Movies
The Final (Horrorfest ’10)
“It’s more like the revenge fantasy of a group filmmaker kids who got picked on themselves in high school. Sitting around drinking and saying to themselves ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if the football player was paralyzed and the pretty princess had her porcelain skin burned off her face?’ Truth be told though, the weird kid in me that somehow survived middle-school thinks it would be cool too.”
If you’re in High School or if you’ve ever been in High School, you don’t need me (let alone a movie) to tell you that High School is hell. It’s just plain not a good time. And, if movies have taught us anything about life (that life forgot to teach us) it’s that no matter what your social strata being a teenager sucks for everybody. Of course there’s a special kind of hell for teenagers that just don’t fit into any specific clique. The losers, the outcasts, the freaks. Those people probably have it harder than anyone else. And movies like American Pie or Revenge of the Nerds or Pump Up The Volume don’t tell it like it really is. For those of you that fall into the outsider category, the only revenge most of you are ever gonna get is taking your aggression out on a XBox game or 20. But what if the freaks fought back? What if instead of going all Columbine and just obliterating everyone, they planned their attack? What if they lured all their tormenters to a remote country house under the guise of an exclusive costume party (you know, the kind of party the losers would never get invited to). What would you do to a captive audience of all you’re worst enemies? Would you kill them all?
Dane (Marc Donato), Emily (Lindsay Seidel), Jack (Eric Isenhower), Ravi (Vincent Silochan) and a few other misfits get just the chance to dole out a little punishment when they lure the most popular kids in their high school class out of town for a night that none of them will ever forget. Trapped in the house and chained to the floor, Dane presides over a night of torture and murder all in the name of vengeance.
As a revenge fantasy, The Final is way more Hostel than your average teen flick. It gleefully dishes out, severed fingers and spines along with some wince-worthy acupuncture and slathering of flesh-melting madness. But, Dane and his pals aren’t interested in a Jigsaw-style lesson plan—they’re not all that keen of teaching anyone anything. Sure they talk a big game. They claim that this will make the others understand, but the fact remains that Dane and his comrades in carnage are all just a little too Norman Bates nuts to claim that what their doing is justifiably sane.
For Director Joey Stewart and Writer Jason Kabolati’s part they do their best to make the popular kids seemingly deserve what they get. But I can’t help but think the camera lingers a little too long on the torture of the Jocks and Cheerleaders and a not nearly long enough on the catharsis of the killers. It seems more like a twisted teen blodbath that was made as payback for the filmmakers and the audience and not so much for the characters inside the production. It’s one thing to say “hey wouldn’t it be cool if we did this or that” but it’s entirely something different to do it because it’s what the characters truly desire. In fact aside from the megalomaniacal Dane (whose abuse we witness first hand) the only other character that seems to have real impetus for murder is Emily.
As for Emily, her inspiration is more internalized than Dane’s. I mean sure, she doesn’t seem to have any friends and the girls give her a lot of grief (as bitchy teenage princesses are wont to do to their underlings), but no one is dumping buckets of pig blood on the girl or pelting her with tampons in the locker room. Emily just seems to take a flying leap right off the deep end. But if you look closer you’ll discover that it’s a great leap and that Emily is arguably the most compelling character in the film. To her credit, Lindsay Seidel deserves rousing and thunderous applause for taking a pseudo-gothic, wallflower, Ally Sheedy character and sending her careering down a cliff of violent insanity while at the same time making her a wholly identifiable lunatic. When she taunts her victims you can see the sadness behind her bloodthirsty eyes.
The Final is far from a perfect film, but like its characters’ predicament, in the beginning the plan seems like a good idea–tell a teenage terror tale but don’t set the film up as a morality play—but in the end, it’s not really teaching a lesson to kids everywhere that picking on your lessers (or those people in your mind that you deem to be lesser) is bad for your health. It’s more like the revenge fantasy of a group filmmaker kids who got picked on themselves in high school. Sitting around drinking and saying to themselves ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if the football player was paralyzed and the pretty princess had her porcelain skin burned off her face?’ Truth be told though, the weird kid in me that somehow survived middle-school thinks it would be cool too.
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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