Movies
[Review] ‘Dark Summer’ Is a Creepy Little Chiller
Many moons ago back in Jersey, I had a friend who was sentenced to house arrest for breaking into a house and stealing a BB gun. At first he was pretty chill about it all, then after a couple weeks he started to lose it. I came over one time and he was trying to dig a moat around his parent’s house. Once that cabin fever sets in people can go a little crazy.
Case in point: Paul Solet’s Dark Summer tracks the cracking psyche of a tech-savvy kid sentenced to house arrest for cyber-stalking a classmate. As the film starts, parole officer Peter Stomare is explaining to Daniel (Keir Gilchrist) the ins and outs of his sentence. It boils down to him not being allowed to have any unaccompanied minors over the house and for the love of god, stay the hell off the internet, you creep. Once Stormare leaves, Daniel’s friends Abby (Stella Maeve) and Kevin (Maestro Harrell) come right over and give him a laptop with which he can go online undetected. Some kids never learn.
Daniel’s fully prepared to continue cyber-stalking the girl of his dreams, Mona Wilson (Grace Phipps), but he’s a little nervous. As he hesitates, Mona is the one who contacts him via Skype, though for much more nefarious reasons than expressing her true feelings for him. From there, disturbing visions and other ghostly activities begin haunting Daniel. They’re all centered around a hooded specter who follows him in dreams and his waking life, turning the tables on Daniel the convicted stalker.
At first Abby and Kevin are willing to go along with Daniel’s bizarre rants about ghosts and haunted cereal. They do his best to help him until finally shit gets crazy enough that they too are convinced something supernatural is at play. At this point Dark Summer really kicks into gear. Before his friends join him, the film dips into tediousness a little bit. There’s a see-saw pattern of creepy stuff happening and Daniel trying to sway his friends to believe him. Finally they do and the ball really starts rolling. The second half truly excels as a chillingly atmospheric take on Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew investigating a haunted house. There are some great set pieces and moments that made me genuinely jump. More from surprise than actual scares, but still my ass left the seat. It’s effective stuff.
Solet, who wrote and direct the acclaimed pregnancy horror film Grace, is working here from an original script by Mike Le. It’s a slim bastard too, with little room for character backstory or development. For instance, Daniel lives with his mom, who is unaccounted for during the entire film. He must be at least 18 if he’s allowed to be on house arrest alone, right.? There’s not much explained about Daniel’s hacking endeavors online either, just that they were bad enough to slap on an ankle bracelet.
The lack of information helps the story in this case – adding to the spare, creepy atmosphere. There are several moments (particularly during the first half) where Solet attempts to maintain the suspense he’s built up, only to have it crumble under the tediousness. If they tried to beef up the story a bit it may have actually ruined the whole thing. Like I said, things thankfully pick up once Daniel’s joined in force by his two buddies. The film’s got some tricks up its sleeve too and manages to sneak in some real human drama behind the scares. With three solid leads and effective direction, Solet’s Dark Summer is ultimately a fine little creep fest.
Dark Summer is now available on a few VOD formats courtesy of IFC Midnight.
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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