Movies
[SFF ’15 Review] ‘Shrew’s Nest’ Is Bloody, Bold, and Tragic
All I knew when I sat down for Shrew’s Nest was that it was produced by the always-interesting Álex de la Iglesia (Witching & Bitching, The Last Circus) and that the Stanley Festival folks had compared it to Misery. Well shit, that’s all I needed to hear. The debut feature of Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel, Shrew’s Nest is a wicked little film about family ties and the painful constraints of memory. What starts out as a devilish family drama between two sisters transforms into a mad grasp for desperate companionship on one side and straight up survival on the other.
Set sometime in the 1950s, the film centers around Montse (Macarena Gomez) who lives with her younger sister Hermana (Nadia de Santiago), who has just turned 18. The sisters’ morbid family history consists of a dead mother and a father who bounced after the funeral. Since then, Montse has suffered from crippling agoraphobia – one foot out of their apartment door and she’s ready to explode. Hermana, on the other hand, is ready for romance and to shake off the domineering constraints her sister has created.
But maybe Montse is ready for a flame of her own too. And maybe she’s willing to do something drastic to make someone love her. Montse’s slapdash scheme to nail down a lover is the catalyst for the vicious unraveling of her and Hermana’s relationship. The final half of Shrew’s Nest is as wildly suspenseful with a suffocating atmosphere that nearly chokes its audience out.
[Related Posts] Read All Stanley Film Festival Reviews Right Here!
Some films try to lazily crank up the tension by making the affair inexplicably claustrophobic – condensing the story to a taught location with little explanation. Shrew’s Nest ain’t that lazy mother though. The film delivers one of the most organic takes on claustrophobia in recent memory – giving a thorough and wholly believable explanation for Montse’s agoraphobia. She can’t leave the apartment, so the whole shebang takes place within its cramped walls.
What really sells the drama is Macarena Gomez and Nadia de Santiago’s performances. These two lady leads are passionately versatile as they run a 90 minute marathon of emotions that ranges from sincerely empathetic to bat out of infierno. Montse is a deeply multi-dimensional villain that viewers will find themselves inadvertently rooting for from time to time – only to be disgusted with her the next second. It’s these kind of emotional layers that make Shrew’s Nest a massive step above the rest.
It’s a mesmerizing, sinister drama to watch play out – the audience bares witness as a seemingly nurturing environment absolutely loses its mind in a fury of violence. All the while, Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel show themselves to be masters of their craft – from the brutal imagery to the depth of character. It’s hard to comprehend that this is their first feature. It’s just so goddamn well crafted, well acted, and downright gripping.
Shrew’s Nest (aka Musarañas) is currently working the festival circuit. We’ll bring you release news as it comes along.
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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