May has been a delightfully odd mix of titles, including Robin Williams’ One Hour Photo (listen), Aussie/UK thriller Like Minds (listen), and seminal disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure (listen). Adding to the fun is our most recent film: a revisit of the classic stalker title, The Fan (1981).

*We previously tackled the film in our editorial series here.

In Edward Bianchi‘s feature directorial debut, Michael Biehn is Douglas Breen, a music store employee whose singular obsession is with theatre actress Sally Ross (Lauren Bacall). The aging starlet is about to debut in a Broadway musical called ‘Never Say Never,’ but her assistant Belle (Maureen Stapleton) hasn’t been passing along Douglas’ increasingly unhinged letters.

When the young twink’s dangerous behaviour begins to escalate, Sally’s support network – including Inspector Raphael Andrews (Héctor Elizondo) and her ex-husband Jake (James Garner) – is called in. But can anyone stop the determined queer-coded antagonist? Or is Sally doomed to die on opening night?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 387 – The Fan (1981)

Stay out of the pool and work on your singing because we’re talking Edward Bianchi’s The Fan (1981) starring Grand Dame Lauren Bacall and a twinky Michael Biehn.

Joining us for the discussion is returning guest Michael Varrati, who dubs the film “parasocial peril” and praises Bacall’s emotionally vulnerable performance as aging starlet Sally Ross.

Look for adaptation questions about Bob Randall’s pulpy source material; critiquing James Garner’s autobiography; and highlighting the subway stalking and pool slicing sequences.

Plus: the queer coding of Douglas Breen; the film’s uneasy place in (horror) history; and trying to figure out the plot of in-movie musical Never Say Never.

Cross out The Fan!

Coming Up Next: We’re realized there’s an enormous gap in the podcast’s coverage: we’ve never discussed a Vincent Price title! We’re rectifying that mistake with a look at one of his favourite roles in 1973’s Theater of Blood.

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 488 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on shark movies Thrash and Dark Water, Hokum, Mortal Kombat II, Obsession and an audio commentary on Wolfgang Petersen’s Poseidon.

The post Stalker Twinks and Aging Grand Dames Anchor 80s Thriller ‘The Fan’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Born Elizabeth Short, the infamous LA murder from 1947 has been the subject of several films and TV shows, but these titles rarely focus on the woman herself. Usually it’s the gory/salacious details of her case, which Jenn unpacks in her mini-primer on the real life 22 year old.

The case was made into a made-for-TV movie called ‘Who is the Black Dahlia?’ in 1975.

Director Joseph Pevney and screenwriter Robert W. Lenski‘s film presents Elizabeth Short as an aimless, unknowable figure (possibly even to herself).

As played by Lucie Arnaz, the movie is well researched and actually gives Short much more screen time than we expected, but it doesn’t entirely satisfy. As a kick off, this is solid, but inessential.

Still, there’s something commendable about how interested the film is in giving Short the spotlight, in addition to focusing on attempts to solve her case following her death. The film also has a dark sense of humour, frequently contrasting dialogue that’s hopeful and optimistic with editing contradicts such sentiment by confirming that Elizabeth is about to die.

It’s unexpected, but reminiscent of how TV movies are often smarter and more subversive than anticipated. See also: NBC’s Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan movie that we covered back in February (listen).

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 150 hours of bonus content, including episode by episode coverage of Netflix’s 2019 limited series Unbelievable, starring Toni Collette and Kaitlyn Dever. C/W: Sexual Assault

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April has been a month of alien slugs (Slither – listen), Universal Monsters (The Mummy – listen), disaster “comedies” (The Happening – listen), and character studies (One Hour Photo – listen). Horror Queers ushered in May with an underseen co-production between the UK and Australia: a bizarre little 2006 psychological thriller called Like Minds, written and directed by Gregory J. Read and starring the one and only Toni Collette.

In the film, Alex Forbes (Eddie Redmayne in his film debut) is arrested and questioned by police for the suspicious death of his schoolmate, Nigel Colbie (Tom Sturridge). Detective Inspector McKenzie (Richard Roxburgh) is convinced of Alex’s guilt, but he needs the help of forensic therapist Sally Rowe (Collette) to charge the teenager.

What begins as a simple case quickly spirals into a complicated backstory involving taxidermy, night trains, absent parents, and ritualistic murder. Can Sally trust Alex’s story that Nigel corrupted him? Or is the teenage boy a masterful liar who’s using her sympathy to get away with literal murder? Only the Knights Templar know for sure!

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 385: Like Minds (2006)

Pack your taxidermy kit and catch the night train because we are discussing writer/director Gregory J. Read’s Like Minds (2006).

The film explores the Gestalt relationship that develops between two boys, Nigel and Alex (Tom Sturridge and Eddie Redmayne – in his feature debut) at a boarding school, as well as a series of murders that forensic psychologist Toni Collette (and her bangs) is investigating in the present.

It’s a wild ride, filled with way more bizarre shit than expected. Expect plenty of debate about what exactly is going on here! Big thanks to listener Rachel for bringing this odd little Aussie/UK co-production to our attention!

Cross out Like Minds!

Coming Up Next: We’re “celebrating” the 20th anniversary of Wolfgang Petersen’s Poseidon with a look at the 1972 film that kick started the disaster movie trend: The Poseidon Adventure.

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 487 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on shark movies Thrash and Dark Water, Hokum, Mortal Kombat 2, Obsession and that aforementioned audio commentary on Poseidon.

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After spending April laughing at James Gunn’s horror comedy Slither (listen), revisiting Boris Karloff in The Mummy (listen), and debating M. Night Shyamalan’s “comedy” The Happening (listen), we’re closing out the month with an underseen Robin Williams gem.

In 2002’s One Hour Photo, writer/director Mark Romanek developed one of the darkest roles of Williams’ career. As Sy, the photo technician at a “don’t call it Walmart” style megastore, Williams’ character develops an unhealthy fixation on the Yorkin family. Headed up by absent father Will (Michael Vartan), but kept together by matriarch Nina (Connie Nielsen), Sy envisions himself playing Uncle to the couple’s young son, Jake (Dylan Smith).

As the framing device with detectives James Van Der Zee (Eriq LaSalle) and Outerbridge (Clark Gregg) proves, though, Sy’s interest in being a member of the family has tumbled over into a dangerous – potentially deadly – obsession. Has Sy truly only “taken photos“?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 384: One Hour Photo (2002)

Prep your photo wall and cancel the room service because we’re talking Mark Romanek’s One Hour Photo (2002). C/W: Childhood sexual abuse

Starring Robin Williams, this combination character study/thriller finds the comedian playing against type as an awkward photo technician who fantasizes about the perfect life of one particular family.

Plus: Detective Photographer; 2000s hairdos; early influencer horror; and plenty of debate about when and how the “twist” is used (with comparisons to other texts like Psycho and Mysterious Skin).

Cross out One Hour Photo!

Coming Up Next: We’re kicking off May with the Aussie/UK psychological thriller Like Minds (2006) starring Toni Collette and a baby faced Eddie Redmayne (in his film debut!).

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 484 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on shark movies Thrash and Dark Water, Hokum, Mortal Kombat 2, Obsession and an audio commentary on Wolfgang Petersen’s Poseidon for its 20th anniversary.

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New to Tubi May Horror Films

American Carnage (2022)

• Premise: After a governor issues an executive order to arrest the children of undocumented immigrants, the newly detained youth are offered an opportunity to have their charges dropped by volunteering to care for the elderly.
• Why Watch It? This title from Diego Hallivis (who co-writes with Julio Hallivis) received mixed reviews upon its release, but its subject matter is even more timely and relevant now, considering what’s going on with ICE. There may be some catharsis to be found in a satirical take on real-life horrors, especially when the biting jokes are delivered by someone as likeable and talented as star Jenna Ortega.
• Streaming: May 1

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

• Premise: When a group of rich 20-somethings plans a hurricane party at a remote family mansion, a party game turns deadly.
• Why Watch It? In hindsight, one of the biggest selling features of Halina Reijn’s millennial satire is its stunning cast, which includes Amandla Stenberg, Myha’la, Maria Bakalova, Lee Pace, Chase Sui Wonders, and Rachel Sennott (Pete Davidson is also there). The buzzy A24 title is centered around a dangerous distraction during a storm, but that’s hardly the point of this takedown of wealth, privilege, race, and sexuality. Double bill this title with Clue (see below) for a night of fun and games with two films that have more on their mind than meets the eye.
• Streaming: May 1

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

• Premise: Centuries-old vampire Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) comes to England to seduce his barrister Jonathan Harker’s (Keanu Reeves) fiancée Mina Murray (Winona Ryder) and wreak havoc in a foreign land.
• Why Watch It? Oozing sensuality and boasting Oscar-nominated costumes by the incomparable Eiko Ishioka, director Francis Ford Coppola‘s lavish period piece features incredible in-camera FX and no less than two fantastic performances (Oldman is perfect, but it’s Anthony Hopkins‘ scenery-chewing turn as Dr. Van Helsing that steals the show). It’s classy, sexy, and gory (the Brides eat a baby!). 1992’s Dracula is the most opulent adaptation of Stoker’s work to date and remains the one to beat (nice try, Luc Besson!)
• Streaming: May 1

Clue (1985)

• Premise: Six guests are anonymously invited to a strange mansion for dinner, but after their host is killed, they must cooperate with the staff to identify the murderer as the bodies pile up.
• Why Watch It? The board game adaptation is one of the best comedies ever made, but it’s also a very fun murder mystery. There are plenty of deaths, secret passageways, ulterior motives, and outsized personalities scattered throughout the film. Scratch beneath the surface, and there’s also a healthy dose of commentary about both politics and queerness, just to name a few issues. The cast is composed of nothing but legends (Madeline Kahn’s infamous – and purportedly ad-libbed – line about “flames on the sides of my face” will never not be iconic). Plus: Star Tim Curry just celebrated his 80th (!) birthday last month, so what better way to fete the living legend? 
• Streaming: May 1

The Dead Zone (1983)

• Premise: Five years after a traffic accident left him in a coma, Johnny Smith (Christopher Walken) awakens to discover that he has the ability to foresee future events and even prevent tragedies from happening. Will these new abilities prove to be a blessing or a curse?
• Why Watch It? It’s impossible to go a month in the horror world without brushing up against a Stephen King adaptation. This month, check out the icy coolness of director David Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone, which follows Johnny as he tests his newfound abilities in an effort to save the world. The threat is courtesy of a (what else?!) corrupt politician, Greg Stillson (a perfectly cast Martin Sheen), with his finger on the nuclear option, though for my money the film is at its most exciting when Cronenberg leans into full slasher mode with a serial killer bathroom sequence.  
• Streaming: May 1

De Palma (2015)

• Premise: An American documentary film directed by Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow about director and screenwriter Brian De Palma
• Why Watch It? Breaking away from narrative options, why not check out this 2015 A24 documentary about Brian De Palma that premiered at the Venice Film Festival? The title verges on autobiography as the infamous director reminisces about his varied career, which includes multiple genre titles such as Sisters, Blow Out, and, of course, Carrie. There are plenty of clips, anecdotes, and archival footage included from his films, which makes for a solid primer for those who may be less familiar with his work.
• Streaming: May 1

Don’t Breathe (2016)

• Premise: Three delinquents break into the house of a war veteran (Stephen Lang) who is blind to steal his money. However, they discover that the man is not as defenseless as he seems.
• Why Watch It? Fede Alvarez‘s reverse home invasion film is one of the most viscerally impactful genre films of the last decade. The tension that he crafts as the noose slowly tightens around Rocky (Jane Levy, returning to work with the director after 2013’s Evil Dead) is palpable, and the film features incredible sound design that makes the set pieces even more nerve-wracking. Sure, the film’s last act has a big sexual assault content warning, but if audiences can overcome the ick factor, Don’t Breathe is an adrenaline rush from start to finish.
• Streaming: May 1

Let The Right One In (2008)

• Premise: A bullied boy forms a unique friendship with his new neighbor, a peculiar girl with a dark secret.
• Why Watch It? The adaptation of Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist‘s coming-of-age Middle Grade story is sweet (the relationship between Oskar and Eli), chilly (snow-bound horror has never felt so frigid), and filled with surprising amounts of gore. The quiet and moody horror film isn’t afraid to go hard for maximum impact: simply consider the all-timer swimming pool-set climax, which features exquisite camera blocking about what’s happening above and below the water.
• Streaming: May 28

Practical Magic (1998)

• Premise: Two witch sisters (Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman), raised by their eccentric aunts (delightful pair Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest) in a small town, face closed-minded prejudice and a curse which threatens to prevent them from ever finding lasting love.
• Why? Griffin Dunne’s adaptation, which boasts frequent genre writer Akiva Goldsman, is mostly a whimsical romantic drama. But what audiences may have forgotten in the 28 years since the film’s release is that the entire last act of the film is a straight-up horror film. Sure, most of the film involves a cutesy plot wherein Bullock tries to prevent Aidan Quinn from dying from a paramour-killing family curse, but the Kidman side of the story features her dead domestic abuser (ER star Goran Visnjic) coming back from the grave as a vengeful ghost.
• Streaming: May 1

Slice (2018)

• Premise: When a pizza delivery driver is murdered on the job, the city searches for someone to blame: Ghosts? Drug dealers? A disgraced werewolf?
• Why Watch It? This Zazie Beetz film came and went without much fanfare back in the day, but now that she’s back in the conversation with They Will Kill You, perhaps the horror comedy deserves a reappraisal? The cast alone suggests a decent time: along with Beetz, you’ve got Hannibal Buress and Joe Keery.  There’s also something to be said for easy going horror fare. I mean, who doesn’t love pizza and bloodshed? Pop an edible, order a pie, and double bill this one along with Disney’s recent Pizza Movie.
• Streaming: May 1

May Tubi Originals

Give Me Back My Baby (2026)

• Premise: When a couple chooses a surrogate for their baby, they unknowingly open the door to an obsession that could cost them everything.
• Streaming: May 8

I Didn’t Do It (2026)

• Premise: A detective rejects the claim that his daughter took her own life, chasing deadly secrets that lead to baffling questions and shocking truths.
• Streaming: May 22

What’s your favorite from the list above? Will you check out the new Originals? Sound off in the comments below.

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At the same time, on Patreon, we’ve been discussing Nuclear Disasters, focusing primarily on Craig Mazin‘s five-part limited series Chernobyl, as well as two films chronicling the near-meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan.

Jenn and I have discovered a surprising amount of crossover between the two themes, including discussions about who knew what and when; what could have been done differently to prevent disaster; and the environmental fallout that continues to affect citizens.

Thrown into the mix is Brad Parker‘s delightfully silly Chernobyl Diaries (2012), which has a shocking amount of real-life facts embedded in the narrative. Or at least it does in the film’s more successful first act…before things quickly devolve into a pretty conventional B-movie in the back half.

In the film, a group of tourists goes on an ill-advised “extreme” tour of Pripyat, located in the cordoned off exclusion zone near the abandoned Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Older brother Paul (Jonathan Sadowski) takes the lead in finding guide Uri (Dimitri Diatchenko), while younger brother Chris (Jesse McCartney) has plans to propose to his girlfriend Natalie (Olivia Taylor Dudley).

Tagging along is Natalie’s friend – and Paul’s love interest – Amanda (Devin Kelley), as well as international couple Michael (Wolf Creek‘s Nathan Phillips) and Zoe (Cold Prey‘s Ingrid Bolsø Berdal). But after an accident strands them in hostile territory, and with radiation levels spiking, can the group survive a night among the mutated residents living among the ruins of Reactor 4?

Listen to find out!

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 150 hours of bonus content, including the aforementioned episode-by-episode coverage of HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries, as well as episodes on HBO’s 2026 documentary, Fukushima: Nuclear Nightmare, and the 2020 Japanese fiction film Fukushima50 on the events following the 2011 tsunami.

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Matched with disorienting camerawork from cinematographer Carmen Cabana and alternately squelchy and roaring sound effects on the soundtrack, the opening is both a standard horror movie cold open and deeply emblematic of Hive as a whole. The narrative messaging is deeply influenced by class and race, while the technical elements are playful and high energy.

The film’s protagonist is Sasha (Xochitl Gomez), a low-income girl with aspirations of living in an affluent gated community like Coral Grove. It’s her first day working as a nanny to a rich, entitled brat named Zaley (Victoria Firsova), whose mother Camille (Tanya van Graan) is the kind of stereotype who condescendingly refers to Sasha as “sweetpea” while fretting about the dangers of consuming sugar or playing with other kids.

Sasha puts on a brave face through all of this ridiculousness because she needs the money and a reference to a prestigious school. As her landscaper brother Marco (Aaron Dominguez) reminds Sasha, “We need this gig.” The money is tied to their livelihood, and it’s clear from an early call with her father that this job is an opportunity to help not just Sasha and her family, but also to ensure a future that extends beyond domestic labor.

Photo Credit: Marcos Cruz

Naturally, the conflict is that Coral Grove hides a nefarious secret (though, to be clear, it’s not exactly a Get Out situation). While the people are definitely part of the problem, the children are under the influence of something living beneath the ground that is fond of gobbling people up. And since people don’t miss nannies, housekeepers, and landscapers because they’re typically people of colour, Sasha and Marco are next on the hit list.

The commentary in Hive isn’t subtle, and it does tend to belabor the point a few too many times, particularly in the film’s last act, but that’s mostly forgiven because – despite its dark racial implications – it’s a surprisingly fun time. The majority of the film takes place around colorful playground equipment, weaponizing familiar items like swings, merry-go-rounds, kiddie pools, and slides in a variety of set pieces.

Sasha, Marco, and Marco’s co-worker Darius (Thulani Nzonzo) learn from the film’s harbinger, housekeeper Frances (Zenobia Kloppers), that Coral Grove has been infected by a creature that uses these items as traps. Unsuspecting targets are lured in, usually by infected children, and then swallowed up into a subterranean world that looks like a combination of construction site and abandoned children’s playroom.

Photo Credit: Marcos Cruz

Considering this is a relatively small film, Hive has a lot going for it with regard to sound, production design, and make-up. The camera is constantly on the prowl, which ensures that even in the more sedate interior scenes, it feels as if Sasha and the others are being stalked. Sound mixer Derek Mansvelt rachets up the tension by accentuating the sounds of the playground, along with hungry rumblings and angry roars from the entity, particularly as Sasha, Marco, and (eventually) Frances discover ways to fight back.

The bright visual aesthetic of the playground, including the ball pit in Zaley’s backyard, is sharply contrasted by the world below. For example, Hive gets plenty of mileage by turning the interior of a slide into a threatening tarp with laughing, chanting children lurking around the bend.

Hive. Photo Credit: Marcos Cruz

It doesn’t hurt that the action sequences tend to involve a horde of infected individuals. Since the creature itself is never visually seen, Vargas’ screenplay wisely uses the Coral Grove residents as a stand-in. Sasha and Marco routinely find themselves surrounded by a circle of children who move and chant in unison. They’re not acting of their own volition, though; as Frances will explain later, they’re in a kind of spell, snapping to command before violent outbursts; then they’re released, bewildered, and none the wiser about the horrors that they’ve committed.

These moments, with their child-like rhymes mocking victims, herky-jerky motions, and acrobatic feats (expect back bends aplenty!), effectively toe the line between threatening, silly, and exciting. There’s something delightfully Goosebumps-y about Hive that makes it feel both familiar and distinct, so even though the film sometimes pulls its punches when it comes to stakes or leans too heavily into obvious messaging, it’s still a fun time.

Tubi originals can be a little inconsistent, but thanks to its candy-colored production design, evocative sound design, grotesque scabby yellow make-up, and prowling camerawork, Hive is a solid watch. 

Hive is now streaming on Tubi.

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From hails from creator John Griffin, who writes the teleplay for most episodes, alongside regular co-writer Jeff Pinkner and LOST‘s Jack Bender, who usually directs.

The series is set in a mysterious town that residents can’t escape. They usually find themselves stuck after a detour on the highway thanks to a fallen tree. Once inside the town, which has a diner, a bar, a police station, and lodging in the form of Colony House, residents must stay inside after dark or risk being horribly killed by smiling Creatures who look human.

Buildings are protected by a limited supply of talismans that series protagonist Sheriff Boyd Stevens (Harold Perrineau) discovered before the start of the series, but these only prevent the Creatures from entering and multiple residents have been lured outside to their deaths.

The series was recently renewed for a fifth and final season.

The Main Characters Trapped in From

• Boyd is the emotional core of the ensemble. Each season, he is put through a series of gruelling physical and mental obstacles, often to the point that he debates giving up. Boyd is also contending with the unresolved guilt of murdering his wife, Abby (Lisa Ryder), and has an adult son, Ellis (Corteon Moore), and a daughter-in-law, Fatima (Pegah Ghafoori).
• Colony house is run by Donna Raines (Elizabeth Saunders), a gruff, no-nonsense woman who secretly has a heart of gold. She’s the other de facto leader of the town alongside Boyd.
• The Matthews family’s arrival in town kicked off the series back in the pilot. Patriarch Jim (Eion Bailey) and wife Tabitha (Catalina Sandino Moreno) were working through a separation that neither of their two children, teenage daughter Julie (Hannah Cheramy) and pre-teen son Ethan (Simon Webster), knew about. Jim spends most of his time with narcissistic software developer Jade (David Alpay) because they are convinced they can find a way to uncover the town’s secrets and get everyone out.
• Ethan develops a friendship with Victor Kavannaugh (Scott McCord), the man who has survived in town the longest. He witnessed a town massacre as a boy that claimed the lives of both his mother and sister; as a result of his trauma, Victor is emotionally stunted as an adult.
• Kenny Liu (Ricky He) is Boyd’s deputy. Over the seasons, Kenny has lost both his parents to the town. His father was murdered by Sara Myers (Avery Konrad) after she was manipulated by voices, and his mother Tian-Chen was tortured to death by the Creatures near the beginning of season three. Kenny is also getting over a crush on the town’s young doctor Kristi (Chloe Van Landscoot) following the arrival of her nurse girlfriend, Marielle (Kaelen Ohm), in season two.
• Other notable characters include folks who arrived on a bus in the season two finale, including Elgin (Nathan D. Simmons), a quiet Black man who experiences visions and déjà vu; Randall (AJ Simmons), a belligerant disbeliever who routinely butts heads with Boyd; and bus driver Bakta (Angela Moore), who took over responsibilities at the diner after Tian-Chen’s death.
• Finally, there’s Acosta (Samantha Brown), a hot-headed police officer who showed up mid-season three.

So where did we leave off with the major storylines?

Fatima, Elgin, and the “Hysterical” Pregnancy

Fatima’s long-gestating arc began in season two and then escalated in season three as she contended with an impossible pregnancy. Early in the series, it was established that she couldn’t have children, but in season three, she began experiencing pregnancy symptoms that included the need to eat blood and rotting food. Kristi and Marielle believed she was having a hysterical pregnancy (ie, she was imagining it), but in the two-part season three finale, “Revelations: Chapter One & Two,” Fatima was abducted by Elgin and locked in a cellar before going into labor.

The normally reserved man did this at the urging of ‘Kimono Woman‘ (Shoxin Fu), an apparition that only he and Fatima could see (in his defense, Kimono Woman spent the season getting into his head). First Boyd, then Sara tortured Elgin for information, which led to Fatima’s rescue, but not before Boyd saw her newborn baby grow into Smiley Creature (Jamie McGuire) – the only Creature that Boyd has managed to kill.

Tabitha, Jade and Repressed Memories

To date, Tabitha remains the only character to have escaped from town.  After being pushed out of a lighthouse in the season two finale, Tabitha spent part of season three trying to find her way back and rescue the family she left behind. Her search led her to Henry (Robert Joy), Victor’s father, but they soon wound up back in town, along with Officer Acosta.

Tabitha spent the rest of season three investigating her ties to Henry’s wife, Miranda. She and Jade were eventually lured out to the bottle tree by the good-intentioned-but-freaky looking ghost children who dress in white. The pair discovered hidden musical notes in bottles that, when played, activated their repressed memories of previous lives.

As a result, Tabitha now knows that not only is she Victor’s mother, Miranda, but that she and Jade, who has the memories of Victor’s childhood friend, Christopher, also have a romantic history. They were in town at the beginning, had a child together, and have been trying (and failing) to save the children ever since.

For those keeping track, that also means Tabitha has now been married to Jim, Jade, and Henry.

Time Moves Differently for Julie the Storywalker

Give Griffin credit for not his absolute cruelty because From is shockingly unafraid of whittling down its cast by at least one or two main characters every season.

Arguably, the biggest cliffhanger of season three found the Grim Reaper coming for Jim in the form of The Man in the Yellow Suit (Douglas E. Hughes). This character, who has verbally antagonized Boyd, Jim, and Jade via the phone and the radio, finally appeared in the flesh in the daytime to rip out Jim’s neck.

Admittedly Jim’s death wasn’t entirely shocking: it was telegraphed in the last few episodes of season three as the shitty father began taking tentative steps towards a reconciliation with Tabitha. Regardless of whether audiences anticipated Jim’s death, however, it’s what The Man in the Yellow Suit says and who else appears at the crime scene that sent shockwaves through the Fromily community.

Just before killing Jim, The Man in the Yellow Suit explains, “Knowledge comes at a cost,” and that the murder is in retaliation for Tabitha digging a hole in their basement back in season one (that event led to a cascade of discoveries about how the town functions).

Additionally, moments before The Man in the Yellow Suit appears, Jim is confronted by his desperate/screaming daughter. She is NOT, however, the Julie that we know. This iteration has shoulder-length hair and seemingly knows that her father is about to die because she desperately warns him that “it’s not safe” and “you need to get back to town now.”

At this point, we should concede that this is not the first time that characters have magically appeared out of the blue. Typically, though, characters on the show move through space, not time (the Farway Trees have famously dropped Boyd into a well in the season 1 finale, and poor Dale wound up half-stuck in a swimming pool wall and died. See also: Tabitha and the lighthouse).

So this isn’t exactly new territory, but no one has come from the future before. So why Julie? How far into the future does she hail from? And why is she wearing a terrible wig? Considering how adept the series is at balancing out mysteries and answers, these are extremely tantalizing questions that will undoubtedly drive the narrative as we head into season four. 

What are your outstanding questions as From enters its penultimate season? Who is your favorite (or least favorite) character? What do you hope to see in this new batch of episodes?

From season four debuts Sunday, April 19, on MGM+.

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After a month in London’s Whitechapel district discussing different permutations of Jack the Ripper, including Johnny Depp’s From Hell (listen) and Michael Caine’s 1988 miniseries (listen), it’s time for Murder Made Fiction to explore a new subject: whistleblowers.

In Mike Nichols‘ 1983 drama Silkwood, Meryl Streep plays real-life activist and attempted whistleblower Karen Silkwood. The first woman to ever join the union bargaining committee at Kerr-McGee was set to expose a potentially deadly cover-up at the company’s Cimarron Plant in Crescent, Oklahoma, back in the early 70s.

Instead, after being deliberately exposed to 400 times the legal limit for plutonium contamination on Nov 5, 1974, Karen’s car was rear-ended on Nov 13. She was impaled by the steering wheel and pinned to the roof of the car in what many believe to be a (successful) attempt to keep her silent. 

Screenwriters Nora Ephron and Alice Arlen don’t focus on the end of Karen Silkwood’s life, though; instead, the film is more about her radical turn to activism, the cost of her determination, including the dissolution of friendships (with Cher!) and romances (with Kurt Russell!), and the shady corporate behavior of Kerr McGee.

Listen to find out more.

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 143 hours of content, including episode-by-episode coverage of HBO’s Chernobyl miniseries (in honor of the 40th anniversary of the disaster this month), as well as the near meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant in the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami.

The post ‘Silkwood’ Focuses on Dramatics Until It Kills Its Protagonist [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In March, in addition to celebrating one of 2026’s three Friday the 13s with Steve Miner’s Friday the 13th Part III (listen) and the arrival of Spring with Robin Hardy‘s The Wicker Man (listen), we also snuck in a rewatch of the OG Ready or Not (listen).

Now we’re celebrating Easter with Mick Garris‘s feature directorial debut: Critters 2: The Main Course (1988).

In the film, bounty hunters Ug (Terrence Mann) and Charlie (Don Keith Opper) return to Earth, along side Lee, who takes on the form of a Playboy playmate (Roxanne Kernohan) when they touch down. It turns out that several Critter eggs have laid dormant in Grover’s Bend and it’s up to them, as well as disgraced figures Brad Brown (Scott Grimes) and former Sheriff Harv (now played by Barry Corbin), as well as Brad’s new love interest Megan (Liane Alexandra Curtis), to rally the town to fight back.

Will the Critters eat all of the meat? Will the town’s sanctuary – the Church – fall? And will there be far too many resurrection/Easter jokes? No, no, and absolutely yes.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 380: Critters 2: The Main Course (1988)

Prep your Critter ball because we are celebrating Easter with Mick Garris’ feature directorial debut, Critters 2: The Main Course (1988).

Two years after the events of the first film, the town of Grover’s Bend is once again beset by alien Critters and bounty hunters, but this time the fight expands to include the whole town and Lee has adopted a sexy Playboy image (we have thoughts!)

Plus: Justice for skeleton man, death for little Cindy, statutory rape charges for Megan, practical FX from the Chiodo Brothers, and a Canadian vodka detour from Joe.

We might be delirious for this one.

Cross out Critters 2: The Main Course!

Coming Up Next: We’re doubling down on small towns invaded by alien threats with a look at James Gunn’s Slither, just in time for its 20th anniversary!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 477 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal S03 Episodes 3 & 4, the Faces of Death remake, They Will Kill You, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy AND a corresponding audio commentary on Tom Cruise’s abysmal remake of The Mummy from 2017. Plus the wrap up of our coverage of Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House (2018) on the Requel tier.

The post Celebrating The Resurrection of the Crites with ‘Critters 2: The Main Course’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s been a month of Jack the Ripper texts on Murder Made Fiction podcast and while the quality has been consistent, the approach to arguably one of the most famous unsolved murders in true crime history has varied widely.

Naturally made-for-TV movies like 1997’s The Ripper (listen here) and the Michael Caine-led Jack The Ripper miniseries from 1988 (listen here) have been a bit more sedate, while Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent film The Lodger (listen here) and Hugo Fregonese’s 1953 Man in the Attic (listen here) were “classier” affairs.

We left our most contemporary, big budgeted, big screen adaptation for last and boy, do the Hughes Brothers lean into the gore! While From Hell isn’t on par with the wave of Torture Porn titles that would come out of Hollywood only a few years later, compared to every other Jack the Ripper text, this one is quite a bit more salacious.

In the film, Detective Frederick Abberline (Johnny Depp) is assigned to the case of the Whitechapel murders. A killer is targeting a specific group of sex workers, lead by Heather Graham‘s Mary Kelly (and her terrible wig!). The deaths appear to be tied to the inner circle of people who know about the marriage and out of wedlock birth of a baby with ties to Prince Albert Victor (Mark Dexter).

Over time it’s revealed that a shadowy cabal, the Freemasons, are actively working behind the scenes to manipulate events in favour of the monarchy, leaving Abberline and his partner Sergeant Peter Godley (Robbie Coltrane) to go up against Queen Victoria’s royal physician, Sir William Gull (Ian Holm – fantastic) and his lackey, coach driver Netley (Jason Flemyng), who will stop at nothing to keep the truth hidden.

Can Abberline protect Mary Kelly? Will the Freemasons and Queen Vic throw Sir William under the bus? And how many people will end up lobotomized by the end of the 2+ hour film?

Listen to find out!

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 140 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of S01 of AMC’s The Terror and, starting in April, coverage of nuclear disasters like HBO’s miniseries, Chernobyl.

The post ‘From Hell’ Upped The Gore for Jack The Ripper Films [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

New to Tubi April Horror Films

Carrie (2013)

• Premise: A shy girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), outcast by her peers and sheltered by her religious mother (Julianne Moore), unleashes telekinetic terror on her small town after being pushed too far at her senior prom.
• Why Watch It: Tubi has several double bills this month, including the remake of Child’s Play and the Tom Holland ’88 original, but for my money, this remake is the more intriguing option. I won’t pretend that Kimberly Peirce‘s 2013 entry is flawless (blame studio interference and a possibly miscast Grace Moretz), but Moore taking over the religious zealot role is kinda genius, and the creative team is excessively queer (besides lead Grace Moretz, there’s director Peirce, and screenwriter Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa). Plus, as my Horror Queers co-host Trace loves to say, the punishment for Portia Doubleday‘s Chris in the car crash climax is fantastic and mean. That sequence alone is worth the price of admission.
• Streaming: April 1

Child’s Play (2019)

• Premise: A mother (Aubrey Plaza) gives her 13-year-old son (Gabriel Bateman) a toy doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature.
• Why Watch It: Full confession: Back in 2019, I rallied people to dismiss this non-canonical entry because it was unclear if the film was actively hurting Don Mancini‘s attempt to get the TV series going (we would, of course, get Chucky S01 on Syfy back in 2021). While I haven’t revisited Lars Klevberg‘s update, I remember liking Plaza and a few of the deaths. The reality is that this franchise reboot can’t shake off accusations of a cash grab, and the screenwriting isn’t particularly innovative, but, in an alternate dimension, this was the last entry of the killer doll series. It’s a bizarre little fork in the franchise timeline that (maybe?) merits a fresh set of eyes.
• Streaming: April 1

Deadly Class S01 (2018)

• Premise: Marcus (Benjamin Wadsworth) is a disillusioned teen who is recruited into a storied high school for assassins. He struggles to maintain his moral code while navigating a ruthless curriculum and vicious social cliques.
• Why Watch It? Miles Orion Feldsott and Rick Remender‘s Syfy adaptation of Remender’s own comic series (co-created with Wesley Craig) wasn’t a success, but it was an ambitious curiosity. The one-season series takes a familiar premise (rich and powerful teens make life hell for the new kid), but thanks to a 10-episode run (and a back catalogue of comics to draw from), there was room for the show to breathe a little. It’s an extremely Canadian production (keep an eye out for Incident in a Ghostland‘s Taylor Hickson!), but the show still featured recognizable faces like Lana Condor and Benedict Wong. Plus: expect plenty of action and bloodletting; it is a school for assassins, after all.
• Streaming: April 1 (All 10 episodes)

Lamb (2021)

• Premise: A childless couple discovers a mysterious newborn on their farm in Iceland.
• Why Watch It? This month’s slow burn recommendation is a gorgeous folk horror title by writer/director Valdimar Jóhannsson. For some, Lamb doesn’t qualify as a horror film, but for my money, it has enough unsettling imagery and moments to merit a recommendation. Besides the absolutely gorgeous scenery, the sweater game is on point, and anything Noomi Rapace does is essential viewing (she’s eminently watchable). Sure, it’s a bit high brow and weird, but maybe a child/sheep wearing a flower crown is exactly the vibe you’re going for as we transition into Spring.
• Streaming: April 1

Predator (1987) / Predator 2 (1990)

• Premise: A team of commandos on a mission in a Central American jungle finds themselves hunted by an extraterrestrial warrior. Then, in the 1997-set sequel, Los Angeles police hunt a new alien creature in the urban metropolis.
• Why Watch Them? The Predator franchise has had a creative resurgence in the last few years (thanks primarily to Dan Trachtenberg‘s steady hand on no less than three different titles). It’s fascinating to revisit the OG titles, however, in no small part because they’re so different. The first film is a classic Arnold/McTiernan machismo-fest that oozes 80s-hangover charm; the sequel tackles urban politics (i.e., racism) and has some pretty gnarly gore. They feel worlds apart (almost literally), and in just the first two entries, it’s clear that the boundaries of what constituted a Predator film was already being tested and played with.
• Streaming: April 15 (both films)

Queen of the Damned (2002)

Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah in QUEEN OF THE DAMNED

• Premise: In this loose sequel to 1994’s Interview with the Vampire, the vampire Lestat (now played by Stuart Townsend) becomes a rock star whose music wakes up the equally beautiful and monstrous queen of all vampires (Aaliyah).
• Why Watch It? We’re only a few months away from the third season of the AMC series, renamed The Vampire Lestat for its renewed focus on Lestat (Sam Reid). For the uninitiated, both S03 and Queen of the Damned are based on the third novel in Anne Rice‘s book series, though let’s all cross our fingers that the TV show improves on the shortcomings of Michael Rymer‘s 2002 film. The less said about Townsend’s performance the better, but if there is ONE reason to check out the film, it’s Aaliyah. She’s incredible and almost single-handedly makes the film watchable. The problem? Her screen time ranges from supporting character (if you’re being generous) to cameo (if you’re not). There simply isn’t enough of her!
• Streaming: April 1

Scary Movie 1-3 (2000; 2001; 2003)

“Scary Movie”Andrew Macpherson/Miramax/Dimension/Kobal/Shutterstock

• Premise: A year after disposing of the body of a man they accidentally killed, a group of dumb teenagers is stalked by a bumbling serial killer. In the sequel, the survivors are tricked by a professor into visiting a haunted house for a school project. In the threequel, Cindy (Anna Faris) must investigate mysterious crop circles and videotapes, and help the President in preventing an alien invasion.
• Why Watch Them? I’m not going to pretend that the Scary Movie films are horror titles, BUT with the Wayans Brothers returning to relaunch the parody franchise in just a few months with Scary Movie (2026), there’s no better time to revisit the films. The first film is the cinematic equivalent of a WayBack Machine that (re)captures the ubiquitous impact of Scream and the second cycle of slashers in the late 90s. Scary Movie 2‘s ability to pivot and mock The Haunting and J-Horror titles is a reminder of how quickly horror subgenres come and go, while Scary Movie 3 (when the Zucker brothers take over) has arguably the funniest gags in the series (Camryn Manheim‘s changing hats; the cold-open mocking The Ring). Fun fact: thank The Last of Us‘s Craig Mazin for that last one, he’s a co-writer on the script.
• Streaming: April 1 (all three films)

Volcano (1997)

• Premise: A volcano erupts in downtown Los Angeles and a city official and a seismologist try to stop its inevitable flow through the city.
• Why Watch It? This was that uniquely specific time in Hollywood when we got two versions of seemingly every film (see also: the 1998 rivalry of Armageddon and Deep Impact). Volcano was in direct competition with another 1997 lava-themed flick, Dante’s Peak…and the Tommy Lee Jones/Anne Heche title lost. It’s a shame because Volcano‘s urban setting lends it a very different feel than the small town vibes of its Pierce Brosnan counterpart. Not only is Jones doing his usual gruff, dependable leading man, but Volcano features at least one all-timer set piece set in the Los Angeles subway (hint: it involves a man leaping from a subway car into the magma). There’s a bunch of visceral body horror stuff here and audiences slept on it!
• Streaming: April 1

April Tubi Originals

The Caretaker (2026)

• Premise: After a car accident leaves Miles paralyzed, his wife hires a live-in caretaker who will stop at nothing to become the man of the house. Read more here
• Streaming: April 10

Hijacked (2026)

• Premise: A ride-share abduction sparks a deadly race as a father hunts to rescue his influencer daughter and their loved ones from a deranged driver.
• Streaming: April 24

Hive (2026)

• Premise: When a strict, anxious teen loses the child she’s babysitting, she’s forced to confront a sinister presence hiding among playground children as her grip on reality slips. Read more here
• Streaming: April 17

What’s your favorite from the list above? Will you check out the new Originals? Sound off in the comments below.

The post The 10 Best Horror Movies Streaming on Tubi [April 2026] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Jenn and I have spent the month discussing adaptations of one of true crime’s most classic cases: the unsolved murders of Jack the Ripper.

We began with a primer courtesy of the documentary To Kill and Kill Again, followed by Alfred Hitchcock’s silent film adaptation of The Lodger (listen). We followed that up with Jack The Ripper (listen), a 1988 two part miniseries starring Michael Caine and Jane Seymour that was simulcast in the UK and the US and cost $11M (!).

Now we’re up to another made-for-TV movie, 1997’s The Ripper, written by Robert Rodat – the screenwriter of The Patriot and Saving Private Ryan – and the only title directed by a woman, Janet Meyers.

In the film, Patrick Bergin (and his legendary moustache) is Inspector Jim Hansen, who is ordered by his superior Sir Charles (Michael York) to solve the murder of sex workers in Whitechapel in 1888. He quickly falls in love with Florry Lewis (Gabrielle Anwar, playing a stand-in of Mary Kelly) after she witnesses a murder.

What’s unique about The Ripper is that it wastes no time unmasking the villain. At approximately the 22 minute mark, it is clear to the audience that the killer is none other than Prince Albert Victor (Samuel West, also sporting an incredible moustache). 

The rest of the film is a queer-coded cat and mouse game between Hansen and the Prince as they circle each other at society parties and other functions, all while Prince Victor plots to kill Florry to keep her quiet. There’s even a (too brief) role for The Babadook‘s Essie Davis as the socially acceptable romantic match that Hansen turns down in favour of Florry.

What’s interesting about The Ripper is its interest in its female characters (as well as their sexual pleasure and agency) while also heavily critiquing the class structures of 19th century England. It also doesn’t hurt that West is having the time of his life, camping it up heavily as the syphilis-ridden monarch (in the climax, he actually wields a mace in a head to head battle with Hansen. It’s incredible)

It’s a fun little oddity that’s hard to track down, but surprisingly worth the effort!

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where you can get 140 hours of bonus content including episode by episode coverage of S01 of AMC’s The Terror, as well as every season of Ryan Murphy’s Monster series and all three seasons of Yellowjackets.

https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=BDA9263140738

The post 1997’s ‘The Ripper’ Blames The Monarchy For Jack The Ripper [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Following a cold open featuring lesbian-coded Jessy Griffin (Jesse Anderson) and Becca Lipshits (Rebekah Cianci) ill-advisedly hanging out in the DeFeo house, the action pivots to friends Trey (Trey Ball) and Jib (Jib Haddan). The besties are spending the weekend in Amityville, largely because Trey is Jessy’s jokey brother who is housesitting her cat, but also because he plans to attend the Skull Crusher concert on Friday and throw a rager on Saturday. Jib, meanwhile, is less enthusiastic about…well, everything; all he wants to do is drink a few beers and relax.

The gentle tension between the friends helps to power at least 50% of Amityvillenado, which is reminiscent of ‘opposites attract’ buddy comedies, complete with plenty of fart and poop jokes (courtesy of Trey’s poor diet and reflective of a long, random tradition among Amityville titles). It’s not as if Trey and Jib dislike each other, though; they simply have different goals, and Jib is constantly dragged along on the more high-energy Trey’s escapades (this is code for: expect a falling out around the 2/3 mark of the film, which is typical of the subgenre).

The fractured friendship occurs at the same time as a spate of deaths kicks off around Amityville. Meteorologist June Weathers (Elizabeth McCoy) believes that there’s something supernatural occurring, though her efforts to inform the public about the connection between the suffocation deaths and a rash of seemingly sentient tornadoes draw the ire of her misogynist boss, Brent Baculum (Kyle Wigginton).

As the death toll climbs, the survivors, including June, Jib, Trey, Becca’s cop husband Richard (Clay Aleman), and priest-turned-paranormal investigator O’Haharan (Will Debeest), must band together to uncover the truth about the soul-sucking tornados before Amityville (and maybe the world?) is devoured.

Amityvillenado is something of a mixed bag. On one hand, there’s a clear reverence for other entries in the “franchise” as evidenced by mentions of the real-life DeFeo and Lutz family (who even have a lake named after them!), as well as other entries. Tucker and Van Gerwen also understand their budgetary limitations and how to work within them. Case in point: after destroying the Amityville house (offscreen) in the opening sequence, the remainder of the film features frequent on-the-nose expository dialogue confirming that something supernatural is behind the unassuming empty lot where the house once sat. As the friends observe, “I’m amazed at how quickly they cleaned up all of the debris.”

On the flip side, the film’s single greatest sin is its punishing 1:51-minute runtime. Sure, the film contains secret identity reveals and even a stellar shadow puppet flashback sequence, but there’s still no justification for dragging the narrative out this long. On top of this, the acting is (expectedly) a little amateurish*, with some performers faring better than others (McCoy and Haddan are decent, while Debeest tends to scream/yell all of his lines and Ball is too one-note).

*It’s helpful to have a single stand-alone scene featuring frequent Amityville writer/director/actor Shawn C. Phillips to remind us how, um, *challenging* the acting can be in these films.

All this to say that Amityvillenado is unlikely to change purists’ perspective about the inclusion of DTV entries in the “franchise”. For individuals who have seen some of the output from the last two decades, however, this entry is heads and tails above recent duds like Amityville Bigfoot and Amityville Backpack.

Amityvillenado at least tells a coherent story, with identifiable character arcs and the requisite self-awareness evident in the best contemporary entries.

Amityvillenado is out on VOD as of March 24.

The Amityville IP Awards go to…

• Tornado Warning: The storm FX are the most demanding effect of the film, so it’s wise of Tucker and Van Gerwen to mostly imply the tornadoes until the climax, which principally shifts the action into B/W and green screen. The rest of the time, characters simply look to the sky as their souls are sucked out like a black mist. The reality is that it doesn’t look half bad. If anything, it’s on par with your average genre cable TV show.
• Amityville Awareness: From Jib swiping at flies and acknowledging that “There’s like a million [Amityville] movies…” to his rant about the items that Trey expects to find in the Amityville wreckage (examples include: a mirror/painting, dollhouse, clock, and spooky toilet), it’s pretty clear that these filmmakers have done their homework. Which makes sense, considering they literally host an Amityville podcast called “For God’s Sake, Get Out: An Amityville Podcast.”
• Shadow Puppetry: It worked the charm in Nia DaCosta’s Candyman remake, and it works here, as well. The sad historical backstory about the tornadoes is depicted late in the film via a shadow puppet sequence, and it’s arguably the best/most gorgeous part of the film. Kudos to the team, which includes Puppet Maker Jacob Bursch and puppeteers Jeff Van Gerwen, Paul Tucker, Clay Aleman, and Bradley Greer. Let me tell you: none of the other Amityville films have displayed this level of creative experimentation, and I, for one, greatly appreciated it!
• Scream Homage: In addition to June’s hilarious meteorology name (we eventually learn she changed it from Brittany June Cummings, so…BJ Cummings), the news anchor June aspires to replace is named Gale Thunder, which is spelled the exact same way the Scream character spells it. This, in addition to a specific sound cue evoking Angelo Badalamenti’s score, is an obvious homage to Wes Craven’s slasher classic.
  • June also drops “I’ve got a bad feeling about this” at one point, confirming Tucker and Van Gerwen’s media literacy.
• Queer Coding: Considering that the film more or less insinuates that Becca was cheating on her police officer husband, Richard, with Jessy, it’s interesting that the film never pulls the trigger on the queer chemistry between Jib and Richard. All of their interactions have an antagonistic/mocking tone that suggests a sexual attraction (Jib repeatedly – and deliberately – calls Richard “Dick Lips” throughout the film). Sure, Jib’s main storyline is about his strained friendship with Trey, but the climax seemingly goes out of its way to pair Richard and June as if they’re destined to be a couple, despite Aleman and Haddan’s stronger chemistry.
  • Don’t even get me started on the poly implications of “Storm Chasers”, the band that the survivors propose in the film’s denouement.

The post ‘Amityvillenado’ Review – An Overlong, but Reverent Entry in the “Franchise” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The Serpent’s Skin is a world filled with supernatural entities. Chief among them is protagonist Anna (Alexandra McVicker), a trans girl who escapes from her unsupportive parents’ house to move to the big city and live with her older sister, Dakota (Charlotte Chimes).

Almost immediately, Anna meets a dark-haired tattooist named Gen (Avalon Fast), who is drawn to her. The two quickly realize that they share powerful abilities, including the ability to “push” people, which ranges from manipulating their mental faculties to causing them to bleed from the eyes, ears, and nose. Think the teen feminism & sorcery of The Craft meets the bloody telepathy of Scanners.

Obviously, the film needs a villain, but unlike Mackay’s other texts, the antagonist of the movie is more insidious than an intolerant jerk or a shitty dude. In fact, for nearly half of the runtime, it’s unclear who or what the threat is because the most prominent male character, Danny (Jordan Dulieu), seems like a pretty decent guy. Despite hooking up with Anna on her first night in the big city, he has no jealousy issues when she awkwardly confesses that she’s with Gen now.

It’s a little messy, but considering these are early twenty-something characters, it’s expected.

Mackay and co-writer Benjamin Pahl Robinson give us time to settle in and get to know the characters before the action ramps up. Sure, there’s a predatory thief, Switch (Patty Glavieux), prowling about, but he’s more of a test subject for Anna to learn how to hone and control her powers.

When other people, including several teens, begin showing signs of dementia or lacking all personality, however, it’s clear that Anna and Gen have to step in to help. And if the last act feels slightly rushed and a bit undercooked, it’s forgivable because by this time we’ve sufficiently invested in the girls’ relationship and intrigued by the rules of this world.

It doesn’t hurt that McVicker and Fast have good chemistry. Anna is introduced in a bad place (she’s a cutter, so C/W for self-harm right off the top), but once she moves in with Dakota and is allowed to live how she wants, even her sister notices that Anna has “blossomed.” Anna is empathetic, but she’s also determined and loyal when it comes to her friends.

These qualities are balanced nicely by Gen, whose wit is a little bit dry and whose perspective is a little more world-weary. Mackay and Pahl Robinson deliberately avoid naming the pair “witches”, though the insinuation – not unlike a certain witchy teen film of the 90s – is that there is a strong female component to their powers.

There’s also an open lament about the generations of information and tradition that have been lost due to fear and persecution (this reads both feminist and queer). It’s not the focal point of the film, but the idea of a current generation of women forced to discover how to make their way through the world (without mentorship or a road map) echoes throughout the text.

But The Serpent’s Skin isn’t a dreary drama by any means. Mackay brings back her Carnage for Christmas editor, Vera Drew (who helmed the enormously entertaining trans Batman parody, The People’s Joker), to keep the film moving at a brisk pace, as well as reinforce the empathic connection between the girls’ romance and the villain’s cruising behaviour. In one of the film’s stand-out sequences, Drew cross-cuts between Anna and Gen’s lovemaking and a sexualized attack, symbolically linking them but easily distinguishing them using colored filters (golden amber for the attack; emerald blue for Gen and Anna). It’s hot, unexpected, and – despite not being particularly graphic – the sex is sustained in a way that the majority of contemporary films shy away from.

Shout-out also to special effects make-up artist Dom Keeley for the titular serpentine imagery, which looks appropriately scaly and great. Some of the close-up work on the villain is too reminiscent of the vampires on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, though Mackay enthusiasts may understandably also feel it’s a callback to the vampire make-up of Mackay’s breakthrough 2021 film, So Vam (which was itself indebted to Buffy).

As someone who has always admired Mackay’s punk rock aesthetic while occasionally lamenting the thin characterizations and speedy plotting of her early films, The Serpent’s Skin feels like a solid step in the right direction. The characters are still relatable, but thanks to the measured pacing of the narrative, they also have room to breathe and interact outside of the genre-oriented elements. The result is a film with endearing characters, an intriguing mythological hook, and a healthy dose of sex and violence.

It’s another solid entry in Mackay’s rapidly expanding filmography.

Dark Star Pictures releases The Serpent’s Skin in select theaters starting March 27 before releasing on Digital on April 21, 2026.

The post ‘The Serpent’s Skin’ Review – ‘The Craft’ Meets ‘Scanners’ in Alice Maio Mackay’s Latest appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After spending February discussing Olympic Crimes, Jenn and I are in the thick of classic true crime stories with one of the OGs: Jack the Ripper! We began with a primer courtesy of the documentary To Kill and Kill Again, followed by an early Alfred Hitchcock silent black and white beauty, The Lodger (listen).

Now we’re tackling a two-episode miniseries from 1988. Directed by David Wickes (who co-wrote the teleplay with Derek Marlowe), the series follows Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline (Michael Caine) of Scotland Yard as he investigates the murder of sex workers in Whitechapel.

Accompanied by his trustworthy partner, Sergeant Godley (Lewis Collins), the pair investigate no shortage of suspects, including:

• Richard Mansfield (Armand Assante), an American Stage actor who is performing in a fantastic-looking stage production of Jekyll and Hyde
• Coroner Dr. Llewellyn (Michael Hughes)
• Sir William Gull (Ray McAnally), physician to Queen Victoria
• Dr. Acland (Richard Morant), Sir William’s son-in-law
• Robert James Lees (Ken Bones), Queen Victoria’s psychic medium, who has visions of the killer; and
• Coach driver/low-class doctor John Netley (George Sweeney)

But as the killer grows more brazen, the question becomes: will Abberline identify the murderer before more women are killed?

In episode two, Michael Caine wraps up the case after a gruesome package that is sent to the media contains a pivotal clue that allows our fearless detectives to identify the Ripper from a bevy of suspects.

But will the world learn the identity of the notorious killer or will the truth stay buried for 100 years?

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 137 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of S01 of AMC’s The Terror.

The post Michael Caine Investigated Jack The Ripper in 1988 Miniseries [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In March, we bracketed Spanish language hit Thesis (listen) and the 3D Friday the 13th – aka Part III (listen) with a celebration of two Radio Silence films. We began the month with a look at their second Scream film – VI (listen) – and now we’re covering their 2019 hide and seek horror comedy, Ready or Not, in anticipation of the sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.

In the film, Grace (Samara Weaving) is an orphan in search of a family. She thinks she’s found it in her ultra-wealthy fiancé, Alex LeDomas (Mark O’Brien). The only issue? His family – headed up by patriarch Tony (Henry Czerny), matriarch Becky (Andie MacDowell), and ne’er do well siblings like Daniel (Adam Brody), appear to have weird ulterior motives.

When Grace is forced to pick a card in a bizarre midnight ceremony, the fun and games begin. As she desperately tries to survive “Hide and Seek”, the LeDomas family will do anything to kill her before sunrise. Jaunty records, carcass-ridden goat pits, and plenty of screaming blood sacs ensue.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 378: Ready or Not (2019)

Lace up your yellow chucks and rip that wedding dress because we are revisiting Radio Silence’s Ready or Not (2019).

Starring Scream Queen Samara Weaving (in her break-out role), the “Explode The Rich” horror comedy is as good as ever (Trace) or even better than before (Joe).

Plus: Grace as a “Final Girl”, a cast of Canadians, speculations about the mythology, and the original ending that would have been completely unacceptable.

Cross out Ready or Not!

Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating the arrival of Spring with a look at the original Wicker Man from 1973.

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 474 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Psycho Killer, The Bride!, Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, Scream 7, a new audio commentary on Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon and our continuing coverage of Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House (2018) on the Requel tier.

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And it is used incredibly well.

The film follows Evy Babic (Nina Kiri), a horror podcaster who has moved home to care for her dying mother (Michèle Duquet). Mama is very near death: she hasn’t eaten or drunk anything for several days and a nurse clarifies to Evy to keep an ear out for the “death rattle” that will signal her mother’s impending death.

In between changing soiled sheets and talking to her mother, Evy hops on mic to chat with Justin (voiced by Kris Holden-Ried, who never appears onscreen), her co-host on All Things Creepy. Justin is the believer and Evy is the skeptic, though repeated references to “getting into character” suggests that these may simply be roles they have adopted for entertainment purposes.

The plot kicks in when Justin reveals that the pod was anonymously emailed ten mysterious audio files. Large chunks of the film are made up of the audio from these files, which document the domestic drama of couple Jemma (voiced by Keana Lyn Bastidas) and Mike (voiced by Jeff Yung), who appear to be the victims of a supernatural event. It begins with Jemma talking in her sleep and sleepwalking, but quickly escalates with each successive audio file.

What makes Undertone unique is how focused the film is on sound. The entire movie takes place in Evy’s mother’s house and Kiri is usually acting by herself (98% of Duquet’s role involves laying in bed and wheezing). As a result, writer/director Ian Tuason‘s film is primarily made up of a single character listening attentively and reacting to sounds, including the tapes, Justin’s verbal commentary, and the sounds of the empty house around Evy whenever she removes her noise-cancelling headphones.

It shouldn’t work, but Ian Tuason, along with sound designer David Gertsman, cinematographer Graham Beasley and Kiri, have created the film equivalent of an immersive aural horror experience. As Evy and Justin listen to the tapes, they discover anomalies in the audio, including sound cues that point them to the horrific history of children’s nursery rhymes, as well as a demon named Abyzou.

One of the film’s creepiest recurring elements is the creepy use of Baa Baa Black Sheep, which is played backwards and at various unsettling speeds. A key feature of the film is that Jemma and Mike’s audio files aren’t always clear, which requires Evy to frequently pause and restart sections, or crank the volume, or isolate a portion of the audio track and play it on a repetitive loop. Tuason shoots this in close-up inserts, as if to remind us that the audio is literally the most important element.

The result is both hypnotic and engrossing; these long stretches of Evy struggling to decipher what she’s hearing are so well done that audiences may find themselves empathetically leaning in and straining alongside her. Undertone creates an immediate and undeniable alignment with Evy. We’re along for every desperate web search; every creak from the floorboards above; every hair-raising development as Evy and Justin close in on the end of the ten audio files and inevitable doom. By the time the film reaches its sonically-oriented climax and all hell breaks loose, viewers have been primed to listen attentively to every aspects of the soundtrack – from the cheerily warped children’s voices all the way to the demonic voices.

That such a simple concept works as well as it does is a minor miracle. There’s nowhere for Tuason to hide if any element of the film were off balance: the entire enterprise rests on Kiri, the sound, and the slow, methodical movement of the camera, which slowly and frequently pans to fill the screen with negative space that anticipates something terrifying. Occasionally something is there (a tease of a specter in the mirror; a head turn from Mama), but just as often nothing happens. As a result even the simplest motion feels like it could erupt into a full-blown panic attack.

All of this anticipation comes down to the resolution, which incorporates all of the movie’s bag of tricks to stunning effect including an extended black-out sequence that relies entirely on the audio to produce spin-tingling thrills. While some may find the ending slightly disappointing, there’s no denying the film’s visceral impact right up until the final frame. I can’t remember the last time a movie made every hair on my body stand up, but Undertone got me good.

A24 will release Undertone in theaters Friday, March 13.

Editor’s Note: This Fantasia review was originally published on July 28, 2025.

The post ‘Undertone’ Review – A Near Perfect Aural Horror Experience appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After a month of Olympic crimes and true crime documentaries on Murder Made Fiction podcast, including Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan and the Oscar nominated doc, The Perfect Neighbor, Jenn and I are going all the way back to the 19th century to the foundations of the true crime genre.

Jack the Ripper terrorized the residents of Whitechapel, London, leaving butchered bodies in the street before disappearing into the night. Carole Peters’s docuseries episode of To Kill and Kill Again: Jack the Ripper chronicles this disturbing case and its wide variety of suspected killers.

Then, our first fictionalized adaptation of Jack the Ripper is an early Alfred Hitchcock film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927).

In the film, a landlord couple begin to suspect that their new tenant (played by gay musical composer Ivor Novello) is The Avenger, a serial killer of blonde women, who may have his sights set on their daughter Daisy.

Topics include: appreciating black & white silent movies; German Expressionism; Hitchcock trademarks; and how the film anticipates true crime discussions we’re still having 100 years later.

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have 136 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of S01 of AMC’s The Terror.

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After kicking off February with the flawed Michael Crichton adaptation Sphere (listen), batshit 90s Drew Barrymore flick Doppelganger (listen), and the 10th anniversary of Robert Eggers’ debut The Witch (listen), we’re closing out the month with a modern fave: Scream VI (2023).

In Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett‘s second Scream film, sisters Sam (Melissa Barrera) and Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega) have moved to NYC to make a fresh start. As Sam undergoes therapy to deal with her killer urges, Tara pretends that nothing is wrong by throwing herself into College life. But as the pair, plus returning players Chad and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown), will soon discover, there’s a new Ghostface – or Ghostfaces – stalking them through the Big Apple’s bodegas, subways, and parks.

With the help of intrepid reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox), newly minted FBI agent Kirby (Hayden Panettiere), and local detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), can the Core Four survive their second round with a killer(s)? Chad really doesn’t want to get stabbed again.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 375: Scream VI (2023)

Grab your ladder because we’re headed to NY to ride the subway with the Core Four in Radio Silence’s sequel to the requel, Scream VI (2023).

Obviously this is a megasized episode because we have *thoughts.* Thoughts on the killers, thoughts on who survives, thoughts on the best chase sequences and how much (or little) each character gets to do.

Plus: an absent Sidney, the return of Skeet Ulrich, the Stab shrine, and all of those homages to Scream 2. Who gives a fuck about movies?!

Cross out Scream VI!

Coming Up Next: We’re kicking off March with a celebration of the 30th anniversary of Spanish director Alejandro Amenábar’s feature film debut, Thesis (1996).

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 457 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 3 Episodes 1 & 2, Whistle, The Strangers: Chapter 3, Sam Raimi’s Send Help, a new audio commentary on 10 Cloverfield Lane and our continuing coverage of Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House (2018) on the Requel tier.

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New to Tubi March Horror Films

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions (2021)

• Premise: Six people unwillingly find themselves locked in another series of escape rooms, slowly uncovering what they have in common to survive. Joining forces with two of the original survivors, they soon discover they’ve all played the game before.
• Why Watch It? Last month, I recommended folks watch the original Adam Robitel title, so why not check out the sequel this month? In tried and true sophomore fashion, the second film deepens the mythology while bringing back the surviving characters, including Taylor Russell, Logan Miller, and  Deborah Ann Woll (possibly due to fan outcry?). Throw in new characters such as Pose‘s Indya Moore, Teen Wolf‘s Holland Roden, and genre fave Tyler Labine, and you’ve got a fun group of folks trying to survive horribly convoluted murder traps.  Admittedly, the theatrical cut is nowhere near as interesting as the Extended Cut, which features James Frain and Orphan‘s Isabelle Fuhrman in a subplot that would have made a fantastic third film, but sadly, no one supported Tournament of Champions after the pandemic!
• Streaming: March 1

Fallen (1998)

• Premise: Homicide detective John Hobbes witnesses the execution of serial killer Edgar Reese. Soon after the execution, the killings start again, and they are very similar to Reese’s style.
• Why Watch It? This is one of those titles that folks probably haven’t seen in decades, but may remember with fondness. The premise is so enticing – a body hopping serial killer? Yes, please! – and there’s at least one great sequence in which Reese jumps from stranger to stranger down a crowded street that is soooo good. Plus: Fallen is one of the rare genre titles that star Denzel Washington has done (see also: The Bone Collector), which makes it a perfect fit if you were delinquent about watching Black horror back in February.
• Streaming: March 1

The Hole In The Ground (2019)

• Premise: A single mother living in the Irish countryside with her son begins to suspect he may not be her son at all, and fears his increasingly disturbing behavior is linked to a mysterious sinkhole in the forest behind their house.
• Why Watch It? Writer/director Lee Cronin became a household name when he took over the reins of the Necronomicon for 2023’s Evil Dead Rise, but fans of international horror were already aware of his talents thanks to this slow burn Irish film. The narrative is pretty familiar – a mother begins to suspect that her son is an imposter who has emerged from a large sinkhole – but The Hole in the Ground is all about the unsettling tension and moody atmosphere. It’s a nice contrast to the high octane thrills of Rise, and the focus on threatening children should pair nicely with Cronin’s forthcoming The Mummy reboot, which drops in April.
• Streaming: March 1

I Saw The TV Glow (2024)

• Premise: A teenager just trying to make it through life in the suburbs is introduced by a classmate to a mysterious late-night TV show.
• Why Watch It? Two years ago, trans, non-binary filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun‘s second feature film proved to be something of a revelation. An expert mediation on the nostalgic allure of 90s genre television, as well as a careful, beautiful, and evocative dissection of body dysmorphia and emerging trans identity, the film has two pitch perfect lead performances in Justice Smith and Jack Haven (in their break-out role). Plus, it’s a great time to revisit the text that catapulted Schoenbrun into the mainstream because they have a new summer camp slasher, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, debuting in August.
• Streaming: March 1

The Monster Squad (1987)

• Premise:A group of 12-year-olds form a Universal Monsters fan club called Monster Squad and attempt to save their hometown from Count Dracula and his fellow monsters when they show up for real.
• Why Watch It? Shane Black and Fred Dekker‘s film is a beloved classic for a good reason: it’s such a delight! That’s the main reason to watch this ode to Universal monster movies and childhood love of (gateway) horror, but in light of star Tom Noonan‘s recent passing, the timing feels even more correct.
• Streaming: March 1

Possessor (2020)

• Premise: An agent works for a secretive organization that uses brain-implant technology to inhabit other people’s bodies – ultimately driving them to commit assassinations for high-paying clients.
• Why Watch It? Aside from the fact that it is Brandon Cronenberg‘s best film and a masterclass in chameleonic acting by star Andrea Riseborough, Possessor is a really gorgeous film. David Cronenberg’s son spent the eight-year gap between his debut feature Antiviral and this sophomore outing working with frequent cinematographer Karim Hussain on the visual aesthetic of the film. Their hard work is evident in every frame, from the sumptuously gorgeous opening murder sequence through to the trippy consciousness transferring scenes.
• Streaming: March 9

Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse (2015)

• Premise: Three scouts, on the eve of their last camp-out, discover the true meaning of friendship when they attempt to save their town from a zombie outbreak.
• Why Watch It? Yes, I’m recommending two titles featuring actor Logan Miller in it this month (see: Escape Room: Tournament of Champions above), but this under seen horror comedy merits more attention. An early (and under appreciated) film from future Happy Death Day, Freaky, and Drop writer/director Chris Landon, the movie likely underperformed back in 2015 due to zombie exhaustion, as well as unfavourable comparisons to other horny boy-centric coming of age texts like American Pie and Superbad. Still, at 93 minutes, this slight and silly horror comedy goes down relatively easy.
• Streaming: March 1

Soft & Quiet (2022)

• Premise: Playing out in real time, an elementary school teacher organizes a mixer of like-minded women. An encounter with a woman from her past, however, leads to a volatile chain of events.
• Why Watch It? This is an admittedly psychotic recommendation, but make no mistake: Soft & Quiet is one of the most disturbing horror films of 2022. Audiences should be mindful of the content warning for racism, because this extremely uncomfortable and confronting dissection of contemporary racial politics in the US is triggering. Still, writer/director Beth de Araújo‘s feature film debut is undeniably effective at what it sets out to do. Don’t expect the auteur to settle into convention either; her latest film Josephine – about a child who witnesses a sexual assault – just earned raves out of Sundance, winning the Grand Jury Prize.
• Streaming: March 1

March Tubi Originals

Woman to Woman (2026)

• Premise: When long-buried family secrets come to light, two Detroit mothers must confront a shared past to save their daughters from danger.
• Streaming: March 13

Rockabye (2026)

• Premise: Suspecting her father didn’t take his own life, a grieving woman’s hunt for the truth turns treacherous when his friends start dying one-by-one.
• Streaming: March 27

What’s your favorite from the list above? Will you check out the new Originals? Sound off in the comments below

The post The 10 Best Horror Movies Streaming on Tubi [March 2026] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Now it’s time to discuss South African Olympian Oscar Pistorius, who made headlines when he competed in both the Paralympics, as well as the 2012 Olympics. The double amputee was an inspiration, garnered all kinds of press, and became an instant celebrity (it didn’t hurt that he was deemed extremely attractive).

On the night of Feb 13, 2013, Pistorius heard a noise in his apartment and (he claims he) mistook it for an intruder. Brandishing his gun, he shot several times through the bathroom door, striking his girlfriend, model and lawyer Reeva Steenkamp, multiple times. She died on the scene.

Pistorius was tried in March 2014 and eventually found guilty of culpable manslaughter, with the prosecution repeatedly going back to demand a harsher sentence and longer prison time for what they believed was murder.

The 2017 Lifetime film Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer doesn’t address most of Pistorius’ athletic accomplishments or his celebrity. Alas the screenplay by Adam Freeman and Buffy the Vampire Slayer‘s Amber Benson doesn’t have much interest in exploring the race, class, or celebrity aspects of the case; the film principally focuses on the murder as an extreme example of intimate partner violence.

It is a Lifetime film, after all!

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have ~135 hours of content including a bear attack double feature with Grizzly Night and Cocaine Bear and discussions about last year’s most powerful true crime documentaries: The Perfect Neighbor, Predators, and Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.

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After spending the first half of the month looking at the curious case of Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding across a variety of films, including an exceptional 30 for 30 episode, the surprisingly savvy released-the-same-year-as-the-crime NBC satire Nancy and Tonya: The Inside Story, and Craig Gillespie’s big budget Hollywood film I, Tonya, Jenn and I are turning our attention to the singlet game.

That’s right, we’re talking wrestling and the shocking murder that occurred on Foxcatcher farm.

John du Pont was an eccentric multi-millionaire, philanthropist, and sports enthusiast living in Pennsylvania in the 80s/90s. He owned a large expanse of land that was dubbed Foxcatcher Farm and in the late 80s, he set it up as the pre-eminent training ground for the US Olympic Wrestling team (despite his mother’s fears that it was a “low” sport).

After luring the brothers Schultz – Dave (the elder) and Mark (the youngest) – to come aboard as coaches, the team appeared to be on good footing for the 1992 Seoul Olympics thanks to its new benefactor.

But over time, du Pont’s behavior turned increasingly erratic as the man became more possessive, more jealous, and more paranoid.

The 2016 Netflix documentary Team Foxcatcher is a good primer that outlines du Pont’s bizarre obsession with Dave Schultz, what life was like on the farm for Schultz’s wife Nancy (one of the doc’s executive producers) and some of the more alarming warning signs that du Pont was headed towards a break-down. Chief among these was a hard shift into racist behavior that resulted in the firing of all of the Black athletes, as well as multiple instances where athletes were threatened at gunpoint.

https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=BDA5556156528

Bennett Miller‘s 2014 Hollywood film, Foxcatcher, takes a different approach, centering on the sibling rivalry between Dave (Mark Ruffalo) and Mark (Channing Tatum) and focusing on du Pont (Steve Carrell, hidden under distracting facial prosthetics) as a predatory figure.

https://playlist.megaphone.fm?e=BDA8128594561

Both texts offer something unique, although neither is without fault. The doc is biased towards Nancy’s perspective and fails to include Mark at all. The feature film, on the other hand, suffers from a drawn out screenplay that leans into the story’s salacious elements and has an abrupt and unsatisfying end.

What is most surprising is that neither text has much curiosity about the obvious mental illness from which John du Pont suffered. Both are content merely to list or document his unusual behaviour in the period leading up to the murder. They work well as a pairing, though; there are oversights and gaps in one that are somewhat rectified in the other, so watching them together results in a more complete experience.

Ultimately what becomes evident in both is the pervasive sense of things unravelling on Foxcatcher farm, almost as if violence and death were inevitable the minute du Pont was allowed to seize control of the US wrestling team’s entire Olympic dream.

Next time: we’re wrapping up Olympic coverage with a look at the fall from grace of Olympic para-athlete Oscar Pistorius, who shot and killed his girlfriend in South Africa. Tune in to hear how the 2017 Lifetime film Oscar Pistorius: Blade Runner Killer handles this true crime case.

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where Jenn and I have ~134 hours of content including a bear attack double feature with Grizzly Night and Cocaine Bear and discussions about last year’s most powerful true crime documentaries: The Perfect Neighbor, Predators, and Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke.

The post An Eccentric Millionaire Murders A US Olympian in ‘Foxcatcher’ [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After closing January with the one-two punch of M. Night’s Split (listen) and (maybe?) meta slasher Popcorn (listen), we kicked off February with Barry Levinson‘s messy Michael Crichton adaptation Sphere (listen). Then last week, Trace and I switched gears to check out Avi Nesher‘s bizarre 1993 romantic thriller/curiosity Doppelganger, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

In the film, Drew Barrymore plays Holly Gooding, a NYC transplant new to LA following the brutal murder of her mother (Jaid Barrymore, Barrymore’s real-life mother). After securing a room with struggling screenwriter Patrick Highsmith (George Newbern), Holly is threatened by an identical double who targets her remaining family…and anyone else who gets in the way.

The real question is: Is the doppelganger actually just Holly in disguise? Who else is in danger? And does Patrick even care about the truth so long as he can continue to date her? The astounding truth – and the KNB effects heavy ending that audiences will never guess – has to be seen to be believed.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 373: Doppelganger (1993)

Cue the green & red lighting and the KNB effects because we are talking about the absolutely *wild* 1993 film, Doppelganger.

Starring 17 year old emancipated minor Drew Barrymore, writer/director Avi Nesher’s curious oddity is “DePalma meets Argento in the guise of a Lifetime film”. Filled with gay extras and capital-A acting from the supporting cast, Doppelganger is one bizarre creative decision after another from beginning to (absolutely gonzo) end. Go in cold if you can!

Plus: underage nudity; Drew’s troubled relationship with mother Jaid; gay Breakfast at Tiffany‘s;  ties to 1991’s Popcorn; and Leslie Hope’s rapid-fire screwball comedy dialogue.

Cross out Doppelganger!

Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating the stunning debut of Robert Eggers on the tenth anniversary of The Witch (2016)!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 458 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 3 Episodes 1 & 2, Whistle, The Strangers: Chapter 3, Saim Raimi’s Send Help, a new audio commentary on 10 Cloverfield Lane and our continuing coverage of Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House (2018) on the Requel tier.

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If the log line sounds a little familiar, that’s because it is (though as I say in my review, that’s not necessarily a problem!) There are, however, plenty of other titles that can help you to replicate the experience, so whether you’ve seen the Owen Egerton-scripted film or you’re just in the mood to watch people try to outwit/outrun/outsmart Death, here are some like-minded films to check out.

Mild spoilers for Whistle follow…

Whistle Inspirations

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Let’s begin with the titles that influenced Hardy and Egerton as they were developing Whistle. Per an interview with IMDb, the three main inspirations were:

A Nightmare on Elm Street: Egerton clearly used the concept of “death comes for us all” as a springboard for Whistle’s general premise. More than that, though, Whistle borrows heavily from Tina’s murder for two of its most memorable death sequences (which are one of the main reasons to check the new film out).

The Lost Boys may seem like a peculiar choice, but Hardy credits the Joel Schumacher film as an inspiration because of its soundtrack and levity. This tracks, particularly the way Whistle manages to thread the tonal needle between danger, coming of age, and a fair amount of laughs (Exhibit A: the text exchange between Chrys and Ellie).

Donnie Darko also checks out, not simply because of Whistle’s focus on teenage characters, but also their social position. Focusing on characters on the bottom of the popularity hierarchy is well-trodden ground for horror films with teen protagonists, but, like Donnie Darko, this makes sense given Chrys and Rel’s role as “unusual outsiders” at Pellington High (she has a damaged reputation; he’s a “loser” with a fixation on a The Crow-like comic).

Cursed Objects

The Ring

Curses and cursed objects that result in characters’ deaths are a dime a dozen in contemporary horror films. That’s because there’s a lot of storytelling potential when individuals curse themselves – be it accidentally, out of curiosity, or sheer hubris. Curses make for a compelling horror premise!

There are countless J-horror comparisons that immediately come to mind; the most obvious title is The Ring (2002) or the original Japanese film, Ringu. Whistle doesn’t feature the same mythology (there’s no phone call/seven-day equivalent), but there is a certain amount of lore and investigating required into the origins of the cursed object. The inevitability of death, too, bears a resemblance to another J-horror title: the cursed home from Ju-On or The Grudge (2004).

Of course, there are plenty of other “oh, I shouldn’t have touched that” films in recent memory. A few notable entries include 2024’s Tarot, wherein characters are killed by the titular card they pull from a haunted deck. Then there are less popular titles like Countdown, the 2019 film, where characters literally engage with an app that tells them when they’ll die. It’s not great, but it has a certain silly charm, unlike Tarot, which hides its great monster make-up with terrible lighting.

Elizabeth Lail in Countdown

Apps and cards are less tactile than the whistle, though, so perhaps a better option is Wish Upon, the 2017 Joey King/Ryan Philippe title about a cursed Chinese music box. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve checked this one out, but something tells me it doesn’t handle the object’s cultural angle in a nuanced way.

Wish Upon isn’t good (the characters’ decision-making is dubious at best and frustrating at worst), and most of its humour is undoubtedly intentional. If you’re hungry for a comedic-leaning option, there’s no better choice than Oz Perkins’ The Monkey (2025). At the very least, Perkins doesn’t skimp on the over-the-top gore, confirming that no one can do comedic gross-outs quite like him.

Final Destination Films

Devon Sawa in Final Destination

Naturally, the other obvious recommendation for a post-Whistle screening is any entry in the six-film franchise Final Destination. The Devon Sawa-fronted first film debuted the concept of an omniscient Death that seeks out tragedy survivors, a premise that Whistle is clearly indebted to. Unlike the original 2000 film, though, Whistle doesn’t adhere to a specific order as it kills off characters (although it appears that the individual who blows the whistle is the first to go).

Whistle borrows heavily from plot points in two other Final Destination films. In Final Destination 2, Kimberly (AJ Cook) learns that Death will “skip” individuals if they temporarily die (see also: Fear Street Part One: 1994), which is what Chrys and Ellie attempt to do in the climax of the film when Chrys willingly submerges herself in freezing cold water.

Then there’s the info that Mason’s grandmother, Ivy (Michelle Fairley), offers the girlfriends on the second visit: swap someone else’s life for your own. This resembles the “new life” clause that drives most of FD2, but most closely mirrors Final Destination 5’s storyline, wherein a character can kill someone as an offering to Death. In that fifth Final Destination film, it’s Peter Friedkin (Tom Cruise lookalike Miles Fischer) who tries, unsuccessfully, to use this ploy to save himself. By comparison, Whistle‘s death swap winds up saving the day, though the death in question is far less deliberate.

Final Destination 5

That’s a preliminary list of other titles, but there are plenty of others. What are your recommendations for other texts like Whistle (good, bad, or guilty pleasure)?

The post 12 Horror Movies to Watch After Corin Hardy’s Supernatural Slasher ‘Whistle’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Directed by The Nun’s Corin Hardy, the film finds a group of high school teens trying to survive Death as it stalks and kills them. This is the result of blowing an Aztec Death Whistle that new transfer student Chrys (Dafne Keen) finds in her locker.

By the time Chrys discovers it, the whistle has already killed one Pellington High student. In the cold open, Mason, the school’s basketball star, goes up in flames in the school shower immediately after a big game. Six months later, Chrys inherits his locker, running afoul of Mason’s former teammate Dean (Jhaleil Swaby) as well as youth pastor/drug dealer Noah (Percy Hynes White), all while being protected by her cousin Rel (Sky Yang) and making heart eyes at popular girl Ellie (Sophie Nélisse).

These early scenes hint at the archetypes and narrative structures that tend to define teen slasher films (ie, new girl with the tragic backstory; the clique-y high school social hierarchy; a burgeoning romance between unlikely partners, etc). But Whistle finds comfort in this familiarity, using the audience’s awareness of these kinds of characters and plots to quickly dispense the necessary exposition and get right to the good stuff.

In no time at all, the characters are packed into detention with Mr. Craven (Nick Frost), where they research the whistle’s origin. Soon after that, the next victim meets their end in the school’s hallway, and the other characters have blown the whistle, putting them all in mortal peril. The film isn’t even half over by the time the Harvest festival has rolled around to deliver one of the best chase sequences in recent horror memory.

One of the delights of Whistle, in addition to how expedient it is, is that the characters are legitimately enjoyable. The familial relationship between Chrys and Rel is warm and supportive, the object of Rel’s crush – popular girl Grace (Ali Skovbye) – isn’t a cliched “mean girl”, and there’s no real attempt to redeem the two human antagonists. The net result is that most of the film’s deaths are either cheer-worthy or actually sad because you don’t want that character to meet their grisly end.

The deaths are the film’s other calling card because – just one month into the new year – we already have at least two strong contenders for Best Death of 2026. It becomes evident by the second death of the film that, despite bearing a narrative similarity to Final Destination, Death in Whistle isn’t a rube goldberg-ian sequence of events. The stalking fiery vision that immolates Mason in the opener doesn’t bear a resemblance to the lumbering creature from the high school hallway murder, which keeps the supernatural stalk and kill sequences interesting.

For those unlucky enough to come face to face with the whistle’s avatar, the results are often spectacular. In the film’s greatest set piece, a character is subjected to a slow-motion car crash…in their bedroom…with no car. It’s a virtuoso sequence filled with moments of agonizing body horror, accomplished primarily with practical FX (and some light CGI touch-ups), and it absolutely rocks. Another death soon follows in the same vein that is also spectacular; both deaths call to mind one of Egerton and Hardy’s stated influences in making the film: A Nightmare on Elm Street.

In between the spectacular death scenes, there’s the usual investigation into the whistle and how best to stave off death. This leads the survivors to seek out Horse’s grandmother, Ivy (Michelle Fairley), who hilariously seems to exist solely to deliver exposition. In lesser films, these developments would be grating and tired, but part of Whistle‘s charm is how earnestly it wears its influences and silliness on its sleeve. Audiences have seen this narrative play out in other like-minded texts, but between the relatable characters, the great effects, and the speedy pace, Whistle somehow gets away with it.

Helping matters is the romantic chemistry between Nélisse and Keen (doing solid work despite being saddled with an atrocious wig), as well as a desaturated visual aesthetic courtesy of cinematographer Björn Charpentier. Whistle has a great throwback look that feels reminiscent of 90s and 00s texts, lending it a moody vibe with sporadic pops of vibrant colour (see: the Harvest Fest set piece, which is peppered with reds and oranges).

If there is one area that lets the film down, it is the climax, which is disappointingly predictable and requires characters to behave in questionable ways. It’s not a dealbreaker, but the film’s big ending is definitely not as solid as the rest of the film. Alas, this means Whistle leaves things on a slightly underwhelming note, despite a tantalizing tease for a possible sequel.

Overall, however, Whistle is really fun. Despite its formulaic premise, familiar characters, and narrative tropes, the film is a genuinely good time. Throw in some outstanding (and mean!) deaths, and horror fans have been gifted an unexpected delight.

Whistle is in theaters February 6, 2026.

The post ‘Whistle’ Review – Likeable Characters and Great Deaths Offset A Familiar Cursed Object Film appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The first month of 2026 has flown by thanks to titles like Alex  Garland’s directorial debut Ex Machina (listen), Danny Boyle’s Infected return 28 Weeks Later (listen), and M. Night Shyamalan’s Split (listen). And that was before we closed out the month with underseen/under rated 1991 slasher, Popcorn.

In director Mark Herrier (or is it Bob Clark?)’s film, a group of College students stage a fundraiser at a derelict theater, showing three old horror movies to an enthusiastic crowd.

Unbeknownst to them, a killer is stalking the group, murdering members and taking their place with the help of life-like masks. It’s up to protagonist Maggie (Jill Schoelen) to decipher the clues, as well as her recurring nightmares, to find the culprit. Is it cultist Lanyard Gates (Mat Falls) or someone else, like concession attendant Cheryl (Kelly Jo Minter), disabled technician Bud (Malcolm Danare) or horror movie enthusiast Toby (Tom Villard)?

And – most importantly – will she survive long enough to hook up with her crush, Mark (Derek Rydall) now that he’s ditched his bitchy girlfriend Joy (Karen Lorre)?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 371: Popcorn (1991)

Come on down to the Dreamland Theater because we’re turning a trio of turkeys into a memorable moviegoing feast with director Mark Herrier’s 1991 slasher Popcorn.

Starring a bunch of horror royalty and featuring three movies-within-a-movie, this cult title is a fun slice of entertainment with some great mask FX!

Plus: queer actor Tom Villard, a himbo with head injuries, remake potential, and debate about whether the film is meta or not.

Cross out Popcorn!

Coming Up Next: We’re talking the messy Michael Crichton adaptation Sphere (1998)!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 450 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal S03 Episodes 1-2, Whistle, The Strangers: Chapter 3, Send Help, a brand new audio commentary on 10 Cloverfield Lane, and the return of our Requel Tier as we kick off episodic coverage of Mike Flanagan’s The Haunting of Hill House (2018).

The post The Delights of Cult Slasher 1991’s ‘Popcorn’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

New to Tubi February Horror Films

All Souls (2023)

• Premise: A young confidential informant is sent on a dangerous undercover operation. It’s a no-holds-barred look at the vulnerable foot soldiers of the War on Drugs, young criminals who are pressured to work for the police.
• Why Watch It? This one is all about the curiosity factor. It’s definitely a crime thriller with genre elements, but (more importantly) it’s one of the first films released since Mikey Madison‘s Oscar win for Anora. For most films, that means that some enterprising individual was sitting on the movie, waiting for <anyone> in the cast to get famous enough to make a buck. All Souls is so under the radar that it doesn’t even have a Rotten Tomatoes score, but the visuals look slick, it’s an “all in one night” narrative, and Madison is always great. Why not try it?
• Streaming: February 1

A Ghost Story (2017)

• Premise: In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss, and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife.
• Why Watch It? As we prepare for a new David Lowery film this year (the psychosexual thriller Mother Mary), why not revisit his notorious A24 effort, A Ghost Story? The first of two Rooney Mara titles in this month’s column, the writer/director’s meditation on love and loss infamously gained traction for its “pie eating” sequence, but if you’re looking for a pared down drama-meets-genre flick, this one is a curious oddity.
• Streaming: February 1

Dark Harvest (2023)

• Premise: In a small Midwestern town, a deadly annual ritual unfolds when the mythical nightmare, Sawtooth Jack, rises from the cornfields and challenges the town’s teenage boys in a bloody battle of survival.
• Why Watch It? On Halloween 2023, director David Slade (Hard Candy, 30 Days of Night) returned with this adaptation of a cult horror YA novel about a dustbowl town that sacrifices its 17 year old boys to a pumpkin headed creature in exchange for plentiful crops. It’s a (Stephen King) tale as old as time, but Slade’s gloriously inky black visuals, the 60s greaser period setting, and the superb violence (the blood looks great!) makes this under seen film a must watch. Nearly everyone slept on it, so why not rectify that now that it’s free?
• Streaming: February 1

Escape Room (2019)

• Premise: Six strangers find themselves in a maze of deadly mystery rooms and must use their wits to survive.
• Why Watch It? Queer director Adam Robitel‘s franchise starter proves that there’s still plenty of juice in the PG-13 rating. Admittedly yes, this is a film that’s more interested in crafting ridiculously complicated rooms than it is for fleshing out its characters, but Taylor Russell is a confident lead who has good (friend) chemistry with Logan Miller. Does the film do Daredevil actress Deborah Ann Woll dirty? Absolutely! But don’t worry, that gets rectified in the obligatory sequel.
• Streaming: February 1

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

• Premise: Journalist Mikael Blomkvist is aided in his search for a woman who has been missing for 40 years by hacker Lisbeth Salander.
• Why Watch It? With a new TV series in the works, why not revisit David Fincher’s criminally under rated English language remake? Rooney Mara is astounding as Salander and she has uncomfortably hot chemistry with Daniel Craig, whose sweater collection in this chilly winter film is enviable. Truthfully, though: it’s hard to shake a “what could have been” feeling with this film because as the first entry of a possible trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has a ton of potential. Blame the film’s Christmas release strategy, which failed to pay off, despite a very cheeky marketing campaign.
• Streaming: February 1

In Fabric (2018)

• Premise: In Fabric is a haunting ghost story set against the backdrop of a busy winter sales period in a department store and follows the life of a cursed dress as it passes from person to person, with devastating consequences.
• Why Watch It? If A Ghost Story is too nebulous a genre entry for you, then hop over to writer/director Peter Strickland’s sumptuous anthology. Frequently billed as “the killer dress” movie, In Fabric boasts a great turn by celebrated actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste in what basically amounts to an adult-Goosebumps tale. Yes, the film as a whole is a little uneven, but this sometimes silly/sometimes creepy/always gorgeous film is definitely worth a look.
• Streaming: February 1

Killer Joe (2011)

• Premise: When a debt puts a young man’s life in danger, he turns to putting a hit out on his evil mother in order to collect the insurance.
• Why Watch It? The NC-17 film is one of director William Friedkin‘s final films and the Southern Gothic film boasts a screenplay from Tracey Letts (the pair previously collaborated on another challenging, but amazing film: 2006’s Bug). Killer Joe isn’t an easy watch, but the pedigree in front of the camera is just as strong as the behind the scenes talent. Check out this cast: Matthew McConaughey in the title role, plus Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon, and Thomas Haden Church. Alas the film was a commercial disappointment, grossing only $4.6M on a budget of $8.3M.
• Streaming: February 1

Secret Window (2004)

• Premise: A successful writer in the midst of a painful divorce is stalked at his remote lake house by a would-be scribe who accuses him of plagiarism.
• Why Watch It? The appetite for twist endings was waning by 2004 (blame M. Night burnout) but there was still a small level of enthusiasm for this title, which stars Johnny Depp (firmly entrenched in his floppy hair era). Based on the Stephen King novella of (nearly) the same name, this David Koepp-written and directed thriller also stars Mario Bello in the obligatory wife role. It’s a solid, albeit unspectacular entry in King’s adaptation canon, but folks have seemingly reappraised the film over the last two decades.
• Streaming: February 1

Slayers (2022)

• Premise: A group of superstar influencers are drawn to a reclusive billionaire’s mansion only to find themselves trapped in the lair of an evil vampire. The only way out is to be saved by a famous online gamer and an old school vampire hunter.
• Why Watch It? There’s a dearth of horror comedies on the list this month, which is one of the main reasons to check this K. Asher Levin flick. If the logline sounds a little too elevator pitch-y, you’d be correct (the film holds a less than flattering 22% on Rotten Tomatoes) but the cast is decent. We’re talking recognizable stars like Thomas Jane and Malin Akerman, so even if the tone doesn’t work for you, at least the people will be pretty.
• Streaming: February 1

Tusk (2014)

• Premise: A brash and arrogant podcaster gets more than he bargained for when he travels to Canada to interview a mysterious recluse…who has a rather disturbing fondness for walruses.
• Why Watch It? Kevin Smith’s humour isn’t for everyone and to suggest that this bizarre little oddity is polarizing would be an understatement. For those who like it, however, the whackadoodle premise, plus Justin Long and Michael Parks’s 100% committed performances, makes this one of the most fascinating “How Did This Get Made” titles of the 2010s. New viewers be warned: prepare yourselves for Johnny Depp’s insufferable “French Canadian” Guy Lapointe character, which is a whole other kind of horror.
• Streaming: February 1

February Tubi Originals

The Bachelorette Party (2026)

• Premise: A bachelorette getaway turns deadly when persistent tensions ignite chilling threats.
• Streaming: February 6

Unrequited (2026)

• Premise: A hotel maid with a shadowed past falls for her handsome but taken coworker, unwittingly stepping into a dangerous game of desire and betrayal.
• Streaming: February 20

What’s your favorite from the list above? Will you check out the new Originals? Sound off in the comments below

The post The 10 Best Horror Movies Streaming on Tubi [February 2026] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

In Born for Hell (1976) – sometimes referred to as Naked Massacre – Cain Adamson (Mathieu Carrière) gets stranded in Belfast en route home to the US following his tour in Vietnam. Destitute and mentally unwell, Cain breaks into the apartment of a group of nurses live and proceeds to sexually assault and murder them over a single violence-filled night.

What could be a straightforward text, however, becomes something much more politically and historically relevant due to the inclusion of the Vietnam war and the Troubles – a fraught 30+ year conflict in Ireland. What’s fascinating is that audiences don’t need to be familiar with the specifics of these conflicts in order to understand the film (though it obviously benefits if you do).

The film’s sensational violence is extremely challenging to watch, but, as written by Clement Woods, Fred Denger, and Denis Héroux (who also directs), Born For Hell is much more than an exploitation film. It’s a surprisingly nuance consideration of how violence infiltrates society in different ways and the cost of turning a blind eye.

Next week, Jenn and I leave behind Mindhunter villains to tackle a more timely topic: athletes embroiled in crimes and murder, starting with the first of two weeks of Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan. We’ll have two episodes: one on 30 for 30: The Price of Gold (2014) and another on the NBC made-for-TV movie, Tonya and Nancy: The Inside Story (1994).

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where we have ~130 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of Mindhunter season 1, plus episodes on 2025’s most notable true crime documentaries.

The post 1976’s ‘Born For Hell’ Combines Richard Speck, Vietnam, and the Troubles [Murder Made Fiction] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After wrapping up 2025 with Christmas thriller P2 (listen), and bizarro 1981 slasher Night School (listen), Horror Queers is kicking off 2026 with an Alex Garland double bill. Last week we discussed his feature directorial debut in Ex Machina (listen), and this week we’re revisiting his return to the 28 Days Later franchise, 28 Years Later (2025).

The new film, directed by original director Danny Boyle, picks up the action <ahem> 28 years later as 12 year old Spike (Alfie Williams) makes a desperate bid to save his sick mother’s life. Ignoring the  demands of Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his lying, overly protective father, Spike sneaks Isla (Jodie Comer) out of their isolated island village and across the Infected landscape to reach doctor Kelson (Ralph Fiennes).

Can Spike survive the dangers of a world that he’s been shielded from his whole life? Can Spike trust Dr. Kelson or is the doctor insane? And what of the tracksuit-wearing gang, led by Sir Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connell), that unexpectedly appears in the film’s coda?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 369: 28 Years Later (2025)

Run across that causeway because we’re opening the Patreon vault and diving head first into Danny Boyle’s unexpectedly weird 28 Years Later (2025). It’s Act I of a planned trilogy, but does it stand on its own?

Join us as we discuss the Brexit allegory, lament the predictable zombie fare and laud the emotional gut punch of the third act. Also: take a shot every time we say “maybe we’ll find out in the sequel(s).”

Plus, prosthetic penises, Predator-like decapitations, Ralph Fiennes’ boney art installation and addressing the Jimmy Savile of it all.

Cross out 28 Years Later!

Coming Up Next: It’s been too long since we’ve discussed a M.Night Shyamalan film, so we’re (re)visiting the surprise middle entry of Unbreakable trilogy with 2016’s Split.

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 447 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Return to Silent Hill, The Creep Tapes Season 2, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Primate and a brand new audio commentary on the 1995 adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Congo.

The post Legacy Sequel ’28 Years Later’ Was A Big Unexpected Swing [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Kemper is obviously one of the big characters on the first season of the series – and for good reason. He’s huge, and he’s useful for the profiling study that the John Douglas proxy, Holden Ford, is constructing. More than that, though, Kemper is eloquent, personable, and even helpful.

This doesn’t entirely gel with the vision of the serial killer we see in Chad Ferrin‘s 2025 film of the same name, Ed Kemper.

Written by Stephen Johnston, the screenwriter of 2000’s Ed Gein (or In The Light of The Moon), last year’s true crime adaptation is a straightforward look at Kemper’s major crime spree between 1972 and 1973, in which he murdered six College students, earning him the nickname “The Co-Ed Killer”.

Johnston’s non-linear story also jumps around in time to when Kemper (played by Brandon Kirk) was initially released from a psychiatric facility after killing his grandparents; it also focuses heavily on his emotionally abusive childhood with single mother Clarnell (Susan Priver).

Despite solid practical FX and a committed performance by Kirk, however, everything about the film feels antiquated and familiar. Johnston’s script focuses at least half of its attention on the murders, but the women aren’t characters; they’re simply bodies to objectify and mutilate.

This leaves the rest of the film to zero in on Kemper’s relationship with his mother. Whereas Kirk is brooding, silent, and interior, however, Priver is hysterical, shrill, and over the top. It’s like they’re in completely different films…and not in a good way.

Listen to the discussion below about why this throwback true crime film is a miss, particularly for a film made last year.

And if you want even more Murder Made Fiction, be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where we have 127 hours of coverage, including the aforementioned episode-by-episode coverage of Mindhunter season 1.

The post 2025’s ‘Ed Kemper’ Is An Early Aughts Throwback [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

A family curse intersects with a young woman’s quest to uncover her heritage in director Réi (Talas)’s new Tubi supernatural thriller, Death Name.

Written by Regina Kim, the film follows College student Sophie Park (Amy Keum) who decides to embrace her culture only to awaken a dormant entity intent on hunting the female members of her family line.

Things begin innocuously when Sophie transfers to a larger school with a highly visible Korean Student Association and takes a Korean history elective with Professor Lee (Desirée Mee Jung). It’s clear that Sophie’s family is unconventional (ie, more American than Korean) because she doesn’t speak the language, eat much Korean food, and, most significantly, she doesn’t know her Korean name.

As she learns about Korea’s complicated history with Japan in class, Sophie is also made to answer for her lack of cultural awareness by her combative roommate – Ari (Alice Bang) – who accuses Sophie of treating their culture like a fad to hop on. This prompts Sophie to question her parents, Gabriel (Joseph Lim Kim) and Kelly (Eliza Shin), for information, but she’s routinely blocked by her Grandmother (Vana Kim), who becomes increasingly angry and upset.

Still, things mostly seem to be going Sophie’s way: she meets a cute boy, Jun (Kevin Woo), in the campus bar, and they quickly begin dating; and aside from Ari’s cold shoulder, she’s making friends in the KSA.

The post Tubi’s ‘Death Name’ Embraces Korean Culture and Folklore [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After celebrating the holidays with gateway horror classic Jumanji (listen), underseen Christmas thriller P2 (listen), and bizarro 1981 slasher Night School (listen), Horror Queers is kicking off 2026 with Alex Garland‘s 2014 feature directorial debut.

In Ex Machina, Blue Book employee Caleb Smith (Domhnall Gleeson) is chosen by his brilliant, but narcissistic boss Nathan (Oscar Isaac) to visit the latter’s isolated home/lab. There Caleb is asked to test the humanity of Nathan’s newest creation, a life-like robot named Ava (Alicia Vikander).

But what begins as a simple Turing test becomes something more extreme as Caleb begins to question Nathan’s motives, while simultaneously falling for Ava. Who can Caleb trust? And what is really going on?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 368: Ex Machina (2014) feat. Miss Sinclair

We’re kicking off a new year with Alex Garland’s feature directorial debut, Ex Machina (2014). Joining us for the ride is Garland mega-fan Miss Sinclair from Talk Movie To Me podcast.

This prescient film has aged incredibly well: from its portrayal of an entitled tech billionaire to its naive-meets-incel “white knight” protagonist to questions about the ethics of AI. It’s a film filled with questions, which has us posing a number of our own!

Plus: Oscar-winning FX, Ava’s “Alicia Vikander drag”, Joe’s queer cuckolding read, and why we’re planning a trip to Norway.

Cross out Ex Machina!

Coming Up Next: In anticipation of the new Nia DaCosta sequel, we’re revisiting our Patreon discussion from last year about 28 Years Later (2025).

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 446 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Return to Silent Hill, The Creep Tapes Season 2, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Primate and – to coincide with Johannes Roberts’ killer chimp movie – we’ve got a brand new audio commentary on the 1995 adaptation of Michael Crichton’s Congo.

The post Toxic Men and Robot Ethics in ‘Ex Machina’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

We’re now up to the sixth annual Hereditaries (click here to vote), which celebrates the amazing diversity of horror films released in 2025.

Unlike the 2024 Hereditaries when The Substance obliterated the pack (hear who won here), there are two clear frontrunners this year: Sinners and Weapons (11 nominations each).

Proving how robust 2025 was, however, there are multiple other films nipping at their heels: The Long Walk sped off with eight nominations, while Bring Her Back, 28 Years Later, Companion, and Final Destination Bloodlines all managed six.

Perhaps most surprising (or is it encouraging?) was the strength of gems like Canadian sequel Influencers and European co-production The Ugly Stepsister (six nominations each), as well as Alison Brie & Dave Franco’s underrated Together (five nominations) and HBO Max’s delightful queer horror comedy The Parenting (four nominations).

Here’s what you’re voting on:

• Best Mainstream Release
• Best Indie Release
• Best Under The Radar Film
• Best Foreign/Non-English Language Horror Film
• Best Horror TV Show
• Best Queer Horror
• Best Score
• Best House Porn – New for 2025
• Best First Feature
• Best Director
• Best Lead Performance
• Best Supporting Performance
• Break Out Performance
• Best Duo
• Best Ensemble
• Best Make Up/Creature Design FX
• Best Stephen King adaptation – New for 2025
• Best Villain
• Best Sequence
• Best Non-Fatal Injury
• Best Ending
• Best Death

Context: The 22 categories were informed by Horror Queers Patrons, then narrowed down by Trace and I. In order to be eligible, films had to be widely available this year (either theatrically, VOD or on streaming services), which sadly means no festival exclusives.

Categories are capped at a maximum of 10 nominees and films are only eligible once per category (with two notable exceptions this year: Supporting Performance for Sinners and Non-Fatal Injury for Bring Her Back). This inevitably means that some favourites have been left out, but this is best way to ensure a tight race. Kill your darlings, folks!

Finally, we’ve also added spoiler warnings for the last four categories, just in case you haven’t seen films like Bone Lake, Influencers, or Dangerous Animals.

Click here to vote before the deadline on Friday, Jan 16 2026 at 11:59pm EST.

Winners will be announced on Horror Queers social media accounts (Instagram, BlueSky and Discord), as well as a special Main Feed bonus episode in February 2026.

The post BD’s ‘Horror Queers’ Celebrate Best Horror of 2025 with Sixth Annual “Hereditaries”; Vote Now! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

With that in mind, we wanted to celebrate a few titles (and cast stones at a few others) with the first annual True Crimey Awards.

After examining the full roster of what we covered between the Main Feed and the Patreon, here are the 2025 titles in contention (as you can see Netflix, Hulu, and Peacock dominate fictionalized true crime adaptations):

• Apple Cider Vinegar (Netflix)
• The Conjuring: Last Rites
• Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy (Peacock)
• Eden
• Good American Family (Hulu)
• Happy Face (Paramount+)
• Lockerbie (Peacock)
• Monster: The Ed Gein Story (Netflix)
• Murdaugh: Death in the Family (Hulu)
• The Monster of Florence (Netflix)
• No Tears in Hell
• The Order
• The Ritual
• Smoke (Apple TV+)
• Sovereign
• The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox (Hulu)

After careful deliberation, here are the categories we settled on:

• Fave 2025 Fictionalized Text
• Most Accurate to Real Life
• Fave 2025 True Crime Title We Didn’t Cover
• Best Conversation Starter
• Best Use of Music
• Best Performance
• Best Individual Episode of a Series; and
• Most Anticipated (2026 and Beyond)

We’d love to expand on the scope and categories of the True Crimeys in the coming years, so if you watched true crime last year (particularly documentaries), please let us know what else we could/should be covering! And what are you looking forward to in 2026?

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where we have ~125 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of David Fincher‘s Mindhunter S01!

The post Murder Made Fiction Podcast Celebrates the Best and Worst True Crime of 2025 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

New to Tubi December Horror Films

Battle Royale (2000)

• Premise: In a dystopian future, a group of students from a Japanese high school are forced by the government to compete in a sadistic competition, killing one another until only one is left standing.
• Why Watch It? Kinji Fukasaku‘s adaptation of Koushun Takami‘s novel of the same name is arguably one of the most influential texts of the last quarter century. Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games was undoubtedly influenced by the film (even if she says otherwise), and Quentin Tarantino was so smitten by Chiaki Kuriyama‘s performance that he cast her as Gogo Yubari in Volume 1 of Kill Bill. Plus: the satire of a filmed deadly reality TV competition is still scarily relevant to our real life dystopian timeline.
• Streaming: January 1

The Blackcoat’s Daughter (2015)

• Premise: During winter break, two students stay in an all-girls boarding school in the company of a terrifying presence.
• Why Watch It? We’re coming off one hell of a year for Osgood Perkins who delivered not one, but TWO films in 2025 between The Monkey and Keeper. What better way to ring in the new year than revisit his criminally under seen debut, which features fantastic performances by Kiernan Shipka, Emma Roberts, and Lucy Boynton? It’s twisty-turny, moody, demonic, and concludes with a devastating gut punch that’ll leave you thinking long after the credits. Considering the film’s original title – February – hold your screening until the last day of the month so that you can ring in the bleakest month of the year in style.
• Streaming: January 1

Black Rock (2012)

• Premise: Three childhood friends (Katie Aselton, Lake Bell, and Kate Bosworth) set aside their personal issues and reunite for a girls’ weekend on a remote island off the coast of Maine. One wrong move turns their weekend getaway into a deadly fight for survival.
• Why Watch It? Black Rock is another under seen and underrated gem that pits a trio of women against three men on an isolated island. It’s a relatively straightforward story, but the performances and the relationships of the protagonists make it highly watchable. Plus: it’s worth checking out just to see what Aselton is capable of (she wears three hats on the production, including acting, directing, and co-writing duties alongside friend Mark Duplass). If you watched the S02 finale of The Creep Tapes and want to see more of Aselton, this is a great place to start.
• Streaming: January 1

The Cable Guy (1996)

• Premise: A designer (Matthew Broderick) makes a grievous mistake when he rejects the friendship of a an unhinged cable guy (Jim Carrey).
• Why Watch It? Ok, yes, director Ben Stiller‘s poorly received film is technically a dark comedy, but in anticipation of The Cable Guy‘s 20th anniversary in June, what better time to reevaluate the film as a homoerotic home invasion/stalker movie? It’s honestly such an odd curiosity of a film, made even more notable for being the first real dent in the armour of Carrey’s commercial appeal.
• Streaming: January 1

Foxcatcher (2014)

• Premise:U.S. Olympic wrestling champions and brothers Mark Schultz (Channing Tatum) and Dave (Mark Ruffalo) Schultz join “Team Foxcatcher”, led by eccentric multi-millionaire John du Pont (Steve Carrell), as they train for the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, South Korea, but John’s self-destructive behavior threatens to consume them all.
• Why Watch It? Director Bennett Miller (Capote; Moneyball) excels at bringing real life events to the silver screen in a compelling way. Foxcatcher is another great example: the true crime adaptation features bizarre turns, great performances, and its 2+ hour runtime breezes by. It was also widely lauded, earning five Oscar nominations (including nods for Carrell and Ruffalo). In the run-up to the Olympic games next month, why not revisit the dangers of pursuing perfection and excellence?
• Streaming: January 1

Pi (1998)

• Premise: A paranoid mathematician searches for a key number that will unlock the universal patterns found in nature.
• Why Watch It? Darren Aronofsky famously burst onto the scene with his feature directorial debut, a paranoid arthouse film that won him directing accolades at Sundance, the Independent Spirit Awards and the Gotham Awards. It’s not a film for everyone, but open minded audiences who go in prepared for moody and hallucinatory black & white visuals will find plenty to appreciate.
• Streaming: January 1

Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)

• Premise: When her adoptive father disappears, Heather AKA Sharon Da Silva (Adelaide Clemens) is drawn into a strange and terrifying alternate reality that holds answers to the horrific nightmares that have plagued her since childhood.
• Why Watch It? While nowhere near as well-received or revered as its predecessor, MJ Bassett‘s Silent Hill sequel has its defenders. The messy (and occasionally boring) plot isn’t helped by charisma vaccuum Kit Harrington, but at least there’s a reputable supporting cast that includes Malcolm McDowell and Carrie-Anne Moss. It’s not essential viewing, but for Silent Hill completionists, you basically have to revisit this before Return to Silent Hill, right?
• Streaming: January 9

January Tubi Originals

Broken Bonds (2026)

• Premise: After witnessing a fatal shootout, three struggling waitresses hide a bag of illicit cash, forcing them into a perilous web of betrayal and survival.
• Streaming: January 2

Death Name (2026)

• Premise: A young Korean American woman yearns to learn more about her heritage, not knowing the further she digs, the more she reawakens a deadly family curse.
• Streaming: January 9

Twin (2026)

• Premise: Fresh out of prison for murder, a ruthless woman schemes to replace her twin sister and claim her flawless life by any means necessary
• Streaming: January 23

What’s your favorite from the list above? Will you check out the new Originals? Sound off in the comments below

The post The 10 Best Horror Movies Streaming on Tubi [January 2026] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

After spending December discussing 70s religious thriller The Sentinel (listen), Josh Trank’s found footage superhero thriller Chronicle (listen), and 1995’s “family friendly” gateway horror Jumanji (listen), it’s time to celebrate the holidays with P2 (2007), produced by Alexandre Aja and directed by Franck Khalfoun.

In the film, harried businesswoman Angela (Rachel Nichols) is working late on Christmas Eve, though she’s desperate to get home to her family. When she discovers she’s trapped in the New York high rise where she works and her car won’t start, Angela seeks help from security guard Thomas (Wes Bentley) whose kind demeanor masks ulterior motives.

It’s not long before Angela is fighting for her life against a man who has complete control over the environment and desperately want to spend the holiday with her. Can she outwit and escape him…or is Angela doomed to die on P2 of the parking garage?

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 366: P2 (2007) feat. Stuart Ross

Take off your heels and prep your taser because we’re stuck in a cold parking garage for Christmas with Franck Kalfoun’s P2 (2007). Along for the joyride is Stuart Ross from Another Gay Horror Podcast, who’s watching the film for the first time! C/W: Sexual harassment

Join us as we praise leads Rachel Nichols and (an admittedly typecast) Wes Bentley, as well as a fantastic flooded elevator sequence.

Plus: beautiful businesswoman Angela’s conditioned response to misogyny, fixing the opening, breaking high rise windows, and “debate” about security guard Karl’s death.

Cross out P2!

Coming Up Next: We’re ringing in the new year with a bizarre little giallo-inspired American slasher, Night School (1981).

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 446 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 2, Episodes 11-13, Paul Feig’s The Housemaid, sequels Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and Wake Up Dead Man and, to tie in with that last one, an audio commentary on the original Knives Out. And as a special holiday treat, we’re also dropping our audio commentary from this year’s Soho Horror fest on Scream 3.

The post Underrated ‘P2’ Is An Essential Holiday Thriller [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s been a wild month, and the reveals continue in the final two episodes of Antonio Campos‘ fictionalized take, which ends with episodes 7 & 8.

Expect plenty of overlapping and blurring of timelines as Kathleen Peterson (Toni Collette) lives out her final days in 2001; Michael (Colin Firth) is released from prison in 2011; and his relationship with editor Sophie (Juliette Binoche) implodes in 2017.

It’s a perfect opportunity to compare/contrast with filmmaker Jean-Xavier de Lestrade‘s docuseries and wrap up our thoughts on what the HBO miniseries is doing, including Jenn’s appreciation of the work of the actors playing the Peterson/Ratliff children.

Expect shout outs for Odessa Young‘s Martha and Sophie Turner‘s Margaret (both of whom get more to do than the boys) and a smidge of thirsting after Patrick Schwarzenegger‘s Todd and Dane DeHaan‘s Clayton.

Plus: memories of malls at Christmas, clocking the changing wigs and hairstyles, and debate about the final ambiguous shot of Michael.

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed, where we have ~120 hours of content including episode by episode coverage of the original docuseries The Staircase and – starting next week – we kick off coverage of Mindhunter S01!

The post HBO’s ‘The Staircase’ Ends On An Ambiguous, Satisfying Note [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The last few weeks have been dominated by older texts: from 1975’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (listen) to Misery on its 35th anniversary (listen) to the 1977 religious chiller The Sentinel (listen). And while 2012 is quickly creeping up on 15 years, there’s still a lot that feels modern about Josh Trank‘s found footage superhero film, Chronicle.

In the Max Landis-scripted film (ugh), three teenage boys – Andrew (Dane DeHaan), his cousin Matt (Alex Russell), and Matt’s popular friend Steve (Michael B. Jordan) – discover an alien artefact buried in the ground. After touching it, they gain mysterious telekinetic powers that quickly (re)shape their destinies.

But as their abilities grow, so too does their power to destroy. As Matt reconnects with childhood girlfriend Casey (Ashley Hinshaw), Andrew’s troubled relationship with his abusive father (Michael Kelly) prompts the fragile young man to turn down a dark and dangerous path.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 364: Chronicle (2012)

Touch that alien rock and film yourself doing *everything* because we are talking about Josh Trank’s superhero (villain?) film, Chronicle (2012).

This found footage film features strong performances by Dane DeHaan and a charismatic Michael B. Jordan, as well as a clever explanation for the usual “why/how are they filming everything” issue.

Plus: shitty teen boys, aborted sequels, and Trace’s worst performance on a game to date!

Cross out Chronicle!

Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating one of Trace’s fave childhood gateway horror titles, Jumanji (1995) for its 30th anniversary.

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 446 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 2, Episodes 11-13, Paul Feig’s The Housemaid, sequels Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and Wake Up Dead Man and, to tie in with that last one, an audio commentary on the original Knives Out.

And as a special holiday treat, we’re also dropping our audio commentary from this year’s Soho Horror fest on Scream 3.

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Writer/director Kurtis David Harder absolutely embraces this approach for his sequel, Influencers. Building off the events of the 2023 film, the sequel opens with a moment of violence, before catching up with CW (Cassandra Naud) one year later.

CW now identifies as Catherine. She’s living in the south of France with her girlfriend, Diane (Lisa Delamar), eating at cute cafes and preparing for a weekend in the country to celebrate their one year anniversary. It seems as though the sociopath has turned over a new leaf: she’s happy and in love, even if Diane clearly has no idea who CW really is.

Things quickly fall apart when they arrive at the hotel and discover that they’ve been bumped from their expensive suite by an influencer named Charlotte (Georgina Campbell). Much to CW’s chagrin, the brand ambassador befriends Diane and begins to encroach on their weekend plans, prompting CW to realize that she’s not completely done dispensing influencer justice.

Influencers adopts the same kind of non-linear narrative as its predecessor, but the new film utilizes it less for shock value than storytelling. When the title pops up at the end of the first act, roughly 30 minutes in, it’s not surprising; it feels like a knowing wink because we remember the format of Influencer.

Jon Whitesell in Kurtis David Harder’s INFLUENCERS. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder release.

Ultimately the new film is most interested in how CW and previous victim Madison (Emily Tennant) have changed over the last year. Whereas CW has settled into blissful domesticity, Madison’s entire life has blown up. While the blonde was exonerated of murder charges, she’s the subject of countless internet conspiracies, abandoned social media completely, and reduced to living in a shitty apartment while working at a bed and bath store in the mall.

With nothing left to lose, when Madison sees an opportunity to expose CW, she sets out to track the elusive villain in a film that pits the two women against each other in an exciting game of cat and mouse that travels from France back to Bali.

Where the film stumbles (slightly) is the introduction of a third party who gets mixed up in CW and Madison’s war. In order to track CW down, Madison connects with a men’s rights streamer Jacob (Jonathan Whitesell, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina) and his influencer girlfriend Ariana (Veronica Long). The middle stretch of the film follows Jacob, unpacks his Beta status with his more assertive girlfriend, as well as the rift this has produced in his friendship with himbo Cameron (Dylan Playfair).

It’s not that the new characters aren’t interesting, but much of their backstory feels perfunctory and comes at the expense of screen time that could be dedicated to CW and Madison. The new dynamic between the women has taken on A Simple Favor level of obsession, which is a really exciting evolution from the first film.

Arguably the strongest aspect of the Jacob/Ariana portion of the film is Harder’s shift from critiquing female influencers to the performativity of conservative male influencers. At one point Cameron complains that Jacob doesn’t even believe half of the things he says about men losing their power to women, but the streamer is so desperate to grow his conservative fanbase that he’ll do anything to appeal to them. This storyline gives Influencers some new talking points about the way social media stars portray themselves online in exchange for profit. Most importantly for the film’s sake, it pays off in comedic spades in the film’s closing scene, which is an utter delight.

Cassandra Naud in Kurtis David Harder’s INFLUENCERS. Courtesy of Shudder. A Shudder release

The truth is, however, that the audience is here to see the sophomore showdown between CW vs Madison. After dedicating more than two thirds of the film to the investigation and the chase, the moment the pair finally come face to face is incredibly gratifying. Despite some dodgy FX work on the weapons and some of the wounds, their knock-down, drag out brawl is incredibly satisfying.

It doesn’t hurt that the film continues to act as a tourism ad (albeit one filled with murder and deception). Harder continues to draw on the beauty of his foreign locations (both Southern France and Bali look beautiful) and the transitions between the various locations as the story shifts perspectives between the characters keeps the energy up and ensures the film moves at a good clip.

If anything, the greatest endorsement for the sequel is that it allows both Naud and Tennant the opportunity to revisit these roles and uncover new facets of these characters. Tennant’s harder edged Madison, complete with a shock of bottle dye red, is a proper adversary for CW, who initially feels more soft and romantic until she’s forced to dispense with “Catherine” and get serious about protecting herself.

In hindsight, Influencer now plays like a soft-launch to these characters and Harder’s approach to non-linear storytelling. With those elements established, Influencers can go all-in on these messy, complicated women without compromising on the fun thrill ride of seeing them face off. Influencer worked well as a standalone film, but Influencers is a great sequel that takes the series in a fun, satirical, and often deliciously mean new direction.

Influencers had its world debut at Fantasia International Film Festival and is now available to stream on Shudder.

Editor’s Note: This Fantasia review was originally published on July 28, 2025.

The post ‘Influencers’ Review – Shudder Sequel Provides a Great Game of Cat and Mouse appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

What followed is one of the most bizarre and sensational true crime stories in modern history.

24 years after the district attorney, the defence, and a rapt public debated if Michael Peterson killed his wife or if her death was an accident, Murder Made Fiction is revisiting the case.

While Jenn and I tackle the 2004 documentary series by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade over on Patreon, we’re using the Main Feed to discuss Antonio Campos‘ HBO’s 2022 limited series, starring Colin Firth as Michael and Toni Collette as Kathleen. Rounding out the all-star cast is Olivia DeYonge as Kathleen’s biological daughter, Caitlin, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Dane DeHaan as Michael’s biological sons, Todd and Clayton, as well as Odessa Young and Sophie Turner as Martha and Margaret Ratliff, the Petersons’ adopted daughters.

In episodes 1 & 2, the Peterson family is introduced across multiple timelines. After the discovery of Kathleen’s body in 2001, we flash back to see her at work at Nortel, fretting about downsizing while Michael runs for political office.

There are also events in 2002-2003 as Michael hires expensive defence lawyer David Rudolph (Michael Stuhlbarg) to represent him in court against DA Hardin (Cullen Moss) and prosecutor Freda Black (Parker Posey). The latter pair weaponize Michael’s sexuality history after discovering a bombshell about his orientation and question the reality of his so-called perfect marriage.

Finally, in a bizarre framing device, there are a few brief scenes in 2017 as Michael dates a new woman (Juliette Binoche) and flees from a convenience store after seeing a familiar face: blood splatter analyst Duane Deaver.

It’s a busy first few episodes, though they do a good job of humanizing Kathleen as a real person, not simply the victim from the grisly autopsy photographs. There’s also an amusing additional meta level when filmmaker Lestrade (played by Vincent Vermignon) arrives in episode 2 to begin filming Michael and his family.

Finally, there’s one extremely memorable horror set-piece in this pair of episodes: a graphic and prolonged recreation of Kathleen’s death. It’s presented as a fall, but seeing Collette flail about in a tight stairwell, slipping in her own blood and coughing it on the walls, proves surprisingly upsetting.

We’ll see if that experience carries over into episodes 3-4 next week!

Want even more Murder Made Fiction? Check out the Patreon feed where Jenn and I have ~120 hours of content, including episode by episode coverage of the aforementioned documentary series The Staircase (2004), as well as all three seasons of Monster (Ed Gein, Dahmer, The Menendez Brothers) among many other shows.

The post Accident or Murder? HBO’s Star Studded ‘The Staircase’ Opened With A Debate [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

New to Tubi December Horror Films

Climax (2018)

• Premise: French dancers gather in a remote, empty school building to rehearse. The all-night celebration morphs into a hallucinatory nightmare when they learn their sangria is laced with LSD.
• Why watch it? Directed by provocateur Gaspar Noé, Climax is one of the all-time “just say no to drug” movies. Hypnotic, daring, and ferocious, this trip of a movie will enthral and exhaust you in equal measure  by the time the credits roll. Also: the dance routine is a banger.
• Streaming: December 1

All Fun and Games (2023)

All Fun & Games

• Premise: A group of teens in Salem, Massachusetts, discover a cursed knife that unleashes a demon which forces them to play gruesome, deadly versions of childhood games where there can be no winners, only survivors.
• Why Watch it? This indie flick flew under the radar back during the tail end of the pandemic shutdown, but it’s got a decent cast of young actors, including Sex Education‘s Asa Butterfield, Stranger Things‘ Natalia Dyer, and The X-Files‘ Annabeth Gish. Don’t believe me? Revisit Paul Le’s 3 skull review.
• Streaming: December 3

Slither (2006)

• Premise: A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.
• Why Watch it? James Gunn‘s creature feature is a delightful(ly mean and crude) ode to classics like David Cronenberg’s Shivers and Fred Dekker’s Night of the Creeps. Featuring a hilarious cast that includes Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, and Michael Rooker, this under seen horror comedy gem fizzled at the box office, but has gone on to become a cult fave. If you get to Brenda’s scene in the barn (pictured above) and don’t love this film, there’s something wrong with you.
• Streaming: December 1

Oculus (2013)

• Premise: A recently released inmate from a mental asylum learns from his sister that the murder he was convicted of committing were actually orchestrated by a supernatural entity, the Lasser Glass mirror.
• Why Watch It? With Mike Flanagan continuing to make news – between casting Scarlett Johansson in a new remake of The Exorcist to teasing his Amazon series adaptation of Carrie – there’s no better time to revisit one of his early efforts. The sibling dynamic is in full effect here as Karen Gillen and Brenton Thwaites battle a possessed mirror, and the apple/lightbulb moment remains as horrifyingly effective as ever!
• Streaming: December 1

Green Room (2015)

• Premise: A punk rock band is forced to fight for survival after witnessing a murder at a neo-Nazi skinhead bar.
• Why Watch It? Writer/director Jeremy Saulnier knows how to make visceral thrillers and, for many fans, Green Room is his best film. Featuring a stacked cast that includes Anton Yelchin (RIP), Imogen Poots, and a terrifying Patrick Stewart as the film’s villain, Green Room is a great example of how to create tension in a single, small location. Plus: there’s some surprising humor that adds levity just when you can’t take the pressure any longer.
• Streaming: December 1

The Meg (2018) & The Meg 2: The Trench (2023)

• Premise: In the first film, a rescue mission to the bottom of the sea reveals an enormous prehistoric shark. In the sequel, the action becomes even more ridiculous as additional underwater creatures arrive to threaten the population of an expensive resort.
• Why Watch It? The first film is (arguably) not particularly great. You can feel the creative decisions being compromised by the desire to exhibit the film in China, but there’s at least one or two amazing sequences that merit checking out. The second film is bigger, dumber, and somehow even sillier, but at least Ben Wheatley‘s film seems to be in on the joke. For fans of Jason Statham, these are the definition of “guilty pleasure” films that you don’t actually need to feel that guilty about.
• Streaming: December 1

Underworld (2003)

• Premise: Selene, a vampire warrior, is entrenched in a conflict between vampires and werewolves, while falling in love with Michael, a human who is sought by werewolves for unknown reasons.
• Why Watch It? This pulpy cross between Romeo & Juliet and The Matrix (with vampires and were…er..Lycans) is not a good movie. It is, however, a fun movie with some seriously entertaining action set pieces. Director Len Wiseman kickstarted a franchise with Kate Beckinsale that produced five films over 13 years and guess what? The original is still a good time.
• Streaming: December 1

The Menu (2022)

• Premise: A young couple travels to a remote island to eat at an exclusive restaurant where the chef has prepared a lavish menu, with some shocking surprises.
• Why Watch It? This culinary satire hit the spot with audiences back in 2022 to the tune of nearly ~$80M worldwide. It’s not terribly surprising that the film did so well: in addition to an A-list cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, scene stealer Hong Chau, and a hissably despicable Nicholas Hoult, the film perfectly blends its comedy and nail-biting tension. After all, it’s not every film that turns its characters into a living S’more.
• Streaming: December 1

December Tubi Originals

A Mother’s Confession (2025)

• Premise: When a gang shooting leaves her son in a coma, a single mother grapples with faith and morality as she seeks vengeance against the perpetrator. Directed by Maya Table, the thriller stars Ciera Angelia and Brandon McGee.
• Streaming: December 5

Hag (2025)

• Premise: After a decade apart, Rowan rents his spare room to Mag – a self-proclaimed “hag”– whose obsession with him grows into a life-or-death showdown. Directed by Sam Wineman (The Quiet Room) the new film stars Ryan de Villiers, Jane de Wet, and drag queen Adore Delano.
• Streaming: December 12

What’s your favorite from the list above? Will you check out the new Originals? Sound off in the comments below

The post The 10 Best Horror Movies Streaming on Tubi [December 2025] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

We spent the month of November tackling a variety of monsters. From James Whale’s Frankenstein (listen) to Gena Rowlands in The Skeleton Key (listen) to the human villains of  Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (listen), it’s been a wild month.

For the last episode of November, Trace and I returned to the world of Stephen King adaptations with Rob Reiner’s 1990 take on Misery. The film has become a classic, but at the time, it struggled to cast a male lead, and star Kathy Bates was best known for Broadway, not film and television. Obviously, a lot has changed in the intervening 35 years!

In Misery, novelist Paul Sheldon (James Caan) suffers a devastating car accident on a treacherous mountain road. Rescued by Annie Wilkes (Bates), his number one fan, Sheldon soon realizes that he’s being held hostage because Annie can’t accept the death of protagonist Misery Chastain in the final book of the series.

If Paul wants to survive Annie’s wild mood swings, threats of murder/suicide, and – in the film’s most memorable scene – an excruciating hobbling, he’ll need to fulfill Annie’s request and write an epic resurrection novel for Misery. If not, he might be the one who winds up dead!

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 363: Misery (1990) feat. Roz Hernandez

Squirrel away those pills and burn that manuscript because we’re talking about Rob Reiner’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery (1990).

Joining us for the discussion is comedian Roz Hernandez, who has begun (but maybe never finished?) every King novel.

We’re talking Kathy Bates’ Academy award winning performance as Annie Wilkes, a horny Sheriff & Deputy combo, and multiple fiery manuscripts.

Plus: toxic (queer) fandom, Lauren Bacall’s smoker voice, the FX we do – and don’t – see, and pranking Barnes & Noble employees

Cross out Misery!

Coming Up Next: We’re finally digging into a listener request that’s been years in the making: 1977’s religious thriller, The Sentinel!

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 437 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal S02 episodes 11-13, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Rian Johnson’s threequel Wake Up Dead Man, Paul Feig’s The Housemaid, plus not one but TWO audio commentaries: Knives Out and Scream 3 (from our live appearance at Soho Horror Fest earlier this year)

The post Stephen King Adaptation ‘Misery’ Made Kathy Bates A Star [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Enter Iain Softley’s 2005 film The Skeleton Key, a Southern Gothic tale about Caroline (Kate Hudson), an impressionable young hospice aide who takes a job at a remote plantation against the advice of her roommate, Jill (Joy Bryant).

Tensions abound between Caroline and the matriarch of the house, Violet (Gena Rowlands), who has very particular demands about how to treat her husband Ben (John Hurt). The rules extend to the house itself, which is bereft of mirrors and has a single locked door in the attic that Caroline’s titular skeleton key won’t open.

Clearly, there’s something more going on, and as Caroline investigates,  she becomes more immersed in hoodoo, a practice she barely understands. With the support of the Devereaux’s estate lawyer, Luke (Peter Sarsgaard), Caroline will stop at nothing to ensure Ben’s safety, even if it increasingly means she’s putting her own future in jeopardy.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeartRadio, SoundCloud, TuneIn, Amazon Music, and RSS.

Episode 360: The Skeleton Key (2005)

Lay down a line of protective brick dust and scream “I don’t believe!” because we are discussing Iain Softley’s 2005 Southern Gothic thriller, The Skeleton Key.

Starring Kate Hudson and Gena Rowlands, this Ehren Kruger joint has a great twist (or is it a reveal?) that may or may not have dicey racial implications.

Plus: not trusting Peter Sarsgaard, Black character exposition, the difference between hoodoo and voodoo, and the ending we still can’t believe a studio signed off on!

Cross out The Skeleton Key!

Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of arguably the most controversial film we’ve ever tackled on the pod: Pier Passolini’s Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975).

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 437 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Tina Romero’s Queens of the Dead, Hulu’s remake of The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, new Oz Perkins joint Keeper, Predator: Badlands and, to celebrate American Thanksgiving, an audio commentary on the 1987 cult classic Blood Rage!

The post The Campy Delights and Dicey Racial Politics of ‘The Skeleton Key’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

For November, we’re turning our attention to Aquatic Disasters: real life cases of peril and human adversity out on the dangerous open water. First up: Wolfgang Peterson‘s 2000 spectacle The Perfect Storm, featuring an all-star cast that includes George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, John C Reilly, William Fichtner, John Hawkes, and Diane Lane.

The film, which was written by William D. Wittliff and adapted from Sebastian Junger‘s non-fiction book of the same name, follows the crew of the swordfish fishing vessel Andrea Gail. In 1991, Captain Billy Tyne (Clooney)  and his five man crew ventured far off the coast of Newfoundland in search of a late season catch and got caught in what meteorologist Todd Gross (Christopher McDonald) described as “The Perfect Storm.”

The film depicts their epic struggle to survive, the women they left behind, including Lane’s Chris, and several others caught in the storm. This includes a trio aboard a sailboat, as well as the Air National Guard helicopter crew dispatched to pull survivors out of the water.

At a certain point, the film segues into fiction territory because we’ll never know what exactly happened aboard the Andrea Gail after they broke off contact with the Captain of Hannah Boden, Linda Greenlaw (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), though the bodies of the men were never recovered.

Despite being a tragedy, The Perfect Storm is also a quintessential summer action spectacle, as well as an ode to blue collar workers, and a dazzling special effects feast that still holds up twenty-five years later.

Does James Horner‘s score go way too hard for way too long in order to make audiences feel something? Yes, but despite this, The Perfect Storm remains a pretty entertaining piece of “based on a true story” fiction.

If you want even more Murder Made Fiction, be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed for ~110 hours of bonus content, including episode by episode coverage of November titles such as Netflix’s The Monster of Florence and Hulu’s ripped-from-the-headlines limited series, Murdaugh: Murder in the Family starring Jason Clarke and Patricia Arquette.

The post The Ocean is a Killer in 2000’s ‘The Perfect Storm’ [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Add Chuck Parello‘s 2000 indie feature Ed Gein to the latter category. The film, which is sometimes also known as In The Light of the Moon, can be difficult to track down (we watched it on the Internet Archive), but it is notable for tackling one of the most sensational stories in true crime and dialling things back significantly.

The result is a film that is so sedate and grounded that it may be a bit too slow for some viewers. After so many texts, however, that pared back approach may just be the biggest selling feature of Ed Gein.

Like many other texts, In The Light of the Moon covers the life of the title character’s life from his older brother’s suspicious death through to his apprehension for the murders of Mary Hogan (played by a wonderfully bawdry Sally Champlin) and Collette Marshall (Carol Mansell), a proxy for real life victim Bernice Worden.

Anchored by two powerhouse performances by Steve Railsback (as Ed) and Carrie Snodgress (as his domineering mother Augusta), Stephen Johnston‘s screenplay highlights how isolated Ed is on the farm and how his mental illness – which manifests as his mother’s controlling voice – makes him confused. To be clear, the film doesn’t excuse the murders as much as it highlights how various factors (the 1950s Wisconsin of it all) contributed to circumstances that allowed Gein to kill.

It’s a very different take on Gein’s story, especially compared to other texts that purport to stick to the truth like Deranged or Ian Brennan’s messy Netflix property. For those seeking what a grounded depiction of the Butcher of Plainsfield, 2000’s Ed Gein or In The Light of the Moon may be the text for you.

If you want even more Murder Made Fiction, be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed which has nearly 110 hours of bonus content, including episode by episode coverage of Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story, as well as Peacock’s Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy.

The post Chuck Parello’s ‘Ed Gein’ Is The Closest Approximation of Reality [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Horror Queers Podcast has spent October celebrating 30 years of To Die For (listen), 50 years of Cronenberg’s feature debut Shivers (listen) and the ingenuity of the Chiodo Brothers’ Killer Klowns from Outer Space (listen). Now we’re closing out scary season with a classic contemporary ghost story with J.A. Bayona‘s The Orphanage (2007).

In the film, Laura (Belén Rueda) returns to the orphanage where she briefly lived as a child, along with her doctor husband Carlos (Fernando Cayo) and their adopted son Simón (Roger Príncep). Shortly after an unusual encounter with social worker Benigna (Montserrat Carulla), Simón goes missing, initiating a desperate search that consumes Laura and Carlos’ lives.

In a last ditch effort, Laura employs the services of Aurora (Geraldine Chaplin), a medium who makes contact with the ghosts of several children living in the house. Were they responsible for Simón’s abduction? Was Benigna? How did the bones of several children wind up in a shed? And could Simón still be alive somewhere?

The truth is both less obvious and more sad than expected in Sergio G. Sánchez’s script, which is tragic, haunting, and quite a bit darker than expected.

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Episode 357: The Orphanage (2007) feat. Shelagh Rowan-Legg

Don your mask for the treasure hunt because we’re discussing J.A. Bayona’s The Orphanage (2007) along with Spanish horror scholar (and returning guest) Shelagh Rowan-Legg.

Join us as we praise Belén Rueda’s lead performance, the film’s unsettling set pieces, its curious lack of Spanish cultural signifiers, and speculate on the film’s use of HIV in the plot.

Plus: the film’s obsession with jaws, Joe’s suspicions of Carlos’ infidelity, and multiple interpretations of the bittersweet ending!

Cross out The Orphanage!

Coming Up Next: We’re celebrating Halloween with a trio of divas, as well as Jack Nicholson, in George Miller’s 1987 comedy, The Witches of Eastwick.

P.S. Subscribe to our Patreon for over 429 hours of Patreon content including this month’s new episodes on Hannibal Season 2, Episodes 9 & 10, Bone Lake, The Strangers: Chapter 2, Black Phone 2  and a brand new audio commentary on Predator: Killer of Killers (2025).

The post The Shifting Genres of J.A. Bayona’s ‘The Orphanage’ [Horror Queers Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Shelby Oaks follows Mia (Camille Sullivan), a woman who has been obsessively searching for her younger sister Riley (Sarah Durn) for more than a decade. The missing woman was the host of a popular YouTube channel called “Paranormal Paranoids” and disappeared along with her three co-hosts while filming in the titular derelict town.

While the murdered bodies of the other three hosts were eventually discovered, Mia lacks closure because Riley’s disappearance remains unsolved. As her search is captured via a documentary crew, Mia’s marriage to Robert (Brendan Sexton III) begins to buckle under the burden of her obsession. Things only get worse when a new lead thrusts Mia back into investigative mode with renewed – and dangerous – vigour. 

Shelby Oaks played at a variety of festivals last year, including Fantasia Film Festival (where I reviewed it for Bloody Disgusting). Since then, however, the Kickstarter-funded film was acquired for distribution by Neon, picked up a producing credit from Mike Flanagan, and received $1M from Neon for reshoots to help realize Stuckmann’s vision. 

Having watched the new cut, here’s what is different in the version now available to audiences. Warning: Some spoilers to follow.

Face Peel

The film opens with text explaining the circumstances of Riley’s disappearance and the context for how the footage was recovered. We see the young blonde cowering in a cabin bedroom before venturing off-camera into the hall.

Later, this sequence is repeated, but Mia has discovered another tape (courtesy of Charlie Talbert’s Wilson Miles), which includes additional footage that features more graphic shots of Riley’s dead co-hosts. In the original cut of the film, these murders were only briefly glimpsed, and the amount of blood and gore was limited. 

In the new cut, there’s a whole new sequence featuring the film’s supernatural protagonist Tarion (played by Derek Mears, as well as David Greathouse and Jon Michael Simpson) ripping the face off one of the men. The camera lingers on the gory practical effect, which is so forceful that the body is lifted off the floor before falling back to the ground…minus a face.

In a post-screening Q&A, Stuckmann explained that reshoots for this sequence alone took a half day to complete (from set-up to clean-up to resetting for additional takes). That was a luxury (both time and money) that the production simply didn’t have the first time around.

Hellhound Action

Part of the film’s mythology includes hellhounds that protect Tarion and its progeny. While there were dogs in the festival cut of the film, Stuckmann elaborated that the additional funds allowed them to bring the dogs back for more action. Fun fact: the hounds are real, not CGI; they come from Sweden; and they were trained to perform very specific actions in the film.

Mia first spots a dog eying her when she’s out on the porch late at night, watching old videos of her sister. Later, she’s confronted by a dog at the prison outside Wilson Miles’ jail cell. It’s possible that this brief scene has been touched up because the effect of the monster’s hand resting on the dog looks better. Sullivan’s hair is also styled differently in select shots from this sequence, which matches her hair from the reshot climax (see below).

The biggest new addition, however, is the film’s final sequence. After Riley has been rescued from Norma (Robin Bartlett) ‘s cottage, Mia and Riley fight over Riley’s demon seed baby. In the climax, Riley plummets through the cracked bedroom window and, as Mia watches and screams from above, her sister’s still alive body is attacked by *multiple* hellhounds who rip her to shreds. 

My memory is slightly hazy about how much of this carnage was visible in the original cut, but in this new version, Stuckmann treats us to close-up shots of the dogs ripping at Riley’s face and body. Much like the face rip from earlier in the film, this gore is much more explicit, and the camera lingers on the glorious practical FX. 

Sequel Potential?

It appears that these reshoots have helped the modestly budgeted film, which has garnered mostly positive reviews from critics (67% on Rotten Tomatoes). Intriguingly, if audiences embrace the film, Stuckmann has some ideas on how to expand Shelby Oaks. In the post-screening Q&A, he confessed that he has not one, but TWO more ideas set in this world.

The first is a sequel in the vein of the original Halloween 2 that would immediately follow the events of the first film as Mia is forced to explain the brutal death of her sister.

The second pitch is a prequel that would explore Norma’s story, including how she came to worship Tarion, gave birth to Wilson Miles, and became a rapist recluse in the woods.

Shelby Oaks is now playing in theaters.

The post ‘Shelby Oaks’ $1M Reshoots: What Changed From The Festival Cut to the Version Now In Theaters? appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

There are two more prominent texts to cover, so this week we’re looking at Alan Ormsby and Jeff Gillen‘s 1974 Canuxploitation film, Deranged.

One of the film’s intriguing stylistic choices is character Tom Simms (Leslie Carlson) who breaks the fourth wall to narrate parts of the film and provide context on Ezra Cobb (Robert Blossom). The middle aged man is a clear proxy for Ed Gein, starting with his unhealthy relationship with mother, Amanda (Cosette Lee).

When she dies shortly after the film begins, Ezra is left alone on the farm. His sole source of human contact is neighboring family, the Kootzs, which includes Harlon (Robert Wagner), Jenny (Marcia Diamond) and son Brad (Brian Smeagle). The kindly family takse pity on the odd man, but both husband and wife also encourage Ezra to find a woman and settle down.

Alas each time Ezra gets close – be it with widower and seance aficionado Maureen Selby (Marian Waldman), bawdry bartender Mary Ransum (Micki Moore), or even Brad’s comely girlfriend Sally Mae (Pat Orr) – his mother’s voice goes into overdrive with the religious hysteria in his mind. As a result, Ezra is driven to murder in increasingly depraved ways, until the point he only sees women as objects to kill and possess in his house of horrors.

While the film obviously changes the real life names and increases the real life number of victims by one, there’s a surprising amount of truth in Deranged‘s plot. It’s also a technically well-made film, from its sparse but effective practical FX to Blossom’s lead performance. Then there are the harrowing action sequences, such as when Ezra chases a half-naked Mary around his house or tracks a hysterical Sally Mae through the snow with a bear trap. They’re very well done.

Deranged was new to both Jenn and I, but we found plenty to like in this dark, macabre film. Don’t be like us and sleep on it!

If you want even more Murder Made Fiction, be sure to check out the pod’s Patreon feed which has episode by episode coverage of Netflix’s Monster: The Ed Gein Story, as well as Peacock’s Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy.

The post ‘Deranged’ Is Low Budget Canuxploitation Take on Ed Gein [Murder Made Fiction Podcast] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

That’s the plot of both the 1992 movie The Hand That Rocks The Cradle, as well as the new 2025 Hulu remake. Starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead in the Annabella Sciorra role and Maika Monroe in the Rebecca De Mornay role, the new film follows an affluent couple living in LA with their two children, daughter Emma (Mileiah Vega) and baby Josie (Nora Contreras and Lola Contreras).

Early in the film, there’s some vague dialogue between Caitlin Morales (Winstead) and her husband Miguel (Raúl Castillo) about her troubles following Emma’s birth, hinting at issues of depression and paranoia. Initially, this suggests that screenwriter Micah Bloomberg is going to lean into the hysterical woman trope, so it’s a testament to The Hand That Rocks The Cradle that Caitlin is presented, for the most part, as a capable, albeit overwhelmed, mother and lawyer.

The film opens with a scene of Caitlin meeting and advising Polly (Monroe) at a pro bono Tenants’ Rights Event. Outside in her car, Caitlin goes into labor, and the film jumps ahead to a point when Caitlin is back on her feet, but struggling. A near miss involving Chekhov’s stop sign proves that she needs a little extra help, and so, enter Polly, first as a babysitter and eventually as the live-in au pair.

Bloomberg’s screenplay does a solid job of introducing the cracks in the Morales family early on. There are intimacy issues between husband and wife (which can be expected after a newborn), and Emma is a willful child who isn’t afraid to scream at her mother. Though Caitlin and Miguel’s relationship is supportive and features plenty of open communication, there’s also a suggestion that Caitlin’s rigid approach to child rearing, as well as her past mental health issues, are cause for concern for Miguel.

Obviously, these are all fissures for Polly to exploit when she inserts herself into the family’s life and begins to systematically dismantle their relationships. Polly swaps out Caitlin’s depression meds, feeds Emma sugar, and, at one point, she even poisons the stew at a dinner party.

Audiences expecting sequences on par with the original film’s greenhouse sequence should temper their expectations, especially if the goal is to see Maika go off the rails. That’s because, unlike the original, which introduced De Mornay’s Peyton in a sympathetic light before quickly turning her into a full-blown villain, Polly isn’t a straightforward monster. The remake of The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is a much more grounded affair because the film has a legitimate interest in the complicated relationship between Caitlin and Polly.

As the housewife slowly begins to peel away the layers of Polly’s deception, aided by her work husband, Stewart (Martin Starr), it’s revealed that Polly has her own traumatic backstory. Despite a heel turn featuring explicit violence around two-thirds through the film and a climax featuring the women’s explosive face-off, most of the film positions Caitlin and Polly as two-sides of the same socio-economic coin. Caitlin happened to come out somewhat unscathed and well-off, whereas Polly has been struggling all of her life.

Polly’s envy of Caitlin’s life extends beyond mere coveting, though. It’s also queer.

To be clear, this isn’t mere coding; it’s canonical in the text. From Caitlin’s confession that she was dating a woman before she met Miguel to multiple instances where the women touch, exchange clothes and mimic each other’s hairstyles to a voyeuristic sequence when Caitlin spies on a sexual encounter between Polly and Amelia (Yvette Lu), it is evident that beneath the jealously, deception, and lies, there’s also an undeniable level of attraction between Caitlin and Polly.

Cinematographer Jo Willems and director Michelle Garza Cervera (who knows a thing or two about motherhood and queerness, as evidenced by Huesera: The Bone Woman) shoot the film in soft focus, emphasizing the cool blue, brown, and grey tones of the Morales’ incredible wooden and glass house. Much of the film has a slight hazy blur on the periphery of the frame, and – in several scenes – there’s a visual effect akin to witnessing the action through the bottom of a glass. This helps to reinforce both the cold and anti-septic “perfect life” façade that Caitlin has cultivated, but also her wavering grip on reality.

Whereas the original film was a conventional warning to white middle-income audiences about opening your home to outsiders, 2025’s The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is a grounded contemplation of motherhood, marriage, and female relationships.

Although the film ultimately reaches a slightly conventional violent apex in the last act, it never loses its interest in the humanity of its female leads. Audiences hoping for a catty smackdown between Winstead and Monroe may find this low-key approach a little underwhelming, but Cervera and Bloomberg have actually crafted something more interesting and contemporary: a well-shot thriller that values the flawed complexity of its characters. 

The Hand That Rocks The Cradle is now streaming on Hulu.

The post ‘The Hand That Rocks The Cradle’ Review – Hulu Remake Dials Back the Crazy appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.