Movies
The Amityville Haunting (V)
“Asylum has been churning out found footage and mockumentary-style horror flicks, and with ‘The Amityville Haunting’, they have finally reached their apex of terribleness.”
There’s a certain level of expectation required of an Asylum film. When that film is done in the style of “found footage” – arguably the easiest method of making a horror film to get right –your expectations are very slightly raised, if only because it’s the only way the studio can utilize their incredibly low budget in a way that isn’t utterly laughable. Their first foray into the style came with Paranormal Entity, an attempt to cash in on the enormous popularity of Oren Peli’s Paranormal Activity. And you know what? It wasn’t that bad. It wasn’t great by any stretch of the imagination, but it was sufficiently creepy enough to provide a modicum of entertainment. Since then, Asylum has been churning out found footage and mockumentary-style horror flicks, and with The Amityville Haunting, they have finally reached their apex of terribleness.
The film opens with a group of kids breaking into a house, having sex, then presumably being murdered. We’re then taken to June of 2008 and the arrival of the Benson family in their new home, 112 Ocean Avenue – the same home where Ronald DeFeo, Jr. shot and killed six family members in the seventies and subsequently providing the inspiration for The Amityville Horror. Aware of the house’s past but unable to keep jumping from house to house, the family moves in and begins to experience strange occurrences, all captured on camera.
One of the great things about found footage horror is its ability to hide bad acting. It’s not always successful, but more often than not you’re too distracted by what’s going on – or what might be going on – the footage as it slowly unfolds. While our three female characters fit firmly into these two categories, the two male leads inThe Amityville Haunting manage to turn what is essentially an easy pass in some downright laughable performances. The son, Tyler Benson, is filming a documentary, turning the camera on himself at the end of each day to explain what he has seen. The father, Douglas Benson, is a tough-as-nails, I-don’t-take-shit-from-anyone type of father who rules the family with an authoritarian fist. While at first it’s forgivable, the presence of the ghost, given some sort of physical manifestation through the mildly frightening yet severely played out discussions between it and Douglas’s young daughter, manages to devolve the character from an unbelieving father to one who shadow boxes an unseen specter and drops to the ground in an apparent Vietnam flashback. It’s hilarious, but I don’t think it’s supposed to be.
As the film progresses, the decision is made to switch from a first person point of view to a mix of first person and CCTV footage, installed by Douglas. This is precipitated by a series of bizarre events – doors opening, noises, and the aforementioned ghostly discussions – and while it adds a new dimension to the level of fear the film is trying to convey, it does so in a sporadic and uninspired way. Numerous shots of the CCTV footage where nothing happens appear more often than anything of substance, with one creepy scene featuring a ghostly apparition doing the bare minimum to keep you from turning off the movie. Eventually we’re given an ending that somehow manages to be more interesting and well executed than the rest of the film while at the same time being infused with the sort of unintentional hilarity we’ve come to expect out of Asylum productions.
The Asylum is brilliant. Deliberately marketing their productions in a way to fool unsuspecting fans of horror films unaware with their devious practices ensures a return on almost all productions. Since the found footage boom that was more or less kicked off in 2009 with Paranormal Activity, they’ve been churning them out at an astounding rate. And you’ll keep watching them, and they’ll keep making them, and we’ll be caught in this endless cycle of laughable mediocrity until The Asylum is the only production company left on Earth.
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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