Movies
[Review] ‘Speak No Evil’ Misses the Mark; Enough With the Goddamn Back Bends Already
I think as far as horror films go, the genre has reached its quota of possessed people floating in the air doing fucking back bends. It’s probably the most recurring effect in possession movies nowadays, even being featured on many posters and as the “money shot” in some trailers. Demons make gymnasts of their victims, we get it. Time to move on. This tired visual is used again in the new film Speak No Evil. I love possession tales and I admire what the filmmaker (who goes by the nom de plume Roze) was going for in the narrative, but Speak No Evil misses the mark too many times to create a cohesive whole.
The film follows Anna (Gabrielle Stone), a recently divorced mother who’s too busy getting laid to pay attention to her young daughter, Joey. As Anna and her new hook-up Creighton (Carl Jensen) are busy knocking boots, a gnarly looking demon rises out of the ground in their yard and abducts Joey. This was my favorite part of the movie right here. The effect of the bastard emerging from the ground looks fantastic and is shot wide to give it an extra creepy visual boost. The all-black demon looks wicked too, but we won’t see him again for a while.
As Anna and Creighton begin their search for Joey, they soon realize that the rest of the kids in town have disappeared too. To make matters worse, the vanishing children have spawned an irrational, religiously fueled mob within the town. They blame the disappearances on Anna’s sin, obviously. Joey then emerges from wherever the horned sonsabitch took her, but she’s changed. First of all, her tongues been cut out. Second, she’s kinda possessed.
The rest of the kids come back too, all changed, all tongueless. The logic of the mob leads them to decide they have to slaughter all the children, before the demon who snatched them can claim the entire town. I hate kids too, but be cool, guys.
Leading up to the kids coming back, Speak No Evil suffers from a flood of pacing issues. The shit just drags and drags through Anna’s relationship issues and attempts to explore the mythology around the kidnapping demon, who’s based on a sun god detailed in the Old Testament (the best testament). Unfortunately, the lore is barely grazed and only presented in a vague manner. If a little more time was spent giving this ancient being some depth, the film would’ve been way more creepy.
The second half of the film picks up a bit, but by this time I didn’t care enough about Anna or Joey to feel engaged. Although the horde of possessed kids is creepy, we’ve seen this typa thing done better before (Who Can Kill a Child, Children of the Corn, Village of the Damned, Romper Room).
Gabrielle Stone is the daughter of scream queen Dee Wallace, but it looks like this apple fell far from the tree. She’s unable to carry the film and barely displays any emotion beyond “frantic” and “vapid.” I don’t think it’s entirely her fault though. The Anna character appears to be written completely ineptly – with little thought given to the anguish a mother whose child goes missing would actually endure. Only a few scenes after Joey vanishes, Anna is on the couch, goofing off with Creighton. She’s a baffling, frustrating character.
As is the entirety of Speak No Evil. This is definitely one to skip, guys.
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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