Movies
[Review] ‘Seventh Son’ Is Overly Melodramatic
Tom has always felt like an outsider. His random visions, his longing desire to hunt when all life requires of him is to feed the pigs, and of course, being the seventh son of the seventh son. Luckily, this eccentric behavior is relatively normal in the County — that is, if you’re meant to be a Spook. Taking on the title of a Spook means dedicating your life to ridding the world of “the dark”, meaning the evil forces that seek to harm humans. Burning witches, running from boggarts, saving possessed children, eating hearts. It’s all in a day’s work for a Spook. Master Gregory has been fighting the good, drunken fight for several years now, and with his arch nemesis Mother Malkin back on the loose, it’s time to train a worthy apprentice to stand at his side.
Enter Tom Ward. A young, poor man who has spent his entire life on his parent’s farm is suddenly called to duty and told he has to learn everything the previous apprentice gathered over ten years in the span of a single week. With the witch Malkin back at full speed and set to destroy the world during the spell of a blood moon, time is of the essence. and this odd couple doesn’t have a minute to spare. Ward must train to be a skilled fighter, retain the knowledge of potions and their purposes, and rise to the occasion of filling the Spook’s shoes if he falters before the final showdown. With little time to prepare and a powerful witch and her friends at the helm of a disaster, will Tom be able to accept the challenge presented before him, and fulfill his destiny as the seventh son of the seventh son? Or will he become a slave to the darkness, and fall prey to the powers of Malkin, like so many before him?
Based on the novel The Spook’s Apprentice by Joseph Delany, Seventh Son is set up to be the perfect popcorn flick. Tom and Gregory travel across the countryside, helping those in need of supernatural aid, as they slowly but surely make their way to the ruins where Malkin, her fellow witches, and her deadly assassins reside. With people turning into dragons and a mumbling Jeff Bridges sputtering knowledge of devious spirits between sips of his flask, it had all of the elements to be a fun, kooky fantasy film that’s worth a watch if you feel like heading to the theater and forgetting about the real world for a while. However, a plethora of plot holes, and mostly mediocre performances by pretty much everyone involved knocked this film down a few pegs, taking it from an entertaining start to an anticlimactic end.
Ben Barnes is simply forgettable. Any handsome brunette tan enough to be a farm boy could’ve occupied this role, and it really wouldn’t have made a difference. Unfortunately for Barnes, he’s quickly outdone by the previous apprentice, Kit Harington. Harington, although his time on film is brief, delivers such a solid performance that when it’s time for Barnes to replace him, the unavoidable comparison only helps to highlight Barnes’ expressionless face. Aside from his performance, there simply wasn’t enough of a backstory given to really get behind his character. We know that he’s the seventh son of the seventh son, and for some reason that means that he receives visions of the future, and is bound for greatness, but why? What exactly is the significance of his birth, and why isn’t it explained more thoroughly in all of the time that Gregory spends training Tom? It’s like the filmmakers expected audiences to read the book before they saw the movie, or at least do additional research to fully understand the plot. Obviously, when adapting a novel to film, certain elements are bound to hit the cutting room floor, but it is the filmmakers’ job to transfer a clear and concise story, and that job simply wasn’t fulfilled.
Where the movie succeeds are in the moments when it’s really obvious that Jeff Bridges is having a wonderful time. When Bridges is fighting a man with his beer in hand, winning with ease while managing not to spill a drop, or when he’s muttering slurred sentences like “fucking witches”, the film hits its peak, and for a few moments, realizes exactly what it is and has fun with it. When Seventh Son is able to laugh at itself, it finds its grace, and is the movie it’s meant to be. It would be beneath me to deny that I enjoyed the epic dragon battle, even if I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the outcome. However, the overly melodramatic moments weigh the film down, especially because there isn’t enough of an origin story for these characters to feel any real attachment to them when they’re picked off. It’s revealed that Gregory and Malkin were once in love, but the subject is barely touched upon, and when they finally battle as enemies in the end, no heart strings are tugged, because we don’t feel any connection to these people or their past. Not only is this disappointing for the finale, but also because Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore share such terrific chemistry, and a Big Lebowski reunion is wasted on poor screenwriting and a lackluster final showdown.
This week’s new releases offer everything from giant monsters to Spielberg aliens to ass-kicking martial artists and even an ash-eating medical student. Do we have your interest?
Here’s all the new genre movies that released on Friday, June 12, 2026!
These aren’t all HORROR movies, but we want you to be aware of them all the same…
Norwegian creature feature Kraken is now available on Digital.
The film was also unleashed in select theaters. Check your local listings.
In the monster movie Kraken, “unnatural behavior in wild salmon, followed by inexplicable deaths in Norway’s deepest fjord, points to the mythical Kraken. The ancient, multi-armed monster has awakened, ready to crush everything that moves or makes a sound.”
Pål Øie (The Tunnel) directs Samuel Goldwyn Films’ Kraken from a script by Vilde Eide, Kjersti Jelen Rasmussen, and Natasha Arthur. Sara Khorami, Mikkel Bratt Silset, Øyvind Brandtzæg, Jenny Evensen, Ingvild Holthe Bygdnes, Jon Erik Myre, Hans Morten Hansen, Steinar Klouman Hallert, and Filip Bargee Ramberg star.
An all girls trip into the desert for escapism fun instead implodes in violence in the revenge thriller Find Your Friends, now streaming only on Shudder.
In the film, “Amber and her four best friends flee Los Angeles for a girls’ trip in Joshua Tree, only to find themselves unwelcome in a desert town simmering with quiet hostility. As isolation sets in and encounters with aggressive locals grow more threatening, festering resentments within the group begin to surface.
“What begins as fun and reckless escape spirals into a violent struggle for control and survival, as past wounds and present dangers collide in a night that turns their trip into a nightmare.”
Bella Thorne (The Babysitter), Chloe Cherry (“Euphoria”), Helena Howard (I Saw the TV Glow), Sophia Ali (Uncharted), Zion Moreno (“Gossip Girl”), and Chris Bauer (“True Blood”) star in the feature debut by writer/director Izabel Pakzad.
Steven Spielberg is more sure today than he was when he made Close Encounters and ET that aliens are very real, and with Disclosure Day, he aims to make you a believer too.
Okay so it’s not a horror movie, but the sci-fi blockbuster is now playing in theaters.
The vague synopsis for Disclosure Day reads: “If you found out we weren’t alone, if someone showed you, proved it to you, would that frighten you? This summer, the truth belongs to seven billion people. We are coming close to Disclosure Day.”
The film stars SAG winner and Oscar® nominee Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place), Emmy and Golden Globe winner Josh O’Connor (Challengers, The Crown), Oscar® winner Colin Firth (The King’s Speech, Kingsman franchise), Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, The Perfect Couple) and two-time Oscar® nominee Colman Domingo (Sing Sing, Rustin).
Based on a story by Spielberg, the screenplay is by David Koepp, whose previous work with Spielberg includes the scripts for Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, War of the Worlds and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Combined, those films earned more than $3 billion worldwide. Koepp also wrote the script for Jurassic World Rebirth.
Steven Spielberg is of course no stranger to extraterrestrial encounters, directing two of the greatest alien movies of all time: Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977 and E.T. in 1982. It’s an arena he returned to in 2005, directing an adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds.
Here in 2026, Steven Spielberg sees hope in the existence of aliens. He notes in the final trailer for Disclosure Day, “How will disclosure change us? I believe for the better.”
Another movie that’s not a horror movie but worth mentioning here is the violent martial arts revenge thriller The Furious, which is now playing in theaters from Lionsgate.
Xie Miao (The New Legend of Shaolin) and Joe Taslim (Mortal Kombat) star.
After his daughter is kidnapped by a criminal network and he receives no help from the corrupt police, Wang Wei sets out on a rampage to find her himself.
His only ally is Navin, a relentless journalist whose wife has mysteriously disappeared. Fueled by a furious vengeance, the unlikely duo ruthlessly fights against the kidnappers.
Kenji Tanigaki (Enter the Fat Dragon) directs from a script by Mak Tin Shu (Kung Fu Jungle), Lei Zhilong, Shum Kwan Sin (Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In), and Frank Hui.
A disturbing weight loss craze involving human ashes opens up a haunting world of hurt for a young woman in Saccharine, which is now available on Digital outlets at home.
From writer/director Natalie Erika James (Relic, Apartment 7A), the Australian supernatural body horror film follows lovelorn medical student Hana, who becomes terrorized by a sinister force after taking part in an obscure weight loss craze: eating human ashes.
Midori Francis (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Danielle Macdonald (Patti Cake$), and Madeleine Madden (“The Wheel of Time”) star in Natalie Erika James’ latest nightmare.
From directors Arturo Ambriz and Roy Ambriz, I Am Frankelda is billed as the first ever full length stop motion movie from Mexico, and it’s now streaming on Netflix.
The history-making stop-motion film is a dark fantasy set in a world of monsters.
Here’s the synopsis: “In 19th-century Mexico, Frankelda is a gifted writer whose dark tales are ignored and dismissed. Forced to suppress her voice, she refuses to give up, even as many try to silence her. But when she is thrust into her subconscious, the very monsters she created come to life.
“Guided by Herneval, a tormented prince trapped between dreams and nightmares, she must restore balance between fiction and reality before both realms collapse. Meanwhile, the sinister writer Procustes and his conspirators plot to seize control. As Frankelda and Herneval grow closer, their bond becomes both a strength and a curse.
“To rewrite their fate, she must confront a love that defies existence and reclaim her power as a storyteller—before dark forces consume her imagination and reveal horrors beyond her creation.”
The directors said in a joint statement, “As brothers, we grew up inventing worlds together, drawing, playing, imagining. Over time we understood that fictional characters were not only companions but guides. Sometimes they felt closer than the people around us. They provided us courage, wisdom, and solace. We believe fiction is not an escape from reality but a way of understanding it. A way of converting truth into palatable chunks. I Am Frankelda comes from a lifelong love of storytelling.”
Mireya Mendoza, Arturo Mercado Jr., and Luis Leonardo Suarez lead the voice cast.
Meagan Navarro writes in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Mexico’s first stop-motion animated feature is a macabre beauty.” Meagan also notes in her review, “I Am Frankelda is a gothic fantasy feature whose boundless creativity is matched by its ambition.”
The lines of reality and delusion blur in Time of Death, now available on Digital.
Michael Kelly (“The Penguin,” Dawn of the Dead 2004) stars with Kevin Pollak (End of Days), Mena Suvari (Vampires of the Velvet Lounge), and Dennis Haysbert (Send Help).
In the horror-thriller, “When a prisoner vanishes without a trace, Detective Frank Morley (Michael Kelly) is sent to a decaying prison on the verge of shutdown. What begins as a routine investigation quickly spirals into a dangerous search for answers.”
Will Wernick (Escape Room 2017, Follow Me) directs from a script by Jason Rosen. They also produce alongside Kelly Delson, Jeff Delson, and Kyle David Crosby.
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