Possession (1981)

Posted on January 13, 2026January 13, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

We’re in West Berlin during the Cold War era, and a man named Mark returns home after having completed one of his spy missions. Instead of a warm welcome, however, he discovers that his wife, Anna, is ready for a separation and has also started seeing another man. Yay…welcome home. While this is a situation that would make most people lose their minds a little, it appears that both Mark and Anna have lost more than a few marbles already. Prepare for the most unhinged scream-battles and erratic behavior. To top it all, they’ve got a young son named Bob, who has to listen to all their bullshit.

Now, if you thought this was just a regular drama-thriller about a couple going mad during a divorce, don’t worry: you’ll be traveling down more than one rabbithole during the movie’s screentime. As we follow Mark’s first falling-down episode resulting in him having a long drinking spree, he returns to find their young son Bob alone in the apartment eating jam from the fridge, and everything is a mess. According to the child, he’s been alone for days! Yep, the poor kid should’ve been placed in foster care a long time ago. Instead, Mark decides to become the primary caregiver since his soon-to-be ex-wife appears to be so busy fucking around that she can’t even watch over her own child. Mark even decides to visit her so-called loverboy Heinrich, a sleazy, flamboyant new-age dude who lives with his old mom and claims to love everyone. Alright then…Mark decides to show him the “love“ of his own fist before leaving, and then goes home to Anna and gives her a beating too. Did I mention at this point that Bob should’ve been placed in foster care a long time ago..? Jesus Christ…and here’s a not-so-fun fact: the scene with Bob being alone was actually directly inspired by the director’s own divorce where he found his five year old son alone in the apartment with jam smeared all over this face, as his ex-wife had left him alone for several hours.

Now, if you thought at this point that this movie is a thriller with a fucked-up love triangle involving some fucked up people, you’d be wrong again. Because Anna still has her secrets, and not even loverboy Heinrich has a clue what she’s up to most of the time. Mark decides to hire a private detective to find out where Anna is going, and at an address located in a derelict apartment building she’s having another secret…one that looks like it escaped the set of some kind of Lovecraftian sci-fi horror movie and got itself tangled up in a messed-up relationship drama instead.

Possession is a psychological horror drama film from 1981, directed by Andrzej Żuławski and co-written with Frederic Tuten. It was an international co-production between France and West Germany, filmed in West Berlin in 1980. Żuławski’s idea for the film came during his own divorce, which was apparently a very painful one, and he was in a deep depression while working on the script. And yeah…it’s easy to see that a lot of the scenes must indeed be inspired by a difficult breakup, where a life is shattered into pieces and family relations are forever changed. There’s also some metaphors regarding the Cold War-era West Berlin, with the wall still present and we see it a lot during this film, providing an excellent symbol of how something once connected is now completely separated. You could probably not choose a better location for a split-up movie like this.

Possession is without a doubt one of those movies where you’ll often find yourself questioning what actually happens, and what is the result of the character’s shattered mind. And there’s no doubt that the performances here are really out of this world, with so much unhinged insanity that even Jack’s performance in The Shining is rivaled. Mark (played by Sam Neill) and Anna (played by Isabelle Adjani) are doing these performances so well that I can easily imagine that they would have been completely exhausted afterwards. Apparently, it was in fact very emotionally exhausting for Adjani, and during an interview she admitted that it had taken her “several years to recover“ from her performance in the film. It was even rumored that she had an attempted suicide after the filming was over, something Żuławski later confirmed to be true. Yikes! And while Sam Neill didn’t have too much lasting trauma from the experience, he said that I think I only just escaped that film with my sanity barely intact…

Naturally, it didn’t take long after its release until the movie got banned in the UK as one of those beloved video nasties, and in the US it was heavily edited as an 81-minute version (the original version is 2 hours and 4 minutes). It also didn’t get very positive reception, but has later gained a cult following.

While this movie’s most famous scene is “that subway scene“, I’d have to say that I think there are a lot of “that scene“ moments here. Carlo Rambaldi, an Italian special effects artists who also made the animatronic head in Alien, assisted in the creation of the creature that’s featured in the film which does of course look pretty great, and while I already knew about the creature/monster before watching the film, I was really not prepared for all the frenzied hysteria that is all over the place! If I were to even try making a summarized version of all the craziness and metaphors (both the obvious ones and the ones I perceived) I’d probably be writing about this movie until next year. Possession is one of those rare movies that do not only have a story about mad people, the film itself actually feels mad! We’re all mad here, as the Cheshire cat would’ve said. So I’ll stop here, and simply say that If you want something unpredictable and totally nuts, give this one a watch!

End note: Possession is a movie that was a rare thing to come across in the time after its release, at least in its uncut form. It wasn’t until much later that you could get your hands on it. It’s gotten several DVD and Blu-ray releases, and is also available now on several streaming sites. In 2024 there was also an Indonesian remake of the film called Possession: Kerasukan, and there’s also been talk about an American remake with Parker Finn (Smile and Smile 2) as the director.

Director: Andrzej Zulawski
Writers: Andrzej Zulawski, Frederic Tuten
Country & year: France/West Germany, 1981
Actors: Isabelle Adjani, Sam Neill, Margit Carstensen, Heinz Bennent, Johanna Hofer, Carl Duering, Shaun Lawton, Michael Hogben, Maximilian Rüthlein, Thomas Frey, Leslie Malton, Gerd Neubert
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082933/

YOU ARE HERE – Horror Short

Posted on January 11, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

A young man gets sucked into a dreamlike universe where the resident creature keeps him from getting home.

It’s Horror Short Sunday again, and this time we’re taking a look at You Are Here. This one is a creepy and surreal liminal space/dream-core horror short made by Spencer Lackey, who has been creating unsettling short-form horror videos for several years now. Hopefully he’ll have his first feature film soon!

Director: Spencer Lackey
Writer: Spencer Lackey, Michaela Tropeano
Country & year: USA, 2025
Actors: Dayci Brookshire, Vance Carraher, Kevin Keppy, Spencer Lackey
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt35303589/

Pulgasari (1985)

Posted on January 9, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

“The Story Behind This Movie is Crazy!”

Once upon a time in North Korea there was this dictator, Kim Jong Il, mostly known for being the blueprint archetype for the evil final boss in a Far Cry game. Big boss Kim was also a huge movie buff, a true cinemaphile who owned up to 20,000 films. Rambo, Raiders of the Lost Arc, Friday the 13th, and, of course, kaiju movies like Godzilla, were some of his favorite films. But when it came to North Korean films, there wasn’t much to be impressed by, as they all were mostly boring duds made for propaganda.

Then there was this famous South Korean film director, Sang-ok Shin, “The Prince of Korean Films“ as he was called. And Kim had an eye for him. This was his Steven Spielberg, so to speak. So, in order to produce some more profitable movies in North Korea, big boss Kim took the easy way to get Shin kidnapped to be hold in “house arrest” (just to put it nicely) in North Korea where he was forced to make movies. Plain and simple. This was between 1978 and 1986 after he managed to escape to the US.

If this alone sounds totally bananas, this is just the tip of the iceberg of this absurd saga. So, here’s a complicated story, which could have been an insane movie by itself, cut simple: it all started with a kidnapping in Hong Kong, not by Shin, but by the actress Choi Eun-Hee. The year was 1978 and the actress was the ex-wife of Sang-ok Shin and the favorite actress of big boss Kim. When Shin flew to Hong Kong to search for her, he got assaulted by some agents under the orders of, guess who, the big boss Kim, who brought him back to Mordor, I mean North Korea. The cinemaphile that Kim was, opened a brand new movie studio with 700 employees/slaves where Shin was forced to make films. Several starred his ex-wife. Yes, she was alive. The films weren’t seen by anyone, maybe expect for some few lucky people in the country that were actually allowed to. Most people didn’t even knew what a movie theater was. And that didn’t put any cash in Kim’s pockets. Showbiz is tough, even in North Korea. What a shocker. So now what?

Then 1984 came with The Return of Godzilla, which became a smash success in Japan. Big boss Kim saw the movie and said to Shin while sitting with his high heels and eating chocolate pudding: I also want one! Now! Alright, then. Here’s Pulgasari for you, an absurd, goofy Godzilla-clone ordered straight from Temu (even before Temu). Happy now, big boss Kim? Can I and my ex-wife go home now? Please? This was a big international co-production with China and Japan and was meant to be the big magnum opus for North Korean cinema. Toho Studio was actually involved here. Yes, in Mordor, I mean North Korea. Must have been some blackmailing going on here, ’cause that the film was made and finished under its bat-shit crazy circumstances is a miracle by itself.

The plot for Pulgasari goes like this: We’re somewhere in the 1300s North Korea where the peasants and farm people are living under tyranny by an evil king. No shit. The time period could as well be set in 1985, even in the present day of 2026, and there wouldn’t be much difference. The evil king forces a small village to hand over all of their metal so he can make weapons. As the blacksmith, Takse, refuses to forge the weapons for the king, he gets shoved into a muddy prison cage to die of starvation. His daughter Ami tosses some rise into his cage, and here it’s when it gets interesting: instead of eating the rise, he mixes it with mud and makes a kaiju action figure out of it. After Takse dies, his daughter takes the figure, sticks a needle in her finger and drops her blood on it, and it then comes to life. She names it Pulgasari. And Pulgasari is a sight to behold. The creature grows from a cute n’ cuddly goofy-looking puppet, to Bowser from Super Mario Bros, just without the shell, and the red hair.

Pulgasari’s favorite food is metal. And the more he eats, the bigger he gets. The peasants now have a perfect weapon to fight against the evil king and his empire. And the most ironic thing here is that this is actually an uplifting story about fighting against tyranny — in the forbidden country of North Korea, while at the same time being produced by a tyrant. Bruh… Ami, who basically gave birth to the monster, also gets held hostage by the king, which gives Pulgasari a bigger motivation to destroy the evil empire.

So what we basically have is a messy, clunky, chaotic and tone-deaf circus show with lots of crazy things going on, where I’d also guess that the safety standards were nonexistent. Around 10,000 soldiers were used as extras here who risked their lives as they got attacked by dozens of rolling fireballs. 3.5 million people in North Korea died of starvation a few years after big boss Kim produced his masterpiece, so I would assume that he is just maybe the kind of guy who couldn’t give a fuck less if some actors got seriously hurt or killed during the filming. Roll camera, hope for the best and rest in piece in advance, just in case.

The film isn’t completely hopeless though. The Japanese company Toho was as mentioned involved, which also made the rubber costume of Pulgasari. Inside the costume was Kenpachirô Satsuma, a veteran known for being Godzilla in a laundry list of movies. Pulgasari has lots of screentime where he spits fireballs and destroys miniature buildings. The classic stuff. And if you expect the film to land on a more conventional ending, well — SPOILER WARNING — After Pulgasari saves Ami and wipes off the tyranny, they don’t know what to do with him. He doesn’t get any smaller, and metal is his only food. So… looks like someone just has to euthanize the poor thing before he becomes a serious new threat. The solution? Ami hides in a bell where she waits for Pulgasari to eat her. After doing so, he have the oh shit, what did I just do?-look on his face before quickly imploding and falling apart into dust. But there is actually one more little special and magical moment after that which I won’t spoil.

The aftermath of the whole epic spectacle is a chapter in itself, but there is actually a positive ending here. Shin Sang-ok and his ex-wife got remarried after a suggestion from big boss Kim himself. Then came the time to sell Pulgasari to the world. Yes, outside of North Korea. And during a film festival in Vienna, Shin and his wife finally managed to escape and seek asylum in the US where he made some low-budget ninja films under the pseudonym of Simon S. Sheen. In 1996, he was the executive producer on Galgameth, an American fantasy film for kids, based on Pulgasari. Big boss Kim, on the other hand, was pissed. So pissed that he buried all of Shin’s movies, including Pulgasari, even though he called it a masterpiece. However, the film somehow survived, and in 1996 it was put on the silver screen for the first time in Tokyo, where it was a success that even outperformed the American remake of Godzilla (1998). Pulgasari wasn’t as lucky in South Korea where it sold under 10,000 tickets. Some other sources say that Kim Junior, the son of big boss Kim, is a big fan of of the film and tried to sell the film internationally himself at one time, which went nowhere.

And all that said, it comes at no surprise that there’s no official release of the film. The only thing to grab it on are DVD-bootlegs. It’s not exactly in HD, but still looks better than the AI filter version that’s available on YouTube.

Director: Shin Sang-ok
Writer: Se Ryun Kim
Country & year: North Korea/Japan/China, 1985
Actors: Son Hui Chang, Ham Gi Sop, Jong-uk Ri, Gwon Ri, Gyong-ae Yu, Hye-chol Ro, Sang-hun Tae, Gi-chon Kim, In-chol Ri and about 10.000 of involuntary extras
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089851/

Eyes Without a Face (1960)

Posted on January 6, 2026January 6, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Outside of Paris, a woman is driving with a mysterious passenger in the backseat. When she stops near the river, we see that the mysterious passenger is actually a dead person whom the woman dumps there. Later, when the body has been found, it is believed to be Christiane, the missing daughter of Dr. Génessier. He is called in to identify the body, and claims that it is indeed his daughter. Which is nothing but a big, fat lie, as his daughter is very much alive and lives in isolation at his mansion which also lies next to his private clinic. She is always wearing a face-like mask, as she was severely disfigured after a car crash which was her father’s fault. Dr. Génessier is mainly driven by guilt as the reason for trying to restore his daughter’s face by removing the skin from other young women, hoping to graft it into her face. It has always been a failure, though, and the woman dumped in the river was his latest victim which was disposed of by his faithful assistant Louise. Louise must now find a new victim for the next experiment, and ends up choosing a young woman named Edna Grüber, who is lured to the mansion under the offer of a cheap room for rent. Maybe the experiment will be successful this time…

Eyes Without a Face (French title: Les yeux sans visage) is a French horror film from 1960, directed by Georges Franju. It is based on a 1959 novel by Jean Redond, and he also co-wrote the screenplay. It was also a co-production between France (Champs-Élysées Productions) and Italy (Lux Films). It was shot in Paris and the suburbs surrounding the city, and some scenes were shot at Boulogne Studios. When making it, the censors were a big concern, so they tried to tone it down in the ways possible to appease everyone: not including a lot of blood which would have upset the French censors, not showing animal torture which would have made the English censors throw a hissy fit, and leave out any typical “mad scientist“ elements which apparently would have pissed off the German censors. And it passed through the European censors and premiered in Paris on 2nd March 1960, but it still caused quite a stir. People really reacted at that heterografting scene where a woman gets the skin of her face removed, and when the film was showed at the 1960 Edinburgh Film Festival, seven audience members fainted to which the director simply responded “Now I know why Scotsmen wear skirts“…

In the US, the movie was edited, dubbed, and renamed into The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus and released in 1962. Parts of the heterografting scene was removed amongst several other scenes, and had a very limited run and little attention. Eyes Without a Face was not received well upon its release, but is today considered one of the most influential horror films of all time. John Carpenter has also mentioned that the featureless mask of Michael Myers was inspired by the film.

It is kind of a slow one, but without a doubt very atmospheric, much enhanced by the moody black and white shots. Christiane’s mask is perfectly eerie in its lifelessness, and there is a gradual buildup of mystery over how her face actually looks as she’s either wearing the mask, or having her face turned away from the viewer. Her father, while not coming off as too “mad doctor“-ish, still pulls off a character without any scruples when it comes to restoring his daughter’s face. Instead of having the typical madman who is obsessed because of some scientific experiment just for the sake of ego and science, we have a man who does everything out of guilt, inadvertently doing even more horrible things than the one he’s trying to correct. The characters here aren’t really villains, just tragic people.

Like mentioned the movie is mostly moody and atmospheric, but the tone of the film sometimes becomes really strange when it’s often playing a carnival-esque waltz (Générique) as the soundtrack for multiple scenes. It’s used over and over, in all kinds of scenes, and actually gave me a little bit of a chuckle at times…but the eerie carnival waltz works well when imagining the downward spiral of madness awaiting Christiane. And, speaking of: while you do of course feel sorry for Christiane and what happened to her, it becomes a bit irksome how she spends every breathing moment feeling sorry for herself. Yes, we’re supposed to feel a great bit of sympathy for her and the situation she’s in, but she’s living in a friggin’ mansion, having everything she needs. It’s not like she doesn’t have at least a chance of trying to cope with her life in the way it turned out. She could’ve learned a thing or two from Sal Fisher in that department. Also, her character does lose a bit of sympathy from me since it becomes obvious early on that she knows what her father is doing, which the desire for a new face isn’t going to justify. Sure, she’s getting some kind of redemption arc when the guilt gets the best of her…but still…

Of course, one of the highlights of the film is that scene, the one that made people faint and the US version getting a cut. I’m of course talking about the face removal scene. And yeah, of course it isn’t nearly as graphic as what you can see in some movies these days, but I really understand why some people found it to be a tough watch back in 1960. It’s probably much to do with the black and white, and it looks for the most part quite realistic. Maybe a small, early foretaste of the French Extremity films that were to come much later.

Overall, Eyes Without a Face is an interesting film to watch, where it’s easy to see how it would influence a lot of creative minds later on. Well worth a watch!

Director: Georges Franju
Writers: Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac, Jean Redon, Claude Sautet, Pierre Gascar
Original title: Les yeux sans visage
Country & year: France/Italy, 1960
Actors: Pierre Brasseur, Alida Valli, Juliette Mayniel, Alexandre Rignault, Béatrice Altariba, Charles Blavette, Edith Scob, Claude Brasseur, Michel Etcheverry
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0053459/

SKIN FLICK – Animated Short

Posted on January 4, 2026January 4, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

An X-actress stars in the Devil’s cannibalistic snuff movies in exchange for a beautiful bombshell skin. As she lures a runaway-bride to the studio to devour on camera, she develops feelings that will disrupts the Devil’s scenario.

This is the first Horror Short Sunday for 2025, and we start off with Skin Flick: one of the Gobelins Paris animated shorts. This one provides a fun, vibrant and romantic story about a demonic porn actress who falls in love with a lesbian runaway bride. She’s supposed to make the bride the next installment in her cannibalistic snuff films, but when the devil commands her to “EAT THE BITCH!” she’s not going to do it literally this time!

Director: Louise Bailly, Bruno de Mendonça, Daniela Del Castello, Alice Levy, Elifsu Meriç, Joey Quoc Tran
Writer: Louise Bailly, Bruno de Mendonça, Daniela Del Castello, Alice Levy, Elifsu Meriç, Joey Quoc Tran
Country & year: UK, 2023
Actors: Lisa Delamar, Natalie Jablonski, Daniel Lee, Wilson Hinh, Clément Naline
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt39061245/

Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead (2011)

Posted on January 2, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

What if Quentin Tarantino had a serious mental collapse and flew to planet Japan to make his 10th and final movie? Well…

The film starts exactly how you’d expect: A crazy-like scientist makes a zombie puke something in the mouth of his young daughter who has blood cancer. Saitei! After a groovy and quick opening credits which I won’t spoil, we meet a group of friends who are on a camping trip: we have the schoolgirl Megumi, the druggie Tak, his airhead girlfriend Maki and the geeky goofball Naoi. Megumi, the one dressed in the classic and cute Sailor Moon uniform, knows her karate just to make sure that she’s the star here and not one to mess with. She’s also grieving after her sister killed herself in shame after she farted in front of her bullies. Oof. That’s brutal. My condolences. Anyway: the airhead Maki wants to be a model and catches a trout to find a tapeworm so she can speedrun her loose-weight process. Always a great idea. She slurps a big fat tapeworm like a noodle, and hopes for the best.

And to say that shit starts to happen is the biggest understatement of the century.

Maki’s stomach starts to act funny, and she has to take a shit. Uh-oh. Well, girls have to shit too. As they enter a small empty village, she finds the nearest outhouse toilet where a zombie grabs her buttcheeks. Makes me wonder if this is the same guy from Headhunters (2011). A dozen of shitty zombies emerge from the toilet of the dead, called “Shit men“, plain and simple (thanks to the subtitles). They vomit and throw shit, and from here on we can say that the film surely lives up to the title. Maki unleashes an epic yellow cloud of fart that forms into a demonic shape. Absolutely diabolical, as Ed Warren would have said. An alien-looking parasitic monster comes out of her brown hole, not so unlike what we saw in Dreamcatcher (2003), and our group of friends are surrounded by shit men and parasites. All this is caused by the scientist we saw at the beginning. Why and how? To find a cure to save his young daughter. Good news is that Megumi also knows how to handle a shotgun.

What we have next is a, well, an epic shitstorm where director Noboru Iguchi (The Machine Girl, RoboGeisha, Dead Sushi) turns his extreme fart-fetish all up to 11. He started his career with the fetish porn film Doctor Enema and continued to work in that side of showbiz throughout the 1990s to mid 2000s. So, this is clearly his alley. The year after Zombie Ass, he got the golden ticket to direct a segment of the horror anthology The ABCs of Death, and you can guess which letter: F for Fart, which also actress Arisa Nakamura (who plays Megumi) got the pleasure of being in. If that’s not the most embarrassing kind of typecasting, I don’t know what is.

While the film is as silly, goofy and cartoonish as it is, here’s some of the more thought-provoking dialogues: I’m bleeding from my butt! — Why am I releasing a neverending fart? — You fart and fart until you die. That is your fate! — I just farted! — That butt ate my bat! — I killed him with my butt! — Dumb ass! You’ve got shit for brains! — ANAL VOLCANO!

And there you pretty much have Zombie Ass in a nutshell, more brown than usual, with lots of farting, fetish-driven grossness, exploding heads, karate fights in manga-style and tentacle/body horror sprinkled with some more serious topics such as bullying. Just a normal day in Japan. It has it all, almost. The blood is mostly cheap CGI, but(t) while the green-screen effects look like something from a YouTube skit. The shit seems at least real. So real, in fact, that actress Asana Mamoru (Maki) had to control her bowel movements while filming the outhouse scene so she didn’t poop on the zombie who had the pleasure of grabbing both her buttcheeks. Some of the farts heard were also real! Amber Turd or Blake Lively wouldn’t hold back for even a split second. Working in showbiz is so glamorous, innit? Can’t wait for the cocaine and the hookers that don’t fart. In an alternative universe, Siskel & Ebert gave this Two Brown Thumbs Up! …eew. Eating a can of chili beans beforehand while wearing a fresh skid marked underpants could also add some nice Smell-o-Rama effect. Zombie Ass: Toilet of the Dead can be found at the one and only streaming site that (fecal) matters — Tubi. Enough cringe wordplay for today.

Couldn’t actually find any watchable trailer for this masterpiece, but the screenshots, if not the title alone, speak loud and clearly for themselves.

Director: Noboru Iguchi
Writers: Noboru Iguchi, Tadayoshi Kubo, Ao Murata, Jun Tsugita
Original title: Zonbi asu
Also known as: Zombierumpe: De dødes toalett (Norway)
Country & year: Japan, 2011
Actors: Arisa Nakamura, Mayu Sugano, Asana Mamoru, Yûki, Danny, Kentaro Kishi, Demo Tanaka, Asami, Sayuri Yajima, Haru Shiina, Yûya Ishikawa, Hideki Kurauchi, Takeo Gozu
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2061869/

Horror Movie Tier List 2025

Posted on December 31, 2025December 31, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

And a big honorable mention to the wildest and goriest non-horror film of the year: Sisu: Road to Revenge. Tappaa heidät kaikki!

Here’s a texted summary of the list in chronological order as we saw them:

Masterpiece

Nosferatu
— There’s no doubt that the Eggers version of Nosferatu is a visual, stylish experience layered with ominous atmosphere and overt sexual undertones. It many ways it differs from both the original and its other remakes, with elements that will be enjoyable for some and off-putting for others, but we loved it through and through!. — Vanja

(Note: yes, we know that the film was originally released in 2024, in the God bless of America, but us peasants overseas had to wait an week extra until January 2. So…)

28 Years Later
— While the ground story itself is nothing new, the execution is quite something else. The cinematography, the use of the idyllic summer landscapes with the blue sky and all, makes a stark contrast to the morbid and ugly, almost like a dreamlike paradox. There are some really haunting images here and some brilliant use of silhouettes while the kinetic camerawork amps up the intensity. I was highly impressed with this one, how it explored some themes in a new, fresh way, the world building and the overall vibe and atmosphere. — Tom

Bring Her Back
— While there is a somewhat basic occult story underneath Bring Her Back, it’s the execution that makes it such a great watch. There’s a constant feeling of creeping dread, you always anticipate something horrible to happen. And while the horror is mostly subtle, the scenes where the bad things start happening are truly visceral and often unexpectedly unnerving. Timing is everything, nailing it without the use of unnecessary jumpscares. There’s a lot of innuendo before the actual, purest hell breaks out, and some of these lead up to several incredible wtf-ish disturbing moments — Vanja

Weapons
— Underneath Weapons, you might be surprised to realize that the story is actually a very generic horror story, but it’s the non-linear way it’s told and the mix of narrative choices here that makes everything work out so perfectly. Instead of a bland, overused formula with ingredients you’re all too familiar with, it twists everything on its head and presents it to you in a completely different wrap-up. I’m repeating myself like a broken record here, but: go in as blind as possible, and enjoy this twisted and unpredictable horror adventure! — Vanja

Frankenstein
— Guillermo del Toro’s vision of Frankenstein is as expected a solid, beautiful gothic sci-fi adventure, and once again works both as a story of wonder and as a tale of warning about what could happen once humans are not fully cognizant of the things they create and the consequences it may bring. A tale as old as time, of humans riddled with arrogance, narcissism and greed…too often asking themselves “can I“, when more often they should have asked themselves “should I“. — Vanja

Awesome

Final Destination: Bloodlines
— So, how does this movie hold up to the rest of the franchise? Well, we watched it at the big screen and had a total blast with it! Six films in and it’s still feeling as playful and fun as ever, perfectly balancing humour with grisly deaths. Already from the opening scene with the Skyview you know it’s going to be good, keeping you eagerly anticipating how all hell will break loose. And it sure does! Final Destination: Bloodlines proves that the franchise is still going strong, and still feeling surprisingly fresh. — Vanja

Companion
— Companion is a fun movie about how human aggression and violence can easily become an ethical issue when given control over something that emulates human emotions, yet have no control over their lives and have no rights like that of real humans. While this is far from the first time similar concepts have been explored in movies or other media, it still felt like a fresh take, especially in these days when a situation like this seems considerably less far-fetched than it was just a few years ago. — Vanja

The Ugly Stepsister
— The Ugly Stepsister is a fun and beautiful movie, with a dark fairytale spin on a classic story mixed with the insane beauty standards that both have existed, and still exists today. — Vanja

Locked
— Locked is a pretty nice thriller that blends philosophy with horror elements and is fueled by strong performances from a great cast. A fun watch! — Vanja

Together
— Aside from the body horror, there were also some surprisingly good scenes which were effectively creepy, especially the scene with Tim’s parents and the one with Millie behind the door. But for the most part, the movie is more of a fun popcorn entertainment movie with a nice slice of the bizarre. Together is a weird and icky movie about codependency, and the fear of losing oneself in a relationship and the oftentimes messy complications of love. — Vanja

Dead Talents Society
— Dead Talents Society is so much fun, a high-energy horror-comedy with a lot of colorful spooks and even a bit of heart. A total feel-good film for everyone who wants something a bit spooky-silly! — Vanja

Black Phone 2
— Black Phone 2 is a strong sequel filled with supernatural and bloody carnage. It’s a new addition to the formula of serial killers and the dead refusing to stay dead, but a fun and gory one where I wouldn’t really mind if they decide that death won’t be final this time around either. Serial killers rarely stay dead in horror anyway (like Dexter‘s son also realized recently) so perhaps we’ll see a Black Phone 3 sometime in the close future. — Vanja

The Gorge
— 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). — Vanja

Good Boy
— 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. — Vanja

Good

Sinners
— Sinners is a pretty good period drama movie with some great musical elements and horror mixed in, and while I wasn’t as “blown away“ as the majority who watched the movie seems to have been, I could easily appreciate the movie’s higher notes and qualities. — Vanja

Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare
— The most remarkable here is Martin Portlock as Peter Pan. Here, he’s a mix of Heath Ledger’s Joker, Freddy Krueger and Radu the vampire with a dark and a seductive British voice that would even make Hugh Grant blush. He’s as ruthless and mean-spirited as he’s intimidating. All in all, a gritty, gory, tension-filled and morbidly entertaining ride you’ll never experience at Disneyland, even after dark. Solid stuff. — Tom

Presence
— A movie told from the ghost’s perspective, where we see things through their view. Interesting take on the haunted house genre, and very fine for what it is, although it’s more of a drama film than a horror movie. Worth a watch though! — Vanja

Dangerous Animals
— The movie is rather laidback on the gore, which was a little disappointing considering the bloody film poster. Oh well. It makes up for it by keeping up the pace at a good level throughout, and offering enough suspense. — Vanja

Exit 8
— 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! — Vanja

Keeper
— Keeper is overall a pretty decent slowburn horror that does require a bit of patience, and while arguably not one of Perkins’s best, it’s still a solid entry into his collection of atmospheric, artsy horror films. — Vanja

OK

The Monkey
— The Monkey is a movie where the kills are the most entertaining and fun part, and the movie is best enjoyed when turning off your brain completely and not expecting anything similar to what Perkins has made earlier. I’m fine with him wanting to do some monkeying around for a change, but I also personally hope that we’ll see more of his slow-burn atmospheric horror movies in the future. — Vanja

Until Dawn
— Until Dawn didn’t turn out to be the disaster we more or less expected. It’s a pretty fine supernatural horror film, works fine on its own and gave us a decent ride. — Vanja

The Conjuring: Last Rites
— A very mixed and bloated bag with potential that was primarily wasted on romance and Hallmark family drama bollocks. If the film just had focused more on the actual case, the three grinning ghosts and the demon, whatever that was, this could maybe reach the quality levels of the first two. — Tom

The Home
— 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. 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. — Vanja

Match
— What would happen if you ordered Barbarian from Temu, sorry, I meant Tubi? You get a Match made in Goofyland. Or, in other words: By going into this Tubi Original completely blind, without even having seen a single screenshot, and expecting the absolute bottom of the barrel, you’ll maybe have a pleasant surprise and have a fun schadenfreude time. — Tom

NAH

Ash
I was really looking forward to Flying Lotus’ second film, after his colorful arthouse/body-horror acid trip that is Kuso, and see what he could do with a more mainstream narrative. But what a letdown this was. His unique and intense style shines through, the creature designs are solid, but the film itself, written by Jonni Remmler, is a boring, unfocused slog that goes absolutely nowhere. — Tom

Heart Eyes
Shallow. Empty. Artificial. Unfunny. Aggressively tone-deaf. As a slasher: zero tension. As a romcom: as romantic as a random duck-faced Instagram page filled with filters and whatnot. Couldn’t stand the two lead characters. Two narcissists collide. Ugh. Kill them both, please. The only thing that saves this glossy nothingburger from being tossed in the trashcan, is two or three great kills. — Tom

Wolf Man
The big “L” that appears at the screen at the end that fades into the name of the director (Leigh Whannell), sums it all up perfectly. Or you can just take a look at the shitty copy n’ paste movie poster, which is as empty and uninspiring as the film itself. Some good practical effects to spot, but that’s all. God knows what really happened here when we all know that he can do so much better than this. — Tom

Don’t Hang Up
The most cliché, cookie-cutter, super generic, predictable haunted house found-footage one can possibly make in the year of 2025. — Tom

Clown in a Cornfield
I keep saying Corn in a Clownfield when mentioning this film for some reason. Anyway, this is the Temu version of Pennywise, more or less. Lame and forgettable. Expected more from the director of Tucker and Dale vs Evil.— Tom

Please Don’t Feed the Children
A very tame, forgettable and zero-calorie version of Flowers in the Attic (as far as I can remember) which is nothing to fill anyone’s hungry stomach. And yeah, this is the directorial debut of Destry Allyn Spielberg, the daughter of Steven himself, that got dumped straight on Tubi. Oof. — Tom

The Rule of Jenny Pen
What an absolute waste of two masterclass actors, Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow, who, oddly enough, are listed as producers on this thing. If you wanna see a light version of The Trinity Killer clowning around with a fucking doll/puppet for 90 minutes in an old folks’ home while someone is trying to come up with a script, by all means. — Tom

Vicious
I expected at least that Dakota Fanning (who deserves a better movie than this nothingburger yawn-fest) would carve out her tattoos to fill the box with something that she “liked“… but I forgot that 99 percent of the people on planet Earth have tattoos now, so… — Tom

The Death of Snow White
The dwarfs? Have they all gone mad? Bonkers trailer. The film itself, not so much. There are some fun ideas here though, especially with the sexy demonic mirror and some great practical effects. Too bad that the fun gets mostly held back with stiff, sloggish Shakespearean dialogue scenes. That said, big kudos the the filmmakers for actually using real dwarfs here. Yes, Dinklage is not the only one. Who could imagine. — Tom

The Elixir
Just another generic, boring and overbloated sloggish zombie flick with the bottom-of-the-barrel dumbest zero IQ characters imaginable. Solid effects, make-ups and cinematography are the only positives. — Tom

TRASH

Piglet
It’s exactly what you think it is: bottom-of -the-barrel zero effort trash like Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, just with the piglet… and I honestly didn’t expect more. Has nothing to do with the Poohniverse though. — Tom

Tarot Curse
A knockoff of Tarot and even worse in every single way. — Tom

Popeye’s Revenge
What more is there really to say at this point? It’s as bad as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, only with Popeye. It’s as bad as Piglet, only with Popeye. Same zero-effort trash, different wrapping. — Tom

The Jolly Monkey
The ripoff/mockbuster of The Monkey from The Asylum wasn’t fun/bad as I hoped it would be. And no jolly about it like the trailer would trick you to believe. Not even a little. Just bad, bad, bad and dreadfully boring. — Tom

The Ritual
Just like our ol’ uncle Al Pacino I also like my Happy Hour with Jack Daniels, but seriously… go home, sleep it off, take a good shower and drink some mountain water. The same goes for you, cameraman. Jeez. — Tom

The Woman in the Yard
I’m depressed, y’all! Feel sorry for ME! A woman gets depressed after her husband dies in a car accident which leaves her widowed with two kids and a dog. Fair enough. But the odd thing is that she was as miserable and bitchy when he was still alive, while her husband tried to do whatever he could to put a smile on her sorry face. They even moved from place to place to hopefully escape her dark cloud, despite the struggling economy. We never get to the root of her depression, even barely on its surface. She’s just borderline depressed, self-centered, cold, narcissistic and a pathetic worm of a human because the script says so, who goes in a full-on self-sabotage mode while dragging her two kids, and even the dog into her misery pit. All this with zero substance or character development, so… why should we really care? And then we have that ending so that the film could at least spark some more curiosity to be fooled to watch this… whatever it is. Well, it worked. — Tom

I Know What You Did Last Summer
I need to start drinking. Yeah? So…what are you waiting for? Everyone here needs a drink, it seems. I Know What You Drank Last Summer. This was worse than expected, way worse actually, and the moronic dry fart of a twist ending is just the turd on top of whatever this is. Scriptwise, this is pure incompetence from start to finish and not in a funny way. If Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. weren’t shoehorned in here, I could easily mistake this for a very delayed and lazy ripoff by The Asylum. Yeah, it’s actually that bad. Just watch the original again, where you also get some brief timeless ’90s summer breeze from Type O Negative. — Tom

Opus
“A once-in-a-lifetime experience.“ And I sure hope so! — Tom

That being said, it’s now time for a mega pint or three. Happy Ghoulish New Year from Tom, Vanja & Mr. Ghööl !

The Vourdalak (2023)

Posted on December 30, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

We are in the 18th century, somewhere in Eastern Europe. Jacques Saturnin du Antoine is a French Marquis who is wandering through the woods after having lost his horse and companions after a robbery. He tries to seek shelter at the first house he sees, but the man there advises him that he should go to the house of a man named Gorcha. When arriving there, he finds that this man has left in order to fight and exact revenge upon the Turks. His family recounts that after leaving, he made it very clear that if he does not return within six days, it would be because he’d died fighting. And if he would, indeed, return after those six days has passed, they should not under any circumstances let him in, as he would then have become a “vourdalak“. Gorcha’s son, Jegor, scoffs of such superstition and is eagerly awaiting his father’s return, making Jacques having to wait until the next day before he can get him a horse. In the meantime, Jacques very soon finds himself seduced by Gorcha’s unmarried daughter Sdenka.

Then, later that evening, six days have now passed since Gorcha left. And that’s when he is suddenly spotted lying like a mummified corpse at the edge of the forest. For all means and purposes, he literally looks like the dead husk of a man…but then he starts speaking after being placed at the dinner table. He throws the severed head of the Turks’ leader on the table, telling everyone that he finally murdered him and was able to fulfill his quest. Alright, all’s good and well then, right? Let’s enjoy some food and celebrate! Except…Jacques, of course, sits by the table in both shock and horror. This thing that is Gorcha, head of this family, looks like a living corpse, and Jegor seems to be the only one who can’t see how messed up it all is. Even the dog can’t stop barking (ensuing the poor doggie’s fate, of course). As if the appearance of Gorcha wasn’t terrifying enough, the incidents of the night and following day makes it evident that they should have heeded Gorcha’s warnings before he left.

The Vourdalak (original title: Le Vourdalak) is a French drama-horror film from 2023, shot on Super 16mm, directed by Adrien Beau in his feature film debut. It was co-written with Hadrien Bouvier, and based on an 1830 novella called The Family of the Vourdalak by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy. The movie explores some less traditional vampire lore, specifically that of the creatures called “Vourdalaks“, which are very alike vampires in many ways but differs in how it chooses its victims. While the traditional vampires would target anyone they could get their fangs on, the Vourdalak only preyed upon the people it once loved and cared for. It that sense, I think it makes the Vourdalak even more terrifying than the regular vampire…

Now, let’s talk a little about the actual Vourdalak in this movie…and I seriously was not prepared for this, but it’s actually a life-sized puppet. Yes, a puppet…not an actor in make-up or CGI, but a good old-fashioned puppet. It was so incredibly odd and fascinating to watch, so clearly not alive yet so incredibly animated and lively, being almost mockingly jolly despite its gaunt hideousness. And I totally loved it! There’s such a creepy-cute ghoulishness to it, and of course no ghoul at heart can resist such a thing. We both laughed at and admired its quirkiness!

There is a certain fantasy-nightmare-vibe throughout the movie, where our noble Frenchman wanders around a misty and gloomy forest and an even more gloomy and dark house. His character is a bit of an oddball too, reminding me a little bit of Ichabod Crane. He’s really not in his right element here, where the family of Gorcha are all hard-working peasants toiling away all day, whereas he is all dolled up and looks like he’s not good for much else than powdering his face and doing a dance. Oh, and just like in any of those “people are killed left and right and the heroine is being chased by a monster, but her makeup always stays flawless“ kind of movies, Jacques is certainly fitting well into this trope! His makeup stays fine all the time like he’s got the best setting spray ever. Now, if that sounds wonderful to you, just keep in mind that the cosmetics the French aristocracy used in the 17th and 18th century in order to achieve the pale complexion was one of the most historically dangerous, where common toxic ingredients included mercury and lead…makes your skin itch just thinking about it. Poor Jacques was not only in danger from a vampiric creature, but also from his powder box.

The movie does have a lot of atmosphere, and never ceases to have some kind of beauty hidden within each frame of dark melancholy. The 16mm also helps on giving the film the slightly grainy, gauzy look, perfectly enhancing the mood. Overall, The Vourdalak is a vampire folk horror movie with a different set of fangs, but no less of a bite. The puppetry and practical effects gives the movie an odd and old-fashioned flair which suits the tone so well.

The Vourdalak is available on several streaming sites, and on Blu-Ray and DVD from Oscilloscope Laboratories.

Director: Adrien Beau
Writers: Adrien Beau, Hadrien Bouvier
Original title: Le Vourdalak
Country & year: France, 2023
Actors: Kacey Mottet Klein, Ariane Labed, Grégoire Colin, Vassili Schneider, Claire Duburcq, Gabriel Pavie, Erwan Ribard, Adrien Beau
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt28313478/

MARY’S MIXTAPE – Horror Short

Posted on December 28, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

After stealing a cassette tape, Mary develops a strange obsession with the music. Experiencing the danger associated with the tape, she flips to the B-side and discovers the dark fate of the previous owner.

This is the final Horror Short Sunday for 2025, and this time we’re taking a look at Mary’s Mixtape. A creepy horror short where a girl decides to steal a cassette tape, and finds that it includes the most euphoric music she’s ever heard. Problem is: listening to it proves to be quite dangerous…

Director: Sam Prim
Writer: Sam Prim
Country & year: UK, 2023
Actors: Jordan Carpenter, Lucilla Fell
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt32732368/

Moon Garden (2022)

Posted on December 26, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Emma is a little girl who lives with her parents, who are always arguing. Her mother tries to sneak Emma out of the house during the night, but their father stops them before leaving. Emma gets so distraught over their constant fighting, that she runs away and falls down the stairs. Luckily she doesn’t die from the fall, but she ends up in a coma and is trapped in a strange world. She can her hear mother speaking and singing to her in the hospital bed, and sometimes experience memories and the odd crossover moments, but she can’t find out how to wake up. Traveling through a surrealistic steampunk world she encounters both friends and foes, and is chased by a creature simply called Teeth, who feeds on her tears and seems to be hellbent on stopping her from leaving.

Moon Garden is a dark fantasy horror film from 2022, written and directed by Ryan Stevens Harris. It stars his young daughter Haven Lee Harris as Emma. And from the very early start of the movie, it’s easy to see that this is very much a passion project, filled with so much creativity and whimsical playfulness in what is obviously an allegorical take on childhood trauma. And holy moley, is this movie filled to the absolute brim with awesome practical effects, sometimes reminding me a bit of Phil Tippet’s Mad God and the dark fantasy vibes of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth. There’s so much creativity here, from the elaborate set designs, makeup effects, monster prosthetics and so on. There’s a mix of miniature usage, puppetry, and stop motion. CGI has been avoided to give the movie a better vintage-looking feel, and to be honest, if I hadn’t known beforehand that this is a movie from 2022, I wouldn’t have doubted even for a second if someone told me that it was a movie from the ’80’s. It was also intentionally shot on some old expired 35mm film which enhances the retro feel to the maximum. Visually, and creatively, I totally fell in love with it!

While the horror elements are somewhat subdued, as the movie relies more on the Alice in Wonderland-esque strangeness of a surreal world, they are quite effective when they first appear. It’s not just a fanciful adventure for the little girl, she does encounter some terrifying creatures and experiences. Emma (played by Haven Lee Harris, the director’s daughter) gives a surprisingly solid performance where I honestly wondered if she were genuinely terrified at times. Or at least a bit pissed about what her father was putting her through…there are a few scenes where she’s having this defiant bottom-lip pout expression, almost like she’s silently telling her father “you owe me a pony after this!“, but overall I think she looks back on the whole experience as a really fun one, though, as it also looked like she was having the time of her life.

While the movie includes many strange characters and creatures, my favorite by far is Teeth, the villain who tries to stop Emma from leaving and also feeds on her tears. Wearing a tophat and a long black coat, his face is nothing but a black hole in which he’s got a set of constantly clacking teeth (hence the name). Just like the wind-up teeth toys, just done in a horror fashion. He’s both a creative villain and also a nightmarish one, perfect in a dark fantasy film.

Moon Garden is a surreal, heartfelt and utterly strange and visual treat for those who love something a bit different. While I can’t say I have seen something very similar to this movie, I did get a little bit of the same vibe as from Mad God (2021) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) as I earlier mentioned, but I could also feel a little bit of a Paperhouse (1988) flavor here, and of course many of the Alice in Wonderland adaptations. The movie is a beautiful surrealistic experience, one that requires a certain taste for the fever-dreamish vibe of the more fantasy-themed arthouse films.

Moon Garden is available on Blu-Ray and DVD from Oscilloscope Laboratories, and is available on several streaming sites, including Tubi.

Writer and director: Ryan Stevens Harris
Country & year: USA, 2022
Actors: Augie Duke, Brionne Davis, Haven Lee Harris, Morgana Ignis, Maria Olsen, Timothy Lee DePriest, Phillip E. Walker, Angelica Ulloa, Téa Mckay, Joel Pelletier, Wolfgang Meyer
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt18561446/