Movies
The Vanguard (V)
“But writer/director Matthew Hope bogs down his narrative with the baggy minutia of varied subplots until the entire point of his film seems lost in the trials of unnecessary secondary characters.”
According to the pre-credits crawl at the beginning of THE VANGUARD, we use up all the oil on the planet by 2015, the world devolves into social anarchy, and a major Corporation develops a euthanasia drug as an attempt to cull the bloated population. The Corporation’s pernicious plan: simply administer their Kevorkian Kocktail as a required vaccine, kill off ¾ of the losers on the planet, and cha-ching!, oil shortage averted. But the scientists entrusted with the development of the drug decide to revolt, altering the chemical composition so that instead of merely putting the citizens to sleep, they’re instead transformed into bloodthirsty, 28 DAYS LATER-style creatures, growling monstrosities called Biosyns that do not require food or water to survive. That’s right, evil Corporation, you just got totally served by your own scientists! They felt guilty about killing off the majority of the population, so they just transformed them into soulless savages, instead. Nice work, people. Now hit the showers.
Max is one of few remaining human survivors. With his medieval beard and dual hand axes, he looks like a rabid escapee from a nearby Renaissance Festival (huzzah!), but his old-school appearance belies his talent as a wicked fast Biosyn killer, maniacally thumping his twin hatchets into downed creatures in more than a few highly satisfying kill scenes. THE VANGUARD features some virtuoso camera work and clever editing, and had the entire film centered around Max’s lonely plight as a Biosyn-hatin’ everyman, the film would have triumphed as a moody, post-apocalyptic vision of man’s solitary future in the I AM LEGEND vein.
But writer/director Matthew Hope bogs down his narrative with the baggy minutia of varied subplots until the entire point of his film seems lost in the trials of unnecessary secondary characters. There’s a Muslim soldier dispersed from the Corporation to seek and destroy any Biosyns, there’s a couple of members of “The Resistance” who have been separated from their group, and soon they meet up, along with Max, in the forest, and hold a lot of lengthy and boring discussions regarding individual allegiances and possible betrayals. It turns out that The Resistance hates the Corporation and Biosyns, and the Corporation soldiers hate The Resistance and the Biosyns AND the Corporation that employs them, and the Biosyns just hate everybody, even each other, because, you know, they’re basically just zombies. It’s a lot of hatred to keep track of.
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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