Movies
Tucker & Dale vs. Evil (VOD)
“It’s hard to tell why the comic timing was off at times, but it’s a problem that seemed to originate from the other side of the camera. The editing was occasionally jarring and some scenes stretched on for way too long, rookie mistakes that will almost certainly be corrected in the future.”
Read Tim Anderson’s review:
As Bert “Sock” Wysocki, the spaced-out slacker sidekick in The CW’s prematurely canceled Reaper, Tyler Labine flat stole enough scenes to build a respectable cult following. His laid back attitude, complete with his fingers-overlaced-over-belly Buddha posture, renders his somewhat unvaried movie and TV characters dependably likeable. With his recent cameo in Zach and Miri Make a Porno, along with the starring role in the upcoming FOX series Sons of Tucson, Labine has somehow managed to transform the Reaper axe-job into a promising career move. He also stars as a love-struck redneck, alongside fellow hillbilly Alan Tudyk, in the indie horror-comedy Tucker and Dale vs. Evil, which I caught at a midnight Sundance screening.
Rookie director/screenwriter Eli Craig, along with co-writer Morgan Jurgenson, have come up with a high-concept premise that is practically oozing the promise of broad, gooey comedy. When a group of camping college kids begin to die gruesome but entirely accidental deaths, a wheelbarrow-load of contrivance and circumstance collide to make Appalachian rednecks Tucker and Dale (Tudyk and Labine) appear to be the psycho-inbred killers. The compounding misunderstandings provide a few laughs, especially in the early going. In one scene, Tucker cuts into a wasp’s nest while chainsawing a fallen log just as the college kids hesitantly approach his cabin. Swarmed by wasps, Tucker hollers and runs around panic-stricken, his chainsaw flailing over his head Leatherface-style. Which of course causes the college kids to run screaming into the woods. The easily-impressed Sundance audience howled in abject pleasure.
But as the film wore on, it became more and more obvious that Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil was 30 minutes of material stretched into an unconscionably long 86 minutes. Deviating from the comedy-of-errors wackiness of the first half, the second half explores the tentative, snooze-inducing relationship between Dale and college girl Allison (Katrina Bowden, Tina Fey’s hot assistant on 30 Rock, super bland here). By the time 1:30 a.m. rolled around, I could tell that the previously enraptured audience had begun to lose interest. With the basic narrative hinged on just a handful of funny set-pieces, the movie tried to wring a few third-reel laughs from arch-villain Chad, the douchey, asthmatic, popped-collar leader of the college kids, but it all ended up tasting like oatmeal filler in a supposedly all-beef cheeseburger.
In their defense, both Labine and Tudyk seemed to be having a good time, just two charismatic young dudes breezing through a three-week indie shoot…at the very least, they did the very best with what they had to work with. It’s hard to tell why the comic timing was off at times, but it’s a problem that seemed to originate from the other side of the camera. The editing was occasionally jarring and some scenes stretched on for way too long, rookie mistakes that will almost certainly be corrected in the future. I’ll always remember the brief, resonant image of Tyler Labine leaning against a pick-up truck and eating from an enormous jar of pickled eggs, but the film as a whole will be easy to forget.
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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