Horror Weekly

Brian Schell and Kevin L. Knights
  • 5.0 (3)
  • FILM REVIEWS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

Join Kevin and Brian for a weekly podcast episode. Every Friday, the guys release both a video and audio podcast episode that covers everything new in horror, along with a handful of great (and awful) movie reviews! www.horrorweekly.com

  1. 4D AGO

    The Carpenter’s son, Werewolf Game, In Our Blood, Godzilla 2000: Millennium, and The Legend of Boggy Creek

    As we near the end of the year, we’re going to cover three more newer releases and still do a couple of oldies. Since it’s so close to Christmas, we’ll deal with “The Carpenter’s Son” first, then play a “Werewolf Game” because it’s “In Our Blood.” Then we’ll continue our seemingly eternal series of kaiju reviews with “Godzilla 2000: Millennium” and the classic 1972 film, “The Legend of Boggy Creek.” This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2025 The Carpenter’s Son * Directed by: Lotfy Nathan * Written by: Lotfy Nathan * Stars: Nicolas Cage, Noah Jupe, FKA Twigs * Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Inspired by “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas,” where the idea is that Jesus was born with his full powers, in the body of a boy who didn’t know he was Jesus yet or what to do with it. It’s quite slow moving, mostly quiet, and low on action. The horror elements are there a little, some creepiness, and lots of religious elements. It’s well made but mostly we thought it was pretty dull. Spoilery Synopsis We open on a woman giving birth. The father looks up and sees a bright light from the sky along with Heavenly whispering. The baby is born, and as they leave the cave, they pass a bunch of people screaming and sacrificing a baby. They want the couple’s newborn baby, but they hide it. As the sun rises, the man sees the devil in the desert. Credits roll. The couple and the baby have been in hiding for years, and the baby is now a young man. The father narrates that the son has powers that can’t be explained, but it’s his responsibility to protect him. The father is a carpenter, but the only work he can get is carving pagan idols. The boy watches as the new neighbor, Lilith, a mute girl, takes a shower. He also gets annoyed when his father insists that he pray for forgiveness. The boy has a recurring nightmare about being nailed to a cross with his mother crying at his feet. The boy runs into a girl who wants to play games with him. They find a man with leprosy, and that goes badly. His father still wonders if he’s from the angels or from demons; he’s not really sure. That night, the leper returns and claims that the boy’s touch has healed him. Now all the lepers want to be touched. Later the girl gives the cured leper a peach, and the next day the carpenter and the boy see the leper dead. The girl offers the boy a carved wooden snake and suggests that keeping secrets feels really good, not being subtle about tempting him. Lilith collapses with black stuff coming out of her mouth and bites a chunk off her mother’s face who screams that it’s the boy’s fault. His father finds the toy snake and there’s a whole argument that comes from that. The father insists that the boy would be dead without his protection. The boy sneaks off to meet with the girl, who is busy poisoning more peaches, and she takes him to see a site where prisoners are being tortured and executed for the crime of sorcery. The girl explains that the carpenter isn’t really the boy’s father at all. When he asks his mother, she’s evasive, and he knows she’s lying. The boy is thrown out of school for talking about things he couldn’t possibly know. The boy then goes back to the place of torture and pulls the demon right out of Lilith, who is chained there. He releases her and sends her away. Others there see the whole thing, and they’re gonna talk. The father and the mother argue about the boy’s conception and crimes. The father is bitten by a snake, and the boy heals the wound right away, clearing up any doubt the father had. He also tells the boy who his father really is. The villagers come for the family, and that goes badly for some of them. As the strange girl tells the boy her origin story, the sky turns red. She admits that she’s The Adversary. She then opens up the gateway to Hell and gives him a peek. The father arrives and interrupts this until the boy stops her from killing him. After a brief argument, she stabs the father anyway. This all leads to a serious fistfight between the boy and Satan. The boy wins, but the father tells him not to kill her and forgive her instead. The boy moves to heal Joseph, but Joseph tells him to let him go, and the red sky clears with a beam of sunlight shining down on him as he dies. The boy goes over and forgives the strange girl, who tells him about his own end. The boy, Yeshua, and his mother, wander off into the mountains. We’ve probably not heard the last of these two… Brian’s Commentary So many flies. If you don’t like flies, then this is definitely a horror movie. Nicolas Cage plays this one mostly straight, although he does get one yelling scene, which is something he’s always good at. The rest of the cast is good too, although the story is a bit weak. Yes, it’s based on one of the apocryphal gospels, but they could have spiced it up a bit more. It was an interesting concept, but a little boring in my opinion. Kevin’s Commentary I thought this was slow moving almost to the point of boredom but at least it’s only a little over an hour and a half run time. Knowing how it was going to end took away much of the suspense they were trying to build. The cast is good at what they were doing, but it seemed like a wasted opportunity that they could have done more with. 2025 Werewolf Game * Directed by: Cara Claymore, Jackie Payne * Written by: Jackie Payne * Stars: Tony Todd, Robert Picardo, Bai Ling * Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Twelve strangers with various issues are kidnapped and sent to an island for a deadly game of “werewolves” and “villagers.” Kept in line by security devices and guards, they have no choice but to play and gradually eliminate each other. It’s got the horror elements of kidnapping, human prey, and murder, but it’s really not a horror movie. Brian gives it a thumbs up, and Kevin gives it a thumbs down. Spoilery Synopsis As the credits roll, we get lots of action shots and text that explains “The Werewolf Game” a social game of survival where random people all over the world are kidnapped and divided into two groups: werewolves and villagers. It’s one side versus the other, and only one can survive. We open on a dozen people gagged and tied to little student desks. A man in a mask comes out and welcomes them to the game. Three of them will be wolves and the rest villagers. He explains the rules. One man tries to fight back and loses a finger for his trouble. The Judge in the mask introduces Chris, Monica, Demi, Natalie, Bill, Suzie, Zak, Seth, Pepper, Matthew, Emmitt, and two people whose information is not revealed. Demi doesn’t want to play and tells the others that she’s a werewolf. The others all vote on who the werewolf is, which is really obvious since Demi just admitted it. Demi tells the others all about herself before the final vote; she wants to get it over with. One of the guards then blows her head off. That’s one of the three werewolves discovered. All the other contestants are then released on the island and go their separate ways to cabins. Matt and Raymond, one of the players with no background, talk. Seth and Natalie do the same. Chris grabs everything he can use as weapons. Monica helps Bill with a gunshot he received accidentally. There are three problems on the island. First is the sonic weapon that can kill them. The second is that they’re all going to kill each other. We don’t get to hear what the third one is. Some of the others talk, and none of them remember how they got here. Monica wants to die but can’t make herself jump off the cliff. Night falls, and after 3 a.m. the werewolves are allowed to come out and kill. Everyone is terrified as they wait. A person in a werewolf mask comes into Suzie‘s cabin and kills her. The whole group gathers the next day, and Raymond talks about the company that runs the game. He used to work for them but hacked the system. They’re all skeptical about that. Chris talks big about the traps he’s set; he’s got military experience, but no shirt. He’s not very social, and the others want to “vote him out.” Everyone is called to the great hall for the daily vote. Old Zack won’t answer his door, and he looks very ill inside; the guards violently force him to attend. Now, they all have to decide who to kill. They all vote for Zack, who has just been acting weird throughout. Monica and Emmitt start getting close, which annoys Pepper. Chris finds a shirt and talks to Natalie about winning. On the second night-hunt, Monica and Emmitt spend the first part of the night together, but he goes back to his cabin before the deadline. Emmitt is killed by a werewolf. In the morning, Raymond explains more about the company. It’s all an experiment in mind control and social engineering. Seth gets all argumentative. The group decides to vote equally for Monica and Raymond to die, forcing a tie. They don’t play fair and vote for Raymond to die. Bill says he’s solved it; Matt and Monica are the werewolves. He used to be a detective, so his opinion matters, even though a lot of the others don’t agree with him. That night, the wolf kills him. In the voting the next day, Chris kills two guards and is killed in return. This is the last round of voting, as there aren’t enough players left to keep the mystery up. The group decides to gang up on Seth this time, but he accuses Pepper. Monica, Natalie, Pepper, and Matt are left. Maybe two of them are werewolves, but one certainly must be. Monica thinks Pepper is the werewolf, but she still denies it. Matt blames her as well. Matt and Pepper are the werewolves. Instead of killing Monica and Natlie, the group decides to kill the judge instea

    33 min

  2. 12/21/2025

    The Death of Snow White, Thelma, For God’s Sake Wake Her Up, Godzilla (1998), and The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

    We have a fun mix of old and new this week. We’ll start off with two new releases, “The Death of Snow White” and “For God’s Sake Wake Her Up,” both new-ish. We’ll go overseas for a bit and visit “Thelma” from 2017. Then we’ll watch the American remake of Godzilla, “Godzilla” (1998). Finally, we’ll watch a true-crime-sorta film, “The Town That Dreaded Sundown” from way back in 1976. [Except we ended up reading them all out of order on the podcast, sorry!] This, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, is on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2025 The Death of Snow White * Directed by: Jason Brooks * Written by: Jason Brooks, Naomi Mechem-Miller * Stars: Sanae Loutsis, Chelsea Edmundson, Tristan Nokes * Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone It’s a dark telling of the classic fairy tale. This is a good one to watch if you really enjoy Renaissance Festivals - it appears to have been filmed at one with that level of realism throughout in all the aspects. The story has the logic of a fairy tale, and it has some entertaining moments and ideas. But we both thought it was a bit long and drawn out, and not an overall winner. Spoilery Synopsis An old woman chases a young woman up the stairs in the castle. The old woman whispers some magic words, and the other starts to puke up maggots. She makes the guard kill himself. She then goes to the bedroom of a very pregnant woman and stabs her with a poisoned dagger. All the king’s doctors get to work trying to save the baby. The dying queen looks out the window and talks about how beautiful the snow is. On the way out, the witch takes out more guards and encounters a buff dwarf with an axe, and she knows him. They fight epically, and she runs him through and makes her wounded escape. Credits roll. Years later, at what appears to be a still-medieval Renfest, Princess Snow White likes the looks of The Prince. There’s some awkward flirting between the two. Meanwhile, the Queen looks at the results of an experiment of arsenic skin care on a subject. She’ll try mercury next. She looks out the window at Snow and hates her. The magic mirror knows all about her plans. The Queen has lost some blood and wants the huntsman to kidnap one of Snow’s friends to replace it. His group of hunters arrive at the festival and search for a victim. Meanwhile, Snow and the Prince look at sparkly lights in the forest. Huntsman Kaiser kills the girl and attacks Snow and the Prince. Huntsman Gunnar, however, is loyal to Snow and helps her escape into the Dark Forest. Snow and Sophie run into monsters in the woods, and they tear Sophie in half. The Prince and his search party look for Snow White who is wandering through the forest bloody and dazed. Back at the castle, the mirror gives the queen some advice on how to “have it all.” Snow is captured by the huntsmen, who put her to sleep and carry her back. No– they’re interrupted by a pack of dwarves who have come to rescue Snow. None of them like the queen, either, so they all become allies. Many of them worked for her father, the king, and even helped in her childbirth. When the only surviving guard from the dwarf ambush returns to the queen, she orders that his hand be cut off with a very small knife. But he’s still grateful and loyal. Out in the woods, the search party meets up with the dwarves and fights the tree-monsters. Meanwhile the queen casts a spell to transform herself into an old decrepit woman, the powerful killing witch we saw at the beginning. Who goes out into the woods with a basket of apples, encounters the boy from the search party, and kills him after getting information from his mind. The old woman runs into Snow and offers her an apple. This goes badly since the apple is poisoned; Snow goes into a coma. The dwarves and the Prince rush in, and we get a flashback to Snow’s birth. The only way to beat the magic poison is to sacrifice a life. That’s how Snow’s mother really died, she sacrificed herself. Meanwhile, the Queen is young again but still obsessed with Snow White. She has her toes cut off to fit into Snow’s shoes. The Prince’s group manages to break into the castle and confront the Huntsman and the Queen. In the ensuing battle, a few of the dwarves are lost. The battle goes badly for everyone, but the Prince finally manages to carry Snow back out to the woods. He kisses her and takes the poison from her. He dies, and she wakes up. Snow is awake, and now she gets the “epic badass music” as she walks through the continuing battle. She walks into the throne room, where the queen is making the dwarves suffer. The queen orders Huntsman Gunnar to kill Snow; he hands the queen Snow’s heart. No wait– it’s a maggoty mass of decay - the queen was tricked into eating her own poison. The dwarves use the magic mirror to bounce the Queen’s evil magic right back at her. Then the dwarves get all medieval on her. The queen melts as the figures in the magic mirror laugh at her. Snow is now the queen, and everyone is happy. She goes out to the Dark Forest and dances with the ghost of the Prince. Brian’s Commentary The story is fine, but the execution leaves a bit to be desired. The dialogue and sets seem to come straight from Renaissance Festivals. Most of the scenes with the queen involve some body horror, and there are some pretty cool monsters in the Dark Forest. The dwarves are fun and well done. Some of the “actors” seem to have never spoken on-screen before. Wilhelm and Jacob are really just Timon and Pumbaa turned human, right? The pacing is very slow, however, and it gets a little boring at points. It does pick up a lot in the final half hour, when we finally get some action. It’s… decent once you get through the opening scenes. Kevin’s Commentary It’s like a Renaissance Festival. The accents, the costumes, the sets, even the dialogue, all seem put on like a Ren Fest. Where on the surface everything looks and sounds generically medieval, but if you really look and listen you can easily tell it’s a veneer. It’s a fairy tale, not a historically accurate film, I kept telling myself. It’s silly and exaggerated for a reason. There are some entertaining moments and some scenes of real horror and gore. The mirror was cool. The dwarves were badass. So I’m not going to say that I hated it, but it was a bit too long and didn’t do much for me. 2024 For God’s Sake Wake Her Up * Directed by: Wayne Moreheart * Written by: James Justin Howells * Stars: Sarah Crawford, Mamie Kakimoto, Queen Legend * Run Time: 1 Hour, 27 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Two young women wandering the city after avoiding one of their mother’s funeral stumble on another woman who is suffering from a severe case of recurring sleep paralysis. They slowly learn it’s not just a simple medical condition. We both agree, it’s a slow moving one but it was very good. Spoilery Synopsis We open on a videotape of April talking about her sleep paralysis; she’s afraid it’s going to kill her. We then watch it happen as credits roll. We watch as Rizz and Myles walk along the train track past the landfill. They admire the graffiti and then stop to steal some beer. They don’t really like beer, but it’s fun to steal it. They argue about not going to the funeral; Rizz’s mother has recently died, and she has regrets. Myles cheers her up. The two soon wind up in the bad part of town and bump into April. Who is walking around like a sleep-deprived zombie. April goes home to her neglected-looking house. She watches another videotape; she says she hasn’t slept more than an hour in weeks. She’s recording all this before “he takes me.” “This is my final tape,” she explains, “I am the end of the line.” Rizz and Myles wander around through the bad neighborhood, and Rizz decides to go into one of the houses there. Why? Because! Inside, Rizz starts digging through the stuff and finds April’s video camera and TV. She plays the tape and watches as April explains her problem. There are a lot of tapes. They go upstairs and find April in bed, apparently in some kind of seizure. Rizz wants to help the old woman, but Myles just wants to get out of there before the police get them for breaking in. Myles tries to leave but something keeps her from opening the door. Rizz has a feeling that the answer lies in that stack of videotapes. “The entity” took April’s grandmother and her mother as well; now it’s her turn. April has no children, so she expects this will all end with her. Meanwhile, Myles tries to break a window with a stool, but the entity rips the stool right out of her hands. Rizz insists on helping April, who told her the answers are all in the tapes. The tapes are very repetitive and not especially interesting. Finally, Myles cuts the power cord. Now, Rizz reads through April’s “crazy book” and reads it. It’s all about sleep-demons, and people have died from it before. Rizz and Myles argue, again. Meanwhile, April is terrorized by the entity. The entity opens the door and lets Myles out, but then it won’t open again. She runs off to charge her phone and call for help. No– the entity breaks her neck and kills her, then drags the body away. Rizz freaks out until the entity drags her away as well. Rizz watches the rest of the tapes. April explains that the entity is an ancient, primeval thing that kills people in their sleep, an incubus. The voice from the TV helps Rizz translate the words from the book. The entity finally shows up in the real world and attacks Rizz, who reads the words out loud just in time. The sun rises outside, and April wakes up. Everyone is happy now, except for Myles, who is still dead. “We carry the bad things until they eat us up,” April narrates. We look out th

    27 min

  3. 12/14/2025

    Manor of Darkness, Mouse of Horrors, Shiver Me Timbers, Bambi: The Reckoning, and Planet of the Vampires

    This time, we’ve got some fun ones. We’ll start of with some time-loop terror in “Manor of Darkness,” then watch some completely unnecessary, but still fairly entertaining rip-offs of old cartoons: “Mouse of Horrors,” “Shiver Me Timbers,” and “Bambi: The Reckoning” are all up this week. Lastly, we’ll squeeze in a classic sci-fi horror film with “Planet of the Vampires” from 1965. Which one is our favorite? Tune in and find out– it may not be what you expect! This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2025 Manor of Darkness * Directed by: Blake Ridder * Written by: Blake Ridder * Stars: Kim Spearman, Louis James, Sarah Alexandra Marks * Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Petty thieves meet evil forces when they pretend to be filmmakers and go to a giant manor to rob the place. It went in a direction we didn’t expect and built nicely as they tried to figure a way out. We both really enjoyed it. Spoilery Synopsis A man works in the basement until he hears a strange sound. What he hears finds him. Credits roll. Laura talks to her mother, who needs surgery. Her brother, Chris calls, and he says he’s got something to make everything all right. Laura works at a coffee shop, and she experiences something strange one night. The same night, Chris also experiences some weirdness with Lisa, his girlfriend. Lisa, for some reason, decides to tell Chris about her abusive family and how she ran away from home. Chris tells about what happened with Laura, eleven months ago. Flashback time! Chris and Laura broke into a house. It’s not exactly what Chris told her, so Laura wants to leave. This is the house of Mrs. Wong, one of Chris’s old teachers who gave him a hard time– and she’s still home. When the woman gets up, she finds Laura and grabs a knife. As she recognizes Laura, Chris shoots her. Back in the present, Laura gets a call; she’s lost her job. Chris and Lisa talk about his plan, and how Laura won’t cooperate with him. She goes to the restroom and sees something scary. When she comes out, Chris is talking to Andy, another criminal-type. Some rich man is looking for a film crew to come into his house and film a documentary, and Chris wants to use the job as an excuse to break in and steal a fortune. We then get Andy’s backstory; he’s divorced but wants to be a good father. Later, he gets a scare in the shower. Laura decides at the last minute that she needs the money and will help in the caper. Chris, Andy, Laura, and Lisa arrive at the old manor house and let themselves in, as arranged. They have no cell service there, which even Chris admits is a cliche. They all split up and explore the place. Andy says he feels like he’s been here before. Laura and Lisa check out the basement while Andy and Chris check out the attic. The girls find a tied-up box in the basement that looks too tempting to pass up. They open the box and let out what appears to be the Smoke Monster from “Lost.” In the attic, the guys find a dead body. Suddenly, Lukas, the owner of the house, and the man from the pre-credit sequence, returns home. He talks about “life after death” and his dead wife. He wants the “documentary filmmakers” to capture her spirit on film. When they mention the dead body upstairs, Lukas picks up a knife and kills Chris and Laura. Andy goes next, leaving only Lisa, who is killed as well. There are flashes of another woman being forced to scrub and clean in the past, with religious imagery. No, they’re all fine, and we seem to have jumped back in time a few minutes. They all sense that something weird happened, but they’ve only just arrived at the house. Laura especially seems to feel some deja vu. Chris announces that there’s no cell service here at the old house. They all split up to explore the house (again). The girls find the box in the basement, but it’s already untied and empty. The dead body in the attic is still there. Then Lukas arrives. He asks them if this is “the first time.” He stabs them all again. We again cut to scenes of a man abusing his religious wife, who prays a lot. At the door of the house, Laura knows they’ve all been here before, but the others don’t sense it. “We’re all gonna die… again.” Laura tries to leave, but it’s not that easy. All roads lead back to the manor. She goes into the house and finds that Lukas has killed the other three. She tells him about it, and he knows that she opened the chest. He explains about “The Reset” and that he killed them so that they’d understand the problem. We get a flashback to Lukas and his wife moving into the house. He explains what it is that she released from that box. He has to kill her again to reset the time loop. He does and we see the abusive man and religious woman from the past again. This time, he kills her. Laura, now reset, tells the others not to go into the basement and then hides the knives in a kitchen. She demonstrates her knowledge of the time loop to them. When Lukas comes in, Andy beats him to death. This results in Laura stabbing herself for another reset. She explains the situation, and they mostly believe her, but they still want to remain here to find the money. Lukas arrives, as always, and Laura quickly fills him in. He finally explains what they’re up against, and it’s not good. They all prepare themselves for battle in their own unique ways. Suddenly, the lights go out. Lisa finds herself outside, running from something nasty. Chris is locked in the attic with the body, which gets up and turns into Mrs. Wong, the dead teacher. Andy runs into a sex-crazed version of Laura, who kills him. Laura runs into her mother in the basement, but she knows that’s not real and stabs the woman. Laura dies again, this time at Lisa’s hand, and it all resets again. This time, they all tie up Lukas as night falls outside. Laura goes to stab Lukas, but since her eyes are shut, she somehow stabs Chris instead. The smoke goes back in the box in the basement. We then get a flashback to what happened with Lukas and his wife when they moved in and kept having to stab each other. Laura holds a diamond in her hand, she found the treasure and paid for her mother’s surgery. Andy gets his family back. Lisa is sad. Six months later, a different couple gets invited to the manor and are told to go right on in. They soon find a tied-up box in the basement. Then Chris walks in, he welcomes them to the manor… Brian’s Commentary Why were all the characters experiencing bloody scenes of terror before they came to the house? There’s no indication from the trailer that this is a time-loop movie. Still, it’s well done and is paced nicely, which is hard for a time-travel film. The things that happen aren’t really explained at all; we know what happened, we just don’t really know why. It’s pretty good! Kevin’s Commentary The manor was a great setting. Cool big place. It seemed low budget with a bit of an indie vibe, but I thought they made the most of it, and it was very effectively done. Their growing frustration with the time loop built nicely. The cast is good, the camera work and music is effective (kept making me think of John Carpenter’s music from the original “Halloween” at times), and the script is clever. I liked it and would recommend it. 2025 Mouse of Horrors * Directed by: Brendan Petrizzo * Written by: Harry Boxley, Mac Gottlieb * Stars: Lewis Santer, Stephen Staley, Chris Lines * Run Time: 1 Hour, 24 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone An inhuman mouse hybrid is on the prowl for body parts and victims, with much of the action taking place at a carnival - an excellent setting. The pacing is a bit off and so is the sound, but it’s watchable and gory. We thought it was very mid overall, with both of us giving it a dislike. Spoilery Synopsis Two girls are out at the docks. They’ve gone to the wrong place and gotten lost. They’re here to meet a rich doctor with a boat, and what they find isn’t what they expected. They find the boat, but there’s no one there. Out of nowhere, a giant rat stabs Molly and chases Dana through the shipyards and into a closed-down amusement park. As he kills her and laughs, the credits roll. A man tells his daughter, Chloe, a story about being attacked by flies at the beach. We see the killer is watching them from afar. He’s written a book about “The Mouseboat Massacre” but he doesn’t have an ending for it yet. She goes off with her friend to a bar to meet her other friends, a group of obnoxious teens that the killer can pick off one by one later. They call Dana and Molly, but they don’t answer their phones. Chloe tells the story about the Mouse thing as we see the Mouse killing a jogger with a chain. A mad doctor created a giant mutated mouse that was crossed with a murderous prisoner. His goal was to collect body parts of women for another experiment. The group decides to sneak into the closed-down amusement park for some fun. Meanwhile, at the amusement park, Pooh bear has women in a cage, and it looks like a scene from “Pooh: Blood and Honey” Apparently, Pooh and the Mouse are working together to gather body parts for Dr. Rupert. It’s the crossover nobody expected! The doctor whines about the Mouse bringing him male body parts. How is he supposed to make the perfect bride with the wrong kind of body parts? The Mouse kills a bar owner at about the same time the kids get started at the amusement park. The Mouse shows up and kills the first pair of teens, electrifying one of them with the bumpercars (I don’t think they work like that). He catches and dismembers another girl on the teacup ride. He stabs another on the sidewalk. Another guy falls into a swimming pool full of carn

    34 min

  4. 12/07/2025

    Him, Circus of Horrors, Things Will be Different, Flesh for Frankenstein, and Blood for Dracula

    We’ve got an odd assortment for you this week. We’ll watch the new football-horror, “Him” recently released, as well as “Things Will be Different” from just last year. Then we’ll go way back to 1960 and the “Circus of Horrors.” In honor of Udo Keir’s recent death, we’ll watch his two early breakout hits, “Flesh for Frankenstein” and “Blood for Dracula” from the early 70s. This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #51, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2025 Him * Directed by: Justin Tipping * Written by: Skip Bronkie, Zack Akers, Justin Tipping * Stars: Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox * Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Set in an alternate reality where the NFL is the USFF, we start out with little Cam who has the perfect combination of football obsession at a young age combined with an athletic physique capable of being a world class athlete. As he is groomed to possibly replace a retiring megastar, things get strange and ominous - or maybe he’s just seeing things from stress and head injuries. We both struggled with this because we give no weight or value to football. They take the obsession, the extremes required to stay at the top, idolatry, and cult level fandom to the extreme. Neither of us fault the acting or production values, but we didn’t enjoy it that much. Spoilery Synopsis We open on Cam, a little boy, watching football on TV. The whole family gets very excited when their team wins. His hero, Isaiah White, gets injured badly. Credits roll. Fourteen years later, Isaiah is still playing, better than ever, but everyone is talking about when he’ll finally retire - maybe another year at best. Now-adult Cameron Cade is said to be the next star of the game. During an interview with Cam, he says he wants to be the GOAT. One night while practicing, something very strange happens to Cam. We cut to Cam’s brain scans, and something’s not right. He’s had a traumatic brain injury and a stapled wound on his head. On his return to the game, everyone talks about him surviving the attack. Half the family thinks he isn’t ready, and the other half insists there’s nothing wrong with him. He’s not fine. Cam wants to be alone and sullen, so he goes to a big party and ignores everyone. Tom, Cam’s manager, calls and says that Isaiah White himself wants to train Cam for a week. On the way there, we see how cult-like some sports fans are. Cam goes to see Isaiah, who lives in a really cool place. He’s going to put Cam through a special “Boot camp” for football. We then get a training montage. Cam gets a physical exam, and someone steals his underwear. Cam then meets Elise, Isaiah’s wife, who is a power blonde influencer selling jade vaginal eggs and offers Cam one of their anal jades for men before she heads off for travel. Cam talks to Marco, the doctor, about blood transfusions and injections. On the second day, Isaiah and Cam go for a run in the desert, Cam passes out, and he sees something else that’s weird. Now it’s clear that he’s been hallucinating some of the weirdness we’ve seen. Marco gives him another special shot, and he’s suddenly feeling much better. Then things get weird and they torture a man to motivate Cam to play harder. Afterward, he sits in a hyperbaric chamber for several hours, where he hallucinates some more. On the third day, they actually play some football, and one of the players gets hurt pretty badly, which seems to be what Isaiah had in mind. More hallucinations ensue– maybe? Did Isaiah really just kill an overzealous fan? That one seemed more real, as well as the aftermath. The next day, Isaiah and Cam go out to the desert to shoot guns. Cam talks about his father and why he plays the game. Elsie takes Cam to a party in the city. Marco is there, and he says, “Run!” He meets the owners of the team, and they like him. Meanwhile, Isaiah stays home and works out. There’s more hallucinations, and maybe a ritual of some sort. Maybe Marco loses his head. Stuff happens, and maybe some of it’s real. On the next day, Cam starts injecting himself. He confronts Isaiah, who talks about generations of blood, a gift from the gods. The blood of their mentors give them the powers of the chosen one. The trick is, there can be only one, and Isaiah’s contract is nearly up. “You’re gonna have to take it from me.” The two men fight to see who really has the killer spirit. Cam has it and uses it. In a surreal, impossible ceremony, where all the characters gang up on Cam and explain how he’s been groomed all his life for this. Cam instead beats the mascot to death with an ax before killing everyone else with a sword. And then what? Brian’s Commentary What in the hell was that climax??? This is one of those is-it-real-or-a-hallucination stories that we’re so sick of. Cam had a head injury, so all the crazy stuff he sees later on is suspect. I suspect the filmmaker is trying to show us everything that’s wrong with the mindset around sports obsession, but maybe I’m being charitable with that. I suppose my problem here is that I have no understanding at all of the screaming, raw, passion and obsession with what is ultimately a pointless game. The ending was cool and over the top, but it made no real sense at all. It’s well made, looks great, and the acting is fine. On the other hand, I couldn’t wait until it was over and was bored half to death with it. Kevin’s Commentary Well into the movie, I thought there was too much of wondering if things happening are really that strange or if Cam is hallucinating from some combination of stress, obsession, and head injury. Though the effects and visuals are very cool. As a not-at-all football fan who enjoys watching the spectacle of the Superbowl and really nothing else about the sport, it was hard relating to the passion for the game that so much of the movie revolves around. Past the halfway point, I started to suspect that the whole thing, or most of it, was real, staged and arranged by Isaiah who is crazy with a God complex. Right from the beginning with the clonk on the head that Cam got. Isaiah thinks he can do or get away with anything, so he does. And with all the “supplements” and substances being administered to Cam, there could easily be hallucinogens in the mix - augmented by a head injury. I guess in the end, it’s up to the viewer to decide how much of it was real and how much was not. I wouldn’t say I hated the film, but I’d only give it a five or six overall. 2024 Things Will Be Different * Directed by: Michael Felker * Written by: Michael Felker * Stars: Adam David Thompson, Riley Dandy, Chloe Skoczen * Run Time: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A pair of siblings go into hiding after a robbery, in a farmhouse that has a time travel feature, which they know about going into. Things get complicated as what they expect to be a short wait turns into a quagmire of overlaps and loops. It’s well made, but too stretched out, and we both thought it would have benefitted from being compacted down. It’s a mystery that unfolds, but neither of us were very satisfied or comprehending of the ending. Spoilery Synopsis As the credits roll, we hear a phone call between two people planning a hideaway out of town after some kind of robbery; they’re brother and sister, and there are big bags of money involved. We cut to Joseph and Sidney meeting in a diner. When they hear a siren passing by, they clear out quickly. They go to the woods, where Joseph knows of a house they can hide in. They arrive at the house and run off some locals who are there target shooting. The house is trashed inside. They go inside and hear the police approaching. They both know a strange combination trick with the grandfather clocks in the house that unlock a special door. They’ve got a book with instructions along with a phone and some magic-sounding words. When they come out of the closet, it’s winter outside, and the house is all clean and restored. “Now we wait for time to pass in our present, and when we head back, we’ll be clear. Two weeks and counting.” The two talk about their lives and about the bar patron who told Joseph about the magical, time-traveling clocks in this house. It’s noticed that there are no cars, no planes, no signs of other people. When it’s time to go back where they came from, they find “Go to the mill” scratched on a wooden sign. Inside the mill, they find a badly burned corpse. They find another cryptic message that demands their compliance. Sid freaks and runs outside to vomit blood when she crosses the perimeter. The body in the barn was the woman who gave Joseph the book with instructions. They come into a possession of a tape recorder that allows them to have a conversation with… whoever’s behind all this. The man on the tape wants to “wipe” them, painlessly and instantaneously. The man says there’s someone coming to use the time doorway that they can’t see, and he wants Joe and Sid to kill that person. He sends them pistols. They set up outside to watch the perimeter, and nothing happens for a long time. On day 352, Sid has researched that the place has been deserted since around 1955. The “Vice Grip” has since used the place as a sort of time-travelling safehouse. She’s had many theories about all this since they’ve been trapped here. Finally, someone walks across the field toward the house. They get down, loaded with a sniper rifle and aim at Sid. Joe yells, and they both run inside. Joe and the intruder shoot at each other. Sid gets shot in the shoulder as the intruder plays disco music. As Sid talks to the tape recorder, Joe is elsewhere being tied up and tormented. He tells the tape recorder that the intruder is dead–

    38 min

  5. 11/30/2025

    Shelby Oaks, Compulsion, Operation Undead, Alma and the Wolf, and Godzilla Vs Destoroyah

    Mostly all new films this time around, and they’re all pretty good! We will start off with “Shelby Oaks,” then have no choice but to take a look at “Compulsion.” “Alma and the Wolf” will be stopping by before “Operation Undead” occurs. All of these are new-ish 2025 films. Lastly, we’ll watch the final film of the second Godzilla era, “Godzilla Vs Destoroyah” from 1995. This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2025 Shelby Oaks * Directed by: Chris Stuckman * Written by: Sam Liz, Chris Stuckman * Stars: Camille Sullivan, Sarah Durn * Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone It’s a mix of documentary, found footage, and standard movie format that mixes the three smoothly together. After a quartet of paranormal investigators vanish, the sister of one of them starts an obsessive investigation of her own looking for answers. She finds some, and it’s thoroughly creepy. We both thought the movie improved as it went along, with a stronger second half, and we give it a thumbs up. Spoilery Synopsis We’re told that Riley, the host of “Paranormal Paranoids,” went missing in 2008. We watch an old video of her talking about being scared. That was the last time anyone saw her alive. In Darke County Ohio, we hear news reports about Riley and her whole team going missing. Could it have been a hoax? Mia, Riley’s sister, has been searching for her for the past twelve years. We cut to people talking about this new thing called YouTube, and how it created a whole new type of paranormal researcher. We watch one old clip that took place in an abandoned prison, and Riley was never the same afterward. They never really got famous until their disappearance. The last evidence of the group was at a place called Shelby Oaks, a modern ghost town. Eventually three of the team were found, dead and mutilated, but Riley’s body was not found. We see that clip again, and this time, we see a creepy figure standing outside the window behind Riley. “Mia, he’s back,” she said. Mia talks about Riley’s visions from when she was little. As the interviewer and Mia finish up, a man comes to the door. “She finally let me go,” he says before shooting himself in the head. Credits roll. In his hand is a tape labelled “Shelby Oaks,” and Mia steals it. Mia watches the tape, which contains missing footage from Riley’s camera. Riley introduces the town of Shelby Oaks, but then gets all serious and wants to leave. She mentions having a dream about the place. They explore the place, but that night, there are weird sounds outside the buildings; howling and whining, like animals. We then see the man who killed himself on their doorstep come into the building and kill some of the crew. Mia sees someone standing outside looking in her window– on the second floor. Riley used to talk about the same thing happening. Detective Burke tells Mia about Wilson Miles, the man who did the killings. Mia still doesn’t tell the police about the tape. She wants to investigate on her own. Miles had been incarcerated in that old haunted prison as well, so that’s all connected. She interviews the former warden of the prison, who talks about how oddly quickly the prison deteriorated after Wilson Miles arrived there. The place literally rotted. Mia tells her husband Robert more of her suspicions, and yes, she’s seen the thing at the window a few times. The thing out there wanted something from Riley, and it’d been stalking her all her life, minus the few years when Miles was in prison. Robert thinks Mia needs psychiatric help. Mia reads about Incubuses and other demons. The pictures look familiar. Later, she sees a demon dog outside on the street. She decides, in the middle of the night, to drive right over to the abandoned CGI prison and break in, alone. Without telling anyone where she’s gone. She tracks down Wilson Miles’s prison cell and it abruptly gets very cold. Suddenly, her flashlight goes out and she sees some surprising things. She wastes no time in leaving the prison. She then drives to the old amusement park and encounters the demon dog again. This time, it leads her into the woods to a house where an old woman lives. She’s Norma. Mia notices that the house is covered in mold and rot, just like the prison. Norma says she lives with her son, who turns out to be Wilson Miles. Mia’s creeped out and sends Robert a text to call the police to her location. She finds photos of Wilson and Riley together, and she doesn’t look happy about it. Oh, and she’s pregnant in the photos. Norma comes out and opens a trap door on the floor and leads the way in. In a cell down there, Mia sees Riley, alive. It also becomes clear that old Norma isn’t human at all, or perhaps is just a human shell. Riley runs upstairs and Mia chases after her. They hear a baby crying and go into the room. Norma is there praying to Tarion, the Incubus of the North. She blesses the baby in his name. There are photos on the wall of Riley, Robert, Mia, and they’re all covered in blood. When the ritual is over, Norma falls to the floor, apparently dead. The baby, on the other hand, looks just fine. Mia takes Riley to the hospital. After twelve years, the news is all over the story. Eventually, they take Riley home, but she’s not adjusting well and is very quiet. “It has to die,” she says about the baby. The two sisters struggle, and Riley gets knocked out a window, where she’s torn apart by devil dogs. We get a good glimpse of Tarion standing behind Mia. Then it puts a hand on her shoulder. Mia then explains that Tarion had been following Riley for decades; this is what it’s always wanted. She screams, and we see that her eyes are glowing now. Brian’s Commentary A lot of the beginning is found footage, but it moves away from that as Mia starts investigating. After that point, it starts picking up and gets good. I liked the last half quite a bit. The sets, music, lighting, and pacing all lend themselves to a very suspenseful mystery. You see just enough to know what’s going on, but they don’t beat you over the head with monsters and gore. It’s very good! Kevin’s Commentary Hmmm. A found footage documentary movie where a quartet of supernatural investigators have vanished. Will it be good or show us something new? Yes, it was quite good and unique enough to entertain me. I was pleased. The CGI when it’s used is pretty obvious, but the real abandoned locations, the interior of the prison, the town, the amusement park, were perfect. An interesting bit of trivia on IMDB.com says “In one of the posters promoting the movie, there are the names of all people contributing to the movie hidden in the poster. There were over 14,000 people included in (sic) making of the movie (including crowdfunding).” Oof. Sometimes the dragon wins as the saying goes. 2025 Compulsion * Directed by: Neil Marshall * Written by: Charlotte Kirk, Neil Marshall * Stars: Charlotte Kirk, Matthew Camilleri, Zach McGowan * Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone There’s a masked and disguised killer on the loose in Malta who does brutal work. It has a hint of the horror elements, but really it’s a sexy and violent murder mystery. The deaths are very bloody, a contrast to the beautiful people and settings. And the script is clever but flawed. We both thought it was entertaining, but had some issues. Spoilery Synopsis We open on various shots in and around Malta. Someone in a black outfit climbs the ladder on the side of a building at night. They break in through a balcony and skulk around. The person in black watches as the man who lives in the house gets ready for a shower. Then the intruder slashes the man to death excessively. We pull back and see that the killer is a woman in a full-body BDSM suit. Detective Claudia arrives on the scene. The chief explains the case to her; she’s never done a case like this before, so he assigns her to Detective Crawford as a partner. Also, the chief is her father. Evie is on vacation in Malta, just arrived, and she gets an annoying taxi driver. She’s got a rich father, whose isolated country home she’s going to stay at, and an attitude. She listens to neighbor Diane and her boyfriend, Reese, arguing from quite a ways away. Evie runs into Diane at the local store, and they talk. Meanwhile, the two detectives look at security footage of the bondage-killer; the killer is probably not one of the locals. Diane tells Evie about the murderer on the ride back home. Evie mentions that she just broke up with her girlfriend. Back at the house, neighbor Reese invites Evie out for dinner tomorrow night. Evie notices that she can see through to their windows from her room and really likes what she sees. Later, Diane and Reese talk about Evie’s rich father and how to get his money. Reese planned to seduce Evie, but she’s a lesbian, so that’s not gonna fly. They need to devise a new plan, so the next day, Diane goes to see Evie at her house. We get a flashback to Diane watching Evie’s stepfather, Mason, getting into the safe. She scopes out the lock on the safe as Evie gets dressed. Then Diane works on seducing Evie, which isn’t especially hard. Reese goes to see some baddies about the money he owes, and the boss, Fabio, isn’t nice about it. Final warning. He’s got a week before the boss lets a henchman skin him alive. The two detectives show up to question Evie, since she’s a recent arrival to Malta who fits the demographic of the killer. They tell her not to leave the island. They go to Diana’s house right afterward. The police have found several similar murders in neighboring countries over the past few months. Diane and Evie go out for dinner, and run into the annoying cab d

    29 min

  6. 11/23/2025

    Bloat, Ziam, The Ritual, We Are Zombies, and Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla

    Three new films, one from last year, and one oldie sits in the queue for us today. We’ll start off with the recent-ish “Ziam,” then look at “Bloat.” We’ve got some big stars in “The Ritual.” We’ll then finish up with the comedic “We Are Zombies” and the kaiju-fest, “Godzilla Vs. SpaceGodzilla.” “The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet! This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2025 Ziam * Directed by: Kulp Kaljareuk * Written by: Vathanyu Ingkawiwat, Kulp Kaljareuk, Nut Nualpang * Stars: Mark Prin Suparat, Nuttanicha Dungwattanawanich, Vayla Wanvayla Boonnithipaisit * Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone It’s a fast zombie movie, well made and set in Thailand, slightly in the future. The main character is a trained and experienced fighter, so he participates in a lot of combat both before and during the outbreak. It was fairly entertaining, but didn’t feel like much we haven’t already seen before. Spoilery Synopsis We hear about the collapse of the environment and possibly the end of humanity. The Thai government has been on lockdown for the past ten years, so they still have their resources, or at least that’s what the propaganda on the radio says. Singh is quitting his job and daydreams about his girlfriend, Rin. He might go back to kickboxing, which he’s good at. The two drive into the food-insect farm in the apocalyptic wasteland. As they park the truck, bandits approach, but Singh fights them off. The bandits don’t stand a chance. There are riots and fighting all over Bangkok. Singh’s friend is elated to find that they’ve been carrying a load of dried fish in the truck. We cut to Mr. Vasu, who runs the company and kept the people from starving. We see that Vasu has invented a new kind of “safe” fish, and this is what Singh’s friend got. All the businessmen and investors get a sample, but then the convulsions start. At home, Rin nags at Singh about his dangerous job. She realizes that right now, there aren’t many options. Rin’s a doctor who works at the nearby hospital. She gets called by the hospital administrator for an important case: Mr. Vasu’s wife. Vasu thinks fish liver can improve his wife’s condition, but Rin isn’t sure the fish is even healthy. Meanwhile, Vasu’s partner, Purich, dies bloodily on the operating table, a victim of the fish. Purich then wakes back up, now a zombie. Rin gets a firsthand experience with him in the hallway. Singh hears that there’s an emergency at the hospital. He arrives just in time to watch some people fall off the roof– and keep moving afterward. It’s a fast-spreading outbreak of a fast-zombie virus. Soon, the whole hospital is crawling with zombies, and Rin is pretty much on her own. Singh gets inside and immediately has to start fighting zombies. Rin’s young friend, Buddy, also has to hide from the monsters until Singh shows up to help him. The government decides to blow up the hospital; it’s better than losing the whole city then the country. Demolition level explosives with a nice long timer are placed. Ren and Buddy search for Rin and Buddy’s mom, but there are a lot of zombies to avoid on the way. They find Buddy’s mother, but she’s been bitten and knows how that’s going to go, so she sends the boy with Singh. Singh fights off a bunch of zombies, using just his feet, while carrying Buddy on his back. Rin comes to Mr. Vasu’s room, and he lets her in. He lets her in and says she’ll be safe here. The government sends men to rescue Vasu. They arrive by helicopter and set the bombs for thirty minutes. Singh and Rin are eventually reunited, and he’s shot almost immediately after. Vasu’s men grab Rin and drag her off to care for Vasu’s wife. Singh gets right back up and attacks the soldiers. It’s quite a battle, but never doubt who’s going to win. By the time he wakes up, Rin has him all patched up. Meanwhile, some of the zombies downstairs are getting really messed up. Singh runs into Vasu, who watches his wife turning into one of the creatures. She bites him as many more flood into the ward. Rin and Buddy run as Singh tries to hold off the zombies. Rin and Buddy make it to the helicopter on the roof and work to convince the men there that she’s not infected. Singh makes it up to the roof and staggers toward the helicopter, but the copter takes off and leaves him there. The explosives go off, the whole hospital collapses. Rin and Buddy fly off to safety. Later, back in her small village, Rin is safe. Somehow, we see that Singh has survived the zombies and the collapse of the hospital and is still kicking zombie ass in the city… Brian’s Commentary It’s well made, and being from Thailand makes it interesting, but it’s nothing new. The acting looks fine, but we saw a dubbed version, and the voices were less than stellar. Nothing new here to see. Kevin’s Commentary Like Brian said, it’s Thai, which makes it a novelty for us, and it’s put together well. But it’s just another fast zombie movie. Singh’s combat abilities and endurance after damage weren’t too realistic, but then it’s not a realistic movie. I was going to say they might as well have just had Singh show up at the end. Then they did. Which is completely ridiculous after he was on the roof of a building that was demolished by explosives. I was fairly entertained through most of it, but it wasn’t that memorable. 2025 Bloat * Directed by: Pablo Absento * Written by: Pablo Absento, Buddy Giovinazzo * Stars: Ben McKenzie, Bojana Novakovic, Malcolm Fuller * Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone This is another “screenlife” subgenre of horror, a film that’s entirely made up of videos, web pages, emails, video chat, etc. And it was brought to us by Apple. A father has to deal remotely with a son in Japan, along with another son and his wife, who are struggling with the supernatural. Bloat is a perfect title - it’s not a bad little story but it’s bloated out into a full length movie that didn’t impress either of us very much. Spoilery Synopsis We watch a phone video of a woman giving birth; there’s something wrong with the baby. He reads a text “It’s time to move on. Jack, we’ve lost our child. It’s time to move on.” Jack and Hannah then decide to move to Tokyo. We watch a “Trip planning montage” which looks a lot like an ad for Apple. There’s suddenly an attack in the middle east, and Jack’s leave gets cancelled. Hannah and her two sons end up going to Tokyo without Jack. We watch Jack and Hannah talking through Facetime. Suddenly, Hannah drops the phone and runs away, leaving Jack hanging. We then see headlines that four boys drowned that day at the park, and Jack’s son Kyle was one of them, but he miraculously survived. Jack tries to get more information, but it’s hard since Hannah lost her phone and the other son, Steve, can’t use his phone in the hospital. Jack watches news footage over and over. What is that green stuff coming out of Kyle’s mouth? Afterward, Kyle is different. He bites his brother, but Jack is too busy managing drone strikes to pay full attention. Jack talks to a psychologist about Kyle’s weird behavior. We see a video of Kyle discussing his drowning experience with the doctor. He then goes on to research PTSD and a website for “PARENTS OF POSSESSED KIDS.” Kyle wants a drone for Christmas, and he’s also interested in bugs now. Kyle starts texting Jack in Japanese, but he doesn’t speak Japanese. Steve complains that Kyle is different; he eats rotten cucumbers now. Jack watches an old video of Hannah dumping the dead baby’s ashes in the lake and gets depressed. He then watches some clearly fake YouTube videos of supernatural stuff. We then get a long montage of conspiracy videos and blogs. Hannah calls Jack and says that Steve has disappeared. Jack gets a video of what Steve did last night; he followed Kyle out to the woods. Turns out, Steve thinks he’s been hanging out with some kind of little monsters. Steve also thinks his mother is back on drugs. Jack calls his friend Ryan, who’s still in Tokyo, to check on the family. Jack also orders a bunch of “trail cams” for Steve to set up out in the woods. Hannah seems to be in denial about all the weirdness. Ryan goes to see a Buddhist monk, and he says there’s a “Kappa” in one of Steve’s videos. They usually kill children, not possess them. There was another case about 15 years ago, but the old monk doesn’t know much about that time. “The kappa will swallow the boy’s soul. Then it will be impossible to save him.” It can be killed with fire. Jack researches the previous case, but that boy ended up dying. He then calls the father of the dead boy, who is now in prison for murder. There’s a typhoon coming in, so there’s no way for Jack to get to Japan. Ryan has night-vision goggles and wants to go watch the kappa in the forest. Jack calls Hannah, who seems to be out of her mind and likely possessed as well. Ryan sees the kappa in the woods and shoots it, but then his gun jams. Jack watches as the kappa swallows Ryan. Jack deserts his post and flies to Japan. He finds Hannah dead with her face half-eaten. Jack then burns down the house with Kyle inside. Jack runs back into the burning house but still holds his iphone camera up for us all to see. Apparently it was the sweet spot of killing the kappa with fire while saving Kyle. In the morning, Jack is arrested for the murder of his wife and military desertion. There’s a court-martial, and he faces a 45-year sentence. Steve and Kyle both test

    33 min

  7. 11/16/2025

    Frankenstein, Black Phone 2, The Elixir, The Mannequin, and Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla 2

    This time around, we have four new films and one oldie. We’ll start off with the much-hyped “Frankenstein” which just came out on Netflix. Next, we’ll watch an international film, “The Elixir” and also “The Mannequin,” which are also new releases. Finishing up the new stuff this week, we’ll take a look at “Black Phone 2.” Last, we’ll continue our Godzilla coverage with “Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II” from 1993. “The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet! This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2025 Frankenstein * Directed by: Guillermo del Toro * Written by: Guillermo del Toro, Mary Shelley * Stars: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz * Run Time: 2 Hours, 29 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone Basically, Dr. Frankenstein assembles a man out of corpse parts and brings him to life. But it’s not a smooth process and things get complicated. This version follows the original book somewhat closer than the classic Hammer and Universal film versions, and it goes much more into the moral and emotional complications. Beautifully filmed and directed, it’s long but entertaining. We both thought it’s really good. Spoilery Synopsis Prelude In the farthestmost North, in 1857, we open on a ship frozen in the ice. The men work on the ice with axes. They are on a mission to find the North Pole. The men report an explosion and fire about two miles away, and they go to investigate. They find a wounded man who’s lost a lot of blood. They bring the unconscious man back to the ship, but there’s something else out there on the ice. They shoot it repeatedly, but that has little effect. It clearly wants the injured man, and it threatens to capsize the huge ship all on its own to get to him. The men shoot the ice beneath the monster and it sinks to the bottom of the ocean. The sick man, Victor, says the monster will come back for them, “It can not die. I made him.” As he recovers, he offers to tell the captain his story. Chapter 1: Victor’s Story Victor’s father was a wealthy baron and a surgeon who was away much of the time, leaving Victor home with his mother. The father was abusive, but also taught Victor all about medicine. Something goes wrong with his mother’s pregnancy, and she dies. The baby, William, survives and soon becomes the father’s favorite. His father explains that “No one can conquer death.” Victor then decided to become the greatest doctor of all time. At the medical school, Victor demonstrates a machine he’s made that animates bits and pieces of a corpse. It’s quite a demonstration. The other doctors call it an unholy abomination. Mr. Harlander comes to visit; he saw the demonstration. Victor’s brother, William, is coming for a visit as he’s planning to be married. Harlander is something of a doctor himself, and he’s got new information about the nervous system that can help Victor– and financing as well. Harlander is making obscene amounts of money from weapons dealing because there’s a war on. Victor meets William and his fiancee Elizabeth, who looks exactly like Victor’s dead mother. Victor and Elizabeth start arguing right away. Harlander rents a scary old castle for Victor to do his work in, and it’s… excessive. They start assembling equipment and looking for bodies– even before they’re hanged. Meanwhile, Victor starts stalking Elizabeth. He pretends to be a priest to take her confession– nope, they’re just playing a game; they’re actually getting closer as William is busy managing the assembly of the lab. It’s a lot of work, and Victor is taking him for granted as he steals his gal away at the same time. Harlander catches on to the affair and tells Victor to hurry up before the funding dries up. The war is having one final battle, and Victor gets his choice of all the good body parts. He gets down to the business of assembling the perfect body with Harlander photographing and documenting everything. Harlander reveals that he’s dying of syphilis and wants to be “included” in the experiment - put his brain in the new healthy body. Victor says there’s nothing left of Harlander that’s not infected, so he won’t do it. It’s finally finished, and just then, a thunderstorm approaches. Victor gets the body into the machine and gets everything set up. Harlander, angry about being rejected, threatens to ruin everything, and Victor kills him accidentally. The lightning rod collector piece is damaged in the struggle, but Victor has no time to fix it. Lightning strikes, and all sorts of things happen– except the body doesn’t live. It failed. Victor goes to bed. When he wakes up, the creature is standing next to the bed, very much alive. He’s tall, gray, and scarred all over. He shows it around the castle, and it all goes pretty well for a while. Then he chains it up like a prisoner; he never considered what to do after the creature came to life. Weeks pass, and the creature learns some things, but he still doesn’t speak other than to say “Victor.” He cuts himself and heals almost instantly. Victor’s a rotten parent and teacher. William and Elizabeth arrive for a surprise visit, and she meets the creature accidentally. She thinks Victor has been abusing and neglecting it, and she’s nice to it. One night, Victor is beating on the creature and sees just how strong it really is. He blames Harlander’s death on the creature, telling William that it’s violent and dangerous. Victor sends William and Elizabeth home and then burns the lab, the castle, and the dungeon. With the creature still chained up inside. The whole castle explodes and collapses, and Victor loses a leg in the blast. Back on the ship, the monster arrives and breaks in. The captain wants to hear his side of the story. Part II The Creature’s Tale We continue with the fire. He broke out of the chains and got out of the castle through the drain. It’s a rough fall, but he survives and walks away. He finds the pile of corpses and body parts that Victor threw out and takes some clothing from one of them. He’s almost immediately chased by hunters and shot. He goes off and hides in the barn of a farmhouse. The family in the farmhouse talk to the hunters. The creature sees and hears them through the cracks in the wall; he especially likes the old blind man, the grandfather. The creature watched and learned as the old man taught the little girl to speak and read. Each night, he did chores and made things for the family, but they never saw him. There’s a wolf attack on the family’s sheep, and most of them plan to hunt them in the mountains all winter. They leave the old blind man home alone, and the creature eventually reveals himself to the old man. The old man is nice to him, which is a new experience for the creature. They have conversations, the creature reads books and gains a lot of knowledge. The creature makes a return visit to Victor’s castle and learns what he really is. He also learns where Victor lives. When he returns to the old man’s house, the wolves have killed him. Just then, the family returns and stabs and shoots the creature repeatedly. It takes a while, but he gets back up, his wounds healed. Meanwhile, Victor is back at the family home; William’s wedding is fast approaching. The creature has tracked him down and watches the house from the nearby woods. They finally meet, and Victor wants the creature to thank him. The creature, on the other hand, wants Victor to make him a companion. “I cannot die, and I cannot live alone.” Victor, unsurprisingly, refuses to listen. Victor then shoots Elizabeth by mistake and the creature kills William. He carries Elizabeth out of the mansion and into a nearby cave. As she slowly dies, Elizabeth tells the creature that she’s happier dead and that she loves the monster. The monster decides that Victor will regret his decision and the hunt begins. Victor chases the monster through the mountains up to the arctic. The monster finally catches him. The monster simply wants to die at this point, and he holds onto a piece of Victor’s dynamite to see what will happen. He goes boom, but that still doesn’t kill him. He starts healing immediately. This is where the men from the ship came into the story. On the ship, Victor apologizes to the creature. They talk about life and death and unending life. The monster then forgives Victor as his creator dies. The captain then allows the creature to leave without a fight. The creature walks out onto the ice and pushes the ship free from where it’s been trapped. The captain announces he will give up his impossible mission and just go home. The creature, on the other hand, walks off into the sunrise… Brian’s Commentary The visuals are amazing here, both colorful and drab at the same time. They change around the family dynamic with Victor and the crew, but it sticks pretty closely with the book for the major plot points. Most of the effects are practical, and when the CGI does appear, such as with the wolf attack, it’s noticeably bad. Otherwise, it looks great, the acting is excellent all around, and even though it’s two and a half hours, it never gets boring and never slows down. The ending is different from the book. It’s not exactly a happy ending, but it’s not like the book, either. I’m not sure why del Toro felt the need to change the ending, but he did. Overall, it’s a very good movie, but it’s still not a perfect adaptation of the original book– but it’s close. Kevin’s Commentary The director pushed for practical sets, and they look great. Unfortunately, at least when viewed on a television sc

    33 min

  8. 11/09/2025

    The Long Walk, The Conjuring: Last Rites, Dorothea, Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle for Earth, and The Benefactress: An Exposure of Cinematic Freedom

    We’ve got a mixed bag this time around: four new films and one classic. We’ll start out with the much-hyped “The Long Walk,” “Dorothea,” “The Benefactress,” and “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” all recently released. For our oldie, we’ll look at “Godzilla vs Mothra: The Battle for Earth” from 1993. “The Horror Guys Guide to the Horror Films of Christmas” is available now wherever you get your books. Seventy-Five holiday-themed films are included— it’s our biggest book yet! This as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #50, are on sale now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2025 The Long Walk * Directed by: Francis Lawrence * Written by: JT Mollner, Stephen King * Stars: Cooper Hoffman, David Jonsson, Garrett Wareing * Run Time: 1 Hour 48 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone A group of fifty young men is chosen by lottery to participate in “The Long Walk,” an annual elimination contest with one winner - one surviving winner - at the end. How they get there is surprisingly interesting to watch. And kind of sad and gruesome as you might imagine, and also uplifting and funny at times. Spoilery Synopsis We read Raymond Garraty’s acceptance letter on screen. He’s been accepted through the lottery, and has a chance to win a wish and a huge amount of money. We hear on the radio that in the past, America had a war that ruined everything, and poverty is rampant but it has been 19 years and things are on the mend. Raymond’s mother doesn’t approve and wants him to drop out, but he says it’s too late. Fifty young men will compete, one from each state, but only one will win. As he checks in, he meets Peter, another contestant. Stebbins, Hank, Mark, Curly, and some of the others make themselves known. We see various other characters as well. The Major pulls up in his jeep. He has them all take numbers to wear around their necks, it’s a lot like a marathon. He explains that the broadcast of The Long Walk increases production, which helps the economy. “Walk until there’s only one of you left. If you fall below three miles an hour, you get a warning. The goal is to last the longest. There’s one winner and no finish line. Remember– anyone can win.” And they’re off! The first few miles, the walkers talk about how desolate the landscape is. They also talk about their strategies. One guy gets a rock in his shoe and stops to fix it; he gets a warning. And then a second warning. The soldier behind him raises his rifle. He gets up and moves on. Raymond talks about how social pressure makes everyone apply to The Walk, so they really don’t have a choice. Eventually, Curly gets a cramp, gets three warnings, and gets shot, the first loser of the race. Yes, there’s only going to be one survivor. Credits roll. Player 1 falls down, foaming at the mouth, he’s having some kind of epileptic seizure of some kind. The soldiers shoot him as well. Twenty-five miles in, everyone’s getting pretty tired. Barkovitch goads another guy into fighting with him, and it goes badly for one of them. Harkness is writing a book, and he talks about the “pooping issue” just as another walker dies because of it. As night falls, The Major gives them all a pep talk. Everyone is more or less walking in their sleep. Ray gets three warnings, but if he can keep walking for three hours, those will go away. They hit a steep grade in the road, and several players are killed; this motivates the rest. This clears out the crowd, as there are far fewer players now, only 18 left. When the sun comes up, they’re on mile 59. Reality is setting in for most of the walkers. Ray and Pete both doubt they’ve got what it takes to win. Harkness has been walking for miles on a twisted ankle, but he’s done. At the 100 mile mark, the group passes through a small town, and it’s extremely poor-looking. The second night, it rains. On day 3, there aren’t many walkers left. Ray tells the story about how his father was executed by The Major for reading banned books. Ray’s secret plan is to kill The Major. The winner gets a wish along with all the money, and he plans to use it to kill The Major. Pete tries to talk him out of those negative thoughts. At the 170-mile point, they lose more people. Hank gives up and they almost lose Baker because of it. As the survivors bond, they’re all getting closer, which makes each loss harder on them. Day 4, 209 miles in, and it looks like there are six left. They’ve all got problems. Barkovitch goes crazy and kills himself, mostly. The third warning finishes him off. At 278 miles, the landscape just gets bleaker and bleaker, with junk bicycles and burning cars. Ray’s shoe wears out, so he goes barefoot; he passes his mother on the side of the road. Baker gets a nosebleed that won’t stop for the next thirty miles or so. He knows he’s done for and asks the others not to watch him die. Stebbins admits that he’s The Major’s b*****d son, and that’s why he signed up. He says The Major has dozens of them and then drops out as well. Now it’s just Ray and Pete. When it’s down to just two, the rules allow for crowds of spectators. Pete stops to let Ray win, but Ray talks him into continuing. They are both on their third warning. The soldiers then shoot Ray who stops walking. The Major comes out and executes Ray. Pete wins, but he’s not happy about it. There are fireworks and everyone sings “American the Beautiful.” The Major asks for Pete’s wish, and he wants one of the soldier’s guns. Pete points the gun at The Major and shoots; this was Ray’s wish. Pete then walks off into the rain. Brian’s Commentary It’s an interesting world these people live in, and the plot is very simple. You’d think two hours of people walking would get boring pretty quickly, but the editing and dialogue keep it going quite well. I heard the premise and assumed it would be all about the players fighting and doing dirty tricks to win, but there’s not very much of that here. It’s not scary. There’s very little action. Still, it’s engaging all the way through as you get to know the characters. I think the ending was pretty predictable, but it was good getting there. Kevin’s Commentary I was a little skeptical going into this, wondering how they could stretch the novella into a movie almost two hours long. But it’s so well made and naturally acted that it flows nicely without being boring. Plus they expanded on the story and changed the ending. The rural and small town settings they walk through are peaceful and beautiful and get darker and bleaker as the walk progresses. A light touch is the world that it’s set in, that doesn’t seem to be the future but more of an alternate timeline of the 1960s. I thought the ending was a little weak, but I liked it overall. 2025 Dorothea * Directed by: Chad Ferrin * Written by: Chad Ferrin * Stars: Susan Priver, Pat McNeely, Ezra Buzzington * Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone An old woman on her deathbed confesses the story of her history as a landlady who took special care of her tenants. It’s grim business with quite a body count, but also loaded with dark humor. It’s kind of a basic story, but we both thought it was very good. Spoilery Synopsis We’re told the facts behind the “Death House Landlady” who took advantage of old people and cashed their Social Security checks. Dorothea, an old woman in a nursing home, wants to tell her story. We cut to a man beating up a woman. Later, she whacks him with a hammer and kills him. Credits roll. She stages her husband’s body in the bathroom and calls 911. “It was that easy. Worked like a charm. No one suspected a thing.” Dorothea continues telling her story to Patty, and we see that they’re both in prison. She continues by talking about her third husband, much younger and richer than she was. At least until he started cheating on her. The fourth husband wasn’t much better. After all the husbands, Dorothea buys a large house and starts renting out rooms. Ruth Monroe comes to the house to rent a room, and we see some of the other tenants. There’s a smell that Dorothea blames on a sewer pipe. Dorothea tells the handyman, Chief, to dig a new plot for her planting. Ruth pays $800 for the month; she’s had to sell her house to pay for her sick husband’s treatment. We cut to Dorothea putting something in Chief’s booze. He’s given up alcohol and doesn’t want it, but she’s persuasive. As he drinks, Chief tells Dorothea that old Malcolm has noticed things have gone missing and other patrons of the house are unhappy about turning over their SS checks to her. She doesn’t even wait until he’s dead to bury him. Dorothea sees that Ruth is in her room over where she just buried Chief, and she might have seen something. This ends up leading to the second poisoning of the night. She then goes into Malcolm’s room to kill him, but he’s not only moved out, but he also threatens to go to the police over missing items. In the morning, Dorothea finds Ruth’s “suicide” and convinces everyone that it was intentional. The theft problem, however, gets her five years in prison. While in jail, Dorothea writes to various men as pen pals. When she gets out, she meets a sailor who’s a lot older than she expected. He has plans, but she’s not into that. He’s fired the man she had taking care of her boarding house. He wants to sell her house and buy a boat; he’s already cleared out her savings. He doesn’t live long. She gets Ismael, the new handyman, to load the body into a coffin. Either he’s really dumb or really desperate and goes along with everything she does. She goes to the docks to get a refund on the boat he bought with her money. That goes badly for the man with the money and Ismael as well. Dorothea even

    36 min
See All (372)

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Join Kevin and Brian for a weekly podcast episode. Every Friday, the guys release both a video and audio podcast episode that covers everything new in horror, along with a handful of great (and awful) movie reviews! www.horrorweekly.com

Information

  • Creator
    Brian Schell and Kevin L. Knights
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2025
  • Episodes
    372
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Brian Schell
  • Show Website
    Horror Weekly