This foursome of flicks features sequels to two films I’ve already covered and two anthology films. Let’s check them out.
CORN II: MIND HARVEST (2025)
The original C.O.R.N. was a Halloween themed flick, and it was wild and weird, which was the reason I enjoyed it despite the chaotic unfolding of events. And although it was about a cult that used humans for taxidermy, it was actually a slasher at heart.
The sequel is barely a horror movie, does not take place on Halloween, and is not a slasher. It’s instead a character study of sorts about both a young girl who is pretty mental because she grew up with the main scientist psycho from the first movie, and the police therapist assigned to work with her, who is working through issues of her own involving her child.
The girl is in a foster home, so when people start dying and disappearing around her, the therapist steps in to deal with her. The girl acts like a victim, terrified that her mad scientist father is coming for her, but she’s also a fricking killer, so it’s hard to feel for her.
Meanwhile, the scientist dad is hunting her down, and he’s also moved past basic taxidermy and on to transplanting people’s souls into other people and reaching into other planes of existence.
It’s a mess. It’s really a mess. I wasn’t feeling it at all.
DOGMAN 3: FIGHT TO THE FINISH (2025)
I was a fan of the low budget, cozy country creature feature feel of the first two Dogman movies, and while I’m happy to see several of the characters back for more, this movie doesn’t build on the others at all and delivers barely anything in terms of monster action. The characters are simply going through the motions because they’ve been down this road before.
There have been new attacks in town, and our main man Larry Joe Campbell just assumes the Dogman issue is back. With the help of those who went through all this with him before, they try to figure out why people are being infected and why the special moss that conquered the infection in the last movie isn’t working.
28 minutes in we see the classic Dogman mask when a woman spots him. There are some implied kills, a brief Dogman attack 52 minutes in during which a guy gets scratched but gets away, and in the last few minutes, they find a dead Dogman sitting in the driver’s seat of a car.
That’s it. That’s all the horror you get. I have the first two movies on DVD, but I just don’t see the purpose in buying this one if it gets a physical release other than to complete the trilogy in my collection.
JINXX PRESENTS: THE DEVIL’S VORTEX (2024)
This anthology is hosted by Jinxx of the band Black Veil Brides, in a sort of wraparound about a house he was going to buy…so he researched its history. Are the incidents that took place inside these walls terrifying? Let’s find out.
1st story – a guy goes to get a tattoo but has no recollection of it being done when he comes to with a demon image on his back. And then the demon enters the real world. Eek! This one is short and to the point, and this demon, a bald-headed ghoul, appears in almost all the stories.
2nd story – my absolute favorite of the bunch because it feels complete, this one takes place on Halloween and has a satisfying twist. A mute girl comes to the door during a Halloween party, and something doesn’t seem right with her, so out of concern, the partygoers invite her in. Uh-oh. So short and satisfying.
3rd story – this is where the stories start to falter. A woman comes home to find her daughter missing and her husband and another man hooked up to electrocution devices. Now she has to decide who she wants to save.
4th story – the bald ghoul serves as the devil on the shoulders of characters for the final three stories. In this one, a boy being haunted by ghosts tries to get someone to believe what he saw and why he did the awful thing he did…which we never get to see him do. Story falls short and feels unfinished.
5th story – four female friends are out at a bar, and when the driver starts dropping them off at their homes, she seems to snap thanks to the bald ghoul whispering in her ear.
6th story – I really have no idea what this one about a man stuck at home and visited by the bald ghoul was going for, but it is quite dull, so this anthology doesn’t end on a high note, and you are not left with any sense of the stories tying in together despite the shared ghoul.
LORE (2023)
This is a polished anthology that takes the simple, straightforward route, with a traditional wraparound. Four friends meet a creepy haunted tour guide in the woods, and he sits them around a campfire to partake in a ritual in which each of them tells a scary story.
1st story – this is perhaps my favorite of the bunch. A dude being chased runs into a warehouse, and soon a large creature crawls out of the shadows to take out the men pursuing him.
2nd story – totally a cheap thrills ghost story, this has a mom and son living in haunted house and being terrorized by a female ghost. There are incessant loud stingers whenever the ghost woman appears, she moves in a jerky motion like Silent Hill nurses (eek!), and there’s a Lights Out element to the haunting.
3rd story – love me a sexual tale about morality, and in this one, a straight couple just looking to swap partners for the night is drawn into some sort of cult.
4th story – the anthology ends strong with an atmospheric slasher in a movie theater, complete with kills, chases, and a big goon in a mask.
For such a tightly produced anthology, with a good array of subgenres, the only disappointment is the conclusion to the wraparound. So anticlimactic, and I didn’t really get what was going for. Also keep an eye out for a tag scene after the end credits start to roll.
