Movies
The Objective (V)
“However, as a supernatural drama or a sci-fi horror film, it fails almost in every other manner. It’s not scary, it’s not bloody and first and foremost, it has no satisfying resolution.”
I gave director Daniel Myrick a lot of credit on the last DVD release of his I covered—2007’s Believers. The one-time co-director of The Blair Witch Project turned away from that in-your-face verité docu-film vibe that his old partner Ed Sanchez (Seventh Moon) still seems to be clinging to. In Believers Myrick pushed a few buttons and really tried to dig into character psyche and motivation. The ending of that film wasn’t flashy and the methods of achieving enlightenment were measured. But, the payoff was totally worth it. In other words, the end justified the means.
In a lot of ways, that sentiment is easily applied to the plot of The Objective…the end justifies the means. Only this time, it defines character motivation inside the film and not the overall experience viewing it.
Benjamin Keynes (Jonas Ball) is a CIA operative sent into Afghanistan just a few short weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He’s been there before, ten years ago. This time he’s back searching for something. Something that is sending off a radio active signature. But what is he looking for? For his mission he enlists a group of tough soldiers who are reluctant to join the CIA on a wild goose chase through the barren terrain in search of something that the “on a need to know basis” GIs don’t “need to know”. It doesn’t take long before hostile attacks and in-fighting threaten to rip this band of brothers apart.
Like Believers, Myrick seems to be actively pushing to blend genres. Where that film mixed religion, sci-fi and drama together, The Objective is at once a war movie and a sci-fi film. But it’s more than aliens in the desert—which would be a far too easy explanation for what the filmmaker is trying to achieve. Myrick’s film is full of human drama. He’s extremely interested in breaking down characters reason and rational while pressing buttons to find out what makes them tick. The film is most successful when it focuses on Keynes and his relationship with Chief Warrant Officer Wally Hamer (played to absolute perfection by former Army Special Forces Sergeant Matthew R. Anderson). It’s a film about people in extreme situations and how they react to those situations that makes for compelling storytelling. The catalyst for those motivations might be this mysterious mission but the people are the story here.
In that regard The Objective excels. However, as a supernatural drama or a sci-fi horror film, it fails almost in every other manner. It’s not scary, it’s not bloody and first and foremost, it has no satisfying resolution. In fact, it’s in many ways very much a product of The Blair Witch Project. This film, like that one, is about the journey, not the destination. What made Believers work was that it remembered to be about both. With no clear (ahem) objective, the film falls apart, in much the same way that the unit at the center of the story collapses. Like them, we to are left wondering what the purpose of the mission was ultimately for.
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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