Movies
CPH:PIX 2010: A Retro Wave for The Future!
In a world were studios are more endowed towards spinning millions from TV, toys and films of the past, it’s bliss to discover that there’s a flipside to the trendy coin of retro. This year’s CPH:PIX Festival had a good selection of independently produced, highly entertaining films that all take their deliberate offset in glorious genres of the past. Bloody-Disgusting’s Michael Panduro was on hand at the festival.
One thing that’s nauseatingly hip these days is going retro in filmmaking. Every toy I played with as a kid and every crappy TV-show I watched is being turned into a billion-dollar movie, whilst the legacy of all the films I love is being destroyed by crappy remakes. Thankfully money-driven bullshit trends tend to give birth to cool ideas as well – you just have to wade through the sea of dung to catch them.
Case in point: This year’s second annual CPH:PIX festival, right here in Copenhagen, Denmark. The festival’s ridiculously massive program was filled with retro-titles stacked in between local and foreign blockbusters, loads of European art-house fare and more than adequate amounts of Latin-American, Asian and eastern European films. Retro-titles that have already hit US shelves, like House of The Devil, Black Dynamite and Grace, but also films that are still in their initial festival run like the more awesome than awesome Amer, The Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre and Solomon Kane – and we even had our very own world premiere of a new Star Wars flick.
The vast majority of these films are great fun – some even stick out as small landmarks in modern genrefilm if you ask me. What separates these independent lo-fi flicks from their annoying, loudmouthed brethren constantly being ejaculated by major studios is well-measured self-awareness over mindless self-indulgence. Ti West obviously knows exactly what he’s doing whilst playing around with 80s clichés in House of The Devil, and even though there’s a bit more parody than actually suits it, Black Dynamite, is a pretty awesome, well-written and fun blaxploitation-ride.
Besides these two and Amer, which I’ve already hailed as a stylistic masterpiece in these pages (and which notably won the main prize at this year’s festival), I’d like to guide some attention towards the horrible badmouthed Solomon Kane. I honestly have no idea why people are bashing Michael Bassett’s gloriously rendered dark fantasy! I mean, sure it has some crappy CGI in the beginning, but that stuff gets better towards the end (The Balrogg in this one is way cooler than the one that shouldn’t pass in Weta-land). And disregarding minor pacing issues and CGI – which in all honesty a film like this should be totally devoid of – Solomon Kane sports lots of cool stuff like awesome monster-designs, evil knights, moody tone and cool weapons and villains. To me, Kane ultimately is the best Willow-Conan-type-throwback I can recall in recent years. Although far from amazing, the film is entertaining as hell, and unlike The Mummy, Van Helsing or crappy stuff like Minotaur it knows exactly what it sets out to deliver. In my opinion that counts for something.
If anything, this year’s festival has reminded me that there is still gold to be found in rivers of shit. For every G.I. Joe disaster, every Transformers catastrophy and every pathetic Wes Craven remake, there’s pretty sure to be that little film that could – that nostalgic gem, be it Hatchet, Amer or House of The Devil. Praise whoever can be praised for independent filmmakers who still love and care for genrefilm.
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire 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.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
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