Horror’s on-and-off relationship with urban legends dates back to the ‘70s, give or take. That particular decade was an age of substantial cultural changes, and one method of acknowledging the world was different was telling these friend-of-a-friend stories. It was only understandable that the more dreadful myths would then make their way to the screen; “The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs”, for example, was the starter material for Black Christmas and When a Stranger Calls.

Fast forward to the ‘90s, and we had another discernible uptick in urban legend movies. Horror remained the favorite destination, if you wanted to get these stories made and seen; the proof being Campfire Tales, I Know What You Did Last Summer, The Last Broadcast, and of course, Urban Legend. However, there was the occasional switch to other genres.

Twin films are not an uncommon occurrence in the industry, and they happen for a number of reasons. Even still, having two movies about the same campus legend was as freaky as it was refreshing. While their peers were more keen on turning the grislier myths into slashers, The Curve and Dead Man on Campus acted on their shared influence with humor.

The “Pass by Catastrophe” (or “The Suicide Rule”) legend first began to pop up in—where else?—the ‘70s. Although there have been plenty of variations since then, the original outcome endures; because of an obscure college policy, students are granted an automatic passing grade after enduring some kind of hardship. The version used for both The Curve and Dead Man on Campus, and the one I grew up hearing, has a roommate’s suicide being the deciding factor in that instant 4.0. These two movies, however, take the myth even further by having the students take the initiative, rather than waiting for fate to get involved.

The Curve and Dead Man on Campus were each shot in ‘97, but the former was the first to premiere. Before its title was changed from Dead Man’s Curve, Dan Rosen’s directorial debut was screened at Sundance. Initial reviews were more lukewarm than expected, but that wasn’t because of the cast. Coming hot off of Scream, Matthew Lillard was a certified scene-stealer here. That one-half of the original Ghostface duo proved he could work alone, even though he technically was partnered up in this wicked college thriller. Nonetheless, upstaging everyone came easy to him, and he did it with a deranged gleam in his eye.

Michael Vartan and Keri Russell, prior to their own breakout roles in the then-near future, were also mixed up in this messy murder plot to score passing grades. Vartan is Lillard’s more subdued accomplice who is still willing to kill for a spot at Harvard Business School, and Russell is his not-so-innocent girlfriend. As for the victim, who’s played by Randall Batinkoff, he was no slouch when it came to demanding your attention; that increasing misogyny is enough to make you side with his killers. 

If The Curve lacks anything, it’s a stronger saboteur for the young criminals (other than themselves). The two detectives (Anthony Griffith, Bo Dietl) on the case do have some clue as to what’s really going on among these dangerous collegiates, yet this duo is so unremarkable, they may as well have been left on the cutting room floor. Or at the very least, their parts should have been transformed into more screentime for Dana Delany’s underused character.

Accusations of mean-spiritedness have been thrown around in regard to The Curve, but surely, isn’t that the whole point? Entitled, desperate, and unfeeling college kids off one of their own just to get ahead—that concept alone is worthy of an “A”. The twisted conclusion is also the stuff of classic YA suspense; my own rewatch ended with the same sort of amusement I got from reading the works of R. L. Stine and Christopher Pike. It’s so overworked that it’s almost brilliant.

Had it not been for Halloween H20: 20 Years Later, Disturbing Behavior and Blade, the summer of ‘98 would have been a dry season for horror. And even though the plot of Alan Cohn’s Dead Man on Campus comes across as horror, I assure you, it is most definitely a college comedy. Granted, it’s darker than most—college freshmen are typically looking for fun, not at-risk students.

The Curve saw its cast committing murder, whereas Tom Everett Scott and Mark-Paul Gosselaar’s characters in Dead Man on Campus never draw blood. Hoping to score a suicidal roomie, so as to secure perfect grades that semester, is bleak stuff. Even so, the scenario here is one more akin to instant wish fulfillment. The two main characters ask for what seems like the impossible, then they eventually receive it.

Enter Dead Man on Campus with certain expectations, and it just might satisfy your craving for black comedy. Mind you, it’s neither pitch black, nor does it go as far as its setup suggests. For a more grim college comedy, I point you toward Douglas Curtis’ The Hazing (a.k.a. The Curious Case of the Campus Corpse) and Doug Liman’s Getting In. Those two movies, which aren’t without their own tone issues, are even bigger oddballs than this one.

These movies are of that “you had to be there” category of ‘90s cinema. It’s hard to think that either of them would be produced today, at least not without advisory warnings. Of the two, though, The Curve is the least likely to shock, on account of it being a thriller. Death comes with the territory. With Dead Man on Campus, its era-specific approach to mental health is perhaps too indelicate for modern, more enlightened audiences. Proceed with caution if you think the pitches sound iffy.

I can’t speak for everyone, but laughing about my own dark times is how I cope with them. It’s likely why I enjoy the urban legends that give shape to our innermost fears, and make life feel more manageable (logic be damned). Absurd as they are, they can also be weirdly comforting. It only makes sense that the movies they inspire have a similar effect.

The post ‘The Curve’ and ‘Dead Man on Campus’: The Twisted Urban Legend That Inspired Two Very Different Movies appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Here are the new horror movies that released August 24 – August 30, 2026!

Part of the cinematic universe known as the “Poohniverse,” Pinocchio Unstrung puts a horror movie spin on the classic tale, and the film is now available on Digital at home.

The chilling reimagining of the familiar fable unfolds inside an elite London prep school. Created by Geppetto and influenced by a sinister Cricket, Pinocchio launches a violent crusade to carve himself into a real boy like his brother, one piece at a time…

Richard Brake (Barbarian) stars in Pinocchio Unstrung as the obsessive Geppetto, with horror icon Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street) as the voice of Cricket.

Pinocchio is voiced by Jude Evan Lloyd and brought to life via a practical animatronic created by Todd Masters (“Tales from the Crypt,” Slither). Cameron Bell, Jessica Balmer, Jack Art Gray, and Peter De Souza-Feighoney round out the horror movie’s cast.

Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey) writes and directs the British slasher, in addition to producing alongside Scott Jeffrey via their Jagged Edge Productions.

This is fifth entry in the Twisted Childhood Universe, following Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and its sequel, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, and Bambi: The Reckoning.

Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell is now available on Digital.

In the film, when a mysterious mist engulfs a futuristic metropolis, unleashing a deadly and elusive entity, a troubled young woman searches for her father. Her quest collides with an American GI on a harrowing odyssey to rescue his daughter from Hell.

Sophie Thatcher (“Yellowjackets”), Charles Melton (“Riverdale”), Kristine Froseth (How to Blow Up a Pipeline), Havana Rose Liu (No Exit), and Diego Calva (Babylon) star.

The ensemble also includes Dougray Scott (Hitman), Aoi Yamada (Perfect Days), Shioli Kutsuna (Deadpool & Wolverine), and Hidetoshi Nishijima (Shin Ultraman).

Nicolas Winding Refn directs Her Private Hell from a script he co-wrote with Esti Giordani (“Vida”). Pino Donaggio (Carrie, Don’t Look Now) composed the score.

Refn produces under his byNWR Originals banner. Executive producers include Takuma Takasaki, Kimberly Willming, Christina Erritzøe, and Lene Børglum.

Her Private Hell is rated ‘R’ for “some strong/bloody violence, sexual content, and language.”

Aura Entertainment brought director Jesse V. Johnson’s Above & Below to select theaters last month, and the shark attack film is now available on Digital outlets at home.

30 feet below. 10 minutes of oxygen. 1 apex predator.

In shark attack horror movie Above & Below, “Friends embark on a dream vacation of parties and diving, but their trip takes a terrifying turn when criminals attack them at sea.”

This one looks like every other shark movie that’s been released in the last several years, but it’s armed with something that puts it a fin above the competition. Oscar nominated actor Antonio Banderas stars in Above & Below, with the cast also including Christina Ochoa, Laura Marano, Timothy V. Murphy, Louis Mandylor, Jess Liaudin, Ryan Bertroche, Ramiro Alonso, Diego Llinás, Rodrigo Poisón, Mario Tardón, and Donncha Tynan.

Anthony Steven Giordano wrote the screenplay.

German indie horror movie The Behemoth hit Digital this past Tuesday.

In the film from director Kai E. Bogatzki, “What begins as a quiet holiday in a snow-covered mountain village quickly descends into terror when a young couple crosses paths with a blood thirsty religious cult.

“As disappearances mount and the atmosphere grows increasingly oppressive, the couple realizes they are no longer observers–but targets–caught at the center of a horrific ritual that will unleash something far worse than death.”

Beatrice Fletcher and Johnny Vivash star in The Behemoth.

Director Shawn C. Phillips is back with sequel Desert Fiends 2, now available on Digital.

Bounty hunters pursue cannibal mutants while an influencer’s live event draws fans into danger, turning the desert into a gory slasher battleground of monsters, mayhem, and twisted laughs.

The horror-comedy sequel stars Eric Roberts, Vanessa Angel, Robert Carradine, Martin Klebba, Ginger Lynn Allen, Robert Lasardo, James Debello, Douglas Tait, Kansas Bowling, Brett Wagner, Kato Kaelin, Mark Torgl, Carl Solomon, Jack Berner, and Michael B Moynahan.

The first Desert Fiends, also directed by Shawn C. Phillips, was released in 2024.

Director Casper Kelly (Too Many Cooks, V/H/S/Halloween) is back with fresh nightmare fuel, with his latest feature film Buddy now playing in theaters nationwide from Saban Films.

Buddy centers on the titular unicorn mascot — a beloved children’s TV host with a squeaky-clean persona that belies his true nature as a dark and violent force of nature.

Here’s the official synopsis: “Inside the colorful world of It’s Buddy!, a group of children spend their days singing, dancing, and helping Buddy spread happiness. But when one child refuses to play along, Buddy is not pleased and cracks begin to appear in this seemingly perfect world.”

Cristin Milioti stars as Grace, a suburban mother inadvertently drawn into Buddy’s nightmare world, with Delaney Quinn as Freddy, a brave girl who begins to fight back against Buddy when he shows his true self. Keegan-Michael Key voices Buddy. The horror movie’s cast also includes Topher Grace, Michael Shannon, and Patton Oswalt.

Casper Kelly co-wrote the movie with Jamie King (“Jessica Jones”).

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review, “Casper Kelly drops viewers straight into the world of a kids’ show with a high-concept horror comedy that dials up the absurdities of kids’ television programming to a lethal degree. Those on board with an experimental structure and Kelly’s darkly playful sense of humor will find this raucous midnighter highly entertaining.”

South Korean filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho (Train to Busan) is back with new outbreak nightmare Colony, and the film is now playing in U.S. theaters from Well Go USA Entertainment.

The South Korean horror movie follows Professor Se-jeong as she is thrust into a terrifying hellscape when a mutating virus is unleashed during a biotech conference, forcing authorities to seal the facility to contain the outbreak. Se-jeong and a group of survivors must fight to stay alive as the infected undergo horrific transformations and threaten to spread the virus.

Colony marks Gianna Jun’s (Blood: The Last Vampire) first feature film since 2015’s Assassination. She stars alongside Koo Kyo-hwan (Peninsula, Escape from Mogadishu). 

Ji Chang-wook (“Healer”) and Shin Hyun-been (“Hospital Playlist”) also star.

The viral outbreak horror movie is rated ‘R’ for “bloody violent content and some language.”

Colony is presented by Showbox and produced by Wowpoint and Smilegate. 

Serial killer thriller The Whisper Man is now streaming only on Netflix.

Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, and Robert De Niro star in The Whisper Man. The Netflix Original feature film is based on Alex North‘s 2019 novel of the same name.

In the film, “When his eight-year-old son is abducted, a widowed crime writer looks to his estranged father, a retired former police detective, for help, only to discover a connection with the decades-old case of a convicted serial killer known as The Whisper Man.”

The stacked cast also includes Michael Keaton, John Carroll Lynch, Hamish Linklater, Owen Teague, Will Brill, and Acston Luca Porto.

James Ashcroft (The Rule of Jenny Pen) directs Netflix’s new horror movie The Whisper Man from a script by Ben Jacoby (The First Omen) and Chase Palmer (IT).

Anthony Russo, Joe Russo, Angela Russo-Otstot, Michael Disco, and Kassee Whiting produce the thriller for AGBO (Everything Everywhere All at Once, Extraction).

NEON ends the Summer with their existential road trip horror movie It Ends, which opened in NY & LA theaters last weekend. The film’s theatrical release has now expanded nationwide.

Check your local listings to find the nearest location.

It Ends marks the feature debut by writer-director Alexander Ullom.

“Four recent college grads on a night time drive find themselves stuck on a road that sprawls on forever, with seemingly no end in sight. They are occasionally attacked by stragglers and have to find a routine to plan their rest stops, but after a few thousand miles it all feels the same. Still, they keep on driving, only in the belief something better will come eventually.“

Akira Jackson, Phinehas Yoon, Mitchell Cole, and Noah Toth star.

In the Ozploitation tradition, the Australian movie Penny Lane Is Dead is a blood-soaked, ’80s-set horror thriller, and it’s now streaming exclusively on Shudder beginning today.

Set on a hot summer’s night in 1986 Australia, 17-year old Penny Lane is celebrating getting into college with her longtime girlfriends. After Penny’s jealous and troubled cousin decides a cruel prank is in order, what begins as a thoughtless spiked cupcake game spirals into a night of bloodshed and revenge.

Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn, Tahlee Fereday, Alexandra Jensen (Talk to Me), Bailey Spalding, Steve Le Marquand (Vertical Limit), Fletcher Humphrys (“Wolf Creek”), and Ben O’Toole (Hacksaw Ridge) star in Penny Lane Is Dead.

Writer-director Mia’Kate Russell makes her feature debut on the project.

The film is the first outing from Sanctuary Pictures, the production arm of Umbrella Entertainment, who produces alongside Buffalo Media and in association with Cyan Films.

The post These 10 New Horror Movies Released This Week – Friday, August 28 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The movie is being released by Bleecker Street in theaters October 23, 2026.

In A Talent for Murder, “a callow young literary agent from New York is sent to Switzerland to persuade Patricia Highsmith to write one final installment of the Ripley anthology.”

Alden Ehrenreich (Weapons) and Olivia Cooke (“House of the Dragon”) also star.

Anton Corbijn (The American) directs from a script by Joanna Murray-Smith.

“We are thrilled to be reuniting once again with LD, as well as the great Helen Mirren, to release Corbijn’s captivating ode to not only Highsmith’s lively spirit, but her riveting work itself,” Bleecker Street CEO Kent Sanderson said in a recent statement about the movie.

A Talent for Murder will play at the Toronto International Film Festival next month.

The Toronto International Film Festival previews, “This smouldering chamber thriller from director Anton Corbijn imagines a strange confrontation between a literary agent and legendary author Patricia Highsmith, whose acclaimed, icily intelligent crime novels were the source material for such classic films as Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley.”

The post ‘A Talent for Murder’ Trailer – Helen Mirren Plays Patricia Highsmith in Psychological Thriller appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Paramount Primal has acquired the rights to the 2014 novel, with Chris Basler writing the script.

The Troop follows a troop of boys who, while on their annual scout camping trip, encounter an intruder who unleashes something far more terrifying than any campfire ghost story.

As fear spreads, a brutal struggle for survival begins, turning the boys against the infected… and each other.

Lyrical Media (Onslaught) will produce the upcoming film adaptation.

Nick Cutter had told Bloody Disgusting back in May, “It is in the hands right now of a company called Lyrical, who is excellent, and they’ve got a script that they like.”

“That has been through so many iterations over the past decade or so,” he explained. “Different people have taken stabs at it. I remain hopeful that at some point it will see the light of day.”

Just three months later, here we are! Stay tuned for more.

In the meantime, Nick Cutter’s latest novel, The Dorians, is available now.

The post ‘The Troop’ – Nick Cutter’s Horror Novel Getting Film Adaptation from Paramount Primal appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Effigy is set in 1989 England and follows the Marsh family as they endure a violent haunting sparked by the unearthing of a mysterious effigy doll.

An entity behind the disturbance grows increasingly fixated on the family’s daughter, prompting two paranormal investigators to dig into what becomes a traumatic case.

Variety notes, “The film carries a psychosexual undertone and touches on depression, identity and faith.”

Chris Gun stars alongside Lauren Koopowitz, David Daradan, and Saya Kraetzer.

Myles McEwen said in a statement, “We poured our hearts and souls into this one. We followed a standard storytelling model and chose to explore a depression that many of us can relate to. Through this, there’s a genuine heartbeat and soul that emerged from the film. We shot and designed the film to feel straight out of 1989, capturing the magic of cinema from that era.”

Effigy is coming soon from Black Mandala Films. Stay tuned for more.

The post ‘Effigy’ First Look Images – Australian Supernatural Horror Movie Is Set in 1989 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Deadline first reported the casting news this afternoon.

Jack Reynor (Midsommar) and Lily James (Swiped) also star in Drew Hancock’s Seasons, with Ron Perlman (“Cape Fear”) joining the cast just last week.

This project was originally announced under the title My Wife and I Bought a Ranch in 2020, based on the viral horror story by Matt & Harrison Query that first appeared on Reddit.

The story for Seasons follows Harry and Sasha, who think they’ve found their dream house in a ranch in Idaho. He’s a Marine getting back to life, so they bid what they can. Their lowball offer wins them the ranch, but they find they are not alone.

The land is alive with ancient spirits. For the couple, survival will mean submitting to increasingly disturbing rituals with each turn of the season.

21 Laps and Blumhouse Atomic Monster are producing with 12:01 Films.

The post Elizabeth McGovern Joins Horror Movie ‘Seasons’ from ‘Companion’ Director appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Pendulum will release in theaters from Vertical Entertainment on January 1, 2027.

Watch the teaser trailer below. Pendulum was recently rated “R” by the MPA for “some strong/bloody violent content, sexuality, drug use, nudity, and language.”

The post ‘Pendulum’ Teaser Trailer – A New Horror Movie from Producer Darren Aronofsky and the Writer of ‘Black Swan’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The film will mark Andrew Bachelor’s feature directorial debut.

In supernatural horror movie Tap Twice, “a grieving couple retreats to an isolated estate where the walls record every word — and a presence learns to speak in their voices.”

Alongside Bachelor himself, the cast will also include Chelsea Tavares (All American), Joel McKinnon Miller (Brooklyn Nine-Nine), Carson Fagerbakke (Shifting Gears), Augusta Liv (The Beauty), Gillian Nation (“Euphoria”) and Joe Massingill (Spider-Noir).

Deadline notes that production has already wrapped on Tap Twice.

Stay tuned for more as we learn it.

The post ‘Tap Twice’ – Andrew Bachelor Directing and Starring in Supernatural Horror Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s a franchise that’s become permanently entrenched in pop culture and is largely analogous to modern ghost stories. They’re films that make a lot of sense in an age of rapidly evolving technology and means of surveillance. It’s a bold and brave experiment to adapt this sprawling supernatural found footage franchise into a stageplay. Horror, in theater, is a challenging feat to pull off in general, let alone with a title like Paranormal Activity that carries such expectations. 

Broadway’s Paranormal Activity doesn’t just come with the film franchise’s legacy, but its stage adaptation is being handled by an incredible creative team. Paranormal Activity is written by Levi Holloway (The Grey House) and directed by Felix Barrett, the artistic director of Punchdrunk, who was behind New York City’s acclaimed immersive theater experience, Sleep No More. They’re both storytellers who know how to play with perception and highlight the slow dissolution of reality, which are both key components of Paranormal Activity’s sinister structure.

With Paranormal Activity’s Broadway run now officially in motion, Barrett opens up about translating the stylized horror franchise to the stage, the importance of challenging set and sound design, and how to create visceral terror that feeds off the audience. 

BLOODY DISGUSTING: To start things off, what was the biggest challenge of not just adapting a horror franchise into a stage play, but one that’s so steeped in the stylistic device of found footage?

FELIX BARRETT: Great question. I jumped on this because I loved the film. I immediately said yes to adapting it before actually really thinking it through. Then, as soon as Levi [Holloway] was on board, it was a discussion about the presentation style. Found footage works very well for the medium of film, but if we’re doing something live for the stage, then we need to adapt the medium for the stage. There was actually an earlier version of the script where we started inside the theater, and we were being quite literal about everything.

Very quickly we decided that we can’t have cameras everywhere because it will remove the audience from the experience and create some distance from the thrills, tragedy, and shock of it all. So we instead went back to the element from the films that this is a real couple. They weren’t famous actors. It was shot as completely truthfully as possible. So we took that plausibility and tried to apply it to the stage. We really wanted the audience to feel like they’re the camera and voyeuristically looking into this house. Nothing is played out to the front of the stage. It needs to feel quite intimate because you, as an audience member, are essentially in the same role. 

The multi-room cross-section set design I thought was the perfect way to kind of emulate the movies’ visual design. It slowly conditions the audience to watch multiple rooms at the same time. 

FB: Exactly! I got some of that from Sleep No More, where there were like a hundred rooms in the show. There’s a lot of empty space going on in this show. I love the threat that can come from negative space. You can’t quite see everything, which is the reason why the show is so dark. If you could see inside the rooms clearly, then there’d be no mystery there. If you can’t quite make everything out, then your eyes start playing tricks on you, and you don’t know what you can trust. It felt like an exciting way to approach all this.

There was actually a really early version where we did have much more camera stuff. We thought that Jimmy would be filming things, but as soon as we put it on the screen it undermined the whole truth of it. It starts to feel stylized. 

Interesting. So there were videos that were being shot that would then be shown on screen?

FB: Yeah, and we knew we didn’t want to do some sort of abstract stylized screen-heavy piece of theater because that’s having a bit of a moment right now on Broadway. I didn’t feel like jumping in on a fad. I also think that it would break everything if it becomes this Brechtian out-of-body experience. We wanted to be in the story with that couple and worry about them, what’s going to happen next, and how they’re going to cope. Screens have an amazing way of dislocating the audience. 

There’s a Zoom call at the top of a scene where Lou is just chatting to her colleagues. We shot a lot thinking that you’d see it, and if you could turn the screen around, then you would see it. But it’s better to just see the cast. It puts you inside their heads, and it really makes it feel like you’re actually spying on them. It’s this sort of Peeping Tom thing. There was another bit where we had Jimmy filming the nursery once all the writing is up on the wall, but it just starts to feel weird. It’s derivative and a bit clichéd.

What I think makes the Paranormal Activity films so special – and something that you capture so well in this production – is that they’re these gutting human dramas that also feature supernatural elements. Travis and Cher really do incredible work in these roles that’s just as powerful as any of the horror.

FB: Oh my gosh, their dynamic was so critical to the production from moment one. We talked about how this is essentially a love story. You’re seeing a portrait of a marriage and a couple who are pretty tight and solid, in the amazing throes of love. All that gets forced apart by an entity. In rehearsal, we talked about how we want the audience to look at this relationship and view it as this amazing display of love that hopefully everyone gets to experience at some point in their lives. We wanted their dynamic to be really infectious, in the same way that screams are infectious when they ricochet through a crowd. It’s the same when you watch a happy couple in love. 

We really wanted to be as truthful as possible to all that. It’s haunting when you reveal that this isn’t a beautiful safe space and all that happiness gets ripped open. Travis and Cher are so incredible because they are such genuine performances. It’s very much themselves up there. There’s no artifice. The characters are woven through the fabric of their own being, rather than implanted on top. It makes it really resonate for the audience. 

I was curious how their performances would come across because there can be a real theatricality to stage performances that’s antithetical to how the Paranormal Activity films work.

FB: I appreciate that because we really tried. There’s such an amazing history to scary things on stage, particularly in this country. The Woman in Black played for 23 years here. When I saw it, it was so hokey. It’s exaggerated, theatrical, and operatic, but I didn’t find it scary at all. What’s scary is that sort of mundane part of life where something could be behind me. That’s the advantage of when something invades that safe, domestic space and gets under your skin. So I’m delighted that that worked for you. 

One of the most entertaining aspects of the Paranormal Activity films is how the sense of dread and danger progressively builds over time. Was it challenging to translate that to stage and build increasing tension with each scene?

FB: I think that’s my safe space as a director. When it comes to horror films, I’m drawn to the ones that have creeping dread. I don’t like gore. I don’t really like violence. But I love that sense of gentle unease when you feel the tendrils of doubt wrap around your body and leave you chilled. So it was actually a joy to do that in this show. We always knew it was going to have a false sense of security and then descend into the abyss. I just love all the tools as a director that you have, from light to sound, to actually thicken the atmosphere and tighten it. 

I was really blown away by the practical effects and use of visual tricks that are done here to bring the show’s scares to life. That trapdoor fall early on is so, so effective. Can you talk a little bit about workshopping these scares and figuring out the best way to bring these horror moments to life?

FB: Well, it’s interesting. We had a really early version of the draft at one point that was just Levi and I working on it. We were talking about the things that we would find the most frightening, like when someone just stops. Things that are uncanny and weird, but not schlocky. So that moment ended up in the script. We were speaking to various creative teams and trying to find the right alchemy of people. I remember a few who had said, “How the hell are you going to do that?” Well, if you’re asking that question, then you’re probably not the right person to do it.

We’re lucky to have the genius of Chris Fisher, who is the Illusions Designer, who also worked on Harry Potter & the Cursed Child and Stranger Things: The First Shadow. In Sleep No More, we had a couple of magic tricks, but the illusionist only came in like the last week before we opened. It was just like an extra cherry on the cake. For this process, we did the opposite. Before we’d even fully designed a set or had all our team members, we spent a week in London figuring out how to play with these tricks and how you can manifest a haunting. I told Chris that I don’t want to know how these things are done. We talked about all the things that we’re trying to do, but I came in as an audience member who was just blown away. Now, frustratingly, I know how some of them are done. But I knew that it could scare ourselves in the cold light of day, playing around with cardboard; then we were on to something. Chris is just a genius.

The reactions in the audience were bigger than the reactions I’ve experienced in the movie theater for the Paranormal Activity movies. It must have been so satisfying to just hear that stuff connect and know that it’s working.

FB: It’s an absolute privilege. With Sleep No More, everyone is in masks, so you don’t actually know how stuff has connected until you’re at the bar afterwards. So I’ve never experienced this where you get everyone responding as one. There are points in the show where we can gauge how raucous the crowd will be, and it’s very satisfying for the cast to experience. What I love is you get a scream, but then you also get a beat, and then you get laughter. And that’s so cathartic. We, oddly enough, talk about the show being quite joyous because of that. There are as many smiles and laughs as there are screams, which feels really important.

I was also really taken by the use of lighting and shadow in order to create even greater tension. The use of natural lighting from the flashlight and the cell phone in specific scenes is really effective. How did you approach lighting and figure out the right aesthetic there?

FB: Anna Watson, our Lighting Designer, is just the best. We’re blessed with the most incredible team where everyone is a master of their field. When we first spoke with Anna, we were talking about how we didn’t want it to feel like a play. We wanted it to feel real. We were quite restrained and doing less. Typically, in a play, you’d have someone pretending to use a flashlight, and you’d have a little bit of throw light. We wanted to embrace the things and make light and shadow our best friend. 

With darkness, you want the audience to have to color in details themselves. They have to fill that space in, and therefore they become more invested in it. That’s where the real fear lies in the audience’s minds. So we knew that we wanted things to be shrouded in darkness. It’s why the top room — the nursery — doesn’t have any natural light. It’s all deliberate choices so that the house is never fully lit. It makes you paranoid that something is going to come out from somewhere.

Sound design is also such an important element in selling scares, in both theater and cinema. You do such great work with the audio in this show. How did you figure out and refine things there?

FB: Oh my gosh, you should see the amount of time that’s been spent on the tech. It’s so meticulous. Gareth Fry, our Sound Designer, is also one of the most experienced people. He’s won Tonys and everything. He’s an absolute master. If you switch the sound off and there was no sound, I don’t think that the show would work. I think it would be interesting, but it wouldn’t have any impact. The thickness, the dread, and the trouble all come from the sound. I hope it feels quite effortless, but you should see the smorgasbord of sound cues and the level of detail that’s going on there. There’s so much layering and even moments where the inflections of single words have something audio-based to support them. 

The Paranormal Activity films always do such a good job of ending on these abrupt, unsettling, chaotic notes, and this show is no exception. Was it difficult to figure out the right energy for the show’s finish and how to go out?

FB: Yes, absolutely. That was the other thing that we took from the films. We wanted to honor their restraint, the plausibility of the couple, and I knew that we had to match the ending because that’s the bit that I loved when I saw the film. Those last few seconds where everything escalates like it’s an exponential crescendo. On day one, we were like, “How the hell do you do that on stage?” It’s been hard. I’ve got to say, we’ve actually changed that ending. We’ve changed it for this version from when we first did it in the UK. It had a different ending then, but it wasn’t brutal enough. So we’ve scaled it up and made it more abrupt. It makes it feel like there’s maybe some hope, but then it’s a sucker punch to the audience. It’s our way of paying respect to Oren [Peli] and the original film. 

This show had previous runs on the West End, Chicago, and Boston. You mentioned the ending being revised, but was there anything learned from those runs that led to any changes in the Broadway production?

FB: Yeah, there are multiple things. You learn so much of that by going back to the audience and their screams. We’ve been honing and perfecting everything for this Broadway version. There’s a bunch here that wasn’t in the past versions. There’s a bit at the end of Act One which is completely new. I don’t want to say what it is to spoil it for the audience, but it’s a whole new illusion. It’s a whole new bit of stagecraft that’s baked into it. And then there are also little changes, inflections, and tweaks throughout the show. 

So much of this stuff, in both film and on stage, comes down to timing. It’s been really interesting to speak with film producers. When you’re making a horror film, you do your first cut, and then you screen test it and work out the bits that don’t land how they should, and then you go back and reshoot it or re-cut it. It’s a very similar process for us as we explore different things in different territories. If the bits don’t land like we want them to, then we amend them. Sometimes you need that beat before something lands. You attack people when they feel like they’re in a safe space. It’s been so much fun to make the screams louder or the gasps more acute on Broadway. This is the definitive version of it.

After successfully tackling a stage version of Paranormal Activity, would you be interested in adapting any other horror classics?

FB: Absolutely. This just whetted our appetite for what’s possible. As a team, we’re definitely knocking on the door of some titles because there are some things that we would love to do. We’d also love to do a thriller, too. I hope it’s just the beginning.

I think of The Blair Witch Project as this formative found footage predecessor to Paranormal Activity, which had me thinking if it’s possible to do a version of that on stage.

FB: I’d love to do Blair Witch in like a Sleep No More fashion. The scale of Sleep No More and with that much autonomy. That would be absolutely terrifying and amazing to do in a forest. But for now, on stage, there are things that we really want to do.

The post Haunting Broadway & Beyond: Director Felix Barrett On Adapting ‘Paranormal Activity’ To The Stage appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man later hits DVD & Blu-ray on October 20, with a 4K Ultra HD SteelBook release featuring art cards and scratch & sniff stickers listed for November 17 on Amazon.

Bonus Features for the Digital and Physical releases include…

• Ice Cream Man: The Backstory: How do you turn a twisted Pied Piper tale into a killer-kid nightmare? Discover the unlikely road to getting the film made and the classic horror inspirations behind the madness.
• The Ice Cream Truck: Bug-flavored treats, a suspiciously cheerful mascot and a jingle that hits differently after dark. Take a closer look at the film’s nightmare on wheels.
• Kidpocalypse: Who needs toys when you have prosthetic limbs? Go behind the scenes of the gloriously gruesome Kidpocalypse.
• Audio Commentary by Director/Co-Writer Eli Roth and Co-Writer Noah Belson

A mysterious ice cream man rolls into an idyllic town serving kids sweet treats that trigger a strange and deadly madness. Soon, the kids embark on an increasingly unhinged kill spree, sending the town spiraling into chaos and revealing something far darker beneath the surface.

Ari Millen, Charlie Zeltzer, Shiloh O’Reilly, Kiori Mirza Waldman, Sarah Abbott, Benjamin Byron Davis, Eli Roth, Karen Cliche, Dylan Hawco, and Charlie Storey star.

The post Eli Roth’s ‘Ice Cream Man’ Comes Home to Digital in September appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Bloody Tennis makes its debut on Shudder on September 25.

Watch the full trailer below that sees students engaging in Raw-like initiation rituals that grow increasingly more deranged. There are far more leeches than expected at a sports academy.

The film follows “Sophie (Guldberg Kampp), an American tennis player who earns a spot at an elite academy hidden away in Southern Europe. Beneath the pristine courts and promise of athletic excellence lies an isolated, cult-like environment where ruthless competition and extreme discipline come at a dangerous cost. The film uses the contrast between tennis’s elegance and brutality to explore the darker side of achievement culture and what happens when the pressure to succeed pushes young athletes beyond their limits.“

The cast also includes Helena Zengel (The Legend of Ochi), Lucie Zhang (Paris, 13th District), Lily Taieb (The French Dispatch), Tracy Gotoas, Elina Löwensohn (Schindler’s List), and Zlatko Burić (Triangle of Sadness), with an original score from Jim Williams (Titane, Raw, Possessor).

Bloody Tennis marks the English-language debut of Greek-German filmmaker Nikias Chryssos (Der Bunker).

Adam Koehler, director, acquisitions and productions at IFC Entertainment Group, said, “Bloody Tennis serves up an unexpectedly wild ride that will keep viewers exhilarated from start to finish. Distinctive, elegant, and gleefully offbeat, it’s exactly the kind of bold, boundary-pushing horror we strive to champion at Shudder. We’re thrilled to give this unforgettable film a home on our platform.”

Bloody Tennis is also slated to premiere at Fantastic Fest ahead of its release on Shudder next month.

The post ‘Bloody Tennis’ Trailer Serves Up Brutal Sports Horror Ahead of Shudder Premiere Next Month [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Johnny Pemberton (Fallout) will also star in the indie horror movie.

The upcoming horror movie is set in the early 1980s.

Scissor Mouth follows a teenage girl who escapes years of captivity at the hands of her beauty-obsessed mother, leaving a bloody trail of “makeovers” across rural West Texas.

Deborah Richards writes and directs Scissor Mouth, “a contemporary Southern Gothic inspired by an ancient Japanese folktale, using horror to explore society’s obsession with beauty.”

“Scissor Mouth is my response to the impossible standards of beauty and the scars they leave behind,” Richards previews. “I wrote Johnny Pemberton’s role with him in mind from the very beginning because I knew his unique blend of humor and heart was exactly what the character needed, while Tara Reid embodies the perfect mix of charm, unpredictability, and humanity for this world. I can’t wait to watch them make these characters their own.”

Producer Patrick Wirtz adds, “We have a provocative, fearless script that speaks directly to the world we’re living in today. It’s the kind of horror that gets under your skin and stays with you. I believe it has all the ingredients to become a cult classic that audiences will want to watch, and rewatch, again and again.”

The post ‘Scissor Mouth’ – Tara Reid Starring in Horror Movie Inspired by Japanese Folklore appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The upcoming Godzilla Minus Zero is the first Japanese production filmed for IMAX, and the official behind the scenes video gives us a taste of the size and scale of this Kaiju spectacle.

Director Takashi Yamazaki says to his team in the video, “I believe this team can create something greater than [Godzilla Minus One].” A very high bar to clear, to say the very least.

Watch the Godzilla Minus Zero behind the scenes video from Toho and IMAX below.

Godzilla Minus Zero hits theaters in North America on November 6, 2026 via GKIDS.

Godzilla Minus One stars Ryunosuke Kamiki and Minami Hamabe will both be reprising their roles in Godzilla Minus Zero, with Takashi Yamazaki back in the director’s chair.

The film is set in 1949 — two years after the events of its predecessor.

Here’s the new official synopsis: “War reduced Japan to zero, and Godzilla plunged it into minus. Two years have passed since then, and the country has faced agonizing struggles to achieve recovery and finally reclaim its daily life. Just as humanity managed to cling to a hard-won peace, a new threat strikes, crushing hope in an instant.

“There is no third time. Everything ends here.”

The post ‘Godzilla Minus Zero’ – Behind the Scenes Video Previews First Japanese Movie Filmed for IMAX appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Amazon MGM Studios has boarded Hivemind, with plans to stream the film internationally on Prime Video.

Hivemind is directed by Irish filmmaker Ciarán Foy (Eli, Sinister 2, Citadel), from the spec script by writer Peter Gaffney (Yeti) that was snatched up last year by Badlands.

It’s described as an “environmental thriller” and “centers on the evolution of a new breed of killer wasps and the small-town authorities who team up to prevent a deadly global outbreak.“

Basil Iwanyk, Erica Lee and Diarmaid McGrath are producing for Thunder Road alongside Scott Strauss for Badlands, Macdara Kelleher and John Keville for Wild Atlantic Pictures, Adam Rodin and Gaffney.

Badlands is the same label behind the upcoming spider horror movie Crawlers starring Matilda Lutz. The launch of the genre label Badlands marks a partnership between Thunder Road (John Wick) and Screen Gems executive Scott Strauss, with a “fresh slate of horror IP” in the works.

With production underway in Dublin, expect to hear additional casting news in the coming weeks.

The post Samara Weaving & Nicholas Braun To Star In Killer Wasp Thriller ‘Hivemind’ From ‘Eli’ Director appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Penny Lane Is Dead premieres August 28 on Shudder.

Set on a hot summer’s night in 1986 Australia, 17-year-old Penny Lane is celebrating getting into college with her longtime girlfriends. After Penny’s jealous and troubled cousin decides a cruel prank is in order, what begins as a thoughtless spiked cupcake game spirals into a night of bloodshed and revenge.

Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn, Tahlee Fereday, Alexandra Jensen (Talk to Me), Bailey Spalding, Steve Le Marquand (Vertical Limit), Fletcher Humphrys (“Wolf Creek”), and Ben O’Toole (Hacksaw Ridge) star in Penny Lane Is Dead.

The blood-soaked posters below introduce key players involved in this violent throwback.

Writer-director Mia’Kate Russell makes her feature debut on the project.

Russell said in a statement, “It’s exhilarating that my feature directorial debut is being released by Shudder, one of the most fearless and bold distributors out there. The Shudder team has such a keen understanding of genre films, and are the perfect partners to unleash this powerful film with audiences.”

I wrote in my Fantasia review, “As a lean, mean horror siege, Penny Lane is Dead holds your attention and effectively pulls you into Toni’s bid to meet dawn with her lives and friendships intact. It’s visceral, propulsive, and a strong debut in terms of style and energy.“

The post Ozploitation Horror ‘Penny Lane is Dead’ Gets Bloody Character Posters Ahead Of Friday Release appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Beginning Friday, August 28, audiences at participating theaters nationwide can listen to Ullom with producers Carrie Carusone and Evan Barber’s commentary track synchronized to the film as it plays, using only the TheaterEars app on their own phone and a pair of headphones.

In It Ends, a group of recent grads heads out on a late-night drive for grub, hoping to enjoy one final hangout before their paths diverge. Instead, they accidentally turn onto a never-ending, two-lane hellscape surrounded by untold horrors and cosmic forces beyond their understanding. Cramped together inside a Jeep Cherokee and with the miles stretching infinitely ahead, they face a choice: embrace their new existence or fight to escape it.

Akira Jackson, Phinehas Yoon, Mitchell Cole, and Noah Toth star.

As for how the Director’s Commentary experience works, moviegoers download the free TheaterEars app, select It Ends and their showtime to get the track on their phone, then press play when the movie starts. The app synchronizes the filmmakers’ commentary to the projected film and works across all formats including RealD and 4DX.

The app is free to download from the App Store and Google Play and is free to use (ad-supported) for the Director’s Experience during any standard showtime at participating locations, providing the moviegoer with premium audio experience without an additional ticket upcharge.

“I made a movie that takes place almost entirely inside a car, so I spent a year thinking about what four people say to each other and what they don’t. Getting to sit next to an audience while they watch it and tell them what we were actually doing — in a theater, while it’s still in theaters — is not something I thought was possible when we were shooting this in twenty days,” Ullom said in a statement.

“Commentary tracks have always arrived after the fact, months later, on a disc or a stream, to an audience that has already moved on. It Ends is a film built out of conversation, and Alex is a filmmaker whose audience found him online and then showed up in theaters. Putting his voice in that room, while the film is still on screens, is exactly the thing we built this for,” Dan Mangru, Founder & CEO, TheaterEars adds.

Alexander Ullom is already a filmmaker to watch; the newcomer was recently tapped to helm 4 X 4: The Event, which is being described as Battle Royale meets Saw meets Climax.

The post ‘It Ends’ Gets Director’s Commentary Experience For Select Showings This Weekend appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Bloody Disgusting has been provided with exclusive images from the new restoration, teasing one of the genre’s most shocking and underseen films.

In the film, “Teen runaway Simone loves the Neue Deutsche Welle pop singer known only as “R” (Bodo Staiger)… loves him so much, in fact, that she could just about eat him alive. And when she finally meets her idol—only to be callously treated by him as a disposable sex object—well, Simone gets the chance to really become one with her beloved forever. ”

The Metrograph describes the film as, “A hard, cool-to-the-touch, and utterly riveting slow-burn psychological thriller that, newly restored for its first ever US theatrical release, speaks to our age of parasocial obsession, featuring a sinister synth-pop soundtrack by Staiger’s own band, Rheingold, and a last act that’s finger-lickin’ good.“

Der Fan, written and directed by Eckhart Schmidt, stars Désirée Nosbusch as Simone and Bodo Staiger as “R”, the object of Simone’s desire.

Staiger, as frontman for new wave group Rheingold, also provided the film’s score.

Fun City Editions has restored Der Fan in 4K from its original 35mm camera negative. The film is presented with its original stereo soundtrack for the first time since its initial German theatrical release in 1982.

Without giving anything away, it’s the shocking third act that sets Der Fan apart and earned its cult status. Much like Takashi Miike’s Audition, it’s an unassuming feature that hides its visceral horror side until a jaw-dropping finale.

The film is also not without controversy, due to Nosbusch’s age at the time of filming, further catapulting Der Fan into cult shocker territory.

The post ‘Der Fan’ 4K Restoration Brings the Cult Horror Shocker to U.S. Theaters for the First Time This Friday [Exclusive Images] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Caving, or spelunking, is not a universal hobby. So for those who do have the urge to crawl around inside of caves, they go about it seriously. Hence, that team of experts found in director Bruce Hunt’s movie. As opposed to those who mistakenly wandered into their subterranean nightmare, these characters chose to explore the vast cave system beneath an old abbey that dates back to the thirteenth century. Up until some Cold War-era looters stepped foot inside—and then never left—it stood mostly intact.

There is a long history of churches building themselves inside of natural caves and other rock formations. Security was one reason for this practice, but as The Cave brings up, sometimes these places were built “as a display of God’s protective power”. Caves were seen as hellmouths in desperate need of plugging up. Putting down a place of worship was then the best way to stave off any potential scourges from the underworld.

That unique method for keeping evil at bay turns out to be true in The Cave, seeing as how the movie’s spelunkers encounter a colony of monsters down there in the dark. These are anything but mere creatures that exist only to feed; on top of devouring the intruders, they use them to increase their numbers. Before anyone cringes at the prospect of interspecies breeding, the expansion I speak of here is more along the lines of zombism. One scratch from these cave-dwelling abominations (who were portrayed by Brian Steele), and you’re bound to become a lifetime member of their club.

It would be remiss of me not to bring up The Descent. It and The Cave are a glowing example of “twin films”; their plots are eerily similar, and Neil Marshall’s movie premiered in the U.S. two weeks before The Cave did. So although their on-paper parallels were enough to make audiences feel some déjà vu back then, their executions are quite different. And just because The Descent is the standard by which all below-ground horror is now measured, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for others. Especially one as well made as The Cave.

The Descent pulled the rug out beneath audiences by having its monsters (a.k.a. the Crawlers) come out of nowhere. Whereas in this movie, the creatures are known from the start. Those aforementioned looters gave us a preview of these nocturnal demons before the present-day cast got up close and personal with them. What happened to the plunderers after their falling into the cavern, and before they mutated, would have made for a viable prequel. Nonetheless, the one movie we did get is a treat for those of us who don’t always want their monsters to be mysterious.

The Cave is largely driven by its plot, as opposed to the characters. That’s not to say there isn’t a little something brimming beneath the surface; the main character of this group, Eddie Cibrian’s Tyler, has a thorny relationship with his brother Jack (Cole Hauser). A certain level of distrust fuels that rift between siblings and business partners. Meanwhile, their peers, namely the other athletic members of this expedition, can’t ever seem to ditch their competitive streaks, even as danger approaches. 

What happens when you put a bunch of stubborn thrill-seekers in a bad situation? According to The Cave, nothing good. Save for Tyler, as well as scientists Kathryn and Alex (Lena Heady and Daniel Dae Kim), erring on the side of caution is really no one’s strong suit. Luckily, that recklessness keeps the action high and the boredom low. The movie being PG-13 does prevent any major blood loss on screen, but that rating also doesn’t rule out violence. The monster-on-human carnage is plentiful, if not noticeably inhibited. You just have to use your imagination a bit more whenever a creature claims its victim.

It’s only fitting that there would be an emphasis on setting; the titular location is easily the real star of this movie. Out of all the things that get criticized, that mazelike cavern shouldn’t be one of them. The Dante’s Inferno-esque environment, which was designed by Pier Luigi Basile, gives the movie some teeth, as well as a sense of wonder. Yes, all its studio-built constructions are enhanced by digital effects, but the care and work are also undeniable. Your admiration for the production values and visuals during key scenes, such as Piper Perabo’s rock-climbing clash with a suddenly triphibian monster, is understandable.

Even if The Descent had never existed, critics very likely would have still hated The Cave. The low innovation, in terms of story and characters, was more offensive than its resemblance to a then-recent release. In my own biased defense of the movie, though, it’s overly, not to mention bitterly, hated. 

Admittedly, the quality of the script doesn’t match the movie’s craftsmanship. Not in the slightest. Yet if all you crave is a well-produced, stylized creature-feature that boasts an easy-on-the-eyes cast and some underrated monsters, then you’re in luck. Once you realize what you’re in for, The Cave is a hell of a lot more enjoyable. 

The post ‘The Cave’ Hides One of the 2000s’ Most Underrated Movie Monsters appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Breeder has been rated ‘R’ for “disturbing material, violence/bloody images, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.” 

The feature debut of director Alex Goyette releases in theaters on October 16 via Independent Film Company and Shudder.

In Breeder, “An eccentric poodle breeder lures a broke college student to her remote ranch with a promise of research funding. But, as he soon learns, there’s a catch.”

Daniel Doheny, Dot Marie Jones, Maddie Phillips, and Tanaya Beatty star.

The horror movie made its debut earlier this year at Tribeca. Our review from the festival calls the film one of the year’s biggest surprises and singles out the villainous turn by Dot Marie Jones: “She’s played with such chilling, calculating intensity, even when she’s completely normal. Patti is like Misery’s Annie Wilkes mixed with No Country for Old Men’s Anton Chigurh, and it’s absolutely unforgettable.”

And the trailer has also arrived this morning.

“Breeder is the kind of movie that makes you lean forward and ask, ‘How did they get away with this?’” said Mark Ward of IFC Entertainment Group. “It’s provocative and constantly surprises you just when you think you’ve figured it out. We knew the moment we saw it that audiences will be talking about it long after they leave the theater, and we can’t wait to shock audiences on the big screen later this year.”

With the October release date around the corner, expect to hear more on this one soon.

The post Deranged Poodle ‘Breeder’ Horror Movie Gets Trailer and R Rating For “Disturbing Material” and “Violence” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It seems that follow-up is finally happening!

In a chat with LA Times, Scott revealed that the long-awaited follow-up is in development, and it’ll continue the exploits of Michael Fassbender‘s David, the android that’s taken a liking to playing god.

Scott tells the outlet that the Covenant sequel will pick up with the curious android creating a “brave new world for himself.” He describes David as a ticking time bomb: “AIs can go off. And if they do, it’s like a bomb.”

Scott’s sequel to Prometheus and Alien: Covenant should answer some big questions raised in the first two parts of his intended trilogy, with Covenant showing us the birth of the very first Xenomorph and revealing their creator and the purpose of their creation, but not yet working its way directly into the back-end of Alien. 

Of course, a lot of time has passed since Covenant released in 2017, so Scott’s initial vision for his trilogy closer might have shifted. 

Covenant ended with the horrifying revelation that David had covertly destroyed and replaced fellow synthetic Walter, also played by Fassbender, aboard the colony ship Covenant. David also revealed to Daniels (Katherine Waterston), as she entered hypersleep, that he smuggled facehuggers aboard.

The Xenomorphs and the Engineers, we can assume, are headed towards a date on LV-426.

Scott is also producing a sequel to Alien: Romulus.

The post Ridley Scott Confirms ‘Alien: Convenant’ Follow-Up Is In Development With Michael Fassbender appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The rarely-screened gothic horror classic will get a full theatrical release in 2027, followed by a home media release, per their socials. 

Of course, details beyond that remain scarce at this point, but it is expected to be an HD master of the 2000 film. 

In Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust, “In a dark and distant future, when the undead have arisen from apocalyptic ashes, an original story unfolds. Ten thousand years in the future, vampires rule the night. They once ruled outright but their numbers are in decline. Vampire hunters now threaten the vampires with extinction.”

It’s based on the “Demon Deathcase” run of the manga created by writer Hideyuki Kikuchi and artist Yoshitaka Amano in 1983.

It’s described as “An out-and-out surreal dreamscape. The world that we are thrown into is one of wonder. With every new character introduced, we are given the pleasure of discovering a fascinating new supernatural creature to be enamored by,” in Bloody Disgusting’s retrospective. “The mixture of gonzo supernatural elements with blade ballet and immortal acrobatics will entrance you and plant a smile firmly on your face.”

Select Japanese language screenings head to theaters this fall, but expect to hear more about GKIDS’ re-release of Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust in the coming months.

The post Gothic Horror Anime ‘Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust’ To Get 2027 Theatrical and Home Video Release appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Resident Evil has officially received its expected ‘R’ rating for “strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout.” 

The film is being billed as “a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise” from the mind of visionary filmmaker Cregger.

Austin Abrams (Weapons) stars as Bryan, a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in a non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.

Zach Cherry (“Severance”), Kali Reis (“True Detective: Night Country”), Paul Walter Hauser (“Black Bird”), and Johnno Wilson (“Twisted Metal”) round out the cast.

Cregger has stated that his upcoming Resident Evil movie is “much more focused on the weird creature stuff than the zombies,” and that’s hinted at in brand new images below, giving a look at Paul Walter Hauser’s character and plenty of tentacles. Tentacles that might belong to the classic T-virus dog as glimpsed in a recent TV spot or something else entirely.

Those glimpses also support Cregger’s previous reveal that there would be very few zombies in comparison to T-virus mutants.

“This movie doesn’t utilize zombies that much. It’s much more focused on the weird creature stuff than the zombies. There’s really only two scenes, maybe three, where there’s proper zombie stuff going on. And two of those three are in the trailer,” he teased.

Those mutant encounters should come fast and furious, according to the filmmaker. “It feels like one gigantic sequence,” the director previously said of the film’s nonstop structure. “Things pop off about five minutes in, and it basically stays like that until the end. What I love about the games is that you move from set-piece to set-piece. Every location has a unique challenge. So again, I’m borrowing from the games directly in that rhythm, where you’re just running through a gauntlet.”

Cregger directs from a script he co-wrote with Shay Hatten (John Wick: Chapters 3 & 4).

The post Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ Receives R Rating For “Gore” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This phenomenon is precisely what makes Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm such a fascinating feature, as this strange entry in Full Moon’s fan-favorite vampire series is an undeniably satisfying farewell to Radu and the old-fashioned evil he represents despite being compromised by real world production issues. That’s why I’d like to invite my fellow horror fans to join me as we continue our journey through the Subspecies franchise and explore a film that feels torn between letting go of the past and exploring brave new heights.

As we discussed in our previous retrospective, the gothic romance of 1997’s underrated Vampire Journals may not have been an all-out failure, but it was clear that Full Moon fans were more interested in Radu’s villainous exploits than the undead plotting of his slightly less monstrous fledgling. That’s why it was only natural that Charles Band would once again approach series co-creator Ted Nicolaou with an offer to return to Romania and bring Radu back for one final vampiric romp.

Interested in the idea of developing a horrific coda of sorts, where the director could combine the Anne Rice-inspired politics and theatrical aesthetics of Vampire Journals with the more overt horror of the original Subspecies films in order to give his extended cast the farewell they deserved, Nicolaou soon came up with a script meant to get the band back together for the most ambitious Subspecies film yet.

Reuniting the Subspecies Team…Almost

Unfortunately, enough time had passed at that point that many of the series regulars couldn’t commit to another trip back to Transylvania. Not only did this result in the hiring of a different effects supervisor this time around (with the absence of genre icon David Allen explaining the lack of the stop-motion demon minions in this sequel), but it also meant that both Melanie Shatner and Kevin Blair had to be hastily written out of the story despite the new film taking place immediately after Bloodlust. Hell, the team even lost the original Bloodstone prop, leading to the use of a digital replica in this sequel.

Released in 1998, the finished Bloodstorm takes place immediately after the events of the previous film and once again follows Denice Duff as Michelle – an American student in Romania who was turned into a reluctant vampire after encountering the undead Radu (Anders Hove). When an unexpected car crash kills Michelle’s sister and her lover, the well-intentioned Doctor Ana Lazar (Ioana Abur) rescues the surviving vampire and takes her to the secluded hospital where she works. Unfortunately, Ana’s enigmatic boss, Doctor Niculescu (Mihai Dinvale), harbors secrets of his own, and his treatment of Michelle’s condition once again puts her at the mercy of Radu.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, Radu has decided to permanently relocate to Bucharest in order to expand his empire against the wishes of his conniving fledgling Ash (Jonathon Morris, who reprises his role from Vampire Journals.

While it’s a little jarring to see the “definitive” death of Radu be so easily undone in the opening moments of Bloodstorm, the film at least gives us an explanation for the vampire’s stubborn refusal to die (he can apparently only be permanently killed by a mortal who is pure of heart). Of course, the most interesting ideas here come from the juxtaposition of science and the occult as Dr. Niculescu experiments on Michelle and slowly reveals his own villainous nature as a “reformed” vampire.

Combine these themes with Radu’s plans to invade a modern metropolis and wrest control of the city from his more urban fledgling, and you get the most Dracula-adjacent entry in the entire Subspecies franchise.

Practical Gore Still Saves the Day

Speaking of modernity, this is also the first Subspecies film to be shot entirely on video. This is something of a mixed bag, as the near-impressionistic visuals and artifacting can be aesthetically pleasing in their own ’90s way, but this cheaper approach often clashes with the established gothic setting – especially when compared to the gorgeous cinematography of the previous two movies.

Some of the effects also feel a bit rushed this time around, with Radu’s makeup varying from homemade Halloween prop to the scariest it’s ever been, often within the very same scene. Thankfully, a healthy amount of practical gore effects and plenty of narrative intrigue help to make this an effective send-off for the series even if it lacks the old-fashioned polish present in the original trilogy.

In fact, the absence of Blair and Shatner’s budding romance means that the film is free to explore its more speculative side with few distractions, with Ana Lazar being the only real human core of the movie until she realizes that she’s destined to become a vampire slayer. Romanian actor Mihai Dinvale also returns from Vampire Journals in a brand-new role that comes the closest to dethroning Radu as the de facto worst person in the franchise.

His scientific study of the vampire infection also makes for the most interesting addition to the franchise’s mythology in any of the sequels, with all of these seemingly contradictory ideas combining to make the best-paced Subspecies film so far. There’s never a dull moment as we switch between vampiric mutinies and bloody kill scenes in the blink of an eye – all without the need for exposition since we dealt with all that in previous films.

The digital imagery and more fast-paced approach to storytelling may not please hardcore fans of the early Radu movies, but this definitive exploration of everything the character stands for manages to be an impressive send-off despite years of existing near-death experiences involving impalings, burnings and decapitations.

Of course, you can’t keep a good vampire down, so stay tuned for the final entry in our Subspecies retrospective as we tackle 2023’s legacy prequel in the near future.

The post Flawed But Essential: Why ‘Subspecies 4: Bloodstorm’ Is The Definitive Radu Film appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Described as a “mega house of chills and thrills,” Blumhouse and Atomic Monster are now under one roof, with the two brands together able to do more than they could do individually.

And the partnership is proving to be a massive success, with Deadline reporting this week that Blumhouse Atomic Monster releases have passed $1 billion at the box office this year alone.

Those 2026 theatrical horror releases include…

• Lee Cronin’s The Mummy – $90.5 million worldwide
• Backrooms – $396.5 million worldwide
• Obsession – $501.6 million worldwide
• Insidious: Out of the Further – $60.1 million worldwide

Deadline additionally notes, “… it’s the second time that the combined labels have yielded $1 billion since their 2024 merger after last year. However, if you were to count the labels’ grosses combined prior to the merger, this would be the third time in four years that Blumhouse and Atomic Monster titles have grossed over $1B in a given year.”

Over half of that billion dollars this year was scared up by Curry Barker’s Obsession, which also just became the first original movie of the 2020s to pass $500 million at the global box office.

On that note, Deadline makes an interesting observation: “Off its production cost, Obsession has returned more than 650 times its budget, and it is the lowest-budgeted horror film to top the North American box office since Paranormal Activity in 2009, the film that launched Blumhouse.”

Jason Blum and James Wan said in a statement, “When we brought Blumhouse and Atomic Monster together, we shared one belief: that the best horror comes from bold filmmakers. Lee, Curry, Kane, and Jacob have terrified audiences and made this a momentous year for horror, and we could not be prouder of what Blumhouse Atomic Monster continues to achieve as one company.”

Stay tuned for more horror dominance from Blumhouse Atomic Monster.

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The liminal horror movie will debut exclusively on HBO Max in the U.S. on September 25. The film will debut on HBO linear on September 26 at 8:00 p.m. ET.

Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in Backrooms as the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, who discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.

Renate Reinsve (A Different Man), Mark Duplass, Finn Bennett, and Lukita Maxwell also star in Backrooms.

Will Soodik wrote the screenplay, based on Parsons’ creepypasta-inspired video series, which debuted in 2022 and has amassed over 190 million views to date. 

I wrote in my review, “Backrooms is at once complex and sparse, but never repetitive. It might be set in 1990, but it effectively captures modern anxieties and isolation in a way that frequently makes your skin crawl. While the journey ultimately loses steam by its cryptic end, Parsons’ visual representation of the human psyche disturbs like no other.”

If you need even more Backrooms to hold you over until September, watch the 16 minutes of Backrooms – Everything Must Go bonus footage online now.

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Gen Z horror hangout movie It Ends is now playing in select theaters before expanding nationwide on August 28, and NEON has unveiled a final trailer that packs in the accolades.

It Ends marks the feature debut by writer-director Alexander Ullom.

A group of recent grads heads out on a late-night drive for grub, hoping to enjoy one final hangout before their paths diverge. Instead, they accidentally turn onto a never-ending, two-lane hellscape surrounded by untold horrors and cosmic forces beyond their understanding. Cramped together inside a Jeep Cherokee and with the miles stretching infinitely ahead, they face a choice: embrace their new existence or fight to escape it.

Akira Jackson, Phinehas Yoon, Mitchell Cole, and Noah Toth star.

“This was always a movie that was more about how we live with horror than about the actual horror. I make this joke too much, but I always wanted to see the family in Hereditary give a postgame interview and just be like, ‘Yeah, that was terrifying. That was absolutely terrifying.’ Then, they all die, obviously, but like they go about their lives. The movie is constantly recontextualizing the things that happen in it,” Alexander Ullom previously told BD.

Alexander Ullom is already a filmmaker to watch; the newcomer was recently tapped to helm 4 X 4: The Event, which is being described as Battle Royale meets Saw meets Climax.

The post ‘It Ends’ Final Trailer Hits The Open Road of Existential Horror appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Debuted by Fangoria this week, watch the official Last Chance Motel trailer below.

The Horror Collective will release the film on Digital outlets October 6, 2026.

Last Chance Motel follows a newlywed couple whose dream wedding spirals into a bloody nightmare when they uncover that their secluded venue, a desolate motel deep in the Nevada desert, is run by a relentless bloodthirsty family with dark secrets.

Described as a pulse-pounding psychological thriller with horror elements, the film pays homage to classic slashers while injecting a modern psychological twist.

Heather Langenkamp (A Nightmare on Elm Street), Sierra McCormick (The Vast of Night), Zachary Roozen (Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence), Robert Allen Mukes (House of 1000 Corpses), Shane West (“Salem”), and Monica Keena (Freddy vs. Jason) also star.

“We knew exactly what kind of film the genre is missing right now: a tight, mean, character-driven slasher that doesn’t apologize for being horror,” said Harris. “We’ve been on the receiving end of the camera for 40 years between us. We know what works. We know what fans actually want to see. Last Chance Motel is built from that DNA.”

“Horror has always been the genre that holds a mirror up to what scares us most — and right now, audiences are hungry for stories that feel both visceral and personal,” added Taylor-Compton. “Last Chance Motel is a film I’m incredibly proud of, and I think it speaks to something universal: the idea that danger can hide in the most ordinary places.

“Danielle and I poured everything into this — as producers, as directors, as performers — and I genuinely believe this is a film that will stay with you long after the credits roll.”

The post ‘Last Chance Motel’ Trailer – Danielle Harris and Scout Taylor-Compton Reunited to Direct This Horror Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Universal Pictures will release the film in theaters on October 8, 2027.

Plot details beyond that remain under wraps, though it’s said to be a “quintessential sleepover nightmare.” I certainly can’t speak for all, but the sleepovers of my youth certainly involved scaring each other silly while staying up all night.

Chase will direct from a screenplay he co-wrote with Night Swim’s Bryce McGuire, which is based on the latter’s original short story. McGuire previously wrote and directed Night Swim, another Blumhouse production adapted from his short film of the same name.

Jason Blum is producing. Chase, McGuire, and Bea Sequeira serve as executive producers. Lilly Tyson will oversee the project for the company.

Insidious: Out of the Further (Come Play) debuted in the #2 spot at the U.S. box office over the weekend, second only to reigning champ Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The latest installment in the Insidious saga opened with $25.3 million in 3,303 theaters at the U.S. box office and $60.3 million worldwide. It also landed the highest audience score on Rotten Tomatoes among all Insidious films. 

It’s also worth noting that Universal previously had this October 8 date saved for an untitled Blumhouse Atomic Monster pic. Now we know what’s landing in that spot.

Stay tuned.

The post ‘Insidious 6’ Director Jacob Chase Reteams with Blumhouse Atomic Monster For ‘Sleepover’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

From director Laszlo Illes, Ever After is coming to theaters September 4.

In Ever After, “A bachelorette weekend at a secluded forest lodge quickly descends into terror when a group of friends discovers that the surrounding woods are inhabited by murderous fanatics who believe they are the heroes and villains of childhood fairy tales.

“Little Red Riding Hood, the Big Bad Wolf, the Evil Witch, Prince Charming and other familiar figures emerge from the darkness, turning childhood stories into a brutal fight for survival where every fairy tale ends in blood.”

Produced by Intergalactic Pictures, McClurg Productions, Harambee Grey-Sun Productions, Stag Mountain Films and Avali Productions, Ever After combines practical creature effects, large-scale set pieces and one of the most recognizable ensemble casts assembled in independent horror in recent years, delivering an original and unpredictable cinematic experience for genre fans.

Mark Sheppard, Lydia Pearl Pentz, Rebecka Johnston, Riana Emma Balla, Miklós B. Székely, and Maria de Sá also star in the upcoming fairy tale horror movie Ever After.

Writer/Director Laszlo Iles said in a statement, “As a lifelong horror fan, working with Mark Sheppard, Bonnie Aarons, Michael Berryman, Kane Hodder and Malcolm McDowell was something I could only dream about for many years. Watching these incredible actors bring our twisted fairy tale world to life was an unforgettable experience and one of the greatest highlights of my career. Every one of them gave everything to their characters, and I couldn’t be more proud of what we created together. I sincerely hope horror fans around the world will enjoy this dark and unpredictable journey as much as we enjoyed making it.”

Added Andreas Olavarria, President & CEO of Level 33 Entertainment, “Ever After immediately stood out as a bold and imaginative horror film with an outstanding cast of genre favorites. It takes familiar fairy tale characters and transforms them into unforgettable nightmares while delivering exactly the kind of thrilling theatrical experience horror audiences love. We’re excited to bring this unique vision to theaters across the United States and Canada.”

The post ‘Ever After’ Exclusive Clip – Michael Berryman Hunts Kane Hodder’s Big Bad Wolf appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Here’s the lineup…

• Halloween (1978) — September 4
• Halloween II (1981) — September 5
• Halloween III: Season of the Witch — September 6

In the original classic, Michael Myers has spent the last 15 years locked away inside a sanitarium under the care of child psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis after brutally killing his sister, Judith. On the night of October 30, 1978, Myers escapes and makes his way back to Haddonfield — the night HE came home — turning a night of tricks and treats into something much more sinister for three young women, including Laurie Strode, the star-making role for Jamie Lee Curtis.

And then in Halloween II, while Dr. Loomis hunts for Michael Myers, a traumatized Laurie is rushed to Haddonfield Memorial Hospital, and The Shape is not far behind her.

Finally in Halloween III, kids all over America want Silver Shamrock masks for Halloween. Doctor Daniel Challis seeks to uncover a plot by Silver Shamrock owner Conal Cochran.

While it’s not uncommon for Halloween to play in theaters during spooky season, it’s not very often you get to experience Halloween III on the big screen. Don’t miss this opportunity!

The post Original ‘Halloween’ Trilogy Returning to Theaters This September! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

This brand new TV spot for Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil popped up over the weekend, and it gives us our first look at a Zombie Dog/Cerberus from the upcoming video game adaptation.

While it at first appears to be a normal looking canine, it’s not long before the dog’s head bursts open and reveals it’s anything but man’s best friend. Watch the new Resident Evil spot below.

Based on the iconic video game franchise, Resident Evil opens in theaters and IMAX on September 18 via Sony. The film is being billed as “a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise” from the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger.

Austin Abrams (Weapons) stars as Bryan, a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in a non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.

Zach Cherry (“Severance”), Kali Reis (“True Detective: Night Country”), Paul Walter Hauser (“Black Bird”), and Johnno Wilson (“Twisted Metal”) round out the cast.

This latest TV spot also gives us our first look at Paul Walter Hauser in Resident Evil.

New TV spot for the Resident Evil movie offers a first look at a Cerberus/Zombie dog

A new TV spot titled “Survive” has been released for the Resident Evil movie directed by Zach Cregger. The clip offers the first look at one of the zombie dogs (Cerberus) that will appear in… pic.twitter.com/5TbNHnIgUr

— ᴋᴛʏɴʏ | Resident Evil & Survival Horror (@kathyanhy) August 20, 2026

The post Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ TV Spot Gives Us Our First Look at a Mutated Zombie Dog appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The upcoming Tubi Original Buzzkill is written by Suzanne Keilly (Slumber Party Massacre) and directed by Jem Garrard (R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead).

The Hollywood Reporter debuted the above and below first-look images today.

In the film, “When a group of sorority sisters finds themselves trapped with a vengeful killer, party-girl Nora knows that the drunker she gets, the more her tipsy memories start revealing clues about who’s murdering her friends. But she’d better hurry, or her next vodka soda might be her last.”

Siena Agudong (Carrie), Brec Bassinger (Final Destination Bloodlines), and Aliyah’s Interlude (English Teacher) lead the cast of Jem Garrard’s Buzzkill.

Garrard said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, “I loved Suzanne’s script and was excited by her spin on the slasher genre. Nora isn’t your traditional final girl. She screws up constantly and is spectacularly ill-equipped for what’s happening around her, but we never stop rooting for her.

“Siena [Agudong] has incredible comic instincts and brings so much heart to Nora. I couldn’t have asked for a better ensemble. Everyone brought such a distinct energy to their character, and I’m excited for audiences to meet this lovable, dysfunctional sorority.”

Stay tuned for the official trailer for Tubi’s Buzzkill.

The post Tubi’s ‘Buzzkill’ – First Images from Tubi Original Sorority Slasher Movie appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Obsession just passed $500 million at the worldwide box office, becoming the first original movie – horror or otherwise – of the 2020s to hit that $500 million box office milestone!

The current worldwide total for Obsession is $501,596,715, while Curry Barker’s big screen debut has finished its United States box office run with a staggering $263,451,715.

The Wrap notes, “Barker’s disturbing tale of a woman forced to become an obsessive, murderous girlfriend by a man’s selfish wish has passed the 2023 Pixar film Elemental, which grossed $494.6 million globally, to become the top grossing original film since the COVID-19 pandemic.”

It’s stunning to be reminded of the fact that Obsession opened to just $17 million at the U.S. box office back in May, with the film’s week-to-week performance from there representing a practically unheard of level of growth. It’s the highest grossing horror movie of 2026 by a long shot, with Obsession‘s $501 million dwarfing the impressive $396 million total of A24’s Backrooms.

We must again remind you that the production budget for the independently-made Obsession was $750,000, with distributor Focus Features later acquiring the film for $15 million.

“Obsession stands as the highest grossing festival acquisition of all time,” The Wrap recognizes this week, “and the highest grossing film ever with a budget of less than $1 million.”

Obsession is now available on Digital in the U.S. and it’s also streaming on Peacock.

What’s next from Curry Barker? His follow-up feature Anything But Ghosts is coming soon, and he’ll be directing both an original horror movie and the next Texas Chainsaw Massacre film.

He’s also got ideas for more from the world of Obsession, but we might have to wait for that.

The post ‘Obsession’ Is the First Original Movie of the 2020s to Hit $500 Million at the Box Office appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Pinocchio Unstrung will be available on Digital in the United States on Tuesday, August 25.

The Pinocchio horror movie released in theaters on July 24. It didn’t make much of a splash at the box office despite getting positive reviews, the film scaring up just $815,655 worldwide.

Daniel Kurland wrote in his review for Bloody Disgusting, “Those who were left empty from Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey and its various offshoots may be pleasantly surprised by this.”

“It’s a morbid, mindless way to spend 80 minutes,” Kurland adds in his 3-star review. He also calls the film “a genuine love letter to practical effects and old-fashioned animatronics.”

Watch Pinocchio Unstrung at home beginning tomorrow.

The chilling reimagining of the familiar fable unfolds inside an elite London prep school. Created by Geppetto and influenced by a sinister Cricket, Pinocchio launches a violent crusade to carve himself into a real boy like his brother, one piece at a time…

Richard Brake (Barbarian) stars in Pinocchio Unstrung as the obsessive Geppetto, with horror icon Robert Englund (Nightmare on Elm Street) as the voice of Cricket.

Pinocchio is voiced by Jude Evan Lloyd and brought to life via a practical animatronic created by Todd Masters (“Tales from the Crypt,” Slither). Cameron Bell, Jessica Balmer, Jack Art Gray, and Peter De Souza-Feighoney round out the horror movie’s cast.

Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey) writes and directs the British slasher, in addition to producing alongside Scott Jeffrey via their Jagged Edge Productions.

This is fifth entry in the Twisted Childhood Universe, following Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and its sequel, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, and Bambi: The Reckoning.

The Poohniverse continues with Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey 3 and the crossover film Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble, both of which are coming soon. Stay tuned for more.

The post Watch ‘Pinocchio Unstrung’ on Digital at Home This Week appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

But despite Insidious: Out of the Further getting a Lipstick-Face Demon Popcorn Bucket in theaters, the iconic character actually only makes a very brief cameo appearance in the film.

Why then did the marketing lean so heavily on the Lipstick-Face Demon? It’s a question Out of the Further director Jacob Chase was asked during a Reddit AMA conversation last week.

Insidious: Out of the Further is now playing in theaters nationwide.

The film follows Gemma, a mother raising her daughter in the house she grew up in, who discovers she can travel into The Further, the purgatorial realm of lost souls at the heart of the Insidious universe. When something evil comes after her, Gemma discovers an ability that changes everything: she doesn’t just enter The Further, she can bring what lives there back to the real world. Once the demons realize her power, our world becomes their playground.

Franchise star Lin Shaye reprises her role as Elise Rainier alongside Amelia Eve (“The Haunting of Bly Manor”) and Brandon Perea (Nope). Island Austin and Maisie Richardson-Sellers (“Legends of Tomorrow”) also star. Sam Spruell plays the malevolent entity known as Cyrus.

The post ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’ – Director Explains Limited Screen Time for Lipstick-Face Demon appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Ghost in the Cell releases in theaters on October 2, 2026.

The horror comedy is set in “a high-security prison ruled by feuding gangs and a tyrannical warden. The arrival of a new inmate kicks off a series of mysterious gruesome murders that leave its victims on morbid display. The hapless inmates trapped in the prison must overcome their rivalries to unmask an invisible, otherworldly enemy. No one is safe as the cells cage in the horrors and a ghost roams the prison with murderous intent.”

Watch the trailer below for inspired bursts of gore, including the use of a mangled corpse for a showerhead.

Joko Anwar writes and directs.

Abimana Aryasatya, Almanzo Konoralma, Aming Sugandhi, Arswendy Bening Swara, Bront Palarae, and Dimas Danang Suryonegoro star.

“We’re thrilled to bring Ghost in the Cell to North America,” said distributor Well Go USA CEO Doris Pfardrescher. “As longtime fans of Joko Anwar, having previously released his film Gundala, we’ve seen firsthand how strongly his work resonates with audiences here. Ghost in the Cell is an absolute blast – it’s wildly entertaining and deliciously gory in all the right ways.”

Ahead of the film’s release, Ghost in the Cell is set to screen next month at Fantastic Fest.

The post Joko Anwar’s Horror Comedy ‘Ghost in the Cell’ Gets Gory First Trailer Ahead of October Release appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Variety writes in this morning’s exclusive report, “The show started shooting this summer, although no launch date for the new season of Black Mirror has been set yet.”

Brooker teases, “Black Mirror will return, and hopefully it’ll be more Black Mirror than ever.”

Charlie Brooker is writing and producing “Black Mirror” Season 8 alongside Bisha K.Ali.

Jessica Rhoades, Annabel Jones, and Louise Sutton will executive produce the new season.

“Black Mirror” is an anthology series that taps into our collective unease with the modern world, with each stand-alone episode a sharp, suspenseful tale exploring themes of contemporary techno-paranoia leading to an unforgettable – and sometimes unsettling – conclusion.

Without questioning it, technology has transformed all aspects of our lives; in every home; on every desk; in every palm – a plasma screen; a monitor; a Smartphone – a Black Mirror reflecting our 21st Century existence back at us.

The hit series premiered in 2011, a sort of “Twilight Zone” for the modern day.

Stay tuned for much more on “Black Mirror” Season 8 as we learn it.

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I was already expecting the film to be a good time, especially since Alex DiVincenzo praised it as an experience that “subverts expectations and turns conventions on their head throughout”, but nothing could have prepared me for the fact that this highly atmospheric genre romp feels so much like a tribute to some of my favorite Survival Horror games.

From the moody Oregon wilderness that permeates the entire experience to the mysterious small town with idiosyncratic residents who all seem to harbor their own dark secrets, and that’s not even mentioning the Dostoyevskyan exploration of guilt and morality that culminates in an inevitable conclusion, Alma & the Wolf feels like the spooky love child of Silent Hill 2 and Twin Peaks – with a dash of Alan Wake thrown in for good measure.

The final act even has horrific monsters that our traumatized protagonist has to mow down as he continues to search for the truth behind his son’s disappearance.

Obviously, Jann’s film is by no means an adaptation, with the story apparently being inspired by the process through which a person might go mad after being forced to confront the narratives that sustain their life. However, even if these similarities are coincidental, I’d still recommend this strange blend of folk, psychological, and even body horror to fans of the interactive genre classics of yesteryear.

Just be sure to watch until the very end if you really want to understand what’s going on, as the bizarre imagery and nightmare logic here actually lead to a less introspective finale than you might have initially expected.

Alma & the Wolf is currently streaming on Pluto TV.

The post Streaming Horror ‘Alma & the Wolf’ Feels Like ‘Silent Hill’ Meets ‘Twin Peaks’ appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The film comes to AMC, Regal and Cinemark theaters in the U.S. on September 4, 2026.

Variety notes in today’s report that The Deadliest Mansion “became Vietnam‘s first theatrical found-footage horror release and turned into a breakout hit after its June debut.”

The story pulls from a well-known Vietnamese urban legend: a band of young streamers force their way into the notoriously haunted Hứa family estate, hoping the stunt will bring them fame and money. Instead their broadcast captures a dormant, malevolent force stirring back to life, pulling them into the century-old tale of the “Ghost of the Hứa Family.”

Hùng Trần directed the upcoming found footage horror movie.

“Found footage has the power to make audiences feel as though they are experiencing the horror themselves,” producer Lee Jin Sung said in a statement shared by Variety this week. “Working with Hive Media Corp allowed us to bring that experience to a uniquely Vietnamese legend while preserving the identity and atmosphere that make the story distinctive.”

“Lầu Chú Hoả: The Deadliest Mansion delivers one of the most intense Vietnamese horror experiences in recent years,” said Mockingbird’s Phong Duong. “We believe this is a film that can travel, and we want audiences around the world to experience that fear for themselves.”

The post ‘Lầu Chú Hoả: The Deadliest Mansion’ – Vietnamese Found Footage Movie Coming to U.S. Theaters appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

On Saturday, the two-time Grammy winner revealed over social media that Doe, his intense drama about addiction, will premiere next year. But he also revealed that he’s entering production on his “gnarly” horror thriller follow-up very soon.

After sharing details on Doe, he writes on X, “And my next film, is a horror/thriller. Lot of laughs, but its fuckin gnarly. I am a firm believer in mixing horror with comedy. So I incorporated that into it.”

No plot details as of yet, but that may come soon as Mescudi is already gearing up to enter production very, very soon.

“I shoot my next film in a few weeks and I’m so fuckin hyped,” he wrote on X. “Sometimes I cant believe this is all happening. Officially a filmmaker. Get ready. Next year we introduce em to writer/director Cud.”

As for when we can expect his horror feature? Mescudi added in another post, “Two movies in a year. Both very different from the other. Doe, my directorial debut, will premiere next year, and my next film will premiere in the late summer.”

That’s a lot of horror on the way from Mescudi, who is also starring in Adam Egypt Mortimer’s Pathetic Fallacy with Jessica Rothe and lending his voice to animated feature Slime. The musician turned filmmaker also previously revealed plans to helm a horror romance, When the Light Dies, though it’s not clear as of yet whether that’s the project going into production in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned for more as it arrives.

And my next film, is a horror/thriller. Lot of laughs, but its fuckin gnarly. I am a firm believer in mixing horror with comedy. So I incorporated that into it.

— The Chosen One (@KiDCuDi) August 22, 2026

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Insidious: Out of the Further debuted in the #2 spot at the U.S. box office over the weekend, second only to reigning champ Spider-Man: Brand New Day. The latest installment in the Insidious saga opened with $25.3 million in 3,303 theaters at the U.S. box office and $60.3 million worldwide.

How does that compare to the previous five installments in the world of Insidious?

Here are the domestic opening weekend numbers for each film in the franchise…

• Insidious (2010) – $13.2 million
• Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013) – $40.2 million
• Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015) – $22.6 million
• Insidious: The Last Key (2018) – $29.5 million
• Insidious: The Red Door (2023) – $33 million
• Insidious: Out of the Further (2026) – $25.3 million

The highest grossing installment in the franchise to date is 2023’s Insidious: The Red Door, which ended its run with $189 million at the worldwide box office. That’s the number Insidious: Out of the Further will be looking to approach in the coming weeks, and $60.3 million is a real solid start for a horror franchise film that cost just $18 million to bring to the big screen.

Insidious: Out of the Further is likely already profitable at the box office for Blumhouse and Sony, and if they can keep the budgets low, there’s no reason why we can’t head back into The Further many more times in the years to come. A spinoff movie titled Thread: An Insidious Tale had been announced several years back, but it’s been a while since we’ve heard a peep about that.

Stay tuned for more on all things Insidious.

The Further bleeds into the real world in the brand new sixth franchise installment Insidious: Out of the Further, which will unleash all the nightmare demons from the franchise’s past.

Franchise star Lin Shaye reprises her role as Elise Rainier alongside Amelia Eve.

The film follows Gemma, a mother raising her daughter in the house she grew up in, who discovers she can travel into The Further, the purgatorial realm of lost souls at the heart of the Insidious universe. When something evil comes after her, Gemma discovers an ability that changes everything: she doesn’t just enter The Further, she can bring what lives there back to the real world. Once the demons realize her power, our world becomes their playground.

Jacob Chase (Come Play) writes and directs the franchise’s sixth installment, sharing story credit with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (The Conjuring: Last Rites, Orphan). 

Watch the official trailer for Insidious: Out of the Further below.

The post ‘Insidious: Out of the Further’ Debuts With $25.3 Million at the U.S. Box Office appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Bennett began, and still works, in television. His wheelhouse of animal documentaries served The Dinosaur Project well. For starters, there’s a visual admiration for nature that even the pressing POV format can’t undo. Bennett, plus cinematographer Tom Pridham, put a welcome coat of gloss on those scenic parts. Another thing to consider is the fact that some of the characters are professional cameramen. That means the found-footage genre’s necessary evil of shaky cam is, at least in a comparative context, kept to a minimum.

The South Africa-shot The Dinosaur Project seems pretty groundbreaking for found footage, but at its core, this, too, is another movie about people dying in the unforgiving outdoors. Of course, this more singular instance saw an official expedition taking a turn somewhere in the Congo, as opposed to everyday folks getting lost in the deep, dark woods of Anywhere, America. Nevertheless, the ingredients are indeed different here, but the recipe is roughly the same.

As things tend to go in these kinds of movies, one’s profound curiosity soon turns into deep regret. Yet in The Dinosaur Project, there is more than just pure speculation that spurs a voyage to the Congolese forests; the British Cryptozoological Society is responding to worldwide news of a not-so-hidden cryptid. It’s found footage within found footage.

Who better to lead that journey of a lifetime than renowned adventurer Jonathan Marchant (Richard Dillane)? He’s this universe’s Josh Gates, albeit way less cheery and not drunk on his own wanderlust. But to keep Marchant from becoming a basic man of action, the movie gives him something of a foil; his teenage son, Luke (Matthew Kane), demonstrates more attention-seeking behavior by crashing the trip and causing trouble at every turn.

Luke’s youthful presence, along with the potential for father-son drama playing out in between dino chases, smells of a family movie being passed off as a toothless creature-feature. Yet as the Jurassic Park franchise has proven time and time again, there’s no need to sacrifice thrills or carnage just because there are young characters among the cast. If anything, including kids fuels the dread. The story is also wise not to draw focus away from the main attraction. You came for dinosaurs, and that’s essentially all you get here. I mean it as a compliment when I say the human characters take a back seat to their larger-than-life co-stars.

Regardless of their extinction status, surviving dinosaurs are often more plausible than the most common subjects in horror found footage, which includes a variety of paranormal entities and mystifying monsters. In the same breath, that’s where this movie runs into an issue—are living dinos that much more scary than the unknown?

It goes without saying that Jurassic Park put dinosaurs on everyone’s radar well before Bennett and co-writer Jay Basu ever conceived this story of prehistoric peril in the present day. So there is a bit of desensitization that comes with this, and really any newer genre movie about dinos. The oohing and awing toward these animals is not quite as loud as before. Our habituation, though, is put on pause once we’re forced to identify with the characters on screen and see everything through their eyes.

First-person narratives in found footage sometimes have a way of making the unreal feel real, even when the artifice is recognized. However, The Dinosaur Project is never able to execute that same sort of feat; for obvious reasons, nothing depicted here comes across as credible. Surely no one will walk away from this movie and think dinosaurs are alive again. That said, you may still be impressed by those methods used to manifest their cinematic return.

Jellyfish Pictures were the digital wizards behind this movie’s creature visuals. The London-based company, which has since merged with another production studio to become JFX, had a hand in a variety of other non-dino media, including Black Mirror and the Fear Street trilogy. Most beneficial here, though, was Planet Dinosaur (2011). That BBC docuseries was like a good dry run for The Dinosaur Project, although Jellyfish had clearly stepped up their game for the movie. Undoubtedly, now having humans in the same scenes as the CG dinos required more care and effort on the artists’ part.

A smaller budget than what Steven Spielberg was working with means this movie shows a lot fewer dinosaurs. Don’t go in expecting to see a Tyrannosaurus like the one found on some of the posters; that iconic theropod is nowhere to be found. In the T-Rex’s place, however, are other familiar species, such as Pteranodon, Elasmosaurus and Liopleurodon. Those last two are notable for their shared set-piece—the best one—as well as for their mere inclusion in the movie. After all, giant marine reptiles wouldn’t appear in the Jurassic films until a few years after The Dinosaur Project was first released.

This was one of several well-funded, high-concept movies from the 2010s era of found footage. While The Dinosaur Project has little in the way of complex characters and storytelling, it remains unique among its peers. Anyone who enjoys atypical POV offerings, prehistoric fauna, or simply both, is urged to hunt this movie down. It may just end up surprising you.

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ScreenDaily reports that Vampir is going into production this month, with a target release of 2028.

The upcoming Korean horror movie also has a premise that brings Ben Wheatley’s incredible Kill List to mind. Yoo Ah-in leads the cast as “a contract killer who tracks down a mysterious pagan group at the request of a clergyman.“

The clergyman will be played by Lee Sung-min (No Other Choice). Lee Jun-hyuk (I Saw the Devil) is set to play a “heretic longing for eternal life who undergoes a dramatic transformation.“

Yoon Kyung-ho (My Daughter Is A Zombie), Choi Hyun-wook (Weak Hero), and rising K-pop star Doy (Kim Do-i) round out the cast.

Director Jang Jae-hyun previously teased his vampire project to ScreenDaily around Exhuma’s release, citing Bram Stoker’s Dracula as an influence.

“I want to make a vampire movie in Korea, set [against the backdrop of] the Greek Russian Orthodox church. I will spend two years writing before preparing and shooting, so perhaps it will be ready in four years,” he said.

The filmmaker also stated he had no interest in revisiting or sequelizing Exhuma, which was the highest-earning film of 2024 in South Korea. The global hit was the highest-grossing Korean film in Vietnam and Indonesia. 

Considering Exhuma was one of Bloody Disgusting’s 15 Best Horror Movies of 2024, count us in for Vampir.

Stay tuned for more as it arrives.

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Above all, it’s remembered for its iconic scene that captures the excruciating pain and terror of transforming from human to werewolf.

American backpackers David (David Naughton) and Jack (Griffin Dunne) trek across the Yorkshire moors, despite warnings, and get attacked by a beast. David barely survives, but his pal does not. David wakes three weeks later in the hospital, where he meets and falls for nurse Alex (Jenny Agutter) and suffers horrific visions of his dead friend. Jack warns David to kill himself before the next full moon to prevent more deaths and end the curse, but David ignores what he presumes to be a delusion and moves in with Alex.

The unforgettable moment finally arrives when David is alone in Alex’s apartment. The hours of the day blur into the night as David paces about her place, trying to stave off boredom. Cut to Alex on her shift, tucking in a young patient. The camera pans up to gaze at the full moon in the sky, then back to the apartment. David is struck with searing pain in his skull; he rips his clothes off to free his burning skin, and the slow, painful change into wolf begins.

David trembles and screams in pain for three long minutes as his limbs stretch and rip in inhuman ways. His torso elongates, hair erupts all over his body, and his teeth grow sharp. His face morphs, and his screams eventually become guttural growls. The transformation into wolf swallows David whole, and a howl that echoes into the night signals the shift as complete.

Rick Baker’s Academy Award-winning makeup effects design and creation go a long way, making this transformation so powerfully unforgettable. Baker and his team put in many months of work to prepare. They created numerous heads and limbs, which they dubbed “Change-o” heads, hands, and feet to swap out through various stages of David’s transformation. The actual sequence took a whole week to shoot, working backward with the hair growth. They applied all of the hair to Naughton, and Baker trimmed a little off to mark the progression. Naughton’s lower body was secured beneath the floor for some of this scene, with fake legs attached above. Baker and his team approached this with ingenious simplicity, inventive techniques, and an insane amount of hard work and preparation, working in riveting unison with Naughton’s performance to sell the horror and pain of the transformation.

But Naughton deserves a lot of credit, too; the physicality of this scene and his anguished cry work in tandem with Baker’s effects to sell the horror. The stretching sounds and how director John Landis shoots this scene, capturing the terrifying transition from multiple angles, wide and close-up, create a symphony of terror.

It’s a pivotal moment narratively, too, as it’s the point of no return for David. David wakes up naked and back in human form, but he’s no longer the person he once was. He’s now a murderer responsible for claiming the lives of many. Poor David’s fate was sealed that night on the moors, but now it’s a matter of how much collateral damage he’ll cause to end his curse.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on October 19, 2021.

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Jack Hudson (“The Devil’s Train”) and Lorena Andrea (“Warrior Nun”) will star.

“Unfolding over a single catastrophic day, Solar Storm follows Joe (Hudson), an ex-convict fighting to leave his past behind, whose path collides with Jasmine (Andrea), a woman desperate to escape a brutal marriage. When the largest solar storm in recorded history knocks out power, communications and order across the city, blackouts spiral into looting and riots.

“As the line between predator and prey burns away, the two go on the run through 24 hours of darkness — hunted by forces that may prove more dangerous than the storm overhead.”

The cast will also include Massi Furlan (“Jumanji: The Next Level”), Valerie Huber (“Whiskey Cavalier”) and Werner Daehn (“The Lives of Others”).

Joe Rabl wrote the screenplay for Solar Storm.

“I wrote Solar Storm as a pure pressure cooker,” writer Joe Rabl tells Variety in a statement. “One day. No power. No rules. Two people who need each other to survive. The storm outside is nothing compared to what’s happening inside these characters.”

The post ‘Solar Storm’ – ‘Saw V’ Director David Hackl’s Next Movie Takes Place Over 24 Hours During a Blackout appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

A nostalgic horror romp that feels like a nightmarish combination of Five Nights at Freddy’s and classic online Creepypastas in the vein of Channel Zero: Candle Cove, the teaser trailers for Buddy offer brief glimpses at the in-universe ’90s show starring an overly friendly unicorn. However, the online rabbit hole goes a lot deeper than that, with these teasers actually being only one small part of a larger analog horror ARG that might turn out to be just as thrilling as the film itself.

Through frequent uploads on the official It’s Buddy channel on YouTube, which is masquerading as a fan account uploading brief VHS rips of the “real” TV show, the filmmakers have slowly been drip-feeding fans with period-accurate advertisements and background information about “everyone’s favorite orange unicorn from a magic land.”

Many of these videos harken back to harmless knock-off productions from the ’90s, most of which were trying to capitalize on the success of titans like Barney the Dinosaur, but certain ominous details occasionally remind viewers that there’s something not quite right with Buddy. From the theme song claiming that he’s “cuddly and a little bit nutsy” to the children occasionally acting like they’re in danger, it doesn’t take long for you to realize that there’s some dark stuff going on behind the scenes.

The scariest video so far is probably the Scared to be Brave Sing Along, with this seemingly innocuous recording containing near-subliminal shots of violence and gore interspersed between footage of kids dancing and singing alongside Buddy. Of course, there are also rumors of “fan channels” on YouTube posting more lost scenes from the show, though it remains to be seen if these extra videos are an official part of the ARG or just horror fans having fun with a new genre icon.

That’s not even mentioning scattered social media posts that appear to reference the program as if it actually aired on TV during the ’90s!

While the official channel’s overt references to the upcoming film kind of spoil the fun by admitting that it’s all a work of fiction, there’s still plenty of spooky goodness to discover when researching the It’s Buddy show. In fact, the indie developers over at ModRetro’s Chromatic division have just announced another entry in the ARG via Buddy: The Video Game – a fully playable Game Boy Color-inspired “kid’s game” that appears to morph into a survival horror title as you play.

These bits and pieces of lore will likely only be fully explained once Kelly’s movie comes out on August 28, but let us know in the comments below if you have your own theories about what the hell is going on with Buddy!

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The latest from writer-director Na Hong-jin (The Wailing) is set to release in theaters on September 9, but on Monday, September 7, the film will screen at 175 PLF (Premium Large Format) locations across the country in six premium formats, including Dolby, 4DX, ScreenX, HDR by Barco, D-BOX and Dolby Atmos, with participating theaters in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas and more.

Tickets for the Hope Early Access Event are on sale now. Purchase tickets HERE.

While Neon is building upon its early-access PLF strategy for Osgood Perkins’ The Monkey, Hope feels designed for the biggest screen possible.

Hope follows “police outpost chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) and officer Sung-ae (Hoyeon) as they investigate a series of violent attacks believed to be the work of a mysterious creature lurking in the nearby forest. As local hunters join the search, the line between predator and prey begins to blur, revealing a story that challenges assumptions about fear, humanity, and the unknown.”

Zo In-sung (“Moving”), Taylor Russell (Bones and All), Cameron Britton (“The Umbrella Academy”), Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina), and Michael Fassbender (Prometheus) also star in Hope.

Hope had its World Premiere at the Cannes Film Festival back in May.  The festival’s director, Thierry Fremaux, previously teased that Hope “constantly changes genres” to capture a story of “no part of history that’s ever been told before.”

In case you missed it, catch up with the action-heavy trailer here.

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Family releases in limited theaters and will be available to rent on most major streaming platforms on September 25, 2026.

In the film, “A 10-year-old girl begins to believe her parents are trying to kill her. Convinced a sinister spirit is to blame, she spirals into a haunting fantasy world that mirrors her deepest fears.”

Cameron Dawson Gray stars as the young girl, Johanna, opposite Ruth Wilson (Victorian Psycho) and Ben Chaplin (Mrs. Davis, Murder By Numbers) as her parents.

It’s a horror story from the child’s perspective as she struggles to navigate her own anxieties and fears over her father’s illness. Finkel drew from personal experience; he began writing this story at 14 after losing his father to cancer.

While that means Family centers on one of horror’s favorite themes, grief, Finkel demonstrates a keen eye for scarecrafting right out of the gate.

Family is scary!

That’s apparent in the trailer and new images below, which delivers plenty of nightmare fuel, especially concerning a terrifying Ruth Wilson.

Family unnerved audiences at its SXSW premiere in 2024. I wrote in my festival review, “What Finkel does remarkably well, though, is crafting visceral scares and bone-chilling imagery with an oppressive, claustrophobic atmosphere. The sound design is skin-crawling and creepy, ensuring every creak and moan the house makes puts you on edge, and that’s before the inhuman whispers and clicks signaling an otherworldly presence.

“Above all, Finkel mines the uncanny valley for maximum terror, tweaking and stretching familiar silhouettes and frames to viscerally disturbing effect.”

That’s certainly reflected in the trailer.

If you’re seeking a good scare this Halloween season, put Family on your watchlists now.

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After an effective cold open that introduces a young Gemma dealing with the traumatic and terrifying loss of her mom, a sequence that sets the stage for the overarching narrative, Out of the Further skips ahead 20 years to reintroduce a grown Gemma (Amelia Eve), now a single mom herself. To say that Gemma has severe hangups from her childhood trauma would be an understatement; even she knows it, though she tries her best to keep it under control for the sake of her daughter Maya (Island Austin).

Because this is an Insidious movie, Gemma begins suffering disturbing dreams straight away. Nightmares that bleed into her waking life, causing her to lose track of time and raise questions about her own sanity. Worse, she can bring things back from her dreams. Instead of professional help, as her boyfriend Nick (Brandon Perea) would probably prefer, Gemma turns to the Further’s ultimate hero, Elise (Lin Shaye), for spiritual guidance against the creepy cult leader Cyrus (Sam Spruell), who has sinister plans for Gemma’s unique gift.

Though even Elise has a dramatically reduced presence in this sequel, maybe a few minutes total longer than her brief cameo in the previous film. It’s tattoo artist slash spiritualist Clare (Maisie Richardson-Sellers) who subs in for an absent Specs and Tucker, serving as a mouthpiece in our world for necessary exposition delivery that’s essentially on autopilot at this stage. So much so that the famous line “it’s not the house that’s haunted” gets repurposed here as shorthand in a fast-moving sequel rushing through the franchise’s greatest hits. 

Out of the Further only seems to have eyes for its ghostly denizens and their haunted house antics. The former is this sequel’s biggest strength. Spruell’s Cyrus ranks high among the series’ most unsettling foes and puts his cult leadership to eerie use, and comes armed with loyal followers to do his bidding. As if that’s not enough, this sequel also packs in five films’ worth of undead cameos; blink, and you’re likely to miss some of your fave Insidious baddies and ghosts.

Director Jacob Chase (Come Play) nails a few memorable scare sequences that’ll leave you squirming, though many are already heavily covered in marketing materials. Gemma’s descent into a liminal Backrooms-like pillow-fort and a nerve-fraying, gross-out dental cleaning from Hell are the two knockout set pieces worth the price of admission. The sound design is admirably repulsive. Beyond that, though, Insidious falls into a repetitive, less effective rhythm that leaves the human characters frustratingly helpless. 

Eve is affable enough, but Out of the Further leaves her stranded in damsel mode for far too long despite telling us over and over again that she’s far more powerful than the Lamberts. That her gift borrows from Nancy Thompson, a much tougher final girl, doesn’t help. The closer Cyrus gets, and the more Gemma loses time, the messier this sequel gets as it shortchanges its central (tired) theme of cyclical trauma. Maya never convincingly factors into the events until the climax, for example, making the deterioration of her relationship with her mother more disjointed than devastating. 

Insidious: Out of the Further adds enough spooky fun and Further frights to the mix to keep it moving along at a rapid clip, therefore ensuring it never overstays its welcome. It also doesn’t ever take itself too seriously, even leaning into silly playfulness in parts. But you know exactly how it’ll play out long before Gemma does.

The sixth entry might unnerve franchise newcomers, but otherwise it feels like a speed run through a familiar and mostly repetitive haunted house.

Insidious: Out of the Further releases in theaters on August 21.

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That’s why it’s so exciting that Jacob Chase’s Insidious: Out of the Further is shaping up to be a celebration of the franchise’s extensive history, with the film reuniting fan-favorite ghosts and demons for a terrifying crossover event. And while it may initially seem like this kind of film expects viewers to have intimate knowledge of the series’ mythology going in, Sony Pictures Entertainment has got the more forgetful fans covered with a nifty little recap presented by series veteran Lin Shaye.

In the video, Shaye (who has been playing the fan-favorite medium Elise Rainer since 2010) gives us a brief overview of each film and how they fit into the overarching timeline.

This brief promo may technically contain everything you need to know in order to follow the nostalgic frights of Chase’s upcoming sequel, but it doesn’t quite replace the visceral thrills of actually experiencing (or re-experiencing) these movies the way they that were originally meant to be seen.

That’s why I’d also recommend rewatching the franchise -which is currently spread out across Peacock and HBO Max- before Insidious: Out of the Further hits theaters on August 21.

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