Movies
[BD Review] ‘Absence’ Has Few Scares
Absence was written in three days by Jimmy Loweree and Jake Moreno. Made by a group of friends in 110 degree weather, under the direction of Loweree, the found footage film follows the story of Liz, her husband Rick, and her brother Evan. Liz has awoken one morning to find that the baby she has carried for 7 months is suddenly missing. Doctors are baffled and law enforcement suspects the parents. To unwind from the tragedy, Liz, Rick and Evan head to a cabin in the mountains. As weird extra terrestrial events begin to happen, the explanation of the missing baby is clear.
Found footage films are still abundant, yet half the time there is no need to tell a story in such a narrative. Such is the case with Absence. The hastily written story of a pregnant woman waking up no longer pregnant should make for an interesting film, yet the execution is flawed. Most of the problem lies in the medium. Immediately I felt taken out of the film with the character of Evan filming his sister in her hospital bed, crying about her lost child. Be a film student or not, any person in their right mind would know this situation is not the time or place to be recording. If this were a regular narrative, I do believe that this script could hold up on its own. However, there are lulls where we are supposedly getting to know these characters, yet the acting – particularly Ryan Smale as Evan – seems too forced to be natural. It is disappointing as Erin Way has brief moments where her acting shines through and she is convincing as Liz.
The DVD/Blu-ray combo for Absence is simple with commentary for Loweree, Smale and cinematographer Christiano Covino. There is also a Making of Featurette with cast and crew and a trailer. The featurette shows how dedicated everyone was to making the film and how much they believed in making this inexpensive horror film effective. Such a thing is very admirable, however, in the end, the most effective parts of Absence are the scares – and there are few. The concept of aliens and abduction is rarely seen anymore. Combining that with the missing baby should make for an interesting movie, but Absence simply doesn’t explain enough through its use of the found footage narrative and ends up as a jumbled mess. If reworked as a regular film, I do believe it would have had much more potential.
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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