Movies
Hit and Run (V)
“As a feature, HIT AND RUN is really not that bad. It’s just there passing time in our lives that could better be served watching something that matters. In reality, it never had much of a chance at wowing its viewing audience…”
Like Stuart Gordon’s 2007 thriller STUCK, the latest film from PENNY DREADFUL scribes Diane Doniol-Valcroze and Arthur Flam is based on the 2001 case of Chante Mallard—who after a night of drinking hit a homeless man with her car then proceeded to drive home with the man trapped in the windshield. The victim later died in Mallard’s garage of the injuries and she was sentenced to 50-years in prison for his murder.
In HIT AND RUN, Mary (Laura Breckenridge) is out for a Spring Break evening with her gal pals, slamming shots at a local bar. On her ill-advised drive home, she swerves off of the road to avoid hitting a tire and careens her Jeep into the woods, narrowly missing a few trees. Shaken by the near collision, she arrives home only to discover the bloody body of a man (Kevin Corrigan) impaled on her front bumper. As she tries to help the man, he attacks her! Impulsively, she reacts by bludgeoning him to death with a golf club. Now, Mary has a dead body to deal with. In a fit of panic, she buries the corpse in a shallow grave and calls her boyfriend for help. When Mary returns to the woods to retrieve some evidence she left behind, she learns that the man wasn’t nearly as dead as he appeared to be…and now he wants revenge.
Since the Mallard case has inspired an episode of CSI, Law & Order, Gordon’s feature film and countless urban legend retellings, it’s pretty hard for HIT AND RUN to overcome the lack of originality wall that sits squarely in front of it. As it stands the film is simple, straightforward, not totally uninspired, but definitely saddled with a serious hurdle. Like PENNY DREADFUL, the production is not flashy and the performances are perfunctory. The plot moves along at a pretty solid pace, providing for a jolt or two of forward momentum about every 15-minutes. But, in the end, HIT AND RUN is just a minor speed bump in the cinema of morality.
Ultimately the insurmountable problem with the film is that, because of its familiarity, and the by-the-book plot structure the production is dull. Breckenridge does an adequate job portraying Mary as a genuinely likable girl (a big leap in the other direction from Mena Suvari’s character in STUCK or the real life individual at the heart of the case) but her situation is still so extreme that we can’t feel sorry for her. As a turning-the-tables villain, Corrigan isn’t terribly menacing (nor is he recognizable under the tons of blood and prosthetics). When he finally goes off the deep end, the film still never feels “life or death” enough to warrant our actual concern.
As a feature, HIT AND RUN is really not that bad. It’s just there passing time in our lives that could better be served watching something that matters. In reality, it never had much of a chance at wowing its viewing audience. It comes of too little; too late in telling a story that even STUCK proved was better served on Network Television.
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
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