Movies
Moon (NY/LA)
“MOON, a sincere and heartfelt feature debut from director Duncan Jones, may not take home the box office cheddar, but mark my words, is a movie that will be worshipped by science fiction lovers for years to come.”
Deep, contemplative sci-fi is a hard sell. Even with loads of creative talent to back it up, 2002’s SOLARIS, directed by OCEAN’S wunderkind Steven Soderbergh and starring money-magnet George Clooney, had a hard time making it into the black. MOON, a sincere and heartfelt feature debut from director Duncan Jones, may not take home the box office cheddar, but mark my words, is a movie that will be worshipped by science fiction lovers for years to come.
Searching for an alternative energy source, Lunar Industries decides to mine the earth’s moon for He-3, a radioactive isotope of helium. Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell) is the single crew member assigned to moon base Sarang and his duties are basic: he keeps an eye on the four helium harvesters that constantly roam the surface, and he cruises out in the rover any time one of the harvesters drifts off course. Nearing the end of a three-year contract, with only his robot Gerty (voiced by Kevin Spacey) to keep him company, Sam is overwhelmed with boredom and loneliness. Spending his copious amounts of free time engaging in miniature wood carving or talking out loud to his clumsy collection of flimsy plants, he’s eagerly counting the remaining 14 days until his return to his wife and daughter on earth.
But then Sam begins…seeing things. Due to mechanical issues, he hasn’t been able to establish a live communications link for some time, having to resort to exchanged video messages with his wife and corporate bosses, and he suspects that his time alone on the moon is beginning to get to him mentally. While driving a rover out to check one of the harvesters, he’s distracted by a hallucination and crashes his rover in a bone-crunching collision. Awaking in the infirmary some time later, he finds Gerty watching over him, instructing him to rest until his strength returns.
Eventually rising from his bed in the infirmary, Sam limps down the hall and overhears Gerty carrying on a live conversation with the bosses back at Lunar Industries. But how can that be if the live communications are down? Gerty denies the exchange and informs Sam that he’s been sequestered to the base. Suspicious, Sam finds a way to briefly escape the base, driving an extra rover out the site of the collision. He finds the crashed rover and climbs inside to investigate. There’s a body behind the controls. It’s Sam’s.
Working from a thoughtful script by Nathan Parker, Rockwell is handed a load of work, and he carries the film admirably. MOON is essentially a one-man show, and Rockwell handles the challenge with a finesse that Will Smith couldn’t quite muster in I AM LEGEND. It’s a film that packed with well-developed, thought-provoking themes. The moral imperatives of big business, the value of family, the tranquility that comes with self-awareness; this is thinking man’s cinema, and it’s one of the best science fiction movies I’ve seen in years.
First-timer Jones uses elaborate miniatures to depict the rover scenes, and his skillful and consistent use of scale is convincing enough to allow complete immersion. He puts you on the moon with Sam, and you feel his pain. Three years is indeed a long time. Employing good writing and top-drawer acting to explore some difficult yet interesting questions is what good movies are all about. MOON asks some questions, offers some answers, and completely satisfies. Don’t miss this one.
Ghostface is back on the big screen this weekend… well, sort of… with the release of Scary Movie, which marks the Wayans brothers’ return to the horror spoof franchise for the first time since Scary Movie 2 back in the day. It’s likely to be the talk of the horror community for the weekend, but don’t overlook the other six genre movies that were freshly unleashed today.
Here’s all the new horror that released on Friday, June 5, 2026.
The horror spoof franchise is back with Scary Movie now playing in theaters!
Marlon Wayans (“Shorty”), Shawn Wayans (“Ray”), Anna Faris (“Cindy”), and Regina Hall (“Brenda”) reunite for the new Scary Movie, with the cast also including Dave Sheridan, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, Chris Elliott, Jon Abrahams, Damon Wayans Jr., Gregg Wayans, Kim Wayans, Benny Zielke, Cameron Scott Roberts, Heidi Gardner, Olivia Rose Keegan, Ruby Snowber, Savannah Lee Nassif, Sydney Park, and Felissa Rose.
Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer (“Ghostface”), the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe…
Scary Movie will slash through reboots, remakes, requels, prequels, sequels, spin-offs, elevated horror, origin stories, anything with the word legacy in it, and every “final chapter” that absolutely isn’t. A whole lot has changed in the horror genre since the Wayans Brothers were in charge of the franchise; their involvement ended with Scary Movie 2 back in 2001!
Michael Tiddes (A Haunted House) directs Scary Movie 6 from a script written by Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, original Scary Movie director Keenen Ivory Wayans, Craig Wayans (Scary Movie 2), and Rick Alvarez (A Haunted House).
From IFC, shark attack movie Chum is now available on Digital.
Alice Eve (Haunting of Queen Mary) stars in shark attack movie alongside Eric Michael Cole, Jim Klock, Elle Haymond, Lisa Yaro, Johnny Gaffney, and Sarah Siadat.
This one sounds very similar to last year’s Dangerous Animals…
Here’s the plot: “A newlywed couple joins friends on a Mediterranean yacht excursion, only to find themselves caught between a predatory shark and a psychopathic killer in their midst-transforming a sun-drenched escape into a fight for survival.”
Jonathan Zuck directs Chum, from a script by Jonathan Zuck and Joe Leone.
Samara Weaving (Ready or Not 2: Here I Come) and Kyle Gallner (Strange Darling) come together in Carolina Caroline, a sexy crime thriller now playing in theaters.
It’s not a horror movie, mind you, but it’s worth a mention here all the same.
Kyra Sedgwick (Family Movie) and Jon Gries also star in the romantic crime thriller.
Director Adam Carter Rehmeier’s film stars Samara Weaving as Caroline Daniels, whose desire to leave her small Texas town brings her into the orbit of a charismatic con man (Kyle Gallner), and together they weave a path of crime and passion across the American Southeast.
Adam Rehmeier previously directed the films Dinner in America and Snack Shack.
Tom Dean wrote the screenplay for Carolina Caroline.
Similar to Steven Spielberg’s upcoming big screen blockbuster Disclosure Day, Signal One explores humankind’s enduring question: what if we aren’t alone in the universe?
The sci-fi thriller is now available on Digital.
Isabelle Fuhrman (Orphan), Josh Hutcherson (Five Nights at Freddy’s), David Thewlis (Harry Potter), Raoul Bhaneja (Possessor), Emma Ho (“The Expanse”), and Dennis Quaid (The Substance) star in Signal One from director Jonathan Sobol (The Art of the Steal).
When tech billionaire Sam Houston (Quaid) hires the brilliant computer scientist Annika (Fuhrman), she ventures to an isolated facility run by the brilliant, nihilistic creator of LITTLEMOUTH, a machine which can communicate with alien intelligence.
Annika soon learns some humanity-altering facts: that we are not alone in the universe, that alien intelligences are communicating around us at every moment, and that we are likely too primitive to even remotely understand what they are trying to tell us.
When the goal of the endeavor shifts from listening to talking back, the project rapidly devolves into chaos. With contact comes consequences, and soon Annika and the team must work to ensure the very survival of our species.
A schoolyard dare becomes an urban legend in the creepypasta-inspired horror anthology The Summoning. The indie film is now available on Digital from Brainstorm Media.
“A babysitting gig becomes a nightmare of urban legend when three teens summon Baby Blue. Survival depends on uncovering the past to escape a mother’s wrath from beyond the grave.”
Felipe Vargas (Rosario, Hive), Sergio Gonzalez, Brandon Piskorik, Corey Benson Powers, and Brian Sepanzyk direct the segments. Valeria San Martín, Justina Ceballos, Daniela Flombaum, Nannu Spannauss, Agustín Olcese, and Giovanni Onetti star.
The Summoning is written by Camilo Zaffora.
Happy Death Day actress Jessica Rothe stars as a mom struggling to keep her grip on her sanity and memory in the mind-bending Affection, now available on Digital at home.
In Affection, “Afflicted by a mysterious condition that resets her memory, Ellie becomes trapped in a cyclical nightmare with a man who claims to be her husband. She soon must uncover the horrifying truth of her existence—before she forgets it all again.“
Joseph Cross (“Big Little Lies”) and Julianna Layne (“Chicago P.D.”) also star in the sci-fi horror thriller. Affection marks the feature debut by writer/director BT Meza.
Daniel Kurland wrote in his review out of the film’s premiere, “Affection is steeped in existential questions and fears that plague modern society, while it embraces the ethos of the ’80s through bold body horror. Add to that Rothe’s revelatory performance, and Affection is a hidden gem that will connect with your mind, body, and soul.”
Lucile Hadžihalilović’s latest dark fairy tale, The Ice Tower, loosely reimagines Hans Christian Andersen’s fable “The Snow Queen,” and it’s now streaming on Shudder.
In the ’70s set film, “Jeanne, a 15-year-old orphan, witnesses the shoot of a film adaptation of the fairy tale The Snow Queen, and she becomes fascinated by its star Cristina (Marion Cotillard), an actress who is just as mysterious and alluring as the Queen she is playing.“
Clara Pacini stars as Jeanne. August Diehl and Marine Gesbert also star in The Ice Tower, and look for a cameo from director Gaspar Noé (Climax, Irréversible).
“For me, The Ice Tower solidified Lucile Hadžihalilović’s place amongst the most fascinating creators of fairy tales today,” said distributor Yellow Veil Pictures co-founder Joe Yanick.
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