Screambox
Five Desert Horror Movies to Stream on Screambox This Week Including ‘Killer Rental’
Need a new horror movie to stream this weekend? Are you sick of the cold, grey fall now that Halloween is over? Allow Screambox to transport you to the warm and horrifying expanse of an empty desert with an exclusive new release, a hidden gem from a master of horror, and three indie horror hits from the American West.
Bloody Disgusting readers get an exclusive Screambox introductory offer of three months for a total of $6.66. Stream thousands of hours of slashers, thrillers, gore, and more right now.
Killer Rental
When a group of friends rent a vacation home outside Joshua Tree, they discover the Mojave Desert is not quite as empty and isolated as they assumed. Killer Rental is a lurid, sexy, found footage slasher where the interpersonal stakes are raised by alcohol, desperation, and a masked murder methodically eliminating members of the party.
Created by Ben Hausdorff, an indie filmmaker known for his distinct visual style and horror sensibilities, along with Jonathan Kadin, a seasoned Hollywood producer behind 21 Jump Street, Pitch Perfect, and Bad Boys for Life, the filmmaking duo deliver a survive the night slasher that feels tense and of-the-moment.
Special effects artist James McKinnon, renowned for his makeup work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, American Horror Story and Star Trek: Picard, adds gory, visceral details with every bucket of blood used in the film.
Killer Rental made its debut at the 2024 Chicago Horror Film Festival and screened at the 2024 Austin Horror Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Feature.
Wes Craven’s Mind Ripper
When Wes Craven decided to finally leave Elm Street, he made his way to a secret nuclear bunker hidden out in the desert… but retained his interest in horribly disfigured monsters. Mind Ripper stars Lance Henriksen (Aliens, The Terminator, Pumpkinhead) and Claire Stansfield (The X-Files, Twin Peaks) as government scientists determined to create a superhuman. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t go as planned.
Horror fans have speculated that Mind Ripper was supposed to be the third entry in The Hills Have Eyes franchise. That detail has never been confirmed but stream it this weekend and decide for yourself.
Read our past coverage of Mind Ripper here.
The Outwaters
If you enjoy the “social media obsessives in the Mojave Desert” framing of Killer Rental, do not miss The Outwaters.
This found footage terror follows a foursome of music video creators on a mind bending trip through desert isolation. Our review at the time called it both a “full-blown sensory assault” and “an experimental cosmic nightmare.” Sounds like a pretty good distraction from the fall gloom!
Read our review of The Outwaters here.
Horror In The High Desert
Another formally interesting desert nightmare, Horror in the High Desert uses both mockumentary and found footage storytelling to tell the story of an outdoors enthusiast who has gone missing in the Great Basin Desert of Nevada.
Interviews with loved ones convey a bleak and overpowering sense of dread, much the same way one might feel were they lost in a dangerous and brutal landscape.
Delicate Arch
From Graham Parsons to Homer Simpson, many figures of pop culture have lost their grip on reality out in the desert, and the characters of Delicate Arch are no different.
Perhaps the most experimental of all these listed films, Delicate Arch breaks the fourth wall and implicates the viewer in the terror these college kids are experiencing in the beautiful and dangerous rock fields of Moab, Utah.
Screambox
‘Bloody Bites’ Season 18 Premieres Today With ‘The Blue Diamond’ Starring Barbara Crampton
Presented by Bloody Disgusting and Scotchworthy Productions, “Bloody Bites” is back for Season 18 on Screambox beginning today, and we’ve got the full lineup of this season’s shorts.
The top-performing original series on the Screambox platform spotlights up-and-coming voices in the genre, with each episode featuring horror shorts from around the world.
First up, Season 18 kicks off today with The Blue Diamond starring horror icon Barbara Crampton, which was “Bloody Bites” programmer Tony Wash’s favorite short from last year.
And that’s just the beginning of this season’s twisted delights.
The complete “Bloody Bites” Season 18 lineup includes…
The Blue Diamond
Director – Sam Fox
Starring – Barbara Crampton
Synopsis – Alison arrives to the funeral of her estranged mother, Jacqueline Diamond, not knowing what to expect. A cult of ski people adorned in 80’s snow-suits was definitely not on her bingo card. Alison discovers that her mother ran off to the mountain town of Bear Creek to open an 80’s themed apres ski club called The Blue Diamond and as it turns out, these ski people are all her fanatic club members.
After the funeral, Alison is forced into an impromptu wake when all those darn ski people show up unannounced to her newly inherited cabin. They’ve come bearing blueberry schnapps and enough cheese to feed a small village. Alison’s frustration grows as she realizes that when Jacqueline abandoned her, she ran off to Bear Creek to become a beacon of the community, saving affected ski bums and snow bunnies from their hard lives off piste. It doesn’t help that these ski people appear to be perfect, fit, almost robotic replicas of an idealized version of her narcissistic mom.
During a synchronized dance performed by the ski people, Alison loses it and lets out all her repressed rage towards her mom resulting in a cathartic emotional release. The ski people look on in bemused apathy before holding her down and forcing a giant shot-ski of blueberry schnapps down her throat. Alison immediately feels the effects of the blue drink and drops to the floor drugged, unconscious.
Tied to a chair, skis bolted to the ground, Alison awakes to find her mother there, alive, within the confines of the club. As her mother tries to reconcile their damaged relationship, Alison discovers the terrifying truth of this town and its inhabitants.
Banjo
Director – Cameron Poletti
Synopsis – Isaac is thrilled when his friend offers him the use of his family’s cabin in the woods to lose his virginity. But when his first time goes horribly wrong, he begins to believe it may be the work of a sinister circumcision cult!
Escape
Director – Lorenzo Manetti
Synopsis – Awakening on the floor of a destroyed suburban bedroom, we discover a global invasion has begun and we are not alone in the house.
OBEY!
Director – Jordan Wippell
Synopsis – After the tragic death of her viral dog, Max, a pet influencer is confronted by a vengeful spirit demanding an apology for a life of exploitation.
The Tunnel
Director – Adam Rose-Levy
Synopsis – The Reichardt family takes a trip to the beach.
Devil’s Playground
Director – Halle Sullivan & John Steele
Synopsis – In the quirky suburban neighborhood of Devil’s Playground, multiple children, including Molly’s daughter Zoe, have gone missing. As Molly grapples with the devastating loss, she faces a choice: continue her relentless search for Zoe or succumb to the temptation of forgetting her grim reality and moving on. With her most human desires pulling her in conflicting directions, Molly must navigate the eerie landscape of her community while confronting her own inner demons. As she dives deeper into the mystery, she discovers unsettling truths that challenge her perception of both her neighborhood and herself.
Wild Animal
Director – Beth Park
Synopsis – In the early hours of the morning, Mallory, a wealthy woman, finds an abandoned baby.
She’s indignant that this responsibility has landed on her and doesn’t know what to do
with the thing. She drives the baby to a caravan park and abandons it there to be
found by someone else. However she feels like she is being watched, that the child’s mother
is stalking her. She has no idea why.
The viewer begins to distrust Mallory’s perception of reality as, feeling reckless she hooks up with a local man. But hearing the baby crying starts to drive her mad. She realises that her breasts have started to leak milk.
She takes the baby to a public toilet and, unable to understand how it’s possible, she starts to breastfeed the baby. But someone is outside the stall. It’s the mother.
Gaunt, wild and desperate, the mother crawls into the bathroom stall, demands her baby back and slices Mallory’s abdomen with a scalpel.
Mallory staggers out, leaving the baby behind. But seeing her reflection she realises the truth. She is the mother, not the glamorous woman she believed herself to be.
She is, in fact, suffering from postpartum psychosis. The ominous presence of the mother was her own subconscious, trying to surface through her delusion.
She grabs the baby, sobbing but reconciled with her healthy child and her true identity.
The Man & The Scarecrow
Director – Justin Knoepfel
Synopsis – Following a personal loss, a grieving man develops an unhealthy companionship with a scarecrow.
The Queen of Sod
Director – Matthew Kollar
Synopsis – While researching a book on Hollywood urban legends, author Mike Campbell lands an interview with Lloyd Cocoa, the oddball son of ’60s starlet Esther Cocoa—better known as The Queen of Sod for her wildly popular lawn commercials. But what starts as a quirky footnote in pop culture history turns chilling when Mike begins to suspect Esther never died… and the grass may still be growing.
SLASHR
Director – Amir Moini
Synopsis – In a remote mountain cabin, a young man named Ashkan is stalked by a ruthless killer, known for deceiving his victims into sharing their locations on a dating app.
Laid Bare
Director – Morgen Ludwig
Synopsis – A struggling painter glimpses success when he begins slicing pieces of his own skin off and using it to create his work.
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Featuring the best short horror, thriller & sci-fi short films, “Bloody Bites” runs four new seasons each year (March/April, June/July, September/October, December/January).
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