This week’s new release is “Blood Shine,” which we assume was a vampire story but isn’t. We’ll dismember and eat up two more Leatherface films, “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” (2003) and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning” (2006). Finally, we’ll come up from someone’s bowels with “The Slime People” from 1963– yuck! All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #60, for September 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com Mainstream Films: 2026 Blood Shine * Directed by: Emily Bennett, Justin Brooks * Written by: Emily Bennett, Justin Brooks * Stars: Emily Bennett, Brendan Sexton III, David Call * Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone In an isolated country estate, a young filmmaker is held prisoner by a religious zealot. The beginning segment - about 16 minutes long - held promise, but things change after the opening credits. The two leads give it their all, but we both thought it was pretty dragging and dull. Spoilery Synopsis We open on a creepy TV preacher talking about how our bodies are cages. We cut to some guys working on a farm with cows; more newborn cows have died this year than have been born alive. The farm is failing, so the farmer lays off Keith, who’s obviously already broke. Keith’s truck breaks down on the way to another farm that was recommended to him – he’s not having a good day. Keith walks to a farmhouse to make a phone call. The woman inside, Clara, offers to call him a tow truck. She invites him inside; he does seem safe, at least. She’s kinda plain-looking, but the more he looks at her, the better she looks. They start talking about being lonely and alone. They touch hands, and we then get a glimpse of her and knife, and a trail of blood; she’s stabbed him, and now she wants him to stab her as well. He kills himself instead, even though she wants him to kill her. “You wasted it! You wasted all of it!” Credits roll. We cut to Brighton West showing off his latest new horror short. He’s got an actress there auditioning for a new role, and he Weinsteins her. Later, he calls the producer and promises to finish writing the promised film. He’s going to go off to the country to force himself to finish the movie script for “Craven IV.” The producer is skittish because Brighton’s had addiction issues in the past. At the cabin, Brighton meets Lucy, a neighbor, and avoids her. He ends up spending most of the evening at the local bar drinking. He admits to the bartender that he can’t find any inspiration here. Manny the bartender gives him directions to a nearby town where he’ll find some inspiration in a cave. Brighton goes out to the woods and spots Clara there, naked in the river. Suddenly, he’s knocked out by a falling branch. He wakes up at Clara’s house. They talk about being single, just as she did with Keith earlier, and he admits that no one is home waiting for him. Clara gives Brighton some drugged tea, and the next thing he knows, he’s chained up in a dark place watching a recording of the preacher telling him that he’s going to die. “In 26 days, you will die in agony.” We see that she’s got a whole videotape series about kidnapping and torturing for the cult. She beats, cuts, and shocks him daily after that. Eventually, Brighton takes the hint and starts cutting himself on command; it’s easier than getting beat up first. Brighton figures out that he’s not the first one held here when he finds a message, “She’s afraid of the dark.” There’s a long montage of torture, cult-speak, and suffering between the two. After a very long while, he sorta seduces her and trades places with Clara, chaining her to the floor in the dark. After a great amount of discussion, the two are soon cutting each other and putting their hands under each other’s skin. Eventually, it’s time. She hands him a knife and wants him to kill her, but he doesn’t want to do it. He does do it, and she thanks him before dying. The other cultists arrive on the scene, along with the leader. All the other characters we’ve seen in the film are involved. The leader pokes out Brighton’s eyes, but Brighton doesn’t mind; he smiles and looks at the sun. Brian’s Commentary It’s all about loneliness, isolation, and of course, cult murder. It’s well acted and looks good, but the pacing is awful and it’s really, really slow at times. It’s really all about the two characters bearing their souls to each other, but it’s actually all pretty boring. I was eager for it to end. Kevin’s Commentary The opening scene was so long, and with the main character being killed, it almost felt like two movies in one. Unfortunately, the first segment was really good, and I thought the rest of the movie dragged. The two leads were just acting their hearts out, but I thought it was pretty boring. 2003 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre * Directed by: Marcus Nispel * Written by: Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper, Scott Koser * Stars: Jessica Biel, Jonathan Tucker, Andrew Bryniarski * Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes * Trailer: Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone It’s a reboot of the 1973 movie by the same name. And while it is a sweaty movie with some grit, it doesn’t match the grimy feel of the original. It’s a polished modern (okay 23 years ago) horror movie. Though it is pretty well made and entertaining after a little bit of a slow start. In total, we liked it more than disliked it, but our attention wandered here and there. Kevin liked it a bit more than Brian did. Spoilery Synopsis We get a voiceover about the deaths of five young people thirty years ago. We get a video walkthrough of one of the murder sites. Credits roll. August 18, 1973, a bunch of teens in a van are out in the country. Erin, Morgan, Pepper, Andy, and Kemper are annoying right off the bat. They’re all coming back from buying pot in Mexico; they’ve got two pounds in the car. They almost hit a young girl walking in the road. The girl has clearly been into some bad things, so they offer her a ride. Kemper, the driver, doesn’t know where they are and drives her to the meat packing plant, where the girl kills herself in the back of their van. Most of the van people are asking “why did this happen to us?” The group stops at a gas station. The woman inside calls the sheriff, who offers to meet them somewhere else. They drive to an abandoned-looking factory, but there’s no sheriff there. They go inside the old factory, but they aren’t alone. They find a little boy who seems to be living there alone. They go to a huge old isolated house, and the man says they can call the sheriff from there. The sheriff finally shows up at the factory, and he’s a class act as he wraps up and takes the body away. Meanwhile, Erin and Kemper run into trouble with the old man in the house– oh, and Leatherface is there as well. Erin returns to the other three, minus Kemper, and they wonder what’s happened. She takes Andy back to the old man’s house, and he sneaks in the back door. They soon run into Leatherface, and Andy loses a leg. Erin runs back to Morgan and Pepper, but then the sheriff shows up to arrest them all for drugs. There’s a standoff between Morgan and the sheriff, and that goes badly for Morgan. Meanwhile, Leatherface takes off his mask and works on what’s left of Kemper and Andy. After, he goes after the two girls, now alone in the van, but he’s wearing Kemp’s face. She runs to a mobile home with two women inside; “He knows better than to bother us in here. He’s a sweet boy.” The sheriff and gas station lady are in cahoots with the old man and Leatherface, which is not at all surprising. They turn Erin over the big masked man, who puts her in the basement with Andy, who’s still not dead yet. He begs her to kill him, which she does. She then finds Morgan, who’s also still alive– at least for a little while. Leatherface chases Erin across a field, but he trips and injures himself. She runs to the meat packing plant, where the two play cat-and-mouse. Somehow, it’s hard to tell with all the superfast edits, Leatherface loses an arm. Erin runs outside and flags down a truck driver, who stops and picks her up. She freaks out and makes the guy stop– at the same gas station as before. Erin hotwires a car and runs over the sheriff repeatedly. She drives away with the kidnapped baby, right past Leatherface, who’s still out there. We get a voiceover discussing how the case is still open. Brian’s Commentary This just seems to take forever to get to anything. It’s a very sweaty, dusty movie, but it just doesn’t give the impression of dirt that the original did; it’s just a little too professional and polished. It was fine, but I admit I was checking my phone from time to time; it just didn’t grab me. Meh. Kevin’s Commentary It’s certainly a sweaty and wet movie. With water leaking into rooms even before it started raining. It was a nice touch bringing John Larroquette back for the voiceover again. He was an unknown at the time of the original. I thought it was okay, liked it more than disliked it. But the original was better, and is more rewatchable. This isn’t that memorable. 2026 Short Film: A Good Death * Directed by: Kaz Ps * Written by: Kaz Ps * Stars: Tracie Thomas, Jenny O’Hara, Stefanie Estes * Run Time: 10 Minutes * Watch it: What Happens Amalia is a “Death Doula,”someone who helps with terminal patients. She arrives at the house of a new client, and Tabitha, who answers the door, seems really eager to let her in. “There’s no such thing as unusual in this line of work,” she explains. She could be wrong. Commentary The only thing creepier than monsters is seeing old peoples’ toenails. Could it be elder abuse? Maybe, but not in the usual manner. I kinda figured this was the way the story was going to go, but
