Movies
The Wig (V)
“It’d be hard to unequivocally recommend THE WIG. The film requires a lot of commitment on the part of the viewer. It demands that you pay enough attention at the beginning to establish the character relationships while also forcing you to ignore the languid pacing and strange dreamlike location changes.”
Asian Horror films are probably chock-full-o the most recognizable clichés around for hardcore horror fans to nit pick. Ask anyone and even the most blasé genre-junkie will tell you that most of the J-Horror set is little more than long-haired girls, sometimes wet, sometimes dry, and blue faced little boys, popping up in hallways and bedrooms or simply just from the side of the films frame. Every appearance custom designed to illicit some sort of jump scare. Has ever a set of cinematic standards been so ripe for satire? Well, if you read the synopsis of THE WIG, you’d think that this was it. Tragically, you’d be wrong.
THE WIG is about a homicidal hairpiece. Yes that’s right, all those raven locks that have been clogging up drains and draped across the faces of dead girls for decades finally have a film of their own. And it’s not a subtle wink to a genre staple, it’s a deadly serious fright film. Perhaps a bit too serious considering the inherent lunacy of a wicked weave!
A bald Soo-Hyun (Chae Min-seo) is recovering from her latest bout of Chemotherapy. She has Leukemia and the prognosis is not good. Her older sister Jihyun (Yu Seon, BLACK HOUSE & UNINVITED) hopes to raise her spirits by getting her a luscious wig. However, the jet-black silken strands that were used to make this wig carry a horrible secret within them. This wig is cursed. But, once she puts on the wig, Soo-Hyun feels so much better, her cancer seems to be in remission and her energy levels are soaring, regrettably so are the terrifying visions she’s having. As the wig begins to take control over her life, Soo-Hyun starts to exhibit behaviors far from her normal persona. Now, time is running out. Will the sisters discover the secret of the wig before it’s kills them all?
THE WIG has a lot of interesting things going for it, if you forget about the fact that the wig is seen, on several occasions, slinking across the floor of it’s own momentum. That is the part that is just plain laughable. It looks like an Eastern Cousin It swimming across a sea of Hardwood. Frankly, it’s almost unforgivable. It’s a damn good thing that THE WIG has some solid plot points to save it. One key point is that, soon after giving Soo-Hyun the wig, Jihyun is in a terrible car crash that severs her vocal cords. The effects shot used in this scene is brutal but virtually bloodless. It’s a great sequence and it adds a layer of drama to the production, as Jihyun can now no longer speak. Gorehounds will also want to keep an eye out for a later hospital sequence that is amongst one of the bloodier moments I’ve recently seen in a Asian Horror film. Still, blood and guts aside, the film’s major subplot involves the sexualization of Soo-Hyun as she—influenced by the wig—makes a big move on her sister’s ex-boyfriend Ki-Seok (Mun Su). It’s this relationship that ultimately drives the film toward its conclusion.
I can’t say that THE WIG really worked. Like so many other Asian Horror films, the plot is convoluted. The style over substance label affixes itself pretty easily to the first hour of the film. Korean Director Shin-yeon Won fills the first frames with an overwhelming sense of melancholy, perhaps out of the respect the characters have for Soo-Hyun’s condition and prospects. Alas, this choice makes the first 45 minutes of the film painfully boring. Later, when Soo-Hyun arrives at Ki-Seok’s house, soaking wet from the pouring rain, the film seems to kick into a manic gear and the plot starts spilling out all over the place. This moment actually saves the film from being a total loss because; the film finally reveals the big twist. A twist that I can’t say I’ve ever seen in an Asian Horror film. A controversial one that is not only shocking because it’s seems so unexpected, but because Ki-Seok’s behavior almost foreshadows it. It might seem to some, a cheap way to connect all of the characters to the wig, but it’s so startling that it actually works in spite of itself. Sorry to say, after that revelation, the ending is also problematic, in that the film feels like it’s over at least twice before the credits actually roll.
It’d be hard to unequivocally recommend THE WIG. The film requires a lot of commitment on the part of the viewer. It demands that you pay enough attention at the beginning to establish the character relationships while also forcing you to ignore the languid pacing and strange dreamlike location changes. But, if you can make it that far—and with some semblance of lucidity about the storyline—the payoff is worth it, because as strange as it is, you might not have seen anything quite like it before.
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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