Movies
[BD Review] ‘The Apparition’ Unfocused and Overdeveloped
Todd Lincoln’s The Apparition wastes no time spooking audiences. The supernatural horror from Warner Bros. opens with not one, but two fantastic sequences that set the table for what should be the premiere haunter of the year. Unfortunately, the rest of the film is bogged down with heavy exposition, lack of rules, and a lackluster performance from Sebastian Stan.
Apparition opens Found Footage-style with a look back to the 1970’s when an experiment resurrects a recently deceased scientific team member. The result is a shaky table and a photo with a black figure standing in the back. It then cuts to present day where another group of scientists hope to recreate the experiment, and take it a step further (with the use of modern technology). The footage cuts when that super hottie from Friday the 13th (Julianna Guill) is sucked into blackness.
Post title card, everything quickly stumbles downhill as we’re introduced to Kelly (Ashley Greene) and Ben (Sebastian Stan), who go shopping at Costco and stuff. It’s super interesting (but not really). They move into a new house owned by Kelly’s parents, and almost immediately are in the middle of various supernatural events (like tables moving by themselves).
The biggest problem with The Apparition is that the story behind haunting is way, way, wayyyyy more interesting than the relationship between Kelly and Ben, who, sad to say, could both die for all I care. The entire Found Footage angle was visually more appealing, and more so, it was frightening.
Speaking of Ben and Kelly… While I was surprisingly impressed with Greene’s performance, Stan was awkwardly miscast. It also didn’t help that I felt like neither of them were ever in any real danger. Lincoln makes a noble attempt to explain why the duo remain in such an obvious haunted house, and even forces them into a hotel stay, but ultimately none of it felt “real” because of their passé attitude about the situation. What really dragged down the tension and scares was that there appeared to be no rules for the demon. In fact, Lincoln fills the meat of the film with exposition to tell the viewer just that. There’s literally a scene where Ben and Kelly hear a recording of Patrick (Tom Felton) – explaining that there are no rules or pattern for the demon, which is a complete copout.
The same issue arises when he attempts to explain why there‘s a “Grudge”-esque ghost and other unexplained oddities – Lincoln has a character state that, when haunted, one “can’t tell what’s real and what’s fake.” That’s one way to qualify putting anything you want in a film with no rhyme, reason *or* explanation.
I really wanted to like The Apparition, and think Lincoln had some really good ideas hiding within. His directing style was appealing, especially in those earlier sequences, and he got quite the performance out of both Greene and Felton (I kept wishing the entire movie was about his character). If anything, the final product feels a bit tampered with (like there were a million hands all over the film).
In the end it just feels like Apparition is unfocused and overdeveloped (it’s obvious they even tacked on an extra ending). While there were some fantastic scares (especially the shower scene), most of the pic was deluded with unnecessary exposition and a dreadfully uninteresting arc between Ben and Kelly. It will forever and ever bother me wondering what a movie about the actual scientists might have been like.
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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