Horror Weekly

We’ve got another weird mix of old and new this time around. We’ll begin with the new “Forgive Us All,” then discuss “Insidious Chapter 3,” “Godzilla vs. Biollante” and then both the original “Witchboard” (1986) and the brand-new remake from 2025.

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Mainstream Films:

2025 Forgive Us All

* Directed by: Jordana Stott

* Written by: Jordana Stott, Lance Giles, Alex Makauskas

* Stars: Lily Sullivan, Callan Mulvey, Richard Roxburgh

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

In a beautiful location in New Zealand, we see a slice of a zombie apocalypse. And we quickly see that living jerks are just as dangerous as the infected in the aftermath. A woman in mourning finds a wounded traveler being pursued, and we gradually piece together what life and politics are like now. Rather than a non-stop action take, this is more of a story that takes its time, focusing on the people trying to survive. We give it a moderate thumbs up.

Spoilery Synopsis

A woman cries and screams next to a fresh grave. As she carries her pistol back to the house, we see that a struggle took place that resulted in a shooting. She then looks in on her sleeping child, who is also covered in blood and barely breathing. Although it looks like she’s dying, Maddie sits up and looks possessed. Maddie leaps, and we hear a gunshot. Credits roll.

Two years later, Rory still wakes up with nightmares over that whole situation. She listens to a radio report that sounds bleak. She passes Otto on the way out, and it’s clear that they live way out in the wilderness.

We cut to a rider leaving Camp 13, zooming right past the sign that says, “GMA Quarantine Processing.” Two other horseback riders are right behind him, in pursuit. The man’s partner gets caught instead. They torture him for the first rider’s location, but he dies rather than give it up.

Back with Rory, who still grieves about Maddie, she’s considering killing herself, but doesn’t. She finds the horse, who leads her to the unconscious rider. He looks like he’s dying, but she takes his bag, slings him over the saddle, and sets off leading the horse.

Meanwhile, Otto finds a bunch of bones that belonged to their neighbor, Henry. The body appears to be mostly eaten. He sees three men, GMA agents, on horseback and hides, but there’s also something screaming in the woods nearby.

Rory takes the wounded man home and looks him over before locking him inside the barn. She opens his package and finds medicine inside that says “Take within 72 hours of infection.” When Otto returns, she shows him the still-unconscious stranger. Otto’s not happy. Also there’s a storm coming, “They’ll be out in force tonight.” At dinner, they argue about life in general.

That night, she reminisces about Maddie and her drawing of a dragonfly. Her father was off helping the sick people, but Rory doesn’t know much about the virus. Suddenly, Connor, the father, opens the door, and he’s clearly not right. He jumps at them and– Rory wakes up.

She goes out to the barn to check on her prisoner, and he’s up and around now. They hear a “Howler” outside and have a quick scuffle. He’s Noah, and she patches up his wounds. Noah broke into the GMA base and stole the antidote for his own sick son. It’s still dark, so if he leaves now, the Howlers will get him. Still, his time to use the antidote on his son is running out.

Not far away, the three trackers, Logan, Scout, and Brooks, find Rory’s house and wait to see what happens. Rory and Otto argue about what to do about the sick boy whose time is running out. As they bicker, the GMA agents ride up.

Rory and Noah take the horse as Otto stays behind to stall the agents. There’s a gunfight, and Brooks dies, as does Otto. Logan is injured, but he’ll live. Scout tells Logan she’s not going with him; she doesn’t want to be a part of this anymore, so Logan goes on alone after Noah and Rory.

Rory continues on alone as Noah and Logan brawl without their horses or guns. After much back and forth, Noah shoots Logan, which attracts a group of Howlers which finishes him off as well.

Rory continues through the dark forest, now at night, and all the Howlers are out at night. She hides and runs from a group of the nasty infected people. In one of the scuffles, she gets bitten. After that, the infected begin to ignore her; she’s one of them now.

In the morning, Rory finally comes to Noah’s house. Did she get there in time to save Noah’s son before the infection is too far gone? She leaves the cure with the old woman who’s watching Noah’s son and walks on back to the river.

Rory visualizes Maddie as she puts her pistol to her head and pulls the trigger before the disease gets her.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s a just-barely sci-fi post-zombie-apocalyptic story set in the always-beautiful New Zealand wilderness. Everything is filmed with either a brown or green filter, so everything has a very “Western” feel to it.

The acting is fine, the situation is interesting enough, but the plot is very generic. It’s more of a good-guys-and-bad-guys movie than really leaning into the zombies, which are just sort of there in the background a few times until the ending.

It looks great, has good acting, but it was awfully slow moving.

Kevin’s Commentary

Wow, the scenery is nice in this one. Lily Sullivan, as Rory, kept reminding me of a young Geena Davis - which is a fine thing. She’s very good in the role, as is the rest of the cast.

I liked the direction this one took, with the zombie story a real threat, but not the entire focus. There are plenty of terrifying moments while kind of being on the slow side following the trials of the living. It’s not a happy movie, but it’s quite good.

2015 Insidious: Chapter 3

* Directed by: Leigh Whannell

* Written by: Leigh Whannell

* Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Stefanie Scott, Angus Sampson

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes

* Trailer:

\

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s a prequel to the haunting of the Lambert family, showing how Elise got into the business along with Specs and Tucker. So pretend that they all look younger than they did in the previous movies that take place after this. But age discrepancies aside, it’s well made and works perfectly with the other films. If you’re an Insidious fan, you’ll probably like this one.

Spoilery Synopsis

This takes place a few years before the previous films.

Quinn goes to see Elise; she’s looking for a psychic. She wants to talk to her dead mother and has been trying to contact her on her own. After a bit of discussion, Elise is willing to help. She contacts the spirit world and senses something bad. She warns Quinn not to call on her mother. “If you call out to one of the dead, all of them can hear you.”

Quinn goes home, but she keeps talking to her dead mother. Her father works a lot and her brother Alex is weird. She goes to an audition that afternoon, and doesn’t go well. She whines to her friend Maggie. She sees another strange dead-looking person and then gets hit by a car.

Quinn dies on the operating table, but then they bring her back. While dead, she sees something scary. Three weeks later, Quinn talks to an old woman who speaks of the man who lives in the vents. “He up there right now, standing in your room.” Quinn’s in two leg casts and a wheelchair, at least for a while.

Across town, Elise goes to bed. She dreams about Quinn. She considers opening up her padlocked reading room but doesn’t.

Quinn sees someone on her ceiling, and her father Sean investigates the weirdness. Quinn tells him about seeing Elise a month or so ago, and he warns her not to do that.

Elise calls Quinn’s mother on her own one night. She knows someone is bothering Quinn, and it’s not her mother. She sees it, and it’s definitely not a nice ghost. Meanwhile, Quinn has a run-in with the same entity, and she soon realizes it’s not her mother. Around the same time, the old woman next door dies.

Quinn has a nightmare about the various creatures and dead people. Sean finds her in the empty apartment upstairs.

Sean goes to see Elise, and they talk about dead spouses. She talks about going to “The Dark Place” looking for her dead husband, but some evil woman followed her back to the real world. She hasn’t been able to do a reading since then. Still, she tries, and quickly goes into a trance. She sees all sorts of weird things and is attacked by the woman in black, her nemesis.

Sean calls in Specs and Tucker, a couple of ghost-chasers from YouTube. Elise talks to Carl, an old friend, about her spirit problem.

Quinn beats up Sean, Specs, and Tucker, and then breaks the casts off her legs. Elise shows up to get rid of the parasite inside Quinn. The group does a seance so that she can go to a different plane, “The Further,” and help Quinn.

Elise confronts the ghosts, and this time, she beats up the woman in black and defeats her. She runs into her dead husband, and he tempts her to join him in the world of the dead. She recognizes that he would never suggest she kill herself and that he’s actually the bad ghost in disguise. As she steals Quinn away from “The Man Who Can’t Breathe,” there’s an earthquake in the real world. Elise calls on Lily, Quinn’s dead mother, to help.

Quinn returns to the real world, and gets to talk to her mother through Elise.

Later, Elise talks to Specs and Tucker about them never having really seen a ghost before. Maybe they could all go into business together? They’d have to wear shirts and ties.

Brian’s Commentary

This is a prequel to the first two films, and the character of Elise is the main thing that ties the films together. It’s got foggy corridors, lanterns, and weird creatures, so it fits in with the other films just fine.

It’s not my favorite series in general, but this is a solid entry if you liked the others.

Kevin’s Commentary

I recognize that the Insidious movies are well made, and they have a loyal fandom. They are not my cup of tea. But I’m in agreement with Brian, this one is consistent with the others and fits well with them. If you’ve enjoyed the previous films, which take place after this one, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well.

1989 Godzilla vs. Biollante

* Directed by: Kazuko Omori, Koji Hashimoto, Kenjiro Ohmori

* Written by: Shinichiro Kobayashi, Kazuki Omori

* Stars: Kunihiko Mitamura, Yoshiko Tanaka, Masanobu Takashima

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 44 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Who knew that Godzilla would be back? After he was trapped in a volcano in the last movie, years have passed, and a scientist has accidentally created a giant plant/animal hybrid monster. Surprising no one, they fight. The budget is bigger, the effects are a little better, and the story moves well. It’s a good entry in the series.

Spoilery Synopsis

Credits roll as we see clips from the previous film, “The Return of Godzilla” (1984). Afterward, scientists pick up some of Godzilla’s skin from the wreckage and take it to be examined. There’s suddenly a shootout between a group of soldiers and another group. The winning group is killed by a lone assassin, who takes the sample.

We see that man again on a boat heading to a biotechnology laboratory in an oil-producing country. They hope to splice the cells with a fast-growing grain to end world hunger. Suddenly, there’s an explosion and Erika, Dr. Shiragami’s daughter is killed.

Five years later, Shiragami has been working with ESP and roses. Miki may be able to communicate with plants. His group is being spied on by the Americans, who may be planning to steal their discoveries. Asuka and her boyfriend, Kirishima, go to the Godzilla Memorial Lounge to talk about his going to MIT to study.

Meanwhile, a volcano is threatening to erupt on an island nearby. All the children at a school have had the same dream, that Godzilla is coming back. Miki believes that Godzilla has awakened. Gondo is the man tasked with watching the island for Godzilla’s return, and he’s looking for job security.

The scientists have invented a bacteria that eats nuclear material for use if there was ever a nuclear accident. They think they might be able to use that against Godzilla. They need the Godzilla cells to create the final product. They go to Dr. Shiragami for help, and he turns them down because of his daughter’s death; he eventually changes his mind under the condition that he can use some of the Godzilla cells for his own side project.

Dr. Shiragami starts working with the cells. He also does something with the cells of the telepathic roses. He combines the two types of cells into something new. Kirishima warns that this thing could possibly evolve to be worse than Godzilla.

Meanwhile, the Super X-2 has been completed. It’s a new and improved version of the one in the previous film. It’s got a new kind of weapon that can reflect Godzilla’s heat ray.

The two Americans break into the lab and try to steal the plans for the anti-radiation bacteria, but then the newly designed creature kills them both.

The next morning, Shiragami tells Kirishima what he’s done and admits it might have been a mistake. A competing company, BioMajor, demands the bacteria or they’ll blow up the mountain that restrains Godzilla.

Suddenly, a monstrous thing with a rose on its head appears in the nearby lake. Kirishima, Shiragami, Asuka, and Miki go to see it. “That plant has a human spirit,” says Shiragami. Miki says dead-Erika’s spirit is in there.

The ransom switch at BioTech goes badly. Godzilla is released from the volcano, and the assassin from earlier gets the radiation-eating bacteria. The navy can’t do anything to stop Godzilla, so they launch the Super X-2.

Miki and Asuka report to Shiragami that they can’t detect any of Erika inside the new plant-monster. It knows Godzilla is coming, though, and heads in his direction.

The two monsters finally meet. There’s lots of staring and explosions as they fight. Biollante is eventually defeated and burns up in a fiery blaze. No, Shirigama says it can’t die, it’s immortal.

Godzilla, on the other hand, has used a lot of energy fighting Biollante and Super X-2, so it’s going to head toward a nuclear reactor to refuel. The military predicts the wrong target, leaving Osaka with no defenses.

Godzilla closes in on Osaka, but Miki concentrates with her plant-ESP. Will it work on Godzilla? They come face to face, but Miki faints. Gondo and Kirishima arrive in town and go to the Sarandia Oil Company, the people who stole the bacteria. They retrieve it far too easily. The head of Sarandia calls his assassin in to take out Shiragami.

Godzilla rampages through Osaka. Super X-2 arrives to fight, but the secret weapon is broken and won’t work. They unload everything they have, but it’s not enough; they crash. Gondo shoots bazookas full of the radiation-eating bacteria and makes wisecracks until Godzilla drops a building on him.

The bacteria isn’t working on Godzilla fast enough. It should have been lethal, but it’s not working. That might be due to Godzilla’s low body temperature. Major Kuroki thinks he knows of an experimental device that does something with thunder that they can use to raise Godzilla’s body temperature.

They use the TC weapon to make Godzilla heat up with generated lightning. The bacteria still isn’t working.

Miki runs outside and uses her ESP to make Biollante-dust rain down from the sky. The plant creature re-integrates and attacks Godzilla. Biollante is evolving and changing into a huge, tentacled thing. Lots of tentacles, more than Godzilla can deal with. He’s way bigger and tougher than Godzilla, and it’s looking bad for our favorite lizard.

Godzilla turns and heads back to the ocean, but falls down before he can get there. The bacteria has finally taken effect. Billante then turns back into glowing spores and goes up into the sky. We see dead-Erika’s face as he ascends. Dr. Shiragami is then shot in the back by the assassin. Kirishima takes off after him, but the baddie is finished off by the lightning machine.

Everyone watches as Godzilla gets back up; the ocean must have made his body temperature drop again. He marches back off to his home…

Brian’s Commentary

This one has moved on from the talky, suspense-filled previous episodes and is paced much more like an action movie. The pumped-up soundtrack makes this obvious in the opening scenes.

There is some early CGI graphics used for maps and diagrams, sometimes in 3D, which were probably really cool at the time. The monster and all the important stuff is still done with miniatures and men in suits, but the computer age was coming.

In a 2014 poll of Japanese fans, this was ranked the best of all the Godzilla movies. I don’t know if I’d go that far, but this one of the better ones.

Kevin’s Commentary

It kind of felt like the movie happened in the first hour. But then there was more. It had a bigger budget this time around, the biggest budget of a Godzilla movie up to this point, and it shows. It is still a guy in a big rubber suit, but they’ve come a long way since the 1950s. This one is pretty good.

1986 Witchboard

* Directed by: Kevin Tenney

* Written by: Kevin Tenney

* Stars: Todd Allen, Tawny Kitaen, Stephen Nichols

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The movie was made in the mid 1980s and looks like it, which is fun. While it does have a small body count, it’s pretty tame and dated for today’s audiences. It’s easy to see where the story is going, and it’s well made enough to still entertain. We wouldn’t call it a tremendous classic, but it’s worth checking out if you haven’t seen it already.

Spoilery Synopsis

As credits roll, people arrive at a big house for a party. It’s very… 80s. Jim watches Brandon and Roger argue over the existence of God. Lloyd and Mike show up, and they’re Jim’s underdressed friends. Linda consoles Jim over how nasty Brandon got. Meanwhile, Brandon explains the pronunciation of the word “Ouija.” Then he describes the process as if none of the many partygoers had ever seen one before.

Brandon talks Linda into trying the Ouija board. Brandon explains that this particular board is dominated by a little boy named David. Through the board, David answers a few questions but then gets upset by Jim mocking the process. Suddenly, Brandon’s tires on his car outside explode.

Later that night, as Linda and Jim have sex, the Ouija board in the living room sits there doing nothing, but it’s doing nothing ominously.

In the morning, Linda uses the board to try to contact David by herself. She’s just gotten a positive pregnancy test, and she wants David to enter her baby. David says no, because he doesn’t like Jim. Meanwhile, Jim and Lloyd talk at the construction site where Jim works until a bunch of material falls and kills Lloyd.

David tells Linda where to find her lost diamond ring: in the bathroom drain. Jim comes in and she tells him what happened. She actually found her ring where David said it would be.

At Lloyd’s funeral, Homicide department detective Dewhurst comes to Jim and Linda. He thinks Lloyd was murdered; could the killer have been aiming for Jim? When the couple argues later, she tells him that she’s pregnant.

Linda tells David that she’s giving the board back to Brandon today, and there’s nothing he can do about it. He soon sends her a sign that there is something he can do about it.

Brandon comes to talk to Jim about the Ouija board and David. Jim laughs, but Brandon takes it all very seriously. He explains that spirits will take advantage of her, and the board becomes very obsessive. Then the spirit starts to get mean and will eventually possess her. Jim just laughs. Brandon wants to call in a medium to exorcise the spirit. Brandon and Jim have a lot of history, and Jim doesn’t care about anything. Linda calls, and Jim decides to allow the medium into his house.

Zarabeth is weird, but she’s supposed to be the best medium in the region. The group decides to do a seance to talk to David. David says he’ll leave, and then a bunch of weird stuff happens in the room. Zarabeth says David chose to leave on his own.

Zarabeth tells Brandon that David seemed way too strong for a ten-year-old. After going home, Zarabeth dies a nasty death.

Brandon comes to Jim the next day and suggests that all the deaths are connected to David. Brandon thinks maybe David has been lying to them about his age and everything else. As Brandon leaves, Jim notices the detective outside watching the house.

Linda watches as David moves the Ouija’s planchette on his own and then throws her around the room. At the hospital, the doctor says Linda was never pregnant.

Brandon and Jim do research about David’s real life and death at the library, which soon sends them to the cemetery– at night. David’s parents both died just two weeks ago.

Brandon and Jim contact David through the board again, and this time, David says it’s not him. David says it’s “Evil” who has done the killings. It’s Malfeitor who’s been doing all this. “Malfeitor is here,” it says as barrels fall on the two men. That’s not so bad until a hatchet whacks Brandon in the head.

Jim researches Malfeitor, who was a major serial killer back in the ‘30s– in their house! Meanwhile, Linda gets stuck in the shower and has to break out. Then she sees Malfeitor, and he’s not so friendly anymore.

Jim comes home to find that Malfeitor has possessed Linda. They fight until Dewhurst comes in, gun drawn. He thinks Jim has been behind everything. The detective is almost immediately knocked out by Linda/Malfeitor, who says Jim is the portal, not Linda. They say the only way to close the portal is for Jim to shoot himself. Instead, Jim shoots the Ouija board just as it throws him out the window.

Later, we see Jim and Linda getting married. He’s in a neck brace. Back at the house, the landlady finds the Ouija board and wonders if it still works, even if it is full of holes…

Brian’s Commentary

It’s pretty formulaic, but it doesn’t get boring and the story moves along at a good pace. The acting isn’t bad, but not impressive either. This is one of those 80s films where all the young 20-somethings with perfect hair live in multimillion-dollar houses and drive sports cars while working in construction.

The whole existence of Detective Dewhurst seems unreasonable. Lloyd clearly died in an accident, so there’s no reason he would even be assigned as a case.

It’s very “80s” and seems pretty tame and dated today. There’s nothing at all wrong with it– it just feels too dated.

Kevin’s Commentary

Ooooo noooo, not progressive entrapment. Saying things like that gives an air of science to the process. This is set back in the days when you could still smoke in the hospital, it’s a very 80s kind of movie. I’d rate it above average for the era, it’s not great, but it’s quite good. Or good enough to do the job anyhow.

2025 Witchboard

* Directed by: Chuck Russell

* Written by: Greg McKay, Aaron Russell, Kevin Tenney

* Stars: Madison Iseman, Aaron Dominguez, Mel Jarnson

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 53 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s an updated remake of the 1986 film by the same name, with a pendulum board instead of a ouija board this time around. There is a bit too much reliance on digital effects that are pretty obvious. It does a decent job of updating things while keeping the core of the story from the first movie - there is more to it this time around.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open in France, 1693 with witches dancing around a bonfire in the woods. There are skulls and body parts hanging from trees. They have a man tied to a tree, and the chief sorceress orders one of her followers to cut off the man’s arm. Suddenly, men on horseback arrive and kill many of the witches. In the scuffle, the “witchboard” falls to the ground [Kevin said it’d also be good for darts]. Credits roll.

In the present, two men break into a museum to steal the board. They fight and one guy shoots the other before being beaten with a tire iron. The shot man makes it outside, but he’s not doing well.

Elsewhere, Emily, Christian, and Richie forage for mushrooms, getting ready to open a new restaurant. She’s given up on the search for her parents. Emily hears someone crying in the woods and goes to look. All she finds is a cat, but it leads her to the board lying in the dirt. She doesn’t see the dead body of the thief nearby.

The other thief reports to his rich boss, who says the other thief has died. They don’t know where the board has wound up. The man’s three identical women cut the surviving thief’s throat.

Christian introduces his friends to his Creole menu. Richie invited Brooke, who is also Christian’s ex-girlfriend. Emily is engaged to Christian, but she’s lost her ring already. Brooke is an expert on antiquities, and she examines the antique probably-pagan pendulum board. The two of them try using it to answer a question, “Will our restaurant be a success?” Suddenly, a flaming bird shoots out of the fireplace; they should have gotten it cleaned.

The restaurant is nearing completion, and we see a whole bunch of dangerous-looking equipment in the kitchen. Meanwhile, at home, Emily plays around with the witchboard and finds that she was using the wrong kind of pendant with it last night. She hears on the news about the board being stolen from the museum just recently. She uses the board to point the way to her lost engagement ring. Downstairs, a weird chain of events leads to Richie losing his hand– to a cat! The lost hand is the least of his problems as he bleeds out in the kitchen.

At the funeral, Jesse shows up. He had her addicted to some drugs, but now Emily is clean. After, Christian notices that Emily has a new cat, the same one she saw in the woods and the same one who stole Richie’s hand.

That night, the witchboard activates on its own and gives Emily a nightmare about the witches’ coven back in the 1600s. The head witch, Naga Soth, is especially creepy.

Christian does some research, and he doesn’t want her to use that board anymore. He goes to talk to Vrooke, who knows an expert on the subject of Wiccanism.

Meanwhile, Emily gets a weird flashback while in the shower at home. She’s in the position of the witch as Pastor Grogan breaks down her door. He arrests her as a witch and has her exiled. She vows to get her revenge on Grogan. Emily wakes up in the shower after all that.

Brooke and Christian go to see Alexander, who is busy getting ready for the summer solstice. We see that Alexander is the man who hired the thieves in the first place. Solstice is a fertility festival, and Alexander says that Christian and Brooke will fit right in, and Christian gets a fantasy about that. Alexander tells the story of Naga Soth and her curse on the villagers. Alexander is a distant descendant of Pastor Grogan.

Christian goes home and finds that Emily knows he’s spent the afternoon with his ex. The board told her that Jesse will never bother her again, so she wants to celebrate with some sexy time.

We cut to Jesse, selling drugs on the roof of a building. We see that the cat is there as well as he prepares to inject a girl. He ends up going over the edge and falling to his rather excessive death.

The next day, Alexander and Brook come over to see the board. Christian and Emily want his help. Under hypnosis, he takes her back in time to Naga Soth in jail. Grogan brings her the board, wanting to know how to use it. The room starts to shake, both in the past and in the present. When Emily wakes up, we see, but the others don’t, that Naga Soth has possessed her in a kind of time-travel transfer. “Emily” then gives Alexander the witchboard, not needing it anymore.

In the past, Emily wakes up in jail, not understanding the old-time French that everyone else speaks. The witch in the next cell laughs at Soth’s successful escape.

In the present, evil Emily picks out some special mushrooms and takes them to Christian’s grand opening. It’s opening night, and a full house. The food critic arrives, as does Alexander and Brooke. At Alexander’s place, the board activates. We see those special mushrooms in almost every dish. Alexander knows what Emily/Naga Soth is up to and encourages her. He tells Brooke not to eat the mushrooms.

Everyone in the place starts laughing feeling odd. The main course comes out, and each one has a very sharp knife with it. The food critic sees a rotten hand on his plate. Everyone starts fighting and stabbing each other as Emily watches. Naga Soth takes her revenge on the locals, as promised. Alexander is quite entertained, but Brooke is horrified. He, along with Emily, makes their exit as Christian tries to follow. Christian gets picked up by Brooke, who had no idea what was going to happen.

Turns out, Brooke is on Alexander’s side and turns Christian over to them. Alexander then gives his villain speech; he wants to be Naga Soth’s master.

Meanwhile, in 17th century France, the real Emily is tied to a stake, about to be burned as a witch by Grogan and his crowd.

Alexander explains that Emily’s mother was a witch who was killed in a ritual. Emily has inherited the power, since she’s directly related to Naga Soth. Alexander then morphs into Grogan as Christian throws the witchboard into the fire. As the board burns, Naga Soth dissipates, leaving only Emily behind.

Alexander shoots Christian and fishes the board out of the fire. Emily wakes up and shoots Alexander. The police arrive and force Emily and Brooke out; Christian and Alexander have died.

Except Alexander might not really be dead…

Later, at the Vatican, Brooke has taken them the witchboard and sold it to them for a bag of diamonds. Naga Soth then comes for the cardinal who bought it.

Brian’s Commentary

The witchboard here is not a Ouija board, it looks more like an old dartboard. It’s still more or less the same idea; a haunted board that predicts the future. This one is obviously more modern and updated from the original, but it does keep some of the same aspects of the story.

It’s fine. The CGI isn’t very good, but everything else looks good and it moves along at a good pace. I liked it more than disliked it.

Kevin’s Commentary

Wicca, founded in the 1940s, is referred to as an ancient religion here. From the look of many of the shots, you’d think it was filmed with 3D in mind, but it was never released with that feature.

I thought it was pretty good, but too stretched out. Things happen, but a little too far apart. I did enjoy it more than the original.

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All five of our films this week are new releases:

We’ll open on a nice dog story; really, he’s a “Good Boy.” A not-so-good-boy is the star of “The Toxic Avenger.” We’ll go back in time and watch the prequel, “Borley Rectory: The Awakening.” Then we’ll watch a couple of documentaries, one real, “Lost Contact: UFOs After Wartime” and one not-so-real “Strange Harvest.”

Spoiler: We liked them all!

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #49, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2025 Good Boy

* Directed by: Ben Leonberg

* Written by: Alex Cannon, Ben Leonberg

* Stars: Indy, Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 12 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The main character of the movie is a dog, with everything slanted toward his point of view, which is interesting. His master, Todd, is afflicted with both a terminal illness and dark forces that are working against him. Both things that seem to have been impacting his family for quite a while. But he’s got Indy by his side. It’s unique, which helps it out a lot, but it’s actually pretty slow moving on a low simmer. We both thought it was pretty good.

Spoilery Synopsis

Indy the dog protects the house at night; he hears strange sounds that concern him. The phone keeps ringing, and it turns out that Todd is having some kind of seizure. His sister, Vera, comes in and calls 911. Credits roll.

We watch old footage of Indy being a puppy and growing up with Todd and his family. Todd’s got a lot of health problems, and Indy is a big help.

Todd and Vera argue about him going to stay at Grandpa’s house; neither Vera nor Indy think that’s a good idea. The house is very remote in the country. When they arrive, Indy really doesn’t want to get out of the car. The place is a mess, but Todd says it beats the hospital.

Todd calls Vera, and they talk. Grandpa used to have a bunch of dogs, but they kept all running away. As he watches old home videos of grandpa, Vera points out that no one has lived in that house for more than a few weeks; she says it’s haunted. Meanwhile, Indy checks out shadows that he doesn’t like. Indy explores the old house, but he doesn’t find anything.

The next morning, Todd and Indy go for a walk in the woods. They stop at the family cemetery, and Todd points out that most of them died pretty young. They run into a neighbor, and he mentions traps and snares all over the woods. The neighbor mentions how strange the area is, too. Todd, on the other hand, thinks it’s nice and peaceful.

Vera, still on the phone, mentions that dogs can detect all sorts of things that people can’t, so he should be keeping an eye on Indy for signs of trouble. The next day, Todd goes off and leaves Indy at home, and Indy is not pleased. Indy spots another dog in the house and follows it, but all he finds is the dog’s bandana– and a vision of something nasty that “got” the other dog. Todd comes home, unwell; he’s been at the hospital again.

Indy has nightmares that night. He wakes up and patrols the house, hearing and seeing things that shouldn’t be there. He watches as Todd goes to the kitchen and bangs his head on a door repeatedly– sleepwalking? There appears to be some kind of black ghost or monster that’s creeping around the place.

Todd gets sicker, and the doctor says he doesn’t qualify for her clinical trials. The neighbor, Richard, warns him again about his fox traps. As Todd obliviously works on his Feng Shui, Indy watches all sorts of horrors going on in the next room and especially in the basement.

One night, Todd collapses and a door shuts Indy in the next room. Indy notices the window is open and jumps down to get outside. Indy runs through the woods toward Richard’s house to get help but gets caught in a snare instead. The next thing we know, Todd is chaining up Indy outside in the rain. The monster terrorizes Indy, who can’t escape because of the chains. Indy does eventually break loose, and then he finds the skeletal remains of Bandit, Grandpa’s last dog.

Inside the house, Todd gets a scare of his own until Indy comes in and comforts him. The monster then grabs Todd and drags him to the basement, but Indy knows another way in. “You’re a good dog, but you can’t save me,” Todd says as he turns into a skeleton.

In the morning, we see that Todd has died in his bed. Vera comes to the house and finds Bandit’s bones in the cellar while letting Indy outside. Indy goes off to live with Vera.

He was a good boy!

Brian’s Commentary

All Grandpa’s dogs ran off… we see why.

It’s told from Indy’s point of view, which is interesting and unique. Dogs do sense things that humans can’t, and this film makes heavy use of that fact. Indy the dog gets top billing here, primarily because we don’t see any shots of the character’s faces through the majority of the film.

It’s actually very slow moving and quiet. I suspect some will say it’s boring, but it had my attention throughout. If you’re a dog lover, you’ll like this one.

Kevin’s Commentary

Indy the dog, playing himself, does an impressive job and belongs to the director - possibly he was raised with this role in mind. He does indeed seem to be a Good Boy. It was cleverly filmed to accentuate Indy’s point of view, with the human character’s faces shown very little throughout the movie.

It’s well made, and the novelty of it saves it. It’s actually kind of slow. There is creepiness that builds some, and Indy having fearful dreams, but not a lot happens for much of the film.

I’d mark it as a win that isn’t quite great, but I liked it quite a bit.

2025 The Toxic Avenger

* Directed by: Macon Blair

* Written by: Macon Blair, Lloyd Kaufman, Joe Ritter

* Stars: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This remake does a good job of paying tribute to the original while being different enough to still entertain. It is still stupid fun and over the top, but with a different vibe. It’s saturated and colorful, almost cartoonish, with less of a thrown together feeling that the original had. When the gore kicks in, it’s the goriest gore. The humor is hit and miss but mostly hit. We both enjoyed it, but it doesn’t quite live up to the original.

Spoilery Synopsis

Winston narrates his story, which begins on the other side of town. Mel Ferd, the reporter, gets footage from the BTH Headquarters. He’s got evidence that they’ve been dumping toxic waste illegally. Just then, a group of goons break in and kill him. He dies hard. His junior reporter, J.J., gets away. Credits roll.

In St. Roma’s Village (or Tromaville), we meet Winston, who lives with his son Wade and can’t cook breakfast. We see there are some really weird people in the town. There are some bad guys who are forcing shopkeeper Daisy to sell her place.

Winston goes to work at BTH as a janitor, and it doesn’t look like OSHA would approve of the place at all. He gets a call from his doctor, who says he has an inoperable case of @#$$#@, He’s got six months to a year to live. Winston then calls his insurance company who explains things like insurance companies always do. Yeah, he’s screwed.

Meanwhile, at the Garbinger Mansion, BTH Owner Bob may have passed his prime, but he’s getting an infusion of gorilla blood. His brother Fritz comes in, and he’s tremendously weird. Fritz’s friends, The Killer Nutz, were the ones who botched the reporter’s murder. Fritz sends the Nutz after J.J. to finish the job. They are not subtle.

Meanwhile, at New Chemical High School (New Chem High), Wade auditions for a talent show. It goes badly. Winston tries to cheer him up, but he’s just not good at that.

Bob Garbinger is attending a big fancypants banquet. His business is losing a ton of money, but he’s trying to bluff his way through that. He meets with the town’s big mob boss who wants payment on what he’s owed. Winston interrupts to ask Bob for money for his treatments. Bob promises to sort it all out, but he has no intention of doing anything.

Winston goes to BTH, and when he opens the gate, J.J. sneaks inside. Winston dips his mop in the toxic goo and threatens the security guard with it to rob the company’s treasury. The Nutz show up and shoot him dead. They drop his corpse into a big vat of nastiness and throw in the mop for good measure. Down in the vat, Winston is transformed rather dramatically.

Winston goes home to Wade, who takes one look at the little monster in the window and freaks out. The real estate swindler is there and shoots Winston. Winston gets angry and rips the man’s arm off. Almost instantly the town forms a mob, complete with torches, to chase the monster away. He passes out.

In the morning, Winston wakes up in a hobo’s camp. The man there, Gunther, is pretty crazy. Gunther gives him some wise superhero advice and sets him upon a mission, giving him his mop which he found.

Meanwhile, the Miss Meat restaurant, The Nasty Lads, another gang, have taken over the place. They’re angry that the place has changed its name and mascot, and they’re heavily armed. Suddenly, a little green man with a toxic mop breaks in the back door. His mop does some really bad things to the Nasty Lads and saves the hostages.

Now a hero, the press starts calling Winston the “Toxic Avenger.” Wade sees all this on the TV and knows who he really is. J.J. comes to the door and explains the whole thing to him. The Nutz show up, and they both run away. But one of the Nutz tags Wade with a tracking device.

The mob boss and his son, who lost his arm last night, also see the news and orders his men to kill Toxie. Bob, Fritz, and Kissy also know who he is, and they aren’t happy. His geeks and nerds explain how the mutations happened. Can they reproduce the mutation?

Wade and J.J. run into Winston on the street. They talk for a minute until the mob guys show up and shoot Winston again. J.J. gets shot by the Nutz, and everybody runs. Toxie takes out his baddies, and he takes J.J. to Gunther, who used to be a doctor before he was a crazy hobo. Or maybe not, because Winston ends up patching her up with the healing power of his blue blood.

Fritz and Bob have taken Wade to lure in Winston.

At the St. Roma Village’s Festival, the Nutz are playing on the stage. J.J. tampers with the sound system so Winston can sing his song instead. The crowd loves “Toxie.” Winston mangles the band right there in front of everyone. They torture the big baby-headed chicken man to get Wade’s location.

Toxie and J.J. head to Bob’s mansion and are promptly captured and chained up. He does the gloating routine, and Toxie threatens him. The scientists remove some of Toxie’s blood and do tests on it. That’s when the mob boss shows up, and he’s not happy. Bob, knowing his death is near, drinks the stuff extracted from Toxie.

And he changes. The mob guys don’t last long. Kissy tries it too, just a little bit, and she gets even weirder.

Toxie gets himself and J.J. out of the chains by peeing acid urine on them and goes after Wade. Wade gets blown to pieces.

Suddenly, Bob shows up, completely mutated. They fight, as do J.J. and Kissy. As Toxie gets ready to kill Bob, Fritz shows up with Wade - Fritz rescued him just in time. Bob, naturally, gets back up and has to be finished off spectacularly.

Kissy isn’t out of the action yet. She stabs Toxie and kills Fritz before blowing up everyone.

Winston wakes up in the hospital and watches the news, which explains how BTH has fallen. His doctor is there as well, he reports that his @#$$#@ has completely gone away, and he’s healthy now. We see that J.J., Wade, and even Fritz have survived and are doing well. Toxie is the town’s biggest hero!

And there is an important and very dramatic after-credit scene.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s got a big budget and has many references to old Troma films. Still, it’s awfully polished and doesn’t have the low-budget schlocky feel of the originals. A lot of the jokes and puns are pretty obvious, and a lot of them fall flat.

The actors, especially Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon, are obviously having a great time in their roles. Wood looks like a cross between the Penguin and Riff-Raff. Peter Dinklage… I have no idea how that happened.

The original was a hilarious parody of horror and superhero films, this was much more straightforward and not nearly as funny.

It’s fine, and definitely entertaining, but not as good as the classic original.

Kevin’s Commentary

I noticed lots of throwbacks and references to the original “Toxic Avenger” and other Troma movies. An interesting bit of trivia is that once Winston becomes Toxie, there is an actress, Luisa Guerreiro, doing the body work under all those prosthetics.

Some of the humor was lame, but lots of it was not. I laughed and chuckled many times watching this.

Overall, I’d call this good and entertaining, but not as quite good (?) and entertaining as the original.

2025 Borley Rectory: The Awakening

* Directed by: Steven M. Smith

* Written by: Christopher Jolley, Steven M. Smith

* Stars: Julian Glover, Patsy Kensit, Jess Inchbald

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is actually a prequel and the third Borley Rectory movie, “based on terrifying true events.” Borley Rectory was a real house, damaged by fire in the late 1930s and demolished in the 1940s, that was said to be the most haunted house in England. This has a slow build, starting with normalcy and getting creepier as it goes along. But it’s heavy on talk and low on action, with some scares but no casualties except for those who died long ago and are ghosts. So overall, it’s not too bad, but it’s tame.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on Borley Rectory in 1888. The guests want to hear a ghost story about the place, and old Harry Ball has stories. He tells the story of a nun named Marie who was against God, and the priest beat her severely. Suddenly, a white-faced woman jumps out into the room and scares all the guests half to death– it’s a prank. Harry laughs and says there are no ghosts, and ghosts aren’t real.

That night, Harry has a nightmare, as does one of the young guests. The old man gives his son Henry a box.

Twelve years later, Henry runs the rectory, and all his sisters come for a visit. Mabel, Caroline, Freda, and Kitty are all there now. Their mother, Constance, says the girls are far too spoiled and argues with Henry about marrying off Kitty soon.

Kitty finds a priest-hole and inside is that box from earlier. They take it to Henry, who doesn’t look happy to see it. There are secrets inside, letters from Reverend Shaw.

Mr. Somerset comes for a visit; Constance doesn’t like him. The girls are out walking and see a strange woman in a nun’s habit on the grounds. The woman is just like the one old Harry described in his story many years ago. Kitty tells Constance about the strange woman, and Constance thinks maybe Henry knows more than he’s saying. As they argue, they feel a strange presence in the house. Naturally, they split up to investigate, and this time, Constance sees the nun, Marie, who warns her to hide from the evil priest.

Constance goes into shock, but the doctor says she’ll be fine tomorrow. The doctor knows all about the place being haunted and says the ghost has been awakened since the family has been talking about Harry’s recently-found writings. She explains how old Harry was just the latest in a long line of paranormal protectors of the whole village.

Constance talks to the ghost of her own dead mother, or maybe it’s just a dream. They talk about the nun and the priest, and also about saving the family from evil.

Henry talks to the four girls about the situation. That night, Somerset, Henry, and Kitty stay up all night to see what happens. They all watch the priest and nun repeat their story.

Kitty writes to Reverend Shaw, her father’s confidant about all things supernatural. Kitty and Henry then talk about the priest, who probably enjoyed killing the nun, who was pregnant with his child. As they talk, something bad happens to Caroline and Mabel.

The next day, Constance, Mabel, and Caroline leave to stay in town, leaving Henry, Kitty, Freda and Somerset to deal with the ghosts. Reverend Shaw comes, as invited, and the ghostly priest attacks him. Not long after, the young people explain to him what’s been going on. He’s a bit of a psychic, and he “feels” things in the house.

That night, we get a full-on flashback to the nun and priest’s story. She gave birth to a baby, and the priest took it away. Later, Shaw explains that the old priest, Waldergrave, used to regularly rape the nuns and probably already got Caroline. When Marie got pregnant, he killed her, but he was then burned alive.

There’s more argument and discussion when Shaw suggests one of them allow the ghost to possess them. Kitty and Shaw have a discussion while preparing things, and Shaw confesses there aren’t records that he spoke of - he is psychic and knows the history by hearing and feeling the ghosts.

This, of course, leads to a seance. Shaw calls on the ghosts to come to them, and soon, Kitty starts screaming as Marie, the nun. Shaw becomes the priest and they all pray the priest away. Marie shows up, happy now, and they all know that her child survived.

The cycle of the nun and priest is over, but the rectory is old, and there are many other supernatural problems within. Those, however, are stories for another time. Kitty realizes that she’s one of Marie’s descendants.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s an interesting location, and it’s definitely a creepy place. The actors all do old-timey accents, and I didn’t find the dialogue very convincing. It seems that everyone knows the place is haunted, and yet all they do is sit around and discuss it.

Still, as the story progresses and we learn more about what’s going on, it does pick up a bit. Everything is what you’d expect in a 19th century ghost story, but it’s all terribly drawn out and slow.

If you’re really interested in ghost stories, this isn’t bad, but it’s awfully tame and I have to admit, a little dull.

Kevin’s Commentary

Reading about the real house and the history is actually pretty interesting - and it sounds like the supernatural elements should be looked at with a skeptical eye. Taking it as a fiction movie on its own, it’s creepy with a bit of a mystery. Brian mentioned the dialogue - it’s British and period and upper crust - which does make it sound pretty stilted. And there is a lot of dialogue talking about things.

There are scares, but no one is physically injured throughout the movie. It’s very tame and talky overall. It’s not bad, but it didn’t connect much with me.

2025 Lost Contact: UFOs After Wartime

* Directed by: Seth Breedlove

* Written by: Seth Breedlove

* Stars: Aaron Deese, Dewey Edwards, Micah Hanks

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s another interesting documentary from Seth Breedlove, obvious from the title, focusing on UFO sightings during and after World War Two. The film is put together with stock footage, aged CGI recreations, movie clips, interviews, historical accounts, and recounted eyewitness reports. Some of the scenes might lead people to believe they’re seeing the actual events and saucers in the sky when it’s a mashup of real military footage from other events and realistically created digital footage. There’s a heavy focus on one case in particular, a fatal crash by pilot Thomas Mantell, known as “The Mantell Incident.”

Spoilery Synopsis

The Thomas Mantell Case took place in Kentucky, and there’s quite a bit of mystery surrounding it. There was a horrific military crash in a rural area, and we are shown the peaceful-looking spot where it happened many years ago. Credits roll.

We get a brief recap of World War II and the aircraft involved in the fight. We then get an overview of the magic and natural beauty of Kentucky. We then segue into discussion about UFO sightings during the war. We are told about one sighting in 1943 where dozens of glowing discs were seen, then a 1944 sighting of a black, teardrop shaped craft. Throughout these stories, we see a great deal of old stock footage of airplanes and aged-looking CGI re-enactments.

By 1947, UFO sightings were everywhere. Mt. Rainier, Roswell, Maury Island, and other sightings all took place around that point. Were they alien spaceships or were they advanced military prototypes or even something natural? That’s always the question with UFO sightings and “lights in the sky.”

In January of 1948, the Mantell Incident took place. A pilot shot at a UFO, which shot back, and the pilot, Thomas Mantell, crashed and died. The military plane crashed because of an alien attack. The story has changed and expanded over the decades, and it’s become hard to know what really happened.

Thomas’s two grandsons are interviewed, and they give us a lot of biographical information about the deceased pilot. There were many sightings of something in the sky that day, and they took off to investigate. Of the four planes, Mantell was the only one who ascended beyond what his oxygen level would allow, he passed out, and crashed.

We then get a string of living witnesses who saw the crash in 1948, and they each tell their stories. Did Mantell fly too high chasing a weather balloon, or was he shot down? The military claimed that Mantell was chasing Venus, which was visible at that time.

Brian’s Commentary

I always enjoy these documentaries, but this one includes lots of computer-generated footage of flying saucers and such, but they’re “aged” to make them match the many stock footage clips, which makes it all look historical. This seems dishonest, not something you’d want in a documentary. It becomes easy to imagine that it’s all real footage, but it’s not– but some of it could be real old footage, there’s no way to know. Everything the people on-screen are saying is either factual or at least their own opinions, but that’s not necessarily true of what we see.

Otherwise, it’s well put together, has lots of good interviews, and overall is an interesting look at one of the major UFO mysteries that was never fully explained. It mostly focuses on the Mantell incident, and if that interests you, you should absolutely check this one out.

Kevin’s Commentary

It’s another work from Seth Breedlove that is put together well and interesting. This has lots of good stock footage, accounts of historical events, accounts of historical stories and sightings, and interviews with historians. As always, it’s left up to the viewer if they want to believe it or not. But as Brian mentioned, the way real footage - even if it’s not from the actual event they are talking about - is combined with recreated footage is concerning. Some folks could be confused and misled.

2025 Strange Harvest

* Directed by: Stuart Ortiz

* Written by: Stuart Ortiz

* Stars: Peter Zizzo, Terri Apple, Andy Lauer

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was put together in a realistic documentary style, as detectives recount their struggles trying to catch a serial killer in California. One key difference is there is a lot more gore than a documentary would have. It gets steadily creepier as we hear more details and learn that the murders were not at all typical. If you’re a fan of true crime television, you might especially like this. We both thought it was very good.

Spoilery Synopsis

Detective Joe Kirby is being interviewed about a crime in Los Angeles– something unusually terrible happened to the Sheridan family. After hearing from a few involved people, we start seeing police bodycam footage of the officers on the scene. They find three bodies tied, taped up, and posed as well as being obviously murdered. There’s a weird symbol painted in blood on the ceiling. The officer recognizes the symbol, and it’s not good. Credits roll.

Detective Lexi Taylor, Joe Kirby’s partner, tells us about why she became a cop, as does Joe. They describe some ritualistic serial murders that they were involved with. The first was in 1993, and the victim, a girl, was missing several body parts. The suspect’s name was discovered at a local motel, “Albert Shiny.”

In 1994, an old man was found and killed in a similar fashion; he was missing an eye. The killer left a fingerprint, but that didn’t pan out. In ‘95, a little boy was killed and his liver removed.

Eventually, the police received a letter from the killer. It claimed there would be ten more killings. Then there weren’t any more killings for fifteen years until the Sheridan family in 2010. The family, after being tied up and posed, were cut and made to bleed out into carefully measured buckets.

Then there were more. A woman’s head was found in a park and her boyfriend was set on fire– but didn’t die. They come up with a suspect, Victor Shamaz, who is really sketchy, but he turns out to be innocent.

Another murder is a man who was killed by a huge number of leeches. A lot of leeches.

A homeless man barely escapes being killed, which leads the police to a house in the hills. The house was rented to Albert Shiny. They get a fingerprint, and this time, it identifies a man named Leslie Sykes.

The next murder is caught on a livestream, as the victim is an influencer. We see his weird mask as he draws the symbol on the wall. As he begins some kind of ritual, the camera flakes out. The victim actually survives somehow, but then is killed inside the hospital.

One thing leads to another, and they learn that Sykes had spent that missing fifteen years overseas. An occult bookseller remembers a spell book that Sykes stole. They find a storage locker that belonged to Sykes, and there are body parts inside. “Hail Azragor” is painted on the wall. It appears that there’s only one more murder before “Azragon” is set free.

Sykes kidnaps a baby on Friday the 13th, the same day as a weird triangle-shaped planetary conjunction. The police track down Sykes in a campground park and do a search. Thanks to a 911 call, they find a cabin where he was seen with the baby. By the time two police officers got there, Sykes had fled into the woods. The police pursuit, drawn by the baby crying, went very badly for the officers.

We watch on one of the cops’ bodycam as Sykes gets his ritual started. The baby is on a pyre that Sykes lights up. The bodycam shows a bright light appear in the sky that turns into a cloud with red eyes. Detective Kirby shows up, shoots Sykes, and all the weirdness stops. The baby is saved, one of the attacked cops survives, and they find Sykes dead in a nearby creek.

We then see the various interviewees discussing their feelings upon hearing that Sykes was killed. Sykes did, however, send a final letter, where he promised to return…

Brian’s Commentary

It’s all done in the style of a true-crime documentary, and it’s really well done. The difference is the graphic footage of the victims and sometimes the murders.

The killer sends various letters that are briefly shown on screen while a computer-altered voice reads it. The letters aren’t on the screen long enough to read and the voice is unintelligible.

I’m not generally a fan of true crime tales, but this is really well made!

Kevin’s Commentary

I wasn’t aware of this movie at all before Brian fired it up, and it took me a few minutes to determine it was a horror movie not a documentary. It’s put together very much like one. We’re told all about a number of murders in California, done by a serial killer they referred to as Mr. Shiny because the name Albert Shiny was given more than once. It’s very realistically made. But the graphic nature gives it away as horror. There is a lot of gore shown, the bodies of victims, which a real documentary wouldn’t do.

I thought it was excellently made and thoroughly creepy. Chilling even.

Contact Info:

Email: mailto:[email protected]

Websites:

* https://www.horrorguys.com

* https://www.horrormonthly.com

* https://www.flashfright.com

Two new releases this week, along with some fun catch-up films.

We’ll start off with the brand-new underground tunnel-chase, “Scurry” and then go out to the retro-desert in “Brute 1976.” We’ll take a walk on the silly side with “Lavalantula” from 2015, and then finish off the George Romero zombie series with the final two of his films: “Diary of the Dead” 2007 and “Survival of the Dead” (2010).

A bunch of winners this week!

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link:

https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2025 Scurry

* Directed by: Luke Sparke

* Written by: Tom Evans

* Stars: Jamie Costa, Emalia, Peter O’Hanlon

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A claustrophobic view of a big disaster event has us following a couple of survivors as they work their way out of an underground obstacle course of collapsed buildings and streets. And is there more going on than just a local earthquake or something? Just how bad could it be? We travel along with them to find out. There are some hints given in the opening seconds.

Spoilery Synopsis

We see some kind of apocalyptic disaster happening from out a skyrise window. There are alarms sounding. People are running and screaming. Then we hear growling noises from down the hall and one running woman dies in a wet splatter against the wall. Maybe we aren’t at the top of the food chain any more. We fly over the city, and there is a big blackened pit that is surrounded by burnt out emergency vehicles, and it pans down to a dead man laying there and no, he’s not dead. He wakes up. He’s trapped under a chunk of rubble. He pulls out his cell but can’t get through to anyone. He finally thinks to use his phone as a flashlight and looks around. He finally gets through to his wife’s voicemail and explains what happened from his point of view. He levers himself free..

Mark hears a chopper flying over, which is hopeful, but then it crashes right next to the hole he’s in. The hole collapses behind him, trapping him in an underground tunnel. He pulls out a piece of glass that impaled him, but he’s not bleeding too badly.

It takes a while for Mark to get his bearings, and he hears rocks falling all over the place. He finds a woman’s purse and digs through it for anything to use. He finds a video camera with an infra-red feature, which is useful.

He gets a jump scare when the woman who owns the purse shows up. She’s Sarah. There’s a rock slide or something, and she soon vanishes. No, she’s hiding, “Shhhh. They’ll hear us.” He sets her dislocated bone, but she says everyone up above is dead, no one is coming for them. She’s very paranoid that he’s going to leave her alone. They talk about their kids, but she seems to know a lot more about what’s going on than he does. She’s not really Sarah; that was a stolen purse. Then she pulls a gun on him. And things get complicated.

As they argue over who gets to hold the lighter, something growls nearby. “They’ve found us.” Mark uses the infra-red camera but doesn’t see what it is. They run for a while but eventually, Mark gets a glimpse of the creature behind them with the camera. She notices that she’s lost her pills and wants to go back, but he says that’s stupid; this leads to her pulling the gun again. He has to go back for her pills and notices that the creature seems to be stuck in place, so he’s OK for now.

Mark wants to know what she knows about the creatures. They killed her sister, dragging her right out of the car. He explains that he was just crossing the street and fell into what he thought was an earthquake sinkhole. “Nothing can survive up there,” she says. He doubts that everyone is dead. They continue to crawl through the tunnel until they see a light; it’s not an exit, it’s just a flashlight someone dropped. They find the flashlight’s owner, dead, and go through his stuff. Turns out, he’s not dead, but when he starts to scream, one of the creatures eats him.

Now Mark believes in monsters. They argue over her hard-as-nail attitude since she still doesn’t trust him. As they argue, one of the spiderlike monsters spears Mark and pulls him away. Is this creature an alien, or was it always down here? We don’t know, but the woman’s story makes it sound like they came from space. She continues on, crawling through the tunnel until she catches up to Mark who is lying there; somehow, he killed it with his knife– he’s got to be some kind of marine or special forces.

Mark then explains his sad life story. He drunkenly started a house fire that nearly killed his son. He left the family after that, and now he feels he still can’t protect them. She gives him advice, and now they’re friends.

After an incredibly long time, they come to a room where they can stand up, and it’s full of bodies. They can hear shooting and bad things happening through the sewer grate above. There are soldiers up there, and they hear the two down below and offer to help. “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be OK,” they say. And then we hear them all die up there; our guys get absolutely drenched in blood.

Mark and the woman are forced to keep on crawling through the tunnels since one of the monsters is trying to get to them through the sewer grate. She finally tells him that her name is Kate. Just to make things worse, they both have to swim through a flooded, dark, murky tunnel.

They finally find a way outside and see the light. Happy Ending (with forty minutes left). As they crawl to the opening, a creature pops up between them and the light at the end of the tunnel. It takes a look at them and then goes back the way it came, where we hear more screaming.

Mark and Kate climb over the open hole, slowly, and try not to wake up the creatures down there. By the time Mark makes it over, Kate has died from her internal injuries. As he climbs over her corpse, we see just how many of the creatures are scurrying around in the tunnels below. Rather than continue to the exit, he goes through her pockets and sets her body on fire… in front of him, blocking the exit. No– he just imagined doing that. Then he lays there within sight of the exit and plays with his phone for a while. I guess her body must be blocking the tunnel, but it doesn’t look like it.

Suddenly, Mark’s phone pings; he’s got a message from his wife. “These things are coming from beneath the ground and sunlight makes them grow bigger and bigger. Please come home,” she says. His desire to live re-ignited, Mark goes back to the vertical shaft the alien was in and uses the phone to attract a monster. It crawls up and takes Kate’s body, unplugging the shaft (he could have pushed her body into the shaft much more easily).

Mark then crawls up the shaft toward the light. A monster attacks, but Mark sets it on fire with the lighter and alcohol they found; it backs off quickly.

As Mark emerges into the daylight, he sees that the monsters have grown to skyscraper size outside, and there are many, many, eggs.

Brian’s Commentary

This is one very dark movie. Make sure you watch this one at night, in a dark room, or you’re likely to miss something. That said, being so dark, they didn’t have to show as much of the creatures. I think they were going for the same kind of scares as “The Descent” (2005), but the characters and tunnels here aren’t as interesting. We get to know more about them as they go along, but the whole film is basically just two characters in a narrow tunnel, so it takes a lot to make that interesting.

It was a good concept, but I felt it was too slow-moving. I was yelling at the screen after Mark just lay there talking to Kate’s corpse for like twenty minutes in front of the exit. The creatures do look really good once we get to see them and the ending was bleak enough to satisfy me. Overall, I thought it was entertaining, but there are some issues with the characters making dumb decisions.

Kevin’s Spoiling Commentary

I had excellent dim viewing conditions, but like Brian said, it is best in a dark room. Dim room at least. I can still see.

Those two must have had really fit legs by the time they were done, as much squatting and crouching they had to do working their way very realistically to an escape.

What a situation. Like just surviving an impact like that and having to work very hard to try to dig yourself out isn’t hard enough. Imagine being pursued by meat-eating creatures too. I like how little we see of the creatures for so long. The characters don’t see them either for a long while, only hearing the sounds. It really helps tighten the sense of being there in the same boat with them. And then we all see them. Why did it have to be spiders?

I don’t ever want to be in a situation where someone asks, “Is your flashlight waterproof?” That water scene was chilling.

The acting is amazing. It’s immersive. I thought it was excellent. Full disclosure, my computer locked up, I was doing remote work, and I didn’t see the last 20 minutes. Right around when Kate died. I won’t mind rewatching the first part to get there.

2025 Brute 1976

* Directed by: Marcel Walz

* Written by: Joe Knetter

* Stars: Adriane McLean, Sarah French, Gigi Gustin

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s another killer family and a group of victims who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. They captured the retro look and feel of this one very well, the acting is good with well-defined characters, and the special effects were very realistic. It wasn’t anything particularly original, but it’s well put together and entertaining.

Spoilery Synopsis

August 19, 1976, in the desert, we zoom into two girls broken down on the highway. The road is completely deserted, so hitching probably isn’t going to happen. “There has to be something off this road,” as June and Raquel begin walking. They eventually come to an old, abandoned mine and go inside to cool off. There are lights already on in the mine, and they stop for some kissing. They hear something and get spooked. A man with an axe shows up, and the screaming starts. They are very much not alone in the cave– Raquel sets one of the men on fire, but another comes out with a chainsaw. Credits roll.

A bunch of stereotypical 70s young people park in the desert in their van. The driver explains that this place is called “Death,” or at least that’s the nickname because so many people go missing here. He says “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was based on what actually happened right here. Ray says, no that movie was based on Ed Gein, not anything around here. The group is here for a photo shoot for Roxy and Raquel, who hasn’t arrived yet.

Elsewhere, Raquel wakes up and finds herself chained up in a barn. Daisy, a bald man in drag, walks in, and he’s not sympathetic to her plight. He wants her to call him pretty. He’s wearing the breasts he removed from June. She gets away but is soon recaptured by Brutus, another masked man. She’s returned to captivity, where she watches the now-three masked men dismember what’s left of June.

Since Raquel hasn’t shown up for the photo shoot, everyone talks Raquel’s sister, Sunshine, into taking her place. They soon finish, but the girls want to visit the ghost town they saw a little while ago. “One of us is definitely getting murdered here,” jokes the driver. They soon run into Mama Birdy, who lives there. She says it’s fine to look around, just stay on this side of the road.

As the group explores, we get to know the group a little better. Ray goes into an outhouse and finds a glory hole. He tries it and very quickly regrets it. Sunshine and Roxy talk about how much Roxy likes Adam. Jordy explores with his camera until he comes across one of the masked men. He avoids that guy but then runs into Brutus with his chainsaw. Brutus turns around and sees Sunshine standing there watching.

Mama Birdy cackles when Charlie hears the chainsaw across the road. She knows all about the killer family. He goes looking and finds Sunshine locked in a box. Daisy shows up, and Sunshine stabs Charlie. Could she be in on it, or is she just wildly incompetent?

Adam and Roxy barricade themselves inside a building as Brutus cuts his way in. Sunshine walks in just as Brutus breaks Adam’s back. “You got him. He was too nice anyway,” she says. They don’t see Roxy, who’s hiding. Sunshine and Brutus have sex as Roxy listens from under the bed.

Sunshine runs to Roxy, pretending to be innocent, and she’s got the keys to the van. Roxy knows what’s up and knocks her out, taking the keys. Turns out, they’re the wrong keys, and Roxy gets stuck in the van as Sunshine menaces her from outside. “You’re the chosen one,” Sunshine taunts.

We cut to Mama Birdy and Raquel, who is still chained to a bed. “You’ve outlived all of your friends,” Mama congratulates her. Roxy manages to talk to Phoenix about Sunshine, whom she tattles about Brutus. Brutus and Phoenix fight, and Brutus easily wins.

Mama rings the church bell, and the whole group gets together. Sunshine, Daisy, Brutus, Roxy, and Zeus all march into the church. Mama Birdy stands up, and she’s got very realistic-looking bat wings, like a demon. Mama talks about the Bicentennial and how there’s no real freedom in the USA. “Technology is creating a new world, one of hate. A reckoning is coming.”

They all want Roxy to join their weird family. Roxy talks about how people living in the past will be weeded out, generation by generation. Zeus leads Raquel in and threatens to kill her. No, Raquel has joined the family now as well. Raquel stabs Roxy; she really has gone over to their side, fully brainwashed.

Later, Raquel has a saw to cut up Roxy, but Roxy’s not quite dead and stabs her first. Roxy then staggers off to lie down next to Adam and die.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s a retro-slasher film that borrows heavily from Texas Chainsaw, which even gets a callout in the film itself. It’s a killer family, for no real reason other than they like it. As isolated as they all are, why bother wearing masks? It’s the desert, it’s gotta be hot.

The masks worn by the killers are really distinctive and well-designed. The characters are all individuals, and you get to see their personalities before they’re brutally killed off.

It’s very good!

Kevin’s Commentary

This one had me feeling nostalgic for my childhood when I was taken to see “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” when I was nine. And it reminded me of other 1970s films in the horror genre that I saw then and again since. This movie is like them only made with better effects and a bigger budget. It’s good and entertaining.

2015 Lavalantula

* Directed by: Mike Mendez

* Written by: Neil Elman, Mike Mendez, Ashley O’Neil

* Stars: Steve Guttenberg, Nia Peeples, Patrick Renna

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Steve Guttenberg does a fine job playing an actor thrown into a horrific situation, with a great supporting cast. Despite horrific deaths and mass destruction, this manages to be funny. A big budget was at work here, but not on the CGI - but it gets the job done. It’s a mix of serious and ludicrous that is very entertaining in a dumb fun kind of way.

Spoilery Synopsis

We watch some bad men beating up a former special forces CIA FBI Spy guy. They want him to talk, but he’s not a superspy for nothing. No, wait– he’s an actor in a movie. He hates bugs, but this movie’s about bugs, so that’s a problem. Colton West leaves the set, but he’s a has-been who used to be in a bunch of bad action movies.

On the drive home, he hears about earthquakes on the radio. He gets a call from his angry manager, Arni, and then his wife, Olivia, who wants to know why he’s so late. Suddenly, the mountain erupts in a ridiculous explosion of CGI fireballs– and giant spiders! These giant tarantulas are covered in lava themselves, and Colton wastes no time getting away from the disaster.

Both Arni and Olivia feel the quaking, but they haven’t seen the spiders. Colton gets home, and she thinks he’s lost his mind. For some reason, she doesn’t believe his story of fire-breathing giant spiders. He grabs his shotgun and leaves to find his son, Wyatt, who’s way too old to be a teenager.

Olivia calls her friend Doris, whose little dog won’t quit yapping. When the dog does finally shut up, there’s a good reason: he’s been toasted, and she’s next. These spiders like their meat cooked.

Wyatt, meanwhile, is downtown riding his bike with friends when they see another big explosion and helicopters flying over. He and his friends soon find a lava-filled hole in the pavement that explodes spiders. They hide in a warehouse, but several of them are injured in the process.

Colton, meanwhile, has lost his car due to the tires melting, and can’t catch a ride. He finally flags down a tour bus, and they’re happy to finally see a celebrity.

Olivia checks out Doris’s house and finds several spiders eating her well-done friend. They chase her all the way home, where she sees the city on fire. Now she believes Colton’s story. About this time, the spiders are all over the news, as is Colton’s stealing a tour bus.

Colton’s bus literally runs into a pack of spiders, with hilarious results. The busload of foreigners all think they’re in a movie and cheer on cue.

A spider breaks in and goes after Olivia, who is very armed and dangerous. The spider doesn’t stand a chance.

Colton and his new sidekick Chris run into an actor-turned-pirate in downtown Hollywood. Suddenly, the spider-quakes return. We watch as various Hollywood landmarks collapse and dozens of spiders crawl out of holes in the street. Colton runs into Fin Shepard, the guy from all those “Sharknado” movies and they admire each other for a minute until Pirate Jack picks up Colton and Chris.

Olivia gets on the military evac truck; they say it’s really bad in the city. Wyatt and his friends try to evade the spiders, who are slowly burning their way into the warehouse. Colton, Chris, and Jack hide in the La Brea Tarpit Museum with Dr. Struble. Struble is a scientist, and he tells them that the spiders and volcanos are one: Lavalantula! If they kill the mother Lavalantula, they’ll all die. Colton immediately heads for the queen.

Olivia’s truck and soldiers all get wiped out, leaving her on her own. She ends up driving a huge army transport back into town for her family.

Wyatt and Eli watch their girlfriend, Jordan, go into convulsions after being bitten by one of the spiders. She soon explodes into a million little spiders, who promptly burn up Eli, leaving Wyatt on his own.

Colton gets a text telling him where Wyatt is just as a really huge spider comes out of the tar pit. Pirate Jack gets fried, but Colt and Chris fight off the huge spider.

Somehow, Olivia finds Colt and they drive off together to save their son, who’s been making use of a fire extinguisher to battle the spiders. They arrive just in time to find him, but they lose their truck in the process.

Colt remembers the liquid nitrogen they used on the set of the bug movie this morning, and he wants to use that against the spiders. When they get to the studio, Colt sees his Red Rocket outfit, designed by NASA for his old superhero movies. Teddie and Marty are there from his movie as well. They know all about liquid nitrogen, and the group assembles to make a plan to beat the queen spider. They have some explosives too!

The group enlists other actors and film crew to spread out and plant canisters of frozen liquid nitrogen around the holes where the spiders live. Colt gives a long, yet rousing speech to raise their spirits as the hopeful music swells. It’s all very over-the-top.

As they drop bombs, Marty makes funny voices and Colt can’t keep a straight face. Meanwhile, various actors drop tanks into holes all over town. Colt, Marty, and Teddie work together to battle the unstoppable horde, but they do stop them.

Colt leaves the others and goes after the queen. The others detonate the bombs, which are a little excessive. They don’t, however, get them all, so there’s another battle– until the queen breaks through the ground and comes up, and it’s really something.

Colton, in his Red Rocket costume, has all the C4 and uses his jetpack to Iron-Man his way over to the huge spider. They climb the side of a skyscraper, and Colt drops the C4 right into the spider’s mouth, killing it.

The news all reports on Colt’s heroics. Most importantly, his family now respects him, which is good. Marty says he smells a sequel coming on…

Brian’s Commentary

There are an amazing number of cameos and special appearances by familiar faces, especially if you enjoyed the old “Police Academy” films. Steve Guttenberg is basically playing himself, a washed-up actor who now lends his face to cheap movie posters. He’s… perfect for this role, and he does really well here, taking it all very seriously– but not really.

It’s a cheaply made horror-scifi-comedy parody of creature features, basically in the same vein as “Sharknado” and similar films. If you’re into those, you’ll probably like this.

It’s goofy, campy, stupid, and very entertaining all in one

Kevin’s Commentary

It was funnier than I expected. Just because there are loads of horrific deaths and mass destruction doesn’t mean we can’t have a good time. At the same time, there was more suspense than I expected too.

Dr. Struble with the best movie title usage ever “The Mayans had a word for it: Lavalantula.”

The CGI is pretty obvious in the film, but the horror aspects are taken seriously. It’s a real hybrid of a movie. Spoof, reunion, horror, comedy, action, suspense, eco disaster, stupidity. And the ending was way out.

Overall, it was super entertaining, which is the fundamental reason to watch.

2007 Diary of the Dead

* Directed by: George A. Romero

* Written by: George A. Romero

* Stars: Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This contains a lot of found footage style, as we follow some film folks that started out making a horror movie until the real horror hits. Then they start making a documentary. It’s not bad, but it’s not Romero’s best work in the series. There wasn’t enough new, and we both rate it as just okay.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on police and ambulances at a crime scene. Bree is a reporter, talking about the murder-suicide. In the background, one of the corpses is still moving– and attacking the paramedics. All the corpses suddenly get up, and the cops open fire. Bree is killed, and the cameraman uploads the footage to the Internet. We get further news reports of the zombie apocalypse, now in progress. Jason Creed made a film, “The Death of Death” compiled of found footage from the incident. This is that film…

We open on a film crew making a very lame-looking mummy movie. It’s Jason’s senior project for film school. They all hear about something weird on the news. Tony is skeptical of the news, since it’s all made-up anyway. They all decide to pack up and leave for safety.

Jason goes to the dorms and finds them not only wrecked, but there’s a looter clearing out stuff. He loads the friends he can find into an RV and tries to find a safe place. Mary, Debra, Tony, Eliot, Gordo, Tracy, and Professor Maxwell are all trying to make their way home.

The group comes upon a car crash on the road, and there’s a dead man wandering around. They run over a few of the “people” as they pass, which makes everyone stop joking about it. Mary, who was driving, gets out of the car and shoots herself in guilt. The group rushes her to the hospital, but the place is oddly deserted. An undead doctor shows up, and Gordo has to shoot him.

Jason stays behind to recharge his camera as the others spread out to find help. Debra comes back and tells Jason about her encounter with a zombie in the next room. As the group reconvenes, Mary dies and starts to change. On the way out, Gordo gets bitten in the arm; by morning, he’s dead. When Gordo gets up again, Tracy shoots him.

The RV breaks down at a farm in the county. There’s an old Amish man there who can’t hear or speak. He knows all about the dead, and he’s got dynamite. They get trapped in the barn, and the old man gets it before the RV starts again.

The group encounters another group and follows them to a big warehouse. They see a news broadcast that has been edited to make things look… not so bad. It’s all Fake news. They upload their own footage to MySpace, which was a thing in 2007. Jason and Debra argue over the appropriateness of filming the end of the world.

The group hears about one of the men who died from a bad heart and then went missing… inside the compound. They find the man and Tony throws a bottle of acid on him. The man keeps staggering around as his head melts. Before they leave, the group gets food, supplies, and weapons.

The group makes it to Debra’s family home, where she’s supposed to meet family. Her family is missing, but there seems to have been trouble there already. They soon find the family, or what’s left of them. The group decides to get back on the road and leave.

The group is stopped by the National Guard. Turns out, they just want everything the RV group has. They take nearly everything but the weapons. We start seeing videos online of soldiers and “the good guys” turning against civilians.

They go to the home of another student they know, Ridley. The front door is standing open, which is a bad sign. They find Ridley, still dressed like a mummy. He’s rich, weird, and sketchy. He says Francine is out back with his family and the staff. They are indeed out there, but all is not well. He separates from the others, and we see that he’s been bitten.

Ridley chases Tracy through the woods, just like a horror movie. She whacks Ridley with a rock and steals the RV, leaving everyone else behind. Meanwhile, Ridley, totally not dead, kills Eliot. Jason, Debra, Tony, and Maxwell discuss hiding in the safe room until this all blows over, but Jason wants to stay outside and keep filming. “All that’s left is to record what’s happening for whoever remains when it’s over.” Still, on the way to the safe room, Jason is killed.

Debra decides to finish Jason’s movie. She wonders if humanity is worth saving…

Brian’s Commentary

It’s mostly found footage, more or less, edited into a finished project. It somewhat hits on social media, cameras being in everyone’s hands, fake news, and everyone having an opinion online; Romero’s gotta put in the social commentary, and there’s a lot of it here.

Found footage was all the rage in 2007, so it makes sense that Romero would try it, but it’s not innovative anymore, and it actively detracts from the story.

It’s very… meh.

Kevin’s Commentary

I thought the filming stuff, a movie within a movie of sorts, was pretty cool actually. It’s just that the rest of the movie didn’t have enough that was new or interesting. It’s solidly made with good special effects, but overall I thought it was just middling.

2010 Survival of the Dead

* Directed by: George A. Romero

* Written by: George A. Romero

* Stars: Alan Van Sprang, Kenneth Welsh, Kathleen Munroe

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s an action zombie flick with military action, set on an island off the coast of Delaware that is populated by Irish people and cowboys for some reason. While this wasn’t actively bad, we were both disappointed in it, feeling it lacked Romero’s usual touches and relied too much on CGI augmenting practical effects. It’s a weak finish to the “Dead” movies.

Spoilery Synopsis

Sarge narrates how the zombie apocalypse simply overwhelmed the living. The soldiers argue over killing one of their own who has been bitten. We get a flashback to when Sarge and his AWOL soldiers robbed a bunch of filmmakers in an RV. Credits roll.

We cut to Plum Island, off the coast of Delaware, six days after the dead began to walk. Patrick O’Flynn and his friends went around the island and killed all the zombies. They go to see Matthew, whose children were “injured” a few days ago. The men end up shooting the children’s mother and then go after both children.

Suddenly, Seamus Muldoon comes in and makes O’Flynn stop. He thinks somebody’s going to find a cure, so he wants to round up the zombies and protect them. O’Flynn and his gang backs down and leaves. O’Flynn is exiled in a tiny boat, but his friend James and daughter Janet opt to stay behind and work with Muldoon.

Three weeks later, Sarge and his crew investigate sounds in the woods. They run into some hunters who have a whole bunch of living heads on sticks. They kill the zombie heads and the hunters, and pick up one young guy who goes with them. The kid suggests finding an island where there aren’t any zombies. He shows them a video made by O’Flynn, and it’s a sort of recruiting video for Plum Island.

We cut to the docks, where a hapless fisherman catches something too big to reel in. The soldier group arrives. Francisco ends up swimming to the ferry as the others fight the Irishmen. The Irishmen lose badly, as only O’Flynn escapes alive and makes it to the ferry with the soldiers. The group sets to work on clearing the ferry of zombies.

O’Flynn tells the story of his exile, and they soon arrive at Plum Island. There’s a gunfight, and Kenny gets killed. They find the bodies of all the other people that O’Flynn had sent here for safety.

Meanwhile, Muldoon has rounded up a bunch of dead and is keeping them in the barn. Muldoon’s been killing the dead recently if they don’t “show promise.” He wants the dead to learn to eat something other than people, but they won’t touch a pig.

Francisco got bitten during his swim earlier, and he knows he’s going to turn. He asks Tomboy to kill him. She’s immediately captured by Chuck and Lem, two of Muldoon’s men. Muldoon questions her over dinner. He’s got his dead wife chained up in the kitchen. Of O’Flynn’s daughters, Jane is a dead zombie, and Janet is alive and helping Sarge’s group. Janet and O’Flynn argue about family responsibilities.

There’s a standoff between the two groups, and O’Flynn decides to surrender to the Muldoons. After a lot of discussion, there’s a shootout, and the zombie corral gets opened. Muldoon eventually shoots O’Flynn in the back, but O’Flynn returns the favor. Then Janet sees Jane eating the horse; maybe Muldoon was right after all. O’Flynn gets up and shoots her as well.

Sarge, Tomboy, and the Kid go back out to the ferry and move on to another place.

We cut back to the island, where the zombies are eating the horses now. We see Muldoon and O’Flynn, now zombies, still trying to kill each other…

Brian’s Commentary

I still wonder why this island in Delaware is populated exclusively by Irishmen with thick accents and cowboy wannabes?

It’s a Romero movie, so I was expecting social commentary of some sort. If it was here, I missed it this time. It’s basically just an action zombie movie, probably the weakest of the series.

Kevin’s Commentary

These are supposed to get better as they go along, not worse. It was clever putting in a direct link to “Diary of the Dead” with a different point of view when Sarge and his group encountered the film folks. CGI, when it’s obvious, isn’t an improvement over purely practical effects. I’d call this one my least favorite of the series.

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Four new releases this week, it must be getting closer to Halloween!

We’ll start off with the much-discussed “Weapons” and then watch some even-newer releases: “Coyotes,” “The Drowned,” and “In Vitro,” which were all fun. Lastly, we’ll continue our ongoing kaiju coverage with 1984’s “The Return of Godzilla.”

A bunch of winners this week!

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2025 Weapons

* Directed by: Zach Cregger

* Written by: Zach Cregger

* Stars: Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, Alden Ehrenreich

* Run Time: 2 Hours, 8 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

We start right out setting the mystery of how a classroom full of kids all ran out of their houses at 2:17 in the morning one night and disappeared. Except for one kid. Then the movie is spent going over the aftermath from different points of view of the people involved, and we get to solve the mystery together. It’s long but we were never bored. Okay, Kevin was a little impatient for the first half hour or so. But overall we liked it a lot and would recommend it. And we also recommend you go into it as blind as you can.

Spoilery Synopsis

We’re told that this is a true story, but there was a coverup to hide the truth. We open on a third-grade and a new teacher, Justine. Not one of her kids has come to school, but all the other classes are perfectly normal. Wait, a boy named Alex did show up. Every other kid woke up the previous night at 2:17 a.m., walked outside, and vanished at a run into the night. They never came back. We watch a flashback as the kids go running outside late at night. Credits roll.

Justine

The police interrogate little Alex and Justine, who know nothing. Eventually, they had to reopen the school after a month. First, they have a big meeting to deal with grief counseling over the seventeen missing children. They want to hear from Justine, who seems to be at the center of all this. What did she do? The crowd gets nasty, and the meeting is soon over. They blame her.

On the way home, Justine starts getting death threats on her phone. She finds her car painted with “Witch” on the side in the morning. The school principal, Mr. Marcus, tells her that she can’t work there anymore. She wants to talk to Alex, but she’s not allowed.

Justine meets policeman Paul at a bar later, and she tells him her problems. He says that she’s always been a little paranoid, and now she’s drinking too much. He is reluctant to drink, but we flash forward to the next morning with him waking up hung over in Justine’s bed. She drives him to his car, still at the bar.

Justine goes to see Alex, which she has been forbidden to do. There are newspapers over all the windows at his house. She peeks in and sees something weird. She’s later attacked by Donna, Paul’s wife, who is justifiably angry. At home that night, she starts seeing things.

She “stakes out” Alex’s house, gets drunk, and passes out. Someone sneaks into the car and snips off some of her hair.

Archer

We cut to Archer, who watches doorbell security video of his son running off into the darkness that night last month. He goes to work, and he’s been messing up lately. He’s been pestering the chief of police to the point of being annoying. He still thinks Justine is behind all this, but the chief doesn’t believe she’s involved. We see that he’s got red paint in the back of his truck, the same color as “WITCH” painted on the side of Justine’s car.

Archer has a dream where he sees Matthew, his son, running off to a house with a giant gun flying overhead. He goes inside and talks to his sleeping son. The light comes on, and the dream gets weird.

In the morning, Archer takes the information from his dream and checks out a nearby radio tower. He gets with some other parents and looks at their video footage. He confronts Justine, but in the middle of their conversation, she’s attacked by Mr. Marcus, the principal, who has gone utterly berserk.

Paul

We cut back a few days, as Paul sees someone suspicious running down the street, this results in a chase. He catches James, whom he knocks out. He realizes the camera is on and lets the guy go so there’s no report. The chief is somewhat supportive, so long as James stays quiet.

This is when he gets a text from Justine and meets her at the bar. He falls right off the wagon. He goes home hung over and runs into Donna, who later attacks Justine in a jealous rage. He later sees James again and chases him.

James

James is an addict who can’t get his pipe to light because he’s run dry. He breaks into a car and steals an iPad. The pawnbroker doesn’t want it. He’s trying to break into a store when Paul spots and beats him the first time.

James walks through the rain to Alex’s house and gets in through an upstairs window. He goes all through the house, looking for things to steal until he finds Alex’s parents, who seem to be frozen or paralyzed. He looks in the basement and sees all the missing children standing around down there. He gets creeped out and runs away when both parents suddenly get up. There is a big reward for the missing kids, that he plans to cash in on.

He walks to the police station to tell them when he’s chased by Paul a second time. He runs into the woods, where he sees a crazy looking clown. He ends up stabbing Paul in the face with needles. He ends up taking Paul to the suspect house.

Paul goes into the house, without calling it in or for any kind of backup, and leaves James in the back of the squad car. He never comes back out until late at night when he drags James inside.

Marcus

Marcus is sick of Justine, but he has to deal with her anyway. He gets a visit from Gladys, a very strange-looking woman. Maybe that wasn’t a clown that James saw in the woods. She says she’s Alex’s aunt, and she’s really weird. He wants to talk to Alex’s parents, not his aunt, so Marcus offers to visit them at home. He wants to avoid involving CPS, and that seems to concern Gladys.

Saturday, Marcus gets a knock on the door, and it’s crazy Gladys, wanting a drink of water - she’s so thirsty. She missed her bus, and pleads for help. He tries to say no, but his husband Terry invites her in. She comes inside for a bowl of water. She cuts herself and then takes some of Terry’s hair. She rings a bell, and suddenly, Marcus freezes and drops the phone he was about to call 911 with. She wraps Terry’s hair around a stick, covers it in blood, and snaps it. Marcus goes berserk and kills Terry. Once that’s over, she does the same thing with Justine’s bit of hair, and he runs off to attack her at the gas station.

As all the stories converge, Archer pulls Marcus off of Justine, This leads to a car chase, and Marcus gets hit by a car, badly. After things settle down a bit, Justine and Archer talk about it. Marcus was doing the “Naruto Run,” exactly the same way all the children ran. He was weaponized, like a heat-seeking missile going for a target. Archer shows her the map he’s made, and she points to Alex’s house.

Alex

Alex is at school, and he’s not happy, being bullied by bigger kids. His father says Aunt Gladys is coming for a visit; she’s sick and doesn’t have anywhere else to go. Late that night, the strange woman with the orange wig comes to stay with them. Alex isn’t happy about the sick old woman, but nobody asked him.

One day Alex doesn’t get picked up from school, and when he does get home, he finds his parents are frozen at the dinner table. Aunt Glady, however, is looking much more lively.

The next morning, the parents haven’t moved. The old lady swears him to secrecy. She makes his parents stab themselves in the face with forks repeatedly until he agrees. She said she can make them do anything, and demands that he tell no one about her. For several days, Alex feeds his parents soup from a can and quietly goes to school without saying anything.

One night, Alex sees that Gladys is very sick and has been for a very long time. Alex’s parents aren’t helping as much as she expected. She tells him to bring her an object from each of his classmates, and she might get better and leave. During the next school day, he pilfers something from each of them.

That night, Gladys does a mega-spell on all the children, who come running to her, all at once at 2:17 am. The next morning, only Alex shows up to school. Gladys is now looking very lively and colorful. She sends all the children away temporarily and cleans up the house for when the police come to inspect the place.

A month later in the story, Archer and Justine come to the house and see Paul’s police car parked in front. They don’t know what to do, but he steps out and waves them inside. They do go in. Justine steps over a line of salt on the floor, and both Paul and James spring to life and attack them. These guys do not give up easily. Upstairs, the same thing happens with Alex and his parents.

Archer finds the missing children in the basement, but he finds Gladys there as well. Gladys uses him to grab Justine. Upstairs, Alex uses one of Gladys’s hairs and repeats the spell himself, making her a target. All the children break out of the house and chase her. After an extended and hysterical chase, the children tear her apart.

Back at the house, Archer releases Justine and goes looking for Matthew again; he soon finds him. Justine goes upstairs for Alex and finds him with his parents, who will never recover. Some of the children are just starting to talk this year…

Brian’s Commentary

The story being broken up into different viewpoints makes the story more interesting as it unfolds. I was expecting aliens or something, not a witch. That said, it was interesting, never slows down, and had a big enough budget that it showed. The gore effects were nice, but there weren’t so many that it became a distraction.

It’s very good!

Kevin’s Commentary

I was very grateful for the different points of view segments. And it was very cool how they weren’t exactly the same word for word, showing us how people can see and remember the same events slightly differently. I did think it took a little too long at the beginning to get things rolling, but once it did it was pretty great. And I loved that over the top ending chase. I give it a big thumbs up.

2025 Coyotes

* Directed by: Colin Minihan

* Written by: Ted Daggerhart, Daniel Meersand, Nick Simon

* Stars: Mila Harris, Brittany Allen, Justin Long

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This starts with something that shouldn’t be a major event but keeps building with one thing after another, part disaster and part comedy of errors. And there is lots of dark humor, along with horror and a body count. It’s an animals-attack movie pumped up with adrenaline and modern effects. We both thought it was really entertaining.

Spoilery Synopsis

A party girl walks her little dog late one night. She takes selfie after selfie as the dog does his business. A coyote eats the dog, and then she gets hit by a car. That doesn’t kill her, but the coyotes come back to finish the job. Credits roll. We hear news reports about how wildfires are pushing coyotes deeper into the Los Angeles city limits.

The pest control guy arrives outside a huge Hollywood house. Scott, the owner, says the house is brand new. But there are rats in the walls. The exterminator, Devon, is more than a little high-strung. Scott decides halfway through that maybe rats aren’t so bad, but Devon convinces him. Chloe and Liv, the rest of the family, arrive in the middle of the consultation. Chloe is a teenager, and she’s hit the annoying stage.

The doorbell rings, and it’s Julie, who’s a prostitute at the wrong house. She’s there for Trip, the next door neighbor. Liv sees that Scott is a workaholic, and she does not approve.

That night, Charlie the dog barks at the doggy door; there’s something out there. She calls Scott, who goes outside in the windstorm to check on the sound. He soon sees a really mean-looking coyote, just as the motion-sensor lights decide to go on and off. As he goes back inside, the power goes off for real. A tree has fallen on their power line– and their car.

The next morning, they assess the damage, and it’s all Scott’s fault for not trimming the tree. Liv goes next door to Trip, who has a generator and a gun; he’s a kind of prepper/survivalist. Trip’s cat may or may not have been eaten. Scott and his friend Tony work on cutting up the fallen tree, and they’re both incompetent.

On the walk home, Tony meets the coyotes, and they tear him apart. Sheila, Tony’s wife, is annoyed that he doesn’t make it home. She finds little bits of him outside, but she also finds the coyotes. This goes badly for Sheila.

Scott, Liv, and Chloe hear lots of coyotes howling in the fields nearby. They’re nearly attacked by one of them. Julie is also nearly attacked, and she interrupts Trip, who is about to shoot himself over the loss of his cat. This all leads to weird sex, but the animals sneak inside through an open door.

Scott and his family hear the gunshots from next door and wonder what’s going on. Chloe admits to feeding the coyotes earlier because they looked hungry. Scott runs to Trip’s house and finds a mess. He runs into Julie and calls Devon on the phone for help. Devon is annoyed and promises to come around in the morning to check the rat traps. Inside Trip’s house, a candle falls over and sets the place on fire.

Liv and Scott talk about their family problems– at least until they notice the house next door is on fire. Which is spreading toward their property. They all argue about what to do until they notice the animals are already inside the house. There’s a great deal of hiding and tip-toeing.

Chloe is bitten, and Scott faints at the sight of the blood. Scott goes out to the garage to build a cage they can hide in, and we get a construction montage.

Devon the exterminator arrives outside and sees the coyotes. He soon realizes that these aren’t rats, but that’s too late to save him. Inside, Scott finds two tiny trapped coyote puppies and figures this is why the coyotes are so fixated on the area. He finishes his “Coyote Cage” and wheels himself outside in it.

Scott offers the lead coyote the two puppies in a trade. The family is reunited in the front yard since the coyotes understand a peace treaty– no, they don’t. They attack Julie. They all climb into Devon’s van and drive away. Meanwhile, the gas-fueled house explodes excessively. Scott laments his now-lost comic book collection.

Devon wakes up and goes out fighting with the animals…

Brian’s Commentary

It’s good! It’s a fairly standard animals-gone-wild story, like from the 70s, but this one has a bunch of modern humor thrown in. It’s also got Justin Long, who seems to have been in half the horror films of the past decade.

There’s not much actually new here, but it takes elements we’ve seen before and jumbles them up nicely. The acting, sets, and creature effects are all quite good, and most importantly, it never slowed down or got boring.

It’s a winner!

Kevin’s Commentary

It’s kind of a silly film, but I thought it was very entertaining. It did remind me of some of the animals gone bad, people fighting nature films of the past, but they dialed it up to ten and a half. There’s still plenty of gore with a body count, but I laughed out loud more than once. I’d recommend it.

2025 The Drowned

* Directed by: Samuel Clemens

* Written by: Samuel Clemens

* Stars: Alan Carlton, Michelangelo Fortuzzi, Corrine Wicks

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

When three guys rendezvous at a secluded beach house after a heist, they are missing their fourth partner. Suspicions abound, and the three have a history that we gradually get to learn. Then things get more complicated. The soundtrack was especially effective here, and they had a great setting to use. We both thought it’s well made, with Brian leaning toward it being dull and Kevin not finding it dull at all.

Spoilery Synopsis

We see a man riding a ferry as the credits roll. He drives on the isolated country roads and stares at a red bag on the seat next to him. He eventually comes to a car and switches license plates; Eric’s very prepared for all this.

He walks quite a distance to a house on the shore. He goes through the house room to room with his gun drawn and then goes outside to call for Denice. He finds a map tube with a painting inside next to a bloody patch and a bracelet on the beach.

Matt arrives, also looking for Denice, and Eric says he doesn’t think she’s coming. Matt, Denice’s son, says her car is gone, but Eric knows he parked right next to her. Eric assumes she’s dead, but he doesn’t let on to Matt, his lover. When they get back to the house, Paul is there waiting for them. The painting is worth forty million, and they all wonder why Denice isn’t there for her share.

All three of the men get a weird “flash” trance and then start behaving strangely. They all zombie-walk out to the beach and then “wake up” not sure what just happened. They’re all tired and a little paranoid, so they blame that.

Inside, a bucket of blood calls to Matt. Paul accuses Eric of killing Denice; he’s got video footage. Matt finds Denice’s bracelet in a bucket of blood. They all argue until a woman comes to the door for help. Matt notices on the way out that the bucket is gone. Opal and Noe bring the guys to Pixie, who has nearly drowned. Eric revives her.

The girls talk about their boating accident; the water out there hides things, and their boat sank. Everyone gets introduced. The three girls are all strange, and they suspect something is weird about the three guys.

The group plays “two truths and a lie.” Pixie demonstrates her kung-fu abilities on Eric as everyone gets to know each other.

Suddenly, the lights go out, and everyone pairs off to make out. As Pixie and Eric start having sex, he and the other men go into a trance again. They all go outside to find a trail of blood where Matt and Opal used to be.

Eric and Paul walk down to the water’s edge and find another pile of meat. Paul suggests earplugs to block the hypnotic sound that seems to be causing their troubles. Eric soon loses an earplug and then starts hearing voices.

Something attacks Eric on the beach. Meanwhile, Paul takes the painting, ties himself to a pole, and is also mesmerized – but can’t get away because he’s held in place. Whatever is doing this tries repeatedly to take him, but it can’t break the ropes. We get a flashback showing that Paul has mailed Scotland Yard about Eric, turning him in.

By the morning, Paul has gotten loose and walks to the beach and sees the three girls standing way out in the water. He walks out to them, but they aren’t really there. Yes, they are– they’re mermaids, and they take Paul.

We cut to Denice, who wakes up on the beach after having been possessed as well. She’s got a big bite taken out of her leg, but she’s very much alive. She walks back to the house and looks for her three partners in crime. She sees the painting hanging on the wall; it’s the stolen painting, and it’s a work about mermaids luring men to their doom…

Brian’s Commentary

The soundtrack immediately stands out and gives everything a really mysterious feel. The mystery in the beginning was intriguing, but as soon as the three girls showed up, everything ground to a halt. The girls were weird enough that we assumed they were monsters, but then, when something happened to one of them, that theory changed.

We more or less get an explanation at the end of the film, but I think a little more of a hint early on might have made the story easier to follow as it went along.

It was well made, looked and sounded great, just a little on the dull side for me.

Kevin’s Commentary

It did indeed have a great soundtrack and a great setting. I thought it was pretty obvious what the girls were early on. It’s interesting seeing movies like this, there have been others, where the monster or creatures or vampire is just so overwhelmingly powerful that they are playing with the human characters like toys, and you know there’s no hope for them. There will be no survivors. Not that it’s not still entertaining. I thought it was a well put together piece, nice and short with little wasted time. I didn’t think it was dull and would give it a thumbs up.

2025 In Vitro

* Directed by: Will Howarth, Tom McKeith

* Written by: Will Howarth, Talia Zucker, Tom McKeith

* Stars: Talia Zucker, Ashley Zukerman, Stephanie Arezzi

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is heavy on the science fiction, tension, and thrills with some horror elements simmering under the pot. A word of warning, don’t look at IMDB.com before you see this, there is a spoiler. But even when we started figuring things out a bit, there were still surprises. It’s very well made. The acting is excellent, and the setting is perfect. We thought it was on the slow side, but it was never boring. A strong thumbs up from both of us.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open in the countryside with a ranch and zoom into a large barn full of what appears to be scientific equipment inside.

Layla and Jack wake up and make coffee with tablets (it’s a horror movie after all). Suddenly, an alarm goes off in the barn, and she runs out to find Jack wrestling with a cow in a liquid filled tank. “The system crashed again, she came out of stasis too early.” Dried off and in a scanner, they see the cow has some serious health issues, and Jack says it has to be put down.

Later, Layla sends an email to her son, Toby, who will be visiting for the holidays. The satellite’s out, so the message doesn’t go through. When she mentions painting Toby’s bedroom, Jack gives her a look; there’s more to all this than we know.

A new cattle driver, Brady, arrives, and he watches a video about how the system can produce market-ready cloned cows in less than two weeks. Animal replication is cheaper, faster, and more consistent than making cows the old fashioned way. And they mostly have it perfected.

Another of the cows gets sick, and Jack has to take care of that one as well. At dinner, they argue about going to see Toby. She finds that Toby’s room used to be the exact shade of blue she’s chosen, and then they painted over it for some reason.

Jack gets injured dealing with some animals and gets a concussion. Layla hears someone rummaging around out in the kitchen, but whoever it is is gone by the time she goes in. She goes outside with a gun and is attacked by… a copy of herself.

Layla goes into the barn and checks out Jack’s special cloning tanks. Sure enough, one that was kind of hidden away shows signs of use. She also leaves a note for the “outside” Layla to come meet her in the greenhouse. When Jack recovers, she doesn’t say anything to him.

The two Laylas meet and talk. The new Layla has signs that she’s not going to last long - she came out too soon like that first cow did. She asks how Toby is, and the real Layla says he’s off at school. The clone has her memories. Layla gets the car to take her clone to the hospital - she says she’ll tell them they are sisters - but the car won’t start for her. Jack fires Brady, who objects and implies that he knows more than we or Layla know about what’s really going on, but Jack threatens him off with a gun.

Jack knows that Layla knows - he found the note Layla left for the other. Jack says he’s not trying to kill the other Layla, but he’s not convincing. “She was never supposed to wake up, she was just a test. There are people out there that would pay a lot of money for this technology.”

The Laylas gang up on Jack with the shotgun. He gets the upper hand, but Brady shows up and whacks him with a tire iron. They all get away in Brady’s pickup truck. Jack shoots at them, and the truck dies not far away. Jack’s had Layla’s wedding ring altered with a tracker and goes after them.

Brady explains that Jack’s business was shut down years ago. Brady isn’t really a trucker, Jack just hired him to make it look like the ranch was still in business. Why doesn’t she know this? Jack finds them and stabs Brady repeatedly. The girls run and hide, but the sickly one just can’t keep up. Copy Layla is left behind. Original Layla is able to escape in Jack’s car and goes to a gas/electric station not too far away. She gets on a pay phone and calls Toby’s school, but the school says Toby left there years ago.

She goes to the college and spots Toby, who is quite a bit older than she remembers. Then she watches a car drive up and another Layla gets out to pick up her son. Who’s the real Layla now? Our Layla follows them home and breaks into their house after that Layla leaves for work. She finds divorce paperwork and also a restraining order against Jack. Apparently after the real Layla left him and took their son, he made a Layla of his own. Toby comes in and doesn’t know the difference, but wonders why she’s back home from work and changed clothes. Layla makes excuses, embraces him, and leaves after Toby does.

Now that she knows what’s going on, she goes back to Jack at the farm. He says there were many attempts before he finally got it right with her. He made another copy because he could tell she was getting restless and heading toward leaving him like before. She says they can pretend none of this happened, and they can go back to the way things were. When he drops his guard, she shoots him in the head. Layla then cuts off Jack’s thumb to use for the security lock on his equipment.

Time passes and we see her selling some cows to a man she thanks who leaves. Toby’s room is painted blue now and fully decorated. The final reveal is when the camera pans around to show her outside, talking to a little Toby of her own…

Brian’s Commentary

The trailer had us both expecting mutant cow-human hybrid monsters. That would have been cool, but what we got was more creative than that.

We both came up with theories about what was going on at about the twenty-minute point, and soon learned that we were both right about what was going on not long after but there was a lot more to it than we anticipated.

It had some twists that I was not expecting, and, although it was a little slow-moving, it never got boring. The acting was good all around, and it all looked great.

I liked it.

Kevin’s Commentary

I saw the IMDB cast list ahead of time that lists “Other Layla,” so I knew that was coming. But that’s hinted at and revealed early in the movie anyway, and there is more to it than that. It’s one that unfolds very nicely. Like Brian said, I was expecting more of a creature feature with monster cows or something, but that’s not what it was about. I think it’s completely realistic to believe that if that technology was available, people like Jack would do things like this if they could. It raises some ethical questions to think about. And I wonder what Layla’s plan for little clone Toby was as he grew up. I’d call this one excellent.

1984 The Return of Godzilla

* Directed by: Koji Hashimoto

* Written by: Fred Dekker, Akira Murao, Hideichi Nagahara

* Stars: Keiju Kobayashi, Ken Tanaka, Yasuko Sawaguchi

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

You thought he was gone forever, but spoiler, after 9 years away, Godzilla returns. They left out the silliness this time, and the far out aliens, and they take things seriously in this one. It’s still all practical effects, with a guy in a rubber suit knocking over models, but everything looks much better than those of the 50s, 60s, 70s. There are some slow places, but if you’re a Godzilla fan, this is a decent one to check out.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open with men on a fishing boat dealing with stormy seas; they’re having a rough time. As they approach a rocky island, they see some large creature breaking out of the rocks…

We cut to a man on a small sailboat listening to radio reports of all the missing ships from last night. He comes across a much larger boat that seems to be abandoned. Once aboard, he finds mummified bodies. He also encounters a strange slug-like creature that attacks him; giant sea-lice. It turns out, there’s only one survivor aboard the ship, and he talks about the giant, fire-breathing monster that came from the island.

Later, at home, Goro Maki, the man from the sailboat, calls his story into the newspaper, but they don’t believe him. Okamura, the man from the fishing boat, tells the professor his story as well, but the professor seems to believe him. The professor shows him old photos of Godzilla, and he makes a positive ID. Godzilla must have been disturbed by the recent volcanic activity in the nearby islands.

Maki complains that the editor won’t print his story, but the government has forbidden them from telling the public about Godzilla. Maki then goes to the science institute and talks to Professor Hayashida. The professor lost his parents in Godzilla’s attack thirty years ago. He meets Okamura’s sister, Naoko there.

Meanwhile, a Soviet submarine detects something large approaching. They think it could be a new kind of American sub, and they fire torpedoes at it. Something then tears the submarine in half. Soon after, the Soviets prepare to declare nuclear war. To prevent the war, the Japanese Prime Minister makes the Godzilla sightings public; it wasn’t the Americans.

Maki goes to see Naoko, who blames him for publishing the story. The politicians and military talk about their ability to fight Godzilla. They could use the “Super X” a secret weapon built to defend the capitol. Godzilla is sure to come; Japan has his favorite food: nuclear energy.

Godzilla soon reaches land and starts a rampage. Maki and his film crew rush to witness his attack on a nuclear power station. As he rips out the core of the reactor, we see the tired old lizard recharge himself.

The professor tells Okumura to visit a geologist friend of his, Minami, who reports that they can make a volcano erupt when needed if they can get Godzilla to go there. America and the Soviet Union both want to use nuclear weapons against Godzilla. The Japanese government discusses whether or not that’s a good idea or if it will even work.

Godzilla is moving toward Tokyo now. Everyone panics to get out of town. The professor tells Maki that the plan to use cadmium bullets on Godzilla isn’t going to work, but it’s better than using the nukes. The army all lines up at the coastline, waiting. Soon, they unleash everything they have against the monster, but Godzilla has radiation breath that can bring down fighter planes– and everything else.

A Russian missile boat is severely damaged, and the captain is killed. Something seems to be going wrong with their nuclear weapon controls. A countdown begins.

The professor has been studying bird migrations and thinks the right sound might make Godzilla’s homing instinct kick in and lead him away from Japan. He gets it all set up, but they can’t get out of their building since all the elevators are locked down.

The Super-X weapon takes off, it’s a kind of flying fortress. It fires the cadmium bullets, which do slow down Godzilla a bit.

Meanwhile, the Russian ship fires a nuclear missile from space after the automatic countdown. They have to evacuate the Shinjuku District before it all explodes. Maybe the Americans can shoot down the missile. Nobody knows what to do.

Super X reports that Godzilla is down but not dead. Okamura helps the professor out of the building with a helicopter, but the winds are too strong, so Maki and Naoko are left behind.

The Americans shoot down the Russian missile just over the city. The effect makes the sky turn red and shock waves spread out everywhere. Super-X is forced to land and radioactive lightning strikes Godzilla. Super X is all out of cadmium, and their regular weapons don’t do much against him.

Way out in the Pacific, the professor hooks up his device to a huge antenna and starts broadcasting bird calls toward Japan. An idea he came up with to mesmerize and attract Godzilla.

Godzilla finally shoots down Super-X and then drops a skyscraper on it. He’s just about to step on Naoko and Maki when he hears the call of the birds. He pauses, turns around, and heads the other direction. He hits the ocean and keeps on going, leaving the ruins of Tokyo behind.

On the volcanic island, Godzilla shows up as the professor and Okumura wait for him. He walks right up to the volcano as the men set off the charges that cause the volcano to erupt. They all watch as Godzilla sinks into the lava and, we assume, melts to never be seen again.

Brian’s Commentary

There’s none of the previous childishness or silliness in this one. The mood here is about our characters ominously waiting for Godzilla to do something. It’s very slow and suspenseful as everyone discusses and worries about what to do. It’s all taken very seriously.

The special effects, soundtrack, and even the miniatures are much improved over the older films. It’s still from the pre-CGI days, so everything is still done with miniatures and a man in a rubber suit, but it’s all still somehow visually improved over what came before.

It had been nearly ten years since the previous film in the series, and a lot longer since any of it was taken seriously. Although this one had some slow points, it was overall a really good reboot.

Kevin’s Commentary

Godzilla returns, but after that ending we’ll never see him again. This was an improvement in effects, despite it still just being a guy in a rubber suit. The effects are more realistic, the explosions and models are improved. The story was a little talky in places, but it gets the job done. All in all, this was a decent reboot.

Short Films:

2020 Short Film Waffle

* Directed by: Carlyn Hudson

* Written by: Kerry Barker, Katie Marovitch

* Stars: Kerry Barker, Raphael Chestang, Katie Marovitch

* Run Time: 10 Minutes

* Watch it:

What Happens

It’s a fun sleepover at Katie’s house. She’s very wealthy due to her grandfather inventing a waffle maker. Her friend Kerry tells a funny story about something they did, but Katie contradicts everything she says. It’s a very awkward evening, and then their time is up…

Commentary

Katie may be just a bit obsessive, and she really wants a sleep-over. That’s not so bad, but then Kerry isn’t the friend she appears to be in the beginning. Which is more important: money or friendship; with enough money, you can have BOTH!

It’s weird. Well made, but weird!

2023 Short Film Midnight Clear

* Directed by: Joe Russo

* Written by: John Jesensky, Joe Russo

* Stars: Jessica Morris, Kurt Kubicek, Caige Coulter, Kue Lawrence

* Run Time: 7:31

* Watch it:

What Happens

It’s Christmas, and everything is nicely decorated. Dad admires the beautiful tree, and, with a big smile he asks his crying wife what she thinks. The two kids come in, asking if it’s morning, but he says no, it’s Christmas Eve still, but they’re going to be opening their gifts early this year. Mom, on the other hand, isn’t so enthusiastic…

Commentary

Mom and Dad seem to know what’s going on, but we don’t. He seems mean, but no, not really. Or maybe he’s a serial killer. We just don’t know what’s going on until it all becomes “Midnight Clear” in the end.

2023 Short Film Septichexen

* Directed by: Anders Elsrud Hultgreen

* Written by: Anders Elsrud Hultgreen

* Stars: Roskva Yasmin Anderson, Brita Grov, Susann Bugge Kambestad

* Run Time: 13:49

* Watch it:

What Happens

In the sewers of Bergen, a microbiologist searches for the cause of contamination of the city’s drinking water. There’s some kind of unidentifiable disease, and our man is down there taking samples. He finds more than a simple contaminant…

Commentary

“Down here you no longer belong to the human world.”

It’s all very dark, moody, and creepy. The locations and weird cinematography really help. There’s not really a great deal of story here, but the visuals really sell this one.

Who knew that “Sewer Witches” were a thing?

Contact Info:

Email: mailto:[email protected]

Websites:

* https://www.horrorguys.com

* https://www.horrormonthly.com

* https://www.flashfright.com

Three new movies this week, but a pair of classics to go along with it:

“The Jester 2,” “The Man in the White Van,” and “Monster Island” are all out fresh this month, but “The Ghastly Love of Johnny X” (2012) and “Land of the Dead” (2005) are from a decade or two ago.

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2025 The Jester 2

* Directed by: Colin KrawChuk

* Written by: Colin KrawChuk

* Stars: Michael Sheffield, Kaitlyn Trentham,

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The Jester is back, killing people like a magician and entertainer again, with a bit of a different look. There’s much more explanation in this sequel than the first movie, and we both thought that was a step in the right direction. We liked this one better than the first Jester.

Spoilery Synopsis

It’s a big Halloween party, and the guys mock each other for being afraid to talk to Ava. He goes over to her, but she’s more interested in Connor. That goes badly for Eric but suddenly, The Jester appears by crawling out of a box. He then peels his mask off like he’s molting, and we see that he’s got hair now and his face itself looks like the mask. The Jester makes Eric be the pinata, and that’s a mess. Credits roll.

Max and Zoe talk about going out trick or treating, but mom says Max is getting a little too old for this stuff. Meanwhile, the Jester asks a guy on the street to pick a card, and then handcuffs him before ripping out his innards with a card trick.

Max goes to a restaurant alone, and the jerky waiter recognizes her from school. The girls at the next table mock her, but then the Jester sits down across from Max, and at least he’s nice to her. He tries to do a trick with his cards, but she shows him card tricks aren’t going to fool her. When the guy she likes punctures her bicycle tire, she stops and cries.

A trio of troublemakers are out pranking, and they run up against the Jester, who does his thing for them– except his magic no longer works. Instead, he just kills them the old-fashioned way- he attacks them with a knife. He’s lost his mojo and soon figures out that Max has it.

Max goes to the magic shop and tells her friend there about her social problems. He’s really nice and cheers her up. When she leaves, the Jester is waiting for her. As she watches, he walks over to the mean group from earlier and “pantses” the guy, much to his embarrassment. Jester invites Max to go trick or treating with him.

At the first house, Max does a magic trick for the woman inside, but then the Jester does a trick and kills the woman; his magic is back on again. Max runs away, terrified. They come across the remains of the party from the opening sequence, and Max shows him the Ouija board, which he can use to “talk” to her. He’s not going to kill her, he needs her. “You are just like me.” He says he’s a misunderstood entertainer until he met the Great Deceiver, who made him a deal. “I must trick four souls each Hallow’s Eve before a candle burns out.” Since she tricked him, that opens up a whole new rulebook; she has to do the tricks now.

Max picks out one guy in the park; it’s the guy who was mean to her earlier. He’s pretty easy to hate, so she shows him a trick. He apologizes during the trick, but it’s too late by then, and the Jester takes over.

Some police come over to question Max and the Jester, but suddenly, Max can’t speak either. Turns out, Max has called 911 on her phone. The police try to arrest the Jester, but that doesn’t go well for them.

Max runs away and encounters a man on the street who offers to drive her to the police station. They hear about the previous deaths on the radio, but the guy in the car is very weird, weird in a pedophile kind of way. The Jester reappears and solves Max’s problem.

Max has an asthma attack, so the Jester takes her to the fire station for help. The Jester then plays hide and seek with the firemen in the fire station. Max refuses to help him any further and goes home.

Max’s mother is there waiting for her, and she’s surprisingly mean. She finds the Jester in her sister Zoe’s room; he’s already killed the mother, and now he wants Zoe too. He still needs her to do one more trick for a victim.

Max chooses Darren, the waiter from earlier. When he gets off work, Max and the Jester are outside waiting for him. She pulls out her deck of cards and has second thoughts halfway through it. Turns out, she’s sleight-of-handed the Jester himself and performs a trick on him. Suddenly, his candle goes out and he bursts into flames.

The magic shop owner shows up to help Max and Zoe. The police have the whole area covered. He finds that Max has taken the Jester’s hat, and she keeps babbling about “four tricks– four souls. Every year.” Sounds like it’s time for a yearly franchise!

Brian’s Commentary

The character of the Jester looked better in the previous film, with the full-head mask. This time around, he’s just got his face covered, and it’s not as effective. In the first film, he had more of a “street performer” look, but here, it seems he’s trying to look more scary.

One complaint about the previous film was that nothing was explained, and we get everything explained in this one. It’s got a much stronger story, and the pacing is much better as well. I liked this one quite a bit more than the original.

Kevin’s Commentary

This one had all the magical murdering goodness of the first movie with a better script and story. Though I do agree that I preferred the Jester’s look in the first film, overall this was a better movie. If you liked the first time around, you should definitely see this one.

2025 The Man in the White Van

* Directed by: Warren Skeels

* Written by: Sharon Y. Cobb, Warren Skeels

* Stars: Madison Wolfe, Brec Bassinger, Ali Larter, Sean Astin

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 45 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s well-made and based on a real crime situation, which makes it creepy on a fundamental level. But it is rather long and drawn out. It hops around in the early 70s, doing a great job of capturing the look and feel of the decade. The van driver chooses to fixate on one character, rather than just the random attacks, so there’s drama and supporting cast for us to care about.

Spoilery Synopsis

A woman gets into a car and drives away. It’s 1970, and we see a white van following her car. She pulls over, crying about something, and doesn’t see the man from the van until it’s too late. Credits roll.

In 1975, Annie falls off her horse. She goes home, and her mother, Helen, freaks out and tells her to shave her legs. At dinner, her father, Richard, talks business. Margaret and Annie are very competitive sisters. It’s a very strict household.

Back in 1971, we watch a woman go out for the evening. She’s immediately kidnapped by the man in the white van, who we never see.

In 75 again, we watch as the family goes to church. As the preacher talks, we see that the man in the white van is still active out there and he follows the family car back to their home.

In 1972, a woman comes out of a disco and first with a man who drives a white van, and he gives her a ride against her will before killing her with an ax.

Annie likes the new boy at school, Mark Newsome. We see that Annie’s horse is upset by something outside, and when Annie goes out, she sees the van there. When she tells her mother and Margaret, they don’t believe her wild stories. She finally gets to talk to Mark, and they hit it off. On the way home, Annie and Patty see the van, but it’s only a telephone installer.

Little brother Daniel keeps playing with his father’s rifle, which annoys everyone. Annie ends up showing him how to use it.

1973, and a woman at a motel leaves the pool and gets grabbed on the way to her room.

Annie keeps seeing the strange man outside the house. One night, near Halloween, her parents go out for dinner and Annie sneaks away for her boyfriend, leaving Annie and Daniel alone. The van man comes around and terrifies them until they get the gun and shoot at the van. When Helen and Richard come home, the story comes out, and Margaret blames Annie for making it all up. Punishments are disbursed all around.

In 1974, a girl takes her dog out for a walk and things go badly for her. This time, the killer shows the kidnapped girl to an older man who calls him son.

Annie sees the guy outside again and gets Richard to go outside with his real gun. He shoots a possum in the trash can. Annie gets even more paranoid after that, actually going so far as to lock the front door!

The three kids go to a drive-in, and once again, Margaret sneaks off to be with her boyfriend. Annie runs into Mark there, and he’s come with the school slut, Joanna, who is having a Halloween party in a few days.

It’s Halloween, and Annie and Patty go to Joanna’s party. Margaret is actually nice and helps Annie get ready. Mark, it turns out, is more interested in Annie than Joanna, but they can’t stay very long. On the way home, on horseback, the two girls spot the van again, and this time it chases them. Annie falls off her horse and runs. It’s tense, but she eventually loses him.

When she gets home to put her horse away, the man is there waiting for her. The man knocks her out and ties her up, but the horse, on the other hand, kicks the man and knocks him out. It’s a contest of who will recover first, but Annie eventually winds up in the back of that van. She opens the door and jumps out (nobody tried that before?).

Annie runs home, and this time, Margaret sees the bad guy too. They do the cat-and-mouse things in and around the house. They hit the man with his own van just as the policeman arrives.

One month later, both Annie and Margaret have boyfriends, and the family is much more well-adjusted. We cut to someone buying a white van from a car lot. On the radio, the reports talk about the bodies, which have just started to be discovered.

As the closing credits roll, we see that it’s now 1976, and the van is still out there…

Brian’s Commentary

It’s very retro, but this story wouldn’t really work if it were set in the modern day. The cars and the music try hard to make it seem authentic, but it’s the telephone shenanigans that really sell it.

We assumed right off the bat that Sean Astin would be the killer, since he’s the only major star in the film, but it soon became obvious that it wasn’t him. Then we figured it would be Mark, but that wasn’t it either. Turns out, we never do see or know much about the killer; he’s a mystery man. This was all supposedly based on true events, so maybe that’s just the way it worked out in reality.

It’s a pretty slow moving film, and that might be my biggest complaint with it; the kidnapper is way too patient. Annie obviously knows he’s up to something, and she’s told plenty of people, but any kidnapper in their right mind would just move onto a new target. If he was really into Annie for some specific reason, that would make sense, but otherwise, he just seems to grab women who are convenient; Annie was not convenient.

It all looked good, and the acting from the main characters was decent. It is, however, very slow paced, and that may turn off some viewers.

Kevin’s Commentary

It’s set in an alternate 1970s timeline where people attend high school into their 20s, but everything else seems about the same as our 1970s. Seriously though, they had the 70s elements down solid. The acting is good. The story itself seemed thin to me, and stretched out. Which made it feel low stakes and a little on the dull side. As Brian pointed out, the van driver fixating on Annie was out of character for his usual MO of seemingly random abductions. Almost like they needed to lay it out that way to fill up a movie. I’d call it just okay overall.

2025 Monster Island

* AKA “Orang Ikan”

* Directed by: Mike Wiluan

* Written by: Mike Wiluan

* Stars: Dean Fujioka, Callum Woodhouse, Alan Maxson

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 23 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Two men from opposite sides of the war have to work together when they’re stranded on an island with an angry creature. The story is pretty straightforward, but it’s well done. The acting is good, the effects are decent, and the location is beautiful. We thought it was quite good.

Spoilery Synopsis

We hear about Japanese “Hell Ships” during WWII which took Allied POWs to Japanese slave camps and were often targets of the allies themselves.

It’s 1944 on one of these Hell ships. The guard pulls one of the prisoners out of a cell and pushes him away. He’s Japanese, but a traitor, sentenced to death but he has to be kept alive for the mainland execution. They bring in a second prisoner and get a little sadistic with him. They are chained together at the ankle.

Suddenly, the ship is under attack. The two prisoners attack the guards and jump overboard just as the ship explodes. Credits roll.

In the morning, both prisoners wake up on a deserted beach, still chained together. The other prisoner is British, and they fight some more. As they fight, something in the water attacks the Brit, but the Japanese man shoots it and drives it away. Saito and Bronson wonder what it was, but they can’t speak each other’s language, so that’s tough. They scavenge the ship’s wreckage and set up a camp.

They both figure out that they were prisoners, so maybe they can help each other. They work together to get the chain off, but soon it becomes apparent that there’s something out there in the jungle that isn’t friendly. There’s the monster, but there are also two Japanese soldiers and another prisoner. Saito tells Bronson to hide and pretends to be asleep until the soldiers find him.

The soldiers soon figure out that there’s someone else out there besides just Saito. They hear the monster roar out in the jungle, and the new prisoner calls it “Orang Ikan” and looks very afraid. One of the soldiers goes looking for what made the noise and soon finds it. Meanwhile, Bronson dispatches the first soldier. Saito and Bronson watch as the monster comes and finishes off the second soldier and the new prisoner.

The two men run through the jungle, which is nearly as dangerous as the monster, and they both get pretty badly beaten up. It’s a rough night for both of them. In the morning, they are separated and each learns what they can about the island they’re on and the monster they are up against. Saito finds a sword and a pistol.

Both men find the same crashed fighter plane, and one wing has a large unexploded bomb still attached. When they get back together, Saito shows Bronson to a cave with an egg. Saito tries to explain that they’re dealing with a mermaid protecting her egg.

Together, the two men go back out and carry the large bomb into the Mermaid’s cave. It’s got a delayed action fuse, but it’s damaged. Bronson explains that one of them is going to have to go boom with the bomb. They go back out to the plane to get an ax to set off the bomb, and the monster attacks. This time, the men have weapons and manage to run the creature off. Not for long, as it comes back in the cave and messes up Bronson really badly until Saito shoots it in the head and then shoots the egg.

As the injured-but-not-dead monster wails over the dead baby, mortally-wounded Bronson tells Saito to go; he’ll set off the bomb. Saito runs off as Bronson smacks the bomb with the ax.

As Saito walks off into the jungle, he hears more of the creatures out there. No, it’s the same one again. This sucker is tough. He lures it to the beach, where they fight some more. Eventually, Saito beats the creature, but doesn’t kill it. He lets it go.

Saito gets picked up in 1945 and tells the Americans there about Bronson. They ask Saito what his original crime was, and he says he killed his superior officer to save his comrades.

Zooming back to the island, we see the monster is still out there.

Brian’s Commentary

“Orang Ikan,” is Indonesian for “Mermaid” or “Man-Fish.”

The scenery and locations are pretty amazing. We only get flashes and glimpses of the monster, so we can assume the rubber suit wasn’t too great. It’s essentially the “Creature from the Black Lagoon” with a little CGI enhancement.

We’ve seen the trope of enemies having to work together many times, and it usually works; this one is pretty good.

Kevin’s Commentary

I didn’t think there were many surprises here, but it’s well made and visually impressive with good special effects. If you want to see a quick creature feature action flick, this is a good one.

2012 The Ghastly Love of Johnny X

* Directed by Paul Bunnell

* Written by Steve Bingen, Paul Bunnell, Mark D. Murphy

* Stars Will Keenan, Creed Bratton, De Anna Joy Brooks

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 46 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was a movie in black and white that’s a send up of 1950s science fiction and leather-jacket rebel action. With musical numbers. And romance. And an undead rock singer very reminiscent of Roy Orbison. With all that weirdness, it should be more entertaining than it is, but there are too many talky bits that drag things down, especially in the final third or so. If you’re looking for something interesting and unique, you might want to check this one out.

Spoilery Synopsis

Johnny X is brought before the judge, and it all looks very black-and-white Flash-Gordony. He’s accused of not fitting in and following orders in their advanced civilization. Johnny and his followers are exiled to a low-tech planet with no real civilization, a place called “Earth.” Credits roll.

One year later, Johnny leads his people through the desert, all dressed like rejects from a 50s motorcycle gang movie. At the diner, the TV news tells us that Mickey O’Flynn has gone missing, and manager King Clayton is at a loss. Clayton watches a woman walk into the diner; she’s Bliss, and she talks about lizards wanting to lick her. She’s the one Johnny X is searching for.

Bliss tries to talk waiter Chip into leaving his life at the diner behind and going off with her. Johnny’s people all show up, and they know how to make an entrance– a musical entrance. They all hear about Mickey O’Flynn’s disappearance, and Johnny wants to find him. A lot goes on during the musical number, but eventually, Johnny uses his technology to capture Bliss.

Chip and Bliss drive to the drive-in theater, which is closed. She explains about Johnny and “The Ghastly Ones,” his gang. This all leads to another song, and she tells him about where Johnny comes from. He had a Resurrection Suit that allowed Johnny to control anyone. He’s only got one power glove, but she’s got the rest of the suit in her car. She’s got electrodes in her chest that she likes to fondle.

Meanwhile, Clayton and the Ghastlies go to his place, a nearly condemned theater. He’s got Mickey O’Flynn and his entire band there, and they’re rehearsing new music. No, that’s a puppet that looks like O’Flynn. We get a flashback about O’Flynn refusing to perform for an audience anymore. We also see how desperate Clayton is as he finally pursues O’Flynn to perform. Just as he makes his point, the musician dies (probably from boredom). Out of the blue, Bliss and Chip walk in and are captured.

Johnny and Chip go outside and argue. When Bliss gives him the super-suit, they all leave Chip alone. Johnny goes back inside and talks to O’Flynn’s corpse, who we learn was Johnny’s father.

Meanwhile, outside, the gang sings about what’s going on. Can (or will) Johnny use the resurrection suit to revive O’Flynn to save Clayton and the theater?

O’Flynn’s corpse is starting to decompose as the crowd comes into the theater, but someone loaded him with Jasmine. The curtain opens after a brief introduction by Clayton, and we see O’Flynn in a big sarcophagus. Johnny’s suit lights up, and the old rocker becomes a singing, dancing dead puppet.

Suddenly, Sluggo, one of the henchmen, betrays Johnny and cranks the power up to eleven. O’Flynn comes back to undead life for real. He still looks like a zombie though. He then ends the concert, and everyone leaves. He, Sluggo, and a groupie leave, but not before kidnapping Bliss with “The Big Pill.” O’Flynn has plans.

We cut to Cousin Quilty on TV, who interviews a woman who talks about her encounter with a flying saucer. Quilty admits that he personally has been abducted. O’Flynn and his posse arrive outside, and he wants to be on the show. During the interview, pieces of O’Flynn’s face start falling off. He mentions that Sluggo is his adopted son.

Sluggo calls Johnny and demands the suit. He wants to make a whole planet of zombies to do his bidding. O’Flynn starts to realize that Sluggo may be worse than he ever was.

Johnny finds the bad guys, but it’s all a trick. Sluggo gets the suit and forces O’Flynn to try strangling Johnny. Things go badly, and O’Flynn finally talks to his real son, Johnny, before dying again for real.

Bliss attacks Sluggo, but he’s huge. The rest of the gang joins in, and Sluggo falls off the mountain. Chip, on the other hand, is killed accidentally– nope, he just fainted.

Suddenly, the sky lights up and a flying saucer descends. Queen Betty from the homeworld has come, and she’s been watching. He offers to return the resurrection suit, and she recalls them to the homeworld, their crimes forgiven.

Johnny and Bliss come back, they want to make Earth their permanent home. Clayton, his girlfriend, and Chip go to Vegas to get married, which leads to a final song.

Brian’s Commentary

There seems to be one single product that gets a lot of product placement, see if you can spot it.

It certainly makes the most of black-and-white retro-50s imagery. This was Kevin McCarthy’s final film appearance. It was also the lowest-grossing movie of 2012, making only $117 during its one-week run. Mickey O’Flynn, played by Creed Bratton, seems to be a zombified Roy Orbison.

The whole thing seems to be a send-up of the 1950s “Rebel” genre although the trailer plays it up to be more of a mix of sci-fi and horror, but it takes a really long time to get to that part. The songs and musical bits are quite good, but all the talking in-between is just slow and draggy. There’s also a noticeable lack of songs in the second half.

I think it would have been much improved with the second half-hour much compressed. It’s a neat concept with a good look, but it’s extremely uneven. It’s definitely weird though.

Kevin’s Commentary

I was expecting this to be a wilder ride than it was. Instead, once things got underway, I found myself getting a little bored in places as it dragged down. The look and concept was all cool, the cast was good, the songs were fun. It could have used some tightening up. I don’t regret seeing it, and would recommend it for most folks, but once was probably enough.

2005 Land of the Dead

* Directed by: George A. Romero

* Written by: George A. Romero

* Stars: John Leguizamo, Asia Argento, Simon Baker, Dennis Hopper

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 33 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was high on action and low on horror since the zombie universe of Romero is well established at this point. An add on at this point is that the undead are getting some of their mental facilities back, making them even more of a threat. There’s a secured area of a city where people are getting by. Folks are still divided into the haves and have nots, but everyone is equal when the undead are chasing them. We both thought it was good overall, not quite great.

Spoilery Synopsis

We are told about the dead rising and killing the living as credits roll. It’s a worldwide phenomenon, but at least the zombies are stupid and slow. Eventually, the dead outnumber the living and most of the world is gone. We cut to a brass band of the dead, all waving instruments around. The man at the gas station comes out to work the pumps.

All the dead are just doing what they did in life. “It’s like they’re pretending to be alive” says one living man to another. The gas station man spots them and starts to follow. Riley is in charge of the group, out scavenging for supplies. Charlie is scarred and not very smart, but he’s Riley’s helper. Riley tells Cholo that the dead seem to be thinking now; they’re smarter. “Things are changing, be careful.” This is Riley’s last night out, and Cholo is scheduled to take over in the future.

The men shoot off fireworks and then shoot the zombies who are mesmerized by the light and noise. The gas station man understands what’s happening and tries to warn the others, but he’s the only smart zombie in the group who figures it out. Big Daddy zombie roars at the “death” of his friends. The fireworks break down, and everyone is now bait. Cholo and his group raid the liquor store, and one of his people gets bitten and shoots himself.

As the humans all leave, Big Daddy straps on a machine gun and starts lumbering toward the lit-up tower in the distance. Other zombies follow him.

Back in the city, we see a city block has been sectioned off, and Riley and Charlie unload their loot from last night. Fiddler’s Green plays an ad on the TV, where everything is good for the shiny happy rich people.

Riley and Cholo debate about getting into Fiddler’s Green, but they’re both “the wrong kind.” Cholo goes into the Green which is a high-rise with restaurants, a shopping mall, and all kinds of nice things. Riley goes to the slum-town outside, which is a lot less nice, and way more crowded. We see how the defenses of the town work, and that there’s a lot of resentment against Kaufman and the leaders who relax in Fiddler’s Green.

Cholo runs into a zombie situation withing the Green itself, and he quickly takes care of the it before security arrives. Down in the town, the entertainment is heavily zombie-based, with gambling, target shooting, and even an arena fight. This results in a gunfight, and we see that Charlie’s an excellent shot.

Riley rescues a girl named Slack, and then they all get arrested. They all tell their stories. They also arrest Mulligan, the leader of the resistance. Meanwhile, outside, Big Daddy and his group bang on the walls of the town and can’t get in. He tells the undead butcher to hack through with his knife.

Cholo talks to Kaufman about getting a place inside The Green, but Kaufman gets all exclusionary, making excuses. It’s either racial or classist, probably some of each, but Cholo’s clearly not getting in. Kaufman calls security to get rid of Cholo. Cholo kills the security guard and goes rogue. Cholo, Foxy, Mouse, and some others decide to take the truck out for more supplies.

Suddenly, Big Daddy’s army shows up at the gates. The guards fill them full of lead, but it’s not enough. Instead of defending the place, Cholo’s people take the big truck, Dead Reckoning, right out through the gate that the zombies had already crashed. Big Daddy and his group continue on toward the big tower.

Kaufman listens to Cholo’s demands and calls for Riley. He sends Riley to retrieve Dead Reckoning and kill Cholo. Riley agrees to retrieve the property along with Charlie and Slack. Some soldiers accompany them. Riley tells Kaufman about the walkers, but they can’t get across the river to the town.

Kaufman knows what’s going on, and he’s made evacuation plans for his friends. Outside, Big Daddy and his friends come to the river, and they can’t swim. They do, however, find a unique approach to their problem.

Cholo figures out that Kaufman isn’t going to pay, so he loads missiles to attack the Green. Kaufman starts packing bags full of cash.

Now on the city side of the river, Big Daddy closes in on the survivor’s town; he teaches the zombies to use machine guns. Riley disables Cholo’s missiles and takes the truck back toward the city to let the people trapped inside out.

Cholo has been bitten and returns to Fiddler’s Green to confront Kaufman. Downstairs, the zombies finally get inside the Green itself and eat all the meaty, juicy rich people inside.

Kaufman gets into his limo as Big Daddy traps him inside. Big Daddy remembers the gas station and gives Kaufman a fill-up. Cholo shows up, and he’s already dead, Kaufman’s bullets do nothing. The exploding gasoline, on the other hand, takes care of both of them.

Riley and his group finally make it into town, too late to save anyone. It’s become a Land of the Dead. No, some of the people in the town have survived, and they’re all packed and ready to leave. A small group decides to stay. Riley, Charlie, and Slack decide to drive to Canada. Big Daddy continues to lead his people away, and Riley refuses to shoot him.

Brian’s Commentary

John Leguizamo and Simon Baker are both good here, but Dennis Hopper mostly seemed to phone in his cliched lines. The gore and zombie effects have improved a lot since the original films, and watching the smart zombies take over the town is pretty cool. It’s almost as if they’ve become the good guys.

It’s an “OK” action-horror movie, and it’s got the series’ usual social commentary, but it all feels a little lacking today. What good was all that money going to do anyone outside the city anyway?

Kevin’s Commentary

I liked it more than not, but it wasn’t the best of the series. Dennis Hopper seemed underutilized and a little too low key here, but the rest of the main characters were on point. The effects were excellent, and if you watch closely, effects artist Tom Savini makes a quick cameo as one of the undead. It’s worth a watch if you're a fan of Romero’s work.

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Three new movies this week, but a pair of classics to go along with it:

“Somnium,” “Dirty Boy,” and “Site” from this year. “The Jester” from 2023 is up next, followed by “Curse of Chucky” to complete that series, we already watched all the others. .

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2024 Somnium

* Directed by: Racheal Cain

* Written by: Racheal Cain

* Stars: Chloe Levine, Jonathan Schaech, Will Peltz

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A struggling actress takes a night job watching over a bunch of people who have signed up for Somnium, a facility where they are put to sleep for weeks and kept in a continuous dream state while being hypnotized into an improved mental state. Is it just stress and lack of sleep that’s causing Gemma to struggle with life or is something more ominous at work? We wondered and so will you. This was very good, entertaining and pulling us along while leaving a lot open to interpretation.

Spoilery Synopsis

Gemma has moved to a new city; she wants to be an actress. She goes to the talent agencies and auditions. She eventually goes to a place called “Somnium” who is hiring. Gemma doesn’t have much experience in anything useful, but Dr. Shaffer explains that it’s not a hard job, but it’s been hard to find anyone who stays very long. She’s essentially a “sleep sitter,” watching over sleeping patients in the facility.

We flash back to Gemma and Hunter talking about what they want to do with their lives. She wants to be an actress, he wants to be a touring musician. He knows he’s not really going to do that and sketches her a picture of the house he’d like to build someday.

On her first night at Somnium, Gemma learns about the “Science of Winning” and sees the sleep pods with people inside. The machine plays pictures and sounds into these peoples’ dreams. It’s a way to “program” new personal truths into people. It’s a quiet job, making sure nothing happens all night.

Gemma’s not comfortable inside her own apartment, hearing and seeing things that aren’t there. She clearly misses her life back in Georgia. She runs into Brooks, a creepy guy who probably wants something bad for her. Noah, at work, shows her how he programs people for their careers. He takes a photo of Gemma and puts it in some guy’s dream, teasing her that if he left it in the guy’s dream he would wake up infatuated with her without knowing why.

At an audition, Gemma does great, but the casting people aren’t excited. That night at Somnium, she sees some kind of monster in one of the patient rooms, but, of course, there’s nothing really there. At home, she hears that back home, Hunter has found a new girlfriend. Depressed, she calls Brooks, who offers to show her around town. He is strange, but he’s clearly rich and connected and seems interested in helping her.

Time passes, and Gemma does more auditions. At night, she learns more about Somnium and reads all the brochures. She learns from Noah and Olivia about “Cloud 9” an emergency procedure where mental patients get programmed to straighten out their lives in just a few short hours. “No one comes back the same.” Olivia thinks the process is terrible, but Noah says it’s better than the alternative.

Gemma runs into Noah working late one night; he’s doing something sketchy. Brooks invites her to a party Friday night, but she can’t get off work. As she starts to mess with the security footage logs to cover her sneaking out, she sees what Noah’s been up to late at night. She then sneaks off to party with Brooks and his friends. She meets Dakota, another actress, and she’s not having any luck getting parts. Max, a huge star, talks to Gemma about Somnium; she’s a former customer, and it made her successful.

Gemma finds that she’s being evicted. She also gets caught sneaking out of Somnium. At night, sometimes she sees monsters in her apartment. Brooks comes by, and he’s worried about her. He implies that he’s disappointed with her and tries giving her advice. We get more flashbacks to her time with Hunter as she gets more and more depressed. She finds a shadowy man in her apartment who injects her with something.

We get glimpses of Noah at Somnium, working on Gemma. “You figured it out a lot faster than the last dream sitter.” He’s put her in the Cloud 9 program, and she’s being re-programmed. She sees herself inside the Somnium facility, chased by a monster. Suddenly, she’s a guest on “The Latest Show,” being interviewed as a big star. Even in her dream, the interview goes badly. She talks to dream-Hunter, and he’s mean. Eventually, she confronts the monster again, face to face, and it vanishes.

Gemma wakes up in Somnium and gets off the table. Dr. Shaffer, Olivia, and Noah are out there. Gemma tells them to look at Noah’s hard drive for evidence. She then goes home, pays her bills, and cleans up her apartment. She hears on the news that Noah has been arrested for multiple occasions of kidnapping and assault. She gets a call from a director, and she’s been cast in the first film she auditioned for.

Everything is fine now. Isn’t it?

Brian’s Commentary

There’s a lot of weirdness going on, and we never really know what’s real and what isn’t for the first hour. We get the feeling that Gemma might be crazy, might be in a simulation, or might be a patient of Somnium– we don’t know, but something is very off about her.

The last segment, inside the dream, isn’t as exciting as it should have been and actually drags a little. The ending is good, though, as we still don’t know exactly what happened. Is what we saw real? Is anything real?

I liked it quite a bit, although I’m sure I didn’t understand the ending entirely.

Kevin’s Commentary

Early on, I was wondering if Gemma was already a Somnium client right from the beginning, there were some hints of strangeness. When we do see her put into the dream state, that seemed more predictable because we knew none of that was really real. It does leave things unanswered about what really happened and when, but I thought it was well made and entertaining. I liked it quite a bit.

2025 Dirty Boy

* Directed by: Doug Rao

* Written by: Doug Rao

* Stars: Stan Steinbichler, Susie Porter, Graham McTavish

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Isaac has mental problems and is part of a small cult in a beautiful, isolated area. There’s just enough story to keep pulling us along as we try to figure out what’s really going on with these folks. It’s a simple life that makes us wonder if we might be in the past, but we also see some strange technologies that might mean it’s the future. It’s slow moving but fascinating, and we thought it was great.

Spoilery Synopsis

A very religious man wakes up with a nightmare; he’s got crosses hanging all over his walls. He’s not sure if he took his pills today. He’s Isaac, and he hears voices in his head. A woman in a mask knocks on the door; she says he’s been in that room for a week, and it’s his third lock-up this year. She wants him to break out and escape. Everyone in the house wears weird animal masks. Yes, it’s some kind of cult, and Isaac watches a human sacrifice in one of the rooms. Suddenly, the alarm goes off and he runs back to his room. He then argues with Frankie, one of the voices inside him. Credits roll.

In the daytime, there’s a procession out of the big house as the women all sing. Old man Walter watches as Verity welcomes Isaac back into the fold. She talks about how the people outside are all filthy with liberalism and Satanism. He tells her that he’s clean now.

There’s a tense dinner afterward, and it’s clear that everyone knows about Isaac’s issues. When Hope stands up for Isaac, Walter makes her drink most of a bottle of apple cider vinegar. Isaac goes back to his room and mashes up all his pills. He hides the powder and then pretends to have overdosed.

Isaac talks to Dr. Cronin about the Foundation, but she explains how great the Wentworths are. There’s history between Isaac, Frankie, and his old girlfriend, Sarah, who isn’t around anymore. Cronin’s not a particularly nice doctor, and it’s clear that she works for “The Flock.” Isaac escapes from her and runs off.

Isaac comes to a house in the woods and goes inside. A woman shows up and acts as if she’s been expecting him. She takes him to another woman, whose hands are tied. She tells him to “Breed me.”

Meanwhile, a boat arrives outside with Wentworth and others. They get there in time to see Isaac running back into the woods; Wentworth lets him go. One of the other young men ends up doing the breeding.

Frankie/Isaac starts following young girls around the trails. He’s been in trouble for this before. He’s interrupted by two men of the cult wearing antlers. They take him back to the Wentworths, where Verity gives him a harsh baptism. He’s clean again now.

The four girls at the Foundation talk to Isaac about his pills and lifestyle. Grace is put in charge of Isaac’s medications. Hope is on his side, but she’s in the minority. She also helps him out with his sexual needs. Are they really family? Isaac wants to know. As soon as she leaves, he pukes up the pills. Hope slides a key under Isaac’s door and he escapes again.

Everyone is gone out, so Isaac searches the house. He records everything he sees with his handheld device. He finds birth records, but he has no father or mother listed. As he works with Walter’s devices, Walter gets a notification about it. We learn what happened to Sarah: she killed herself due to Isaac’s lies about her.

Walter punishes Hope for helping Isaac. In the morning, Isaac seems like he’s all on-board with the cult now. Turns out, he’s used his medication to drug the Wentworth’s juices and starts interrogating them about the foreign women that Walter’s been “importing.” He’s already uploaded his evidence to the Internet.

The other three young men ride up on horses, and they’ve brought some new kidnapped children with them. He runs to the house in the woods, where the foreign women have been killed. The radio talks about the news of the Wentworth’s crimes; they’ve blamed it all on their mentally ill adopted son, Isaac. He finds evidence of who his parents were and how he got here.

Back at the Wentworth house, the girls are taking care of the new babies when Isaac returns. He goes outside looking for the others and finds them all out in the woods getting ready to sacrifice more women. Isaac’s got a sword, but Walter gives him a dagger to kill Hope and the foreign women. Isaac then kills all the men with the sword; his doctor as well. He then gives the foreign woman her passport back, and she leaves. He then kisses Hope, who is probably his half-sister.

Isaac and Hope go inside with the girls and babies as sirens approach from the town. Isaac tells a joke.

Later, we see Isaac in an asylum. He’s both a murderer and a hero for exposing the cult. They tell more jokes. Isaac still talks to Frankie.

Brian’s Commentary

This is one of those films where you know there’s more going on than what we’re being shown, but we don’t know what that might be. Isaac is clearly schizophrenic, and everyone knows that. How much of the weird cult stuff is real, though? What’s with the odd technology we see every once in a while?

The cinematography is really good; this is a nice-looking film, with great scenery and sets. It’s also very slow and low on action, but it’s tense and weird, and the story is just confusing enough that you want to know what’s going on while being straightforward enough that you can follow it.

It’s slow moving, some may find it dull, but I was engrossed throughout. Very nice!

Kevin’s Commentary

I thought it was great how we never know quite how much is in Isaac’s head and how much is real. Plus, is it in the past or the future? The acting is good, it’s beautifully filmed, the script is good. I really liked it.

2025 Site

* Directed by: Jason Eric Perlman

* Written by: Jason Eric Perlman

* Stars: Jake McLaughlin, Theo Rossi, Arielle Kebbel

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This movie is heavy on science fiction and big ideas with an ambitious story. Unfortunately, it’s too long and stretched out. There is a payoff at the end, with everything pretty much explained. It took too much time to get there. It’s well put together, but we give it a rating in the middle at best.

Spoilery Synopsis

We are told about Japan invading China in 1931 all the way to the Russian border. We open on a Chinese family in the countryside as bombs start falling. The Japanese are invading, and they– we get a flash of people from the future, scientists, and they’re watching all this on their time-travel blue glow machine. Credits roll.

Neil comes home to ex-wife Elena and son Wiley. Neil works with Garrison doing inspections of old properties. Today, they are checking out a big abandoned government site. This isn’t a factory or office building, they see that it’s an old research facility– as they turn the power back on. Something must have happened since the place looks like it was abandoned in a hurry.

They walk through the place and come to something weird. All their electronics and the flashlight go dead. But rather than back away and turn the power back off, they persist. As Neil approaches the glowing blue thing, he hears voices and sees some strange things. Garrison says he’s been waiting for him to come out for 45 minutes; Neil and his watch have lost some time.

Later, Neil takes Wiley out to ride his motorcycle and has an accident while hallucinating Chinese prisoners. Wiley’s eyes have been damaged in the crash, and he needs a transplant that they can’t afford.

Neil tells Garrison about the accident, and Garrison explains that their insurance isn’t good. Later, he talks to Wiley and hallucinates the torture of Chinese people and children. He tries to talk to Elena about it, but she’s too busy hating him to listen.

Andrew and Naomi come over for a visit; she’s been dealing with trouble at work. Garrison comes over, and it’s a party. Neil has another weird hallucination and beats up Garrison. Neil takes Andrew and Naomi to the weird factory where the visions began. Naomi looks into the “thing” and sees puppets and burning Chinese people.

That night, at home, a strange man in a mask comes to see him; he knows what Neil’s been seeing. He talks to Garrison about the particle collider at the site, and Garrison takes everything the wrong way. Neil continues seeing and hearing things that aren’t there, and everyone starts thinking he’s losing his mind. Except… we see that Naomi is having visions as well.

Naomi comes to talk to Neil about the particle collider. Andrew follows her, thinking she’s cheating on him. The two start researching Chinese war criminals and prison camps. She talks about generational trauma and racially profiled reincarnation.

Elena questions Garrison about the past weekend with Neil. He is also having hallucinations now. Neil and Naomi go to see her father to research the name of a scientist whose ID card they found in the factory. He finds some records of a project INDRA, but it’s all classified. They get the name of one scientist who was dishonorably discharged and head to talk to him.

Garrison meets with the buyers and sellers of the site, and he says it’s all good and safe to purchase.

Neil goes to the scientist’s house, and he takes a metal pipe as a weapon (why?). He sneaks in the back window and finds a crazy wall, complete with string maze and a drawing of himself. Nanda, the scientist, comes home and Tases Neil before Naomi pepper sprays Nanda, but they all are quickly fine. INDRA stands for Intradimensional something or other and uses quantum entanglement to connect points in time and space.

Nanda touches Neil, and he gets a full flashback of the scientific stuff at INDRA. Tobin, the chief scientist, turns the machine up to eleven, and sees the past. They overloaded the collider and made multiverse stuff happen because quantum things and human souls are being recycled throughout time backward and forward. Somehow, Tobin and Neil are the same person, even though Neil wasn’t even born yet back then.

Garrison and Elena talk about her options. Neil and Naomi flashback to watch the Chinese family die. “We were there. A part of us was there.” All the characters we’ve seen are reincarnationally connected to the Chinese prison incidents.

Neil gets his eyes tested to see about donating his corneas to Wiley if they are a match. The doctor says it’s illegal and immoral for a living person to donate. They find Garrison at Elena’s place; he’s gonna be the new “daddy” of the family. As they fight, we get more prisoner flashbacks. Naomi drives off with Elena and explains things. They go to see Nanda who tells us all that the time travel project used the Chinese prison as a target since none of those people survived; there was no harm in messing with those people because it wouldn’t change history.

Neil steals some files and ruins Garrison’s business deal. He calls Garrison and tells him to meet at the site. Everyone else soon arrives outside as well. Nanda and Elena work the controls to end the project while everyone else stands in front of the blue glowing device and hallucinates as they dial the machine up to eleven again.

History changes. In 1978, they didn't do the experiment at full power. In 1931, the Chinese family escaped the prison.

When things are settled, we see an old Chinese man in the present, the little boy from the camp all grown up; his family was the only one to escape that camp. Naomi is there to interview him, with her daughter who didn’t exist in the original timeline. Also, we see Wiley thriving with undamaged eyes.

Brian’s Commentary

This is one of those films where Neil has done a bunch of horrible things and made his family suffer for years before the film starts, and we see nothing but his wife being hateful and mean to him, like he’s completely innocent, because we don’t see him doing anything wrong. He’s not a sympathetic character, but he’s portrayed like one. He just goes on and on with all the bad things he’s done in the past, and since we see none of it, we just don’t care. All the characters are essentially bad people.

In the middle of all the family drama, there’s some time travel shenanigans that don’t make any sense for a very long time. I spent quite a bit of time browsing my phone during the movie and didn’t miss a thing. This could have been 45 minutes shorter with no loss of story at all.

There might be a good sci-fi idea in here somewhere, but it’s just way too dull and stretched out to recommend. A lot of it doesn’t make much sense, and it can’t all be blamed on quantum gobbledegook.

This was pretty awful.

Kevin’s Commentary

When I take a bathroom break and tell Brian he doesn’t have to pause, that’s not a good sign. It’s an intriguing idea, and it’s not actually bad, there are many positives. It’s well made and decently acted. It’s just too long and stretched out as they piece together the mystery of what’s happening and why. It does make a sort of sense in the end, but it’s kind of a grueling journey to get there.

2023 The Jester

* Directed by: Colin Krawchuk

* Written by: Colin Krawchuk

* Stars: Michael Sheffield, Lelia Symington, Dalaney White

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A powerful and evil Jester shows up to terrorize folks for Halloween, seeming to fixate on one dad and his two adult daughters. The Jester looks and pantomimes well, the effects are excellent, and there were some interesting scenes. Kevin thought it was a solid piece of work, Brian was less pleased. But we both agree it could have used more origin story and explanation.

Spoilery Synopsis

John walks home alone late at night, and a man in a colorful suit and top hat follows him suspiciously closely. He gets glimpses of a strange little girl as he walks; is she real? He’s not sure since it’s his daughter, Emma. He calls her and is surprised that she picks up the phone. She’s not buying his apology. When she hangs up on him, the Jester shows up and kills him. As the Jester walks away, credits roll.

Later, at John’s funeral, Emma is there, which surprises Jocelyn and her friends. Afterward, she sees the Jester dancing by the grave. He sticks around to harass the gravediggers before killing them both.

Emma goes to talk to Jocelyn, her estranged half sister, that evening, but Emma doesn’t say anything about talking to her father right before his death. She runs into the Jester on the street after, and she’s creeped out.

Jocelyn has some friends over, it’s Halloween night, and there are creepy kids all over the streets. There’s a big Halloween party tonight, and they all plan on going. There’s a lot of talking about… stuff that isn’t important to anyone.

Emma recognizes the Jester from the cemetery, but he doesn’t speak. He kills himself in front of her, but then he gets right back up again.

Jocelyn and her friends go to the Halloween Festival, and it’s all pretty elaborate. She’s maybe not ready for all this and freaks out.

Emma calls the police about the Jester’s “suicide,” but they assume she’s drunk. The Jester shows up to prove her right, and the cops don’t appreciate it. Things go badly from there.

At the festival, Jocelyn runs into her dead father as The Jester takes her friend’s teeth and eyes.

The Jester comes to Emma and, through her mother’s voice, tells her everything. She runs into dead-John then, and they finally talk. He blames her for his own death and then puts the noose around her neck– then suddenly, she’s in the cemetery. She confronts the younger version of Jocelyn, and they argue about Emma’s parentage. Emma stabs Jocelyn–

And suddenly, they’re back in the real world, and Jocelyn’s been stabbed.

Time passes, and Emma goes to see John’s grave. She refuses the blame for his death, and suddenly, the Jester is there following her again. Emma meets Jocelyn later, and they’re both happy now.

Brian’s Commentary

The Jester is cool-looking, like a cross between Art the Clown and the guy from “The Black Phone” (2021).

Other than his stylish looks, the film is very slow-paced, maybe a little too slow paced. The acting is not bad, but no one really stands out. The story is confusing; at the very least, they could have told us why this was all happening. It was just random carnage, or so it would appear. Why???

Kevin’s Commentary

Overall, I’m going to say I enjoyed this. I thought it was well put together, the Jester was cool, the effects and cinematography were excellent. But the lack of explanation is a real sore spot. The Jester was referred to as a sickness that dad had and passed on to his daughter? So that manifested as a magical killing entity? But it wasn’t revenge or anything, he was killing innocent people that didn’t do anything wrong. Perhaps the sequel will shed some light on that.

2013 Curse of Chucky

* Directed by: Don Mancini

* Written by: Don Mancini

* Stars: Fiona Dourif, Brad Dourif, Jennifer Tilly

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This one is more serious, tamping down the humor and upping the horror. Chucky is working solo on a project of his own, and we eventually find out why. Of course there are some collateral deaths along the way. All is explained, it entertains, and of course leaves it open for the next sequel.

Spoilery Synopsis

A delivery driver brings a box for Sarah, and Nica answers the door. Nica’s in a wheelchair, and the driver remembers her from school. They flirt, but Sarah interrupts and is clearly overprotective. Sarah opens the box and inside is a Chucky doll. He promptly winds up in the trash can. Late that night, Nica finds her mother bleeding out on the floor. Credits roll.

Some time later, Nica tells her sister, Barb, that her mother was on her meds and happy; she shouldn’t have killed herself. Father Frank is there as well because Barb is religious, but Nica’s very much not. Ian, Jill, and Alice are there as well; they’re Barb’s family and nanny. Alice immediately has to go to the bathroom, and we see that Chucky’s already in there.

Barb wants to sell the house and put Nica in an assisted living place. Her family needs the money, but Nica wants to stay in the big house. Nica makes everyone dinner, but when she’s out of the room, Chucky puts rat poison in one of the bowls. They all dig in, and we all wonder who’s got the special plate. Ian and the nanny, Jill, are flirting with each other as Father Frank starts to turn green and sweaty. He politely excuses himself and leaves. We soon see that he doesn’t get very far before getting in a very fatal traffic accident.

The family watches old movies of when the girls were young. They all see a creepy guy with long hair in the film. He must have been one of their neighbors.

The Chucky doll goes missing, and Barb sends Jill to go find it. Barb catches up to her, and it soon becomes clear that she’s the one cheating with the nanny. They talk about Nica’s bad heart. Meanwhile Chucky tells Alice all kinds of things about life and death.

Nica senses something off about the doll and does some research. She uncovers all the events of the previous films, including the death of Charles Lee Ray. As she reads about the famous serial killer, Chucky electrocutes Jill. Meanwhile, Ian tells Barb that he knows about her cheating with the Nanny. And he’s going to have proof from the nanny cam he put in Chucky.

Barb and Nica argue about the doll, both knowing different things about it. Barb goes looking for Alice up in the attic and peels off the repairs that Chucky made to cover his old scars. He then shows her what he thinks of her eyes.

Chucky comes after Nica, and she crawls away from him. She wakes up Ian, who finds the bodies. He thinks she killed them, but then she has a heart spell and passes out. She wakes up tied to her chair; he wants to know what she did to Alice.

He plays back the footage from the camera he put inside Chucky to spy on Barb and Jill. The footage shows everything that happened from Chucky’s point of view. Chucky comes up behind them and kills Ian, but Nica manages to decapitate Chucky with an ax.

Chucky regains his head and pushes Nica, wheelchair and all, over the railing two or three flights up. She’s not dead, and she explains that she knows who he really is. He comes clean, that he was an old friend of the family; that was him in the old movies. When Nica’s father died, he kidnapped Sarah and tormented her. He caused Nica’s paralysis. We get a flashback of all this, and also of Charles Lee Ray’s death and Chucky’s creation.

Chucky brags about the families he killed, but Nica knows he never killed Andy Barclay. She taunts him about his completion anxiety. They fight some more, and she stabs him in the back.

Meanwhile, the police have been investigating Father Frank’s death, and they come to the door to investigate. They hear Nica screaming inside and find… everything, including Nica holding a knife.

Chucky watches as Nica is committed to an asylum for the criminally insane. Chucky is used as evidence and then is stolen by a police officer who absconds with the doll after the trial. Out of nowhere, Jennifer Tilly (or is that Tiffany?) pops up in the back seat and kills the cop, re-releasing Chucky.

We cut to Tiffany at the shipping place; she mails the package to Alice’s grandmother. Alice is pleased to see Chucky. “Where is Grandma?” He wants to play “Hide the soul” with Alice. This time, no one interrupts him…

After the credits, six months later, Andy Barclay gets a package in the mail. Except Andy’s ready for him…

Brian’s Commentary

Nica’s lived in this house for years, why does she constantly seem surprised that she has no cell reception there?

Chucky’s got a bit of a makeover since his previous appearance, losing the scars, at least in the beginning. He’s much more digital here, less with the practical effects, and although it’s different, it’s not necessarily a change for the better. This one also drops most of the humor and jokiness of the previous few films and returns to the full-on horror genre.

It’s good!

Kevin’s Commentary

I love that house. Chucky did look a bit different, even after his scar coverups were removed he seemed less detailed. But the movie worked overall, and I was entertained. I’d call it another successful entry in the series.

Contact Info:

Email: mailto:[email protected]

Websites:

* https://www.horrorguys.com

* https://www.horrormonthly.com

* https://www.flashfright.com

We only have one new movie this week, but a handful of classic oldies to go along with it:

* “I Know What You Did Last Summer” the new 2025 one, the reboot/requel/whatever.

* “The Toxic Avenger” from 1984 in preparation for the new version that will be coming

* “Santa Sangre” from 1989

* “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare” from 1994, which completes our coverage of ALL the Freddy movies.

* “Seed of Chucky” to continue that series, we only have “Curse” left to watch.

And as usual, we’ve got a stack of shorts for you!

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #48, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2025 I Know What You Did Last Summer

* Directed by: Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

* Written by: Sam Lansky, Jennifer Kayton Robinson, Leah McKendrick

* Stars: Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 51 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Once again, a group of young people cause a death, cover it up, and in delayed revenge a year later someone starts picking them off. It’s a long-after sequel, not a reboot. It takes place in the same town as the original movie, many years later, and some of the original cast join in the fun. It’s well done and entertaining, with Kevin liking it a bit more than Brian.

Spoilery Synopsis

Ava arrives home and tries on a bunch of outfits; she’s going to Danica’s engagement party. Danica wants her to hook up with Milo tonight after the party. Teddy and Milo have the same conversation from afar. Everyone toasts Danica and Teddy, will Milo and Ava be next? That night, the fourth of July, the four all drive and look at Stevie, who didn’t go off to college like they all did. They invite her along to watch the fireworks.

Teddy’s high and standing in the middle of the road, which causes an accident. The truck teeters on the edge of the cliff, and they all try to hold it teetering on the edge. They fail, and it goes over the edge far down into the waves below. The man inside the truck grabs Teddy’s jacket before falling. Teddy says he called the police, but now they all need to leave the scene. They all swear each other to secrecy.

One year later, Ava has become a lesbian. She ends up taking Tyler back to her hometown, and she makes an impression on Milo. It’s time for Danica’s bridal shower, and everyone shows up. As she opens the gifts, she gets a note: “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Danica has broken up with Teddy, so she thinks he sent the note. She’s with Wyatt now. “What if someone saw what happened?”

They all go to visit Teddy, who’s a full-blown alcoholic now. He insists that he had nothing to do with the note. That night Danica takes a bath with headphones on. In the kitchen, someone harpoons Wyatt; it’s a fisherman in full cover rain gear with a hidden face, and a big hook. Danica finds him in a posed situation, and it’s clear that it was murder.

Danica and Ava talk about the intervening year and how they’ve grown apart. The five from last year get together and discuss who knew what.

Tyler has a murder podcast, so they think she might be involved– she even did a podcast about the events of the first movie, from 1997, right here in this town. Tyler tells Ava all about the Fisherman and the story we already know. Sure enough, the Fisherman shows up and menaces them both. Somehow, Ava winds up in a cage and Tyler’s podcasting days come to an end.

Since the cops are on Tyler’s father’s payroll, they aren’t going to help, so the group decides to talk to Julie James, one of the survivors of the 1997 massacre. They talk about the connections between the two cases. The man who died last year is a bit mysterious, and they don’t really know who he was. She basically says that they need to find the killer before he kills them all.

There’s a town hall meeting, and Ray, from the 1997 occurrence, shows up to warn everyone that this could all be connected. They go see him after the meeting; Stevie works for him at his bar. They track down the stolen car the dead man, Sam Cooper, was driving, and the truck belonged to Pastor Judah, the local preacher.

At the cemetery, the Fisherman chases Danica all over the place after killing the caretaker. Teddy jumps in at the last moment and runs the killer off. Everyone sleeps together at Danica’s house that night. Ava likes it rough, which confuses Milo. He goes outside to think about that, and the Fisherman kills him before he goes back inside. Ava sees his car drive off and thinks he left.

Elsewhere, Ray and Julie argue about old times and getting involved in all this.

Ava and Danica go to see Pastor Judah. Ava talks to him while Danica searches his audience. The pastor and Sam Cooper, may have been closer than everyone was led to believe; they come to the conclusion that Judah is the killer. They take what they know to the sheriff, who promptly calls Grant, Teddy’s father and the town’s mayor.

Teddy goes to the steam room and sees “You’re Next” written on the steamy wall. He is, in fact, the next victim, but at least he puts up a fight. Grant finds him before he finally dies, but he’s killed as well. We guess that Grant isn’t the killer, but we suspected him.

Danica has a dream where dead-but-also-de-aged-Helen, from the first film, appears to warn her about what’s coming. After waking up, she and Ava follow all the police to Grant and Teddy’s corpses. Ray tells them all just to leave town. Then they find Milo, dead, in his car. Danica, Ava, and Stevie take Teddy’s yacht out into the harbor while the police raid Judah’s church. Judah’s already dead, so it’s not him either. We see that Stevie had a connection to Sam Cooper.

On the boat, the Fisherman menaces Ava and Danica; she pulls off her hat, and we see that it actually is Stevie. She was dating Sam at a dark time in her life, and Sam was following them to pick her up before she got re-addicted to drugs. This was all about revenge. Behind them, Ray is following in his own boat, and he boards them. Stevie kills Danica with the hook as both Ava and Ray point guns at her. Ray shoots her.

Ava calls Julie and says she doesn’t understand how Stevie did all this alone. Julie looks up Ray online and sees that he’s involved too. Meanwhile, Ray and Ava talk about never moving on from something like this; he never did. She starts to realize that he’s the killer too. He chases her around the bar with a knife. He suggests that maybe he didn’t really kill Stevie.

Julie arrives at the bar and finds Ava with a knife in her back. Ray and Julie confront each other. He was angry because the whole town covered up what happened in 1997, so he brought it all back to remind them. As they argue, Ava shoots him in the heart with a spear gun.

We cut to the beach, where Danica washes up and goes to the hospital, still not dead. She and Ava recuperate at the hospital. They go to the beach for lunch. Ava mentions that Stevie’s still alive and out there somewhere.

We get a post-credit scene where Karla, from the second film, hears about what happened. She hopes Julie’s in therapy. Then, there’s a knock at her door… It’s Julie. She’s got a note: “It isn’t over.”

Brian’s Commentary

The accident in the beginning seems to me to be a genuine accident; they all overreacted by trying to cover it up. At the very least, they could have omitted the part where Teddy was in the road, the rest of the story could have been unchanged. It’s not like they did anything to directly hurt the man, unlike in the original film.

It’s very much like the original film, with nearly the same opening act. We have various characters whom we suspect are the killer, but they mostly all die off one-by-one.

They clearly lay the groundwork for another sequel as well. It’s nothing new, but it’s well done and pretty entertaining.

Kevin’s Commentary

Yes, as Brian points out, there was a much weaker reason to cover things up this time around. And some points weren’t explained very well or were weak. We are unclear on why the pastor was killed. And good guy Ray from the first movie is a killer now because… reasons. Julie snidely remarks at the end that it’s because men don’t go to therapy. But faults aside, all in all I was more entertained with this than the original movie or previous sequels, and I’d put it as (barely) my favorite of the series.

1984 The Toxic Avenger

* Directed by: Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman

* Written by: Joe Ritter, Lloyd Kaufman, Gay Partington

* Stars: Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen, Jennfier Babtist

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is over-the-top, raunchy, gross, over-acted, silly, stupid, and hilarious all at once. It’s got a large cast and lots of special effects, with a hero you can root for. We thought it was very entertaining.

Spoilery Synopsis

We hear a voiceover about pollution and technological advances. Millions of gallons of radioactive waste is disposed of… in Tromaville. We hear about a man named Melvin, whose entire life was changed by toxic waste. We cut to the gym, where all the sexy people are, more or less. Melvin, the mop boy, is funny looking and hated by everyone. Bozo and Julie have anger issues and just can’t deal with Melvin.

Slug and Wanda talk about running people over with their car; they are vehicular serial killers. They’ve assigned “points” for various targets. Melvin watches them having sex. They get together with Bozo and run over a kid on a bicycle– twice.

The next day, Julie gets the others involved in a plan to “get” Melvin. Outside, a big truck of radioactive waste pulls into town and parks in front of the health club. Julie talks Melvin into putting on a pink tutu and lures him into a huge crowd of laughing spectators. He runs from them and falls head first into a barrel of toxic waste.

Melvin gets all mutate-y and bursts into flame. He runs down the middle of the street all the way home. In the bath, he gets all bumpy and swollen, and changes completely.

We cut to some clearly vicious, hardened criminals who try to pay off honest cop O’Clancy. They all fight, three-on-one, and it’s looking back for O’Clancy. Suddenly, they’re attacked by a monster– no, it’s the Toxic Avenger! Toxie beats up Cigar Face, Knuckles, and Nipples in the bloodiest, goriest way possible. At least he mops up afterward.

O’Clancy talks to the press and explains what he saw. The monster makes headlines, and the Mayor gets involved. The bad guys from last night worked for the mayor. The mayor wants to move the waste dump right next to the city’s water reservoir.

Melvin goes home and scares his own mother. He goes to live in the toxic waste dump.

A bunch of guys rob “The Mexican Place” that looks suspiciously like a Taco Bell. The baddies all introduce themselves to the crowd. You know they’re bad because they shoot a dog. Suddenly, the monster appears and tears off Frank’s arm. He does other bad things to the others. What he does might be considered excessive.

At the end of the battle, he talks to the blind girl whose dog was killed. She can’t see his horrible face. She takes him home with her, and she’s nearly as violent as he is, only by accident. He tells her that he has acne, so she can’t feel his face.

The Toxic Avenger finally comes to the Tromaville Health Club. As Wanda “enjoys” her photos of the people they’ve murdered, Toxie comes in. He has a basic instinct to destroy evil. He then mangles a clown car full of pimps. We then get a montage of him being heroic. He becomes the local hero.

The mayor wants to kill the monster before he kills him. Sara, the blind girl, gets harassed by bikers until her new boyfriend shows up. Now it’s time for a very weird romance montage! She moves in with him and makes the toxic dump all homey.

The monster chases Julie all over the basement of the health club.

Bozo and Slug beat up an old woman and steal her car. They see the monster in the road and try to run him down. Melvin ends up taking them for a ride.

Later, at the dry cleaners, he puts a literally little old woman in a dryer which gets him some bad press. He thinks maybe he’s losing control and tells Sara about what he does every day. Turns out, the little person wasn’t so clean after all, she was a very bad person. The monster and Sara move out to the country to live in a tent.

The mayor orders that the monster be killed, but the people he’s saved get together to question that choice. The mayor calls in the National Guard to fight the monster.

Literally everyone has the monster’s tent surrounded. The good people surround Melvin as human shields. The National Guard won’t kill him, but the mayor shoots repeatedly. The monster is bulletproof and soon has the mayor cornered. He rips the mayor’s guts out.

Everyone, National Guard included, cheers Melvin and Sara.

Brian’s Commentary

Half-naked women, horrible acting, crazy script, and over-the-top gore– this is the one that really put Troma on the map. On the other hand, it doesn’t look like it was an especially low budget film; the weirdness is all intentional.

From comments you hear about the film, you’d think it was really awful, but it’s actually quite good.

Kevin’s Commentary

I’ve seen many Troma films, but this was the first time I had seen this one. I knew what to expect going into it, and I wasn’t disappointed. It’s got all the awful goodness that their movies exude. I thought it was a lot of fun.

1989 Santa Sangre

* Directed by: Alejandro Jodorowsky

* Written by: Alejandro Jodorowsky, Roberto Leoni, Claudio Argento

* Stars: Axel Jodorowsky, Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell

* Run Time: 2 Hours, 3 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

So there was a circus in Mexico where a little boy witnessed some awful things that caused him to be institutionalized as a young man, but he escapes to be with his mother. Except it’s weirder and more complicated than that. It’s long but never drags as we see strange characters and strange events, with a story that makes sense while being very weird. If you’re looking for something unique, you should check this one out. We were both very entertained.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a naked man perched up in an indoor tree trunk. The door opens and people bring him food; he’s in an institution, and he seems to think he’s an eagle. The orderlies make him put clothes on, but he doesn’t seem happy about it.

We cut to the circus, and we hear about Fenix, the boy magician. Fenix watches as a deaf girl learns how to walk a tightrope. Mr. Orgo, the circus owner, really likes the tattooed woman.

We cut to a protest. A bunch of people block the demolition machines from tearing down the Santa Sangre church, but the machines and police start to go in anyway. Fenix’s mother leads the protesters in a song. The monsignor arrives to intervene and wants to see inside. He’s on their side until he sees they worship a mannequin with no arms, but he says that’s not one of the saints. She’s Lirio, a girl who lost her arms in a brutal attack and they built the church here. They argue whether the church pool is full of holy blood or red paint. The monsignor does not approve of this place or the heretical sacrilege and tells the police to allow the place to be destroyed before he leaves.

Fenix and his mother, Concha, watch as the place is torn down. They walk back to the circus and interrupt Orgo before he can do anything too inappropriate with the tattoo girl. As Orgo and Concha have sex, Fenix goes to watch a sick elephant die. They have a funeral with a really big coffin that they throw off a cliff. Poor people then break it open like a big pinata and tear the body apart to hand out to the crowd.

Orgo ties little Fenix to a chair and tattoos a bird on his chest just like his own. It’s painful and bloody, but he endures it. “Now you’re a man!” The deaf-mute girl, Alma, likes it and likes Fenix as well.

We then watch the circus act of Concha hanging from her own hair as a high flier and trapeze artist. While suspended, she spots Orgo making out with the tattooed woman and freaks out wanting down immediately. Concha walks in on the lovemakers and pours sulfuric acid on his genitals. In anger, he cuts off Concha’s arms, just like her favorite saint. Afterward, he cuts his own throat and dies as Fenix watches. The tattooed woman takes Alma and drives away, leaving Fenix locked in his trailer.

Back in the asylum, now-adult Fenix is the patient we saw earlier. They take him out to meet new friends, a whole bunch of Down’s Syndrome children. They all get on the short bus and go on a field trip to see a Robinson Crusoe movie. As the chaperones drive off, a drug dealer gives all the Down’s Syndrome kids cocaine and they experience prostitutes. Fenix sees the pimp dancing with… the tattooed woman from all those years ago.

In the morning, Fenix hears his armless mother Concha calling from the street. He breaks out of the hospital and runs off with her. We see that Alma and the Tattooed woman are prostitutes now, although Alma seems a bit unwilling. A man sees her on the street, tears off his own ear, and tries to make her eat it (what?). Meanwhile, someone we don’t see, with painted fingernails, stabs the tattooed woman to death. Alma comes back in the morning to find the body.

Fenix is once again dressed as a magician, and he finds his old sidekick from the circus, Aladdin. They’re going to start a new show. We cut to Concha on stage, who’s got arms again– no, that’s Fenix standing behind her, making it look like she has arms. His nails are long and painted to look like a woman’s hands.

Fenix watches “Rubi the Virgin” do her act; she’s not fooling anybody. They talk about combining their talents. He hypnotizes her to the wall and throws knives at her. Concha walks in and tells Fenix that he has to kill Rubi; she’s defiled him. He kills Rubi with a knife and then buries her. He and Concha do everything together, his hands feed her and play the piano for her.

We cut to Fenix, now dressed like the Invisible Man. He drinks a potion, removes his bandages, and he looks just like he always did. Concha yells at him for failing again. She makes him knit stockings for her saint.

Fenix goes to the mobile apothecary and makes a date with Trini. On the way out, he hears about a wrestling match with The Saint, the world’s strongest woman, and he hallucinates that he’s fighting a giant snake. Fenix goes to see her after the show and learns that she’s really a man in drag with breasts (Maybe?). They go home to his home, where he has a tiny private theater. Fenix does his magic act for The Saint. Concha shows up and demands that Fenix kill her. Fenix wants The Saint to break his arms because he can’t control them. After a fight, Fenix kills The Saint with a sword.

Meanwhile, Alma has been tracking down Fenix/Concha and enters their home. She sees the place is covered in cobwebs, and there’s a dead body on the bed.

As he buries The Saint, Fenix hallucinates all the dead women crawling out of their graves. He runs home to find Alma there; she wants to lead him away from this place. Suddenly, Concha shows up again and demands that Fenix’s hands kill Alma. He picks up a pair of knives as Trini arrives for her date. She sees what’s going on and runs off, calling for help.

Inside, Fenix/Concha come after Alma with the knives, but Fenix resists and stabs his mother instead. She mocks him that she can never be killed because she’s inside him, though she does vanish.

We get a flashback to Concha and Orgo both dying at the circus. She’s been a hallucination all this time. Alma shows him the body on the bed; it’s the mannequin of Concha’s armless saint; he remembers using it in his act.

Imaginary clowns console Fenix as he throws the doll out the window. He then smashes the saint figure downstairs. Alma peels off Fenix’s fake fingernails since he’s free from his mother now. The clowns and Aladdin all vanish; they weren’t real either.

Fenix and Alma go outside, where the police are waiting for them. As he puts his hands up for the police, he realizes that they are his hands.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s weird, but unlike some of Jodorowsky’s films, this one has a plot that mostly makes sense. Mostly.

It looks very cool, with lots of interesting visuals. The acting is good, in a weird way. It’s long, but it’s not draggy or slow, the weirdness sucks you right in.

It’s not going to be for everyone, but if you like “weird,” this is one to try.

Kevin’s Commentary

I’d heard of this but had never seen it before. I went into this expecting it to be more surreal and nonsensical. It is surreal at times, but it does have a story. Two of Alejandro Jodorowsky’s sons play the main character as boy and adult, and they are both very good. The visuals and strangeness are great. I liked this one a lot.

1994 New Nightmare

* AKA “Wes Craven’s New Nightmare”

* Directed by: Wes Craven

* Written by: Wes Craven

* Stars: Heather Langenkamp, Robert Englund, Miko Hughes

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 52 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The idea is interesting having Wes Craven, Heather Langenkamp, and others playing themselves - sort of - in a movie about movies. Freddy is back even darker than he was in the first “A Nightmare on Elm Street,” without the humor, trying to force his way into the real world. Alas, it was too long and drags, especially in the first half, and we found ourselves being mostly bored with it.

Spoilery Synopsis

We watch as a man in a red sweater assembles a robot hand with knives on his fingers. Then he cuts off his hand and… CUT! It’s a movie being filmed based on Freddy Krueger. Heather Langenkamp is there, she’s the star of the movie, and she’s got her son Dylan, along with Chase, who is a special effects guy. The animatronic knife-hand goes berserk and causes mayhem on the set– no it’s just a dream as Heather and her family experience a real-world earthquake.

Chase asks if Heather’s still getting phone calls from her stalker. She has, but she’s got an interview scheduled for today. Her nightmares and the constant earthquakes aren’t helping. Julie the babysitter arrives, and Heather gets a call from the stalker again.

On the way to the interview, the limo driver recognizes Heather; he’s seen the movies. It’s been ten years since the first film, and then there were five sequels. The interviewer brings out Robert Englund, in full costume, who makes Heather really uncomfortable. Later, we see him out of costume, and he’s very normal.

She gets a call from New Line, who wants to talk about a new deal. Bob Shaye wants to make “The Definitive Nightmare,” since the fans want more. Wes Craven’s having nightmares, which has led to a new script. They’ve already got Chase working on a new glove prototype. She asks him if weird things have been happening, and he’s strangely upset by the question.

When she gets home, Dylan is having a fit about never sleeping again, and his toy dinosaur has a big slash in the side. Dylan says some creepy things about a mean man who wants to get him while he sleeps. Heather calls Chase to come home, but it’s a long drive, and he nods off on the road. He doesn’t make it home.

The police come to Heather’s door to tell them what happened with Chase. She goes to the very busy, very crowded morgue to identify the body, and he’s a mess– he’s got claw marks on his chest.

At the funeral, we see many familiar faces from earlier films. There’s an earthquake in the middle of it, and it may be the worst funeral ever. But most of that was Heather dreaming it after she got knocked out. That night, she finds Dylan watching her old movies on TV. He says, “That man down there is trying to get up into our world.” She talks to co-star John Saxon, who thinks Dylan’s behavior is completely understandable. As they talk, Dylan goes somewhere very dangerous and nearly gets killed.

Heather calls Robert England, who knows all about her “Freddy stalker.” The Freddy she’s dreaming out is darker and more evil than his version. They talk about Wes’s script, and it kinda matches what’s been going on. We see that Robert’s got his own problems with visions.

After another scary incident, Heather takes Dylan to the hospital, and they think it might be schizophrenia. The radio people talk about the earthquake fault under the city as Heather drives through wreckage. She calls Robert, whose answering machine says he’s going to be out of town for some time. She goes to talk to Wes Craven, who’s as upset about his script as she is. He knows it’s all becoming real, and the only way to stop is to make another movie.

One night, Freddy finally shows up and chases Heather around her bedroom. He slashes her arm before getting pulled away. She goes to the hospital, where Dylan is in intensive care and an oxygen tent. The doctor thinks Heather is losing her mind.

Some evil nurses inject Dylan with something to help him sleep, and only Julie is there to watch him. Outside, Heather is being interrogated by the doctor and two security guards about her drug use. The doctor starts talking about putting Dylan in foster care. Everyone watches as the invisible Freddy does terrible things to Julie on the ceiling of one of the hospital rooms.

Dylan vanishes from the hospital, and Heather calls John. She stops him crossing the freeway with Freddy’s help. Dylan finds his way home, where John is waiting for them. He starts calling her Nancy, and now, he’s suddenly the sheriff again, just like in the movie. As they play out a scene from that film, Freddy arises inside the house... on Elm Street.

Dylan has left a trail of sleeping pills so that Heather can find him. She takes the pills and soon finds herself in Freddy’s world. She finds the script to this movie and reads that there’s no movie, only her real life.

Freddy reveals himself, and both Heather and Dylan fight him. Together, they’re pretty effective at hurting him. Dylan locks him in the furnace, just like in Hansel and Gretel, his favorite story. Freddyworld explodes as the two make their way home.

They find the script again, and it’s got an ending now.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s just full of cameos from real Hollywood and New Line people, mostly playing themselves. It may be the most “meta” Hollywood horror movie ever. It’s an interesting concept that the old movies were holding back the real evil.

Miko Hughes, as Dylan, really stands out in this one; he’s the same kid from the original “Pet Sematary” (1989), and he’s only gotten creepier. The others play their parts, some of them as themselves, and they’re… OK. This time around, they’ve dropped all Freddy’s humor and made him much more like he was in the original film.

It’s far too long and drawn out. It’s an hour and ten minutes before Freddy actually shows up and then the battle doesn’t really go on for very long. Nope. I didn't like it.

Kevin’s Commentary

I did like the concept behind this, but it really should have been tightened up. It drags out the meta stuff too long and takes too long to get to the good stuff. There are some bright moments, but overall I didn’t care for it. And after some thought I’m adding this statement that I’d call it my least favorite of all the Nightmare movies.

2004 Seed of Chucky

* Directed by: Don Mancini

* Written by: Don Mancini

* Stars: Jennifer Tilly, Brad Dourif, John Waters

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Chucky and Tiffany are back in action with their gender confused child Glen/Glenda, fully embracing humor and silliness in Hollywood with Jennifer Tilly playing herself as well as Tiffany. If you’ve enjoyed the other Chucky movies where they stray from horror to humor, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well. We certainly did.

Spoilery Synopsis

After one of the most ridiculous title sequences ever, a little girl opens a present. It’s a really ugly doll that quickly gets shoved into a toybox and forgotten. Later that night, the doll climbs out of the box and grabs a knife. Mayhem ensues. The doll stabs the father and stabs the mother in the shower, Psycho-like. As the doll looks into the mirror, we see that it’s not Chucky. The little girl, Claudia, taunts the killer.

Glen wakes up; it was a nightmare. He’s actually a dummy in a ventriloquism act. Glen narrates his life and weird nightmares. He’s not really violent at all. He wonders about his own parents; they must have been very good people…

We flash back to a scarred-up Chucky in a cemetery fighting a man in a Santa Claus suit. Tiffany finishes off “Santa,” taunting that he’s not real after all.

No, wait– this is all a movie, and the Chucky prop doesn’t work very well. “Chucky Goes Psycho” is the newest movie about Chucky and Tiffany, two dolls that were found, in real life, at a crime scene. The famous actress Jennifer Tilly is going to be in the film. She complains about not getting any good roles anymore.

Glen watches the two doll props on a TV show and realizes that he’s their son. He’s being abused by his keeper and soon escapes from the show. He makes his way to Hollywood, where they’re making the film.

Jennifer auditions to play the role of the Virgin Mary with the famous director Redman. He likes Julia Roberts for the role instead. Jennifer really hates Julia Roberts. Jennifer plans to get the role, one way or another.

Meanwhile, Glen finds the Chucky and Tiffany doll-props at the movie set and talks to them, not realizing they aren’t real. He reads the words on the medallion they left with him, and lightning happens. Both dolls soon wake up, alive again. They soon all realize they are all family. The animatronics technician shows up and loses his head. Chucky and Tiff make out after the killing, but Glen just pees himself. They debate over whether their child is a boy or a girl; he’s not anatomically correct either way. His name is either Glen or Glenda.

Jennifer Tilly finds the technician’s head and gets lots of press. The three dolls stow away in her limo. Tiff loves the idea that Jennifer is playing her in the movie, but Chucky hates her voice. Glen doesn’t understand why his parents are killers. They say it helps them relax. Chucky likes killing, but Tiff says it’s an addiction, and maybe they should try to quit cold turkey for their child.

Jennifer plans to sleep with Redman, but her secretary, Joan, doesn’t approve and gets fired. As Redman arrives, sneaky reporter Pete Peters stalks around outside. Tiffany has spiked the drinks, but they aren’t in any hurry to drink. Chucky and Tiffany have a whole subplot where they plan to artificially inseminate Jennifer to have a baby for Glen/Glenda to possess and then take over the bodies of Jennifer and Redman themselves

Tiffany confronts Jennifer, and Jennifer’s a little more than shocked. They knock her out and use the turkey baster for insemination. Pete takes photos from outside.

Chucky and Glen go out for a night of fun and run Britney Spears off the road. They follow Pete home to his darkroom and Pete soon finds out the real story. Glen seems to have a natural, if unintentional, talent for murder.

In the morning, Redman and Jennifer wake up with no memory of what they did last night. They remember a lot of screaming and assume it was great sex. Shortly after, she announces that she’s pregnant. Redman says he’s had a vasectomy, so it’s not him. Also, since she’s pregnant, he cuts her from the film he’s making.

Tiffany, who wants to stop murdering, battles with herself over her desire to kill Redman. After a call to the addiction hotline, she gets permission to finish him off. Glenda witnesses the whole thing.

Jennifer’s Voodoo-assisted pregnancy is very fast. The next day, she’s huge. The two evil dolls tie her up to wait for the baby. They all argue again over the child’s sex. Is he a boy or is she a girl? Either way, he doesn’t want to be a killer. Tiff’s OK with that, but Chucky wants his son to be a killer.

Since Redman’s dead, they call Stan, Jennifer’s chauffeur, to receive Chucky’s soul. Joan, the fired secretary, returns and bangs on the door, and Chucky goes to take care of her. Tiff just can’t hold herself back and takes care of things. No, that wasn’t Tiff, that was Glenda, who’s really good at murder and being insane.

Jennifer’s about to give birth. It’s a boy, and it looks totally human. No, wait– there’s more. There’s also a girl. Twins! Tiff thinks they can put Glen in the boy and Glenda into the girl. Due to all the screaming, Chucky blows his top and decides to forget all this Voodoo nonsense and just stay a doll. Tiff wants to live inside Jennifer, which causes a bunch of conflict.

Meanwhile, downstairs, the police break in and start finding bodies, along with Jennifer Tilly tied to the bed. At the hospital, she wants her babies back. Everyone thinks her story is a little crazy. Tiff and Glen show up and she starts the ritual to put herself into the movie star. Chucky breaks in and hits Tiffany in the head with his ax.

Glen, angry at the death of his mother, goes full ninja on Chucky, giving him the ax as well. Chucky loses all four limbs and says “Attaboy, kid!” just before he decapitates Chucky. Jennifer gets up off the floor and consoles Glen.

Five years later, successful actress Jennifer Tilly hears reports from the nanny about Glen, a nice boy, and Glenda, a bad girl. The servant is afraid of her Tiffany doll, and Glenda as well. The maid quits. Jennifer kills her on the spot– she’s really Tiffany. Glen and Glenda are the two babies, and Glen knows that his father really loved him. Glen gets a present in the mail and opens it. Turns out, it’s Chucky’s arm.

Brian’s Commentary

After the previous film, “Bride of Chucky” leaned way more into comedy than horror, this one stretches things even further into pure silliness. The puppets have never looked better, but even they seem to know how silly this has gotten. I love how Jennifer Tilly repeatedly makes fun of herself, and her one hit movie. “God she’s fat!”

“Glen or Glenda” is, of course, a real film about transvestites from 1963. In this film, Glen/Glenda is just a very confused puppet, but in the TV series, takes on a whole Trans/LGBT identity and Chucky’s acceptance of that makes Chucky the most LGBT-friendly of all the horror monsters.

There is a body count, but they’re all just ancillary to the comedic family drama.

You’ll either love it or hate it, there’s very little middle ground here.

Kevin’s Commentary

I was kind of surprised that in the 21 years since it’s been made, I had never seen this one. They do fully embrace the silliness and raunchy humor in this one. I thought it was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed it.

Short Films:

2024 Short Film Stalker

* Directed by: David Cholewa

* Written by: David Cholewa, Remy Gente

* Stars: Sandra Hohenadel

* Run Time: 20 Minutes

* Watch it: NOT YET– Still on the festival circuit. Stay tuned!

What Happens

Sarah walks home after a party in the strangely deserted streets of Paris. It’s dark, and she’s alone, and there may or may not be someone following her. She keeps hearing his whistle, and sometimes gets a glimpse of the strange man behind her, but what are his intentions?

They aren’t what you think.

Commentary

This one is pretty amazing. It starts out in territory familiar to horror/thriller fans and then goes somewhere else entirely. There’s no dialogue here other than some on-screen text at the beginning and end. The whole drama plays out on Sarah’s actions.

Very, very good!

Contact Info:

Email: mailto:[email protected]

Websites:

* https://www.horrorguys.com

* https://www.horrormonthly.com

* https://www.flashfright.com

We've got a whole string of new releases this week. We’ll start out with “Your Host,” about a fun game show. Next, we’ll take a trip to “Pig Hill” and do some huffing and puffing. “213 Bones” slashes up a bunch of teens next, followed by the comedic-stalker film “Borderline.” Finally, we’ll see what came after Dracula with “Abraham’s Boys.”

And as usual, we’ve got a stack of shorts for you!

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #47, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2025 Your Host

* Directed by: DW Medoff

* Written by: Joey Miller

* Stars: Jackie Earle Haley, Ella-Rae Smith, Jamie Flatters

* Run Time: 1 Hour 29 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

You will immediately think, “This reminds me of Saw,” but it leans into the game show aspect enough to be different and interesting. Jackie Earle Haley is excellent as the host and the rest of the cast does a nice job as well. The effects are realistic, and there’s a story that explains things nicely. It was better than we expected, and we liked it a lot.

Spoilery Synopsis

Jake is announced as the “Final Winner” in what appears to be a very bloody, terrifying game. He ends up winning a shotgun blast. Credits roll.

We cut to four young people who are visiting a summer house in the country. Matthew, Melissa, James, and Anita begin their weekend of partying– it’s Anita’s birthday. They all seem a little obnoxious, especially James, whose house they’re in. They hear a noise outside, and James finds a video camera filming their house.

Anita doesn’t want to watch the tape; she’s a real stick-in-the-mud which causes a big argument. Anita tells Matthew that her mother’s dying, and she’s upset over that. They all go about their evening, and we see someone stalking around in the shadows. We watch as the shadowy figure injects each of them with a sedative.

All four wake up chained to the wall in a dark place. There’s another video camera and a strange man in a red suit wearing a mask. He’s got a mannequin studio audience, as he introduces the four contestants for his “game show.” He promises, “There’s always a winner!”

The Host says it’s time for “Rock Paper Scissors Shoot.” He shows them what that means to lose.

Several hours later, the four commiserate about their predicament. He makes them admit the worst things they ever did. James was guilty of killing someone in a car accident. Anita made an adult web page to pay for her mother’s surgery. Matthew scams people online. Melissa admits that her animal shelter sold dogs to dogfighting organizers.

Now it’s time for “Wheel of Pain.” Melissa loses an eye. Anita drills a hole in Matthew’s ear. In the next game, Melissa gets a splitting headache as the point of that one.

The Host comes back in and shows them a video of him cutting a woman up with a chainsaw. He also shows Anita his own scarred face. James thinks the man looks familiar. Turns out, Anita used to work on the Barry Miller show; we get a flashback.

Barry Miller ran “Wheel of Games,” a game show program. Anita watches as a criminal gets released on the TV news. Jake, the guy who died at the beginning of the movie, and Lisa, the woman who got chainsawed also worked there with Anita, and they plant the idea that Anita and others could get a lot of money if they accuse Barry of being a sexual predator. They lied and ruined Barry’s career plus he lost his wife and kid.

Barry’s already killed Jake, Lisa, and the lawyer who ruined him. He makes Anita chew on the dead lawyer’s tongue.

For the next game James and Matthew have fresh sewn incisions on their stomachs. Barry gives Anita the chance to play “Incision Decision.” She’s got a knife and guess where the keys are? Which of them is going to be cut open? They both beg and negotiate, but in the end, she cuts open James and pulls out a key.

Her key doesn’t fit the door, so she needs the other key. Barry releases Matthew so he can fight back. He picks up the knife, kisses Anita, and then cuts his own throat.

Anita gets the other key and lets herself into the back room of “The Show,” where she finds many videotapes and photos. Barry’s obviously been planning this for a long time.

Barry invites her in for one last game. It’s time to pick her prize. Anita offers to publicly admit that she lied about her accusations. But he lost his money, his career, his family, all just for money to save her mother’s life, and nothing will get that back. Barry promises not to kill Anita’s mother if she just finishes the game.

She cuts Barry and runs outside but is quickly recaptured. She smashes her face into a birthday cake, but there’s no trick there. He says she wins the game. There was no knife in the cake; the icing, however, is acid. She dies painfully.

We watch more videotape, where the lawyer admits he raped all those women; Barry was totally innocent of everything before Anita ruined his life.

Brian’s Commentary

The trailers make it look like “The Running Man” meets “Saw,” but in reality it’s more like “The Price is Right,” done the way Bob Barker always really wanted to do it. As uninspired as that sounds, I thought it was far better than I expected, mostly due to Jackie Earle Haley’s over-the-top performance. He’s great here, and a lot of fun to watch. The characters are all well defined and believable, the set is perfect, and the acting is good from everyone involved.

And, in the end, Barry was right; they were all a******s.

Kevin’s Commentary

I wonder how many game show hosts have fantasized about this over the years. It does remind one of Saw, but it’s different enough to be interesting. I agree that Jackie Earle Haley elevated the whole thing with his performance. It was really good.

2025 Pig Hill

* Directed by: Kevin Lewis

* Written by: Jarrod Burris

* Stars: Shane West, Rainey Qualley, Shiloh Fernandez

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

We were expecting another Piglet-Because-We-Can-Now movie, but it’s not part of that story line. This was well written and put together in an interesting way, with a good cast and realistic effects. We thought it was better than the preview led us to believe, and we both liked it a lot.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a huge radio tower as a car parks nearby. The couple inside park here to meet someone. She points out that this is “Pig Hill” where all those women went missing. And there are supposed to be pig-people out here as well. Sure enough, a pig-man kills them both as the credits roll.

Emily has gone missing and is all over the news. Carrie is her friend, and she wants to know what happened and is writing a book about the missing women. Reggie says it’s been ten people in the last decade.

A new guy, Andy, comes into Carrie’s bookshop to sell some books. He gets called away suddenly, but Carrie likes him. Carrie’s married to Ben, but she hates him. Her brother, Chris, has been talking and doing business with Ben behind her back. They joke about the “Pig Hill Rhyme.”

We cut to Emily, who’s in a cage somewhere.

Carrie volunteers at the shelter, and there are some weird people there. Paula wants an abortion; she’s supposedly been raped by the pig-man, but abortion is illegal here. Carrie sees pig-men around every corner; is she crazy?

Meanwhile, Paula gives herself an abortion with a coat hanger. Ew. The baby comes out, and it’s definitely a pig-baby. Paula dies from blood loss after stabbing the baby and then slitting her own throat. Just to make the evening more perfect, Chris is back on drugs.

The next day, Andy comes back to pick up his check and offers to take Carrie out. Carrie admits that she’s on the outs with her husband, who left her thirteen months ago for unknown reasons. Andy tells her that he was wealthy and successful, and then lost it all.

Carrie’s husband finds out about Andy and shoots himself. At the funeral, Andy shows up, and Chris takes offense at that. On the bright side, Ben was rich, so Carrie’s set for life now. Carrie dreams about having a litter of pig-babies. She thinks writing her book will change the world for her.

Andy goes to visit his parents, and they aren’t doing too well. That goes badly, so he reconnects with Carrie. He tells the story about how his young son got run over by a tractor and died.

Andy volunteers to help Carrie track down Red, Paula’s abusive meth-head father, for information for her book. They run into Giovanni, the “Pig King of Pig Hill,” a creepy pig farmer who invites them home. He comes from a long line of pig farmers. Giovanni tells about his ancestor whose daughter kept having sex with a well-endowed pig. Their love affair carried on over generations, creating the legends of Pig Hill. We see that Red is there on the farm, hiding.

Andy and Carrie park under the radio tower, which figures into the legends about the “Alien version” of the pig-men legend.

Later that night, someone drags Carrie out of her house. She soon wakes up in a cage next to Emily, who has been here for months. There really is a pig-man, and Emily calls him “Swill.” The pig-man also abducted the guy who was with Emily, who he sodomizes and kills.

The police question Andy, who tells them about Giovanni’s pig farm. Andy enlists the help of Reggie, a homeless man who seems to know a lot about the area, to track down Carrie. Reggie explains that Carrie has been obsessed with the pig-men since she was a child. Reggie doesn’t think Red is the one killing women, since this has been going on for thousands of years. Reggie talks about the Nephilim, who resemble pigs and do terrible things to appease their demonic fathers.

Carrie watches as Swill rapes Emily for about the hundredth time. This time, he kills her, leaving Carrie alone.

Andy and his friends run into Red, who denies hurting anyone, even Paula. They kill Red, and Giovanni shows up and calls the police.

As Andy sits in jail, Carrie gets to know Swill. Reggie finds Carrie laying out in a field near the radio tower and takes her to the police. Andy gets released, and the newspapers call him a hero for killing the Pig Hill murderer. Andy and Carrie’s doctor talk about getting her away from Chris, who is far more overbearing than he should be.

Carrie insists that Swill was a pig-man, not Red, but everyone tells her otherwise. The police take her to Red’s farm, but she doesn’t remember much.

The doctor then hypnotizes Carrie to help with her memory, and she remembers that Swill was just her brother Chris wearing a mask. The doctor then tells the police everything but in the middle of the call, the pig attacks the doctor. After finishing her off, the pig attacks Carrie, and she pulls Chris’s mask off.

Andy sees on the security video that Chris broke into his parents house and poisoned them. The police know about Chris now, and they all start searching for him. Chris confesses that he’s a huge drug dealer and killed Ben, who knew too much. Chris has been abusing and drugging Carrie since she was a small child.

Chris explains about his uncle Jack, who was a cultist. Jack abused Chris, who protected Carrie from him. The cultists “programmed” Chris and other children, including Ben, to do whatever they ordered. Chris is in love with his sister, and he starts kissing her.

Carrie stabs Chris and runs upstairs. She then beats him to death with a hammer, like a pig. Then she puts on the mask.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s a dank, claustrophobic little town, with fog and lots of creepy homeless people and, apparently, alien pig mutants. It’s well acted, filmed and edited in an interesting way, and it’s very weird and mysterious as we learn about what’s really going on.

It’s a little hard not to compare this to 2025’s “Piglet,” but other than the look of the main villain, there’s no real connection. This is a far better film than the earlier one.

It’s a much more interesting story than the trailers would have you believe. I liked this one a lot.

Kevin’s Commentary

I was bracing myself for another “Piglet” themed horror, thanks to the fairly recent copyright expiration, but this was much more than that. It was a good mix of supernatural, cryptids, and bad people doing bad things. I thought it was great.

2025 213 Bones

* Directed by: Jeffrey Primm

* Written by: Dominic Arcelin, Jeffrey Primm

* Stars: Colin Egglesfield, Luna Fujimoto, Hunter Nance

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is quick moving and plays the tropes well. It’s a killer picking off a group of people with the who and why being a mystery. We both thought it was very well made and entertained.

Spoilery Synopsis

A young couple makes out at her place. They undress, and she mentions she’s always wanted to be tied up. Before they get started, she sees someone in the next room. While he’s in the shower, the masked killer stabs her to death. When he comes out, the killer slashes his throat. Credits roll.

Two years later, at Bristol Falls College, Brent and Joanne talk about videogames. She asks him to go to a movie, but he may have to work. We see various characters as they all come or go from school. Candice and Clyde argue while Eric and Joanne run for their test.

Teacher Kelly talks about forensic anthropology, and his favorite student is Lisa. They all go to the lab to see some skeletal remains; it’s their group assignment. They need to photograph and investigate the bones and report back. They all screw around, and we can see who does and doesn’t take it seriously.

In the midst of the examination of the plastic bones, they find a real one. They’re interrupted by the police and ambulance; Jill was killed last night. The detective explains how many times Jill was stabbed. Laurie’s the coroner, and she talks to the class about seeing anything last night. Lisa was the last to see Jill, but she says she didn’t see anything weird. In reality, she saw Clyde outside the library last night. Candace thinks Clyde is the killer, and he takes offense to that.

Lisa and Brent bond in the parking lot. Clyde sits in his car, but he’s not moving. Brent finds finger bones next to his own car when he leaves. That night, the masked killer stabs Eric and Joanna.

Sheriff Bracco comes to Kelly to talk. Kelly’s father died in an accident a year ago, but Kelly still wonders about the “accident.” The sheriff gets called to the diner, where they’ve found Clyde’s body. All the students, especially Candice, suspects everyone, and she has lots of theories.

Patty, Brent, Candace, and Lisa find Eric and Joanna’s body. Patty finds a bone in her apron– could creepy janitor Carl have put it there? What about old Bob, the weird guy from class? Brent calls Bob, who sounds pretty creepy on the phone. Candace tells the gang about Kelly’s family history– his grandfather was probably a murderer, and his father died mysteriously last year.

The four students go out to the country to find Kelly, who lives in a big mansion with an unlocked door. They go inside and find the power is off. Outside, the killer smashes Patty. Brent gets pushed through a window, Candace gets stabbed off-screen, and Lisa runs outside, terrified, as the killer closes in on her.

Lisa finds Kelly tied up in the garage and lets him loose. They go into the house for his car keys, and the killer stabs him. Lisa asks why he’s doing all this, and the killer takes off his mask, revealing Laurie, the coroner. “Why not?” She complains about being sick of the same old routine, and she just wanted to have some fun for once. She says she was the wife of the man who was cheating in the pre-credit sequence. The best part is that she’ll be the one put in charge of the investigation.

Brent sneaks in from outside and whacks Laurie good. Naturally, she jumps up to scare everyone, but then Bob shows up out of nowhere and shoots her half a dozen times. Kelly will probably survive the stab wounds, and Brent and Lisa thank Bob, who was secretly Kelly’s uncle. Brent and Lisa kiss. Happy ending?

We cut to the coroner’s assistant, who picks up the mask in a creepy way…

Brian’s Commentary

It’s quite good. There are a lot of characters, but they are all distinctive, and most die off pretty quickly. The acting is decent all around, and we’re never quite sure why the killer is doing what he’s doing or who he is until the end.

It’s got all the usual slasher/kill-the-teen elements, but it’s really well done and has a few unique elements thrown in. I liked it!

Kevin’s Commentary

Hiding bones in a bunch of bones and planting bones and manipulating bones. Yes, this one is about the bones. And people getting bumped off gradually by a masked killer. This was a very good one. Fresh and interesting.

2025 Borderline

* Directed by: Jimmy Warden

* Written by: Jimmy Warden

* Stars: Samara Weaving, Ray Nicholson, Eric Dane

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s got plenty of dark humor, but it’s mostly taken fairly seriously with a body count. Ray Nicholson really makes the movie with his portrayal of crazy. The whole thing is put together very well, and we both liked it a lot.

Spoilery Synopsis

Paul and Sofia are getting married– no, that’s the ending. We zip back to the beginning of the story as the credits roll.

It’s 1990-something, and Sofia is a famous pop star with her face plastered everywhere. Paul comes to her door, and wants to propose to Sofia, but Bell, the head of her security team, warns him to leave. Yes, Paul is a celebrity stalker, and this has happened before, so much so that he knows the security man’s name and personal details. They go through a whole routine where Bell pretends to be Sofia, and Paul proposes to him. This ends up with Bell getting stabbed. Paul lets himself into the house and helps himself to all Sofia’s facilities.

Six months later, Sofia’s dating Rhodes, a famous basketball player. He has her confused with Madonna and Cindi Lauper. Bell shows up, and it turns out that he’s Sofia’s father. Paul goes home to his adopted daughter and says he’s ready to return to work. She says “He called again.” We cut to someone new, J.H., who seems to be running errands for Paul.

We hear about a mental patient who has escaped from the asylum. Paul and another prisoner, Penny, killed two people on the way out. When Sofia gets home, Bell tells her about Paul’s escape. Rhodes talks to Paul about his injuries a while back.

Rhodes finds out he’s just another conquest on Sofia’s sex list and takes it personally. She’s been using him for publicity reasons. Outside, the new security guard finds a big crate in the driveway and suddenly, the lights go out. Penny then makes short work of the guard– she beats him to death with a microwave oven.

Rhodes leaves in a huff, but the guard isn’t there to open the gate for him. Inside, Paul gets into the house and menaces Sofia. Rhodes turns the power back on just as Paul gives Sofia a big, creepy hug.

Paul goes home to Eleanor and Abby, his family. Eleanor saw someone creepy outside not long ago, but she got an incompetent singing cop who was easily killed by J.H. J.H. takes all three of the family to Sofia’s place. Along the way, J.H. and Paul get out of the car and J.H. shoots him.

Paul tells Sofia that they’re getting married soon. He introduces Sofia to Penny, who’s as crazy as he is. They have a bit of a “crazy montage” as they get ready for “the wedding.” Rhodes finally gets back inside, and Sophia whacks him over the head with a guitar. Penny comes in, and instead of killing anyone, wants to sing a duet on the piano. This goes badly for both of them, but mostly for Penny.

Morning comes, and Bell wakes up on the side of the road. Kaylor, Sophia’s assistant, has found him; J.H. can only see out of one eye and can’t shoot straight, so he survived. He’s back on the case.

Everyone else has gone to Pastor Lutzner's church for the wedding. Bell figures it out and calls the police. At the church, Paul gets confused again and brings in Rhodes in the wedding gown to marry; he likes Rhodes better than Sofia. Bell shows up just in time to give away the bride.

J.H. points out that Paul’s not marrying Sofia, he’s got a black man in a dress. Paul looks confused and then proceeds with the marriage. When they get to the “Object” part of the wedding, Sofia stands up and objects. Paul isn’t listening. As the wedding concludes, Paul stabs Rhodes. Everyone scuffles as Sofia takes the knife away.

J.H. takes Abby as a hostage until Rhodes stands up and cuts his throat. Paul still sees himself in a happy wedding scene even as they load him into a police car. Everyone’s happy now, even Paul, who is completely delusional on the way back to the asylum. At least at first as we see him struggle hard to stay smiling.

Brian’s Commentary

The trailer made this out to be a lot more of a comedy than it was. There were a few funny bits, but it’s more serious than not until the very end. Paul is a funny maniac, but he is a maniac; the film has a decent body count. It’s roughly based on a true story that involved Madonna in the 90’s, and there are a lot of nods to that.

Ray Nicholson is Jack’s son, and the resemblance between them is amazing and obvious. He plays “crazy” quite well. Samara Weaving is fine here, although Ray is the one who really steals the show.

Fun!

Kevin’s Commentary

I thought this was very entertaining. And I felt so bad for Paul in the closing credits as his happy state of mind that he’s riding in the back of a limo in love starts to crack. It’s worth checking out for sure.

2025 Abraham’s Boys A Dracula Story

* Directed by: Natasha Kermani

* Written by: Natasha Kermani, Joe Hill

* Stars: Titus Welliver, Brady Hepner, Judah Mackey

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 29 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

About eighteen years after the events of “Dracula,” Dr. Van Helsing has married Mina, had two sons, and moved with the family to an isolated area in California to get away from it all. But of course, the past is hard to leave behind. This was an interesting take on vampires, heavy on family drama and suspense, and we were both entertained.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open in California, 1915, 18 years after the death of Count Dracula, where a woman tries to get a ride into town. As the sun starts to go down, someone grabs her, and the screams suddenly stop. Credits roll.

We cut to Abraham Van Helsing who greets Mina, his wife. Their sons, Rudy and Max are outside working. Abraham tells Max that he’s learned that they can’t hide forever. He’s vague, but they’re going to need to be prepared for something.

That night, Mina tells Max that “The devil is coming and I want to be ready for him.” She seems… upset. Abraham tells Max about their strange adventure 18 years ago and what happened to Mina; she was infected, and that still bothers her. They fled to California to build their family, but now the threat has followed them here. If there are vampires in the area, they may be drawn to Mina because they are all connected.

Elsie brings an injured man; Eddie was hurt working on the new rail tracks coming into the area. Dr. Van Helsing uses what looks like a butter knife to release the pressure on his lung so he can breathe. Inside, a bat gets into the house, and Mina doesn’t take it well. Rudy asks Max if he believes in “Father’s creatures.” They both doubt the existence of vampires, but Rudy’s heard crying and scratching at night.

The next day, Elsie brings them cookies as a thank you; Eddie will live. Mina warns her about hungry things in the night, and she doesn’t mean the railroad men. When Max has trouble with his algebra homework, Mina talks about Dracula’s cold breath on her cheek.

That night, we see someone outside in the nearby woods. Max comes downstairs and sees his mother being bitten by Nosferatu– nope, just a nightmare.

The next day, Mina takes ill for no apparent reason. Abraham talks Max through the process to do a blood transfusion to re-energize Mina.

The boys sneak into Abraham’s office and find a hidden basement. There’s someone down there who wants out.

Abraham comes in and kills the woman, who we saw in the pre-credit sequence. Abraham then has no choice other than to detail his life’s work. He’s killed thirteen of the undead and trained others. He explains that the woman was in the process of becoming a vampire after being attacked in the hills. He hands Max a stake and a mallet. Max asks about her fangs, and is told that the fangs vanish when the vampire is dead. He wants Rudy to cut off the woman’s head, and that doesn’t go well. Abraham may not be Father of the Year.

Abraham shows the boys how to defend the house against vampires as Mina gets more and more sickly. Max meets Elsie and they talk about his mother. Max wonders if Abraham’s treatments might be making Mina worse.

Mina dies, and there’s a funeral. Max dreams about Mina and Dracula. Arthur Holmwood, an old friend of Abraham and Mina’s, arrives. He, too, doubts what they did all those years ago, and he knows why Abraham is really in California. “What if we made a mistake?” He thinks Abraham turned him against Lucy, that she wasn’t a monster after all. Arthur leaves after an argument.

Max accuses his father of being insane, “There’s nothing out there!” Abraham then stabs him in the hand and throws him into the dungeon. Max soon breaks out, grabs his axe, and starts looking for his father, who has grabbed Rudy and run off.

Meanwhile, Elsie is in the railroad camp, and she talks to Henry, who goes suddenly quiet when he steps out of the camp. Henry comes out of the woods holding a bloody neck, and then a man in black grabs Elsie– it's Abraham! He insists that Rudy drive a stake through Elsie’s heart. Rudy turns around and stakes his father in the belly instead, which just angers him. Max comes up from behind and finishes him off with the axe. Elsie runs off.

Max and Rudy ride off, leaving their home behind. They pass Elsie and Eddie on the way out of the area.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s more of a family drama than a real horror story, but obviously it fits here. After a while, we were questioning whether Van Helsing was a monster hunter or serial killer. We eventually get down to the truth, as Max learns to understand his father.

It’s an interesting take on the vampire story. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I did find it entertaining.

Kevin’s Commentary

At first I thought it was going to be a standard vampire tale, and as it unfolded I kept waiting for the vampires to show up. Not only are there no vampires here, but it leaves you wondering if there were really vampires in Dracula. It’s on the slow moving side, but I didn’t mind a bit.

Short Films:

2023 Short Film Detox

* Directed by: Alex Hanno

* Written by: Alex Hanno, Wes Hopper

* Stars: Caitlin Morris, Bill Prokopow

* Run Time: 9 Minutes

* Watch it:

What Happens

Shelly spends too much time with technology, so she wants 48 hours away from her phone, a “digital detox.” She rents a house, turns off her phone, and listens to the soothing voice of the instructor telling her how to be calm without the constant input of her phone.

Then again, maybe she really needs that phone…

Commentary

I picked the wrong day to stop surfing Reddit/Twitter/HorrorGuys.

We all want to do this so badly, but we fear what we’re going to miss. This well filmed, nice-looking, briefly paced film shows us that we were right. We will miss something.

Very funny!

2020 Short Film The Teachers

* Directed by: Jaclyn Blythe

* Written by: Jaclyn Blythe

* Stars: Keith Gallucci, Taylor Behrens, Jaclyn Blythe

* Run Time: 8 Minutes

* Watch it:

What Happens

Three experienced teachers throw a small dinner party for the new guy. He’s nervous but wants to fit in with his new colleagues. They start complaining about their students, as all teachers do, but when one particularly problematic kid comes up, the old guard has a unique way of dealing with it.

Commentary

Every teacher thinks about this at one time or another, but very few actually follow through on their responsibilities. Every person new to a job or career needs good mentors and advisors, and Alex is lucky enough to have some good ones!

2016 Short Film The Sound of Blue, Green, and Red

* Directed by: Joshua Erkman

* Written by: Joshua Erkman, Star Rosencrans

* Stars: Dasha Nekrasova, Michael Villar

* Run Time: 10 Minutes

* Watch it:

What Happens

A woman sits in a motel room in the desert. She watches TV, sits by the pool, and wanders around. Suddenly, the TV gets filled with colors, and it seems almost hypnotic. Afterward, she starts behaving strangely. Meanwhile, her husband is out driving around and looking for her.

Commentary

This is a weird one, and I have to admit I don’t completely understand it. It looks great, the sound is excellent, and I was left wanting more. Excellently done!

2016 Short Film La Cena

* Directed by: Karim Shaker

* Written by: Karim Shaker, Pablo Schulmann

* Stars: Fonsi Liebana, Silvia Segovia, Jordi Estupina

* Run Time: 10 minutes 13 seconds

* Watch it:

What Happens

One young couple goes to have dinner with another couple as they discuss possibly adopting a child. The child’s mother, on the other hand, has different ideas. Things may not be quite as they seem.

Commentary

The situation is awkward and uncomfortable. You know you’d want to get out of there after the encounter with the mother, but they want the child badly enough to stick around. Sometimes, getting what you want isn’t all it's cracked up to be.

Contact Info:

Email: mailto:[email protected]

Websites:

* https://www.horrorguys.com

* https://www.horrormonthly.com

* https://www.flashfright.com

We’ve got some good stuff for you this time around! A mix of new and old this time, starting with “Row” and “Osiris” from 2025. Back in 2016, we met some cannibals in “Raw.” Lastly, we’ll watch “Hellraiser: Judgment” from 2016 and “Terror of Mechagodzilla” from way back in 1975.

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #47, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2025 Row

* Directed by: Matthew Lasasso

* Written by: Matthew Lasasso, Nick Skaugen

* Stars: Sophia Skelton, Bella Dayne, Akshay Khanna

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 58 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

An expedition on a pretty small four person rowboat is meant to set a world record going across the Atlantic Ocean. We get to cheat a little and see the ending of the expedition first, then we go back and gradually see what led up to that ending. In the claustrophobic setting, things get worse and worse as things go wrong and the quartet starts turning on each other. It’s very well crafted, tense, and fascinating. We both really liked it.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a deserted-looking boat with bloodstains and wreckage everywhere. One woman is alive, clearly in shock, and there are two dead people on the deck. Credits roll.

Megan wakes up in bed, delirious, with an older man and woman there. Apparently she and the boat washed up with her the only survivor.

We cut to Newfoundland, Canada, as Daniel records his warnings and expectations about their upcoming expedition. Their four-person team plans to cross the Atlantic in a small boat, but they’re going to row all the way. Megan is going along, leaving her mother, who has terminal cancer.

Megan arrives at The Valiant and meets Mike, a new guy. Daniel and Lexi are there as well, and the four start rowing. We cut back and forth between Megan in her recovery bed and the early stages of the row. The hospital man says he’s a policeman DCI MacKelly and she’s been there for two weeks; she’s suffering from malnutrition.

On the boat, they’ve been preparing for this 28-day journey for the past two years. They’re off course, so Mike has to dive under the boat to see if something’s wrong. There’s a rubber hair band jammed in the rudder, and it’s burned out their steering motor. Daniel thinks it wasn’t an accident. The only one who was alone with the boat was Mike, but why would he do it? Mike was a replacement for Adam, who broke his leg at the last minute. Daniel insists they should push through and keep going.

On board the boat, Mike gets sick, throws up, and then gets the shivering, hallucinating kind of fever. The boat barely survives a storm and a huge wave. Megan gets an incoming satellite call from Adam, who also recently broke up with Lexi; she’s the other woman on board. Mike deliriously threatens Daniel with a knife for hiding Rachel on the boat, which is obviously not true. Daniel whacks him over the head, knocking him out.

DCI MacKelly, in the hospital, says there’s no record of anyone named Mike having anything to do with the expedition. In fact, a search by his first and last name doesn’t turn up anyone with that name existing at all.

On the boat, in the morning, Mike recovers and feels fine, but everyone else is surprisingly quiet. We get a flashback and see that Megan was the other woman in the Adam-Lexi romance. We see that Daniel is trying to call his father to dig up more information about Mike.

A wave hits and capsizes the boat; everyone goes in the water. Megan gets knocked out and nearly drowns, but everyone ends up OK except the boat’s battery, which is dead. Daniel thinks its because Mike didn’t latch the waterproof cover properly.

Somehow, they’re also short on food, which shouldn’t be possible. They only have nine days of rations left, and Lexi blames Daniel for throwing it all out. He ends up admitting it, but that may be just out of rage and not something he actually did. Mike jokes that they could throw Daniel overboard and no one would ever know. Lexi seriously considers it, but Megan is appalled at the idea.

The next day, all the water pouches are empty. That’s even worse than losing the food. Daniel again gets the blame, but he swears it had to be Mike. Mike and Lexi attack Daniel, tie him up, but Lexi bangs her head badly. She’s not dead but knocked out. Daniel says Mike killed his own girlfriend, Rachel, and is on the run from the police.

Megan has Daniel and Mike row toward a shipping lane– at knifepoint. Day 28 arrives, and they lose out on the World Record. Daniel tells mostly-unconscious Lexi all his personal problems.

Next thing we see, Lexi is dead. There’s another big wave, and Megan goes overboard again. When she gets back on, she considers cutting Daniel’s safety line loose and then just disconnects it. The current soon carries him away. She then helps Mike back on board.

Out of water and food, Megan and Mike keep on rowing. Mike tells her what happened to Rachel, who simply went missing. She admits to him that she unhooked Daniel and watched him die. He, in turn, admits that he did kill Rachel; he stabbed her during an argument. The boat rocks, and she stabs him completely by accident, a bad wound but not fatal.

At the hospital, Megan hears that one of the young men from the voyage has been recovered and will be here soon. There is tension as we wonder who it is, and they take their time showing us.

Back on the boat, they’re both starving. Mike catches a fish, but the exertion on his wounds makes him fall overboard. Megan eats the fish raw. The next day, the boat crashes at an island. She’s found not long after.

Megan in the now watches as a boat approaches the island and gets out of bed. She goes downstairs to see who it is that the police are bringing in. DCI MacKelly says he’s still got to ask the man some questions, but he doesn’t say who it is. He handcuffs Megan to the bed and mentions that they found Lexi’s body with a fatal wound to her head.

MacKelly brings the man upstairs, and it’s only Adam, broken leg and all. He doesn’t know anything about the voyage, and Megan tries to conceal her relief. Adam says the police aren’t buying her story - apparently they have found bodies. When they are alone, Adam admits that he was the one who sabotaged their rudder and food supply and water packets so that they would turn back. He didn’t plan on Daniel being so stubborn. He sticks to the story that Mike never existed and that Megan’s just insane. Mike really was on the run from killing his girl, using a false name to hide. Adam tells the cops that when he waved the boat off, there were only three people on board.

DCI MacKelly arrests Megan for two murders, Lexi and Daniel. He doesn’t believe “Mike” existed. Adam limps back outside, the real villain of the story.

Brian’s Commentary

I was immediately reminded of “The Sound” (2025), another film about a sporting activity that the filmmakers took very seriously and crammed in a little horror at the end. I found the boating stuff more interesting than the mountain climbing in the other film, but that’s not really what we signed up for. It’s clear that this one was also shooting for realism, and it succeeded there. The whole thing is fairly realistic in the way it plays out, even the way all four or five main characters interact.

The four main actors all do well, and by switching between the boat and the hospital, it doesn’t get too monotonous, which it would have if it had all been on the boat. I guessed who it was coming to the island to confront Megan fairly early, but didn’t see his reveal coming.

We both liked this one quite a bit!

Kevin’s Commentary

I thought this was gripping. And it was well done going with the flashing back and forth between the past and the present. Going into it, I was fearing tedium a little, given that it’s almost two hours long, but I was fully invested. The cast is good, the story was clever, and I would call it a win.

2025 Osiris

* Directed by: William Kaufman

* Written by: William Kaufman, Paul Reichelt

* Stars: Max Martini, Linda Hamilton, Brianna Hildebrand

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 48 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Shades of Predator, a group of soldiers is abducted from battle to wake up fully armed being hunted down by armed aliens in some kind of large facility. But the guys fight back, find a couple allies, and find out a lot more about where they are and what’s going on. Ironically the gunfighting action, which should be highly entertaining, drags on a bit here and there, and we both thought a trimming of 15 minutes or so would tighten things up. This was really good in every way except the pacing.

Spoilery Synopsis

We watch a space probe as the credits roll. We eventually pass Saturn on the way out of the solar system. The space probe is captured by… something.

We cut to a squad of soldiers on the ground. They shoot a bunch of enemies and announce that the war zone is all clear. No, they get ambushed in the street, and one of them gets shot. It’s all very intense. Suddenly, the music gets scary and the sky turns red. A spaceship appears and kills all the bad guys (the aliens are American?). Then it shoots something different, and all the American soldiers are abducted, probed, and examined.

Later, six of them wake up in slime; some kind of suspended animation process. They know things about the process that they shouldn’t; they can read a strange language. All their ammunition has been reloaded and resupplied. Kelly and Rhodie put together what happened to them, but they don’t remember much.

They start exploring the many tunnels of wherever they are. Reyes crawls through a small tunnel into another passage. They hear screams and go to check it out. They find men butchered and hanging from the ceiling. Then they find a woman hanging as well, alive, and she only speaks Russian. While they’re busy with that, an alien kills Gibbs and wreaks havoc until Rhodie shoots it with the alien’s own gun.

More aliens show up, and it’s soon a running fight. The aliens kill Reyes, but the others get away, briefly. The girl is Ravi, and she explains the situation. They are on the aliens’ spaceship, and the aliens eat meat. Human meat.

The group explores and finds pods with people trapped inside. The group all talks about where they’re from. It’s only a matter of time before the aliens find them, so they want to make a stand. This soon leads to yet another firefight, and this time, the aliens have energy shields. This just goes on and on until the guys end up in a garbage compactor full of skeletons and waste. They come across Anya, Riva’s mother, who looks like she fought a battle with a Terminator fifty years ago.

Anya asks them how long they’ve been awake. She says they were packed away in a trophy room as souvenirs. She thinks she’s been awake for 20 or 30 years. Time is hard to measure there. She knows that a 1977 NASA probe told the aliens where to find us. The map was called the “Map of Osiris,” and it was a really bad idea. They crushed Earth in a matter of weeks. The aliens captured all the best military people, turned their minds against them, and used the humans to defeat themselves.

She warns that the aliens are about to contact reinforcements, then they’ll just eat all the remaining humans. There’s only about two dozen aliens left on the ship, and the men want to fight. Kelly and Rhodie fight aliens as Anya, Ravi, and Nash plant explosives in the communications array. Rhodie goes out with a bang as Kelly runs to defend the others.

Aanya gets shot but blows up the explosives, killing lots of aliens and preventing the transmission. Kelly, Nash, and Riya are all that’s left. Kelly gets knocked out and dreams about his daughter and the alien invasion. Just as he’s about to be executed, Nash comes out of nowhere and shoots the baddies.

Kelly releases dozens of prisoners who run away. Nash cheers about how they did it, and then immediately dies. The big leader alien comes in and seems to want to fight Kelly with knives, of all things. Kelly, on the other hand, uses the fast-moving doors to his advantage and cuts the alien in half.

Kelly and Riya find an exit and see that they’re in the ruins of Paris after the apocalypse, on a spaceship that’s not currently in space.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s a mash-up of a bunch of other soldiers-vs-aliens stories, and it’s overall pretty good. It’s a little draggy, especially during the battles, which is odd. There’s lots of running and shooting in tunnels, and we don’t really get any kind of explanation until Linda Hamilton shows up an hour into the movie.

The aliens are simply one-dimensional monsters with guns, looking all monstrous, and there’s nothing much more to say. At one point, I said they looked “Like Adult Mutant Ninja Turtles,” and never got past that.

This feels like someone played a video game and then wrote a script from what happened. It’s OK, but far from great, and it would have been better with 20 minutes less of it.

Kevin’s Commentary

It’s very good, not quite great. As previously mentioned, a little trimming would have improved it. There were also a lot of people getting shot at with heavy weapons while out in the open and avoiding the bullets, which I kept having to work to ignore. But I liked the cast, the effects were great, and there was a decent story. Overall, I liked it quite a bit.

2016 Raw

* Directed by: Julia Ducournau

* Written by: Julia Ducournau

* Stars: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This has a little bit of a slow start as the characters are set up, and we all endure an excessive amount of hazing. But once things get going, they get going well and it’s a pretty fine movie with lots of gore and ick moments. We both liked it, Brian more so than Kevin.

Spoilery Synopsis

A car drives down a deserted street and then crashes to avoid hitting someone who has jumped into the road. Credits roll.

Justine is in the cafeteria, and she’s clearly a vegetarian. She almost gets a meatball in her dinner and her mother reacts strongly. They soon drop her off at school and leave her there.

The first night in the dorm, her room gets invaded by her roommate, Adrien, and then a bunch of men in masks, here to haze them. Dozens and dozens of new students are trotted downstairs by the screaming maniacs and made to crawl on their hands and knees to a big party.

It’s quite a big dance party, and Justine would just as soon not be there. She’s grown up very sheltered, and this is all new to her. She runs into her older sister from home, Alexia. Alex takes her to the pictures of the old sororities, and they see their mother in one of the photos and their dad.

The next day, we see the students intubate a horse. The whole crowd gets blood dumped on them. It’s pledge week, and they’re all pledges. Then they make everyone eat rabbit kidneys, but Justine insists that she’s a vegetarian. She eats it but soon vomits it right back up.

That night, in bed, Justine notices that she has a weird, itchy rash. She goes to see the nurse, who asks all kinds of sexual questions. Eventually, she says it’s probably some kind of food poisoning. She hasn’t felt right since the raw rabbit kidney.

Justine steals a burger patty from the cafeteria. She doesn’t know why. Adrien thinks that’s weird, and so does she. He takes her out for some bread and shawarma. She’s a meat-eater now, and she’s really eager about it.

She helps Adrien with a test, gets called out by the professor, and then pukes up a huge hairball. Alex and Justine get drunk and pee all over themselves. Alex then bikini waxes Justine, and that goes badly; Alex loses a finger and passes out. As she waits for an ambulance, Justine can’t find any ice to pack the finger in, so she… eats it like a chicken wing. Halfway through, Alex wakes up and sees what’s going on.

The hospital brings in their parents. They blame the dog for eating the finger and there’s nothing else to be done, so the parents soon go home. Alex and Justine walk home down an isolated road, where Alex jumps out and makes a car crash - like we saw in the opening scene. She’s done this before. Alex opens the car door and takes a bite out of the mortally wounded man inside. It’s not just Justine who craves meat.

In class, they have to dissect dogs, and Justine works with Adrien. Later she starts to notice just how tasty he looks with his shirt off. Still, he’s her roommate and gay, so she tries to ignore that.

Justine walks to the wrong place and gets doused in blue paint as another stupid hazing event. She then has to make out with a yellow painted man until they are green. She bites his lip instead. She goes home and has sex with her supposed-to-be-gay roommate, Adrien. She keeps trying to bite him, but he keeps pushing her head back. She ends up biting herself for satisfaction.

There’s another party that night, and Justine gets really, really drunk. She’s all over the men at the party until Alex pulls her into the school’s morgue. We don’t see what happens next.

The next day, Adrien shows her video footage of what happened last night. Alex made Justine bite a corpse for the camera. This results in a very bitey girlfight outside the building as everyone films with their cameras.

The horn sounds, and pledge week is finally over.

Justine wakes up next to Adrien, who turns out to be dead and half-eaten. What did she do last night? Maybe she didn’t– she finds Alex in the room holding a bloody ski pole that she used to stab him with.

Later, Justine visits Alex in prison with her parents. Her father assures her that it’s not her fault or Alex’s. Their mother is very special. He opens his shirt, and he’s just covered in bite marks and scars.

“I’m sure you’ll find a solution, honey.”

Brian’s Commentary

French universities are weird. That’s the first thing I learned here. The whole hazing thing is and always has been ridiculous.

The first hour is slow getting to the point, especially all the school hazing nonsense, but once it gets going, it really amps up the ick pretty quickly.

It’s pretty awesome!

Kevin’s Commentary

I could tolerate that first initiation incident when the upperclassmen raid the freshman rooms, dump their beds out the window, and herd them all to a party being acceptable to all involved and the folks running the school. But I found myself growing annoyed by the hazing that kept going on to the point of b******t and distraction. Other than that, it was a very fine movie, full of gore and good acting and character development. Especially gore. I’d give it a strong, but not quite solid, thumbs up.

2018 Hellraiser: Judgment

* Directed by: Gary J. Tunnicliffe

* Written by: Clive Barker, Gary J. Tunnicliffe

* Stars: Damon Carney, Randy Wayne, Alexandra Harris

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 21 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Here we get to see some of the workings of Hell with other characters in the process besides the Cenobites, plus we get our first heavenly creature of the series and the lines between good and evil get blurred. It’s the tenth in the original series, and probably the last because things got rebooted. It’s not the best of them, but not the worst either, about in the middle.

Spoilery Synopsis

Pinhead and The Auditor talk about the 21st century and the changes it’s brought. Technology has advanced, but humans still sin. Elsewhere, a homeless man, Watkins, gets a message offering to help him. He goes inside a run down house and ends up tied to a chair. The Auditor assures that he knows Watkins’ crimes, and offers him a reward. He quickly makes Watkins confess to murdering and raping children, typing them out into words with Watkin’s blood as the ink.

Next, The Assessor comes in, and he’s got the tears of children in a bottle. They taste goooood. He eats The Auditor’s report and then vomits it right back up into a basin. Three scarred women, the jury, then dig in the vomit and pronounce Watkins “Guilty.” Bad things happen after that. Credits roll.

A woman goes home to find someone in her house that wants to make a lesson out of her. Two detectives arrive soon after to check out her body. Detective Christine Edgerton comes in and interrupts the first two, who are brothers, Sean and David. “The Preceptor” is a serial killer that they’ve all been following. They watch as a little dog digs its way out of the corpse.

Sean goes home to see his very unhappy wife, Alison. Meanwhile David fills in Christine about The Preceptor. We get a detecting montage. They soon get called to a new crime scene, full of the hands and eyes of four thieves. After a little research, they go to Watkins’ apartment.

Sean finds an address, and it’s the place where we saw Watkins tortured a while back. He, too, finds himself tied up in front of The Auditor. Soon, Sean is confessing his sins. The Assessor comes in, as before, and eats the report. This time, however, it makes his mouth bleed and he can’t finish it. He vomits up what little he had, and the Jury can’t handle it either. Upset, The Auditor talks to a glowing woman who tells him to release Sean. He then goes to report to Pinhead, who discovers that Sean has already escaped– with a puzzle box.

Sean picks up his brother David and goes back to the house, which is now completely deserted. There’s no sign that anyone has ever been there, and Sean won’t explain to David why. That night, Sean dreams of the Cenobites. This leads to weird sex with his wife, who has no idea what’s going on.

David and Christine talk about how weird Sean has been acting since he got back from the war. She says the higher-ups in the department are concerned that Sean’s losing his mind over this case.

The medical examiner calls, They found the dead woman’s phone lodged inside her (it wasn’t just the dog), so they have some GPS coordinates from where she died. This leads Sean and Christine to the killer’s lair, and there are photos of all the victims there.

They find a photo of David with Sean’s wife, and then Sean beats up Christine, who wasn’t supposed to see that. Yes, Sean’s been the killer all along. David comes along, and Sean pulls his gun on him. Sean calls Alison, his wife, to join them. Sean explains his motivations and then hands David the puzzle box, ordering them to open it.

Pinhead shows up. Sean offers David and Alison to him in exchange for his freedom. Pinhead and The Auditor explain that’s not how this all works. Hooks and chains pop out of the walls, and now Sean’s a prisoner. David and Alison get taken away quickly, “Amateurs,” mocks Pinhead. But he’ll give them some suffering because Sean is such a prize.

Suddenly, Jophiel, the angel, shows up. She wants Sean released, making a mess of things. God needs there to be evil so that good can exist. Pinhead’s not eager to comply. She clarifies that Sean’s not being forgiven, just used. Suddenly, Sean’s back in the real world. BOOM! Christine shoots him repeatedly; she wasn’t dead after all.

Jophiel accuses Pinhead of knowing that would happen, and he doesn’t deny it. He turns the hooks and chains on her and then puts some of his “pins” in her forehead. He tears her apart. “You probably should not have done that,” quips The Auditor.

Pinhead gets banished back to the mortal world. We see him on the street as a homeless man…

Brian’s Commentary

So it appears that there’s a whole bureaucracy behind Pinhead and Hell, and we get to see some of it here with the Assessor, Auditor, Jury, and the rest. They recast Pinhead again, but we don’t really get very much of him in this. He’s much better than the previous guy, but he’s still no Doug Bradley.

The mystery isn’t really much of a mystery, and we never really care about any of the characters. The behind-the-scenes of Hell makes this one interesting, but it doesn’t look like we’ll get another sequel since they rebooted the series instead of continuing.

It’s not the worst of the bunch, but it’s not great. I’d put it at probably 4th or 5th best of the series after 1,2,3, and maybe 9.

Kevin’s Commentary

I, too, would put it at about my 5th favorite of the series. The re-recasting of Pinhead is an improvement; the effects are good, and the story is decent. I did find myself caring about characters. I was entertained throughout.

1975 Terror of Mechagodzilla

* Directed by: Ishiro Honda, Jun Fukuda

* Written by: Yukiko Takayama

* Stars: Katsuhiko Sasaki, Tomoko Ai, Akihiko Hirata

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 19 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Mechagodzilla was destroyed in the last movie, but those pesky aliens that built it are back. They found the pieces and rebuilt it even stronger and better. With another big critter in the mix this time too, will Godzilla be able to save the day? Will humanity give the aliens the boot once again? You can probably guess how things come out in the end. It’s more of the same as before, not quite as well put together as some of the previous ones, but still pretty good.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on scenes from the previous film, reminding us about what Mechagodzilla is as credits roll. We also get a reminder of just how bloody the previous film was.

We cut to a submarine, diving deep to find the wreckage of Mechagodzilla. Meanwhile, a strange woman sits on the beach but can see what’s happening with the sub in her mind’s eye. They can’t find it– the wreckage is gone! They do, however, run into some kind of giant creature down there that destroys the sub.

At Interpol, the experts discuss the loss of the sub. There are photos of flying saucers that may have been involved. Akira is a marine biologist who’s been brought in to help. Could the sub have been wrecked by… a dinosaur? The alien leaders, also from the previous film, talk about how stupid humans are. They talk about recruiting Dr. Mafune, a disgruntled human, to assist their plan. He was a promising scientist until he claimed he could control Titanosaurus, a type of dinosaur that no one believed existed. He’s been an outcast ever since.

Akira and his friend Wakayama go to find Dr. Mafune who lives in a “haunted house” that the locals avoid. Mafune’s daughter Katsura comes to the door, and she says the old doctor died five years ago. She’s the one we saw on the beach earlier. She says she doesn’t know anything, and the two men don’t believe her.

We cut to Dr. Mafune and the alien leader’s bearded second-in-command, Tsuda, drinking a toast to the Titanosaurus control device being finished. They all go down to the secret alien lab beneath the ground, and they see Mechagodzilla there being rebuilt and repaired. Supreme Leader Mugal wants to use Mafune’s dinosaur control device on the big robot.

Akira goes back to Katsura and talks about her father’s work. He says they’re preparing another sub, and she warns him not to be on it. Later, Tsuda reminds her who saved her life a few years back, and then we get a flashback showing us what happened.

Tsuda tells Katsura to make Titanosaurus attack the sub, and the big monster is soon chasing it. The sub uses ultrasonic weapons to make the monster flee.

Matsura and her father discuss Titanosaurus’s weaknesses. Akira and Wakayama discuss the possibility that their enemies may be from Black Hole Planet Three. Katsura takes some of her father’s notebooks to Akira to discuss, and they have tea. He tells them all their plans, and she relays that to the baddies. Old Dr. Mafune is tired of helping the aliens, and he thinks Titanosaurus could defeat Mechagodzilla in a fight.

Titanosaurus comes ashore and everyone panics. Wakayama spots Katsura there, where she shouldn’t be and suspects that she’s in league with the aliens. The aliens, on the other hand, want to see Titanosaurus fight the real Godzilla. The two monsters will fight and use all their strength on each other, and nothing will be able to stop their attack on Tokyo with Mechagodzilla.

Godzilla shows up very quickly to defend Tokyo, and the two dinosaur-like creatures do what they do best: fight. Katsura gets caught by soldiers and is shot, which makes her father call off the attack for now. Except we see that she’s a robot and simply in need of repair. It turns out, she personally is the Titanosaurus control device, and she’s being upgraded to control Mechagodzilla as well.

Akira is taken prisoner and meets all the bad guys. Katsura activates Mechagodzilla, and he rises up out of the lair. The Interpol agents are right outside, and they sneak in just before the place self-destructs.

In Tokyo, Mechagodzilla and Titanosaurus both attack the city in an orgy of destruction (their words, not mine). Godzilla shows up just in time to save some kids, and the tag-team battle is on! The pair gang up on Godzilla, shoot him repeatedly, and then bury him.

The Interpol scientists fly in a helicopter with an ultrasonic device that distracts Titanosaurus, just as Godzilla rises up to blast Mechagodzilla.

Meanwhile, the alien’s base is under attack, and Akira has slipped his bonds. He kills Tsuda and pulls off his artificial face. Katsura pulls a pistol on Akira, but the Interpol agent shoots her first, much to Akira’s disappointment. Her father dies, and she begs Akira to destroy her, which will deactivate the creatures outside. She ends up shooting herself.

Outside, Godzilla rips off Mechagodzilla’s head once again, but this time, it’s just a mask and there’s another head inside. Godzilla tears up what’s left of Mechagodzilla.

The alien leader escapes in his flying saucer, but Godzilla shoots it down. Godzilla kills Titanosaurus and then wades back out into the ocean.

Brian’s Commentary

This is the final movie of what’s called the “Showa Era,” and there wouldn’t be any more Godzilla movies for nearly a decade.

This one took a little too long to get to the guys in rubber suits. It’s almost an hour before Tokyo gets attacked, and what we see before that is very brief. Still, it’s a direct continuation of the previous film, and it’s a decent wrap-up of the “Black Hole Planet Three” plotline.

Kevin’s Commentary

I thought the pacing was a bit off in this one. There was a long stretch of people doing stuff, but it seemed a little clunky this time around. Then it gets to some creature battles of course. The alien helmets were especially impressive. It was okay, I thought, not my favorite and not a strong finish to the era.

Short Films:

2025 Short Film Turing Test

* Directed by: Jaschar Marktanner

* Written by: Jaschar Marktanner

* Stars: Marlene Fahnster, Richard Lingscheidt, Özen Fidan

* Run Time: 6:28

* Watch it: Not Yet– It’s coming soon!

What Happens

Two emotionless people discuss an upcoming demonstration that they hope will be a success. They both seem a little… off, almost robotic in nature. Every once in a while, one of them will say something completely unrelated to the situation. Could one of them just possibly be an artificial intelligence?

Commentary

Is the Turing test all it’s cracked up to be?

It’s probably more sci-fi than horror, but wherever that ending is heading is more scary than any slasher. The acting here is very good, as for a good while, we’re not sure who is human and who isn’t. Sometimes the machines are smarter than they let on…

Contact Info:

Email: mailto:[email protected]

Websites:

* https://www.horrorguys.com

* https://www.horrormonthly.com

* https://www.flashfright.com

Nothing brand new this time around. We’ll watch a couple from last year, “I Don’t Understand You” and “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (2024). We’ll go way back for a thoughtful man-monster in “The Colossus of New York” (1958) and then do a serial killer film with “Found” (2012). Finally, we’ll wrap-up the original zombie trilogy with “Day of the Dead” (1985), which for some reason, we haven’t done before.

And, as always, we’ll have five short films.

* The latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #47, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com

Mainstream Films:

2024 I Don’t Understand You

* Directed by: David Joseph Craig, Brian Crano

* Written by: David Joseph Craig, Brian Crano

* Stars: Nick Kroll, Andrew Rannells, Amanda Seyfried

* Run Time: 1 Hour 37 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This is heavy on the comedy and light on the horror elements, with language barriers and misunderstandings leading to unfortunate outcomes. It’s not very scary, but it’s a lot of fun and we really enjoyed it.

Spoilery Synopsis

Dom and Cole are a gay couple recording a video about adoption. It’s essentially a video application for the mother to choose them. It’s a lot harder than it sounds. After, they pack up and go on a vacation to Rome as credits roll.

In Rome, the two go sightseeing. Dom is clearly obsessive, and Cole is well aware of it. They stop in to visit one of Dom’s father’s friends. They are given engraved knives as gifts - Cole’s is misspelled “Cool.” Cole doesn’t eat meat, which is weird in Rome. They talk about being scammed at one adoption attempt. The family friend, Daniele, has arranged a special dinner for them tomorrow night– and tells them to “Be careful.”

The two arrive at their hotel in the country. The man at the hotel gets flustered when two men come in together and spreads their beds apart not realizing they are a couple. He soon realizes the error of his ways. Candace, the potential baby-donor, calls them on Facetime. She likes their video and has chosen them to be the fathers of her child. They’re overjoyed.

They go to a farmhouse out in the countryside, an exclusive restaurant, where an old woman has promised to make them a special dinner. When the car gets stuck, it’s clear that this isn’t where they’re supposed to be. The truck who stops to help is the owner of the property, and he’s not happy. They ride along with the man, who stops to shoot a deer. He drops them off at… a place.

They knock on the door, and a strange old woman answers. She invites them in. Turns out, this is where they were supposed to go in the first place. They have pizza and wine. When they kiss, she throws a fit about the wine being bad, and they misunderstand why she’s angry because she only speaks Italian. Cole’s a vegetarian, but it’s only polite that he try the horsemeat sausage pizza.

The old woman goes into a long story about her son dying and her closing her restaurant. It’s been wonderful cooking for these two men, and she appreciates it. It’s all very nice, but they don’t have a clue what she’s saying. Dom reminds her of the dead son. Cole gets ill and has to puke, leaving Dom alone with the creepy woman. She offers him a clean, dry shirt.

Cole finds an old man in an iron lung machine and gets freaked out. Suddenly, the lights go out, and the old woman runs to the breathing machine. In the dark, Cole accidentally pushes the old woman down the stairs, killing her. Dom tries CPR and hears bones snap.

Someone drives up in a car. The man comes in and wants Dom’s car keys. He might be trying to tow the car. The power comes back on; should they call for help? The man comes back; he’s Massimo, and he’s rescued their car. He’s the old woman’s son, and he wonders where his mama is. He thanks them for cheering up his mother, who has been very depressed.

They boys run outside to the car and run into Francesca. They have to go back inside, and Massimo wonders why Dom is wearing his dead brother’s shirt and he insists they stay for a drink. Massimo sees messages from Candace on Dom’s phone and smiles “You’re going to be dead!” although he’s just mispronouncing “Dad.” Cole runs inside and stabs Massimo in the neck, thinking it’s self defense. As he falls to the floor, he sees his dead mother under the table.

Dom’s phone rings. It’s Candace, but they’re both covered in blood. They clean up fast. She’s going into labor, right now. Francesca stumbles in and sees Cole holding a knife over Massimo. She runs outside, and he chases her. Dom gets in the car and accidentally runs her over. “This has to be the last one,” Cole points out. At some point, Cole drops his bloody “Cool” engraved knife outside.

Cole notices the big pizza oven in the kitchen. Could they use that to dispose of the bodies? Suddenly, the old woman sits up and Cole kills her again. They burn the bodies and clean up the blood. They get into their car and drive away. As they argue about seat belts, they run over the angry neighbor from earlier.

In the morning, the police arrive at the house. The detectives got a call from the neighbor’s wife. They find the bones in the oven. The old man in the iron lung dies before telling them anything useful. They find a knife with the word “Cool” on it and proclaim they can trace that.

Dom and Cole get to the airport and rush through the process as the police close in behind them. They get stopped by the police; but it’s only because Cole left his passport behind.

Back in Pittsburgh, the guys stop at the hospital and visit Candace and the baby. They decide to name the baby Giovanni after the one character in Rome they didn’t kill.

Later, Dom and Cole record another video, trying to get another child. The application asks about how it went when they picked up their first child. Happy ending!

The police arrest Daniele for murdering the old woman and her whole family.

Brian’s Commentary

Gay tourists who don’t speak the local language. What could go wrong? Worst anniversary ever! It’s all a comedy of errors and miscommunications– a very bloody one. It’s no “Tucker and Dale Versus Evil” (2010), but it’s done along the same lines.

It’s pretty mild as far as the horror elements go, it’s much more of a comedy. It’s good though, and it all makes sense. I liked it!

Kevin’s Commentary

It was a good comedy, very well done, with just a little horror around the edges. Watching things go more and more off the rails, and how they do their damage control, was a lot of fun. I’d highly recommend this one

2024 Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

* Directed by: Wes Bell

* Written by: Josh Friedman, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver

* Stars: Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand

* Run Time: 2 Hours, 25 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Hundreds of years have passed since the last movie, and the apes can talk pretty well as well as sign. It has a little bit of a slow start spending time getting to know what the world is like now. Then things pick up for one ape in particular where it’s one thing after the other. This movie continues the story nicely, with effects on par with the previous movies. We both thought it was quite a good sequel.

Spoilery Synopsis

We get an on-screen text snippet that rehashes the first three films. Humans have lost their intellect and the ability to speak, and apes now rule the Earth. We open on Caesar’s funeral, just after the end of the previous film. Credits roll.

Many generations later… The world has gotten very green and all natural now. We watch a trio of apes stalking an eagle’s nest. Soona picks one of the eggs and Anaya takes the other. Noa goes without this time– but he finds another nest. That goes badly when the eagle returns. They intend to raise the birds.

When the trio get back to their horses, they notice a blanket is missing. It’s not an ape, and this scares them. They ride back to Ape Town and the children all want to see the eggs. Noa’s father, Koro, is the Master of Birds. Noa tells him and the elders about the “Echos” that may have come into the valley. They send Oda, a really big ape, to scare them away.

That night, Noa sees a human in the smokehouse, and his egg gets smashed. That’s really bad for the bonding ceremony tomorrow. He goes off in search of another egg. He finds Oda, who dies almost immediately; there are enemies coming. Sylva and Lightning, two apes from another clan, along with their masked army, ride toward Noa’s village. By the time Noa makes it home, his whole village is in flames.

Noa helps his father release all the birds before Sylva comes in. Sylva attacks both of them together, and Koro soon dies. Sylva yells, “For Caesar!”

By morning, there’s not much left of the burned village. Noa vows to save his captured people from Caesar. He rides his horse through the tunnel, into the “Forbidden” territory, which turns out to be an old, overgrown human city. The enemy apes definitely rode this way. Noa’s father’s big eagle, Sun, follows him.

He runs into an orangutan, Raka, who hates the apes in the masks, who killed his friend. Raka has books, an ancient way to store ideas, and he’s been working to understand. Raka explains who Caesar was, and the new ape who calls himself that. He talks about a time when apes and humans lived side by side, but not anymore. The original Caesar is sort of a legendary figure in Raka’s views.

As the two apes ride on, they notice a human is following them. Raka’s all about the humans, but Noa thinks they’re just scavengers. They feed the human and give it a blanket. Raka names her Nova. “We name them all Nova. I don’t know why. It’s from Caesar’s time. Caesar legend important.”

The two, now with Nova, eventually come upon a herd of primitive humans. Raka decides to stay with them and teach. As Noa rides off, he hears a horn blowing. Sylva and his goons attack the humans with nets, much as in the first film. They especially want Nova, and Noa rescues her. Even Raka gets in on the fighting. Sylva is not pleased.

In the fight, Nova calls out with Noa’s name, and it turns out she can talk and still has her full intelligence. She comes from an encampment of humans like her. Also, she says her name is Mae.

The bad apes attack the trio on a bridge, and Raka gets swept away in the river. Noa and Mae are captured and taken to a huge, rusty tanker ship that’s the main base for the bad apes. Noa reunites with Soona and his mother in the prison, and Mae is taken to an old human man, Trevaythan, who also can talk. He’s been helping the apes with technology.

Caesar, the new one anyway, comes out, wearing his crown, and he makes a big entrance. Proximus Caesar knows some of the old Caesar’s words, “Apes together strong.” He’s got all his people working on opening a huge sealed vault in the side of the mountain. Mae knows that this is the bunker where the human leaders went when the world fell apart; it’s full of old weapons and technology. Trevathan knows this, and he says it’s too late for humanity, so he helps the apes.

Noa is taken to Proximus, who’s having dinner with Mae and Trevathan. Proximus thinks the things in the vault will give him “instant evolution.” He has big plans for his kingdom, including wiping out the remaining humans.

Noa confronts Mae about why she’s really there. Mae wants a special book out of that vault; it might restore the humans’ ability to speak. He introduces her to Soona. Anaya comes along as well. Trevathan catches them mining the seawall and tells them that Proximus will just rebuild it. This results in her killing him.

Mae knows a way into the vault, a forgotten air vent. They four go in. She soon turns on the generator and powers the place up. They walk through a bunker full of tanks and weapons and then open the big doors to the outside, where Sylva, Lightning, and Proximus have Noa’s mother as hostage. Mae shoots Lightning, which impresses everyone; they don’t have guns.

Mae runs outside and blows up the seawall, flooding the beach, the apes, and the vault. The good apes all run and climb as high as they can within the silo. Sylva shows up and chases Noa all over the place. Noa tricks Sylva into a tight spot and drowns the big gorilla. Eventually, all the good apes climb up to the ventilation shaft we saw earlier.

This is where Proximus grabs Noa and throws him all over. The many other apes don’t get involved, but then Noa starts singing the song of the eagles, and the rest of the clan joins in. The big eagles swoop down and attack Proximus, who goes over the side of the cliff.

Noa and the Eagle Clan return to their land and rebuild their village. Mae stops by to talk to Noa about Raka and Caesar. He gives her Raka’s necklace, “Important.” She leaves and rides home to her people with the satellite code key thing she took from the bunker. They use it to reactivate a whole array of giant satellite dishes and call for help. They contact Fort Wayne.

Noa and Soona ride off as well, following her. They go to the observatory to look through the telescopes.

Brian’s Commentary

In the previous trilogy, Caesar did most of the talking, in this one, they all do it, and it’s a little weird. It takes place roughly 300 years after the previous film. As before, there are numerous callbacks to previous films, mostly the original.

It doesn’t have any of the characters from the previous film, as it’s intended as a new trilogy. Overall, it’s an interesting expansion on what came before, and I’m interested in seeing more.

Kevin’s Commentary

This almost felt like what could be the start of a new trilogy. The story was quite good with lots of action. The effects continue to be impressive. Being hundreds of years in the future, none of the characters from the previous movies are still around, but we get to know the new bunch easily enough. They really built those electric systems and lights in that bunker to last after sitting there idle for that long and easily coming on with the throwing of a switch - it’s best not to think about the technology aspect and pick on that, it gets worse the more you think about it. That aside, I’d give it a thumbs up.

1958 The Colossus of New York

* Directed by: Eugene Lourie

* Written by: Thelma Schnee, Willis Goldbeck

* Stars: John Baragrey, Mala Powers, Otto Kruger

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 10 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was short and moved well through the story. It’s decently made all around, a fine example of 1950s technology gone amok, mad science, and a creature threatening the city - perhaps the whole world. It’s a fun watch.

Spoilery Synopsis

Two men watch a film about industrial machinery and equipment. The film talks about Dr. Spensser’s amazing innovations. The heat sensor was Jerry’s idea, and it’s the key to the whole thing. Jerry is set to win the International Peace Prize for his work. Jerry Spensser is some kind of supergenius who’s saving the world with food technology. He hopes that war might become obsolete. They all go to Stockholm to get the prize.

On the family’s return, everyone talks about Jerry’s brilliance. His father, William, is a brain surgeon, and his brother, Henry, is an electronic and mechanical genius as well. The plane lands, and the whole family is there to greet Jerry. Billy’s toy plane blows into the street, and when Jerry runs after it, he’s run over by a truck. Jerry is killed on the spot.

The ambulance takes the body to William’s lab instead of the morgue. William operates immediately, but Dr. John says Jerry was dead already, so why the operation? He comes out later and says he did all he could.

There’s a funeral, and William storms out in the middle of it. He swears that Jerry’s brain was exceptional, a rare genius, but John talks about God’s greater purpose; this enrages the old man. They talk about brains; John believes that without a body, any brain, even a genius, would become monstrous.

Henry, Jerry’s brother, likes Jerry’s widow and son. He and Anne talk about how weird William has been since the funeral. William calls Henry downstairs, as he’s got something to show him. It’s Jeremy’s brain in a jar! He’s got an electroencephalograph, and it shows that the brain is alive and sleeping. He asks it a question, and the brain wakes up and responds on an electronic typewriter.

Yes, it’s Jeremy’s brain. William wants Henry to build a body for Jerry using his knowledge of automation. Very quickly, he assembles a huge robot body for the brain. They throw the switch, and Jeremy wakes up. When he sees himself in the mirror, he screams and passes out.

Upstairs, Anne hears the scream and rushes in to see what’s up. Henry says the scream was William, who lost his temper over a failed experiment.

Henry and William debate whether Jerry can ever be happy in that body, away from his wife and son. Henry thinks Jeremy will live in perpetual torment. William thinks he’ll be fine.

The first thing Jeremy asks is for them to destroy him. He is convinced to stay alive and keep working on the condition that no one else is ever allowed to see him.

Jeremy has a vision about a ship, The Viking, which crashes into another ship. His head starts sparking and shorting out, so William shuts him down for a rest. A bit later, they watch a news report about the ship crash, which actually happened. Somehow, Jerry now has ESP.

Henry starts to pick on the machine man, who points out how strong he is. It’s the first anniversary of Jeremy’s death, and he’s gotten very snarky and sarcastic. Jeremy now has hypnotic eyes, and he uses them on William as he leaves the lab to visit his own grave.

At the cemetery, Jeremy watches as Anne and Billy visit his grave. He ends up talking to his son, who doesn’t recognize him. Billy thinks the big robot is a giant. William had told Jeremy that his family was dead.

Later, Jeremy spies on Anne and Henry, who asks her to fly away to Hawaii with him. Anne faints when she sees Jeremy, and Jeremy scoops her up after Henry runs away.

In the morning after she wakes up in her bed, Anne tells John what she saw, but he doesn’t really believe her. Henry makes a run for it, but calls William for money; Jeremy knows exactly where Henry is thanks to his ESP abilities. He has William tell Henry where to be at a set time to receive his money.

Henry parks near the East River to wait for a messenger with his money. Jeremy, who is waterproof, walks under the water and comes up behind Henry to kill him with a death ray from his eyes that we haven’t seen before.

Jeremy no longer wants to keep the poor and weak alive; he wants to kill the people he sees as “inferior.” Feeding the masses isn’t the solution, getting rid of the masses is. When the police come to tell the family about Henry, Anne knows it was the same monster she saw.

Jeremy meets Billy again at the cemetery. He gives the boy a toy airplane like the one he died trying to retrieve. Billy later tells mom that the mysterious giant wants him to call him “Daddy.” Meanwhile, Jeremy hypnotizes William to go to the United Nations tomorrow night and to take Billy and Anne.

At the appointed time, Jeremy breaks into the United Nations and starts shooting people with his eyes. Jeremy tells Billy that he can’t control himself, and he shows Billy how to throw his permanent “off” switch. William tells John that he was right, a brain without a real body is just a monster.

Jeremy lays on the floor and dies.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s short and moves very quickly, without any filler. The creepy piano soundtrack really adds to the mood. The creature is both impressive and a little ridiculous, but it works well for this story. Most of Jeremy’s madness seems to come from sensory deprivation, a thing that was only beginning to be studied at this point in time.

Kevin’s Commentary

I was expecting this to be campier than it was. It’s actually pretty grim and serious. I appreciated that it was short and gets right to things, moving briskly to the end. It’s actually pretty tame, but there is a substantial body count of sanitary bloodless deaths. The peak of 1950s technology was cool, pushed into science fiction, doing things they still can’t do today. This was my first time seeing it, and I had a good time.

2012 Found

* Directed by: Scott Schirmer

* Written by: Todd Rigney, Scott Schirmer

* Stars: Gavin Brown, Ethan Philbeck, Phyllis Munro

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s a strange coming of age story. We find right off the bat that little Marty’s big brother is a serial killer. And the rest of the movie is watching things get worse. It’s very realistic, the effects are good, the cast all does a nice job. It’s very good.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open with Marty telling us “My brother keeps a human head in his closet. Every few days, it’s a new head.” He opens up his brother’s bowling ball bag, and we see what he means. Marty’s twelve, and big into horror movies and drawing comics. Steve, the older brother, comes home, and he’s quiet and sullen. Very graphic animated credits roll.

Mom says she has to work overtime, leaving the boys alone home with Dad. Dad and Steve clearly don’t get along, but Marty seems to do fine with the parents. At school, Marty gets bullied by Marcus. The teacher is especially mean and isn’t much help. After school, Marty runs home to snoop in his mother’s old love letters and Dad’s porn magazines before checking his brother’s bowling bag. The bag is empty today, so he tries on his brother’s gas mask.

Steve comes in, catches Marty, and yells at him. They talk about Marcus and the bullying problem. Steve says Marty needs to retaliate against the bullies but then asks who the bully is.

Later, Marty goes to a funhouse and museum to meet his friend David. They talk about the graphic novel they’re writing, and also about what happened at school that day. At home, Dad’s not happy to hear about the situation either. Marty goes to the video store and picks up a movie called “Headless,” but there’s no tape inside.

That night, the power goes out in a storm, and Marty goes into Steve’s room for a flashlight. Steve comes in, and Marty hides under the bed. Steve grabs a shovel from the closet and goes out again.

In the morning, Steve tells Marty not to worry about Marcus anymore. Marty stays home from school. David comes over and mentions that Marcus wasn’t at school today, then they watch Steve’s VHS movies, including “Headless.” It’s a little more graphic than Marty likes, since this one is unrated. It’s about a guy who puts heads in bowling bags; Marty imagines that it’s Steve in the movie.

Marty reacts badly to the movie, and then David mocks him. Marty shows him something really scary– the bag. Inside, they find Marcus’s head. David pukes and goes home. Steve comes home before Marty can put the head away. Now Steve knows that Marty knows his secret. He also knows that David knows.

Tormented, Marty goes off and burns all the comic pages he drew with David. Steve catches up with Marty, and they talk. Steve explains himself; that it’s mostly a racial thing– he only kills black people by choice. Marty thanks him for killing Marcus and they make their peace.

Mom takes Marty to a church thing, and the preacher is black. Marty wanders off in the middle, and another kid, Trevor, follows him to taunt Marty some more. Marty’s not gonna take it anymore and beats the crap out of Trevor, who totally had it coming. Marty knows he’s going to get into trouble, but he doesn’t care anymore.

Marty’s mom is not supportive, and his dad is even worse. Steve stands up for Marty, and that goes badly. They throw Steve out.

Steve comes back in the middle of the night, and he’s got his shovel with him. He tells Marty to stay in his room tonight. “I don’t want to hurt you.” As Marty tries to talk Steve out of hurting the parents, Dad catches them outside and starts yelling, and he meets Steve’s shovel. Marty gets knocked out in the scuffle

Marty wakes up tied and gagged in Steve’s room as Steve clearly is having his way with the parents, we can hear but not see the struggle. He listens as his parents scream and die. Steve comes back in, covered in blood, and promises that Marty will understand in the morning and thank him for it later.

Marty won’t stop crying, which infuriates Steve.

In the morning, Steve goes outside, naked and covered in blood, and walks down the street. We cut to Marty, still tied up in bed, book-ended by what’s left of his parents.

Brian’s Commentary

The severed heads in this are all really well done.

I love how the parents are attentive and trying to be good parents, yet they’re still completely clueless. As the movie progresses, they don’t seem like such good people anymore. The bullying situation, including multiple tattletales, also feels very real.

It’s a very slow buildup, but it never gets boring. It’s very intense, helped a lot by the moody, foreboding soundtrack.

This was really good!

Kevin’s Commentary

This was disturbingly realistic and thoroughly entertaining. It’s unique and well put together. There’s still an indie vibe here and there, but I didn’t mind it a bit. It builds nicely to a truly horrifying finish.

1985 Day of the Dead

* Directed by: George A. Romero

* Written by: George A. Romero

* Stars: Lori Cardille, Terry Alexander, Joseph Pilato

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The adventure continues years after the previous movie. The survivors are few, going crazy, and doing the best they can to get by. The practical effects are excellent, the setting is cool, and the cast does a good job. This was still very entertaining 40 years after being made.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on Dr. Sarah Bowman, who stares at the calendar. She’s not happy, but she likes the picture of the pumpkin field. Suddenly, arms reach out of the walls to grab her– no, just a nightmare. She’s actually in a helicopter flying over a dead city; there’s no sign of life down there, and there is no answer on the radio. John, the pilot, doesn’t want to land, but they need to check it out in person. Credits roll.

On the ground, Sarah and Miguel yell for attention, but no one hears them. No one alive anyway. They soon wake up a whole town full of zombies. They leave and fly back to their base, a military bunker with a chain-link fence holding back huge numbers of the dead. There are only twelve living people left in the base. John suggests taking the helicopter and finding a nice tropical island to settle on, but that would be wrong, Sarah argues. We see that it’s not really a military base, it’s a huge decommissioned mine with underground storage for vehicles, RVs and all sorts of things.

Steel and Rickles grab Sarah and Miguel to go and bring in a couple of zombies. They have a whole chamber full of the dead, so finding them isn’t an issue. They’ve got a whole corral thing set up to isolate individual zombies as needed. Miguel has PTSD, and Sarah tries to cover for him, even when he nearly gets them all killed.

We cut to Captain Rhodes arguing with Dr. Fisher about their experiments. Rhodes has just become the leader of the military group, and he’s not a big supporter of the scientists. They, along with Steel and Rickles, point out that Sarah’s the last woman on Earth. And there are only eleven guys.

The zombies they’ve brought are for “Dr. Frankenstein,” or Dr. Logan, as he prefers, who’s been experimenting on the zombies. He’s dissected many of them, but he’s got a special zombie, Bub, who he’s been “training.” Sarah doesn’t approve of Logan, who isn’t really working to solve their problems. He’s a bit of a lunatic, but he is learning things that might be useful.

They all get together for a meeting, where Bill tells them that the radio’s not able to contact anyone. Rhodes wants to know what the scientists are doing to help the situation– he might be a little power mad. Dr. Logan shows up with a lot of statistics, but Rhodes isn’t impressed.

Sarah and Miguel have a fight, and she throws him out. She goes home with Bill, the radio and electronics guy, who’s living with John in a mobile home way in the back of the underground compound. Sarah points out that neither John nor Bill do much of anything beyond their basic jobs. John explains his point of view; humanity’s over, so why not enjoy the time they have?

Dr. Logan relays the nature of zombies to Ted and Sarah. He wants to reward the zombies for good behavior, Pavlovian-style. He shows the two scientists how Bub the zombie remembers elements from his previous life. Sarah’s more impressed that Bub doesn’t see live people as dinner anymore. Rhodes comes in, and he’s less impressed. Bub salutes Rhodes, which offends Rhodes.

There’s an accident in the corral; several people die, and Miguel gets bit. He runs away, but Sarah gets John to help cut Miguel’s arm off to save him. This causes a whole confrontation with the military guys, and Rhodes says he’s going to kill all the captured zombies in the morning.

Sarah and Bill go to the lab for morphine for Miguel, and they see more of Dr. Logan’s experiments. They come to the conclusion it’s time to take the helicopter and get away while they can. Rhodes comes in and catches Logan feeding Bub pieces of the dead soldiers as a reward for good behavior. Rhodes fills Dr. Logan with holes.

There’s a stand-off at John’s trailer as the army guys want their guns. Rhodes executes Ted to prove a point and then shoves Sarah and Bill into the zombie corral.

As Bill and Sarah run through the tunnels, Steel beats up John. Suddenly, the alarm goes off; the elevator to the outside has gone active. Turns out, Miguel has decided to go outside.

John gets the drop on Rhodes, but he refuses to kill him. Rickles and Steel go to the elevator, but Miguel has destroyed the interior controls. Miguel, meanwhile, has lost his mind and opened the chain-link fence, letting all the zombies inside. He then hops on the elevator and lures them in, pushing the down button as he is swarmed.

Soon, the big elevator comes down, allowing a bunch of the zombies inside. From the opposite direction, the corral zombies have gotten through, leaving Rhodes in the middle with Bub. Bub sees that his friend, Dr. Logan, has been killed, and he’s not happy about it.

Rhodes and Bub have a duel, and that goes badly for Rhodes. Turns out, Bub’s not bad with a pistol. The zombies eat well.

Sarah, John, and Bill run and climb for another way out. They run to the helicopter, start it up, and take off before the monsters get them. Next thing we see, they’re all on a deserted tropical island, as planned.

Brian’s Commentary

This takes place several years after “Dawn of the Dead” (1978), and there aren’t many people left. Most of the film is people yelling at each other, and Steel and Rickles laughing like hyenas gets annoying really fast. Dr. Logan is funny, but also obviously a loon, but he’s interesting. The creature effects are much improved here, although the scale of the whole story is pretty small overall.

Kevin’s Commentary

This one had a heavier focus on the survivors and how they were dealing with their situation - not very well in fact, with stress, ptsd, despair, and fear constantly looming. Plus plenty of zombie action of course. The effects were excellent, stunts were very well done. We just see part of Florida, so we don’t know how the rest of the world is doing. I thought it held up nicely for its age, and I was very entertained.

Short Films:

2024 Short Film Inked

* Directed by: Kelsey Bollig

* Written by: Kelsey Bollig

* Stars: Chris Cortez, Kaikane, Joshua Mabie

* Run Time: 14 Minutes

* Watch it:

What Happens

A young woman gets a tattoo to honor her father, who has recently died in prison. She has the tattoo artist include some of his ashes in the ink for the tattoo. They watch news reports of a vicious serial killer who was recently executed, but there was no connection to her father… was there?

Commentary

This one is exceptional. It takes enough time to get to know the characters, and there’s some real drama there. When the horror elements start up, they’re well executed, look good, and have great effect. In the end, the whole thing makes sense, and I liked this one a lot.

2017 Short Film Airdrop

* Directed by: Jack Gravina

* Written by: Jack Gravina

* Stars: Diliana Deltcheva, Elizabeth Elam, Rodrigo Trabbold

* Run Time: 5:04

* Watch it:

What Happens

Two girls have been out on the town partying. One asks the other to Airdrop her the photos, which goes as planned. The two split up for the night, and as one girl goes home, the Airdrop messages just keep coming through, but they aren’t her photos…

Commentary

This one is really short and the story is very simple. We’ve seen others with basically the same plot, but this one executes it well and never slows down enough to get boring. Technology horror is always fun, since we all deal with it on a daily basis, and face it: who hasn’t had an Airdrop go badly?

2025 Short Film The Diner

* Directed by: David Shih

* Written by: David Shih

* Stars: James Gioia, Lauren Norch, Samuel J Gleason

* Run Time: 7:38

* Watch it:

What Happens

A waiter working late in the diner turns off the sign and locks the door. He’s finally done for the night. Out of nowhere, a young woman bangs on the door needing help; she’s totally lost in the wrong part of town. He reluctantly lets her in, and his life will never be the same…

Commentary

I was totally expecting her to be a vampire, but that’s not the way it turned out. YouTube suggested it as a horror film, but the horror elements, if there are any, are really minimal. Still, it’s very well acted and I enjoyed it.

2024 Short Film Rejected

* Directed by: Rene Rivas

* Written by: Rene Rivas

* Stars: Bryn Booth, Austin Buchanan, Alex Demeroutis

* Run Time: 15 Minutes

* Watch it:

What Happens

This is an old videotape of one of those old “clip shows” that used to be popular in the 80s. In this one, the homely hosts introduce three commercials for the Sonu disc-camera that was all the rage at the time. Except these commercials were all rejected for one horrible reason after another…

Commentary

The three segments are all very good. The one with Bigfoot was especially hilarious, but the first segment was probably the best of the bunch. The hosts doing the introductions were a little over-the-top; I think the film might have been better if they’d played that part straight. Still, this one is a lot of fun.

2017 Short Film Lunch Ladies

* Directed by: J.M. Logan

* Written by: Clarissa Jacobson

* Stars: Donna Pieroni, Mary Manofsky, Daisy Kershaw

* Run Time: 19 Minutes

* Watch it:

What Happens

Two lunch ladies work in the worst school that ever was. Still, there’s one bright spot: They both love Johnny Depp, and they’ve won a chance to cook for him. The problem is they aren’t very good cooks, and they’re both on the verge of being fired. This doesn’t escape the school’s students, especially one especially nasty influencer/cheerleader.

WWJD? What would Johnny Do? If you know, you know.

Commentary

This one is truly outstanding. The production values are some of the best I’ve seen in a short, the comedic acting is perfect, and the timing of everything is just the way it needs to be. The Johnny Depp stuff is funny, the students, both before and after their special lunch, are outrageous, and even the sets, with their Soviet-Era motivational posters, are just awesome. A lot of thought went into this one, and it shows.

I’d totally watch a two-hour version of this.

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