Movies
Dying Breed (Horrorfest 09) (V)
“If you’re looking for a pretty standard, but well executed thriller, with a steady body count, lush settings, a smattering of sliced up fleshy parts and buckets of blood, then DYING BREED is bound to deliver something right up your alley.”
Drawing on a pair of local legends, first time feature filmmaker Jody Dwyer along with Writers Michael Boughen and Rod Morris deliver a down-under thriller that plays out like an Aussie version of WRONG TURN.
On the Island of Tasmania, a group of 4 friends (Including SAW’s Leigh Whannell and WOLF CREEK’s Nathan Phillips) has set out to investigate rumors that the extinct Tasmanian tiger is still alive and roaming the lush tropical jungle. For Nina, (Mirrah Foulkes) the trip is especially poignant as her sister died while investigating the same claims eight-years earlier. The friends soon arrive in a small town named after Alexander “The Pieman” Pearce. Pearce was a convict back when the Island of Tasmaina (then known as Van Diemen’s Land) was sort-of the maximum security prison of the 1800’s British penal system. Pearce escaped and while he was on the run, turned cannibal to stay alive. Upon arriving in town, the group meets the kind of stereotypical inbred, backwoods band of locals who don’t take kindly to tourists traipsing through their town in horror films. When the gang head out into the bush to search for the elusive man-eating tiger, things go from very bad to bloody-well way worse as they find themselves being hunted by a different kind of unseen beast.
By weaving local folklore, wildlife and a clear love for genre conventions, Dwyer and the rest of his cast and crew actually deliver a reasonably entertaining feature film, that succeeds in spite of the fact that it offers absolutely nothing new (other than backstory) to one of horror’s most beloved subgenres—the backwoods thriller. The fact that the film is not as inspired or as brutal as WOLF CREEK may disappoint some but the effects work is still pretty gruesome stuff and the performances from the cast are actually quite a bit more three-dimensional than CREEK’s stand up and shoot ‘em down cardboard characterizations.
The most compelling aspect of DYING BREED is actually the backstory of Pearce. Provided only as set-up in the film’s opening sequence, Pearce’s story has inspired a wave of recent Aussie film productions, including a documentary and the 2008 feature film THE LAST CONFESSION OF ALEXANDER PEARCE. The story itself is ripe for the horror pickings, with true crime and cannibalism always a mark of high regard for genrephiles.
So, if you’re looking for a pretty standard, but well executed thriller, with a steady body count, lush settings, a smattering of sliced up fleshy parts and buckets of blood, then DYING BREED is bound to deliver something right up your alley. If you’re of the “seen it all before” mindset that would pass this picture up on the synopsis alone, then, perhaps you might want to consider that Australia’s last two genre success stories, ROGUE and WOLF CREEK were hardly wildly original tales themselves.
This week kicked off with the release of hippo horror movie Hungry at home, and four more horror movies have arrived for at-home viewing as we head into the final weekend of June.
Here are the new horror movies that released on Friday, June 26, 2026!
The Halloween season can no longer be contained to the months of September and October, with “Summerween” becoming a thing in recent years. Essentially, it allows for Halloween to bleed into the warmer Summer months, and the first ever Summerween movie has arrived.
The Asylum released Summerween onto Digital outlets today.
In the film from writer/director Ryan Ebert, “On Summerween, a former circus clown escapes a mental institution to return to his abandoned mansion and hunt the teens partying there.”
Cole Chapleski, Chase Breithoff, Logan Roe, Sophia Sabol, and Clint Morrison star.
Director Ryan Ebert is the man behind a string of recent indie horrors we’ve covered, including Shark Side of the Moon, The Jolly Monkey, Jurassic Reborn, and Predator: Wastelands.
A witchy coming-of-age story from Dark Sky Films, Camp is now playing in select theaters.
Check your local listings to find a theater near you.
Camp is from writer-director Avalon Fast (Honeycomb, The Serpent’s Skin).
“Emily is the root cause of two devastating tragedies very early in her life, and she feels the weight of these accidents as though cursed. At her father’s suggestion, she takes a position at a summer camp for troubled youth to ease her guilt. When Emily arrives, she is welcomed by the other counselors, who accept her as she is and surround her with peace and forgiveness.
“As Emily begins to believe in a new kind of life, she starts to hear a voice whispering from deep in the woods — one that urges her to go home, and one that may be impossible to ignore.”
The film stars Zola Grimmer in her screen debut alongside Alice Wordsworth, Cherry Moore, Lea Rose Sebastianis (Castration Movie Part 1 & 2, In A Violent Nature), Ella Reece, Austyn Van de Kamp (This Too Shall Pass), Sophie Bawks-Smith (Honeycomb), Izza Jarvis, and Aiden Laudersmith.
Producers Tyler Perry and Jason Blum have joined forces for Peacock Original Strung.
The film is now streaming only on Peacock.
“A talented violinist takes a prestigious job as a music tutor for the gifted daughter of an influential and enigmatic family. As she becomes entangled in their opulent world, unsettling secrets begin to surface, forcing her to question her safety, her dreams, and even her sanity.”
Malcolm D. Lee (Scary Movie 5, Space Jam: A New Legacy) directs from a script written by Alan B. McElroy (Wrong Turn, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers).
Chloe Bailey (“Swarm“), Lynn Whitfield (Jaws: The Revenge), Lucien Laviscount (“Scream Queens”), Anna Diop (Us), Coco Jones (Vampires vs. the Bronx), Langley Kirkwood (“Banshee”), and Romy Woods star in Peacock’s Strung.
Produced by Diablo Cody, director Meredith Alloway’s Forbidden Fruits brought a new coven of witches to the big screen earlier this year, and it’s now streaming on Shudder.
Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Victoria Pedretti (“The Haunting of Hill House”), Alexandra Shipp (Tragedy Girls), Gabrielle Union (Breaking In), and Emma Chamberlain star in Forbidden Fruits, released by IFC and Shudder.
Free Eden employee Apple secretly runs a witchy femme cult in the basement of the mall store after hours. But when new hire Pumpkin challenges the group’s ‘girl boss’ ways, the women are forced to face their own poisons or succumb to a bloody fate.
“Forbidden Fruits grabbed me by the neck the very first time I read it,” Diablo Cody said. “It’s one of the craziest, most creative, beautifully bonkers projects I’ve ever worked on.”
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Forbidden Fruits may not necessarily forge new terrain in the teen satire space, but Alloway brings so much style and energy to her well-cast single-location stage play adaptation for the Gen Z crowd.”
The film is an adaptation of playwright Lily Houghton’s stage play Of the Women Came the Beginning of Sin and Through Her We All Die. Alloway and Houghton co-adapted.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by HUNGRY.
All aboard the swamp tour from hell – this hippo isn’t playing games…
HUNGRY is now available on Digital. Watch it now!
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