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The Home (2025)

Posted on November 14, 2025November 14, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Max is a troubled young man. With one issue after the other we see him ending up getting arrested for graffiti vandalism. We learn that his life more or less spiraled downwards after his older foster brother, Luke, committed suicide. His foster parents are trying to get him on the right track by working out a deal with the police so he can work at a community service, or more specifically a retirement home out in bumfuck nowhere. It’s either this, or get a criminal record…not much of a choice for young Max, really. He arrives at the place and starts seeing strange things already, including an old man looking out from the fourth floor window. As ominous as that might seem, we’re at a retirement home…sometimes the most exciting thing is simply watching the clouds from your window. Max immediately starts working at the place as superintendent, and is (surprise, surprise!) told not to enter the fourth floor.

As Max starts befriending some of the old people at the home, more and more strange things start happening. Some of the residents are breaking into his room at night, some of them act very strangely, and he even witnesses a resident suddenly starting to bleed, among several other weird disorders. There’s more than enough warning signs to prove to Max that something is terribly wrong with the place, and he suspects that some answers may lay on the restricted fourth floor.

The Home is a psychological horror film directed by James DeMonaco (director of The Purge), co-written with Adam Cantor.

Retirement homes are a little bit of a horror in and of itself. We’re all afraid of getting old, whether we admit it or not. There’s something terrifying about losing so much control over the functions you could earlier take for granted, maybe needing help with the most basic things like getting up from bed or even wiping your own ass. As if that’s not frightening enough, there’s also the loss of memory and awareness. There are horror movies that portrays those illnesses themselves (like Relic and to some extent Next of Kin), while there are others where the growing old thing mixes with supernatural elements, like for example The Manor. We can try to convince ourselves that growing old is “just part of life“ and nothing to worry about, but…no one in their right mind would say that life and its many challenges aren’t terrifying. And with that in mind: to which lengths would some people go if they could avoid aging? Pretty damn far, I’d reckon.

This movie does start off with playing around a little with grief and loss, although we don’t know too much about Max or Luke at the very start to feel too invested in that part. We know Max really misses his brother even a decade after the died, and that much of this resulted in him not coping too well. This isn’t all, of course, as several more layers are unveiled regarding both Max, Luke, and things from the past. When Max arrives at the retirement home, it actually looks like a fairly decent place. The elders there appear to be happy, very well dressed, and having a great time overall. More or less the equivalent of what all of us hope for the final stages of our lives to be: decent enough to function well as a human being, and without too much physical or mental deterioration. Then Max starts seeing that the rose-colored picture of the retirement home is not what it seems.

The first half of the movie goes along rather slowly and a little bit sluggish. It does build up a bit of atmosphere and keeps the tension up by offering a few twists and surprises along the way. There’s also a rather grisly death scene in the middle of the movie that comes out of nowhere, which was a pleasant surprise as at that moment the pacing really needed a shift, and managed to offer one. And while I won’t spoil any of the twisty turns along the way, I think the saving grace for the movie is a totally bonkers finale which delivers a fun, blood-soaked and gory climax.

The Home is the kind of slightly dumb fun movie that, despite some pacing issues and not the most original plot, delivers a pretty fun time.

Director: James DeMonaco
Writers: James DeMonaco, Adam Cantor
Country & year: USA, 2025
Actors: Pete Davidson, John Glover, Mugga, Adam Cantor, Bruce Altman, Denise Burse, Stuart Rudin, Ethan Phillips, Nathalie Schmidt, Mary Beth Peil, Victor Williams, Marilee Talkington
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17023012/

Good Boy (2025)

Posted on November 11, 2025November 11, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Indy is a dog who lives with Todd, a man suffering from a chronic lung disease. Todd decides to take Indy with him and move to his late grandfather’s uninhabited house somewhere in the woods, despite his sister Vera being worried about him becoming far too isolated out there. Not to mention that the house itself has a certain bad history, with no inhabitants staying for long with the exception of their grandfather, who died there. The grandfather also had a dog, which went missing when he died. Vera appears to be a little superstitious and believes something in the house might have caused their grandfather’s death, but Todd just scoffs at her. Indy, however, starts experiencing strange things in the house and the nearby surroundings. Dark shadows looming in the corners, and the sound of a dog whimpering and barking. Meanwhile, Todd’s health gets even worse and he starts regularly coughing up blood, and also gets increasingly irritable towards both Indy and his sister Vera who keeps calling him. Indy is sensing that something evil is gradually getting a hold on them both…are they awaiting the same fate as Todd’s grandfather and his dog, or can Indy change what appears to be an impending disaster for them both?

Good Boy is a supernatural horror film directed by Ben Leonberg in his directorial debut, co-written with Alex Cannon. Leonberg got the idea for the film after re-watching Poltergeist (1982), and started thinking about how animals in haunted house films are known for sensing presences before the humans do. He thought it would be a fun idea to write a traditional haunted house script for a film with the perspective of a dog, and started on it in 2017 together with Alex Cannon. And the main actor of the feature, the Good Boy himself, is none other than Leonberg’s Novia Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever dog Indy, simply playing himself. Principal photography took place in Harding Township, New Jersey, and the filming process took over three years to complete. Much of the long process was due to, well, Indy being a dog, and not having a double like many animal-focused movies do. Leonberg also stated that a lot of Indy’s expressions were done by post-production techniques and the Kuleshov effect (a film editing principle where different shots can be interpreted with a deeper meaning and emotional impact when placed together). The movie had a budget of only $750,000, which the film has earned back many times over as it has so far grossed over $8 million worldwide.

While Good Boy may appear to play very hard on using a cute gimmick with little else to it than that, they have actually managed to deliver a movie that offers a solid haunted house story. Prior to watching this I didn’t really know exactly what to expect. Would it be like a longer episode of Animal Planet’s The Haunted, without the interviews? Well, not really. The movie does, in fact, tell the narrative solely from Indy’s perspective, which makes it a different experience in its apparent simplicity. While some of the story is told through the dialogue we overhear between Todd and Vera, the rest is a mix of Indy’s experiences, dreams and sightings. It’s a simple narrative for sure, but told in a steady way that never loses the pacing, and with a runtime of only 1 hour and 13 minutes it packs everything in well without outstaying its welcome. It’s all about creepy and ominous atmosphere from the very start, and there were several parts of the movie where that hopeless, disease-ridden feeling reminded me a little bit of Relic (2020). We see Indy in a rather hopeless situation as his owner gets more and more ill, trapped in a house where it’s all about illness, evil presences and echoes of past tragedies. And visually it looks great, using some clever perspective shots to portray the dog POV which often creates an unsettling effect.

Animals can sense spirits, they say. Well, anyone who’s ever owned a pet know that they can have this uncanny habit of staring at corners or spots on the wall for no apparent reason, creeping the fuck out of you. All for what was probably just a tiny bug you couldn’t see or a sound from the neighbor’s house you couldn’t hear. The notion of animals being able to “see spirits“ is something a lot of people believe, but then again, I’m pretty certain that we would “stare at nothing“ too if our hearing suddenly got a much wider frequency range or our eyesight got higher motion detection. I personally don’t think there’s anything supernatural to put into it, but the idea does at least make for some spooky animal-centered stories!

Good Boy is a very decent haunted house film, filled with creepy atmosphere. And yeah…gotta love Indy, he’s cute as hell and did an excellent job (and kudos to the creators for pulling this off, of course). This was also a pretty strong debut, so it will be exciting to see if Ben Leonberg decides to create more horror movies, animal-POV or not.

If you want some more animal-POV (or at least partially) horror movies, make sure to also check out Cat’s Eye (1985) and Bad Moon (1996).

Director: Ben Leonberg
Writers: Alex Cannon, Ben Leonberg
Country & year: USA, 2025
Actors: Indy, Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman, Larry Fessenden
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35521922/

WAKE – Horror Short Film

Posted on November 9, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

With a hurricane raging outside, two nurses have to stow a dead woman’s body in the hospital morgue before the building floods. But the corpse quickly reveals itself to be more than it seems.

Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we’re taking a look at Wake. A creepy horror short a little reminiscent of The Autopsy of Jane Doe. When you find a corpse with a stake stuck in its heart…it might be a good idea to not remove it…

Director: Sean Carter
Writer: Sean Carter
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Catherine McCafferty, Lavelle Roby, Milly Sanders, K Steele
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt35926715/

Exit 8 (2025)

Posted on November 7, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

A man is at a subway station, and it’s just a normal crowded and busy-as-hell day in Japan. On the train, he watches a woman holding a crying baby, who gets yelled at and harassed by an angry passenger who has become annoyed by the baby’s constant screaming. The woman desperately tries to hush her baby, telling the angry douchebag that she’s sorry…and no one bothers to step up for her. Not our protagonist, either, who seems bothered by the incident but decides to just block it out with his phone and earplugs. Just a normal day in an everyday phone-infested daily life where no one gives a shit.

As the man then gets off the train and walks the hallways of the subway station, his ex girlfriend calls: she’s pregnant! And she’s unsure what to do about it, and wants to hear his opinion, which only results in a lot of stammering and procrastination, until the signal is lost and he finds himself in what appears to be a strange and mostly deserted passage. There’s a sign saying he should take Exit 8 to get out of the station. Okey-dokey, then. As he keeps walking, he finds himself inexplicably stuck as he keeps returning to the same spot over and over, like walking in a literal circle with no exit to be found. And even stranger: the same man keeps coming, from the same place, whenever he gets back at the entry point. As he starts studying the signs and info posted around the place, he’s instructed to look for and identify any anomalies, and if he sees any, he should turn back instead of walking forward. As he notices slight changes after several walking rounds, he notices that if he follows these instructions, the level proceeds from 0 to 1, and upwards. But if he makes a mistake, no matter how far he’s gotten, he gets sent back to level 0 again. And the anomalies and incidents that keeps happening gets weirder and stranger the further he gets..

Exit 8 (Japanese: 8番出口) is a psychological mystery thriller from Japan, directed by Genki Kawamura and co-written with Kentaro Hirase. It’s based on a video game from 2023 by the same name, which was developed by Kotake Create. It was filmed in Tokyo during late 2024 to early 2025, for the most part in a built replica of the game’s underground passage.

Time loop films can be a fun and interesting concept, with a lot of things to play around with, everything from rather simple and upbeat ideas like Happy Death Day (or even the recent Until Dawn which was also based on a video game), or the more artsy ones like for example Koko-di Koko-da. In Exit 8, you not only get the loop concept, but it’s concentrated around a liminal space area which gives it an extra dreamlike and surreal feel.

Exit 8 is one of those mystery thrillers that never really offers anything that’s outright frightening in and of itself, but it’s the total feel of the place, the small oddities, weirdness and surrealism of everything. While I haven’t yet played the game this movie is based on, I have for a long time enjoyed games that involves liminal space surroundings and heavy surrealism (and while I’ve played several of these games over the years, none have really scratched that itch the same way as Yume Nikki did). What I think makes Exit 8 very effective in creating an eerie vibe with such a bright location, is the mix of familiarity with a deepening sense of something being very, very wrong about the place. And to be honest, it was actually a bit fun to follow the protagonist walking round and round while trying to spot some anomalies together with him.

While the game itself is just a surreal liminal space horror game with no actual narrative, this movie does add something to the mix which becomes rather apparent early on. There’s a lot of metaphors here, mainly about being indecisive and stuck in a self-inflicted loop of irresolution, especially when it involves guilt and responsibility. And the road to an actual solution seems like it’s never coming, and you keep trodding the same path over and over and often looking at so many external reasons why you’re stuck, instead of looking inwards and realizing the solution most often lies within yourself.

Exit 8 is a weird and minimalist psychological thriller that manages to keep the viewer engaged with what is a very simple premise. Perfect if you also like ideas featuring liminal space environments!

Director: Genki Kawamura
Writers: Kentaro Hirase, Genki Kawamura
Country & year: Japan, 2025
Actors: Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kôchi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, Nana Komatsu, Hikakin
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35222590/

The Gorge (2025)

Posted on November 4, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Levi Kane, a former U.S Marine Sniper, and Drasa, a Lithuanian covert operate, both receive a very special and top-secret mission: to guard a gorge from a tower placed at each side. They’re supposed to stay there for a year, and oh: they are not supposed to get in contact with each other. Or anyone else for that matter. Total isolation for a year, guarding a gorge that has…what kind of purpose, really? They’re not told, and obviously they’re not allowed to ask the questions either. Just STFU and do your job.

Upon arriving at the tower, Levi relieves his predecessor who explains that the location is kept hidden by some very powerful cloaking antennas. And the gorge itself is totally obscured by a thick fog, hiding whatever is down there from view. He also gives some cryptic explanations about the towers being armed to protect any attacks from the so-called monsters nicknamed “The Hollow Men“. Good luck, then, and try to stay sane. And the months pass by, rather uneventfully…until Drasa in the opposite tower decides to say screw it the no-communication rule, and manage to engage Levi in a conversation with written signs and a shooting competition. After all, it’s her birthday, so fuck the protocol! And what at first seems to be a night of fun and games, they suddenly get to see the first wave of Hollow Men attacks, where these creatures have started climbing the gorge. Levi and Drasa use the weapons of the towers, and blasts the creatures back to where they came from. And so the love story has just started. As Levi and Drasa starts bonding, desperately wanting to meet each other more intimately (and whenever there’s a will, there’s a way), things are in for a complete change of tone when Levi ends up having to parachute himself into the gorge during a Hollow Men attack. Drasa is quick to follow after him, and they are both finally figuring out what’s hidden down there.

The Gorge is a romantic science fiction horror film directed by Scott Derrickson and written by Zach Dean. It stars Miles Teller as Levi, and Anya Taylor-Joy as Drasa. The filming began in March 2023 in London, with the production at the Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden. Here, the interiors for the towers were built on a stage. They also used the home country of us Horror Ghouls, Norway, for certain filming locations: the Rauma River was used for the forest locations and the gorge exteriors.

The movie itself builds up a bit slowly, introducing you to the characters and their struggles, and offering just enough of a mystery about the gorge and what exactly is going on here. While the Hollow Men and the gorge’s hidden secrets are, of course, the main point of interest, the love story elements are a pretty major part of the film. Fortunately they managed to pull this off in a pretty good way. It was sweet without being cringe, and thankfully they didn’t do the painfully overused “characters hate each other by first sight and then falls in love later on“ trope. They have a cute connection from the get-go, with a chemistry that makes your root for them. But, all that romance thing aside: the best part of the movie, at least for me, is when they finally get down to the depths of the gorge itself. There’s so much ghoulish and spooky settings here! There’s reminiscences of Resident Evil and Sleepy Hollow all over the place, and it was something that actually caught me a bit off guard as I knew hardly anything about this movie prior to watching it, and went in mostly blind (which is my preferred way to watch most movies).

Visually, The Gorge looks beautiful much thanks to excellent use of scenery and practical effects. Of course some credit must go to the Danish cinematographer Dan Laustsen (John Wick 2-4, The Shape of Water, and also the upcoming Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein movie) for the visual treats. It is such a fun sci-fi romance horror which is probably the most Resident Evil-esque film we’ve got so far (with maybe Zach Cregger being able to top that in 2026 with an actual Resident Evil film).

Director: Scott Derrickson
Writer: Zach Dean
Country & year: USA/UK, 2025
Actors: Miles Teller, Anya Taylor-Joy, Sigourney Weaver, Sope Dirisu, William Houston, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, James Marlowe, Julianna Kurokawa, Ruta Gedmintas, Oliver Trevena
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13654226/

DID YOU REMEMBER THE CAT – Horror Short

Posted on November 2, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

After surviving a house party-turned-horror film, Tara and Mitch’s escape is cut short when they realize – they forgot their cat.

It’s Horror Short Sunday again, and this time we’re taking a look at Did You Remember the Cat. A fun horror short where a couple barely escapes alive from some kind of murderous entity, but needs to go back for their cat. Because who in their right mind wouldn’t go back to save their cat, right?

Note: also make sure to stay for the cool animated end credits!

Director: Daniel Foster
Writer: Daniel Foster, Autumn Olson
Country & year: USA, 2025
Actors: Angelique Maurnae, Autumn Olson, Daniel Drach, Brandon Hammel, Jonny H Lee, Trevor Newlin
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt33394022/

Tales of Halloween (2015)

Posted on October 31, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Tales of Halloween is a horror anthology from 2015, with segments that interlocks with each other. And all happening around Halloween, of course! And there sure are a good mix of treats here, with a total of 10 different segments spanning over a watch time of 1 hour and 32 minutes. This means these are more or less a collection of slightly intertwined shorts, so let’s start with breaking them down:

The first segment is called Sweet Tooth, written and directed by Dave Parker. Mikey, a kid who has just finished trick or treating, comes home to find that his parents are away, and the babysitter Lizzy and her boyfriend Kyle are there and watches a horror movie. While Mikey enjoys his treats, they start telling him about the legend of “Sweet Tooth“, which is an urban legend about a boy named Timothy Blake who had parents that never allowed him to eat candy. I guess you can have an idea how this one goes…it’s okay to tone down on the sugar intake for your kiddies, but be reasonable and let them enjoy some treats every now and then, too! Otherwise…things can go bad.

Then we get to watch The Night Billy Raised Hell, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman and written by Clint Sears. Billy Thompson, ready for some trick or treating, has dressed up as a red devil and is accompanied by his older sister Britney and her boyfriend Todd. They trick him into throwing an egg at Mr Abbadon’s house because he never gives out candy. Unfortunately, this seems to awaken the Halloween spirit in the old man, and he forces Billy to join him around the neighborhood and plays twisted tricks on people.

We’re far from done with tricks as the next segment is called Trick, directed by Adam Gierasch and written by Greg Commons. The friends Nelson, Maria, James and Caitlyn are smoking pot and handing out candy to the trick or treaters, while watching Night of the Living Dead. Sounds like a cozy Halloween evening. This takes an unexpected turn when one of the trick or treaters, a little girl dressed up as a witch, stabs Nelson in the stomach when he opens the door. More kids in Halloween costumes seem to be hellbent on taking these people out…but what could be the reason? Hmmm…

Then we head over to the segment called The Weak and the Wicked, directed by Paul Solet and written by Molly Millions. There we meet Alice, a sociopathic pyromaniac and her lackeys who is after some guy dressed up as a cowboy. Before they can do him much harm, they get interrupted by an other guy who is dressed up as some kind of demon and seems to on a quest for revenge. Don’t we all love seeing the bullies get their comeuppance?

Next up is Grim Grinning Ghost (no, not the Haunted Mansion kind), written and directed by Axelle Carolyn. Lynn is attending the Halloween party at her mother’s house (the mother played by a familiar face in the horror movie genre: Lin Shaye). Her mother tells her the story of Mary Bailey, a disfigured girl who was mocked all her life for her appearance. After she died, it is said that her ghost comes back every Halloween to laugh at how people look behind their backs, and steal their eyes if they turn around to look at her. So, this one’s easy-peasy: just don’t turn around and look if you hear someone laughing behind your back! Or…that would be too easy, of course.

In Ding Dong, written and directed by Lucky McKee, we meet a married coupled named Jack and Bobbie. Bobbie is totally distraught over not having any children of her own, and is treating her husband in rather disturbing ways…and if angered enough she transforms into her true self, which is a rage-filled red-skinned demon who could’ve been Lipstick-Face Demon’s younger sister. Yeah…I don’t think motherhood is the right thing for her, and it seems her husband also secretly agrees. Obviously a bit of a metaphor-segment, this one.

Up next is This Means War, written and directed by Andrew Kasch and John Skipp. Boris, who proudly decorates his house and lawn for Halloween each year with lots of great props and even an animatronic skeleton, is facing some serious trouble when the neighbors over the street scare the kids away by blasting some loud punk rock music. Neither of these rivals wants to back down, ending in a duel between them.

And then…ooooh boy…comes the segment called Friday the 31st, directed by Mike Mendez, written by Mendez and Dave Parker. Already from the title and start you see this is a Friday the 13th parody as a teenage girl is running through the woods, trying to escape some deformed and deranged Jason Voorhees-like killer. As cheesy as this setup is, just wait, as you’ve seen nothing yet. He manages to kill the girl, and then…a UFO appears overhead, where the cutest little claymation/stop-motion alien wants to Twick or Tweet! He holds up his little trick or treat bag, constantly repeating “twick or tweet, twick or tweet“, until the killer becomes frustrated and stomps on the alien. Ooops…shouldn’t have done that! This segment is probably the craziest, goriest and, somewhat ironically, cutest of them all.

Next is The Ransom of Rusty Rex, written and directed by Ryan Schifrin. Two criminals decide to kidnap the son of millionaire Jebediah Rex, and hold the kid for ransom. The kidnapping itself is a piece of cake, but when they call his father, they don’t get the response they expected. And they soon find out that they’ve made the worst mistake of their lives. The child in this segment was played by Ben Woolf, and this was his final film. The movie is dedicated to him.

The final segment is called Bad Seed, written and directed by Neil Marshall. Ray is carving pumpkins in the kitchen while his wife Ellen applauds his work. The pumpkin seems to be a harsher critic, though, as it bites Ray’s head off before scurrying away on spider-like root legs and heads out the back door. A murder spree is starting, all because of a literal killer pumpkin!

And that’s the playlist of sorts for this anthology horror movie, and if you haven’t already guessed, this one shouldn’t be taken seriously for a single second. Compared to Trick ‘r Treat from 2007 which has a far more serious vibe, this one ventures more into pure gorefest and campy schlock material. There are some fun practical effects in several of the segments, which gives everything a needed additional charm. Sure, the shorts are kind of a mixed bag, but the short playtime for each makes sure that none of your least favorite ones will outstay their welcome. Like many anthologies, including the aforementioned Trick’ r Treat but also other fun ones like Tales From the Hood (1995) and Mortuary Collection (2019) which have stories that are tied together, this one kind of tries to pull off something similar by making it all happen on Halloween, and (so it appears) around the same neighborhood. They aren’t really interlocked in the same way as the other anthologies, but taken into consideration how different each segment here really is they still managed to pull it off rather well.

Tales of Halloween is a fun collection of horror shorts, filled with gore and lots of crazy, hilarious stuff, sure to bring some treats to everyone. Happy Halloween!

Directors: Darren Lynn Bousman, Axelle Carolyn, Adam Gierasch, Andrew Kasch, Neil Marshall, Lucky McKee, Mike Mendez, Dave Parker, Ryan Schifrin, John Skipp, Paul Solet

Writers: Axelle Carolyn, Dave Parker, Clint Sears, Greg Commons, Lucky McKee, Molly Millions, Billy Jackson, John Skipp, Andrew Kasch, Mike Mendez, Ryan Schifrin, Neil Marshall

Country & year: USA, 2015
Actors: A whole bunch
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4163020/

Return to Oz (1985)

Posted on October 30, 2025October 30, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

– Look, Billina, these ones have lost their heads!

– Now, that’s what I call just plain carelessness.

So… after the young kiddies of the 80s were probably still disturbed by Mr. Dark and the wicked things from his carnival three years earlier, there was no question if Return to Oz, the next colorful big summer blockbuster from Walt Disney Studios, would finally be the antidote so that the parents finally didn’t have to constantly change the soaked-wet bedsheets. Right? Right..??

Hahahahahaha, oOOof…

The Japanese distributors knew exactly what kind of film this was by looking at that poster. I also find it funny that they did their best to obscure the Disney logo to make it look like a pure fantasy horror flick. Not so far from it though…

It’s only gone six months after Dorothy Gale (played by an 11-year-old Fairuza Balk) sang and danced through the mystical and colorful land of Oz together with Scarecrow, Tin Man, The Cowardly Lion and her dog Toto to meet the wonderful wizard. And who would forget such an experience, even though the wizard was as fake as a politician? Not Dorothy. Because the witch was at least real. And that keeps her up at night, to her Aunt and Uncle’s frustration. It’s the beginning of the year 1900, the times is harder than ever and the last thing they wanna hear about is her deluded fairytales talking about scarecrows, witches and flying monkeys.

Her Aunt and Uncle also have some bigger plans for her which they have used all their savings on, and that is to send her to a psychiatric clinic to meet Dr. Worley and his witchy assistant Wilson. Dr. Worley proudly shows off his little monstrosity of an electroshock device, because, as he enthusiastically says: It’s the 20th Century! The age of electricity! Uh-oh… yeah, fuck this boolshit, we know where this is going. It’s time for Aunt Em to grab poor Dorothy, take a U-turn and rather encourage her niece to use her crazy imagination to write a series of fantasy novels, or something.

Dorothy spends the night in a room in the cellar, sitting on a bed with an empty and hopeless stare in the air as the disturbing screams of the other mental patients can be heard in the distance. And yes, this is still a film made for the whole family and not some alternative version of Jacob’s Ladder. Dr. Wilson, the witchy assistant, comes in to get Dorothy tightly strapped on a stretcher as if she was Jack Nicholson after trying to strangle nurse Ratched. Just when Dr. Worley is ready to zap Dorothy’s brain, a thunderstorm hits that causes a blackout. As she gets left alone, strapped in the bed, a mysterious girl pops up, unties her and together they escape. As they get chased by Wilson, they stumble and roll into a river where Dorothy floats into the moonlight in a chicken coop.

And the next day, she wakes up in the land of Oz where the river has transformed into a puddle. Somewhere along the ride she’s gotten herself a new companion; the talking chicken Billina. After some brief open world exploring, she sees that the yellow brick road has been destroyed, and discovers that the entire Emerald City has been turned into an apocalyptic wasteland by the evil wizard Nome King (Nicol Williamson). The people are turned to stone, several of whose heads are missing. Beware the wheelers are tagged on the walls. Who the hell are the wheelers, you ask? They’re freaks on… wheels, who looks like former band members of Siouxsie and the Banshees. Something from your worst childhood nightmares, plain and simple. And we can only imagine, in a banned X-rated version, what they would do to little girls if they actually had hands. Ugh.

Dorothy is soon to be captured by the wicked witch Mombi, who lives in the only remaining tower in Emerald City. And haven’t we already seen her before as the witchy assistant at the clinic, just without the sprayed 80s hair? Hmmm… She’s played by Jean March, by the way, who is probably most known for the evil Queen Bawmorda in Willow three years later. She died earlier this year at age 90. RIP. Mombi also has an impressive collection of heads, where the parents now probably reached the final straw and switched over to Mr. Rogers or CNN. Makes me wonder if the writers of Dexter: New Blood took some inspiration from a certain set-piece here. Then we have the variations of the Nome King and his demons made by a mix of stop-and claymation. Pure 1980s magic at its very finest and just top notch production value. Anyway; Dorothy manages to escape the tower on a flying couch, attached and steered by a moose head called Gump. She, and a couple of new friends, the gangling Jack Pumpkinhead and the round mechanic soldier Tik-Tok (the only good TikTok) flies across the deadly desert to visit the Nome King and break the curse that lies over Em City.

In stark contrast to the cheerful, bright and upbeat vibe of the musical The Wizard of Oz (1939), writer and director Walter Murch wiped the rainbow black in one big stroke to take a much darker and psychotic wild-ride approach to L. Frank Baum’s books (you don’t say) . And so he sure did. But already a week into the shooting, the producers started to sweat, and decided to give Walter Murch the boot. Why? Because Disney. Or maybe they had already snorted all the cocaine. As new producers came into the picture, they cut down the budget and got rid of several set-pieces. So who took over the directing job? Thanks to some powerful Soprano friends in showbiz like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola, the studio got pushed into a corner to hire Walter back again. The rats at Disney did what they could to sabotage the film and the career of the fresh first-time director by having almost no promotion for its theatrical release. And they succeeded as the film flopped and didn’t even earn half of the $28 million budget.

The critics weren’t impressed either by how dark and bleak it was, especially the two clowns Siskel and Ebert, who saw Tik-Tok as a R2-D2 ripoff. But yeah, going into this film completely blind and expecting the musical all over again, well… life’s not always fair. There’s no room for humor here and the somber/melancholic tone is pretty much already set in stone (no pun intended) from the first frame, where we see a depressed Dorothy lying in bed and staring at the starry night as she’s thinking about her friends over the faded rainbow. I also have a very weak spot for the score by David Shire. The closest to humor is through some dry, sarcastic lines from the talking chicken, and from a more adult perspective, The Wheelers, because, well, just look at them. All that said: the doom n’ gloom, the dead seriousness, and the constant underlying menacing tension, that get turned up to 666 by the intimidating echoing voice of the Nome King alone, is what makes this film so damn memorable — and, in the end, to a unique, delightful gateway horror that has aged like a fine green vine (not from Nilbog). Good times.

Director: Walter Murch
Writers: Walter Murch, Gill Dennis
Country & year: USA/UK, 1985
Actors: Fairuza Balk, Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, Matt Clark, Michael Sundin, Tim Rose, Sean Barrett, Mak Wilson, Denise Bryer, Brian Henson, Emma Ridley
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089908/

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Posted on October 29, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1799, and Ichabod Crane is a New York police constable who has been dispatched to Sleepy Hollow: an upstate Dutch hamlet where there have been a lot of brutal murders involving people getting their heads chopped off. He is welcomed by the town elders, including the wealthy businessman Baltus Van Tassel who has a beautiful young daughter named Katrina, who immediately shows an interest in Ichabod. And vice versa. Once he starts his investigation, he hears the story about what the locals believe to be the cause of all the decapitations: the Headless Horseman, who was once a Hessian mercenary from the American Revolutionary War. Ichabod just scoffs of such superstitious nonsense, but his skepticism is put to the test over and over again as more people keeps dying.

Sleepy Hollow is a dark fantasy horror film from 1999, directed by Tim Burton and loosely based on the 1820’s short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It stars Johnny Depp in the role as Ichabod Crane, and Christina Ricci in the role as Katrina. Christopher Lee also has a supporting role here, as the Burgomaster, among some other well-known faces. The development of the movie started in 1993, where Kevin Yagher was originally set to direct the film as some kind of low-budget slasher horror film. There were some disagreements, causing Paramount to demote Yagher to prosthetic makeup designer instead, and Tim Burton was brought on board in 1998.

Originally, the character Ichabod Crane is described as a very unattractive man in the novel, and Johnny Depp offered to wear prosthetics on his face to carry on those appearance traits. Paramount didn’t want any of that, though (hmmm….I wonder why…) so the character is more based on Ichabod’s squeamishness and eccentricity, but turning him into a skeptic. A rather big contrast to the animated Disney film from 1949 where he’s kind of a dick, and superstitious to the core.

The relationship between Ichabod and Katrina is handled in a completely different way here, and the characters are given much more depth and backstory, and we are also getting the backstory of the headless horseman himself. Especially grim is the story of Ichabod’s childhood and his mother’s death, which gives us a very grisly scene involving an iron maiden. Speaking of grisly scenes, there’s actually a fair amount of them so I think they decided to keep a little bit of that slasher flair from the original idea. There’s bloody and visceral decapitation scenes, and one scene where the headless horseman decapitates the parents of a child hiding under the floorboards, where the kid makes eye contact with his dead mother’s head before meeting the same fate himself, is a particularly vicious scene.

Tim Burton also included some scenes which are homages to the animated Disney movie The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad from 1949. This includes the scene where Ichabod crosses the bridge and hears the frogs croaking his name, and the scene with the flaming pumpkin. There’s a mix of fairytale and gothic horror in a perfect balance, where the slumbering and spooky village of Sleepy Hollow consists of beautiful periodic sets with crooked, twisted trees and old buildings which is a mix of Northern European and American colonial architecture. And while most of the movie was filmed in Leavesden and Shepperton studios, they actually built the village at the Hambleden estate at Lime Tree Valley. Compared to the Disney movie which was very colorful, this one is bleak and misty and kicks up the gothic atmosphere to eleven, perfectly complemented by Danny Elfman’s score.

Sleepy Hollow is a fun gothic horror story that oozes Tim Burton from start to finish, and while very much removed from the original Irving classic, it’s an inventive and fun reimagined version of the story. It is peak Tim Burton, and a perfect Halloween watch!

Director: Tim Burton
Writers: Kevin Yagher, Andrew Kevin Walker
Country & year: UK/USA/Germany, 1999
Actors: Johnny Depp, Christina Ricci, Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Casper Van Dien, Jeffrey Jones, Richard Griffiths, Ian McDiarmid, Michael Gough, Christopher Walken, Lisa Marie
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0162661/

The Adventures of Ichabod (1949)

Posted on October 28, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

♫ With a hip-hip and a clippity-clop
He’s out looking for a head to swap
So don’t try to figure out a plan
You can’t reason with a headless man

The year is 1790, and the goofy, scrawny scarecrow-like Ichabod Crane is arriving at Sleepy Hollow. The place is a small picturesque village outside Tarrytown, New York, and Ichabod is going to be the place’s new schoolmaster. Upon arriving, everyone in the small village is curious about this strange fellow with his odd appearance and strange mannerisms. Despite this, he’s able to form good relationships with the women, who loves his singing voice, voiced by crooner Bing Crosby. No wonder the women were swooning. Bing Crosby is actually the narrator and singer for the entire film, making for some unforgettable songs from Disney’s prime time.

Now, as Ichabod Crane settles well into the little sleepy town, he meets the beautiful Katrina, daughter of Van Tassel who is the richest farmer there. A guy named Brom, a typical brutish dude, is Katrina’s fiancé and is not exactly happy about Ichabod’s advances on Katrina. Ichabod’s biggest weakness is how he is extremely superstitious, something Brom decides to take advantage of on Halloween. As they are all at the annual frolic at the Van Tassel house, Brom sings the tale of the Headless Horseman and scares the bejesus out of Ichabod. It is said the spirit is traveling through the woods of Sleepy Hollow every year on Halloween, searching for a new head to replace the one he’s lost. And Ichabod needs to travel back through the woods after the party to get back home…

The Adventures of Ichabod (and Mr. Toad) is an animated Disney movie from 1947. It began development in 1940, and originally was meant to be a feature film based only on The Wind in the Willows. It went through several production delays, until it was cut down to a short film and merged with another short film based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which was also originally meant to be a full length feature. This review will focus on the Sleepy Hollow inspired segment.

Immediately from the opening of the short film, there’s a Halloween atmosphere all over it: the beautifully painted backgrounds which starts with a graveyard just to set the tone right away, deep in a dark forest, until the camera shifts focus out of the gloomy forest scenery and introduces us to Ichabod Crane himself, walking towards the village with his nose (literally) in a book. We see him entering Sleepy Hollow which is filled with beautiful autumnal colors, and in the pure good old-fashioned Disney style, we immediately get a song number once Brom and his other beer-drinking buddies notices him. Yes, this was from the time when Disney still portrayed the use of alcohol and cigars.

Also, like many of the classic Disney movies from their golden era, the songs are catchy and spirited. While the story progresses with some of the familiar good-humored Disney slapstick, the main story is very much about a love triangle of sorts, where Ichabod is craving Katrina’s affection and does everything he can to flirt with her, making her fiancé jealous. Katrina, on the other hand, is obviously enjoying Brom’s jealousy and is only using Ichabod to fuel his anger…“that little coquette Katrina“ isn’t as sweet on the inside as on the outside, it seems. Then again, this isn’t really a story about the sweetest and most sympathetic characters. Ichabod comes off as a selfish, ruthless gold-digger who yearns more for Katrina’s wealth than her, literally daydreaming of when her father will die (!), and Katrina herself only plays along to tease Brom which makes her a bit of an attention-seeking bitch.

The best part of the movie begins, of course, once Brom starts singing one of Disney’s darkest songs: Headless Horseman. This is such a perfect Halloween banger and sets such a dark mood and foreshadowing of what is to come. Which is, of course, Ichabod’s travel back home where he gets to meet the infamous ghost that haunts Sleepy Hollow every Halloween night. Here the animators really excels with use vibrant colors and contrasts to make an eerie and spooky atmosphere!

The Adventures of Ichabod Crane and Mr Toad is a fun double-feature from Disney’s lesser known classics. Both segments are fun, but the Ichabod Crane segment still stands as one of Disney’s darkest, filled with a great autumn and Halloween vibe together with some catchy songs. Another perfect gateway horror film!

Directors: James Algar, Clyde Geronimi, Jack Kinney
Writers: Erdman Penner, Winston Hibler, Joe Rinaldi, Ted Sears, Homer Brightman, Harry Reeves
Country & year: USA, 1949
Voice actor/narrator: Bing Crosby
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041094/