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Buddy is a fever dream throwback to 90s kids' shows such as Barney and the Teletubbies, with a dose of Pee Wee’s Playhouse and the recent horror sensation Backrooms thrown in for good measure. Is it satire, parody, comedy, or horror? The answer is a little bit of all of the above. Buddy is that rare enough picture these days: something not just an original take, but not something you’ve really seen before. It's a funny, disturbing, even occasionally scary trip into kid TV hel

The Godfather is, without question, a cultural phenomenon, at its core, always about more than just the American Mafia (a word that is not even said in the first movie). The film series, particularly the first two, are on most critics' short lists for some of the best movies ever made (the third, which I do happen to like, not so much …). The film is so ubiquitous that it seems as if many Godfather Devotees have forgotten, if they ever even knew in the first place, that it ca

Despite having an excellent cast – Robert DeNiro, Adam Scott, Michelle Monaghan, and Michael Keaton – The Whisper Man, based on the novel by Alex North, is a relatively flat, unoriginal thriller that at times feels like one part homage to previous classics of the genre, and three parts rip-off. In the town of Garretton, Detective Amanda Beck (Monaghan) investigates a missing child case, in the process discovering the body of a different child, the M.O. eerily fami

When it comes to reboots, requels, and the like, people often ask, “When is enough enough?” The answer, of course, is never. As long as there’s a chance that people will pay to watch and buy the tie-in merchandise, Hollywood will always be willing to risk spending hundreds of millions of dollars on an established property rather than a new, potentially “risky” idea. And let’s be honest: while the term may be new, reboots are not. Dracula, Zorro, Frankenstein, The Three Musket

Netflix’s The Last House has an interesting, fairly original premise and is one of those stories that make you wonder: what would I do in this situation? Would I be able to turn my entire home into a greenhouse and build elaborate traps to ensnare unwitting critters that stray into my yard (The answer on both, btw, is probably a resounding no)? It’s a taut Sci-Fi/Horror picture that brings you along for the ride until its ultimately questionable climax. Jason Delg

It is safe to assume that most of us have been infatuated with someone who does not feel the same way about us. With luck, most of us probably get through the worst of that in our teens-early twenties – learning from our mistakes, gaining confidence, and trying again sometime later. Obsession, written and directed by Curry Barker, tackles this subject head-on in a film that proved to be a breakaway hit and audience favorite of 2025. A plot that easily could have come off as s

Hokum has many elements to attract horror fans: a creepy house in the Irish countryside, a local legend about an evil witch, and it begins on Halloween, complete with carved turnips placed around said spooky house. Though it starts as a typical ghost story, Hokum ultimately proves to be not only that, but also a smart, twisty horror film with some excellent creep factor and more than a couple of surprises. Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott), a best-selling author of some not

The Fourth of July. Fireworks, hamburgers, hot dogs, and ... The Twilight Zone? If you're anything like me, Rod Serling's timeless show is as much a part of your July 4th traditions as sparklers and barbecues. Growing up as a kid, I only recall Twilight Zone marathons on Thanksgiving Day (in San Diego, it showed on channel 5 KTLA). The Syfy channel started showing marathons of the show on New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July a few years back (and apparently, the tradition of

Josh Malerman’s Incidents Around the House is both a good old fashioned ghost story but also a highly innovative one – genuinely scary (which, in my humble opinion, contrary to what the gushing reviews of ARC readers suggest, is hard to do), quite a bit sad, and kept me turning the pages in a way I have not been motivated to do in a long time. The book centers on and is narrated by Bela, a little girl who is being visited by an entity she calls Other Mommy, a kind

Full disclosure: Fright Night is not only probably my favorite vampire film, but it is also one of my favorite horror films of all time. Now, before you grab the torches and pitchforks and come after me for saying that, let me be clear by stating that no, as a movie, Fright Night pales in comparison to Sinners, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Nosferatu, and so many others. And as a horror film, it doesn’t hold a candle to the original Nightmare on Elm Street, Night of the Living Dead,

Dolly, directed by Rod Blackhurst (based on a short film directed by the same), is irreverent, gruesome, and (mostly) fun, a throwback to 70's and 80’s slasher films with enough gore to satisfy diehard horror fans. Macy (Fabianne Therese) and Chase (Seann William Scott) are a young couple who have driven to a wooded area in Tennessee to get away. Extremely nervous, Chase plans to propose while there, which Macy suspects. As they trek into the woods, they encounter

There are as many layers to Kane Parsons’ Backrooms as there are in the film’s endless, extra-dimensional maze of liminal spaces. It is, at its heart, the story of a divorced, alcoholic furniture store owner in dire financial and emotional straits, juxtaposed with the troubled past of his therapist and her (possibly) crazy mother. It is one part science fiction, one part horror, and two parts psychological thriller, a thought-provoking fever dream that’ll keep you talking ab

What Moves the Dead, T. Kingfisher’s retelling of Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher,” is a short, mostly satisfying throwback to Victorian horror, a fun, spooky tale and first book in a trilogy. Alex Easton, a retired soldier and veteran of war, is contacted by childhood friend Roderick Usher, who pleads with Alex to come visit, as Usher’s sister Madeline, also a friend of Alex’s, is gravely ill. Upon arriving at the Usher estate, Alex finds the house in utter dis

When The Mandalorian debuted on Disney+ back in 2019, the series was hailed as some of the best Star Wars in years, fresh balm on the still smarting wounds of the die-hard fans left by the “sequel movies” (Episodes 7-9). A friend of mine praised it for its western-style vibe, something really not seen in Star Wars since A New Hope back in 1977. I was forced to agree. Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) was one part Clint Eastwood in the Man with No Name trilogy and one part samurai ron

There was a moment, as I was reading I Was a Teenage Slasher, in which I started to understand what Stephen Graham Jones was doing as slasher-to-be Tolly Driver was being tested by his best friend (and big horror fan) Amber. In scenes that will appear familiar to fans of everything from Scream to Shazam, in which a hapless person is fan-splained the rules of the genre or given a battery of tests to gauge their abilities, Amber, convinced Tolly has become a “slasher” in the ve

When 28 Days Later first premiered, it was hailed as not only one of the “best” zombie films in years, but perhaps a new phase in the genre. After its success, and given that the film’s name practically invited more installments, it was only natural that it would spawn multiple sequels. After a long hiatus, the franchise returned with 2025’s 28 Years Later, followed immediately by its direct sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. While there is merit to the latest installme

Netflix’s Something Very Bad is Going to Happen, an 8-part horror series developed by Haley Z. Boston and produced by the Duffer Brothers of Stranger Things fame, is slick, spooky, and atmospheric, full of a lot of twists and turns – some you see coming, and some you probably won’t – a fast-paced, weekend-binge worthy show with appropriate amounts of gore and gross-out moments. The story follows Rachel (Camila Morrone) and Nicky (Adam DiMarco) as they journey to N

Family of Liars, the prequel to E. Lockhart’s best-selling novel We Were Liars, continues to follow the Sinclair family, diving farther back into their sordid past of secrets and lies, addiction, and even murder. Though lacking the impact of the first, the sequel continues to explore the sordid, dark secrets and lies of the Sinclairs and the long term repercussions thereof. This novel, set a generation before the events of We Were Liars, focuses on Carrie Sinclair

When it was announced that after 25 years, Stephen King would be returning to the world of the Territories in a third installment of The Talisman series, I thought I would give the first book of the same name another read (also probably the second in preparation for the third). The novel is a typical 80’s-era King dictionary-sized tome, the original paperback running year to 700 pages. Written in collaboration with fellow horror author and friend Peter Straub, The Talisman is

The concept of “best” is nearly always problematic when it comes to matters of art and entertainment, due mostly to the fact that the work put into the production and its ultimate effect on people are hard to quantify. There are fans and critics who seem to like attaching the words “best” and “yet” to almost every Marvel TV show that is released, so much so that I tend to groan internally when I hear it. And yet, Wonder Man , starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley, m