Movies
Laid to Rest (V)
“Hall pulls out all the stops on what has got to be one of the most violent slasher films in decades—a virtual showcase for some amazing effects work, including severed heads, faces and serious stab wounds. Make no mistakes about it; if you’re looking for cutting edge (literally) brutality then look no further than Rob Hall and his team at Almost Human.”
Editor’s Note (10.19.09): Review score downgraded as it was a typo. Tim still wholeheartedly agrees with this review.
When special effects guru Rob Hall puts his name on a film, you bet it’d better deliver the sticky stuff. That’s why it came as such a shock to industry insiders when—in 2004—the monster maker made his writing and directing debut with the very personal and very dramatic coming-of-age thriller Lightning Bug. This time however—as you can imagine based on the box art and ad campaign—Hall is set to deliver a sanguinary river of gruesomeness to the gore-tastic shrieks of slasher-fanboys the world over.
In Hall’s Laid to Rest, supervillian Chrome Skull (Nick Principe) is a cold, calculating, ruthless and unstoppable murderer who has set his sights on one Miss (well, that’s the first twist…see we don’t even know the girls name). The Girl (played by Hall’s wife Bobbi Sue Luther) wakes up trapped in a coffin in the very first frames of the film. She has no idea where she is, or for that matter, who she is. But it’s only minutes before Chrome Skull appears and starts hacking and slashing his way toward her with a pretty massive blade. Making her way out of the funeral home, our heroine manages to find help in a truck driver named Tucker (Amusement’s Kevin Gage) and live-at-home man/child Steven (People Under the Stairs’ Sean Whalen). Now, the trio are all on the run from a black suit clad, black car driving psychopath that is decimating everyone in his wake.
Hall pulls out all the stops on what has got to be one of the most violent slasher films in decades—a virtual showcase for some amazing effects work, including severed heads, faces and serious stab wounds. Make no mistakes about it; if you’re looking for cutting edge (literally) brutality then look no further than Rob Hall and his team at Almost Human. These guys are killing it on screen (and the puns are getting crazy now!). I almost needed a shower after I was done watching every blood soaked frame of this film.
But Laid to Rest has a lot more going for it than a massive body count. In terms of story, Hall manages to pace the film pretty effectively making the production a—more or less—90-minute chase sequence. The film dishes out minor tidbits of storyline to help the viewer and The Girl piece together the back story of how she came to be lying in that coffin during the opening credits. If the film suffers at all, it’s only because it seems to set up and knock down its peripheral cast members a bit too easily. What I mean, is that running into our three leads in this films is a one way ticket to a quick and painful grave. To make the matter a bit more troublesome, most of those roles are filled with friends of Hall (like actor/writer Jonathan Scheach and Sarah Connor Chronicles duo Lena Headey and Thomas Dekker—Hall is the make-up effects creator on that show). So, when these assorted casts of characters appear, it often takes “in the know” viewers out of the film for a second—before Chrome Skull comes in and severs most of their major arteries.
Still, despite a few too many pop-up-celebrity appearances, the casting is without a doubt one of the major highlights of the production. Gage and Whalen are absolutely fantastic in their roles. For all his gruff and tough exterior Hall asks Gage to suffer most profoundly in this film, and the thespian is well up to the task. Whalen, who has made a career playing dorks of the highest degree (anyone who remembers his “Merkin ain’t jerking, he’s working” line from the teen rom-com Never Been Kissed can attest to that) still manages to portray a character that is decidedly on the other-side of normal, but he imbues that character with a serious sense of pathos that viewers can defiantly grasp on to. And, Bobbi Sue Luther—who also Produced—could have been asked to play a standard slasher film victim who does little more than pant, scream and fill out a tank top, instead she steals the show as one bad ass final girl who won’t stop fighting for a single second.
Laid to Rest, isn’t some new revisionist brand of slasher film designed to reinvent the bloody wheel of cinematic terror. It is however a film that goes above and beyond the call of duty in so many segments of its production value that it would be foolish not to see it as somewhat revolutionary. Hall manages not only to ramp the gore effects up to psychotic levels, he serves that up with an interesting story and a cast that can act circles around the usual brand of stock footage meat puppets that serve as little more than cannon fodder for our killer. On top of all that, Hall has created Chrome Skull a new and terrifying horror film icon to fill the heads, hearts and evil eyes of grinning, ghoulish fans fevered and twisted imaginations for decades to come! A killer we can fear and a cast we can care about…I can’t even remember the last time those two, seeming important details, fell alongside one another in the same movie. Hats off to you Mr. Hall, when can we expect the sequel?
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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