HorrorGhouls – Horror Ghouls

The Brain from Planet Arous (1957)

Posted on March 24, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Steve Marsh (John Agar) is a nuclear physicist who, together with his friend Dan (Robert Fuller) goes to investigate something strange that’s been happening on Mystery Mountain (yep, that sounds too much like a lazy TBD title even for a 50’s schlock film). There’s a mysterious radiation source coming from the place, and they want to find out what it is. So, off they go, with the most barebones of supplies that wouldn’t even be sufficient for a campingtrip in their own garden. In these kind of movies it never seems like the blazing desert heat is any problem at all, aside from some severe armpit-sweat…and the guys also seem to have a remarkable bodily feature where they only sweat on the front of their shirts. Huh! In Sci-Fi everything can happen, even with something as simple as armpit sweat.

They get to a cave, and find the source of the radiation: a giant alien shaped like a disembodied brain! The brain is called Gor, and he’s a criminal from the planet Arous. First the brain kills Dan, and possesses Steve. Now residing in a human body, Gor finds himself fully enjoying life’s pleasures, including Steve’s girlfriend Sally (Joyce Meadows) who notices straight away that something’s not quite right with her otherwise nice and gentle Steve. Gor, as the megalomaniac psychopath he obviously is, wants nothing more than taking over the entire world, and uses his power to cause mayhem and plane crashes. Not everything seems lost, though, as Sally and her father gets an unexpected ally in another brain alien named Vol who wants to help them stop Gor and his evil plans.

The Brain from Planet Arous is an independently made sci-fi movie from 1957, produced by Jacques R. Marquette, written by Ray Buffum and directed by Nathan H. Juran who also made the sci-fi movie Attack of the 50 Foot Woman in 1958, one year after this little cheeseball. Because make no mistake – this is a movie where you don’t need a brain, just a love for the good old B-schlock that’s both absurd and gleeful in its presentation of its campy plot. And if you thought for even a second that there would be any actual suspense or scares, those would fly straight out of the window within the first frame featuring the so-called Brain alien Gor. And while that is a cool name that could have belonged to a vocalist from a Death Metal band, it is actually an Armenian boy name meaning “proud“ and also “of the mountain“. Hmm…

The brain aliens here have a surprising amount of screentime, but they function mostly for laughs and chuckles. The only scenes that are at least dipping its toes slightly into the waters of horror, must be when Steve is getting those “possessed eyes“ when the brain is up to the worst mischief. These effects were created by having him wear very thick special black contact lenses, which was of course very painful. Fun fact: these effects were used later by actor Gary Lockwood during the second Star Trek TV series pilot episode.

Gor, using Steve’s body to fulfill his plans since he needed a nuclear physicist to garner the attention from the right people, is eager to display his powers of destruction with his menacing I’m-so-evil-mwa-haa-haa! laugh which he’s just as eager to repeat. He’s bringing fear and worry to the world’s leaders by using his powers to destroy planes and cause terrible accidents, and by using some stock footage from the atomic bombs tests we truly get to witness this evil villain’s power. And yes, it’s just as cheesy as it sounds, but it’s good fun for the right audience. Too bad the right audience came much later, as the movie (not surprisingly) got a pretty bad reception upon release. The director was also very unhappy with the end result of this film, and since Alan Smithee wasn’t a thing back in 1957, his name in the credits was changed to the pseudonym Nathan Hertz. Over time, the movie has gained some cult classic status, and has even been parodied several times and referenced in numerous works. In 2002, the German band Megaherz used Gor’s laugh and a sample of Vol’s line “I have powers that equal and surpass the powers of Gor“ in their song Perfekte Droge.

So, if you’re in the mood for some campy sci-fi schlock, then bring out the popcorn and give The Brain from Planet Arous a watch!

Directors: Nathan Juran
Writer: Ray Buffum
Country & year: USA, 1957
Actors: John Agar, Joyce Meadows, Robert Fuller, Thomas Browne Henry, Ken Terrell, Henry Travis, E. Leslie Thomas, Tim Graham, Bill Giorgio
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050210/

THE HUNT AMONG THE GREEN – Animated Horror Short

Posted on March 22, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Brooke, a member of the Green Girl Guild, embarks on a scavenger hunt that leads her to a world of trouble. But not all is lost for little Brooke…

It’s Horror Short Sunday, and this time we’re taking a look at The Hunt Among the Green. From the creators of The Kid and the Camera, comes another seemingly cute ‘n cuddly throwback-style animated short, but things aren’t as cute as they first seem…

Director: Braiden Ortiz
Writer: Braiden Ortiz
Year: 2026
Actors: Liz Fodor, Reannah Ortiz, Richard Stibbard
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt40769195/

Father’s Day (2011)

Posted on March 20, 2026March 20, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Father’s Day started as a fake grindhouse trailer (like Hobo with a Shotgun, Machete and Thanksgiving), produced by the once small independent film company Astron-6, based in Canada. In their early days, they made a bunch of silly short films through the lens of 80s and 90s nostalgia, and began experimenting with feature-length films with Manborg. Producers Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz from Troma got an eye for this creative ensemble from Mapleland and spat out a generous budget of $10,000 for them to make Father’s Day into a full movie. The main team behind Astron 6, Adam Brooks, Jeremy Gillespie, Matthew Kennedy, Steven Kostanski and Conor Sweeney wrote and directed it. And the result is, well, it’s a movie.

Father’s Day starts right off the bat with a deranged chubby homosexual rapist/cannibal/serial killer with the classic Jeffrey Dahmer glasses who is sawing bodyparts, ripping out guts and organs of fresh corpses, plays with sawed-off heads, French-style. This particular serial killer’s name is Chris Fuchman, and his way to, well, Fuckkmanize his prey is to hunt down and kill as many dads as possible on every Father’s Days after cumming into their crusty cornholes. Ugh. A vengeful vigilante named Ahab, wearing an eye-patch, a big nod to Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973), hunts down Fuchman’s ass in some dark alley and declares Happy Father’s Day before he blows his head straight to Hell with a shotgun. The bad news is that he just shot and killed an innocent man he mistook for being Fuchman…or did he? Hmmm… Later we learn that Fuchman is assumed for being dead for thirty years. Huh…

Then we jump to the gay teen-prostitute boy, Twink, who’s in a police interrogation after he got caught with a fresh corpse in a motel room and being suspected of… being Chris Fuchman, aka The Father’s Day Killer. Something like that. After being released, his dad drives him home, who is soon to be assplayed, and burned alive by said killer in front of Twink. Twink gets approached by Father Sullivan, for whatever reason, where the amateur-acting kicks in. And a Catholic Priest played by a teen-looking altar boy is always believable. I guess Eric Roberts was unavailable. Anyway, Twink spits in Father Sullivan’s face and tells him to stay away. Who wouldn’t. Father Flynt, a blind old sentinel on his deathbed, tells about Ahab whom he raised after his dad was killed by Fuchman. The mother? Who knows. Ahab is the one and only man who can kill Fuchman, because…because. Father Sullivan travels far away to the middle of nowhere to drag Ahab out of exile and bring him back to Tromaville to hunt down Fuchman and end him once and for all.

Before going on the mission, he hooks up with his sister, Chelsea, whom he hasn’t seen in ages. She’s, of course, a go-go dancer and The Foxiest Bitch in the City. Sounds groovy. The plot and the direction here is a muddled mess, but it all boils down to Ahab, Chelsea and Twink joining forces. And I almost forgot to mention that Chelsea gets kidnapped by Fuchman. Maybe The Foxiest Bitch in the City cured his homosexuality. Brainfart. Father Sullivan, the boy priest, chimes in as we maybe also have a demon to deal with. Of course.

The film has, as mentioned, four writers and directors going crazy, and it shows. The gritty grindhouse filter/style switches on-and-off when it feels like it. The forced humor and jokes, mixed with amateur acting, falls mostly on its face. The film is a tonal mess as it jumps from Jörg Buttgereit territory with close-ups of tasteless penis mutilations to crazy talk about maple syrup. Welcome to Canada. The third act falls completely off the rails and looks more like a YouTube skit by Nostalgia Critic. It’s overall a fun watch though, with lots of entertaining moments, like a wild car chase where the actors do their own stunts. We have a soft-porn sex scene, colorful special effects (mostly old-school), gruesome kills, dick-eating, mutilation, necrophilia, cannibalism, exploding guts, head-smashing, lots of gore, demon possession and more unpredictable madness and surprises. Woof! We’re in Tromaville, that’s for sure, where Lloyd Kaufman makes a quick appearance as someone I won’t spoil. A crazy movie for a crazy Friday night to enjoy with sausage and knight cheese.

Writers and directors: Adam Brooks, Jeremy Gillespie, Matthew Kennedy, Steven Kostanski, Conor Sweeney
Country & year: Canada/USA, 2011
Actors: Adam Brooks, Matthew Kennedy, Conor Sweeney, Amy Groening, Garrett Hnatiuk, Brent Neal, Kevin Anderson, Meredith Sweeney, Zsuzsi, Lloyd Kaufman, Mackenzie Murdock, Billy Sadoo
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727261/

They’re Watching (2016)

Posted on March 17, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Greg, Alex and Sarah are a film crew running a popular home-improvement television series. This time they’re going to visit Becky, an American woman who has moved to a remote village in Moldova and bought a very old and rundown house with her husband, and turned the place into something out of a fairytale. As the crew meets up with their bitchy producer Kate and a cheerful Moldovian businessman named Vladimir, they first get some footage of the town. Like the disrespectful tourists they are, they even try to sneak into a funeral and film it, causing an angry crowd and a police officers that treats them a lot more mildly than they deserved.

Oh well, the show and the filming continues over the next few days, as they experience hostile locals and some really weird behavior from some of them. Vladimir, letting the crew know a little bit more about the village’s history and folklore, tells them about a plague that struck the place several generations previously, where a woman who lived in the outskirts of the town was accused for being a witch and causing said plague. She was, like so many people accused of witchcraft of course, burned alive. And the house this witch used to live in? Yeah, yeah, you already guessed it. Of course it is the same place that Becky and her husband bought and renovated into their dream home. When they visit Becky, they really see that she and her husband has turned the place into quite the cozy home indeed. The husband is away at the moment, so Becky is all alone. Well, not anymore now that the crew has arrived, of course. But things start happening. The locals act more and more weird. Animals act weird. Even Becky acts weird…

They’re Watching is a found footage horror film from 2016, written and directed by Jay Lender and Micah Wright. While many found footage movies suffers a bit from overused and generic locations (with forests being the most worn-out locations of them all), this movie did at least spice it up a bit with more interesting filming areas, as it’s filmed in Romania. Before heading over to the more generic forest/cabin-in-the-woods stuff, we get to see some villages, cobbled streets, locals, and even a restaurant scene where the actors are actually playing the instruments and the audio was recorded live. Fun!

The characters are fine enough, with most of them being a bit douchy and unlikable, with the producer Kate being so overly bitchy and mean it becomes comedic. Vladimir, the somewhat cheesy businessman, is the only character that actually comes off as likable. As far as kill counts and blood ‘n gore goes, there isn’t that much of it until much later in the movie. There is one that’s visceral enough to stand out, but other than that it’s mostly a rather slow journey that focuses more on the mystery about the place and the witch lore. There’s always a certain comedic tone underneath which helps to hold up the entertainment value, plus a few twists and turns here and there…but gosh darn, that ending! It honestly made the entire movie, turning it all into one of the most bonkers finales I’ve seen in a found footage horror movie. Maybe that wild craziness shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise considering that the director-duo previously made things like Spongebob Squarepants and Phineas and Ferb episodes…

They’re Watching is a found footage horror movie that doesn’t really stick that much out from the rest, until you get to the final part. Well worth checking out for those who like the found footage genre, with an insane climax!

Writers and directors: Jay Lender, Micah Wright
Country & year: USA/Romania, 2016
Actors: Brigid Brannagh, David Alpay, Kris Lemche, Carrie Genzel, Mia Marcon, Dimitri Diatchenko, Cristian Balint, Mircea Constantinescu, Cici Caraman
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3096858/

FULL MOON GLORY HOLE – Horror Short

Posted on March 15, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

When Francis is beckoned to a glory hole in a dank gas station bathroom, he gets more than he bargained for. Perhaps he should have realized it was a Full Moon.

It’s Horror Short Sunday, and this time we’re taking a look at Full Moon Glory Hole. A gory and fun horror short with a real bite to it!

Director: Thom Newell
Writer: Renton Hawkey, Thom Newell
Country & year: US, 2024
Actors: Courtney Bandeko, Sam Huntington, Thom Newell
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt32889701/

Sea Fever (2019)

Posted on March 13, 2026March 13, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Siobhan is a young woman who is a PhD student studying deep sea fauna. While she prefers working alone, she’s pushed way out of her own comfort zone when she needs to do some research which requires her to go onboard the fishing trawler Niamh Cinn Óir with a crew of six other people: the Captain, Freya, and her skipper husband Gerard, the ship engineer Omid, with Johnny, Ciara and Sudi being the rest of Siobhan’s company. They set off like just another normal day for the crew, and have a planned destination which is supposed to be rich with fish. A problem arises though: the Irish Coast Guard alerts them and lets them know that their planned destination is within an exclusion zone. Yup, we already know how this story goes: the boat owners are of course nearly sunken in debt so the skipper decides to take them there anyway, as a large amount of fish is needed to keep the boat and jobs floating. And of course he doesn’t tell any of them, including his Captain wife, until they’re at the destination.

Once there, the boat gets tangled into something which makes it impossible for them to move on. Strange breaches are discovered in the hull, from which oozes some kind of slime. Uh-oh. Those definitely aren’t just some innocent barnacles. Since Siobhan has brought with her some diving gear for her research anyway, she’s going down into the ocean to see what’s holding the boat. There, she notice several tentacle-like bio-luminescent organisms attached to the boat, all of them attached to some strange, giant creature. She uses a knife to cut the tentacles from the boat, but that’s just the start of their problems. They also notice an other boat nearby, abandoned and with several bodies inside. Gerard says they must have gotten “sea fever“, and in a way…he’s kind of right…something they soon discover once members of their own crew starts falling ill.

Sea Fever is a science fiction horror thriller from 2019, written and directed by Neasa Hardiman. And in this movie, despite there actually being some kind of giant sea creature, it’s not the monster itself that brings along the biggest threat, but rather what it brings along with it. Being a very low-budget movie with obvious limitations, there wasn’t much focus on the sea monster effects or anything. The little we did see was intriguing enough, and oddly, kind of beautiful…because here’s the thing: this isn’t a movie about the big ‘n bad coming to get people, it’s very much portrayed as just a sea animal doing what’s natural to it. Strange enough, this could’ve been said about most monster movies…everything’s gotta eat, right? But in this movie the creature isn’t really all that monstrous, and isn’t portrayed to make us feel fear just by looking at it. So yeah, while it’s big and has tentacles, this isn’t a horror movie about a Kraken. It’s about the isolation, claustrophobia, fear and paranoia when something deadly starts spreading and they have no ways of escape.

Sea Fever is somewhat limited and slow-paced, but the execution and overall themes makes it interesting enough to stay put. There are even some scenes that are effectively tense and icky. Sure, if you want some fast-paced popcorn-fun B-Horror sea monster movie with tentacles, Deep Rising would more likely be your thing, but if you’d also be in for a sea adventure that’s more of a thriller kind than an outright horror one, you should give this decent low-budget movie a chance!

Writer and director: Neasa Hardiman
Country & year: Ireland/UK, 2019
Actors: Hermione Corfield, Dag Malmberg, Jack Hickey, Olwen Fouéré, Dougray Scott, Connie Nielsen, Ardalan Esmaili, Elie Bouakaze
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2716382/

Savageland (2015)

Posted on March 10, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

In the border town of Sangre de Cristo, Arizona, something inexplicable happened on the night of June 2, 2011. The town’s entire population of 57 residents was either found dismembered and covered with human bite marks, and the rest of them were never found at all. The only exception was the only survivor of the incident, a man named Francisco Salazar… so the only natural thing to do was labeling him as the prime suspect, of course, as this loner and drifter had also illegally entered the country some years before. Yup, gotta be him! No matter how it would have been impossible for a single guy to commit all those murders in such a short timespan, and how he lacked any motive at all, plus having some of the same bite marks as his supposed victims had. Gotta put the blame on someone, and nothing is better than being able to pin it on an illegal immigrant. However, things definitely do not add up, because here’s also another thing: Salazar brought a camera with him on that night, taking photos of some of the events that transpired. Despite being dismissed by the police, the court, and even his lawyer (of course, as they couldn’t have anything proving he could be innocent, right?) the footage shows that something very sinister really happened on the night of June 2 that year.

Savageland is an mockumentary horror film from 2015, written and directed by Phil Guidry, Simon Herbert, and David Whelan. The trio were colleagues at UCLA and began working on this movie with the intent to create an independent film outside a studio, ultimately making the decision to tie it to the local landscape and have an immigration angle. Most of the actors in this movie didn’t star in any other movie except this one, a common thing for mockumentary movies. Not only is this of course often due to a low budget, but there’s also the big plus of keeping the realism since having well-known actors starring it would take away from that. The man who plays Francisco Salazar, Noé Montes, is also a photographer in real life and an artist whose works deals directly with immigration.

While the found footage horror genre really includes a huge bag of mixed content, it appears there are still some hidden gems to be discovered. Savageland is definitely one of them, and really caught us by surprise. We do tend to quite enjoy a lot of found footage horror movies that are done in the mockumentary style (with the most recent being Strange Harvest, and other goodies involving Lake Mungo and the more lighthearted Digging Up the Marrow), and this was definitely one of the highlights to add to our collection!

Like many typical crime documentaries, this movie aims for as much realism as possible by looking and feeling much like one with authentic-looking interviews and footage. And of course, it displays a narrative where we have an obvious victim (the poor Salazar who’s being framed for everything) and the sleazeballs who wants nothing but seeing him put on death row, guilty or not. Not only does the movie mock how broken the justice system can be, but it also portrays how big a role public media can have in turning people against someone if only one side gets to voice their opinions, here displayed by how the local Sheriff is using the media to influence the case by only focusing on his views while suppressing all other evidence.

While most found footage and mockumentary horror movies focus on showing glimpses through filming, Savageland twists this around and makes it all about found photos instead. And the effect of that is actually pretty darn creepy, with some of the photos being pure nightmare fuel. They’re purposefully distorted, blurry and unfocused, depending on both your eyes and imagination to make out what the hell we’re actually looking at. It reminds me of the good old (very, very old) days on YouTube where you could watch those “scary videos“ compilations that actually featured an array of creepy photos and footage that didn’t just involve some “something moved in my bedroom“ TikTok rot. Ah, those good old days…what a time to be a ghoul. And seeing movies like this gives that good old feeling back again, when you see something that can actually give you a little bit of the heebie jeebies…because hell knows, that’s getting more and more rare these days.

Savageland is not your typical found footage/mockumentary horror, and proves that there’s always new ways to tell a familiar narrative!

Writers and directors: Phil Guidry, Simon Herbert, David Whelan
Country & year: USA, 2015
Actors: Heather Moore, Lars Nielsen, J.C. Carlos, Lawrence Ross, George Lionel Savage, Noe Montes, Daniel Kafer, Monica Davis, Renee Davies, Len Wein, Dan Trabulus
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3899154/

WRITER’S BLOCK – Horror Short

Posted on March 8, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

The story follows a prisoner who is given all the tools necessary to complete his unconventional and bloody writing process. As he begins to write, he confronts his own mortality and comes to terms with the pain and chaos in his life.

While Horror Ghouls are taking a short break (we’ll be back with new reviews on March 10th) we’re still going on with the Horror Short Sundays. This time we’re taking a look at Writer’s Block. This bloody horror short shows the kind of prison a writer’s block can be…

Director: Steven Schloss
Writer: Steven Schloss
Country & year: US, 2023
Actors: Jimmy C. Jules, Mike Wendt
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt27201660/

MIRA – Stop Motion Horror Short

Posted on March 1, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

MIRA is a stop motion-animated short following the story of a young and talented accordionist as she caters to a charismatic water demon whose interests lie in harming and manipulating others for her own success and personal gain.

While Horror Ghouls are taking a short break (we’ll be back with new reviews on March 10th) we’re still going on with the Horror Short Sundays. This time we’re taking a look at Mira, a beautiful and bizarre stop motion horror short!

Director: Eva Louise Hall
Writer: Eva Louise Hall
Country & year: USA, 2023
Actors: Vanessa Severo, Jessica Paige, Ava Armstrong
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt21033992/

OUTSIDE NOISE – Horror Short

Posted on February 22, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

An overwhelmed woman listens to a sleep ambience app to unwind before bed, but when the sounds eerily begin to blend with reality, she suspects it has conjured something frightening into her room.

While Horror Ghouls are taking a short break (we’ll be back with new reviews on March 10th) we’re still going on with the Horror Short Sundays. This time we’re taking a look at Outside Noise. A creepy horror short where a woman trying to sleep by using ambient noise/ASMR sounds, ends up inviting something other than sleep…

Director: Ethan Evans
Writer: Jess Bartlett, Ethan Evans
Country & year: UK, 2024
Actors: Bobby Rainsbury, Rowan Polonski
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt28477105/