REVIEWSetc.

Weight loss culture is a big thing these days. I feel like that's a permanent truism, really. When has weight loss NOT been one of the pre-eminent things on Americans' minds? It's a constant top New Year's Resolution every single winter, and celebrity culture has made thin "in" for ages now. But in the back half of the 2020's, it only seems to be rising in prominence. It's easier to achieve than ever, what with appetite suppressant injectables flooding the market and being in

Another week, another new horror release has hit my favorite streaming service, Shudder. To be absolutely honest, Shudder has not been knocking it out of the park so far in 2026. So far of note, we have had Honey Bunch and Forbidden Fruits as outings that I quite enjoyed, and that was just about it. Well, I guess sMothered wasn't bad, either. But it's July as I write this, and they release, as I said, a new movie every week. Most of which I have watched! And most of which hav

"Cheers! To your perfect family." We've finally made it to the most anticipated film of 2026 for sickos. And the film I'm referring to is Evil Dead Burn! I don't know about anyone else, but I've been pretty hyped to see this entry ever since they showed off a teaser trailer in front of Lee Cronin's The Mummy. Despite not being a big horror aficionado like my colleagues, I've slowly become a fan of these grotesque films. In fact, I made an attempt to revisit some of the earlie

I like to imagine I'm really confusing the hell out of the little gremlin personally in charge of my Tubi algorithm. In recent months, Tubi has become one of my favorite streaming services. Its movie selection is almost unparalleled, and it has a wide array of both big name flicks and independent outings exclusive to the streamer. While most other services are clogging up with series and shows--I don't have the time commitment those require!--Tubi remains mostly dedicated to

Leviticus follows two gay teens, unaccepted for who they are by the people around them, as they see an entity that's trying to harm them after being subjected to a religious conversion ritual. The entity takes the shape of the person they're most into, in this case each other. Only they can see it, making it impossible to prove to anyone else around them. The two main performances are where this movie shines. Joe Bird plays the protagonist, Naim, and we follow him through a w

Kraken opens on old news footage. Eyewitness interviews. People describing something massive in the water near a Norwegian fjord. The helicopters searched. They found nothing. Cut to present day. Two kids on a jet ski fall into the water and don't come back up. Johanne (Sara Khorami) is a marine researcher who gets called in to inspect a fish farm in Vangsnes. Her first instinct is to pass. She has her reasons. Then she sees video of fish voluntarily jumping out of the water

Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a down on his luck furniture salesman in the Bay Area. His wife kicked him out and he currently lives inside of the furniture store. After a series of mysterious events, he stumbles upon the titular Backrooms, an unexplainable series of yellow rooms that appear to go on forever. He details this with his therapist, Mary (Renate Reinsve), who meets him with some skepticism, but eventually decides to explore herself. What they find, to quote the film,

I've written so many times about Shudder. No other streaming service brings me as much joy while, at the same time, also inflicting upon me so much suffering. Shudder Roulette is real; I never have any idea what I am going to get from that service. I was quite pleased earlier this year with Honey Bunch, sure. But it's been rough sledding since then. Just one disappointment after another for me. Nothing else has even hit close to my top ten of the year, even at this point. Hon

A guy buys a wish granting toy from a crystal shop because he is too scared to tell his friend he likes her. She starts loving him unconditionally. He thinks this is great. It is not great. This is the premise of one of the most unsettling horror films I have seen in years and I have not stopped thinking about it. Curry Barker is a YouTuber. A prankster. This is his debut feature. I am as surprised as you are. What makes Obsession so genuinely disturbing is not the broken gla

It is legitimately amazing to me how many shark attack movies there have been made in the world ever since the success of Jaws back in the 1970's. "Shark attack movies" is almost commonplace enough to be its own whole genre of cinema. No other breed of animal has been committed to film as predatory antagonists nearly as often as sharks have. Granted, it's not always the same KIND of shark; usually it's a great white, sure, but it's also occasionally been bull sharks, tiger sh

Ohm (Adam Scott) is an American novelist who travels to a remote, deteriorating hotel in rural Ireland to spread his parent's ashes. He is struggling with unresolved grief, and also a case of writers block. He is a successful writer, but seems to be struggling with the ending of the trilogy he's been writing for years. When he arrives at the hotel, something is clearly off. Whether it be the cagey staff members, or the low attendance, the hotel has an undeniable eeriness hang

You know a Shudder movie is a big deal when it gets a full theatrical release before it hits the horror streaming service. Previously, such films have included Late Night With The Devil and In A Violent Nature. These were efforts where there was clearly enough sentiment that they would do well in cinemas and draw in some more profit for the company, so they were released in theater months before they made their way to the service. In A Violent Nature finished with a modest bo

The Wrestler-To-Actor pipeline sure is full of twists and turns and loop-de-loops. You would think that being real time performers for whom speaking is a large part of the job, they would be able to create a screen presence and recite lines pretty easily when allowed multiple takes. And yet, as history has shown, it's anything besides a sure thing. One of the greatest and most charismatic professional wrestlers of all time, the Immortal Hulk Hogan, was notoriously bad at the

Margot (Barbie Ferreira) works as a content moderator for a video-sharing platform, where her job is to filter out disturbing content before it reaches the public. She comes across a series of videos involving mannequins committing brutal murders, and assumes they are likely fake. As more of the videos surface, she begins to suspect they might be real. She drives herself to madness in pursuit of the killer, bringing to light some of her own complicated history with internet f

"Don't worry, Grandma. It's fun to be dead." Let me start by clearing something up. No! Brendan Fraser is not in this film. Nor is Tom Cruise. In fact, Lee Cronin's The Mummy takes on a more grittier and gnarlier version of the known property that originated back in 1932, when Boris Karloff played the titular role. Cut to 2026 and we have Irish filmmaker, Lee Cronin ( Evil Dead Rise ), stepping into the director's chair and producers, Jason Blum ( Paranormal Activity ) and J

Exit 8 is a Japanese movie adaption of the video game The Exit 8 . A man, played by Kazunari Ninomiya and credited as The Lost Man, finds himself trapped in an endlessly looping subway tunnel, trying to find exit 8. He soon learns the rules: if there is an anomaly in the current loop, he must turn back and go the other way. If there isn't an anomaly, he must keep going the way he is going. If he goes the correct way, the next exit goes up in number one by one until he reache

Disguised as a sweet treat, Forbidden Fruits reveals itself to be sticky and messy, like fruit juice running down your arm. Jumping out of the gate with a balls-to-the-walls directorial debut, Meredith Alloway's influence from the teen drama films of the late 90s and early 2000s is willfully embraced to bring forth a new cult classic in 2026. Confidently walking the halls of an overly busy shopping mall, the Fruits, Apple (Reinhart), Fig (Shipp) and Cherry (Pedretti) sancti

Redele Riding (Victoria Tait) has been expelled from school and is doing her best to hold things together. She's living with her one-armed mother, Scarlet who is slowly disappearing into her heroin addiction. When Scarlet finally overdoses, Red is left with no money, no plan, and no options. She gets sent to live with her estranged grandmother Penelope (Lynsey Beauchamp), a Scottish aristocrat with a large estate in the Highlands. It's about as far from Red's London flat as y