Movies
Ghoul (TV)
“With children engaging problems that would traumatize adults, and an acoustically driven soundtrack by Sean Spillane, Ghoul feels very much like a less offensive version of something between The Woman and The Girl Next Door. Brian Keene’s Ghoul may not be the visceral Ketchum-type pummeling some have come to expect from a Moderncine production, but it stands among them no less their sibling as it furthers their ever widening reputation for premium adaptations from the horror section of your local book store.”
Three best friends are homebound and ready to spend summer vacation in a cool new, secret underground fort they’ve dug at the local cemetery. Each of these kids carries a heavy burden. One is being molested, the other beaten – and Timmy (played by Nolan Gould of Modern Family) just lost his grandfather to a heart attack. And as bad as that all is, its about to get a hell of a lot worse.
That’s the skeleton to Brian Keene’s Ghoul, the latest book adaptation by Moderncine (Offspring, The Woman) and more specifically a lot of the team that brought you The Girl Next Door. Directed by Greg Wilson and penned for the screen by William M. Miller, it was specially crafted for a cable horror run on the Chiller network – and will be making its debut there on April 13, 2012.
If you’re not familiar with the bulk of Brian Keene’s novel, this is a story about kids. Make no mistake – you’ll spend 90% of your time with kids, and if The Girl Next Door made you think of Stand By Me, this will even more. But the subject matter here is adult. Very adult, and domestically black. Timmy is grieving after losing a grandfather who was very close to him. Doug (Jacob Bila) has to fight off his drunken mother at night, and admits to his best friend that his she molests him on a regular basis. Barry (Trevor Harker) must deal with the beatings dished out to him and his mother, from an angry, drunken and abusive father, Clark, who also runs the cemetery.
Those who have read the novel know that there is a story behind Clark’s unrest and inner torment – and this is where Brian Keene’s Ghoul and Greg Wilson’s Ghoul will branch off in different directions. While the bulk of the plot from start to finish is about the same, it would be inaccurate to label this a “strict” adaptation, as certain elements and fluids have been changed. I will leave it for faithful to decide if this is good or not, but if nothing else, it gives fans of the novel a new mysterious direction to look forward to.
To give any more away would rob this movie of the tale is stands to tell, and Ghoul has a lot to say. Aside from the fact that “the ghoul” ties this story together and gives this feature its adhesion, it could almost exist without it – as the bulk of Ghoul is a coming-of-age horror story infected deeply by the domestic hells these young characters are dealing with. Sometimes it feels a bit heavy on the After School Special material, but put within the context of what this is – a made-for-TV movie – it has an unusually rich plot and very deep, well-played characters to build upon. Everyone involved on the acting side, especially Barry Corbin (No Country For Old Men) as Timmy’s grandfather, make an otherwise over-dysfunctional drama work. The overall ghoul violence is few and far between, but when it goes down, FX artist Anthony Pepe delivers some respectably inferred violence and gore for what could be allowed.
As so often explored by Moderncine creations such as The Girl Net Door, Offspring, or The Woman – what worse beast is there, than man? Genre crawlers looking to see a corpse eating beast or rape scenes in the tunnels beneath the graveyard should take note – this is not a hard-R film. This is an above-par PG style production from top to bottom – and it raises the bar for what should be expected from the cable-destined horror-feature scene, whose reputation SyFy has smeared with piss poor, Asylum-like productions. With children engaging problems that would traumatize adults, and an acoustically driven soundtrack by Sean Spillane, Ghoul feels very much like a less offensive version of something between The Woman and The Girl Next Door. Brian Keene’s Ghoul may not be the visceral Ketchum-type pummeling some have come to expect from a Moderncine production, but it stands among them no less their sibling as it furthers their ever widening reputation for premium adaptations from the horror section of your local book store.
This week kicked off with the release of hippo horror movie Hungry at home, and four more horror movies have arrived for at-home viewing as we head into the final weekend of June.
Here are the new horror movies that released on Friday, June 26, 2026!
The Halloween season can no longer be contained to the months of September and October, with “Summerween” becoming a thing in recent years. Essentially, it allows for Halloween to bleed into the warmer Summer months, and the first ever Summerween movie has arrived.
The Asylum released Summerween onto Digital outlets today.
In the film from writer/director Ryan Ebert, “On Summerween, a former circus clown escapes a mental institution to return to his abandoned mansion and hunt the teens partying there.”
Cole Chapleski, Chase Breithoff, Logan Roe, Sophia Sabol, and Clint Morrison star.
Director Ryan Ebert is the man behind a string of recent indie horrors we’ve covered, including Shark Side of the Moon, The Jolly Monkey, Jurassic Reborn, and Predator: Wastelands.
A witchy coming-of-age story from Dark Sky Films, Camp is now playing in select theaters.
Check your local listings to find a theater near you.
Camp is from writer-director Avalon Fast (Honeycomb, The Serpent’s Skin).
“Emily is the root cause of two devastating tragedies very early in her life, and she feels the weight of these accidents as though cursed. At her father’s suggestion, she takes a position at a summer camp for troubled youth to ease her guilt. When Emily arrives, she is welcomed by the other counselors, who accept her as she is and surround her with peace and forgiveness.
“As Emily begins to believe in a new kind of life, she starts to hear a voice whispering from deep in the woods — one that urges her to go home, and one that may be impossible to ignore.”
The film stars Zola Grimmer in her screen debut alongside Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis (Castration Movie Part 1 & 2, In A Violent Nature), Ella Reece, Austyn Van de Kamp (This Too Shall Pass), Sophie Bawks-Smith (Honeycomb), Izza Jarvis, and Aiden Laudersmith.
Producers Tyler Perry and Jason Blum have joined forces for Peacock Original Strung.
The film is now streaming only on Peacock.
“A talented violinist takes a prestigious job as a music tutor for the gifted daughter of an influential and enigmatic family. As she becomes entangled in their opulent world, unsettling secrets begin to surface, forcing her to question her safety, her dreams, and even her sanity.”
Malcolm D. Lee (Scary Movie 5, Space Jam: A New Legacy) directs from a script written by Alan B. McElroy (Wrong Turn, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers).
Chloe Bailey (“Swarm“), Lynn Whitfield (Jaws: The Revenge), Lucien Laviscount (“Scream Queens”), Anna Diop (Us), Coco Jones (Vampires vs. the Bronx), Langley Kirkwood (“Banshee”), and Romy Woods star in Peacock’s Strung.
Produced by Diablo Cody, director Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits brought a new coven of witches to the big screen earlier this year, and it’s now streaming on Shudder.
Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Victoria Pedretti (“The Haunting of Hill House”), Alexandra Shipp (Tragedy Girls), Gabrielle Union (Breaking In), and Emma Chamberlain star in Forbidden Fruits, released by IFC and Shudder.
Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges the group’s ‘girl boss’ ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
“Forbidden Fruits grabbed me by the neck the very first time I read it,” Diablo Cody said. “It’s one of the craziest, most creative, beautifully bonkers projects I’ve ever worked on.”
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Forbidden Fruits may not necessarily forge new terrain in the teen satire space, but Alloway brings so much style and energy to her well-cast single-location stage play adaptation for the Gen Z crowd.”
The film is an adaptation of playwright Lily Houghton’s stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die. Alloway and Houghton co-adapted.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by HUNGRY.
All aboard the swamp tour from hell – this hippo isn’t playing games…
HUNGRY is now available on Digital. Watch it now!
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