Movies
Gimme Skelter (V)
“If the leaps and bounds that Scott Phillips has managed to take behind the camera from STINK OF FLESH to GIMME SKELTER are any indication of what we might expect from him in the future—assuming he stays away from scripting any further films like WEDDING SLASHERS—then the future looks bright indeed for this filmmaker as well as for genre fans.”
What if Charlie Manson had a bastard son? And, what if one day junior decided to follow in Daddy’s footsteps? An interesting idea or simply a wild story made up by a psycho in order to get others to carry out his dirty work? In GIMME SKELTER—the second feature from STINK OF FLESH director Scott Phillips, no one ever “really” finds out if the leader of this new family is Charlie’s son but that doesn’t stop his followers from reigning a night of terror on a small New Mexico town in this low-budget Grindhouse shocker.
In a town of less than a hundred it’s hard to keep things under wraps. And when doofy dude Todd (Mark Chavz) cheats on his gorgeous girlfriend Jonda (former Miss Teen USA Jillian Parry) with a strange new arrival Brass (Jaymi McNulty) he finds himself thrown out of the house and thrown into the worst night of his life—as he discovers his new lover is actually a cult follower whose gang (including Troma veteran Trent Haaga) has just arrived and is planning to kill everyone in town before the dawn.
GIMME SKELTER wittily borrows it’s title from a one-two punch of post-flower power bloodshed—The Rolling Stone’s track Gimme Shelter gave it’s name to the Maysles’ cinematic document of the tragic Altamonte concert and the Beatles classic Helter Skelter which Author/Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi famously appropriated for his book about the Tate-LaBianca murders. Those two seminal events were watershed moments in the end of American innocence. With Watergate, Vietnam, The Watts Riots and the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy the landscape of the United States would be forever changed. This change was echoed in cinema as well and the rise of the Grindhouse era was in full effect delivering nihilistic classics like LAST HOUSE OF THE LEFT and their ilk. With GIMME SKELTER, its apparent that Phillips is attempting to capture a little of the grit, grime, sleaze and cheese that made the 42nd street theaters and dumpy drive-in double features so fascinating. And interminably he manages to capture the overall vibe that filmmakers like Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino managed to miss in their respective productions.
Since GIMME SKELTER has no major budget to speak of, and the sets and dusty desert setting are Spartan and unpopulated, the film often looks and feels like an authentic old school 70’s genre flick. The violence is appropriate, the nudity is random and unnecessary and the idea of a “Charlie’s Family” collection of cultist killers is absolutely authentic to the period (just a few years ago an even more interesting reproduction SLAUGHTERHOUSE OF THE RISING SUN arrived on DVD shelves). With those things going for it the film is a huge leap forward for Phillips—as STINK OF FLESH was a much more typical regional microbudget zombie film. GIMME SKELTER actually has a lot of heart and talent both in front of, and behind the lens, including a very naturalistic performance from Gunnar “Leatherface” Hansen as one of the local townsfolk. For a part-time actor like Hansen who is generally cast as one of the Heavies or as a caricature (as in BRUTAL MASSACRE) it is amazing to see him deliver a letter-perfect performance as an everyday average guy caught in an intense situation. Even though he might play it a little too close to the chest when the shit starts to hit the fan, the fact that the big man turns in such a nuanced and restrained performance (compared to what is typically asked of him) is nothing less than a revelation here.
If the leaps and bounds that Scott Phillips has managed to take behind the camera from STINK OF FLESH to GIMME SKELTER are any indication of what we might expect from him in the future—assuming he stays away from scripting any further films like WEDDING SLASHERS—then the future looks bright indeed for this filmmaker as well as for genre fans.
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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