle, Sebastian gets stabbed numerous times with a box cutter and then strangled with a rope.Atticus apologizes to Charlie and unties her. The two of them then clean up the mess. Then when they get to their car in the morning they have wild sex; their romance has rekindled.Some time later, at one of Atticus’s art shows, he reveals his new works; at least in his mind, Sebastian is still with him.Brian’s CommentaryBight: a loop of rope, as distinct from the rope’s ends.This film looks great. It’s colorful and is very interestingly shot. The dialogue is clunky and pretentious, but the characters are all “artists,” so that’s probably just realism.It took a very long time to get to anything that might be considered horror, but it did get there eventually.It’s weird, a little dull and draggy in the first half, but overall, I liked it.Kevin’s CommentaryThe bight/bite play on words is clever.It flowed along with a lot of talk, and then it got realer than I expected when Sebastian stepped things up a bit. All in all, it wasn’t what I expected, and I liked it quite a bit.What a way to rekindle your relationship.2024 Seven Cemeteries* Directed by: John Gulager* Written by: John Gulager, Joel Soisson* Stars: Danny Trejo, Sal Lopez, Samantha Ashley* Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThe plot is simple. A recent parolee gets a Mexican witch to resurrect his old posse so that they can help him save a woman’s ranch from a ruthless drug lord. So it’s an action crime drama with magic and lots of dark humor. We both thought it was really good.Spoilery SynopsisIn Diablo County, Texas, men come to an

We watched the original “Anaconda” (1997) film a couple of years ago, but this week, we’re completing the series.We’ll start off this time with the second film, “Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid” (2004), then the two real sequels, “Anaconda 3: Offspring” (2008) and “Anaconda: Trail of Blood” (2009). Then we’ll watch last year’s Chinese remake, “Anaconda” (2024). Lastly, we’ll watch the recently-released mostly-comedy, “Anaconda” (2025).All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #53, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2004 Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid* Director: Dwight H. Little* Writers: Hans Bauer, Jim Cash* Stars: Morris Chestnut, KaDee Strickland, Eugene Byrd* Runtime: 97 minutes* YouTube Trailer Link:Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneWhen a pharmaceutical company gets information on an orchid that only blooms for a limited time, only grows in Borneo, and could have incredible medical uses, a group goes off on an expedition to collect some. As the title hints, there are big snakes in the mix. And human mistakes and greed. It’s not a great film, but it’s well put together and managed to entertain us both.Spoilery SynopsisAs credits roll, we open on some jungle people hunting a tiger, or maybe it’s hunting them. The tiger might be the least of these guys’ problems, as a giant anaconda eats them instead.In the big city, Gordon is about to lose his pharmaceutical company for lack of performance. Jack explains about the blood orchid, a plant in Borneo that’s extremely rare and might be able to extend human life indefinitely. The orchid is only in bloom for another two weeks, so they need to hurry to Borneo and find some more.In Borneo, there’s trouble with the charter boat; no one will go upriver until the rainy season ends… in three weeks. There’s one guy who will do it; Gordon, Gail, and Jack go into a seedy bar and find Bill Johnson, who wants fifty thousand for the journey. Ben, Cole, Tran, and some other characters introduce themselves at the docks the next day. There’s some banter and hijinks as we get to know the characters a little.Bill’s little monkey pet takes a side quest and runs into trouble. They can hear the screams on the boat. In the morning, they all wonder where the monkey went.Gail falls overboard and runs into a crocodile. Bill shows us that he’s a badass and fights it. We see, but the characters don’t, as the anaconda eats the whole dead crocodile. Also, the not-so-dead monkey comes back for an unexpected jump scare.Because of the rainy season, the river is flooded, and debris jams the propellers; now they’re headed towards a waterfall in the broken boat. There’s literally no possible way the boat could survive going over the waterfall, and we were pleasantly surprised that it didn’t. With everyone in the water, we see the snake again, but it doesn’t get anyone.Bill has a plan to hike to a place where they can be rescued. It only involves a short walk through the jungle. Bill calls his friend John to come and pick them up at a rendezvous point. The group then has to walk through a flooded region, and we see the snake is right alongside them. When the snake reveals itself and eats Ben, everyone sees it.Bill says that was the largest he’s ever seen, a real freak of nature. Fortunately, they’re very territorial, so there won’t be another one for miles. Gail calls off the expedition, but Jack and Gordon refuse to stop. They all argue about how much is riding on this expedition. Cole is the “We’re all gonna die” guy, and he gets annoying fast. He shuts up when he finds leeches all over his body.Meanwhile, at the boat, John is attacked by the anaconda and crashes the boat. The group finds the wreckage and manages to salvage a few things. Tran mentions that maybe they can find help with a nearby tribe of headhunters. When they find John’s body, Bill explains how anacondas spit up their food, also how they all congregate during mating season, so there may be more than just one.They come to the tribe’s camp and it smells bad. There’s a dead anaconda there with half a man hanging out of it. The villagers are all gone now. Jack figures out that these anacondas are so big because they’ve been eating the orchids and have become immortal: they may never stop growing.Jack unleashes a poison spider on Gordon, who tries to use the sat phone to call for help. Jack doesn’t want to quit just yet. The snake shows up and eats Gordon, who is too paralyzed to fight back. Jack then steals the raft while everyone’s distracted.The others try to follow Jack on foot, and naturally, they get separated. Tran gets eaten, but Sam beheads the snake. Whoops- another sneak jumps out and grabs Cole, who miraculously survives.Jack, Meanwhile, heads downriver and finds his orchids. The others soon catch up, and they all know what Jack did. The flowers are surrounded by baby anacondas, and Sam i

Two new films and a handful of weird oldies. We’ll open with “Grizzly Night,” a new dramatization of a true event. Also, we’ll take a look at the sci-fi “Merge” which hopefully isn’t based on true events. We’ll continue looking at the Pumpkinhead series with “Ashes to Ashes” and then the really old “It Came From Beneath the Sea” from way back in 1955. Lastly, Godzilla Returns with “Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack” from 2001.All this as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #52, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 Grizzly Night* Directed by: Burke Doeren* Written by: Bo Bean, Katrina Mathewson, Tanner Bean* Stars: Charles Esten, Oded Fehr, Brec Bassinger* Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIn August 1967 in Glacier National Park, Montana, there were two fatal attacks by two different grizzly bears. Here they have milked this story into an hour and a half movie. It’s well made and the acting is decent, they captured 1967 pretty well. Brian liked it a lot, and Kevin says it feels like there’s a lot of filler that bored him some.Spoilery SynopsisA couple in a tent are harassed by a nosy grizzly bear as they hide in terror. This goes badly as credits roll.It’s 1967, and this is based on a true story.Eighteen hours before the attack, a woman files yet another report about the bear that’s been terrorizing the campers. The rangers are all busy with a firewatch and fire fighting after the lightning storm last night.Joan, the new girl, gets assigned to lead an overnight hiking group since all the “real” rangers are busy. Julie calls her mother from the camp store; she’s going camping with Michelle, Paul, Denise, Raymond, Ronald, and Roy this weekend, since there’s nothing else to do. Everyone sets off on their respective hikes.At the chalet, Joan stops with her group. Julie and Roy stop in, but there are no rooms available. Her and a few others have to sleep outside since the place is all booked up. Paul and Michelle’s group go to the lake and do some fishing.Michelle’s group runs into a bear, and it takes their dinner. It’s too late to head to the ranger station, so they just hope it doesn’t come back. Roy staggers into camp and says a bear got Julie. The screaming wakes up Joan and the people at the chalet. We get a flashback, and see that they were the couple screaming before the credits.Joan calls the main ranger, Gary, and reports the bear attack. He promises that help is on the way, but he’s a long way off. Gary then takes a helicopter to get there faster, but it’s awfully dark outside. Joan gets the people on the ground to light fires to give the copter a place to land, which finally works. The doctor patches up Roy and they load him onto the helicopter to the hospital.Meanwhile, nine miles away, Denise wakes up, and the bear they saw earlier is back. The bear drags off Michelle, sleeping bag and all.Gary, Joan, and the others search for Julie, and soon find signs of the attack in her campsite. They soon find her, still alive but wounded. Gary and Joan talk about leadership. Julie’s too far gone, so the priest moves in to do his thing as she dies. Gary explains that in 57 years, there hasn’t been a single grizzly attack until now.In the morning, Michelle’s group is still out there, but they haven’t found her yet. They decide to walk to the ranger station and report what happened. Two attacks should be impossible, and the ranger there is skeptical at first. They search the woods and find… parts.Many rangers show up, all armed; it’s time to kill the bears. Joan and Leonard talk about the likelihood of two bear attacks and whose fault this was.Brian’s CommentaryThis isn’t so much a horror movie as it is a drama about a terrifying situation. It starts out with all the horror movie tropes and characters, but then just focuses on what happens without playing up the bear or the drama excessively. It’s based on a true incident, and it doesn’t stray too far from the actual case.It was quite good!Kevin’s CommentaryThis is indeed based on a true event. On the night of August 13, 1967, two young women were attacked and killed by two different bears miles apart in Glacier National Park, Montana - a heck of a coincidence. There’s an online article about the real thing that’s interesting - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_of_the_Grizzlies.Here they expand the story out into a movie almost an hour and a half long. The sauce is spread mighty thin. It’s well made, but there isn’t a lot of substance. After the attacks, I found myself getting fairly bored.2025 Merge* Directed by: Bela Baptiste, Dalano Barnes, Richard Fenwick* Written by: Bela Baptiste, Dalano Barnes, Richard Fenwick* Stars: Achmed Abdel-Salam, Tatjana Alexander, Bela Baptiste* Run Time: 1 Hour, 17 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s an anthology of science fiction sho

Trash and treasure this time. We’ll open with “Killer Whale,” our first film released in 2026. We’ll then watch a fun zombie film, “Queens of the Dead” from last year, as well as “Dust Bunny” just recently released. For our oldies, we’ll contend with “Godzilla vs Megaguirus” from 2000 and “Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings” from back in 1993.All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #52, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2026 Killer Whale* Directed by: Jo-Anne Brechin* Written by: Jo-Anne Brechin, Katharine McPhee* Stars: Virginia Gardner, Mel Jarnson, Mitchell Hope* Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneTwo young women end up trapped on a tropical atoll by a killer whale with a thing against humans. The acting is a moderately bright spot in a slog of bad pacing, a lame simple script, and way too much CGI and greenscreen. We didn’t care much for this one.Spoilery SynopsisWe open with some discussion of Orcas, killer whales, and the whale at the Sea World-ish amusement park. Chelsea and her friend Dana, who work there, talk about how their whale, Ceto, just isn’t the same since they took away her baby. The whale eats Chelsea, and the credits roll.Maddie and Chad talk about Trish, who’s busy with school. He gives her a cello necklace and leans in for a kiss, just as a gunman comes into the place to rob them. There’s a struggle, and the gun goes off, damaging Maddie’s hearing. Everyone survives the attack, but, from out of nowhere, Chad is killed by the robber’s truck.One year later, Trish comes to visit Maddie and offers to take her on a trip. Maddie doesn’t want to go, but Trish is persuasive. They fly to an island resort in Thailand.On the beach, Trish brings up the topic of Ceto, which disturbs Maddie. Josh, a local guy, talks about the local whale, Ceto, who has been in captivity for twenty years and lost her baby two years ago. That night, the three of them sneak into the run-down amusement park to see Ceto.Maddie gets to see Ceto up close in the aquarium. She hates that the whale is trapped here, but then she watches as the whale kills a maintenance worker. Maddie, Trish, and Josh are then chased out of the park by a security guard.In the morning, the trio takes a Jet-Ski out to an isolated island. The locals say this place is cursed, and something happened a few years ago, and now no one comes here. In almost no time flat, they lose Maddie’s phone, the Jet-Ski, and Josh to an Orca attack.The two girls are now stuck on a pizza-shaped floatie and can see the giant orca swimming around beneath them. It’s Ceto, the same whale that was in the park last night, somehow. They can tell by the distinct dorsal fin. Trisha jumps off the pizza and swims to a big rock, Maddie chickens out. There’s some quick drama, and Maddie soon ends up on the rock as well.The two eventually calm down and talk about how Ceto could possibly be here. “Orcas have never ever killed anyone in the wild.”The girls take a nap, and when they wake up, they see a boat, but it’s too far away to see them. We’re reminded that Maddie is deaf, which is probably going to mean something later.One of Josh’s arms floats by, and Maddie snags it with her bag. It’s not for lunch, she wants his wristband flashlight. When night falls, they use it as a signal, but no one comes. The girls talk about Maddie playing the cello again and going back to school.They use Chad’s cremation stone to break open a shelled thing to have something to eat. Afterwards, she decides it’s finally time to throw the stone away. Trish admits that she put the robber up to the robbery that night; it’s her fault Chad was killed. We get a whole dramatic guilt-spiel from Trish. Again, we’re reminded about Maddie’s hearing aids.In the morning, Trish explains her plan to swim to the atoll surrounding their rock, but Maddie has her hearing aids off and doesn’t even know what’s going on. She makes it, but Maddie only makes it to another rock. When Trish is distracted by a plane flying over, the orca jumps up into the shallows and drags Trish back into the water– and bites her leg off. She crawls back up on the beach but soon bleeds to death.Night falls, and Maddie decides to swim to the atoll. She makes it without too much issue and then makes her way around to where Trish’s body is and buries her in the sand.Maddie remembers that Trish said her phone was waterproof, but it went down with the Jet-Ski. Can she retrieve it? She does. Rather than get out of the water, she activates the phone right there, in the water. It’s unclear if she sent an SOS or the phone didn’t work.This is followed by a string of ridiculous underwater hide-and-seek, resulting in Maddie stabbing the Orca in the eye with her broken Cello bow stick.When the sun comes up a helicopter arrives; the phone’s SOS did work after all.Brian’s CommentaryBrian’s Rating:**Although the who

Back to our usual five films this week, and we have an interesting mix of horror and terrifying reality. We’ll start with “The Demoness,” which just came out, along with “Super Happy Fun Clown,” also new. We finally got around to “Megan is Missing” from 2011. For a couple of older films, we went with “Wisconsin Death Trip” (1999) and “Come and See” (1985).All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #52, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 The Demoness* Directed by: Andrew de Burgh* Written by: Andrew de Burgh* Stars: Akihiro Kitamura, Riley Nottingham, Bella Glanville* Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA demoness visits Earth to cause trouble for one couple in particular. A couple with relationship issues. We had issues understanding several of the characters. After the couple, she moves on to mayhem to a series of victims. We both agree that it suffers from too much dialogue that’s difficult to understand, poor pacing, and bad CGI. It didn’t work for either of us, with Kevin being more forgiving of it.Spoilery SynopsisWe open in an apartment as a jerky-moving demoness wanders through the house and stops next to the occupied bed. Credits roll.In the morning, the couple wakes up and complains about the economy and their jobs. They argue about Sarah’s inability to get a job. That night, the demoness comes back into their room, and this time, we see what it does. It wakes up Jack and has sex with him, but Sarah can’t hear them and doesn’t wake up.In the morning, Sarah finds some evidence of sex in the bed and assumes Jack’s been cheating on her. The demoness comes to her and they argue about the sex last night. “Kill him if you want to live.” That evening, she poisons Jack and dismembers him on the autopsy table they have in the garage for some reason. She mumbles in British throughout the process.The demoness returns and bites Sarah on the neck, vampire-style. The demoness then conjures up assistance, and Satan himself shows up, also speaking too modulated to understand more than half of it. She admits that she’s had a great time with Jack and Sarah, but now she wants more. She wants to be able to take human form to make her job easier. He gives her a month to see if she can torture ten people.Now in human form, the demoness heads to Hollywood for victims. We cut to a disco that looks like it was filmed on a green screen without the processing. Two guys hit on an attractive-looking human who’s not at all a demon; she says she’s Charlotte. She’s rude, and they love it. One guy leaves, leaving Steve, a Tech Bro, with Charlotte. The two seem to compare to see who’s the most shallow.She invites him over to her place after dancing. She’s surprisingly philosophical, which puts him off a little. She makes him a drink, and shockingly, it’s drugged. She dresses him up like a clown, puts him back on the autopsy table, and makes a whole unintelligible speech in her demoness form; when she pulls out a machete, we understand that part.In the morning, Charlotte talks to the neighbors, Yagami and Tamara, about moving to Jack and Sarah’s house. They invite her over for dinner. Their daughter has cancer.Charlotte arrives for dinner in a sexy, low-cut dress that Tamara obviously doesn’t approve of. It’s all very awkward. Yagami, on the other hand, says she “looks gorgeous.” It’s an awkward scene that drags on for entirely too long. It soon becomes obvious that they have drugged her. “This will be fun,” Tamara laughs. Daughter Saori says they shouldn’t be doing this just to keep her alive.Charlotte wakes up tied to the wall. The family plans to steal Charlotte’s organs to sell to pay for Sairi’s treatments. Charlotte starts to laugh in a “Do you know who I am” kind of way. She then beats them both to death with a hammer.Steve’s partner, Brad, goes to see a detective about Steve’s mysterious disappearance. They’re hostile with each other for no apparent reason, but Brad seems unhinged.The demoness calls Satan again, and she wants to move on to bigger things; he says no.Brad grabs a gun and breaks into Charlotte’s house. She quickly takes charge of the situation and puts him in a clown costume. Soon after, she eats his eyeball and cuts out his tongue. Then she bites off his toes. The demoness summons Satan yet again, and they discuss the need to deal with Detective Gerrard, the last one alive who knows who Charlotte is. She pays him a visit at his office, and of course that goes very badly for him.And then it was suddenly over, fortunately for all of us.Brian’s CommentaryWas the sound designer for this a deaf person? Both Sarah and the Demoness are nearly completely unintelligible. Once the demoness became human, the voices got a lot clearer. When she was back in the makeup, she was unintelligible again. The demoness creature looks really good, but her voice is awful.That’s th

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

For our first episode of 2026, we’ve got four new releases and one oldie for you. We’ll open on “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” and “Influencers,” a couple of sequels. Two that aren’t sequels are “Keeper” and “Wormtown,” all from 2025. Finally, we’ll watch “Experiment in Evil,” an oldie from 1959This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #52, should be on sale in a few days! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Five Nights at Freddy’s 2* Directed by: Emma Tammi* Written by: Scott Cawthon* Stars: Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail* Run Time: 1 Hour, 44 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA year after the first movie, the survivors are back with some fresh faces, and there’s another Freddy’s location with intact animatronics plus a new creepy puppet. As you might guess, the problem wasn’t completely solved after the first movie, so there’s another bout of death and destruction. We liked the first one and thought this one was equally entertaining. It’s a bit abrupt in the ending and very obvious there’s going to be a third movie.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on an arcade and a fun place with lots of kids playing. One little girl just sits and waits for the animatronic show. The sad girl, Charlotte, watches as a little boy goes into the back room with the big rabbit. She goes in after him but gets stabbed in the process. Credits roll. “Girl Dies in Fazbear Accident” says the headlines. We also see a marionette, a character who was not in the first film.Twenty years later, little Vanessa has grown up and still remembers all those events. Mike calls; he and Abby have a house now. Mike’s got an upcoming date with her, but his friend says she has crazy eyes after that incident with the killer bear. Abby, on the other hand, tells her story repeatedly at school. No one ever found the real killer, William Afton.Abby’s class is learning about robotics at school, and there’s going to be a science fair. Mr. Berg, the teacher, doesn’t like Abby. Could she fix up the old robots at Freddy’s? Maybe she could. Mike has promised to fix them for years, but he never really does it. The dead-children possessed the robots there, and they were her friends.Mike and Vanessa go on a date, and she’s still messed up from her experiences before. When he gets home, he finds a note from Abby saying she’s gone to Freddy’s to fix up her friends. They go inside to find nothing– the animatronic animals are gone now. She finds a FazTalker, some kind of talking toy, on the floor and keeps it.Elsewhere, a trio of ghost-chasers arrives at Freddy’s; Mike may have invited the “Spectral Scoopers” to investigate. The new security guard is Michael, not the Mike we already know, and he lets them inside. This isn’t the same location as the one Mike and Abby were just in, this one is much cleaner; it’s the original location. The Marionette was unique to this location as well. This one still has the animatronics inside. Lisa, Rob, and Alex explore the place, recording everything for their show. They all die painfully as Michael smiles evilly. Except, Lisa is now possessed by Charlotte.Meanwhile, Vanessa, at Spin Class, hallucinates Afton/The Yellow Rabbit yelling at her, and she’s not all the mentally well. Afton was her father, and he left an impression. She still has nightmares about him.The FazTalker talks to Abby, asking for help. She rides to the other FazBears, where we saw the bad stuff happening. Chica is there, and she’s happy to see Abby.The next day, Vanessa comes over and sees Abby’s robotics project; she says Freddy and Chica helped her build it. This leads to Vanessa and Mike breaking up.Vanessa goes to Freddy’s and talks to Charlotte’s ghost, who wants to get out of this place so that she can hurt people. None of the animatronics can leave, but Charlotte thinks Abby can help her break that limitation. Charlotte/Marionette then capture Vanessa.At the science fair, Mr. Berg breaks Abby’s project, so she goes back to Freddy’s to be with her friends. Chica volunteers to be the new science project, but she can’t leave the building until Abby enters the passcode. The other animatronics arrive just as the lock shuts down. Abby and Chica then take an Uber to the science fair.Mike goes to see Charlotte’s father, who still hasn’t gotten over his daughter’s death twenty years ago. They complain about the “FazFest” that’s coming to town. Mike learns that there was more than one Freddy’s location. The father gives Mike a music box that Charlotte used to like.Mike rushes to Freddy’s, breaks in, and walks right past Lisa’s dead body on the way inside. He does eventually find Vanessa locked in a closet. Vanessa explains it all, but Mike is still skeptical. The only ghost here is Charlotte, not all those other kids.Chica and Abby go to the science fair, and Mr. Berg doesn’t approve. Chica takes care of everything.Vanessa explains that Charlotte

As we near the end of the year, we’re going to cover three more newer releases and still do a couple of oldies. Since it’s so close to Christmas, we’ll deal with “The Carpenter’s Son” first, then play a “Werewolf Game” because it’s “In Our Blood.” Then we’ll continue our seemingly eternal series of kaiju reviews with “Godzilla 2000: Millennium” and the classic 1972 film, “The Legend of Boggy Creek.”This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 The Carpenter’s Son* Directed by: Lotfy Nathan* Written by: Lotfy Nathan* Stars: Nicolas Cage, Noah Jupe, FKA Twigs* Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneInspired by “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” where the idea is that Jesus was born with his full powers, in the body of a boy who didn’t know he was Jesus yet or what to do with it. It’s quite slow moving, mostly quiet, and low on action. The horror elements are there a little, some creepiness, and lots of religious elements. It’s well made but mostly we thought it was pretty dull.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on a woman giving birth. The father looks up and sees a bright light from the sky along with Heavenly whispering. The baby is born, and as they leave the cave, they pass a bunch of people screaming and sacrificing a baby. They want the couple’s newborn baby, but they hide it. As the sun rises, the man sees the devil in the desert. Credits roll.The couple and the baby have been in hiding for years, and the baby is now a young man. The father narrates that the son has powers that can’t be explained, but it’s his responsibility to protect him.The father is a carpenter, but the only work he can get is carving pagan idols. The boy watches as the new neighbor, Lilith, a mute girl, takes a shower. He also gets annoyed when his father insists that he pray for forgiveness. The boy has a recurring nightmare about being nailed to a cross with his mother crying at his feet.The boy runs into a girl who wants to play games with him. They find a man with leprosy, and that goes badly. His father still wonders if he’s from the angels or from demons; he’s not really sure. That night, the leper returns and claims that the boy’s touch has healed him. Now all the lepers want to be touched. Later the girl gives the cured leper a peach, and the next day the carpenter and the boy see the leper dead.The girl offers the boy a carved wooden snake and suggests that keeping secrets feels really good, not being subtle about tempting him.Lilith collapses with black stuff coming out of her mouth and bites a chunk off her mother’s face who screams that it’s the boy’s fault. His father finds the toy snake and there’s a whole argument that comes from that. The father insists that the boy would be dead without his protection.The boy sneaks off to meet with the girl, who is busy poisoning more peaches, and she takes him to see a site where prisoners are being tortured and executed for the crime of sorcery. The girl explains that the carpenter isn’t really the boy’s father at all. When he asks his mother, she’s evasive, and he knows she’s lying.The boy is thrown out of school for talking about things he couldn’t possibly know. The boy then goes back to the place of torture and pulls the demon right out of Lilith, who is chained there. He releases her and sends her away. Others there see the whole thing, and they’re gonna talk.The father and the mother argue about the boy’s conception and crimes. The father is bitten by a snake, and the boy heals the wound right away, clearing up any doubt the father had. He also tells the boy who his father really is. The villagers come for the family, and that goes badly for some of them.As the strange girl tells the boy her origin story, the sky turns red. She admits that she’s The Adversary. She then opens up the gateway to Hell and gives him a peek. The father arrives and interrupts this until the boy stops her from killing him. After a brief argument, she stabs the father anyway.This all leads to a serious fistfight between the boy and Satan. The boy wins, but the father tells him not to kill her and forgive her instead. The boy moves to heal Joseph, but Joseph tells him to let him go, and the red sky clears with a beam of sunlight shining down on him as he dies.The boy goes over and forgives the strange girl, who tells him about his own end. The boy, Yeshua, and his mother, wander off into the mountains. We’ve probably not heard the last of these two…Brian’s CommentarySo many flies. If you don’t like flies, then this is definitely a horror movie.Nicolas Cage plays this one mostly straight, although he does get one yelling scene, which is something he’s always good at. The rest of the cast is good too, although the story is a bit weak. Yes, it’s based on one of the apocryphal gospels, but they could have spiced it up a bit more.I

We have a fun mix of old and new this week. We’ll start off with two new releases, “The Death of Snow White” and “For God’s Sake Wake Her Up,” both new-ish. We’ll go overseas for a bit and visit “Thelma” from 2017. Then we’ll watch the American remake of Godzilla, “Godzilla” (1998). Finally, we’ll watch a true-crime-sorta film, “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” from way back in 1976. [Except we ended up reading them all out of order on the podcast, sorry!]This, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 The Death of Snow White* Directed by: Jason Brooks* Written by: Jason Brooks, Naomi Mechem-Miller* Stars: Sanae Loutsis, Chelsea Edmundson, Tristan Nokes* Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a dark telling of the classic fairy tale. This is a good one to watch if you really enjoy Renaissance Festivals - it appears to have been filmed at one with that level of realism throughout in all the aspects. The story has the logic of a fairy tale, and it has some entertaining moments and ideas. But we both thought it was a bit long and drawn out, and not an overall winner.Spoilery SynopsisAn old woman chases a young woman up the stairs in the castle. The old woman whispers some magic words, and the other starts to puke up maggots. She makes the guard kill himself. She then goes to the bedroom of a very pregnant woman and stabs her with a poisoned dagger. All the king’s doctors get to work trying to save the baby. The dying queen looks out the window and talks about how beautiful the snow is.On the way out, the witch takes out more guards and encounters a buff dwarf with an axe, and she knows him. They fight epically, and she runs him through and makes her wounded escape. Credits roll.Years later, at what appears to be a still-medieval Renfest, Princess Snow White likes the looks of The Prince. There’s some awkward flirting between the two. Meanwhile, the Queen looks at the results of an experiment of arsenic skin care on a subject. She’ll try mercury next. She looks out the window at Snow and hates her. The magic mirror knows all about her plans.The Queen has lost some blood and wants the huntsman to kidnap one of Snow’s friends to replace it. His group of hunters arrive at the festival and search for a victim. Meanwhile, Snow and the Prince look at sparkly lights in the forest. Huntsman Kaiser kills the girl and attacks Snow and the Prince. Huntsman Gunnar, however, is loyal to Snow and helps her escape into the Dark Forest.Snow and Sophie run into monsters in the woods, and they tear Sophie in half. The Prince and his search party look for Snow White who is wandering through the forest bloody and dazed. Back at the castle, the mirror gives the queen some advice on how to “have it all.”Snow is captured by the huntsmen, who put her to sleep and carry her back. No– they’re interrupted by a pack of dwarves who have come to rescue Snow. None of them like the queen, either, so they all become allies. Many of them worked for her father, the king, and even helped in her childbirth.When the only surviving guard from the dwarf ambush returns to the queen, she orders that his hand be cut off with a very small knife. But he’s still grateful and loyal. Out in the woods, the search party meets up with the dwarves and fights the tree-monsters.Meanwhile the queen casts a spell to transform herself into an old decrepit woman, the powerful killing witch we saw at the beginning. Who goes out into the woods with a basket of apples, encounters the boy from the search party, and kills him after getting information from his mind.The old woman runs into Snow and offers her an apple. This goes badly since the apple is poisoned; Snow goes into a coma. The dwarves and the Prince rush in, and we get a flashback to Snow’s birth. The only way to beat the magic poison is to sacrifice a life. That’s how Snow’s mother really died, she sacrificed herself.Meanwhile, the Queen is young again but still obsessed with Snow White. She has her toes cut off to fit into Snow’s shoes.The Prince’s group manages to break into the castle and confront the Huntsman and the Queen. In the ensuing battle, a few of the dwarves are lost. The battle goes badly for everyone, but the Prince finally manages to carry Snow back out to the woods. He kisses her and takes the poison from her. He dies, and she wakes up.Snow is awake, and now she gets the “epic badass music” as she walks through the continuing battle. She walks into the throne room, where the queen is making the dwarves suffer. The queen orders Huntsman Gunnar to kill Snow; he hands the queen Snow’s heart. No wait– it’s a maggoty mass of decay - the queen was tricked into eating her own poison.The dwarves use the magic mirror to bounce the Queen’s evil magic right back at her. Then the dwarves get all medieval on her. The que

This time, we’ve got some fun ones. We’ll start of with some time-loop terror in “Manor of Darkness,” then watch some completely unnecessary, but still fairly entertaining rip-offs of old cartoons: “Mouse of Horrors,” “Shiver Me Timbers,” and “Bambi: The Reckoning” are all up this week. Lastly, we’ll squeeze in a classic sci-fi horror film with “Planet of the Vampires” from 1965.Which one is our favorite? Tune in and find out– it may not be what you expect!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Manor of Darkness* Directed by: Blake Ridder* Written by: Blake Ridder* Stars: Kim Spearman, Louis James, Sarah Alexandra Marks* Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZonePetty thieves meet evil forces when they pretend to be filmmakers and go to a giant manor to rob the place. It went in a direction we didn’t expect and built nicely as they tried to figure a way out. We both really enjoyed it.Spoilery SynopsisA man works in the basement until he hears a strange sound. What he hears finds him. Credits roll.Laura talks to her mother, who needs surgery. Her brother, Chris calls, and he says he’s got something to make everything all right. Laura works at a coffee shop, and she experiences something strange one night. The same night, Chris also experiences some weirdness with Lisa, his girlfriend.Lisa, for some reason, decides to tell Chris about her abusive family and how she ran away from home. Chris tells about what happened with Laura, eleven months ago.Flashback time! Chris and Laura broke into a house. It’s not exactly what Chris told her, so Laura wants to leave. This is the house of Mrs. Wong, one of Chris’s old teachers who gave him a hard time– and she’s still home. When the woman gets up, she finds Laura and grabs a knife. As she recognizes Laura, Chris shoots her.Back in the present, Laura gets a call; she’s lost her job. Chris and Lisa talk about his plan, and how Laura won’t cooperate with him. She goes to the restroom and sees something scary. When she comes out, Chris is talking to Andy, another criminal-type.Some rich man is looking for a film crew to come into his house and film a documentary, and Chris wants to use the job as an excuse to break in and steal a fortune. We then get Andy’s backstory; he’s divorced but wants to be a good father. Later, he gets a scare in the shower. Laura decides at the last minute that she needs the money and will help in the caper.Chris, Andy, Laura, and Lisa arrive at the old manor house and let themselves in, as arranged. They have no cell service there, which even Chris admits is a cliche. They all split up and explore the place.Andy says he feels like he’s been here before. Laura and Lisa check out the basement while Andy and Chris check out the attic. The girls find a tied-up box in the basement that looks too tempting to pass up. They open the box and let out what appears to be the Smoke Monster from “Lost.”In the attic, the guys find a dead body. Suddenly, Lukas, the owner of the house, and the man from the pre-credit sequence, returns home. He talks about “life after death” and his dead wife. He wants the “documentary filmmakers” to capture her spirit on film.When they mention the dead body upstairs, Lukas picks up a knife and kills Chris and Laura. Andy goes next, leaving only Lisa, who is killed as well. There are flashes of another woman being forced to scrub and clean in the past, with religious imagery. No, they’re all fine, and we seem to have jumped back in time a few minutes. They all sense that something weird happened, but they’ve only just arrived at the house. Laura especially seems to feel some deja vu. Chris announces that there’s no cell service here at the old house. They all split up to explore the house (again).The girls find the box in the basement, but it’s already untied and empty. The dead body in the attic is still there. Then Lukas arrives. He asks them if this is “the first time.” He stabs them all again.We again cut to scenes of a man abusing his religious wife, who prays a lot.At the door of the house, Laura knows they’ve all been here before, but the others don’t sense it. “We’re all gonna die… again.” Laura tries to leave, but it’s not that easy. All roads lead back to the manor.She goes into the house and finds that Lukas has killed the other three. She tells him about it, and he knows that she opened the chest. He explains about “The Reset” and that he killed them so that they’d understand the problem. We get a flashback to Lukas and his wife moving into the house. He explains what it is that she released from that box. He has to kill her again to reset the time loop. He does and we see the abusive man and religious woman from the past again. This time, he kills her.Laura, now reset, tells the others not to go into the basement and then hides t

We’ve got an odd assortment for you this week. We’ll watch the new football-horror, “Him” recently released, as well as “Things Will be Different” from just last year. Then we’ll go way back to 1960 and the “Circus of Horrors.” In honor of Udo Keir’s recent death, we’ll watch his two early breakout hits, “Flesh for Frankenstein” and “Blood for Dracula” from the early 70s.This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Him* Directed by: Justin Tipping* Written by: Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, Justin Tipping* Stars: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox* Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneSet in an alternate reality where the NFL is the USFF, we start out with little Cam who has the perfect combination of football obsession at a young age combined with an athletic physique capable of being a world class athlete. As he is groomed to possibly replace a retiring megastar, things get strange and ominous - or maybe he’s just seeing things from stress and head injuries. We both struggled with this because we give no weight or value to football. They take the obsession, the extremes required to stay at the top, idolatry, and cult level fandom to the extreme. Neither of us fault the acting or production values, but we didn’t enjoy it that much.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on Cam, a little boy, watching football on TV. The whole family gets very excited when their team wins. His hero, Isaiah White, gets injured badly. Credits roll.Fourteen years later, Isaiah is still playing, better than ever, but everyone is talking about when he’ll finally retire - maybe another year at best. Now-adult Cameron Cade is said to be the next star of the game. During an interview with Cam, he says he wants to be the GOAT. One night while practicing, something very strange happens to Cam.We cut to Cam’s brain scans, and something’s not right. He’s had a traumatic brain injury and a stapled wound on his head. On his return to the game, everyone talks about him surviving the attack. Half the family thinks he isn’t ready, and the other half insists there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s not fine.Cam wants to be alone and sullen, so he goes to a big party and ignores everyone. Tom, Cam’s manager, calls and says that Isaiah White himself wants to train Cam for a week. On the way there, we see how cult-like some sports fans are.Cam goes to see Isaiah, who lives in a really cool place. He’s going to put Cam through a special “Boot camp” for football. We then get a training montage. Cam gets a physical exam, and someone steals his underwear. Cam then meets Elise, Isaiah’s wife, who is a power blonde influencer selling jade vaginal eggs and offers Cam one of their anal jades for men before she heads off for travel. Cam talks to Marco, the doctor, about blood transfusions and injections.On the second day, Isaiah and Cam go for a run in the desert, Cam passes out, and he sees something else that’s weird. Now it’s clear that he’s been hallucinating some of the weirdness we’ve seen. Marco gives him another special shot, and he’s suddenly feeling much better. Then things get weird and they torture a man to motivate Cam to play harder. Afterward, he sits in a hyperbaric chamber for several hours, where he hallucinates some more.On the third day, they actually play some football, and one of the players gets hurt pretty badly, which seems to be what Isaiah had in mind. More hallucinations ensue– maybe? Did Isaiah really just kill an overzealous fan? That one seemed more real, as well as the aftermath.The next day, Isaiah and Cam go out to the desert to shoot guns. Cam talks about his father and why he plays the game.Elsie takes Cam to a party in the city. Marco is there, and he says, “Run!” He meets the owners of the team, and they like him. Meanwhile, Isaiah stays home and works out. There’s more hallucinations, and maybe a ritual of some sort. Maybe Marco loses his head. Stuff happens, and maybe some of it’s real.On the next day, Cam starts injecting himself. He confronts Isaiah, who talks about generations of blood, a gift from the gods. The blood of their mentors give them the powers of the chosen one. The trick is, there can be only one, and Isaiah’s contract is nearly up. “You’re gonna have to take it from me.” The two men fight to see who really has the killer spirit. Cam has it and uses it.In a surreal, impossible ceremony, where all the characters gang up on Cam and explain how he’s been groomed all his life for this. Cam instead beats the mascot to death with an ax before killing everyone else with a sword.And then what?Brian’s CommentaryWhat in the hell was that climax???This is one of those is-it-real-or-a-hallucination stories that we’re so sick of. Cam had a head injury, so all the crazy stuff he sees later on is suspect.I suspect the filmmaker is trying to sho

Mostly all new films this time around, and they’re all pretty good!We will start off with “Shelby Oaks,” then have no choice but to take a look at “Compulsion.” “Alma and the Wolf” will be stopping by before “Operation Undead” occurs. All of these are new-ish 2025 films. Lastly, we’ll watch the final film of the second Godzilla era, “Godzilla Vs Destoroyah” from 1995.This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Shelby Oaks* Directed by: Chris Stuckman* Written by: Sam Liz, Chris Stuckman* Stars: Camille Sullivan, Sarah Durn* Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a mix of documentary, found footage, and standard movie format that mixes the three smoothly together. After a quartet of paranormal investigators vanish, the sister of one of them starts an obsessive investigation of her own looking for answers. She finds some, and it’s thoroughly creepy. We both thought the movie improved as it went along, with a stronger second half, and we give it a thumbs up.Spoilery SynopsisWe’re told that Riley, the host of “Paranormal Paranoids,” went missing in 2008. We watch an old video of her talking about being scared. That was the last time anyone saw her alive. In Darke County Ohio, we hear news reports about Riley and her whole team going missing. Could it have been a hoax?Mia, Riley’s sister, has been searching for her for the past twelve years. We cut to people talking about this new thing called YouTube, and how it created a whole new type of paranormal researcher. We watch one old clip that took place in an abandoned prison, and Riley was never the same afterward. They never really got famous until their disappearance.The last evidence of the group was at a place called Shelby Oaks, a modern ghost town. Eventually three of the team were found, dead and mutilated, but Riley’s body was not found. We see that clip again, and this time, we see a creepy figure standing outside the window behind Riley. “Mia, he’s back,” she said. Mia talks about Riley’s visions from when she was little.As the interviewer and Mia finish up, a man comes to the door. “She finally let me go,” he says before shooting himself in the head. Credits roll. In his hand is a tape labelled “Shelby Oaks,” and Mia steals it.Mia watches the tape, which contains missing footage from Riley’s camera. Riley introduces the town of Shelby Oaks, but then gets all serious and wants to leave. She mentions having a dream about the place. They explore the place, but that night, there are weird sounds outside the buildings; howling and whining, like animals. We then see the man who killed himself on their doorstep come into the building and kill some of the crew.Mia sees someone standing outside looking in her window– on the second floor. Riley used to talk about the same thing happening.Detective Burke tells Mia about Wilson Miles, the man who did the killings. Mia still doesn’t tell the police about the tape. She wants to investigate on her own. Miles had been incarcerated in that old haunted prison as well, so that’s all connected. She interviews the former warden of the prison, who talks about how oddly quickly the prison deteriorated after Wilson Miles arrived there. The place literally rotted.Mia tells her husband Robert more of her suspicions, and yes, she’s seen the thing at the window a few times. The thing out there wanted something from Riley, and it’d been stalking her all her life, minus the few years when Miles was in prison. Robert thinks Mia needs psychiatric help.Mia reads about Incubuses and other demons. The pictures look familiar. Later, she sees a demon dog outside on the street. She decides, in the middle of the night, to drive right over to the abandoned CGI prison and break in, alone. Without telling anyone where she’s gone. She tracks down Wilson Miles’s prison cell and it abruptly gets very cold. Suddenly, her flashlight goes out and she sees some surprising things. She wastes no time in leaving the prison.She then drives to the old amusement park and encounters the demon dog again. This time, it leads her into the woods to a house where an old woman lives. She’s Norma. Mia notices that the house is covered in mold and rot, just like the prison. Norma says she lives with her son, who turns out to be Wilson Miles. Mia’s creeped out and sends Robert a text to call the police to her location.She finds photos of Wilson and Riley together, and she doesn’t look happy about it. Oh, and she’s pregnant in the photos. Norma comes out and opens a trap door on the floor and leads the way in. In a cell down there, Mia sees Riley, alive. It also becomes clear that old Norma isn’t human at all, or perhaps is just a human shell.Riley runs upstairs and Mia chases after her. They hear a baby crying and go into the room. Norma is there praying to Tarion, the Incubu

Three new films, one from last year, and one oldie sits in the queue for us today.We’ll start off with the recent-ish “Ziam,” then look at “Bloat.” We’ve got some big stars in “The Ritual.” We’ll then finish up with the comedic “We Are Zombies” and the kaiju-fest, “Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla.”“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Ziam* Directed by: Kulp Kaljareuk* Written by: Vathanyu Ingkawiwat, Kulp Kaljareuk, Nut Nualpang* Stars: Mark Prin Suparat, Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich, Vayla Wanvayla Boonnithipaisit* Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s a fast zombie movie, well made and set in Thailand, slightly in the future. The main character is a trained and experienced fighter, so he participates in a lot of combat both before and during the outbreak. It was fairly entertaining, but didn’t feel like much we haven’t already seen before.Spoilery SynopsisWe hear about the collapse of the environment and possibly the end of humanity. The Thai government has been on lockdown for the past ten years, so they still have their resources, or at least that’s what the propaganda on the radio says.Singh is quitting his job and daydreams about his girlfriend, Rin. He might go back to kickboxing, which he’s good at. The two drive into the food-insect farm in the apocalyptic wasteland. As they park the truck, bandits approach, but Singh fights them off. The bandits don’t stand a chance.There are riots and fighting all over Bangkok. Singh’s friend is elated to find that they’ve been carrying a load of dried fish in the truck. We cut to Mr. Vasu, who runs the company and kept the people from starving. We see that Vasu has invented a new kind of “safe” fish, and this is what Singh’s friend got. All the businessmen and investors get a sample, but then the convulsions start.At home, Rin nags at Singh about his dangerous job. She realizes that right now, there aren’t many options. Rin’s a doctor who works at the nearby hospital. She gets called by the hospital administrator for an important case: Mr. Vasu’s wife. Vasu thinks fish liver can improve his wife’s condition, but Rin isn’t sure the fish is even healthy. Meanwhile, Vasu’s partner, Purich, dies bloodily on the operating table, a victim of the fish.Purich then wakes back up, now a zombie. Rin gets a firsthand experience with him in the hallway.Singh hears that there’s an emergency at the hospital. He arrives just in time to watch some people fall off the roof– and keep moving afterward. It’s a fast-spreading outbreak of a fast-zombie virus. Soon, the whole hospital is crawling with zombies, and Rin is pretty much on her own.Singh gets inside and immediately has to start fighting zombies. Rin’s young friend, Buddy, also has to hide from the monsters until Singh shows up to help him.The government decides to blow up the hospital; it’s better than losing the whole city then the country. Demolition level explosives with a nice long timer are placed.Ren and Buddy search for Rin and Buddy’s mom, but there are a lot of zombies to avoid on the way. They find Buddy’s mother, but she’s been bitten and knows how that’s going to go, so she sends the boy with Singh. Singh fights off a bunch of zombies, using just his feet, while carrying Buddy on his back.Rin comes to Mr. Vasu’s room, and he lets her in. He lets her in and says she’ll be safe here. The government sends men to rescue Vasu. They arrive by helicopter and set the bombs for thirty minutes.Singh and Rin are eventually reunited, and he’s shot almost immediately after. Vasu’s men grab Rin and drag her off to care for Vasu’s wife. Singh gets right back up and attacks the soldiers. It’s quite a battle, but never doubt who’s going to win. By the time he wakes up, Rin has him all patched up.Meanwhile, some of the zombies downstairs are getting really messed up. Singh runs into Vasu, who watches his wife turning into one of the creatures. She bites him as many more flood into the ward.Rin and Buddy run as Singh tries to hold off the zombies. Rin and Buddy make it to the helicopter on the roof and work to convince the men there that she’s not infected. Singh makes it up to the roof and staggers toward the helicopter, but the copter takes off and leaves him there.The explosives go off, the whole hospital collapses. Rin and Buddy fly off to safety. Later, back in her small village, Rin is safe.Somehow, we see that Singh has survived the zombies and the collapse of the hospital and is still kicking zombie ass in the city…Brian’s CommentaryIt’s well made, and being from Thailand makes it interesting, but it’s nothing new. The acting looks fine, but we saw a dubb

This time around, we have four new films and one oldie. We’ll start off with the much-hyped “Frankenstein” which just came out on Netflix. Next, we’ll watch an international film, “The Elixir” and also “The Mannequin,” which are also new releases. Finishing up the new stuff this week, we’ll take a look at “Black Phone 2.” Last, we’ll continue our Godzilla coverage with “Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II” from 1993.“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Frankenstein* Directed by: Guillermo del Toro* Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Mary Shelley* Stars: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz* Run Time: 2 Hours, 29 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneBasically, Dr. Frankenstein assembles a man out of corpse parts and brings him to life. But it’s not a smooth process and things get complicated. This version follows the original book somewhat closer than the classic Hammer and Universal film versions, and it goes much more into the moral and emotional complications. Beautifully filmed and directed, it’s long but entertaining. We both thought it’s really good.Spoilery SynopsisPreludeIn the farthestmost North, in 1857, we open on a ship frozen in the ice. The men work on the ice with axes. They are on a mission to find the North Pole. The men report an explosion and fire about two miles away, and they go to investigate. They find a wounded man who’s lost a lot of blood. They bring the unconscious man back to the ship, but there’s something else out there on the ice. They shoot it repeatedly, but that has little effect. It clearly wants the injured man, and it threatens to capsize the huge ship all on its own to get to him. The men shoot the ice beneath the monster and it sinks to the bottom of the ocean.The sick man, Victor, says the monster will come back for them, “It can not die. I made him.” As he recovers, he offers to tell the captain his story.Chapter 1: Victor’s StoryVictor’s father was a wealthy baron and a surgeon who was away much of the time, leaving Victor home with his mother. The father was abusive, but also taught Victor all about medicine. Something goes wrong with his mother’s pregnancy, and she dies. The baby, William, survives and soon becomes the father’s favorite. His father explains that “No one can conquer death.” Victor then decided to become the greatest doctor of all time.At the medical school, Victor demonstrates a machine he’s made that animates bits and pieces of a corpse. It’s quite a demonstration. The other doctors call it an unholy abomination.Mr. Harlander comes to visit; he saw the demonstration. Victor’s brother, William, is coming for a visit as he’s planning to be married. Harlander is something of a doctor himself, and he’s got new information about the nervous system that can help Victor– and financing as well. Harlander is making obscene amounts of money from weapons dealing because there’s a war on.Victor meets William and his fiancee Elizabeth, who looks exactly like Victor’s dead mother. Victor and Elizabeth start arguing right away. Harlander rents a scary old castle for Victor to do his work in, and it’s… excessive. They start assembling equipment and looking for bodies– even before they’re hanged.Meanwhile, Victor starts stalking Elizabeth. He pretends to be a priest to take her confession– nope, they’re just playing a game; they’re actually getting closer as William is busy managing the assembly of the lab. It’s a lot of work, and Victor is taking him for granted as he steals his gal away at the same time.Harlander catches on to the affair and tells Victor to hurry up before the funding dries up. The war is having one final battle, and Victor gets his choice of all the good body parts. He gets down to the business of assembling the perfect body with Harlander photographing and documenting everything. Harlander reveals that he’s dying of syphilis and wants to be “included” in the experiment - put his brain in the new healthy body. Victor says there’s nothing left of Harlander that’s not infected, so he won’t do it.It’s finally finished, and just then, a thunderstorm approaches. Victor gets the body into the machine and gets everything set up. Harlander, angry about being rejected, threatens to ruin everything, and Victor kills him accidentally. The lightning rod collector piece is damaged in the struggle, but Victor has no time to fix it.Lightning strikes, and all sorts of things happen– except the body doesn’t live. It failed. Victor goes to bed.When he wakes up, the creature is standing next to the bed, very much alive. He’s tall, gray, and scarred all over. He shows it around the castle, and it all goes pretty well for

We’ve got a mixed bag this time around: four new films and one classic. We’ll start out with the much-hyped “The Long Walk,” “Dorothea,” “The Benefactress,” and “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” all recently released. For our oldie, we’ll look at “Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle for Earth” from 1993.“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 The Long Walk* Directed by: Francis Lawrence* Written by: JT Mollner, Stephen King* Stars: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing* Run Time: 1 Hour 48 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA group of fifty young men is chosen by lottery to participate in “The Long Walk,” an annual elimination contest with one winner - one surviving winner - at the end. How they get there is surprisingly interesting to watch. And kind of sad and gruesome as you might imagine, and also uplifting and funny at times.Spoilery SynopsisWe read Raymond Garraty’s acceptance letter on screen. He’s been accepted through the lottery, and has a chance to win a wish and a huge amount of money. We hear on the radio that in the past, America had a war that ruined everything, and poverty is rampant but it has been 19 years and things are on the mend.Raymond’s mother doesn’t approve and wants him to drop out, but he says it’s too late. Fifty young men will compete, one from each state, but only one will win. As he checks in, he meets Peter, another contestant. Stebbins, Hank, Mark, Curly, and some of the others make themselves known. We see various other characters as well.The Major pulls up in his jeep. He has them all take numbers to wear around their necks, it’s a lot like a marathon. He explains that the broadcast of The Long Walk increases production, which helps the economy. “Walk until there’s only one of you left. If you fall below three miles an hour, you get a warning. The goal is to last the longest. There’s one winner and no finish line. Remember– anyone can win.”And they’re off! The first few miles, the walkers talk about how desolate the landscape is. They also talk about their strategies. One guy gets a rock in his shoe and stops to fix it; he gets a warning. And then a second warning. The soldier behind him raises his rifle. He gets up and moves on. Raymond talks about how social pressure makes everyone apply to The Walk, so they really don’t have a choice.Eventually, Curly gets a cramp, gets three warnings, and gets shot, the first loser of the race. Yes, there’s only going to be one survivor. Credits roll.Player 1 falls down, foaming at the mouth, he’s having some kind of epileptic seizure of some kind. The soldiers shoot him as well.Twenty-five miles in, everyone’s getting pretty tired. Barkovitch goads another guy into fighting with him, and it goes badly for one of them. Harkness is writing a book, and he talks about the “pooping issue” just as another walker dies because of it.As night falls, The Major gives them all a pep talk. Everyone is more or less walking in their sleep. Ray gets three warnings, but if he can keep walking for three hours, those will go away. They hit a steep grade in the road, and several players are killed; this motivates the rest. This clears out the crowd, as there are far fewer players now, only 18 left.When the sun comes up, they’re on mile 59. Reality is setting in for most of the walkers. Ray and Pete both doubt they’ve got what it takes to win. Harkness has been walking for miles on a twisted ankle, but he’s done. At the 100 mile mark, the group passes through a small town, and it’s extremely poor-looking.The second night, it rains.On day 3, there aren’t many walkers left. Ray tells the story about how his father was executed by The Major for reading banned books. Ray’s secret plan is to kill The Major. The winner gets a wish along with all the money, and he plans to use it to kill The Major. Pete tries to talk him out of those negative thoughts.At the 170-mile point, they lose more people. Hank gives up and they almost lose Baker because of it. As the survivors bond, they’re all getting closer, which makes each loss harder on them.Day 4, 209 miles in, and it looks like there are six left. They’ve all got problems. Barkovitch goes crazy and kills himself, mostly. The third warning finishes him off. At 278 miles, the landscape just gets bleaker and bleaker, with junk bicycles and burning cars. Ray’s shoe wears out, so he goes barefoot; he passes his mother on the side of the road.Baker gets a nosebleed that won’t stop for the next thirty miles or so. He knows he’s done for and asks the others not to watch him die. Stebbins admits that he’s The Major’s b*****d son, and that’s why he signed up. He says The Major

Fun films this week! We’ll start off with the sorta-sci-fi “Woken” from 2025, then get traumatized by “Traumatika,” also from this year. “Ghost Killer” was released last year in Japan, but it’s also new here recently. “Insidious: The Last Key” from 2018 winds up our coverage of that series (at least until the next one). Lastly, we’ll look back at “Demon Seed” from 1977– does it still hold up?“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet!This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #49, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Woken* Directed by: Alan Friel* Written by: Alan Friel, Rebecca Pollock* Stars: Erin Kellyman, Maxine Peake, Ivanno Jeremiah* Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneAnna wakes up pregnant with no memory of where she is or who the people she’s with are. But everything and everyone seems so normal, what could go wrong? Things go slowly until they abruptly don’t, and the tension mounts. It definitely has a science fiction element with low-key simmering horror. We both thought it’s a winner.Spoilery SynopsisAnna runs to the cliff and looks down in a panic. She jumps. Credits roll.Later, she wakes up in a bed with her head bandaged. When she wakes up, there’s a strange woman there who’s taking care of her. “Don’t worry, the baby’s fine,” she says. The woman, Helen, brings in a book with photos of Anna, but Anna doesn’t remember Helen or anything. James comes in and is introduced as Anna’s husband, but she doesn’t remember him. His version of what happened on the top of the cliff differs from what we saw.Helen explains that they’re on an isolated island, and she can help deliver the baby when it comes. Anna meets Peter, Helen’s husband, and he’s a little weird. The group has whole lobsters for dinner, and it’s all pretty revolting to pregnant Anna. She doesn’t know them, so James shows her some videos. Helen and Peter are their neighbors, the only ones on the island.Dr. Henry comes for a visit to examine Anna. He pulls out one of her hairs before examining the baby. It’s due in about two weeks. Anna suggests that a visit to the mainland might help her memory, but James insists they wait until after the baby.Anna sees two people on a swan pedal-boat out on the water. When Helen sees it, she sounds an alarm. When Anna runs to welcome the people, she sees that they’re disfigured and monstrous. Helen shoots both of them, then James burns the bodies and the boats. “You’ve been exposed– We’ve all been exposed” Helen shouts. They all strip and burn their own clothes.James explains that ¾ of the population are dead. You can catch it a whole bunch of ways, and no one knows what started it. They lock her in the bedroom for a quarantine, but they don’t explain much.Some soldiers in hazmat suits come to the house, and James insists that Anna is uninfected. Dr. Henry is with them, and he examines her again. He says that both she and the baby are healthy. He seems excited, but tells her it’s “Nothing for you to worry about.” Clearly, these people still have some secrets.Anna finds the knitting basket, and it’s full of little knitted baby shirts, all identical. Helen and James whisper about Anna when she’s out of the room. She grinds up some pills she was given but didn’t take and puts them into James’s soup, but he’s suspicious and doesn’t eat it.Anna sneaks out in the morning and goes to the part of the island she’s been told not to go to. She passes a “Forbidden” sign and comes to Helen and Peter’s house. Peter complains that Helen’s getting too attached, and this happens to her “every time.” Also, Helen has a small black child that clearly isn’t hers or James’s. And there’s a baby crying– or maybe that’s a goat.Anna sneaks into their house and looks around. She runs into little Joshua, who says she promised to never leave him but did. Helen interrupts and tells her to go back to the cottage. Just as she’s about to get answers, James chloroforms her.Anna wakes up restrained to a table in a lab. James comes in, and he says that’s not his baby inside her, he’s just here to protect her during the pregnancy. He says she doesn’t really want to know what’s going on. Helen and Peter appear to be scientists. “Always a pity to cut you up,” says Peter. Anna gets an arm free and stabs him in the neck with a syringe. Through an accident, Peter shoots himself, and Anna gets off the table.Anna watches videos of her being experimented upon– and dying. She sees computer records of at least 17 past failures where she and the baby died. She opens a machine and sees that they are already working on her replacement.Anna confronts Helen and James, and she wants answers. It’s only a matter of time before humans are wiped out. Anna, and her kind are here to

That might be the longest title we’ve ever had. We’ll open on the brand-new “Dracula: A Love Tale,” which redoes Dracula yet again. We’ll then go to “Night of the Reaper,” a twisty slasher film. We’ll finally get around to watching “The Velocipastor” from 2018, and then go back in time to “Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah” from 1991 and “Santo and the Blue Demon vs Dracula and the Wolf Man” from 1973.The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #49, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Dracula: A Love Tale* Directed by: Luc Besson* Written by: Luc Besson, Bram Stoker* Stars: Caleb Landry Jones, Christoph Waltz, Zoe Bleu* Run Time: 2 Hours, 9 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis is a big budget production with elaborate costuming, amazing sets, and excellent makeup and special effects. It kept reminding us of 1992’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” but even more so. If you’re a fan of Dracula and vampire movies, you really should check this one out. It’s great.Spoilery SynopsisIt’s 1480 AD, and Vlad and Elisabeta are in love, either that or it’s a teenage slumber party, it looks about the same. Soldiers come to the door and need King Vlad to lead them into battle. He reluctantly gets all armored up and goes with them after getting a blessing from the priest. Vlad makes a deal with the priest to watch over Elisabeta while he’s gone. While he goes off to battle, she’s taken across the country to a safe place, but the party is ambushed.Vlad rushes to the rescue, but she dies in his arms; he is not happy. He goes home and blames the priest. This goes badly for the priest– very badly. Vlad renounces God and bad things happen.Four hundred years later, in Paris, Dr. Dumont welcomes the priest to his church. Dumont has a very strange medical case that he needs help with in his mental asylum. He has a woman, Maria, whom he thinks is possessed. She’s got fangs and glowy eyes. She’s a vampire. She’s the first one taken into captivity, but the priest has seen them before. The doctor finds it all a little hard to believe, but it’s obviously true. The church has been looking for the Master for 400 years. She says the Master is coming to Paris to take a princess soon.We cut to Jonathan Harker, who is visiting Count Dracula’s castle. It’s surprisingly nice inside, and Prince Vlad is looking extremely old– but not monstrous. He has a habit of moving things without using his hands, which Jonathan finds very entertaining thinking it’s magic tricks and not realizing it’s real.The priest goes to see Henry Spencer, Maria’s husband. He goes through the woman’s bedroom looking for clues, like a detective. She has a page torn out of the book that Jonathan is reading back in the castle; it’s a drawing of Princess Elisabeta.Meanwhile, in the castle, Jonathan explores the place and finds Dracula’s tomb. He’s attacked by living gargoyles and hung upside down. Vlad explains himself to Jonathan, and we get a flashback to the rest of his origin story. Vlad’s been waiting for Elisabeta to be reincarnated, and it’s been a hard search. He developed a fragrance into a perfume that made all women love him, as well as some of the men from the look of it. There’s a montage of him combining his mind control with the power of the perfume to make rooms full of people in different eras dance to his tune as he searches for her. That didn’t work out so well for him or the entire court of France. He turned them all into servants and sent them out to look for her. Since then, he’s waited in that castle. Jonathan shows Vlad a picture of his own fiance, Mina, and guess who she looks like?Back in Paris, the priest explains the vampire curse to Dr. Dumont. Dumont’s assistant points out that Mina is in the next room. She’s a friend of Maria, and tells the story of what happened to her. She admits that she’s engaged to Jonathan, but also that she feels like she doesn’t really belong in this time.Meanwhile Dracula gets a bite of food on the road; he drains an entire convent full of nuns. He then travels to Paris, looking much younger now after feasting, and heads straight to the asylum where Maria is held prisoner. He breaks her out and feeds the orderly to her as a reward for her help. The priest and the doctor rush to warn Mina.Along the way, Jonathan makes a difficult escape from the castle.Meanwhile, Maria goes to Mina and says she’s been released from the hospital. They go to a hotel where she meets Dracula. He tags along with them around the carnival like a stalker. It’s all surprisingly romantic, and just maybe it’ll work out for Dracula this time. During their date, she gets repeated flashbacks to her earlier life.When Mina goes home that evening, she finds Jonathan there along with the priest and doctor. The priest explains the facts about Dracula to Mina. Dracula shows up to convince her about his side of the story and about who she really is. She imme

We’ve got another weird mix of old and new this time around. We’ll begin with the new “Forgive Us All,” then discuss “Insidious Chapter 3,” “Godzilla vs. Biollante” and then both the original “Witchboard” (1986) and the brand-new remake from 2025.The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #49, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Forgive Us All* Directed by: Jordana Stott* Written by: Jordana Stott, Lance Giles, Alex Makauskas* Stars: Lily Sullivan, Callan Mulvey, Richard Roxburgh* Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIn a beautiful location in New Zealand, we see a slice of a zombie apocalypse. And we quickly see that living jerks are just as dangerous as the infected in the aftermath. A woman in mourning finds a wounded traveler being pursued, and we gradually piece together what life and politics are like now. Rather than a non-stop action take, this is more of a story that takes its time, focusing on the people trying to survive. We give it a moderate thumbs up.Spoilery SynopsisA woman cries and screams next to a fresh grave. As she carries her pistol back to the house, we see that a struggle took place that resulted in a shooting. She then looks in on her sleeping child, who is also covered in blood and barely breathing. Although it looks like she’s dying, Maddie sits up and looks possessed. Maddie leaps, and we hear a gunshot. Credits roll.Two years later, Rory still wakes up with nightmares over that whole situation. She listens to a radio report that sounds bleak. She passes Otto on the way out, and it’s clear that they live way out in the wilderness.We cut to a rider leaving Camp 13, zooming right past the sign that says, “GMA Quarantine Processing.” Two other horseback riders are right behind him, in pursuit. The man’s partner gets caught instead. They torture him for the first rider’s location, but he dies rather than give it up.Back with Rory, who still grieves about Maddie, she’s considering killing herself, but doesn’t. She finds the horse, who leads her to the unconscious rider. He looks like he’s dying, but she takes his bag, slings him over the saddle, and sets off leading the horse.Meanwhile, Otto finds a bunch of bones that belonged to their neighbor, Henry. The body appears to be mostly eaten. He sees three men, GMA agents, on horseback and hides, but there’s also something screaming in the woods nearby.Rory takes the wounded man home and looks him over before locking him inside the barn. She opens his package and finds medicine inside that says “Take within 72 hours of infection.” When Otto returns, she shows him the still-unconscious stranger. Otto’s not happy. Also there’s a storm coming, “They’ll be out in force tonight.” At dinner, they argue about life in general.That night, she reminisces about Maddie and her drawing of a dragonfly. Her father was off helping the sick people, but Rory doesn’t know much about the virus. Suddenly, Connor, the father, opens the door, and he’s clearly not right. He jumps at them and– Rory wakes up.She goes out to the barn to check on her prisoner, and he’s up and around now. They hear a “Howler” outside and have a quick scuffle. He’s Noah, and she patches up his wounds. Noah broke into the GMA base and stole the antidote for his own sick son. It’s still dark, so if he leaves now, the Howlers will get him. Still, his time to use the antidote on his son is running out.Not far away, the three trackers, Logan, Scout, and Brooks, find Rory’s house and wait to see what happens. Rory and Otto argue about what to do about the sick boy whose time is running out. As they bicker, the GMA agents ride up.Rory and Noah take the horse as Otto stays behind to stall the agents. There’s a gunfight, and Brooks dies, as does Otto. Logan is injured, but he’ll live. Scout tells Logan she’s not going with him; she doesn’t want to be a part of this anymore, so Logan goes on alone after Noah and Rory.Rory continues on alone as Noah and Logan brawl without their horses or guns. After much back and forth, Noah shoots Logan, which attracts a group of Howlers which finishes him off as well.Rory continues through the dark forest, now at night, and all the Howlers are out at night. She hides and runs from a group of the nasty infected people. In one of the scuffles, she gets bitten. After that, the infected begin to ignore her; she’s one of them now.In the morning, Rory finally comes to Noah’s house. Did she get there in time to save Noah’s son before the infection is too far gone? She leaves the cure with the old woman who’s watching Noah’s son and walks on back to the river.Rory visualizes Maddie as she puts her pistol to her head and pulls the trigger before the disease gets her.Brian’s CommentaryIt’s a just-barely sci-fi post-zombie-apocalyptic story set in the always-beautiful New Zealand wilderness. Everything is filmed with either a brown or g

All five of our films this week are new releases:We’ll open on a nice dog story; really, he’s a “Good Boy.” A not-so-good-boy is the star of “The Toxic Avenger.” We’ll go back in time and watch the prequel, “Borley Rectory: The Awakening.” Then we’ll watch a couple of documentaries, one real, “Lost Contact: UFOs After Wartime” and one not-so-real “Strange Harvest.”Spoiler: We liked them all!* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #49, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Good Boy* Directed by: Ben Leonberg* Written by: Alex Cannon, Ben Leonberg* Stars: Indy, Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman* Run Time: 1 Hour, 12 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThe main character of the movie is a dog, with everything slanted toward his point of view, which is interesting. His master, Todd, is afflicted with both a terminal illness and dark forces that are working against him. Both things that seem to have been impacting his family for quite a while. But he’s got Indy by his side. It’s unique, which helps it out a lot, but it’s actually pretty slow moving on a low simmer. We both thought it was pretty good.Spoilery SynopsisIndy the dog protects the house at night; he hears strange sounds that concern him. The phone keeps ringing, and it turns out that Todd is having some kind of seizure. His sister, Vera, comes in and calls 911. Credits roll.We watch old footage of Indy being a puppy and growing up with Todd and his family. Todd’s got a lot of health problems, and Indy is a big help.Todd and Vera argue about him going to stay at Grandpa’s house; neither Vera nor Indy think that’s a good idea. The house is very remote in the country. When they arrive, Indy really doesn’t want to get out of the car. The place is a mess, but Todd says it beats the hospital.Todd calls Vera, and they talk. Grandpa used to have a bunch of dogs, but they kept all running away. As he watches old home videos of grandpa, Vera points out that no one has lived in that house for more than a few weeks; she says it’s haunted. Meanwhile, Indy checks out shadows that he doesn’t like. Indy explores the old house, but he doesn’t find anything.The next morning, Todd and Indy go for a walk in the woods. They stop at the family cemetery, and Todd points out that most of them died pretty young. They run into a neighbor, and he mentions traps and snares all over the woods. The neighbor mentions how strange the area is, too. Todd, on the other hand, thinks it’s nice and peaceful.Vera, still on the phone, mentions that dogs can detect all sorts of things that people can’t, so he should be keeping an eye on Indy for signs of trouble. The next day, Todd goes off and leaves Indy at home, and Indy is not pleased. Indy spots another dog in the house and follows it, but all he finds is the dog’s bandana– and a vision of something nasty that “got” the other dog. Todd comes home, unwell; he’s been at the hospital again.Indy has nightmares that night. He wakes up and patrols the house, hearing and seeing things that shouldn’t be there. He watches as Todd goes to the kitchen and bangs his head on a door repeatedly– sleepwalking? There appears to be some kind of black ghost or monster that’s creeping around the place.Todd gets sicker, and the doctor says he doesn’t qualify for her clinical trials. The neighbor, Richard, warns him again about his fox traps. As Todd obliviously works on his Feng Shui, Indy watches all sorts of horrors going on in the next room and especially in the basement.One night, Todd collapses and a door shuts Indy in the next room. Indy notices the window is open and jumps down to get outside. Indy runs through the woods toward Richard’s house to get help but gets caught in a snare instead. The next thing we know, Todd is chaining up Indy outside in the rain. The monster terrorizes Indy, who can’t escape because of the chains. Indy does eventually break loose, and then he finds the skeletal remains of Bandit, Grandpa’s last dog.Inside the house, Todd gets a scare of his own until Indy comes in and comforts him. The monster then grabs Todd and drags him to the basement, but Indy knows another way in. “You’re a good dog, but you can’t save me,” Todd says as he turns into a skeleton.In the morning, we see that Todd has died in his bed. Vera comes to the house and finds Bandit’s bones in the cellar while letting Indy outside. Indy goes off to live with Vera.He was a good boy!Brian’s CommentaryAll Grandpa’s dogs ran off… we see why.It’s told from Indy’s point of view, which is interesting and unique. Dogs do sense things that humans can’t, and this film makes heavy use of that fact. Indy the dog gets top billing here, primarily because we don’t see any shots of the character’s faces through the majority of the film.It’s actually very slow moving and quiet. I suspect some will say it’s boring, but it had my attention throughout. If you’re a do

Two new releases this week, along with some fun catch-up films.We’ll start off with the brand-new underground tunnel-chase, “Scurry” and then go out to the retro-desert in “Brute 1976.” We’ll take a walk on the silly side with “Lavalantula” from 2015, and then finish off the George Romero zombie series with the final two of his films: “Diary of the Dead” 2007 and “Survival of the Dead” (2010).A bunch of winners this week!* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Scurry* Directed by: Luke Sparke* Written by: Tom Evans* Stars: Jamie Costa, Emalia, Peter O’Hanlon* Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA claustrophobic view of a big disaster event has us following a couple of survivors as they work their way out of an underground obstacle course of collapsed buildings and streets. And is there more going on than just a local earthquake or something? Just how bad could it be? We travel along with them to find out. There are some hints given in the opening seconds.Spoilery SynopsisWe see some kind of apocalyptic disaster happening from out a skyrise window. There are alarms sounding. People are running and screaming. Then we hear growling noises from down the hall and one running woman dies in a wet splatter against the wall. Maybe we aren’t at the top of the food chain any more. We fly over the city, and there is a big blackened pit that is surrounded by burnt out emergency vehicles, and it pans down to a dead man laying there and no, he’s not dead. He wakes up. He’s trapped under a chunk of rubble. He pulls out his cell but can’t get through to anyone. He finally thinks to use his phone as a flashlight and looks around. He finally gets through to his wife’s voicemail and explains what happened from his point of view. He levers himself free..Mark hears a chopper flying over, which is hopeful, but then it crashes right next to the hole he’s in. The hole collapses behind him, trapping him in an underground tunnel. He pulls out a piece of glass that impaled him, but he’s not bleeding too badly.It takes a while for Mark to get his bearings, and he hears rocks falling all over the place. He finds a woman’s purse and digs through it for anything to use. He finds a video camera with an infra-red feature, which is useful.He gets a jump scare when the woman who owns the purse shows up. She’s Sarah. There’s a rock slide or something, and she soon vanishes. No, she’s hiding, “Shhhh. They’ll hear us.” He sets her dislocated bone, but she says everyone up above is dead, no one is coming for them. She’s very paranoid that he’s going to leave her alone. They talk about their kids, but she seems to know a lot more about what’s going on than he does. She’s not really Sarah; that was a stolen purse. Then she pulls a gun on him. And things get complicated.As they argue over who gets to hold the lighter, something growls nearby. “They’ve found us.” Mark uses the infra-red camera but doesn’t see what it is. They run for a while but eventually, Mark gets a glimpse of the creature behind them with the camera. She notices that she’s lost her pills and wants to go back, but he says that’s stupid; this leads to her pulling the gun again. He has to go back for her pills and notices that the creature seems to be stuck in place, so he’s OK for now.Mark wants to know what she knows about the creatures. They killed her sister, dragging her right out of the car. He explains that he was just crossing the street and fell into what he thought was an earthquake sinkhole. “Nothing can survive up there,” she says. He doubts that everyone is dead. They continue to crawl through the tunnel until they see a light; it’s not an exit, it’s just a flashlight someone dropped. They find the flashlight’s owner, dead, and go through his stuff. Turns out, he’s not dead, but when he starts to scream, one of the creatures eats him.Now Mark believes in monsters. They argue over her hard-as-nail attitude since she still doesn’t trust him. As they argue, one of the spiderlike monsters spears Mark and pulls him away. Is this creature an alien, or was it always down here? We don’t know, but the woman’s story makes it sound like they came from space. She continues on, crawling through the tunnel until she catches up to Mark who is lying there; somehow, he killed it with his knife– he’s got to be some kind of marine or special forces.Mark then explains his sad life story. He drunkenly started a house fire that nearly killed his son. He left the family after that, and now he feels he still can’t protect them. She gives him advice, and now they’re friends.After an incredibly long time, they come to a room where they can stand up, and it’s full of bodies. They can hear shooting and bad things happening through the sewer grate above. There are soldiers up there, and they hear the two down below and

Four new releases this week, it must be getting closer to Halloween!We’ll start off with the much-discussed “Weapons” and then watch some even-newer releases: “Coyotes,” “The Drowned,” and “In Vitro,” which were all fun. Lastly, we’ll continue our ongoing kaiju coverage with 1984’s “The Return of Godzilla.”A bunch of winners this week!* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Weapons* Directed by: Zach Cregger* Written by: Zach Cregger* Stars: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich* Run Time: 2 Hours, 8 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneWe start right out setting the mystery of how a classroom full of kids all ran out of their houses at 2:17 in the morning one night and disappeared. Except for one kid. Then the movie is spent going over the aftermath from different points of view of the people involved, and we get to solve the mystery together. It’s long but we were never bored. Okay, Kevin was a little impatient for the first half hour or so. But overall we liked it a lot and would recommend it. And we also recommend you go into it as blind as you can.Spoilery SynopsisWe’re told that this is a true story, but there was a coverup to hide the truth. We open on a third-grade and a new teacher, Justine. Not one of her kids has come to school, but all the other classes are perfectly normal. Wait, a boy named Alex did show up. Every other kid woke up the previous night at 2:17 a.m., walked outside, and vanished at a run into the night. They never came back. We watch a flashback as the kids go running outside late at night. Credits roll.JustineThe police interrogate little Alex and Justine, who know nothing. Eventually, they had to reopen the school after a month. First, they have a big meeting to deal with grief counseling over the seventeen missing children. They want to hear from Justine, who seems to be at the center of all this. What did she do? The crowd gets nasty, and the meeting is soon over. They blame her.On the way home, Justine starts getting death threats on her phone. She finds her car painted with “Witch” on the side in the morning. The school principal, Mr. Marcus, tells her that she can’t work there anymore. She wants to talk to Alex, but she’s not allowed.Justine meets policeman Paul at a bar later, and she tells him her problems. He says that she’s always been a little paranoid, and now she’s drinking too much. He is reluctant to drink, but we flash forward to the next morning with him waking up hung over in Justine’s bed. She drives him to his car, still at the bar.Justine goes to see Alex, which she has been forbidden to do. There are newspapers over all the windows at his house. She peeks in and sees something weird. She’s later attacked by Donna, Paul’s wife, who is justifiably angry. At home that night, she starts seeing things.She “stakes out” Alex’s house, gets drunk, and passes out. Someone sneaks into the car and snips off some of her hair.ArcherWe cut to Archer, who watches doorbell security video of his son running off into the darkness that night last month. He goes to work, and he’s been messing up lately. He’s been pestering the chief of police to the point of being annoying. He still thinks Justine is behind all this, but the chief doesn’t believe she’s involved. We see that he’s got red paint in the back of his truck, the same color as “WITCH” painted on the side of Justine’s car.Archer has a dream where he sees Matthew, his son, running off to a house with a giant gun flying overhead. He goes inside and talks to his sleeping son. The light comes on, and the dream gets weird.In the morning, Archer takes the information from his dream and checks out a nearby radio tower. He gets with some other parents and looks at their video footage. He confronts Justine, but in the middle of their conversation, she’s attacked by Mr. Marcus, the principal, who has gone utterly berserk.PaulWe cut back a few days, as Paul sees someone suspicious running down the street, this results in a chase. He catches James, whom he knocks out. He realizes the camera is on and lets the guy go so there’s no report. The chief is somewhat supportive, so long as James stays quiet.This is when he gets a text from Justine and meets her at the bar. He falls right off the wagon. He goes home hung over and runs into Donna, who later attacks Justine in a jealous rage. He later sees James again and chases him.JamesJames is an addict who can’t get his pipe to light because he’s run dry. He breaks into a car and steals an iPad. The pawnbroker doesn’t want it. He’s trying to break into a store when Paul spots and beats him the first time.James walks through the rain to Alex’s house and gets in through an upstairs window. He goes all through the house, looking for things to steal until he finds Alex’s parents, who seem to be frozen or paralyzed. He looks in th

Three new movies this week, but a pair of classics to go along with it:“The Jester 2,” “The Man in the White Van,” and “Monster Island” are all out fresh this month, but “The Ghastly Love of Johnny X” (2012) and “Land of the Dead” (2005) are from a decade or two ago.* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 The Jester 2* Directed by: Colin KrawChuk* Written by: Colin KrawChuk* Stars: Michael Sheffield, Kaitlyn Trentham,* Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThe Jester is back, killing people like a magician and entertainer again, with a bit of a different look. There’s much more explanation in this sequel than the first movie, and we both thought that was a step in the right direction. We liked this one better than the first Jester.Spoilery SynopsisIt’s a big Halloween party, and the guys mock each other for being afraid to talk to Ava. He goes over to her, but she’s more interested in Connor. That goes badly for Eric but suddenly, The Jester appears by crawling out of a box. He then peels his mask off like he’s molting, and we see that he’s got hair now and his face itself looks like the mask. The Jester makes Eric be the pinata, and that’s a mess. Credits roll.Max and Zoe talk about going out trick or treating, but mom says Max is getting a little too old for this stuff. Meanwhile, the Jester asks a guy on the street to pick a card, and then handcuffs him before ripping out his innards with a card trick.Max goes to a restaurant alone, and the jerky waiter recognizes her from school. The girls at the next table mock her, but then the Jester sits down across from Max, and at least he’s nice to her. He tries to do a trick with his cards, but she shows him card tricks aren’t going to fool her. When the guy she likes punctures her bicycle tire, she stops and cries.A trio of troublemakers are out pranking, and they run up against the Jester, who does his thing for them– except his magic no longer works. Instead, he just kills them the old-fashioned way- he attacks them with a knife. He’s lost his mojo and soon figures out that Max has it.Max goes to the magic shop and tells her friend there about her social problems. He’s really nice and cheers her up. When she leaves, the Jester is waiting for her. As she watches, he walks over to the mean group from earlier and “pantses” the guy, much to his embarrassment. Jester invites Max to go trick or treating with him.At the first house, Max does a magic trick for the woman inside, but then the Jester does a trick and kills the woman; his magic is back on again. Max runs away, terrified. They come across the remains of the party from the opening sequence, and Max shows him the Ouija board, which he can use to “talk” to her. He’s not going to kill her, he needs her. “You are just like me.” He says he’s a misunderstood entertainer until he met the Great Deceiver, who made him a deal. “I must trick four souls each Hallow’s Eve before a candle burns out.” Since she tricked him, that opens up a whole new rulebook; she has to do the tricks now.Max picks out one guy in the park; it’s the guy who was mean to her earlier. He’s pretty easy to hate, so she shows him a trick. He apologizes during the trick, but it’s too late by then, and the Jester takes over.Some police come over to question Max and the Jester, but suddenly, Max can’t speak either. Turns out, Max has called 911 on her phone. The police try to arrest the Jester, but that doesn’t go well for them.Max runs away and encounters a man on the street who offers to drive her to the police station. They hear about the previous deaths on the radio, but the guy in the car is very weird, weird in a pedophile kind of way. The Jester reappears and solves Max’s problem.Max has an asthma attack, so the Jester takes her to the fire station for help. The Jester then plays hide and seek with the firemen in the fire station. Max refuses to help him any further and goes home.Max’s mother is there waiting for her, and she’s surprisingly mean. She finds the Jester in her sister Zoe’s room; he’s already killed the mother, and now he wants Zoe too. He still needs her to do one more trick for a victim.Max chooses Darren, the waiter from earlier. When he gets off work, Max and the Jester are outside waiting for him. She pulls out her deck of cards and has second thoughts halfway through it. Turns out, she’s sleight-of-handed the Jester himself and performs a trick on him. Suddenly, his candle goes out and he bursts into flames.The magic shop owner shows up to help Max and Zoe. The police have the whole area covered. He finds that Max has taken the Jester’s hat, and she keeps babbling about “four tricks– four souls. Every year.” Sounds like it’s time for a yearly franchise!Brian’s CommentaryThe character of the Jester looked better in the previous film, with the full

Three new movies this week, but a pair of classics to go along with it:“Somnium,” “Dirty Boy,” and “Site” from this year. “The Jester” from 2023 is up next, followed by “Curse of Chucky” to complete that series, we already watched all the others. .* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2024 Somnium* Directed by: Racheal Cain* Written by: Racheal Cain* Stars: Chloe Levine, Jonathan Schaech, Will Peltz* Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA struggling actress takes a night job watching over a bunch of people who have signed up for Somnium, a facility where they are put to sleep for weeks and kept in a continuous dream state while being hypnotized into an improved mental state. Is it just stress and lack of sleep that’s causing Gemma to struggle with life or is something more ominous at work? We wondered and so will you. This was very good, entertaining and pulling us along while leaving a lot open to interpretation.Spoilery SynopsisGemma has moved to a new city; she wants to be an actress. She goes to the talent agencies and auditions. She eventually goes to a place called “Somnium” who is hiring. Gemma doesn’t have much experience in anything useful, but Dr. Shaffer explains that it’s not a hard job, but it’s been hard to find anyone who stays very long. She’s essentially a “sleep sitter,” watching over sleeping patients in the facility.We flash back to Gemma and Hunter talking about what they want to do with their lives. She wants to be an actress, he wants to be a touring musician. He knows he’s not really going to do that and sketches her a picture of the house he’d like to build someday.On her first night at Somnium, Gemma learns about the “Science of Winning” and sees the sleep pods with people inside. The machine plays pictures and sounds into these peoples’ dreams. It’s a way to “program” new personal truths into people. It’s a quiet job, making sure nothing happens all night.Gemma’s not comfortable inside her own apartment, hearing and seeing things that aren’t there. She clearly misses her life back in Georgia. She runs into Brooks, a creepy guy who probably wants something bad for her. Noah, at work, shows her how he programs people for their careers. He takes a photo of Gemma and puts it in some guy’s dream, teasing her that if he left it in the guy’s dream he would wake up infatuated with her without knowing why.At an audition, Gemma does great, but the casting people aren’t excited. That night at Somnium, she sees some kind of monster in one of the patient rooms, but, of course, there’s nothing really there. At home, she hears that back home, Hunter has found a new girlfriend. Depressed, she calls Brooks, who offers to show her around town. He is strange, but he’s clearly rich and connected and seems interested in helping her.Time passes, and Gemma does more auditions. At night, she learns more about Somnium and reads all the brochures. She learns from Noah and Olivia about “Cloud 9” an emergency procedure where mental patients get programmed to straighten out their lives in just a few short hours. “No one comes back the same.” Olivia thinks the process is terrible, but Noah says it’s better than the alternative.Gemma runs into Noah working late one night; he’s doing something sketchy. Brooks invites her to a party Friday night, but she can’t get off work. As she starts to mess with the security footage logs to cover her sneaking out, she sees what Noah’s been up to late at night. She then sneaks off to party with Brooks and his friends. She meets Dakota, another actress, and she’s not having any luck getting parts. Max, a huge star, talks to Gemma about Somnium; she’s a former customer, and it made her successful.Gemma finds that she’s being evicted. She also gets caught sneaking out of Somnium. At night, sometimes she sees monsters in her apartment. Brooks comes by, and he’s worried about her. He implies that he’s disappointed with her and tries giving her advice. We get more flashbacks to her time with Hunter as she gets more and more depressed. She finds a shadowy man in her apartment who injects her with something.We get glimpses of Noah at Somnium, working on Gemma. “You figured it out a lot faster than the last dream sitter.” He’s put her in the Cloud 9 program, and she’s being re-programmed. She sees herself inside the Somnium facility, chased by a monster. Suddenly, she’s a guest on “The Latest Show,” being interviewed as a big star. Even in her dream, the interview goes badly. She talks to dream-Hunter, and he’s mean. Eventually, she confronts the monster again, face to face, and it vanishes.Gemma wakes up in Somnium and gets off the table. Dr. Shaffer, Olivia, and Noah are out there. Gemma tells them to look at Noah’s hard drive for evidence. She then goes home, pays her bills, and cleans up her apartment. She

We only have one new movie this week, but a handful of classic oldies to go along with it:* “I Know What You Did Last Summer” the new 2025 one, the reboot/requel/whatever.* “The Toxic Avenger” from 1984 in preparation for the new version that will be coming* “Santa Sangre” from 1989* “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare” from 1994, which completes our coverage of ALL the Freddy movies.* “Seed of Chucky” to continue that series, we only have “Curse” left to watch.And as usual, we’ve got a stack of shorts for you!* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 I Know What You Did Last Summer* Directed by: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson* Written by: Sam Lansky, Jennifer Kayton Robinson, Leah McKendrick* Stars: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King* Run Time: 1 Hour, 51 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneOnce again, a group of young people cause a death, cover it up, and in delayed revenge a year later someone starts picking them off. It’s a long-after sequel, not a reboot. It takes place in the same town as the original movie, many years later, and some of the original cast join in the fun. It’s well done and entertaining, with Kevin liking it a bit more than Brian.Spoilery SynopsisAva arrives home and tries on a bunch of outfits; she’s going to Danica’s engagement party. Danica wants her to hook up with Milo tonight after the party. Teddy and Milo have the same conversation from afar. Everyone toasts Danica and Teddy, will Milo and Ava be next? That night, the fourth of July, the four all drive and look at Stevie, who didn’t go off to college like they all did. They invite her along to watch the fireworks.Teddy’s high and standing in the middle of the road, which causes an accident. The truck teeters on the edge of the cliff, and they all try to hold it teetering on the edge. They fail, and it goes over the edge far down into the waves below. The man inside the truck grabs Teddy’s jacket before falling. Teddy says he called the police, but now they all need to leave the scene. They all swear each other to secrecy.One year later, Ava has become a lesbian. She ends up taking Tyler back to her hometown, and she makes an impression on Milo. It’s time for Danica’s bridal shower, and everyone shows up. As she opens the gifts, she gets a note: “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Danica has broken up with Teddy, so she thinks he sent the note. She’s with Wyatt now. “What if someone saw what happened?”They all go to visit Teddy, who’s a full-blown alcoholic now. He insists that he had nothing to do with the note. That night Danica takes a bath with headphones on. In the kitchen, someone harpoons Wyatt; it’s a fisherman in full cover rain gear with a hidden face, and a big hook. Danica finds him in a posed situation, and it’s clear that it was murder.Danica and Ava talk about the intervening year and how they’ve grown apart. The five from last year get together and discuss who knew what.Tyler has a murder podcast, so they think she might be involved– she even did a podcast about the events of the first movie, from 1997, right here in this town. Tyler tells Ava all about the Fisherman and the story we already know. Sure enough, the Fisherman shows up and menaces them both. Somehow, Ava winds up in a cage and Tyler’s podcasting days come to an end.Since the cops are on Tyler’s father’s payroll, they aren’t going to help, so the group decides to talk to Julie James, one of the survivors of the 1997 massacre. They talk about the connections between the two cases. The man who died last year is a bit mysterious, and they don’t really know who he was. She basically says that they need to find the killer before he kills them all.There’s a town hall meeting, and Ray, from the 1997 occurrence, shows up to warn everyone that this could all be connected. They go see him after the meeting; Stevie works for him at his bar. They track down the stolen car the dead man, Sam Cooper, was driving, and the truck belonged to Pastor Judah, the local preacher.At the cemetery, the Fisherman chases Danica all over the place after killing the caretaker. Teddy jumps in at the last moment and runs the killer off. Everyone sleeps together at Danica’s house that night. Ava likes it rough, which confuses Milo. He goes outside to think about that, and the Fisherman kills him before he goes back inside. Ava sees his car drive off and thinks he left.Elsewhere, Ray and Julie argue about old times and getting involved in all this.Ava and Danica go to see Pastor Judah. Ava talks to him while Danica searches his audience. The pastor and Sam Cooper, may have been closer than everyone was led to believe; they come to the conclusion that Judah is the killer. They take what they know to the sheriff, who promptly calls Grant, Teddy’s father and the town’s mayor.Teddy goes to the steam room and sees “You’re Next” w

We've got a whole string of new releases this week. We’ll start out with “Your Host,” about a fun game show. Next, we’ll take a trip to “Pig Hill” and do some huffing and puffing. “213 Bones” slashes up a bunch of teens next, followed by the comedic-stalker film “Borderline.” Finally, we’ll see what came after Dracula with “Abraham’s Boys.”And as usual, we’ve got a stack of shorts for you!* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #47, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Your Host* Directed by: DW Medoff* Written by: Joey Miller* Stars: Jackie Earle Haley, Ella-Rae Smith, Jamie Flatters* Run Time: 1 Hour 29 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneYou will immediately think, “This reminds me of Saw,” but it leans into the game show aspect enough to be different and interesting. Jackie Earle Haley is excellent as the host and the rest of the cast does a nice job as well. The effects are realistic, and there’s a story that explains things nicely. It was better than we expected, and we liked it a lot.Spoilery SynopsisJake is announced as the “Final Winner” in what appears to be a very bloody, terrifying game. He ends up winning a shotgun blast. Credits roll.We cut to four young people who are visiting a summer house in the country. Matthew, Melissa, James, and Anita begin their weekend of partying– it’s Anita’s birthday. They all seem a little obnoxious, especially James, whose house they’re in. They hear a noise outside, and James finds a video camera filming their house.Anita doesn’t want to watch the tape; she’s a real stick-in-the-mud which causes a big argument. Anita tells Matthew that her mother’s dying, and she’s upset over that. They all go about their evening, and we see someone stalking around in the shadows. We watch as the shadowy figure injects each of them with a sedative.All four wake up chained to the wall in a dark place. There’s another video camera and a strange man in a red suit wearing a mask. He’s got a mannequin studio audience, as he introduces the four contestants for his “game show.” He promises, “There’s always a winner!”The Host says it’s time for “Rock Paper Scissors Shoot.” He shows them what that means to lose.Several hours later, the four commiserate about their predicament. He makes them admit the worst things they ever did. James was guilty of killing someone in a car accident. Anita made an adult web page to pay for her mother’s surgery. Matthew scams people online. Melissa admits that her animal shelter sold dogs to dogfighting organizers.Now it’s time for “Wheel of Pain.” Melissa loses an eye. Anita drills a hole in Matthew’s ear. In the next game, Melissa gets a splitting headache as the point of that one.The Host comes back in and shows them a video of him cutting a woman up with a chainsaw. He also shows Anita his own scarred face. James thinks the man looks familiar. Turns out, Anita used to work on the Barry Miller show; we get a flashback.Barry Miller ran “Wheel of Games,” a game show program. Anita watches as a criminal gets released on the TV news. Jake, the guy who died at the beginning of the movie, and Lisa, the woman who got chainsawed also worked there with Anita, and they plant the idea that Anita and others could get a lot of money if they accuse Barry of being a sexual predator. They lied and ruined Barry’s career plus he lost his wife and kid.Barry’s already killed Jake, Lisa, and the lawyer who ruined him. He makes Anita chew on the dead lawyer’s tongue.For the next game James and Matthew have fresh sewn incisions on their stomachs. Barry gives Anita the chance to play “Incision Decision.” She’s got a knife and guess where the keys are? Which of them is going to be cut open? They both beg and negotiate, but in the end, she cuts open James and pulls out a key.Her key doesn’t fit the door, so she needs the other key. Barry releases Matthew so he can fight back. He picks up the knife, kisses Anita, and then cuts his own throat.Anita gets the other key and lets herself into the back room of “The Show,” where she finds many videotapes and photos. Barry’s obviously been planning this for a long time.Barry invites her in for one last game. It’s time to pick her prize. Anita offers to publicly admit that she lied about her accusations. But he lost his money, his career, his family, all just for money to save her mother’s life, and nothing will get that back. Barry promises not to kill Anita’s mother if she just finishes the game.She cuts Barry and runs outside but is quickly recaptured. She smashes her face into a birthday cake, but there’s no trick there. He says she wins the game. There was no knife in the cake; the icing, however, is acid. She dies painfully.We watch more videotape, where the lawyer admits he raped all those women; Barry was totally innocent of everything before Anita ruined his life.Brian’s CommentaryThe trailers make it look like “

We’ve got some good stuff for you this time around! A mix of new and old this time, starting with “Row” and “Osiris” from 2025. Back in 2016, we met some cannibals in “Raw.” Lastly, we’ll watch “Hellraiser: Judgment” from 2016 and “Terror of Mechagodzilla” from way back in 1975.* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #47, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Row* Directed by: Matthew Lasasso* Written by: Matthew Lasasso, Nick Skaugen* Stars: Sophia Skelton, Bella Dayne, Akshay Khanna* Run Time: 1 Hour, 58 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneAn expedition on a pretty small four person rowboat is meant to set a world record going across the Atlantic Ocean. We get to cheat a little and see the ending of the expedition first, then we go back and gradually see what led up to that ending. In the claustrophobic setting, things get worse and worse as things go wrong and the quartet starts turning on each other. It’s very well crafted, tense, and fascinating. We both really liked it.Spoilery SynopsisWe open on a deserted-looking boat with bloodstains and wreckage everywhere. One woman is alive, clearly in shock, and there are two dead people on the deck. Credits roll.Megan wakes up in bed, delirious, with an older man and woman there. Apparently she and the boat washed up with her the only survivor.We cut to Newfoundland, Canada, as Daniel records his warnings and expectations about their upcoming expedition. Their four-person team plans to cross the Atlantic in a small boat, but they’re going to row all the way. Megan is going along, leaving her mother, who has terminal cancer.Megan arrives at The Valiant and meets Mike, a new guy. Daniel and Lexi are there as well, and the four start rowing. We cut back and forth between Megan in her recovery bed and the early stages of the row. The hospital man says he’s a policeman DCI MacKelly and she’s been there for two weeks; she’s suffering from malnutrition.On the boat, they’ve been preparing for this 28-day journey for the past two years. They’re off course, so Mike has to dive under the boat to see if something’s wrong. There’s a rubber hair band jammed in the rudder, and it’s burned out their steering motor. Daniel thinks it wasn’t an accident. The only one who was alone with the boat was Mike, but why would he do it? Mike was a replacement for Adam, who broke his leg at the last minute. Daniel insists they should push through and keep going.On board the boat, Mike gets sick, throws up, and then gets the shivering, hallucinating kind of fever. The boat barely survives a storm and a huge wave. Megan gets an incoming satellite call from Adam, who also recently broke up with Lexi; she’s the other woman on board. Mike deliriously threatens Daniel with a knife for hiding Rachel on the boat, which is obviously not true. Daniel whacks him over the head, knocking him out.DCI MacKelly, in the hospital, says there’s no record of anyone named Mike having anything to do with the expedition. In fact, a search by his first and last name doesn’t turn up anyone with that name existing at all.On the boat, in the morning, Mike recovers and feels fine, but everyone else is surprisingly quiet. We get a flashback and see that Megan was the other woman in the Adam-Lexi romance. We see that Daniel is trying to call his father to dig up more information about Mike.A wave hits and capsizes the boat; everyone goes in the water. Megan gets knocked out and nearly drowns, but everyone ends up OK except the boat’s battery, which is dead. Daniel thinks its because Mike didn’t latch the waterproof cover properly.Somehow, they’re also short on food, which shouldn’t be possible. They only have nine days of rations left, and Lexi blames Daniel for throwing it all out. He ends up admitting it, but that may be just out of rage and not something he actually did. Mike jokes that they could throw Daniel overboard and no one would ever know. Lexi seriously considers it, but Megan is appalled at the idea.The next day, all the water pouches are empty. That’s even worse than losing the food. Daniel again gets the blame, but he swears it had to be Mike. Mike and Lexi attack Daniel, tie him up, but Lexi bangs her head badly. She’s not dead but knocked out. Daniel says Mike killed his own girlfriend, Rachel, and is on the run from the police.Megan has Daniel and Mike row toward a shipping lane– at knifepoint. Day 28 arrives, and they lose out on the World Record. Daniel tells mostly-unconscious Lexi all his personal problems.Next thing we see, Lexi is dead. There’s another big wave, and Megan goes overboard again. When she gets back on, she considers cutting Daniel’s safety line loose and then just disconnects it. The current soon carries him away. She then helps Mike back on board.Out of water and food, Megan and Mike keep on rowing. Mike tells her what happened to Rachel, who simply went missing.

Nothing brand new this time around. We’ll watch a couple from last year, “I Don’t Understand You” and “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (2024). We’ll go way back for a thoughtful man-monster in “The Colossus of New York” (1958) and then do a serial killer film with “Found” (2012). Finally, we’ll wrap-up the original zombie trilogy with “Day of the Dead” (1985), which for some reason, we haven’t done before.And, as always, we’ll have five short films.* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #47, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2024 I Don’t Understand You* Directed by: David Joseph Craig, Brian Crano* Written by: David Joseph Craig, Brian Crano* Stars: Nick Kroll, Andrew Rannells, Amanda Seyfried* Run Time: 1 Hour 37 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis is heavy on the comedy and light on the horror elements, with language barriers and misunderstandings leading to unfortunate outcomes. It’s not very scary, but it’s a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it.Spoilery SynopsisDom and Cole are a gay couple recording a video about adoption. It’s essentially a video application for the mother to choose them. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. After, they pack up and go on a vacation to Rome as credits roll.In Rome, the two go sightseeing. Dom is clearly obsessive, and Cole is well aware of it. They stop in to visit one of Dom’s father’s friends. They are given engraved knives as gifts - Cole’s is misspelled “Cool.” Cole doesn’t eat meat, which is weird in Rome. They talk about being scammed at one adoption attempt. The family friend, Daniele, has arranged a special dinner for them tomorrow night– and tells them to “Be careful.”The two arrive at their hotel in the country. The man at the hotel gets flustered when two men come in together and spreads their beds apart not realizing they are a couple. He soon realizes the error of his ways. Candace, the potential baby-donor, calls them on Facetime. She likes their video and has chosen them to be the fathers of her child. They’re overjoyed.They go to a farmhouse out in the countryside, an exclusive restaurant, where an old woman has promised to make them a special dinner. When the car gets stuck, it’s clear that this isn’t where they’re supposed to be. The truck who stops to help is the owner of the property, and he’s not happy. They ride along with the man, who stops to shoot a deer. He drops them off at… a place.They knock on the door, and a strange old woman answers. She invites them in. Turns out, this is where they were supposed to go in the first place. They have pizza and wine. When they kiss, she throws a fit about the wine being bad, and they misunderstand why she’s angry because she only speaks Italian. Cole’s a vegetarian, but it’s only polite that he try the horsemeat sausage pizza.The old woman goes into a long story about her son dying and her closing her restaurant. It’s been wonderful cooking for these two men, and she appreciates it. It’s all very nice, but they don’t have a clue what she’s saying. Dom reminds her of the dead son. Cole gets ill and has to puke, leaving Dom alone with the creepy woman. She offers him a clean, dry shirt.Cole finds an old man in an iron lung machine and gets freaked out. Suddenly, the lights go out, and the old woman runs to the breathing machine. In the dark, Cole accidentally pushes the old woman down the stairs, killing her. Dom tries CPR and hears bones snap.Someone drives up in a car. The man comes in and wants Dom’s car keys. He might be trying to tow the car. The power comes back on; should they call for help? The man comes back; he’s Massimo, and he’s rescued their car. He’s the old woman’s son, and he wonders where his mama is. He thanks them for cheering up his mother, who has been very depressed.They boys run outside to the car and run into Francesca. They have to go back inside, and Massimo wonders why Dom is wearing his dead brother’s shirt and he insists they stay for a drink. Massimo sees messages from Candace on Dom’s phone and smiles “You’re going to be dead!” although he’s just mispronouncing “Dad.” Cole runs inside and stabs Massimo in the neck, thinking it’s self defense. As he falls to the floor, he sees his dead mother under the table.Dom’s phone rings. It’s Candace, but they’re both covered in blood. They clean up fast. She’s going into labor, right now. Francesca stumbles in and sees Cole holding a knife over Massimo. She runs outside, and he chases her. Dom gets in the car and accidentally runs her over. “This has to be the last one,” Cole points out. At some point, Cole drops his bloody “Cool” engraved knife outside.Cole notices the big pizza oven in the kitchen. Could they use that to dispose of the bodies? Suddenly, the old woman sits up and Cole kills her again. They burn the bodies and clean up the blood. They get into their car and drive away. As they argue about seat belts,

This time around, we’ve got three new films, an ancient classic, and a not-so-old franchise film. We’ll start with the new “28 Years Later,” which just came to streaming. Next, we’ll watch the shark-slasher, “Dangerous Animals” and the weird “Flesh of the Unforgiven,” also from this year. We’ll then go back to 1941 and view the comedy-horror film, “Spooks Run Wild.” Lastly, we’ll cover the final film in the Caesar trilogy with “War for the Planet of the Apes” from 2017.And, as always, we’ll have five short films.* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #47, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 28 Years Later* Directed by: Danny Boyle* Written by: Alex Garland* Stars: Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ralph Fiennes* Run Time: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis has quite a different tone than the first two movies, and neither of us thought it was improved for the better. After 28 years, assuming the rest of the world is just fine, it seems like they would be handling things differently by this point. Brian thought it was on the dull side. Kevin wasn’t bored, but neither of us liked it that much.Spoilery SynopsisA group of children watch the Teletubbies as the air raid sirens go off and the parents all get really upset. As Jimmy and the others continue to watch, we hear the adults in the next room being eaten. The rage zombies soon get everyone in the house other than Jimmy. We’re told that the rage virus was beaten back from Europe, but it destroyed the entire UK, which was left as a kind of quarantine zone. That was 28 years ago… Credits roll.We open on young Spike and the other villagers getting ready for work on their farms and such on the island. His father is Jamie, who makes an amazing-looking breakfast. His mother, Isla, is sick, and she didn’t realize they were leaving the island this morning for Spike’s first time. She doesn’t want Spike to go, as he’s way too young. She’s confused or delirious, but she calms down easily.Spike and Jamie are going for Spike’s first hunt, and everyone in town cheers them on; it’s a big event. Spike’s only 12, and kids usually don’t go until 14, so he’s an exception. Jenny, the village leader, explains that if anything goes wrong, they’re on their own. They leave the island over the causeway that can only be used during low tide.The two hunters soon see a rotten-looking man crawling on all fours and eating worms. Spike makes his shot and kills the infected man; Jamie kills two more that sneak up on them. They find a house, and inside is a man tied up and hanging by his feet. Someone tied him up and left him for the infected. The man’s got “Jimmy” carved on his chest. Spike kills it.The two find a stag’s head stuck way up on a tree, and Jamie gets spooked. It’s time to go back home. Too late, they run into a whole horde of crazies– the fast variety. The chase is on! They soon run out of arrows and hide in the attic of an old house.We cut back to the village, where people hang up “Welcome home Spike” banners. We hear from Jamie about “Alphas” which are bigger, stronger, and smarter than the usual zombies. Night falls, and they can’t go home. They make a run for it and make it to the causeway, which is just slightly underwater. The Alpha chases them across the water, but the sentries at the village shoot it. They go inside to the celebrations where Jamie’s got a girlfriend on the side, Rosie.Spike talks to an old man, Sam, about the fire they saw in the woods; he says it’s Dr. Kelson, who’s been living out there for years. He’s… odd, but Sam doesn’t want to talk about him. Spike wants to get the doctor to help his mother. Spike eventually gets Jamie to tell the story about Dr. Kelson burning the bodies of the infected.Spike and his mentally-ill mother sneak out of the village; he wants to take her to the doctor– across the wilderness of the mainland. They spend the night in an old church. Someone prevents a zombie from killing them during the night– could it have been Isla, Spike’s mother?We cut to a group of Swedish soldiers who are being chased by a pack of infected. They run into an Alpha, who rips one soldier’s head clean off.Spike and Isla get chased by zombies, and they hide in an old gas station. They’re rescued by the sole surviving soldier, Erik. He’s stuck here now; once anyone sets foot on the mainland, they are quarantined– permanently.Isla comes upon an infected woman who is pregnant, and it looks very painful. The baby seems normal enough, and Isla wants to take it. Meanwhile, an Alpha tears Erik’s head off. The Alpha chases Spike and Isla right into the hands of Dr. Kelson. Kelson sedates the big Alpha, whom he’s named Samson. Spike explains why they’ve come, and Kelson invites them to his compound.Kelson has made a whole forest out of human bones, including a skull tower, as a memorial and tribute to the dead. Kelson shows

It’s an odd week, and an even odder mix of films this time. We’ll start off with “Bats” a nature-gone-wild story from 1999, then travel back in time to watch Bela Lugosi ruin Chinatown in 1936. We’ll then take a freaky gander at a very unusual “Wolf Girl” (2001). “The Sound” is up next, a 2025 film about mountain climbers, followed by 2015’s “Anarchy Parlor,” a terrible tattoo tale.And, as always, we’ll have five short films.* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #47, goes on sale in just a few days! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:1999 Bats* Directed by: Louis Morneau* Written by: John Logan* Stars: Lou Diamond Phillips, Dina Meyer, Bob Gunton* Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThe poster is cool. The science is bad. The movie is pretty good. It’s a genetically-engineered-creature-gone-wrong kind of movie with a big body count. There’s not a lot new here, but it’s got some entertainment value.Spoilery SynopsisWe open in Gallup, Texas as Quint and Emma, a young couple, drive out to an isolated make-out spot. Quint notices something strange outside the car and investigates. As a train passes by behind them, a giant bat breaks in through the windshield and kills them both. Credits roll.We cut to Skull Valley, Arizona. Jimmy talks to Dr. Sheila Casper, who’s crawling around in a tight bat-filled cave herself. They’re rudely interrupted by a helicopter containing Dr. Tobe Hodge and Dr. Alexander McCabe. They are needed for a bat-related “biological emergency.”The group soon arrives in Texas, where they are met by Sheriff Emmett Kimsey. The three scientists do an autopsy on the young couples’ bodies. They were, in fact, killed by bats, but that’s not normal. There have been some animal deaths, but bats don’t do that. McCabe mentions that these bats are special– two bats escaped from a lab. They need to kill the two bats before they can contaminate others with their unique viruses.Another body is found, and it was done by way more than two bats. The mayor wants to avoid a panic and insists they all keep it quiet. McCabe explains that the bats are more intelligent and aggressive, and now they’re omnivorous. If these bats infect the general population during a migration, that would be… bad. Dr. Casper says they need to kill all the contaminated bats before this gets any worse.Casper and Sheriff Kimsey talk about her love for bats. Suddenly, a swarm of CGI bats chases them, and they barely manage to hide in the car. They crawl all over the car, trying to get in; it’s very tense. When Jimmy and the deputy arrive, they get swarmed as well, but then the bats all fly away. All but one, which they put in a cage. They spot McCabe’s original two bats, but they escape as well. They inject the captured bat with a tracker and release it– but then the two leader bats tear it apart.Dr. Hodge gets the CDC to evacuate the town, and the swarm is slowly migrating in that direction. We cut to the town, where we see people doing normal things. The bats start killing the townspeople, and everyone else comes outside to watch. Among many others, the deputy gets eaten and there are many explosions. Dr. Hodge gets eaten as Casper watches, and then the bats all just fly away.In the morning, the army arrives as the surviving townspeople are evacuated. The army wants to blow up all the mountains and the town itself, but the Sheriff, Casper, Jimmy, and McCabe want to keep looking for the leader bats and save the town. The sheriff plays opera music as the others move into the town’s school.Casper wants to crawl into the bat cave and set up equipment that’ll freeze all the bats to death. McCabe overhears the plan and starts getting a sketchy look; he’s gonna do something dumb.The army locates the bats, who are hiding inside a huge mine. The bats attack and kill most of the army men. McCabe admits that he designed the bats to be “perfect killing machines” and he’s called them to where the characters are set up. “You let them out of the lab, didn’t you?” Casper accuses. Yep– he’s a mad scientist.Everyone runs around doing things as the bats attack the school. McCabe runs outside, and his two “babies” tear him apart and then leave. “I guess they got what they came for.”The sheriff, Casper, and Jimmy show up at the mine in the morning, and everyone’s dead. The soldiers got the whole mine wired with explosives and the refrigeration equipment, and the main characters just have to get it all working before the military bombs the whole place.Casper and the sheriff go down into the mines wearing armored breathing suits. They soon fall into a waist-high pool of bat crap. Then they find millions of bats in their lair. They figure out how to turn on the cooling system, but then the leader bats wake up and get all menacing. After a crazy battle, they kill one of the leaders and run for the way out of the caves.Jimmy blows up the cav

We’ve got a fun mix this week. We’ll start off with the more-sci-fi-than-horror “Megan 2.0” which just hit streaming. Then we’ll watch the depressing “Tigers Are Not Afraid” from 2017 and the less-depressing “The Love Witch” from 2016. We’ll continue aping around with “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” (2014) and finally get caught up with the series with “I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer” (2006).And, as always, we’ll have five short films.* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #46 is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 M3GAN 2.0* Directed by: Gerard Johnstone* Written by: Gerard Johnstone, Akela Cooper, James Wan* Stars: Allison Williams, Violet McGraw, Amie Donald* Run Time: 2 Hours* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIMDB still calls this horror. Maybe just barely, but not like the first one was. This one is more science fiction action with quite a bit of satire and humor. It’s fun entertainment, but beware it has quite a different tone than the first movie.Spoilery SynopsisSomewhere near the Turkish-Iranian border, the bad guys grab a tourist and kill her. We cut to a security briefing about a new weapon. They have a new asset. We cut to Amelia, that dead tourist, who isn’t dead. She breaks her chains, and we see she’s a robot. She sneaks through the bad guys’ camp and quietly kills… everyone. Then she shoots the man she was sent there to capture alive. She steals some weapons and reports that she isn’t following orders any more.We cut to young Cady, from the first film, who is still in therapy. She tells us about Gemma, the inventor of Megan, who is now a vehement anti-tech speaker. Cady’s taken the time from being away from her phone to learn martial arts.Tess and Cole, Gemma’s employees, put on a disastrous demo of a new not-robotic exoskeleton. Turns out, the system has been hacked. Alton Appleton, a rich jerk, comes into the workshop to gloat. He’s designed a neural chip and wants them to use his brain implants to go into Gemma’s exoskeleton. He’s wearing one of those implants himself. “If you put AI inside a human brain, it’s not gonna ride shotgun,” she warns.That night, Gemma gets a very strange warning from her TV, telling her she’s in danger. It’s Megan, somehow, warning her about a home invasion that’s in progress. The smart-home appliances work together to defeat the intruders. Turns out, they’re the FBI (They could have knocked).Agent Sattler tells her about the failed experiment, Amelia. Amelia is a robot very similar to Megan. Agent Sattler points out how lucky Gemma has been with her book sales, business, and choice of home. He explains that Amelia has been killing everyone who had any kind of involvement with her creation, and that probably includes Gemma.Megan shows up on TV and explains to Gemma that she’s not Amelia, someone hacked Gemma’s computer and built another one. She’s just a program, and she wants a new body– in return, she’ll kill Amelia.Gemma puts Megan in a toy robot’s body. Megan points out that Amelia’s battery has a kill switch, but only greedy Alton knows how that works. Gemma goes to Alton’s party to get the information out of him. We see that Amelia’s there as well. Alton, in a wheelchair earlier, gets on stage and dances– his neural chip really works. He spots Amelia in the crowd and starts flirting.Gemma finds Cole at the party, and he now works for Alton. She steals his ID card and they go into the computer room. They plug in Megan, who hacks Amelia and steals a file from her mind. Then Megan finds that Amelia is here in the same building. Amelia steals Alton’s retinal print and hacks his system. Then she pulls out his implant. Amelia now has access to half the cloud servers in the country.Amelia knows Gemma is there, and Gemma has no choice but to let Megan into the system. They escape and assume that Amelia will be going to get Cady next. Turns out, the house they’re living in is just full of surprises. It’s Megan’s lair… somehow. Megan is there physically as well, but she’s a burned up mess. Megan and Cady talk about morality, life, and evolution. Cady wants to give her robot a “second chance.”Tess and Cady want to help Megan to beat Amelia, but Genna’s not so sure, at least until they see Megan’s factory in the next room. The group gets to work on making Megan a new body. She wants to be taller now, but insists on having the same face.Fully rebuilt, Megan explains that she’s not the first killer robot. The first killer robot has been kept for decades against its will, getting smarter and smarter. Amelia wants to find it and release it, a kind of AI god. They think Amelia will be going after Christian, another outspoken AI genius, who’s going to be at a big AI conference. Megan sneaks in to infiltrate the place as a cosplayer and does a fun dance for the crowd.Meanwhile, Amelia attacks Christian and the Chinese ambassador. Sattler grabs Gemma an

We’re gonna forego the new movies this week and focus on some older titles. Kevin picked up three more dollar-store DVDs that we’ll let you know about: “Sweatshop” (2009), “Nobody Gets Out Alive” (2012), and “Black Sheep” (2006). We’ll also take another step ahead in two franchises, “I Still Know What You Did Last Summer” (1998) and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” (2011), the first in the newer reboot series.* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #46 is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2009 Sweatshop* Directed by: Stacy Davidson* Written by: Stacy Davidson, Ted Geoghegan* Stars: Ashley Kay, Melanie Donihoo, Peyton Wetzel* Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis movie is like a showcase for the work of the gore effects people involved - the deaths are especially wet and effective in this one. The rest of the movie isn’t so noteworthy. We didn’t get attached to any of the characters, the script is draggy, and the acting is hit and miss. If you’re looking for top notch gore you’ll find it here but not a lot else.Spoilery SynopsisA woman wakes up naked and shivering in a dungeon. She runs around looking for escape. Outside, a cop opens the door to the big factory and comes inside, looking for intruders. It’s obviously the same building. We see that he’s not alone; someone is in there with him has a bloody mouth and isn’t quite human. The woman runs up to him, and he shoots her by mistake about a thousand times. Credits roll.Six hours later, a group of young people enter the same building. They’ve brought a disco ball and sound system to have a party here. They find a video camera left behind by Ghost, one of their group who was here before them, and they all watch a girl do a striptease on the camera.We get to know Scotty, Charlie, and some of the other characters as they wander around the place and argue. As they get set up for their party, we see someone else moving around in the dark shadows of the warehouse. Wade, Scotty’s brother, shows up, and he’s got the lighting equipment and beer. Kim sees a scary face in the darkness and causes a scene. They’re expecting a lot of kids in about an hour.Wade likes Lolli but is told she’s a lesbian. He soon finds out she is more flexible than that. Miko laughs at Jade, who kinda likes Wade as well. Then they talk about the rules for b******s. When Jade sees Wade and Lolli going at it, she runs off and cries. Almost immediately after, some ghouls come out of nowhere and tear Lolli’s guts out.Kim goes looking for Lolli and gets captured by the baddies. A big man in a welding mask cuts off her fingers with garden shears. He then breaks her in half with his huge anvil-hammer.Jade spikes Wade’s drink with something nasty, but Kenny punches him before he gets a chance to drink it. We get a dance break with Miko Scotty and Jade and Kenny get close. When Kenny loses his head, Jade gets a shock from the ghouls. She runs away, straight into the arms of the welding-masked man with the anvil-hammer. Gallagher would be pleased with the results.Charlie and Enix talk about how badly she’s run this whole operation. She might be doing something shady with the admissions fee. They suddenly notice how few of their friends are still working. Scotty and Miko have a drinking contest, and Miko gets the “bad bottle.” She vomits up blood everywhere, but then the Hammer-Man shows up to finish her off.Wade finds what’s left of Kim, but he’s too drunk to see how broken she is. Hammer Man gets him before he goes too far with her.Charlie and Enix find Ghost’s car, along with some of his body parts. They figure out that he was killed before they even arrived, but then they find Kim and the ghouls. Enix soon gets the point as Hammer Man comes after Charlie.Charlie ends up in a room with Scotty and Wade, who aren’t quite dead yet after all. The two brothers confess their sins to each other hilariously before they die. Charlie gets loose, runs back to her car, takes a gun, and shoots Hammer Man several times.Charlie runs into the main room, which is now somehow full of dancers. Hammer Man follows her and starts killing the dancers, creating a stampede for the exits.Only Charlie makes it out alive.Brian’s CommentaryThe characters are all distinctive, but not particularly interesting or well acted. None, not one, of the characters are even remotely likeable, so when they die, we’re like… “OK?” The kills are well done, and the practical gore effects are really good.Why are there ghoul-women and the hammer-man in the warehouse in the first place? We get no explanation or reason for this. That Anvil-on-a-stick is a great-looking weapon, although it wouldn’t be very practical in reality. Where did all those dancers come from at the end when the ticket-takers were all killed? Who was running the lights and the sound?It's a low-budget schlock that doesn’t get good until the

We’ve got another week of five-and-five, with five features and five shorts, and they’re all good this time around. We’ll open up with the acclaimed “Bring Her Back” which just hit streaming, and the brand-new “Hotspring Shark Attack” which just released as well. We’ll watch a couple of older films, “Border” (2018) and “Cure” (2017), and then go way back to watch Bela Lugosi monkey around in “The Ape Man” from 1943.* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #46 is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Bring Her Back* Directed by: Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou* Written by: Danny Philippou, Bill Hinzman* Stars: Billy Barratt, Sally Hawkins, Mischa Heywood* Run Time: 1 Hour, 44 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneAfter a disturbing opening, this takes a while to get to the horror, building nicely as things get stranger and more unsettling. It takes some time to figure out what’s really going on. The casting is spot on, the direction and effects are excellent. It’s a strange one, and we liked it.Spoilery SynopsisWe watch some people doing strange things for the camera, which sees things that we do not. Credits roll.We cut to Piper and Andy, step siblings, and she’s got weird eyes. She tries to make friends with some girls at the bus stop, but they make fun of her face. She’s mostly blind. The two go home to find their father dead in the shower. He’d just finished chemo, and something went wrong.The two get split up for foster care. Piper is going with Laura, but Laura’s had problems with troubled kids in the past, so she doesn’t want Andy. They beg to stay together, so they’ll allow it on a trial basis. He’s very protective of his younger sister.They arrive at Laura’s house, and she’s very friendly and nice, although it’s clear that she’s more interested in Piper than Andy. Laura had a blind daughter, but she’s dead now. They go outside and meet a very strange little boy, Ollie, who’s mute and has a birthmark on his face. He’s another of the foster children. Andy and Laura get off on the wrong footing right away.Later that night, Laura watches videos of the cult that we saw in the pre credit sequence.We also see that Andy has been traumatized by finding his dead father. The next day, they go to their father’s funeral. Laura cuts off a bit of the dead man’s hair and puts it in her pocket. After the funeral, they all play a drinking game. They all, even young Piper, get incredibly drunk.Meanwhile, at home, Ollie breaks out of the house and walks around the yard all bloody, trying to get into a locked shed. He watches the others partying from outside the house. Andy talks about the way his father used to abuse him when he was little, but he never touched Piper. Late that night, Laura pours her own pee all over Andy while he sleeps to make him think he did it himself.Ollie sits in his room and eats bugs. Andy washes himself outside because he’s afraid of the shower. At breakfast, Ollie tries to eat a huge knife, cutting his mouth up, and Andy tries to take him to the hospital. Once they get outside, they cross the white circle on the ground, and Ollie goes into convulsions. “Help me!” he says, speaking for the first time.Laura returns and is surprised that Ollie can talk now. She drags him back inside the circle and indoors, and there’s no more talking from him. We watch one of the old cultists videos. This has happened before, and it’s not pretty. Laura feeds the hair from Andy’s father to Ollie. We see from above that the house and much of the yard is surrounded by a big white circle.Andy has a terrifying vision of his father, who tells him, “She’ll die in the rain.” Andy slips and knocks himself out, waking up at the hospital, in the rain. He tells Laura about this, and she says she killed their father. Then again, he’s got a concussion, so maybe he imagined that.Laura dresses Piper up in dead-Cathy’s clothes and does her hair to look like her dead daughter. Laura wants Piper to stay when Andy turns 18, but Piper plans to go away with Andy when he leaves. We see that Laura still has Cathy’s dead body in her freezer.Andy gets released from the hospital, and Laura’s not happy about it; could he be dangerous? On the old videotape, we see that there’s cannibalism and soul-transference going on. Laura hits Piper in her sleep and frames it so it looks like Andy did it. Laura’s got a whole story made up to turn Piper against Andy. It all gets very confrontational, and Piper ends up taking Laura’s side.Andy goes to see Wendy, the social worker who placed them with Laura. He sees a “Missing Child” poster with Ollie’s face on it. When he sees Wendy, he’s very intense, and she won’t put up with him. Eventually, Andy talks Wendy into going to the house for a visit.At home, Ollie destroys the kitchen and attacks Laura, taking a big bite out of her. He then takes a bite out of the wooden counter-top, losing mos

It’s the week of “Movies with Long Names.” OK, maybe that’s just a coincidence. Only one new film this week, the latest in the Final Destination franchise. After that, we’ll look at the brutal “Green Room” from 2015 and “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” from 2014. For our oldies, we’ll start with the first installment of “I Know What You Did Last Summer” from 1997 and the even-older “Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla” from 1974.* “The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christopher Lee” is available NOW! https://www.horrormonthly.com/horror-guys-guides/christopher-lee-films* Check out our selection of short horror biographies, including Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and many more: https://www.hourlongpress.com/* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #46 is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com* One of my favorite writing and organizing tools is Workflowy, the endless outliner. Check it out at https://workflowy.com/invite/4958355e.lnxMainstream Films:2025 Final Destination: Bloodlines* Directed by: Zach Lipovsky, Adam B. Stein* Written by: Guy Busick, Lori Evans Taylor, Jon Watts* Stars: Kaitlyn Santa Juana, Teo Briones, Rya Kihlstedt* Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis one starts out with an amazing disaster scene, which of course is prevented because it was actually just a vision by the main participant - a familiar formula. But then we get to find out how that connects to all the movies so far and the events of this one. It’s more of the same as death takes people in strange ways, and Tony Todd has a nice wrap up in this one in his final film role. It’s decent all around, and if you’ve seen and enjoyed the other movies in the series you ought to enjoy this one too.Spoilery SynopsisA man and a woman in a blindfold drive to her “surprise,” and it’s the 1960s. They stop at “The Skyview,” a Space Needle-like building that’s just opening. As they walk in, the camera focuses on random stuff, as they always do in these films. They board an overcrowded elevator that doesn’t close properly. There are red flags everywhere as the door cracks open hundreds of feet above the ground.They arrive at the top safely, and it’s very nice. And scary. She doesn’t like heights, and it’s not so much fun after all. She can’t stop looking at the dance floor’s glass bottom. A stranger talks to her about being pregnant. Iris’s boyfriend takes her up to the observation deck and proposes to her. A kid throws a penny off the tower, which gets sucked into an air vent and jams a fan.In the dance room, they do “Shout,” and the place gets hopping and rocking. It’s almost too obvious what’s going to happen. The floor shatters, and everyone falls to their deaths. But that’s not all, there’s a gas leak that explodes and kills the ones who didn’t fall. It’s full-on panic, the elevator goes back, and even the stairway is a deathtrap. The whole tower starts to fall over, turning the room sideways. Everyone dies–Stefani Reyes wakes up from her nightmare in the middle of math class, in modern times. She’s had this dream over and over. Stefani’s grandmother was named Iris, but she’s never even met her. Stefani goes home to her father’s house to find out more about her mysterious grandma. Her father would just as soon Iris’s name never come up again.Stefani and her brother Charlie go to visit their cousins and Aunt Brenda and Uncle Howard. She wants to talk to Howard about his mother, Iris. When Stefani mentions The Skyview, they all clam up. “Iris Campbell is a deeply disturbed woman.” The old woman got so Death-obsessed that they took her children away. Aunt Brenda is more sympathetic and gives her an address.Stefani drives way out to the country to find old Iris, who lives in a gated fortress. The compound is very post-apocalyptic-looking, and the inside of the house is weird as well.Stefani tells Iris about the dream. Iris says that was her premonition years ago. We flash back to what really happened. Iris ran through the restaurant and told everyone what was going to happen. Everyone lived! Eventually, they tore down the building; she stopped the disaster.Death, on the other hand, doesn’t like to be cheated. He came back and killed everyone who escaped him that day, in the order they would have died. Iris is the only one alive; she’s also clearly crazy, and Stefani picks up on that easily enough. “Death is coming for our family!” The family shouldn’t even exist since she was meant to die at the tower. Stefani leaves in a hurry, but Iris gives her a book of notes and crazy stuff. To prove it, Iris dies gruesomely right in front of Stefani.Fast-forwarding to the funeral, the whole family, including Stefani’s estranged mother, Darlene, shows up. Afterward, there’s a family barbecue. We see a glass break and get mixed in with the ice. Stefani reads Iri’s book and sees notes about the previous films, and the camera

This time around, we’ve only one full-length film, an indie called “No Choice” (2025), which has just been released. Other than that, we’re focusing on a whole bunch of new short films. This week, the Palm Springs International ShortFest happened, with 311 short films from 64 countries. We’ve watched all the ones that are horror or horror-adjacent and brought them here for you.“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christopher Lee” is available NOW!https://www.horrormonthly.com/horror-guys-guides/christopher-lee-filmsCheck out our selection of short horror biographies, including Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and many more: https://www.hourlongpress.com/The latest issue of “Horror Monthly” is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comOne of my favorite writing and organizing tools is Workflowy, the endless outliner. Check it out at https://workflowy.com/invite/4958355e.lnxMainstream Films:2025 No Choice* Directed by: Nate Hilgartner* Written by: Nate Hilgartner* Stars: Hannah Deale, Jennifer Herzog, Robert Denzel Edwards* Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThe horror elements in this one are those in the real world. A character who is trapped, stressed beyond limits, beaten down at every turn, and having nightmares. It’s low budget, but the acting, direction, and camera work more than compensate. Don’t expect classic horror, but we’d recommend it for a good drama.Spoilery SynopsisAmy’s having a dream where she finds twenty bucks and a pill. She wakes up to find her life isn’t so interesting. She listens to the man on the radio rant about abortion. Amy argues with her mother, Debra, about medication; Debra appears to be an addict. Credits roll.As Amy rides her bike to work, we see that she lives in a rural farming area. We’re told that it’s “Week 0.” She and her coworker Lucas joke and play at the gas station where she works. Boss Randy comes in and chews them out for not wearing name tags; he’s a jerk.In the morning, Amy goes to her Sociology class and then home to her mother, who’s taken almost the whole bottle of pills. The next night, she flirts with the same customer she met last night. That night, she fantasizes about the guy. The man, Seth, invites her out for real, not long after, and she goes with him. One thing leads to another, and soon they’re having sex in his truck. During the act, the cheap gas-station condom breaks.Amy has a terrifying dream about things leaking. She Googles “morning after pills,” but they’re pricey and she has no credit card for online purchases. She prays instead. She thinks about it and goes to the drugstore, but a friend of her mother’s works there, so that’s not gonna work. She rides to a pharmacy in the next town over, and she’s a couple of dollars short. That night, she dreams about eggs.Amy finally gets the money for a morning-after pill and takes it immediately, but it’s been more hours than recommended for the drug to be useful. This leads to more terrifying dreams. Weeks pass.Amy registers for her next college class, just one at a time. Also, her period is late. She watches videos about “abortion pills” and then starts puking. Yeah, she’s pregnant.Amy goes to the emergency room with a fake accident, and they know she’s lied on the intake forms about her identity. The doctor is pretty understanding and tells her to go to an OB-GYN, but can’t do much about the pregnancy. She points out that abortion is illegal in this state, but she “doesn’t tell her about” the options in other states.Lucas covers for Amy at the store, she doesn’t show up, and Lucas ends up getting fired for it.Debra’s pharmacist friend, who sells her drugs, gets arrested. Amy tells her about the pregnancy, and Debra wants her to have the baby. Debra promises to quit the drugs, starting now, and clean up her act. More nightmares follow.Amy goes to the OB and sees the baby on the ultrasound. She asks him about abortion, but he is not supportive at all. Debra quickly falls off the wagon, and she gets nasty with Amy about it. Desperate, Amy calls Seth but can’t talk to him.Debra overdoses, and it’s going to be expensive for the hospital. When she recovers, Amy asks her for help in getting to the next state for an abortion, but she’s too far gone to talk about it.She calls Seth again and tells him what’s up. He agrees to drive her for an abortion, but Randy won’t give her the time off. He fires her over this. When she gets to Seth’s, he delays and makes her wait. After many hours, it’s too late to go all the way there. He seems like a nice guy, but she dreams about being chained up and trapped. Also, he might be a serial killer. When she has a nightmare about him killing her, she pulls a knife on Seth, who freaks out and drives away, leaving her… wherever she is.Amy leaves the motel and wanders off into the nearby woods to find the purple weeds she heard about on YouTube. It’s s

This time around, we’ll watch three new releases and two oldies. We’ll start off with the better-than-expected “Clown in a Cornfield,” then move on to the godawful “Bogieville.” “Silent Zone” was pretty good, while “Feed the Gods” (2014) was pretty mediocre. For an eye-popping experience, we’ll finish off with “Killers from Space” from way back in 1954.“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christopher Lee” is available NOW!https://www.horrormonthly.com/horror-guys-guides/christopher-lee-filmsCheck out our selection of short horror biographies, including Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and many more: https://www.hourlongpress.com/The latest issue of “Horror Monthly” is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comOne of my favorite writing and organizing tools is Workflowy, the endless outliner. Check it out at https://workflowy.com/invite/4958355e.lnxMainstream Films:2025 Clown in a Cornfield* Directed by: Eli Craig* Written by: Carter Blanchard, Eli Craig, Adam Cesare* Stars: Katie Douglas, Aaron Abrams, Carson MacCormac* Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes* Trailer: * Buy it: https://amzn.to/3ZT7nhJSpoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis was a very well made entry into the slasher genre, done more seriously than we expected. There are some laughs, but it’s mostly done straight with a bit of satire. The acting, effects, story, direction, all the elements were very well put together. It moves well and doesn’t drag. Brian liked it quite a bit, but Kevin was left feeling kind of meh.Spoilery SynopsisIt’s 1991 at a barn party. A girl plays with a jack-in-the-box with a clown and then goes off into the cornfield to get naked with her boyfriend. They are soon chased and killed by… a clown in the cornfield! Credits roll.In the present day, Quinn and her father, Dr. Glenn Maybrook, move to a very large house in a very small town. He’s the new town doctor. He bought the house unseen, and it has some issues. They see a big old farm factory across the cornfield. There’s no cell service or even wifi in this old house.Quinn meets Rust, the neighbor, who walks Quinn to school. He gives her some tips about the area and the school. The entire class picks on Mr. Vern, the teacher, and he’s a jerk about it. She gets detention right away, and she meets all the cool kids there. They talk about how Kettle Springs is stuck in the 90s, and Founder’s Day is this weekend. Baypen Corn Syrup is the main industry in town, and the clown is their logo. The kids have made videos about that clown being a serial killer, just for fun.After school, Sheriff Dunne says hello to the new doctor. He recommends that Quinn stay away from a group of kids, who just happen to be her new friends. The group easily manages to steal alcohol from the convenience store but they pay for it as well. Cole and his friends were blamed for setting the Baypen factory on fire, but they say they didn’t do it.Suddenly, the group is attacked by a clown! No, it’s a prank video as the teens make another “serial killer clown” video. Quinn tells Cole that her mother overdosed last summer, and her father needed a change, so here they are.Later that night, Tucker, the guy who wore the clown costume in the video, is home alone and sees a clown on the Ring camera. He finds the same jack-in-the-box we saw earlier. Then the clown comes out of nowhere and kills him.Cole gets in trouble with his parents; his father is the town mayor, and he’s running the Founder’s Day celebration. Janet and Ronnie tell Cole and Quinn that they want to do another video since the last one got so many views.The parade goes… badly, and the teens get blamed and arrested for it. The old harbinger in their jail cell says, “You are dead. Never f**k with Frendo.” What? Who?Matt, another of the teens, finds the jack-in-the-box on his weight bench. When he gets back to lifting, the clown beheads him.Quinn’s father overreacts and grounds Quinn, so she sneaks out for the big party tonight. Cole shows her a jack-in-the-box with branding from the Baypen company and then they nearly run over Rust, who’s been hunting. Cole and Rust used to be friends until the factory burned down.The party is at the same barn as from 1991. Tucker and Matt haven’t shown up, so the remaining teens think they’re planning a new prank. It’s quite an elaborate party, and it leads to Quinn and Cole making out in the barn until he rejects her.Ginger comes out of the woods and “dies” in front of everyone, who assume it’s another prank video until someone throws Matt’s severed head at them. They all assume that’s fake as well until Frendo the clown comes in and kills more teens with his crossbow. Rust ends up shooting the clown; he says everyone’s tires have been slashed. Suddenly, more clowns appear. It’s a whole posse of insane clowns. Of course, there’s no 911 signal.With all the teens locked in the barn, Rust and Cole reveal that they used to be involved, w

We’ve got two amazing new releases and three fun oldies this week. We’ll start off with the critically acclaimed “Sinners” that’s just come to streaming. We’ll then stop for a snack with “Cannibal Mukbang,” another tasty new release. We’ll do a couple of comedy-horrors next, “Hot Fuzz” (2007) and “Tucker and Dale vs. Evil” (2010). Lastly, we’ll go way back in time and meet “The Man from Planet X” from 1951.“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christopher Lee” is available NOW!https://www.horrormonthly.com/horror-guys-guides/christopher-lee-filmsCheck out our selection of short horror biographies, including Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and many more: https://www.hourlongpress.com/The latest issue of “Horror Monthly” is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comOne of my favorite writing and organizing tools is Workflowy, the endless outliner. Check it out at https://workflowy.com/invite/4958355e.lnxMainstream Films:2025 Sinners* Directed by: Ryan Coogler* Written by: Ryan Coogler* Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Saul Williams* Run Time: 2 Hours, 17 Minutes* Get it here: https://amzn.to/45Vl2s8* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneIt’s very much a humanity and period drama with magic and horror in the background, at first. Then things get crazy toward the second half. The cast, direction, music, and effects are all excellent. Especially the use of music. It’s on the long side but worth it.Spoilery SynopsisIt’s 1932 in Clarksdale, Mississippi. A man with a broken guitar walks into church, and the preacher gets really upset, changing the sermon to talk about men who are full of sin. He wants Sammie to give up his sinful ways. We get flashes of violence and blood.We flash back to the cotton farm, where all the black people work in the fields; it’s after slavery, but the echoes of it are still strong. We then cut again to two brothers, Smoke and Stack, who are dressed up with a fancy car. Mr. Hogwood shows up and shows them some property. It gets a little tense, but they’ve got a bagful of money and buy it.Sammie argues with his preacher father about going out for the evening. “You keep going out with the devil, sooner or later, you’re gonna bring him home.” He goes off with Stack and Smoke, saying he’ll be back for service tomorrow. They’ve got big plans for the day and night.The three are planning on putting a juke joint together, with lots of drinking, at the old sawmill they just bought. Stack runs into Mary, an old jilted lover, and a white looking woman as well, so she could be trouble. The harmonica player, Delta Slim, tells a story about why black folks shouldn’t get too successful.Smoke goes to see Annie about cooking at the juke joint tonight, and they have a long history. We get a montage of everyone setting up for the party, including the cooking.Elsewhere, a dirty-looking and injured white man beats on a door and asks a white couple for shelter from the Choctaws. He offers them money to let him inside, and they invite him in. A short while later, a Choctaw scout with others shows up, and he says he’s looking for a dangerous man who’s not what he seems. She lies and says she hasn’t seen him. They soon leave, and the strange man kills the couple, who should’ve never invited him in. Before long, all three of them are vampires.Mary shows up to the big party, and she looks a little out of place there. Stack wants her out of there before trouble breaks out; she’s part black in the family, but has been passing for years, a prime target for lynching.Delta Slim finishes his piano set and introduces Sammie, who plays the guitar. The magic of music fills the room. We see a guy playing an electric guitar and half the crowd is dressed like anachronistic rappers, ancient Africans, and even Asian musicians and dancers thanks to the Asian grocer and his wife. (I guess the Blues are timeless?). They are having a goooood time.And then the three vampires, Bert, Joan, and Remmick, show up outside. They talk to the doorman/bouncer and want it. They pull out instruments and start playing; they say they just want to join the party, and they’re pretty good bluegrass singers as well. Smoke does not want to let them in.Smoke gives Sammie some career advice; he wants to keep his young cousin out of trouble, but Sammie thinks he might want to go to Chicago like the twins did.Mary wants to talk to the white trio about coming back; the twins are going to need every dollar they can get. She finds them playing their music right outside the barn. They’ve very friendly– until they aren’t.When Mary returns to the party, she needs an invitation to come inside. The vampires start picking off people as they go outside to pee. As Smoke deals with a cheating gambler, Stack and Mary make out; she’s drooling. We see that yes, they did turn her outside. By the time Smoke and Sammie come in, they’re both covered in Stack's blood. Smoke w

We’ve got three new releases this week as well as a pair of oldies. We’ll open on the not-Poohverse “Piglet” and then go to church for “Consecration.” For our oldies, we’ll take a look at one more episode that even Pinhead didn’t show up for in “Hellraiser: Revelations” from 2011, followed by the remake of “House of Wax” from 2005. And we’ve got more shorts as well!“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christopher Lee” is available NOW!https://www.horrormonthly.com/horror-guys-guides/christopher-lee-filmsCheck out our selection of short horror biographies, including Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and many more: https://www.hourlongpress.com/The latest issue of “Horror Monthly” is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.comMainstream Films:2025 Piglet* Directed by Andrea M. Catinella* Written by Harry Boxley* Stars Alexander Butler, Lauren Staerck, Alina Desmond* Run Time: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes* Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment ZoneThis isn’t the Piglet from “Pooh: Blood and Honey,” it’s a separate tale. This Piglet is a big, mutated guy wearing a mask and having a big appetite for killing. Reminiscent of Leatherface from “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movies. The music and accents required subtitles. Brian was harsher on it than Kevin was, who found it entertaining more than not. But we both agree it didn’t show us enough new to really be interesting. It’s not a standout film, and we thought it was okay at best.Spoilery SynopsisA prison van stops in the woods so the driver can pee. “Is it true what they say about him? About the experiment… and his family?” The prisoner was part of a scientific experiment that deformed him. Dr. Bickley turned the scrawny man into a huge killing machine. He then murdered the people in the prison. Naturally, the prisoner gets out of his chains and kills all three of the inept security guards. The masked killer returns to his lair and puts on a pig mask. Credits roll.A carload of party girls stop on the side of the road so one of them can throw up. Kate is upset about hiding from her insane boyfriend. Two other girls talk about the pig serial-killer who used to operate in this area. A man comes out of the woods and tells them not to go to the camp, as bad things always happen there.A man in a cowboy hat talks to Piglet about the girls who will be coming to stay at the farm. Piglet can have his pick of one of the girls; the rest will go in the freezer.The girls arrive at Mr. Hogarth’s farm for the first time in ten years. Kate sees Piglet in the woods, but only for a moment. Mr. Hogarth, the man in the cowboy hat, shows the girls around; he runs the camp.On the road, three other people stop their car with a breakdown and have to walk the rest of the way to camp through the forest. Courtney is autistic or something and forces them to stop so she can draw. As they wait, the other two stop for sex. Piglet kills the couple, Riley and Bruce, with a big meat hook. Courtney goes looking for them and finds herself in a bear trap until Piglet catches up to her.Kate gets a scare from a man covered in blood. The police come and pick up the homeless man as Mr. Hogarth assures the girls that animals won’t come into the camp. One of the girls tells the story about the local serial killer they used to call “Piglet,” who fell in love with a girl named Kate.Judith soon finds Courtney chained up in the barn and hides while Piglet comes in and kills Courtney with a hook before killing Judith as well.Kate and Susie talk about Spencer, Kate’s crazy ex, who used to follow her around and stalk her. She feels like that again. They both plan to move to Salt Lake City. Meanwhile, Alex and Dianne make out in the hot tub as Mr. Hogarth watches. Hogarth then kills Dianne with an axe.Alex, Kate, and Susie wonder what happened to all their friends. They talk about making a phone call, but try to drive to town instead; the car has been sabotaged.Hogarth and Piglet work together to kill Alex with a sledgehammer. Kate thinks Spencer has followed them and is causing all their troubles. Bret, the weird harbinger from the woods, shows up and tells them they need to leave– he offers them gas for their car. They soon see Piglet, and the chase is on. Bret shoots Piglet, and then the girls take his gun and force him to drive them to town. Bret explains the whole thing, but Susie and Kate are skeptical. Hogarth comes outside and blames Bret for keeping a bloodthirsty monster on the grounds.Piglet shows up and kills Bret while Hogart shoots Susie in the leg. Piglet takes Susie to the barn and chains her up. He then peels her face off with the help of his knife.Kate runs to the road and flags down a cop, Officer Burke, who handcuffs her and takes her back to Hogarth and Piglet. They all sit around and sing “Happy Birthday to you” to Kate. Instead of a birthday cake, they give her a foot with a candle wedged on top; they’re cannibal

This week, we look at all four films in the Netflix series “Fear Street.” The first trilogy came out in 2021, and “Prom Queen” is a new, marginally connected new release. We’ll also watch a cool new indie film, “A Hard Place,” with so many monsters! Oh yeah— shorts have returned. We have four of them for you this week, with more on the way!“The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christopher Lee” is available NOW!https://www.horrormonthly.com/horror-guys-guides/christopher-lee-filmsCheck out our selection of short horror biographies, including Christopher Lee, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, and many more: https://www.hourlongpress.com/The latest issue of “Horror Monthly” is now on sale! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com[Affiliate Link] Try Workflowy, a great do-it-all outliner: https://workflowy.com/invite/4958355e.lnxMainstream Films:2021 Fear Street Part One - 1994* Directed by Leigh Janiak* Written by R.L. Stine, Kyle Killen, Phil Graziadei* Stars Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr. * Run Time: 1 Hour, 47 Minutes* Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9PuKH4hKSUSpoiler-Free Judgment ZoneA lot of teenagers in their 20s go through drama, romance and horror as they try to fight a witchy evil that’s been tainting their town for hundreds of years. There are a lot of 1990s references that are hit and miss, but they mostly get the vibe right. It’s well made overall, and there are some good moments, but we found much of it dull and predictable. It’s certainly not the worst thing we’ve seen, but we were pretty lukewarm toward it.Spoilery SynopsisA woman buys a book at the B. Dalton’s in a mall full of stores, so we know this is the 90s. Heather answers a phone call from Ryan, but the line drops. He gives her a jump scare using a blow-up sex doll, and they get separated again. Suddenly, a man in a skull-faced Halloween costume attacks her with a knife. She runs to another store and calls 911. She whomps him with a lava lamp, but he eventually catches and stabs her. As we hear gunfire, the killer pulls off his mask, and it’s Ryan. As the cop shoots him, both teenagers die in the middle of the food court. Credits roll as we hear news reports that Shadyside has all kinds of crazy slashers and murders. Deena watches the news as Sheriff Nick talks about all the town’s serial killers. She yells at her little brother Josh about running up the AOL bill with the Internet. He’s in chat rooms on AOL talking about the serial killer and the massacre last night at the mall. At school, everyone thinks “The Witch” is back, and that seems to be all anyone talks about. There’s a lot of very typical high school drama as the school has a memorial service for Heather and Ryan. Mayor Goode is there, and he addresses the crowd. Deena runs into her ex, Samantha, and returns a bunch of stuff she borrowed from her. Sheriff Goode talks next, as Deena and Sam argue about Sam moving to Sunnyvale, away from Shadyside. The memorial service soon turns into a big brawl as the two football teams fight. They all seem to attend a school with no adults present, not even a bus driver. On the way home, the Sunnyvalers' car attacks the Shadysiders’ bus, and that goes badly. When the car goes off the road, Sam sees something. The next night, Deena sees Skullface outside and runs him off, then she goes to her friend Kate’s house. Kate and her brother then tell the story to Josh and Deena. They all assume it’s Peter, Sam’s new boyfriend. They go to the hospital, where Peter has been with Sam all day. As Deena and Sam argue, someone stabs Peter in the back, as this is one of those hospitals without any staff or other patients. After much running around and fighting, Deena knocks the killer's mask off, and it’s Ryan– again, even though he’s clearly already been killed. They talk to Sheriff Goode, who doesn’t believe them, since they’re accusing the kid the sheriff killed just last night. On the way out of the police station, Deena shoots a girl who doesn’t die after attacking Simon. Josh listens to Simon’s story and recognizes Ruby Lane, a woman who killed her friends and herself thirty years ago in 1965. He has a crazy wall full of old news clippings of slashers and murders in the town. Normal people keep turning into psychos, and it goes all the way back to 1666. Sarah Fier was a witch, and she’s been possessing people to use as killers. Sarah remembers seeing the witch in the woods, so the whole group goes out there to look. They find Sarah’s bones and try to bury them to put the witch back to rest. They get chased by a man in a scarecrow mask with an axe. The witch is not back at rest. Sam thinks the killers are specifically coming for her. The killers seem to be able to smell Sam’s blood, which is on Simon’s shirt and Deena’s shoe. They break into the high school to take clothes from the lost and found. This involves everyone taking off their shirts and get