In Monster, “After being abducted and taken to a desolate house, a girl sets out to rescue her friend and escape from their malicious kidnapper.”

As of now, Netflix hasn’t set an official date for Monster, only that it’s coming soon. 

Monster is directed by Rako Prijanto and written by Alim Sudio. It stars Sultan Hamonangan, Anantya Kirana, Alex Abbad, and Marsha Timothy.

The Boy Behind the Door follows twelve-year-old Bobby and his best friend, Kevin, as they’re abducted from a park. Bobby wakes alone in a trunk and escapes, only to return when he realizes his best friend is still held captive inside a desolate house. 

The Indonesian remake gender swaps the ill-fated kids embarking on a harrowing cat-and-mouse chase to escape, but, according to an interview with Kapanlagi, Monster also updates the original story by making one of the main characters mute. Meaning, expect very little dialogue in this update. The change will likely make the horror-thriller even more suspenseful, which is saying a lot considering how intense The Boy Behind the Door is.

I wrote in my review of The Boy Behind the Door that “it gives a unique and intense spin on the home invasion. The constant ratcheting of tension leaves you alternating between edge-of-your-seat panic and cringe-worthy repulsion; this thriller isn’t afraid to put its children through absolute hell.”

Check out new images from Monster below, as well as a tense trailer from the film’s premiere at the Jogja-NETPAC Asian Film Festival last November.

Stay tuned for an official release date as it’s announced, but expect this to arrive on Netflix soon.

The post ‘Monster’ – Indonesian Remake of ‘The Boy Behind the Door’ Heading to Netflix appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Now, the gripping, powerful tale of survival and friendship in the face of evil is finally coming home to Digital, DVD, and Blu-ray on March 15, 2022. 

In the film, “A night of unimaginable terror awaits twelve-year-old Bobby and his best friend, Kevin, when they are abducted on their way home from school.

“Managing to escape his confines, Bobby navigates the dark halls, praying his presence goes unnoticed as he avoids his captor at every turn. Even worse is the arrival of another deranged stranger, whose mysterious arrangement with the kidnapper may spell certain doom for Kevin.

“With no means of calling for help and miles of dark country in every direction, Bobby embarks on a rescue mission, determined to get himself and Kevin out alive… or die trying.“

While Powell and Charbonier may have created a white-knuckle, visceral experience, it’s not without a few moments of reprieve. Here’s an exclusive clip from The Boy Behind the Door that sees Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) figure out how to use an outdated phone.

The filmmakers explained, “This was a really fun scene for us. Because the movie is so dark in tone, it was important to find some natural moments of levity while also reminding the audience that these are indeed kids forced to confront a very terrifying and insidious reality.”

The post ‘The Boy Behind the Door’: Exclusive Clip Offers Levity in Intense, Boundary Pushing Horror-Thriller appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Here’s where you can watch them this week!

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

The Deep House – Hulu, Paramount+

Urban explorer Ben (James Jagger) drags his girlfriend Tina (Camille Rowe) along on his latest adventure seeking a legendary house preserved at the bottom of a lake. They find it with assistance from a local but also find themselves racing against the clock when they become trapped inside. Oxygen levels aren’t the only problem; the underwater house is haunted. Inside directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s latest may not get that deep in terms of narrative, but their commitment to going practical makes for one eerie, atmospheric, and exhilarating new twist to the haunted house. It’s spooky and otherworldly.

Malignant – HBO Max

Channeling the spectacle of late ’90s Dark Castle, the opening sequence sets up an outlandish plot that feels lifted from the ’90s both in tone and bloodletting, signaling a wild ride ahead where you’re on its outrageous wavelength, or you’re not. It’s a relentlessly entertaining riot, from the prison cell massacre featuring a mullet-wearing Zoë Bell to Maddie Hasson’s doe-eyed line delivery of “You’re adopted?!” Director James Wan and screenwriter Akela Cooper delivered a breath of fresh air, and the movie’s wild reception also solidifies its spot here. If you’ve already caught up with this one more than once, the much more dour creature feature Antlers is also available on HBO Max.

The Boy Behind the Door – Shudder

Two young friends fight to escape their kidnappers in this white-knuckle ride, one of the best 2021 horror movies of them all. Filmmakers David Charbonier and Justin Powell plunge straight into the heart of evil for their unrelentingly suspenseful thriller that fearlessly pushes boundaries. They know how to block a scene and use sound design to maximize suspense and how to keep applying the pressure at a steady clip. It’s a taut thriller, made even bolder by the hero’s age. Lonnie Chavis carries a lot on his young shoulders throughout, made even more impressive by the dark subject matter. The intense thriller tosses the home invasion concept on its head while leaving you at the edge of your seat and breathless.

Blood Red Sky – Netflix

Nadja (Peri Baumeister) and her ten-year-old son, Elias (Carl Anton Koch), board a flight from Germany to New York. She’s very ill and hopes the doctor in New York can cure her illness with an experimental transfusion. Violent terrorists hijack the flight straight away, putting their lives at risk. When a particularly sadistic terrorist causes harm, it unleashes Nadja’s inner monster. A beating heart of familial love pumps through the veins of this intense horror-thriller with a vicious take on vampire lore. High-altitude thrills bring intensity, while character development and pathos instill rooting interest. It makes for a compelling action horror movie.

Titane – Hulu

Once again, Julia Ducournau finds unique, transgressive ways to use body horror that trigger instant revulsion yet garner instant empathy. Alexia is an anti-heroine, borderline sociopathic, and thoroughly magnetic, thanks to her shocking acts. Alexia’s serial killer instincts evolve into something else as she finds a bizarre father figure as broken as she is. Titane throws everything at its audience in an aggressive style. Visceral, cringe-worthy violence, tenderness, and even more bizarre sexual encounters. Ducournau makes all of it, visually and narratively, remarkably coherent. It’s anchored by a pair of leads who are fully committed to their oddly charming yet profoundly flawed characters.

The post Five 2021 Horror Movies You Can Stream This Week appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Horror has made the most of this unusual year by offering a king-sized buffet of options across all platforms. A great avenue for the profitable genre, yet something that has made a list like this ludicrously hard to research and narrow down. Simply put, there was no shortage of great film performances in horror for 2021. A realistic list would likely be over 50 entries, but the 15 I’ve chosen are ones that I felt put in the extra mile for their respective films.

The 15 performances listed range from arthouse horror to your good ol’ fashioned slashers and I’m not expecting everyone to fancy them the way I do. But in an oddball year of recovery, the work put in by this list of actors would be foolish to ignore and the thought of readers checking even just one of these films out is enough justification for me. It’s been a year of unexpected surprises and here’s to highlighting them with the 15 Best Horror Film Performances of 2021!

15: Melanie Laurent – Oxygen

Single location stories often run the risk of feeling small-scale and insignificant because just how terrifying can one simple room be? Or in the case of Alexandre Aja’s Netflix horror-thriller Oxygen, a single confined space populated by a confused and horrified Melanie Laurent? Oxygen strays from the over-the-top carnage of Aja’s previous efforts in Piranha 3D and High Tension and creates a visceral experience from the simple premise of a woman who wakes up inside a cryogenic chamber that is running out of oxygen. She does not know how she got there nor even who she is. All she knows is that she does not have much time before suffocating.

Laurent, most famous for her role as Shosanna in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, is a one-woman act in Oxygen, selling the gradually increasing terror and paranoia of someone with seemingly no options for escape. Laurent charms the audience with her sly quips at the gravity of her situation, but it’s never at the expense of the film’s consistently tense tone. Barring flashbacks and some unexpected developments in the second act, she keeps the film grounded and in the moment, making us fear for a nameless person’s safety with such ease. Laurent is the heart of this twisty sci-fi horror-thriller, proving why she remains one of France’s most talented and versatile actresses.

14: Lonnie Chavis – The Boy Behind the Door

An uncomfortable hybrid between a coming-of-age flick and a traditional cat-and-mouse horror ride, The Boy Behind the Door thrives in its simplicity. Two best friends, Bobby and Kevin, are walking home from school when they are kidnapped by an unseen person. Bobby manages to escape from the trunk of a car, but the screams of Kevin from inside a large and looming house are too much for him to ignore. What follows is a nail-biting rescue mission spearheaded by Lonnie Chavis in a star-making horror performance for the Shudder exclusive film.

With Kevin mostly out of sight and the kidnapper’s face not even being revealed for most of the film, all the pressure is on Chavis’s shoulders to carry this film. It’s a task Chavis accomplishes with an impressive mixture of understandable naivety and panicked intensity at having to play the hero of his best friend’s horror story. He immediately endears us to him with the care he shows for Kevin, leading the audience to cheer on someone who doesn’t take the opportunity to save themselves from certain danger because friendship truly is power. The film itself can be riddled with a tad too many horror clichés, but Chavis’s lead performance as the unexpectedly brave Bobby will hopefully only be the beginning for the young star.

13: Roman Griffin Davis – Silent Night

I surely wasn’t expecting Roman Griffin Davis’s next memorable follow-up to his winning performance in Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit to be a festive end-of-the-world doomsday comedy, but here we are. Silent Night mixes the irritating passive-aggressive vibes of faking civility during Christmas dinner with the impending doom of a poisonous gas cloud that is predicted to kill off the population of the world come the next morning. A last minute suicide pill is distributed to citizens of the U.K. and most are happy with taking themselves out without much struggle – except for Roman Griffin Davis’s Arthur, the lone detractor amongst his willing family on an already awkward Christmas night. A dash of doubt and suddenly Davis turns in one of the year’s most empathetic and challenging performances.

Arthur is quick to question why everyone is so keen on giving up, regularly offering fleeting moments of cathartic logic on a night of deep insecurities and lies coming out in the open. Deep into the night and with the cloud looming ever closer, Davis gets more chances to show off his dramatic chops with an increasingly emotional turn as a boy desperate for a tinge of hope. Davis outright steals the movie once he becomes fully confrontational to his parents, standing out among a talented and committed ensemble that aren’t given the emotional core Art is. Davis is the beating heart of an otherwise grim Christmas horror-dramedy that I hope becomes a niche Christmas tradition in the future.

12: Yahya Abdul-Mateen II – Candyman

It should be stated that Tony Todd’s iconic performance as Candyman can never truly be replicated. Todd’s signature shadowy whisper of a voice combined with his menacing, yet alluring presence was sorely missed in Nia DaCosta’s adaptation of Candyman. It leaves a noticeable void lingering in every shot of this movie, but what we missed with Tony Todd was replaced by a bold imagining of the Candyman legend led by the always great Yahya Abdul Mateen II. Mateen plays Anthony McCoy, a visual artist attempting to incorporate Black trauma into his art when he comes across the legend of Candyman and forms an uncomfortably intimate connection with it.

Abdul-Mateen II plays both sides of the fence beautifully in Candyman; Anthony is flawed and sympathetic as an artist in way over his head, making his descent into a paranoid and increasingly unstable mess so much more heart wrenching. Mateen can sell insanity, but there’s glimmers of humanity beautifully sprinkled in his tragedy that more than make up for the film’s faults. The best thing Mateen could do was separate himself from the aura of Todd’s interpretation while keeping in line with the mythology of Candyman and damned if Morpheus 2021 doesn’t do exactly that.

11: Jeremy Thomas – Antlers

One of the many cinematic victims of Covid-19, Antlers’ heavily delayed release slowly shifted it away from the public conscience, leading to a muted opening weekend. A true shame not just for the cast and crew who clearly went above and beyond to make this one of the best looking films of the year, but for its main star Jeremy Thomas as well. Playing a boy who is hiding a terrible family secret that is responsible for some strange murders in a small town, Thomas soars as the soft-spoken boy at the heart of it all and his inner conflict dealing with the severity of a fractured home life is the real core of Antlers.

Thomas gets relatively little dialogue compared to his adult co-stars, but his grim silence and understated performance speaks volumes to Thomas’s natural talent as an actor. Even when the story becomes too complicated for its own good, Thomas sells the terror of his horrific family situation uncomfortably well. Of course it doesn’t hurt that he is given the most narrative depth as opposed to everybody else who unfortunately cannot save the missteps in their own character writing. Thomas is the real star of Antlers and for the many who may still be on the fence about the movie itself, his performance gives the film a fighting chance at the very least.

10: Emily Rudd – Fear Street: 1978

One of the breakout hits of 2021, Fear Street is a trilogy that is solid throughout with an emotionally compelling story woven into the three films. 1994 offered an intriguing beginning to the series, but the bleak heartbreak of 1978 was what solidified the series as a genuinely brutal horror-comedy. Emily Rudd’s star-making turn as Cindy Berman is owed massive thanks for that. Playing one of the teenagers who is unfortunately present during the Camp Nightwing massacre of 1978, the live action pick for One Piece’s Nami puts in the work as the uptight and rule-abiding sister to the rebellious and angsty Ziggy, creating one of the most interesting slasher movie protagonists in recent memory.

We are used to seeing the archetype of the “good girl” in slashers, but Rudd injects a sense of longing into Cindy; she’s the preppy do-gooder that has damaged her relationships with her friends and family as a result. Rudd portrays a girl desperate to cling on to a sense of normalcy and completely envelops herself in Cindy, making it all the nerve-wracking to see her run for her life from her possessed ax-wielding boyfriend. Her performance isn’t as showy as some of the others in the Fear Street series, but her wonderful sense of drama with a keen knack for comedic timing catapulted her from the supporting sidelines to one of the strongest horror surprises of 2021.

9: Diana Rigg – Last Night in Soho

For Edgar Wright’s latest horror effort, it was difficult to choose my favorite for the whole show. Thomasin McKenzie anchors the insanity of Last Night in Soho’s time travel/sixth sense ghost story even when it narratively derails and Anya Taylor-Joy’s dark and empathetic turn as the aspiring singer McKenzie’s Ellie finds a kindred spirit in makes for a harrowing and well-done dynamic between the duo. Great work from both women, but Last Night in Soho’s MVP comes in the form of the late, great Diana Rigg of Game of Thrones and 1960s Avengers fame with her performance as Ms. Collins, the owner of the bedsit where Ellie begins to travel back to the dark underbelly of the 1960s at night.

Collins remains of the few characters sympathetic to Ellie in the film and Rigg plays her with such an air of mystery, sharing Ellie’s love for the allure of the 60s while mostly keeping in the shadows from people. But Rigg comes and outright steals the film’s second act, turning in a tense and sinister performance that is played with a sense of alarming casualness. Rigg gradually becomes an intimidating presence elevated by her stone-cold demeanor hiding years of trauma and pain. Whatever faults pop up in Last Night in Soho (and there are quite a few) are balanced with Rigg’s sneak attack of a performance.

8: Cillian Murphy – A Quiet Place: Part Two

A Quiet Place was a riveting directorial debut for John Krasinski that gambled big time with an ending that was a blatant cliffhanger and teaser for a sequel that may have never come had the film failed. But through that and Covid delaying the film to this year, Part Two proves itself to be a worthwhile sequel that brings the Abbott family back, this time going on a dangerous expedition away from home. Along the way, they encounter Emmett, an old acquaintance from before the creatures first attacked, surviving on his own. A shell of his former self, it was the kind of role that Cillian Murphy was born to play.

Murphy’s performance as Emmett would be if you took his shaken and war-torn character from Dunkirk, fused him with his lost and confused self from 28 Days Later and stuck him in a world destroyed by an alien apocalypse. Emmett looks out for himself and did not hesitate to leave people to their doom during the early days of the attack. Murphy’s affinity for characters riddled with PTSD plays in strong contrast to Krasinski’s Lee from the first film, offering a new dynamic that adds a new depth to the world of A Quiet Place. A film just as much about Emmett overcoming his trauma as it is about the Abbott family and Murphy’s subtle intensity runs away with the entire movie in the process.

7: Morfydd Clark – Saint Maud

A24 has become something of an icon for fans of artsy and niche horror and though the fandom can seem a bit overwhelming at first, the distribution company’s following is not without reason. A24 is the home for smaller auteur directors getting a chance to prove themselves and Rose Glass is the latest example with her brilliant psychological horror film, Saint Maud. Starring Morfydd Clark as Katie, a Roman Catholic woman who works as a private nurse, Saint Maud functions as a riveting character study of a woman grappling with her newfound faith as she becomes attached to a wealthy atheist patient whom she feels obligated to save.

Not an exciting premise, but Clark’s wildfire performance is the rare double whammy of entertaining and compelling. Katie wrestling with the duality of her faith and the stubborn beliefs of her patient lead her down an unhinged path that Clark plays to perfection. There is a genuine sense of realism to how Clark carries herself onscreen, even down to her demeanor when walking down a street. You’d think small touches like that wouldn’t be entertaining, but Clark’s bursts of feistiness compliment her naturalistic performance and gives Saint Maud a unique brand of dark energy. A frightening showcase for the Welsh actress who lifts Saint Maud above the majority of the horror field in the 2020s.

6: Rebecca Hall – The Night House

It’s 2021 and by this time, we’ve seemingly reached our wits’ end with haunted house movies, right? Watching a character creep around in the dark of their spirit-infested home has become as tired a cliché as a record scratch to indicate that we should be laughing our hearts out. Luckily, David Bruckner of V/H/S fame understands the very nature of those clichés so that he can subvert them to unsettling results with The Night House. In it, Rebecca Hall is a revelation as a woman named Beth stricken with grief, finding herself driven to madness over her deceased husband’s ominous and mysterious suicide note.

As her house seemingly begins to awaken at night and she finds blueprints for a reversed version of their home, Hall is given the opportunity to mix standard haunted house creepiness with her work as a woman whose depression and PTSD is leading to an increasing number of erratic mood swings. Some of the film’s best scenes are far-removed from the house itself and simply revolve around Beth lashing out at the people around her. Her sudden need to explain the nature of her husband’s suicide to an unsuspecting parent of one of her students lands her a spot on this list all by itself, but The Night House thrives throughout its entire runtime with Hall’s towering performance that would be an Oscar contender if the world was all right. But I’ll take what I can get.

5: Matthias Schweighöfer – Army of the Dead

Zack Snyder’s return to the zombie genre has yielded great results with Army of the Dead, the heist horror-comedy that has managed to already spawn a franchise with prequel Army of Thieves. Not surprising that the prequel only focuses on one character from Army of the Dead since Matthias Schweighöfer’s wonderfully endearing work as talented safecracker Ludwig Dieter easily steals Snyder’s entire movie away from its already solid cast. Joining the makeshift heist team tasked with robbing a casino inside a zombified Las Vegas, Dieter comes out of left field to become the film’s breakout character thanks to Schweighöfer’s electric chemistry with the cast.

On his own, Dieter is a talented goofball in way over his head with the new mission, but it’s his interactions with the crew that truly allow him to shine. Schweighöfer’s sincere comedic timing brilliantly contrasts with the badass vibes of the rest of the crew. His bonding moments with Omari Hardwick’s Vanderohe are something straight out of a buddy comedy, never feeling out of place in a Zack Snyder zombie movie. Dieter is interesting enough to lead a movie on his own, but his supporting role in Army is where he is best used, allowing Matthias to carve out a name for himself among the zombie genre’s most entertaining and watchable characters. In a genre where human characters are more often than not just bodies for James A. Janisse to compile for a YouTube list, Schweighöfer’s Dieter refuses such a label.

4: Chris Sheffield – The Block Island Sound

I wasn’t sure what to expect when turning on Netflix and deciding to boot up The Block Island Sound late at night. Was I expecting to see indie darling Jim Cummings playing a seaside conspiracy theorist? Not really. Did I expect the film to turn into a Lovecraftian-inspired sci-fi horror tale of unusual phenomena plaguing the New York island? Of course not. I sure as hell was not expecting a legitimate top 5 of the year contender with Chris Sheffield’s criminally underrated performance as Harry, the son of a local and recently deceased fisherman who was waking up in strange places days before his death.

Despite the horror appearing grand scale on the surface, Sheffield’s Harry is the core of this sci-fi tale, dealing with the death of his father and his own rapidly deteriorating mental health. Sheffield masterfully uses facial expressions to communicate the slow destruction of Harry’s mind, carrying what could have been a flavorless attempt at cosmic horror to a heightened emotional level. The Block Island Sound may not always be heavy on plot, but Chris Sheffield is the anchor needed for the film to soar past its limitations. Here for Sheffield to demonstrate his tight grasp on nuanced drama in more roles for the future.

3: Vincent Lindon – Titane

I could not for the life of me explain the general plot of Titane from director Julia Ducournau even if I dumbed it down. Following an even stranger vibe than her previous film Raw, Titane follows a serial killer on the run who shacks up with a lonely fire captain who is still grieving over the disappearance of his son years back. It’s a seemingly random pairing that pulls through to become one of, if not arguably the best, duo-led film of the year. One half of that magic equation is the supremely talented Vincent Lindon in the role of that fire captain, giving one of the most heartfelt performances in a horror film you’re likely to ever come across.

Lindon throws himself into the role of a man who is trying so hard to keep his body going, resorting to steroids and unusual workout routines that do him more harm than good. The man is falling apart at the seams and despite his issues, Vincent makes him an almost instantly endearing figure through the natural touches he adds to the character. As he bonds with the most unlikely figure ever, it’s still hard not to cheer him on when Vincent adds such a strong humanity to his character’s writing. As much a friendship movie as it is a horror film (with a surprisingly sturdy kill count), Titane is a showcase for the understated talent of Vincent Lindon, who instantly elevates and humanizes EVERY scene he’s in here, even when the whole car thing becomes more prominent.

2: Noomi Rapace – Lamb

A married couple still coping over the loss of their child put all of their love into their new adopted lamb-human hybrid baby. That’s the plot of Lamb. Unusual yet simple in its introduction. It seems destined to fail because we have to believe that a human couple would be this loving and dedicated towards a hybrid baby, but Noomi Rapace puts those fears to rest with a powerhouse of a performance that is just as much about her character as it is about the aforementioned lamb baby.

Repace sells the stilted and awkward misery of her life without a child with such frightening realism that it’s easy to still be on her side even as she blatantly destroys the life of one mother to finally have a child to call her own. There is a darkness to Rapace’s Maria that fully forms the conflicted nature of her character and it results in several powerful moments showcasing the intense versatility of the woman with the dragon tattoo. Maria is a mother with an animalistic instinct to protect her lamb/human hybrid child, leading Rapace towards a possible career-best performance that is simultaneously frightening, heartbreaking, and wonderfully realized.

1: Agathe Rousselle – Titane

It’s one thing for an experienced actor to show you the years they’ve spent mastering their craft paying off onscreen for us. For some people, years of experience and training can lead to a brick wall with no signs of further progress. But it’s genuinely miraculous for someone to turn in a year-end topping performance on their feature length debut. Rousselle, who has previously worked as a journalist for feminist magazine Peach (of which she is a co-founder), made her feature length debut for Ducournau’s Titane, playing opposite the previously mentioned Vincent Lindon as the serial killer who holes up with the fire captain. In the process of her character Alexia’s journey, Rousselle is given the opportunity to display her talent for playing seemingly different characters in a single movie and she is absolutely mesmerizing.

The first quarter has Rousselle playing everyone like a fiddle, setting herself up as a tired showgirl at a motor show, being hounded by fans as she apathetically autographs their belongings. Then she uses trickery to take her hair pin and viciously murder an invasive fan of hers and now we’re watching the life of a serial killer who has a strange kink for cars. Rousselle’s scowl scares harder than the entire runtime for most horror films and she is completely believable in such a grim role that sees her up the body count in almost record time in the beginning.

But her eventual façade as Vincent’s long lost son (even breaking her own damn nose to look the part) is where Rousselle shines brighter than a star, giving an emotional rollercoaster of a performance while hardly uttering a single word. Playing a man’s missing son is quite fucked, but Alexia’s commitment to the role is able to help us shift her into the identity so much easier. I’ve barely seen reviews praising her inane ability to clearly develop Alexia into a lost soul looking for companionship and it’s a damn shame. She is the very heart of Titane and contains all that I look for in a great horror performance. Terrifying and intimidating in one breath and able to win your heart with her raw (get it) humanity in the next, Agathe Rousselle is THE horror MVP of 2021 and I cannot wait to see what she does next.

The post The 15 Best Horror Movie Performances of 2021 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Year two of an ongoing pandemic made for another fascinating year in horror. Last year’s delayed theatrical titles finally saw release in 2021, many of which experimented with day-and-date release strategies. Streaming services and VOD markets continued to bring an insane selection, and more film festivals joined the virtual space. All of which felt like 2020 bleeding over into 2021 in a peculiar way.

The result is a year where horror continued to cross over and dominate in the mainstream. The ongoing trend of serious, adult horror got broken up by an emerging new trend of crowd-pleasing horror. Audiences made it clear that the movies that resonated most were the titles that allowed them to escape these unprecedented and stressful times, whether through light-hearted escapism or comforting franchise returns. 

Once again, the genre delivered much welcome catharsis, comfort, escapism, and chills, and not always where expected. The year’s best induced bone-deep scares and crowd-pleasing thrills viewers couldn’t stop talking about, showcased originality, and spotlighted a new wave of remarkable debuts by filmmakers to watch going forward.

10. Malignant

James Wan set clear boundaries on what kind of madness to expect from the bonkers opening scene with his polarizing return to horror. Channeling the spectacle of late ’90s Dark Castle, the opening sequence sets up an outlandish plot that feels lifted from the ’90s both in tone and bloodletting, signaling a wild ride ahead where you’re on its outrageous wavelength, or you’re not. It’s a relentlessly entertaining riot, from the prison cell massacre featuring a mullet-wearing Zoë Bell to Maddie Hasson’s doe-eyed line delivery of “You’re adopted?!” Wan and screenwriter Akela Cooper delivered a breath of fresh air, and the movie’s wild reception also solidifies its spot here.

9. The Night House

Writers Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski (Super Dark Times, SiREN) and director David Bruckner (The Ritual, Southbound, V/H/S) explore the potential for an existence beyond the grave in a haunting portrait of loss and grief. What’s more, Bruckner delivers a constant level of pulse-pounding terror with one unsettling, spooky atmosphere. Emphasis on constant; The Night House begins its nonstop barrage of intense scares almost immediately, and it never ceases. Bruckner once again demonstrates a talent for scare crafting and an unsettling atmosphere.

8. The Medium

Producer and co-writer Na Hong-jin’s follow-up to The Wailing continues the exploration of faith and clashing beliefs. Only this time, it’s a documentary-style nightmare set in Thailand. Co-writer/Director Banjong Pisanthanakun (Shutter) bides his time, letting audiences get attached to the family at the center of a possession case. Then he layers in the fear. At first, the scares are subtle. Then it builds. Eerie found footage-style video of Mink’s nighttime activity grows more disturbing. Even still, it can’t prepare for the absolute insanity of the climax, an onslaught of spiritual exposition and gruesome horrors. It’s gory, shocking, and unpredictable. It’ll also break your heart.

7. The Power

Writer/Director Corinna Faith uses the late 1973 rolling blackouts that plunged London into darkness every night, caused by a miners’ strike, as a backdrop for this hospital-set haunter. Faith uses a familiar period ghost story as a foundation to create a psychologically powerful tale full of claustrophobic dread and nyctophobic-induced scares. Rose Williams’s vulnerable performance as the young nurse targeted by the darkness and the duality of the film’s title delivers an emotional sucker punch that lingers.

6. Candyman

Every facet of the production is stunning. The bold color palette, Cara Brower’s production design full of mirrors and reflective surfaces for the eponymous boogeyman to lurk, and the tricky shots and framing that Nia DaCosta employs to navigate around those mirrors hold you firm in this movie’s grip from the outset. There’s even an art to the horror. Gore is used thoughtfully and with purpose, and restraint on the bloodletting is just as impactful. All of it makes for a rich visual feast that reexamines a horror legend and leaves you clamoring for DaCosta to helm another horror feature as soon as possible.

5. Titane

Once again, Julia Ducournau finds unique, transgressive ways to use body horror that trigger instant revulsion yet garner instant empathy. Thanks to her shocking acts, Alexia is an anti-heroine, borderline sociopathic, and thoroughly magnetic. Those incredible acts never really stop; they only transform into something else as she finds a bizarre father figure. Titane throws everything at its audience in an aggressive style. Visceral, cringe-worthy violence, tenderness, and even more bizarre sexual encounters. Ducournau makes all of it, visually and narratively, remarkably coherent. It’s anchored by a pair of leads who are fully committed to their oddly charming yet profoundly flawed characters.

4. The Vigil

Writer/Director Keith Thomas brings a new perspective to a familiar setup without sacrificing any scares. The ominous atmosphere and unsettling moments deliver the chills. The filmmaker also takes significant measures to ensure that this story is told in an accessible way. A familiar tale of demonic possession becomes enriched by its subtext of inherited generational traumas, and its core themes of guilt and religious obligation are inherently relatable regardless of beliefs. They’re universal. A long untapped corner of religion and folklore finally gets explored excitingly and elicits goosebumps in the process.

3. The Green Knight

Writer/Director David Lowery’s adaptation of the anonymously written, 14th-century poem “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” makes for one epic feast of a movie. Lowery deconstructs it, creating an intensely robust sword and sorcery feature thematically, visually, and narratively. The Green Knight doesn’t just ensnare you in its captivating spell piecemeal; it consumes you wholly from the opening frame. It’s an intoxicating, eerie atmosphere, whether foggy landscapes, haunted houses nestled in the woods, stately castles, or sprawling battlefields adorned in corpses. It’s a triumphant cinematic experience that crosses multiple genres with an emphasis on sword and sorcery, which is the sole reason it’s not a little higher on this list.

2. The Boy Behind the Door

Filmmakers David Charbonier and Justin Powell plunge straight into the heart of evil for their unrelentingly suspenseful thriller that fearlessly pushes boundaries. They know how to block a scene and use sound design to maximize suspense and how to keep applying the pressure at a steady clip. It’s a taut white-knuckle thriller, made even bolder by the hero’s age. Lonnie Chavis carries a lot on his young shoulders throughout, made even more impressive by the dark subject matter. The intense thriller tosses the home invasion concept on its head while leaving you at the edge of your seat and breathless.

1. Censor

Prano Bailey-Bond’s feature debut is an atmospheric plunge into the Video Nasty era, resulting in a creative and nightmarish critique of the moral scrutiny and censorship that fueled it. Niamh Algar excels as a stern, old-fashioned woman slowly unmoored by seismic shifts in her safe little bubble. Neon hues of frenzied nightmares bleed over into the drab colors of reality, signaling a visually stunning descent into madness. Bailey-Bond crafts a potent love letter to the genre that’s intricate, gorgeous, mesmerizing, and uninterested in hand-holding. Censor makes for a phantasmagorical warning that you can’t edit out past traumas, lest they come back and bite you. In our opinion, it’s the very best new horror movie of 2021. 

The post Bloody Disgusting’s Top Ten Best Horror Movies of 2021 appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

It’s been a busy year for the genre, so this week’s streaming picks are dedicated to great offerings you might have missed over the course of the past eleven 1/2 months.

From high intensity thrillers to spooky chillers and raucous horror-comedies, here’s what you should stream this week – and, as always, *where* you can stream them…

The Boy Behind the Door – Shudder

Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) are inseparable best friends. They do everything together, including playing on the same baseball team. They’re attacked and kidnapped while out in a park tossing the ball. Bobby wakes up later, bound and gagged in a car trunk parked at a house in the middle of nowhere. He frees himself and starts to make a run for it until he hears Kevin’s screams. What then transpires is one nail-biting, edge of your seat thriller that’s unafraid to go to some dark places and put its young leads in peril. It’s claustrophobic, intense, and an impressive introduction to filmmakers David Charbonier and Justin Powell.

Coming Home in the Dark – Netflix

A husband (Erik Thomson) and wife (Miriama McDowell), and their two sons, are on a road trip together in scenic New Zealand. However, a family hike changes everything when they encounter a pair of bloodthirsty psychopaths. At first, it seems they’ve run into the vicious drifters, Mandrake (Daniel Gillies) and Tubs (Matthias Luafutu), by pure happenstance. As a night of terror unfolds, it becomes clear that the horror might be tied to the past. James Ashcroft’s feature directorial debut wastes no time at all cutting right to the dark heart of his grim, jaw-dropping morality thriller. It’s bleak, nihilistic, and with a contemplative moral center.

The Deep House – Epix

Urban explorer Ben (James Jagger) is a thrill seeker in perpetual pursuit of the next unique find that will draw big numbers on his social media channels. Ben’s latest goal is to find legendary village ruins submerged deep underwater fifty years ago during a dam’s construction. He drags his girlfriend Tina (Camille Rowe) along, constantly pushing her past her comfort zone and refusing to slow down. When they find what they’re searching for, it results in an eerie nightmare buried at the bottom of a lake. Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s atypical haunted house movie is an otherworldly feat of ambitious filmmaking. It’s more intent to let its horrors wash over you than provide a visceral onslaught, but its imagery sticks with you.

The Trip – Netflix

Spouses Lisa (Noomi Rapace) and Lars (Aksel Hennie) head to a remote family cabin to reconnect, neither aware that the other is plotting murder. Just as their murder plans begin, a more significant threat arrives in the form of escaped convicts. Directed and co-written by Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow), it’s marriage counseling in its most violent, splatstick form. Rapace is having a blast as the murderous wife who constantly outsmarts many around her, and she takes as much of a beating as she doles out. In other words, The Trip is a blast.

The Vigil – Hulu

This spooky tale takes place over one frightful evening, with its lead confronting both his guilt and a demonic entity. That lead is Yakov (Dave Davis), a former Orthodox Jew attempting to adjust to the secular world after tragedy sucked away his faith. Yakov accepts a job to act as Shomer, where one guards a recently deceased body against evil spirits until they can be buried. But the body and the home are plagued by an evil entity that wants out. This chamber piece brings the scares and unsettling atmosphere in spades.

The post Stay Home, Watch Horror: Five 2021 Horror Movies You Might’ve Missed That You Can Stream This Week appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Netflix dominated July in terms of horror releases. Nothing came close to touching the buzz of the Fear Street trilogy, but the streaming giant also quietly dropped a strong contender for this month’s spotlight pick; Blood Red Sky. A savage action-horror that brought heart and bloodshed in equal measure, this new take on vampire mythos got edged out in the end by a title far more likely to get overlooked. Yes, even though the filmmakers behind it kickstarted this recurring column. The Boy Behind the Door broaches a dark subject matter with care, but more importantly, it rips through it with intense, nail-biting suspense that leaves you on the edge of your seat.

Let’s cut straight to the chase: The Boy Behind the Door is a genuinely dark thriller. Harrowingly dark. More than just putting its child protagonists in constant peril, it broaches pedophiliac subject matter that might be too upsetting and off-putting for some. The filmmakers are never exploitive or gratuitous about this but consider this a trigger warning nonetheless. David Charbonier and Justin Powell plunge straight into the heart of evil for their unrelentingly suspenseful thriller that fearlessly pushes boundaries.

Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) are an inseparable pair of best friends. They do everything together, including play on the same baseball team. While out in a park tossing the ball, ticking down the hours until it’s time to head to their latest match, Kevin runs off after the ball. He doesn’t come back. When Bobby looks for him, an unseen assailant grabs him from behind and brutally knocks him unconscious. Bobby wakes up later, bound and gagged in a car trunk parked at a house in the middle of nowhere. He frees himself and starts to make a run for it until he hears Kevin’s screams. Bobby chooses to return and save Kevin, putting their friendship to the ultimate, most dangerous test.

Charbonier and Powell know how to block a scene and use sound design to maximize suspense, applying the pressure at a steady clip. More importantly, when they start revealing more about the kidnappers’ motivations for stealing the boys, it’s daunting and repulsive but never gratuitous or overly explicit. It’s subtle enough to still pack a severe gut-punch without veering too far into exploitive territory. Considering the taboo subject matter, that’s a fine line to walk.

Perhaps most impressive of all is just how much rests on Chavis’s young shoulders for the film’s overall success and how he pulls it off with ease. Bobby is the audience proxy and the unwitting hero. In a film primarily devoid of dialogue, much of the dread, intensity, and internal turmoil is relayed through Chavis’s nuanced expressiveness. One shocking encounter with an evil man is rendered all the more potent because of Bobby’s palpable fear. Without a word, the young actor can convey a profound struggle with mortality, both for himself and his attacker, and it’s effective.

The filmmakers inject a few twists and surprises while making it abundantly clear that they’re unafraid to kill their darlings – or ruthlessly harm them- and nothing about their debut feels safe. It’s a taut white-knuckle thriller, made even bolder by the hero’s age.

Charbonier and Powell bookend their thriller with more peaceful, art-house scenes that establish the boys’ bonds, but they’re too jarringly peaceful compared to the rest of the movie. They’re not needed, either; Chavis and Dewey’s performances more than sell their characters’ friendship. Though, I suppose it’s nice to offer both them and the audience a nice momentary reprieve before and after the raging storm. Because after enduring this unrelentingly intense, shockingly dark thriller, you’re going to need to catch your breath. 

Charbonier and Powell are now two for two in creating intense horror with minimal resources. The way they wring palpable tension out of minimal space is impressive. That they’ve done this with such young leads is all the more remarkable. It’ll be exciting to see what the filmmakers do next, but perhaps they can give Chavis and Dewey a break from the unrelenting terror. They’ve earned it.

The Boy Behind the Door is available to stream on Shudder now.

The post July Release ‘The Boy Behind the Door’ Leaves You Breathless and On Edge [Indie Horror Spotlight] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Expect streaming platforms, digital, and VOD to bring the horror fun, too. That means that the summer slate of horror is packed, with new titles dropping every single week.

To help you prepare for a summer of screams, here’s what’s ahead…

The Forever Purge – July 2 (Theaters)

The final entry in the franchise is here. After Election Year’s events, The Forever Purge follows Adela (Ana de la Reguera) and Juan (Tenoch Huerta), who finds solace at a Texan ranch, having fled a drug cartel in Mexico. They’ll run into trouble when a group of outsiders decides to keep purging beyond the allotted time when people can break all laws. The Forever Purge releases just in time for its traditional Fourth of July slot.

Fear Street Part 1: 1994 – July 2 (Netflix)

The first of the Leigh Janiak helmed Fear Street trilogy drops on Netflix. An R-rated trilogy based on R.L. Stines YA novel series kicks off with Part 1, set in 1994. The plot follows a group of teenage friends that accidentally encounter the ancient evil responsible for a series of brutal murders that have plagued their town for over 300 years. Welcome to Shadyside.

Till Death – July 2 (VOD)

Emma (Megan Fox), trapped in a stale marriage to Mark (Eoin Macken), gets surprised with a weekend getaway for their tenth anniversary. Romance turns into a harrowing fight for survival when she wakes up to discover she’s handcuffed to her husband, and he’s dead. That’s before she realizes she’s the target of a sinister home invasion plot.

Fear Street Part 2: 1978 – July 9 (Netflix)

Part 2 of the Fear Street trilogy explores more of Shadyside, this time in 1978. School’s out for summer, and the activities at Camp Nightwing are about to begin. But when another Shadysider is possessed with the urge to kill, the fun in the sun becomes a gruesome fight for survival.

Dachra – July 9 (Theaters and Virtual Cinemas)

Three journalism students investigating a cold case come upon a mysterious place marked by unsettling rituals and terrifying children. The Tunisian horror film is described as “Equal parts Midsommar and The Blair Witch Project” and developed a reputation for terrifying viewers during its festival run. If you need something to send shivers down your spine during the blazing hot season, this might do the trick.

A Classic Horror Story – July 14 (Netflix)

Netflix is keeping release details for this one close to the vest, offering a synopsis that reads, “Music for children, an abandoned house, five strangers: it looks like the classic horror movie and instead….” The effective teasers hint at brutal torture ahead and a twist on familiar horror tropes.

Escape Room: Tournament of Champions – July 16 (Theaters)

Taylor Russell and Logan Miller return along with director Adam Robitel for this sequel. In this installment, six people unwittingly find themselves locked in another series of escape rooms, slowly uncovering what they have in common to survive. If the title isn’t already an indicator, it’s discovering they’ve all played the game before.

Fear Street Part 3: 1666 – July 16 (Netflix)

The final entry in the Fear Street trilogy wraps up by taking a giant leap backward in time by a few centuries. The origins of Sarah Fier’s curse are finally revealed as history comes full circle on a night that changes the lives of Shadysiders forever.

Kandisha – July 22 (Shudder)

While we wait for Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo’s underwater haunted house feature, The Deep House, Shudder delivers their latest, Kandisha. Friends Amélie, Bintou, and Morjana spend their summer trading ghost stories. When Amélie’s ex assaults her, she recalls the legend of vengeful demon Kandisha. She summons the demon, and her ex dies. Kandisha’s bloodlust isn’t satiated, however, and the friends must learn how to break the curse before it’s too late.

Old – July 23 (Theaters)

M. Night Shyamalan’s latest is based on the graphic novel Sandcastle by Pierre Oscar Lévy and Frederik Peeters. The mysterious new thriller features a family on a tropical holiday who discover that the secluded beach where they are relaxing for a few hours is somehow causing them to age rapidly, reducing their entire lives into a single day.

The Boy Behind the Door – July 29 (Shudder)

Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) are an inseparable pair of best friends. While out in a park tossing the ball, both are grabbed by unseen assailants. Bobby wakes in the trunk of a car and breaks free. When he hears Kevin’s screams, he puts his life on the line to rescue his friend. Filmmakers David Charbonier and Justin Powell plunge straight into the heart of evil for their unrelentingly suspenseful thriller that fearlessly pushes boundaries.

The Green Knight – July 30 (Theaters) 

Dev Patel plays Sir Gawain, who encounters the mysterious Green Knight (Ralph Ineson), intent on striking a perilous bargain. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers, which becomes a more profound journey to prove his worth. From visionary writer/director David Lowery, expect a heavily stylized take on the Arthurian legend, full of nudity and bloodshed.

The Last Matinee – August 6 (Theaters)

The latest Bloody Disgusting x Dark Star Pictures collaboration is for ultra-gory Giallo fans. In The Last Matinee, the audience attending the last showing of a horror film in a small downtown cinema is terrorized by a murderer who begins to pick them off, one by one. The only person to notice that something strange is going on is the projectionist’s daughter. The Last Matinee promises to deliver an eye-popping experience.

Don’t Breathe 2 – August 13 (Theaters)

Co-writer Fede Alvarez passes the director’s reigns to co-writer Rodo Sayagues for this home invasion sequel. Stephen Lang returns as the Blind Man, but the synopsis curiously suggests he might be the protagonist this time. In Don’t Breathe 2, the Blind Man has been hiding out for years in an isolated cabin and has taken in and raised a young girl orphaned from a house fire. Their quiet existence is shattered when a group of kidnappers show up and take the girl, forcing the Blind Man to leave his haven to save her. 

Demonic – August 20 (VOD)

Neill Blomkamp seems to blend the supernatural with a technological nightmare for his latest. In Demonic, a young woman unleashes terrifying demons when supernatural forces at the root of a decades-old rift between mother and daughter are ruthlessly revealed.

The Night House – August 20 (Theaters)

The Night House follows a widow (Rebecca Hall) who begins to uncover her recently deceased husband’s disturbing secrets. Director David Bruckner (The Ritual) wastes no time cutting straight to the heart of terror here; his latest is scary as hell.

Candyman – August 27 (Theaters)

The wait for one of the year’s most anticipated horror movies is nearly over. Directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele, this spiritual sequel returns to Cabrini-Green. The plot follows visual artist Anthony (Yahya Abdul-Mateen) and his girlfriend Brianna (Teyonah Parris), who move there and discover the horrifying legend firsthand. 

We Need to Do Something – September 3 (Theaters and VOD)

Seeking shelter from a storm, a dysfunctional family finds themselves trapped for days with no sign of rescue. Worse, unspeakable horrors lurk just outside their walls, attempting to find a way inside. Sean King O’Grady’s feature directorial debut offers an unpredictable grab bag of terror and includes one of the year’s most potent scares.

Malignant – September 10 (Theaters and HBO Max)

Plot details remain scarce for James Wan’s latest, which arrives at the very tail end of summer. Described as an original Giallo thriller, Wan directed off a screenplay by Akela Cooper and JT Petty with story by Wan and Ingrid Bisu. The MPA gave it an R-rating for “Strong horror violence, gruesome images, and for language.” 

The post Bloody Disgusting’s 2021 Summer Horror Movie Preview: The 19 Can’t Miss Movies of the Summer! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The streaming service Shudder is celebrating the upcoming summer with a brand spankin’ new “Summer of Chills” lineup, with *thirteen* brand new horror movies on the way.

The fun has actually already begun with new releases including Caveat and George Romero’s The Amusement Park, with many more coming soon. Preview the “Summer of Chills” below!

The lineup includes “Twelve new original and exclusive films for June, July and August, including the anticipated debut of landmark horror director George A. Romero’s legendary “lost” film The Amusement Park on Tuesday, June 8. The robust summer lineup kicks off with Caveat, an eerie, slow-building, cat-and-mouse thriller, and continues with such marquee films as The Boy Behind the Door, Justin Powell and David Charbonier’s directorial debut; Jakob’s Wife, starring horror icon Barbara Crampton; and Kandisha, the long awaited new supernatural shocker from the French directing duo of Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, who return to Shudder following the success of their film Among the Living; in addition to many others.”

Here’s the full “Summer of Chills” schedule…

Caveat – Premieres June 3 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Lone drifter Isaac accepts a job to look after his landlord’s niece, Olga, for a few days in an isolated house on a remote island. It seems like easy money, but there’s a catch: he must wear a leather harness and chain that restricts his movements to certain rooms. Once Olga’s uncle, Barrett leaves the two of them alone, a game of cat and mouse ensues as Olga displays increasingly erratic behavior as a trapped Isaac makes a series of horrific discoveries in the house. Directed by Damien Mc Carthy. Starring Jonathan French, Leila Sykes and Ben Caplan.

The Amusement Park – Premieres June 8 **A Shudder Exclusive Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Recently discovered and restored 46 years after its completion by the George A. Romero Foundation and produced by Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, The Amusement Park stars Martin’s Lincoln Maazel as an elderly man who finds himself disoriented and increasingly isolated as the pains, tragedies and humiliations of aging in America are manifested through roller coasters and chaotic crowds. Commissioned by the Lutheran Society, the film is perhaps Romero’s wildest and most imaginative movie, an allegory about the nightmarish realities of growing older, and is an alluring snapshot of the filmmaker’s early artistic capacity and style and would go on to inform his ensuing filmography. The “lost” film was restored in 4k by IndieCollect in New York City.

Superdeep – Premieres June 17 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

The Kola Superdeep borehole is the largest Russian secret facility. In 1984, at the depth of more than 7 miles below the surface, unexplained sounds were recorded, resembling the screams and moans of numerous people. Since these events, the object has been closed. A small research team of scientists and military personnel go down below the surface to find the secret hidden these many decades. What they discover will pose the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. Directed by Arseniy Sukhin. Starring Milena Radulovic, Sergey Ivanyuk, Nikolay Kovbas, Kirill Kovbas and Nikita Dyuvbanov.

An Unquiet Grave – Premieres June 24 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

A year after losing his wife in a car crash, Jamie convinces her sister, Ava, to return with him to the site of the accident and help him perform a strange ritual. But as the night wears on, it becomes clear that he has darker intentions. An Unquiet Grave is an exploration of grief, and the harm we cause when we don’t take responsibility for our own healing. Directed by Terence Krey. Starring Jacob A. Ware and Christine Nyland who also co-wrote the film.

Vicious Fun – Premieres June 29 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Joel, a caustic 1980’s film critic for a national horror magazine, finds himself unwittingly trapped in a self-help group for serial killers. With no other choice, Joel attempts to blend in with his homicidal surroundings or risk becoming the next victim. Directed by Cody Calahan. Starring Evan Marsh, Amber Goldfarb, Ari Millen, Julian Richings, Robert Maillet, Sean Baek, David Koechner, Alexa Rose Steele, Mark Gibson,  Kristopher Bowman and John Fray.

Son – Premieres July 8 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

After a mysterious group breaks into Laura’s home and attempts to abduct her eight-year-old son, David, the two of them flee town in search of safety. But soon after the failed kidnapping, David becomes extremely ill, suffering from increasing psychosis and convulsions. Following her maternal instincts, Laura commits unspeakable acts to keep him alive, but soon she must decide how far she is willing to go to save her son. Directed by Ivan Kavanagh. Starring Andi Matichak, Emile Hirsch and Luke David Blumm.

The Call – Premieres July 15 **A Shudder Exclusive Film

(Available on Shudder US and Shudder CA)

Four Friends. One Phone Call. 60 Seconds to Stay Alive. In the fall of 1987, a group of small-town friends must survive the night in the home of a sinister couple after a tragic accident. Needing only to make a single phone call, the request seems ordinary until they realize that this call could change their life…or end it. This simple task quickly spirals into terror as their worst nightmares become reality. Directed by Timothy Woodward Jr. Starring Lin Shaye (Insidious franchise) and Tobin Bell (Saw franchise).

Kandisha – Premieres July 22 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

It is summer break and best friends Amélie, Bintou and Morjana hang together with other neighborhood teens. Nightly, they have fun sharing scary stories and urban legends. But when Amélie is assaulted by her ex, she remembers the story of Kandisha, a powerful and vengeful demon. Afraid and upset, Amélie summons her. The next day, her ex is found dead. The legend is true and now Kandisha is on a killing spree— and it’s up to the three girls to break the curse. Directed by Inside and Livid duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo. Starring Mathilde Lamusse, Samarcande Saadi and Suzy Bemba.

The Boy Behind the Door – Premieres July 29 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

A night of unimaginable terror awaits twelve-year-old Bobby and his best friend, Kevin, when they are abducted on their way home from school. Managing to escape his confines, Bobby navigates the dark halls, praying his presence goes unnoticed as he avoids his captor at every turn. Even worse is the arrival of another stranger, whose mysterious arrangement with the kidnapper may spell certain doom for Kevin. With no means of calling for help and miles of dark country in every direction, Bobby embarks on a rescue mission, determined to get himself and Kevin out alive… or die trying. Directed by Justin Powell and David Charbonier, who also directed this year’s The Djinn. Starring Lonnie Chavis (This Is Us), Ezra Dewey (The Djinn), Kristin Bauer van Straten (True Blood), Scott Michael Foster (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Micah Hauptman (Rust Creek).

Teddy – Premieres August 5 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Twentysomething Teddy lives in a foster home and works as a temp in a massage parlor. Rebecca, his girlfriend, will soon graduate. A scorching hot summer begins. But Teddy is scratched by a beast in the woods: the wolf that local angry farmers have been hunting for months. As weeks go by, animal impulses soon start to overcome the young man. Directed by Ludovic Boukherma and Zoran Boukherma. Starring Anthony Bajon (The Prayer), Ludovic Torrent, Christine Gautier, Noémie Lvovsky, Guillaume Mattera, Jean-Paul Fabre, Alexis Orlandini, Gérard Pau and Jean-Michel Ricart.

Bleed With Me – Premieres August 10 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Rowan, a vulnerable outsider, is thrilled when the seemingly perfect Emily invites her on a winter getaway to an isolated cabin in the woods. Trust soon turns to paranoia when Rowan wakes up with mysterious incisions on her arm. Haunted by dream-like visions, Rowan starts to suspect that her friend is drugging her and stealing her blood. She’s paralyzed by the fear of losing Emily, but she must fight back before she loses her mind. Bleed With Me is a psychological horror that juxtaposes tenderness and violence in an investigation of female intimacy and dangerous codependency. Directed by Amelia Moses. Starring Lee Marshall, Lauren Beatty and Aris Tyros.

Jakob’s Wife – Premieres August 19 **A Shudder Exclusive Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Anne is in her late 50s and feels like her life and marriage have been shrinking over the past thirty years. Through a chance encounter with a stranger, she discovers a new sense of power and an appetite to live bigger and bolder than before. However, these changes come with a toll on her marriage and a heavy body count. Directed by Travis Stevens (Girl on the Third Floor). Starring horror icons Barbara Crampton (You’re Next) and Larry Fessenden (The Dead Don’t Die), Bonnie Aarons (The Nun), Nyisha Bell, Mark Kelly, Sarah Lind, Robert Rusler, and Phil Brooks (aka CM Punk).

Mosquito State – Premieres August 26 **A Shudder Exclusive Film 

Isolated in his austere penthouse overlooking Central Park, obsessive Wall Street data analyst Richard Boca (Beau Knapp) sees ominous patterns: His computer models are behaving erratically, as are the swarms of mosquitos breeding in his apartment, an infestation that attends his psychological meltdown.

The post [Exclusive] Trailer Previews Shudder’s “Summer of Chills” Lineup Including 13 Original and Exclusive Horror Movies! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Described by Meagan as “harrowingly dark,” she also calls The Boy Behind the Door “an unrelentingly intense, boundary-pushing thriller.”

Now, Shudder is set to bring the gripping, powerful tale of survival and friendship in the face of evil home on July 29th, Bloody Disgusting learned.

We also now have the official trailer for the film in which a night of unimaginable terror awaits twelve-year-old, Bobby, and his best friend, Kevin, when they are abducted on their way home from school…

“Managing to escape his confines, Bobby navigates the dark halls, praying his presence goes unnoticed as he avoids his captor at every turn. Even worse is the arrival of another deranged stranger, whose mysterious arrangement with the kidnapper may spell certain doom for Kevin.

“With no means of calling for help and miles of dark country in every direction, Bobby embarks on a rescue mission, determined to get himself and Kevin out alive… or die trying.”

Watch a previously-shared exclusive clip from The Boy Behind the Door in which Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) finds his friend locked behind a door and calls the police for help. Warning: it’s gross.

The post Intense ‘The Boy Behind the Door’ Trailer Traps Two Friends in a House of Horror [Video] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Described by Meagan as “harrowingly dark,” she also calls The Boy Behind the Door “an unrelentingly intense, boundary-pushing thriller.”

Now, Shudder is set to bring the gripping, powerful tale of survival and friendship in the face of evil home on July 29th, Bloody Disgusting learned. We also have a pair of brand new posters that look from behind “the” door.

In the film, “A night of unimaginable terror awaits twelve-year-old, Bobby, and his best friend, Kevin, when they are abducted on their way home from school.

“Managing to escape his confines, Bobby navigates the dark halls, praying his presence goes unnoticed as he avoids his captor at every turn. Even worse is the arrival of another deranged stranger, whose mysterious arrangement with the kidnapper may spell certain doom for Kevin.

“With no means of calling for help and miles of dark country in every direction, Bobby embarks on a rescue mission, determined to get himself and Kevin out alive… or die trying.”

Watch a previously-shared exclusive clip from The Boy Behind the Door in which Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) finds his friend locked behind a door and calls the police for help. Warning: it’s gross.

The post ‘The Boy Behind the Door’ Posters Look Through a Keyhole appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

The lineup includes “Twelve new original and exclusive films for June, July and August, including the anticipated debut of landmark horror director George A. Romero’s legendary “lost” film The Amusement Park on Tuesday, June 8. The robust summer lineup kicks off with Caveat, an eerie, slow-building, cat-and-mouse thriller, and continues with such marquee films as The Boy Behind the Door, Justin Powell and David Charbonier’s directorial debut; Jakob’s Wife, starring horror icon Barbara Crampton; and Kandisha, the long awaited new supernatural shocker from the French directing duo of Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, who return to Shudder following the success of their film Among the Living; in addition to many others.”

Here’s the full “Summer of Chills” schedule…

Caveat – Premieres June 3 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Lone drifter Isaac accepts a job to look after his landlord’s niece, Olga, for a few days in an isolated house on a remote island. It seems like easy money, but there’s a catch: he must wear a leather harness and chain that restricts his movements to certain rooms. Once Olga’s uncle, Barrett leaves the two of them alone, a game of cat and mouse ensues as Olga displays increasingly erratic behavior as a trapped Isaac makes a series of horrific discoveries in the house. Directed by Damien Mc Carthy. Starring Jonathan French, Leila Sykes and Ben Caplan.

The Amusement Park – Premieres June 8 **A Shudder Exclusive Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Recently discovered and restored 46 years after its completion by the George A. Romero Foundation and produced by Suzanne Desrocher-Romero, The Amusement Park stars Martin’s Lincoln Maazel as an elderly man who finds himself disoriented and increasingly isolated as the pains, tragedies and humiliations of aging in America are manifested through roller coasters and chaotic crowds. Commissioned by the Lutheran Society, the film is perhaps Romero’s wildest and most imaginative movie, an allegory about the nightmarish realities of growing older, and is an alluring snapshot of the filmmaker’s early artistic capacity and style and would go on to inform his ensuing filmography. The “lost” film was restored in 4k by IndieCollect in New York City.

Superdeep – Premieres June 17 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

The Kola Superdeep borehole is the largest Russian secret facility. In 1984, at the depth of more than 7 miles below the surface, unexplained sounds were recorded, resembling the screams and moans of numerous people. Since these events, the object has been closed. A small research team of scientists and military personnel go down below the surface to find the secret hidden these many decades. What they discover will pose the greatest threat humanity has ever faced. Directed by Arseniy Sukhin. Starring Milena Radulovic, Sergey Ivanyuk, Nikolay Kovbas, Kirill Kovbas and Nikita Dyuvbanov.

An Unquiet Grave – Premieres June 24 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

A year after losing his wife in a car crash, Jamie convinces her sister, Ava, to return with him to the site of the accident and help him perform a strange ritual. But as the night wears on, it becomes clear that he has darker intentions. An Unquiet Grave is an exploration of grief, and the harm we cause when we don’t take responsibility for our own healing. Directed by Terence Krey. Starring Jacob A. Ware and Christine Nyland who also co-wrote the film.

Vicious Fun – Premieres June 29 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Joel, a caustic 1980’s film critic for a national horror magazine, finds himself unwittingly trapped in a self-help group for serial killers. With no other choice, Joel attempts to blend in with his homicidal surroundings or risk becoming the next victim. Directed by Cody Calahan. Starring Evan Marsh, Amber Goldfarb, Ari Millen, Julian Richings, Robert Maillet, Sean Baek, David Koechner, Alexa Rose Steele, Mark Gibson,  Kristopher Bowman and John Fray.

Son – Premieres July 8 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

After a mysterious group breaks into Laura’s home and attempts to abduct her eight-year-old son, David, the two of them flee town in search of safety. But soon after the failed kidnapping, David becomes extremely ill, suffering from increasing psychosis and convulsions. Following her maternal instincts, Laura commits unspeakable acts to keep him alive, but soon she must decide how far she is willing to go to save her son. Directed by Ivan Kavanagh. Starring Andi Matichak, Emile Hirsch and Luke David Blumm.

The Call – Premieres July 15 **A Shudder Exclusive Film

(Available on Shudder US and Shudder CA)

Four Friends. One Phone Call. 60 Seconds to Stay Alive. In the fall of 1987, a group of small-town friends must survive the night in the home of a sinister couple after a tragic accident. Needing only to make a single phone call, the request seems ordinary until they realize that this call could change their life…or end it. This simple task quickly spirals into terror as their worst nightmares become reality. Directed by Timothy Woodward Jr. Starring Lin Shaye (Insidious franchise) and Tobin Bell (Saw franchise).

Kandisha – Premieres July 22 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

It is summer break and best friends Amélie, Bintou and Morjana hang together with other neighborhood teens. Nightly, they have fun sharing scary stories and urban legends. But when Amélie is assaulted by her ex, she remembers the story of Kandisha, a powerful and vengeful demon. Afraid and upset, Amélie summons her. The next day, her ex is found dead. The legend is true and now Kandisha is on a killing spree— and it’s up to the three girls to break the curse. Directed by Inside and Livid duo Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo. Starring Mathilde Lamusse, Samarcande Saadi and Suzy Bemba.

The Boy Behind the Door – Premieres July 29 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

A night of unimaginable terror awaits twelve-year-old Bobby and his best friend, Kevin, when they are abducted on their way home from school. Managing to escape his confines, Bobby navigates the dark halls, praying his presence goes unnoticed as he avoids his captor at every turn. Even worse is the arrival of another stranger, whose mysterious arrangement with the kidnapper may spell certain doom for Kevin. With no means of calling for help and miles of dark country in every direction, Bobby embarks on a rescue mission, determined to get himself and Kevin out alive… or die trying. Directed by Justin Powell and David Charbonier, who also directed this year’s The Djinn. Starring Lonnie Chavis (This Is Us), Ezra Dewey (The Djinn), Kristin Bauer van Straten (True Blood), Scott Michael Foster (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Micah Hauptman (Rust Creek).

Teddy – Premieres August 5 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Twentysomething Teddy lives in a foster home and works as a temp in a massage parlor. Rebecca, his girlfriend, will soon graduate. A scorching hot summer begins. But Teddy is scratched by a beast in the woods: the wolf that local angry farmers have been hunting for months. As weeks go by, animal impulses soon start to overcome the young man. Directed by Ludovic Boukherma and Zoran Boukherma. Starring Anthony Bajon (The Prayer), Ludovic Torrent, Christine Gautier, Noémie Lvovsky, Guillaume Mattera, Jean-Paul Fabre, Alexis Orlandini, Gérard Pau and Jean-Michel Ricart.

Bleed With Me – Premieres August 10 **A Shudder Original Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Rowan, a vulnerable outsider, is thrilled when the seemingly perfect Emily invites her on a winter getaway to an isolated cabin in the woods. Trust soon turns to paranoia when Rowan wakes up with mysterious incisions on her arm. Haunted by dream-like visions, Rowan starts to suspect that her friend is drugging her and stealing her blood. She’s paralyzed by the fear of losing Emily, but she must fight back before she loses her mind. Bleed With Me is a psychological horror that juxtaposes tenderness and violence in an investigation of female intimacy and dangerous codependency. Directed by Amelia Moses. Starring Lee Marshall, Lauren Beatty and Aris Tyros.

Jakob’s Wife – Premieres August 19 **A Shudder Exclusive Film

(Available on Shudder US, Shudder CA, Shudder UKI and Shudder ANZ)

Anne is in her late 50s and feels like her life and marriage have been shrinking over the past thirty years. Through a chance encounter with a stranger, she discovers a new sense of power and an appetite to live bigger and bolder than before. However, these changes come with a toll on her marriage and a heavy body count. Directed by Travis Stevens (Girl on the Third Floor). Starring horror icons Barbara Crampton (You’re Next) and Larry Fessenden (The Dead Don’t Die), Bonnie Aarons (The Nun), Nyisha Bell, Mark Kelly, Sarah Lind, Robert Rusler, and Phil Brooks (aka CM Punk).

The post Shudder’s “Summer of Chills” Lineup Includes 12 Original and Exclusive Horror Movies! appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Described by Meagan as “harrowingly dark,” she also calls The Boy Behind the Door “an unrelentingly intense, boundary-pushing thriller.”

Now, Shudder is set to bring the gripping, powerful tale of survival and friendship in the face of evil home on July 29th, Bloody Disgusting learned.

In the film, “A night of unimaginable terror awaits twelve-year-old, Bobby, and his best friend, Kevin, when they are abducted on their way home from school.

“Managing to escape his confines, Bobby navigates the dark halls, praying his presence goes unnoticed as he avoids his captor at every turn. Even worse is the arrival of another deranged stranger, whose mysterious arrangement with the kidnapper may spell certain doom for Kevin.

“With no means of calling for help and miles of dark country in every direction, Bobby embarks on a rescue mission, determined to get himself and Kevin out alive… or die trying.”

Here’s a previously-shared exclusive clip from The Boy Behind the Door in which Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) finds his friend locked behind a door and calls the police for help. Warning: it’s gross.

The post ‘The Boy Behind the Door’: Shudder to Release “Intense, Boundary-Pushing Thriller” appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

While some are arriving by Halloweentime, others have premiered at the several virtual film festivals and are looking for a home come 2021. One major highlight is Justin Powell and David Charbonier‘s thrilling indie horror The Boy Behind the Door, which Meagan Navarro raved about ahead of this week’s AFI FEST premiere.

Described by Meagan as “harrowingly dark,” she also calls The Boy Behind the Door “an unrelentingly intense, boundary-pushing thriller.”

In the film, “A night of unimaginable terror awaits twelve-year-old, Bobby, and his best friend, Kevin, when they are abducted on their way home from school.

“Managing to escape his confines, Bobby navigates the dark halls, praying his presence goes unnoticed as he avoids his captor at every turn. Even worse is the arrival of another deranged stranger, whose mysterious arrangement with the kidnapper may spell certain doom for Kevin.

“With no means of calling for help and miles of dark country in every direction, Bobby embarks on a rescue mission, determined to get himself and Kevin out alive… or die trying.”

Here’s an exclusive clip from The Boy Behind the Door in which Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) finds his friend locked behind a door and calls the police for help. Warning: it’s gross.

The post ‘The Boy Behind the Door’: Gross Clip from One of the Year’s Best [Exclusive] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Bobby (Lonnie Chavis) and Kevin (Ezra Dewey) are an inseparable pair of best friends. They do everything together, including play on the same little league baseball team. While out in a park tossing the ball, ticking down the hours until it’s time to head to their latest match, Kevin runs off after the ball. He doesn’t come back. When Bobby looks for him, an unseen assailant grabs him from behind and brutally knocks him unconscious. Bobby wakes up later, bound and gagged in a car trunk parked at a house in the middle of nowhere. He frees himself and starts to make a run for it until he hears Kevin’s screams. Bobby chooses to return and save Kevin, putting their friendship to the ultimate, most dangerous test.

It gives a unique and intense spin on the home invasion. The constant ratcheting of tension leaves you alternating between edge-of-your-seat panic and cringe-worthy repulsion; this thriller isn’t afraid to put its children through absolute hell. As Bobby tiptoes through the labyrinthine halls of this strange, sprawling home to avoid his kidnappers, the threat of discovery is oppressive. Because Bobby is a child, he’s prone to clumsy and naïve-based mistakes that usually results in close brushes with danger at best and disturbing violence at worst.

Charbonier and Powell know how to block a scene and use sound design to maximize suspense, and how to keep applying the pressure at a steady clip. More importantly, when they start revealing more about the kidnappers’ motivations for stealing the boys, it’s daunting and repulsive, but never gratuitous or overly explicit. It’s subtle enough to still pack a severe gut-punch without veering too far into exploitive territory. Considering the taboo subject matter, that’s a fine line to walk.

Perhaps most impressive of all is just how much rests on Chavis’s young shoulders for the film’s overall success, and how he pulls it off with ease. Bobby is the audience proxy and the unwitting hero. In a film mostly devoid of dialogue, much of the dread, intensity, and internal turmoil is relayed through Chavis’s nuanced expressiveness. One shocking encounter with an evil man is rendered all the more potent because of Bobby’s palpable fear. Without a word, the young actor can convey a profound struggle with mortality, both for himself and his attacker, and it’s effective.

The filmmakers inject a few twists and surprises, while making it abundantly clear that they’re unafraid to kill their darlings – or ruthlessly harm them- and nothing about their debut feels safe. It’s a taut white-knuckle thriller, made even bolder by the hero’s age. Charbonier and Powell bookend their thriller with more peaceful, art-house scenes that establish the boys’ bonds, but they’re too jarringly peaceful compared to the rest of the movie. They’re not needed, either; Chavis and Dewey’s performances more than sells their characters’ friendship. Though, I suppose it’s nice to offer both them and the audience a nice momentary reprieve before and after the raging storm. Because after enduring this unrelentingly intense, shockingly dark thriller, you’re going to need to catch your breath. Charbonier and Powell created one impressively ballsy debut, marking themselves as filmmakers to watch right out of the gate.

The Boy Behind the Door made its World Premiere at Celebration of Fantastic Fest.

The post [Review] ‘The Boy Behind the Door’ is an Unrelentingly Intense, Boundary-Pushing Thriller appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.