american horror movies – Horror Ghouls

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/

Moon Garden (2022)

Posted on December 26, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Believers (1987)

Posted on December 12, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

We start off with some strange voodoo ritual of some kind, where a couple seems to be participating in a ritual involving their son. What the purpose of this ritual is remains to be discovered, as we quickly go further ahead in time, where we meet Cal Jamison. He is a psychologist who seems to live a perfect and happy life together with his wife Lisa and their young son Chris. Until he and their son both witness her gruesome death by an everyday object, Final Destination-style. After this traumatizing incident, he relocates with his son to New York City where he starts working as a police psychologist. And he quickly gets busy with work, as the city has been plagued by what appears to be some occult and ritualistic murders, involving the deaths of young children. A policeman named Tom Lopez is in total hysteria mode when he claims that the ones behind the murders has gotten their hands on his badge, a personal item which he thinks might give them power over him and make terrible things happen.Cal is, of course, called to examine the superstitious and terrified policeman, but he soon finds out that there really is some nasty occult shit happening around here by some kind of Hispanic cult. And what’s worse…it’s all getting way too close to both him and his son.

The Believers is a neo-noir thriller horror film directed by John Schlesinger with screenplay by Mark Frost. It is based on a novel by Nicholas Conde from 1982, called The Religion.

Even though Hollywood seemed to have lost interest in Satanic-themed horror movies after the 70’s (which gave hits like The Exorcist and The Omen), there was still the Satanic Panic in full bloom where people literally thought there were ritualistic murders and abuse all over the place. While this movie does not portray the hysteria over those conspiracies of Satanic ritual abuse, it’s still a movie that came at a time when these (unfounded) fears were the real shit. And just mix it in with some kind of Caribbean voodoo religion instead, and with the classic message of how wealthy “yuppies“ would be willing to call upon dark forces in order to achieve even more wealth, then you have a typical occult film about sacrifices and evil people committing to evil gods.

Already from the get-go, you realize that this isn’t going to be one of those easy happy-going movies. The opening with Lisa’s death comes quite unexpected, with what was initially such a feelgood happy moment. I was wondering if this was something the movie would pull off more often, lulling you into a sense of peace while whamming you with some unexpected death or horrific event. And to be honest, while nothing similar happens later on, the movie does manage to surprise you a little bit with some of the upcoming events. There’s several characters that we are getting introduced to, which keeps us guessing as to what their intentions are. The power this cult seems to have over everyone carries a little bit of the “curse“ formula in horror movies, where once you’ve been touched by it, you’re doomed. And they don’t need much in order to make you suffer, it’s enough for them to get their hands on a personal items of yours, and you’ll suddenly be having snakes slithering around in your guts. Yes, literally. While this movie is by no means any kind of bloody gorefest, there are some nasty scenes here and there. My favorite is the one that involves a hexed makeup powder puff. Ugh!

There is a bit of slow pacing here and there, but nothing serious as it quickly picks it up again. Some of the drama between father and son does come off as a little bit much at times and I didn’t really care much for it, but that’s just my opinion. Overall the movie manages to keep you engaged throughout, despite a runtime of nearly two hours. And one thing I really liked was how the movie often used shots from obvious lower class suburban areas, giving it a more realistic feel in regards to how one could imagine a Santeria cult operating in the outskirts.

The Believers could have been much more gritty and dark than it is, and it often appeared that it wished to be without really hitting that mark. Still, it’s an entertaining supernatural thriller, which fits well in with the Satanic Panic of the 80’s.

Fun fact: the film influenced the “Narcosatanist“ cult leader Adolfo Constanzo (Adolfo de Jesús Constanzo) who ran a drug-smuggling cult in Mexico that practiced human sacrifice. Apparently, the movie was used to indoctrinate new followers.

Director: John Schlesinger
Writer: Mark Frost
Country & year: USA, 1987
Actors: Martin Sheen, Helen Shaver, Harley Cross, Robert Loggia, Elizabeth Wilson, Harris Yulin, Lee Richardson, Richard Masur, Carla Pinza, Jimmy Smits, Raúl Dávila, Malick Bowens
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt0092632/

We Are Still Here (2015)

Posted on December 9, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1979, and Anne and Paul Sacchetti are grieving their deceased son Bobby who died in a car crash. They have decided to start afresh by moving to a new home in rural New England, and while Anne seems to be in a near catatonic state on the way to their new place, Paul hopes that her spiraling into a deep depression might lift with some new scenery and a new house. Well…her spirits are in fact quickly uplifted once they get to their new home, but not for the reasons Paul had hoped. Anne claims that Bobby’s presence can be felt in the house, and this eases her grief a bit. After barely having settled in, they also get a visit from two elderly neighbors who comes inside and immediately tells them about the house’s sinister past. It used to be a funeral home, run by the Dagmar family until it was discovered that they had been swindling their customers by selling the corpses of their deceased family members and burying empty caskets. Then, as the elderly couple are about to leave, the man tells them how good it is that they’re here, and how the house “needs a new family“. And upon leaving, the woman gives them a note where she warns them by having written “get out“ in big capital letters. Hmm…a little mixed messaging here, for sure.

Anyway, Anne doesn’t really give a shit about any of the things that happened in the house earlier, her only focus is on her dearest son Bobby. She’s convinced that he’s there, and she invites her friends May and Jacob who are both spiritualists. Paul scoffs at the entire thing, but promises to keep an open mind for her sake. And then…things go bad. And it appears it’s not only the house that carries secrets around here.

We Are Still Here is a supernatural horror film from 2015, written and directed by Ted Geoghegan. He began working on the film as some kind of tribute to The House by the Cemetery (1981) by Lucio Fulci. He had also previously worked with Andreas Schnaas on some of his various low-budget schlocky gore movies as both writer and producer, but We Are Still Here is his directorial debut. After completing the script, Dark Sky Films and Snowfort Pictures agreed to produce it. The filming took place on February 7th, 2014, in Rochester New York where they used the villages of Palmyra and Shortsville.

And yes, I can see how Geoghegan had a Lucio Fulci vibe in mind here, where it’s got the blood and gore (not the maggots though), the isolated house, someone troubled and grieving, the clairvoyant character, a town with secrets, mixed with some Lovecraftian ideas. And yes, there’s more than enough easter eggs to behold here: first of all, the Sacchetti couple is most likely a reference to the screenwriter Dardano Sachetti who worked a lot with Lucio Fulci. Then we have the name of the town, Aylesbury, which is a reference to Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror. The Miskatonic River is also mentioned during the credits.

While the movie does play into several of the typical haunted house tropes, it’s still a solid experience which balances an intriguing plot and a sinister atmosphere throughout. Some scenes manage to be a little creepy, despite never really going into full-on scares but more leaning towards a creeping notion of something sinister at play. I love the retro style of it, and enjoyed the homages. This is not merely a haunted house/ghost story, it’s playing it a lot darker and venturing into a bit of folk horror as well. And when we get to the ending, and the climax itself, then whoa…! It’s like his old buddy Andreas Schnaas jumped onboard and demanded mehr Blut und mehr Tod!, as we get a crazy, bloody gorefest! It’s vicious and cruel, and a delight to behold which gives the movie a nice little pang of an ending.

We Are Still Here is a pretty nice retro haunted house flick set in the cold winter time, perfect to watch now that the weather is cold and it’s good to stay inside, preferably with a cup of warm cocoa and a horror movie on display.

Writer and director: Ted Geoghegan
Country & year: USA, 2015
Actors: Andrew Sensenig, Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden, Lisa Marie, Monte Markham, Susan Gibney, Michael Patrick Nicholson, Kelsea Dakota, Guy Gan, Elissa Dowling, Zorah Burress
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3520418/

Dreamcatcher (2003)

Posted on December 5, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Jonesy, Beaver, Pete and Henry are four men who have been sticking together ever since childhood. Their bond got even closer on the day they met a disabled boy named Douglas, or “Duddits“. They save him from a bunch of bullies, and Duddits rewards them by giving them all telepathic powers. A group of childhood friends sticking together after experiencing something during their childhood…yup, it’s a Stephen King story. As the four friends are going through their seemingly normal adult lives, using their powers when they can, things almost go really bad for Jonesy after seeing Duddits beckoning him from across the street. When Jonesy approaches him he gets hit by a car, but still manages to heal incredibly fast. Six months later, they all go on their annual hunting trip in Maine during the winter season.

This trip will become very different from the others, though, and shit (literally) start happening once Jonesy rescues a man named Rick McCarthy who had gotten lost in the forest. Rick seems…a bit off, though. Sickly and constantly burping and farting. Yay. Jonesy and Beaver makes him lie down in bed so he can recover, and later notices a flock of forest animals outside the cabin. Foxes, wolves, rabbits, deer, predator and prey together, all seeming to flee from something. Suddenly this spectacle gets interrupted by the sound of two military helicopters, who announces to them that the area is now quarantined. Then Beaver goes “What do you mean quarantine? We got a sick guy down here!“ and we pretty much got it established that these characters are dumb as fuck. Because there’s no way a quarantine and a guy with some kind of mysterious illness could have any connection whatsoever, riiight? Jeez.

When Jonesy and Beaver get back inside the cabin, they see a trail of blood from the bedroom leading to the bathroom. Uh-oh. Some nasty shit is going on here. They ask Rick if he’s ok, and he screams at them that he wants his privacy while it sounds like he’s having a really, really bad case of the stomach bug. When he stops answering them, they get inside and see that Rick sits dead on the toilet, covered in blood. A big worm creature writhes and screams in the toilet, having been literally shat out by Rick. Beaver sits on the toilet to keep the lid down to trap the creature, but the creature is strong, and everything quickly goes to shit for both Beaver and the other characters.

Alright, enough with the shitty shit-jokes, although this review could’ve had a lot more of it for more than one reason. This is Dreamcatcher, a sci-fi-horror film released in 2003 and based on Stephen King’s 2001 novel of the same name. The movie was directed by Lawrence Kasdan, co-written with William Goldman. It has been receiving generally negative reviews and was a flop at the box office, having grossed $75.7 million against a budget of $68 million. Which is by no means a massive flop compared to some other box office failures we’ve covered here at Horror Ghouls, like for example Virus (1999) with its $75 million and $30.5 million result. So it could’ve fared a lot worse. The one who took the actual damage for the movie’s failed success, however, was the director who pretty much got his whole career flushed down the toilet (no pun intended). In a 2012 interview, Kasdan admitted that prior to this film’s failure, he was planning to do The Risk Pool with Tom Hanks, and had written a script from Nobody’s Fool by Richard Russo. Didn’t happen. And then years passed and things kept not happening, and he didn’t make another movie until 2012 which was called Darling Companion.

Stephen King, on the other hand, praised the film upon its release and stated “This is one of the very, very good adaptions of my work“ (ho-hum…really?) and also added that the film “would do for the toilet what Psycho did for the shower“. Err…nope, it certainly didn’t. But maybe Stephen King at this point was still high on OxyContin, as when he wrote the Dreamcatcher novel he had just recovered from a severe 1999 car accident which he almost died from. It happened when a van struck him while he was walking, which I guess is referenced in the scene where Jonesy gets hit by a car in the beginning of the movie. King admitted to having been “pretty stoned“ on OxyContin while writing it and has later expressed being dissatisfied with the outcome of the book.

If you have read some of Stephen King’s books, you’ll be quite aware of how certain things only make sense when still in book format, and how transferring them to the screen often turns it into something messy and nonsensical. And how he likes to return to certain themes and topics. This one really packs in so many of the formulaic Stephen King ingredients, from the group of male childhood friends, something experienced during childhood, and the supernatural powers and a creature/monster of some kind. And while this movie pretty much warranted B-grade actors, there’s a surprisingly strong cast list, like for example Thomas Jane as Henry and Morgan Freeman in a smaller role as Colonel Curtis. Nothing bad to say about the acting here at all, the only thing is that the lead characters are so incredibly dumb it becomes a bit jarring at times. And when one of the guys becomes “possessed“ or whatever you should call it, and for some unexplained reason starts speaking in an upper-class British accent, I’m not sure whether to snicker or cringe.

Storywise, the movie is pretty much all over the place. It starts decent enough, but quickly starts going back and forth and becomes a bit disorienting as to what the heck is actually going on. Maybe it would’ve worked better as a miniseries, who knows. Still, there’s also the total shift in tone where the scenes with the group of friends are somewhat cheesy, nonsensical and oftentimes weird, while the subplot with Colonel Curtis and the military turns everything into a full-on action film. It’s like there were two films in there, badly merging together.

So, yeah…Dreamcatcher is definitely not one of the best Stephen King adaptions, but as far as silly, trashy B-movies goes it’s actually a bit of fun despite a somewhat long runtime and a bit sluggish pacing. And I guess only a Stephen King high on OxyContin would write a horror novella where diarrhea is a key factor throughout the story.

Director: Lawrence Kasdan
Writers: William Goldman, Lawrence Kasdan
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2003
Actors: Morgan Freeman, Thomas Jane, Jason Lee, Damian Lewis, Timothy Olyphant, Tom Sizemore, Donnie Wahlberg, Mikey Holekamp
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0285531/

Frankenstein (2025)

Posted on November 28, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

The year is 1857, and the crew of a Royal Danish Navy ship sailing for the North Pole discovers a severely injured man. Suddenly they are attacked by a huge, rage-filled and violent man, more resembling a creature to the crew than a human being. After this creature has killed and hurt several of the crew members, Captain Anderson uses a blunderbuss (a 17th- to mid-19th-century firearm with a short, large caliber barrel) and manages to sink the monstrous being into the icy water. Gone for good now, right? Hah. In the meantime, the man they just saved, Victor Frankenstein, explains that the creature is in fact his own creation. And he starts to recount the story of how it all came to be.

Frankenstein from 2025 is produced, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro, which has been a dream project for the guy for a long time. It was initially in development for Universal Pictures, but they killed it off and then Netflix came and brought it back to life, or Frankensteined it if you will (ha-ha). And as expected it is of course a beautiful gothic film in true Guillermo del Toro-style. While the beloved and well-known story of Frankenstein doesn’t need much of an introduction, it’s still worth noting that this story have actually rarely been told in a true-to-the-book fashion. While the story was written by 18 year old Mary Shelley in 1818, there have been numerous adaptions and re-imaginings over the years. Most famously the 1931 Universal Pictures movie with Boris Karloff as the monster, which created the iconic “Frankenstein’s monster“ look with the flat head and bolts on each side of the neck. This character is one of the most recognized horror icons, and you know who he is even if you haven’t seen any of the movies or read the novel. (Yet…despite how well known the story of Frankenstein is, though, there’s still an odd amount of people out there who believes that Frankenstein is the creature’s name…but I digress).

Guillermo del Toro’s version of the story has more in common with the book than many of the adaptations that’s been done over the years, but it’s still taking some turns of its own. Victor tells his story about how he grew up grieving his mother’s early death and getting hardened by his father’s abuse, and he becomes obsessed with becoming the greatest surgeon ever, aiming at being able to “cure“ death. Certainly no lack of ambition there, and certainly no lack of egotistical narcissism either. When he actually does manage to reanimate a corpse, which is of course an incredible feat even though the poor thing just looks like it wants (and needs) to be put out of its misery as soon as possible, the spectators aren’t exactly thrilled by what they see. The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh expels him, denouncing it as sacrilege. That doesn’t stop the doctor, because if there’s a will, there’s a way! Or more precisely, if there’s money, there’s a way, because his display also caught the attention of an arms merchant called Henrich Harlander, who offers Victor an unlimited budget to continue his experiments. And so, the body parts are harvested from hanged criminals and soldiers killed in the ongoing Crimean War, so the mad scientist can finally build his large creature to reanimate by harnessing lightning to send electric currents through the lymphatic system. And we all know that this becomes a success, creating the “creature“ which later becomes the bane of Frankenstein’s existence.

This movie is, visually, a treat from the very start to the finish. The cinematography, set designs and costumes are all top notch, but of course nothing less can be expected from a del Toro film. The cinematographer Dan Laustsen once again delivers a treat for the eyes, just like he also did in this year’s The Gorge. This is all offering up a romantically gothic banquet, perfectly scored by Alexandre Desplat’s atmospheric music.

Performances are overall pretty good, with Oscar Isaac as the narcissistic madman Victor Frankenstein who will stop at nothing to achieve is goal, and Jacob Elordi as the creature who is rightfully confused and scared at the start, until all the wrongdoings against him turns him into an angry beast. Although…I have to admit I was a little conflicted about the creature’s appearance in this movie, because…well…there’s nothing really monstrous about him. At the beginning he kind of reminds me a little of the Zora people in the Zelda games, with his blue-ish skin and all. He does change his appearance a bit later on as he evolves, but his looks are never unattractive. I get that this is an obviously more romanticized version, where the creature is a lot more meek than in the original story or many of the other adaptions, but it feels a little off how people then are so frightened of his appearance. He literally just looks like a big, handsome guy with scars on his face, who’s gone through some rough times. Maybe Hunkenstein would’ve been a good name for him.

Aside from the two main actors of the movie, it was also fun to see the beautiful Mia Goth in two supporting roles here, first as Victor’s mother (which we see very briefly), and then as Elizabeth who is the fiancée of Victor’s brother, but also Victor’s obvious love interest. Like in all classical “beauty & the beast“ stories we do of course get a connection between the creature and Elizabeth, as she’s very empathetic as opposed to Victor’s extreme egotistical personality. If there’s one thing I feel this movie robbed us of though, it’s seeing Mia Goth as The Bride. I honestly really thought that moment was coming, too, but it just fizzled out into nothing. Oh well.

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

Writer and director: Guillermo del Toro
Country & year: USA/Mexico, 2025
Actors: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, Charles Dance, David Bradley, Lars Mikkelsen, Christian Convery, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Kyle Gatehouse, Lauren Collins
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1312221

Army of Frankensteins (2013)

Posted on November 25, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

―We’re from the future, and it’s time to kick some Frankenstein ass.

And no, this is not Bill & Ted’s Another Bogus Journey to put Frankenstein into the Iron Maiden… Army of Frankensteins is a… movie… where weird shit happens, all over the place, literally. Made by a group of young, ambitious and hyperactive amateurs that apparently had the time of their lives while making it. And not to be confused with Frankenstein’s Army, which was released the same year as this. The plot for Army of Frankensteins goes, uuhm… starts something like this:

We’re in Virginia, the year is 1809 in the middle of a civil war. A nurse named Maggie is escaping from a group of Confederacy soldiers. She runs into some dude…and is about to have sex… suddenly, a horde of Frankenstein’s monsters show up and rips the dude’s arm off. Maggie runs screaming into the woods.

We jump to present time where the young grocery clerk is preparing to propose to his girlfriend Ashley. And that goes straight into the shitter as Ashley is an NPC who’s not programmed to be proposed to. She loves him though, even though the stiff and wooden high-school play-acting and dialogues is as convincing as Mr. Beast’s creepy smile.

After the failed proposal, Alan walks home and gets beaten by two slobs. A kid with a gun comes and rescues him and makes sure that he gets zapped unconscious so he can bring him to a warehouse lab where he wakes up, in a dentist chair. He gets met by a strange old man that he earlier met in the grocery, and yes, he is Victor Frankenstein himself. He goes by the name Dr. Tanner Finski, but he’s not fooling anyone. The twelve-year old kid is, of course, Igor (yes, really). Victor rips out his right eyeball which he puts into his Frankenmonster. After some more shit happens, an interdimensional portal gets opened that creates several dozen of Frankenmonsters before they all get sucked in and transferred back to 1865, in the midst of the battleground of the American Civil War. Of course.

So… where do we go from here? The script says… who the fuck knows. We just make shit up as we go along. Alan and Victor get rushed to the nearest medical tent, where Maggie also comes in. Maggie who? The maid we saw in the beginning. And Igor? He’s somewhere, getting chased by Frankenmonsters. Some soldier with one of the many epic fake mustaches takes a green serum from Igor. Alan sees visions of the original Frankenmonster’s POV. They must die…ALL OF THEM, Victor shouts before he dies. Alan teams up with Igor, Maggie and a Union soldier with a fake mustache to kick some Frankenstein ass… and a handful of Confederates/South Boys on the way, because, well, it’s the civil war, boy!

While it all sounds big and epic on paper, it looks like some role-play gathering at the local woods, where you can say that, well, some people got hurt. Army of Frankensteins is full-on homemade goofy schlock from start to finish and doesn’t try to be much else. There’s some legit qualities to point out here though, such as some solid make-up effects and cheesy fake n’ heavy mustaches that never seem to fall off, even during the battle scenes. The gore is cheap and the use of green screens is what to expect. The plot gets sillier when even Abraham Lincoln chimes in, here looking like he has stage 4 stomach cancer. God bless. And yeah, then there’s Mega Man. Yup, because, why not. Pure infantile amateur-hour movie madness and fun enough if you’re in the right mood. So there you have it. It’s on your favorite streaming site, Tubi.

Director: Ryan Bellgardt
Writers: Ryan Bellgardt, Josh McKamie, Andy Swanson
Country & year: USA, 2013
Actors: Jordan Farris, Christian Bellgardt, John Ferguson, Eric Gesecus, Rett Terrell, Raychelle McDonald, Thomas Cunningham, Lucas Ross, Billy Bean, Shellie Arizu Sterling, Jami Harris Shine
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2620490/

Keeper (2025)

Posted on November 18, 2025December 21, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Liz has been together with Malcolm for one year, and in order to celebrate this anniversary they go on a weekend trip to his cabin on a secluded place in the countryside. When they get there, they even have a gift waiting for them which is apparently from the caretaker: a boxed chocolate cake. Yum! Malcolm really, really wants her to eat it, but here’s a twist: Liz doesn’t like chocolate. Who doesn’t like chocolate..? Malcolm seems somewhat stressed over this fact as he thought all girls liked chocolate. Apparently there’s still some things he doesn’t know about the woman he’s been together with for one year.

The chocolate-cake thing aside: if Liz was hoping for some real alone-time with her boyfriend, she’s in for a letdown. Malcolm’s obnoxious cousin Darren is nearby, and even interrupts them during their dinner and has brought with him a girl named Minka, a foreign model, whom Darren says can’t speak any English at all, which doesn’t matter as she’s obviously there to use her mouth for entirely different things than talking. Still…when Malcolm and Darren has a private talk in a different room, Minka notices the unopened cake and whispers to Liz that it “taste like shit“. Hmm. So Minka must have gotten her own cake earlier. That caretaker must really love baking. Despite the warning, Liz reluctantly takes a tiny bit of the cake later, though, just to be nice. And because Malcolm really, reeeeally wants her to taste it. Yeah, nothing fishy about that, no red flags at all. He just really wants you to enjoy some chocolate which you just said you don’t like…

If it wasn’t obvious enough already with several red flags literally waving right in front of Liz’s face, we soon get to see that things are about to get…weirder. Liz is having strange visions, and in the middle of the night she’s suddenly having an uncontrollable urge to eat the rest of the cake in the grossest way possible, and doesn’t even stop when she sees bloody severed fingers inside of it. Bon Appétit. The next day, Malcolm tells Liz that he needs to travel back to the city, but will be back later in the evening. And as you can imagine, things escalate while Liz tries to figure out what is really going on here.

Keeper is a supernatural folk horror film, directed by Osgood Perkins and written by Nick Lepard (who also wrote the script for Dangerous Animals). It was shot in its entirety while The Monkey was on hold due to the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes. During this time, several of the cast and crew that worked on The Monkey tried to keep things going, and Perkins and Ferguson then found a Canadian writer who was not part of the Writers Guild of America to write the script.

Perkins have had two successes in a row now: first with Longlegs last year, and then with The Monkey from earlier this year. It turns out Keeper is the one to break these ongoing financial successes at the box office, though, as it has so far only grossed $3 million at the box office against a budget of $6 million. And while one may think it’s partly due to the movie’s artsy and slow storytelling, this is kind of the regular recipe of a Perkins movie, with The Monkey being the one to stand out from the rest. Already from the very first scenes, there’s the Perkins style all over the place. There’s an ongoing sinister and odd atmosphere throughout the movie as we see scenes filmed from different kinds of angles and with filtered lenses. It’s both slightly ethereal at times, mixed with a dreamlike, uncanny vibe. And it sure does take its time, with a very slow buildup. It is still a story that’s very easy to follow, though, it isn’t a movie that keeps you guessing much. Just be prepared for another Perkins movie with a lot of creepy-weird atmosphere.

Performances are pretty good all around, where Tatiana Maslany portrays her role perfectly as the everyday woman looking for true love. We saw her a little bit in The Monkey as the mom of the two boys, and here she gets to shine as the protagonist. Rossif Sutherland also does a good job portraying Malcolm, who appears to be a decent man despite it being obvious from the get-go that something’s very, very fishy about him. The dynamic between the two, who are still rather fresh in their relationship but appear to slowly trying to figure each other out, works pretty fine until the point where certain things become a bit too obvious.

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

Director: Oz Perkins
Writer: Nick Lepard
Country & year: USA/Canada, 2025
Actors: Tatiana Maslany, Rossif Sutherland, Claire Friesen, Christin Park, Erin Boyes, Tess Degenstein, Birkett Turton, Eden Weiss
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt32332404/

The Home (2025)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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