horror movie review – Horror Ghouls

Father’s Day (2011)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

They’re Watching (2016)

Posted on March 17, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sea Fever (2019)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Savageland (2015)

Posted on March 10, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Strange Harvest (2024)

Posted on February 6, 2026March 16, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

Mr. Shiny is a serial killer in California’s Inland Empire who has committed several grisly murders during a period of over three decades. What actually happened during these periods are relayed by detectives Joe Kirby and Lexi Taylor during interviews for a documentary about this case. It all started in 1993, when a young woman was found dismembered in the San Bernadino National Forest, and around the same time an elderly man in a retirement facility was bludgeoned and stabbed to death. That wasn’t all, as the third victim was a young boy that has been abducted and later found murdered in a bog, with his liver removed. At the time, these murders didn’t seem to carry any connections at all, but this was just the start of Mr. Shiny’s horrible murder sprees, with seemingly totally random victims and no clear motive at all. As people are interviewed and the detectives continue telling their stories, it becomes clear that Mr. Shiny was indeed a serial killer like no other.

Strange Harvest is a mockumentary horror film from 2024, written, directed, produced and edited by Stuart Ortiz (one of the directors of Grave Encounters from 2011). Ortiz got the idea for this horror mockumentary after seeing how the Netflix miniseries Tiger King got a lot of popularity, and he wanted to make something that had the traditional true crime story elements mixed with inspirations from for example the Zodiac Killer and H.P. Lovecraft. Ortiz went for as much realism as possible in making this look like an actual true crime documentary, and he really nailed it. Aside from small things like how certain photos and scenes of corpses would not have been shown in an actual documentary, it looks very real. The time periods, the old photos, crime scenes, the people interviewed and everything just looks so authentic, to even such small details as those “red eyes“ on 90’s photos. If someone channel-surfing on TV accidentally put this on, I wouldn’t be surprised for a second if they thought they’d put on an actual true crime documentary.

Some of the murder scenes and details are surprisingly gruesome, with such a thick layer of realism over it that it’s hard to not feel at least a little bit disturbed. Mr. Shiny himself is always perfectly mysterious and creepy, wearing a slightly silly mask that kind of looks like a malformed Shy Guy from Super Mario. His motives are for the most part very obscured, and despite getting a few hints throughout he remains a very cryptic villain whose goals can only be guessed at. Even the detectives are at a loss for understanding his whys and wherefores. Is it something Satanic? Is he collecting souls for the devil? Trying to conjure Yog-Sothoth? Does he want to open a portal so the Dark Overlords of the Universe may enter our world? Who knows. We only learn that he truly is a madman who squirms at nothing in order to achieve his goals, whatever they are or whatever he may believe they are. And that makes him even more terrifying, as nothing is more dangerous and horrible than a person who is willing to do the most atrocious acts because of things they believe in. The ending, despite being somewhat ambiguous (did that really happen or was it all just one coincidence after another, mixed in with a crazy man’s beliefs?) I think it fits really well with the rest of the film.

Strange Harvest is a really good mockumentary horror film, and one you definitely should not miss!

Writer and director: Stuart Ortiz
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Peter Zizzo, Terri Apple, Andy Lauer, Matthew Peschio, Allen Marsh, Jessee J. Clarkson
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33400719/

Iron Lung (2026)

Posted on February 3, 2026February 3, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

We’re in the distant future where an incident called the Quiet Rapture has caused all star systems and planets to vanish, leaving only some space stations with a few surviving humans left. An imprisoned man named Simon has been tasked with testing and piloting the SM-13 submarine, which has been nicknamed “Iron Lung“. He needs to explore an ocean of a moon named AT-5, and this is no ordinary ocean: it’s made of blood! With the promise of being freed once he completes this mission, he reluctantly does what he’s told. In the claustrophobic confines of the submarine, Simon can only see outside with a crude camera, and communication is done only through a radio. Once he’s down there in the ocean of blood, the submarine’s detectors indicate that there’s something moving outside. Simon uses the camera and captures what looks to be a skeleton on the ocean floor. The officials want him to capture a sample of it, but it appears that the skeleton is not the only thing at the bottom of the blood ocean. And he also discovers that he’s not the first pilot being sent down there…

Iron Lung is a sci-fi horror film written and directed, and also self-funded, by Mark Fischbach aka Markiplier in his feature directorial debut. It also stars Fischbach himself in the leading role, and it is based on a horror video game from 2022 by the same name which was made by David Szymanski. The development for the film began in the start of 2023, and it was shot at Troublemaker Studios. During the production, Fischbach stated that the film would contain the most fake blood of any horror film thus far, even surpassing 2013 Evil Dead‘s 50,000 US gallons (190,000 L). Iron Lung has 80,000 gallons (300,000 L). Yikes! Fischbach even had to go to hospital during the filming as he’d gotten too much of that fake blood in his eyes (ouch).

When Iron Lung was done and ready for release, it was only supposed to be shown in some independent US theaters. Fischbach encouraged his fans to request the movie from their theaters, and ohhhh boy, did that spread like wildfire! From an initial planned release to only 60 independent US theaters, it ended up being shown in 4,161 theaters internationally. And that’s how we Horror Ghouls also got to see it at the big screen here in Norway on January 30th, all thanks to Markiplier’s dedicated fans!

Now, I’m going to admit a little sin here: I didn’t know who Markiplier/Fischbach was prior to watching this film. I pretty much went in totally blind for this one, other than knowing it was made by a very famous YouTuber and based on a horror game from 2022. And while we are rather often at the big screen, this was probably the busiest opening we’ve experienced since we watched Oppenheimer back in 2023. Sure, it wasn’t as crazy-busy as the Barbenheimer-insanity that went on back then, but it was still the busiest day at the cinema in a long time. In fact, it was so busy that the theater had (for some inexplicable reason) managed to overbook two of the seats, causing an unfortunate couple having to leave. Goddamn… (I really hope those two were compensated for the theater’s big blunder).

Sitting there in the most cramped cinema in a long while, it didn’t take long until I got the feeling of déjà vu once the movie had started. Wait…this looks familiar? And then it clicked: I had seen a walkthrough of that game before. I often watch horror game walkthroughs on YouTube (mostly indie games) and I recognized this one immediately despite that it obviously had buried itself deep within my brain somewhere. Which speaks volumes about how detailed and true to the game the set design here is. This immediately set the mood for me as well, as I knew more or less what to expect from here on. What you get here, is a slow dive (pun intended) into a slow-burn chamber drama lovecraftian sci-fi horror. Much of the horror is of the subtle kind, with an ever-growing feeling of total helplessness and how insignificant humanity is in the scope of bigger, unknown things. Which is basically cosmic horror in a nutshell. Did Fischbach hit the nail on the head with this movie adaptation? My personal opinion of that is definitely a yes. At least it scratched my cosmic horror itch well and good.

Iron Lung is a passion project through and through, and Fischbach is indeed a very decent actor. Which was a must in a chamber drama movie like this, where everything relies mostly on the shoulders of one actor. The set design looks great and exactly like the game as I already mentioned, and the effects used in this film are overall really solid. There is only one issue, and that is the movie’s runtime. It’s just too dang long. I’m not saying that a runtime of 2 hours wouldn’t necessarily work for a movie like this, but it does unfortunately become too repetitive at times and it was hard not to feel that it could have done much better with a shorter runtime. Despite some issues with the pacing and overly long runtime, I thought it managed to keep a creepy atmosphere and dense, claustrophobic vibe throughout. And those 80,000 gallons of blood? Well, they’ve been put to good use in a totally bonkers finale which really amps up everything to a hundred and eleven!

Iron Lung is without a doubt a movie that will be perceived with mixed feelings, as it’s not exactly a mainstream movie by any means. If you liked the game, I think there’s a pretty fair chance you’ll also like this movie. Despite some mixed reception (yes, it’s not a movie for everyone) it’s still been a huge success so far with a box office of $21 million after the opening weekend, against a budget of $3 million. Fischbach/Markiplier has proven that he’s both a good filmmaker and actor, so let’s hope the success will spark some ideas for future films to be made!

Writer and director: Mark Fischbach
Country & year: USA, 2026
Actors: Mark Fischbach, Caroline Kaplan, Troy Baker, Elsie Lovelock, Elle LaMont, Dave Pettitt, Isaac McKee, Asher Wagh, Kazuki Jalal, Alanah Pearce, Seán McLoughlin, David Szymanski
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27564844/

Mécanix (2003)

Posted on January 30, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

What would you get if you took a piece from Begotten, mixed it with a little bit of Tetsuo: the Iron Man and sprinkled it with some bits and pieces of Mad God and Švenkmajer? Well, something like this would definitely be the result. Mécanix from 2003 is an avant-garde horror film directed by Rémy M. Larochelle, co-written with Mélissa Hébert. And just like Begotten, you most likely wouldn’t really have a clue what the fuck is actually going on unless you read the description first.

Mécanix presents its twisted story in something akin to a fairytale, where we’re introduced to what appears to be a post-apocalyptic world. In this world, the few remaining humans are forced into slavery by monsters, who seem to only fear one thing: the embryo of the universe, the origin of everything. The embryo is hidden within the last freeborn man, and it is the only hope humankind has to break free from the mechanic monstrous world they’re enslaved by. And yes, the world is filled with monsters of all kinds that often seem to have some kind of mechanism attached to them. Kind of like mechanic beasts where they’re part robot, and part rotting animal/creature. While most of these creatures look like something that belongs somewhere in the darkest corners of Hell itself, others are actually rather cute.

Visually, the movie is mesmerizing from start to finish, despite some of the scenes being repetitive and sometimes dragging on for longer than necessary. It’s getting its hooks in you purely by the oddness and surrealism, with a lot of different techniques used. It’s mixing stop-motion animation with live action, and everything is just so surreal, otherworldly and bizarre. The entire movie is done with a sepia-colored filter over it, which suits the visuals perfectly and adds an uncanny and almost filthy look to it. The soundtrack is often just as experimental as the film, fitting well with all the absurdities shown on screen.

Mécanix is a treat for anyone who loves surreal avant-garde horror movies filled with bizarre stop-motion effects and a constant what-the-fuck-is-going-on-here feeling. Too bad the director didn’t make more movies after this, as it would have been interesting to see what other nightmarish insanity he could’ve put on the screen. Who needs drugs to trip when you’ve got movies like these.

The movie was released by Unearthed Films, and can be found on several streaming sites including Tubi.

Director: Rémy M. Larochelle
Writers: Mélissa Hébert, Rémy M. Larochelle
Country & year: Canada, 2003
Actors: Stéphane Bilodeau, Julie-Anne Côté, Philippe Chabot
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427580/

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (2026)

Posted on January 27, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

We’re off to Emerald City, I mean the Bone Temple, to meet the Great Wizard, I mean Old Nick, the Great Satan of Oz, I mean UK. Oh, well …

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple is a direct continuation of the previous one, where Spike (Alfie Williams) has now been captured by Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal (Jack O’Connel) and his small cute gang of Teletubbies, or chavs, for a better term. Welcom’ to Brittn, ya fockin’ cont! As we got more of the impression that Spike got saved by these bizarre individuals, in a quick scene that broke the internet six months ago, we learn that this Jimmy lad recruits young stray broken teens to join his cult-mission to torture and kill people in the name of Old Nick (Satan). Because, like Jimmy says:

— Old Nick released his demons onto the world of man.
And the world of man failed before the demons. —

Jimmy has created his own demented theology to excuse his extreme sociopathic way of life, but to put it plain and simple: his inverted cross that he got from his crazy-priest/preacher dad right before he was killed 28 years ago is not just an innocent rebellious statement. He’s evil through and through and the classic Charles Manson/dictator-type that gleefully watches his members doing the torture and killing work. The Jimmy Saville-looking wigs they wear as a form of a badge, which also matches the hairstyle of their cult-leader, only puts the rotten cherry on top. Yes, his hair is actually not a wig (!)

Against Spike’s will, he has to prove himself to Lord Jimmy in the old British way by a knife-fighting death-combat, against one of the Jimmys. And watching this scene without context, one would assume that this was just some regular youth activities somewhere in Glasgow on a Tuesday evening. Americans have their guns, but you should never, ever underestimate a chav with a sharp knife. Spike hits an artillery that causes a gory mess. Lord Jimmy laughs and grins ear-to-ear. Spike is now a part of the Jimmys and, of course, very reluctant and terrified joins their murderous coming-of-rage odyssey around rural Britain as they invade homes and skin people alive in barns. How they can just walk and dance around like they owned the world while others still walk on minefields, is a fair question to ask. Alfie bonds with one of the two girls in the gang, Jimmy Ink (Erin Kellyman), the only one who has developed empathy and isn’t completely brainwashed.

Then we have our mysterious Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) who lives peacefully alone in his small underground bunker next to his impressive lifeswork, the Bone Temple memorial. Approx 5,500 fake skulls and 150,000 bones were made to construct it. It would be just way too easy to just CGI the whole thing, but big kudos for making it the old school way. Dr. Kelson is still picking up fresh bodies to add to his temple, and has a side-project by observing an alpha zombie which he calls Samson. He’s a giant who rips people’s heads off, Predator-style, and eats brains straight from the skull. Hardcore. Dr. Kelson spits morphine darts to drug him out so he can dig into his subconsciousness and maybe see if there still is any humanity left in him. And good luck with that. Jimmy Crystal spots Kelson at a perfect timing, where he’s all smeared in red’ish lodine as he always is, and having a close interaction with the alpha by the Bone Temple. Because he believes he’s finally found his big idol and his father, Old Nick, and, well…haha, this should be interesting.

I’m not familiar with Nia DaCosta’s directing work prior to this, and I had no idea what to expect from her passing the torch after Danny Boyle. DaCosta does some really heavy lifting here, where it was pretty much already clear by judging the awesome trailers that they didn’t just choose some random work-for-hire director. Her directing approach is more traditional than the experimental style we saw in the previous where we have more dialogue-driven scenes than action. And although I —personally— enjoyed 28 Years Later a bit more, this is a rock-solid entry in the expanding and eccentric world building of the franchise that still keeps its feet on a grounded level. But calling this torture porn is a far stretch. It’s not even close. Yes, there are some gruesome moments here, but the film doesn’t show too much. Thus, I was a little disappointed by the “I don’t have a ticket“-scene, which felt a bit rushed. The effects are all practical though, as far as I noticed, and it’s nice to see stunt actors in real flames, which is a rare sight nowadays. That said, the action is very minimal. The zombies/infected are barely on screen, where the focus primarily lies on the psychological aspects between Jimmy and Old Nick, I mean Dr. Kelson. It’s still the good vs evil where the humans are the real monsters. This is more of an intense thriller/drama with some exploitation-elements.

What makes this franchise still feel fresh in the year of 2026 is much thanks to the unpredictable writing of Alex Garland, and how he explores our primitive instincts. While the action has taken a morphine pill, the tension is stronger than ever. We have a very simple scene where Jimmy meets Old Nick, I mean Dr. Kelson, for the first time, sits and has a chat about life, death, religion and whatnot. It seems harmonic and peaceful at the surface while the sky is almost blue, yet you can feel the electricity where one never knows when all hell will blow up. And then we have the uncanny parallels to The Wizard of Oz, which turns up the smoke and mirrors all up to eleven in a scene that was certainly not on my bingo card. Pure post-apocalyptic Mad Max-level insanity. It’s pretty amazing how this particular scene just perfectly fits right in when on paper it shouldn’t. But there you have the genius writing of Garland. Ralph Fiennes and Jack O’Connel are the stars here, and they’re both intimidating in their own ways. While Fiennes is the veteran he is, who can just speak with body language and facial expressions, I hope O’Connel gets more great villain roles. We saw him last year as the Irish lead vampire in Sinners, and also as one of the sadistic kids in Eden Lake way back in 2008.

While the film in isolation has been a flop, the previous have earned well over its budget for both. And this being a middle-chapter of a trilogy, I surely hope we get the final piece as we still have the incomplete arc of Spike to fill. What happened to Spike’s dad is also an open question. Is he out in the wild and searching for him? What’s next for Samson? Are 28 Weeks Later (2007) completely retcon? Will Brittan ever be Great again? Who knows.

Until next time: Memento Mori.

Director: Nia DaCosta
Writer: Alex Garland
Country & year: UK/USA/Canada, 2026
Actors: Jack O’Connell, Alfie Williams, Ralph Fiennes Connor Newall, Erin Kellyman, Maura Bird, Ghazi Al Ruffai, Robert Rhodes, Emma Laird, Sam Locke, Gareth Locke, Chi Lewis-Parry
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32141377/

Prequels:
– 28 Years Later (2025)
– 28 Weeks Later (2007)
– 28 Days Later (2002)

Shelby Oaks (2024)

Posted on January 23, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

The Paranormal Paranoids are a group of paranormal investigator YouTubers who consists of the following members: Riley Brennan, Laura Tucker, David Reynolds, and Peter Bailey. After they decide to investigate the ghost town of Shelby Oaks, they end up missing and lots of people believe it’s some kind of publicity stunt. Well…not so much. All of them are eventually found dead, with the exception of Riley, whose last moments being seen alive is from a recovered camera which shows footage of her in a terrified state. Of what or whom she’s afraid, we don’t know (yet). Fast forward to twelve years later, Mia (Riley’s older sister) still hasn’t given up hope. She is interviewed for a documentary, where she also talks about how Riley suffered from night terrors as a child, and believed something was watching her.

After the documentary crew packs up and leave, Mia suddenly gets a stranger at the door. The only thing this man says is “she finally let me go“ before using a gun to blow his own brains out. This guy carried with him a mini-DV tape simply labeled Shelby Oaks (ooohhh…a clue!) and Mia decides to watch it. Not surprisingly, the tape reveals more of Riley’s moments prior to her disappearance, with some new locations to mark on Mia’s quest map, including an abandoned prison. Mia is determined to finally solve the mystery of her sister’s disappearance, and starts searching for more clues.

Shelby Oaks is a supernatural horror film from 2025, written and directed by Chris Stuckmann in his feature directorial debut. The start of it all began in early 2021, when Stuckmann released an early guerilla marketing campaign in the from of an online alternate reality video series which was named The Paranormal Paranoids, and it was published on a YouTube channel called JesstheParanoid. The channel featured several found-footage videos by this so-called paranormal research team who, we learn, allegedly went missing when investigating a ghost town named Shelby Oaks. It gained a certain interest online, where some people even believed the videos to be real. The Kickstarter for the film began on March 1, 2022, and already on March 21 it had gotten the most-funded horror film project on Kickstarter after raising $650.000. It ended up with approx. $1.4 million from 14,720 backers, which is kind of insanely good considering the goal had only been $250.000!

While all of this sounds like nothing but peaches and sunshine, it most certainly didn’t proceed that way. Now, I have to admit I didn’t know about Chris Stuckmann prior to finding out about this movie, and that was after the Kickstarter campaign had ended…I won’t delve into all I’ve read about this, but from what I have gathered things started going a bit sour amongst the fans and backers after several delays, and many fans were disappointed with the change in Chris Stuckmann’s YouTube Channel. He’s become a rather famous YouTuber for reviewing movies, raising his popularity especially through his “Hilariocity videos“, but after going further into his film-making career he decided to stop critiquing movies…which was a big disappointment to many of his followers. In 2024 it was revealed that Mike Flanagan got onboard as executive producer, and the movie was bought by Neon which gave it some reshoots, and eventually the movie got a theatrical release in October 2025 (not here in Norway though, it wasn’t available on streaming here until 30th December).

There’s no doubt that a lot of people had high hopes for this film. Maybe that’s to be expected, when it’s coming from a movie reviewer who seemed to be well aware of many of the tired and worn-out mistakes that a lot of horror movies could have easily avoided. Well…when viewing Shelby Oaks, it becomes apparent that there are many inspirations here. I could easily spot the influence from Lake Mungo and The Blair Witch Project for example. The performance from the lead actor who’s playing Mia (Camille Sullivan, also known from Hunter Hunter) carries a lot of the movie on her shoulders and she does well with what she’s got. While her performance is pretty good, there are some issues regarding her character which is by no means her fault, but rather that of the script. Like how she, for some inexplicable reason, stays covered in blood from the man who shot himself at her doorstep. She doesn’t even bother to wash it off even hours after it happened, and proceeds to watch the video tape instead while her husband apparently doesn’t give a shit about anything. Yeah, I know the husband is supposed to be kind of distanced from her and tired of her obsession with Riley’s disappearance and all, but essentially he’s nothing but a non-supportive character with no real function…Mia could as well have imagined his presence. She is also consistently going on what are obviously dangerous missions, like exploring an abandoned prison at night without even telling her husband or anyone else about it. There’s just something about both Mia, her husband and the characters overall that takes away from the realism, and that’s ruining a bit of what is supposed to be a very serious narrative. But hey…maybe I’m just overtly nitpicking here. I mean, it’s not like we haven’t already got a fair share of insanely stupid decisions made in horror movies by all kinds of characters…

For the most part Shelby Oaks looks decent enough, and there’s obviously some competence in the cinematography department, but unfortunately it never manages to elevate some of the scenes to a very effective level. Like in the abandoned prison, which is supposed to be a very creepy and atmospheric setup but ultimately felt kind of flat. The found-footage and mockumentary scenes work well enough though, and I didn’t mind the transition from mockumentary to traditional film. I just kind of missed actually feeling the dread or unease the movie obviously tried to go for. That being said: if anything, I have to say that I loved the old, rotten mold-house we get to see later in the film. The black mold creeping up the walls and festering all over the place makes you feel like it could’ve been some kind of instant-death location, and I really loved the ominous vibe of that place. There are some glimpses here and there where it’s like there’s a much better film just hiding beneath the surface, and the mold-house with the old lady is certainly one of those moments.

Shelby Oaks is, without a doubt, a movie that carries a lot of inspirations from (arguably better) movies on its sleeve. But it is by no means an awful movie or one without any redeeming qualities, despite coming off as quite generic. There are some scenes that carries a lot of atmosphere, the performances overall are pretty good, and visually it’s pretty fine. And while it was not what a lot of people expected from Stuckmann, I think it’s okay as a feature debut.

Writer and director: Chris Stuckmann
Country & year: USA, 2024
Actors: Sarah Durn, Camille Sullivan, Sloane Burkett, Brenna Sherman, Caisey Cole, Anthony Baldasare, Eric Francis Melaragni, Lauren Ashley Berry, Brendan Sexton III, Charlie Talbert, Robin Bartlett, Keith David
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt14999684/

The Dead Next Door (1989)

Posted on January 20, 2026 by HorrorGhouls

You could say that this obscure little schlocky zombieflick takes place somewhere between Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead, where the dead roams in the midst of the zombie apocalypse, all shot with a Super-8 camera on a microbudget. Some years after the outbreak, we’re in Virginia where a group of soldiers from the “Zombie Squad“ are on a mission to take down a pack in some farmhouse. The squad is led by Raimi, played by the Temu version of Bruce Campbell. And no, your ears aren’t playing tricks on you — the actor (Pete Ferry) is actually dubbed by Bruce Campbell for some reason. Anyway: it isn’t until now that they learn the fact that it isn’t enough to shoot the zombies in the head, or even chop it off with a machete.

— Damn things! Look at it! Why won’t they DIE?! The thing’s head’s off its body fo Christ’s sakes! Doesn’t it know that?!

When one of the soldiers grabs his gun which lies next to a zombie’s severed head, he gets two of his fingers bitten off. And when you’re that dumb, you deserve it. Since there’s no cure yet, the squad has not much other choice than to leave him there. Goodbye soldier, thanks for your service, and God bless. While Dr. Moulsson is working on a serum that can wipe out the zombie virus, the Zombie Squad gets sent to Akron, Ohio to search for the ingredients. Instead they get in trouble with a crazy cult leader named Jim Jones. And he’s even wearing dark glasses. Not subtle at all. And this Jones guy views the zombies as God’s punishment to the humanity. Fred Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church would give a big Amen to that.

Dumb dialogues, amateur acting, campy action and lots of gore n’ delicious fun practical effects is what’s on the menu from this grainy-looking cheesefest. Nothing more, nothing less. The Dead Next Door is written, directed, produced, edited and scored by J.R. Bookwalter, an amateur filmmaker who just loves to make Z-grade backyard-style horror movies, I guess. That said, it’s a little impressive that he managed to film some quick shots of zombies walking the National Mall and near The White House in Washington DC. Hardcore guerrilla filmmaking. He’s also buddy with Sam Raimi, who’s listed as an executive producer under the pseudonym of “The Master Cylinder“. Raimi actually spat his earnings from Evil Dead II (1987) into this. If it was worth it, who knows, but what do you have friends for.

The film can be found next door to Alice, Tubi.

Writer and director: J.R. Bookwalter
Also known as: Mondo Zombie
Country & year: USA, 1989
Actors: Pete Ferry, Bogdan Pecic, Michael Grossi, Jolie Jackunas, Robert Kokai, Floyd Ewing Jr., Roger Graham, Maria Markovic, Jon Killough, Scott Spiegel
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094962/