Movies
The Wig (V)
“It’d be hard to unequivocally recommend THE WIG. The film requires a lot of commitment on the part of the viewer. It demands that you pay enough attention at the beginning to establish the character relationships while also forcing you to ignore the languid pacing and strange dreamlike location changes.”
Asian Horror films are probably chock-full-o the most recognizable clichés around for hardcore horror fans to nit pick. Ask anyone and even the most blasé genre-junkie will tell you that most of the J-Horror set is little more than long-haired girls, sometimes wet, sometimes dry, and blue faced little boys, popping up in hallways and bedrooms or simply just from the side of the films frame. Every appearance custom designed to illicit some sort of jump scare. Has ever a set of cinematic standards been so ripe for satire? Well, if you read the synopsis of THE WIG, you’d think that this was it. Tragically, you’d be wrong.
THE WIG is about a homicidal hairpiece. Yes that’s right, all those raven locks that have been clogging up drains and draped across the faces of dead girls for decades finally have a film of their own. And it’s not a subtle wink to a genre staple, it’s a deadly serious fright film. Perhaps a bit too serious considering the inherent lunacy of a wicked weave!
A bald Soo-Hyun (Chae Min-seo) is recovering from her latest bout of Chemotherapy. She has Leukemia and the prognosis is not good. Her older sister Jihyun (Yu Seon, BLACK HOUSE & UNINVITED) hopes to raise her spirits by getting her a luscious wig. However, the jet-black silken strands that were used to make this wig carry a horrible secret within them. This wig is cursed. But, once she puts on the wig, Soo-Hyun feels so much better, her cancer seems to be in remission and her energy levels are soaring, regrettably so are the terrifying visions she’s having. As the wig begins to take control over her life, Soo-Hyun starts to exhibit behaviors far from her normal persona. Now, time is running out. Will the sisters discover the secret of the wig before it’s kills them all?
THE WIG has a lot of interesting things going for it, if you forget about the fact that the wig is seen, on several occasions, slinking across the floor of it’s own momentum. That is the part that is just plain laughable. It looks like an Eastern Cousin It swimming across a sea of Hardwood. Frankly, it’s almost unforgivable. It’s a damn good thing that THE WIG has some solid plot points to save it. One key point is that, soon after giving Soo-Hyun the wig, Jihyun is in a terrible car crash that severs her vocal cords. The effects shot used in this scene is brutal but virtually bloodless. It’s a great sequence and it adds a layer of drama to the production, as Jihyun can now no longer speak. Gorehounds will also want to keep an eye out for a later hospital sequence that is amongst one of the bloodier moments I’ve recently seen in a Asian Horror film. Still, blood and guts aside, the film’s major subplot involves the sexualization of Soo-Hyun as she—influenced by the wig—makes a big move on her sister’s ex-boyfriend Ki-Seok (Mun Su). It’s this relationship that ultimately drives the film toward its conclusion.
I can’t say that THE WIG really worked. Like so many other Asian Horror films, the plot is convoluted. The style over substance label affixes itself pretty easily to the first hour of the film. Korean Director Shin-yeon Won fills the first frames with an overwhelming sense of melancholy, perhaps out of the respect the characters have for Soo-Hyun’s condition and prospects. Alas, this choice makes the first 45 minutes of the film painfully boring. Later, when Soo-Hyun arrives at Ki-Seok’s house, soaking wet from the pouring rain, the film seems to kick into a manic gear and the plot starts spilling out all over the place. This moment actually saves the film from being a total loss because; the film finally reveals the big twist. A twist that I can’t say I’ve ever seen in an Asian Horror film. A controversial one that is not only shocking because it’s seems so unexpected, but because Ki-Seok’s behavior almost foreshadows it. It might seem to some, a cheap way to connect all of the characters to the wig, but it’s so startling that it actually works in spite of itself. Sorry to say, after that revelation, the ending is also problematic, in that the film feels like it’s over at least twice before the credits actually roll.
It’d be hard to unequivocally recommend THE WIG. The film requires a lot of commitment on the part of the viewer. It demands that you pay enough attention at the beginning to establish the character relationships while also forcing you to ignore the languid pacing and strange dreamlike location changes. But, if you can make it that far—and with some semblance of lucidity about the storyline—the payoff is worth it, because as strange as it is, you might not have seen anything quite like it before.
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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