Movies
Vampire Girl Vs Frankenstein Girl
“If you have not seen any of Nishimura’s work before the film is sure to shock, but if you can forgive the movie its shortcomings, and there are plenty of them, Vampire Girl is a ridiculous hour and a half of gaudy gross out splatstick comedy.”
In terms of self-explanatory titles the latest blood-soaked comedy splatter fest from Tokyo Gore Police director, Yoshihro Nishimura, ranks pretty high on the list: take one Japanese high school girl with a thirst for blood and pit her against a dead schoolgirl who has been brought back to life by her mad scientist father and let battle commence.
The film kicks off with the titular Vampire Girl, aka Monami, kicking the ass of three undead girls and collecting their skulls, the best friends of love rival Keiko, before flashing back to the events that led up to this violent standoff. It’s Valentine’s Day and in Japan schoolgirls show their romantic intent by giving boys chocolate. Monami gives the school heartthrob, Mizushima, a chocolate filled with her own blood, thus partially turning him into a vampire so he can become her new familiar. Unfortunately, Mizushima already has a girlfriend, the class bully, Keiko. That’s not a problem for Monami, who simply removes her opponent by pushing her off the school’s roof, but she hasn’t factored in Keiko’s science teacher father, who, with the aid of the school’s sadistic nurse, has been conducting weird experiments on their classmates in a secret laboratory in the campus’ basement. Before you know it, Keiko has been reanimated and it’s ding-ding, round one!
If the story sounds insane, just wait until you meet some of the other characters: there’s a group of suicidal school girls, who repeatedly take a knife to their forearms to toughen them up for a wrist-slashing contest, and another group called the ganguro, who so badly want to be black they have dyed their skin and surgically altered their features. Although mocking Japanese teenagers’ obsession with black culture, the latter is also cringingly racist and it’s clear that the film-makers want to push the audience’s offense thresholds by more than just showcasing extreme gore, of which there is plenty too.
Nishimura proved with Tokyo Gore Police and The Machine Girl (where he was effects supervisor) that he knows how to capture onscreen viscera, but if anything Vampire Girl pushes this even further. Japanese cinema has long been the king of the blood spray – courtesy of a gory catalogue of limb-lopping samurai flicks – and Vampire Girl takes this affectation to a new level with almost every scene awash in buckets of dyed red corn syrup. However, unlike the gore flicks coming out of the west, Nishimura and Naoyuki Tomomatsu’s film, which is based on Shungiku Uchida’s manga comic book, is distinctly played for laughs. It’s certainly not for the fainthearted – haemophobics steer well clear – but the bloodletting is so over the top it’s impossible not to find it more sidesplitting than stomach-churning.
If you have not seen any of Nishimura’s work before the film is sure to shock, but if you can forgive the movie its shortcomings, and there are plenty of them, Vampire Girl is a ridiculous hour and a half of gaudy gross out splatstick comedy. Essentially, if the idea of an undead teenager removing their own legs and attaching them to their head to create a gruesome Inspector Gadget-style propeller makes you laugh rather than hurl then Vampire Girl will be a hugely entertaining watch.
Check out Screenjabber.com for full coverage of FrightFest 2009.
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
You must be logged in to post a comment.