Movies
Dead Set (TV)
“I don’t want to give away too much about the plot, as the narrative twists and turns provide much of the pleasure, but you‘ll soon find out what the Brits have known for years: When it comes to zombie horror, it doesn‘t get any better than Dead Set.”
Although it will receive its US premiere on October 25 courtesy of IFC, the UK miniseries Dead Set had its cherry popped way back in 2008 by many of our B-D readers from across the pond. You lucky British bastards! You sat in your respective flats, eating crisps by the bowlful, in front of a telly broadcasting 140 minutes of the best zombie shite around. And then you dared to deprive America of this horror excellence for two long years!?! What’s your damage, guv?
I suppose I’m just jealous. Dead Set is the real deal, an insanely riveting zombie apocalypse story that hits the ground running and doesn’t let up. Most of the miniseries takes place on the set of the reality series Big Brother, as a live broadcast of the show‘s “Eviction Night” happens to coincide with a worldwide zombie outbreak. A buttload of characters are introduced in the first episode…too many to keep track of, really. But every episode cranks along at such a frenetic pace, it doesn’t really matter. This thing cooks. The miniseries is split into five episodes. While the first episode clocks in at 45 minutes, the remaining four episodes average about 25 minutes a piece. That may sound too short, but it turns out to be the perfect length for Dead Set‘s brand of action. The brevity of the segments really tighten things up––if they were stretched to an hour, the whole thing would feel way too baggy.
Shot on raw shaky cam video by Yann Demange, Dead Set uses its sprinting, snarling zombies to expand on the cinema verite aesthetic of 2002’s 28 Days Later… In fact, Dead Set could easily be a spin-off of Danny Boyle’s neozombie classic. It’s got the same boundless energy. The focus pulls are simply amazing. It’s genuinely scary. The gore is the strongest I’ve ever seen on a TV show. Let the comparisons to The Walking Dead begin…
Dead Set effectively ditches the saddlebags of character development you would normally expect from a first episode, which works to its advantage. Don’t you hate it when you’re forced to endure the lengthy back story of a horror film character, only to watch them get killed off in the next scene? Dead Set don’t play that. Once the zombies attack, it’s straight to survival mode. Some characters hide in the sanctuary of the Big Brother house, others attempt to escape in search of supplies, and within the first couple of episodes their various alliances and allegiances become perfectly clear. I don’t want to give away too much about the plot, as the narrative twists and turns provide much of the pleasure, but you‘ll soon find out what the Brits have known for years: When it comes to zombie horror, it doesn‘t get any better than Dead Set.
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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