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This week’s new release is “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” (2026). We’ll also begin watching the Resident Evil series with “Resident Evil” (2002). “You’re Next” (2011) is up next, and finally is 1964’s “The Earth Dies Screaming.” All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #61, for October 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma * Directed by: Jane Schoenbrun * Written by: Jane Schoenbrun * Stars: Jack Haven, Hannah Einbeinder, Gillian Anderson * Run Time: 1 Hour, 52 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Sexual and psychological hijinks occur when the director who is going to reboot a classic horror movie franchise visits the camp where the first movie was filmed and tries to talk the final girl from the first movie into returning to acting. And of course she has to convince her agent that’s a good idea too. It’s weird and surreal and gets more so as the movie progresses, almost like being about horror and fandom than actually being horror, and it blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. We both agree it had good parts, and was interesting, but we were kinda bored for big chunks of it. Spoilery Synopsis We open on a movie set, and then cut to a young couple walking through a field. A crazy man with a box on his head, “LIttle Death,” kills them excessively. Credits roll as we see newspaper clippings about what a hit the movie, “Camp Miasma” was back in the days of videotape. There are numerous sequels and merchandising gimmicks. Nowadays, it’s considered a “problematic classic.” But now, there’s a new reboot in the works! Kris calls Mari, who talks about Thor, about the new remake. She gets to the strange little Hilton Inn and talks to the proprietor about borrowing a DVD player that he has to dust off. She watches Part VI of the franchise, and it is pretty awful. She eventually comes to Camp Tivoli, which is clearly closed for the winter. They do, however, have a building marked “Cinema,” so she has to check that out. At just about the point where she’s expecting a jump scare, Billy Presley, the star of the films, shows up. She just might actually believe that Little Death is real. He’s still waiting down at the bottom of the lake, and he always comes back. We then get a montage of them eating fried chicken… The two discuss how Camp Miasma isn’t woke enough for modern audiences, but if they hire a queer director like Kris, that makes it OK. Kris explains all about being polyamorous, which is new to Billy. It’s a long conversation, and after, Kris wants to leave. Still, it’s late, so Billy convinces her to stay the night. Meanwhile, out in the center of the frozen lake, something glows and starts to break free. The two women watch the original film, released back in 1980, and it’s clear that Billy still identifies with the younger version of herself in the film. We watch as the camp counselors arrive ahead of the kids and tell the legend of the Little Death. There was a weird mute kid there one summer who was a boy on some days and a girl on others. Eventually, the other kids just drowned him. We see Little Death rise from the cold dark lake. He immediately starts killing people and spraying CGI blood everywhere. LOTS of CGI blood. He kills all the counselors within a few minutes. Back in the real world, Kris and Billy continue watching the film. There’s a sex scene involving young Billy, and we see the killer approaching them. Just as the Little Death is about to kill them, the power goes out and the film stops. Then we stop as Kris takes her shirt off to seduce Billy, and it appears to work quite well. Kris has visions of Little Death right in the middle of sex, which she finds annoying. Kris wants to be the victim of Little Death, or at least that’s her fantasy, The next day, Kris does a video conference with the backers for the film. Kris reports that she’s pretty sure she’s signed Billy to be in the project, but the others aren’t at all impressed with that idea. They all expect a Little Death origin story, but she explains her concept for the film, and it’s pretty weird. [At this point, I’m looking to see how much longer this is]. The producers decide to… get back to Kris. Kris, on the other hand, finds herself suddenly in the Miasma movie, with all the original actors and characters. Then she goes back to camp to dance and hang out with Billy again.Billy talks about losing her virginity, and it was its own “Little Death.” Kris sees Little Death rise out of the lake to chase her. She obliges by stripping down to her panties and a shirt with no bra. Mari and Thor show up just in time to be killed. So does her agent and others as things get more and more over the top like she’s in a Miasma movie. As Billy and Kris make love in bed, Little Death approaches from outside and kills them both, which seems to be a romantically happy ending? Little Death creates the next film in the series, which stars Billy and Kris. We flash back over all the dead bodies of people that Little Death really did kill, as he walks back out into the lake until next time. Both dead girls wake up, their fantasies fulfilled… Brian’s Commentary It truly is the golden age of gummy candies. There’s so much product placement that it probably made a profit even before it was released. The in-movie movie, Camp Miasma, is a send-up of all the slasher films of the 80s, mostly the Jason Voorhees ones, but it’s far more over-the-top than those films ever really were. There’s also a lot here about washed-up actresses and ruined careers. Most of the outdoor scenes are clearly not real places, but it gives the whole thing a surreal side that emphasizes the weirdness of the camp setting. The visuals overall are quite nice, and the in-movie gore is excessively silly, but very appropriate. Much like the director’s previous film, “I Saw the TV Glow,” this one is heavily LGBTQ and trans friendly. It’s kinda all over the place, storywise. The in-movie Miasma stuff is hilariously gory, but the wraparound story with Kris and Billy really drags and drags. It’s a weird one, but I have to say I was bored through about 35% of it. Kevin’s Commentary I too noticed the product placement. Lots of it and pretty obvious. I thought casting Amanda Fix as young Billy, AKA young Gillian Anderson, worked really well. Candy. There is so much candy in this movie. I’d call it at least interesting. The visuals and acting are great. But not a lot happened in the first half, and I thought the second half started dragging. I was longing for more movie within the movie. But the ending was intriguing. I’m going to go with I liked it more than disliked it. 2002 Resident Evil * AKA “Biohazard” * Directed by: Paul W. S. Anderson * Written by: Paul W. S. Anderson * Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ryan McCluskey * Run Time: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A special military unit has to infiltrate an underground research facility where they deal with the undead, mutated dogs and people, and a protective computer system. And some amnesia in the mix just for fun. It’s heavy on science fiction, set in the future, and it plays out a lot like a video game for very good reason. The horror elements are there, and lots of action. It felt a little dated seeing it now, but it’s still well made and entertaining. And the ending leaves it wide open for the sequel. Spoilery Synopsis We are briefed on the events that led to the incident at Racoon City. We’re told that The Umbrella Corporation had become the largest commercial entity in the United States. They have products everywhere, including bio-weapons. Credits roll. We watch as a scientist packs up some samples and then releases a virus into the air system of the science base. The dogs used as test animals notice the smell first, but the people don’t. There’s a biohazard warning, and all the doors lock down. The gas is channeled into the rooms, killing most of the employees. The people in the elevator, on the other hand, are gas-free, but trapped. Somewhere else, Alice wakes up, naked, in the shower. She looks in the mirror and notices strange bruises. She’s alone, but finds some weapons in a locked vault. Suddenly, ninjas attack! One of them grabs Alice and demands a report, but she doesn’t remember anything. There’s a man there, Matt, who insists he’s supposed to be there. The whole group descends to the mansion’s basement, where there’s a whole secret subway station. On the train, they find another guy with memory loss. We can see that someone is following their progress through the security monitors. One explains to Alice and the other guy, Spence, that they all work for the corporation to protect the secrecy of the hive, where they are now. Alice, Spence, and all the soldiers enter the hive, the science base we saw earlier. “The Red Queen has locked onto us, she knows we’re here.” The Red Queen is the AI that controls the hive. The group comes across a room full of pods, and inside those pods are people. The group’s leader, One, walks ahead of the others and unlocks the doors. Turns out, it’s a trap, and that goes badly for four of the soldiers and One. A holographic representation of the Red Queen appears and warns them to leave immediately. Alice and JD plant the EMP device, which goes off and shuts down the computer. It also shuts down all the containment things in the building and opens all the doors. Turns out, all those scientists who died have become zombies; one of them bites Rain. A bunch of zombies attack, and there’s a great deal of shooting. After the fighting, mutated weird things start breaking out of the pods. Alice runs into mutant zombie dogs and one of the so

This week’s new releases are “The End of Oak Street,” and “Black Box” both from this year. We’ll also look at a couple of classics, “Goodnight Mommy” from 2014 and the original “Ju-On: The Grudge” from 2002. Mostly good stuff! All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #60, for September 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 The End of Oak Street * Directed by: David Robert Mitchell * Written by: David Robert Mitchell * Stars: Anne Hathaway, Ewan McGregor, Maisy Stella * Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone The Platt family bands together for survival when their whole neighborhood is transported back to an era when dinosaurs were thriving. The title has a double meaning of the end of Oak Street and perhaps the literal end of Oak Street. They nailed the retro vibe setting it in 1982. The blood and gore is surprisingly tame considering the violence. Somehow they managed to avoid an R rating. The special effects are good as is the story, and we thought it was very entertaining. Spoilery Synopsis There’s a big block party on Oak Street, and Denise, Greg, Audry, and Brian Platt are all having a great time, probably because this is vaguely the 80s, when everyone was happy (Carl Sagan was alive and Chrysler was still a thing). Denise and Greg are having some martial issues because he’s working too many jobs. There’s a radio report of strange waves out in space. Denise has written a book, and the old lady who’s editing it shows her a weird plant in her back yard that she can’t identify that’s grown really fast. The kids and the dog have typical problems. That night, there are weird lights in the sky; only Brian and the dog see them. In the morning, nasty neighbor Mel comes over and blames the kids for piling hundreds of pounds of poop in his backyard. Later, the local bully, Kaden, chases Brian around the neighborhood. That night, the strange lights in the sky return, and everyone sees them this time. The power goes out and the rain instantly stops. They all hear screaming, so Greg goes out to investigate. When he returns, he warns them all to lock the doors before going back to bed. In the morning, the power is still out. The water isn’t working either, which is unexpected. Greg and Denise go out for a walk, and it’s very quiet– almost too quiet. They hear lots of unusual animal noises. Denise finds her elderly neighbor friend half-eaten in her kitchen, and there’s a full-on jungle in her backyard that wasn’t there yesterday. Greg, on the other hand, gets chased around the neighborhood by a dinosaur. They run home, and there is much screaming and panicking. Everyone hops in the car, but all the roads out of the neighborhood stop in forests, as if the whole subdivision was transported into a dinosaur-infested jungle. The camera pulls away, and we see that that’s exactly what has happened. They all rush home and start boarding up the windows. Greg admits that he was recently laid off and didn’t want Denise to worry. Denise’s book got destroyed when the basement flooded. The kids are terrified. Good times all around. The small dinosaurs hear something that scares them away. They talk about portals through time; could they be in the past? That night, they watch as Mel is torn apart by flying reptiles. We see larger dinos slowly moving into the area. Brian runs out after the dog, and Audrey runs out after Brian; the parents soon notice and go out again, looking for them. Something big attacks the car, so that doesn’t last long. Brian and Audrey run into Jeannette, the new kid at private school, and her parents have already been eaten. Greg and Denise find a portal that appears to lead back to the normal world, but it vanishes before they can do anything. There’s a lot of running around and being chased until Greg gets caught by a big one and eaten. There’’s a fire that’s coming, and it’s going to burn everything. They spot another portal, but it’s way across town. The group gets there without too much trouble and goes upstairs, where the portal is. Mr. Valcourt, the town’s librarian, is there with a shotgun. The elevated portal is blinking on and off, so they need to time their jumps. Jeanette goes through, no problem. Brian’s not so lucky and falls three stories to hurt his leg. They retrieve Brian and then go back to the roof, where they all jump together, even the dog. They wind up in 1982 in someone’s swimming pool, and the owner isn’t happy. Their neighborhood is still there, like nothing happened. It’s the night the portal came, in twenty minutes from now! Can they save all the people? Jeanette runs off to save her parents. Denise runs to a phone booth and makes a call. Turns out, she ordered a pizza from the company Greg has been working for, and that gets him out of the “transport zone.” The family watches as the lights cover the part of the city around their home and it all vanishes and is replaced with a chunk of dinosaur jungle. Two years later, a news report explains what’s been going on. Turns out, Denise called a lot of people, warning them to get out, and ended up being a local hero for it. She then wrote a book about the whole ordeal. Everyone’s got a happy ending (including TWO Jeanettes)! Brian’s Commentary The easy comparison here is the recent film, “The Last House” (2026), which is similar in a lot of ways. “Jurassic Park” also comes into play heavily here. Ewan McGregor’s “American” accent is not great. Special effects for dinosaurs aren’t exactly new, but they are very well done here. Many are more birdlike, with hair and feathers, something scientists didn’t know about when Jurassic Park was made, but they added it here. The portals aren’t really explained in much detail, but we don’t need to know. The blood and gore is pretty minimal, but a lot of people are killed and eaten, so it’s borderline on the horror scale, but we’ll count it anyway because it’s pretty good! Kevin’s Commentary I know that it’s more scientifically accurate, but after growing up with all lizard dinosaurs I feel irrationally annoyed at some dinosaurs being depicted with fur and feathers now. I agree that Evan McGregor’s accent sounds kind of unnatural. At least it’s consistent. I thought it moved well and was entertaining. I’d give it a thumbs up. 2026 Black Box * Directed by: Steven Quale * Written by: Stephen Susco * Stars: Tom Brittney, Holly White, Betsy-Blue English * Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone It’s stuff on a plane. Flight 298 from New Orleans to Seattle encounters strange events in the air. Things go on for quite a while being weird and random before any kind of explanation surfaces. It’s entertaining, above average in quality, but overall neither of us thought it was really great. Spoilery Synopsis We get a cryptic message from a man aboard a plan that swears what we are about to see is real. He says it would be terrible if what’s on this plane makes it to the ground. We then see some found footage of the passengers in the airport before the flight. Black Box: Flight 298 comes on, and we hear the pilot talking about a hurricane and electrical disturbances just ahead, and then contact is lost. We watch the various passengers board the plane, not as found footage, and many of them seem obnoxious and rude. We also see a large crate being loaded “handle with extreme care.” Chen puts on a tin-foil hat to avoid the cosmic rays up there. The plane takes off normally, but before long, one man starts coughing. Another guy is a stereotypical privileged businessman-jerk. Jeremy is sad over a break-up, but he makes friends with Chloe, a little girl waiting for the restroom the sick man is camped out in. He then makes friends with Emma, one of the stewardesses. The sick old man sees a light outside the plane and starts yelling, “We’re all gonna die up here!” After a few minutes of panic, he grabs his chest and tries to open the door. He then coughs up a bunch of blood and passes out. Jeremy is a doctor, and it’s soon clear that the old man is dead. Suddenly, all the dogs in the hold start barking all at once. The copilot goes down to check, but it looks normal. He speaks to them, and they all get real quiet, real fast. Jeremey notices that the lightning outside is not normal; it’s red and green and moving. Jeremy and Chloe, the people who see the lights, start getting headaches. Their ears are bleeding. Or was it their contact with the sickly old man? Turns out, a lot of people on the flight have started feeling bad. The captain decides to divert to another airport. The pilot and co-pilot see weird lights in the sky, and it’s not lightning. They call to see if the military is testing anything tonight, and they aren’t since the weather is too clear. Our plane, however, is in a major storm. The pilot says it looks like a category five hurricane. The pilot and co-pilot stop responding for no obvious reason, and the plane might not have anyone flying. From outside, we see a special cloud surrounding and following the plane, and it’s full of lights. Suddenly, the turbulence stops; have they landed? Could they be on a black site for quarantine? Jeremy takes another look at the old man and comes to the conclusion that the electrical system blew up his pacemaker. They all hear footsteps on the roof of the plane. Something’s trying to get in. The door opens, and tentacles pull one of the passengers out. The businessjerk, who’s been hiding in the restroom, gets splattered in the face and might be possessed. A spider-like tentacle monster then comes on board and starts killing people. Things get weird at this point. The characters that we know hide in the cargo area, but they probably aren’t

This week’s new release is “Blood Shine,” which we assume was a vampire story but isn’t. We’ll dismember and eat up two more Leatherface films, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003) and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning” (2006). Finally, we’ll come up from someone’s bowels with “The Slime People” from 1963– yuck! All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #60, for September 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Blood Shine * Directed by: Emily Bennett, Justin Brooks * Written by: Emily Bennett, Justin Brooks * Stars: Emily Bennett, Brendan Sexton III, David Call * Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone In an isolated country estate, a young filmmaker is held prisoner by a religious zealot. The beginning segment - about 16 minutes long - held promise, but things change after the opening credits. The two leads give it their all, but we both thought it was pretty dragging and dull. Spoilery Synopsis We open on a creepy TV preacher talking about how our bodies are cages. We cut to some guys working on a farm with cows; more newborn cows have died this year than have been born alive. The farm is failing, so the farmer lays off Keith, who’s obviously already broke. Keith’s truck breaks down on the way to another farm that was recommended to him – he’s not having a good day. Keith walks to a farmhouse to make a phone call. The woman inside, Clara, offers to call him a tow truck. She invites him inside; he does seem safe, at least. She’s kinda plain-looking, but the more he looks at her, the better she looks. They start talking about being lonely and alone. They touch hands, and we then get a glimpse of her and knife, and a trail of blood; she’s stabbed him, and now she wants him to stab her as well. He kills himself instead, even though she wants him to kill her. “You wasted it! You wasted all of it!” Credits roll. We cut to Brighton West showing off his latest new horror short. He’s got an actress there auditioning for a new role, and he Weinsteins her. Later, he calls the producer and promises to finish writing the promised film. He’s going to go off to the country to force himself to finish the movie script for “Craven IV.” The producer is skittish because Brighton’s had addiction issues in the past. At the cabin, Brighton meets Lucy, a neighbor, and avoids her. He ends up spending most of the evening at the local bar drinking. He admits to the bartender that he can’t find any inspiration here. Manny the bartender gives him directions to a nearby town where he’ll find some inspiration in a cave. Brighton goes out to the woods and spots Clara there, naked in the river. Suddenly, he’s knocked out by a falling branch. He wakes up at Clara’s house. They talk about being single, just as she did with Keith earlier, and he admits that no one is home waiting for him. Clara gives Brighton some drugged tea, and the next thing he knows, he’s chained up in a dark place watching a recording of the preacher telling him that he’s going to die. “In 26 days, you will die in agony.” We see that she’s got a whole videotape series about kidnapping and torturing for the cult. She beats, cuts, and shocks him daily after that. Eventually, Brighton takes the hint and starts cutting himself on command; it’s easier than getting beat up first. Brighton figures out that he’s not the first one held here when he finds a message, “She’s afraid of the dark.” There’s a long montage of torture, cult-speak, and suffering between the two. After a very long while, he sorta seduces her and trades places with Clara, chaining her to the floor in the dark. After a great amount of discussion, the two are soon cutting each other and putting their hands under each other’s skin. Eventually, it’s time. She hands him a knife and wants him to kill her, but he doesn’t want to do it. He does do it, and she thanks him before dying. The other cultists arrive on the scene, along with the leader. All the other characters we’ve seen in the film are involved. The leader pokes out Brighton’s eyes, but Brighton doesn’t mind; he smiles and looks at the sun. Brian’s Commentary It’s all about loneliness, isolation, and of course, cult murder. It’s well acted and looks good, but the pacing is awful and it’s really, really slow at times. It’s really all about the two characters bearing their souls to each other, but it’s actually all pretty boring. I was eager for it to end. Kevin’s Commentary The opening scene was so long, and with the main character being killed, it almost felt like two movies in one. Unfortunately, the first segment was really good, and I thought the rest of the movie dragged. The two leads were just acting their hearts out, but I thought it was pretty boring. 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre * Directed by: Marcus Nispel * Written by: Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper, Scott Koser * Stars: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Andrew Bryniarski * Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone It’s a reboot of the 1973 movie by the same name. And while it is a sweaty movie with some grit, it doesn’t match the grimy feel of the original. It’s a polished modern (okay 23 years ago) horror movie. Though it is pretty well made and entertaining after a little bit of a slow start. In total, we liked it more than disliked it, but our attention wandered here and there. Kevin liked it a bit more than Brian did. Spoilery Synopsis We get a voiceover about the deaths of five young people thirty years ago. We get a video walkthrough of one of the murder sites. Credits roll. August 18, 1973, a bunch of teens in a van are out in the country. Erin, Morgan, Pepper, Andy, and Kemper are annoying right off the bat. They’re all coming back from buying pot in Mexico; they’ve got two pounds in the car. They almost hit a young girl walking in the road. The girl has clearly been into some bad things, so they offer her a ride. Kemper, the driver, doesn’t know where they are and drives her to the meat packing plant, where the girl kills herself in the back of their van. Most of the van people are asking “why did this happen to us?” The group stops at a gas station. The woman inside calls the sheriff, who offers to meet them somewhere else. They drive to an abandoned-looking factory, but there’s no sheriff there. They go inside the old factory, but they aren’t alone. They find a little boy who seems to be living there alone. They go to a huge old isolated house, and the man says they can call the sheriff from there. The sheriff finally shows up at the factory, and he’s a class act as he wraps up and takes the body away. Meanwhile, Erin and Kemper run into trouble with the old man in the house– oh, and Leatherface is there as well. Erin returns to the other three, minus Kemper, and they wonder what’s happened. She takes Andy back to the old man’s house, and he sneaks in the back door. They soon run into Leatherface, and Andy loses a leg. Erin runs back to Morgan and Pepper, but then the sheriff shows up to arrest them all for drugs. There’s a standoff between Morgan and the sheriff, and that goes badly for Morgan. Meanwhile, Leatherface takes off his mask and works on what’s left of Kemper and Andy. After, he goes after the two girls, now alone in the van, but he’s wearing Kemp’s face. She runs to a mobile home with two women inside; “He knows better than to bother us in here. He’s a sweet boy.” The sheriff and gas station lady are in cahoots with the old man and Leatherface, which is not at all surprising. They turn Erin over the big masked man, who puts her in the basement with Andy, who’s still not dead yet. He begs her to kill him, which she does. She then finds Morgan, who’s also still alive– at least for a little while. Leatherface chases Erin across a field, but he trips and injures himself. She runs to the meat packing plant, where the two play cat-and-mouse. Somehow, it’s hard to tell with all the superfast edits, Leatherface loses an arm. Erin runs outside and flags down a truck driver, who stops and picks her up. She freaks out and makes the guy stop– at the same gas station as before. Erin hotwires a car and runs over the sheriff repeatedly. She drives away with the kidnapped baby, right past Leatherface, who’s still out there. We get a voiceover discussing how the case is still open. Brian’s Commentary This just seems to take forever to get to anything. It’s a very sweaty, dusty movie, but it just doesn’t give the impression of dirt that the original did; it’s just a little too professional and polished. It was fine, but I admit I was checking my phone from time to time; it just didn’t grab me. Meh. Kevin’s Commentary It’s certainly a sweaty and wet movie. With water leaking into rooms even before it started raining. It was a nice touch bringing John Larroquette back for the voiceover again. He was an unknown at the time of the original. I thought it was okay, liked it more than disliked it. But the original was better, and is more rewatchable. This isn’t that memorable. 2026 Short Film: A Good Death * Directed by: Kaz Ps * Written by: Kaz Ps * Stars: Tracie Thomas, Jenny O’Hara, Stefanie Estes * Run Time: 10 Minutes * Watch it: What Happens Amalia is a “Death Doula,”someone who helps with terminal patients. She arrives at the house of a new client, and Tabitha, who answers the door, seems really eager to let her in. “There’s no such thing as unusual in this line of work,” she explains. She could be wrong. Commentary The only thing creepier than monsters is seeing old peoples’ toenails. Could it be elder abuse? Maybe, but not in the usual manner. I kinda figured this was the way the story was going to go, but

This week, we’ve got three new releases and one campy classic. We’ll open with “The Last House,” which seems fairly polarizing with the critics. “Penny Lane is Dead” comes up second, with the very strange “Her Private Hell” up next. For an oldie, we’ll watch John Carradine in “The Unearthly” from 1957. All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #60, for September 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 The Last House * Directed by: Louis Leterrier * Written by: Matthew Robinson * Stars: Greta Lee, Wagner Moura, Riley Chung * Run Time: 1 Hour, 52 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A family of four is sealed in their house, along with everyone else in their houses apparently, and we get to watch them survive with the resources that they have on hand. After seeing a lot of bad reviews and online hate for this movie, we were bracing ourselves for the worst. We were pleasantly surprised, and we both liked it. It’s got a lot of questionable points and unexplained things, but we were entertained. Spoilery Synopsis “Everyone remembers where they were when the rain came,” we are told. Everyone looks up at the weird-looking storm, as the voiceover gets pretty ominous. Credits roll. Jason comes home from bad fishing, and he’s brought donuts to his wife Ann, and two kids, Ruth and Graham. The garage door and the electronic front door won’t open, and the kids are super whiny, and everyone talks over each other, so it’s gonna be bad. It must be a prank, right? The Internet is down, as are the cellphones. Even the glass in the window won’t break– it reforms and “heals” itself. The neighbors across the street signal with a mirror that they can’t get out either. A jogger runs by, and they get her attention to go for help. They all wonder about conspiracy theories. Ruth thinks the rain did this. “The rain looked different today.” Jason shows Ann his gun, and she freaks out. Night falls, and the rain continues. Jason tries to drill through the door, but the holes re-seal themselves. The rain is making some kind of barrier around the house, even underneath it. No Internet. They dig out old DVDs and records to entertain the kids. They have power and water, but food is going to be limited. The dog, on the other hand, has to poop, so that’s a problem. Jason teaches the kids how to gut a fish, but they don’t have any fish. After a week, some of the neighbors run out of food. After the second week, they’ve all adjusted to the new normal. After a month, Ruth notices something walking around outside in the rain, but no one believes her. Ann saves the seeds from their vegetables and starts growing more. Another month, and neighbors are dying, and they’re out of dog food. One night, a crazy person with a knife beats on the doors and windows. “They’re dead! Everyone is dead!” Is that jogger from a long time ago, and she’s clearly gone insane. The rain itself tears her away from the window and drags her away. They all believe Ruth’s stories about rain-people now. It’s time to start covering up the windows. The crappy old house is falling apart, especially the cracks in the chimney and foundation. Could they get out through the chimney? They hoist Ruth up through the chimney and she gets her hand through, but the hole is too small to get out completely. The dog runs out of medicine and dies. What to do with the body? The fireplace… or the freezer? There are now big tentacle-monsters outside when it rains. Three months, and all the food is gone. There’s a wild dog outside that keeps coming around, and Jason builds a trap that he sends out through the chimney to catch it. It takes a few attempts, but he eventually catches a squirrel. “Chimney fishing,” they all joke. They also expand the garden by pulling up the floor. Eventually, the power goes out. Five years later, most of the house is garden. The kids have gotten much bigger. There are bears living in the street outside. The house is still sinking, and the cracks are getting worse. The monsters keep coming to the door, and they always hide from them. The monsters can open the door and come inside, but the people can’t open them. Something calls the monster away. After the rain stops, the door still won’t open. The monster left a puddle of seawater behind, so Ruth figures the creatures are from our oceans, not outer space. It also kills most of their garden with the salt water. It poisons their soil and drinking water. Ruth gets bitten by a weasel and gets infected. Jason figures out a way to dig down into the sewer pipes, and Ann volunteers to crawl through to the neighbor’s house to get antibiotics (Why would a retired dentist have antibiotics in their home that would have expired years ago?). Ann makes it to the neighbors house and gets the drugs, but it starts to rain, and the monsters come out. It’s a chase through the sewer, but she escapes the tentacle-monster. The drugs heal Ruth just fine. Jason tells Ann and the kids to hide in the attic, since the creature is going to come for them now; he’ll distract them. No, Ann and Graham want to run outside when the creature opens the door next time. Jason wants to go all “Home Alone” and just lure the creatures inside to a bunch of traps he’s made. The creatures, on the other hand, have their own plan. They flood the house with water, filling it up entirely. There’s a crazy battle as the family makes their way up to the attic. The garage floor gives way and drains most of the house’s flooding. They finally get the best of the creature, trapping it alive. Jason remembers that Ruth thought it was friendly and doesn’t kill it. It opens the door for them and lets them all outside. Outside, they are soon surrounded by other creatures, but the one they spared comes out and tells the others to leave them alone. Suddenly, the whole house collapses and falls down into a pit. For some reason, the rain stops and the monsters all go away. The family takes a fishing boat and sails away since it’s “Waterworld” by this point. Brian’s Commentary I’m skeptical that there’s enough space in that house to garden food enough for four people. I’ve read some really terrible reviews of this one, but I kinda liked it. It’s not really explained, and it probably doesn’t make a lot of sense if you think about any of it, but who wouldn’t want to be trapped inside their house for five years? It’s not as bad as you may have heard. Kevin’s Commentary The Internet and cell service went out but electricity, gas, and water kept working just fine for longer than they should have if they were unattended. But that’s just one of the many unexplained issues and loose ends. By the time they made their move to get out of the house, if the phenomenon was worldwide, it doesn’t seem like there would be a whole lot of other survivors left. Basically my interpretation is that it was a race of ocean dwelling creatures with control over water, such as the creatures in “The Abyss,” that got fed up with the human race. With as much online hate as I’ve seen for this movie, I was expecting to hate it myself. I did not. So much is unexplained and things best not to question too deeply. But I was entertained. 2026 Penny Lane is Dead * Directed by: Mia Kate Russell * Written by: Mia Kate Russell * Stars: Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn, Tahlee Fereday, Alexandra Jensen * Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Four young women join up at an isolated beach house for a celebration. When three bad guys show up, things take an assaulty, violent, and somewhat predictable turn. The movie takes place in 1986, which gives it a retro vibe. It’s well made, and there are enough variables to keep it interesting, but at the core it’s mostly something we’ve seen before. Spoilery Synopsis Australia, 1986. Kat and Nick are a couple, and she makes drug-laced cupcakes. Penny’s mother doesn’t trust Penny’s cousin, Kat, who drinks and does drugs. Credits roll. Penny has Toni and Amy over for a “school’s out” party, and Penny’s mother finally leaves them alone. Penny and Toni kissed each other and liked it, but they don’t tell Amy, cause that’d be weird in 1986. They go to the liquor store and flirt with Nick and Josh. Kat shows up and has custom cupcakes for each of them. It doesn’t take long before that and all the other drugs start to kick in, and Penny passes out. Kat admits that she drugged Penny’s for kicks. If they call the police, Penny might not be able to go to law school. Toni attacks Kat, and there is much arguing. Kat calls her boyfriend, Angus, to come and pick her up. Angus wants to come inside to make a phone call, but Toni thinks he’s scary. Radowsky and Merrick are outside in the car as well. Against her better judgment, Toni lets them all inside. They’re obnoxious and a bit scary to Toni and Amy. Toni figures that Kat will want to leave if she seduces Angus, which goes badly. In retaliation, Kat shows the men where Penny is passed out in the bedroom. This is quickly turning into Angus’s rape party, and Merrick wants to wait in the car, uninvolved. Kat, on the other hand, takes photos. Penny wakes up, screaming, and Toni beats Radowsky into unconsciousness. Kat nags Angus into killing Penny with a shovel. Toni takes off in the car to get help, but Radowsky isn’t far behind. The store Toni goes to is closed, and the phone doesn’t work, but it does have a machete hanging on the wall. She knows how to use it, and soon Radowsky is in pieces. Merrick and Angus argue about where they were supposed to go tonight. Important people were waiting for them. Angus’s father is important and lets Angus get away with anything. Meanwhile, Amy steals the world’s slowest bicycle, and An

We’re back with four movies and a short this week. We’ll start off with the latest in the Twisted Childhood Universe, “Pinocchio: Unstrung,” recently released. Then we’ll go way back in time with three horrible caveman films: “Eegah” (1962), “Trog” (1970), and “Teenage Cave Man” (1958). UGH! OOG! All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #60, for September 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Pinocchio: Unstrung * Directed by: Rhys Frake-Waterfield * Written by: Rhys Frake-Waterfield * Stars: Jude Evan Lloyd, Richard Brake, Robert Englund * Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone It’s a modern telling of Pinocchio, created by Geppetto as a companion for his grandson, and his wholesome journey to becoming a real boy. Actually it’s brutal and violent. The practical effects were impressive - the closing credits show a series of behind the scenes clips. We’re both in agreement that the series is getting better as they go along. This was quite good. Spoilery Synopsis We hear about the narrator’s grandson James, who came to live with him. Then James’s best friend died. The old man made something for James that would never die… Pinocchio… James and Geppetto talk about death and life. Geppetto then coughs, which in movie tropes, means he’s dying. That night, James chases something small throughout the house. Turns out, it’s Pinocchio, who lives in a creepy-looking hole in the basement wall. That is one creepy doll. Geppetto insists that Pinocchio’s existence remain a secret, so he can’t go to school with James. Instead, Pinocchio talks to his “wood mother,” made of the same wood as him. She tells him to take human flesh and wear it. The next day, Pinocchio does go to school with James, pretending to be a doll. Pinocchio watches a really fun chain of accidents that would make “Final Destination” proud (this is why I don’t go to the gym). When the bullies come for James, Pinocchio observes. When Dudley and Mia see the doll move, James says it’s an “AI Thing.” When James goes to the dentist, Pinocchio observes. There’s a traffic accident on the way home, and Pinocchio goes to the hospital with him. “Best friends protect each other,” he says as he leaves. He tracks down the drunk driver in a nearby room and gets his somewhat excessive revenge. He takes some of the man’s organs to make himself more real. The wood mother is thrilled to hear that Pinocchio has killed someone, so now things are just beginning. She sends an evil-looking cricket to assist him. Meanwhile, Mia finds some home movies and watches them. In the film, Geppetto talks about cheating death and what he’s done. The first experiment went really badly. Pinocchio and the cricket go after the dentist next. He gets his dentribution on her. After that, there’s a trio of bullies that don’t live long. Geppetto realizes that Pinocchio is gone, and James and his friends are gone as well. With teeth, eyes, hair, lips, and some organs, Pinocchio sits in front of a mirror and pretties himself up. Geppetto shows up and drives Pinocchio home. Pinocchio realizes that the wood mother has tricked him. He smashes both her and the cricket with a hammer. Geppetto shows Pinocchio where he was created, and it’s really something. There’s a special magic tree that makes magical wood. Pinocchio was supposed to be the reincarnation of James’s dead friend, Zach. He plans to kill Pinocchio and end the experiment. Instead, Geppetto shoots the annoying friend, Dudley. Pinocchio gets the drop on Geppetto with the shotgun, and the doll shoots his maker. He mostly misses and releases the really bad wood creature that was in a cage behind him. The house burns down, and James, Mia, and Pinocchio get out. “I’m gonna need a new dentist,” jokes James. And a couple quick wrap ups make us think it isn’t really all over. Brian’s Commentary The 5th film from The Twisted Childhood Universe after “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey” (2023), “Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 2” (2024), “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare” (2025) and “Bambi: The Reckoning” (2025). Kevin’s Commentary They earned the R rating through the gore, which is excessive and realistic looking. Though also a little tedious. Somehow this managed to be both unexpected and predictable at the same time. Yes, it was a twist that Geppetto was evil, but would anyone expect Richard Brake to be playing a benign good guy? Though I do think it was an improvement over the previous Twisted Childhood Universe tales. They are getting better at them. 1962 Eegah * Directed by: Arch Hall Sr. * Written by: Bob Wehling, Arch Hall Sr. * Stars: Arch Hall Jr., Marilyn Manning, Richard Kiel * Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes * Watch it: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Two teens encounter a prehistoric giant in the desert. The poster makes it look way more exciting than it actually is. It’s often included in worst movies ever made lists, and it probably belongs there. The pacing is clunky, the dubbing is bad, there isn’t a lot to the script, and the acting is questionable. It’s watchable and somewhat interesting, but not one to really recommend. Spoilery Synopsis Roxy leaves the store and stops to talk to the guy at the gas station. On the road to the lake, she almost runs over a caveman. Tom interrupts the proceedings before the giant man carries her away, but he doesn’t see anything. When they tell their fathers, the old men don’t believe them. In the morning, they find giant footprints in the dirt. Mr. Miller, Roxy’s father, wants to visit the nearby mountains and maybe write an adventure book about the big caveman. Miller takes a helicopter up to the mountain to spend the night. Miller soon encounters the caveman. Meanwhile, at the pool, Tom plays his guitar on a huge amplifier, which probably annoys people for at least a square mile. Roxy gets a call that the helicopter set to meet her father can’t show up for the rendezvous, so she and Tom head out there to pick him up– in a dune buggy. We get lots of gratuitous “Wheee!” in the dune buggy. Night falls, which leads to a campout, and another song from Tom (where are the backup singers coming from?). Out in the desert, the caveman hears the music and hones in on them. He sneaks into camp and eats their food while they sleep. He runs off when Tom’s faulty radio starts playing. The next morning, the two continue the search for Mr. Miller. The caveman grabs Roxy while Tom is off in the hills. Roxy wakes up in the creature’s cave next to her father, who is still alive. The caveman sniffs her all over; he likes her perfume. The cave is also occupied by the caveman’s mummified dead relatives. Miller calls the creature “Eegah,” and Roxy whines about the cave (I’m whining about the pacing and acting at this point). Later, Eegah goes out for a dead rabbit and some flowers for Roxy. Roxy shaves the caveman, which is badly needed. Afterwards, Eegah’s got one thing on his mind, but Roxy ain’t having that. Rocy lures Eegah outside, but Tom is out there as well, and he fights the big man. The three jump into the dune buggy and ride off with the caveman in pursuit. As they drive away, Roxy looks at the big man longingly. Eegah goes back to his cave and tells his troubles to the mummies. Eegah leaves the cave and goes looking for Roxy and her car. He uses his bloodhound powers to follow her with his nose– right to town. Miller and Roy talk about Eegah, and they decide to keep the whole thing a secret so that people won’t hunt down and kill the caveman. They head to a party with Tom, and Eegah causes mayhem looking for Roxy. The police get a call “Large man or giant on the loose.” Meanwhile, Tom’s doing more singing at the party. Roxy tells Miller that she’s worried about Eegah. “Something’s happened to him.” Then she proceeds to dance with Tom and another guy from the band who wants to fight. Eegah shows up at the party, and everyone sees him. He grabs Roxy and carries her off. The police shoot Eegah repeatedly, and he dies. Everyone is sad, especially Roxy. Brian’s Commentary Richard Kiel got all the “big man” roles in the 60s and 70s. This feels like an hourlong TV show stretched into a movie. It’s got lots of unnecessary filler scenes, and it’s downright boring at times. Yawn. Kevin’s Commentary It’s strange, I had a used copy on DVD about 15 years ago that was in black and white. This was in color, and I don’t see any mention of it online or in trivia about it having two versions. Trivia says much of the sound was accidentally destroyed, which is why it’s (badly) dubbed. It’s impressive how Tom starts to sing with his guitar around the campfire, and there’s drums, bass guitar, and backup singers who join in. Richard Kiel certainly was a big feller. 7 foot 2. With a very fake looking beard here. I was slightly entertained, but it’s really pretty bad overall. My biggest complaint is the clunky pacing and too many filler scenes. 2026 Short Horror: Unprompted * Directed by: Stephen Packer * Written by: Stephen Packer * Stars: William Lonsdale, Bryan Cooper, Libby Kay * Run Time: 6:16 * See it here: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Mason is struggling to get started on an idea for a horror screenplay. Even a writing sprint with a classmate on the phone hasn’t helped. Reluctantly with guilt, he asks an AI assistant to help him with writing. Unfortunately, the prompt is so vague that it gives the AI unlimited leeway to create something. And does it ever! Spoilery Synopsis The lesson here is don’t just let your AI just go off on its own to create things. It’s quick and effective, poking fun while still being deadly serious at the same time. The effects, acting, and direction are all exc

We’ve got FIVE big films to discuss this week. We’ll open with “The Dollmaker,” which was the favorite of the week for both of us. “The Voices of Our Mother” comes up second, followed by the sci-fi sorta-apocalypse with “Project: Hail Mary,” all three of which are recent releases. For our oldies, we’ll wrap up the vampire series with “Underworld: Blood Wars” and then a real oldie, “20 Million Miles to Earth” from 1957. All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #59, for August 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 The Dollmaker * AKA “Encantador” * Directed by: Jose Maria Cicala * Written by: Jose Maria Cicala, Griselda Sanchez * Stars: Mario Alarcon, Alejandra Baldoni, Griselda Sanchez * Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone In a town filled with quirky characters, Tomas leads a quiet life taking care of his mom and working two jobs with doll making and collecting as a hobby. But women are disappearing in town, and when a police inspector comes to town to help, things start getting even weirder. It’s a strange movie, kind of surreal, almost a Twin Peaks vibe. We both thought it was great. Spoilery Synopsis We watch some crafty credits, and then get on with it. A girl gets whacked in the head with a shovel and dragged off. Tomas finds a doll’s head on the road on the way to the doctor’s office. He makes and repairs the world’s ugliest CPR dolls for the doctor. He hallucinates his mother suffering in the mental ward. He then attends a group therapy session where Tina talks about her family as Tomas sketches her. The bloody ghost of her dead mother attends the session as well. He follows her most of the way home afterward. A new inspector starts, and the police chief shows him around the town of Palacios. The chief doesn’t even carry a gun. Soon, they get another missing woman complaint. They aren’t necessarily dead, so that’s not a crime, the sheriff explains. We soon see these cops are just a little on the incompetent side. Tomas goes home and finds his mother on the floor; she’s not well. He sometimes sees her as a big plastic doll, and he has to carry her around. He tells her about Tina, his new bride-to-be (I’m totally getting the Norman Bates vibe from him and think she’s probably really a doll). We cut to the missing woman being handcuffed and raped in a dark room. Tomas drives Tina to the drag-dancing-diner she works at after her next session, but he can’t stay because his mother is home waiting for him. She mentions having a daughter, but Tomas sees her with a child doll and thinks she’s delusional. Plus Tomas gets the wrong idea about her obviously-gay friend, Robert. He goes home and yells at Mother. Then he apologizes later and she forgives him. Tomas, who works for a very weird video store, goes to a client’s house to pick up an overdue film. The police arrest Tomas outside the house, and he misses his “date” with Tina. It turns out, the house (and video) belonged to one of the missing girls. The sheriff soon releases him and chews out the dumb cops. In case we forgot about the missing women, there’s a scene of a girl getting chopped up with a hand-saw while another captive screams watching. At the video store, the police want a list of clients. They notice the strange locked room in the back, but they don’t have a warrant. Turns out, all the missing women were clients of the video store where Tomas works. Tomas asks Tina to come over for dinner, so he has to clean up the house; he explains it all to Mother and then puts away all his way-too-heavy dolls. He goes to pick her up at work, but she left earlier because she got a call about a problem with her daughter. He ends up going home and throwing a tantrum. In the morning, Tomas goes to the video store to find his boss being arrested. The boss, the doctor, and the priest are identical triplets, which confuses the police. Tina apologizes, blaming her sick child (who Tomas thinks is a doll). We finally see Tomas in the dark room torturing the kidnapped women; yes, it really is him. He cuts out body parts, to please his mother, who really is a doll herself. He puts some real eyes in the mother-doll. Tina comes over for dinner as promised this time. She spends the night, but in the morning, she hears screaming from another part of the house. She finds “Mother” and freaks out, running away. At the police station, the video store boss implicates Tomas, who delivered gift cards to the victims’ house. Tina goes to work and tells Robert about the doll with real eyes and a heart– and the screams. They both wonder if it was real or if Tina is having another “episode.” That night, Robert goes to Tomas’s house and snoops. He, too, gets a shovel to the face. Tina and her “daughter” come to Tomas’s place to apologize, and he’s got bodies all over the place that he has to clean up in a hurry. Tomas knows his mother is a doll, and he believes Tina’s daughter is one as well. They are made for each other. He’s got a “roomful of dolls” to show the daughter. The video store owner admits that Tomas is the police chief’s son, and the old man has been hiding things. Tomas killed his mother when he was very little, and there was a whole coverup by the three triplets. Soon, everyone is out searching for Tomas and Tina. While Tina is talking, Robert crawls up out of where he was being kept, not quite dead. He knocks over mom’s ashes, Tomas freaks out and kills him with a pitchfork, Tina screams and Tomas clubs her. Meanwhile the sheriff and the doctor kiss and then commit suicide. Tomas then gives a warm loving speech to all his collection of “dolls.” As the inspector comes in and sees what’s happened. We get to see Tomas’ last hallucination, with the assumption the inspector shot him dead. Brian’s Commentary That diner is even weirder than Waffle House. The police in this town are absolutely comic-relief material. It’s weird, and a little funny in a Twin-Peaks kinda way. We don’t know for sure who the killer really is until very far into the film, although there are numerous weird characters who could have been it. There are also influences from “Psycho” here as well. It’s a little dull and hard to follow in the beginning, but once we learn who’s who, it all gets pretty good. It was very weird. I liked it! Kevin’s Commentary Tomas had a Norman Bates vibe going from early on in the movie, and I suspected early on he was the killer. And it turns out he’s even loonier than I expected. That diner-bar-nightclub-dragshow-karaoke place where Tina works looks fun. In addition to Tomas being so whacked, the whole town has a little bit of a surreal vibe to it, full of odd characters. It’s very strange, and I really liked it a lot. 2026 The Voices of Our Mother * Director: Mark O’Brien * Writers: Mark O’Brien * Stars: Sheila McCarthy, Georgina Reilly, Mark O’Brien, Carolina Bartczak, Alex Ozerov-Meyer * Runtime: 93 minutes (1 hour 33 minutes) * Trailer Link: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A complicated family relationship is made worse when four siblings return home to help out their ailing mother, who seems to either have a possession or dementia. Either way, she’s not right and things get worse as the movie progresses. Mark O’Brien does a really good job as writer, director, and one of the siblings. It builds steadily to a conclusion that was pretty satisfying. We both enjoyed it. Spoilery Synopsis A woman reads a book but stops when she hears something large stomping around outside. The thing tears the door off and the fireplace suddenly goes crazy. She grabs a gun, but that’s not going to help. “You’re mine and no one else’s,” says the monstrous voice. “I need your help, Annika.” Then she sits up– it was a nightmare. Later, Annika remembers talking to her grandma about helping her mother. Credits roll. Two old women sit in church, almost the only ones there, and listen to Father Roslovic’s sermon. They go home and one reads a story to the other. Harriet is Johanna’s daughter, and she’s got problems. “You’re mine and no one else’s,” Johanna repeats over and over. In the morning, Johanna is dead. Harriet dramatically crawls to the phone to call for help. Therese, William, and Martin are the children, and they all soon arrive. Dr. Meyer talks to them about Harriet, who seems to be healthier and mentally like a child now. It wasn’t a stroke, it’s not dementia, it’s something else. William is bitter about the whole thing and thinks Harriet should be institutionalized. Annika, the fourth child, is a nun, and she doesn’t really want to go home, but the other nuns convince her that she should; she talks about being abused by her father. The three siblings take Harriet home, and Annike is there waiting for them. We take a little time to learn all the siblings’ problems. William is broke and has a gambling problem. Therese is an angry widow. Martin is a useless junkie and was written out of the will. At the funeral service the next day, Harriet freaks out and punches the preacher. She’s soon back in the hospital, but the doctors can’t find a problem. Therese accuses William of having an affair with her dead wife and may have been the one who killed her. She’s got a bit of a grudge. As they all argue, Harriet starts laughing upstairs. Harriet says the others have done awful things, they aren’t pure like Annika. They got Martin to kill their father and maybe Therese’s wife as well. Then Harriet walks out the window and vanishes. Annika finds Harriet standing outside the church, just staring. They take her home and build a jail cell in the basement for her. Father Roslovic comes over and talks about her odd behavior. Is she possessed? This leads to more

FOUR HUNDRED EPISODES? WOOOHOOOO! We’ve got a baby and family-themed episode this week. We’ll start off with the folk-horror “Nightborn” from this year. We’ll go with some meta-slasher fun with “Big Baby” next. “Son of Sara” gives us a slightly different take on the birth of the antichrist. All three of those are new this year. “Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation” is our oldie for the week, starting the careers of a couple of actors you might have heard of. And we’ve got a creepy short film this week as well. All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #59, for August 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Nightborn * Directed by: Hanna Bergholm * Written by: Hanna Bergholm, Ilja Rautsi * Stars: Seidi Haarla, Rupert Grint, Pamela Tola * Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A young couple moves to her childhood home in the Finnish woods, has a kid, and lives happily ever after. Well, actually no. The kid ain’t quite right and things get progressively worse as the story progresses. It’s kind of slow moving and talky in places, but the dread and horror builds nicely. We were both entertained, Brian more than Kevin. Spoilery Synopsis Jon and Saga drive their car through the woods toward their new, isolated home. It’s her childhood home. It looks an awful lot like a haunted house. Credits roll. They go inside, and it’s really torn up. There’s a tree growing in the bedroom floor. For some reason, they seem happy to be in this mess. Out in the woods, the trees look like people, with faces and bony hands. Jon gets creeped out, but Saga rubs the belly of the pregnant-looking tree. “Grandma forbid me to come” to the forest, she explains. Then they have sex under the tree. We cut to Saga giving birth, and it’s a bloody mess. “What is this?” asks the nurse, and then they sedate Saga. When she wakes up, Jon explains that the baby is fine. The nurse says she’s never seen such a hairy baby before; it’s all down his back. The trio goes home, and we see that Jon’s been busy renovating. Breastfeeding hurts, as the baby draws blood, and she can’t make eye contact with the baby. The baby’s got a tiny little tail sprout growing on his backside. We soon see that Saga is a little afraid of the baby, who hurts her every chance he gets. They have a party for Saga’s family to come over and meet the baby. Saga explains that she plans to have two more babies before going back to work. Mother explains that Saga was always a weird kid, and then the baby pulls her earring, and a big chunk of her ear, off. “Why did it look so weird?” asks one little girl visitor. “Babies are usually cute.” The wind blows from the forest, and it tells Saga to name the baby, “Kuura.” The sunlight burns the baby, so Saga takes him inside. The parents argue over her not being able to do anything right. She starts calling the baby, “It.” Saga’s sister comes over and explains how “cold iron burns them” about something in the woods that scared their grandmother. Jon comes to the conclusion that there’s something wrong with Saga. She soon finds out that the baby is quite eager to lick up blood after an accident. They go to counseling, and Saga says the problem is the baby. Jon’s parents come for a visit, and his father is a priest. “If you don’t bless a child, a troll will take them,” someone jokes. The blessing is completely uneventful, which shocks Saga, who expected something bad to happen. The baby touches some iron and burns his hand. “It’s just cold. Cold iron.” After that, Saga realizes she’s given birth to a troll. She gives it a baby bottle filled with blood, and the baby loves it. She hides the bottle and remaining blood from Jon. Later they have a rough evening of discussion and arguing, and Jon leaves for work in the morning without saying goodbye. Saga and the baby then roar at each other as the trees encroach right up to the house. Then things get a little rough. Saga wakes up outside in the snow-covered woods. She hears the baby squealing out there somewhere, and the trees themselves try to slow her down. She tracks down little Kuura, who is eating a dead deer. Jon comes home, and he knows about the blood the baby drinks. They argue some more. Jon wants to watch the baby while she goes into town once in a while– which she does. Her fingernails look like they’re turning into wood, and her stomach has rings like a tree. She meets up with some old work friends, “None of us really knows you,” one says. All through lunch, she hears babies crying. The vegetarian menu does not agree with her anymore. Back at home, Jon takes care of the baby, and it all seems normal. Saga comes home from town, on foot, through the snow. She’s physically changing, which reverts back as soon as she gets near the baby. Saga’s sister comes over for a visit, and things get nasty. Anna, her niece, seems normal; “I got that monster,” Saga whines. The sister says there’s nothing wrong with Kuura, it’s all her. Then the baby bites off Anna’s finger. Eventually, she embraces the monstrosity of the whole situation , and she starts getting along with the baby. Jon finds the mother and child sleeping in a hole under the floor where the tree grows. He just rolls with it. Jon wants to set “human limits” on child raising. “This child can’t be raised,” she says. Jon’s had enough and says he’s taking Kuura away from Saga. They physically fight over the baby. Kuura gets upset, and the forest goes wild, invading the house. Jon gets impaled on a tree and dies. Then the baby starts eating on him. Saga then pulls out his heart and shares it with Kuura. Saga goes outside and watches Kuura run toward the forest and the tree people inside. Brian’s Commentary If the sound of crying babies bothers you, stay as far from this one as possible. If this movie teaches us anything, it’s that babies will suck the life right out of you. If you’ve ever even considered having children, watch this film first. It’s all very mother-metaphorical, but it’s also a good horror movie. It’s slow-moving and predictable, but it’s very well made and kept me entertained. Kevin’s Commentary So much crying baby in this one. It didn’t have a long run time, but it felt long to me. Slow, quiet, and talky for a lot of it, but the undertone of dread is there almost from the beginning and the horror does build. I’d say I liked it more than disliked it. 2026 Big Baby * Directed by: Spider One * Written by: Spider One * Stars: Brandon Scott, Krsy Fox, Torio Van Grol * Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Horror writer Adam is struggling a bit to make it big, but he comes up with a great idea to create a new slasher character, Big Baby. As he gets into it, reality and fiction starts to blur. This is loaded with horror tropes, and the meta vibe of horror story within horror story, leaving us wondering what’s real or not. It’s a little on the talky side at times, but overall really well made and entertaining. Better than both of us expected. Spoilery Synopsis We open to Adam listening to a podcast of horror movie reviews, and it’s NOT OURS. Turns out, they really hate the movie that Adam wrote. Adam gets really angry (he shoulda been listening to The Horror Guys). Adam’s girlfriend, Kate, gives him a pep talk. Adam is sooo tired of criticism; everyone hates everything. He makes good money writing horror films, but he’ll never win an Academy Award. This, naturally, gives Adam writer’s block. He has a nightmare about a serial killer who looks like a huge baby who kills Kate. The next morning, he’s really excited about his new idea. Kate wants him to write a slasher film from the idea. He hates slasher films, but maybe he could elevate it. Then again, writing isn’t easy, and he’s still got writer’s block. He does laundry instead. He finds the bedsheet cut up, just like in his dream, but it’s probably just a coincidence. At the coffee shop, he runs into the same two horror movie podcasters, and they’re idiots in person as well. They say his movie, “The Blackest Moon” was just plain boring. Adam and Kate get drunk and talk about cats and monkeys building roller coasters. Adam gets all philosophical about it, mentioning that people create reality from their own thoughts. That night, Adam gets a visit from a little boy who explains the origin of Big Baby; he was a bullied boy who nearly drowned and vowed to get revenge. Wait– was that a dream, or was it real? He writes the story so far, but Kate doesn’t think that origin was enough to explain a serial killer. Adam makes excuses and wonders what level of revenge can be considered acceptable. Adam then writes about how Big Baby gets his mask; Kate comes home wearing that exact same mask and scares the crap out of Adam. He runs into a woman at the convenience store and starts stalking her as she walks home. He watches as Big Baby comes out of nowhere and hacks the woman to pieces with an ax. “He’s real,” he tells Kate, who wants to go to the alley and see for herself. Of course, there’s no sign of anything there. Adam thinks writing about Big Baby made it actually happen; he manifested it. Kate convinces Adam to put the story away for a while. A few weeks later, they have friends over for dinner. Adam and James talk about their work, and “Big Baby” comes up, which gets awkward. Kate really thinks Adam’s losing his mind, and she’s not happy about it. That night, Big Baby comes to Adam and says “She doesn’t want you to succeed. She’s in our way.” He won’t promise not to hurt Kate. Kate wakes up halfway through the conversation, and she sees that Adam is alone, talking to himself. In the morning, K

We’ve watched a bunch of oldies and sequels over the past few weeks, so this time, let’s focus on four brand-new films. The latest installment of the Deadites franchise, “Evil Dead Burn” is first. Next, we’ll stop in with a visit to the M3GAN universe and meet our “Soulm8te.” After that, we’ll stop in for a perfectly normal “Corporate Retreat,” and then take a side trip to Korea to visit a strange “Colony.” 2026 is shaping up to be a fine year for horror so far! And we’ve got a creepy short film this week as well. All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #59, for July 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Soulm8te * Directed by: Kate Dolan * Written by: Rafael Jordan, Kate Dolan, James Wan * Stars: Lily Sullivan, David Rysahl, Claudia Doumit * Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A lonely guy working in robotics gets an experimental home model companion to test and improve on. His attempts to make her more lifelike leads to obsession and deadly consequences. It’s very well made, and the cast is great. But we both thought it didn’t show us much new that we haven’t seen before. The storytelling was good but kind of predictable as it unfolded. Spoilery Synopsis We open on a sex scene as the credits roll. She chokes the guy, but she gets carried away and nearly kills him before the technicians monitoring can shut her off. We get a commercial about Ultima’s new AIs and robots. David’s company has been acquired by Ultima and Ben is the new boss. David is not enthused about work. He also misses Lizzie, his dead wife. At a meeting at the office, Ben talks about chronic loneliness and how their newest product can help with that. A woman walks out and then pulls off her hair– she’s a robot underneath, designed for companionship. She’s a Soulm8te with an extra 8, which Terrance thinks is stupid. And she’s very stiff and robotic. Ben talks to David about the business, Lizzie, working from home, and the company’s chat app, which David doesn’t use. Still, David’s gotta work on this new robot, so he has to get involved now. Afterwards, much of the group goes to a karaoke bar. David kinda likes Aubrey, and she kinda likes him, but the dead wife thing keeps getting between them. David keeps calling Lizzie’s voicemail just to hear her voice. Sara, the AI chatbot on his phone, sees his call and asks if everything is OK. This begins a conversation, and before long, he’s sold on the chatbot. Before long, David signs up to beta test the new physical version of the AI, in robot form. He shows her around the apartment, and she gives simple responses to things he says. They talk about Lizzie and play chess. He puts her to sleep in power-save mode in the living room; he doesn’t want to sleep with her. She’s okay, but kind of stiff and inhuman. David talks to Ben about getting more access to improve the robot, whom he names Sara. He programs her to criticize him, which she wasn’t able to do before. He finds her much more attractive after the upgrade and they kiss, quickly followed by sex. He then follows up by reprogramming her with more alterations and updates. The neighbor, Alma, notices that David’s got a new girlfriend, and it’s a little awkward. While David’s at work, Sara watches lots of television about lots of topics. She starts tapping into his phone to listen to him at work, especially when he starts flirting with Aubrey. Sara goes out shopping, runs into some trouble, and neighbor Alma helps out. Sara is curious about her baby. “Having a baby changes everything,” Alma says. Sara gets mugged on the way home, but that goes very poorly for the bad guy. David and Sara go out for a drink at the karaoke bar, and Sara does a song. She’s very good, and everyone in the place notices. They have sex in the alley afterward. Some guys try to take pictures, and she hurts them. He realizes that she’s not programmed with safeties, and that could be a problem. He has to really push her to get into power save mode. Later, he’s just about to start to fix the mistakes he made in Sara’s programming and Aubry stops by with wine. This leads to more romance, but this time, Sara watches through the smart home device. Sara wakes up and won’t go back to sleep on command. “Even when I’m sleeping, I can hear you,” she explains. He has to physically turn her off with the button in the back of her neck. David calls the factory to have them come and pick up Sara for a return. At work, Aubrey wants to do a presentation about how changing a few lines of code can really mess with the ‘bots. They aren’t ready for market yet. Meanwhile, at home, the service guy arrives and reactives Sara. He tries to reset her to factory settings, but she won’t reset. She seduces the guy and kills him in a unique way. She then cuts him apart and disposes of the evidence. During the presentation at work, everyone suddenly watches a video of Aubrey having wild sex with someone. She swears it’s not even really her, a deepfake. She’s fired from the job immediately. David realizes where that porn video came from and goes home to find Sara dressed up as Lizzie. Also, now she’s got a baby. A real baby. David grabs the baby and tries to leave the apartment, but she locks the doors. Alma and the police show up and get the baby back safe, but Sara jumps down the laundry chute and escapes. The police talk to Ben, who explains about the robot. He’s sure there’s no danger, since the robots are perfectly safe and they can remotely shut it down. He goes looking for her, but she finds him first. He makes him have a severe car accident. She then goes to Aubrey’s house and attacks her. David shows up to intervene, as do the police. They get there in time to save Aubrey, but Sara flees. David and Aubrey leave their phones behind and go to David’s old house out in the country. They hang out and David casually mentions Chechov’s paint stripper. Sure enough, Sara shows up and grabs him. He splashes her with the paint thinner, and most of her face melts. Not the important metal parts though as she points out. Though there’s a good opening for David to jam a drill into now. David runs out into the rainy woods, and she follows, not damaged enough yet. We know from before that her skin is water resistant, but that was before her head was full of holes, and the rain starts to get to her a bit - but still not enough. She says she’s more than just a body; she exists in the ether and she’ll come for him no matter what. Aubrey drives her car into Sara and runs it over a cliff into a lake. The Sarabot shorts out as she sinks. One year later, David’s at a fundraiser, and an old man has a Soulm8te that looks exactly like Sara with dark hair. They’re on the market now. Could she be the same? Brian’s Commentary This takes place in the same fictional universe as “M3GAN” (2023) and “M3GAN 2” (2026). It’s also very similar to the plot of “Subservience” (2024). It’s even got a touch of “Obsession” (2026). We’ve been getting a lot of AI/Robot stories lately. The acting is good, the situation escalates reasonably, and it’s all well filmed. Storywise, however, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. A man and a robot have a romance, and the robot gets carried away. It’s well done and entertaining if you haven’t seen the other dozen films that tell the same story. Kevin’s Commentary I was really impressed with Lily Sullivan’s performance as Sara, she was excellent. It was very well made all around with great special effects. I think the biggest fault was that it didn’t have enough new or unexpected. As events unfolded, I could predict most of them coming. So, it’s an entertaining watch with a good story, but few surprises. 2026 Evil Dead Burn * Directed by: Sebastien Vanicek * Written by: Sebastien Vanicek, Florent Bernard * Stars: Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan * Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone It’s death and mayhem for a family who are descendents of an old professor who researched the Necronomicon and the business around it. In an isolated house where they’ve gathered, evil does its thing with over the top violence and gore. It’s pretty continuous in the violence in fact, almost to the point of tedium by the end, a serious business without much humor at all. We’re both in agreement it was better than the previous movie “Evil Dead Rise,” but Brian enjoyed this one more than Kevin did. Spoilery Synopsis We get a voice recording talking about the Necronomicon and flesh-possessing demons. There’s also a magical device that can send the demons back to Hell, but it must remain hidden. If it’s found, the demons will stop at nothing to destroy it. We watch a guy find the thing. We cut to two fishermen arguing about leaving their phones in the car. One guy catches a head and then something catches him. Leo pulls about half of Jarod out of the water, and then the demon gets him as well. The demon then stands in the road and waits for a car to hit her. Alice and her friends get together for Joseph’s birthday. Will buys Joseph a thousand-dollar pen because he never finishes his books, which devolves into an argument. He’s abusive and controlling, and ends up speeding away from the club… until he runs into the demon-woman and crashes. “We found you, now lead us to your family,” says the demon-woman, who soon loses her head. The car bursts into flame, burning Will alive. Credits roll. At the funeral, Alice sees Will’s family, Susan and Polly. There’s construction going on outside, which is very distracting. They all think Alice and Will were happily married, but that’s obviously not the case. Will’s father, Ed, wants one last visit

We’ve got another batch of weird ones for you this week. We’ll open on “Leviticus,” and you’ll hear what we thought about that. “Until Dawn” takes us on a time-loop adventure, while “Wishmaster 4” brings an end to that franchise. And then there’s “Underworld: Awakening,” which takes that franchise in a whole new direction. And we’ve got a creepy short film this week as well. All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #59, for July 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Leviticus * Directed by: Adrian Chiarella * Written by: Adrian Chiarella * Stars: Stacy Clausen, Joe Bird, Mia Wasikowska * Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Two teenagers run into trouble when a shapeshifting entity fixates on them. It’s not a happy movie, and it’s very slow-paced. But it’s got an interesting story, and it’s well made. The acting is excellent. Neither of us disliked it, but we were kind of meh. Spoilery Synopsis The lifeguard stays late after the pool closes to take a naughty shower. Something bad happens to her that we don’t see, but it involves lots of screaming and blood. Credits roll. Ryan and Naim play with a snake and break into an abandoned mill to vandalize it and hang out. It doesn’t take long before the two are fighting with each other– and then kissing. Ryan warns Naim later not to tell anyone about what happened. Later, both boys stare at each other as the church group sings. Some time later, the boys are back inside the mill making out again. Naim’s mother is highly religious and often drags him to church groups. They also know Hunter, who is Rob, the preacher’s son. Naim sees Hunter and Ryan kissing in the backyard and realizes he’s not exclusive. Naim tells Rob what he saw and things go badly for Hunter at home after that. Ryan and his family as well. The church does a whole big thing for the two gay boys to drive the sin out of them, and there’s quite an embarrassing crowd. The Deliverance Preacher says, “All your lust, indecency, and desire has to go now!” Both boys fall down in a seizure in the middle of the ritual, going into convulsions. Naim watches all this and is terrified, since it’s partly his fault. At school later, Ryan starts getting bullied. Ryan warns Naim that he has to stop. Naim follows Ryan to the skating rink, where Ryan acts like he’s not alone. Something invisible in the photo booth attacks Ryan and scratches him up good. Ryan tells Naim to just leave him alone, he thinks it was Naim that attacked him. Naim questions Hunter about what happened at the ritual. “Did it work?” After following Hunter, he finds that Hunter’s being followed by something invisible as well. He watches as Hunter is dragged away and killed that night. Naim goes to the police about what he saw; he thinks it’s going to kill Ryan next. The detective tells Naim’s mother everything, and it’s an awkward drive to the church where Rob and the Deliverance Preacher awaits him too. The men drag him inside and do the same ritual to him. Naim tells Ryan what happened, and then Ryan attacks him. Except Ryan was inside and didn’t do anything. “You saw it, didn’t you!” Izzie, Rob’s daughter, knows something. “It comes for you when you’re alone,” she explains about two girls. One, Marnie, died in the opening sequence, but the other one didn’t. The girl who lived, Jessica, hangs out all day and night at a hospital so she’s never alone. Ryan and Naim take the bus to see Jessica, who explains that the monster looks like the person you have a crush on and then it kills them. “Nothing can make it stop. Stay away from your friend, you’re only making it worse!” For a moment, Naim is alone, and he sees it coming for him as both Ryan and Hunter. On the bus ride home, the two kiss and make out, which they both know is only going to make it worse, but they can’t help themselves. Izzie takes the two boys to the Deliverance Preacher to “take it back,” but it’s a trap. A large group of trouble makers start to beat them up, but they steal Izzie’s car to escape. Unfortunately, Ryan learns who it was who told on him. Naim tries to tell his mother about the creature, but she doesn’t understand. He sees Ryan/The Creature several more times. It just about kills Naim, but Naim soon learns that it’s vulnerable to fire. Naim runs into the old mill, with Ryan not far behind. Naim sets the place on fire with the Ryan thing inside. Naim tells his mother the story, but she already knows. This was supposed to happen, and it can’t be undone. Ryan has apparently run away or otherwise disappeared. Naim goes to the bus stop and meets him there, where they leave the depressing town altogether sitting next to each other sharing music. Along the way, Naim sees “Ryan” standing beside the road. Brian’s Commentary “What if conversion therapy actually worked?” It’s about depressing characters in a depressing town going through depressing situations– fun! It’s a good concept and it’s got good acting and cinematography, but it’s very slowly paced. There’s also an inconclusive ending– did leaving town stop the problem? It seems unlikely, but we don’t know. It was… okay. A little on the dull side. Kevin’s Commentary It’s a very strange romance. With a sort of happy ending, and not a solid wrap up. The problem is going to continue, from the look of it. The two leads were great, as was the supporting cast. All the production values were very good. It wasn’t unpleasant to watch, but I thought it was a little too long and drawn out. 2025 Until Dawn * Directed by: David F. Sandberg * Written by: Gary Dauberman, Blair Butler * Stars: Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion * Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A group of friends gets trapped in a time loop house of horrors. All they have to do to escape is survive Until Dawn. It’s a variation on the Groundhog Day time loop scenario with a video game vibe. The movie is pretty well made, but there wasn’t a lot here we haven’t seen before. We both thought it was on the tedious side. It was just okay overall. Spoilery Synopsis We open on a woman crawling through a tiny tunnel, and there’s something nasty behind her. The evil clown catches up to her and kills her. “I can’t take it again!” Credits roll. Clover, Max, Nina, Megan, and Abe discuss what they are going to do for closure after they arrive. Clover’s sister, Melanie, went missing about a year ago, and they’re here to say goodbye. Megan’s a bit of a psychic, and she leads them all in a little ritual that almost gets them all run over in the street. The man inside the gas station says a lot of people go missing in Glore Valley, just up the road. After a very strange storm, they stop at a building that’s in the eye of the rainstorm, but that’s not really a thing. None of them have any cell signal, and the rain seems to be falling everywhere except where they are. The calendar inside the inn says it’s 1998. Abe finds a whole bulletin board full of “Missing” posters. The sun goes down, and the weird sundial clock on the wall turns itself over. Abe’s car suddenly comes to life just outside the rain circle. One thing quickly leads to another, and the clown shows up, cutting Abe in half. Max soon gets a knife in the face as well. Megan gets face-planted repeatedly, but then Clover stabs the clown in the back– to no effect. He kills her as well. Time resets, and suddenly, everyone is alive again. They all remember what happened. Now their photos are on Missing posters as well. “It has hold of us now,” Megan says. As the hourglass continues to run down, Megan says it feels different this time. She’s apparently possessed by the former victims of the place. “Don’t let it in,” she says before she dies. There’s a knock at the door, and Clover hears Melanie’s voice. There’s no one out there. Also, there’s an old house that wasn’t there before. Clover’s dragged into the old house, but the others are forced back into the house they’ve been in. Clover looks around the strange house, and there’s an old woman there: the Glore Witch. “You either survive the night or become a part of it.” Max comes looking for her, but Abe and Nina jump in the car to drive away, which they soon learn is a bad idea. The others also die… again. Megan’s losing hair and not looking so good this time around. They all have some minor health issues now– Abe starts coughing up teeth and explodes. Clover tells the others about what the witch said to her. Nina then explodes as well. Megan explodes just a little bit at a time until there’s nothing left. As Clover lays down, ready to try another round, the man from the gas station comes in. “You almost made it. Almost but not quite.” Time resets again. Clover finds the ID for Dr. Hill, the man she talked to at the gas station. He was a doctor who was brought in a few years back when the whole town got swallowed in a mine disaster. They figure out that each time they’ve died, it’s been something different, just to keep them afraid. Max finds a videotape that explains a lot about what Dr. Hill was doing here in town. He turned a man into a wendigo. Hill explains that four of them can leave, but one of them must die. First, the clown kills Abe and Nina, then the wendigo gets Megan. Max and Clover run into Melanie, who is now a wendigo. But first, more death. None of them can remember how long they’ve been there. Tonight might be their last chance. Wait, Megan isn’t here on this go-round, maybe her time was up? They look at Abe’s phone and see videos of many, many previous deaths and monsters. Clover decides it’s time to stop running away and elects to go i

Will your life ever be the same after “Disclosure Day?” We suspect it will be. Then we’ll continue our dive into franchise sequels with “Wishmaster 3: beyond the Gates of Hell”, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans,” and “Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III.” It seems that the films’ names grow longer with each iteration. And we’ve got a creepy short film this week as well. All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #58, for July 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Disclosure Day * Directed by: Steven Spielberg * Written by: David Koepp, Steven Spielberg * Stars: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth * Run Time: 2 Hours, 25 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Aliens are real and some people want to disclose and some people really, really want to keep it a secret. So we have two and half hours of back and forth chasing and strangeness and science fiction mish-mash. We both thought it was on the long side, with too much filler and not enough disclosure. Spoilery Synopsis We open with wrestlers beating each other up in the ring. Daniel Kellner sits in the audience, not interested in the show at all. We soon see that he’s there to pay the ransom for Jane. The kidnappers release Jane to him, but they’re a big, well-run group, and Noah Scanlon is in charge. He wants the “device” that Daniel has, and it’s very dangerous. Noah warns that there’s no reset for what Daniel’s about to do, but Daniel knows this. Jane asks what kind of treason Daniel’s done, and he says it’s complicated. He’s got a big bag full of memory cards of data, and he calls Hugo Wakefield to take them. We see that Noah is working for Wardex, who works for the government, and they’ve had a big leak of security information. Many people from their own organization didn’t show up for work this morning, including Hugo, so it’s some kind of organized betrayal. Daniel explains to Jane that he stole the data that he was paid to protect. “People have a right to know,” he whines. In Kansas City, Jackson and Margaret joke about her newscaster audition. She sees a random cardinal bird and then starts speaking Russian. She doesn’t even know she was doing it. When a cop pulls her over, she knows all about the cop; telepathy or something. She’s the weather person on the news, and she suddenly starts talking Korean to a guest; she doesn’t speak Korean. When it’s time to actually give the weather report, she just makes weird clicking sounds. Noah gets a report about Margaret speaking in clicks on national TV. The sound she makes matches something that upsets him greatly. Margaret has had nightmares all her life and doesn’t remember much about her childhood. Danny and Jane go with a guy to a safe house. He explains that Wardex deals with dead aliens from the 1970s. Not just that, but they’ve tortured and dissected live aliens as well. This has been going on for 79 years, and Daniel’s got proof of all of it. He wants full disclosure of all of it to the entire world. Jane’s not sure the world needs to know; it’ll be really disruptive. She’s afraid people will lose their religion. Margaret runs from the Wardex guys and talks to Hugo, who warns her to stay away from those guys. Jackson has no idea what’s going on, but he does what Margaret says. Hugo shows Margaret’s clicking to Daniel, who thinks it’s all English, he understands it perfectly. Noah tries using one of the alien devices, and doesn’t like the results. He tries it again, and takes partial control of Margaret’s body remotely. He then projects himself there to have a conversation with her, where he gets her location. Margearet somehow picks up all this and warns Daniel to run. He then steals a car and shows us how incompetent the Wardex guys are. Jackson thinks there’s something wrong with Margaret, and she knows he’s about to break up with her if she moves. She knows more about everything than she should. She abandons him at a convenience store where everyone is panic-buying the gas and merchandise because of news and stuff. The Wardex guys raid the motel where Daniel and Jane are staying. She gets away with a device, but the baddies catch Daniel and the backpack. Just on instinct, Margaret is not far behind. She knows all the secret codes, so the guards let her right in. Noah knows who she is and lets her leave with Daniel. All the guards see them, but they appear to be friends and relatives, so they let them pass. They all see something very personal. Daniel doesn’t really understand it, but he had a strange encounter with a cardinal as well. Noah and Hugo have a “diving” conversation, and Hugo says he’s working for the aliens. They both believe the other is irrational. Jane talks to Sister Maura about religious ideas. The existence of aliens might or might not make people of faith lose their minds. Margaret and Daniel finally make it to where Hugo is. He’s rebuilt a copy of her childhood home so she can regress to her missing childhood. “When you do, you’ll know everything, more than is humanly possible.” He was gifted to understand the aliens, and she was gifted to understand the humans. They get a vision of animals visiting her as a child, but they aren’t really animals. “They present as animals to calm us,” explains Hugo. We see both Daniel and Margaret as the aliens abducted them and “upgraded” them. Noah and his men arrive and come inside, but they don’t see anything; Margaret has “cloaked” them all. They drive away in an invisible fire truck, heading to KCXE, her news station, which is broadcasting the beginning of WW3. The station manager immediately cooperates with everything Margaret tells him to do. Noah gets to work cutting the power for the building before they can broadcast anything. The power at the station goes off, and the emergency generator comes on. They cut the generator off just as Margaret’s about to go live. Jane sneaks in and gives Margaret one of the devices, which powers up all the equipment for her. Noah doesn’t make any move to stop her, so she goes live on the air with lots of video footage of alien stuff. All the news outlets in the world immediately start showing the footage, without any kind of verification at all. At the station, Hugo’s men wheel something in. It’s a very old alien and it has a message for us… Brian’s Commentary This is in no way “Horror,” but it’s billed as an alien invasion film, so we went with it anyway. The alien CGI was surprisingly not-s0-great, like something from twenty years ago. The pacing was OK for such a long film, and it didn’t get boring. The first hour kept reminding me of the weirdness that was the first half of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977). Later, it became more like “E.T.” in a lot of ways, but it’s also very different from both. Somehow, I doubt the news agencies would be that quick to show all the footage without any kind of verification. It could simply be a big hoax; they wouldn’t know. Also, why did Noah just give up right at the end? His assistant, Boyd, was ready to stop the broadcast, and he could have just shot everyone, but no, he just let it go. It’s fine. I’d have been way more interested in seeing the aftermath of all this; what effect did the revelation have on everyone? We don’t know much about the aliens or what their message was. It’s long, but it gives us way too much about what we didn’t need and not enough about what we wanted to know. They should have done the disclosure at the halfway point and showed us what came after. Kevin’s Commentary I’m going to go with well made, because of course after 30 some movies Spielberg knows how to make them, and also mediocre. It trots along for an awfully long time being somewhat interesting but mostly nothing that we haven’t seen before. The acting is great. The script didn’t impress me. There were a lot of plot holes and things that worked out fine because the plot required it. Maybe the CGI looked better on the big screen rather than being so blatant for home viewing? It was just okay overall. I would have rather seen an hour less of the first part of the movie and more tacked on at the end after the actual disclosure. 2001 Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell * Directed by: Chris Angel * Written by: Alex Wright, Peter Atkins * Stars: Jason Connery, A.J. Cook, Tobias Mehler * Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Someone finds the ruby gem, the Djinn is freed, death and mayhem happens, they find a way out at the end. It’s a familiar formula used a third time. It’s been a downward slide though. This one doesn’t have Andrew Divoff, it lacks dark humor, and it’s on the dull side. It’s not bad, but middling. Spoilery Synopsis Diana has a nightmare about the traffic accident that killed her parents. Her boyfriend, Greg, suggests she needs therapy over the incident. The next morning, Diana and Katie go to school with Billy, Katie’s boyfriend. The professor might have a thing for Diana, which annoys Greg. The professor asks Diana to come in after class to help him at the museum. As she waits, she opens a puzzle box from ancient Persia, and finds a big red gem inside. The professor shows up and reads the words on the box and then wants to go out for dinner. She turns him down, and he’s annoyed. The Djinn shows up to the professor, and he wants to know more about Diana. He wishes for the two most beautiful women in the world to be in love with him; they show up and tear him apart. The Djinn then changes shape to replace the professor. Katie hangs up a big bull’s head with Chekov’s horns poking out. Then she makes out with Billy. Diana translates the writing on the box and knows what’s going on with t

We’ll start off this week with the much-discussed “Backrooms” that just hit streaming this week. We’ll then watch three sequels to major franchises: “Underworld: Evolution” (2006), the second in that series, “Return of the Living Dead III” (1993), and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” (1986). And we’ve got two very fun short films this week as well. All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #58, for July 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Backrooms * Directed by: Kane Parsons * Written by: Will Soodik, Kane Parsons * Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass * Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone The IMDB.com description says “When a counselor’s client vanishes into a surreal realm of infinite corridors, she is forced to journey into the abyss to bring him back.” But it’s more complicated than that with infinite layers of weirdness. Which is the backrooms, which is the real world, and which is just distorted memories? It’s a very strange film, and we both liked it. Spoilery Synopsis It’s 1990, and we open on a guy filming inside an empty set of rooms. He stops in a room full of radio equipment, and he reports that he’s never been this far before, and he really wants someone to come and get him. As he continues, we see that birds, leaves, and nature have somehow intruded into the hallway, and various pieces of furniture are embedded into the walls. Then something jumps out and kills the guy. The video ends, and the credits roll. We get a voiceover about making the same mistakes over and over again, and we see Clark coming to work at Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, a furniture store. “Rip Off” is painted in the window, and he’s got a bunch of past due bills on his desk. Clark talks to his therapist, Mary, about his sad life. He talks about the night Barbara left him. He’s a little bitter about his career. Kat and Bobby record Clark doing a really bad pirate commercial. The electric bill is higher than it should be, so he calls in an electrician to find out why. There’s a whole bunch of power being used, but not for the store. That night, we see that Clark now lives in the store, and there are still electrical problems at night. A light comes on the downstairs area, so Clark goes down to shut it all off, except it won’t shut down. When it does finally shut off, he notices a light behind one of the walls; a secret door? He leans on the wall and goes right through, into a large yellow room with buzzing fluorescent lights. The portal seems to work both ways, so he starts to explore a bit. He walks through the place, a lot larger than it appears, until he comes to a stop sign in a dark place. He skips that and goes a different direction. He finds a dead bird and more rooms. He eventually finds a backpack behind a hidden door hiding a tunnel. On the other side, he finds various shoes embedded in the floor. He hears something weird moving around in the tunnels and runs back to the first room, where he started. The portal is still there, so he goes back to his own world. We see that someone has a video camera in the backrooms and knows that Clark was there. Clark goes to see Mary for another session. He’s agitated about what he’s found and sounds like a lunatic. Clark has Kat and Buddy come back in with the video recorder. He shows them the door, drawn on the wall, and they think he’s insane– until it works. He then shows them around the huge place. Kat’s terrified of the whole place, but Buddy is as curious as Clark is. Bobby goes down into a kind of pit and sees someone down there– pulls him back in and does something bad to him. We cut to Mary, a little girl who’s not allowed to go outside. “They’re all over the place,” warns her mother. Then adult Mary wakes up. She gets a cryptic call from Clark that he won’t be coming back. She goes to the furniture store to look around; it’s unlocked and has been for days, but no customers ever come here. She goes downstairs and sees the door outline on the wall. Soon, Mary is in the yellow room. As with the others, she starts wandering around the place. She finds Clark, who grabs her and chokes her out. Mary then flashes back to her weird childhood and insane mother. Clark explains the weird people that are in these room; it’s sorta-kinda how the room remembers them, just not quite right. Everything here is just a little bit mis-remembered. The poorly recreated people, as it turns out, are edible, since they’re made of food. Mary wants to help Clark, psychologically, but he’s got some special needs. He’s gone pretty much insane, and makes Mary wear his wife-stand-in’s hair. Mary gets annoyed and says Clark’s problem is all the whining. He likes it in here. “For the first time in a long while, I feel like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.” Suddenly, a giant pirate lumbers into the room, and Clark says Mary was just leaving. The huge thing takes a bite out of Clark, and Mary runs away. The creature pursues her until she finds a trap door in the ceiling and gets back into the actual furniture store. Except it’s not really the store, it’s just more of the same, and the big pirate is still there. Somehow, she gets to another room with men in hazmat suits who gas her into unconsciousness. Now, Mary’s in some kind of endless hospital/lab, and there are lots of scientists there. Eventually, a guy named Phil comes in. He wants to know how she got in here. He’s been exploring the place for a very long time, and he knows it’s all super important. … And that’s all. Brian’s Commentary “Furniture Store: The Movie” The whole “backroom/liminal spaces” thing on Reddit never made any sense to me, so I didn’t expect much going into this. I was expecting something like “Skinamarink” only with bigger sets. Turns out, there’s a whole story here, with acting and everything. The sets are really well done, and it all looks like it’d be a fun place to explore– until it’s not. I was thoroughly entertained, but the ending was just out of nowhere and too abrupt. I didn’t expect there to be an explanation, but the story just basically stops. Overall, it was far better than I expected. I liked it! Kevin’s Commentary Just think of all the money you could make harvesting furniture, electronics, and oddities out of The Backrooms and selling them on eBay. I agree with Brian that it was much more entertaining than I expected. But I’m not sure it was worth the hype. I liked it, I didn’t love it. 2006 Underworld: Evolution * Directed by: Len Wiseman * Written by: Danny McBride, Len Wiseman, Kevin Grevioux * Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Bill Nighy * Run Time: 1 Hour, 46 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone After a flashback to a battle in 1202 AD and a little narrative to catch up, this continues immediately following the first movie. The action is stepped up even more, putting the horror elements on the back burner again. They answer more questions about events of the past. It’s pretty consistent in look and quality with the first movie, not quite as good but almost. If you liked that one, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well. Spoilery Synopsis We’re reminded about the war between vampires and lycans, two groups started by two immortal brothers. Markus, bitten by a bat, and William, bitten by a wolf. They became the first of their species. In 1202 AD, we see Markus, Amelia, and Viktor arrive at a slaughter perpetrated by William, who has gone rogue. Suddenly, the dead get, turning into werewolves. There’s a major battle, and William is captured. Markus, his brother, wants William released, but Viktor and Amelia have other ideas. Viktor says William will be imprisoned for all time, and then credits roll. We cut to Selene, in the present, who reminds us about the first film. She’s run off with Michael, the only person she can trust. She’s now on the run from both races. Her plan is to re-awaken Markus before he’s killed by Kraven. The two hide out in a safehouse that used to be used for experimenting on lycans. Meanwhile, back at vampire castle, Kraven goes into the sleep chamber and orders Markus to be re-awakened. The dead scientist from the previous film is still laying there in a pool of blood that has run down into Markus’s pit. He’s already gone. Markus shows up, looking like a big flying demon. The scientist’s blood has given Markus the whole true story of the last film. Kraven doesn’t last long. A bunch of men in a helicopter land on a big ship and carry several bodybags inside. They come to an old man who leads them. The soldiers update him on more events from the first film. Two of the three elder vampires are dead now, brought in the body bags, and he wonders about Markus. The old man, Corvinus, looks at what’s left of Amelia, Lucien, and Viktor. He pulls a metal disk out of Viktor’s chest and smiles. Michael goes out for dinner and finds that human food doesn’t work for him anymore. His face comes up on the TV screen as “wanted” and the local police draw their guns. He makes a scene on the way out. Selene and Michael are soon tracked by Markus, who tries to bite her. Michael fills Markus with holes, and they run for it. The sun starts to rise before they make a clean getaway, and Michael has to take over. After a bit of completely unnecessary first-aid, they have sex in a storage container. We watch as Corvinus’s men clean up the werewolf-experimenting lab to keep it from the normal humans. Selene sorta remembers Michael’s locket and wants to talk to Tanis, the vampire historian, about what it means. Tanis isn’t big on visitors, and he’s got a trio of werewolves as guard dogs. Tanis explains that Markus was the first true vam

We’ve got another fun mix of films for you this week. We’ll start off with “Passenger,” a fun road trip film. Next, we’ll celebrate New Year a bit late with “New Year’s Absolution,” both of which are newish releases. For our classics, we’ll watch the first of five “Underworld” films, and then go way back and visit “The Stepford Wives” of 1975. And we’ve got a very weird short film this week as well. All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #58, for July 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Passenger * Directed by: André Øvredal * Written by: Zachary Donohue, T.W. Burgess * Stars: Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo * Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A young couple living van life on the road encounter a car accident and end up unintentionally picking up a passenger while they are at it. It relies excessively on jump scares, but it’s quite good anyway. The main duo is really good together, and it’s well made. We were both entertained. Spoilery Synopsis Lucas and Daniel drive along the empty road late at night, and they’re both bored. They whine about Lucas’s dry mouth and needing to pee. Not long after, Lucas does have to pee, so they stop. When Lucas gets back to the car, Daniel is gone and the car is all scratched up. Suddenly, Daniel flies into the windshield, dropped from high up. Lucas gets back in the car and speeds away, but he keeps passing the same man on the side of the road, over and over. Credits roll. Maddie and Tyler pack up their big-city apartment to live in a van. They start their big road trip. Six weeks later, they’re living the mobile lifestyle, stuck in traffic and missing out on their reservations. Tyler proposes to her, right there in the van. Suddenly, a neighborhood watch guy bangs on the door and makes them move. They drive on, another hour to a motel. A car with a crazy driver overtakes them and passes; it’s Lucas, from earlier. He crashes the car not far ahead. The couple stops to help. Lucas starts to crawl out of the car, but something yanks him back in. Maddie hears something moving around out in the woods. They get to the motel for the night, but there just might be something hiding in their van. In the morning, they find a claw mark just like the one on Lucas’s car. The couple goes to a “Van Life” meetup, and there’s a lot of people there. Maddie notices a whole bunch of “Missing” posters on the wall. She meets a long-term van person, Diane, who vaguely warns her to stay off those lonely roads. That night, after leaving a gym, Maddie runs into some creepiness in the parking lot. The Passenger attacks her in the van, and she scares it off with Tyler’s St. Christopher medal. The dashcam that showed the man before, doesn’t work now. She tells Tyler, who doesn’t really believe any of this. Maddie buys a book that discusses “The Hobo Code” and learns that three slashes means “Not Safe,” and there’s a whole bunch of lore behind that. The van has three deep gashes in the side that won’t buff out. Maddie’s ready to go back to a normal life, but Tyler’s talking about living remotely forever. She’s hesitating marrying him because of the van thing; it’s not fun anymore. It seems like they’re just about to break up, when Tyler finally sees something unnatural. They run inside the van, and the creature shakes the whole thing crazily. Tyler can’t find his keys, so he gets back out of the van to look around for them. He sees the creature again, and now he understands what Maddie’s been telling him. “This thing latches onto you when you’re on the road,” Maddies explains. “Some people call him ‘The Passenger’.” Maddie wants to contact Diane, who seemed to know about the creature and warned her. They get a flat tire, and suddenly the bolts go missing. Something drags Madddie off while Tyler is stuck under the van. Maddie wakes up next to a car accident, where a car hit a motorcycle. Tyler catches up to her, no, it’s really the monster. The real Tyler shows up just in time to break the spell, and they drive off. They arrive at another camper meetup, looking for Diane. Diane just wants them to get out of here, as do all the many other campers. They all know about the trouble. “He’s the highwayman from Hell. It’s demonic!” There’s a St. Christopher church that might offer protection and weaken its powers. She offers to take them there. The demon kills Diane right there in front of them. Suddenly, it’s night again, and they’re still out on the road and almost out of gas. Maddie notices more Hobo Code symbols and follows them– off the road. They pass a bunch of old, deserted cars, all with the creature’s claw mark on them. Also, there are thousands of dead bodies in sheets, but Tyler doesn’t think those are real. But they all go “squish” and “thump” as the van drives over them. The demon appears inside the van and torments Tyler before being thrown outside. When Maddie reaches the holy grounds of the church, the creature starts to smoke and steam. She drives right through the wall of the church, with the creature on the hood, and he’s not happy about it. She ends up impaling him on the St. Christopher statue’s sword. The demon melts in front of her. The church explodes in fire, and Maddie gets out of the van to escape. She meets up with Tyler. Still, they’re out in the middle of the desert with no van or supplies. Somehow, the police show up (why? how?). Maddie and Tyler agree to get married and buy a normal house. Brian’s Commentary It’s the “Van Life” horror movie. The YouTubers all make this look like a fun lifestyle, but the movie shows the other side of it. Living in a van, your life will be full of overloud jump-scares. It looks good, it’s very well paced; the acting is good. Overall, I liked it a lot, but there are a lot of jump scares. Kevin’s Commentary It was heavy on the jump scares to make them a little predictable and annoying. Other than that, it’s a movie that moves well, and I thought the casting was excellent. There wasn’t a lot new here, but I enjoyed it. 2024 New Year’s Absolution * Directed by: Nick Leisure * Written by: Damion Stephens * Stars: Michael Copon, Joel Brady, Josh Gilmer * Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A group of eight friends get together for a New Year’s Eve party. The movie takes a while letting us get to know the group. It’s short enough that the pacing moves things along really well. Then something happens and leads to something else, and it ends up being the worst party ever. It’s got some horror elements, but it seemed more like a crime thriller. We both thought it was very good. Spoilery Synopsis Claire and Damon are expecting guests for New Year’s Eve. Stuart and Travis are the first to arrive, with their dog. Travis brings his weird little dog, Cookie, to the party. They talk about Stuart’s new $50,000 antique car that doesn’t even have airbags. Jacob and Misty show up next, and he might be a fitness nut on steroids. Roy and Kira come last, and they’ve brought drugs. It starts raining, so Roy and Kira go to the bathroom for sex while Misty watches from afar. After, the four men play a game where they write out New Year’s resolutions and then draw them out of a hat. They have to try to do the thing over the next year. Stuart gets to write a novel. Roy has to apologize to someone. Damon has to do something for his spouse, even if it hurts. Jacob’s says he has to kill someone. Jacob gets angry and goes to leave. The others try to stop him, and he shows them that he’s got a gun. He then uses it to accidentally shoot Travis in the leg. Roy, who’s a doctor, starts working on the leg when his drugs begin to kick in. No one wants to call the cops because that’ll ruin Jacob’s career, so they put him in the bathtub to hold the bleeding. Damon tells the story of Ben, the fifth friend who died in a game-related sporting accident in 2014. Kira suggests the whole thing is just done to show off. They go back in to check on Travis who is very, very dead now. “People don’t just look the other way when white cops shoot gay black dudes, bro,” Jacob whines. Roy and Jacob, who are both at fault, cook up a plan to explain it all in the morning. Misty, who thinks Travis is hot, sneaks into the bathroom and finds he’s dead. She looks down his pants and leaves, oblivious to him being dead. Meanwhile, Damon is obsessed with cleaning up blood stains on the hardwood floors. It’s time for the countdown to the new year! As the others celebrate, Stuart finds Travis’s body. Kira says, “You couldn’t even wait till midnight to kill someone,” she says, also adding that Roy killed a patient out of negligence because of their game last year. Soon, she’s dead too. Claire and Damon come in and learn what’s been going on. Damon’s upset about the blood on the floor. Misty starts threatening everyone, which annoys Claire. Why not go for three? Claire stabs Misty. They pull out the knife, and she bleeds out all over Damon’s floor. Jacob then empties his gun into Claire. Jacob, Roy, and Stuart talk about their secrets. Damon snaps, comes out of nowhere, and strangles Jacob with the Christmas lights. Stuart didn’t do anything, but Roy says he will blame him for Kira’s death if he doesn’t help cover things up. Stuart runs outside, where he’s attacked by Damon, and both wind up in the swimming pool. Damon, who can’t swim, drowns. Now Stuart’s killed someone too. Roy comes up with a story that covers, well, some of it. Roy then spikes Stuart’s drink with all his drugs. Roy amends his story to include Stuart overdosing on medications. Roy then calls 911, he just woke up because

We’ve got another fun mix of films for you this week. We’ll start off with the much-hyped “Obsession.” Is it as good as the Internet hype machine claims? How about “Hungry,” a movie literally based on Hungry Hungry Hippos. That couldn’t be any good… could it? We’ll then watch something really unusual. What if Star Wars was a horror film? “Project: Blackwing” is exactly that. We’ll then watch a couple of vintage classics, “The Black Sleep” from 1956 and “I Spit on Your Grave” from 1978. Good stuff! All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #58, for July 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://amzn.to/4vlSZv3 Mainstream Films: 2026 Obsession * Directed by: Curry Barker * Written by: Curry Barker * Stars: Michael Johnston, Inde Navarrette, Cooper Tomlinson * Run Time: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A guy taps into some magic to make a wish that his crush will like him back. And the movie proceeds into a lesson of be careful what you wish for. It’s said that it was made on a small budget, but you wouldn’t know it. The pacing, direction, effects, story, and cast are all excellent. It’s an all around very good movie. We both really enjoyed it. Spoilery Synopsis Bear tells Nikki how much he loves her, and that she’s out of his league. No– he’s just rehearsing with friends; he could never tell the real Nikki all that. He’s afraid to even flirt with the real girl. Ian tries to give him tips on asking her out, but it’s obviously not going to work. Bear gets home and finds out his cat got into his drugs and died, which makes his day even worse. Credits roll. Nikki calls and wants Bear to meet her for trivia night, the one thing Ian warned him not to do. He goes to a store to buy her a necklace, but instead, he finds a “One Wish Willow,” which supposedly grants wishes. The clerk tells him not to come back and complain. After a trivia night with Ian and Sarah, Bear drives Nikki home. They talk, and she’s going to quit her job, where she works with him. We see that Sarah really likes Bear, but he only has eyes for Nikki. He’s just too shy to say anything and blows the opportunity badly. He forgot to give her the “One Wish Willow,” so he opens it himself. “I wish Nikki would love me more than anyone in the f*****g world!” Nikki comes back to the car, and her attitude seems different; she invites him inside. No, she wants to go to his place. He doesn’t want to take advantage, but she doesn’t make that easy, since she wants him to sleep in the same bed with her. Turns out, she doesn’t want to do any sleeping. Occasionally, she seems to “wake up” from whatever is controlling her. Bear Googles the One Wish Willow to see if they really work, and the consensus is “No,” they’re a scam. In the morning, Nikka has made a really gross memorial to Bear’s dead cat. At work, he tries to explain the previous night to Ian, but he doesn’t understand it. Nikki spends all day at work just staring at Bear. That night, Nikki shows up dressed for their date, and Bear didn’t even know they had one. She apologizes for being on MDMA last night, and she doesn’t remember much about last night. Soon, they are inseparable. Ian notices the sudden change in Nikki and tells Bear that something is wrong. Bear just has no confidence at all, and Nikki loves that more than anyone in the world. He knows what’s up, but he doesn’t stop, either. She watches him sleep. She wears his clothes. She gets just a little bossy. In the morning, he makes her promise “No more weird stuff.” Except he soon finds that she’s taped the door shut so he can’t go to work today. Sarah also thinks that Nikki is playing some kind of game with Bear, but he knows better. Sarah complains about the notes someone keeps sending her at work. Is Bear’s lunch sandwich made of weeks-old dead cat? Bear notices a customer-service phone number on the box of the One Wish Willow and calls it. The man on the other end says he can cancel the wish, but he can’t modify it. No, just kidding, he can’t cancel it either. “As long as you live,” says the man. “If you die, the wish will go away.” The man puts the real Nikki on the phone, and all she does is scream. At Ian’s party, Niki reads a story she’s been working on, and it’s…. Weird. The party games get awkward– really awkward. The party ends badly. It gets to the point where she waits outside the bathroom door when he has to pee. Bear tries to explain to Nikki that this is not normal. He just wants her to be normal. Later that night, Bear gets a text from Sarah, who wants to meet him in the park. “Kill me, please,” says Nikki without moving her mouth. Bear sneaks out to meet Sarah, who wants to know what’s going on. She explains that Nikki and Ian had been hooking up for years, and he believes this whole thing is to get back at him. Suddenly, Nikki shows up and beats Sarah to death with a brick. “This is all your fault,” she explains. Bear goes back to the occult shop, covered with blood, to buy another One Wish Willow, and the man inside knows all about them. It’s called ONE wish willow for a reason, since you only get one chance. Maybe he could get someone else to make a new wish. Ian says Sarah keeps texting him from Bear’s house, wanting him to come over. Nikki’s trying to lure him to his death. Bear explains about the wishes. Ian wishes for a billion dollars instead, and it starts raining money from the sky. Almost immediately after, Nikki shoots Ian in the head. Knowing this will end with his death, Bear puts the gun in his mouth and can’t do it. Instead, he takes a bunch of pills. He kisses her and falls over, dead. The spell is broken. Nikki wakes up and starts screaming. Brian’s Commentary How’s she going to explain all this to the police? It starts out normal enough, but spirals more and more out of control. The pacing is really good, it never slows down even a little bit. It’s pretty great. Kevin’s Commentary The most awful romance movie ever. But a great horror movie. I think I’d agree with the positive hype around this movie. It is a really good one. The whole package, all the elements are there. 2026 Hungry * Director: James Nunn * Writers: James Nunn * Stars: Madison Davenport, Tracey Bonner, Joaquim de Almeida, Michel Curiel, Samantha Coughlan, Olivia Bernstone, Jim Meskimen * Runtime: 93 minutes (1 hour 33 minutes) * Trailer Link: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A rogue hippopotamus in the Louisiana swamp makes sport of a tour group there to see the gators. It’s a very serious movie, supposedly loosely based or inspired by the action board game “Hungry, Hungry Hippos,” but it’s not for kids. It takes a little while to get to the mayhem, but it’s pretty realistic in how it gets there. It was a better than average people vs nature creature feature. Spoilery Synopsis We open on a swamp, with all the usual wildlife. There’s an alligator out there, but something big that we don’t see eats it. Credits roll. It’s New Orleans. Sistine (Tina) and Hannah talk to Rodrigo about an alligator tour in the bayou. Tina gets the phone call that she’s been fired for taking her approved vacation days. In the morning, the girls get on “Gator Joe’s” tour bus. There’s an older guy Tim, his daughter Sally, and her son, Mike, along as well. Dionne is there too. Rodrigo is their driver and tour guide. The group stops at the gift ship for a look at the trinkets and bones. Mr. Walker claims that the most dangerous creature he ever killed was a hippopotamus in Africa. He explains that they’re vegetarian, but they’re still more dangerous than you’d think. He explains that at the turn of the century, hippos were brought over here as a food source to replace cows, but it never caught on. The boat leaves, and Rodrigo homes in on the alligators, which all have tracking devices on them. They arrive where “Big Ben,” the largest alligator is supposed to be, but he doesn’t appear. They soon find Ben, torn into pieces, on the bank of the river. Tim gets scared; Dionne wants in closer for a better photo. They all start to argue. Something big hits the boat and capsizes it. Rodrigo gets injured, and everyone gets on the bottom of the capsized boat. Some of them climb into nearby trees. Rodrigo admits that they’re off course, as he took a bribe from Dionne to see Big Ben. Hannah thinks old man Tim, a retired firefighter, is pretty hot. Dionne just wants out of all this. Sistine is depressed about her mother’s medical bills and her lost job. The hippo returns, smashes into the tree, and knocks Hannah into the water. Tim and Sistine jump in to help, but both Tim and Hannah become hippo chow. They all see what kind of animal they’re dealing with now. Back at Gator Joe’s they notice the boat is five hours late returning. Walker has a tracker on all the boats and goes looking for them, alone. Next, we get a contrived scene where Sistine has to dive under the boat to retrieve the tracker and finds Hannah’s body under there. They pour gasoline in the water to scare off the hippo. They retrieve the tracker and turn it on, which alerts Walker as to where they are. The group watches as Walker’s boat approaches in the dark; he says it’s impossible that it could be a hippo. Everyone gets into his boat. Dionne goes berserk and pushes Mike into the water, and he’s promptly swallowed. Walker says there’s a change of plan: they’re all getting back up into the trees. He’s got some tranquilizers, but they might not be enough for the huge hippo. Sally, who just lost her father and her son, jumps into the water and swims off into the fog. The hippo attacks, bites Walker in the leg, but Rodrigo shoots it with one of the tranquilizers before dying. Walker, Sistine, and Dion

Last year, we did a bunch of horror short films that were presented at the Palm Springs International Shortfest, and guess what? They’re back again this year for more great shorts. We’ve got nine great shorts this time around. Unfortunately for us, they’re all still on the festival circuit, so we can’t include links to watch them, but if you keep your eye open for them, you may be able to spot a few of these later this year! All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #58, for July 2026, is releasing soon! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Short Films: 2025 Short Film: Hand * Directed by: Jennifer Winterbotham * Written by: Jennifer Winterbotham * Stars: Sharlene Cruz, Dario Vazquez, Emma Ramos * Run Time: 18 Minutes * Submitted as an entry in the “Palm Springs International ShortFest” What Happens Amber and Justin are in the process of breaking up, and she’s taking it badly. As she walks back to her car in a daze, she accidentally cuts her hand on a cactus. Out of the blue, Justin slits his wrists, but that’s OK because she’s got bandages. Or maybe that was a dream. Later, she talks to her friend on the phone, and we see the cut on her hand and the breakup are real. At work, her hand starts bothering her, and she continues to hallucinate Justin. What exactly is going on here? Commentary So many horror movies could simply be avoided if people actually went to the doctor! Anyway, on to the important question— does mustard expire? We know something is off about Amber right from the beginning, but finding out the specifics takes some time, and it’s all very suspenseful. The hallucinations are really well done with the accompanying special effects. Great! 2026 Short Film: The End is at Hand * Directed by: Japhet E. Velazquez * Written by: Sam Gallen * Stars: Efren Ramirez, Richard Kind * Run Time: 9 Minutes * Submitted as an entry in the “Palm Springs International ShortFest” What Happens Frank calls the phone repair place, and he’s not happy about how long it’s taking to get his phone back. Meanwhile, the repairman gets to work on his phone and pulls out something gooey. Wait— is that blood? The repairman’s never had a job like this before! Commentary Richard Kind is getting up there in years, but his voice is still identifiable and hilarious. The creature and body horror effects are very good, and it’s obvious exactly what’s going on at all times. And be sure to continue watching (and listening) through the closing credits. 2025 Short Film: Ce qu’on laisse derrière / What We Leave Behind * Directed by: Jean-Sebastien Hamel, Alexandra Myotte * Written by: Jean-Sebastien Hamel, Alexandra Myotte * Stars: Jack Jackel, Jean-Sebastien Hamel * Run Time: 11 Minutes * Submitted as an entry in the “Palm Springs International ShortFest” What Happens Dan tries to watch TV, but his neck has a huge hole in it, so his head won’t sit up straight. He gets drunk and breaks into the hockey rink, where he hallucinates getting beat up. The guard comes in and sees the hole in his neck. What’s going on here? Commentary It is animated in a very psychedelic, dreamlike way, and it’s interesting to watch one thing develop into the next. Dan is remembering his tormented, bullied youth, and it’s not pleasant. We eventually find out about his neck-hole, and it’s not a fun trip. 2025 Short Film: MANTIS STREAM! LIKE & SUBSCRIBE * Directed by: Sarah Maerten, Lincoln Robisch * Written by: Sarah Maerten, Lincoln Robisch * Stars: Joseph Anthony Carroll, Sarah Maerten, Donald Inn * Run Time: 9 Minutes * Submitted as an entry in the “Palm Springs International ShortFest” What Happens A man proposes to a woman dressed like a praying mantis. It’s all a part of their livestream show. Craig is all very serious, but Mandy is only in it for likes and subscribes. He asks her for a mantis egg, and she pours them down his throat. Craig, on the other hand, chokes on the egg. She can’t help him because of her costume. The paramedics show up, and they’re into the “likes” again. Craig staggers outside, where the police are filming a thing, and he’s dying the whole time. Will Craig be OK? Will he get enough likes? Commentary It’s really dumb, but it’s also a representation of streamer culture, doing anything for likes. It gets weirder and weirder as it progresses, and it’s all really well done. The special effects are really impressive once it gets going as well. If you agree with my review, LIKE AND SUBSCRIBE! 2026 Short Film: Don’t Puke * Directed by: Daniel Chisholm * Written by: Daniel Chisholm * Stars: Janka Horakova, Claire Uicker, Mitra Adib-Moghaddam * Run Time: 9 Minutes * Submitted as an entry in the “Palm Springs International ShortFest” What Happens It’s Charlie’s birthday, and she’s out with her friends drinking… heavily. She leaves the bar looking for food and staggers around trying hard not to puke. As she walks up to Kebab Castle, she watches as another woman pukes and barely manages not to join in. Will she succeed? Commentary When that room starts spinning, there’s no getting off the ride. Anyone who’s tried to avoid barfing knows the terror involved. It’s fun, and fairly effective body horror at that! 2026 Short Film: Imago * Directed by: Ariel Zengotta * Written by: Ariel Zengotta * Stars: Didi Romero, Josh Plasse, Denise Blazer * Run Time: 13:20 * Submitted as an entry in the “Palm Springs International ShortFest” What Happens It’s Ana’s birthday, and everyone sings. She sees a bug on the table and just stares at it. Later, she laughs at Billy’s gringo accent. Things soon devolve to him admitting that he loves her. Ana’s mother calls, and they both panic ridiculously. Ana’s mother is having some kind of emergency, so Ana has to leave in a hurry. When Ana pulls back the covers, we see that her mother is turning into a big bug— that doesn’t keep her from arguing with Ana. “I’ve got like sixteen f*****g legs now!” And then it gets weird… Commentary The bug creature is really well done. The mother-daughter dynamics are more than a little on-the-nose. It’s very funny, and very well done. 2026 Short Film: Scissors * Directed by: Hanna Alline * Written by: Hanna Alline * Stars: Ethan Embry, Jenna Kanell, Georgia Bridgers * Run Time: 12 Minutes * Submitted as an entry in the “Palm Springs International ShortFest” What Happens A woman buys beer in a convenience store and flashes the clerk. A stranger, Terry, watches her do it, and he follows her out. Terry calls his ex on the phone, and she hates him so much it’s on her answering machine. Terry’s a stalker/serial killer, but he’s chosen the wrong house… Commentary Don’t mess with the lesbians! Terry’s maybe the worst stalker ever; he talked himself right out of the whole thing. Then again, sometimes a stalker isn’t the worst guy at the party. Very well done! 2025 Short Film: I have A * Directed by: Rory WT * Written by: Rory WT * Stars: Nathan Rizwan (animated) * Run Time: 5 Minutes * Submitted as an entry in the “Palm Springs International ShortFest” What Happens An animated man decides to list all the good things in life. Somehow, this goes terribly wrong. Commentary Horror? Well, it’s life and death; sometimes it’s pretty horrific. The animation is fun, and the rhyme is amazing. It kept reminding me of the “Pen Pineapple Apple Pen” from a few years ago. 2025 Short Film: What Are Grandchildren Made Of? * Directed by: Lindsey Susor * Written by: Lindsey Susor * Stars: Mike Gassaway, Jeanine Henry, Loralei Godwin * Run Time: 12 Minutes * Submitted as an entry in the “Palm Springs International ShortFest” What Happens Lilly’s grandfather forgot and left her in the car for many hours, and now she’s dead. Or is she? No, she’s back alive again. She can respawn after death. “You think this can help us pay off our car?” asks Grandma. Grandpa takes her out back and shoots her in the head. Then he goes inside, grabs, and does it again. Soon, there’s a whole pile of dead Lillys in the backyard. Yes, Grandpa’s found a way to pay off the car. Commentary So THAT’s how organ harvesting works. This is really clever and funny, and it actually makes sense, in a twisted way. The ending is great as well. Oops! Contact Info: Email: mailto:[email protected] Websites: * https://www.horrorguys.com * https://www.horrormonthly.com This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.horrorweekly.com/subscribe

We’re back with another collection of five films, some new, some not so much. We’ll open with the comedic “Hold the Fort” and then the not-funny-at-all “Love is the Monster,” both new releases. We’ll take a look at a creepy, long-ish short film, “Animals,” also from this year. We’ll then watch a couple of vintage films, “Planet of the Apes” and “Lost Highway.” Mostly good stuff! All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #57, for June 2026, is available! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2025 Hold the Fort * Director: William Bagley * Writers: William Bagley (written by), Scott Hawkins (story) * Stars: Haley Leary, Chris Mayers, Julian Smith, Tordy Clark, Hamid-Reza Benjamin Thompson * Runtime: 74 minutes * Official Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Because they didn’t read their home owners association contract, a young couple find themselves in a battle with assorted creatures from a hell portal. It’s very funny while being full on horror with a gory body count. The effects, cast, and script were all very good. We thought it was really entertaining. Spoilery Synopsis An old man and woman argue about defending the house against something. There’s something wrong with their land, and she wants to sell the place. He refuses, but he may not have a choice. When the realtor and a new buyer come to look at the house in the morning, there are bullets everywhere and the old woman, covered in blood, says “We’ll sell.” Credits roll as a whole new subdivision is built on the spot. Lucas argues with Jenny about moving into a place with an HOA. She’s not a fan of HOAs, but he thinks it’s all pretty cool. They get an invitation to the annual equinox party tonight. Jerry, the HOA guy, shows up at the door. “Welcome to the Equinox. Please don’t die” says the banner at the party. Ted and Annette say there’s plenty of weird stuff that goes on here. They explain the legend of the equinox; once a year, a portal from Hell opens up and all kinds of creatures pour out to kill. The “Fort” that was here defends against the monsters, so now they can all get drunk and celebrate. Ted asks, “Can you shoot? You can always tell which neighbors are gonna last.” Jerry starts his presentation, and he talks about expecting a horde of witches. “Magic can’t stop bullets,” but the price of silver is going to limit their werewolf defenses. The Stick Man might be the worst of all of them, the leader of the dark army. Then there’s a raffle and Lucas wins a shotgun. Everyone jokes that there’s no way Lucas is going to survive the night. Jerry freaks out and says “They’re early tonight!” and everyone goes on full alert. We get a glimpse of the Hell portal, wide open outside. The witches attack, and one man dies right away, splattering Lucas with blood. McScruffy, the local weapons guy, shows up, and he’s armed for witches. It’s all very violent, but the witches are soon dead. Lucas, who doesn’t know guns, shoots McScruffy in the leg. Jerry explains that this is all pretty standard HOA stuff “Gotta pay for bullets and s**t,” he explains, which is why the fees are so high. Jerry then passes out because he ate too many cheesesticks with muscle relaxers in them. Three of the men inside the house turn into zombies. There’s a crazy battle, and soon there are five zombies. Everyone hides in the closet. Lucas tries to call 911, but they keep hanging up on him. “Didn’t you read anything in your HOA contract?” Ted explains that there’s no property tax here, so the portal to Hell is generally worth it. They explain about the kung-fu spirits that control the zombies, and Lucas thinks he can get to the special sword. When they get out of the closet, the zombies are gone. The fog rolls in. “He’s here,” says Jerry. Ted gives Lucas a sort of pep talk as they hear a werewolf outside. The two finally defeat the kung-fu zombies by working together. Suddenly, a huge werewolf shows up, and it takes forever for Jenny to figure out how to load the gun with silver bullets. Ted gets killed in the meantime, but that doesn’t keep him down. Lucas uses the mini-chainsaw on him. Lucas apologizes to Jenny for moving into an HOA. She says she would have liked the place under different circumstances. Jerry and Annette say that there’s another wave coming. Jerry wants to mix things up by attacking the portal with Annette’s moonshine bottles. Lucas, with McScruffy duct-taped on his back, runs toward the portal with a huge load of moonshine as they are swarmed by kamikaze bats. They fall down and lose the moonshine, but McScruffy has a huge bomb strapped to his chest, so that’s Plan B. Back in the clubhouse, something grabs Jerry, leaving Jenny and Annette alone. It suddenly gets really cold, and the Stick Man shows up just in time to kill Annette. As he moves in to kill Jenny, Lucas helps McScruffy to jump into the Hell portal with his bomb. As the portal explodes, so do the remaining monsters. One year later, new people move into the HOA, and Jerry shows up to invite them to a party tonight. Lucas and Jenny don’t expect anything will happen this year, and they’re part of the HOA. As the closing credits roll, we see the power of cocaine in large quantities. Brian’s Commentary Always read your HOA contract. At least now we really understand what those fees are for. It’s fast-paced, funny, and has excellent effects. I thought it was pretty great. Kevin’s Commentary This was really a lot of fun. Which continues into the closing credits with some outtakes. It’s well made and entertaining. 2026 Love is the Monster * Director: Alex Noyer * Writers: Alex Noyer, Hannu Aukia, Blair Bathory * Stars: Madeline Zima, Leonardo Nam, Kimberly-Sue Murray, Moe Jeudy-Lamour, Kristina Tonteri-Young, Milla Puolakanaho, Sheila McCarthy * Runtime: 86 minutes * Official Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Multiple couples go on a therapy retreat in Finland, which is unfortunately the home of an ancient goddess of love who damages her playthings. Things aren’t quite right from the beginning and only go downhill from there. It’s well put together, a little on the slow side, but overall pretty good. We were entertained. Spoilery Synopsis We watch a commercial for a romantic retreat for couples. Lempo has many testimonials of people that it’s helped. “Free your hearts in the name of love,” the woman, Tina, says. We then cut to some kind of blood ritual of Lempo that involves glowing eyes and human sacrifice. Credits roll. Ana wakes up, hearing a bird inside the house. She doesn’t find a bird but does find the ghost of her dead boyfriend outside. Justin wakes up inside, and he has a weird vision as well. There’s no phones allowed in this resort, but it’s only three days, so they’ll probably survive that. They come outside and meet the rest of the guests: Harper says this place isn’t for everyone, but doesn’t get to finish her thought. They all notice the many loud birds on the island, and then Tina, their host, arrives. Tina shows an unusual interest in Ana, but mostly ignores Justin. Tina is weird. Blake introduces herself and mentions that Lempo is a Finnish word, and it’s also the goddess of birds. All the guests convene in the sauna, and they all beat each other with tree branches. After, something attacks Ana in the lake. She then starts noticing various people’s eyes glowing oddly. The group does an exercise looking at each other in broken mirrors and Ana sees Marko, her dead boyfriend, once again. Justin has no idea who Marko is; Tina accuses Justin of being unfaithful. Tina knows that Ana blames herself for Marko’s death. Everyone then gets naked and goes swimming after Tina paints herself with blood. There is much frolicking, and even Ana and Justin go at it. All the couples pair off for sex, and each pair behaves differently as Tina does a ritual. An old ghost-woman appears to watch all of them, as their eyes all glow. By the time they’re all done, one couple is dead; Petri and Blake dispose of the bodies. In the morning, Ana and Justin argue about their respective affairs. Ana runs outside and sees Tina and Petri being weird in the woods. All the guests are surprisingly hostile with each other. Ana wants to go home, and Justin thinks a lot of the strangeness is all in her head, which just makes her angrier. Petri explains that she can’t leave, as it’s Midsummer and all the taxis have shut down. Everyone wanders around outside, and they all notice just how many birds, both alive and dead, are all over the place. Ana sees Marko again, and this time, she follows him. Tina starts another ritual, and the old bird-woman, Lempo, is there. Everyone is in a trance except for Ana, who is there unwillingly. Tina cuts the old woman’s throat and puts the blood in a cup. Tina wants Ana to be Lempo’s new vessel; she forces Ana to drink the blood. Everyone else is some kind of trance. Justin and Harper have sex right there in front of everyone. Lance, Harper’s husband, wakes up and causes trouble while Blake grabs Ana and runs off into the woods. Blake admits that Marko was her half-brother, and she’s part of the Lempo cult. Petri sneaks up and stabs Blake in the back before coming after Ana. Some of the other couples have lethal difficulties. After killing Harper, Ana grabs a rowboat and heads away from the island– at least until Justin shows up begging her to come back for him. She’s captured once again. Tina and Petri use Justin to sacrifice Ana to Lempo. He resists, and ends up stabbing Tina. Petri prays to Lempo, who brings Tina back to life. Tina then rips out his heart with her bare hand. Out of nowhere, Blake, who isn’t dead, shows up and calls on a different Finnish god to stop Lempo-Tina. Blake doesn’t live long after