Movies
5 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Abigail’ at Home
Two of this year’s theatrical releases have made their at-home debuts this week, and they bring along with them an original slasher movie, a found footage movie, and the feature debut of the filmmaker who’s about to make his mark on the Evil Dead film franchise.
Here’s all the new horror releasing May 6 – May 12, 2024!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
Less than two months after releasing in theaters, where it has scared up $195.2 million at the box office, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now available on Digital at home.
You can rent the film for $19.99 or purchase it for $24.99.
In Gil Kenan’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level.
But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
The cast includes Patton Oswalt, Kumail Nanjiani, James Acaster, and Emily Alyn Lind, alongside Bill Murray, Finn Wolfhard, Ernie Hudson, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Celeste O’Connor, Logan Kim, Annie Potts, Dan Aykroyd and Carrie Coon.
Jason Reitman, who directed Ghostbusters: Afterlife, is back to produce Frozen Empire.
Meagan wrote in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Frozen Empire offers familiar set pieces, references, and easter eggs aplenty, but the nostalgia tank is now running on empty.”
“That may be enough for some, especially when Frozen Empire pulls out some deep-cut nods. But by the time the mid-credit scene kicks in, solely designed to inspire merchandising sales, it’s more likely to leave you ready for the Ghostbusters to retire in peace,” she adds.
Less than one month after releasing in theaters, Universal’s ballerina vampire horror movie Abigail is also now available on Digital at home via Premium VOD rental or purchase.
You can purchase the film for $24.99 or rent it for $19.99.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her positive review here on Bloody Disgusting, “Radio Silence’s ballerina vampire movie is a bloody blast.” Her review continued, “It’s savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore, offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.”
And yes, Abigail takes place in the same universe as Radio Silence’s Ready or Not!
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
From Radio Silence—the directing team of Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett behind the terrifying modern horror hits Ready or Not, 2022’s Scream and last year’s Scream VI—comes a brash, blood-thirsty new vision of the vampire flick, written by Stephen Shields (The Hole in the Ground, Zombie Bashers) and Guy Busick (Scream franchise, Ready or Not).
Abigail stars Melissa Barrera (Scream franchise, In the Heights), Dan Stevens (Gaslit, Legion), Kathryn Newton (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Freaky), William Catlett (Black Lightning, True Story), Kevin Durand (Resident Evil: Retribution, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and Angus Cloud (Euphoria, North Hollywood) as the kidnappers and Alisha Weir (Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical, Darklands) as Abigail.
After being released exclusively in movie theaters this past January, the tricentennial-themed slasher movie Founders Day is now available on Digital courtesy of Dark Sky Films.
In this “bold political slasher” from the Bloomquist Brothers, a small town is shaken by a series of ominous killings in the days leading up to a heated mayoral election.
As accusations fly and the threat of a masked killer darkens every street corner, the residents must race to uncover the truth before fear consumes the town.
“We’re very happy to be partnering with the team at Dark Sky who know and love the power of genre cinema like we do,” said the Bloomquist brothers. “As the chaos of modern politics rages, The Founder is primed and ready to be unleashed on American audiences.”
Erik Bloomquist directed Founders Day, written by Erik and Carson Bloomquist.
Devin Druid (13 Reasons Why), Emilia McCarthy (SkyMed), Amy Hargreaves (13 Reasons Why), Catherine Curtin (Stranger Things), William Russ (Boy Meets World), Naomi Grace (NCIS), Olivia Nikkanen (The Society), Jayce Bartok (When They See Us), Andrew Stewart Jones (Gotham), Tyler James White (The Villains of Valley View), Erik Bloomquist (Weekenders), Adam Weppler (Long Lost), Kate Edmonds (The Third Saturday in October), Dylan Slade, and Arun Cameron Storrs star.
A yoga influencer discovers just how flexible fear can be in Mind Body Spirit, a new found footage horror movie that Welcome Villain Films has brought to the table this week.
Mind Body Spirit is now available on VOD outlets.
Matt Donato raved in his 4-star review, “Mind Body Spirit is a knockout horror session for the livestream era, which has me desperately waiting to see what its creators and stars do next.”
In Mind Body Spirit, “Anya, an aspiring yoga influencer, embarks on a ritual practice left behind by her estranged grandmother. She documents the practice on her YouTube channel for the world to watch, allowing her audience intimate access to her journey.
“But what starts as a spiritual self-help guide evolves into something much more sinister. As Anya becomes obsessed with the mysterious power of the practice, she unwittingly unleashes an otherworldly entity that begins to take control of her life – and her videos. Now Anya must race to unlock the truth, before her descent into madness threatens to consume her mind, body and spirit. By the time she reveals the true nature of the ritual, will it be too late?”
Mind Body Spirit was written and directed by Alex Henes & Matthew Merenda.
The new horror film stars Sarah J. Bartholomew, Madi Bready, KJ Flahive, Anna Knigge, and Kristi Noory, and was produced by Dan Asma and Jesse McClung.
The feature directorial debut of Francis Galluppi, Western thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County arrives this Friday, May 10 from Well Go USA in select theaters and VOD.
While it’s not purely a horror movie, horror fans will undoubtedly want to check out The Last Stop in Yuma County because it’s the film that landed Galluppi the next Evil Dead movie!
In The Last Stop in Yuma County, “While awaiting the next fuel truck at a middle-of-nowhere Arizona rest stop, a traveling young knife salesman is thrust into a high-stakes hostage situation by the arrival of two similarly stranded bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty—or cold, hard steel—to protect their bloodstained, ill-begotten fortune.”
Jocelin Donahue and Barbara Crampton star alongside Jim Cummings, Richard Brake, Faizon Love, Alex Essoe, Michael Abbott Jr., Sierra McCormick, Nicholas Logan, Sam Huntington, Connor Paolo, Robin Bartlett, Jon Proudstar, Ryan Masson, and Gene Jones.
On the small screen this week, don’t miss the Max premiere of “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School” May 9, while “Interview with the Vampire” Season 2 bites into AMC May 12.
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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