THE SÉANCE – Horror Short

Sadie is a teenage witch with all the regular problems. She’s head over heels for her childhood best friend, James. The Devil is trying to force her to become his undead bride to rule over hell. And since her mom’s disappearance, all the evil around town suddenly has it out for Sadie. But when a ghost from her mother’s past threatens James- Sadie will stop at nothing to protect those she loves. The one problem? She doesn’t really know how to use her magic.

 

It is Horror Short Sunday again, and this time we’re taking a look at The Séance! A fun spooky short where a séance doesn’t go as planned (do they ever?).

 

THE SÉANCE - Horror Short

 

Director: Hunter F. Burns, Jordan P. Spalding
Writer: Hunter F. Burns, Jordan P. Spalding
Country & year: USA, 2025
Actors: Sammie Keach, Levi Ladd, Lainey Martin
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt37036456/

 

 

 

 

The Good Neighbor (2016)

The SonataTwo teenage boys, Ethan and Sean, decide to pull the prank of the decade on their old, grumpy neighbor Harold. One morning when the old man leaves his home, the two boys get inside his house and set up cameras and equipment that will help them simulate a haunting. Yup, they’re going to trick Harold into thinking his house is haunted! It’s supposed to also be the basis for a school project, where the experiment will give them insight in a person’s unfiltered reaction to experiencing a haunting. And yes, these are teenage boys, and teens do all kinds of stupid shit for all kinds of stupid reasons, but…it doesn’t require more than a sliver of common sense to understand that what they’re doing isn’t only illegal, but highly immoral. So when these very tech-savvy kids keep monitoring their old neighbor’s home through their hidden cameras, you don’t exactly root for them.

 

Now, first of all they decide to play it small by making a kitchen door bang loudly in the middle of the night. Harold’s reaction to this is…not what they expected, to say the least. As they continue their experiment, they also notice something that really peaks their curiosity, especially Ethan’s. The cellar door, which was bolted and locked when they entered the house (which caused some frustration since they would not be able to place any cameras or equipment there) is suddenly opened by Harold in the middle of the night. And after going down there, he’s spending hours until he gets back up. What’s in that cellar? And why is Harold acting so…strange, to say the least, when faced with what he surely must think is some kind of supernatural phenomena?

 

The Good Neighbor is a thriller from 2016, directed by Kasra Farahani and written by Mark Bianculli and Jeff Richard. It’s a mystery-fueled story which is actually pretty simple, but also suspenseful and entertaining. Two teenage boys playing a prank on their grumpy neighbor by using illegal means, what could possibly go wrong!

 

Harold, played by James Caan, really comes off as your typical grouchy get off my laaawn! type of neighbor. Kind of like Nebbercracker in Monster House. There’s even a scene where he’s threatening to kill some guy’s dog after it urinated on his property. Yikes…and just like we can’t really be on the teenagers side as what they’re doing is wrong on so many levels, there’s not much sympathy to be had for Harold in the start of the movie either. He just seems like a crabby, miserable piece of shit. Then, of course, you wonder if he’s got reasons for being the way he is, just like Nebbercracker…

 

There were multiple times where I was fairly certain where this was headed, and I guess that’s a little because the movie sometimes certainly nudged you in that direction, but there were one surprise after the other which made the mystery fairly compelling. Needless to say, there are of course more layers to the characters and their motives and personalities, and since the movie often breaks into short segments from present time where we’re witnessing a trial, we know early on that things really went bad in some kind of way.

 

The Good Neighbor is one of those films where it’s best to go in without knowing much. Definitely a suspenseful thriller which keeps you guessing, and may take different turns than you expected.

 

The Good Neighbor The Good Neighbor The Good Neighbor

 

Director: Kasra Farahani
Writers: Mark Bianculli, Jeff Richard
Country & year: USA, 2016
Actors: James Caan, Logan Miller, Keir Gilchrist, Laura Innes, Edwin Hodge, Bailey Noble, Lili Reinhart, Anne Dudek, Mindy Sterling, William Charles Mitchell
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2262315/

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

An American Werewolf in Paris (1997)

An American Werewolf in ParisIf London wasn’t dangerous enough for Americans to visit, Paris wouldn’t be much better. So try Bratislava instead, haha. That being said, this is not a sequel to the well-known cult classic that is John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London (1981), but more based on the idea that the first film was originally to be set in Paris. And why not. Paris rules! The only thing this one has in common with the original is that an American student visits a European country and becomes a werewolf.

 

The film has some very loose connections to the first one though, and to cut it short: John Landis was asked to make a sequel to London in 1991 and wrote several screenplays. The studio, Polygram Pictures, declined all of his scripts for whatever reason and ended up with Tom Stern and Tim Burns to write the script that was later rewritten after Anthony Waller got hired as director (catching my breath). He had recently made Mute Witness, a solid horror/thriller which had already gained a cult-following.

 

Andy (Tom Everett Scott) and his small group of American friends are visiting Paris to sneak up to the Eiffel Tower at night to bungee jump. The big event gets interrupted when they see a young woman, Serafine (Julie Delpy) standing on the handrail, who looks like she’s ready for a suicide jump. After she leaps off, Andy jumps after her, attached to the cord (duh) and grabs her foot at the last second before she would hit the ground. The only thing he has left from her after flying back up is her shoe. Andy gets knocked unconscious and ends up in the hospital. Welcome to Paris.

 

And after he wakes up in the hospital, the film bounces all over the place where we have a rather flimsy romance movie, a ghostmovie that could be in the same universe as The Frighteners, another romance side plot and, of course, something to do with werewolves. Andy spots Serafine at the hospital, where she just by coincidence works as a nurse (or does she?), and goes after her with her shoe, looking like a deranged psychopathic stalker as he’s holding up her shoe and says: You forgot…this! How romantic. After they start to date, Andy and his friends get access to a secret underground nightclub that connects to the catacombs. Nice! But here is also where it gets messy, because one of Andy’s pals finds Serafine, for whatever reason, locked in the basement. And don’t tell me that she can possibly be… a werewolf?! Now that she knows that Andy is in the club, which happens to be an underground society of werewolves who eat tourists (!),  she has to get him far away. Too late. The moon is full, hell breaks loose and poor Andy gets bitten in the leg after running around in the sewer before he manages to escape through a pipe. Enjoy rest of Paris and good luck finding an antidote.

 

An American Werewolf in Paris

 

There are especially two classic pure cinema moments here that stick out. The first is the most awkward date scene ever, also called the bubble gum scene, where our charming American blows up a condom while Julie Delpy sits in front of him with a cold stare. Can’t really blame her though. I won’t even try to explain the context, just watch it. The second one is where Andy’s werewolf senses start to kick in, goes on all fours in a cafè (still in human form) and does a quick ass sniff to some random woman (Julie Bowen) straight in her bum.  Because it’s mating time, baby! They end up having sex at Père Lachaise Cemetery, because, of course, this is Paris,  the city of love, after all.  But then the moon goes full. Oops.

 

Going in and expecting a direct sequel to the first film, you’d be disappointed…very disappointed. And forget about any memorable werewolf transformation scene.  This is not that kind of movie. It’s all, if not mostly CGI, or the first CG werewolf in movie history as Anthony Waller called it. And it looks like you’d expect from the 1990s: not good. So no, I wouldn’t say that this is a great movie in its genre. It has its glaring flaws, it’s very unfocused at times with a very forgettable villain (yes, there’s a villain here if I forgot to mention) and the romance between Andy and Serafine seems pretty forced. While Tom Everett Scott had a fun time making the film, the same can not be said about Julie Delpy who only took the role to pay her rent. For unknown reasons she hated working on An American Werewolf in Paris so much that she avoided doing any other commercial Hollywood movies. (That was until she signed up for Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2015). She still does a good performance as a mysterious melancholic downer though.

 

What makes the film a win is the comedic elements, the many set-pieces of Paris and just overall the distinct fun, goofy 1990s vibe which only us who experienced that decade, before the world went down the toilet, can fully appreciate.  The few of the practical effects are great, the most noteworthy being the gags where the ghost version of Julie Bowen tries to whistle and pops out her eye instead. Delightful stuff.  And since comedy is the most subjective thing ever, I can only speak for myself. Or maybe just being in the right mood helps a lot. I dunno. It’s certainly entertaining and far from the worst movie of all time. The film was not a success at the box-office though, barely earning back its budget. That’s a bummer, because a third film where it was the other way around, A European Werewolf in Chicago would surely be interesting. But then the movie would be over after just ten minutes or so, because, well…I think it speaks for itself.

 

An American Werewolf in Paris An American Werewolf in Paris An American Werewolf in Paris

 

Director: Anthony Waller
Writers: Tim Burns, Tom Stern, Anthony Waller
Country & year: USA/France/Luxembourg
Actors: Tom Everett Scott, Julie Delpy,Vince Vieluf, Phil Buckman, Julie Bowen, Pierre Cosso, Thierry Lhermitte, Tom Novembre, Maria Machado, Ben Salem Bouabdallah, Serge Basso
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118604/

 

Tom Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

THE LITTLES – Horror Short

When 11 year old Juliet stubs her toe on a loose floorboard, she unwittingly sets off a series of mysterious events. A faint noise and an unusual glow seeping through the cracks capture her curiosity. But as she investigates, Juliet finds herself pulled into a chilling, otherworldly encounter.

 

Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we’re taking a look at The Littles! A fun little horror short mixing live action with stop motion animation.

 

THE LITTLES - Horror Short

 

Director: Andrew Duplessie
Writer: Andrew Duplessie
Country & year: USA, 2025
Actors: Violet McGraw, Janel Parrish, Dominic Sherwood
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt37432997/

 

 

 

 

Mute Witness (1995)

Mute WitnessBilly Hughes is a special effects make-up artist who finds herself in Moscow after saying yes to work on a low-budget slasher film directed by the boyfriend of her elder sister. One night, Billy finds she must return to the studio where they’re shooting the film in order to get something for the next day’s shoot, and ends up getting herself locked inside. Oops. No problem, though, as she phones her elder sister Karen for help. Billy is a mute, by the way, but she’s communicating via morse code through the phone, and her sister is used to her ways of communication so she’ll easily figure it out. Unfortunately for Billy, something really, really shady is going at that studio…she gets interrupted and not able to complete her message through the phone, as she discovers that a small part of their film crew is inside and seemingly shooting some porn flick. Oh well…many folks have gotta do some side hustles every now and then, right? No biggie. Billy hides and watches, and ends up witnessing the actress suddenly getting stabbed to death. Looks like Billy just walked in on the filming of a snuff video. She manages to flee even though she was noticed by the director, some shady dude called Lyosha.

 

Billy, in shock over what she just witnessed, and with Karen’s help, she tries to convince the police that a murder just happened. The problem is: there’s no body, and the guy Billy saw stabbing the actress demonstrates to the police how a fake retracting knife streaming blood was used to create some elaborate special effects. Billy’s not a fool, though, she knows exactly what she witnessed. And even if no one believes her, at least not yet, she’s knows that she in danger for having seen something she wasn’t supposed to see…

 

Mute Witness is a horror thriller from 1995 that was written, directed and produced by Anthony Waller in his feature film debut. It’s a British-German-Russian co-production, and it premiered at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. It received pretty good reviews from the critics, and was also nominated for Best Horror Film and Best Actress at the 22nd Saturn Awards. It was shot on-location in Moscow, because Anthony Waller wanted to do it in Russia due to cheaper sets and labor. Well, well…that probably didn’t go as smoothly as he first thought it would. Filming was delayed several times, and the first delay was because of a diphtheria outbreak in Moscow (a serious, contagious bacterial infection). And then the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis happened, where President Boris Yeltsin and the Russian parliament had a violent political standoff. Result: street fights and mayhem causing 147 killed and 437 wounded. Then, they had to pay off some customs official who had taken possession of their production gear, and to top it all Waller claimed that they also had to pay off some crime syndicates and corrupt officials, aka Russian mobsters, so the filming wouldn’t get any problems. Oh, the irony…

 

Marina Zudina, who plays the role of Billy, wasn’t the one who originally got cast for the role. Gina Bellman was the one who was first cast to play the lead role, but she dropped out due to illness and Marina was then brought into it all on a very short notice. Marina couldn’t speak English and Waller couldn’t speak Russian, so he had to direct through an interpreter, and I’m sure this wasn’t the easiest task. Still, Marina’s performance is strong and pretty much carries a lot of the film.

 

This is essentially a cat ‘n mouse thriller where we have a protagonist that must escape reckless mobsters while being in a foreign country and more isolated than most. Billy being mute does of course give her some challenges when she needs to communicate her worries and needs, which is very much the movie’s strength when it comes to added suspense in a situation like this. Sometimes she is communicating through a text-to-speech device (which sounds almost exactly like the voices you hear in the indie pixel horror game Faith: The Unholy Trinity).

 

The grimy and cheap locations also heightens the atmosphere of the movie, and there’s no doubt that Waller got what he wanted budget-wise. The locations were definitely on the cheaper end, but hey – the surely fit the movie’s premise!

 

Mute Witness is a ride filled with tension and suspense, some dashes of dark humour and a very strong performance by the lead actress. Overall a fun cat ‘n mouse thriller!

 

Mute Witness Mute Witness

 

Writer and director: Anthony Waller
Country & year: UK/Russia/Germany, 1995
Actors: Marina Zudina, Fay Ripley, Evan Richards, Oleg Yankovskiy, Igor Volkov, Sergei Karlenkov, Alec Guinness, Aleksandr Pyatkov, Nikolai Pastukhov, Aleksandr Bureyev, Stephen Bouser
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110604/

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

Eight Legged Freaks (2002)

Eight Legged FreaksThey’re eating the dogs! They’re eating the cats! They’re even eating the ostriches!

 

Eight Legged Freaks is the title and that’s what you get — and it’s as silly, fun and campy as it sounds. The plot is pretty straightforward: A horde of mutated giant hopping CGI spiders attack a small mining town somewhere in Arizona. Sheriff Sam (Kari Wuhrer) and her love interest Chris (David Arquette) have to come up with a plan to save the day. Good luck. A relatively unknown Scarlett Johanson plays the sheriff’s young teenage daughter, a decade before she became a Royal Hollywood Elite.

 

Fun fact: The original title for the film was Arac Attack, which had to be changed due to, well, a certain current Iraq Attack in the wake of 9/11. We can all agree that Eight Legged Freaks is a way better title, a passion project by the upcoming director Ellory Elkayem from New Zealand. Too bad that his upcoming took a quick double nosedive after he made the Return of the Living Dead films Necropolis and Rave to the Grave back-to-back in 2005 that as well could be made by Uwe Boll on his worst days.

 

Anyway… The B-movie monster that became Eight Legged Freaks had its humble start back in 1997 with the black & white horror short Larger Than Life, which is, of course, about monster spiders. Independence Day director Roland Emmerich spat out a budget of 30 million dollars for a full-length film inspired by the short, and used his own FX company Centropolis Entertainment for the visual effects. Still, I have to say if it wasn’t for the cast and the name of Roland Emmerich attached, this could easily have been mistaken for a very late mockbuster of Arachnophobia by The Asylum. This is way more polished than what they ever could fart out though. That being said, the effects here are far from amazing, as this is meant to be a silly lighthearted comedy-homage to schlocky monster movies of the 1950s. And like a lightning in a bottle, it succeeds in every way.

 

There are a lot of highlights here, but one that sticks out is a scene where a poor cat gets attacked by one of the many big spiders, dragged behind a wall, and well, how should I describe it…I can’t. It’s something straight out of Tom & Jerry, and it’s okay to laugh, folks. Ostriches get killed in a way that looks like a regular day in Peru, or like any poor bastard who’d get traumatized for life after this beautiful sight in the basement, or in Australia where huntsman spiders eats possums for dinner. Brrr! We have some wild motorcycle stunts and a fuel truck gets attacked by a handful of spiders which end up in an epic explosion. Budget well spent. And yeah, the spiders also punches people with cartoon punch sound effect. Because, of course.

 

There’s also a nod to Dawn of the Dead where all the townsfolk go to hide in a shopping mall which quickly escalates to crazy action which most notably includes a scene where a dude in a Jason mask is slashing through the spiders with a chainsaw. The older Marvel fans will probably go nuts when ScarJo gets attacked and webbed against the wall after a spider crawls into her bedroom. The actors play their roles seriously, maybe except David Arquette, who knows exactly what kind of a film this is. It was also him that came up with the title Eight Legged Freaks after the Arac Attack had to be canceled.  As a first time watch in the year of 2026 it’s also a bittersweet nostalgic reminder for us older millennials when Hollywood blockbusters once in a time knew how to have fun with no agenda and bullshit.

 

Eight Legged Freaks Eight Legged Freaks Eight Legged Freaks

 

Director: Ellory Elkayem
Writers: Ellory Elkayem, Randy Kornfield, Jesse Alexander
Country & year: USA, 2002
Actors: David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Scarlett Johansson, Doug E. Doug, Rick Overton, Leon Rippy, Matt Czuchry, Jay Arlen Jones, Eileen Ryan, Riley Smith
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0271367/

 

Tom Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

LARGER THAN LIFE – Horror Short

A young woman battles against a series of giant spiders, spawned by toxic waste, in her new suburban home.

 

It is Horror Short Sunday again, and this time we’re taking a look at Larger Than Life! A fun 50’s monster movie inspired short, and will definitely give you the willies if you have arachnophobia!

 

LARGER THAN LIFE - Horror Short

 

Director: Ellory Elkayem
Writer: Ellory Elkayem
Country & year: New Zealand, 1997
Actors: Rebecca Hobbs, Jeremy Callaghan, Patrick Wilson, Hamish Gough
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0254516/

 

 

 

 

The Last House (2026)

The Last HouseJason Delgado is out fishing, when he sees some stormy clouds approaching. Time to pack up! He returns to his suburban home in Seattle, and manages to get inside just before it starts to rain. Inside are also the rest of his family: his wife Ann, their son Graham and their daughter Ruth. And last but not least, the family dog Cassidy. Things quickly get weird when the family notice that they cannot open any of their doors. Windows are also impossible to open. It’s like some kind of force from outside prevents them from getting outside. Internet is down, phones have stopped working, and when looking through their windows they see that their neighbors are in the exact same situation. Those who are inside can’t get out, and those who are outside can’t get it. And things don’t seem to get any better. Desperate, Jason tries to break the doors and windows, and even the walls (because yeah, who wouldn’t in a situation like this) but to no avail. It’s like the water from outside creates a barrier that prevents any exit.

 

So, what to do? Well, luckily they have electricity, food and water. For now. They start rationing it, still hoping it all gets resolved soon…hopefully. After two months, it becomes apparent that things are way, way worse than they originally expected. And one day, one of their neighbors whom they saw could not get inside her home suddenly arrives outside their window, yelling that there’s no one left now, before she’s suddenly attacked by some kind of creature…

 

The Last House is a sci-fi horror film written by Matthew Robinson and directed by Loius Leterrier, and it was released on Netflix earlier this month. It was first announced in 2025 with the title 11817, and principal photography started in 2025 where the filming mostly occurred in England and Shepperton studios.

 

The premise here is rather simple: a family must survive locked inside their own house for who knows how long, while there is some sort of mysterious force at play. And we do actually get a little spoiler at the very start of the movie regarding where the threat actually comes from, we just don’t know exactly what it is. Regardless, what I found the most interesting part of this movie is how the family found ways to actually band together and use their brains and wit to survive with whatever means they have at hand, MacGuyver-style. Of course, this is a very average middle class family who may not have everything they want but absolutely everything they need, and their only real problems seem to be some financial struggles and a house which needs more fixing than they can afford. They do have pretty healthy family relations, however, and to be honest, I actually found this a little refreshing after so goddamn many movies about broken and trauma-ridden family relations. Now, don’t get me wrong – I don’t mind those themes, as very often they do fit like hand in glove when it comes to many horror narratives. It’s just a little refreshing to see a story about a more well-balanced family sometimes.

 

As time moves forward, the family do get put into some difficult situations which requires harsh decisions, especially one rather heartbreaking scene. Yeah, yeah…you could kinda see it coming from a mile away, but still. Now, had this been a much darker horror movie it could have gone considerably farther with these things, but it never really tried to be shocking in any way. In fact, there are even small parts of it where their situation is almost glamorized a little, where they bond even further as a family and have their regular funtime together with the only two DVD’s they own (Annie and Air Force One). Day after day, week after week, month after month…it kinda reminded me of the message in The Amazing Digital Circus: there is meaning to be found in a stagnant life. The Last House is not a livin’ happily ever after in such a state, though, as there is a threatening force out there. What it is? Well, with the start of the movie it isn’t really any spoiler to mention that the story does take some Lovecraftian turns.

 

Surely enough, The Last House doesn’t really explain everything in detail when it reaches its climax, and if you search for too much logic you can easily rip it to pieces. Overall, though, we found it a very entertaining sci-fi thriller which goes well along with some popcorn on a lazy evening!

 

Oh, and here’s a fun tidbit: this movie does have a fair share of animal actors (yes, not CGI animals!) and the IMDb page has them listed with their names, with Dave Melmoth listed as the animal handler.

 

The Last House

 

Director: Louis Leterrier
Writer: Matthew Robinson
Country & year: UK/France/USA, 2026
Actors: Greta Lee, Wagner Moura, Riley Chung,Noah Alexander Sosnowski, Emma Ho, Gabriel Barbosa, Arden Cho, Audrey Anderson, Sid Edwards, Eveline Reynolds-Boison, Cassidy Remi, Wicket, General, Bonnie, Layla, George, Ralph, Lady, Lilo, Moose, Annie
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32268156/

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

Insidious: Out of the Further (2026)

Insidious: Out of the FurtherGemma is a young girl who lives with her mother, Ingrid, who appears to be very mentally unwell. As if the little girl wasn’t traumatized enough by living together with an unstable mother, Gemma one day witnesses her commit suicide in the bathroom while asking her to watch. A supernatural force then shuts the door right in front of her face. And yes, we know some demonic shit was at play here, and if you’ve seen the previous films it isn’t hard to already get the puzzle pieces to fit.

 

We fast forward to many years later, where Gemma is now a dentist, is raising her daughter Maya in her childhood home (yes, really) and is dating a police officer. All seems…rather good? Except for the old creepy-looking weirdos that appears outside on the sidewalk. Who are they? Did they just move to the neighborhood? Well, we’ll find out. Gemma, on the other hand, gets to encounter these old creeps during her astral projection, where she is haunted by visions that includes her mother’s suicide. It appears that something demonic is out for both Gemma and her daughter, who wants to use her in order to get brought back from the Further and into the world of the living. Only Elise Rainer can help her…who is now part of the Further too.

 

Insidious: Out of the Further is the sixth installment in the Insidious franchise, and I’d say it’s a step up from the previous one. The fitting music score was once again composed by Joseph Bishara, who also composed the score for all the previous films in the series, and we get to see both some new and some familiar faces from the earlier films.

 

While the first movie was indeed a very good supernatural horror film where a lot of the story was shrouded in mystery since we didn’t know much about what was happening to the family, it goes without saying that a sixth film would have to play its cards very differently. After five films we are now well familiar with the Further, how the demons/ghosts/entities wants to come back to our world, and how astral projection is what makes traveling there possible as a living human being. There’s not much of a mystery anymore, so what is the most interesting thing in this franchise now, of course, is the realms of the Further. The place where the dead things live and where many evil people have mutated into horrific demon-looking monsters. The premise here is that the demons want out, and the Further then becomes merged with the real world…and while I personally didn’t think this movie really went as far as it could with this, there is plenty of atmospheric and fun scenes where Gemma gets to explore the world of the dead and its inhabitants.

 

And yeah…as you’ve probably already guessed, this is yet another ride on the trauma train, as generational trauma plays a major factor in the plot here. Our protagonist, Gemma, is doing her best despite her troubled past, and is naturally terrified of becoming just like her mother. She’s actually doing a great job, even deciding to keep her childhood home in order to create the home she never had and not let the past overtake her in any way. As they say, you cannot run or hide from your trauma, so the only option you really have is to face it and not let it overtake your life. That is, of course, easier said than done…and especially when all the supernatural shenanigans starts hitting her full force and she quickly begins struggling with keeping herself cool and controlled. In real life you can’t blame ghosts if you lose your shit (although I’m fairly certain some people actually try to do that, after all we already have an infamous case of someone blaming the devil). Here, though, our protagonist has good reason to being close to losing her mind, but fortunately there’s help to get from the other side. Lin Shaye reprises her role as Elise Rainer, who is of course trapped in the Further since she’s been dead for a while. Aside from all the nasty ghoulies there, she’s a rare friendly presence.

 

Insidious: Out of the Further is pretty much exactly what you expect it to be, nothing more and nothing less. There are some really good atmospheric scenes, a fitting and strong sound design, and some solid new entities as well as a revisit with some old and familiar faces. It definitely plays the franchise’s old tricks over and over, but overall it’s a nice supernatural horror film where they definitely have lots more to explore if they want to take a further dive into the Further.

 

Insidious: Out of the Further Insidious: Out of the Further

 

Director: Jacob Chase
Writers: Jacob Chase, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick
Country & year: Australia/USA, 2026
Actors: Amelia Eve, Island Austin, Lin Shaye, Sam Spruell, Brandon Perea, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, Joseph Lopez, Robina Beard, Susan Gray, Laura Gordon, Charli Penton
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32393988/

 

Prequels:
Insidious (2010)
Insidious: Chapter 2 (2013)
Insidious: Chapter 3 (2015)
Insidious: The Last Key (2018)
Insidious: The Red Door (2023)

 

Vanja Ghoul

 

 

 

 

 

Good Boy – Horror Short

After hearing of his estranged father’s mysterious passing, an anxious young man attends the funeral seeking answers. As he searches for the truth, he must face a troubling secret from his past.

 

Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we’re taking a look at Good Boy! A dark and disturbing story…

 

Good Boy - Horror Short

 

Director: Aidan Weaver
Writer: William Christopher Stephens, Aidan Weaver
Country & year: US, 2025
Actors: Spencer Harrison Levin, Regen Wilson, Ginger Britt Daniels, Trevor James, Samuel Whitehill
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt31022171/