A young woman battles against a series of giant spiders, spawned by toxic waste, in her new suburban home.
It is Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we’re taking a look at Larger Than Life! A fun 50’s monster movie inspired short, and will definitely give you the willies if you have arachnophobia!
Director: Ellory Elkayem Writer: Ellory Elkayem Country & year: New Zealand, 1997 Actors: Rebecca Hobbs, Jeremy Callaghan, Patrick Wilson, Hamish Gough IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt0254516/
Jason Delgado is out fishing, when he sees some stormy clouds approaching. Time to pack up! He returns to his suburban home in Seattle, and manages to get inside just before it starts to rain. Inside are also the rest of his family: his wife Ann, their son Graham and their daughter Ruth. And last but not least, the family dog Cassidy. Things quickly get weird when the family notice that they cannot open any of their doors. Windows are also impossible to open. It’s like some kind of force from outside prevents them from getting outside. Internet is down, phones have stopped working, and when looking through their windows they see that their neighbors are in the exact same situation. Those who are inside can’t get out, and those who are outside can’t get it. And things don’t seem to get any better. Desperate, Jason tries to break the doors and windows, and even the walls (because yeah, who wouldn’t in a situation like this) but to no avail. It’s like the water from outside creates a barrier that prevents any exit.
So, what to do? Well, luckily they have electricity, food and water. For now. They start rationing it, still hoping it all gets resolved soon…hopefully. After two months, it becomes apparent that things are way, way worse than they originally expected. And one day, one of their neighbors whom they saw could not get inside her home suddenly arrives outside their window, yelling that there’s no one left now, before she’s suddenly attacked by some kind of creature…
The Last House is a sci-fi horror film written by Matthew Robinson and directed by Loius Leterrier, and it was released on Netflix earlier this month. It was first announced in 2025 with the title 11817, and principal photography started in 2025 where the filming mostly occurred in England and Shepperton studios.
The premise here is rather simple: a family must survive locked inside their own house for who knows how long, while there is some sort of mysterious force at play. And we do actually get a little spoiler at the very start of the movie regarding where the threat actually comes from, we just don’t know exactly what it is. Regardless, what I found the most interesting part of this movie is how the family found ways to actually band together and use their brains and wit to survive with whatever means they have at hand, MacGuyver-style. Of course, this is a very average middle class family who may not have everything they want but absolutely everything they need, and their only real problems seem to be some financial struggles and a house which needs more fixing than they can afford. They do have pretty healthy family relations, however, and to be honest, I actually found this a little refreshing after so goddamn many movies about broken and trauma-ridden family relations. Now, don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind those themes, as very often they do fit like hand in glove when it comes to many horror narratives. It’s just a little refreshing to see a story about a more well-balanced family sometimes.
As time moves forward, the family do get put into some difficult situations which requires harsh decisions, especially one rather heartbreaking scene. Yeah, yeah…you could kinda see it coming from a mile away, but still. Now, had this been a much darker horror movie it could have gone considerably farther with these things, but it never really tried to be shocking in any way. In fact, there are even small parts of it where their situation is almost glamorized a little, where they bond even further as a family and have their regular funtime together with the only two DVD’s they own (Annie and Air Force One). Day after day, week after week, month after month…it kinda reminded me of the message in The Amazing Digital Circus: “there is meaning to be found in a stagnant life“. The Last House is not a “livin’ happily ever after“ in such a state, though, as there is a threatening force out there. What it is? Well, with the start of the movie it isn’t really any spoiler to mention that the story does take some Lovecraftian turns.
Surely enough, The Last House doesn’t really explain everything in detail when it reaches its climax, and if you search for too much logic you can easily rip it to pieces. Overall, though, we found it a very entertaining sci-fi thriller which goes well along with some popcorn on a lazy evening!
Oh, and here’s a fun tidbit: this movie does have a fair share of animal actors (yes, not CGI animals!) and the IMDb page has them listed with their names, with Dave Melmoth listed as the animal handler.
Director: Louis Leterrier Writer: Matthew Robinson Country & year: UK/France/USA, 2026 Actors: Greta Lee, Wagner Moura, Riley Chung,Noah Alexander Sosnowski, Emma Ho, Gabriel Barbosa, Arden Cho, Audrey Anderson, Sid Edwards, Eveline Reynolds-Boison, Cassidy Remi, Wicket, General, Bonnie, Layla, George, Ralph, Lady, Lilo, Moose, Annie IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32268156/
Gemma is a young girl who lives with her mother, Ingrid, who appears to be very mentally unwell. As if the little girl wasn’t traumatized enough by living together with an unstable mother, Gemma one day witnesses her commit suicide in the bathroom while asking her to watch. A supernatural force then shuts the door right in front of her face. And yes, we know some demonic shit was at play here, and if you’ve seen the previous films it isn’t hard to already get the puzzle pieces to fit.
We fast forward to many years later, where Gemma is now a dentist, is raising her daughter Maya in her childhood home (yes, really) and is dating a police officer. All seems…rather good? Except for the old creepy-looking weirdos that appears outside on the sidewalk. Who are they? Did they just move to the neighborhood? Well, we’ll find out. Gemma, on the other hand, gets to encounter these old creeps during her astral projection, where she is haunted by visions that includes her mother’s suicide. It appears that something demonic is out for both Gemma and her daughter, who wants to use her in order to get brought back from the Further and into the world of the living. Only Elise Rainer can help her…who is now part of the Further too.
Insidious: Out of the Further is the sixth installment in the Insidious franchise, and I’d say it’s a step up from the previous one. The fitting music score was once again composed by Joseph Bishara, who also composed the score for all the previous films in the series, and we get to see both some new and some familiar faces from the earlier films.
While the first movie was indeed a very good supernatural horror film where a lot of the story was shrouded in mystery since we didn’t know much about what was happening to the family, it goes without saying that a sixth film would have to play its cards very differently. After five films we are now well familiar with the Further, how the demons/ghosts/entities wants to come back to our world, and how astral projection is what makes traveling there possible as a living human being. There’s not much of a mystery anymore, so what is the most interesting thing in this franchise now, of course, is the realms of “the Further“. The place where the dead things live and where many evil people have mutated into horrific demon-looking monsters. The premise here is that the demons want out, and the Further then becomes merged with the real world…and while I personally didn’t think this movie really went as far as it could with this, there is plenty of atmospheric and fun scenes where Gemma gets to explore the world of the dead and its inhabitants.
And yeah…as you’ve probably already guessed, this is yet another ride on the trauma train, as generational trauma plays a major factor in the plot here. Our protagonist, Gemma, is doing her best despite her troubled past, and is naturally terrified of becoming just like her mother. She’s actually doing a great job, even deciding to keep her childhood home in order to create the home she never had and not let the past overtake her in any way. As they say, you cannot run or hide from your trauma, so the only option you really have is to face it and not let it overtake your life. That is, of course, easier said than done…and especially when all the supernatural shenanigans starts hitting her full force and she quickly begins struggling with keeping herself cool and controlled. In real life you can’t blame ghosts if you lose your shit (although I’m fairly certain some people actually try to do that, after all we already have an infamous case of someone blaming the devil). Here, though, our protagonist has good reason to being close to losing her mind, but fortunately there’s help to get from the other side. Lin Shaye reprises her role as Elise Rainer, who is of course trapped in the Further since she’s been dead for a while. Aside from all the nasty ghoulies there, she’s a rare friendly presence.
Insidious: Out of the Further is pretty much exactly what you expect it to be, nothing more and nothing less. There are some really good atmospheric scenes, a fitting and strong sound design, and some solid new entities as well as a revisit with some old and familiar faces. It definitely plays the franchise’s old tricks over and over, but overall it’s a nice supernatural horror film where they definitely have lots more to explore if they want to take a further dive into the Further.
Director: Jacob Chase Writers: Jacob Chase, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick Country & year: Australia/USA, 2026 Actors: Amelia Eve, Island Austin, Lin Shaye, Sam Spruell, Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Joseph Lopez, Robina Beard, Susan Gray, Laura Gordon, Charli Penton IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32393988/
After hearing of his estranged father’s mysterious passing, an anxious young man attends the funeral seeking answers. As he searches for the truth, he must face a troubling secret from his past.
Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we’re taking a look at Good Boy! A dark and disturbing story…
Director: Aidan Weaver Writer: William Christopher Stephens, Aidan Weaver Country & year: US, 2025 Actors: Spencer Harrison Levin, Regen Wilson, Ginger Britt Daniels, Trevor James, Samuel Whitehill IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt31022171/
Dad Bill (George Kennedy) and daughter Julie are having a wholesome time in a forest summer house playing board games. Suddenly, they hear some growling outside the front door before a hideous-looking Bigfoot creature storms in and kills Julie. The monster drags her body outside, only with some few lousy scratch marks on her face, while Bill lies knocked out on the floor.
Then we get introduced to our group of teens, played by actors in their mid-twenties, who’s about to spend some summer party time in the house we saw earlier. Bill suddenly shows up with a rifle to warn those damn kids that this place is dangerous! They, of course, don’t believe him, because why should they. But Bill is no bullshitter and sets the record straight as he says:
― There’s a thousand stories about this place… ghosts, and UFO’s, and monsters, and Bigfoot, you name it! They’re all bullshit. I know what’s real. What’s real is what happened to me and Julie, and nobody’s going to tell me any different. Now, if you’ve got any brains between the two of you, you’ll get in that truck and get the hell out of here right now. This place is dangerous!
Oki-doki-mister. Anyway… the first night sets in, we have a cheesy soft-core sex scene, one of the girls is taking a shower, and surprise, surprise: Bigfoot comes in, wreaks some havoc, and kills one of them before he leaves. Next morning the rest of the group head out to the woods to find the main road. Good luck and don’t take any pissing breaks. As schlocky as the film is, I have to give some props to the monster design, made by John Carl Buechler, that is moons apart from the Mick Jagger Bigfoot from Night of the Demon (1980).
But then we also have some side-plots with two young women, Betsy and Tara, who eventually get topless, and a… birdwatcher, only to have some more bodycounts. Fun trivia: One of the topless women, Tara, is Georges Kennedy’s daughter, Shannon Kennedy, who was cast because he wouldn’t be in the film unless his daughter got a small role, and this is the only role she ever played. Better than nothing, as we say. And then zombies, of all things, start to show up. Just what you expected, right? So, where does this thing actually go, you may ask? Oh, it certainly goes somewhere, that I can say for sure, haha…
Look, here’s the thing: the best way to watch Demonwarp is to know little to nothing beforehand. Because as the film progressed, we went into the film’s page on IMDb, scrolled through some of the screenshots, just to be sure if we actually saw the right movie. And, well, haha, we did. The majority of the film is a standard, micro budget almost Z-level monster schlock where the Bigfoot monster is chasing boobs in the local woods, whereas the last thirty minutes is where I’d guess that a drunk and delirious Lucio Fulci came to the set and finished the film. Crazy, retarded fun stuff to watch with pizza and Jack Daniel’s.
Director: Emmett Alston Writers: John Carl Buechler, Jim Bertges, Bruce Akiyama Country & year: USA, 1988 Actors: George Kennedy, David Michael O’Neill, Pamela Gilbert, Billy Jayne, Hank Stratton, Colleen McDermott, Michelle Bauer, Shannon Kennedy Sullivan, John Durbin, Jill Marin IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094998/
Brian Kessler (David Duchovny) is a journalist who’s got himself invested in the stories about serial killers. He’s also gotten an offer for a book deal, so he and his avant-garde photographer girlfriend Carrie Laughlin (Michelle Forbes) decide to relocate to California in order to pursue their careers. During their road-trip Brian can visit the former homes and murder sites of serial killers, while Carrie snaps some photos. Sounds like a great time! There’s a problem, though…money’s kinda tight. Brian decides to post a ride-share ad on the university campus in the hopes of splitting the costs with some people going the same way. Oh, boy…sometimes you just know a plan is horrible before it’s even set in motion.
So, meanwhile, we head over to the psychopathic and sleazy Early Grayce (Brad Pitt) who’s on parolee and has just lost his job. He lives in a trailerpark together with his gullible and mentally damaged girlfriend Adele Corners (Juliette Lewis). Quite a pair, these two…and they are of course the ones who wants to hitch a ride with Brian and Carrie over to sunny California, after Early sees the ad. Before they leave the trailer park, he murders the landlord and sets the trailer ablaze, so there’s no mystery about what kind of guy Early is. The only question is how many red flags Brian and Carrie will ignore before their inner alarms start blaring. Sure enough, Carrie becomes cautious almost immediately, but Brian encourages her to give them a chance, they’re probably nice when you get to know them…hehe, right. Well, Adele certainly is “nice“ but also such a wreck that you can barely count on her for anything, and often behaves more like a child than an adult…which gives us some really awkward scenes that are borderline funny and slightly disturbing at the same time. I have to give huge props to Juliette Lewis for this role, she plays this character masterfully.
Now, as their road trip continues on, let’s just say that Carrie isn’t exactly surprised when she finds out that Early beats Adele and keeps her under strict control over what he’s allowing her to do or not (like not wanting her to drink but frequently getting shitfaced himself). There’s sooo many red flags continually popping up, but never one big enough to make Brian listen to Carrie’s worries. Funny thing is, that while Brian is working on a book about serial killers, one is riding along with him in the passenger seat…
Kalifornia is a psychological thriller from 1993, written by Stephen Levy and Tim Metcalfe, and directed by Dominic Sena in his feature film directorial debut. It was filmed in Georgia and rural inland California, during the spring on 1992. It got kinda mixed reviews, and bombed hard at the box office, grossing only $2.4 million against its $9 million budget. Owie. It did get nominated for three Saturn Awards in 1994, which included Best Horror Film, but it appears people had some difficulty placing it. Some thought of it as nothing more than a violent exploitation film (it’s not), and others thought it was too much style over substance. It did receive a full 4-star rating by Roger Ebert back in the day though, so while it’s nowhere near as brutal and depraved as some people back then found it to be, it’s still an entertaining road trip thriller.
There’s no doubt that much of the movie’s entertainment relies heavily on the performances. While Brian (David Duchovny) and Carrie (Michelle Forbes) have more subdued performances since they’re the “normal“ people, the unhinged and wacky roles of Early and Adele is what makes their juxtaposition so amusing to watch. Brad Pitt, who plays the violent and distasteful serial killer Early, had at the time been seeking out a role that differed from his “pretty boy“ image. I guess you can say he really hit the nail with this one, then…he comes off as such a dirtbag. And when it comes to Adele played by Juliette Lewis…I honestly can’t imagine anyone else playing that role to such perfection.
While the movie doesn’t really give us any mystery as we learn early on exactly what Early is, there’s always that underlying tension of where the story proceeds to next. And yeah, it’s always a little eye-rolling how a dude writing a book about serial killers are so fucking blind to everything Early says and does that should send his inner alarm blaring like a siren. Then again…it’s easy to sit and nitpick about such things when you watch a movie where you already know something’s wrong. How many times haven’t people in real life been close to all kinds of danger, but refused to consider warning signs because they don’t want to come off as prejudiced and mean?
Overall, Kalifornia is an entertaining road trip thriller, where all performances are pretty good, especially Juliette Lewis as the childlike and incredibly naive girlfriend.
Director: Dominic Sena Writers: Stephen Levy, Tim Metcalfe Country & year: USA, 1993 Actors: Brad Pitt, David Duchovny, Juliette Lewis, Michelle Forbes, Kathy Larson, David Milford, John Zarchen, David Rose IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107302/
An innocent child’s drawings mask a sinister reality when her secret online friend convinces her to play a deadly game that turns her home into something unimaginable.
It is Horror Short Sunday again, and this time we’re taking a look at How I Met My New Best Friend! A narrative shown by a child’s drawings, with a sinister conclusion..
Director: Nicholas Jandora Writer: Nicholas Jandora Country & year: US, 2025 Actors: Olivia Gadieva, Marion Jandora, Thomas VanDamme IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt38630810/
Grace is a young woman who ventures back to her childhood hometown after her father has died and her brother has gone missing. And of course we quickly find out that there’s a reason she left the place, because her late father was an abusive asshole. Good riddance. Grace has been estranged from her family for a very long time, living her life and pursuing her career in a completely different place, but now she returns mainly because of her brother, who was the only person who stood up for her when they were kids.
Once arriving in her old hometown, where everything kind of has the look of decay and rot, she notices missing people posters everywhere. She finds out that one of her old teachers are driving some people up to the wilderness, and after asking around she discovers that her brother apparently went there too to get away from the city life (and their father who was then still alive). There’s supposed to be some kind of hidden commune up there somewhere, but it’s not going to be easy finding it on your own. With the help of her former teacher she ventures deep into the wilderness to find her lost brother, and lo and behold – ends up getting lost herself. Now she must struggle to stay alive, and of course there’s something dangerous and dark hidden between all that beautiful nature.
The Banished is an Australian folk-horror movie from 2024, written and directed by Joseph Sims-Dennett. And yes, it’s another trauma-fueled story which has been all the rage for the last decade or so. Rarely do we get horror movies these days where trauma isn’t a major factor in the storytelling. Here we get the trauma bits interwoven with a missing people mystery, some possible dark secrets of a secluded community, and hints of something supernatural. Mostly, though, it’s about being lost in the woods. While it comes off as a bit slow, I enjoyed the creepiness of the wilderness and the mystery behind the hidden commune and the people venturing there. There’s a constant eerie atmosphere, and the isolation feels real and claustrophobic. Nothing bad to say about the actors, either, where Meg Eloise-Clarke delivers a strong lead performance.
What I appreciated the most in this movie, though, was the actual feeling of true isolation in the wilderness, and the slight psychedelic vibe throughout a large part of it. Perhaps being less ambiguous and dropping the non-linear storytelling format would have served the narrative better, but overall I think The Banished is a pretty nice watch if you’re in for something slow and eerie with an isolated forest setting.
If you’re in for more lost-in-the-woods horror of the slower kind, maybe also give Lovely, Dark and Deep from 2023 a watch.
Writer and director: Joseph Sims-Dennett Country & year: Australia, 2024 Actors: Meg Eloise-Clarke, Gautier de Fontaine, David Beelen, Steve Brekalow, Hayley Buckley, Taylor Buoro, Leighton Cardno, David Charlie, Adrian D’Arcy IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33050521/
―There have been films about earthquakes, airplane disasters and blazing infernos… but there has never been anything like THE DEVIL’S RAIN! … or nothing like this fluffy, silly Satanic horror movie that only could have come out from the mid ’70s. Horns up!
Just to make no mistake what subject matter we’re getting ourselves into, the film opens with tasty hell paintings by Bosch over the intro credits. We then get thrown right into, yes you guessed it, a rainstorm where Mark Preston (William Shatner) is looking for his father. After he gets home to his mother Emma and some other old guy named John, his father, Steve, suddenly shows up outside the house, looking like a melted hobo freak from Tromaville. Steve has escaped from the Satanic cult leader Jonathan Corbis to warn the Preston family about a mysterious book, which Corbis expect to be delivered to him at a place called Redstone. Steve mumbles “In nomine Satanas“ before he melts away to a small puddle in front of Mark and his wife.
We learn that the Prestons have hidden a Satanic Bible for generations, and now they order Mark to just give it to Corbis. Nah! Instead, he loads his gun and gets ready to hunt down this Corbis guy to blow his brains out, because who wouldn’t. If it was that simple. A voodoo doll is nailed to the steering wheel on his truck. Uh-oh. Mark then hears screaming from the house where he finds John hanging upside-down with a bloody face. The house has also been completely trashed, as if a tornado of poltergeists had swarmed by. Emma is gone and seems to have been kidnapped by Corbis’s cult. All this happens in just a seconds. Talk about some vulgar display of power. Eleven minutes in and the film is already all over the place. Mark finally takes the roadtrip to Redstone which looks like an abandoned old ghost town and maybe an old set for a western movie. After Mark eventually gets captured by the Satanic cult, we then switches over to Mark’s brother Tom (Tom Skerritt) and his wife Julie who’s a psychic of some sort. She can see into the past, or something like that. Tom get the news that his brother is missing and the search begins in the Mexican desert. Good luck and remember to drink a plenty of water.
According to the original poster for The Devil’s Rain, it can promise us “Absolutely the most incredible ending of any motion picture ever!” Yes, with an exclamation point. No clickbait bullshit, because hear this: the last five minutes or so has more gooey and grotesque melting body horror than The Incredible Melting Man (1977) and Body Melt (1993) combined. Not too shabby for a half-obscure ’70s low-budget horror. And look out for John Travolta’s very first screen presence, which he’s not much proud of as he only remembers it as a terrible movie. Travolta has been in way, way, waaay worse movies than this, and that’s a fact. Then we have the actual Mister Satanist himself, Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan who worked as technical advisor on the film and had a small cameo as the The High Priest. The chanting we hear from the Corbis cult are words from The Satanic Bible, yes the one and only that LaVey wrote and published in 1967. And with that being said, Ernest Borgnine, who plays the cult leader, would never be in a film that deals with devils and satanism again after the film was plagued with “eerie incidents and accidents“. That’s a shame, since he seemed to be having a ball playing the over-the-top demonic cartoonish villain with the most evil psychotic grin that only Kenneth Copeland could match. His presence in full demonic form is nothing but mesmerizing where he looks like a mix of Ron Perlman from Hellboy and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. Delightful stuff!
But the one that didn’t smile in the slightest, was director Robert Fuest, who was on the brink of a nervous breakdown while filming somewhere in bumfuck nowhere in a dusty hellhole in Mexico with very limited resources. Rumors say that the film was financed with mafia money and several actors didn’t get paid, including Ernest Borgnine. A chaotic shitshow, in other words. After a disastrous theatrical release which garnered mostly negative reviews and earned a spot on Roger Ebert’s “Most Hated“ movies list, Fuest was reduced to spending the rest of his film career on obscure TV shows and even more obscure TV movies. It wasn’t until 1982 that he got his final theatrical release, which was the Greek soft porn Aphrodite. Showbiz…what can you say. Leaving on that note, The Devil’s Rain may sound like one of the worst movies ever made. I wouldn’t say it’s even close. It’s a flawed incoherent mess for sure, but an entertaining incoherent mess with some solid production values, vibrant look, a nice n’ eerie vibe, a cool-looking villain and, a glimpse of the origin of the iconic Michael Myer’s mask… and, of course, lots of melting satanists. The only thing missing is a nude woman ready to be sacrificed on an altar, but oh well, not everyone can be Nude for Satan, I guess.
Director: Robert Fuest Writers: Gabe Essoe, James Ashton, Gerald Hopman Country & year: Mexico/USA, 1975 Actors: Ernest Borgnine, Eddie Albert, Ida Lupino, William Shatner, Keenan Wynn, Tom Skerritt, Joan Prather, Woodrow Chambliss, John Travolta, Claudio Brook, Lisa Todd, Anton LaVey IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072869/
A young artist uses a forbidden paint containing the remains of a serial killer’s victims, unaware that a mysterious phrase can awaken the souls trapped within.
Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we’re taking a look at Death Red! That serial killer sure found an interesting way to use part of his victims…
Director: Mitch Glass Writer: Mitch Glass Country & year: US, 2025 Actors: Joseph Lopez, Brad Rundblade, Jordan Tortorello, Kelsey Tuma IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt32939476/
