Movies
Eden Lake (V)
“EDEN LAKE is another in the lineage begat by STRAW DOGS and DELIVERANCE and reared by THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE HILLS HAVE EYES and WOLF CREEK. It’s a word of warning too happy loving couples everywhere to just stay at home! We don’t want your kind around here except for harassment, brutalization, sexual assault and in a few films…a nice snack.”
Horrordom loves a good “don’t go into the woods” thriller—some crazy cautionary tale about civilization encroaching on nature, or a just a simple reminder that tourists are annoying. EDEN LAKE is another in the lineage begat by STRAW DOGS and DELIVERANCE and reared by THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, THE HILLS HAVE EYES and WOLF CREEK. It’s a word of warning too happy loving couples everywhere to just stay at home! We don’t want your kind around here except for harassment, brutalization, sexual assault and in a few films…a nice snack.
Steve (Michael Fassbender) and Jenny (Kelly Reilly) are off for a nice weekend getaway to an abandoned quarry mine that has been flooded and turned into the gorgeous and tranquil hideaway Eden Lake. The pair spends their first night at a bed and breakfast full of loud locals and annoying children before heading off to the peaceful lakeside. Peaceful that is until a band of unruly youths and their intimidating Rottweiler show up, blasting music, drinking and generally annoying the crap out of the couple. After Steve has a few pointless words with the teens, they eventually pack up and go away…until tomorrow. When the teens return and steal the couple’s care, the pair track down the kids then, as Steve demands the return of his property, a fight breaks out and he accidently kills kids’ dog. What happens next is a terrifying rollercoaster of relentless violence as the teenagers exact their bloody revenge on the pair.
Stop me if you’ve seen this one before. Sure, it’s accurate to say that EDEN LAKE is hardly brimming with originality. It’s a paint-by-numbers plot set-up. But, when you step back from the canvas and take a look at what Writer/Director James Watkins (THE DESCENT 2) has fleshed out, it’s breathtaking in its brutality. The film has no fat too trim. Its every waking second is spent propelling the plot forward—probably the leanest 91-minute film I’ve seen in ages. It just flies by like a freaking freight train, leaving an exhausted viewer in its wake. That’s the kind of energy I was looking for when I saw THE STRANGERS last year.
In fact, this film shares a lot in common with ILS, THE STRANGERS and last year’s THE BACKWOODS. Like those films, the horror exists in seemingly mundane circumstances suddenly spiraling out of control. And, while the gore in those films was relatively tame, in EDEN LAKE it flows with the same crimson rivers of grue as what we saw in INSIDE or FRONTIER(S). Amazingly, the most shocking moment of the film hardly even happens on camera—it just exists in our minds and slightly out of focus near the top of the frame. I’m telling you…even with the stuff you don’t see…it just hurts to watch this flick!
I’m sure as well-versed horror fans; you’ll never run afoul of locals when you decide to take an impromptu vacation with your loved ones. But, hey…if people in movies acted the way they did in real life, most pictures would last about as long as the opening and closing credits. Thankfully though, we can expect that in the movies, men will not listen to women and just leave things alone, and thusly, we’ll have many more tragic travelogues to enjoy. Let’s just hope they’re all as refreshing as a dip in EDEN LAKE.
This week’s new releases offer everything from giant monsters to Spielberg aliens to ass-kicking martial artists and even an ash-eating medical student. Do we have your interest?
Here’s all the new genre movies that released on Friday, June 12, 2026!
These aren’t all HORROR movies, but we want you to be aware of them all the same…
Norwegian creature feature Kraken is now available on Digital.
The film was also unleashed in select theaters. Check your local listings.
In the monster movie Kraken, “unnatural behavior in wild salmon, followed by inexplicable deaths in Norway’s deepest fjord, points to the mythical Kraken. The ancient, multi-armed monster has awakened, ready to crush everything that moves or makes a sound.”
Pål Øie (The Tunnel) directs Samuel Goldwyn Films’ Kraken from a script by Vilde Eide, Kjersti Jelen Rasmussen, and Natasha Arthur. Sara Khorami, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Øyvind Brandtzæg, Jenny Evensen, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Jon Erik Myre, Hans Morten Hansen, Steinar Klouman Hallert, and Filip Bargee Ramberg star.
An all girls trip into the desert for escapism fun instead implodes in violence in the revenge thriller Find Your Friends, now streaming only on Shudder.
In the film, “Amber and her four best friends flee Los Angeles for a girls’ trip in Joshua Tree, only to find themselves unwelcome in a desert town simmering with quiet hostility. As isolation sets in and encounters with aggressive locals grow more threatening, festering resentments within the group begin to surface.
“What begins as fun and reckless escape spirals into a violent struggle for control and survival, as past wounds and present dangers collide in a night that turns their trip into a nightmare.”
Bella Thorne (The Babysitter), Chloe Cherry (“Euphoria”), Helena Howard (I Saw the TV Glow), Sophia Ali (Uncharted), Zion Moreno (“Gossip Girl”), and Chris Bauer (“True Blood”) star in the feature debut by writer/director Izabel Pakzad.
Steven Spielberg is more sure today than he was when he made Close Encounters and ET that aliens are very real, and with Disclosure Day, he aims to make you a believer too.
Okay so it’s not a horror movie, but the sci-fi blockbuster is now playing in theaters.
The vague synopsis for Disclosure Day reads: “If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people. We are coming close to Disclosure Day.”
The film stars SAG winner and Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Oscar® winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple) and two-time Oscar® nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin).
Based on a story by Spielberg, the screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes the scripts for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Combined, those films earned more than $3 billion worldwide. Koepp also wrote the script for Jurassic World Rebirth.
Steven Spielberg is of course no stranger to extraterrestrial encounters, directing two of the greatest alien movies of all time: Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and E.T. in 1982. It’s an arena he returned to in 2005, directing an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
Here in 2026, Steven Spielberg sees hope in the existence of aliens. He notes in the final trailer for Disclosure Day, “How will disclosure change us? I believe for the better.”
Another movie that’s not a horror movie but worth mentioning here is the violent martial arts revenge thriller The Furious, which is now playing in theaters from Lionsgate.
Xie Miao (The New Legend of Shaolin) and Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat) star.
After his daughter is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wang Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself.
His only ally is Navin, a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers.
Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon) directs from a script by Mak Tin Shu (Kung Fu Jungle), Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), and Frank Hui.
A disturbing weight loss craze involving human ashes opens up a haunting world of hurt for a young woman in Saccharine, which is now available on Digital outlets at home.
From writer/director Natalie Erika James (Relic, Apartment 7A), the Australian supernatural body horror film follows lovelorn medical student Hana, who becomes terrorized by a sinister force after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
Midori Francis (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Danielle Macdonald (Patti Cake$), and Madeleine Madden (“The Wheel of Time”) star in Natalie Erika James’ latest nightmare.
From directors Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, I Am Frankelda is billed as the first ever full length stop motion movie from Mexico, and it’s now streaming on Netflix.
The history-making stop-motion film is a dark fantasy set in a world of monsters.
Here’s the synopsis: “In 19th-century Mexico, Frankelda is a gifted writer whose dark tales are ignored and dismissed. Forced to suppress her voice, she refuses to give up, even as many try to silence her. But when she is thrust into her subconscious, the very monsters she created come to life.
“Guided by Herneval, a tormented prince trapped between dreams and nightmares, she must restore balance between fiction and reality before both realms collapse. Meanwhile, the sinister writer Procustes and his conspirators plot to seize control. As Frankelda and Herneval grow closer, their bond becomes both a strength and a curse.
“To rewrite their fate, she must confront a love that defies existence and reclaim her power as a storyteller—before dark forces consume her imagination and reveal horrors beyond her creation.”
The directors said in a joint statement, “As brothers, we grew up inventing worlds together, drawing, playing, imagining. Over time we understood that fictional characters were not only companions but guides. Sometimes they felt closer than the people around us. They provided us courage, wisdom, and solace. We believe fiction is not an escape from reality but a way of understanding it. A way of converting truth into palatable chunks. I Am Frankelda comes from a lifelong love of storytelling.”
Mireya Mendoza, Arturo Mercado Jr., and Luis Leonardo Suarez lead the voice cast.
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature is a macabre beauty.” Meagan also notes in her review, “I Am Frankelda is a gothic fantasy feature whose boundless creativity is matched by its ambition.”
The lines of reality and delusion blur in Time of Death, now available on Digital.
Michael Kelly (“The Penguin,” Dawn of the Dead 2004) stars with Kevin Pollak (End of Days), Mena Suvari (Vampires of the Velvet Lounge), and Dennis Haysbert (Send Help).
In the horror-thriller, “When a prisoner vanishes without a trace, Detective Frank Morley (Michael Kelly) is sent to a decaying prison on the verge of shutdown. What begins as a routine investigation quickly spirals into a dangerous search for answers.”
Will Wernick (Escape Room 2017, Follow Me) directs from a script by Jason Rosen. They also produce alongside Kelly Delson, Jeff Delson, and Kyle David Crosby.
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