Took a trip to some creature feature fun

Posted on May 15, 2026 by Daniel

This was a mostly satisfying marathon of movies loaded with big teeth and wild monster eyes. Just turn off your brain and enjoy the bites and blood.

FRENZY MOON (2025)



The current state of everything—from how it’s affecting everyone’s existence in general to how it has affected my personal life—is so tumultuous these days that I’m living for this kind of hokey horror throwback with monster suits, buckets of blood, and rubber body parts.

We meet a werewolf immediately in an opening kill scene, plus we get a fake severed hand. Yay!

 

Another series of kills introduces us to a hunter dude in the woods trying to warn anyone he can of a creature that awaits them if they don’t turn back. Unfortunately, he is hit by a car belonging to a couple on their way to a cabin in the woods to meet some friends.

So, yeah. They don’t get the message, and they don’t turn back. Instead, they take the wounded, unconscious guy with them to the cabin, and while he takes his time waking up to warn them of what’s going on, more werewolf attacks ensue. Awesome.

This one delivers all the werewolf action, 80s creature feature vibes, and misty woods atmosphere I could ask for.

THE FIANCE (2016)



This little indie definitely offers a unique take on the Bigfoot legend—Bigfoot is basically a lycanthrope, because when it bites you, you become infected and start transforming. The issue with the film is the narrative flow.

We begin with a barrage of radio, television, and internet reports and shows letting us know there have been multiple Bigfoot reports. We also meet a rich dude and learn he has had some sort of shady dealings with a Russian crime syndicate.

He puts that aside to travel to a cabin in the woods, where he plans to propose to his girlfriend. Unfortunately, they take the trip separately. When the girlfriend arrives at night, she is immediately attacked by Bigfoot (who looks cool in silhouette), transforms into a feral creature herself, and enters the cabin and attacks her boyfriend.

The horror action and the girlfriend’s monstrous look are quite satisfying. Problem is, the movie is ridiculously repetitive. She busts into the cabin, bites some part of the boyfriend, he fights her off, and she runs back out. Over and over and over. Question is, why did she transform immediately and he doesn’t? And why doesn’t he just create a blockade in front of the door she keeps coming through?

Also filling the time are flashback scenes of both the couple’s relationship and the trouble the rich guy got in with the Russians. None of it is interesting enough to entertain considering we’ve been presented with the major horror right from the start.

There are a few more characters in the woods, but they don’t raise the body count that much, because it’s all about the girlfriend attacking the boyfriend. The film goes so hard on the horror elements that it simply needed to mix things up and deliver different action, more suspenseful segments, and more kills. Definitely sit through the credits, because there are a few more scenes sprinkled throughout it.

BAIT (2025)



This is one you watch when you need comfort horror—the most basic premise filled with familiar creature feature scenarios. My only complaint here is that the opening kill scene is like a snapshot of the whole premise of the movie, giving away everything, including a full view of the creature.

Next, we meet a dad, mom, son, and daughter on a road trip to visit extended family. They get into a really bad car accident…and wake up chained up in a basement.

Also chained up in the basement is the creature. A guy in a gas mask comes in occasionally to bring in other victims to feed it. He also gives the family a difficult ultimatum.

Meanwhile, the extended family is concerned that the main family hasn’t arrived yet, so one of them goes searching for them. Not a totally necessary side story, and it doesn’t add much to the plot, but it does break up the monster moments in the basement so we don’t get burnout.


It’s never a good sign when there are signs…

The actors rise to the performance levels necessary for people trapped in their situation, the monster is awesome, the attack scenes are gruesome, and the gore is all practical effects. The final battle is pretty hardcore as well. This is a fun popcorn movie and a good one to play if you want to add some background screaming ambience to a Halloween party.

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SLASHERS: Killer cat man, house sitter horror, and another killer Mickey

Posted on May 11, 2026 by Daniel

This triple feature was sometimes horrific, sometimes humorous, and sometimes boring for me. Let’s get right into it.

CAT SICK BLUES (2015)



In this day and age, this movie is basically one big trigger warning, so only go into it if nothing really bothers you and you like fucked up movies with psychotic killers doing depraved things to victims.

That’s mostly all that happens in this nasty flick, although the movie does seem to be trying to present two different extremes on how people cope with grief—in this case, the loss of a cat.

The opener introduces us to our killer, who wears a cat mask when he strangles and hacks up victims.

Then we meet our main girl. She has a beloved cat that is an internet sensation. A mentally challenged fan unexpectedly comes to see the cat live at her home…before unaliving it and then raping the main girl, which is all caught on camera. Footage that ends up on the internet.

Yeah. This movie indulges in cruelty. Continuously.

We then get to know our killer better. He is totally sexually messed up. He has a terrifying, huge, spiked strap-on. As much as this movie indulges in terrorizing women, it really could have been worse, because we never actually see the killer using this thing on any victims.

We do get plenty of scenes of him killing women though. In between all that, he joins a grief support group the main girl is in, and we learn he also lost a cat. As a result, he begins to bond with the main girl.

It’s weird. It’s uncomfortable. It’s disturbing. What it isn’t is scary, so unless you’re a fan of twisted cinema, you’re probably best off skipping this one.

HOUSE SITTER (2026)

 

There are some fun moments in the last half hour of this occult/slasher/home invasion hybrid flick, but there’s a lot of bland, chill downtime with the three main characters for a majority of the runtime.

A young woman takes a job house sitting for a wealthy dude. She invites along her best friend and her boyfriend, who can’t stand each other and bicker a lot. There’s plenty of exploration of the house—yet nothing interesting or ominous is discovered. They lounge by the pool, which at least gives us the boyfriend shirtless.

They also order pizza, and we’re subjected to unnecessary footage of the delivery guy trying to find the place. He is then killed in a cutaway scene.

When weird stuff finally starts happening, the trio begins panicking, but they decide to just relax and watch a movie. This is when the best friend and boyfriend discover they both love horror, and they get into a detailed convo about their favorite scenes from different horror movies.

An hour in, we finally get a chase scene with a masked figure wearing a hoodie. But…it’s only a dream sequence. And yet, as soon as the best friend wakes up from this nightmare, the same killer is actually outside the house. So…is she psychic?

There’s something rather funny about the way the trio acts in response to the killer’s appearance, but this final act is the best part of the movie. There aren’t many kills considering the small cast, but there are several surprises along the way, and the film tries to keep us entertained by piling one twist on top of another to make up for the low body count. The highlight for me is a very close-up eye shot that feels like something out of an Argento movie.

SCREAMBOAT (2025)



The tone of this film is refreshingly fun, and with its dash of playful humor, it brought to mind the slashers of the early 2000s.

Although not as blatantly based on Disney cartoon properties as some of the other films released in this subgenre lately, it does make meta references to various Disney animated classics if you pay attention.

Unlike the other killer Mickey movies I’ve seen recently, this take on Steamboat Willie—in this case, Screamboat Willie–doesn’t resemble Mickey Mouse at all. Actually, he’s the worst part of the movie. The mouse makeup is really goofy, but drag out the old green screen, because he’s not human size. He’s only two feet tall! He is, however, played by none other than Art the Clown.

The opener is a goodie, and demonstrates the kind of gore and cheesy practical effects we’re going to get, and that perhaps is the highlight.

Teen Wolf Tyler Posey is shamefully relegated to a short cameo. Would have preferred him as the leading man, although the leading man is just as cute.

Passengers board a ferry in New York City, and pretty soon they’re being killed by Screamboat Willie. That’s it. That’s the plot.

The humor and gore carry the movie for quite a while, but this boat does begin to…um…lose steam after a while, I think due to the fact that the 24-inch Screamboat Willie simply isn’t menacing. There are some camptastic kills, including death by ferry propeller and double death by forklift, as well as an old school boobs and sex scene, which leads to a severed wiener in mouth mid-BJ. Screamboat wiener….

After some lag, the film picks back up for the final battle. I think maybe it just needed to be edited down somewhere in the middle to fix the pacing issue.

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Eek! Evil entities!

Posted on May 7, 2026 by Daniel

The ghostly ghouls in these three flicks are awesome, but do the movies do them justice? Let’s find out.

AMOROSA (2025)

This is another take on the Bloody Mary/Candyman concept, only in this case it’s updated—you summon Amorosa (no, not the reality show villain) by standing in a dark room, telling her how many followers you have, and then asking her to take a selfie with you.

If you ask me, this actually could have been a satisfying, cheesy throwback to early 2000s supernatural slashers, with Amorosa hacking up obnoxious influencers left and right. Unfortunately, it takes a mostly dull route instead.

A woman calls a psychic in to help her learn what happened to her daughter. The psychic works alone, so she’s not happy when she arrives at the woman’s house to find four ghost hunters have been invited as well.

There’s a lot of walking around and feeling out the ghostly vibes, with the psychic getting some impressions here and there, but none of it is thrilling. I know. Throw in a scary doll. That will fix it!

Someone is finally killed 54 minutes in, but we don’t see Amorosa yet. We also don’t see her when someone else is killed 69 minutes in. Or at 82 minutes in.

Don’t ask me why they chose to only show Amorosa in the last few minutes of the movie, because she’s a creeptastic mix of witchy and possessed.

Sadly, she gets little screen time, and the battle with her is anticlimactic. However, I was really feeling the autumnal vibe outside the house as the survivors leave at the end.

GHOSTS OF WAR (2020)



Even though I hate period pieces, especially war flicks, I checked this one out because it has a cool cast, including hottie Alan Ritchson of Reacher, Skylar Astin of Pitch Perfect, Kyle Gallner of Jennifer’s Body, and Billy Zane.

This one really threw me for a loop. For a majority of its runtime, it reminded me of the lost 80s military flick The Supernaturals (which seriously needs a physical media release). Just like that film, most of this movie is slow.

It builds atmosphere, and there are some creepy moments, but it doesn’t feel like it’s going anywhere. Fact is, even if you pay attention to the details of what is happening, much of it won’t make sense during the first watch….

American soldiers in France during World War II take cover in a large, abandoned building, and little by little, they experience supernatural situations that suggest that they are not alone.

Things do eventually pick up somewhat (I’m talking 52 minutes into the movie), and there are some ghostly attacks, but both the hubby and I were losing interest. But then…something happens. Something so unexpected that we were both totally invested all of a sudden. We were both like, “This is fricking awesome.” We were both like, “Shit, we have to watch this movie again to better appreciate it.”

And that’s all I’m going to say.

NFT: CURSED IMAGES (2026)

This was just the kind of low budget, cheap scares, early 2000s digital entity effects bonanza I needed in my life right now. It’s a basic throwback to J-horror (and their remakes) ghost curse era, and aside from a slow start, it is nonstop, spooky silliness.

Updating the premise, the film focuses on a group of friends that deals in one of those crypto scams—NFTs, those supposedly rare, expensive digital image files people are gaga over, while my Gen X ass won’t even buy music or a movie unless it’s a tangible hard copy to add to my cherished media collection.

Anyway, these suckers—I mean—brilliant business people end up scoring what is supposed to be a cursed NFT. It’s a creepy demon face, and pretty soon (well, as soon as they’re done with a loooong scene in which they explain NFTs to a friend), they begin encountering digital demons in reality.

It’s pure popcorn movie fun as we are bombarded by shadowy forms in dark rooms, scary, flickering NFTs come to life (with faces that all look like they were borrowed from early 2000s horror movie digital effects), and disjointed, contorting, crawling ghosts. Awesome. We also get some shirtless man action. BONUS!

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BOUGHT ON DVD: 3 purchases so worth it that I wish they were on Blu-ray

Posted on May 5, 2026 by Daniel

I don’t buy many DVDs anymore thanks to Blu-rays and 4k UHDs, but when I do, it’s because I really want the movie, and DVD is the only format on which it is available. As was the case with these three that I recently added to my movie collection.

METAMORPHOSIS: THE ALIEN FACTOR (1990)



Unfathomable that I missed this one at a time when I had HBO and was working at a mom-and-pop video store, but here we are. But after catching it on cable on a snowy Saturday afternoon this past winter like it was 1990 all over again, I had to add it to my movie collection.

This is a sci-fi/horror flick with gore and creature practical effects. While totally formulaic based on its era of origin (mutant creature gets loose in some sort of contained scientific environment), it is a treat for those looking for something to bring on the nostalgia feels.

Experiments with alien matter from space go horribly wrong in a lab. You’d think the scientists would learn to be more careful once they have cages full of mutant animals, but no. One of the researchers is bitten and begins a gruesome good metamorphosis into a nasty creature.

Meanwhile, his grown daughter comes looking for him since he never came home the night before. Little does she know her younger sister has followed her there. Little do any of them know that monster daddy has escaped and is killing lab faculty left and right.

There’s a classic chest burst, attack tentacles, spitball leech thingies, smaller mutant creatures running around, research baddies thwarting the main girls, hilarious fights, both between humans and between monster and humans, and a final battle to get the creature into a machine of some sort to give it a good jolt, with perfectly cheesy electrical effects.

To top it all off, we get to see the dad naked when he’s not in monster form, and the closing credits song, “Baby You’ve Changed” by Peter M. Stoller, is possibly one of the best unknown, unreleased 80s soundtrack songs ever.

OFFICE UPRISING (2018)



I accidentally learned this movie exists because the hubby and I are on an Alan Ritchson kick and trying to check out as many of his action flicks as we can. He isn’t as beefy here as he is in his show Reacher, and he’s also not in the film much, but I wish he was, because he nails his office dude bro role.

Anyway, the movie has several familiar faces, was nowhere to be found streaming, and is only available on DVD, so I blind bought it due to the fact that it’s probably going to become a rare film to find. Glad I own it, because it fricking rocks.

Our main dude works at a weapons factory, so there are plenty of jabs at gun nuts and conservative nationalism mindsets. There are also plenty of guns around to use as defense when an energy drink the company sells begins turning all the office employees into crazies. Awesome!

For starters, we get some typical office movie shtick and banter. Then, poking fun at corporate culture, we see our main dude not even noticing that there are dead coworkers all around him as he makes his way to his cubicle in the morning.

However, he very quickly discovers that those still alive have become running, jumping, infected crazies! The film delivers just the kind of fun characters, comedy, action, and violence needed to keep the pace moving at a fast clip.

Jane Levy of the Evil Dead remake appears as the main guy’s love interest, and Zachary Levi is his asshole boss. Kind of sux, because Levi is really good in the role, probably because he’s an asshole in real life.

Along with all the excitement, action, and kick-ass fight scenes as the main characters try to escape the office building alive, there are even clashing teams of crazies within the company, showing how vowing loyalty to a corporation is psychotic.

This is definitely a goodie for a watch party…especially if you invite your coworkers and serve energy drinks.

ICK (2024)



In the tradition of movies like Slither, The Faculty, and Night of the Creeps, Ick is fricking awesome! I accidentally stumbled on the trailer on YouTube, and since it’s not available to stream anywhere, I had to buy the Canadian DVD release because it wasn’t released anywhere else on any format. What the hell?

Ick gives us what’s been missing in movies these days—nostalgia for 20 years ago. It begins in “2000 something”, but you will be catapulted back to the exact time by the awesome soundtrack, which includes the likes of The All-American Rejects, Good Charlotte, The Killers, Hoobastank, Yellowcard, Fountains of Wayne, Paramore, Creed, Blink-182, and Plain White T’s. This is the new millennium throwback wave we haven’t gotten to ride in film.

It also stars Brandon Routh of Dylan Dog. The high school opener has him and Mena Suvari de-aged and dressed in early 2000s style. Here is the film’s one big flaw. The two are dating, and he’s a high school football star…until a small “ick” tentacle pops out of the ground during a game, which ends up leaving Brandon in a leg brace for life, ruining his chances of getting out of his town.

The backstory could have just had him breaking his leg simply from playing the game, because introducing the ick so early is just weird. When we flash forward to modern times, the town has actually been infiltrated by ick, which is an ugly, invasive plant the locals have just come to live with. Why would they be so surprised when the ick finally begins turning on them and possessing them, transforming them into zombies? This same thing could have happened if a meteor had landed on earth and released the ick in classic sci-fi creature feature fashion, making its sudden appearance an actual surprise to the town.’

Instead, Brandon, whose high school sweetheart dumped him after his football career ended, has been studying the ick, and is the one who suspects it’s taking over. His motive for the rest of the movie becomes to convince everyone the ick is dangerous and to rescue his ex’s teen daughter when the ick crashes a pool party.

The film is pure creature feature fun, with zombified people and ick tentacles growing everywhere. There’s a funny queer jab at JK Rowling, along with some jabs at small town conservative conspiracy theories. Best of all, when the military rolls into town to save the day (which always ruins a horror movie for me), the locals force them to leave so the prom won’t be canceled. Awesome.

Naturally, the prom is where the boss battle with the quickly growing ick kicks off. The final act is a total blast as Brandon teams up with some teens to kill the ick once and for all.

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BOUGHT ON BLU: a lost 80s anthology and two Fulci flix from the early 90s

Posted on May 1, 2026 by Daniel

80s completist that I am, I had to purchase the Blu-ray release of super indie anthology The Basement. And Fulci completist that I am, I had to purchase two of his films that I didn’t yet have on disc. All three were blind buys because I’d never seen any of them. Let’s find out how that turned out for me.

THE BASEMENT (1989)



This low budget anthology is only 69 minutes long, and the reason I’d never seen it back in the day is because apparently no one had. It seems it was never completed back then, but someone dug it up, restored it, and created a completed audio track with a score and sound effects as well as all the dialogue. The original audio is included as a bonus on the Blu-ray, and there are no embellishments—just white noise between actors’ lines.

Not surprisingly, it’s a sloppy feature, but it sure is gritty, and it perfectly serves as a time capsule reflecting how shot-on-video movies looked and felt back then.

The wraparound has a foursome of people in a basement with no idea how they got there. A ghoul in a robe appears and tells them they must pay…for sins they haven’t committed yet! I guess the four stories are supposed to show us what their sins will be….

1st story – A woman sitting by a pool keeps luring people she has a beef with into the water, where something with tentacles kills them…including a silver daddy in a Speedo.

2nd story – One of my favorite tales here, this one has a “Halloween Scrooge” being visited by creeps and monsters on Halloween night, including the kind of awesome witch that was so rare in 80s horror movies.

3rd story – While filming a hard rock zombie movie in the wilderness, the cast and crew is attacked by real zombies. This has a classic, 1970s zombie movie vibe and has embellished with rock music to enhance the retro vibe.

4th story – A young dude buys an allegedly possessed house and soon discovers there definitely are killer creeps haunting the place.

The writing might be weak, but the 80s nostalgia is through the roof, and the practical special effects are fantastic.

VOICES FROM BEYOND (1991)



This Fulci film was released during my days of working at the video store, but we didn’t carry it, so I’d never seen it before. In true throwback fashion, cheesy is the only way to describe it.

The opener promises so much. We see a man and wife in bed together before he gets up and goes to stab a crying kid to death. Awesome.

Next, we witness that man hemorrhage to death in a hospital. After that the plot becomes a classic trope. His family descends on his home because there’s money involved.

And here’s where we get the extra cheese spread. His daughter returns home, and his ghost visits her to tell her she must figure out the mystery of who hated him enough to kill him before his body rots in the ground.

There are ghostly voice overdubs as he keeps urging her to solve the mystery, and we even get a few shots of his body starting to deteriorate in his grave.

The horror is relegated to nightmare sequences his hateful family members have, including a mortuary zombie scene and an eyeball cake scene. It’s nowhere near the level of Fulci horror you’d expect, and in the end the daughter uncovers the truth and then walks off while smiling at the camera. Groan.

A CAT IN THE BRAIN (1990)

This is Lucio Fulci being totally meta about his own movies. He plays himself, and we follow his “character” as he directs scenes from some of the films he’s directed or produced—meaning, a good chunk of the gore and sex in this flick come from actual movie clips inserted into the plot as if they are being created at that moment.

Fulci begins to see the horrors from his movies in real life, and fearing that his mind is being warped by his own sick imagination, he goes to a psychiatrist. Here’s the sneaky part. While Fulci thinks he’s starting to go crazy, it turns out his psychiatrist is a fricking psycho killer.

Almost awesome, but the film is so over-the-top campy that the whole concept gets bogged down by the movie clip scenes, which mostly serve as ads for other Fulci films more than anything else. The psychiatrist plays a giddy psycho perfectly, and his kill scenes deliver classic, cheap-looking Fulci practical effects gore, but I just wish his terror tour had been the focus of the film.

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TUBI TERRORS: indie slashers that deliver something different

Posted on April 29, 2026 by Daniel

This trio of movies offers up a variety of styles, tones, and production quality, which I found quite satisfying. Things never got boring, and I found something to like about each of them.

THIS WAY TO HELL (2023)



This odd, 78-minute indie flick feels like a mob/revenge/supernatural hybrid horror. The initial hit man scene is actually kind of funny, as a dude comes to kill an older lady and they get into a gun fight. You’d think a hit man would know when he walks into a house and all the floors are covered in plastic that things might not go his way.

The guy heads home wounded after the shootout, only to be murdered by an ominous masked dude, who then chases his pregnant wife in a gritty, slow-motion scene. She’s killed, but as she’s dying, a devil in a plague doctor mask comes to offer her life in exchange for her soul.

She accepts, then goes on a rampage, taking out all kinds of lowlife criminals in her search for the guy who killed her man. What’s weird is that it feels like this film takes place in a rural, small town, so how did it become a haven for so many baddies?

The main woman’s vengeance kills aren’t all that interesting, but she does get visited by yet another demonic dude at one point. She then learns the identity of the killer. He’s known as The Butcher, and apparently, he’s also supernatural. He has a great onscreen presence, I just wish the focus had been on him slashing more than on her going around killing people.

BLUE MURDER (2026)

 

Despite the weakly branded title, this one lands on the holiday horror page because it’s a festive and fun Halloween comedy slasher! It also gives off a total early 2000s era, direct-to-DVD vibe with some nods to the 80s as well. The soundtrack even consists of retro synthpop tracks by Blaklight, a band I often play on my Future Flashbacks show.

It opens with a young woman going on a murderous rampage, killing what I assume are sorority girls.

Next, we meet a nurse who decides to dress as a sexy nurse at her hospital’s Halloween party. The killer from the opening scene has been captured, and she’s wounded, so she’s admitted to the hospital. Lightning strikes when the nurse is tending to the psycho patient, causing her to become possessed by the killer.

That’s the gist of it. The sexy killer nurse goes around using conventional means to kill anyone she comes across, including the most deserving victims of all, a couple that celebrates Christmas on October 31st because they think Halloween is Satan’s holiday.

The film unfolds more like a bunch of mini skits, jumping around between silly scenes of sorority girls, trick or treaters, an adorable, comedic cop investigating each murder scene, and a bunch of bro dudes, who are the ones that eventually have to battle the sexy killer nurse.

It’s hokey Halloween fun and humor, with some playful kills (including a crotch attack), so it’s definitely a good one to put on to set a tone at your Halloween party. The only part that didn’t really work for me consisted of occasional sequences inside the sexy killer nurse’s mind as she communicates with the killer possessing her.

NO ONE WILL HEAR YOU SCREAM (2025)

This one delivers some brutal kill scenes, has a cool premise, and perfectly celebrates the late 1980s lag that carried us into the 90s, with arcade games, mixtapes, hair band music, and a synth score.

During the 1990 World Cup in Buenos Aires, someone in a dark mask and hoodie appears to be using the distraction of the games to violently kill people, often by bludgeoning them to death. Shit gets bloody and gnarly at times.

Our main girl works at a record store, and she soon discovers another killer connection. She makes and sells mixtapes to customers, and it turns out that each of the victims has bought one of them. Eek!

Needless to say, our main girl has to take a deeper dive into why her taste in music might be triggering a psycho slasher, and if it means she will become a target herself. She also has to ensure her friends don’t become casualties of the killer in the process.

I wanted to be in Smile.

Along with the well-executed kill sequences, the main girl’s final fight with the killer at the record store rocks, and the final act takes an uncommon turn that promises—actually, demands—a sequel.

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PRIME TIME: one out of three goes hard on the horror

Posted on April 22, 2026 by Daniel

One takes place at a Halloween haunted attraction, one is about the aftermath of a Christmas murder, and the third one, which has nothing to do with a holiday, delivers all the horror.

BLOOD BARN (2025)



If you are a fan of Evil Dead homages like me, especially the kind that try to capture the 1981 look and feel of the original, Blood Barn is one to watch.

The film only runs 76 minutes long, so the most notable issue with is that it’s 39 minutes in before anything really happens, but once things start, they get crazy. None of it makes much sense, but the immersion into retro horror style makes up for it.

We meet a group of friends that drives to a farmhouse in the woods. They go swimming in a lake even though it looks cold and gray, there’s some man butt, there’s a volleyball montage, there’s some partying—all classic horror tropes.

The “possession” element seems to come from squirmy wormy creatures that come out of a trunk in the house. There is Evil Dead shaky cam POV and a torn Jaws poster on the wall (if you know, you know), as well as a nod to the forest attack scene—only this time a guy is the victim. There’s even a moment when a girl keeps repeating Nancy’s “This isn’t happening, this isn’t real” line from Elm Street.

There’s also a video tape that suggests that something tragic happened at a child’s birthday party, the girl whose family owns the house seems to be hiding something (although we never get a clear picture of what), characters start having hallucinations of horrific things, and eventually, they start turning Deadite.

Like I said, there’s no logic to any of it and nothing is explained, so it’s like a fever dream of horror as both the Deadites and the wormy things terrorize the group of friends. It’s totally entertaining, and it totally nails that old school Raimi style.

THE HAUNTED FOREST (2025)

 

This one, which lands on the holiday horror page, feels like one of those movies that probably made more sense in the filmmaker’s mind than it actually does on screen.

It definitely captures the Halloween spirit big time, so that’s a plus. It focuses on a high school student who takes a job at a haunted attraction leading up to Halloween night.

A good portion of the movie focuses on the main guy getting to know a variety of characters that work at the attraction while learning more about the legend of Native Americans slaughtered and buried on the land, who supposedly still haunt the place.

Then, a few inexplicable accidents happen. By Halloween, the main guy is having bad dreams about the tragic occurrences. But this is an hour into the movie. In other words, not a lot happens for a good portion of the movie beyond the horror-loving staff coming to terms with whether they should go on with the show after the horrific incidents that took place.

They do go on with the show, and in the last half hour, there are a few rapid-fire murders, an unexpected reveal of killer and motivation, and an unfolding of some confusing events. It fleetingly feels thrilling, but it’s just not enough horror payoff. In the biggest twist of all, this Halloween movie ends on Christmas!

SPLINTER (2021)



This film is short and well-acted by the leading actor, who carries the movie playing a man that becomes a recluse after coming home dressed as Santa for Christmas only to find his wife and son have been murdered.

So, is it a Christmas horror movie? I do think it earns a place on the holiday horror page, because there is Christmas décor, Christmas lights, and a Christmas tree in his house for the entire film, plus he sings Christmas tunes and drinks from Christmas mugs. The catch is that it’s six months after the holiday, and he simply hasn’t taken any of the holiday décor down.

This is a psychological horror flick that focuses on the main guy’s mental state, his meetings with a therapist, and his belief that someone or something is in the house with him. A few characters stop by the film and seem to confuse the plot, but they each carry some significant symbolism that makes more sense by the end.

There are some ghostly and creepy visuals, however, they are few and far between, and there’s one bloody flashback to the night of the murders, so don’t expect a whole lot of horror thrills here. The film is dark and moody though, and there is a twist. It’s just that none of it is exciting enough to lift the film from an intentionally somber, flatlining energy level, and the twist isn’t all that shocking to horror veterans.

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Halloween horrors and a creature for Christmas

Posted on April 14, 2026 by Daniel

Time to take on a foursome of flicks to add to the holiday horror page. Consider this a post about three for the halfway to Halloween season with a short Christmas flick as a bonus.

SUPER HAPPY FUN CLOWN (2025)



I couldn’t look away from this odd and quirky portrait of a crazy girl, which also has plenty of autumn and Halloween atmosphere.

We meet a young girl obsessed with clowns and horror. Her mother despises her interests and punishes her for indulging in them. Naturally, the trauma of being denied what she desires means she carries her fandom into adulthood.

Now she’s all grown up and still dresses like a clown, entertaining people in the park in “whimsical” clips that make it clear she’s not right in the head.

She first snaps and kills someone at the 25-minute mark, so the film doesn’t waste time in bringing her over to the psycho side. Yay!

She then gets invited to a Halloween party, which triggers a gleeful need to kill. There’s even a nasty scene of her masturbating with the blood of a very relevant victim.

Come Halloween night, this turns into a long, fun, devious montage of her going on a killing spree, beginning at the Halloween party. Once she’s done there, she continues to live her best Halloween, heading over to a haunted cinema event and haunted attraction, where she starts taking out all the haunting actors before having a standoff with law enforcement.

If you’re going to make yet another movie about a killer clown on Halloween, this is how you do it. It’s a unique, indie treat that is a perfect watch for the Halloween season.

THE SPACE RODENT (2025)



When you make a horror comedy called The Space Rodent about giant alien rodents with glowing eyes invading earth, and you even have a campy cool rodent design, you need to exploit your creative creature. Unfortunately, this film instead leans heavily on banter between its main characters to fill the time, leading to an 80-minute movie that will give you a chuckle now and then but starts to feel more like a 150-minute movie.

It begins with rodent aliens speaking in their own language (with subtitles) about having no resources left and having to escape their planet. This sets up the humorous tone perfectly, even if the rodents themselves are never funny again.

We next meet two main dude bros and their girlfriends. The girls are getting dressed in costumes for Halloween, but the guys aren’t into it and don’t even want to answer the door for trick or treaters.

The girls hit the road, the guys stay home, and this movie makes the huge mistake of having the two pairs spend most of the movie apart contending with the space rodents every now and then…in between all the talking.

The few alien rodents we get are introduced early on, but the guys and girls don’t actually begin battling them—at separate locations—until about 54 minutes into the movie. The girls eventually end up back home to team up with the guys to escape the alien invasion, which amounts to a mini alien home invasion.

The comedy has its moment, like a space rodent jerking off and cumming all over one guy’s face, and the cast is spot on with their comedic timing, but the material they have to work with just isn’t strong enough fill the gaps in between the space rodent action. And the space rodent action isn’t strong enough to make this one a good time. If the guys had been the focus, the film could have gone harder with a buddy comedy routine, especially since there is an underlying sexual tension to their friendship that could have been explored for laughs.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN (2024)



It may be a fairly typical holiday slasher, but this one is loaded with fantastic Halloween atmosphere and décor, has a likable cast, and delivers some tightly executed kill scenes. Its weakness comes from the fact that the story, back story, and character interactions are too complex for their own good and just aren’t interesting enough to propel the movie forward. It often feels like aimless filler to pad the runtime, which isn’t even that long yet feels like it should have been shortened because of the filler!

The opener totally grabs you, with a dude in a corn maze being targeted by a masked killer who gets a thrill out of carving victims into holiday displays. Awesome.

The Halloween season also marks the 300-year anniversary of the town in which the movie takes place. There’s supposed to be a big celebration, but I seriously never got the sense that there was one going on considering the only characters in the film were all the main characters. You never really see any background extras to demonstrate that there are other people in this town.

Our main girl is suffering PTSD from an attack by her ex-boyfriend a year ago. He’s in prison, and she’s trying to move on with her life. Her plan is to just party with her friends on Halloween. Why do these movies always have a final girl who has already suffered trauma on Halloween agreeing to celebrate the season again?

To fill the time in between the cool kills, the main girl and her friends are investigated as suspects in the string of murders, the details of what transpired a year before come out, the main girl’s friends have some conflicts with another group of kids from school, and there’s focus on a local election that has no bearing on the plot. The most enjoyable part to me was the main girl’s budding relationship with a big boy high school quarterback.

Finally, the friends head to a haunted corn maze attraction, where most of the killing takes place. The setting is great, but again, there’s no one else around! Where are all the townsfolk??? I guess it’s that pesky curfew.

The final sequence provides plenty of chaos, but it’s just that—chaos. The unfolding of the action is not well-executed, so the killer’s main rampage fails to much in the way of dread or tension.

MIND LEECH (2023)



This one takes place at Christmastime, and there is some Christmas décor around, but the holiday is not the focus of the film. However, there is plenty of snow, since most of the movie takes place outside.

This had so much potential to be a cozy little b-movie about a parasite turning people into crazies in a small, isolated town, and what we get totally works in a creepy way, but the film runs only an hour, so the horror moments just aren’t plentiful enough! I wanted more!

Two dudes dump a container of chemicals in the water in the woods, which results in a monster leech. This large leech first leaps out of an ice fishing hole and attaches itself to a dude’s head, making him into a mindless murderer. Awesome.

That’s it. That’s the plot, and it’s all we need. The leeched victim goes around killing people, and if the host dies, the leech latches on to someone else. The film has a great low budget late 70s/early 80s vibe, with an exaggerated leech model and some modest gore, but there just isn’t time to deliver enough kills or leech transfers. I’m talking only once does the leech transfer from one person to another. But it does look hella freaky when a victim is walking around like a zombie with a leech attached to its head—an old school, practical effects leech.

The face every bottom has made at some point in his life.

The story is straightforward, with a sheriff and his deputy following the trail of bodies in an effort to track down a killer, and it all leads to a simple shootout once they encounter the leech. It really is a tight production that was perhaps kept to only an hour long due to budget constraints. Whatever the reason, I’d love to see this one expanded into a full-length, more intense feature.

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Demonic entities everywhere

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Daniel

It’s a trio of dark flicks about the occult and possession, so it definitely made for a good, themed triple feature. But did the power of these films compel me? Let’s find out.

THE COVENANT (2017)



If you are itching for an exorcism, this is yet another basic, possessed woman movie.

After her daughter dies and her husband commits suicide, a woman moves into her family home with her estranged brother. Healthy.

Weird stuff begins happening around the house, and soon after, the main woman starts acting weird. Various people also seem to be trying to warn both the brother and sister to leave the house. They seem like either they know something…or are up to something.

The sister becomes more erratic, we get some flashbacks to the real story about her daughter and husband, and eventually she goes totally Linda Blair.

A priest is called in, and the usual bedside treatment is administered. The demonic possession makeup does its job, and there’s a nasty little birth-giving moment, so those are both welcome highlights in an indie film, but there’s really nothing outstanding or unique happening here—unless you count the house crumbling at the end like something out of Carrie.

THE MORTUARY ASSISTANT (2026)



I’ve never played the video game this movie is based on, so I can’t address how it works as an adaptation. As a movie, it’s just one of those flicks with a cheap funhouse of horrors approach, meaning everything thrown at us to scare us feels like a disjointed fever dream of delusions, making most of what happens feel not so terrifying.

The movie is about a woman working at a mortuary overnight. Naturally, she has emotional and psychological baggage that she has to contend with by the end of the film.

She also has a boss who reveals to her that the crazy shit she starts experiencing is the result of a demon that hides out in the dead until it can attach itself to the living. The boss offers up rituals that might contain it, but that shit just doesn’t seem to work as the main girl encounters various ghouls, creatures, and walking dead people as she tries to dodge possession.

It all ends with a creepy creature in the final scene, but honestly, the moment that was most chilling to me comes near the beginning when a corpse smiles underneath a sheet.

Eek! If only the rest of the film had lived up to that horror eye candy.

BLACK GOAT (2025)



This dark woods occult film has a banger of an opener—a straight couple camping in the woods encounters the black goat antagonist, and it levitates the dude before he’s torn in two…starting at the crotch. Ouch.

I’m not going to lie. The film is kind of tedious after that. Our main guy is an environmental investigator sent into the woods on a new project. He sees signs of occult rituals. He encounters a creepy dude. He is confronted by the black goat, repeatedly.

Much of this movie involves nightmare sequences that get little in the way of a reaction from the main guy, so despite some chilling setups and great atmosphere, you just never quite feel a sense of dread—although, the scenes shot in total darkness with light only appearing on the subject of the scene are incredibly effective.

Once the main guy brings a friend with him into the woods and they spend a lot of time basically reciting urban legends about the area, things really slow down.

There are some intense scenes here and there, but they all feel very trippy and surreal, right down to the final act. However, practical gore effects are mostly great, with just one really bad green screen scene. And the final battle is a good representation of the horror the film could have delivered all along if it had been better paced.

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The knives are out with this foursome of kiddie classics

Posted on April 2, 2026 by Daniel

One director is responsible for this batch of four flicks based on popular kiddie characters, continuing the public domain craze that’s going on these days. Let’s find out if these children’s faves work as frightening freaks.

MINNIE’S MIDNIGHT MASSACRE (2026)

This Minnie Mouse movie delivers a familiar slasher scenario, some good kills, a cute main guy, and a gleefully evil Minnie Mouse killer.

20 years ago, a group of bullies locked a young girl down in a basement to never be seen again.

Now, those same four friends are going to a cabin in the woods for the weekend.

Once they arrive, we get traditional killer POV and heavy breathing. The group sits around talking about their pasts, futures, and hookups, one of which includes a flashback to the only guy in the group getting pegged by one of the girls. Quite an interesting choice for character development.

Each of the friends begins getting glimpses of someone in a Minnie Mouse mask. Seriously, I have no idea if Minnie is supposed to be a ghost of the bullied girl or the actual girl still alive and wearing a mask.

There are some weird moments that make it seem like she was somehow “possessed” by (CGI) mice while trapped down there, and she never does take off the mask, so in the end I wasn’t sure what it all meant.

Pretty soon, Minnie abducts one of the main girls and kills her after doing something really nasty to her with a pile of shit.

Once the girl is considered missing, cops show up, mostly to ensure a higher body count. The kill scenes aren’t particularly gruesome, and Minnie always goes old school with a knife, but it still managed to scratch my slasher itch.

Naturally, there’s a twist, but again, the legend of Minnie isn’t fully developed at all. There is, however, a nod to Steamboat Willie, the cartoon that basically introduce the world to Mickey and Minnie Mouse.

BETTY’S REVENGE (2026)

Running only 75 minutes long, this one only has three main characters, and that simply doesn’t sustain even a short flick when Betty Boop is walking around with a knife looking to kill people. But that’s not even really what Betty is looking to do. In fact, my hubby and I weren’t even sure what she was looking to do when the movie concluded. Yes, I subjected my hubby to this disappointment for our Saturday night movie. My bad.

The opener promises a conveyor belt of kills, with a female being called to a giant mansion for a “wellness check”. Considering she dies, you have to wonder why there’s never any follow-up wellness check to check on her…

Anyway, two girls and a guy show up at the mansion, formerly a club owned by Betty, which is now abandoned, yet somehow beautifully and perfectly preserved. They are college students doing a story on the legend of the club closing down.

They are immediately welcomed in by Betty, played by horror queen Hannah Fierman. Hannah is great in the coy, squeaky-voiced role, she just deserved a stronger script. Hell, Minnie didn’t even talk, and she got to lean into her freaky feistiness more than Betty does.

The kids think Betty is weird, but what they don’t seem to think is why is this woman who looks like she’s from the 1930s alive and looking like she’s 30?

They somehow lose Betty in the mansion and spend most of the movie trying to decide if they should just leave. A storm hits, and they contemplate whether they should stay in place or hop in their car and go. Their car disappears, so that decision is made for them. They read Betty’s diary, and this is the part that’s supposed to give the story some depth.

It all leads to Betty tying the three main characters up and finally killing one of them at the 54-minute mark. They’re sitting ducks and there are only three of them, so this isn’t a slasher. The only good gore involves Betty plucking out a pair of eyes with a knife. And her big soliloquy in which she explains her motivation is the part that leaves you saying, “Huh?”

ALADDIN (2026)

Damn. This one is a mess. It begins with a bloody, medieval battle with a short narrative about the power of the infamous magic lamp.

Then a couple in modern times comes to a cabin in the woods because the woman has mental health issues and needs to “rest”. They invite another couple to come hang with them. They find a lamp that clearly looks like it will grant a wish if you rub it. So…one of them rubs it.

If you’re expecting a killer Aladdin to come out of the lamp, forget it. One of the girls wishes to be pregnant and gives birth to a demon baby overnight. We only get a fleeting glimpse of this devilish baby face, and the face later appears again on one of the adults. Is it supposed to be evil Aladdin reborn? I guess.

They do a whole lot of talking—about the lamp, its history, how they can reverse their wishes, etc. Eventually, they somehow reverse things to before they rubbed the lamp. It now requires a sacrifice, so the main girl who needed rest has to fight back against her man and her two friends as they hunt her down in the final act.

It’s a weak script and rather dull viewing experience, so naturally, I watched the sequel.

ALADDIN’S REVENGE (2026)

The nonsense of the first film just digs itself into a deeper hole with this sequel. Despite the lamp being tossed into a lake at the end, it shows up in the backyard of someone else’s house for the opener of this one, leading to a murder/suicide. This opening kill has no bearing on the rest of the movie.

The final girl from the first film somehow got cleared of any wrongdoing in the deaths of all her friends, but she has been ordered to seek group therapy at a large house in the middle of nowhere.

This group therapy includes her, another girl, a guy, and a therapist. Cozy group. The lamp somehow finds its way into the house, someone uses it, and then everyone starts acting weird and murderous, just as they did in the first movie.

One of the guys seems possessed, so the main girl calls him Aladdin and has arguments with him in a battle of wits. Lasers shooting from mouths come into play in the sequel as well, because, why not?

The demon face we saw mostly (but barely) on the baby in the first movie makes a few more brief appearances, and the main girl once again has to clean up the mess the wishes make and destroy the lamp.

An influencer girl finds the lamp at the end, but I refuse to watch a third movie. Minnie’s Midnight Massacre is definitely the only one I’d suggest giving a try from this bunch if you’re looking for another cartoon character slasher to watch.

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