[TLDR/] A unique Macedonian arthouse film about a feral witch who attempts to rejoin humanity. The results are sometimes horrific, and the film very successfully captures the feel of a dark folk tale, but mostly it's a quiet, meditative and ultimately hopeful film that can be accurately described as Malikian.
We Folk Horror fans have eaten well over the last decade and something, but put me against the wall and I'll have to admit this one's my favourite. I'm sorry, Mrs. The Vvitch. [/TLDR]

(Spoiler alert - I will talk about the general arc of the movie - in vague enough terms, hopefully, but be warned.)

 In a small nineteenth-century Macedonian village, a mother looks towards her child's crib and finds a withered, burnt hag leering over her baby.

 She haggles and deals with the apparition - a wolf-eateress, a witch she recognises from the stories as Old Maid Maria (Anamaria Marinca), and manages to convince the intruder to leave her child be for sixteen years.
 Maria agrees, but in parting she casually takes the baby's tongue.

 As soon as the hag leaves the house, the mother hides the child in a nearby cave and raises her there. For sixteen years Nevena (played by Leontina Bainović as a teen) only sees the outside world through two tiny flues on the top of her cavern, and her mother's sporadic visits are her only contact with humanity.
 It's all for nothing, though: Old Maid Maria, who is also a shape shifter, finds and comes for the girl on her sixteenth birthday.

 With a bloody ritual, Maria turns Nevena into a witch, giving her black talons and the ability to change forms. Her intention is to take her as her own daughter, but the teen proves to be too stubborn, and Maria too ill-suited to teaching anything but bitterness. Annoyed, the older witch sets Nevena free near a town, to teach her what she trusts will be an ironic and painful lesson.

 Nevena stumbles around and discovers the hard way she can only take someone's shape by devouring them, stuffing their innards into the same wound Maria inflicted on her to turn her into a witch. She will take on several lives this way, killing others so she can live out their lives herself as she tries to sate her fascination with mankind. And all the while Old Maid Maria's watching balefully from afar, full of scorn at this upstart that aspires to a normal life that was denied to her.

 You Won't be Alone is a folk tale, sometimes grim and often beautiful, about an outsider trying to figure out humankind. Nevena is almost feral at the outset, and never does speak even after she grows back a tongue- but her lust for life and experience is very endearing.
 Because she takes the places of adults, she's thrown into the deep end of life and can never really fully enmesh herself into the lives of the villagers that surround her. So she continues trying; taking lives in more senses than one.

 Rural life looks unchanged from the middle ages -nasty, brutish and short- and Nevena never really got to learn the finer points of morality, so there's no shortage of ugly and violent incidents; She is a witch, after all, and the movie does not shy away from getting raw and bloody. Despite having a honest-to-goodness Freddy-Krueger-look-a-like villain, don't expect much in the way of scares, but there's plenty of dread and the gore is used in memorable ways. I especially liked how old meatball-face Maria off-handedly discards the remains of her former skin as a disgusting trail of shambles as she walks down a hill.

 The various actors that play Nevena in her different incarnations (including Noomi Rapace) collectively manage to portray a compelling character, and do a good job in getting you invested in her journey towards a semblance of normalcy. Old Maid Maria gets a back story too, and is a good foil for the protagonist - kind of relatable, but still an absolute dick.
 Director Goran Stolevski chose to go with a 1.44:1 aspect ratio; He and DP Matthew Chuang compose often dynamic shots that maximise the amount of countryside and natural lighting captured whenever possible.

 It's a very contemplative, sometimes slow movie. We're privy to Nevena's thoughts, which she expresses in a poetic muddle, often while meditatively walking through staggeringly pretty Serbian natural and rural landscapes.
 Yes, the Terence Malik vibes are very strong in this one.

 The constant narration is fine; I found it a bit annoying at first, but it grew on me, and as she gets more experience, her musings become more articulate and better composed. "Fires... Fires... What soft fires." she says of children playing. I like it.

 She'll often matter-of-factly describe horrible things about the people around her, chronicling the ways they hurt each other or the suffering they endure. But she always ends them with the same refrain: "And still... and still..."

 Which could serve as the heartfelt thesis for this beautiful movie.

[TLDR:/] An excellent thriller about a serial killer who preys on women pivots to a sort of surrealist nightmare as his hobbies get him tangled up with Greek Mythology. I loved the first two acts of this movie, but it lost me on the surrealist final stretch. (And this, coming from someone who tends to like surrealism.)
Still, it's well worth a try - Better for a movie to go out swinging like this, and you may click with it better than I did. If nothing else, the movie is impeccable, technically, with great acting and gorgeous cinematography. [/TLDR]

 A Wounded Fawn begins with someone recounting the Greek myth of the Erinyes - the Furies - as a statue portraying them hounding a man is sold at auction. A woman (Malin Barr) wins it in a heated bidding war, only to be murdered later that night and have the piece stolen by Bruce (Josh Ruben), one of the other bidders.

 We then cut to Meredith (Sarah Lind), a museum curator who's recovering from a long abusive relationship. She's decided to finally try her luck with another guy... who, of course turns out to be Bruce. I'm sorry, lady, that's some rotten luck. Did I mention he kills at the behest of a humanoid owl? Because (to the movie's credit) he totally does. Anyhow; she's agreed to go with him to his remote cabin, and as soon as they meet we get our first jump scare as a surprise Doberman violently runs past her - a wonderfully giallo touch.

 During the long ride to the cabin, and after their arrival, Meredith starts picking up some red flags from her beau (Lind's acting as she recognizes them and decides to play them down is really good), but, more importantly, as soon as they arrive at the cabin she starts getting hallucinations warning her to get the hell away.

This whole section is beautifully put together: the tension methodically ratchets up as Meredith is progressively freaked out by the weirdness going on around her, and as Bruce lets more and more cracks show in his façade.

 And then... something happens, and the movie enters Act II, which is where all the weird shit happens;  Let's just say that foreshadowing with the sculpture at the beginning pays off.

 I wish I could say I liked the movie. I was hooked for the duration of the first half, the more conventional bit, and I did like its unexpected turn, but the movie completely kind of lost me after that. I tend to like surrealism, but a lot of the imagery on display here didn't really do it for me, and while there are many mythological references, either I didn't get enough of the rest, or the movie really does get pretty random, so it wasn't fun to think about in the same way that, say, The Lighthouse is.

 Technically, it's kind of amazing. Director Travis Stevens (who previously directed the excellent Girl on the Third Floor) captures the look and feel of artier (read: European) 70's horror movies with an uncanny eye for detail, including the bright red tone of arterial blood. The 16mm cinematography (by Ksusha Genenfeld) looks incredible.

 It's also audacious as hell, but the risk with that is that if people do not engage with what you're doing, it's going to seem ridiculous. You can guess which camp I fell in. This probably will reflect poorly on me, but I laughed at several points in the movie at some of the... more outré scenes.

I feel a bit bad for making fun of something that'd probably be a whole lot better with more budget, but a lot of the problems are conceptual - I didn't find a lot of the imagery and ideas all that effective.

 What's worse, I just don't find what happens in the back half interesting. For a while there the movie felt gloriously unmoored, but then the only thing that happens, surreal flourishes aside, is basically the only thing that could happen. That could have worked, but neither the ideas (except an interview-like conversation) nor the visuals (except a really nice looking flapping tarp scene) did much for me, so there you go.

Mixtape is the 9^th film in the long-running found-footage anthology series. This year’s theme focuses on the transformative power of music and audio. Lucifer has a long association with music, so while surprising, this theme tracks. V/H/S has been on a hot streak, but this is a dud for me. The modern era has seen period-pieces, and Halloween & sci-fi themes that surged the series into newfound relevancy. Mixtape feels out of place. I’m unsure if it’s the musical theme but this installment feels less VHS-esque than any other in the recent run. I love the ambition, but it overextends itself into a film that lacks continuity and is largely vapid.   

GWAR is…. 

The wrap-around narrative stars American heavy metal band, Gwar in an MTV-like variety show where they are presenting each segment. Their design is grotesque and reminds me of Horrorland, the famous episode of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps. I had a suspicion that they’d be on bullshit (derogatory) and within two minutes I was proven correct. 

Their segment is filled with crass sophomoric and disgusting humor. The opening moments feature a gag about masturbation that culminates with them ejaculating green slime a la early 90s Nickelodeon on a hot dog (?). This is played to be gross, not scary but it ends up just silly. This abject theme plays throughout the wrap-around. This is Gwar’s real-life schtick, so art mirrors reality, but this tonal shift doesn’t work whatsoever for me in a V/H/S film. This is not only the weakest part of the film, but possibly the worst segment of the entire franchise. I’m not sure if there are any redeeming qualities. 

-0/5

Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance

I would likely view this segment much differently if Buddy had not come out two months prior. It’s unfair to compare the two, so I’ll critique Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance as if it exists in a world without Buddy. The segment is undercooked, a motif throughout. It feels like a sketch of something more extensive. The secondary villain has a lifelong connection to the murderous puppets, yet the rationale for his twisted attachment is left unexplained. 

A somewhat similar film, Mr. Crockett explores themes of parental abuse and arrested development. The creepypasta and tv series, Candle Cove of Channel Zero touch on the malleability of children’s psyche and the dangers of them being left to their own devices. Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance have obvious time-constraints but it utilizes children’s plot points without similar themes or messaging to match. There is a great easter egg here from a previous installment that gives the film some charm. 

The violence is good but the characters are undeveloped, so they operate as fodder. The campy tone is on the nose and too expected. There isn’t enough personality or eccentricity to make the whimsy land. 

-2.4/5

Another Cabin

This segment is far too short and is out of place with the theme. I do, however, believe that it has potential. I would love to see an extended version of this where we learn more of the character’s dynamics. The micro length stop-motion segment has familial abuse and outright hatred from what appears to be a grandmother to her grandson. Why does she hate him? Why would she try to sacrifice him to the monster? What is the monster? None of these questions are answered because of the microscopic length. I really can’t call it bad because it feels unfinished. Unfortunately, the creators felt it was complete enough to include but it doesn’t add anything to the film. I’m perplexed of the thought process to include it as it feels like it belongs to a different film. Another Cabin is promising but out of place.

-2.6/5  

Heartbeat 

This segment pivots from music to focusing on auditory stimulation. Heartbeat depicts a pair of content creators who break into a Russian bunker where they film themselves in a  padded room that amplifies every sound imaginable. What transpires is their descent into madness from being overstimulated. The issue with the film is that this is rushed. The segment wastes time in the beginning establishing that they’re a couple when this could have been inferred. This run time should have been allocated to progressively showing their mental unraveling. Their psychological breakdown is abrupt which undermines the terror. The claustrophobia, paranoia, and overstimulation aren’t brewed long enough to be a true psychological horror.

-2.4/5

The Music of Mr. Sze

The segment follows a young man who is clandestinely recording his tenants for a school project. It’s a missed opportunity in this world of Meta glasses and Flock surveillance to not explore this modern version of Peeping Tom-ism. There are moral implications on privacy that the segment scoffs over with a character who is ostensibly the “nice guy”. I would have loved commentary on this overstep of boundaries from one of the “good” ones. I enjoy The Music of Mr. Sze but there are some runners left on base.

This is the first segment in the anthology that is complete and feels like VHS. The others are like sketches of a final draft. The Music of Mr. Sze takes inspiration from a Lovecraft story. It follows our lead as he becomes engrossed with a secretive tenant who plays his violin every night. Unbeknownst to our lead, his playing keeps a primordial entity at bay.

Our lead oversteps boundaries and the repercussions are cataclysmic. This segment is straight-forward and succinct.  I would have loved themes to have been explored but this otherwise is a strong short. I do think it struggles with its character. There is a stoic character who appears adversarial, yet this isn’t articulated. Another woman is cartoonishly airy. This is an odd decision with the script and direction. It feels like it’s there to circle back to the campy wrap-around, but it doesn’t mesh. 

The Music of Mr. Sze takes a pivot from what I thought would be a thriller and instead goes cosmic. The CGI and effects are haunting. I love the Nephilim/deity/demon/Lovecraftian lore. We don’t see much of it but subtlety works. This is the strongest of the film, but I would have liked us to sit with our lead more, but what we get allows for brevity.   

-3.7/5

Premature Burial

Premature Burial makes a stark pivot. This segment utilizes a music video to tell its story. This short is divisive with viewers but this works well for me because it’s concise, sticks to the theme, and is a complete story. The video is dark and is the segment that most utilizes music as a vehicle for telling a horrific story. The story told is grounded, wicked, and unexpected. The black-and-white visuals are haunting and harken back to rock videos from the early 90s which Gwar is… nods to. This is one of the few times where the theme intertwines.

-4/5 

Death Tone

This segment starts off promising but it meanders for too long and then does an odd switch-a-roo with the tone. The film is a spiritual sequel to American Psycho in my mind. That film is a satirical black comedy, so maybe the humorous tone alludes to that. It doesn’t work here at all, however. Death Tone begins dark but progressively gets lighter until a humorous crescendo. This makes it difficult to stay engaged with, especially since it stays too long. 

The segment follows a young woman who is looking to harness the musical acumen of her late producer father. He gives her a checklist on musicianship that she puts her lethal twist upon. We follow her as she checks off each task. This goes on too long and needs to be edited down. The film is gory and cruel, but the violence is overly drawn out and doesn’t develop the character. It gets a bit boring and repetitive. What starts novel, ends up predictable and I became disengaged. The film ends with a whimper with a segment that started with a nice rumble. 

Conclusion 

V/H/S has been on a heater that has moved it up the pantheon of all-time franchises. This stops what was a win streak. I’m disappointed with Mixtape. The creators didn’t allot enough time in between films or bit off more than they could chew with the music theme. Nearly every segment feels partially completed. Characters, theme, and narrative all feel undercooked. 

V/H/S has crafted worlds with its wrap-around narrative. That’s absent here. Gwar Is… feels completely disconnected from the rest of the film. The segments feel collaged together instead of sensibly meshed. There are some individual aspects of some segments that I enjoy. However, even the enjoyable ones have some fundamental flaws that significantly hold it back.

V/H/S’s best feature is its rewatch ability. If not the entire film, there are dozens of segments that I’d go back to. I could see myself rewatching Premature Burial and possibly The Music of Mr. Sze. The others don’t do enough for me to warrant going back for. The wrap-around also left a repugnant taste in my mouth. The comedy is incredibly crass, childish, obnoxious, and out of place for the film. Mixtape never found its footing and Gwar is… is the culprit. I’m probably harping on this too much but it damaged the film that much for me. Even without it, this is probably the first film of the franchise since Viral to not have a single segment to not leave a significant impact. This is a flat miss. 

----4.0/10

Directed by Zach Cregger, Resident Evil (2026) is a brutal, atmospheric, and wildly engrossing survival horror film that captures the fear and tension that made the games a phenomenon. Grounding the story through the eyes of an ordinary man, the film delivers a satisfying mix of horror, action, and dark comedy, while its immersive atmosphere, spine-tingling creature work, and game-inspired approach make every encounter feel eerie and unpredictable. While a few lore choices may divide longtime fans, the film truly feels like stepping behind the controller of a Resident Evil game, making it easily one of the franchise’s strongest adaptations to date.

Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier tasked with delivering a package to Raccoon City. What begins as a routine job quickly spirals into a nightmare when he discovers the city is in the midst of a deadly outbreak linked to the Umbrella Corporation. Stranded among infected civilians and grotesque mutations, Bryan learns that the package he’s carrying is more important than he initially thought. He must fight his way through the city while searching for answers before the situation spirals completely out of control.

One of Resident Evil’s smartest moves is placing an average civilian at the center of the story. Unease is felt throughout because Bryan isn’t a superhero, and he isn’t equipped for what he encounters. Rather than getting bogged down in franchise lore or legacy characters, Zach Cregger focuses on recreating what it’s actually like to play a Resident Evil game, from exploring dangerous locations to surviving one deadly encounter after another. The screenplay keeps things simple, prioritizing moment-to-moment survival over dense mythology, giving the film a claustrophobic feel where resourcefulness is often the difference between life and death. Even with the horror and gore, the film never takes itself too seriously, balancing suspense with a welcome dose of dark humour and several highly effective jump scares. The third act loses a bit of steam, particularly during an over-the-top lab sequence, but Cregger never strays far from the film’s survival roots, making for a wild ride.

Austin Abrams stands out as Bryan, an unlikely hero who has absolutely no business surviving Raccoon City. Much of the film’s tension rests on his shoulders, and Abrams sells every moment with a believable mix of panic, frustration, and determination that makes Bryan relatable. In many ways, he’s like an NPC unwillingly promoted to main character, constantly stumbling into increasingly dangerous situations and somehow surviving them. That awkwardness gives the film much of its charm, and some of its funniest moments come from Bryan’s reactions to the insanity unfolding around him. Paul Walter Hauser and Zach Cherry provide a few welcome laughs during their limited screen time, but this is very much Abrams’ movie, and his performance is a big reason why it’s a blast from beginning to end. A new scream king in the making, he shines during the film’s frantic chase sequences and delivers some genuinely impressive screams.

Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski creates a cold, oppressive atmosphere through striking use of darkness, shadows, and dynamic lighting, particularly during the film’s snowy opening stretch. The contrast between the bright white snow, blood-red taillights, and pitch-black surroundings creates stunning imagery that perfectly captures the dread and isolation. At times, the camera puts viewers in a first-person perspective, creating a sense of playing a game rather than just observing from the sidelines. The creature effects are deeply unsettling, inspired by some of the franchise’s most monstrous designs and bringing them to life through beautifully realized practical effects, makeup, and puppetry. Several genuinely creepy sequences throughout are brought to life by strong sound design and an ominous score from Hays Holladay and Ryan Holladay. Even small touches, including a perfectly timed late title card, add to the experience. While the third act becomes a little messy, the film never loses its grip on the aesthetic, delivering a grimy vision of Raccoon City.

Few horror experiences this year have been as thrilling as Resident Evil. The performances, effects, visuals, and sound design all work in perfect harmony, while jump scares are so impactful they had audiences physically jumping out of their seats. Another win for Zach Cregger, who continues an incredible run with Barbarian, Weapons, and now Resident Evil. Crowd-pleasing, horrifying, and endlessly entertaining, this is exactly how a Resident Evil movie should be done.

Full review from rabbitinred.com

Dog Soldiers (2002)

Rated R for strong violence/gore and language

Score: 3 out of 5

Dog Soldiers is a hell of a movie that pulled off a lot with very little. It has its faults, make no mistake, but the basic premise of "soldiers versus werewolves" is golden and it makes a lot out of it, delivering an intense, nail-biting action/horror thrill ride. It's carried by a great cast and a remarkable command of action, intensity, and scares from Neil Marshall, who turned out the kind of directorial debut that many filmmakers would kill for, enough to make up for a janky and underwritten script, effects that aren't entirely up to snuff for what this was trying to pull off and show their seams whenever we get a close look at them, and the lone female character being treated in a very off-putting manner. It's the kind of B-movie that's unashamed of what it is and revels in it, one that I can see myself watching on a whim just to have a good time and where I can understand how it became a cult classic.

Set in a remote forest in Scotland on a full moon night, our protagonists are a group of British soldiers on a training mission that, in true horror fashion, goes horribly wrong when they find out that they're being stalked by werewolves in the area. Teaming up with Captain Ryan, the lone survivor of a special forces team that was serving as the opposing force in the exercise before they themselves got attacked, and Megan, a zoologist who moved to the area to study the creatures that she once believed to only exist in legend, the squad holes up in a remote farmhouse to survive until dawn. Of the protagonists, the only ones worth remembering are Private Cooper, Sergeant Wells, Captain Ryan, and Megan. Cooper, the obviously telegraphed "hero" or "final guy" among them, is a young soldier who, despite his skills, washed out of special forces training because he couldn't bring himself to kill a dog (gee, guess what he's gonna have to spend the whole night doing), which means that, when he meets Ryan, the man who ordered him to kill that dog during training, there is obvious friction between them even before it becomes clear that Ryan, who had been bitten and slashed by a werewolf, is now turning into one himself. Wells, meanwhile, is the grizzled veteran squad leader who Saw Some Shit in the Gulf War and has to hold his squad together as it becomes clear that they really are in the suck now, while Megan is the cool-headed civilian who may lack the soldiers' combat expertise but does know more about the werewolves than any of them, and knows that guns are only gonna slow the things down. Everybody else has "doggie chow" stamped on their foreheads almost from the moment we meet them, the only one who gets any semblance of development being Joe, the comic-relief dumbass who's obsessed with football (soccer to us Americans), grumpy that he has to miss the match between England and Germany for this training mission, and surprisingly isn't the first member of the squad to die.

If this film has one major problem holding it back from greatness, it's this. While I liked the protagonists who get the main focus, the rest of the cast are completely one-dimensional, with no defining characteristics beyond their occupation and the fact that they can convincingly hold and shoot a gun. Joe and Spoon, two of the squadmates, get a lot of cool scenes fighting the werewolves, from taunting them with a football chant to an epic, knock-down, drag-out brawl in a kitchen, but not really much characterization. I didn't really feel much of a sense of camaraderie within the squad, such that Megan never really felt like an "outsider" because there wasn't much of a squad to begin with. They're glorified action figures who exist to shoot at werewolves and get killed off in various ways, some of them quite stupid (especially the first death, which felt almost comical in how he got himself killed). The lack of development extends to Megan, who's the subject of a plot twist as to the real reason she's in the area, one that fell completely flat because the film had done nothing to build up to it before then. Looking back, what might've been clues that she had something else going on faded into the general background noise of the characters' stupidity. In particular, there was a missed opportunity to connect Megan's secrets with those of Ryan, who turns out to have his own hidden agenda, one that, more importantly, had a logical connection to Megan's. It turns out that there's a government conspiracy seeking to capture and research the werewolves, and having the zoologist Megan be a part of it alongside Ryan not only would've made perfect sense, it would've gone a long way towards fleshing out a plot thread that's given no development and is almost immediately dropped after it's brought up -- and, by extension, giving the main human villain that much more development so as to deepen his feud with Cooper. Instead, not only did Megan's actual secret come out of nowhere and leave a pretty glaring plot hole (like, how did it not come out almost immediately?), but the way the film handled it felt weirdly misogynistic, like it was going "heh, women, amirite?" The more I thought about this film's writing, and especially Megan, the less I liked it, especially compared to how well Neil Marshall handled an all-female cast with his next film The Descent. (Apparently, Marshall himself isn't a fan, claiming that Megan's backstory came from studio-mandated rewrites, and I'm not surprised.)

Fortunately, while the writing here is definitely that of a rookie who was still green behind the ears and probably should've let somebody else have a pass at the script, in the director's chair Marshall was far more effective and self-assured. This is a low-budget film that makes no bones about it, but it does a hell of a job hiding its budget and feeling like a bigger film than it is. There's plenty of gore, but the film rarely lingers on it long enough to let us see that they're just using sausage links for people's guts, or slabs of raw steak for their ripped-up flesh, even though there are a few moments when you can tell that that's what they were working with. The tricks Marshall employed to do all this have the bonus of giving the action and chases a very kinetic feel like something out of a Hollywood action flick, constantly maintaining a baseline level of intensity even in the slower moments between the werewolves' attacks. Once it hit the ground running, it never stopped until the final frames, constantly throwing new challenges and threats at the protagonists and, by extension, the viewers to keep them on their toes. The actual werewolves looked amazing and were clearly where most of the effects budget went, again seen in only brief glimpses until the climax but bearing cool, terrifying silhouettes and snarling teeth that make what are effectively big guys in wolf suits look like true monsters. One can say a lot about this movie, but it was never boring. The only special effect that really didn't work was the day-for-night shooting that often didn't bother with the "for night" part, making it obvious that, while this film mostly takes place in the course of a single night, it was shot in broad daylight with heavy curtains placed over the windows to awkwardly cover it up (and sometimes not even that). The cast, too, worked hard to elevate their underwritten characters, with Kevin McKidd making for a likable hero as Cooper, Sean Pertwee making Sergeant Wells feel like a credible tough guy but also one who has a darkness in his past and knows full well the horrors of war, Emma Cleasby kicking plenty of ass as Megan (and feeling like a prototype for some of the women in The Descent), and Liam Cunningham making Ryan out to be a shifty, despicable scumbag with just his demeanor. I'm not surprised that McKidd in particular went on to voice John "Soap" MacTavish, the protagonist of the Modern Warfare games, because Cooper and Wells felt like they were lifted straight out of those games. While the rest of the squad felt like glorified background extras, I bought McKidd and Pertwee as not just soldiers but part of the same unit with history together, and their performances absolutely made their characters.

The Bottom Line

While Neil Marshall undoubtedly went on to bigger and better things with his later films, this is still a kick-ass, exhilarating debut that stands as a hidden gem for fans of werewolf movies and more action-packed horror. Check it out.

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2026/10/review-dog-soldiers-2002.html>

Resident Evil (2026)

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout

Score: 4 out of 5

Making the best adaptation of Resident Evil yet isn't a difficult task, especially nowadays in an era where video game adaptations are taken seriously by filmmakers and studios as more than just pulpy schlock. While I have a soft spot for Paul W. S. Anderson's version with Milla Jovovich, and even the recent Welcome to Raccoon City had its moments, neither of them are particularly great movies, and the sequels to the former eventually devolved into the worst sort of B-grade post-apocalyptic action trash. The animated films that Capcom themselves produced that are canon with the games are mostly just for the fans, and the less said about the 2022 Netflix TV series, the better. So when I heard that Zach Cregger, fresh off of Barbarian and Weapons, had decided to tackle an RE movie, my ears perked up immediately, not only because of his pedigree but also because his ideas for the film, less focused on adapting the games' plot and lore than their atmosphere and survival horror gameplay, sounded like an injection of fresh blood into a franchise whose film adaptations have long struggled -- much like Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which reinvigorated the games themselves by abandoning their growing fixation on action and techno-thriller plots in favor of getting back to the series' roots in nail-biting tension, resource management, and grotesque mutant monsters that had you outmatched.

What Cregger delivered turned out to very much be the RE7 of the films, a back-to-basics reboot that keeps the series' lore in the background in favor of all those things I just mentioned, its protagonist Bryan being somebody who I pegged before the film even came out as the kind of guy who, in one of the games, would be a supporting character whose last words you discover scrawled on a note that you collect somewhere. The film felt like a classic survival horror game not just in its general structure but also in the little things, most notably the fact that Bryan's reactions to everything going on around him feel like those of somebody playing a horror game for the first time not knowing what to do, as if to say "no, this is how you'd actually fare in one of these stories." This wound up being the film's secret weapon, what turned Bryan's journey from tragic to tragicomic. Cregger's background in sketch comedy with the Whitest Kids U'Know is no secret, but while Barbarian and Weapons both had their comedic moments, this was probably the funniest horror movie he's made, one that at times comes close to being an outright horror/comedy even if I wouldn't quite say it crosses that line. Throw on some grisly monster designs, tons of icky body horror, a great lead performance from Austin Abrams, and a nonstop atmosphere of tension that never let up, and Cregger is now three-for-three as a horror filmmaker, with this standing as one of the best video game adaptations of all time and certainly the best RE movie ever made.

Our protagonist Bryan is a medical courier with a pregnant girlfriend who, one night after a delivery, is offered a ton of money to deliver a mysterious package to a hospital in Raccoon City, Colorado. He wants to get home to his girlfriend, but he needs the money more, so he agrees and drives off into the snowy wilderness, the beginning of a twisted comedy of errors as everything that can go wrong for him in one night goes wrong. It turns out that Raccoon City is suffering an outbreak of a mysterious illness that turns people into zombies and monsters, and what's more, the parcel Bryan's carrying is related to it. Beyond the names of Raccoon City and the Umbrella Corporation whose blundering was responsible for the outbreak, as well as the fact that the disease doesn't just zombify people but also turns some of them into mutated monsters (all of which seem to be original designs for the film, even if the influence of the games is visible in some of them), this film is not directly adapting any of the games beyond just a very loose translation of the broad strokes of the second and third ones. Cregger may have made a film at the polar opposite end of the horror spectrum from Anderson's serious, stylish, action-packed take on the material, but one thing they both have in common is that neither is particularly interested in the characters or lore of the games, instead using the basic setup to offer up their own respective ideas on a sci-fi bio-zombie movie.

From there, Cregger served up a story that feels like the platonic ideal of an old-school RE game or survival horror game in general, specifically one from the late '90s or early '00s when RE's influence on the genre ran deepest. Bryan is no action hero, but spends the film panicking, scrounging for weapons and equipment to fend off the monsters assailing him, and flailing about when he has to fight them, as every bullet counts and these beasts are very hard to kill. Often, he escapes the situation by the skin of his teeth, only to find yet more horrors waiting for him around the next corner. In the canon of RE game protagonists, he's less Leon Kennedy or Jill Valentine and more Ethan Winters or Grace Ashcroft. It's an intense experience, and much of it is carried by Austin Abrams in what is, for all intents and purposes, a one-man show for 75% of the movie. He does a hell of a job making Bryan feel like an average Joe who's just found himself caught up in something he's in no way prepared for, reacting to all the mayhem around him with all the F-bombs and gallows humor that most of us would probably indulge in if we wound up in a zombie apocalypse. I saw somebody say that it felt almost like the kind of zombie movie parody that Buster Keaton would've made if he'd lived to see Night of the Living Dead, a very unique take on the archetypal zombie apocalypse protagonist that felt brimming with personality. There's not a whole lot of character to Bryan in the script, but Abrams takes what's there, particularly his love of his girlfriend and his worries about becoming a father, and makes the most of it, crafting a tragic yet funny character who knows full well what a world of shit he's gotten himself sucked into.

As for that world of shit, Cregger felt heavily influenced by some of the game series' deep cuts, especially some of its wilder plagues and mutagens that don't just turn people into zombies but cause some of them to mutate into bewildering monsters. Alongside the typical undead hordes, we also get tentacles out the wazoo, monsters made of multiple zombies fused together into nightmarish, multi-limbed flesh beasts, a zombie that can vomit acid, a horde of zombie rats that's hollowed a man out from the inside, an infected and scared young girl who's slowly mutating into a monster, and plenty more that I'm probably forgetting (or don't want to spoil). This is an old-school gamer's idea of a zombie apocalypse, one where the developers came up with all manner of unique creatures to shake up the gameplay and provide you with unique challenges beyond just having you shoot the same shamblers over and over again, and Cregger makes it feel truly unlike your typical zombie film, with Raccoon City coming across as not only overrun by zombies but turning into something downright alien and hostile to life. In a way, the semi-comedic tone of the film actually does a lot of the lifting in selling this environment, the jokes and the monsters coming together to make it feel like Bryan's wandered into a world where reality's gone out to lunch and he's reacting as a normal person logically should to what he's seeing. The climax was where this tone reached its apex, feeling almost like a black comedy sketch about everything that can go wrong in a zombie movie happening all at once, and while the dark note this film went out on seemed to be, from my observation, one of its more contentious moments among fans and critics, I personally loved it and felt that it was the perfect way to wrap up a story like this.

The Bottom Line

This film may not borrow much from the canon of the games beyond the basic ideas, but make no mistake, this is not "Resident Evil in name only." It's a thrilling, intense, and darkly comedic film that's filled to bursting with grotesque sights and scenes, all of it anchored by a star-making performance from Austin Abrams. Zach Cregger took a big swing with his ideas for this film, and while he didn't quite hit it out of the park, he definitely scored.

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2026/09/review-resident-evil-2026.html>

!!!SPOILERS!!!!

This is a list of my random thoughts and musings while watching a movie I was recommended on Reddit.

Making snuff films, I gather.

Well, yeah. I don’t imagine snuff makes it onto Roku apps.

“Make me hard”. That’s so fucked.

They jump right the hell in, but man they are dragging out the first scene. It sort of works to build the tension, though.

That director in the Jesus Jason mask is a diva.

Announcing to a group of dudes in a basement that you’re getting hard is a different type of horror.

This is some grindhouse shit.

Don’t think that was cough syrup that were dropping in her mouth.

At’s a big needle.

They can hide the horrible acting behind the fact that the characters are snuff actors. Pretty sophisticated 😂

Only possible way this dialogue could land. It’s landing.

Soundtrack is killing it with that lofi ambience and breathing.

Paralyzing them and dropping a hero dose is fucking sinister. The cheesy monologue actually fit really well with the premise. I guess that means it starts to get hairy now.

Oh, I gotta thing about shit getting stuck in toes and tonsils and shit. Oh damn. Didn’t like that. Nope.

His voice sells the dread. He just sounds like someone who wants to hurt people.

There’s the splatter. They got right into the dismemberment. “Those pins in your toes must twinge. I know a lil trick take your mind off that pain! Chugga chugga chugga chugga… toot toot!”

My mind went to Major Payne for some reason.

I feel like paralyzing the victims was more of a logistics thing for the actual movie production, rather than a stylistic decision. Cheaper effects. It really works, here. The lack of fighting and screaming really lets the atmosphere do the work. Considering sound is really all the atmosphere you get, it’s actually pretty effective. It’s hard not to imagine being entirely immobilized while you’re sawed to bits, but feeling and seeing and hearing it all. Brutal.

Something allowed the budget to make the gore stack higher than most big budget pictures. It looks so real. No crazy blood fountains. Blood looks like blood. They really knew how to distribute that budget a fucking make it work.

How they just do this like it’s a fucking monotonous task they just want to do and get right. The aforementioned “benefactor”, no doubt. Still. Chilling.

Oh. The story starts emerging. I’d want out, too.

That’s the gnarliest eye scene I’ve watched. Somehow even worse than Headless. Fuck. And it just gets nastier. We’re full throttle, now.

This is insane as fiction. It’s mind blowing that there’s a market for the real thing. People who want to do it, but also people who want to see it. I guess I’m watching the movie and talking shit. But really? Damn.

And she’s still alive and trying to move her mouth. And the finish her by cutting the tourniquets. Yeah. This movie doesn’t have a ton of splatter, but it gets under your skin for sure.

I think doing these RTWW’s might raise my tolerance for this stuff. Distraction, maybe?

Don’t mess with her tongue… gross. This part is hard to watch. It’s certainly earning its “extreme” label.

That director is crude. Even for a snuff creator.

The worst part is them laying there blinking.

It’s so much more psychologically horrifying. Not even the comfort of being able to scream.

Flaying. That’s really extreme horror.

Working in the metal fab industry, degloving injuries are common. Seen a lot of splatter in safety videos.

These guys are meticulous. I don’t even mind that flaying the legs was and practical effects fumble, but that’s really only relative to how good they’ve been.

How slow and deliberate everything is, is terrifying.

I could only imagine the horror of experiencing that while tripping in the cosmos.

Ads on Cineverse are so much better than anywhere else. Ice Cream Man. That looks fun.

A new one.

The 1995 one was a banger.

It sort of adds to the watching along experience I’m hoping to create.

Right on. Back at it.

He put a cigarette out in her eye. Nope. He put a cigarette through her eye.

I want to start making creepy masks. I’m sure my wife would be thrilled.

This is a whole new level of torture violence.

Her heart is still beating. They understood the assignment.

Oh man. I hate to say I’m glad she’s dead, but fuck around. I’m sure she is, too.

You’d think that big boy could start a chainsaw inside of five pulls.

Had to fast forward the end. Thankfully it stopped when it did. The crying over the end credits is by far the most disturbing part of the whole movie.

It was good. It was definitely extreme and it definitely lived up to its title. Not much in the way of a narrative pay off, but honestly I don’t think it could have ended in a better way. The lack of resolution is horrifying on its own. The practical effects really slapped, and not even necessarily for a low budget gore flick. The shitty acting and dialogue actually really worked in the movie’s favor. Awesome analog/grindhouse aesthetic. Plenty of moments that do a number on your bowels. Gratuitous, meticulous and bordering on tedious torture violence. Seriously straddles some lines, but the only thing I fast forwarded wouldn’t have made me quit watching had it happened earlier on. It stopped before I had to. The audio did a lot of work here.

If you just want a gory as fuck movie that will twist your guts and has a pretty simple but terrifying narrative, watch it. It wasn’t as good a story as Baskin. Wasn’t as splattery as Headless, but it’s a movie that will definitely fuck you up a little.

The memoriam at the end affected me. Weird. That was really touching. Did not see that coming.

!!!!SPOILERS!!!!

This is a list of disjointed thoughts I had while watching a movie I was recommended on Reddit.

Weird Persian rock singalong in Baskin. Lol

The creepy band of folks by the river was definitely a nice touch. Asshole shouldn’t be kicking a little girl’s frog bucket. I’m sure that bodes well for his chances of survival.

Cling wrap and blood is always creepy.

It’s what Silent Hill should have been. The story isn’t revealed yet, but there’s enough here to make me really confident it will end up being a hell of a tale. The bestial, blood-soaked, tortured troglodytes are perfect. The graphic sex is depicted momentarily and in a way that isn’t even secondary to other aspects of the film. It barely ranks as anything more than a part of the atmosphere. I like that. I like that it isn’t there for the sake of being there and lingered on for that. I like the characters. ‘Boss and Arda’ clearly have a very deep arc. The others are hardly expendable characters, including the asshole you hope gets knocked around. It’s really a great film, so far.

So clearly this is some sort of folk horror. I’m not very familiar with Persian folklore, but there’s definitely some sort of demonic force. I’d be interested to know if it is based on some sort of Turkish or Persian Demon or something. Maybe scary bedtime stories from the Ottoman Empire. The occult stuff is cool, regardless of whether it’s religion adjacent or not. It takes awhile to get started, but I definitely wouldn’t call it a slow burn. It stays hooked up pretty much from the opening credits, but the story isn’t revealed yet. At an hour in, you’re only starting to get the information to start connecting dots. And when it takes off, it’s blistering. Then an immediate cut to a very subdued and eerie bit of backstory… then my buds start crying because they were hungry.

The priest reminds me of Gary Coleman. That’s a little distracting.

Oh, Apo. That’s hard to watch. Yeesh.

The priest is awesome. His delivery is so warm but chilling. It’s crazy. Even with the language being wholly unfamiliar, you feel exactly what he’s saying as you read the subtitles. Incredible. And his dialogue is extremely well written. You usually get a cult leader or occult priest or similar archetype that totally Achilles-heels an otherwise great picture with their shitty dialogue. No ego. No mellow drama. No ridiculous banter. Just cool, calculated delivery of his truth. Probably the best representation of this archetype that I’ve witnessed. Gary Coleman is now nightmare fuel.

“Open the eyes of your heart, Yavuz.” Man when you can take gore and violence to a level and make it have an effect on your soul instead of just affecting your guts.

A movie about a bunch of gimps in a sex dungeon, but with depth. What a genre.

That wasn’t a throat slit. That was a chore.

I don’t know if the goat lady passed the world’s most severe impaction, or if Persian folk demons just have a really fast incubation period. Either way, she’s a champ.

All the knives and hammers and it’s a footstool that brings the splatter. This movie rips.

It’s a loop. It’s going to be a loop.

Nothing resolved. No explanation. Perfect ending. I need another Baskin.

Even the end credits sequence hits.

!!!!SPOILERS!!!!

This is a list of disjointed thoughts I had while watching a movie I was recommended on Reddit.

Nicolas Cage is always fun. Even his shitty movies are fun because of him. Case in point, Con Air.

Danny Trejo always lands. Machete always kills. Even in space.

Like someone went crazy with IG filters. It’s beautiful. Sort of cyberpunk.

The soundtrack and dialogue audio are great with the aesthetic.

The starling story was brutal.

Both Leviathan and Lovecraftian mythologies are basically cosmic horror mythologies, one just has tentacles and one has BDSM.

Lovecraftian horror is psychological corruption manifested, whereas Leviathan mythology is corruption through pleasure and desire manifested. Both gain power through corruption.

He’s a washed-up psychedelic folk-rock artist. I don’t know if she’s laughing at his song, his ego, or his weiner. Probably all three.

“You’ll probably die.”
“Don’t be negative.”

The visuals alone kept me engaged with the story. The soundtrack and aesthetic supplied enough dread to let actual visual horror breathe, and I expect that will make it land harder.

“You ripped my shirt!”

He gives a dude a deep haircut, turns around wide-eyed “WTAF,” then lights a dart off a burning severed head. Gorgeous.

Not a chance he could forge/smith a useable weapon that looked that polished in an evening, but this movie has earned the right to be ridiculous at times. It’s Cage.

The chemist is great. He’s completely likable. That’s what makes him creepy.

That was a great film. Great. The ending was gorgeous. It makes you wonder if it took place in a different world, or if he ended the story in a different world than where he started. As far as Lovecraftian horror, it’s about time one got a budget and a creative team. And Nicholas Cage.

Beautiful movie. Really fun.

This is like my 6th time watching it. Last time was 4 years ago. And this movie still holds up. If you know me I am a unabashedly fan of Blumhouse's Truth Or Dare. Saw it when it was released in theaters. Cool little fun fact. This is actually the first movie that I saw in theaters by myself. I will always going to cherish that memory. Looking back this movie feels so nostalgic. 2018 was such a wild time for me. 2018 I accidentally (happy accident) found myself being part of the movie community/horror community. I didn't know that was a thing until late 2017/early 2018. On the first few watches I gave it 4 out of 5 (B). Now it has always been a 5 out 5 (A). So why does this movie works for me since I am probably one of the movies biggest fan. I do think the characters is solid. They are good especially our 2 main leads Olivia Barron played by Lucy Hale and Markie Cameron played by Violett Beane. Their performances are really solid.

Love that suspense sequence where Penelope Amari played by Sophia Taylor Ali got dared to walk on the edge of the roof while drinking. That scene was very suspenseful. This movie has heart. There are 2 great emotional scenes. When Brad Chang played by Hayden Szeto got dared to take his father police gun and made him beg for his life than the other officer shot Brad. Officer Han Chang played by Tom Choi his reaction was heartbreaking. Another great emotional scene is where Olivia told Markie about what really happened when Markie's dad shot himself.

That was a heartbreaking scene. There's lots of great drama around the characters when things is starting to get intense as well. And overall this movie is fun. How I grade, score, and rate the movies that I watch is how entertaining the movie is. For me it is what's going on in the movie. And I think for me personally what's going on is entertaining.

Resident Evil (2002)

Rated R for strong sci-fi/horror violence, language and sexuality/nudity

Score: 3 out of 5

If you ask me, a big part of the reason why the original 2002 film adaptation of Resident Evil was the hit that it was, despite its faults, wasn't just because it was based on a hit video game franchise. That was undoubtedly part of it, to be sure, but going back and rewatching it in anticipation of the new adaptation by Zach Cregger this weekend, it also felt, for better or worse, like "Baby's First Zombie Movie." I don't mean that in a bad way, like it's somehow a lesser zombie movie. This subgenre is full of schlock that goes much harder than this in terms of graphic content and yet otherwise makes it look like Night of the Living Dead. No, I mean in the sense that this is a gateway movie, the kind of movie you show to people to get them into zombie movies. It's sexy, stylish, and action-packed, trading the post-apocalyptic grit and cynical satire of George A. Romero for raging gun battles, pulpy sci-fi, a pounding industrial score by Marco Beltrami and Marilyn Manson, and Milla Jovovich looking fierce as hell treating the corridors of a zombie-infested facility like a catwalk. It's creepy and not at all shy about blood and death, but it's not an absolute gorefest that'll make you queasy. I believe this film was a key factor in the revival of zombie movies in the 2000s as much as the games it was based on, getting adult viewers who didn't pay much attention to video games (and, in 2002, that was a lot more people than it is today) interested in zombies by delivering them a slick, cleaned-up take on the genre the same way the games got their younger cousins to see a zombie apocalypse as the ultimate survival scenario. It's undoubtedly got its problems as both an action/horror movie and an adaptation, as generations of Resident Evil fans have pointed out over the years, with the action scenes bearing many of the worst excesses of early 2000s action cinema, the characters being mostly one-note ciphers, the story borrowing a few concepts from the games (the Umbrella Corporation, the t-Virus, some of the iconic monsters) and little else, and the third-act twists feeling convoluted and never really landing with the force the film wanted them to have. But as both a zombie movie and a film that takes the games' homages to American B-movies and brings them full circle, it's still an enjoyable thrill ride to this day.

The film begins with the Hive, an underground biological research facility beneath Raccoon City, getting put on lockdown and all personnel killed with nerve gas after somebody steals a sample of the t-Virus, a bioweapon that the facility's staff were working on, and unleashes an outbreak of such in the facility. Shortly after, we meet Alice, a woman who just woke up in the shower of a mansion with no memory of who she is or how she got there. We soon find out what's happened to her: she was a security guard for the Umbrella Corporation, the massive tech/research conglomerate that ran the Hive, posing as one half of a rich married couple as they guarded what turned out to be an emergency entrance/exit to the facility. The security systems in the Hive also set off gas in the mansion that knocked her out and left her with short-term memory loss. We learn this because a group of black-ops commandos hired by Umbrella have stormed the mansion and captured Alice, along with her "husband" Spence and a Raccoon City cop named Matt Addison who was investigating the place. The commandos are there to get into the Hive, figure out what went wrong, retrieve a t-Virus sample, and get out before its automated security systems seal it off permanently, and since they can't just leave these people behind unguarded given both the situation and what they know or might know, Alice, Spence, and Matt are coming with them.

The first ten minutes or so after the opening are undoubtedly the film's creepiest moment, as Alice explores the mansion and pieces together clues as to her identity while finding all manner of hints that she wasn't just some ordinary rich woman, most notably the well-stocked armory of guns in the cabinet and the fact that her wedding ring reads "Property of Umbrella Corporation" on the inside band. While Paul W. S. Anderson is best known as an action filmmaker, he can direct a compelling horror movie when he sets out to (see: Event Horizon -- or don't, if you're squeamish), and I found myself wishing that this early scene went on for far longer than it did. If I were making this movie, the first act would've been about Alice meeting up with Matt and the two of them exploring the house and uncovering its secrets while there's always a hint in the air that they're being watched and that Matt knows more than he's letting on, time that I'd have used to flesh out the two of them a bit more so that the big twists later in the film hit harder, all while building an atmosphere of suspense and tension that eventually would've had to snap once the commandos show up and everyone goes into the Hive. Give Milla Jovovich more time to spend in Leeloo Dallas Multipass mode, letting her play an awkward and scared young woman who has no idea what's going on at first before her memories slowly come back to her. It's a shame that this scene is as short as it is, because it was my favorite part of the film.

What follows, fortunately, isn't too much of a step down in quality as to ruin the film. As the protagonists explore the Hive, they are confronted at every turn by both the zombified staff of the facility and the various security systems that the Red Queen, the AI system controlling the place, uses to try and thwart them, which the film uses to serve up a slew of creative action scenes that include things like the protagonists scrambling to climb into the ceiling vents to escape a horde of undead, Alice roundhouse-kicking a zombified guard dog in the face, and a hallway booby-trapped with a laser defense system that slices up anybody who tries to get to the Red Queen's central core. While the casts' emotional acting and line delivery are nothing to write home about, most of them either playing their stock character types (no points for guessing that Michelle Rodriguez's character is a tough, aggressive tomboy, for instance, or that James Purefoy's character is gonna turn out to be a slimeball) or leaving little impression when trying to carry dramatic moments, their physical acting is what carries most of this movie, as all of them are credible as action heroes kicking zombie ass. Jovovich in particular had a flair to her that took her background as a supermodel and combined it with the physical training she went through to sell the action scenes to make Alice feel not just badass, but graceful and fully in control, like she was strutting down a catwalk in Milan ready to kill whoever was at the end of it. There's a reason why this movie and its sequels made her an action hero in the '00s, as she perfectly captured the particular feel of the RE games' heroines like Jill Valentine and Ada Wong, somebody who can not only kick your ass but look damn good doing it. I find it hilarious looking back that, barring Sienna Guillory as Jill in the second movie, none of the sequels' attempts to translate the video games' female characters to film ever managed to create a heroine who felt like she actually stepped out of the games as much as Alice, the original character that Anderson came up with for this movie. Jovovich was basically playing a PlayStation game character here, and she owned it.

That said, while this film absolutely has its moments, it never really excels either. Anderson is a filmmaker who I've always had mixed feelings about, on one hand appreciating his lack of pretension and unapologetic commitment to making glammed-up, modern-day versions of old-school B-movies (and the RE games are, if nothing else, loving homages to those same movies) but on the other always feeling that part of the reason for this is because he never really had what it took to go above and beyond the way that, say, Tony Scott, Luc Besson, or Michael Bay did. The effects in particular are where this film suffers most, especially with the awful CGI used to showcase both badly-damaged zombies and the Licker, the skinless, long-tongued mutant super-monster that comes after the protagonists late in the film. It's in moments like this where the film's slick, cool, stylized edge gives way to just feeling schlocky, especially when paired with its attempts at serious zombie horror, which lack much in the way of any real (pardon the pun) bite to them. The film goes through the motions of a lot of zombie movie tropes, from the drama of getting bitten and infected to being unable to put down a zombified person you knew and were friends with in life to the possibility of a cure for the virus, but it feels like it's going through a checklist, assembling a "greatest hits" of zombie movie moments and not really doing anything new, creative, or even particularly well-crafted with them. Late in the film, there's also an important subplot about corporate espionage, activists trying to expose Umbrella's crimes, and who Alice, Spence, and Matt really were and what they were really up to, taking plot threads that had mostly been treated as afterthoughts after the commandos showed up and suddenly having them be of critical importance. Again, giving just a bit more development to this side of the story earlier in the film instead of switching focus to the commandos ten minutes in would've done more to flesh this out and get me to care about the deeper story beyond just the protagonists' immediate survival. The film wanted to tell a story like the games where the Umbrella Corporation served as the "big picture" villains responsible for everything that went wrong, with the protagonists seeking to not only survive the horrors that awaited them but also bring them to justice, but here, it felt like it was thrown in only because that's how the games did it.

The Bottom Line

It's a flawed film, no doubt about it, and it's easy to understand why many RE fans still hate what Paul W. S. Anderson did with the material. But as a simple, pulpy, straightforward action/horror flick that never overstays its welcome, it still holds up as exactly the kind of movie it sets out to be, nothing more and nothing less -- which, in a way, makes it feel like Anderson understood the tone of the games, rooted as they were in homages to American B-movie trash, remarkably well. If you've never seen a "real" zombie movie before but wanna get into them, then this is easily one of the more approachable ones, and it's still a fun ride even if you're a seasoned zombie fan like I am.

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2026/09/review-resident-evil-2002.html>

For the mortal sin of not trusting its audience, The Unholy (2021) will suffer an eternity in Walmart bargain bins, flagellated by negative Letterboxd reviews. Those of us who bore witness will merely wait in purgatory for a day or two before our minds are blissfully cleansed of all memory of it. Hell, I finished the film two hours ago and I’ve had to look up the title three times just to write this review.

There’s a decent, if derivative, folk horror plot hiding in here somewhere. Gerry (Jeffrey Dean Morgan, aka Negan from The Walking Dead) shows up to a rural town in Massachusetts looking for a story he can sell to a small-time supernatural website. We learn that he was once an accomplished journalist who has fallen from grace; he splashes some whiskey in his coffee as cinematic shorthand for his fatal flaw.

The cattle mutilation angle doesn’t pan out so he’s forced to improvise by smashing a porcelain doll he finds in a twisted old tree, coming up with the idea that it was once a talisman that protected the town from evil, and now the townsfolk are doomed. Wow, got it in one, Gerr.

Soon after, Alice, a deaf young woman played with surprising vulnerability by Cricket Brown, approaches the tree and has a revelation. She wakes to find that she’s able to hear and speak again. She claims the Virgin Mary is working through her, and she is able to prove it by helping a disabled boy walk again.

The local diocese sends a couple of priests (one with the worst Boston accent ever put to film) to investigate the supposed miracles. Gerry volunteers his services as an unbiased third party to help interview her — in exchange for the exclusive scoop, naturally.

Up to this point, one might think they’ve stumbled on a hidden streaming gem. Sam Raimi has a producer's credit which lends the proceedings an air of competency. Morgan is charming in his Doctor House-ian, cynical aloofness. The cold open, set in witch trial times, gives us a chilling shot from the victim’s POV as a mask is hammered onto her face, and the flames start licking at the edges of the screen. The setup is promising, and we’re expecting a classic science versus theology battle, with supernatural elements trickling out just a little faster than they can be debunked.

Unfortunately, the film pulls the rug out with repetitive poorly-done CGI scenes of the villain, telling us almost instantly that yes, there is a monster, and no, they aren’t going to stop with the 2000s-internet-style “try not to scream” jump scares. At one point, Gerry is getting exposition dumped by Natalie (Katie Aselton of The League), and he randomly stops to examine a puddle all up close and personal-like…

A ring wraith with PS2-quality graphics flings itself out of the puddle at him!

He catches his breath, seemingly undisturbed by this turn of events, and he turns to look at Natalie…

But she’s been replaced by a ring wraith too! Those tricky Nazgul are around every darned corner.

He blinks and Nat is back, looking at him inquisitively, but he shakes it off. Throughout the film, Gerry is repeatedly visited by the ghost of Flash-game past and he never addresses it or talks to anybody about it. Just another day at the office for our intrepid hero.

It’s too bad; there are some legitimately creepy setups that could have paid off with something more subtle, but they just default to the screeching demon move every time. One scene in a confessional when a priest realizes the kind woman on the other side of the grille is admitting to some horrific stuff and flees: flying CG demon. Or when Gerry is reviewing interview footage and notices a glitch in one frame looks a lot like a face: flying CG demon. Or when our protagonists are poking around the church basement for clues, and Gerry starts pulling the sheets off of old statues one by one: not just the demon, but a whole silly-looking CG chase sequence to boot.

The plot devolves into a parade of baffling expository devices, culminating in a scene where they crack open an old journal to the exact page that has all the information about the entity, its history, its motivation, and how to defeat it. Luckily, Natalie says, “Med school had a Latin requirement”, so she can read 19th century scribbles like a Classics scholar.

It’s all leading to a showdown in the pop-up revival church the town has constructed around the miracle tree. Here, we get another glimpse that this could have been a competent film. Gerry has to complete his character arc in a satisfying way to defeat the ancient evil; the fact that Alice was deaf comes back into play as Natalie is able to communicate with her from across the room via sign language; the monster finally appears in a practical format that looks, frankly, badass. They squander it with a ham-handed “Gerry finds Jesus” moment and an unnecessary epilogue that makes you wonder if Morgan’s character was ever actually as cool as you remember.

My theory is that this was once a more meditative mystery-thriller about a journalist finding his integrity, a town coming to terms with a dark past, and a priest forced to reconcile the miraculous with the scientific. Take the jump scares out, let the audience piece together the history with gentle nudges, and let the climax end on the bittersweet resolution — now we have a totally serviceable flick. Just a hunch, but I suspect the producers had certain notes about losing the PG-13 crowd to the slow-burn and added the ring wraiths in post. Was it you, Sam Raimi?

Either way, you can skip The Uninvited The Unbidden The Unwatchable The Unholy. If you like the concept of a crew investigating miracles and finding more than they bargained for, I highly recommend The Borderlands (2013) — sometimes titled Final Prayer, depending on where you find it. I promise there are no shrieking demon witches waiting to jump out at you, there. Or is that just what I want you to think? [Insert shrieking demon]

The premise of Southern Scares easily reeled me in. The tagline is unfortunately the most exciting part of the film. I have been yearning for more southern gothic horror; a subgenre that has been sparse this decade. Southern Scares leans more into folklore instead of gothic, but it’s in the ballpark. The film follows a teenage girl, Roberta (Emma Gaines) who hosts the titular amateur tv show. The show within the film explores southern folklore, mysteries, and hauntings. Roberta documents her sleuthing which we follow from her sister, Ellen ‘s (Sydney Gowan) POV making the movie a partial found-footage film.

Southern Scares quickly becomes a missing person mystery as Ellen scours Roberta’s episodes to piece together what happened to the latter. Southern Scares is highly reminiscent of Shelby Oaks in this regard.  It falters heavily in comparison, however, and I say that knowing that Shelby Oaks is far from perfect. The latter is cohesive, well-structured and is coherent on its mystery. Southern Scares is not and it should have emulated it a bit more.

Southern Scares does start interesting, though. I’m a sucker for time-period analog horror, so I enjoyed the VHS recording approach. The film kicks off with Roberta introducing us to Southern Scares. Her exploration of various terrors is the high point of the movie. Writer and director, Paul Rowe has a nice idea but struggles piecing together a plot that coherently pulls the disappearance and the show together.

It struggles because it is torn between two subplots: watching Roberta fall apart by an entity and Ellen attempting to piece together Roberta’s disappearance. The issue is that the subplots are meant to mesh but we don’t sit with either long enough for them to make sense or have an impact. They eventually conjoin but what is supposed to be a resolution ends up being an incoherent, illogical, and unearned explanation.

Roberta’s storyline leaves me scratching my head. We don’t get enough of her to fully understand what is happening. We follow her for a few episodes on various topics and things go smoothly. Things pivot abruptly when she visits a haunted theatre. The first few haunts were simple investigations but the film telegraphs that this one will be different. Some weird stuff happens and Roberta is supernaturally attacked and things shatter for her from there.

This is where the film begins to crumble. Instead of sitting with this and exploring what happened, Roberta and Cameron the Camera Guy (Talen Hutchinson) move on as if nothing occurred. The film gives no explanation nor sits with her deterioration long enough to allow it to be a continuous plot point. Instead, it’s simply a thing that happens that is zipped past.  Roberta tries to continue but her health rapidly declines. The film moves so quickly that no dread, mystery, or tension is allowed to build. I’m especially confused once we get to The Big Bad. I’m unsure of what it is, what it wants, how it got here or why Roberta. The film oscillates so much between Roberta and Ellen’s storyline that none of these questions are answered.   

The main plot of the film is Ellen’s investigation. She never actually pieces anything together, however, and is simply watching the tapes along with the viewer. What is supposed to be an investigation is simply us watching an emotionally icy teen girl trot down memory lane.  This is where the film should have emulated Shelby Oaks better. The film wastes time with subplots that go nowhere instead of fully embracing the investigative approach.

The acting is lackluster. I’m lenient with low-budget films, but it is truly difficult to find a character to resonate with because the acting is so wooden. The film introduces emotional moments that fail to hit a chord.  Some of this is writing. Ellen’s grandfather, Danny (Jason Townsend) treats Roberta’s disappearance as if it were something that happened a long time ago, but Ellen reacts to it as if is recent. There’s a dissonance in their reactions to Roberta’s disappearance that is never rectified with the script. What should have been an emotional crossroads between the two ends up being characters feeling like they are in different movies.

Southern Scares has a compelling premise and gets off to a solid start but that’s where the good times end. The film has a botched execution that it never rights. The southern backdrop isn’t tapped into enough and the 90s time-period is also underutilized. The film wastes time going the “antsy teen girl” route rather than digging its teeth into a serious mystery. Conversely, we fail to learn much about either girl since screen time is split too anorexically to adequately explore both subplots.

Southern Scares is a miss and I am truly disappointed by that. The Deep South has a unique brand of horror that deserves to be showcased. The South can be downright petrifying for a host of reasons, and I appreciate a film that utilizes the locale to tap into this. Southern Scares points to a place where a good film is but runs in the opposite direction. The acting, writing, plot, and lack of atmosphere doom what could have been a diamond in the rough. I’d like someone to take this concept and follow through better.

—2.8/10

SPOILER ALERT

Just watched all episodes and I'm extremely frustrated. My thoughts are below but curious to hear from others

Good: Visually the cinematography is stunning and I love that they've incorporated Obeah into it and it's shown as a source of real ancestral power. Also really like how they weave in the reality of Black maternal mortality rates and how Black women's pain, medical trauma, and lives are never taken seriously by the system. And I guess most important is the focus on topic of reparations itself

Bad- I understand the narrative was trying to realistically show how difficult the battle for reparations is, and how they have and might never truly be received but

1. What do you mean the £50 million went straight back to the Connaught family?! All that could be clawed out was a measly £1.6 million paid out as reparations? And this is framed as any kind of victory?!
2. Matthew (Cudjoe) rejecting Obeah completely pissed me off. If he had actually embraced his roots and learned how to practice Obeah from his powerful grandma instead of rejecting it, he would have probably have been able to defeat his evil half sister Charlotte.
3. Why on earth did Claudia applogise to Charlotte when she claimed Matthew killed her child?! It will forever make my blood boil. It was an entirely unearned moment. Charlotte is an evil, vindictive, selfish pos. She denied a man his birthright by ignoring her father’s wishes to have him freed to oversee the plantation, sold his child, and literally worked his wife to death. Yet, that moment attempts to position her as a victim. And no I don't want to hear anyone trying to justify her behavior by saying she was a victim of the patriarchy- neglected by her father and her husband- cry me a river. Matthew didn't even have anything to do with her child's death but frankly, even if he did, it would have been completely justified retribution. Having the Black female lead offer an apology to, and in essence coddle, to a selfish, evil, unrepentant slave master's ghost is mindblowing.

I just watched Wes Craven’s Deadly Blessing, and it felt mind-bogglingly dumb. It had some interesting horror concepts in places, but the scenes never really escaped that classic, cringey 80s cheese, nor were they particularly unique (with the exception of the bathtub scene and a sequence near the end that gave me major Scream vibes) Honestly, I cannot understand how a script passes through that many hands and gets greenlit. The writing was completely incoherent, and characters would literally switch from devastating grief to casual chit-chat in a split second. The cult/sect element had potential, but the movie just leaves it hanging.

Hey everyone, I was rewatching Grave Encounters (2011) and noticed a massive, hyper specific clue that fans have overlooked for over a decade. By applying real world astronomical data to a single line of dialogue, we can actually lock down the exact location and calendar date of the movie, and it completely recontextualizes the lore.

The Clue:
When Lance Preston and the crew realize time has completely broken inside the asylum, Lance checks his watch and says it is 7:45 AM, but it is still pitch black outside.

The Real World Math:
The movie establishes that the fictional Collingwood Psychiatric Hospital is somewhere in rural Maryland. If you look at an astronomical sunrise map for the state of Maryland, there is only one specific region where a natural sunrise happens that late in the morning: Oakland, Maryland (located in the far western panhandle, running on Eastern Time but sitting far west geographically).

The Halloween Discovery:
Here is where it gets crazy. In Oakland, MD, what is the exact date where the sunrise hits precisely 7:45 AM right before the clocks roll back? October 31st. Halloween.

Why this fixes the lore:
In the beginning of the movie, the crew is told that paranormal activity in the asylum is usually incredibly minor (faint noises, cold spots). The TV crew fully expected to fake the whole episode. Instead, the moment they lock the doors, the building warps into a literal physical death trap where space and time bend.

If Lance and his crew accidentally locked themselves into the asylum on Halloween Night, it perfectly explains why the entities suddenly had enough cosmic energy to rewrite reality. They stepped inside right as the veil between the living and the dead was at its thinnest.

The Vicious Brothers inadvertently made the ultimate hidden Halloween movie. Let me know what you guys think!

I need to vent about the casting for the new Carrie series because it feels like Hollywood is dropping the ball all over again.
In Stephen King’s novel, Carrie is explicitly described as a thick, awkward girl with pimples and greasy hair. She isn’t secretly beautiful. She is genuinely unattractive, and that physical reality makes the relentless, casual cruelty of her bullies so much more believable and heartbreaking.
Yet, just like the 1976 and 2013 movies, the new series has cast another conventionally attractive actress, Summer H. Howell, who they will inevitably just “dress down” with plain clothes.
It sucks because studio executives always use the cop-out that a completely unglamorous protagonist will “isolate” the audience. But audiences already fell in love with the book precisely because Carrie represented regular, flawed people.
If a showrunner is a true creative, a deep, fearless artist, they should be able to take the character exactly as King described her and do something fucking phenomenal with it. Humans naturally sympathize more with attractive people, and a bold adaptation could have exposed that exact bias. Making Carrie’s isolation entirely about her being a strange, pretty girl instead of a strange, unattractive girl takes the safer, more superficial route.
Society is deeply cruel to people who do not fit conventional beauty standards. Refusing to cast an actress who reflects that raw reality robs the story of its sharpest and most painful edge.
It is incredibly frustrating that even a director with as much clout as Mike Flanagan has not broken the cycle. I hope the series proves me wrong, but right now it feels like another adaptation that stops short of giving us the uncompromising, realistic version of Carrie that the book deserves.

Directed by Sébastien Vaniček and produced by Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert, Evil Dead Burn arrives as the sixth entry in the franchise and a direct continuation of Evil Dead Rise (2023). It’s an intense and fast‑paced horror film that leans into the franchise’s strengths with brutal set pieces, sharp practical effects, and a steady stream of discomfort and mayhem. The tension remains strong throughout, delivering plenty of nightmare fuel and gore even when the mythology feels a little loose or underexplained. Imperfect but undeniably entertaining, it’s a fun ride that longtime Evil Dead fans will appreciate.

Evil Dead Burn follows Alice (Souheila Yacoub), a young widow who seeks comfort with her in‑laws after her abusive husband Will (George Pullar) dies in a car accident. When the family gathers at their secluded estate, Joseph (Hunter Doohan), Will’s brother, discovers a dagger that sets off a Deadite assault connected to the weapon’s power. As the chaos escalates and long‑buried family tensions surface, the possession spreads through the house with brutal force. Alice is pushed into a fight for survival as trauma and demonic violence collide around her.

This sixth instalment thrives on excess, pushing blood, violence, and a sense of spiralling disorder that fits the franchise well. Fans of visceral horror will appreciate the bolder, more aggressive carnage, especially during an unnerving dinner sequence that stands out as one of the film’s strongest moments. Some emotional weight is lost because Alice’s past relationship is only lightly explored, hinting at abuse and dependency without giving those themes the depth they deserve. Deadite behaviour can also feel inconsistent at times, but the film quickly follows its wild opening with squirmy scenes and well‑placed humour that offers brief relief without breaking the tension.

The cast handles the relentless brutality with strong commitment, giving the turmoil a steady emotional core even when the characters themselves feel a little thin. Much of the script leans away from deeper psychological material, favouring quick shocks and familiar survival beats over richer development. Even so, the performances land, especially Alice (Souheila Yacoub), whose intensity and physical presence anchor the film from start to finish. Thya (Luciane Buchanan) brings a strung‑out, unhinged energy that makes her Deadite scenes genuinely fun to watch, while grandmother Polly (Maude Davey) adds a creeping eeriness that lingers throughout. Joseph (Hunter Doohan) rounds out the ensemble with anxious, jittery tension that consistently increases the film’s sense of panic.

Evil Dead Burn’s visuals are one of its biggest strengths, kicking off at a frantic pace and pairing sleek production with immersive camera work that uses close‑ups, aggressive angles, and constant movement to heighten the chaos. Its colour palette adds even more impact, contrasting warm reds and oranges with colder blues, while the gothic‑leaning score and punchy music drops give the brutality an extra punch. The practical gore is off the charts, delivering some of the most vicious and creative effects the franchise has seen. One major stumble comes at the end, where excessive CGI use clashes noticeably with the otherwise grounded brutality. Even with that misstep, the extreme practical effects, precise direction, and relentless energy make this entry a standout for fans who crave full‑on carnage.

Evil Dead Burn delivers a bloody, fast‑moving, and visually striking experience that proves the franchise still has plenty of life in it. The mix of tight direction, wild practical effects, and relentless drive makes it an easy recommendation for horror fans. Even with a few stumbles, it remains a confident splatter showcase packed with energy, personality, and crowd‑pleasing savagery.

Review from rabbitinred.com.

Evil Dead Burn

3.5 out of 5

Being 50 years old and having been fortunate enough to grow up in one of the golden ages of horror, one of the standouts was the original Evil Dead trilogy. I would occasionally rewatch them over the years, as I never really had reason to think that Sam Raimi would return to the lore or allow anyone else to touch it. Of course that changed, in part due to the current trend in cinema, but 2013’s Evil Dead reboot by Fede Álvarez and Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise in 2023 were both strong entries into the franchise, so personally I was pretty happy and stoked for this take.

I want to love Evil Dead Burn, I really do. It’s not a bad movie by any means, and Sébastien Vanićek gives it a good shot. The gore is there in spades, and there are some strong performances in this, particularly by Souheila Yacoub and Luciane Buchanan. There are some gorgeous shots (particularly the fight between Thya, Alice, and Joseph), and the score is solid.

The biggest problem to me is this never feels like Evil Dead. The humor works well in the original trilogy and even in Rise, but this plays more like a straight horror movie à la the 2013 reboot, yet hamfists comedic elements that just didn’t work. And the family in this film just flat out sucks as humans. I felt zero sympathy for them at all; it’s probably fitting that Thya, Alice, and Max are the only ones I connected with and felt any emotion about.

There are two credit scenes, one towards the beginning that was mildly humorous, and a post one that is straight up vicious, if not leaving you going “wtf” a tad bit.

Again, it’s not a bad movie. It just wasn’t Evil Dead, for me at least.

I think it have potential, but maybe in my opinion because it's the director feature film debut, it can not really deliver the message to the audience.

I read in other review, it reminds me of get out or shattered island.

If compare to those, what i guess missing is the plot twist or the real secret behind them.

Or like i say, maybe there is a plot twist but i do not really get it.
Because i guess when the mother confront the student in the exit door hall, there is some sign of message of it happen in other reality (maybe student imagination because he really wanna focus about his research).

Also the final scene i don't really get is, at the end the mother do some makeup and the student become the maid.

What i hope is maybe the student become the subtitute of the children know, but maybe it is too easy to guess, so they don't take it to that way.

I always like german movie, and this movie have potential but like i say i wish i can get what the director want to tell us.

Like Lars von Trier meets the Coen brothers, a slapstick thrill ride of sexual violence, bullying, and parents who hate their kids.

I really liked this, it's my first Sion Sono movie, and I'll definitely check out more. It starts off with a meek man who can't solve his own problems, and it builds up this whole sick family, he's a son to a father and mother, he's a father and husband, all through the lens of brutal serial killing and thuggery. The grounding in a true story makes this sadder than your typical slapstick horror, but not being a straight up adaptation of that case gives Sono license to craft a narrative of the cycle of abuse dialed up to 11. Grim, funny, shocking, explosive in the back half.

I didn't think it needed to be two and a half hours long, that's a long fuse to the explosion that could have been shorter. But the payoff is really good for its own sake. The violence and gore is terrific, there's some genuinely sickening stuff and some real invention in parts.

Overall, I'd recommend it to people who like the World of Kanoko, Ichi the Killer, American Psycho, The House That Jack Built, the Vengeance Trilogy, Funny Games.

Presented as a true-crime documentary, the story of a serial killer terrorizing California, his cat-and-mouse game with the police, and glimpsing the larger terror behind the crimes.

Really excellent at mimicking cheap true-crime docs on Netflix and other streaming sites- flaws and all. If you watch as many of the paint-by-numbers serial killer docs online, you'll instantly see how successful this is as a pastiche of them. The slightly overwrought, too-cute end of scene lines, the cheap drone shots padding out the time, the substandard police work trying to pass itself off as heroic.

The horror elements are okay- the gore ranges from excellent to silly prosthetics, there's some kills that are genuinely original and exciting. Because we're getting an after-the-fact dissection of the case, the air is kind of let out of the balloon from the get go. However, I think there's some terror to be derived from the cosmic unanswered question.

Overall, well worth watching on Hulu, not a must see but especially for people who like true crime as well as supernatural horror, this was a really successful union of the two.

Simply put, Hocus Pocus did a better job telling this story.

Thank you.

2/5

I wanted to open a discussion with this question, but first, I need to talk about Ghostland (2018). For me, this is hands down one of the best horror movies I have ever seen. Along with Suspiria, it is one of the very few films that genuinely, deeply terrified me. If you haven't watched it yet, you absolutely need to see it as soon as possible!

The opening sequence of this movie is an absolute masterclass in tension and brutality. It sets such a suffocating, terrifying tone right from the start, and that raw home invasion scene is unforgettable.

It actually inspired my question: if you had the power to change horror history and save just ONE victim from an opening scene, who would it be?

Are you saving someone from a brutal nightmare like Ghostland, a classic icon like Casey Becker in Scream, or someone else entirely? Also, let me know if you’ve seen Ghostland and what you thought of it!

Adrian Chiarella’s feature debut, Leviticus, is a fresh and memorable addition to the queer horror subgenre, a film that stays with you in a quiet, unsettling way. It carefully balances supernatural horror with coming‑of‑age heartbreak, delivering something as terrifying as it is romantic. What begins as an eerie tale slowly reveals itself to be a potent, deeply emotional story about queer love pushed into the shadows, the kind of fear that hits hardest when you’ve been made to feel wrong for wanting someone.

We’re introduced to Naim (Joe Bird), a quiet teen who moves to a small, conservative Australian town and forms a connection with Ryan (Stacy Clausen), as both boys try to keep their feelings hidden from everyone around them. After they’re forced into a brutal conversion therapy ritual, a shape‑shifting entity attaches itself to them, taking the form of the person they desire most — each other. As they try to escape it, the boys are pushed into a fight against both the demon and the shame their community has carved into them.

I had the chance to see an advance screening of Leviticus at Toronto’s Inside Out Film Festival, and it’s a film that lands with a restrained but powerful impact. The title points directly to the Book of Leviticus, one of the most frequently cited scriptures used to justify homophobia, and that idea sits at the heart of the story. Chiarella shows how weaponized religion shapes this small town, turning fear into something these kids learn to carry in their everyday lives. The film kicks off with a sinister opening scene that pulls you in right off the bat, then builds tension through striking cinematography, grounded dialogue, and an enthralling gay love story at its center. The tight 90‑minute runtime could have used a few more scares, and the final act loses a bit of momentum, but Chiarella still manages to stick the landing beautifully.

Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen carry Leviticus with a level of commitment that marks them as rising talents. Because the film stays so tied to Naim and Ryan, the weight of the story rests almost entirely on their shoulders, and both actors rise to the occasion with broad emotional range. They shift between tenderness, fear, and full‑blown panic with ease, even playing two versions of themselves. The two share real on‑screen chemistry, and you feel it in several standout moments, including a sexy bus scene woven between the chaos. Audiences will want to see more of both actors in future genre work.

Chiarella’s command of atmosphere gives Leviticus a steady sense of dread. Cinematographer Tyson Perkins wonderfully captures the bleak rural town, using wide, desolate frames that reflect the characters’ longing. The film features minimal dialogue, so it leans heavily on facial expressions, body language, and the stark Australian landscape to carry the emotional weight, and Perkins’ visuals make even the silence feel loaded. The scares land because tension stays tight throughout, supported by a few bursts of gore and well‑timed jump scares that remind you this is still very much a horror film. Composer Jed Kurzel deepens that unease with a haunting score that blends minimalist strings and synths, echoing his earlier work in films like The Babadook and Alien: Covenant, while adding a more intimate, romantic undercurrent that suits Naim and Ryan’s story.

Leviticus is a bold and timely piece of queer horror, made with care and intention. Its moody atmosphere and thematic core make it a tense yet deeply rewarding watch, and Chiarella proves himself to be a promising new voice in the genre. Thoughtfully crafted and striking in execution, the film leaves a strong impression long after its final moments. Leviticus earns a spot high on the list of queer horror films, and you’ll want to catch it when it hits theatres on June 19th.

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