This week on The Fear Review, we’re continuing Lee Cronin Week with a deep dive into Evil Dead Rise — and this one pushed the limits even for us.

Moving the franchise out of the cabin and into an apartment building changes everything. The tone is darker. The stakes feel more personal. And the violence? Let’s just say this might be the meanest Evil Dead movie yet.

William looks at how the film expands the mythology and what it means for the future of the franchise, while Amy reacts to just how far this installment goes compared to the earlier films.

We also talk about:

Spoilers are clearly marked during the episode.

If you’ve seen Evil Dead Rise, let us know — did it go too far, or is this exactly what the series needed?

A boy disappears into the woods… and something else comes back.

In this episode, we discuss The Hole in the Ground (2019), Lee Cronin’s eerie debut feature and a chilling take on Irish changeling folklore. As part of our lead-up to Cronin’s upcoming The Mummy, we’re revisiting the quiet dread, maternal paranoia, and ambiguous horror that define his first film.

Is the child who returned really her son? Or did something replace him in the forest?

We explore the film’s folklore roots, its unsettling atmosphere, the mirror test reveal, and what the ending might actually mean.

🎬 Part of Lee Cronin Week

Listen to our full Lee Cronin Week series featuring Evil Dead Rise and our upcoming discussion of The Mummy.

We thought Night Patrol was going to be a vampire movie.

It isn’t. Not exactly.

Instead, it plays more like a gritty crime story for most of its runtime before shifting into something darker, stranger, and tied to Zulu mythology in a way we didn’t see coming. Justin Long gives one of his most morally complicated performances yet, and by the end we were still debating whether anyone in this movie counts as the “good guy.”

Amy thought the heavy police-drama structure held it back. William thought the slow burn made the horror land harder once it arrived.

So is Night Patrol worth your time if you’re expecting a traditional vampire story?

We break down what works, what surprised us, and why the final act changes how the whole movie feels.

⚠️ Ratings are revealed before the spoiler section.

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The Faces of Death (2026) remake isn’t the shock-documentary revival many horror fans are expecting. Instead, it plays more like a modern investigative horror with a tone closer to Saw than the infamous original film.

That shift makes for a smarter update than we anticipated… but it also raises a bigger question: if it doesn’t feel like Faces of Death, should it still be called Faces of Death?

William appreciated the attempt to modernize the concept and bring structure to the legacy title. Amy found the investigative pacing slower than expected and wanted more intensity from a movie carrying such a notorious name. Together we break down what works, what doesn’t, and whether the new direction honors the spirit of the original or moves too far away from it.

If you went in expecting something extreme, this version may surprise you.

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We caught They Will Kill You at an AMC Scream Unseen screening, and it turned out to be even more relentless than we expected.

From the opening minutes, the movie just keeps escalating. The action keeps getting bigger, the violence keeps getting wilder, and by the time the ending arrives, it fully commits to its strangest ideas. One of us loved how far it pushed things. The other needed a moment to breathe.

In this episode, we talk about Zazie Beetz’s stunt-heavy performance, how the film hides its real premise in the trailer, the looping immortal-hotel structure, and whether the final act goes too far or exactly far enough.

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The Mortuary Assistant leans hard into embalming realism, oppressive atmosphere, and possession horror that stuck with Amy longer than expected.

We went in without knowing the game, so this review focuses entirely on how the movie works on its own—and whether the procedural realism makes parts of it harder to watch than most Shudder releases. Some moments genuinely impressed us. Others left us with questions. And one scene in particular made Amy say she wasn’t going back out into the dark after the credits rolled.

Did the embalming scenes make this one more effective for you… or just harder to sit through?

The Mortuary Assistant begins streaming on Shudder March 27, 2026. Thanks to Shudder for providing us with a screener for this review.

We also share where it lands on our Buyer-to-Don’t-Bother rating scale.

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Ready or Not 2: Here I Come might actually be better than the original… but that might not be a good thing.

This sequel ramps up the action, the kills, and the chaos in ways we didn’t expect. The humor still hits, the performances are stronger, and some of the set pieces are genuinely wild.

But by the time it ends, we were left asking a bigger question… did this movie just close the door on the franchise?

In this episode, we break down what works, what surprised us, and whether this sequel earns its place next to the original.

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With Ready or Not 2: Here I Come arriving soon, we decided to revisit Ready or Not (2019) to see if it still holds up. Short answer: it absolutely does.

In this episode of The Fear Review, we talk about what makes Ready or Not such a fun horror movie, why Samara Weaving’s performance works so well, and how the film balances horror, humor, and chaos from beginning to end.

We also break down the film’s twisted family mythology, the running gag that still makes us laugh, and why the ending remains one of the most satisfying finales in modern horror.

Then we talk about what we’re hoping to see from Ready or Not 2 and whether the franchise could expand even further.

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• Why Samara Weaving carries the movie

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We attended a press screening hosted by A24 for Undertone (2026), and this might be one of the most unusual horror movie theater experiences we’ve had in a while.

The film leans heavily into sound-driven horror, using audio recordings, environmental noise, and Dolby theater sound systems to create tension. In the theater, the sound design is genuinely impressive. The chairs were vibrating, the audio was moving around the room, and the atmosphere was incredibly immersive.

But here’s the big question:

Does great sound design make a great horror movie?

In this episode of The Fear Review, William (lifelong horror fan) and Amy (casual horror fan) break down whether Undertone delivers on its premise or if the film’s slow-burn approach leaves the audience waiting for something that never quite happens.

We talk about:

• the immersive theater sound design

Amy walked into the theater expecting to be terrified.

Instead, we both walked out feeling the same thing:

underwhelmed.

🎬 Movie Discussed

Undertone (2026)

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Some horror movies are creepy.

Bodycam (2026) actually messed Amy up a little.

After the movie ended, Amy admitted she was literally following William around the house because she needed sunshine. That’s always a good sign for a horror movie.

In this episode of The Fear Review, we talk about the new Shudder release Bodycam, a found-footage style horror movie told through police bodycam footage. The movie follows two officers responding to a domestic disturbance that quickly spirals into something much darker.

The movie does a lot right. The bodycam perspective works surprisingly well, the acting feels believable, and the tension builds through darkness and atmosphere instead of cheap jump scares.

But when the big reveal finally arrives… things get a little more complicated.

So where did we land?

William gave Bodycam a Full Price rating.

Amy landed on Streamer, though it definitely creeped her out enough that she needed something lighter afterwards.

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