Movies
No Through Road (V)
“No Through Road is effective and basic. Maybe too basic. Not offering much in the way of subtext or plot twists, the narrative is a stupid-simple, straight-forward affair. The acting is mediocre, the gore is ambitious but average, but somehow, some way, No Through Road continues to enthrall all the way to the bitter, bitter end.”
Like a playah who refuses to strap up, 1971’s Straw Dogs has fathered dozens of bastard movies over the past 35 years. The basic theme of Sam Peckinpah’s powerful yet somewhat unpleasant thriller—with Dustin Hoffman as a nerdy mathematician who is forced to defend his home from a gang of grimy British thugs—has been repeatedly explored in movies like Panic Room, The Backwoods, The Strangers, and even Fear, that timeless Marky Mark cautionary tale from 1996. Don’t fuck with a man’s castle, as they say. Not even vast oceans or parliamentary procedure can stifle the range and breadth of Peckinpah’s influence, as evidenced by the recent Australian suspense flick, No Through Road.
Richard is bearded and uncharismatic, the kind of wussy loner who smells like cigarette smoke and dried semen. One night he discovers a girl cowering in his closet. Samantha is scared shitless and sporting a nasty head wound. She tells a concerned Richard that she broke into his home to find sanctuary after fleeing from a gang of vicious rapists.
Sure enough, a trio of thugs come a-knocking on Richard’s door, politely asking him to hand the bitch over. Richard refuses. Nonplussed, the rapists cut Richard’s phone lines and set up camp in his driveway, deciding to wait things out. Lonely as he is, Richard has at least one friend, an ex-cop who shows up at Richard’s house to bully the rapists into leaving the driveway. But of course, the rapists don’t leave. And things get decidedly worse.
As with Straw Dogs, the escalating violence in No Through Road is portrayed as a rite of passage toward Richard ‘s reluctant journey to manhood. Richard’s actions certainly seem stupid, as he risks injury, maybe even death, to protect a girl he doesn’t even know. But if he refuses to protect her, if he simply gives Samantha up to the rapists, then he goes back to being the same boring Richard he’s always been. This is his stand, his one moment, and it defines him.
No Through Road is effective and basic. Maybe too basic. Not offering much in the way of subtext or plot twists, the narrative is a stupid-simple, straight-forward affair. The acting is mediocre, the gore is ambitious but average, but somehow, some way, No Through Road continues to enthrall all the way to the bitter, bitter end.
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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