Movies
The Incident (Incident at Sans Asylum)
“What keeps the film from being any fun is the pace is so slow that a small burst of energy isn’t enough to recover. The atmosphere is just unpleasant, not scary, so the kills aren’t glorious.”
The Incident has all the components of a great midnight movie: a siege premise with a twist, great kills and a variety of monsters. The filmmakers just can’t make it work. It’s tonally miserable and dramatically inert.
It’s a siege from the inside, which is an interesting twists. The inmates of an institution for the criminally insane get free during a power outage. After the security guards fail to contain the situation, only the chefs and servers in the kitchen are left to fend off the patients.
The film is shot well but probably not directed well. The setups and steady camera look like a legitimate movie, but something about the scene is off. Even for a plain instution, the set is too empty. Obviously it’s low budget, but the details give it away. A throwaway scene in a hospital room just looks like an office they put a bed and an IV in.
The characters are really F’ing annoying, so that’s another problem with the direction. Alexandre Courtes couldn’t reign it in. They’re all scruffy wannabe rock stars and they look unclean, so one, it’s creepy to see them working in a kitchen handling food, and two what a damn cliché.
George (Rupert Evans) is the sympathetic one, just because he’s responsible in his job and doesn’t treat the inmates terribly. Max (Kenny Doughty) is supposed to be the A-hole but he comes off as such a bitter creep berating the mentally challenged that it’s not even fun to see him get his comeuppance. Ricky (Joseph Kennedy) is generic enough I guess.
The guards are ridiculous too. I know they have to maintain discipline, and they can’t exactly reason with people in the condition these inmates are in, but I don’t buy this R. Lee Ermy wannabe screaming like a drill sergeant and choking out not one, but two problem inmates. That’s not going to maintain any order.
It’s also so stupid that the guard asks the cooks to help him wrangle the inmates. I don’t care how short staffed they are in a crisis. The hospital would never go near the liability that suggests towards the non medical employees or the inmates in their care. I guess that become irrelevant once it’s about survival, but it shows an underdeveloped script.
The Incident is set in 1989 so there are no cell phones to worry about. There are a few solid moments of trying to barricade a room and some surprises. The inmates are a diverse collection from the babbling to the cold, deliberate killers, even a funny one to show insanity takes all forms.
What keeps the film from being any fun is the pace is so slow that a small burst of energy isn’t enough to recover. The atmosphere is just unpleasant, not scary, so the kills aren’t glorious. The victims linger in captivity a while, so you’re just staring at a dirty body with minimal torture. I could applaud a few moments where The Incident goes there but it’s clearly a first film that’ll be a tough lesson for the filmmakers to take.
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.
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