Ryan Coogler’s box office hit Sinners will arrive on HBO Max with an unprecedented new viewing option not available during its theatrical run. The film launches on the streaming service on July 4th and will be presented in both its original version and a groundbreaking new version featuring a Black American Sign Language (BASL) interpretation. The new version will feature a performance by interpreter Nakia Smith, working under the direction of Rosa Lee Timm, who previously directed the American Sign Language (ASL) versions for other major Warner Bros. Pictures releases, including Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and A Minecraft Movie. This innovative release strategy provides a new layer of accessibility for the critically acclaimed horror film, ensuring its celebrated story can be experienced by a wider audience upon its streaming debut.

Sinners offers an atmospheric genre blend that is uniquely suited for a BASL presentation. Set in the 1930s Mississippi Delta, the story centers on twin brothers, both played by Michael B. Jordan, who establish a local juke joint. Their ambitions become endangered with the arrival of vampires, forcing them to confront a supernatural threat in their community. The narrative uses this horror framework to explore the deep-seated issues of structural racism in America, grounding its fantastical elements in a very real and harrowing historical context.

Read Next

Why Sinners Should Win Best Picture

A key component of Sinners‘ celebrated identity is its deep connection to the blues music of the era. The score, composed by Ludwig Göransson, was widely praised for its authenticity, drawing inspiration from 1930s and 1940s blues and featuring performances from legendary musicians like Buddy Guy. Much of the music was recorded live on set to capture a raw and immersive soundscape. This focus on Black culture, music, and history makes the addition of a BASL interpretation a particularly inspired choice, offering a visual language that aligns with Sinners‘ thematic core.

Sinners‘ Shattering Box Office Success and Critical Acclaim

The streaming release for Sinners comes on the heels of a dominant theatrical run that established the film as a major commercial and critical success. The original horror movie defied industry expectations, earning a massive $361.7 million at the worldwide box office against a production budget of around $90 million. In addition, its domestic opening weekend of $48 million marked the best debut for a live-action original film since 2019. This remarkable performance secured Sinners‘ place as one of the year’s highest-grossing movies and one of the most profitable original films of the decade, driven by stellar reviews and strong audience word-of-mouth.

The film’s financial success is all the more impressive given its status as a completely original story in a marketplace often saturated with sequels and established franchises. Sinners now stands as one of the highest-grossing original horror movies of all time, joining the ranks of modern classics like A Quiet Place and Get Out. Despite the monumental success and a narrative that left open the possibility of a follow-up, director Ryan Coogler has been clear that he has no plans to develop a sequel. He stated that his creative intention was to tell a complete and self-contained story that functioned as a “full meal” with a definitive beginning, middle, and end. This commitment to artistic integrity over potential franchise expansion makes the film’s commercial triumph even more significant, highlighting it as a project that succeeded entirely on its own creative merits.

Sinners premieres on HBO Max on July 4th.

Will you be watching the BASL version of Sinners, and what did you think of the film in theaters? Let us know in the comments.

The post Sinners Comes to Max With a New Version Not Seen In Theaters appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Every year, we eagerly await to see what the top summer blockbusters will be, knowing they’ll create memorable experiences for years to come. That brings us to what is often considered the first summer blockbuster, Jaws. Jaws was released on June 20, 1975, and even 50 years later, this movie’s impact on the industry is still felt. It became what felt like an instant classic, pulling in over 100 million at the box office. At the time, it broke records left and right, setting a precedent for all summer movies to follow. That begs the question: how did Jaws change the industry?

Jaws is an American thriller based on Peter Benchley’s novel. Adapted by Steven Spielberg, the film weaves a terrifying tale of a great white shark and the horror it unleashed on a small New England town. It was a genre-defying film, merging thriller, horror, and monster elements into an action-packed 124 minutes. While it isn’t hard to guess that Jaws directly affected how the population viewed beaches, it also had a lingering effect on the movie industry, especially for summer blockbusters.

The Success of Jaws

Jaws was an unprecedented success, bringing in more money than was ever expected, especially for the time. People loved it, with many fans reporting that they went back to the theater for multiple viewings. This was years before Star Wars, another movie famous for its repeat audience. Looking at cold, hard numbers, it’s easy to see that Jaws was worth the money. Jaws cost a mere 9 million to make but grossed over 450 million by the time it was all said and done.

While critics were quick to point out the film’s flaws, fans fell in love. It didn’t hurt that Jaws was released simultaneously across hundreds of theaters. While that’s the standard these days, it was a groundbreaking concept at the time. Previously, films would follow a carefully regimented plan of release. The creators also hyped the film up quite a bit, creating a new form of marketing strategy. Again, another first for the industry. In a way, it makes sense that marketing would affect the bottom line of Jaws. How many of us have complained about missing a movie’s release, because the marketing failed to cross our desks?

How Jaws Changed the Industry

The success of Jaws taught the industry a few important lessons. First, the wide-release strategy worked. Second, it was clear that marketing was essential, and finally, that high-concept, high-budget, and ideally, high-profile films have a solid chance of returning on investments. In other words, the industry learned that to achieve success, it needed to create yearly spectacles.

However, this was not the only thing Jaws did differently, causing a ripple effect of changes throughout the industry. Jaws produced an unprecedented amount of merchandise. Admittedly, not all of it was legit or licensed merch, but it still taught the industry a valuable lesson. Today, it’s all but expected for a film to produce a certain amount of merch, starting with limited-edition popcorn buckets and spreading outward from there.

Read Next

7 Underrated Monster Movies You’ve Probably Forgotten About 

Jaws also caused a different sort of shift, as previously, the biggest films of the year were held back until the holiday season. However, it quickly became apparent that summertime was potentially the most lucrative time to drop larger films.

The Rise of the Summer Blockbuster

In a way, Jaws was the perfect summer storm. It was released in the summer and set in summer. The setting alone ensured that the audience would always think of war (but dangerous) beaches and days in the sun, anytime the subject came up. The next big summer blockbuster was Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, which was released a mere two years later. Notably, Star Wars borrowed a few pages, such as the increased marketing strategy and leaning into the musical potential the franchise had to offer.

Since then, dozens of movies have tried to follow suit, to varying degrees of success. Jurassic Park came out in June of 1993, stealing the show and breaking new ground. The 1999 film Deep Blue Sea tried to play with the same genre, but it earned mixed reviews in the process. More recently, The Meg tried to repeat this combined success, telling a monster story set at sea. While Jaws fans hesitate to make direct comparisons, the movie grossed pretty well, especially at the box office.

The Unexpected Effects of Jaws

Jaws did more than revolutionize the summer box office, as it had a direct impact on sharks and pop culture. The summer that Jaws was released, there were reportedly fewer people at the beaches. Yes, really. Unfortunately, that isn’t all good news for sharks, as shark hunting increased after Jaws‘ release. It could be a causation/correlation problem, but most likely it is exactly what it looks like.

While many people became terrified of sharks, many more found themselves fascinated. It’s no wonder that Shark Week persisted for so long, or that there have been dozens of attempts to create shark-themed films.

The post The Movie That Started It All: Remembering The First Summer Blockbuster appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Monster movies have been around for a long, long time. The earliest days saw the release of classics like King Kong, a film which has continued to influence filmmakers and entrance audience members for nearly 100 years now. Then there was a boom in the ’50s, with American films like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms and Them! attracting box office dollars and accolades, but even combined they didn’t prove to be as influential as Japan’s Gojira, which kickstarted a franchise that continues strong to this day.

What follows are the best giant monsters from movies that aren’t, well, King Kong or Godzilla. We avoided monsters from movies that aren’t specifically monster movies, with apologies to the sandworms from Dune and the Chitauri Leviathans from the Avengers movies. Also, extra-large animals like the Anaconda and dinosaurs were out. Even if they were genetically engineered by man with the help of some ancient mosquitos, they’re still dinosaurs, not monsters.

What’s your favorite movie monster? Do you go for scariness or cool design? Either way, they’re probably listed below.

1) “Clover” in Cloverfield

Cloverfield is one of the best found footage movies to date, and what works about its monster, unofficially dubbed “Clover,” is that we don’t see much of it. The found footage angle doesn’t really allow for that.

The 25-story tall creature has a thick hide that allows it to withstand military attacks and, while it doesn’t come equipped with laser breath or anything, it’s fairly agile for a creature of its size. It also has a bunch of parasites that break off it and terrorize anyone unlucky enough to be in the vicinity.

Stream Cloverfield on Paramount+.

2) The Octalus in Deep Rising

The Kraken in director Stephen Sommers’ underrated Deep Rising, officially named Octalus, manages to be a genuinely frightening CGI monstrosity. It spends the film devouring the cast and crew of luxury cruise ship Argonautica, and with its seemingly unlimited number of teeth we believe it can do so.

The Octalus also comes equipped with tentacles that partially function independently of their host. Each one has teeth of its own and doesn’t hesitate to use them. Sometimes it spits people out, too, which results in the hideous sight of them being melted by the acid sloshing around within it.

Stream Deep Rising on fuboTV.

3) Gamera in the Gamera Movies

It may not be quite as long running or critically revered, but the Gamera franchise has done well for itself. Gamera started out just like Godzilla: a big monster that spews fire and does a lot of damage. But, even in the beginning, he was somewhat more benevolent than Godzilla, at least with kids.

As the franchise wore on, Gamera became even more of a friendly presence until he was outright called the guardian of the universe. Are most of the movies particularly good? Not really, but Gamera has almost as solid a design as Godzilla’s. Sure, it’s a little silly seeing a turtle spew fire out of its mouth and fly through the air, but the movies actually make him work.

Stream Gamera, the Giant Monster on Prime Video.

4) Gorgo in Gorgo

Gorgo was England’s answer to Toho’s Gojira, and like every other Godzilla rip-off, it’s not nearly as good. But it is fairly well-made, and the design of the title monster is more impressive than what was seen in similar fare like Yongary, Monster from the Deep and Gappa: The Triphibian Monster.

Gorgo is a massive amphibian that, like many other kaiju, seems to be almost entirely impervious to military intervention. He doesn’t breathe fire, but his perky ears to allow him acute hearing. Not to mention, the movie also pulls a Jaws 3 and has Gorgo be the child of an even larger, more ferocious mother monster. Together, they’re able to tear apart London before slinking back to the sea (the area where they’re most comfortable) for a hopefully more peaceful life.

5) The Megalodon in The Meg

It’s no Jaws, but The Meg is a fun shark movie with a quick pace and a perfect lead role for Jason Statham. But, while Statham is a huge star and displays a certain magnetism in all of his movies, this is really the titular megalodon’s movie all the way through.

Given the constraints of the PG-13 rating (which allowed the film to become something of a blockbuster back in 2018), those behind The Meg manage to make the beast pretty intimidating. There’s no blood, be we certainly see it gobble up a ton of people.

Read Next

3 Jason Statham Movies That Prove He’s The Best Action Star

6) The Various Kaiju in Pacific Rim

One of the best mainstream kaiju movies out there, Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim is an extremely ambitious blockbuster. And, even with a scenery-chewing performance from Ron Perlman, it’s pure spectacle all the way through.

The world has been thrown into a new type of war. Instead of two countries going head-to-head, it’s now humanity trying to survive the Kaiju, and del Toro and others behind the film went to great lengths to give each one of the monsters unique physical appearances. They come in different sizes too, with “smaller” Category II ones like Onibaba absolutely dwarfed by Category IV kaiju like Leatherback.

7) Quetzalcoatl in Q: The Winged Serpent

Larry Cohen’s Q is like It’s Alive and The Stuff in that it’s a monster movie that doesn’t mind hopping around genres. In this case, it’s a kaiju movie, a mystery, a horror movie, and a police procedural all wrapped up in one.

The title monster is Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, which is essentially a big, winged dragon (minus the fire breathing) that has been swooping down on unsuspecting New York civilians. It grabs them from their rooftops, devours them, and leaves a lot of blood in its wake. And she does leave a lot of blood. Unlike most of the other entries on this list, Q is a blood-soaked movie that earns its R rating. The only one that’s more intense is the aforementioned Deep Rising.

Stream Q on Prime Video.

8) Graboids in Tremors

A movie that helped shape many ’90s kids’ youths, Tremors is one of the absolute best monster movies ever made. All six sequels combined don’t even match half of its power (though Tremors 2: Aftershocks is pretty fun).

It’s only in the first movie where the subterranean Graboid is truly fearsome. It’s reveal is perfectly built up in a gradual way. And, once we do see it, we see a masterful creation that only practical effects can bring to life. With an overall length of about 30 feet and the ability to detect vibrations and swiftly reach its target, it’s a killing machine. And with snakelike tentacles that come from its mouth, it’s an ugly sucker, too.

9) Reptilicus in Reptilicus

While Danish-American kaiju movie Reptilicus is one of the lamest rip-offs to come out in the wake of Gojira‘s success, that’s more due to threadbare production values than the actual design of the title antagonist. Reptilicus is basically a scaled snake that spits acid, and while his effectiveness is held back by the restraints of the budget, he’s still a pretty neat looking beastie.

Reptilicus is actually pretty well-equipped for a kaiju. On top of his ability to spit acid, he also is strong enough to basically just push his way through buildings. And, thanks to his scale, he’s able to take any number of tank shells and flamethrower flame bursts. Not to mention, while his wings are small as can be, he can still fly.

Stream Reptilicus on Prime Video.

10) The Kaiju in Colossal

It may be on the poster, but really the kaiju of Colossal is just a small part of Colossal. What the film really excels at being is a study on alcoholism and abusive, manipulative people. But the kaiju is pretty unique looking, too.

The monster is brought to life by frequently drunk unemployed writer Gloria. It only attacks Seoul even though she lives on the other side of the planet. It’s a manifestation of her own dependency issues, and it only comes to be when she is standing on a particular sandbox in a particular playground. But, given how Gloria doesn’t want to harm people, it’s a benevolent monster. The massive robot that is a manifestation of Jason Sudeikis’ Oscar, however, is far from benevolent, because despite first appearances, he is far from benevolent.

Stream Colossal for free on Kanopy.

The post 10 Best Giant Movie Monsters That Aren’t Godzilla or Kong appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Angels and demons, pagan gods and urban legends — this action horror tragicomedy of a show has it all. For 327 episodes and 15 seasons, Supernatural took us on a ride aboard a sleek 1967 Chevy Impala, chasing mysteries, solving murders, hunting things, i.e., the family business. But, at its core, it has always been a show about family. We’ve known this from the start, from the very moment when Sam Winchester (Jared Padalecki) first stared down his big bro, Dean (Jensen Ackles), when the latter literally forced his way into the former’s life and home. The connection was undeniable, the chemistry electric. 

From the Pilot itself, it was all about the two brothers. But apparently that wasn’t the original plan at all. In fact, it took creator and showrunner Eric Kripke and producer Robert “Bob” Singer quite a few episodes to realise what viewers knew from the start — that it was never just about hunting down the monster of the week in modern Western-style settings. It was about family, and how far you’d go to protect it.

Fate, Freewill, Family, & the Supernatural Saga

Back in 2009, in an interview with Maureen Ryan for the Chicago Tribune, Kripke revealed that his original plans for the show weren’t centered around the two brothers and their unshakeable bond come hell or high water. In fact, they were supposed to just serve as a way to explore the many colorful myths and urban legends that make up the American lore. 

“When we started out, we were going to make a horror movie every week. It was about the monsters, and it was about Hook Man and Bloody Mary and the urban legends and the boys, honestly, in the beginning, Sam and Dean were an engine to get us in and out of different horror movies every week,” he says. It took around four or five episodes for him to notice what had been staring him in the face. So, they went from asking, “What’s the monster?” to “What should we put Sam and Dean through?” And, honestly, thank Chuck for that. Because, hundreds of episodes later, we cannot begin to imagine what it would have been like if they had stuck to their initial plan.

Read Next

One of Supernatural’s Best Characters Was Supposed to Appear in Just One Episode, But They Were Too Popular

Before the show had even gone into production, Kripke’s original plans had already undergone multiple alterations. He began with two tabloid reporters driving in and out of cities, decrypting urban legends. It then became about two gunslinger brothers, oozing masculinity and Han Solo energy, driving into towns to face local supernatural fiends, kissing girls, and riding off into the sunset. While that does sound fun to be fair, it doesn’t seem like something that could even begin to hold a candle to what the show eventually went on to become. In Kripke’s own words, “The story is about ‘Can the strength of family overcome destiny and fate, and can family save the world?’” It’s fate vs free will. It’s about two boys who always have each other’s backs, even and especially when they each believe they don’t deserve it. It’s about redemption, salvation, hope, and heartbreak. And that is so much more poignant than chasing cool new monsters every week. 

Supernatural has always been about its characters and the connections they share. While the Winchester boys and Castiel (Misha Collins) are inarguably the heart of the show, the people they meet, love, and lose are equally important to the narrative. From Crowley (Mark Sheppard) to Charlie (Felicia Day) to Bobby (Jim Beaver) and Sheriff Jody Mills (Kim Rhodes), these people form the emotional core of the series. Getting to take down wendigos and women in white adds flavor, but it’s definitely not the main course. Because, at the end of the long, long road, when we look back, we don’t remember epic battles between angels and demons and feverish fights against fearsome fiends. We remember how we giggled at “Pudding!”; melted when Sam went, “I lost my shoe”; did a spit-take when we heard “You married fake Ruby”; and choked up when Bobby first said, “Family don’t end in blood.”

We remember Dean, ever the protective big brother, who would literally go through the circles of hell to protect his brother, but didn’t believe he deserved redemption. We remember Sam, once plagued by a demonic destiny, running away from the trauma of a childhood lost, and somehow finding his way back home. After all, it’s just as Kripke said, “…The only thing that matters is family and personal connection, and that’s the only thing that gives life meaning. Religion, gods, and beliefs…it all comes down to your brother.  And your brother might be the brother in your family, or it might be the guy next to you in the foxhole, it’s about human connections.”

And that, in the end, is what Supernatural has always been about. Nothing more, and definitely nothing less.

You can re-watch Supernatural on Netflix.

The post The Original Plan for Supernatural Would Have Totally Changed the Series (And It’s Good It Was Scrapped) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

One of the most underappreciated DC movies ever made will be leaving Netflix very soon. While there are many brilliant DC projects available to watch on Netflix in the United States, including several of The CW’s Arrowverse shows (Arrow, The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow) plus a number of DC animated series, one of the franchise’s most underrated projects will soon be lost. On July 1, 2025, Francis Lawrence’s Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves as the titular exorcist, will be leaving Netflix.

Based on DC Comics’ Hellblazer comic series, Constantine focuses on Reeves’ John Constantine, a cynical warlock and occult detective who has the ability to perceive angels and demons and travel between Earth and Hell. While Constantine was met with a mixed response after its original release in February 2005, the movie has received retrospective acclaim and amassed a huge cult following, which means many will be sad to see it leaving Netflix on July 1st. Constantine may be bidding farewell to Netflix now, but the movie’s history on the streaming platform proves there’s still hope.

Constantine first joined Netflix on January 1, 2016, over a decade after its original release, and, since then, it’s been removed and added back three times. There’s typically been a gap of two or three years between the movie being removed from Netflix and returning, which means it’s possible that Constantine could return to the streamer in 2026, 2027, or beyond. This might be just in time to act as promotion for Constantine’s much-anticipated sequel, which was confirmed to be in development back in 2022.

Read Next

Every Movie and TV Show Leaving Netflix in July 2025 (Including a Major Movie Series)

The upcoming sequel to Constantine will be a DC Elseworlds project, set outside the mainstream DC Universe. James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DC franchise kicked off with the animated Creature Commandos series in 2024, and will be continuing with July’s Superman reboot, while the likes of Matt Reeves’ The Batman movies, Todd Phillips’ Joker movies, and Ta-Nehisi Coates’ planned Black-led Superman movie are all Elseworlds projects set in alternate realities. Constantine 2 doesn’t yet have a scheduled release date, but both Lawrence and Reeves are expected to return.

Audiences have one day left to watch Constantine on Netflix, but there is a chance the 2005 movie could return to the streaming service at some point in the future. It would be even more exciting if this occurs in the lead-up to Constantine 2’s release, though it’s unclear exactly when this will take place. Constantine’s vocal and passionate cult following is waiting patiently for the sequel to release, but should catch up on the 2005 original beforehand – it’s a brilliant and underrated DC flick.

What did you make of Constantine? Are you excited for the sequel? Let us know in the comments!

The post Netflix Is About to Lose One of the Most Underrated DC Movies Ever appeared first on ComicBook.com.

2025 has already been an incredible year for film, with many films already vying for Academy Award nominations. From sentimental love stories like Materialists or loud racing blockbusters like F1: The Movie, there looks to be a lot of competition at this year’s awards show. Easily the biggest Oscar contender to come out in 2025 so far is Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. Coogler’s first venture into original storytelling is his magnum opus, combining deep thematics with a relentlessly entertaining vampire story in a manner that anyone can enjoy. Although horror films rarely receive recognition at the Academy Awards, this film is more than worthy of being acknowledged.

Not only should the film be nominated in a variety of categories, but it should easily win Best Picture. Its ability to transform the medium and entertain audiences makes it extremely deserving of the top award in film.

Sinners Is the Phenomenon That No One Saw Coming

Sinners had a lot of hype throughout its production, due to the star power of Black Panther and Creed duo Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler, but the real buzz came right when the film was released. The love for Sinners was widespread, and this was reflected in its box office run. In its second weekend, the film experienced a 4.8% decrease from its opening weekend – a rare occurrence for a horror movie. This statistic not only represents the film’s strong acclaim but also provides a reason why the Academy should consider it for an Oscar.

Ryan Coogler has built an incredible resume of films, with movies like Judas and the Black Messiah scoring him an Oscar nomination for producing, and a songwriting nomination for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – and that’s not counting the numerous actors and crew members who have all gained major awards nominations and/or wins from working on Coogler projects. Sinners is arguably his best work yet. His deep passion for film is seen in every frame. Whether it’s the stunning and innovative 70mm cinematography or its awe-inspiring musical numbers, Ryan Coogler delivers an experience that is more than worthy of earning him an Oscar nomination.

Read Next

Sinners Proves Cinema’s Future Is In The Past

Ludwig Göransson is arguably the best modern composer of his time, and his work on Sinners is strong evidence of that. The way he blends blues music with rock instrumentals makes for a one-of-a-kind experience. The music serves as a tempo, grounding the film with a rhythm that brings it to life. Göransson has already received two Oscar wins in the past decade, but his work on Sinners could potentially earn him a third, and it would be deeply deserved.

Sinners Is Unlike Any 2025 Movie Experience

The cinematography in Sinners not only brings the world to life in such an expansive manner, but also changed how films are shot. It was the first film ever to be shot using Ultra Panavision 70 and IMAX 65 cameras simultaneously; these cameras allow for a taller and broader view of the frame, creating the most beautiful images 2025 has to offer. The film also invented the halo rig, which involves surrounding an actor’s face with 10 to 12 cameras to capture facial movements. These technical achievements not only make Sinners a worthy Best Picture winner, but also make the film deserving of a win in the cinematography category.

Sinners also boasts one of the best ensembles of 2025, which is unlikely to change by the end of the year. Michael B. Jordan’s previous collaborations with Ryan Coogler have showcased his talents, but his work in Creed II expresses his range as an actor. His ability to convey two entirely different characters makes for a highly compelling performance worthy of Oscar consideration. But the surprise performances of the film come from Delroy Lindo and Miles Caton. Lindo brings an excellent sense of humor to the film while portraying his character’s tragedy with seamless ease. Caton is the heart of the film, with his powerful singing voice and emotionally driven performance bringing the film’s main themes to life. With this being the first year of the Best Casting category, I fully expected Sinners to be nominated.

The film is not just a well-made vampire flick, but a deeply resonant look at black oppression, freedom, and music. The film utilizes vampires as a metaphor for the harsh reality of the path to freedom, illustrating how it sometimes means being stripped of one’s humanity. It also uses music as a means for building culture and how it can bring generations of people together. The way the film tells its story feels singular to Ryan Coogler, but it manages to connect with all types of audiences. It’s hard to imagine there being a sharper or denser screenplay this year.

Sinners is exactly how Ryan Coogler describes it: a “full meal.” From an incredible ensemble to a powerful screenplay, the film hits every mark needed to be a great film. Although 2025 is only halfway done, it is hard to see any movie topping it as the best of the year. With numerous worthy technical elements, as well as its innovation to the industry, no other film is more deserving of winning the Best Picture prize than Sinners.

Sinners is available to rent on VOD and stream on Max on July 4th.

The post Why Sinners Should Win Best Picture appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic Jaws is celebrating its 50th birthday, but despite its more than deserved legacy, there’s one big plot hole in the movie that is still bothersome. Based upon Peter Benchley’s eponymous 1974 novel, Jaws centers on the quiet community of Amity Island finding its waters under threat by a vicious Great White shark that devours anyone who dares go swimming. Amity Island Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) leads the charge in putting a stop to the shark’s feeding frenzy, allied with eccentric fisherman Quint (Robert Shaw) and ichthyologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss). Despite an infamously troubled production that took the movie 104 days over schedule and more than doubled its initial budget of $4 million, Jaws became the biggest box office hit of the time, catapulting Steven Spielberg’s career and effectively launching the modern summer movie season.

The timelessness of Jaws can be seen half a century later in both the many Jaws knock-offs that have been produced (some better than others), along with Jaws‘ own three sequels failing to replicate its impact. However, there is still a speed bump or two to be found even in a classic like Jaws, and the one that arguably stands out the most is the anger Mrs. Kintner (Lee Fierro) has for Chief Brody over her son Alex (Jeffrey Voorhees) being killed by the shark. That’s because Jaws goes out of its way to emphasize that Brody was not to blame for Alex Kitner’s death.

Mrs. Kintner’s Anger Over Her Son’s Death Is Directed at the Wrong Target

Right when Chief Brody, Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton), and the people of Amity Island are celebrating what appears to be the capture of the shark terrorizing their community, the grieving Mrs. Kintner arrives and slaps Brody in the face. Mrs. Kintner then reveals that she had just learned of the death of Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie) by the shark the preceding week, and proceeds to bitterly berate Brody for allowing Amity Island’s beaches to remain open despite knowing that a killer shark was in the island’s waters. While Mrs. Kintner’s anger over her son’s death is absolutely justified, the entire opening act of Jaws makes clear that Brody himself is not to blame.

As soon as Chrissie’s remains are discovered on the beach, Brody immediately uses his authority as Chief of Amity’s police department to invoke as many safety measures as possible. Already listing “shark attack” as the likely cause of Chrissie’s demise on his official police report, Brody immediately begins putting together “Beaches closed” signs with orders for his deputies to post them on the island’s beaches. Right as Brody prepares to pull a squad of Boy Scouts out of the bay for their own safety, Amity’s Mayor Robert Vaughn arrives to gently but decisively overrule Brody’s efforts to close the beaches. In short, Chief Brody did absolutely everything in his power to close Amity’s beaches and begin measures to deal with the shark problem, only for Mayor Vaughn to pull rank and keep the beaches open. It’s possible that Mrs. Kintner might not have had all the information when she chided Brody for her son’s death, but it is clear that her rage should have been directed at Vaughn. And she’s in good company.

Read Next

Jaws Celebrates 50th Anniversary With Theatrical Re-Release, New Merch, and More

Mayor Vaughn Is Responsible for Nearly Every Death in Jaws

While Brody takes the shark’s presence in Amity’s waters seriously from the start, Mayor Vaughn is guilty of multiple cases of criminal negligence given how much he tries to sweep the shark under the rug. Vaughn’s desire to keep Amity’s beaches open is due to the town’s economy being heavily reliant on summer tourism, and with the Fourth of July holiday coming up, Vaughn doesn’t want to create a panic that could drive away tourists. The problem is that after Chrissie’s death in the opening scene, most of the shark killings in Jaws are directly attributable to Vaughn’s incompetence and prioritizing of PR over the safety of Amity’s residents and tourists alike.

As a result of Vaughn overruling Brody to keep Amity’s beaches open, a dog and Alex Kintner are both killed by the shark. However, Vaughn still doesn’t learn from these tragedies, once again undercutting Brody’s measure to close Amity’s beaches by declaring they will only remain closed for 24 hours, and ignoring the offer of a seasoned fisherman and U.S.S. Indianapolis veteran like Quint to kill the shark for $10,000, instead allowing groups of untrained Amity locals to kill a tiger shark and declaring the shark’s threat over. When the autopsy on the shark is performed by Hooper and Brody reveals the tiger shark was not the killer and that a much larger Great White shark is still out there (Brody and Hooper discovering the corpse of fisherman Ben Gardner on their late-night patrol of Amity’s waters).

Vaughn still downplays Hooper and Brody’s warnings, only allowing them to bring added security to the beaches while keeping them open for the Fourth of July. It is only after another Amity Islander is devoured by the shark on the Fourth of July (along with Brody’s son Michael having a close encounter) that Vaughn agrees to hire Quint to eliminate the killer fish. Jaws certainly comes down hard on Vaughn by this point, but that also makes Vaughn dodging the anger (and potential legal action) of Mrs. Kintner, while Brody shoulders the guilt instead, is a grave injustice that avoids Vaughn’s responsibility for the deaths of at least three people and one dog.

Brody’s Guilt Over Alex Kintner’s Death Is Still Understandable

After being chastised by Mrs. Kintner, Brody returns home and gets drunk, the gravity of Alex Kintner’s death clearly weighing greatly on him, and Brody’s drunken sorrow still makes sense in the context of his role as Amity’s Police Chief. Even though Brody took every possible measure to prevent further loss of life from the shark’s rampage, he still clearly wishes he could have done more. The fact that his efforts to close Amity’s beaches were overruled so easily leading to Alex’s demise is a dark contrast to Brody’s proud boast to Hooper about the island community’s very low crime rate, Brody telling Hooper “In Amity, one man can make a difference. In 25 years, there’s never been a shooting or a murder in this town”.

Brody’s inability to stop Amity’s beaches from staying open stands at odds with that optimism, and helps explain his despondent feelings after being held responsible for Alex Kintner’s death by his mother. Even though Brody did everything possible to close Amity’s beaches only to have his efforts undone by Mayor Vaughn, he still wishes and perhaps even feels like he could have fought Vaughn harder on the matter, even though the support of Amity’s city council would have made it a losing battle. Still, that almost makes it that much more unfair for Mrs. Kintner’s anger at Brody to go unchallenged in Jaws. Brody was looking out for the safety of Amity’s population in every way he could while Vaughn did everything possible to downplay the shark’s threat, so it really should have been Mayor Vaughn, not Chief Brody, on the receiving end of Mrs. Kintner’s anger and that of everyone else on Amity Island.

Jaws is available to stream on Peacock.

The post This Jaws Plot Hole Still Bothers Me appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Resident Evil Requiem was officially revealed at Summer Game Fest a few weeks ago, and the game looks quite a bit different from what rumors had suggested. Prior to Capcom’s announcement, several rumors had been circulating online, suggesting things like an open-world setting, and even some kind of online multiplayer focus. When rumors like this don’t pan out, many fans assume that they were made up, or incorrect. However, it seems both of these elements were in consideration at Capcom, before the developers decided to go in a different direction. In a Creator’s Message video, director Koshi Nakanishi elaborated on why these ideas were scrapped.

“You might have heard some of the rumors. Things like an online Resident Evil, or an open-world Resident Evil, which we spent some time experimenting with. But in the end, although we had some interesting concepts, we realized it wasn’t what fans wanted to see or play. So we went back to the drawing board and created what led to Resident Evil Requiem,” said Nakanishi.

For Resident Evil fans, this change of direction will likely come as something of a relief. These concepts might have worked for a Resident Evil spin-off, but probably wouldn’t have delivered the kind of experience fans have come to expect from the series. Resident Evil fans have been open to some major changes, like the first-person focus in the last two games. However, those changes were made in service to the horror concept, and the results were largely embraced by players. By contrast, an open-world or online multiplayer elements could have detracted from the horror experience.

The comments from Nakanishi are a testament to how much can change during a video game’s development cycle. Sometimes when leaks don’t pan out, it’s not that they were fake (though that certainly does happen), but instead because leakers are working on information that proves to be outdated. In the case of Resident Evil Requiem, that wasn’t just the open-world setting or the online multiplayer elements; the developers had also considered Leon as a protagonist, but ended up going with Grace Ashcroft in the lead instead.

Read Next

Resident Evil Requiem Officially Debunks Long-Lasting Fan Theory

Resident Evil Requiem is set to be released on February 27, 2026, so fans won’t have to wait too much longer to see how these decisions might have benefitted the overall game. The last original game in the series was 2021’s Resident Evil Village, and fans have been eagerly anticipating the next mainline entry. It remains to be seen whether Resident Evil Requiem will deliver a truly great experience, but reception has been pretty positive since the game was officially announced. Capcom still seems to be keeping a lot of secrets, but with the game set to be released early next year, we can likely expect to see more details and information over the coming months.

Are you happy that Capcom went in a different direction? Do you think an open-world Resident Evil would have worked? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

The post Resident Evil Requiem Developers Reveal Why Open-World Plans Were Cancelled appeared first on ComicBook.com.

2025 saw the return of the Final Destination franchise with Final Destination Bloodlines, which received the best reviews of the series and is now the highest-grossing film in the franchise. One would think this was the revitalization that Final Destination needed to continue, but there was another 2025 movie that sparked excitement for the series, and perhaps did it better than every Final Destination film before it. The Monkey, directed by Osgood Perkins and based on Stephen King’s short story of the same name, explores the concept of horrific accidents, featuring Rube Goldberg-type deaths that unfold in both terrifying and hilarious ways.

Despite having a similar premise to the Final Destination films, its signature style and ability to tackle themes of life and death make it stand out among the popular series and surpass what makes that franchise so beloved. Perkins’s ability to find humanity in the bizarre moments makes The Monkey a must-watch for horror fans.

Why The Monkey Is Better Than Every Final Destination Movie

Something that the Final Destination films lack is a memorable visual style. Despite most of the entries being directed by a different person, it’s almost impossible to tell the difference in direction across the sequels. Osgood Perkins puts so much of his style into The Monkey, utilizing a wacky tone and wide angles, creating an experience that no other filmmaker could replicate. While the somewhat serious nature of the Final Destination movies have their charm, The Monkey takes it to a new level.

The Final Destination franchise sees death as an invisible force, The Monkey however puts a face to the evil. A monkey playing a small drum may seem like a silly gag, but when it winds up, the film becomes ten times more intense. The song that plays from the monkey also brings a tempo to the scene, giving the audience an uneasy feeling of what will happen next and who the victim will be. Having a physical embodiment of death seems like such an easy tactic to convey horror, but it is done so effectively by Perkins and the rest of the filmmaking team.

The Monkey uses the accidental deaths as a means of comedy. There are times in the Final Destination series where deaths are viewed as funny, including the piano kill in the opening of Final Destination Bloodlines, but for the most part, the audience is supposed to be scared of what’s happening on screen. The idea of an accidental death is funny in concept, and Perkins capitalizes on this in the most perfect ways. Whether it’s a swarm of bees flying into someone’s mouth or an electrical malfunction blowing someone up in a swimming pool, The Monkey comes up with ingenious ways to explore accidental deaths.

A Stronger Story and Empathetic Characters Make The Monkey Much Better Than Final Destination

Both The Monkey and the Final Destination films explore the idea of death being inevitable, but what sets The Monkey apart from its fellow horror film is its character progression. Every character in the Final Destination series lacks growth and development, only focusing on trying to survive by the end of the film. In The Monkey, the film focuses on Hal (Theo James), a man too afraid to live his life because of the death that looms over him. This makes for a compelling storyline to follow in a film about accidental deaths, making for a more emotional experience compared to the Final Destination films.

The Final Destination series has its fair share of acclaimed actors, including Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Tony Todd, who push their characters to new heights, but Theo James is much stronger with his work in The Monkey. Not only does he play an empathetic, middle-aged man perfectly, but he also plays the main antagonist and twin brother of Hal, Bill. James is able to differentiate the roles seamlessly, playing an egotistical maniac as well as a kind-hearted brother, simultaneously. It may not be an Oscar-worthy performance, but it drives the film’s emotional beats in highly satisfying ways.

Although the Final Destination franchise has lots to love, The Monkey is able to replicate the series’ best moments while doing something entirely refreshing with the concept. It may not be as scary, but its strong sense of style, characters, and story make for an overall stronger experience compared to anything the Final Destination has delivered so far, and it is a must-watch horror movie of 2025.

The Monkey is available to watch on Blu-ray and VOD.

The post This 2025 Horror Film Is a Better Final Destination Than Every Final Destination Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The horror genre has historically been heavily influenced by the cinematic output of Italy. In fact, the giallo pictures of years past paved the way for the modern slasher film. These features are known for their depictions of graphic violence, the repeated use of misdirection, and surreal narratives that routinely prioritize artistic merit over logic. While not a proper giallo, per se, Italian director Lamberto Bava’s supernatural zombie masterpiece Demons shares quite a bit of connective tissue with the giallo subgenre.

Demons features a similarly unhinged quality that makes the film a must-see for anyone who enjoys zombie pictures and appreciates a cinematic effort that shamelessly places style ahead of substance. If we haven’t sold you on it just yet, keep reading because there is a lot to love about this flick.

This Is Why Zombie Fans Need to Watch Demons

Demons is sometimes classified as a supernatural horror film but the truth is that it’s more accurately described as a hybrid between the possession and zombie sub-genres. The central antagonists here demonstrate plenty of characteristics oft associated with the cinema of the undead.

The central plague, which begins to spread at a special screening at an isolated movie theater, travels by way of bites and scratches, similar to standard zombie fare. However, Bava differentiates his film slightly by adding a supernatural component that keeps this from feeling like a complete rehash of that which we’ve seen prior. Further establishing this as a hybrid of supernatural cinema and zombie fare, the possessed within demonstrate an insatiable urge to spread the plague, much like the undead do in slightly more conventional zombie outings. As such, anyone who enjoys zombie movies will likely find plenty to appreciate about this 1985 effort.

To get the most out of this film and fully appreciate all that it has to offer, it’s important to keep an open mind. Italian horror has some noticeable differences compared to American genre fare. For some fans, Italian horror is something of an acquired taste. The acting is often less immersive; the dubbing is frequently atrocious; and the narratives are routinely secondary to stylistic flourishes. However, that is by design and becomes far less jarring once you learn the ropes.

Read Next

3 Underrated Zombie Movies You’ve Probably Forgotten About

Although unorthodox to some, the horror output of Italy has frequently influenced American filmmakers. In fact, many cinematic scholars posit that legendary director Mario Bava (father of Lamberto) established the baseline for the modern slasher film with his seminal effort A Bay of Blood. Though films like Demons may seem slightly less accessible to the uneducated, there is ample merit at play.

That’s right, many consider Demons a properly chilling effort featuring beautifully rendered set design, vibrant use of color, and gorgeous cinematography that gives the film an inviting quality squarely at odds with the subject matter. Despite the seemingly strange juxtaposition, the aesthetic distance works to engage the viewer, pulling them into the narrative.

Speaking of the narrative, the film wastes precious little time explaining itself, placing style ahead of story cohesion at nearly every turn. Demons can loosely be summed up as a film about a group of theatergoers who attend a special screening in Berlin only to learn that a they are trapped inside the cinema with a central evil at play. An evil that quickly begins possessing the patrons and spreading like wildfire.

The evil within manifests in a number of unexpected ways with frequently amusing results. One especially memorable scene sees George (Urbano Barberini), one of the core characters, driving a motorcycle through the theater while wielding a samurai sword (and using it to decapitate the infected). The aforementioned scene goes down as one of the most delightfully unhinged moments in ‘80s horror.

So, there you have it. If you’re in the mood for a delightfully unhinged zombie picture from the ‘80s, you can find Demons streaming on Tubi. Keep in mind that Italian horror is different from Stateside fare, but also remember that this is trailblazing cinema that is equal parts jarring and beautiful.

Do you plan to check out Demons in the near future? If so, make sure to hit us up in the comments section and let us know.

The post Zombie Movie Fans Need to Stream This 1985 Masterpiece (And You Can, For Free) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The world of The Walking Dead isn’t for the faint of heart. While Rick Grimes is in a coma after being shot, society falls apart due to the appearance of a mysterious virus that turns people into undead monsters. It takes everything Rick’s got to get out of Atlanta and regroup with his family. However, finding allies is only half of the battle because there are threats around every corner, and most of them aren’t zombies. Rick and his group face off against several major human factions that hope to conquer what’s left of the world and don’t care who gets in their way. And all the conflict means that The Walking Dead‘s cast doesn’t stay the same for long.

Every season, new faces arrive as familiar ones depart, making it difficult to keep track of what happens to everyone. Sure, seeing a major character lose their face to a walker or be on the wrong end of a swing from Negan’s bat leaves a mark, but not everyone gets to go out in a blaze of glory. Some of The Walking Dead‘s characters disappear with no explanation.

1) Heath

Rick and his friends leave Georgia behind and join the Alexandria community in Season 6. Tensions are high initially, but Heath, Alexandira’s best gatherer, isn’t around to see much of the bickering. He gets on board with Rick’s mission after an attack on the settlement and continues to go on runs. During a rough one with Tara, Heath vanishes and never returns. There are rumors about him ending up with the CRM, but he’s never able to confirm them himself.

2) Grady Memorial Hospital Staff

The group splits up after the attack on the prison in Season 4, and Beth ends up in Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta after getting separated from Daryl. The staff there isn’t very friendly because they’re being harassed by a former cop, Dawn, who thinks she knows best. Daryl and the rest of the group come to rescue Beth, who ends up dying during the exchange. Daryl kills Dawn but leaves the rest of the staff alive. Once Rick and Co. depart for Virginia, though, the people who call the hospital home no longer serve a purpose.

3) Guillermo 

Resources are vital in the world of The Walking Dead, so when a crew steals Rick’s guns, he formulates a plan to get them back. The group soon crosses paths with Guillermo, who runs a gang. They trade blows, but it comes to light that Guillermo wants the weapons to protect elderly people who got left behind after the outbreak. Rick and Guillermo come to an agreement and vow to leave each other alone.

4) Virgil

Michonne meets Virgil in Season 10 and doesn’t like his vibe. However, he claims to know where weapons are, so she agrees to travel with him to an island. Virgil isn’t honest about anything, though, so Michonne locks him up. Eventually, he becomes a member of the Alexandria community and helps out from time to time. The last time Virgil appears, he’s not looking too hot during a nasty storm in Alexandria.

Read Next

This 2002 Zombie Movie Beat The Walking Dead and The Last of Us To Their Best Moments

5) Cyndie

While Rick and his crew are beefing with Negan, they discover other settlements near Alexandria, including Oceanside. Cyndie is in charge of the community and agrees to help Rick, Ezekiel, and Maggie, the other leaders of the Coalition alliance. She remains an important part of The Walking Dead until Season 11, when she sets out to sea off-screen for a mysterious mission.

6) Georgie

Georgie is the leader of a strange group that makes contact with Hilltop in Season 8. She claims to have knowledge that Maggie needs, and the two form a strong bond. Maggie even leaves Hilltop behind to join Georgie’s group and look for other settlements across the United States. However, Georgie only makes one appearance, and after Maggie returns in Season 10, she claims not to know where her ally is.

7) Winnie

Alexandria opens its doors to a group of children in Season 9, led by Michonne’s old friend Jocelyn. They turn out to be a problem, though, as Jocelyn brainwashes her followers into being monsters. Michonne has to kill Jocelyn and most of the children. Winnie is the only one who survives, and instead of going with Michonne, she runs away and never shows her face again.

The Walking Dead is streaming on Netflix.

Do you want to know what happened to these characters from The Walking Dead? Who else deserves a spot on this list? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 7 The Walking Dead Characters That Disappeared appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Child’s Play franchise pushes the limits of what a toy-turned-serial killer story looks like. From romantic relationships to technological advancements, the series continues to devise new and inventive ways to stay fresh, making it a beloved favorite among fans. Although many of the films are enjoyed by fans, critics have not always been keen on them. Seed of Chucky is one that both critics and audiences find themselves liking the least, holding the worst IMDb score in the series, as well as one of the lowest audience scores on Letterboxd and Rotten Tomatoes. The film’s silly nature, as well as its new direction in the story, divided audiences in ways the other Child’s Play films have not.

Despite the lackluster reception, the film takes everything that is great about the franchise and turns it into the best film in the series. Whether it’s the unique take on sexuality or the balls-to-the-wall storyline, Seed of Chucky does so much to stand out among the seven other films in the series.

Why Seed of Chucky Is the Best Child’s Play Movie

The big reason why Seed of Chucky stands tall among the other entries in the franchise is the inclusion of Glen, voiced by Billy Boyd. Not only does Boyd put on a relentlessly entertaining performance, but the character of Glen adds much nuance to the series that was not present before. The Child’s Play franchise rarely ever tries to promote a message, solely focusing on entertainment. Seed of Chucky successfully manages to do both, touching upon ideas of legacy and sexuality through the lens of a doll struggling to make their parents proud while also providing silly entertainment for the casual fan.

Glen’s split personality fits perfectly with the themes of identity and sexuality explored in the film. The aggressive nature of their counterpart, Glenda, makes for a compelling antagonist as it expresses Glen’s anger with himself.

Not only do they act as external representations of Glen’s internal issues of gender, but they also express director Don Mancini’s journey toward the film. After crafting the script for the past four films, Seed of Chucky sees Mancini’s first time in the director’s chair. Mancini could only do so much in the screenplay, but being the director gave him full creative freedom. This parallels Glen’s arc to a tee as he struggles to express his full self, making for an introspective experience unlike anything the series has put out so far.

The film also has an incredible sense of humor. Despite tackling serious issues of identity, the film is not afraid to get silly. The banter between Tiffany and Chucky has always been one of the standout elements of the series. Still, their back and forth in Seed of Chucky is easily the funniest, with Chucky’s hatred toward Glen providing for many of the film’s standout moments. There are also many moments of convenience for the characters when they deal with a conflict, and the movie plays it as a punchline of a joke in the most perfect manner.

One of the big complaints about Seed of Chucky is its visual effects. The visual effects are not as strong as they should be, but it is done purposefully. Similar to Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker, the visual effects add a charm to the film that didn’t exist in previous entries. As other entries attempted to hone in on the horror side, Seed of Chucky is very interested in finding new ways to entertain the audience, and it does so in the most successful way possible.

The film has some elements of horror, but it mostly plays as a satirical comedy. Having a toy turn into a serial killer is scary on the surface, but it can only go so far, and Seed of Chucky completely understands this. By shifting to a different genre, the film can find new and inventive ways to carry on this decade-spanning franchise.

The Ambition and Violence of Seed of Chucky Makes it a Necessary Watch for Movie Fans

Even without the genre shifts, Seed of Chucky is easily the most ambitious project of the franchise. Not only does Jennifer Tilly return as Chucky’s wife, Tiffany, but she also plays herself in the film. Playing dual roles, especially when one character is herself, almost always leads to failure, but Tilly’s ability to jump between roles makes for an extremely fun and unpredictable experience that contributes to the film’s metacommentary on identity.

Like most horror franchises, one of the big draws of the Child’s Play series is its kills, and Seed of Chucky fully delivers. From sulfuric acid to wire decapitations, there are tons of fun kills that will leave audiences satisfied. They may not be on any all-time great kills list, but they serve the movie in the best way possible.

Seed of Chucky may not be as well-received as other films in the franchise, but its ability to take the series in a new direction, as well as its thematically dense look at identity, makes for a worthwhile experience that stands tall above the other entries. With a new Chucky movie on the way, it’s a crime that the series failed to bring back the humor and entertainment of this film, as there is truly nothing else like it, even outside the horror genre.

Seed of Chucky is available to stream on Peacock.

The post Why the Most Hated Chucky Movie Is Actually the Best appeared first on ComicBook.com.

You don’t always have to spend a pretty penny if you want to be scared or inspired. Free horror games may act as a passion project for the developer or a good place to start as they’re learning the ropes to game design, testing the water on any brave folk willing to take a dip. These short tales may seem incomplete, rushed, or unpolished, but some stand out for their storytelling and terrifying delivery.

Yes, these horror games may be on the shorter side, but they cost no money and don’t take much of your time to complete. Win-win! Here are the very best free horror games on Steam which have suspense, jump scares, good atmosphere, great sound design, and the occasional but unforgettable dark theme that has lasting effects.

1) Clap Clap

It may have a ridiculous name, but this short horror is effective with its simple design. The PS1-style aesthetics matched with the sound and light design allow it to focus on what truly matters: scaring you. Putting a horror spin on the very real and pretentious clapping to turn indoor lights on feature, the entity in Clap Clap uses the darkness against you, giving you something to fear and putting the control in its hands. It is an easy game to pick up, enjoy, and shouldn’t terrify you aside from a few jump scares and an intense climax.

2) Cry of Fear

This legendary indie horror won’t ever be forgotten for its immersive world and narrative, delivered in a Half-Life mod. Feeling panic, lost, and hopeless is an awful concoction that’s often felt throughout Cry of Fear as you’re transported to a nightmarish realm, having to deal with demons, while navigating around your own. It’s a mix of Silent Hill and Condemned, but holds tightly onto its own identity for its intricate level and terrifying sound design, enemy variety, puzzles, and morbid storytelling.

3) Discussion Over Dinner

This anxiety simulator coerces you into dinner with the creepiest host alive, for refusing him in any way will result in your demise. Surviving the evening takes the perfect balance of eating your steak, holding conversation, and swiping starving rats off the dinner table. Ignore the screams coming from the basement door, or you’ll be next. Discussion Over Dinner may be basic in its art design and storytelling, but this bite-sized horror will surely make you squirm and knock out any social confidence you might have had. It’s a dinner you’ll never forget.

Read Next

This Creepy New Horror Game Has Made Me Terrified of My Neighbors

4) Doki Doki Literature Club!

A visual novel romance on paper, there’s something far more sinister lurking under the aesthetically pleasing surface. Having a normal school life isn’t on the agenda for choosing your girlfriend takes precedent, and the wrong choice could get a girl killed. So what’s a hormonal kid gotta do? A twisted take on the slice of life genre, Doki Doki Literature Club shows the limitless power of illustration and anime, being equally beautiful and disturbing. It’s clever horror delivered in an everyday setting, which only makes its contents severely more unsettling.

5) Fears to Fathom – Home Alone

If you’re like me, the fear of someone breaking into your home is far scarier than any demon or ghost. Home Alone, the first in the Fears to Fathom series, is a bite-sized horror for anyone to pick up. The storytelling in this 15-minute game is impressive for its believability as most of the terror is delivered through the device we rely on far too much: our mobile phone. Paranoia and tensions are high in this installment. A figure may walk past the corner of your eye as you’re watching TV, and an image of a stranger surveying the house could send chills down your spine. Are you safe in the very place you call your home?

6) Mimic Search

This short horror demands you face the threat head-on as the only authoritative figure in this neck of the woods that has some semblance of firepower. Where you’d normally be defenceless against these fake humans, here’s the chance to get back at these imposters (and I don’t mean throwing them out of the airlock). Investigate an ongoing crime scene, speak to the locals, and whatever you do, don’t go out in the woods at night. Mimic Search is a good little horror game that effectively builds tension.

7) Missing Hiker

You follow in your friend’s footsteps after he went missing on a hiking trip to the mountains. Stories that people have mysteriously vanished after camping nearby have spread like wildfire in the community. Something is taking these people, but what? It may be bravery or blind stupidity leading you down the same path your friend made, but what outcome will you get? Missing Hiker is a 15-minute horror game that slowly builds, as the chances of your friend’s survival become slimmer and slimmer the closer you get to his last whereabouts.

8) TELEFORUM

RELATED: 5 Upcoming Horror Games That Will Frighten You To Your Core

Are the stories true? Is there something on that tape that made those people who previously had it in their possession suddenly go missing? You have to find out. TELEFORUM is Ringu meets Videodrome, an eerie and mind-bending horror that won’t take up too much of your time. Is what you’re seeing real or are you a part of this? Conducting your own investigation out of curiosity or to go viral will only get you killed, so are you sure you want to take the risk and watch that tape for yourself?

9) the static speaks my name

You see your immediate future (or past) through a cosmic being, who tells you how you’re going to die. Its themes are realistic and something too many of us can sadly relate to, making it a difficult game to finish, even though its contents are far more disturbing than what the average person sees and experiences. The words “today will be a better day” are haunting as your front door and windows are boarded up from the inside, where televisions are playing and static on screen acts as your only comfort. the static speaks my name is a macabre 10-minute tale and is one of the darkest games you can play, so viewer discretion is absolutely advised.

10) The Windows Are Gone

Grief manifests in different ways, but moving to a new house in a secluded neighborhood may be the fresh start you need to see a shift. You can’t remain trapped in the past, but it won’t let you escape that easily. Your home sweet home isn’t so sweet as moving in takes a dark turn. Where did I misplace that vase? Hang on, The Windows Are Gone. Your past is seeping into your new place. There’s no rest or moment of clarity for every minute is a reminder. This short horror game cleverly captures loss and how it holds onto you, trapping you inside.

11) Ultimate Custom Night

Whether you’ve played through Five Nights at Freddy’s or are looking for a good place to test those reflexes of yours, Ultimate Custom Night is the best training ground for Fazbear employees. Forget Aim Labs, this game will surely improve your reaction time. Customize your time in the security office by bringing aboard any animatronic, old and new. They may distract you, obscure your vision, or brutally end you, but there are so many combinations you can try and see if you can survive until 6am. If you want the ultimate point-and-click challenge, then why look anywhere else?

The post 11 Best Free-to-Play Horror Games on Steam appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Amazon’s Prime Video service has become the go-to streaming option for a lot of movie fans, and those viewers got a great boost for their watchlists this weekend. Prime Video gets most of theatrically released movies from Paramount and Universal after the exclusive first windows on their respective services. That deal brought another big title to Prime on Friday, with a horror hit from Universal coming to Amazon and quickly becoming one of the service’s most popular films.

The movie in question is Nosferatu, the vampire remake from Robert Eggers that launched in theaters back in December. After opening to incredible acclaim from critics, and on the back of several consecutive fan-favorites from Eggers, Nosferatu went on to make more than $180 million at the box office.

Like all Universal movies, Nosferatu first went to Peacock for an exclusive run when it hit streaming. That exclusive window came to a close last week, allowing Nosferatu to make the leap to Prime Video.

In addition to being a new take on an iconic horror story, Nosferatu also had the added benefit of an absolutely killer cast. Lily-Rose Depp stars in the film as Ellen Hutter, with Nicholas Hoult co-starring as her husband, Thomas Hutter, and Bill Skarsgård taking on the role of the menacing Count Orlok.

Coming Soon to Prime Video

Nosferatu is the biggest and most recent film to hit Amazon’s streaming lineup, but the service has a lot more in store in the coming week. With the start of the month of July, Prime Video will be adding dozens of new films to its roster. Rocky, Mad Max, Robocop, and The Usual Suspects are all among the titles set to hit Prime on Tuesday.

Read Next

7 Secrets Your Prime Video Subscription Includes for Free

You can check out the full lineup of Prime Video’s July 1st additions below.

2 Fast 2 Furious
A Bridge Too Far
A Fish Called Wanda
Baby Boom
Back to School
Bandits
Blown Away
Blue Crush
Blue Velvet
Colors
Creed II
Death Warrant
Double Impact
Dressed to Kill
Duck Soup
Every Day
Fast & Furious 6
Fast Five
Fiddler On the Roof
Gladiator
Hart’s War
Hidden Figures
Hoodlum
How to Train Your Dragon 2
I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
Into The Blue
Into The Blue 2: The Reef
It Came from Outer Space
K-PAX
Leaving Las Vegas
Licorice Pizza
Little Fockers
Little Man
Mad Max
Meet the Fockers
Meet the Parents
Mystic Pizza
No Country for Old Men
No Way Out
Only Lovers Left Alive
Paths Of Glory
Rings
Robocop (1987)
Robocop (2014)
Robocop 2
Robocop 3
Rocky (1976)
Rocky Balboa
Rocky II
Rocky III
Rocky IV
Rocky V
Salt
Saving Private Ryan
Teen Wolf (1985)
The 40 Year-Old Virgin
The Addams Family (2019)
The Addams Family 2 (2021)
The Apartment
The Bone Collector
The Bounty Hunter
The Fast and the Furious
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift
The Funhouse
The Great Train Robbery
The Horse Soldiers
The House Bunny
The Hustle
The Informant!
The Perfect Storm
The Usual Suspects
Thunderbolt And Lightfoot
What’s The Worst That Could Happen?
Windtalkers
Witness For The Prosecution
XXX: The Return Of Xander Cage
Sherlock S1
Shooter S1-3

The post One of the Best Horror Movies of 2024 Now Streaming on Prime Video appeared first on ComicBook.com.

In the ever-rotating library of Netflix, horror movies come and go quickly – especially when it comes to older titles that shaped the genre’s modern identity. And though virtual shelf space is seemingly needed for more modern releases, the lasting appeal of 1990s horror films remains enduring. This was the era of the slasher revival: self-aware, stylish, and powered by a wave of rising young stars. These films redefined what horror looked and sounded like for a new generation, and they remain essential viewing for anyone who wants to understand how the genre evolved after the golden age of the ’70s and ’80s. And one of the most defining horror films of that late-‘90s wave is set to leave Netflix on July 1. 

Released in 1997, I Know What You Did Last Summer took the momentum of Scream and made it moodier, more guilt-ridden, and a touch more angsty. With a cast that included Jennifer Love Hewitt, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Ryan Phillippe, the film quickly became a cultural touchpoint – and part of the blueprint for what teen horror would look like for years to come. Its exit from Netflix comes at a strange time, too, just weeks before a new reboot of the franchise is set to arrive. For longtime fans and curious newcomers alike, the original is well worth a revisit before it disappears in just 2 days.

The timing of its removal is particularly odd, given that a new I Know What You Did Last Summer reboot is arriving in July. With the original cast returning and renewed interest building, Netflix’s decision to drop the film now feels misaligned with audience demand. The cult classic horror, of course, leans into slasher tropes, but also explores guilt, isolation, and the lasting consequences of a single bad decision, all personified by the murderous fisherman and his killer hook. 

Read Next

Netflix: Every Movie and TV Show Coming in July 2025

Other Horrors In The Last Chance Saloon On Netflix

I Know What You Did Last Summer isn’t the only Netflix horror movies leaving on July 1. If you want to watch these movies, you better do so quickly, with honorable mentions for Keanu Reeves’ Constantine and the full Twilight saga.

The Nun

Part of The Conjuring cinematic universe, The Nun was a strong, visually arresting expansion of the franchise. Set in a remote Romanian monastery, the film leans heavily into gothic atmosphere and religious iconography, anchored by a strong performance from Taissa Farmiga, and packs in some genuine scares. Reception was mixed at release, but the spin-off’s reputation has grown since. With The Conjuring: Last Rites scheduled for release later this year, now is a fitting time to rewatch or catch up.

Annabelle

The first Annabelle film might have been critically mauled in comparison to its prequel and sequel, but it’s still an important part of the horror doll’s mythology, and remains a fun time. Set in the late 1960s, the film draws on Rosemary’s Baby-style paranoia and supernatural horror, and it’s a little more cerebral than the sillier follow-ups.

Resident Evil: Retribution

The fifth film in the Resident Evil series, Retribution sees Milla Jovovich return as Alice, navigating a one of the more convoluted plots of the franchise. This time, Paul WS Anderson throws in clones, and a submarine chase to keep things fresh, and while the results are uneven, the commitment to spectacle is admirable.

For more news on Netflix, click here.

The post Netflix Users Have Only 2 Days to Watch One of the Best Cult Horror Movies Of The 1990s appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Filmmaker Gerard Johnstone took a fairly big swing with M3GAN 2.0 by leaning into a sci-fi action thriller genre for the sequel, and steering away from the more campy horror elements of 2022’s M3GAN. However, underneath the dark humor, violence, and robotic fight sequences, Johnstone’s main focus regarding the story of M3GAN (played by Amie Donald and voiced by Jenna Davis) and the franchise’s human leads, Gemma (Allison Williams) and Cady (Violet McGraw), is the exploration of AI and issues surrounding the ever-growing technology. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Johnstone believes there could be many more sequels in the future as AI continues to evolve. “I would not be surprised if there’s another five of these movies,” Johnstone said. “So, who knows, maybe I’ll come back for the fifth one.”

M3GAN 2.0 builds upon M3GAN’s themes of younger generations becoming too dependent on AI and how the technology can be misused partially due to the way humans train and create AI technology (as depicted by the sequel’s new killer android AMELIA, played by Ivanna Sakhno, who is made by a defense contractor). These relevant concerns could be further explored in potential future installments.

Read Next

M3GAN 2.0 Review: Sassy, Silly, and Strangely Serious

“As much as it’s a redemption story for M3GAN, it’s also a reckoning for ourselves as human beings and as parents of AI who brought this technology into the world,” Johnstone said of M3GAN 2.0. “We have to contend with our role in creating this. If it does bad things, is that really because the thing itself is bad? Or is it just because of the way we’ve trained it?”

When the first M3GAN landed in theaters, the movie and its homicidal AI-powered android became an instant hit with fans, growwing nearly $182 million worldwide on a $12 million budget. While M3GAN 2.0 has received a far less positive response from critics and is currently on track to be less of a draw at the box office, the sequel’s reported budget of $15 million and moviegoers’ love of the sassy killer robot could easily stretch the story into a trilogy at the very least (M3GAN 2.0 is currently projected for a $20 million opening weekend).

The M3GAN universe is already set to expand with the upcoming spinoff, SOULM8TE, from Blumhouse and James Wan’s Atomic Monster. Set for a January 9th, 2026 release, the sci-fi thriller is directed by Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother) and stars Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise) and David Rysdahl (No Exit). Wan recently told Entertainment Weekly that M3GAN fans can expect “that darkest sense of humor,” but SOULM8TE is “really more grown-up.”

“M3GAN, obviously, dabbles in the PG-13 world, the younger demographic,” Wan said. “We always felt like there might be a more adult story to tell, and that’s really what SOULM8TE is. SOULM8TE is basically set in the same AI world but seen through a more grown-up perspective, one that embraces all the great erotic thrillers from the ’90s. It’s like Fatal Attraction but with robots.”

M3GAN 2.0 is now playing in theaters. The unrated version of M3GAN is available to stream on Starz and to rent or buy on Prime Video.

The post M3GAN Creator Reveals How Many More Sequels Fans Can Expect appeared first on ComicBook.com.

With so many titles available on streaming platforms, finding a good horror movie can be harder than it seems – especially when you’re trying to steer clear of the obvious and jump into stories that bring real tension and genuinely unsettling moments. Netflix, even though it keeps switching up its catalog, still has some of the most interesting (and exclusive) horror picks out there. And a few of them don’t even get the attention they deserve. Instead of just going for cheap scares, these movies bring bold ideas, strong atmosphere, and a mix of styles – from indie horror to mainstream thrills.

What they all have in common is that they should be on the radar of anyone looking for the best the genre has to offer. Here are the 10 best horror movies you can only watch on Netflix.

1) The Platform

When it was released, The Platform drew a lot of attention, and for good reason. It’s a dystopian horror movie that doesn’t waste time delivering its message about inequality and human selfishness. The story takes place in a vertical prison where food is sent down on a platform – those on the upper levels eat well, while those below get the leftovers or nothing at all. Violence and despair are portrayed in a raw, unfiltered way, and the film uses this setup to deliver a sharp critique of unfair systems. There are some minor issues with character development and even parts of the script, but the claustrophobic setting and the intensity of the situation keep the viewer fully engaged. It’s meant to be uncomfortable, and that’s exactly what makes it work so well.

2) Don’t Move

Don’t Move relies on a simple but effective story: a poisoned woman is paralyzed in the middle of a forest and must use all her mental strength to survive an approaching killer – which is disturbing enough. The feeling of helplessness throughout the movie is absolute, keeping the audience tense from start to finish.

Don’t Movie is not the kind of film that digs deep into character development or motivations, but the horror is executed so efficiently that it doesn’t need to. The direction keeps the viewer engaged with tightly crafted suspense and a strong cat-and-mouse dynamic. This is a focused thriller that delivers exactly what it promises, even without bringing anything new to the genre. It strips the plot down to its essentials, relying on pure tension rather than unnecessary complications – a smart and effective choice that pays off.

3) Fear Street

The ’90s slasher genre is effectively revived with the Fear Street trilogy (Fear Street: Prom Queen is not included here). What’s interesting is that the story spans three different eras in a town cursed by a witch. The movies don’t try to reinvent the genre – instead, they embrace the clichés and references that appeal to horror fans, using them in just the right amount without feeling cheap or forced. The pacing is fast, and the cast works well to deliver effective scares and memorable scenes.

Each of the three Fear Street films has its own tone, mixing horror with brief moments of comic relief without ever losing focus. It’s a solid pick for anyone looking for something that captures the nostalgic feel of classic horror and the slasher subgenre. While it doesn’t aim for deep storytelling, the narrative is well-structured and keeps the audience engaged from start to finish.

4) Apostle

Apostle combines folk horror with a cult setting, creating a heavy and unsettling atmosphere. The movie follows Thomas (Dan Stevens), who tries to rescue his sister from a religious group practicing macabre rituals on an isolated island. The suspense builds slowly, and the violence hits at just the right moments, making the experience visceral – the imagery is intense for those who appreciate that style.

The performances also stand out, as the characters have depth that goes beyond the typical hero and cult leader stereotypes. Overall, the story balances social critique, horror, and mystery, keeping the viewer on edge for most of the film. It requires patience, though: it might feel slow at first, but it pays off with a suffocating atmosphere for those who stick with it.

5) Barbarian

The premise of Barbarian is fairly classic: a woman arrives to stay at an Airbnb and finds someone already there – a stranger. But from that point on, the movie breaks away from the predictable script, subverting expectations with twists and a frightening creature who turns out to be more victim than monster. Intriguing and different, right? This shift in focus and tone is what makes Barbarian stand out, as it avoids the obvious and brings in ideas like vulnerability, prejudice, and empathy within a horror setting. There’s a mix of genre elements and dark humor that keeps the audience uncomfortable as well (but in a balanced way). The movie isn’t perfect, but it successfully refreshes a genre that at times felt saturated by questioning who the real monsters really are.

6) The Ritual

Horror movies can also blend psychological drama, and The Ritual does this very well. The story follows four British friends who go hiking in Sweden and find themselves pursued by an entity inspired by Norse mythology. The film explores guilt, trauma, and friendship in depth, using the forest as a metaphor for the characters’ inner fears. The tension builds gradually, with the true nature of the threat revealed bit by bit. While the ending divides opinions, the movie is overall very effective at creating an oppressive, frightening atmosphere – largely thanks to the confined landscapes and sense of isolation. The mix of real and supernatural elements keeps the audience uneasy, and the story thoughtfully examines human vulnerability when faced with the unknown.

7) Gerald’s Game

Stephen King is the king of horror, and when Mike Flanagan adapts his stories, success is almost guaranteed. Gerald’s Game is a psychological horror movie that doesn’t need many elements to be deeply disturbing, but it still has them for good measure. The story of a woman trapped in bed after an intimate moment with her husband goes wrong serves as a backdrop to explore trauma and mental survival. But the film’s greatest strength is its protagonist, Jessie (Carla Gugino), who keeps the viewer engaged with her intense struggle against pain, fear, and haunting memories.

Though mostly set in one location, the story remains dynamic by weaving between the present and flashbacks that reveal past wounds. It’s one of the best examples of how horror can be both psychological and emotionally reflective.

8) In the Tall Grass

In the Tall Grass is based on another Stephen King story (co-written with Joe Hill) and delivers a hypnotic, immersive visual atmosphere right from the start. The story follows siblings who enter a field to rescue a boy but soon find themselves trapped in a looping distortion of time and space – a premise that holds up well during the first 20 minutes. As the plot unfolds, supernatural elements appear, including mysterious rocks, parallel realities, and erratic characters.

While some praise the movie’s surreal and ambiguous depth, others feel the narrative gets bogged down by too many ideas – it really depends on personal taste. However, its biggest strength is keeping the audience trapped in a hostile environment, offering a sensory, unconventional horror experience.

9) Ouija: Origin of Evil

Ouija: Origin of Evil is one of the few horror films based on franchises that actually works – if you didn’t like the original Ouija movie, this one is still worth trying. Set in the ’60s, it explores spirit sessions that spiral out of control and end up cursing a family. The movie’s standout feature is how well it balances retro aesthetics with effective scares, avoiding overuse of CGI and relying on practical effects to build a strong atmosphere.

Though the story isn’t entirely original and follows familiar genre formulas, the execution is solid and delivers genuinely tense moments. It doesn’t reinvent horror, but it’s effective at creating a scary experience without relying on tired clichés that turn many viewers off. That’s what makes it one of the best, if not the best, entries in the Ouija franchise.

10) Creep

Creep is a low-budget movie that manages to deliver surprising tension without relying on many resources. The story is simple: a videographer agrees to record a farewell message for a strange man, who gradually reveals a disturbed personality. The focus here is on the evolving relationship between the two characters and the growing discomfort that grips the viewer. The script leans on ambiguity and psychological unease, avoiding easy scares or clear explanations. It’s the kind of story that makes you curious but also hesitant to find out more. The result is a film that depends more on acting and atmosphere than on visual effects. For fans of psychological horror, this is definitely a title worth discovering.

The post 10 Best Horror Movies You Can Only Stream on Netflix appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Back in the early-to-mid-2000s, Josh Hartnett was one of the hottest actors in Hollywood. Like Colin Farrell, he was on every major studio’s A-list and considered for some of the biggest roles there could be. For instance, as the title character in Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns and as Batman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Trilogy. But those weren’t what Hartnett wanted for his career at the time, and he passed on the opportunities. He was offered the role of Superman twice and said no twice and, even though he met with Nolan before Batman Begins started shooting, Hartnett ultimately didn’t play Bruce Wayne (though he would work with Nolan later on Oppenheimer).

The star of the fun and funny Fight or Flight wanted to play a wide variety of roles, not find himself pegged just as a single individual wearing a cape for a number of years and a number of movies. However, that’s not to say Hartnett has never led a film based on a comics property. He has, just once.

Which Cinematic Adaptation of a Graphic Novel Did Hartnett Lead?

While 2006’s Lucky Number Slevin and 2010’s Bunraku feel a bit like a graphic novel brought to life, it’s not. 30 Days of Night, however, is. It wasn’t the first time Hartnett had a role in a graphic novel adaptation (he had a brief role in the first and final scenes of Robert Rodriguez’s Sin City), but it was the first time he was front and center in one.

30 Days of Night is based on the 2004 three-issue miniseries by writer Steve Niles and artist Ben Templesmith. The second miniseries, 30 Days of Night: Dark Days, was later adapted as a direct-to-video sequel. Both 30 Days of Night and Dark Days were collected into trade paperbacks and were followed by 30 Days of Night: 2004 Annual, 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow (2004, like the preceding books), 30 Days of Night: Bloodsucker Tales (2005), and seven more books released between 2006 and 2009.

Read Next

No, Nosferatu Is Not the Vampire’s Name (It’s Not Dracula Either)

But the first one’s the best, and easily the most adaptable as a film. And, thanks to a firm grip over atmosphere and a well-cast Hartnett, Melissa George, Ben Foster (who just about runs away with the whole movie), and Danny Huston, David Slade’s movie is arguably the best a 30 Days of Night movie could be.

What Helps 30 Days of Night Hold Up?

The film takes place in the small, isolated town of Barrow, Alaska. Coming up is its annual, month-long polar night, where you’ll need a flashlight and a map just to find your house. In other words, it’s perfect hunting season for a predator that can’t stand daylight — like a vampire.

And Barrow’s minuscule population is about to be marched on by a horde of the bloodsuckers. But first, they’re going to have to contend with a mysterious, disturbed stranger (Foster), who has sabotaged their communications system and their few means of transportation. What they don’t know is that the stranger is one of the vampire’s familiars, and he’s setting them all up for slaughter.

They find out soon enough, as Marlow (Huston) and his group soon arrive and start picking the townsfolk off one by one. All that’s standing between Barrow’s annihilation and the vampiric horde is its sheriff, Eben Oleson (Hartnett), and his wife, Stella (George). For Eben to emerge victorious, however, he might just need to become a vampire himself.

It’s the type of horror movie plot that allows for a certain rewatchability. We enjoy getting to know the residents of Barrow just as we enjoy seeing them try to survive. At the center of it is Hartnett, who brings a lot of relatable humanity and believable bravery to the role of Eben. Hartnett displays a lot of star power, no matter the size of the movie, and one of 30 Days of Night‘s charms is that it’s not trying to be a big movie. It’s a single-locale scarefest not unlike John Carpenter’s The Thing. It functions well as a horror film, as an action movie, and as a look at small-town life.

The post The Only Comic Book Movie Starring Josh Hartnett Is an Underrated Horror Gem appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Most fans of The X-Files probably don’t know that star Gillian Anderson was deeply disturbed by one episode’s script. Throughout its original nine-season run from 1993 to 2002 and its two-season revival in 2016 and 2018, The X-Files presented plenty of terrifying and unsettling stories revolving around FBI special agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Anderson). Tasked with investigating the paranormal and unexplained, the pair took on various cases having to do with horrifying monsters, supernatural entities, and grisly killings. A particular episode of the legendary sci-fi series left Anderson completely taken aback, and viewers will be stunned to learn just how blood-soaked it is.

The X-Files Season 4, Episode 6, titled “Sanguinarium,” aired in 1996 as a standalone Monster-of-the-Week episode. Directed by Kim Manners, the story centers on a series of gruesome murders in a hospital’s cosmetic surgery unit. Invoking the latin term for blood, the episode’s title hints at its graphic nature. In fact, Anderson referred to the episode as “one of the most repulsive scripts I ever shot” due to its gory scenes, per the 1998 book I Want to Believe: The Official Guide to the X-Files Volume 3. Evidenced by Anderson’s reaction, the unusual amount of blood and guts in “Sanguinarium” distinguishes the episode among the other more unnerving episodes of The X-Files.

What Prompted Gillian Anderson Repulsed Reaction to “Sanguinarium”

“Sanguinarium” opens with a shocking and gruesome sequence at the hospital. While Dr. Harrison Lloyd (John Juliani) performs a liposuction procedure, he removes too much of the patient’s fat. Dr. Lloyd continues, causing blood to spray everywhere and killing the patient. Later in the episode, Mulder and Scully arrive and notice a pentagram on the floor, suggesting witchcraft played a role in the murder. Soon after, Dr. Ilaqua (Paul Raskin) burns a hole through a patient’s neck with a laser. The surgeons cannot explain why they killed the patients, prompting Mulder and Scully to do some more digging. They conclude that the doctors have all been possessed by witchcraft from an unknown source. Mulder and Scully follow a false lead involving one of the hospital’s nurses, but eventually discover that Dr. Jack Franklin (Richard Beymer) was attempting to conduct a ritual to replace his face with a younger-looking face of a patient. The killings were all linked to his goal of immortality.

Read Next

The X-Files Was Supposed to End With This Episode, But Here’s What Happened

The episode includes even more graphic scenes involving a patient severely burned by acid and a nurse throwing up pins, in addition to the aforementioned incidents. Extreme depictions of blood and violence in a medical setting certainly dial up the scare factor in “Sanguinarium,” and The X-Files succeeds in generating a creepy atmosphere thanks to the graphic moments. It’s easy to see why Anderson was repulsed by “Sanguinarium,” as the episode’s gory death scenes aren’t typical of The X-Files. Viewers even expressed a similar sentiment, often labeling “Sanguinarium” as one of The X-Files‘ most disturbing episodes. The series commonly dealt with paranormal possessions of humans and serial killers, but “Sanguinarium” takes the subject matter to a much bloodier level.

“Sanguinarium” Is Still a Standout X-Files Episode Despite Its Mixed Reception

Although “Sanguinarium” stands out as an exceptionally unnerving chapter of The X-Files, the episode received mixed reviews. It currently holds a 7.3 user rating on IMDb, which falls short of the show’s higher-scored episodes in the 8s and 9s. “Sanguinarium” is mostly shock and awe from beginning to end rather than sustained tension of narrative substance. Moreover, the tale doesn’t end in a truly satisfying manner, as Dr. Franklin is shown accepting a new job to presumably commit more murders. The backstory of Dr. Franklin’s witchcraft could have used more development, and Duchovny and Anderson don’t have much to work with in the dialogue department.

So, while “Sanguinarium” doesn’t rank among the most compelling X-Files episodes, it separates itself from other installments by proving that the series could always surprise audiences — and even cast members for a change. Anderson’s words reflect the dramatic deviation of “Sanguinarium” in comparison to The X-Files‘ scariest episodes, as the show garnered a reputation for terrifying audiences through sheer tension and frightening imagery with minimal blood and gore. After “Sanguinarium,” The X-Files never quite replicated this degree of body horror, and maybe that’s a good thing.

All seasons of The X-Files are available to stream on Hulu.

The post One of The X-Files’ Weirdest Episodes Got Roasted as “Repulsive” by Gillian Anderson appeared first on ComicBook.com.

If you love zombie movies, chances are you’ve seen Danny Boyle’s triumphant return to the genre, 28 Years Later (you can read our review here). The film, like its two predecessors, 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, features zombies capable of running full speed at their victims rather than stumbling along like the undead corpses of old. Days in particular is often credited with inventing the idea of “fast zombies,” a trend further popularized by movies like Zack Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead and the underrated zombie classic [REC]. It’s a case of stolen valour, however, because running zombies actually were popularized in 1985’s Return of the Living Dead, which you can stream right now on Tubi and Pluto TV.

Return of the Living Dead tells the story of two Uneeda Medical Supply workers who accidentally unleash a zombie plague upon the city of Louisville, Kentucky. The cult horror comedy was the directorial debut of Alien writer Dan O’Bannon, based on a script by Night of the Living Dead co-writer John A. Russo. Influenced by both the punk subculture and the zombie movies that came before it, Return of the Living Dead is a seminal work of zombie fiction that also just so happens to feature some of the earliest zombies capable of running a 5K (though many argue 1980’s Nightmare City debuted the first running zombies).

28 Days Later Made Running Zombies Mainstream

To be fair, 28 Days Later definitely introduced the idea of running zombies to the greater public consciousness. Before 2002, the idea of zombies as anything other than the shambling bags of rotten meat introduced in George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead was mostly unheard of. That’s because while Return of the Living Dead was and still is tremendously popular among gorehounds, it’s not exactly required viewing for most cinephiles.

It also doesn’t help that one particular aspect of Return of the Living Dead rearranged the fabric of pop culture forever, pretty much obscuring everything else about the movie. Even those who have seen the film don’t usually associate it with the birth of running zombies. That’s because for the last 40 years, the biggest takeaway from Return of the Living Dead has been “Braaaaains!”

What Do Zombies Eat?

Ask anyone from six to 60 what zombies eat and nine times out of 10, the answer will be brains. Such is the legacy of Return of the Living Dead. It will forever be known as the film that gave us brain-eating ghouls and rewrote zombie lore for the masses. It doesn’t matter that zombies eating brains makes no sense — to quote World War Z author Max Brooks, “If the virus lives in the brain and the zombie eats its victims’ brains, how do you make more zombies?” Thanks to a single, low-budget horror film from the mid-’80s, zombies will forever be thought of as brain-eaters.

With that in mind, who wouldn’t forgive someone for forgetting, “Oh yeah, the zombies run in that movie, don’t they?”

Read Next

The Biggest Zombie Movie of All-Time Will Shock You (And It’s Not 28 Days Later)

Ironically, the brain-eating is directly related to the running it overshadows, at least from a production standpoint. Due to a whole slew of rights issues, Return of the Living Dead tried to differentiate itself from George Romero’s zombie movies in every way possible. For instance, Romero never gives a clear origin for his zombie apocalypse, leaving it up to the viewer to decide if it’s the result of a virus or some biblical plague sent by a pissed off God.

Meanwhile, Return of the Living Dead lets viewers know right from the jump that the dead are becoming reanimated thanks to Trioxin 2-4-5, a chemical used by the military to kill illegal marijuana crops. These Trioxin zombies differ from Romero’s classic zombies in many ways. Where Dawn of the Dead‘s zombies can be killed by destroying their brains, the only way to get rid of Return of the Living Dead‘s revenants is to burn them until there’s nothing left but ashes. Where classic zombies are mindless and speak in nothing but grunts and moans, Trioxin zombies retain limited thought and speech capabilities, making them extra dangerous.

And lastly, of course, Romero’s living dead move like molasses and crave human flesh regardless of what part of the body it’s attached to, while Return of the Living Dead‘s zombies will run you down for a chance to munch on your grey matter. While the Trioxin zombies’ ability to sprint may not be their most prominent feature, it’s an important one nonetheless.

Slow Zombies Represent Our Inevitable Crawl Towards the Grave

Romero’s zombies are a metaphor for death. You can easily run from them, fight them off with little effort, but eventually, they will catch up to you. Much like death itself, it’s only a matter of time. It’s an effective metaphor for those who dread their own mortality, but for others, the plodding, slow-moving corpses of Romero’s films aren’t that frightening. Running zombies, on the other hand, pose a bigger threat than their ambulatory siblings and, as a result, offer bigger scares culminating in the lightning-fast, rage-infected nightmares of 28 Days Later and its sequels.

So next time you watch a movie with fast zombies, remember, Return of the Living Dead‘s zombies ran so that the zombies in 28 Years Later … could also run? Look, it’s not a perfect metaphor, but you understand what we’re trying to say. Go stream Return of the Living Dead for free on Tubi or Pluto TV and tell the Tarman we said “Hi.”

The post 28 Years Later Fans Need to Watch This Early Running Zombies Movie (You Can Stream It Free) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Netflix quietly released one of the best modern zombie stories in 2019, and there is a good chance you completely missed it. The South Korean series Kingdom arrived with little fanfare but delivered a stunningly original concept: a full-blown zombie apocalypse set against the backdrop of a meticulously crafted historical political thriller. The show blended the visceral terror of a ravenous horde with the intricate courtly intrigue of Korea’s medieval Joseon period, earning near-universal praise from critics for its intelligence, production value, and relentless tension. Despite this acclaim, Kingdom never achieved the mainstream cultural footprint of its genre peers, leaving it as a criminally underrated gem. Still, for anyone who thinks the zombie genre has nothing new to offer, this series is a brilliant rebuttal.

Kingdom is a lean and perfectly paced horror epic, consisting of two six-episode seasons released in 2019 and 2020, followed by a feature-length special episode, Kingdom: Ashin of the North, in 2021. This compact structure ensures a relentlessly tense narrative that barrels forward without a single wasted moment. Furthermore, the decision to ground the outbreak within a specific historical context, a time of rigid social hierarchies, famine, and cutthroat political maneuvering, gives the horror an entirely unique texture. The result is an essential treasure waiting to be discovered by any viewer seeking a horror series that respects their intelligence while still delivering spectacular scares, though they should be prepared for an unresolved story.

What’s the Plot of Kingdom?

The core genius of Kingdom lies in its premise, which treats the zombie outbreak as a direct consequence of human ambition and political decay. The story follows Crown Prince Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon), who finds himself targeted in a dangerous conspiracy. His father, the King, has fallen gravely ill, but the powerful Haewon Cho clan, led by the Queen’s ruthless father, Chief State Councilor Cho Hak-ju (Ryu Seung-ryong), has sealed off the palace. They prevent anyone, including the Prince, from seeing the ailing monarch. 

Fearing a coup and suspecting treason, Prince Chang secretly ventures out of the capital to investigate his father’s mysterious sickness. He discovers the truth in a famine-stricken village, where a plague turns its victims into monstrous cannibals who are unnervingly fast, agile, and seemingly unstoppable. Kingdom‘s setup immediately elevates it above typical survival fare. The Haewon Cho clan’s desperate attempts to cover up the King’s true condition and consolidate their power are directly responsible for the plague’s initial spread. This makes the human antagonists just as, if not more, dangerous than the infected. 

As Kingdom unfolds, Prince Chang is forced to fight a war on two fronts, one against the ever-growing horde of the undead and another against the political enemies who are actively trying to have him killed. He is aided by the sharp-witted physician Seo-bi (Bae Doona), who tirelessly works to understand the plague’s nature, and the enigmatic hunter Yeong-shin (Kim Sung-kyu), a man with incredible fighting skills and his own hidden agenda. This blend of courtly intrigue and survival horror creates a narrative where a calculated political decision can be as deadly as a zombie bite, giving the story stakes that feel both epic and deeply personal.

Why Kingdom Deserves Your Attention

Beyond its brilliant premise, Kingdom succeeds on the sheer quality of its execution. The series boasts stunning production values, featuring breathtaking cinematography, immaculate costume design, and detailed sets that fully immerse the viewer in the beauty of Joseon-era Korea. What truly anchors the series, however, are its compelling characters and relentless pacing. Prince Chang’s arc from a politically targeted royal to a battle-hardened and compassionate leader of the people is the emotional core of the story. He is a genuinely heroic figure, but one who is constantly forced to make impossible choices in a world collapsing around him. 

The supporting cast of Kingdom is equally strong, with Seo-bi representing the voice of science and reason amidst the supernatural chaos, and the human villains providing a chilling portrait of how ambition and cruelty can flourish in a crisis. Finally, the show’s six-episode seasons ensure there is no narrative fat, with each episode moving the story forward at breakneck pace.

Sadly, Kingdom‘s story remains incomplete. The second season concludes with a game-changing cliffhanger that completely redefines the threat. However, years have passed since that cliffhanger, and the future of Kingdom has remained frustratingly ambiguous. In 2021, Netflix released Kingdom: Ashin of the North, a feature-length prequel that masterfully explored the tragic origin story of the plague and the new antagonist introduced at the end of Season 2. While a fantastic film in its own right, it did not advance the primary storyline of Prince Chang. As of now, Netflix has not officially renewed or canceled the series, leaving its dedicated fanbase in a state of limbo. The commitment to such a beautifully crafted but unfinished story is a gamble, but the quality of the two existing seasons is so high it’s a risk well worth taking.

Did you watch Netflix’s Kingdom? What did you like most about it? Join the discussion in the comments.

The post This Netflix Zombie Series Is an Underrated Horror Gem appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Marvel’s zombie franchise returns, and it’s getting the Red Band treatment. First introduced in 2005, Marvel Zombies featured a universe where Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were turned into zombies. The franchise has popped up from time to time since then, and was adapted into an episode of Marvel’s What If…? animated series on Disney+. A Marvel Zombies spinoff series is also scheduled to release just in time for Halloween. With that in mind, a new Marvel Zombies comic book series is also coming around the same time, and the publisher is amping up the horror with a Parental Advisory.

Marvel announced Marvel Zombies: Red Band, a five-issue limited series by writers Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan, and Marvel’s Stormbreaker artist Jan Bazaldua. Parker and Sheridan make their Marvel Comics debut next week in Bring on the Bad Guys: Green Goblin #1. As for Marvel Zombies: Red Band, it will be labeled with a Parental Advisory and polybagged with a warning for explicit content. Previous comics to get the Red Band label include Blood Hunt, Wolverine: Revenge, Blade, Daredevil: Unleash Hell, and Punisher.

“Writing Marvel Zombies: Red Band is nothing short of a dream come true for Griffin and I,” Parker said. “As lifelong fans of the Marvel Universe and its storied past, as well as writers who have made their love for the genre of bloodsoaked horror a matter of public record, this project could not be more in our sweet spot. With Jan Bazaldua and the rest of the unbelievable talent bringing this crazy book to life, we are rewriting Marvel history in new and terrifying ways, and we sincerely hope you’ll join us.”

Read Next

Gambit Gets Gruesome Marvel Zombies Treatment in Stunning X-Men Cosplay

“Ethan and I are like mad scientists combining so many different things we love on Marvel Zombies: Red Band,” Sheridan added. “The result is this viscera-drenched, blood-soaked, gut-covered epic spanning across all the biggest events in Marvel history. It really should be clear, we have so much appreciation for the Marvel Universe… which is why it is such a shame that we have to rip it to shreds in the kind of disgusting fashion that one can only find on the other side of a freshly torn open polybag. See you there, True Believer.”

Covers by Greg Land, Ryan Brown, Clayton Crain, and Scott Koblish feature the zombie versions of the Fantastic Four. The description of the first issue of Marvel Zombies states it will follow the origin story of the Fantastic Four, where it looks like they become zombified after gaining they’re extraordinary abilities. The Fantastic Four return to Earth with a hunger for human flesh, and readers will get to see which heroes reach their full potential, and which heroes will be torn limb from limb.

MARVEL ZOMBIES: RED BAND #1 (OF 5)

• Written by ETHAN S. PARKER & GRIFFIN SHERIDAN
• Art by JAN BAZALDUA
• Cover by GREG LAND
• Variant Cover by CLAYTON CRAIN
• Virgin Variant Cover by CLAYTON CRAIN
• Variant Cover by RYAN BROWN
• Retro Zombie Variant Cover by SCOTT KOBLISH
• On Sale 9/17
• THE DEAD RISE AGAIN FOR THE FIRST TIME!
• It was the most important space flight in the history of the Marvel Universe – four intrepid heroes took off into the unknown and returned changed, gifted with great abilities…and hungering for human flesh! Travel back to the birth of a Marvel Universe parallel to our own but chock-full of horror since its very inception! Which heroes will rise to become the champions we know and love? Which will be torn limb from limb? And which will devour the scraps?

MARVEL ZOMBIES: RED BAND #2 (OF 5)

• Written by ETHAN S. PARKER & GRIFFIN SHERIDAN
• Art by JAN BAZALDUA
• Cover by GREG LAND
• On Sale 10/22

Marvel Zombies #1 goes on sale September 17th, followed by Marvel Zombies #2 on October 22nd. Let us know your thoughts on the Red Band series in the comments below!

The post New Marvel Zombies Series Comes With a Parental Warning for Blood and Horror appeared first on ComicBook.com.

One of Dead by Daylight’s annual events, The Twisted Masquerade, has returned once again. However, this is a special one, as Behaviour Interactive has confirmed it will be the final time players get to partake in The Twisted Masquerade. The fourth and final occurrence of this event begins on June 26th and runs until July 17th. Considering the finality of this celebratory event, fans will not want to miss out.

The Twisted Masquerade is an event to die for, literally, and sees a return to celebrate nine years of Dead by Daylight. Throughout this event, locales will be decked out in festive and lavish ornamentation. The Bag of Tryks returns, too, and there are heaps of new rewards players can collect by playing Dead by Daylight.

The goodies in The Twisted Masquerade can be earned by completing event-specific quests and rewarding players with Gilden Trinkets. These are used to claim various themed rewards for both Survivors and Killers. The rewards include masks, weapons, badges, banners, charms, and even outfits. More quests will be added throughout the event and there are daily login rewards to grab too.

Players can locate Masquerade Pillars and claim an invitation. Doing so as either the Killer or Survivor will grant a temporary ability. This differs for both roles, either making it easier to escape for Survivors or allowing Killers to teleport their victims straight to a hook. Survivors may also be able to activate quiet mode while killers can remotely break a pallet.

Read Next

Matthew Lillard Shares Behind-the-Scenes Look at Dead by Daylight’s FNAF DLC

The Bag of Tryks opens at the beginning of every trial, and five random cards will be pulled. These impact the match with a new card being revealed throughout. Some have mild effects while others drastically change the way the game plays for both Survivors and the Killer in Dead by Daylight.

Do you plan to participate in Dead by Daylight’s last Twisted Masquerade? Are you sad to see the event go? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Annual Dead by Daylight Event Returns for the Very Last Time appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland have never shied away from bold filmmaking and storytelling. Their respective filmographies, including their first collaboration, 28 Days Later, are often full of big swings, stunning visuals, exciting and emotional stories, and unforgettable characters. All of this, plus their occasional desire to delve into the dark and complex facets of humanity, is front and center in this year’s British horror drama 28 Years Later. Beyond the fictional narrative centered on Britain being quarantined for decades after the release of the Rage Virus and the survivors left behind, the highly anticipated sequel was infused with references to real-life horrors, one in particular that British fans might find particularly disturbing. Recently, Boyle and Garland discussed the controversial final minutes of the film and why they are significant for the trilogy as a whole.

WARNING: Spoilers below for 28 Years Later

Speaking with Eammon Jacobs for Business Insider, Boyle and Garland address Jack O’Connell’s introduction as adult Jimmy in the jarring final scene of 28 Years Later. We first meet the character when Jimmy is a child at the beginning of the film, when the infection has just started to spread across Britain. The young Jimmy witnesses the brutal deaths of his sisters and the rest of his family (including his father, a priest who believes this to be Judgement Day and gleefully welcomes death) but manages to escape the violent onslaught of the infected. Nearly three decades into Britain’s isolated dystopian existence, Jimmy has evolved into Sir Jimmy Crystal, a cult leader whose character was apparently inspired by the real-life British star and sexual predator Jimmy Savile.

As the BBC explained in its profile of Savile, he was a popular DJ and a huge media personality in the UK for decades, with a pervasive presence in British culture. He was best known for hosting the show Top of the Pops in the 1960s and was the presenter on Jim’ll Fix It from the 1970s to the 1990s, where children would write to the show and Savile would grant their wishes during each episode. A year after Savile’s death in 2011, hundreds of allegations came out that he was a prolific sexual abuser, mainly of children. As the BBC reported, Savile used his status and fame to target his victims for decades. It was later revealed that the BBC “missed opportunities to stop ‘monstrous’ abuse… because of a ‘culture of fear.'”

A big giveaway in 28 Years Later that Jimmy is meant to resemble Savile is the distinctive wardrobe he (and his followers, the Jimmies) sport: a blonde wig, colorful tracksuits, and gaudy jewelry, looking like a creepy Savile Halloween costume. As soon as you look up a photo of Savile, the similarities are undeniable. Obviously, having a real-life monster inspire such an important character in the movie was intentional on the filmmakers’ part. Boyle and Garland explain in the TikTok clip above that O’Connell’s Jimmy is partially linked to the ongoing trilogy’s crucial theme of memory and how that plays into the characters’ different ideas of shaping “better worlds.”

“The whole film — and if we ever get to make it, the whole trilogy — is in some ways about looking back and looking forwards, and the relationship between looking forwards to better worlds or attempting to make better worlds,” Garland said. “Or, trying to construct the world that you’re in on the basis of old worlds… The thing about looking back is how selective memory is and that it cherry picks and it has amnesia, and crucially it also misremembers. And we are living in a time right now which is absolutely dominated by a misremembered past.”

“It’s all kind of twisting in this partial remembrance, clinging onto things and then recreating them as an image for followers,” Boyle added.

Read Next

28 Years Later Review: A Shot of Adrenaline for Modern Horror

With selective memory being such a huge theme driving the story (i.e., the way cancer affects Isla’s memory, Jamie embellishing stories and outright lying sometimes about prior events, Dr. Kelson focused solely on remembering the dead and how we “must die”), it is interesting how Boyle and Garland correlate that with the UK’s memories of Savile and how that will play out with the character of Jimmy in the sequel, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

It’s established in the opening of 28 Years Later that Jimmy and his sisters were raised on popular kids’ programming at the time (Teletubbies, for example) and likely would have seen Savile’s show as well. Jimmy experienced an extremely violent and traumatic event as a child. His trauma possibly melded with the few positive memories he had as a kid before the infected, namely the TV characters and personalities Jimmy grew up with in the ’90s — on top of his religious upbringing that is obviously significant as he still has his father’s cross, which he wears upside down similar to how the Jimmies often hang the infected upside down with “Jimmy” carved into their torsos. All of this will potentially play a part in shaping how the cult leader persona he has cloaked himself in as an adult informs what Jimmy envisions a “better world” built on a cherry-picked past should be.

Memory and nostalgia may also influence Spike’s (Alfie Williams) perspective on Jimmy and his crew. At the beginning of 28 Years Later, before Spike leaves with his dad on his first pilgrimage to the mainland, we see that one of his toys is a red Power Ranger. While the ending feels bizarre with the parkour flips and colorful tracksuits, consider Spike’s perspective of this moment: a group of “superheroes” in vibrant outfits showing up and saving his life, similar to how he might picture the Power Rangers. Even though Spike has minimal exposure to these popular TV characters and has never seen any of the movies or series with zero firsthand knowledge of life before quarantine and the infected, that Power Ranger toy is clearly an important part of his childhood. This seemingly heroic first meeting could be part of the pull and trust Spike has towards the charismatic Jimmy moving forward.

Spike shaking Jimmy’s hand in the final moments of 28 Years Later, especially after losing his mother and becoming disillusioned by his father and the somewhat insidious, isolated community on Lindisfarne he’s grown up in, leaves a lingering feeling of dread for the 12-year-old as fans wait to see what comes next.

The post 28 Years Later Director Breaks Silence on Controversial Ending (& What It Means for the Trilogy) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

2023 was a massive year for film. From instant classics like Barbie and Oppenheimer, to indie successes like Anatomy of a Fall, 2023 saw the release of numerous films that will be discussed for years to come. One of the best films of the year, however, is one that rarely gets talked about. Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid is not only a criminally underrated film from 2023, but a misunderstood masterpiece that will stand the test of time. It may not have received great reviews from critics or audiences, but it has every element that is needed to be a sensation for the ages.

Beau is Afraid follows an anxiety-ridden man, played by Joaquin Phoenix, as he goes on a spiritual and metaphysical journey to get home to his mother. At three hours, the film is a shocking, haunting, unforgettable, and sometimes comical depiction of anxiety and trauma that is bound to leave an impact.

Why Beau is Afraid Is a Masterpiece

Although the central premise is simple, the film is anything but. Split into a three-act structure, Beau is Afraid tells a harrowing story of guilt, identity, and life. It delves deep into its characters, utilizing a perfect blend of horror and comedy. Blending horror and comedy is a hard task, but Aster’s attention to detail and understanding of the filmmaking form make for a seamless transition between the two genres.

The film, if stripped of its parts, could also be depicted as a drama. Beau has an extremely complicated relationship with his mother, and a significant part of the film revolves around him coming to terms with this relationship and its impact on his life thus far. Through symbolic imagery and a show-stopping monologue by Patti LuPone, the film effectively portrays generational trauma in an emotionally impactful manner.

Joaquin Phoenix is one of the best actors of his lifetime, and he proves it with his work on Beau is Afraid. The film asks him to do many bizarre things, and he portrays them with incredible empathy. Everything that happens in the film is viewed from Phoenix’s perspective, and his presence alone conveys a great deal about the character and the themes at play. For a film as loaded as Beau is Afraid, it is necessary to have a high-caliber actor at the forefront, and Phoenix was the perfect choice for the role.

Read Next

10 Movie Twists That Are Obvious From the Beginning

Patti LuPone delivers a once-in-a-lifetime performance as Beau’s mom, Mona. The comforting nature she brings, combined with her aggressive undertones, makes for an extremely compelling and nuanced character. A character like this could have easily been portrayed as the stereotypical stern parent, but LuPone adds so much gravitas and strength that it brings the character to life. Her omission from the Best Supporting Actress category at the Oscars was one of the year’s biggest snubs.

Ari Aster is an expert at crafting images that are simultaneously beautiful and horrifying, and Beau is Afraid is no exception. Utilizing IMAX technology, the film employs its wide angles and aspect ratio changes to convey a large scope. Doing so allowed for enhanced scare sequences and countless poignant images. Its vast use of color made every frame interesting to look at, even if the most heinous thing is happening. No matter what was happening in the story, Aster made sure that the cinematography was always giving something worth remembering.

Beau is Afraid Is What Films Are Missing These Days

Beau is Afraid has some of the most jarring images ever put to screen, and even with its inclusion of aspects like giant penis monsters, it still finds ways to relate to the audience. The first hour in particular is a straight satire of modern-day anxieties. From simple tasks like going to the store or calling a parent, Aster illustrates how anxiety can impact the most mundane aspects of life.

Easily the standout scene of the film, as well as one of the best scenes of the decade, is an animated sequence involving the life and future of Beau. The animation is gorgeous, but the sound design and storytelling are the true standouts of the sequence. The sensual sound does an incredible job of drawing the audience into the visuals, using ominous sound effects to convey a mysterious tone. The scene tells the story of Beau’s life, heavy on emotion and conveying many of the film’s themes, including loss and trauma that take hold of the protagonist.

Beau is Afraid is not the disappointment that the box office may indicate; it’s a meticulously crafted film from A24, and precisely what the film industry is missing. There are too many safe and redundant films coming out that fail to captivate the audience beneath the surface. Audiences need more bold, audacious, and original movies to keep the industry alive. Sequels and franchise films may be financially worth it, but films like Beau is Afraid will stand the test of time.

Beau is Afraid is available to stream on Max and rent on VOD.

The post This 2023 Film Is a Misunderstood Masterpiece appeared first on ComicBook.com.

If you went and saw the first comedy-robot-slasher film M3GAN, then you know this girl is here to slay in more ways than one. The new drop of Funko Pops proves that to be true with the new Entertainment Earth Exclusive metallic M3GAN Pop, which adds even more style to the already stylish murderous robot. A Funko Pop of M3GAN’s iconic dance from the first film, the one that went semi-viral, is also included in the wave, as well as a common M3GAN Pop. Head to Entertainment Earth here to see everything including the Exclusive Pop. The commons should also be coming to Amazon and Hot Topic soon. Additional info can be found below.

• M3GAN Metallic Funko Pop! Vinyl Figure
• M3GAN (Dancing) Funko Pop! Vinyl Figure
• M3GAN Funko Pop! Vinyl Figure
• You can check out all of this week’s best Funko Pop releases right here.

M3GAN Funko Pops with Metallic Exclusive

Order at Entertainment Earth

The original M3GAN ended up earning $173.4 million on a $12 million budget, meaning that it was no surprise when it secured a sequel. That sequel, M3GAN 2.0, is playing in theaters starting today. Taking a sort of Terminator 2 approach, the villain of the first one, M3GAN herself, must defend her people against a second killer robot. The taglines of the poster read “Humanity’s Greatest Threat is Now Our Only Hope” and “She Was Built to Obey.” Menaching, but if the film’s anything like the first one, we know the campy tone will come out on top. 

M3GAN 2.0 brings back the cast from the first film. M3GAN 2.0 stars Violet McGraw as Cady, Allison Williams as Gemma, and Amie Donald as M3GAN. Returning as the voice of M3GAN is Jenna Davis. The new villainous Robot doll AMELIA is brought to life by newcomer Ivanna Sakhno. Sakhno is best known for her role as Shin Hati on Star Wars: Ahsoka.

While early reviews have said that the new slasher might not be as iconic as the first, it seems there should be enough camp to satisfy whatever craving you might’ve had. 

M3GAN 2.0 breaks into theaters on June 27.

Want to stay up to date on the latest horror movie news and collectibles? Then keep an eye on our Gear Page!

The post M3GAN Is the Star of The Latest Exclusive Funko Pop appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Now that we’re 25 years into the 21st century, film fans have been reflecting on the best the medium has had to offer since the dawn of the new millennium. Recently, The New York Times got in on the action by polling over 500 “filmmakers, stars and influential film fans” to determine the 100 greatest films released this century so far. As one would expect, the full list is an eclectic collection of titles, featuring everything from massive studio blockbusters, indie darlings, and anything in between. The horror genre received a lot of love in the voting, as Jordan Peele’s Get Out ranked No. 8 on the list.

This means that Get Out is considered to be the best horror film of the century according to the poll results. Other horror-flavored titles that placed on the list include Black Swan (No. 81) and Under the Skin (No. 69). The full list is now available to check out on the official New York Times Website.

Released in February 2017, Get Out quickly became a phenomenon. Earning universal acclaim thanks to Peele’s sharp screenplay and strong performances from the cast, the film grossed $255.7 million worldwide against a $4.5 million production budget. Get Out was widely considered to be one of the best films of the year and earned numerous accolades. It was nominated for four Oscars, with Peele winning the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Its other Oscar nods were Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (Daniel Kaluuya).

Read Next

Jordan Peele Teases His Next Film Could Be His Favorite One Yet

The success of Get Out established Peele as one of the most unique and gifted cinematic storytellers of his generation. Since Get Out, he has directed Us and Nope, which have both been well-received box office hits. Peele is currently developing his fourth feature; it’s currently scheduled for release in October 2026 and Peele believes it could be his favorite film that he’s made.

There’s been no shortage of great horror films released so far this century (including several that were not on The New York Times‘ list), but people would be hard-pressed to argue against Get Out‘s placement on the rankings. The film’s balance of horror, dark comedy, and insightful social commentary is a strong combination that makes it among the best the genre has to offer. Like any great genre film, Get Out holds a mirror to larger society and explores real-world topics through an entertaining lens. Taking cues from The Twilight Zone and other important touchstones, Get Out uses its high concept to deliver more than just general horror thrills. Peele’s touch and storytelling approach helped it transcend genre to become something truly special.

Get Out might hold this distinction for a long time. It was such a perfect storm that it will be difficult for any horror film to top it — even one that manages to offer an irresistible combination of gory kills, clever wit, and compelling food for thought. This isn’t to say that there won’t be anything that rivals Get Out for the rest of this century — 75 years is a long time — but it’s hard to see Get Out being unseated any time soon. Unless Peele’s next film really is as great as he’s teasing.

The post 8 Year Old Horror Movie Crowned Best Of The Century By 500 Actors & Directors (Are They Right?) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Elden Ring movie is not the only cinematic adaptation of a FromSoftware title moving forward, as a new update indicates that a long-rumored Bloodborne film is still in the works. According to insider Daniel Richtman, the movie adaptation of the gothic horror classic is still being developed behind the scenes at Sony, with the studio actively searching for a director to helm the project. This report provides the first major sign of life for the project in some time. It follows the recent announcement that A24 is developing an Elden Ring movie with director Alex Garland, a move that sets a high creative bar for how FromSoftware’s beloved games are adapted.

Insider Richtman has been sharing information on a potential Bloodborne film for several years. In November 2023, he reported that the movie was in the works at Sony Pictures with producer Lorenzo Di Bonaventura (Transformers) and writer Darren Lemke (Shazam!) attached. Later, in February 2024, Richtman claimed the project was moving forward with horror director Adam Wingard (Godzilla x Kong, Blair Witch) set to helm the film and Bill Skarsgård (It, The Crow) eyed for the lead role. To date, none of these rumors have been officially confirmed by Sony or any other official source, and the project remains unannounced. As such, any information from Richtman must be taken with a grain of salt.

Read Next

Former PlayStation Boss Speculates Why Bloodborne Sequel and Remaster Aren’t Happening

The latest update from Richtman, claiming an active director search is underway, suggests a potential shift in the project’s status behind the scenes. It is possible that earlier attachments did not materialize or that the studio is re-evaluating its creative direction. The rapid progress of the A24-produced Elden Ring film, which has already found its director and is in the middle of casting talks, could be a motivating factor for Sony. With its competitor moving forward decisively on a similar high-profile FromSoftware property, Sony may now feel pressure to solidify its own plans for Bloodborne and finally move the long-gestating project into a more concrete phase of production.

Bloodborne Remains a FromSoftware Masterpiece

Bloodborne is an action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware and released exclusively for the PlayStation 4 in 2015. Upon its release, the game was met with widespread acclaim, with many critics and players hailing it as one of the greatest video games ever made. It is praised for its challenging and aggressive fast-paced combat, intricate level design, and, most notably, its masterfully crafted horror atmosphere. The game distinguished itself from FromSoftware’s other titles by trading dark fantasy for a unique blend of Victorian-era gothic horror and Lovecraftian cosmic dread, establishing a unique identity that has cultivated a large and passionate fanbase in the years since.

The narrative of Bloodborne is rooted in themes of ambition, faith, and the terrifying consequences of seeking forbidden knowledge. The story takes place in the decaying city of Yharnam, famed for its miraculous healing techniques that use blood from ancient creatures. However, this reliance on an otherworldly blood source has unleashed a plague that transforms the populace into horrific beasts, prompting a group of Hunters to emerge and hunt down the transfigured monsters.

One of Blodborner’s most compelling aspects is its slow pivot from gothic horror to cosmic dread. What begins as a story about hunting monsters gradually reveals that the city’s problems are a symptom of its contact with the Great Ones, incomprehensible cosmic entities whose very existence shatters the human mind. These themes offer a rich foundation for a cinematic adaptation. A film could explore the seductive allure of power and knowledge, following a protagonist who is forced to question whether survival is worth the cost of their sanity. In addition, a Bloodborne movie has the potential to be a deeply philosophical horror film about the terrifying scale of the universe and humanity’s insignificant place within it.

Who would be your dream director for a Bloodborne movie? Let us know in the comments.

The post Elden Ring Is Not the Only FromSoftware Game Getting a Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The future of the Final Destination franchise just received a jolt of positive energy from one of its key architects. Jon Watts, who served as a producer and conceived the story for the recent hit Final Destination Bloodlines, has revealed his deep and ongoing passion for the horror series. During a moderated conversation at the Mediterrane Film Festival (via The Hollywood Reporter), Watts shared that he is constantly thinking about new ideas for the franchise. While he confirmed that New Line Cinema has not officially contacted him about a sequel, his clear enthusiasm is a promising sign for fans hoping for another installment. Watt’s interest in Final Destination is especially significant given that Bloodlines was a massive critical and commercial success, revitalizing the long-dormant franchise and making a follow-up a strong possibility.

“Everywhere I am, I’m looking around for new Final Destination scenarios,” Watts stated at the festival. He also emphasized his long-standing connection to the series. “I love Final Destination. I’ve always been a huge fan,” he said.

Read Next

This Is Still the Most Iconic Final Destination Moment

Watts’s continued passion is great news given his influential role in shaping Bloodlines, which successfully rebooted the series formula while honoring its roots. Although no official plans have been announced, having a producer with his level of creative investment and recent success so eager to continue exploring the concept is a major positive indicator for the franchise’s continuation.

Bloodlines Set a High Bar for a Final Destination Sequel

Final Destination Bloodlines was a box office powerhouse, hauling $281 million worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing entry in the franchise, proving that there is still a strong audience for Death’s intricate designs. It also achieved the best critical reception of any Final Destination film, being praised for how it reinvents the franchise’s lore and gives space for character. The movie ingeniously updated the mythology by introducing a legacy element, with college student Stefani Reyes (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) inheriting premonitions from her grandmother, who averted a deadly tower collapse in 1969. This narrative hook allowed the film to explore the generational consequences of cheating Death and provided a compelling backstory for the return of the franchise’s most iconic character, William Bludworth (Tony Todd).

Despite the film’s success and Watts’s excitement, other key figures from Bloodlines have expressed a more cautious outlook. The film’s directors, Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein, noted the immense creative challenge of crafting original and shocking death sequences. “We left every single idea we had on the field on this one,” Lipovsky told ComicBook. “I can’t imagine how they’re gonna make another one because we’ve scoured every idea that we could think of. God bless whoever has to do that.”

Longtime series producer Craig Perry also urged patience, emphasizing that the focus was on delivering a quality film with Bloodlines before looking ahead. “Just talk to me in a few weeks,” Perry said about a potential sequel. “We really have to deliver the goods and earn the right to even have the conversation.” There’s wisdom in this approach. While Final Destination Bloodlines has successfully earned the right for the franchise to continue, the creative bar has been set incredibly high, and the studio will likely be waiting to see how the dust settles before officially greenlighting another deadly design.

What kind of disaster premonition would you like to see in a future Final Destination movie? Share your ideas in the comments!

The post Final Destination’s Future Gets an Exciting Update From Bloodlines Producer appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Folk horror is a subgenre that draws its terror from the clash between modern society and ancient traditions. Its stories are rooted in the soil of isolated communities, where old-world beliefs and pagan rituals hold sway over the lives of the inhabitants. The central conflict typically involves an outsider, representing rational thought, who stumbles into a closed-off world and confronts a belief system that is both alien and unyielding. Through this premise, the subgenre explores the idea that civilization is a thin veneer, easily peeled back to reveal the brutal (and often ancient) customs that lurk beneath. While many films have explored these themes, one stands as the genre’s undisputed masterpiece. Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man is the pinnacle of folk horror, and for those who wish to experience this foundational work, it is currently available to stream completely free on Pluto TV.

The Wicker Man‘s journey to becoming a celebrated classic was a difficult one. Upon its initial release in 1973, the film was a commercial failure, largely due to studio interference. Its distributors severely cut the runtime against the director’s wishes and unceremoniously dumped it in theaters as the B-picture on a double bill. For years, it remained a half-forgotten film, appreciated mostly by dedicated cinephiles.

Read Next

10 Scariest Horror Movie Endings That Traumatized ’80s Kids

Over the subsequent decades, however, restored and extended cuts of The Wicker Man were painstakingly pieced together, allowing new audiences and critics to finally see the film as it was intended. This led to a major critical re-evaluation that cemented its reputation as one of the most intelligent and disturbing horror films ever made. The plot follows the devoutly Christian Police Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), who travels to the remote island of Summerisle to investigate a missing girl. He is met by a cheerful pagan community led by the charismatic Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), whose polite obstructions and strange rituals slowly reveal a horrifying conspiracy.

What Makes The Wicker Man So Good?

The genius of The Wicker Man lies in its complete rejection of conventional horror mechanics. Its power comes from a relentless, creeping sense of dread, not from jump scares or graphic violence. For starters, director Hardy makes the brilliant decision to set the entire story in bright, cheerful daylight, depicting Summerisle as a pastoral paradise filled with singing villagers and lush orchards. This idyllic setting creates a profound unease, as the cheerful folk songs and communal celebrations become increasingly sinister as Howie’s investigation progresses. As a result, the horror of The Wicker Man is not something that hides in the dark but is performed openly by smiling faces, making the viewer feel like a paranoid outsider right alongside the protagonist. This approach influenced some of the best modern horror movies, like Ari Aster’s Midsommar.

This suffocating atmosphere is intensified by the film’s masterful slow-burn pace. The mystery of the missing girl is the engine of the plot, but the true tension comes from the gradual realization that Howie is a pawn in a game he cannot comprehend. Every evasive answer, strange lesson taught to the island’s children about phallic maypoles, and unsettling public ritual methodically strips away his authority and control. Slowly, the island transforms from a quirky community into a psychological prison from which there is no escape, and Sergeant Howie only realizes his dire situation when it’s already too late.

The Wicker Man‘s Unyielding Clash of Ideology

At its core, The Wicker Man is a film about the collision of two unshakable belief systems. On one side, Sergeant Howie is an embodiment of a rigid Christian moral order. He is genuinely appalled by the islanders’ open sexuality and pagan practices, viewing them as a corruption that must be confronted. Because of that, his investigation becomes a personal moral crusade, and this unbending righteousness is his fatal flaw. It blinds him to the true nature of his purpose on the island and makes him an easy target for a community that understands him far better than he understands them.

The islanders, on the other hand, and particularly their leader Lord Summerisle, are not presented as one-dimensional fanatics. Lord Summerisle is intelligent, articulate, and utterly rational in his convictions. In a pivotal scene, he explains to Howie that their return to the “old gods” was a pragmatic response to a history of failed harvests that threatened their very existence. Their beliefs are a tool for survival, and this is what makes the film’s horror so potent. The islanders are not evil in their own eyes, just like Sergeant Howie is blind to the prejudice and disdain he presents, born from his Christian values. The film’s terrifying climax is the brutal result of this ideological conflict, a raw and unforgettable depiction of what happens when faith, in any form, becomes absolute. That’s what makes The Wicker Man so relevant, over five decades later, as its themes speak about a universal human experience.

What do you think of The Wicker Man? Share your thoughts in the comments.

The post This 52 Year Old Movie Is Still the Best Folk Horror Movie Ever (And It’s Streaming Free) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Bill and Frank’s debut in The Last of Us Season 1, Episode 3, “Long, Long Time,” created a blueprint for how the beloved HBO series can expand after the main story, adapted from the video game of the same name, comes to an end. The Last of Us has already been confirmed for Season 3, which will focus primarily on Abby’s (Kaitlyn Dever) activities in Seattle after killing Joel (Pedro Pascal) in Season 2. While there has also been speculation about a possible Season 4, there are other ways The Last of Us could grow.

While The Last of Us primarily follows the exploits of Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Joel, her protector and father figure, in a world infested by Cordyceps-mutated zombies, one of the series’ best episodes barely referenced the main storyline at all. The Last of Us has, so far, pretty faithfully followed the narrative and characters of Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us video games from 2013 and 2020. Veering away from the video game storyline might create the perfect future for HBO’s The Last of Us, however.

The Last of Us Season 1’s Best Episode Was Separate From the Main Story

The Last of Us Season 1’s third episode, “Long, Long Time,” inspired by the 1970 song by Linda Ronstadt, is considered one of the best episodes of the series, if not one of the best episodes of modern TV. The character of Bill, portrayed by Nick Offerman in the series, appears only briefly in the video game, but Craig Mazin wanted to expand on his history in the live-action adaptation. Bill’s survivalist tendencies were put on display, while he also found himself forming a romantic connection with Frank (Murray Bartlett), with the pair eventually growing old and dying together.

Read Next

The Last of Us Prequel Series Has Been Pitched, Says Nick Offerman

“Long, Long Time” is a hugely emotional episode that helps to expand the world of The Last of Us, its dangers, and its mundanity, while staying practically completely separate from the series’ primary storyline. Joel, Tess (Anna Torv), and Ellie appear only briefly in the episode, connecting Bill and Frank’s story to the show’s main characters, but allowing them to live as a separate entity. This put all the focus on them, which surely helped to make “Long, Long Time” such a heart-breaking and beloved chapter in the series, and may have set a benchmark for the series going forward.

An Anthology Series After The Last of Us Could Reveal More About the World and Its Characters

“Long, Long Time” achieving such popularity and becoming one of the most beloved episodes of the series, could have set up exactly how The Last of Us can continue after Ellie’s story comes to an end. Standalone episodes, perhaps bottle episodes, with a smaller budget, could be the way to go. There are many unseen stories here that deserve to be explored, so it would be fantastic to have an anthology series examine new characters, separate narratives, and new locations in The Last of Us’ fungus-infested world.

These stories would perhaps benefit from not being inspired directly by The Last of Us video games, copying Bill and Frank’s original history from the TV series. We caught a glimpse of Professor Ratna Pertiwi (Christine Hakim) in The Last of Us Episode 2, who first categorized the Cordyceps infection in Jakarta, while Henry and Sam (Lamar Johnson and Keivonn Montreal Woodard), Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey), Marlon and Florence (Graham Greene and Elaine Miles), and more could be expanded on after appearing in the main series.

Read Next

10 Zombie Movies to Watch After The Last of Us Season 2

This has already been shown to be effective, as Tales of the Walking Dead expanded the world of The Walking Dead in an anthology series following the conclusion of the parent show. Something similar for The Last of Us would surely be even more successful and popular, given the high standards and sheer love for the HBO series. The Last of Us has received critical acclaim, so it would be a shame to just see the series end after Ellie’s story wraps up, whether that be at the end of Season 3 or in a possible Season 4.

It would be fantastic to see the world of The Last of Us expand into a full franchise, and an anthology series focusing on small, tender stories like that of Bill and Frank would be great to see. This could debut vibrant new characters, reveal more about the origins of the infection, and feature even more Cordyceps zombie action. The Last of Us Season 3 doesn’t currently have a scheduled release date, but it could set up a whole new anthology series for the franchise’s future.

What stories would you want to see in an anthology series follow-up to The Last of Us? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Last of Us Should Repeat Season 1’s Best Episode to Expand the Franchise Beyond Its End appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Ever since Tubi debuted in 2014, it has made a name for itself while competing with paid streaming services like Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max for viewer attention because it’s a completely free (albeit ad-supported) service. Considering some of the paid services basic tiers also feature ads, that makes Tubi one of the most impressive services out there. That wouldn’t be the case if Tubi didn’t have a similarly impressive line-up of content, but as the years have progressed the available content has only gotten better. This includes everything from relatively new releases to the genre we’re covering here: horror.

In fact, Tubi’s lineup is so good that there are plenty of other excellent horror films that didn’t make the cut including: The Slumber Party Massacre, the original My Bloody Valentine, Creepshow 2, Terrifier, Eden Lake, Sleepaway Camp, and Mom and Dad, among others. Not every title on Tubi stays there for a particularly long time, so catch these titles while they’re available.

1) The Stepfather

Fueled by a genuinely unsettling performance by Terry O’Quinn, The Stepfather is one of the 1980s’ definitive psychological horror films. It’s a simple concept: a serial killer ingratiates his way into families and murders them when they inevitably disappoint him in some small way. “Inevitably” because O’Quinn’s Jerry Blake (AKA Henry Morrison AKA Bill Hodgkins) is genuinely impossible to please. He wants those around him to come from a storybook, but life isn’t a storybook. Too bad for his new wife, Susan, and stepdaughter, Stephanie, he doesn’t much care for separating reality from storybook fantasy.

Tubi also has Stepfather II (which is again led by O’Quinn), Stepfather 3 (which does not feature O’Quinn), and the 2009 remake.

2) Hellraiser

Clive Barker’s Hellraiser is about as inventive a horror film as there is. It yanks you into its grim, gruesome world and doesn’t let you go until the credits roll. Then there are the demonic Cenobites, each equipped with a distinct, horrific appearance that’s impossible to shake from one’s memory, especially the iconic Pinhead. But they’re not a major presence in the original Hellraiser. Instead, it follows Clare Higgins’ Julia Cotton as she seduces and sacrifices a slew of men in an effort to bring back her sadomasochistic brother-in-law, Frank, with whom she shared a fling and who is now on the run from the aforementioned Demon headhunters and torture artists. Toss in excellent performances from Ashley Laurence as Julia’s daughter-in-law, Kirsty (one of horror cinema’s top tier final girls) and Andrew Robinson as Julia’s husband, Larry, and Hellraiser is an A-level horror classic.

The streaming service also offers a few other installments of the franchise. These include Hellbound: Hellraiser II, Hellraiser Revelations, and Hellraiser: Judgment. Revelations and Judgment are very skippable (they don’t even feature Doug Bradley as Pinhead), but Hellbound is the second-best of the franchise and would make for a great addition to the first one on horror movie double feature night.

3) The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

Tobe Hooper’s threadbare-budgeted The Texas Chain Saw Massacre stands firm as one of the scariest films ever made. The world it shows feels distinctly real, and even without showing much blood it nonetheless makes the viewer feel every ounce of the pain of the Sawyer family’s victims.

Tubi also has the highly underrated The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (once again directed by Hooper), 2013’s Texas Chainsaw, and 2017’s Leatherface. If you’re in the mood for more of the director’s work though, check out Lifeforce, Eaten Alive, and Invaders from Mars, all of which are also on Tubi.

4) Friday the 13th

The attractor of much controversy and critical ire at the time of release, Friday the 13th has nonetheless gone on to kick off one of horror cinema’s longest running and most important film franchises. And, in hindsight, the violence of the Saw franchise makes Friday the 13th look absolutely tame by comparison.

Tubi only has the original Friday the 13th, but it’s a case of the first one being the best one anyway, even if many of the sequels are all excellent, too. If afterwards you’re in the mood for another ’80s slasher holiday classic, check out My Bloody Valentine or Prom Night.

Read Next

13 Weirdest Weapons Jason Used to Kill People in the Friday the 13th Franchise

5) An American Werewolf in London

A horror-comedy with a fairly bleak ending, An American Werewolf in London was something of a major departure for director John Landis. Prior to this he had directed straightforward comedies The Kentucky Fried Movie, National Lampoon’s Animal House, and The Blues Brothers. After this he directed Trading Places, Spies Like Us, and Coming to America among other similarly comedic material. But American Werewolf, while laced with smart comedic moments, is first and foremost a horror film, one fueled by a compelling central dynamic between its two leads, played by David Naughton and Jenny Agutter, a scene-stealing from-the-grave role for Griffin Dunne, and cinema’s ultimate werewolf transformation sequence.

And while it doesn’t come from the same creatives, An American Werewolf in Paris is also on Tubi. Admittedly, it only has a wolf hair’s worth of London‘s effectiveness, but it’s worth a watch for ’90s film fans. If you want to watch another genuinely excellent werewolf movie on Tubi, be sure to check out Werewolves Within.

6) Killer Klowns from Outer Space

From makeup artists the Chiodo Brothers, Killer Klowns from Outer Space is one of the ’80s very best cult films. With a perfect blending of horror and comedy (emphasis on the latter), it’s highly entertaining, and more than good enough to wonder why the Chiodos never tried their hand at building a film from the ground up again.

Tubi has a host of silly horror comedies that make for fine companion pieces to Killer Klowns, as well. For instance, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, The Return of the Living Dead, Critters, and all six Warwick Davis-fronted Leprechaun movies.

7) 28 Weeks Later

With 28 Years Later set to be one of summer 2025’s biggest horror hits, there’s no better time to catch up on the films that came first. 28 Days Later just made its way back into the world of streaming after being unavailable to rent or own for quite some time, but Tubi doesn’t have it.

What they do have is the similarly excellent 28 Weeks Later, a movie with a dynamite opening that doesn’t slow down for the remainder of its runtime. Don’t bother with 28 Months After, though, as it’s a cheap, unaffiliated knock-off.

8) Hush

Now that Mike Flanagan’s The Life of Chuck is in theaters, there’s no better time to catch up on the other entries of his IMDb page. You’ll need a Netflix subscription to watch the series The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher, but with Tubi you can watch one of his very best movies.

Flanagan’s other two Stephen King movies, Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep, aren’t on Tubi, but Hush is. It’s a tightly constructed man in a mask film with a commanding lead performance by Flanagan’s wife, Kate Siegel, who also co-wrote the film with him.

9) Get Out

Jordan Peele’s Get Out isn’t just one of the best horror films of the 2010s, it’s one of the decade’s most important movies, regardless of genre. Unlike the vast majority of other horror movies, even its top-tier entries, it earned a lot of awards season love, and for good reason. It succeeds in being scary, but not as well as it succeeds in making the viewer think.

Peele’s Us and Nope are not on Tubi, but without a doubt they did not live up to the startling strength of his directorial debut. Both are fun, interesting movies, but Get Out is in a league of its own.

10) Gremlins

Not just one of 1984’s best horror movies, but one of its best movies in general, Joe Dante’s Gremlins is one of the decade’s most inventive and thoroughly entertaining adventures. It’s also one of the great starter horror films for the younger members of the audience on family movie night.

Once you’re done with Gremlins, check out Dante’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch. It’s far different tonally, but a goofy, fun ride, nonetheless. If you want more Dante, you can then tune into his segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie (a remake of “It’s a Good Life,” the best part of the movie) and his iconic cult classic Piranha.

The post 10 Great Horror Movies You Can Stream Totally Free appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Noah Hawley’s upcoming FX series, Alien: Earth, is set to expand the iconic sci-fi horror universe by bringing the xenomorph threat directly to humanity’s home turf. The highly anticipated show, created by the mind behind Fargo and Legion, will make its debut on August 12th on FX and Hulu. The story is set in the year 2120, a near-future where society is dominated by a handful of powerful corporations, and promises a complex story mixing corporate intrigue with visceral horror. Against this dire backdrop, Alien: Earth introduces new key players, including Wendy (Sydney Chandler), an advanced synthetic hybrid developed by Prodigy Corporation, a major competitor to the infamous Weyland-Yutani.

The main plot of Alien: Earth is triggered by a Weyland-Yutani deep space vessel, the USCSS Maginot, crashing directly into a major city on Earth. In response, Prodigy Corporation dispatches Wendy with a tactical team to investigate the wreckage and salvage any valuable technology from their rival. What they uncover inside the ship is far more dangerous than corporate secrets, as Maginot was transporting a variety of invasive alien species, including the instantly recognizable facehuggers. This incident places a xenomorph outbreak on Earth just two years before the events of the original Alien film. As a result, the specific timing of the show means it is perfectly positioned to provide a concrete answer to a major franchise question that has remained unresolved for 46 years.

The Lingering Mystery of Weyland-Yutani’s Special Order 937

In Ridley Scott’s 1979 film, Alien, the crew of the commercial towing vessel Nostromo is awakened from hypersleep by the ship’s computer, Mother. As they find out, Mother has detected a mysterious signal and has rerouted them to investigate its source on the moon LV-426. Following their protocol, a team descends to the surface and discovers a derelict alien ship containing thousands of leathery eggs. However, the mission goes horribly wrong when Executive Officer Kane (John Hurt) is attacked by a creature that latches onto his face. Against Ripley’s (Sigourney Weaver) orders, he is brought back on board, leading to the xenomorph being unleashed upon the ship.

Read Next

The Most Exciting Thing About Alien: Earth Is Not the Xenomorph

As the crew is hunted down, Ripley seeks answers from the ship’s computer and makes a horrifying discovery about their science officer, Ash (Ian Holm). As it turns out, Ash is an android who has been secretly following a command from Weyland-Yutani, Special Order 937. This directive instructed him to ensure the xenomorph organism was returned to the company for analysis by its bio-weapons division. The order also explicitly stated, “Crew expendable.” This confirmed that the company knew about the organism on LV-426 and intentionally sent the Nostromo and its crew to retrieve it. Yet, neither the film nor its sequels explains how Weyland-Yutani obtained this knowledge.

Alien: Earth Can Finally Connect the Dots

Alien: Earth could provide a direct explanation for Weyland-Yutani’s actions. The series’ trailer already shows that Weyland-Yutani was capturing and transporting xenomorphs at least two years before the Nostromo was diverted to LV-426. It’s still uncertain how and when the crashed USCSS Maginot first collected the xenomorph samples, but since the ship was on a mission to catalogue different invasive alien species, Alien: Earth will likely explore Weyland-Yutani’s fascination with dangerous creatures. At the very least, the impact of the vessel on Earth would have served as the corporation’s first uncontrolled and catastrophic encounter with the xenomorph, giving Weyland-Yutani detailed data on how deadly it was, which would, of course, feed the greed of the company’s weapons division.

Armed with the knowledge gained from the Maginot incident, Weyland-Yutani’s mission in the original Alien is no longer a mysterious gamble. The biological signal detected on LV-426 would have been recognized as a second chance to acquire the valuable asset they had already encountered and lost. Furthermore, this prior knowledge explains why they would go to such extreme lengths, including planting an android among the crew and issuing the ruthless Special Order 937. The new series can therefore show exactly how the entire tragedy Ripley endured occurred due to Weyland-Yutani’s unethical research endeavors.

How do you think the events on Alien: Earth will directly influence the company’s ruthless pursuit of the xenomorph in the original film? Let us know in the comments.

The post Alien: Earth Could Answer a 46-Year-Old Franchise Question appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Move over Guillermo del Toro, there’s a new take on the Frankenstein coming to town. According to Variety, 20th Television and FX are close to closing a deal to bring a spinoff series based on Mel Brooks’s beloved film Young Frankenstein to life. Though we don’t have any plot particulars yet, the series, titled Very Young Frankenstein, will be set in the world of the iconic 1974 film, commonly referred to as one of the best comedies of all time. In it, Victor Frankenstein’s grandson Frederick (Gene Wilder) inherits his grandfather’s Transylvanian castle and picks up his life’s work of bringing a dead body back to life. This isn’t the first time Young Frankenstein has been adapted to another medium. A stage musical version of the iconic comedy ran for two years on Broadway from 2007 to 2009.

Brooks, at the age of 98, will executive produce along with partner Kevin Salter. Joining Brooks and Salter is a creative team with the resumes to do the original film justice. All alumni of the FX hit series What We Do in the Shadows. That show, which recently concluded a six-season run and follows four vampires living on Staten Island, was based on a previous film version that became an indie darling when it premiered in 2014. Visionary Taika Waititi, the godfather of both the Shadows movie and series, along with the director of juggernaut Thor: Ragnarok, will direct Very Young Frankenstein‘s pilot. Shadows series writer and executive producer Stefani Robinson serves as the new Frankenstein‘s writer and showrunner. Rounding out the trio of creators is Michael Gruskoff, one of the producers on the original What We Do in the Shadows film.

Very Young Frankenstein Stellar Team to Make the Series Stand Out From the Original

While we’re usually wary of spinoffs and sequels after a decades-long break, Brooks seems to be one of the few Hollywood power players doing it right. Like with the upcoming Spaceballs sequel and co-writers Josh Gad, Benji Samit, and Dan Hernandez, Brooks has found younger partners to bring his most beloved works into the present day with a fresh take while honoring the material. Waititi, Robinson, and Gruskoff not only have the right pedigree for this new take on Young Frankenstein, they also have sharp, distinct comedic voices that differ from Brooks’s signature style of humor. Waititi’s brand of quirky, irreverent humor is now unmistakable to modern audiences, and it contrasts against Brooks’s broad, neurotic style of funny, which will allow for Very Young Frankenstein to feel new and fresh in all the right ways.

RELATED: 10 Best Recurring Jokes From What We Do in the Shadows

Furthermore, the TV show spinoff What We Do in the Shadows itself could have come across as derivative and old hat. Instead, writers like Robinson, who penned some of the series’ best episodes for the four seasons she was in the writers’ room, took the film’s DNA and created something that stood on its own. Shadows did a masterful job of making us fall in love with their new cast of characters as well as balancing cameos and callbacks to the movie the series was based on.

Though lightning rarely strikes twice, it could very well do so with Very Young Frankenstein, especially having Waititi, Robinson, and Gruskoff at the helm.

The post Young Frankenstein TV Series in the Works (And the Creative Team Is Perfect) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Like the muck-covered corpse of Jason Voorhees emerging from the waters of Crystal Lake for a final scare in 1980’s Friday the 13th, the hockey-masked, machete-wielding killer has a habit of popping up when you least expect him. Days after Friday the 13th prequel series Crystal Lake began filming for Peacock, franchise rights owners Horror, Inc. has set another forthcoming installment in the Jason Universe.

“Sweet Revenge,” a blood-soaked short-form vignette from horror filmmaker Mike P. Nelson (Wrong Turn, V/H/S/85), is set to premiere on YouTube later this summer as “the centerpiece of the franchise’s bold 45th anniversary campaign.”

First announced by Variety, the Jason Universe: Sweet Revenge vignette is sponsored by Angry Orchard Hard Cider. “Fans will drop into a chilling weekend in the woods filled with blood-soaked surprises only Jason can deliver,” according to the description.

Nelson is writing, directing and producing the Friday the 13th/Angry Orchard collab, which the official Jason Universe social media account teased with a first look on Instagram (see it below).

Although a new Friday the 13th movie is as far out as 2027, Sweet Revenge gives fans a little taste of Jason in action ahead of the small-screen Peacock series Crystal Lake.

“I am so grateful that the team at Horror, Inc. saw something in ‘Sweet Revenge’ and wanted it as a part of the Jason Voorhees story!” Nelson said. “And to think 30 years ago I was trying to secretly watch these movies on VHS when no one was looking. To have the opportunity to write and direct one of these stories is surreal – not to mention having an amazing team led by Chad Villella and Brianna Lee Johnson help me bring it to life! Not only is the vignette a new take on the beloved IP, it is a comforting, gory hug, reminding us why we fell in love with these movies. Much gruesome fun awaits you!”

Added Friday 13th LLC’s Marc Toberoff, who oversees the Jason Universe with Friday the 13th franchise creator Victor Miller and Horror, Inc.’s Robert M. Barsamian and Robert P. Barsamian: “Jason has always been a force in pop culture, and the 45th anniversary felt like the perfect moment to do something truly unexpected. Partnering with Horror, Inc. and Angry Orchard who share our passion has opened up a new way to engage fans. It’s exciting to see the franchise evolve with such creativity while staying true to what makes Jason iconic.”

“We were beyond excited when Mike Nelson came on board and Angry Orchard sponsored production to help us bring this to life in a wickedly unexpected way,” Horror, Inc. chief marketing officer Sheri Conn said. “Even in a short vignette, Nelson will masterfully capture our shared vision–honoring the heritage of the franchise while delivering something fresh and thrilling for a new generation.”

Sweet Revenge will premiere on the official Jason Universe YouTube channel later this summer. Jason Universe previously unveiled the new mask and logo in a teaser featuring music by Friday the 13th franchise composer Harry Manfredini and the redesigned Jason Voorhees by Greg Nicotero (Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday).

Read Next

Friday the 13th Movies Teased After 16-Year Absence, as New Jason Voorhees Redesign Revealed

The post Jason Universe: New Friday the 13th Announcement Isn’t What Horror Fans Wanted appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Mummy has officially wrapped filming, according to writer-director Lee Cronin. The filmmaker posted a photo of his director’s chair on Instagram on Tuesday with the caption, “All wrapped up.” The image did not seem to give any major clues about the movie at first glance, though perhaps some fans can read into the complex symbols traced onto the sandy ground, as well as the hieroglyphs and artifacts on the wall in the background. This reboot of The Mummy will not follow the continuity of any of the older movies, including the 2017 version starring Tom Cruise. It is currently slated for release on April 17, 2026.

Cronin’s post had horror fans rising from a long slumber this week. Those that follow Cronin on Instagram have seen his periodic updates on the movie, which mostly mirrored the official announcements from the studios. However, his post reached outside of his circle, and many commenters clearly hadn’t known or had forgotten that this project was in the works. To hear that it is already finished filming and is so close to release was a pleasant surprise for them.

It’s been a long road to get to this point for The Mummy after the critical and commercial failure of the 2017 movie and the dissolution of the Dark Universe plans altogether. This version began to take shape last summer, when New Line Cinema announced plans for an untitled movie written and directed by Cronin. Blumhouse Productions and Atomic Monster are also producing the film, and it was months before the title was officially confirmed.

Read Next

You Won’t Believe These 5 Actors Once Considered for Universal’s Dark Universe

Cronin is on a meteoric rise in the horror genre, from his feature-length directorial debut The Hole in the Ground in 2019 to his first big franchise project Evil Dead Rise in 2023. He will also produce the next entry in that franchise, Evil Dead Burn, which is scheduled for release next year. It’s unclear what direction he is taking The Mummy, but we do have details on the main cast. The movie stars Jack Reynor, Laia Cota, Verónica Falcón, May Calamawy, May Elghety, and Natalie Grace.

The Mummy film franchise dates back to 1932, and is a staple of Universal Pictures’ “Classic Monsters” series. There were five movies in the original series, followed by three in the reboot series released between 1999 and 2008. After that, the Scorpion King spinoffs kept the franchise alive for a time, along with the 2017 false start.

Cronin’s Mummy joins other successful Universal Classic Monsters reboots of recent years including The Invisible Man and Wolf Man, but there is no longer a plan to combine them all into a shared cinematic universe. The Mummy is currently scheduled to hit theaters on April 17, 2026.

The post The Next Big Universal Monsters Reboot Just Got a Massive Update appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Blumhouse Productions has delivered a number of compelling and beloved worlds over the years, with one of its most memorable mascots of terror being the titular doll in M3GAN. Even before the movie landed in theaters, the first glimpses of the psychotic robot took social media by storm, with the excitement largely paying off in the film itself. Director Gerard Johnstone continued to push boundaries with his sequel, taking M3GAN 2.0 into even more absurd realms, thanks in large part to the introduction of the all-new killer doll AMELIA, played by Ivanna Sakhno. The actor recently weighed in on what it was like to join this world and how previous experiences helped her embody the android. M3GAN 2.0 hits theaters on June 27th.

“I think it’s a really fun way of continuing M3GAN’s story and I think it has a lot to do with Gerard’s fearlessness, to step into something unknown and understand that it’s a world that has been created and became beloved by people and still being interested in playing around and being unapologetically bananas. That was the reaction,” Sakhno shared with ComicBook. “Just, honestly, pride, as I feel really excited about the film and grateful to be a part of it. And also, in this day and age, with everything going on in the world, I do think that people deserve to come to the cinema and have a few hours to laugh, at the same time, leave with some existential questions that the film offers.”

The new sequel is described, “Two years after M3GAN, a marvel of artificial intelligence, went rogue and embarked on a murderous (and impeccably choreographed) rampage and was subsequently destroyed, M3GAN’s creator Gemma (Allison Williams) has become a high-profile author and advocate for government oversight of AI. Meanwhile, Gemma’s niece Cady (Violet McGraw), now 14, has become a teenager, rebelling against Gemma’s overprotective rules. Unbeknownst to them, the underlying tech for M3GAN has been stolen and misused by a powerful defense contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno; Ahsoka, Pacific Rim: Uprising), the ultimate killer infiltration spy. But as Amelia’s self-awareness increases, she becomes decidedly less interested in taking orders from humans. Or in keeping them around. With the future of human existence on the line, Gemma realizes that the only option is to resurrect M3GAN (Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis) and give her a few upgrades, making her faster, stronger, and more lethal. As their paths collide, the original AI bitch is about to meet her match.”

Read Next

M3GAN 2.0 Is Ready for Battle in Exclusive New Poster

Sakhno is no stranger to starring in genre-bending experiences, having previously starred in Star Wars: Ahsoka. While both worlds are entrenched in the sci-fi realm, they required her to embrace different approaches to physical training.

“There’s definitely, fundamentally, when you do multiple jobs that require lots of physicality, you get to understand your body more and more and understand what it takes to do that. I think that’s something that connects Ahsoka and M3GAN,” the actor admitted of the two projects. “In general, AMELIA is very different in her movement and these stunts are different, because to wield a lightsaber, it has a lot to do with swordfighting and martial arts, and AMELIA is very much combat training and Krav Maga. She’s using guns and also kung-fu-style movement. But it definitely builds a little bit more confidence in your body and a desire to dedicate yourself as much as possible to do as many of your stunts as you can, as time allows, and safety, as well.”

M3GAN 2.0 hits theaters on June 27th.

Are you looking forward to the new movie? Let us know in the comments below!

The post M3GAN 2.0’s Ivanna Sakhno on Going “Bananas” for Horror Sequel appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer gifted us with a number of memorable villains over the years. The impressive collection of evildoers assembled for the series remains one of several reasons why so many of us have such fond memories of the program. Yet, for every Glory (Clare Kramer) or Angelus (David Boreanaz) there are other antagonists that we don’t remember with quite as much fondness or reverence. There are a number of reasons why some of the villains don’t resonate as much as others. Ideas sometimes get lost in translation from the page to screen, not to mention, extenuating circumstances have been known to cause rewrites.

Whatever the case may be, these villains from Buffy the Vampire Slayer represent seven of the least effective from the program’s storied run.

1) The Anointed One

In Season 1, the Anointed One (played by child actor Andrew J. Ferchland) is foreshadowed as a major adversary for the Slayer, yet he barely succeeds at cramping her style. Prior to his first appearance in the fifth episode, we learn of a prophecy from the Writings of Aurelius foretelling of a major showdown between the Anointed One and the Slayer. After the death of the Master, we see the Anointed One rise to power as the new leader of the Order of Aurelius. But he never gets the chance to live up to his storied reputation.

While the Anointed One was initially planned as the core antagonist for Season 2, actor Ferchland’s unexpected growth spurt cut short the character’s time on the show. Instead of realizing his sinister potential, the Anointed One unceremoniously steps aside in the third episode of the second season when Spike helps him meet the sun. It makes sense that Ferchland outgrew the role and that the writers had to resolve his arc. However, after so much foreshadowing and buildup, the end of his story is extremely anticlimactic.

2) The Master

There’s nothing wrong with Season 1 Big Bad the Master (Mark Metcalf), per se. He brings a certain amount of intrigue as he attempts to open the portal to hell located underneath Sunnydale High. Even still, he isn’t a particularly memorable character in the grand scheme of things. If the show hadn’t pushed forward to deliver even more engaging antagonists in his wake, we might be discussing him in a different context. However, the show really found its footing in the seasons that followed and looking back on Season 1, the Master pales in comparison to some of the adversaries Buffy and company eventually take on.

Some fans will surely argue that the Master is memorable for (briefly) killing Buffy, and he is. Yet, despite that impressive feat, he isn’t a particularly engaging character. The Master is pretty one-dimensional, in fact.

3) The Judge

The Judge (Brian Thompson), an ancient demon capable of separating his victims from their humanity, has plenty of potential as a character, yet he’s largely under-utilized. The Judge is established as this imposing, invincible adversary, yet Buffy bests him not long after Spike (James Marsters) and Drusilla (Juliet Landau) resurrect him. We see the Judge introduced in Season 2, Episode 14 where we learn that he is nearly impossible to defeat. However, in the very next episode, Buffy dispatches him with a rocket launcher.

The Judge has a memorable demise, for sure. But with such an impressive origin story, fans rightfully expected him to put up more of a fight. Thanks to a rushed and anticlimactic exit, the character never got to make the kind of mark he might have otherwise made.

4) The Bezoar

The Bezoar hails from the Season 2 Episode “Bad Eggs.” This largely inanimate villain stages an anticlimactic rein of terror from underneath Sunnydale high school. The Bezoar comes onto our collective radar when one of its offspring manages to attach to health teacher Mr. Whitmore (Rick Zieff). From there, Mr. Whitmore begins handing out Bezoar eggs to Sunnydale students to babysit. As creative as the core idea behind this episode is, the character itself simply isn’t that imposing.

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that the Bezoar lacks the agility of some of the show’s more memorable monsters because other than wrapping its tentacles around victims (and ingesting them), this antagonist is pretty stationary. The lack of any particularly active powers makes this monster of the week one we’re glad didn’t outstay its welcome.

5) Moloch the Corruptor

Moloch feels like another wasted opportunity to many fans. He is an impressive-looking character but he lacks the edge that makes some of his contemporaries resonate. He joins the series in Season 1, Episode 8 after he’s released from confinement in an ancient tome when Willow (Alyson Hannigan) scans the book into a computer. From there, he begins to wreak havoc in the digital space, catfishing Willow as a potential suitor.

When we finally see Moloch in the physical space, he is well-rendered, a cool looking adversary for sure. However, that’s about all that he has going for him. Fans understandably find his final battle with Buffy more than a little underwhelming. As they face off, Buffy is unable to best him with fisticuffs and ultimately tricks him into electrocuting himself, yawn. If only the character’s abilities lived up to his exceptional costume design, we might be revisiting him in a different context.

Read Next

10 Best Vampires From Buffy That Aren’t Angel or Spike

6) Adam

Adam, a mixture of man, machine, and demon, is the chief antagonist in Season 4. He was created by the government to fight dark forces, but ultimately becomes sentient and kills his creator. Despite a somewhat interesting origin story, Adam is widely considered one of the least impressive Big Bads from the series.

Many fans see the character as bland with motivations that aren’t particularly easy to understand. Giving the character a bit more personality and clearer motives would have gone a long way toward making this Season 4 antagonist memorable (for the right reasons). As it stands, most of us simply look back on Adam’s rein of terror and shake our heads.

7) The Trio

The Trio, a group of college students led by Warren Mears (Adam Busch), merge magic and science in an attempt to rein supreme over Sunnydale and take down Buffy. The Trio serve as the primary Big Bad in Season 6. Given their status as human, the member of the Trio are far weaker than we’ve come to expect from a Big Bad on the series. Worse yet, they are toxic incels with no depth or redeeming qualities.

Buffy tangles with the Trio when she’s got a lot going on personally, which may explain why they hang around as long as they do. In a previous season, one almost wonders if Buffy (at her best) could have dispatched them over the course of a couple of episodes. As it stands, they serve as the Big Bad for most of Season 6, with Dark Willow eventually stepping in to generate some excitement. If the writers had scripted the Trio with greater abilities and more nuance, it’s likely we would remember them more fondly than we do.

Now that you’ve seen our picks for the least effective Buffy villains, we’d like to hear from you. Make sure to let us know who you consider the worst antagonist from the series in the comments section below!

The post 7 Worst Buffy The Vampire Slayer Villains appeared first on ComicBook.com.

M3GAN (the character and the film) became a cultural phenomenon in 2022, with critics and horror fans alike. The film put a horror spin on cultural concerns about AI and children’s growing obsession with technology and screen time; it also gave horror-comedy a new baddie icon that captured the hearts of TikTokers everywhere. When Blumhouse announced a sequel was in the works, it seemed like a no-brainer. However, few ever expected a sequel like M3GAN 2.0 – probably because it’s one of the more audacious and ultimately ridiculous sequel attempts we’ve seen. But even with some big shifts in the franchise formula, the titular character still shines through enough to keep the franchise’s hopes alive for at least a trilogy.

The story of M3GAN 2.0 sees brilliant roboticist Gemma (Allison Williams) having become a full-time anti-AI advocate, while her niece and ward Cady (Violet McGraw) has struggled to fit into the mold of “normal” life and make friends, after her experience with M3GAN in the first film. The girls’ lives take yet another turn after they are contacted by government officials, who reveal that a different killer android, AMELIA (Ivanna Sakhno), has popped up on the scene and is killing off anyone related to her creation, including Gemma. When that threat manifests, M3GAN (actress Amie Donald, voice of Jenna Davis) finally reveals herself again, having been lurking within Gemma’s smart home systems for two years. Gemma has to make the Faustian bargain of giving M3GAN a new body to help combat AMELIA, while praying her AI creation won’t turn on her and Cady a second time, after the job is done.

Director Gerard Johnstone returns to helm the sequel film, this time stepping up as the screenwriter as well, with the original film’s writer, Akela Cooper (Malignant), credited for helping craft the story. The difference is noticeable: Cooper’s story in the first film was focused on an intimate story about family dynamics and the modern challenges of parenting/working in the digital age. Johnstone approaches the sequel like he was more fascinated with all the memes and TikToks celebrating M3GAN’s iconography and attitude, and (wisely?) cranked up both aspects of the character in the sequel. Johnstone also, quite hilariously, layers an earnest story ruminating on society on the brink of an AI revolution – and then piles a big heaping rip-off of James Cameron’s T2: Judgement Day on top of all that.

The result is a mishmash of style and tones that is laughably cringeworthy in the first act, with Allison Williams and Violet McGraw forced to spout empty platitudes about the dangers of technology, while doing a clunkier rehash of the strained mother-figure/daughter bond from the first film. There are also some baffling detours – most notably Jemaine Clement’s character (a pioneering cybernetics mogul and parapelegic), who chews up significant early screentime with no real deeper point or purpose (beyond setup for a predictable third act spectacle).

Read Next

We Need Sci-Fi More Than Ever (And So Does Hollywood)

It’s only when M3GAN fully enters the picture in Act 2 that 2.0 is given the lifeline of veering into the lane of “bad in a good way” camp that sustains it for the rest of the (overly long) run time. Donald (and especially Davis) have the killer down down pat this time, and having M3GAN as a questionable ally turns out to be even more dynamic and enjoyable than having her play a digital Chucky. More enjoyable banter, quips, and trash-talk between the principal and supporting cast, as well as some ironic fun revisiting the darker turns of the first film.

The ensemble dynamic works well enough that by the time we get to a third act showdown between M3GAN and AMELIA (and the other villanous forces), it’s hard not to giggle at how stupidly over-the-top Johnstone goes with his Mission: Impossible-style climax, which is punctated by some fairly impressive and clever robotic action sequences. The sequel certainly embodies the “everything bigger” mantra of sequel moviemaking, even though the budget is still listed as being within the modest range of $15-25 million.

In terms of new additions, Ivanna Sakhno (Star Wars: Ahsoka) doesn’t get to have as much personality or fun as AMELIA, and arguably comes off more like she’s in Ex Machina instead of a M3GAN sequel. Regardless, AMELIA, as a character, is a fun foil to M3GAN, and the robot vs. robot chess game creates some of the film’s most enjoyable sequences. Aristotle Athari (Saturday Night Live) walks a fine line for his character, Christian (pronounced “Chris-Chi-AN”), Gemma’s questionable new love interest and fellow activist.

M3GAN 2.0 is even more dumb fun than the original — and how you take that depends entirely on what you’re coming to the table looking to eat. But M3GAN eats for sure, and hopefully a third chapter will cut things back down to the leanest, meanest bits (and about 30 mins as well).

Rating: 2 out of 5

M3GAN 2.0 hits theaters on June 27th.

The post M3GAN 2.0 Review: Sassy, Silly, and Strangely Serious appeared first on ComicBook.com.

When it comes to the world of horror, the monsters and villains that aim to raise the body count aren’t always the best for the job. For every biological nightmare or ancient awakened evil, there is a murderous evil snowman or a beloved children’s character that has been turned to horror due a lapse in copyright protection. It might make for an entertaining movie and a good waste of time, but sometimes you have to laugh at the level of disbelief you’re required to suspend to treat a leprechaun as a deadly threat. Just because you’ve been the focus in nine sequels and a TV series doesn’t mean you’re a terrifying villain. It does mean you’re ripe for a spot on this list, however.

After some deep soul searching and research, we’ve determined a few choices for the worst horror movie villains. We’re not talking about horror villains that are ineffective or easily defeated by their tentative victims. These wannabe killers and monsters have succeeded quite a few times, or they at least keep coming back for more. Instead, we want to focus on villains that fell flat or ventured too far into the black hole of comedy.

1) Ahmanet – The Mummy (2017)

2017 saw Tom Cruise kick off and immediately conclude Universal’s new Dark Universe with The Mummy. Taking the classic Universal monsters and crafting a shared universe seems like a good idea amid Marvel’s success, but this movie managed to kill all momentum upon its release. Cruise dropped a very rare L on the big screen, while Sofia Boutella as Princess Ahmanet falls flat due to too much plot and the need for the film to introduce a ton of little details for the larger shared universe. Instead of just having Cruise somehow take on the supernatural as a U.S. Army sergeant, the Prodigium secret society needs screen time, Russell Crowe’s Dr. Jekyll has to show off, and there needs to be a cliffhanger. Boutella’s mummy is a bit toothless and a bit rushed, never really getting the chance to be the world-ending threat she’s made out to be.

2) Jack Frost – Jack Frost

The 1997 horror black comedy Jack Frost is much different than the Michael Keaton family film that would hit theaters one year later. This Jack Frost is a serial killer who is set to be executed, but manages to become fused with snow after a chemical accident, turning him into a murderous snowman. A fun movie follows, where the snowman goes on a Christmas-themed killing spree, including the infamous scene where American Pie‘s Shannon Elizabeth is killed in a tub after Jack has turned himself into her bathwater. He turns back into snow, apparently sexually assaults her with his carrot nose, and then beats her against the walls until she’s dead. Reading that back, you might think Jack Frost crosses the line, but you’d be wrong. It’s one of the more cartoonish-looking murders, all while weird surfing music plays.

Read Next

7 Best Horror Movie Franchises

3) Roman Bridger/ Mickey Altieri – Scream 2 and Scream 3

These choices could be poor ones, but we’re willing to risk saying the killers in the first pair of Scream sequels undermine their Ghostface slayings after have been unmasked at the end of the movies. While the first movie’s reveal is one of the best in slasher history, the sequels offer diminishing returns and silly motivations. Mickey (Timothy Olyphant) wants to be arrested for the murders, to wallow in the fame. Sure, he’s being used by Billy Loomis’ mother (Laurie Metcalf) and her desires for revenge, but his motivations just seem stupid.

Luckily, he’s outdone by Scream 3‘s baddie, Roman Bridger. He donned the Ghostface mask and aimed to kill Sydney Prescott because she was his half-sister and to frame him for the murders. He’s also revealed to be the spark behind the Loomis murders from the first film. Bridger is set to return in the next film, somehow, but he dies pretty clearly in this one, so things might get a bit crazy.

4) Pamela Voorhees – Friday the 13th

The murderer’s reveal from the first Friday the 13th film is memorable for several reasons. Jason Voorhees would become the main stalker killer in the numerous sequels that would follow, but the first film always belongs to his mother. Played by Betsy Palmer in the film, she doesn’t reveal herself until the very end, chasing Alice across the camp and trying to get her with her trusty machete. Palmer is great as the crazy, tortured mother of Jason, but once you start to piece together the murders in the film, you have to wonder how an elderly woman managed to sneak around and murder the teens at the camp. She sometimes throws their dead bodies through windows or hangs them to a door using arrows. It’s an ending I’m torn on because the movie is good. She’s just not the reveal you’re hoping to see.

5) Santa Claus – Santa’s Slay

Another repeat figure in horror is Santa Claus, or people dressed up like Santa Claus during the holiday. Many of the portrayals have been memorable for being pretty bad, like Silent Night, Deadly Night 2, but the one movie that comes to mind is Santa’s Slay with Bill Goldberg as Santa. In this movie, Santa is a supernatural being born from a virgin birth made possible by Satan. He was using Christmas to slaughter people until 1005 A.D., when he was defeated by an angel and sentenced to deliver gifts for 1,000 years. Now he’s back to kill more, though his ending is left wide open because evil Santa, who is the spawn of Satan, closes the film by catching a flight to the North Pole after his powers leave him after Christmas. Watch for the star-studded opening scene and then find a way out.

6) Jason Voorhees’ Heart – Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

We would take several movies with Pamela Voorhees as the main villain if it meant we never had to go through the events of Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. By this point, Jason Voorhees has been killed, revived, and assumed killed several times over on the big screen. So it seems like par for the course when this movie opens up. But then Jason is blown apart by a grenade launcher, and the whole movie is turned into a supernatural possession movie where the murderer’s heart is devoured by the coroner and allows Jason to possess his body, along with others later in the film. By the end, he’s dragged to hell after his body returns, with Freddy Krueger planting the seeds for their crossover at the end of the movie.

7) Plants – The Happening

There is a way to create a horror situation with plants, like 2008’s The Ruins, The Happening manages to take the worst possible route to make them a terror. In M. Night Shyamalan’s 2007 thriller, Mark Wahlberg and Zooey Deschanel star as a couple at the center of an apparent bioterror attack that forces people to commit suicide. But it isn’t a real bioterror attack, as it is later revealed. Instead, it is the plants themselves attacking, as a defense mechanism against humans after years of abuse. I support the plants in their goal, but the execution is pretty crazy.

8) The Government – A lot of Movies

Nothing is more evil than a government run by despots, or one secretly experimenting on the population. But in today’s world, blaming the government or making them the villain of a horror movie just manages to take some teeth away from the baddies. Discovering that the government created their monsters, or that the government is run by monsters, or even that the government has been taken over by invaders, has been a staple for a while. How many zombies are the result of experiments gone wrong? How many killers have been former soldiers pushed to the edge by the government’s decisions? In Us, the government is responsible for creating all of the evil underground doppelgangers. Elsewhere, they are behind a conspiracy to release a virus or help to spread a virus, like the events of Doomsday or I Am Legend.

9) Evil Bong

The star and villain of nine Evil Bong movies, the Evil Bong menaces innocent stoners and other people just trying to get through their day. It sends victims to Bong World, where they are attacked by twisted versions of the patrons at a strip club within the world. The bong, Eebee, hopes to turn the world’s air into pot smoke and fill the oceans with bong water. Why not make everybody tired and nappy while we’re at it? 20 years later, they are still producing Evil Bong movies, with Puppet Master creator Charles Band directing.

The post The 9 Worst Horror Villains in Entertaining Scary Movies appeared first on ComicBook.com.

I’ve been consuming indie horror in some form for over a decade, being an avid watcher in the YouTube community, and a courageous gamer of all things horror. But there’s something that’s been bothering me—a scratching at the back of my brain every time I launch a new horror game. There’s a darkness in the indie realm that isn’t as obvious as its genre. Yet, its darkness is all-consuming to the masses.

The terrifying truth is that I’m starting to get scared of indie horror games even though I’ve been playing them for years. But not because of the games themselves, no—it’s because children won’t stop watching them.

The Rise of Indie Horror

Indie horror games have risen in popularity over the years thanks to YouTube. Massive content creators like PewDiePie, Markiplier, CoryxKenshin, Jacksepticeye, ManlyBadassHero, and many, many more have developed a following for playing scary games. Watching YouTubers play horror games became a weekly event with videos around 10 minutes long, and sent titles such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Ao Oni, The Cat Lady, Cry of Fear, The Crooked Man, and Slender: The Eight Pages soaring in the early 2010s.

RELATED: Five Horror Games That Desperately Need Remakes or Remasters

This new era of horror was all fun and games as it introduced tame horror that could be enjoyed by all age groups. Screaming with your friends over jagged pixels that jumped out at you was as entertaining as pranking a friend with the maze game. These weren’t inherently a problem as the first instances of horror on YouTube were so clearly fiction.

Things changed, however, when that awful case resulting in the stabbing of a little girl happened on May 31, 2014. And who did the assailants blame? Slender Man.

Now, I’m not saying video games are bad. I’m not one of those people who think FPS games will make teenage boys more violent. The Slender Man case was a one-off. But there was a clear shift when the first Five Nights at Freddy’s came out in 2014. The first game was brilliant and it changed point-and-click horror forever. But the increasingly complicated lore quickly moved the series away from a simple game about bloodthirsty robots and into macabre stories about dead children and a serial killer.

The Target Audience Shift

Five Nights at Freddy’s pioneered a new subgenre of indie horror: Mascot. Bendy and the Ink Machine, Poppy Playtime, Indigo Park, and Finding Frankie would follow years after FNAF’s rise. Mascot horror started to move away from horror that adults could enjoy as their childhood nightmares were brought to life, and into a space where children could easily join in.

This isn’t an issue only in video games, however. Horror has become increasingly more accessible for children and young teens. Think Stranger Things and Fear Street on Netflix, which has visual gore that shouldn’t be consumed by young age groups, even though it’s directly targeting this with its school setting. Looking back at older films that were originally rated R or 18+, they look tame compared to what teens are watching now. They’d probably laugh at The Terminator and The Exorcist. Hell, actual horror films aren’t nearly as gory or dark as Stranger Things is. Worst of all is how films like Blink Twice and Eden Lake get an R rating (or a 15), yet feature realistic rape and murder scenes. Drugs, sex, and trauma are now glamorized (thanks to shows such as 13 Reasons Why and Euphoria), and it’s bleeding into indie horror.

The Glamorization of Trauma and the Lack of Understanding

Let’s look back at 2024 and some of the most popular titles on YouTube. We have Mouthwashing, a story where we play as a monster that raped and impregnant a woman who later killed herself. There’s Bad Parenting, a story about a young boy who was murdered by his father, where we play as his ghost, who manifested his trauma to see his father as a Santa Claus-like character called Mr. Red Face. The Hole gave us yet another monster to play as, who was sexually abusing his daughter, with clear visual euphemisms of rape throughout. This content only came out last year and is readily available on YouTube, likely already uploaded by your favorite streamer.

As an adult, I love these dark indie horror games I’ve listed above, and want to see more because they rely on the subject matter to disturb you, rather than jump scares, lighting, and obvious scary imagery. But this content shouldn’t be consumed by teens and never children.

Just look at the reddit page for Mouthwashing and you’ll see what has become of a community I don’t want to be a part of. A morbid story showing the importance of standing up against something wrong has been twisted into a fantasy. There’s fan art sexualizing Jimmy (the protagonist), sometimes depicting him harming Anya, or viewing Anya as a woman who hated her unborn baby, rather than the victim that she actually was. Young audiences cannot grasp the complexity of these darker themes because their mind works differently compared to adults.

I believe the fault for this trend lies in all parties involved, but they’re not to be directly blamed for this rising issue. YouTubers need to pay their bills and they shouldn’t be forced to play child-friendly content when there are so many fantastic games that dive into more nuanced horror, away from jump scares, monsters, and ghosts. YouTube restricts videos where swearing is involved, and while there are legendary creators like CoryxKenshin that follow all the guidelines, his content is getting increasingly darker (but this isn’t his fault). Child abuse, sexual assault, cannibalism, and trauma-coded scenes with visual euphemisms are rampant in the indie horror realm and are only becoming more popular.

These are amazing games for adults, but seem damaging to younger audiences. I remember Fingerbones being one of the most disturbing games when it dropped in 2014, but these subject matters are now the norm and aren’t restricted to in-game note-reading. Lore is getting increasingly more important in the indie horror sphere, and is now vital to hold the attention of an ongoing series.

Nuanced horror with dark themes exist in powerhouses like Silent Hill, yet these franchises weren’t so on-the-nose. You had to analyze to see it. Now, it’s just out in the open.

There’s also the increasing concern that indie horror developers aren’t making what they need to survive, even though their work is being consumed by the masses in the form of streaming and YouTube videos. Popular developers Puppet Combo and Chilla’s Art get next-to-no reviews on Steam, yet pull hundreds of thousands of views for free on YouTube. A solution would be for creators to censor content when it’s so obviously not meant to be viewed by younger audiences, as they know their viewership percentages (specifically how many of their subscribers are young).

There are so many amazing indie horror games that handle dark and psychological themes in a beautiful way (e.g., We Harvest Shadows), or others that have a mysterious setting or deal with cosmic ideas (e.g., Static Dread and No, I’m Not a Human). Still, this disturbed content should stay in the adult world where it belongs for the fear that teens are consuming overtly dark material will continue to rise.

The post I’m Worried About the Current State of Indie Horror Games appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The first M3GAN 2.0 reviews are coming online, and it sounds like this is one sequel that Blumhouse should have tried turning off and on again. Producers James Wan and Jason Blum booted up a box office hit and social media sensation with the Gerard Johnstone-directed M3GAN, the PG-13 killer doll horror that was as campy as it was creepy: M3GAN grossed $182 million at the global box office when it hit theaters in January 2023.

The first film followed toy company roboticist Gemma (Get Out‘s Allison Williams) and her niece, Cady (The Haunting of Hill House‘s Violet McGraw), who survived playtime with the M3GAN — Model 3 Generative ANdroid — prototype, a lifelike doll programmed with AI to be a child’s companion. In the sequel, again directed by Johnstone, Gemma and Cady are forced to bring an upgraded M3GAN (Amie Donald, voiced by Jenna Davis) back online in order to stop rogue AI robot Amelia (Ivanna Sakhno).

Read Next

M3GAN Shades Chucky and Annabelle, Slays Reddit AMA

So, is M3GAN 2.0 an upgrade over the first, or a downgrade? Critics’ reviews are mixed, as the film currently sits with a 62 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes (a “fresh” score, but down from the original’s 93 percent).

A reason for the split in opinion seems to be a shift in genres, with critics pointing out that the first M3GAN was a campy horror-comedy closer in spirit to the Child’s Play/Chucky movies, whereas M3GAN 2.0 is an action movie akin to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. See excerpts from around the Internet below.

Associated Press: “Most of the same team that gave us the refreshing horror-comedy original two years ago have not only gone super-big, but also changed the franchise’s genre, turning M3GAN 2.0 into an action movie with two AI robots, two villains, FBI units, wingsuits, neural implants, a Mission: Impossible-style vault heist, exosuits, a 250-mph street chase in a supercar, a power grid disaster, a countdown clock, the United Nations and the fate of the planet at stake … What you won’t get is much of the vibe of the original, which fused horror, cultural commentary and humor. This time, that’s muted in favor of an overly ambitious, horribly convoluted plot that sometimes feels like the moviemakers just threw money at the sequel and tried to ape other franchises by going massive.”

Entertainment Weekly: “The actual plot of this movie is confusing and idiotic (I really had no idea what the main baddie was trying to accomplish), but luckily, this is not an obstacle to having fun. As far as the action is concerned, Gerard Johnstone clearly worships at the altar of Sam Raimi, and while nothing quite reaches his level of visual punch, there’s a lot more creativity here than in typical mid-budget Hollywood fare. (There’s also a clever homage to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis for the hardcore cinephiles.)”

The Hollywood Reporter: “The campy sense of mischief that made Gerard Johnstone’s 2023 hit M3GAN so enjoyable asserts itself intermittently in M3GAN 2.0, a logical title for a follow-up to the thriller about a murderous robot. But the humor is forced to compete with seriously overcomplicated plotting in a sequel that entangles its horror comedy roots with uninspired espionage elements, becoming a convoluted mishmash with shades of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Mission: Impossible and the Austin Powers franchise. There are amusing moments reminiscent of the original, but in terms of tone and coherence, the movie loses its way.”

Empire Magazine: “The canny producers at horror specialists Blumhouse have wasted no time in speeding to market a top-to-bottom hardware and software update, and happily, 2.0 is just as ridiculously entertaining as the prototype … M3GAN 2.0 is more absurd, self-aware silliness: a riot of timely tech paranoia, with almost no horror but a ton of successful comedy. Slay, queen!”

Variety: “M3GAN 2.0 is a competent but cumbersome overelaboration of the M3GAN concept. There are a handful of the moments you want — like M3GAN literally dancing the robot onstage, or a climactic fight that turns on the worship of Steven Seagal, or the absurdity of M3GAN soothing Gemma by singing Kate Bush’s ‘This Woman’s Work.’ But that may not be enough. M3GAN 2.0 is amusing at moments, overblown at others. Here’s hoping that M3GAN 3.0 is brasher, funkier, crazier.”

Slant Magazine: “Imagine John Waters at the helm of a Terminator 2 remake and you have an inkling of just how wild a pivot M3GAN 2.0 is from its predecessor. If anything, writer-director Gerard Johnstone’s sequel has more in common with the last two Mission: Impossible films than the original M3GAN. Even then, it’s doubtful we’ll ever see Tom Cruise trapped in a sentient smart speaker telling the IMF to ‘hold onto their vaginas’ before taking off in a futuristic sports car after a murderbot at 235 miles per hour while the Knight Rider theme plays. Yes, M3GAN has gotten an upgrade from horror to sci-fi action, and the sequel also has a lot more on its mind. Understandable, really, since in only three short years since the original film’s release, A.I. has infected nearly every facet of our lives, and even the first film now has moments that now scan as eerily ominous. That’s a fact that M3GAN 2.0’s story isn’t blind to.”

IndieWire: “Johnstone steers the murderous android into a muddy redemption arc just as he forces the franchise to abruptly switch genres. Swapping out scares for action beats, that unexpected approach creates a colorful techno-apocalypse with admirable ambitions aimed at something like ‘Terminator II — for Girls!’ Still, it lacks life. Johnstone loses his way, taking over writing the script from the wonderfully funny Akela Cooper (Malignant). She created the first M3GAN with James Wan and has a story credit on the sequel. Her wickedly dark humor lives on in M3GAN’s vicious one-liners, even as Johnstone’s exposition-heavy script drags the story down.”

Here’s the logline: “Two years after M3GAN, a marvel of artificial intelligence, went rogue and embarked on a murderous (and impeccably choreographed) rampage and was subsequently destroyed, M3GAN’s creator Gemma (Williams) has become a high-profile author and advocate for government oversight of A.I. Meanwhile, Gemma’s niece Cady (McGraw), now 14, has become a teenager, rebelling against Gemma’s overprotective rules. Unbeknownst to them, the underlying tech for M3GAN has been stolen and misused by a powerful defense contractor to create a military-grade weapon known as Amelia (Sakhno), the ultimate killer infiltration spy. But as Amelia’s self-awareness increases, she becomes decidedly less interested in taking orders from humans. Or in keeping them around. With the future of human existence on the line, Gemma realizes that the only option is to resurrect M3GAN (Donald, Davis) and give her a few upgrades, making her faster, stronger, and more lethal. As their paths collide, the original A.I icon is about to meet her match.”

M3GAN 2.0 sashays into theaters on June 27.

Read Next

M3GAN 2.0 Box Office Projections Are Much Lower Than The First Film

The post M3GAN 2.0 Reviews Call Sequel a Downgrade From the First appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Early box office projections for M3GAN 2.0 are in, and the sequel isn’t shaping up to be as big of a draw as its predecessor. According to Deadline, M3GAN 2.0 is estimated to earn somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million domestically over its first three days. For comparison, that figure would be much lower than the original M3GAN, which grossed $30.4 million domestically during its debut back in January 2023. This would be a disappointing turn of events for a franchise that’s looking to go bigger with a more action-heavy follow-up.

Not only are there some high-profile holdovers still doing strong business (How to Train Your Dragon, 28 Years Later), this weekend also sees the release of the new racing drama F1. Starring Brad Pitt, the Joseph Kosinski-directed film is projected to earn somewhere between $40-50 million domestically.

After the success of the first M3GAN ($180 million worldwide against a $12 million production budget), Universal was quick to move forward with franchise expansions. In addition to the direct sequel, there’s also a spinoff called SOULM8TE in the works. SOULM8TE is currently scheduled to premiere in January 2026.

Read Next

M3GAN 2.0 Trailer is the T2 of Horror-Comedy Absurdity

The M3GAN 2.0 marketing campaign has been notable in the sense that it’s fully embraced the property’s campy tone, leaning heavily into darkly comic and action elements. Trailers and other promotional materials have sold the film more like a traditional summer tentpole, hyping up the showdown between M3GAN and the new evil AI called AMELIA (a premise that is reminiscent of Terminator 2: Judgment Day).

M3GAN 2.0‘s release date is probably the biggest reason why its box office projections are so much lower than the first film. The original M3GAN premiered in the United States in early January on the heels of Avatar: The Way of Water. There wasn’t much else of note playing at that time. In contrast, the sequel is coming out in the middle of summer, which is always a busy time at the multiplex. There are several titles vying for audiences’ attention this time of year, and only so much money to go around. It doesn’t help M3GAN 2.0 that another horror sequel, 28 Years Later, had a record-breaking debut. While M3GAN 2.0 has a specific target audience it’s reaching in marketing, the appetite among general horror fans may not be as high this time around. If M3GAN 2.0 stood alone as the lone genre option, the estimates might have been higher.

People also seem to be saving their hard-earned dollars for the trio of major studio blockbusters coming out in July. The likes of Jurassic World Rebirth and Superman are poised to have very healthy debuts, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps should be a big draw as well. Not all is lost for M3GAN 2.0, however. Though the film appears to be a bit more ambitious in its scope, it would be surprising if the sequel’s budget was significantly larger than the original’s $12 million. That means M3GAN 2.0 shouldn’t need to break the bank in order to become profitable. And if word of mouth is positive, it could end up doing better than expected. Even if M3GAN 2.0 opens in line with these projections, Universal can still feel confident about the franchise moving forward.

The post M3GAN 2.0 Box Office Projections Are Much Lower Than The First Film appeared first on ComicBook.com.

One of Stephen King’s most celebrated and massive novels is finally getting a proper big-screen adaptation, with director Doug Liman set to helm a feature film version of The Stand for Paramount Pictures, revealed The Hollywood Reporter. Liman, a director known for his high-concept action films, will also produce the movie alongside Tyler Thompson of Cross Creek Pictures. This marks a significant development for a property that, due to its immense scale and sprawling cast of characters, has previously only been adapted for television. The decision to tackle King’s epic tale of societal collapse and supernatural warfare as a single feature film is an ambitious undertaking, promising a new interpretation of a story that has captivated readers for decades.

Liman is most famously known for reinventing the spy genre with The Bourne Identity, establishing a gritty tone that influenced action movies for years to come. Liman also directed the critically acclaimed science fiction blockbuster Edge of Tomorrow, a film celebrated for its clever high-concept premise and masterful execution of intricate action sequences. His filmography also includes the stylish action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith and the recent remake of Road House, proving his versatility across different genres. Liman’s experience in handling ensemble casts and weaving intricate plots makes him a fascinating choice to handle the sheer scope of The Stand.

Read Next

5 Stephen King Movies That Deserve Reboots

The Stand novel begins with a catastrophic breakdown of containment at a secret military base, unleashing a genetically engineered super-influenza known as “Project Blue.” The virus, colloquially nicknamed “Captain Trips,” is 99.4% lethal and spreads across the globe with terrifying speed. King meticulously chronicles the complete and utter collapse of society, depicting the fall of governments, the breakdown of law and order, and the lonely deaths of billions. 

As the last vestiges of the old world fade, the story transitions into a supernatural epic. The survivors find themselves being called in their dreams by two opposing figures. Mother Abagail, a 108-year-old woman from Nebraska, represents good and draws survivors to Boulder, Colorado, with the hope of rebuilding a democratic and peaceful society. In opposition is Randall Flagg, a demonic entity of immense power who gathers the outcasts, sadists, and power-hungry to Las Vegas, where he rules as a tyrannical “Dark Man.” The second half of the book details the formation of these two new societies and the escalating Cold War between them, culminating in a prophesied final confrontation that will determine the fate of humanity itself.

The Monumental Task of Condensing Stephen King’s The Stand

Adapting The Stand for a single movie is no easy feat. The unabridged version of the novel is King’s longest, spanning over 1,100 pages with a sprawling cast of dozens of significant characters. The narrative is essentially two epic stories in one: a meticulously detailed post-apocalyptic survival tale followed by a high-stakes supernatural war. Plus, a significant portion of the book’s emotional weight comes from the arduous journeys the characters take across a desolate America to reach Boulder or Las Vegas. These treks are crucial for character development and world-building, and they are often the first elements sacrificed for a condensed runtime.

The Stand has been brought to the screen twice before, both times as a television miniseries. The first adaptation, which aired on ABC in 1994, was a massive television event directed by King collaborator Mick Garris. Despite the limitations of a 90s television budget, it successfully captured the heart of the story and is remembered for iconic performances, including Gary Sinise as Stu Redman and Jamey Sheridan as Randall Flagg. In stark contrast, the 2020 series on Paramount+ was met with a largely negative reception. Its most significant and widely criticized flaw was its decision to tell the story in a non-linear fashion. It began with the survivors already established in Boulder, using flashbacks to depict the plague and their journeys. This structural choice was seen by many as a critical misstep, as it completely undercut the suspense and emotional investment of the characters’ cross-country odyssey, which is the foundational pillar of the book’s first half.

What are your thoughts on Doug Liman directing an adaptation of The Stand? Let us know in the comments.

The post Stephen King’s Longest Book Is About to Finally Become a Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The theatrical release of 28 Years Later is not only a major box office success but has also sparked a massive resurgence of interest in the film that started it all. The 2002 horror classic 28 Days Later has skyrocketed to the top of digital rental charts, currently dominating services like Amazon, iTunes, and Rakuten as audiences rush to catch up with the original story. This renewed popularity is a direct result of the excitement surrounding the new sequel, which brings director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland back to their iconic post-apocalyptic world. While many fans are paying to rent the influential movie, they could be experiencing the chilling vision of a deserted London for free, as the 23-year-old film is currently available to stream at no cost on Tubi.

28 Years Later has shattered records in its opening weekend, pulling in over $31 million in the United States alone. This figure not only makes it the highest-grossing opening in the franchise’s history, easily surpassing the $10 million debut of 28 Days Later and the $9 million opening of 28 Weeks Later, but it also marks the biggest opening weekend of director Danny Boyle’s entire career. The film has been a critical darling, currently holding an impressive 89% critical approval on Rotten Tomatoes. ComicBook’s Spencer Perry awarded the film a 4 out of 5, highlighting its ability to feel fresh within a now-crowded genre.

Read Next

28 Years Later Theory Predicts Massive Twist In the Sequels

28 Years Later picks up with the British Isles under a generations-long quarantine, where a self-contained community survives on the island of Lindisfarne. The story centers on a scavenger named Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), his wife Isla (Jodie Comer), who is dying from cancer, and their 12-year-old son, Spike (Alfie Williams). The plot is ignited when Spike takes his mother to the dangerous mainland in a desperate search for a cure. There, they discover the world has grown even deadlier, facing not only new, more intelligent “Alpha” variants of the Infected but also a sinister cult led by an adult survivor of the first outbreak. This new installment serves as the start of a new trilogy, with the second film, titled 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, has already been filmed back-to-back with the first.

How 28 Days Later Reinvented the Zombie Genre

The current streaming phenomenon surrounding 28 Days Later is a testament to its enduring legacy as one of the most important horror films of the 21st century. When it was released in 2002, the zombie subgenre had grown stagnant, largely defined by the shambling corpses established by George A. Romero. Boyle and Garland completely upended those conventions, introducing an infection that transformed its victims into uncontrollably, furious, and fast-moving predators. This single innovation of sprinting “Infected” injected a new level of energy into the genre, a change whose influence can be seen in countless subsequent films, television shows, and video games.

Beyond the speed of its monsters, the film’s aesthetic was revolutionary. Shot on early standard-definition digital video, 28 Days Later possessed an almost documentary-like feel that grounded its fantastical premise. The film’s iconic sequences of a completely deserted London, achieved through early morning shoots on closed city streets, created an atmosphere of profound isolation and societal collapse. This focus on the psychological toll of survival and the bleakness of a world stripped of its population became a new benchmark. It shifted the narrative focus from simple monster-killing to the human drama of navigating a fallen world, a thematic foundation that would become central to later genre-defining works like The Walking Dead.

28 Years Later is in theaters now, and 28 Days Later is available to stream for free on Tubi.

Are you revisiting 28 Days Later before seeing the new sequel? Let us know in the comments.

The post 23-Year-Old Horror Movie Streams Surge As Sequel Finally Hits Theaters (& You Can Watch It Free) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

28 Years Later is the beginning of a whole new trilogy set in the post-apocalyptic world of 28 Days Later. Oscar-winning director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have taken their original vision of UK civilization falling to the outbreak of the Rage Virus and the hyper-rabid zombies it creates. After nearly three decades, England has become a very different kind of (dead) nation, and 28 Years Later contains some startling reveals about what has happened to both the infected and scattered pockets of humanity, in that time.

Of course, 28 Years Later is really just an introduction to the considerable amount of world-building that Boyle and Garland are doing with this new set of films. The next film, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, will presumably show us a whole lot more about what happens when the various disparate factions populating this hellish world inevitably collide in conflict. After viewing the first film, and picking up on various clues and foreshadowing, there’s now a growing theory that The Bone Temple and the proposed third and final film of the trilogy could have a massive twist in story, that completely flips the premise of the franchise (and the sub-genre) on its head.

Read Next

28 Years Later Sequel Release Date and Everything We Know

The 28 Days Later franchise has always been markedly different than virtually every other zombie-horror story in that the source is a virus, one that the series never explicitly states is capable of resurrecting the dead. That’s why it’s always a debate among horror purists whether 28 Days Later and its sequels actually qualify as “zombie-horror.”

Putting that debate aside, the infected of this franchise clearly differ from traditional undead zombies in that they retain full control of their motor skills (hence the “fast zombies” that distinguish the franchise). Both 28 Days Later and its sequel, 28 Weeks Later, also put spotlights on infected characters (“Private Mailer” and “Don,” respectively) who clearly retained a portion of their human identities and intellects, personally stalking and/or killing people who had been close to them before. The rate of the infection and the unrelenting savagery of the infected have made it all but impossible to envision a scenario where the afflicted people get rounded up and corralled until a cure could be studied, discovered, and implemented. The collapse of most UK societies has also made the notion of there being dedicated scientific research teams, or health care teams, working on a cure seem laughable.

But what if, uh, nature were to, uh, find a way?

The Alphas Are Game-Changers

The main “big bads” of 28 Years Later are none other than the “Alpha” males of the infected, most notably the one who is nicknamed “Samson” ( by former doctor-turned-death-cultist, Dr. Ian Kelson (Ralph Fiennes). Samson appears in the film almost like a deadly force of nature, chasing down intended victims in his sights, with few options for deterring or killing him. However, unlike the “Berserker Alpha” (Chris Gregory) seen at the beginning of the film, “Samson” seems to have a deeper intelligence and a more purposeful agenda.

When Spike (Alfie Williams) and his mother, Isla (Jodie Comer), encounter a pregnant infected woman in an abandoned train car, Isla helps the woman complete her birthing and cuts the umbilical cord before the child gets infected. Samson comes to check on what is seemingly his mate and his offspring, and subsequently spends the remainder of the film pursuing Isla and Spike for taking the child. Samson goes so far as to invade Dr. Kelson’s territory and attack the doctor after Kelson saved Spike, Isla, and the baby from Samson’s pursuit by tranquilizing the brute with a morphine dart. Ultimately, Spike delivers the infant (named “Isla” after his dead mother) back to his island home of Lindisfarne, before returning to the mainland to explore it on his own. That leaves a major dangling plot thread for 28 Days Later: The Bone Temple to pick up on.

Theory: 28 Years Later Sequels Will Reveal That The Infected Are Becoming Civilized

This first film didn’t go out of its way to make the story thread about Spike, Isla, the baby, and Samson a major focus of the second and third acts: even though we neve get all the finer details explained, it’s clear that there is some kind of deeper significance to baby Isla’s birth. The current running theory is that Samson’s true purpose in all this is much more altruistic than anyone thinks: he is looking to repopulate the mainland and rebuild a society (of sorts).

The finer details don’t quite come into clear focus with this early theory. 28 Years Later clearly foreshadowed the communal (pack) behavior the infected exhibit under and Alphas leadership, (via all those night vision segments of the infected that were spliced into the movie); and yet, we have no idea how a healthy infant would’ve fit into that group, or if the Alpha would’ve known how to protect it properly. We similarly don’t know for sure, yet, if baby Isla is a “human” in the fully traditional sense; for instance, 28 Weeks Later established lore that humans with unique genetic quirks can be carriers of the Rage Virus without turning feral. Who’s to say Baby Isla isn’t like that? Or that she won’t prove to be some new form of being that has evolved out of the Rage Virus, mixing with human physiology and mutating over time into something with human consciousness and the enhanced strength and speed of an infected?

Even if Lil’ Isla is just a baby, her birth is still monumentally significant; 28 Years Later suggests in multiple ways that the infected could potentially organize themselves into a sustainable tribe or society (however primitive), and that their humanity isn’t as far gone as the world has assumed. That raises massive new questions and some grim implications for how the isolationist peoples of Lindisfarne, or the mad cult of “Jimmy” (Jack O’Connell), could end up being the real “savages” who tear down any attempt to rebuild a civilized world. It’s the sort of twist in perspective that could help Boyle and Garland pull off one of the greatest and most distinct apocalyptic sagas ever.

28 Years Later is now in theaters.

The post 28 Years Later Theory Predicts Massive Twist In the Sequels appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It’s been a long and agonizing wait for fans of the series, but Little Nightmares 3 finally has a release date. Developer Supermassive Games has confirmed that the next game in the series will arrive on October 10th. In addition to the previously announced platforms, the game will now be released on Nintendo Switch 2, as well. Preorders will be available today on most platforms, but won’t arrive until a later date for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. No reason has been provided for that just yet, but with the game slated to release in a few months, fans shouldn’t be waiting for too long.

In addition to the standard version of Little Nightmares 3, Bandai Namco announced multiple purchase options. Anyone that preorders the game will get the Dark Six costumes set. There’s also a digital deluxe edition, which includes the Secrets of the Spiral expansion pass, two additional chapters, the Ferryman costumes set, and the Residents costume pack. The mirror edition includes all of those extras plus some physical goodies such as a metal case, soundtrack, art book, and figurine. The premium collector’s edition takes things further with a music base, controller/phone holder, and double-sided token. A trailer for Little Nightmares 3 can be found below.

Those that preorder any digital edition on PC, Xbox Series X|S, or PS5 will also receive Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition, which is playable today. As its name implies, Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition is an improved version of the original game in the series. The Enhanced Edition will feature several changes meant to take advantage of more powerful hardware, most notably 4K visuals and 60 fps. Supermassive Games has also upgraded the lighting and resolution, added ray-tracing, improved load times, made changes to checkpoints, and more. On top of being offered as a preorder incentive, the game will be available for purchase on its own on October 10th.

At this time, it’s unclear if Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition will be offered as a free upgrade for existing owners of the game, or if there will be some kind of upgrade path. While Nintendo users cannot currently get the preorder incentive, the Enhanced Edition has been confirmed for Switch 2, and seems to be arriving on the same day, even if preorders haven’t opened. Hopefully Nintendo users won’t be kept waiting long, and will get the option to play the game prior to October 10th just as PlayStation, Xbox, and PC users do.

Read Next

These Creepy Games Are Filling the Horror Gap Little Nightmares 3

Bandai Namco seems to be pulling out all the stops for Little Nightmares 3. Between preorder incentives, physical extras, and today’s trailer, 2025 is looking like a big year for the series. It remains to be seen whether new developer Supermassive can match the quality established by Tarsier Studios, but things look promising so far.

Are you planning to check out Little Nightmares 3 later this year? How do you feel about the new Little Nightmares Enhanced Edition? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

The post Little Nightmares 3 Release Date Announced During Creepy New Trailer appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The lore of the Rage Virus evolved in 28 Years Later, and director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland introduced new versions of the infected, including Alphas. While 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later featured the Rage Virus-infected people acting much more like the stereotypical zombie, 28 Years Later made them more human, animalistic, and understandable. The Rage Virus doesn’t kill the infected – they’re just sick people – which means the adjustments Boyle and Garland have made to the virus 28 years after the initial outbreak make a lot of sense.

28 Years Later confirmed that the infected still eat, therefore retconning the idea of starving them out from 28 Weeks Later. Some became bottom-feeders, gaining a huge amount of weight by scavenging on the ground and crawling around, while some remained alone, such as the thin infected in the field that surprises Spike (Alfie Williams) and his mother, Isla (Jodie Comer). Others, however, formed packs like wild animals, and fell under the leadership of infected humans in which the Rage Virus has acted like a steroid, increasing their strength, speed, and stamina, transforming them into Alphas.

28 Years Later Introduces Two Terrifying Alphas

Two such Alphas are introduced in 28 Years Later, though it’s suspected there are many more, each leading their own pack of infected and acting as the central male in these packs. The Alpha that Spike and Jamie (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) first face is found when journeying onto mainland Britain from their home on the island of Lindisfarne, aka Holy Island, which is separated from the mainland by a tidal causeway. This Alpha is known as “Berserker” and played by Chris Gregory. He leads the chase for Spike and Jamie that ends at an abandoned cottage, and eventually, Berserker follows Spike and Jamie back home to Lindisfarne.

Berserker chases Spike and Jamie down the causeway as the tides are coming in, and very nearly kills them until he is taken down by some heavy artillery at Lindisfarne’s gates. The Alphas can withstand a huge amount of fire, which makes typical bows and arrows all but useless against them. However, 28 Years Later also confirms that the Rage Virus can be quelled by morphine, which Dr. Kelson (Ralph Fiennes) uses to subdue the Alpha he names “Samson,” before it can attack Spike and Isla. Kelson has formed an affinity for Samson (Chi Lewis-Parry), whom he notes has lived in the area for three years.

Read Next

10 Horror Movie Twists That Still Blow My Mind

The Alphas are the perfect example of how the Rage Virus affects people differently. It makes sense that a virus that increases rage, aggression, and adrenaline could act as a steroid in some humans, making them stronger, larger, and more violent – perfect leaders for a pack of infected. Berserker and Samson are surely just two of a much larger community, so 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple could explore the stories of more Alphas, as Spike is still on the mainland. This could continue to change what we know about the Rage Virus and its history.

How Alphas Change What We Know About the Rage Virus

Back in 2002 and 2007, the Rage Virus-infected people were practically zombies, running around attempting to infect anyone they could get their hands on, which may have confused some viewers. The infected are not in fact dead, they’re just insanely aggressive and run entirely on adrenaline, reverting to animals rather than humans with a sustained sanity. Now, some of them live in packs, bathing in rivers, and are even getting pregnant now (as seen in the film), but these packs are led by an Alpha – the biggest, strongest, and scariest among them.

The origins and mechanics of the Rage Virus have been a point of discussion since 2002’s 28 Days Later suggested it was born in chimpanzees who had been exposed to violent material as a means of creating a “cure” for anger. While these roots don’t entirely make sense – Alex Garland has suggested he came up with them to explain the virus as something not supernatural, meaning that 28 Years Later could lean heavier into how the virus actually works, scientifically speaking. This is more relevant in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we’re all now acutely aware of how viruses operate and what mass infection looks like.

28 Years Later set up some huge new lore and plot threads that can be examined more closely in future sequels. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple was filmed back-to-back with its predecessor and is expected to be released in January of 2026. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are also hoping this will lead to the development of a third movie, rounding off this new trilogy. Academy Award-winner Cillian Murphy will be reprising his original role as Jim from 28 Days Later in a future sequel, so it will be great to see him return alongside all this new mythology.

What did you make of the Alphas in 28 Years Later? Let us know in the comments!

The post 28 Years Later: How Many Alphas Are There? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Sometimes a horror movie ends on a somewhat final note and kicks off a franchise anyway. For instance, Friday the 13th, which, in spite of its closing line “Then he’s still there,” wasn’t constructed to spawn countless sequels. Then there are the horror movies that basically end with a promise of more, like Saw, and more is exactly what the audience receives. Lastly there are the movies that don’t ever receive a sequel, even if they do end on a note promising more. The simple truth is, no matter how good these movies are, money speaks more loudly than quality, and the following underrated horror flicks didn’t make enough of it. But they should have, and it would have been interesting to have seen where they would lead.

So, no horror movies that had a resolved narrative by the time the credits rolled, e.g. Silver Bullet, The Burning or John Carpenter’s The Fog, which doesn’t count as a franchise since the only other film is a remake many decades later.

1) Alligator

Alligator is both a rock-solid monster movie and a highly enjoyable take down of particularly self-serving members of the one percent. The plot follows a little girl who adopts an alligator from an alligator farm only for her alcoholic father to flush it down the toilet in a rage. There, the gator grows to a massive size, at which point it breaks out of the sewer and goes on a rampage across Chicago.

We spend most of our time with Robert Forster’s Detective David Madison and Robin Riker’s Dr. Marisa Kendall, who just so happens to be the little girl who adopted the gator in the beginning. After the gator has devoured an attention-seeking big-game hunter and seriously ruined a high-society wedding, Madison and Kendall lure it back to the sewers and kill it with explosives. But, while we’re still down there in the sewers, we see another little baby gator, who has apparently also been flushed. Even if the sequel hadn’t included Forster and Riker (both of whom deliver excellent performances), it would have been good to see some more actually well-done gator carnage. Alligator could have been incredibly silly. Most films involving antagonist gators or crocodiles are. But Alligator pulls off a hat trick by walking a fine line between horror, action, and comedy. It works, and with the same creatives behind the camera (namely director Lewis Teague and writer John Sayles) it could have worked twice.

Stream Alligator on Prime Video.

2) My Bloody Valentine

My Bloody Valentine has a pretty grim ending, and it should have been explored further. It’s odd it wasn’t, too, because not only does the ending directly set up a sequel, but it’s also a holiday slasher movie that actually performed fairly well at the box office.

It wasn’t a blockbuster, as it only generated less than one third the profit domestically that Friday the 13th did the previous year, but Paramount still made money on it. It would have been interesting to see how far Axel Palmer, now fully insane and short one arm, could have gotten after climbing out of the mine that served as his Camp Crystal Lake. Perhaps if Paramount knew that My Bloody Valentine would have become one of the ’80s most respected slashers (it even did okay with critics), it would have funded at least one sequel. And one sequel was really all it would have needed. Fortunately, the movie’s ending still works within a one-off narrative. The audience is forced to wonder about Axel and his whereabouts after the credits have rolled.

Stream My Bloody Valentine for free on Kanopy.

3) Curtains

In Bob Clark’s 1974 classic Black Christmas, Lynne Griffin played a member of a sorority who is attacked by a mysterious man and left in the sorority house’s attic with a plastic bag over her head. That’s where she remains throughout the movie. Griffin returned to slasher territory with the highly underrated Curtains, but this time she wasn’t the victim, she was the assailant. Both of these movies end with the antagonist alive and (physically) well, and both could have received a sequel.

In other words, consider this lobbying for both Black Christmas and Curtains. But at least Black Christmas has received two very loose remakes. Curtains, however, has been mostly forgotten. For the uninitiated, the plot follows a group of female actresses who have gathered to audition for a role in a film called Audra. One by one the actresses are picked off by someone in a “hag” mask, including one while she is ice skating (in what is undoubtedly the film’s most famous scene, for good reason). Technically, there are two killers, with Samantha Eggar’s Samantha Sherwood shooting both director Jonathan Stryker and his lover, Brooke, who has replaced Samantha as the recipient of his affections. The rest of the deaths are by the hand of Griffin’s stand-up comedian Patti O’Connor, who spends the final scene performing a monologue from Audra for her fellow patients in a psychiatric hospital.

Stream Curtains on Prime Video.

Read Next

7 Best Horror Movie Franchises

4) The Stuff

Larry Cohen’s The Stuff is a riff on The Blob with a sharp satirical edge. Fueled by an excellent lead performance by Michael Moriarty, it’s a smarter film than one might imagine given the poster, which features a screaming man oozing from his eyes and mouth.

The titular “Stuff” is essentially a highly addictive yogurt. Unfortunately for those that consume it, the “Stuff” is actually alive and turns its new hosts into zombies. By film’s end most of it has been destroyed, but more of it still remains. It’s being produced in multiple locations, and only one has been shut down. This is confirmed in a post-credits scene, so there definitely could have been more to this tale had The Stuff made money. Even with a slim $1.7 million budget, it didn’t.

5) Night of the Creeps

It may have been one of the best horror movies of summer 1986, Night of the Creeps made for an incredibly impressive directorial debut for Fred Dekker. It was ahead of its time, though, to the extent that audiences at that time simply weren’t interested. The same could be said for his similarly impressive sophomore film, The Monster Squad.

Unfortunately, the gleefully entertaining Night of the Creeps was dumped into just 70 theaters, so it never had much of a chance. The substantial cult following it has developed over the years though has likely allowed it to turn a profit. But it’s too late for this story about of a zombie-producing parasite from the bowels of a spaceship to get the sequel promised in the final frames. In fact, there are two endings, one which ended up in the theatrical release and one which was Dekker’s intended conclusion, and both promise more of the alien slugs. The theatrical ending has a slug jumping out of a dog’s mouth while the original ending has Tom Atkins’ Det. Ray Cameron, who sacrifices himself to end the invasion, emerge from a burning home and have the slugs burst out of his head, at which point the slugs go to a nearby cemetery, thus continuing the infestation of Earth.

6) Dolls

In between helming H. P. Lovecraft adaptations Re-Animator and From Beyond Stuart Gordon directed an original film: Dolls. The plot is essentially Puppet Master or Child’s Play if the tiny antagonists just went after those who put kids in harms way.

There were quite a few doll-focused horror movies released throughout the ’80s and ’90s, and the result was one of the best entries getting lost in the shuffle and subsequently forgotten. But Dolls was deserving of attention, unlike something like Demonic Toys or Dolly Dearest. And, considering it ends by showing another pair of child-neglecting parents entering the dolls’ vicinity, there was almost certainly supposed to be more. Or, rather, there would have been had the film been profitable enough to get the ball rolling.

Stream Dolls on fuboTV.

7)The Blob (1988)

Just as 1986’s The Fly received a sequel, so too should have 1988’s The Blob. Now, yes, technically Chuck Russell’s remake of the ’50s Steve McQueen classic is part of an existing franchise, but it stands so far apart tonally from the 1958 original (and 1972’s Beware! The Blob) that it essentially functions as the start of something new. A something new that would never be expanded thanks to poor ticket sales.

The Blob is one of the few horror movies out there where it feels like genuinely anyone can die. It’s especially effective given the film takes place in a small, Mayberry-like small town filled with good people. It doesn’t matter if you’re seemingly the protagonist just as it doesn’t matter if you’re a child. You’re still fair game. Yet, by the end, Kevin Dillon’s Brian Flagg and Shawnee Smith’s Meg Penny still have a pulse and the alien organism has been put on ice. But a piece of it has survived and is now in the possession of the small town’s resident crazed preacher, who is clearly considering setting the small blob free of its current constraint: a glass jar.

Stream The Blob with a Paramount+ subscription on Apple TV.

What one-off horror movie would you have liked to see get a sequel? Let us know in the comments.

The post 7 Underrated Horror Movies That Should Have Started Franchises appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The official trailer for the Witchboard remake starring Madison Iseman (Annabelle Comes Home) and Stranger Things alum Jamie Campbell Bower has been released. Directed and co-written by Chuck Russell (A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, The Mask), the supernatural horror mystery breathes new life into the ’80s horror classic in a tale set in present-day New Orleans. Iseman and Aaron Dominguez (Only Murders in the Building) play a couple who are drawn into a “deadly spiral of possession, temptation, and occult terror” after a “cursed artifact unleashes a vengeful witch,” per the synopsis. Witchboard will be released in theaters on August 15th, 2025.

With a story inspired by the 1986 original film created by filmmaker Kevin Tenney, Witchboard also stars Mel Jarnson (Mortal Kombat, Between Two Worlds), Charlie Tahan (Ozark, A Complete Unknown), and Antonia Desplat (Shantaram, The Phoenician Scheme). The screenplay was co-written by Greg McKay, who produced the 2009 horror action comedy Night of the Demons.

Read Next

7 Best Horror Movie Franchises

The official Witchboard poster was also released, featuring Bower and Iseman on the cover with the tagline, “Dare to play.” You can check it out below.

When Bower, best known to genre fans for his breakout role playing the villain Vecna in Season 4 of Netflix’s Stranger Things, was cast in the Witchboard remake, Russell praised the English actor’s versatility. “There is a tradition in cinema of great English actors that have the charisma we associate with stardom as well as the acting chops to truly be a chameleon, playing a variety of character types,” Russell shared in a statement. “Jamie Campbell Bower is that kind of actor and his time is now.”

The filmmaker added that his vision for the new Witchboard movie included going “beyond the original IP with a deeper storyline, high-intensity scares, and imaginative visuals.”

Tenney’s 1986 Witchboard served as the filmmaker’s directorial debut. The cult classic starred Tawny Kitaen, Stephen Nichols, Todd Allen, and J.P. Luebsen as the film’s paranormal antagonist Carlos Malfeitor. Two unrelated sequels followed the original horror film, Witchboard 2: The Devil’s Doorway (1993) and Witchboard III: The Possession (1995). Tenney returned as writer and director on part two and was a co-writer alongside Jon Ezrine on the third installment, which was directed by Peter Svatek.

The original Witchboard movie is available to watch on various streamers, including Prime Video, AMC+, Tubi, Pluto TV, and PLEX. Witchboard 2 is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.

The post New Trailer for Long-Awaited Reboot of Fan-Favorite Horror Movie Finally Released appeared first on ComicBook.com.