Movies
Comforting Skin
“After its supremely eerie first act, ‘Comforting Skin’ disintegrates into a boring indie melodrama, complete with overwrought arguments and tedious grievances.”
You can always count on the Slamdance Film Festival to include at least one horror movie on its annual slate. The fest (justifiably) prides itself on “discovering“ the 2008 megahit Paranormal Activity––as well as Yellow Brick Road, Atrocious, Zombie Girl, and a host of other genre titles over the years. Other than a few short films, the only movie in the 2012 lineup that sounded vaguely horror-centric was writer/director Derek Franson’s Comforting Skin, about a young woman mentally besieged by her upper back tattoo. And while it begins with a beguiling Twilight Zone vibe and ends with a burst of gruesome violence, it doesn’t really work as a horror movie. To be honest, it’s hard to tell if Comforting Skin works as anything at all.
Koffie is a sad, single, suicidal woman trying to get over a bad break-up with a local art dealer. Her gay roommate Nate tries to be supportive, but he’s a mentally tortured composer with anxiety issues of his own. Late one night, feeling particularly despondent, Koffie is drawn to a secluded tattoo parlor and impulsively gets a back tattoo. It’s nothing special, just a random spiky symbol––pretty ugly, actually. But the new ink leaves Koffie brimming with loads of newfound confidence. The next day she’s bold enough to confront her ex-lover at his home, and even makes a pass at gay Nate. Predictably, both encounters blow up in her face, sending Koffie into a spiral of deep despair. And that’s when her new tattoo starts talking to her.
Victoria Bidewell is fantastic in the role of Koffie, and the scenes centered around her increasingly deranged relationship with her tattoo are the stuff the best psychological thrillers are made of. Think Lucky McKee’s May, for example. But after its supremely eerie first act, Comforting Skin disintegrates into a boring indie melodrama, complete with overwrought arguments and tedious grievances. Seeming hours of screen time are devoted to the trivialities of Koffie‘s relationships with her BFFs, and the talking tattoo plotline is practically abandoned. Comforting Skin isn’t a horror film, or a drama, or a psychological thriller, although it could qualify as any of these if it wanted to. It’s refusal to commit is what makes it so inconsequential.
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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