What should have been a simple train ride home at night for a woman turns into a terrifying game of cat and mouse until an unforeseen force is summoned.
It is Horror Short Sunday again, and this time we’re taking a look at The Moths Will Eat Them Up. Train rides can be terrifying (just like we learned in Midnight Meat Train and End of the Line). You never know what kind of predators board at night…
Director: Luisa Martiri, Tanya Modini Writer: Tanya Modini Country & year: Australia, 2021 Actors: Ling Cooper Tang, Kevin Spink, Stephen Walker, Eliza Allen, Regan Sharp, Paris Moletti IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt15716616/
The fourth and (for now) the farewell entry in the Conjuring franchise drifts far more from the actual case it is based on than ever before. The film starts back in 1964 where Ed and Lorraine have their first case together. They’re at a curio shop to investigate an antique haunted mirror. Lorraine is also fully pregnant, and the water goes as soon as she touches the mirror and sees a spooky vision of some demon. Ed rushes her to the hospital where Lorraine pushes out a stillborn. Oof. (My mind then played with the idea of Ed and Lorraine taking the fresh corpse of the baby home with them to perform a ritual to make a deal with the devil in order to bring the baby to life. Some decades later a pack of hellhounds would emerge to drag Ed and Lorraine to hell after the deal comes due, Supernatural-style. A predictable but fitting reason why the Smurl haunting became their last case, especially by looking at that sinister promo poster. Oh well.) After some hard prayers, the baby comes to life, and they name her Judy.
Then we jump to 1986 where She Sells Sanctuary are blasting from the speakers. Good times, for as long as it lasts. Jack and Janet Smurl with their four daughters and Jack’s parents are moving into a crammy duplex at a bleak and dreary suburb in West Pittson, Pennsylvania, where anyone would be bound to end up with chronic depression and alcohol problems before the first Christmas. The church-going family seems pretty happy, though, but they’ll soon learn that there isn’t much sanctuary to find here. It all starts when one of the oldest daughters gets an evil-looking gothic mirror as a confirmation present, something you’d see in Phantom Manor. And yep, it’s the same mirror we saw earlier. OoOoh…
The ceiling lights crash down on the kitchen table like a sledgehammer, Janet hears a cheesy whispering voice calling her name in the basement, Jack one night gets paralyzed and porked by a witchy Phoebe Waller-Bridge look-alike succubus. Fifty Shades of Ectoplasm. One of the youngest daughters gets spooked by a ghoulish grandma ghost with a demented Cheshire cat grin. A tall redneck farmer with an axe, also a smiley one, suddenly pops up around the house to terrorize the family. Their dog, Simon, is safe, for now.
Meanwhile, as hell is brewing in Pennsylvania, we spend some time with Ed and Lorraine’s daughter Judy, who’s now grown up and dating her future husband Tony. Judy looks collected on the outside but on the inside she’s broken, shaken and traumatized. Growing up with Ed and Lorraine as your parents does that to you. But the reasons are more generic than that: because Judy has the psychic powers of her mom and started seeing ghosts floating around her long before she realized that Santa Claus doesn’t exist. Life’s not fair. Ed and Loraine are now more or less retired from ghost hunting, much due to Ed’s failing health after he suffered a heart attack, and spends most of the time lecturing for a shrinking audience and being home, probably playing Ghosts ‘n Goblins on Nintendo. Tony gets the blessing of Ed and Lorraine to marry Judy after dating her for only six months. Hooray. He also bought the proposal/wedding ring only one (yes 1) week after they met. Uhm… red flags anyone? The Warrens have a barbecue party and play pingpong where we see one of the many cameos from previous films. Cheers. How’s Smurl’s doing?
Not that great. Things have gotten so bad that they’ve reached out to all from talk shows on TV to Larry King in hopes of getting some help. Doesn’t go so well. And the Warrens have no desire to help them. That’s only until Judy somehow gets drawn to the Smurl house, all the way from Connecticut. Why? Because.
Director Michael Chaves said in an interview with Bloody Disgusting that the Last Rites would stay true to the real-life Smurl haunting. BOOlshit. The Smurls seems more like an afterthought here as the main focus lies more on Judy and Tony, who had zero involvement with the case. We spend a lot of time with Judy and Tony and that’s the main problem. They’re not an interesting couple and the whole romance aspect is pure dead meat and filler-time that could easily have been tossed into the deleted scenes section. And the chemistry between these two is non-existent. It just feels hollow. A stark contrast to Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.
The last twenty minutes or so is messy, stupid, eye-rolling and all over the place. The spinning mirror is so cartoonishly retarded that I almost expected Russel Crowe’s character from The Pope’s Exorcist to randomly chime in and end the film with a big ko-ko.
Even though the Last Rites was overall a mild disappointment, it has its strong elements when it comes to the technical aspect. It’s far from the trainwreck that was The Nun II. Michael Chaves gives a steady direction with great enhancement from cinematographer Eli Born. The retro 1980s esthetics are on point and the thing with the videotape camera, without spoiling, was a new and fresh idea. The few scenes in the Smurls’ house during the first and second half are the most interesting, especially if you’ve seen the movie made for TV, The Haunted, and read the book, which works best at reading as just pure horror fiction. Having that in mind, there are certain scenes here to wait for, especially the classic Janet? sequence in the basement. And they completely botched it, just like I expected. Then we have the mommy-mommy doll scene which is in pure style of James Wan and worked much better in the context of the film than in the first teaser trailer, where we saw a more goofy CGI ghost. The new design of the granny ghost, played by Fabrielle Downey, was a big quality upgrade which looks like a mix of The Bride in Black from Insidous and Mary Shaw from Dead Silence. The other two ghosts, the farmer with the axe and his succubus wife, make some solid appearances during the short amount of screentime they were given. And like the first two films, the child actors also delivers. Some few other classic Conjuring highlights sprinkled here as well. Too bad that the Smurl case itself is so rushed and undercooked.
So there you have 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. And if you haven’t seen the aforementioned TV movie from 1991, since the film has to this day not gotten a physical, nor a streaming release, and probably never will, it’s available on YouTube.
And here we have a quick local news segment about a young couple who bought the real Smurl house a week after the first teaser for the Last Rites dropped. They had no idea about the house’s history, off course. So it just remains to see if they also get swarmed with trespassing horror fans and ending up suing Warner Bros, like what happened in the wake of the first film back in 2015. In this case they should rather sue the real estate agent. Peace out.
Director: Michael Chaves Writers: Ian Goldberg, Richard Naing, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, James Wan Country & year: USA, 2025 Actors: Patrick Wilson, Vera Farmiga, Mia Tomlinson, Ben Hardy, Steve Coulter, Rebecca Calder, Elliot Cowan, Beau Gadsdon, Kíla Lord Cassidy, Peter Wight, Kate Fahy, Tilly Walker, Molly Cartwright IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22898462/
In a town called Grandview, an asteroid is heading towards Earth. A scientist discovers this, but also notices something else: a UFO that crashes nearby! He goes to investigate, of course, but ends up vanishing. After this intro scene we go many years back, where a farmer named Jim finds baby Daffy Duck and baby Porky Pig, and decides to raise them as his own. He leaves everything to the now grown-up duo before passing away, while making sure they promise to rely on each other. After this charming flashback-scene we get back to the present where their home is of course in total disarray, which is a bit of a crisis as they’re facing a home inspection by the mean (and very bosomy) Mrs. Grecht. While trying to tidy the place up as best as possible, they still fail the inspection due to a gigantic hole in their roof (caused by the UFO prior to its crashlanding). They get a deadline to have the roof fixed, but of course they haven’t got the money for a costly roof repair. They need to get themselves a job…which keeps failing miserably, of course, mainly because…well, Daffy. Then the duo meets Petunia Pig, Porky’s immediate love interest who is a scientist working at the “Goodie Gum“ factory where she’s trying to find the perfect flavor. She offers them the simplest job ever, where not even Daffy can fuck things up for once. After completing their first shift, Daffy makes a sinister discovery: he notices one of the scientists pouring some green goo into the gum supply. And when he tries to tell people, no one believes him. The gum quickly hits the market, and everyone who chews it turn into bubblegum zombies…and it’s up to the former duo now become trio to save the planet!
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is an animated sci-fi comedy produced by Warner Bros. Animation and directed by Pete Browngardt in his feature directorial debut. It features two of the most well-known characters from the Looney Tunes universe, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig. And yeah…I gotta admit I never thought we’d actually have a Looney Tunes movie here on Horror Ghouls, but here we are. The main reason we include this movie is because it’s a spoof of the sci-fi B-movies from the 50’s and even references several horror movies. It can easily be a fun gateway-movie for the youngest while the older audience might get some nostalgia whether it be for the classic Looney Tunes cartoons or the sci-fi and horror movie references which come aplenty.
As always animation productions usually take a long time, but in these days things can to become even more cluttered due to release choices and re-choices. This movie got in the works back in 2019 where Browngardt, who was currently working on the Looney Tunes Cartoons, was asked for any ideas to an upcoming feature film where sci-fi B-movies from the 50’s were the premise he settled on. In 2021, it was planned to be released on HBO Max, but this was dropped due to a restructuring at Warner Bros Discovery. In 2023, it was renamed Looney Tunes: Bubble Brains, but then it reverted back to the original title (thankfully). It was then shown at last year’s animation festival in France (the Annecy), and was then given a limited release in the US before expanding with a wider release in March 2025.
Now, if you’re familiar with Looney Tunes, you know exactly how these cartoons are: looney! They’re wild, ridiculous, and filled with slapstick all over the place. This movie is of course no exception, and watching Daffy and Porky trying to save the planet from bubblegum alien zombies was more fun than I thought it’d be. Amidst the crazy stuff going on, there’s some heartfelt moments throughout, especially the bond between Daffy and Porky, much aided by Jim who is very much the epitome of a strong, loving fatherly figure. The dynamics between the two are centered around how Porky is overall very sensible, while Daffy is, well, the looney toon. Just like the old classic cartoons, the characters have kept their characteristics, like Porky’s shy demeanor and stuttering contrasted by Daffy’s lateral lisp and occasional Woo-Hoo-Hoo-Hoo insanity. As a horror movie fan you’re likely to recognize a lot of the references here, including Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Thing, They Live, The Stuff and several more, and most likely there’s also a little love letter to Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks here.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie is a charm-filled and crazy ride down memory lane with some new flavors of its own, and a fun time for both the young and the ones young at heart.
Director: Peter Browngardt Writers: Darrick Bachman, Peter Browngardt, Kevin Costello, Andrew Dickman, David Gemmill, and more Country & year: USA/Canada, 2024 Voice actors: Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Peter MacNicol, Carlos Alazraqui, Fred Tatasciore, Kimberly Brooks, Laraine Newman, Peter Browngardt, Wayne Knight, Rachel Butera IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15352542/
A couple are under siege from a group of mysterious strangers who get closer with each passing moment. As they prepare for imminent attack, they find solace in one another. But when the mob arrives, they face their biggest challenge.
Horror Short Sunday is here again, and this time we’re taking a look at They’re Coming Tonight. A fun black & white “50’s style” horror short with a little twist!
Director: John Bonner Writer: John Bonner Country & year: USA, 2025 Actors: Chase Baxter Alexander, Gabriel Burrafato, Abraham Fuentes, Gabriella Gonzalez Biziou, Ashley Marie Madison, Brian Patrick McGowan, Jere Sallee IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt35950518/
In the world of the living, we have Golden Globe Awards, while in the underworld they celebrate the Golden Ghost Awards. As the name implies, the awards are given to the ghosts that manages to scare as many people as possible, much aided with today’s social media where “scary videos“ are shared all over the internet. While it may sound like a silly award show made just for fun, there’s a darker backside to its popularity, something a rookie ghost girl (who is unnamed in the movie) discovers when she suddenly starts experiencing her body disintegrating. Much like we could see in Disney’s Coco (2017), the dead are at risk of disappearing if they are not remembered by the living. Rookie realizes that her piano competition certificate, which was her token in the world of the living that valued her existence the most, had been accidentally discarded when her family moved away from their house and her former home. Unlike the premise in Coco where you’d only disappear if no living person remembered you at all, the dead people in this movie have it much, much worse. Rookie will perish in 30 days as the result of her memory having faded due to the loss of her token. With the help of her ghost friend Camilla, she decides to join the entry contest for the Dead Talents Society, where a dead person can receive a permit to work as a ghost in the living world which must be signed by a haunting agency. What better way to keep being remembered by living people than constantly scaring the shit out of them and hopefully ending up in a viral video, right? And while Rookie’s performance at the entry contest is terrible, she catches the attention of a guy named Makoto, who is the agent of a washed-up ghost named Catherine. Together they try to make Rookie able to scare people so she can get her ghost working pass. No easy task, of course, when the competition is…deadly.
Dead Talents Society is a Taiwanese horror comedy from 2024 (released on Netflix this year) directed and co-written by John Hsu. After his success with Detention from 2019 which was based on a Taiwanese video game called Red Candle Games, he wanted to do something more lighthearted and funny. And he sure did! If the Beetlejuice movies had an Asian spinoff, then this movie would be as close as you could get. While Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) aimed a lot for nostalgia, this one aims more for a more modern audience where social media is a huge part of everyone’s life. And yes…for this millennial and old-fashioned Ghoul lady, that premise sounds like something totally out of my field of interest, but holy haunted fuck did this a movie turn on all my feel-good switches!
In Dead Talents Society you get presented with an afterlife that is colorful and vibrant, but also with its fair share of darkness. What makes the movie shine, though, are the interactions between the living and the dead, where the whole premise is that ghosts are desperately trying to scare people in hopes on becoming popular enough to avoid the fate of disappearing completely. And the deaddies in the afterworld have made an entire show for this, the Golden Ghost Awards (which is an obvious parody on the Golden Globe Awards). Needless to say, you’ll be getting more than a few references to real urban legends, Asian horror in general, and viral videos.
The characters are fun, with Rookie being the typical shy, lack-of-belief-in-herself character that keeps growing throughout the movie, aided by those around her. The defamed ghostress whose haunted hotel gig just isn’t as popular anymore, appears to be cold and arrogant while being much softer than she first leads you on to believe. Then you have fake-moustache-guy Makoto who’s got his own secrets. A loving group of misfits with dynamics filled with charm.
Just like how watching Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon makes you see slasher movies in a slightly different way afterwards, Dead Talents Society has the same effect on horror movies featuring ghosts. All the preparations to pull off the perfect scare, the perfect reaction from the living, making them notice things at just the right time…holy hell, how stressful that could actually be..! And this movie shows that off so perfectly, where they do everything from drawing letters on the wall at just the right time, moving a chair at the right moment, all totally dependent on getting their victim’s full attention in the hopes of conjuring up a scare big enough to become an urban legend. Poor ghosts, it must be a hell of a job indeed…so the next time I watch a horror movie with ghosts, I’m probably gonna think “I wonder how much stress and effort the ghost must have gone through to pull that off“…
The movie does have a fair share of social commentary/satire mixed in with all the silliness going on, including a very clever satire on the ghost-hunting YouTubers. Mostly, though, it’s a portray of the influencer lifestyles and how some people will literally do anything to keep from losing their fame. So many people are craving the attention to be seen, often chasing ridiculous trends in hopes of getting enough recognition and hopefully get that one successful viral video which will provide their continued success. Which, of course, is never really the case anyway. Even in the afterlife, some of the biggest hits from earlier are at the risk of oblivion as few things will stay equally popular forever, and if you get popular, it will always be a constant struggle to stay at the top. The movie mixes comedy with some intriguing themes of life and death, love and loss and the desire to be seen.
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!
Director: John Hsu Writers: John Hsu, Tsai Kun-Lin Country & year: Taiwan, 2024 Original title: Gui cai zhi dao Actors: Gingle Wang, Sandrine Pinna, Zach Ireland, Chen Bolin, Yao Yiti, Nina Ye, Chang-Ying Hsieh, Pai Ching-I, Yen-Tzu Lin, He-Hsuan Lin IMDb:https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17079606/
The summer ain’t over yet, cause here they come – the slugs! Thousands of slugs slime their way up from lakes, sewers, and toilets to eat people in a small American town, all from alcoholics, horny teenagers to rich soap opera snobs. And before you know it, the slugs are everywhere. They slime, they ooze, they kill. Slugs, slugs, slugs! My oh my… The local sheriff must come up with a smart plan to save the day. There you have this cheesy, silly, slimy low-brow Spanish/American-produced creature-feature in a nutshell. Nothing more, nothing less. But are slugs really harmful though? Let’s ask Mr. Google:
– Considering that you are a rational human being who doesn’t put slimy, gross bugs into your mouth, this shouldn’t be a problem. It may, however, be an issue for your pets. Cats and dogs that consume slugs may suffer from excessive drooling and or vomiting. Beyond this, slugs are not harmful, Google says.
Allrighty then. So, what are we gonna do with those damn slugs? And speaking of animals, did you also know that hedgehogs eat slugs as if it was candy? This would be like a buffet heaven for the Sonics. Anyway…
What makes the movie worth a watch are the effects and just the overall silliness. And if you appreciate some funny-bad acting, there are some laughs to be had here. There isn’t much more to say really. It’s pretty straight-forward where NPC’s are getting eaten by slugs, one by one. Some slime their way into garden gloves to chew on someone’s hands, while others hide in the food to get swallowed so they can eat their victims from the inside out. Gnarly. Slugs is directed by the Spanish gore & schlock master Juan Piquer Simón, who’s most known for Pieces (and the bizarre clown show that is Extra Terrestrial Visitors), so that alone should say a few things. The film is also known as Slugs The Movie since it’s based on a book by the splatter-punk horror writer Shaun Hutson. And after he saw the film he had a clear verdict: – Do yourselves a favor a don’t bother watching it, it’s awful! – He has later viewed the film as a guilty pleasure.
Slugs is available on Blu-ray from Arrow Video, and as for now, it slimes around on Tubi.
Director: Juan Piquer Simón Writers: Ron Gantman, José Antonio Escrivá, Juan Piquer Simón Also known as: Slugs The Movie Country & year: USA/Spain, 1988 Actors: Michael Garfield Levine, Kim Terry, Philip MacHale, Alicia Moro, Santiago Álvarez, Concha Cuetos, John Battaglia, Emilio Linder, Kris Mann, Kari Rose, Manuel de Blas, thousands of slugs IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093995/
A young woman and her estranged mother confront a hidden evil at her late grandmother’s home.
Here we are at another Horror Short Sunday, and this time we’re going for a little visit at Her House. Some parents wants to give and do everything for their children…and then you have some parents who wants their children to give and do everything for them and are more than willing to take whatever they want by any means necessary…
Director: Will Lee Writer: Will Lee, Ian Hedman Country & year: USA, 2024 Actors: Taylor Joree Scorse, Gloria Gruber, Lexa Gluck, Debora Jan Gray IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt33089795/
Marnie Watson (played by Famke Janssen) is a woman who killed her abusive husband, Mike, in self-defense. Or that’s what she claims, because not everyone is eager to believe her version of the story, including police officer Lou Shanks who was a former partner of her husband. Yep, Marnie’s husband was a cop, and they can never be abusive, right? Hah. Marnie is placed under house arrest, and has an ankle bracelet fit on her which prevents her from moving more than 100 feet from the detector which is placed in the house’s hallway. If she does, the police will be notified, and that’s bad news for her, so better stay safe at home. Or at least she tries to. She has a delivery boy bringing her groceries, since she can’t go outside. Then, later at night, her husband’s face suddenly appears before her while she’s in bed. Terrified, she runs out from the bedroom, but her husband’s ghost pushes her down the stairs. She desperately tries to flee, and sets off the detector in the hallway, and Shanks arrives to find her unconscious at the front door. He notices that she looks beaten up, but she just tells him she fell down the stairs. They didn’t believe her when her husband was still alive, so there’s no chance in hell they’ll believe her now, so why even try. However, Marnie is now trapped with her abuser once again…
100 Feet is a horror film from 2008, written and directed by Eric Red (who also directed Bad Moon). It stars Famke Janssen in the leading role as Marnie Watson. While many ghost horror movies use its time to build up a mystery regarding the haunting and who the ghosts are, this movie goes straight to the point with showing the audience exactly what is happening here. It’s a haunted house/ghost story where you know very well who the ghost is. The suspense comes from how Marnie is totally trapped inside the house with her dead tormentor, which sets it all up for an interesting premise. In many ways, 100 Feet has some very close similarities to Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man from 2020, except here it really is a ghost and not some invisible mad scientist. I also found a little flair of Delirium from 2018, which was also about someone trapped inside their home in a house arrest situation.
Famke Janssen’s performance here is pretty good and carries a lot of the movie, where her actions and behavior comes off as convincing. While it may at first appear like she’s a cold-blooded murderer, which her husband’s former police partner obviously considers her to be, it also becomes clear that she tried multiple times to get help, including calls to the police which were quickly disregarded by his police buddies (of course). She was trapped before, but is even more trapped now. The only thing that hasn’t changed is that she knows no one will believe her, which means she must once again take matters into her own hands.
While 100 Feet never really becomes scary, there are some very effective scenes, where Marnie is both physically and mentally tormented by her dead husband. Some of the scenes where we can see glimpses of him are actually kinda creepy. There are some CGI scenes that get a little goofy, but there’s also a certain violent scene in the latter part of the movie which really catches you off guard with is severe brutality. Holy hell, did that just come out of nowhere!
Despite not exactly reinventing anything here, the movie delivers some creepy scenes, solid performances and a few twists and turns, making it a pretty solid supernatural horror movie.
Writer and director: Eric Red Country & year: USA, 2008 Actors: Famke Janssen, Bobby Cannavale, Ed Westwick, Michael Paré, Patricia Charbonneau, John Fallon IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0899128/
A search party is combing through the woods, calling out for a missing couple. Two of the search dogs end up in a cave, where they drink from a strange pool of water. Later that night, the dogs start behaving very strangely, and the owner is woken by their whining and commotion in the kennel. When he shines his flashlight on them, he’s met with a horrible sight: they’ve been fused together.
After this little horrific scene, we head over to our protagonists: Millie Wilson who is an elementary school teacher, and Tim Brassington who is an aspiring musician. They are going to move to the countryside where Millie has gotten a job, and they’re throwing a going-away party with their friends. Here, Millie has decided to make it extra romantic by proposing to Tim…which ends up totally embarrassing when he delays his answer and appears totally hesitant. Ouch. So, was this just Tim being taken aback and having an unfortunate moment? Well, not exactly. Despite having been together for some time, Tim and Millie are having more than a few issues, where their relationship has ended up in codependency due to Tim’s mental issues. Tim suffers from PTSD after his parent’s death, he is depressed, he doesn’t have a job, and keeps more than one foot in the past, not willing to fully commit to Millie…but at the same time, he’s not willing to let her go and clings to her as some kind of lifeline rather than a partner he wants to spend his life with. Millie, on the other hand, is getting tired of his lack of commitment, his lack of sexual interest in her, and his immaturity. On the night after the going-away party and botched proposal, Millie asks him straight out if he really wants this relationship, because if they don’t split up now before the move, it will just be harder later. Oh, that’s some real prophetic words right there! Tim desperately claims it is what he truly wants, and so they move to the countryside after all, with all their issues still in tow. They decide to go on a hike near their home, and fall down a cave. The same cave where the dogs were in at the beginning of the movie, of course. Tim decides to drink some water from the pool, and that’s the start of another chapter in their relationship issues. Now they find themselves getting closer and closer each day…but not in a good way.
Together is a supernatural body horror film written and directed by Michael Shanks in his directorial debut. It stars Dave Franco as Tim and Alison Brie as Millie, a real-life married actor couple who have been together for over 13 years and married since 2017.
This is obviously a film where the themes are deeply rooted in metaphors, specifically codependency but also several other layers. Tim’s problems with commitment while simultaneously being afraid of letting her go, while Millie starts wanting to pull away due to his lack of interest in both her and their relationship, reminds me a little about how some people’s biggest fear is ending up alone (and thus settling for a partner they don’t really want) while others are the opposite, and would rather be alone than living with a partner who just settled for them. And the latter is, at least to me, much more understandable. Who wants to be together with someone who looks at you as someone they’re “stuck“ with because they can’t get what they really want? Someone who may find the comforts of the things you bring into the relationship to be enjoyable, but have trouble showing commitment, desire for you, or even an interest in your well-being…who the fuck wants that, right? Because these traits is what Millie also experienced once they fell down the cave: she’s quick to ask if he’s ok and check on him, and only minutes later she gives him the cold assertion “I’m okay, by the way“ because he couldn’t be arsed to even ask her. Yay. But, here’s the twist: that’s not because he’s an uncaring asshole, he is genuinely flustered when being reminded. It simply wasn’t on his mind because he’s used to her caring for him, not the opposite, which is just another trait of the classic codependency relationship. None of these characters are “good“ or “bad“ which could’ve easily been the case in a setup like this. Tim isn’t lacking commitment because he doesn’t care about her, he just hasn’t learned how to properly do so due to his trauma, depression, and immature fantasizing about a rock-star life and something that’s unachievable anyway. When your mind live in a fantasy world, what you’ve got in real life will always seem “meh“ no matter how good it actually is. Neither of them are flawless, both are struggling, something that comes off as believable due to some great performances by Franco and Brie. The chemistry between the characters always appear raw and heartfelt, which I guess is much thanks to the fact that the actors are a real-life couple that’s been together for many years.
The lovecraftian backstory regarding the cave is for the most part left ambiguous, but we do get a more detailed explanation of what the cave used to be and how it was used. The body horror elements, despite not being as crazy as what could be seen in last year’s Substance for example, are overall pretty solid as the movie uses some practical effects which look pretty nice. In a scene where the couple merged their arms together, they wore a prosthetic that effectively conjoined them together for hours on end, resulting in them having to use the restroom together. Must’ve been…not exactly fun. 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.
Overall, 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.
Writer and director: Michael Shanks Country & year: Australia/USA, 2025 Actors: Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31184028/
Sara, a struggling artist who discovers a unique pencil that can solve all her problems. But her dreams turn into a nightmare when a malevolent demonic creature from Kazakh legends gets unleashed.
It is Horror Short Sunday again, and this time we’re taking a look at Terroir. Sometimes it requires a bit of work to find the perfect ingredients for the perfect taste…
Director: Rory James Wood Writer: Benjamin Luk Country & year: Kazakhstan, 2023 Actors: Lisa Chandler, Jay Brazeau, Lucas Blaney, Thi Chao IMDb:www.imdb.com/title/tt19369392/
