horror movie review – Horror Ghouls

The Vourdalak (2023)

Posted on December 30, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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/

Blood Tracks (1985)

Posted on December 16, 2025December 16, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Hairmetal, blood, freezing titties, avalanche in the snowy hills that have eyes, and a dude that looks like George Lucas. Here we go!

This obscure little odd The Hills Have Eyes ripoff from söta bror Sweden starts off with some mean drunk guy who, one late night, comes home to beat his wife and four kids. And this is not the first time as the wife finally has had enough and stabs him to death with a kitchen knife. The wife takes the kids with her as they run away into the thick ’80s movie fog.

Then we jump to forty years later in the year of 1985 where a random narrator says: For the next 40 years, the family hid out in the middle of nowhere. Now, intruders are on their way. Uuhm…ok. We’re at the snowy mountains in Sweden where the glam rock band, Solid Gold, are about to shoot some scenes for a music video. And what’s the title of this song? Take a guess.

― ♪ The horror you fear, You can’t let it go, It’s already there, You’re all much too slow, BLOOD TRAAACKS..! ♫

And if a hair metal band with stagefright could cause an avalanche, I’d bet that Motörhead would cause Mount Everest to collapse like a house of cards. And as the title suggests, there are no blood tracks to be seen here, at least not in the snow. A couple who has some sex in a volvo gets snowed in. The woman eventually gets pulled out, buck naked. Brrr! I’m gonna freeze my tits off! So, now that the scenes have been wrapped up, what’s next? The band, roadcrew and the groupies take shelter in a cabin. The soundguy from the filmcrew goes for an exploration where he enters a big abandoned factory. And in that place lives the mother and the group of children we saw at the beginning, who’s ready to kill anyone who dares to enter. The mother hasn’t aged a day during the four decades though. She must have some great genes, like a certain Sweeney. Couldn’t say the same thing about some of her kids, who looks like pizza-faced mutants from Tromaville. As the soundguy goes missing, the rest of the crew starts looking for him, which eventually leads them, one by one, into the factory to be bodycounted. So there you have it. A dumb premise for a dumb formulaic slasher which we have seen a thousand times already, even in 1985. But fun dumb, at that.

Blood Tracks, or Blodspår, is written and directed by Mats Helge Olsson, Sweden’s answer to Claudio Fragasso/Bruno Mattei, if you will ― the same guy who made The Ninja Mission (1984), Russian Terminator (1989) aka The Russian Ninja and Spökligan (1987), a very early childhood favorite of mine. And just like some of his other films, this one is dubbed to English by some wooden legs. It’s not as fun/bad as some of the films mentioned, but you’ll have your chuckles.

Solid Gold is played by the Swedish band Easy Action, and if you expect them to be the heroes, last boys standing cuz you can’t kill rock n’ roll, you’d be disappointed. The band members are barely acting here though. They’re mostly shoved in the background where they get drunk on whisky as alcohol was a demand to have on set because of nervousness… or because that’s just rock n’ roll, baby! Some of them were lucky enough to shoot some quick sex scenes, where I wouldn’t be too surprised if they were so wasted and coked-up that they, at some point, thought they were in a porn film. Nu ska vi knulla! Oh, well. The little we hear of the themesong could be a catchy fat ’80s earworm which was never fully recorded to be released to one of the albums, like Dokken’s Dream Warriors or Alice Cooper’s The Man Behind the Mask, since they seem to be more ashamed to be a part of this film. Boohoo…

And yeah, we have some fun kills here, which includes a severed head, bodies impaled on spikes, a bitten-out eyeball, death by fire, a woman getting sliced in half, some cheesy bear-hugging wrestling fights, and more. Fun fluffy drunk ’80s schlock from start to finish. And of course, then we have the bizarre George Lucas-lookalike, as if he was still location scouting for the Hoth scenes. Wrong country, bud. Blood Tracks is available on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome/DiabolikDVD. Even though I don’t have a copy, as for now, it’s fair to mention that there have been some angry complaints about the audio on that release, so… just be aware. And if you follow the right blood tracks on Tubi, you may also be lucky.

Director: Mats Helge Olsson
Writers: Mats Helge Olsson, Anna Wolf
Country & year: Sweden/UK, 1985
Actors: Jeff Harding, Michael Fitzpatrick, Naomi Kaneda, Brad Powell, Peter Merrill, Harriet Robinson, Tina Shaw, Frances Kelly, Karina Lee, Helena Jacks
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088827/

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/

The Advent Calendar (2021)

Posted on December 2, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

Eva is a former dancer who is now wheelchair-bound, forced to live a paraplegic lifestyle. While she does her best to adapt to this new lifestyle, it’s obvious that she’s struggling. On Eva’s birthday, her friend Sophie comes by and gives her a gift she bought at a German Christmas market: an Advent calendar which looks very odd, and makes Eva even more cautious of it when Sophie admits to having actually stolen it. When opening a hatch, you get a candy just like in a traditional calendar, but these are different. Once she’s opened the first hatch, she’s trapped in the Advent Calendar’s power and must open and eat every single candy on the respective day. The hatches can also only be opened after 12 at night, so yeah, there’s some obvious spooky stuff going on here. While Eva’s greatest wish is, of course, to be able to walk again, she notices that the candies from the Advent Calendar seems to be helping, but each opened hatch comes at a cost. The question is how much Eva will be willing to sacrifice in order to get her greatest wish on the Advent Calendar’s last hatch on the 24th…

The Advent Calendar (original title: Le Calendrier) is a French horror film from 2021, written and directed by Patrick Ridremont. It’s a nice little holidays themed horror movie, with the focus being on a cursed Advent Calendar (we already have a ton of “evil Santa“ horror movies, so it’s nice to see something a bit different for a change). Our protagonist Eva, being in the vulnerable position she is, often finds herself going through all kinds of degrading behavior, especially at her job with her boss being a sleazy dick who just wants to replace her with someone who has functioning legs. And to top it all, her replacement even has a mocking attitude towards her. When these two gets their comeuppance, it feels rather satisfying, and here is where the story manages to mix the “dream come true“ with the “nightmare come true“ scenario: some of the hatches she opens, actually bring forth good things. Once the supernatural events come into place, it’s gradual enough to be written off as mere coincidences, until it becomes obvious to Eva that they’re not. Then there’s the hatches that brings forth…horrible things, more like sacrifices for what she’s receiving. It’s one of those stories where you can understand that the protagonist wants to keep going when she believes she will eventually reach her final destination, her biggest wish of being able to walk again. Then it all depends on whether or not Eva thinks that the way towards this goal was worth it in the end. A classic “careful what you wish for“ story, but wrapped together in an interesting narrative.

The cursed object itself, the Advent Calendar, looks really cool too! It resembles something that could’ve been displayed in an occult museum, designed in a way that makes it look both like an old antique but also like something made by people who really intended to conjure something from the depths of hell itself. It’s an object that isn’t made to look overtly scary, but it’s just uncanny enough to feel off. Which works perfectly in this movie. And like someone who used to enjoy the old-fashioned traditional advent chocolate calendar during the holiday seasons, I could reminisce a bit about the excitement of opening a new hatch. Yes, back then it was only a tiny piece of chocolate, but damn, we children of the 80’s weren’t very hard to please…

The Advent Calendar is one of those typical “cursed object“ horror movies, which does inevitably play on certain tropes and cliché’s but also delivers an interesting enough premise and a solid story and pacing to keep you engaged.

Writer and director: Patrick Ridremont
Original title: Le calendrier
Country & year: France/Belgium, 2021
Actors: Eugénie Derouand, Honorine Magnier, Clément Olivieri, Janis Abrikh, Cyril Garnier, Vladimir Perrin, Jérôme Paquatte, Laura Presgurvic, Isabelle Tanakil, Jean-François Garreaud, Olivier Bonjour
IMDb: www.imdb.com/title/tt12496706/

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

Frankenstein’s Army (2013)

Posted on November 21, 2025November 25, 2025 by HorrorGhouls

― Only the Nazis could think of something like this!

Before every found-footage film, there was ― Frankenstein’s Army (not to be confused with Army of Frankensteins), the first found-footage film ever. Yes, ever! We’re going way waayy back to 1945, believe it or not.

We’re at the end of WW2 where we follow a small group of Russian soldiers as they’re walking through some obscure and bleak countryside in Germany. Their mission is to hunt down a Nazi sniper nest, and Dimitri is documenting the whole thing on camera as a task from the Russian government to make a propaganda film for the Red Army. For some odd reasons they speak English, because… because. But the first thing that strikes the viewer in the glossy year of 2025 is how surprisingly clean and crisp the image quality is, considering it’s shot on a 8mm. Huh. Either Dmitri is a time-traveler, or the film spent several decades in the editing room to restore the quality to pitch-perfectness before it got officially released in 2013.

Anyway, as they move further into the zone they get a distress call that eventually leads them into something that looks like an abandoned factory. That there’s some shady business going on here, is an understatement, where we have minecarts and a shaft filled with bodyparts. Little do the Kalinka soldiers know that this is the lair of none other than Victor Frankenstein! And say hello to his horde of freaky murderous robomonsters. It’s death metal time, baby!

And jokes aside… Frankenstein’s Army is the passion project of the Dutch filmmaker and storyboard artist Richard Raaphorst that was eight years in the making. The original idea was a more ambitious horror comedy with the title Worst Case Scenario which he worked on for two years. And ironically, the film ended up as a, well, worst case scenario as it was canceled after the money ran out. The only thing that was left to show was a teaser and a trailer, which got nominated for Best Movie Trailer by the Golden Trailer Awards in 2006. And that was that.

So… what’s next? Instead of letting the delightful steampunk zombie designs from the canceled film go to waste, they were further used in Richard Raaphorst’s next film, or plan B, if you like, with Frankenstein’s Army. To save more money, it was shot in found-footage-style on very limited locations without any use of cheap Asylum/SyFy-looking green screens. Aside from the found-footage element, this is pure old school. We can also argue that the story has as much meat on its bones as a starved Holocaust prisoner as the film works more as a proof of concept that just as well could’ve been a DLC to a Wolfenstein game.

And speaking of games; In 2021 Richard Raaphorst accused Capcom for stealing the design for the one of the bosses in Resident Evil Village. Nothing but a desperate marketing stunt, I’d say. The first thing that came to my mind was actually Air Man from Mega Man 2. But that’s just simple me.

That being said, this is still an entertaining little flick with some great claustrophobic and grim, dirty atmosphere, gory highlights, superb practical effects, attention to detail in both set-designs and the monster creatures, sprinkled with some dark humor and morbid charm. And of course, the nightmarish and demented cybernetic experiments of Dr. Frankenstein, makes this alone worth a watch. Richard Raaphorst showcases some strong and creative directing skills here, with lots of twisted ideas that could further evolve into a sequel of two. This is so far the one and only feature-length film he’s made, so… we can only hope.

Director: Richard Raaphorst
Writers: Richard Raaphorst, Miguel Tejada-Flores, Chris W. Mitchell
Country & year: Netherlands/USA/Czech Republic, 2013
Actors: Robert Gwilym, Hon Ping Tang, Alexander Terentyev, Luke Newberry, Joshua Sasse, Mark Stevenson, Andrei Zayats, Karel Roden, Klaus Lucas, Cristina Catalina, Jan de Lukowicz
IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1925435/

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/