Movies
Ghost Ship
“GHOST SHIP had the potential to be a great movie with inventive gore, tricky twists, and engaging scenery. However, after the first frame, it was a let-down.”
GHOST SHIP sets sail on just the right foot. It’s 1962 aboard the Antonia Graza, a luxury liner bound for the states. But it’s not the setting that pulls you in- it’s the moment when a cable wire bursts through the open dance floor, slicing all in its path into pieces. After all is said and done, and the ship’s deck is covered in blood and guts, you’re left the wonder- what the hell just happened?
The perfect beginning to a less-than-perfect movie. Dark Castle Entertainment once again pulled me into a mediocre horror flick that had the makings of a classic. I should have learned my lesson after Thir13een Ghosts. Despite the decent effort from screenwriters Mark Hanlon and John Pogue (who also wrote THE SKULLS and is at the helm of QUARANTINE 2: TERMINAL), the movie literally sinks after the first scene.
The story is simple enough. After the slice and dice, we meet Captain Sean Murphy (Gabriel Byrne) and his salvage crew doing what they do best- salvaging. Modern day treasure hunters, if you will. After a long days work and a couple of beers, the crew meets Jack- a scientist with a whole bunch of photos pointing to an abandoned cruiser in the open ocean. He agrees to take them to the site if they split the profits- and take him along. Despite the strange scenario, they agree and off they go on their adventure.
Once on board the ship, the crew encounters every cliché in the book. Epps (Juliana Margulies) spots the ghost of a little girl named Katie (played by horror-staple Emily Browning). There’s maggots in the food supply. Haunting voices in the brig. You name it, it’s there- only backed by poor acting efforts, horrible graphics, and terribly written dialogue.
Finally, the crew discovers the ship’s biggest secret- crates of gold hidden in the cargo room. Unclaimed and unmarked, the crew agrees to take the gold in place of fixing the ship for salvage money. Just like the ever-lasting forbidden fruit, the removal of the gold leads to dire consequences, forcing the crew to reevaluate the situation and take a real look at what’s happening on this corpse of a ship.
In the end, the film tries to redeem itself with an interesting plot twist. As if we didn’t already know, Jack is revealed as the villain- a collector of souls for the devil himself. He uses the gold to trick people into doing the unthinkable then sends their spirits to hell. Ok- I buy it- but it would have been much more effective if the story had held the same momentum as the opening scene. Instead, it took a downward spiral after the first ‘scare’ and never recovered.
GHOST SHIP had the potential to be a great movie with inventive gore, tricky twists, and engaging scenery. However, after the first frame, it was a let-down. It fed into everything a bad horror movie is= fill of clichés, bad acting, and less-than-effective scares. Even the soundtrack lacked luster- everything from the haunting melodies to hard rock just didn’t fit.
This is one voyage I should have skipped.
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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