The end of summer is marked not only by a change in temperature, but also by the arrival of Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX! Every year, the masses descend upon Central Texas and partake in observing films that are both on the precipice of release as well as ones that will likely be seen over the next 12-24 months. It’s an exciting time, to say the least, and Macabre Daily is fortunate to once again be covering the festival both in-person and remotely! We'll bring you reviews and interviews throughout the rest of the festival and shortly after, and we hope you enjoy our coverage of these “fantastic” films. Now, on to our reviews of…”RIVER” and “PATHETIC FALLACY.”

“RIVER” (2026)

Director: Joshua Giuliano

Writer: Joshua Giuliano

Jessica Rothe was essentially the queen of this year's Fantastic Fest, starring in 3 very different movies.  My favorite of which, and possibly of the entirety of the Fest, was Joshua Giuliano’s buzzed-about debut “River.”  Three estranged siblings take their dead father’s speedboat out to his favorite fishing spot to spread his ashes.  After a mishap leaves them stranded right in the middle of a river, they find themselves terrorized by a masked maniac who swims like Michael Phelps and kills like Michael Myers.

Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Atomic Monster just outbid Shudder by several million dollars to release “River” in theaters, and it’s worth every penny.  Giuliano crafts an assuredly harrowing experience from a simple but engaging setup.  The aforementioned siblings, Rothe, Max Mattern, and Jane Levy (2013’s “The Evil Dead”), are put through several wringers as they fight to survive. The Mondo Boys’ chilling score drones over the bloodshed, which is copious but also surprisingly restrained in retrospect.  My only real gripe is with the extraneous sequel tease of a mid-credits scene (can we stop doing mid-credits scenes for horror films?  We all know the one in “Sinners” was the true ending).  Giuliano has made a striking survival thriller with a steady hand, and I can’t wait to see what he does next.  It will most likely land on my “10 best” list for the year whenever it comes out.

“PATHETIC FALLACY” (2026)

Director: Adam Egypt Mortimer

Writers: Andrew Barner & Gabriel Ferrari

Rothe also plays a dual role in “Pathetic Fallacy,” from director Adam Egypt Mortimer, who tells a story of grief that defies description. You may be conjuring images of the type of solemn, grey, A24 films that would easily get labeled (barf) “elevated horror,” but Mortimer has made something special that should be seen to be believed.

An “Up”-style opening sequence details the love story of Iris (Rothe) and Asher (Scott “Kid Cudi” Mescudi) until Iris dies from a fatal disease, leaving a bereft Asher to hover listlessly in the midst of the Kübler-Ross scale of grief.  As he tries to heal from losing the love of his life, Asher is drawn to the isolated town of Mount Samdi, where he encounters Doyle (Travis Fimmel, devouring the scenery), a serial killer who has struck a deal with the mountain’s fauna to murder people in exchange for a wish. Before Asher knows what’s happening, he meets a spider voiced by Natasha Lyonne, who corroborates Doyle’s story and offers him the same deal.  Asher also encounters other woodland creatures, including a rabbit that quotes A.J. Soprano.  Also, it’s a musical with songs by Mescudi and Johnny Jewel.

What “Mandy” did for 80s revenge action films, “Pathetic Fallacy” does for Nicholas Sparks films: it dips them in acid and lets it RIP.  God knows how screenwriters Andrew Barner and Gabriel Ferrari devised such a mindfuck of a premise, but Mortimer seems perfect to direct it.  Through the lens of several disparate genres, he and Mescudi never lose the emotional center of a man searching for a reason to keep existing.  It’s the kind of tightrope walk that you hope never falters, though it comes close when Rothe (who is admittedly fantastic here) reappears courtesy of a Hitchcockian element that felt shoehorned in.  It was disappointing until after the screening, when I discussed it with other Fest-goers who made me see it in a different light (one of the many benefits of Fantastic Fest), and now I can’t stop thinking about it. That’s exactly the kind of film Mortimer is going for: one that initially washes over you, to be examined later.  “Pathetic Fallacy” won’t be for everyone, and I didn’t realize until afterwards that it was absolutely for me.  Take the trip to Mount Samdi and bring back a copy of the soundtrack.

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The end of summer is marked not only by a change in temperature, but also by the arrival of Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX! Every year, the masses descend upon Central Texas and partake in observing films that are both on the precipice of release as well as ones that will likely be seen over the next 12-24 months. It’s an exciting time, to say the least, and Macabre Daily is fortunate to once again be covering the festival both in-person and remotely! We'll bring you reviews and interviews throughout the rest of the festival and shortly after, and we hope you enjoy our coverage of these “fantastic” films. Now, on to our reviews of…”A Prayer for the Dying,” “Girl In The Night,” and “Too Many Beasts.”

“A PRAYER FOR THE DYING” (2026)

Director: Dara Van Dusen

Writer: Stewart O’Nan, Dara Van Dusen

Dara Van Dusen’s “A Prayer for the Dying” is a remarkably engaging adaptation of Stewart O’Nan’s hauntingly horrific novel that captivates the viewer with its experimental audacity while simultaneously alienating them with some of those very same choices. This is Van Dusen’s debut film, and you can tell the director is going for broke with the aesthetic choices made. Just as you’re settling into the dust-strewn Steinbeckian landscape, you find yourself thrust into Dante’s ninth circle of hell in the third act. More on that in a minute.

The plot will seem uncomfortably familiar to audiences as Sheriff Hanson (Johnny Flynn) tries in vain to establish some semblance of order while his quarantined town is gripped by diphtheria. Caught between the sound advice of the town doctor (John C. Reilly in a standout performance) and the increasingly erratic behavior of the religious townsfolk confronting circumstances beyond their understanding, he struggles with the reality that saving the town of Friendship may be beyond his control.

The film takes its time, letting the viewer become familiar with the town and its eclectic citizens and their personalities so that when the outbreak begins, and the death toll mounts so quickly that it seems unreal, you’ll be as paralyzed as the Sheriff as to what course of action to take next. As sickness spreads and a raging wildfire envelopes the surrounding area, we find ourselves in a literal and metaphorical inferno. This is where Van Dusen and cinematographer Kate McCollough make a bold choice that doesn’t quite land. Abandoning the film's realistic approach, they transition to a hellscape stage play for the film’s climax, and while it’s certainly unique, the juxtaposition is too jarring and ultimately pulls the viewer out of the film. While the third act didn’t work for us, this is a thoroughly engrossing, chilling film, well acted and solidly directed, that certainly deserves a larger audience.

“GIRL IN THE NIGHT” (2026)

Writer/Director: Luka Marčetič

David Lynch may be channeling his vibes directly through director Luka Marčetič’s deadpan nocturnal slice of eccentricity with “Girl in the Night,” and we couldn’t be happier. It feels like decades since we’ve had this kind of cinematic rush. Back in the early nineties, you’d be spoiled with the indie charms of Lynch, Hartley, and Linklater creating a beautifully askew world for audiences to explore. “Girl in the Night” transported us back to that amazing time when experimentation was expected, and the reward for patience was experiences that now seem like a fever dream of nostalgia.

Tom Noonan clone, Urban Kuntarič stars as Rok, a gas-station convenience-store employee merely existing through his wash-rinse-repeat days. Into his mundane life comes Isa (Lara Wolf), the neighborhood vigilante, who roams the night, settling low-stakes scores for those who can’t, or won’t, do it for themselves. Desperate to feel anything remotely close to Isa’s freedom, Rok steals her bike in order to connect with her, and the two set off to find the person responsible. What unfolds is a series of misadventures that illustrate the banality of life in all its absurd glory. Cinematographer Lev Predan Kowarski shoots these nighttime adventures so beautifully that they could be stills in a gallery. He captures the isolation and desperation in the drab Slovenian interiors and exteriors in mesmerizing detail.

This is a remarkably beautiful film that shows the tragedy of lives that have lost meaning, spark, or joy. The introduction of freedom, excitement, and uncertainty is intoxicating, and Marčetič builds on it throughout the film, culminating in a startling conclusion. We’re not sure where this film will be playing upon release, but you need to make it a priority to see it on the big screen. You won’t be disappointed.

“TOO MANY BEASTS” (2026)

Director: Sarah Arnold

Writer: Jérémie Dubois, Mehdi Ben Attia, Sarah Arnold

2026 is shaping up to be a very droll year at the movies. With Marčetič’s “Girl in the Night” and now Sarah Arnold’s “Too Many Beasts,” it's a veritable Algonquin Round Table around here. Leave it to the French to make a film that presents class struggle through the lens of wild boars, gorged by the working class, run amok through the countryside, wrecking everything in their path. The metaphor is spot on for the time we live in, and Alexis Manenti, as the fractured, floundering Fulda, is the perfect stand-in for the beleaguered soul in all of us.

After a local farmer kills one of the village’s wealthiest citizens and disappears into the night, the story picks up a year later, as the farmer has become a legend, and the rift between the haves and have-nots has deepened even further. Into this chaos walks Sergeant Fulda Orsini (Manenti), a reluctant transfer from Corsica who brings more than a little baggage with him. Made to attend one-on-one sessions with the station’s new therapist (Ella Rumpf), what starts out antagonistic eventually transforms into a partnership as these two set off to find out who has been dumping boar carcasses all over wealthy estates.

The chemistry between Manenti and Rumpf keeps things light, especially as events in the town turn more chaotic, culminating in a drug-induced third act that sticks the landing. Arnold makes the most of the simple crime-capers premise to illustrate the disparity between rampant gluttony and those at the mercy of people dead set on denying others a seat at the table. It’s all deadpan fun, but there’s more here than meets the eye.

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2026 has been the year of the short story for me. I’ve gone from reading very few short stories to regularly devouring entire collections. At risk of oversimplification, I’ve started thinking of short stories in two categories. Some are self-contained universes, complete narratives in miniature. Others work in reverse, providing brief windows into worlds that are much vaster than what we’re permitted to glimpse. 

For author Tananarive Due, there are two short stories that seem to fall into the latter category. “The Wishing Pool” was first published in the July/August 2021 issue of “Uncanny Magazine,” introducing an otherworldly pond capable of bringing visitors’ desires to life—often with unexpected consequences. It became the titular tale in Due’s 2024 collection of the same name, which also included a short story called “The Incident at Bear Creek Lodge” that took hold of her imagination and refused to let go.   

Now, the mysterious workings of the Wishing Pool and the characters who faced the terrors of Bear Creek Lodge are back. “Mazywood,” Due’s new doorstopper, weaves dual timelines into one family epic. It’s simultaneously an insightful study of Old Hollywood’s treatment of Black stars and a suspenseful survival horror, both pitch-perfect—and it’s out now from Saga Press. 

Synopsis

“All the Sinners Bleed” meets “Erasure” in this literary thriller from the award-winning author of “The Reformatory” following the grandson of a famous Black actress who returns to his grandmother’s cabin retreat in the California mountains only to encounter the legacy of her rage born in Old Hollywood.

When Johnny—a filmmaker and grandson of the famous Black actress Mazelle Washington—brings his family to Mazywood, the secluded California mountain lodge left behind by his grandmother, he expects a quiet retreat. Instead, he uncovers a legacy of rage, secrets, and terror that has haunted his family for generations.

Set primarily in the present day, with haunting flashbacks to Hollywood’s Golden Age, Mazywood explores three generations while following Johnny as he pieces together the true story of his grandmother. As a young Black actress whose career spanned from the 1920s to the 1940s, Mazelle brushed shoulders with giants like Lena Horne, Clark Gable, and Hattie McDaniel. But beneath her public appearance, she carried a secret she had kept and nurtured since she was a child, when a dark wish came true and changed the course of her life forever.

Now, fifty years after Mazelle’s death, Johnny finds himself confronting the truth she buried—and the consequences she left behind. For a monster lurks outside Mazywood, hidden for generations, and Johnny brought his family to its hunting grounds.

The Many Horrors of Old Hollywood 

“Be careful what you wish.” It’s an old adage that takes on horrifying new dimensions when young Mazelle Washington perches at the edge of the Wishing Pool and casts her desires into the universe. 

Mazelle’s family has landed in rural Florida after years in a traveling vaudeville act, cut short by her father’s back injury. Mazelle longs for just two things: A best friend and her own shot at the limelight. 

On the walk back from the Wishing Pool, Mazelle encounters a muddy, smelly dog who trots home alongside her. The mutt knows a few tricks—and more miraculously, he seems to share a psychic connection with Mazelle, who never specified that her best friend had to be human. The duo’s first audience is Mazelle’s family, who are reluctant to let her keep the dog. But they’re soon won over by the pair’s star potential as Mazelle and Scout act out an unrehearsed routine in perfect synchronicity.

Before long, Mazelle and Scout are paying the family’s bills, thanks to a stint on a silent film series. But Hollywood isn’t as sparkly as it seems from afar. As talkies take over, Mazelle’s dignity faces blow after blow. First she’s dressed in ugly rags and an unkempt hairstyle; now, the bright and educated child is asked to speak with a minstrel show’s vocabulary and intonations. 

It’s the start of Mazelle’s lifelong struggle with Hollywood’s institutional racism. Due infuses Mazelle’s story with historic details, larger-than-life Hollywood legends, and a coming-of-age story’s bracing immediacy—elements that transported me to bustling backlots and glitzy parties during segregation. Hollywood is a mind-bending landscape where opportunity and humiliation are two sides of the same coin. We feel Mazelle’s artistic ambitions as keenly as the pressures she faces as a working actor. For every progressive, open-minded icon Mazelle meets, there seem to be a dozen obstacles blocking her path. 

This context helps round out the character Due presents in “The Incident at Bear Creek Lodge.” Behind the mean, abusive grandmother Johnny knows, there’s a heartbreakingly complex woman whose hopes and desires have been dashed by racism, segregation, and typecasting. Unlike the story’s supernatural elements, we know that these horrors are all too real. 

Breaking Generational Curses

“Mazywood” is far more than a historic horror story. The long arc of Mazelle’s life is presented in counterpoint to a heart-pounding survival thriller set on the snowy slopes of California’s Mount Shasta. 

Long after Mazelle’s struggles in Hollywood, Black filmmakers are still facing steeper odds than their white counterparts. Her grandson, Johnny, is navigating his own entertainment career—and his wife Tasha’s very unexpected later-in-life pregnancy. The pair haven’t broken the news to their daughters, Sharise and Imani, and they decide to take a family trip to Mazelle’s old cabin in hopes that the private slopes will help soften the shocking news. 

But over the course of 24 hours, Johnny and Tasha’s secret becomes the least of their concerns. Stranded by a snowstorm, the family becomes aware of a lurking presence that slithers through the drifts and spies on them from the trees. The family trip turns into a nightmarish rescue mission when the creature snatches Tasha and vanishes into the snowy woods. What did Mazelle unleash on the world? And can her descendants survive the long aftermath of her pain?

Though Johnny is introduced as our hero, it’s his daughter Imani who quickly steals the show. Due writes an impulsive, courageous Imani with warmth and wit, creating a lovable character whose ADHD is both a hindrance and a key part of her genius. Crucially, this generation of Washingtons proves that some family curses can be broken. Their love feels incredibly authentic, overcoming the cycles of abuse Mazelle endured and perpetuated. 

Black Hollywood History From an Entertainment Insider

Due undoubtedly brings her own Hollywood insights to “Mazywood.” In 2019, her scholarship helped shape “Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror.” In addition to her work as a bestselling author, Due has also been a writer, actress, and producer on films, podcasts, and television. 

Due’s husband and frequent collaborator, Steven Barnes, is a longtime writer and producer whose credits stretch back to the mid-1980s, when he worked on the “The Twilight Zone” television reboot. Together, the two share their insights through online courses on topics ranging from screenwriting to producing short films. 

For all their success, I couldn’t help but wonder what stories Due and Barnes would tell if the Hollywood machine embraced Black cinema. I felt this most acutely in a painful scene early in Johnny’s story: He’s in the final stages of landing a major pitch when a film executive falters, suddenly uncertain if he has the stomach to back an unapologetically Black story. Due captures not only Johnny’s disappointment, but a deeper, wearier sense of betrayal.  

As a reader and devoted fan of Due’s work, I hope to see her stories swept up in the recent wave of literary horror adaptations, alongside stories like Josh Malerman’s “Incidents Around the House” (dir. Rob Savage), Daniel Kraus’s “Whalefall” (dir. Brian Duffield), and John Langan’s “The Fisherman” (dir. David Lowery). “Mazywood” has all the elements of a blockbuster film—if anyone in Hollywood is brave enough to look at the American entertainment industry with the clarity Due’s story demands. 

You can purchase “Mazywood” here.

You can follow Tananarive Due on Instagram and YouTube.

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It certainly has been a while, but we’re back! At Macabre Daily’s Trailer Park, we aggregate some of the best trailers coming out so you don’t miss out on a single new piece of horror media!

Trailers are our window into the future, or at least they give us quite a few hints about what a film’s vibe will be, what it’s about, and, more importantly, give us just enough information to tantalize us into seeing it. Whether you avoid trailers or run towards them, we have a roundup of some of the best and brightest previews coming soon to a theater and VOD service near you, including…

“V/H/S/Mixtape” (2026)

Shudder

Synopsis: “V/H/S/MIXTAPE” cranks the franchise's signature found-footage horror up to eleven with an electrifying new anthology where music and sound become the source of terror. United by a theme that explores the power of music, rhythm, and audio to haunt, possess, transform, and destroy, the film blends cosmic horror, psychological suspense, outrageous splatter, and groundbreaking practical effects into one unforgettable mixtape of nightmares.

Featuring all-new segments from legendary filmmaker Ernest Dickerson, hip-hop icon RZA, visionary director David Moreau, and acclaimed filmmaker Renee Zhan, the latest installment pushes the boundaries of found footage with four wildly original stories that each put a unique spin on the terrifying relationship between sound and fear.

Writer: Zoe Cooper, David Moreau, Ernest Dickerson, RZA, Matt Landsman

Directors: Ernest Dickerson, Flying Lotus, Tobias Forge, David Moreau, RZA, Renee Zhan

Release Date: Only on Shudder, October 9, 2026!

“Clown Panic” (2026)

Hulu/Disney+

Synopsis: When children in a small South Carolina community report seeing clowns hiding in the woods in 2016, few believe them. But as sightings spread across the country, panic escalates into school lockdowns, police investigations and a nationwide media frenzy. Featuring chilling archive footage, viral internet videos and revealing interviews with witnesses, law enforcement, clowns and cultural commentators, "Clown Panic" examines the collision of fear, social media and modern America at a moment of deep national anxiety. Darkly funny, unsettling and unexpectedly emotional, the film uncovers how a bizarre urban legend spiraled into a global moral panic that has echoes that resonate today. 

Director: Ed Perkins

Release Date: Streaming on Hulu & Disney+ on October 12, 2026!

“You Can’t Leave” (2026)

Guilder Cinema Group

Synopsis: A young man searches for answers behind his sister’s mysterious disappearance. His journey leads him and a group of friends, including Olivia, deep into a remote forest where they become trapped in a supernatural prison. Hunted by shadowy entities, the group is forced to confront both physical and psychological terror as they struggle to escape.

Cast: Spencer Boldman, Paola Andino, Taylor Murphy, Cameron Inman, Thomas Bauer

Writer/Director: Scott Windhauser

Release Date: Only in theaters on October 16, 2026!

“Hallowarrior” (2025)

Shudder

Synopsis: Pumpkin, the last girl on earth and sole survivor of a humanity-ending plague, scavenges the wasteland for supplies on the eve of Halloween. Her lonely holiday ritual is interrupted by the arrival of a savage gang of raiders at her doorstep led by the fearsome Thalia. Outnumbered and armed with candy, wit, and weapons, Pumpkin must ferociously fight back to survive the night.

Cast: Milly Shapiro, Ajani Russell, AJ Bowen, Shannyn Sossamon

Writer/Director: Ben Sottak

Release Date: Debuting on Shudder October 16, 2026!

“The Cycle” (2026)

Shudder

Synopsis: When the body of a man missing for thirty-six years is discovered at the scene of a horrific crime, it’s up to his estranged daughter to unravel his dark past.

Cast: Deborah Ann Woll, Jeffrey Donovan, Will Hochman, Jack Doolan, Carl W. Crudup, Jeb Berrier, Gretchen Corbett, David Myers Gregory

Writer: Jordan Downey, Kevin Stewart

Director: Jordan Downey

Release Date: Only on Shudder, October 23, 2026!

Read our review from this year’s Fantastic Fest!

“Breeder” (2026)

Independent Film Company / Shudder

Synopsis: An eccentric poodle breeder lures a broke college student to her remote ranch with a promise of research funding. But as he soon learns, there’s a catch.

Cast: Daniel Doheny, Dot-Marie Jones, Maddie Phillips, Tanaya Beatty, Paige McGarvin

Writer/Director: Alex Goyette

Release Date: Only in theaters on October 28, 2026!

“Christmas At The Kringles” (2026)

Briarcliff Entertainment

Synopsis: The story follows the Seversons, a family starting fresh in a quiet suburban neighborhood, whose next-door neighbors, the Kringles, celebrate Christmas year-round. What begins as charming quickly turns unsettling, as Mark and Julie grow concerned about their son’s growing attachment to the family. After a heated confrontation, Mark heads next door to bring his family home, only to uncover the Kringles’ true intentions: to hypnotize and indoctrinate them. What follows is a life-or-death rescue mission, as Mark teams up with a rogue, badass Santa in a high-stakes, action-packed fight to save his family.

Cast: Ron Livingston, Rachel Bilson, Rob Riggle, Arden Myrin, Beverly D’Angelo, David Wain, Thomas Lennon, and Donald Faison

Writer: Zack Imbrogno

Director: Kevin Lewis 

Release Date: Only in theaters on October 30, 2026!

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Do franchises ever really die? Unlike people, franchises are ideas that have a seemingly perpetual familiarity that makes them ripe for reinterpretation every so often, and no one knows that better than horror fans. Countless sequels, reboots, requels, and reimaginings have helped legacy characters like Dracula or more modern ones like Ghostface maintain a firm grasp on the zeitgeist and, much like the vampire in the former example, seem to be ageless. But agelessness doesn’t guarantee relevance, and sometimes franchises are revived for little reason beyond making a buck. So when “Scary Movie” was announced last year as making a comeback in 2026, the first question that came to mind was: why now?

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Cindy, Brenda, Ray, and Shorty are back — and a new masked killer is dragging them into another completely unhinged massacre where nothing is sacred, and every single line gets crossed.

HOW IS IT?

Also, spoilers ahead! You’ve been warned!

Weirdly, the return of “Scary Movie” reflects the state of the horror genre. Consider the continued box office success of the genre, and the way that it has become less stigmatized over the last two decades to enjoy horror more openly. While many, present company included, haven’t shied away from their horror-loving roots, it’s hard to remember a time in my lifetime when horror has been this popular. With that popularity has also come a lot of attempts to jump on the proverbial bandwagon of horror, trying to wring every dollar out of every fan and every experience. “Scary Movie” feels like the perfect movie for this moment, but that isn’t entirely a compliment. It’s a retread of the same crass jokes we know, placed in a wrapper with some new ingredients (aka references). In 2000, the original “Scary Movie” felt like a breath of fresh air for a genre that took itself very seriously, but in 2026, and without any meaningful growth, this “Scary Movie” feels like the last will and testament of early aughts humor and horror spoofs.

The plot is completely irrelevant, especially if you’ve seen “Scream 5,” which the film derives its main story beats from. Much like the first “Scary Movie,” this one seems infatuated with the slasher all over again, but what’s different is how diverse the horror genre is now versus then. Then, slashers dominated the space on account of “Scream” and “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and the rush of copies they encouraged. But in 2026, the slasher isn’t as dominant despite being a mainstay. Now, we have more psychological and folk horror taking over, along with techno-fueled cyberhorror leveraging the “power” and harm that AI hath wrought. While “Scary Movie” tries to adapt, its mechanism for doing so seems to be to lob as many jokes at the audience as possible. So much so that you may not even catch all of the bits being deployed as you’re playing catch-up with so many references being thrown at you. It’s reflective of two truths: that horror has a lot more to parody than ever before, and that no one seemed to be doing much quality control with the jokes themselves.

“Scary Movie” had done itself the disservice of advertising itself as “anti-woke.” Not so much for political purposes, but more to arouse suspicion that no one would be spared as they aimed to offend everyone. It’s the kind of schtick that was never really cute, but we put up with it out of ignorance and laziness; these days it’s simply too hard to ignore how bad so many of these jokes are, and not because they’re offensive, but because they’re nauseatingly unfunny. Constant references to things like COVID, by way of a character who certainly hasn’t aged well, Doofy, and the sense that these characters have essentially been cryogenically frozen since the franchise halted after 5 in 2013. They act the same, talk the same, and aside from some signs of aging, they are the same characters. While the marketing presumed it to be admirable that a franchise like this wouldn’t see any growth in 13 years, it’s giving the opposite sense of arrested development.

The thing is, a good horror parody would be welcomed in our current moment, especially considering how many ways one can approach the genre given how much it has exploded. What could’ve been more appealing is a specific take on folk horror, or even A24-style genre films that are heavy on metaphor to derive meaning. These kinds of approaches would require something “Scary Movie” simply doesn’t have: nuance. Much like how comedians can no longer be forgiven for punching down, neither can “Scary Movie.” In its attempts to be inflammatory and funny, it’s doing the exact opposite and straying further from what would be both appealing and genuinely hilarious. The funniest joke in the film is one of the silliest, as the killer stabs an Operation-style poster on the wall and the cartoon man screams in pain, but in between are some of the most eye-rolling attempts and triggering humor one can imagine. It’s like the worst person you know on Facebook having their own open mic night and you can’t leave, but in this case, you can just turn it off.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Video: 2160p 4K UHD / HEVC / H.265 - Dolby Vision, HDR10

Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Subtitles: English: Dolby Atmos, English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Dolby Digital 5.1in French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Czech, Hungarian, and Polish

Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1

Special Features: 

• Scream Together: A look at bringing the legacy team back together and merging them with some fresh, new faces for the franchise.

• Fresh Meat: Interviews with new cast members to the franchise

• Wayans World: Interviews with the Wayans on their work and reviving this dormant series

• Scene Dissection

Images from this release are used throughout this review.

LAST RITES

“Scary Movie” is not the kind of return to form that we would’ve hoped for from this once dominant parody franchise. While it has enough jokes to fill multiple movies, the hit rate is so low that you wouldn’t be blamed for not only missing a lot of them, but not finding them all that funny to begin with.

THE GORY DETAILS

Thank you to the fine fiends at Sumbersive Media and Alliance Home Entertainment for providing a review copy for the crypt! “Scary Movie” is available now and can be purchased via Orbit DVD!

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Hollywood and the media landscape can be unforgiving and fickle. There is so much content that it is simply impossible for every story and creator to get their time in the spotlight. The libraries of genre cinema are littered with ideas that never came to fruition and stories that never found their audience. It’s not every day that we get the chance to remedy this. But thanks to a collaboration between Muscle Distribution and Matchbox Cine, we are so pleased to see one such hidden gem given a new, much-deserved moment in the spotlight. 

“Screamplay” (1984) was first conceptualized by co-writers Rufus Butler Seder and Ed Greenberg nearly fifty years ago, and produced ten years later in Seder’s hometown of Boston. It struggled to find its audience at the time. Despite the efforts of Troma Entertainment Inc. and a successful run of midnight screenings in Berlin, the film seemed destined to remain a footnote in horror history. Thankfully, beginning with its premiere at this year’s Fantastic Fest, audiences old and new are getting a second chance to discover this delightful story. 

“Screamplay” was a unique creation when it first premiered, and it remains a refreshingly smart blend of genres. Part slasher, part murder-mystery, all camp, and filmed in the style of The Golden Age of Hollywood, Seder’s film is an experience viewers won’t soon forget. It has all the hallmarks of a cult favorite. It was one of the biggest surprises of our Fantastic Fest experience. We are honored that Seder carved out some time to talk to us about his journey bringing “Screamplay” to life. We discussed his inspirations for the film, his memorable performance as Edgar Allan, and he shared many fascinating anecdotes about the production, including our favorite story about the fateful accident that doubled the film’s budget! 

See our full conversation below. Follow Muscle Distribution and Mathbox Cine on social media to find a screening of “Screamplay” near you, and see the official website here to learn more about the film.     

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The end of summer is marked not only by a change in temperature, but also by the arrival of Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX! Every year, the masses descend upon Central Texas and partake in observing films that are both on the precipice of release as well as ones that will likely be seen over the next 12-24 months. It’s an exciting time, to say the least, and Macabre Daily is fortunate to once again be covering the festival both in-person and remotely! We'll bring you reviews and interviews throughout the rest of the festival and shortly after, and we hope you enjoy our coverage of these “fantastic” films. Now, on to our reviews of…”KICK ON” and “LITTERMATES.”

“KICK ON” (2026)

Director: Nick Kozakis

Writer: Philip Klimek

After four young friends leave their Melbourne club for the night, they decide to keep the party going (or “Kick On”), which entails buying more cocaine from a Russian gangster’s psychotic son.  Things get expectedly out of hand after everyone does some ketamine and one of the friends discovers a stash of money she immediately steals to fund her sister’s cancer treatment.  Chaos decidedly ensues as the quartet fights for their lives against a coterie of coked-out thugs.  The characters are all “regular” people unlike the battalion of martial artists featured in “The Raid,” but the intense action and bloodletting appear to be right up director Nick Kozakis’s alley, and thankfully, he’s very good at it.

The bones of “Kick On” are serviceable as a genre exercise with its straightforward premise, but it’s the bits of personality that make it memorable.  Russian mobsters are typically more savage than their cinematic counterparts, but the violence here is top shelf (two words: “Colombian necktie.”).  The film’s tagline should just be “OOOOOOOOOOH” based on how many times the Fantastic Fest audience reacted to a special effect or a bit of gore.  The crowd erupted in applause during one particular fight scene that wasn’t even the climax.  While not a horror film, “Kick On” is absolutely something horror directors would watch for various elements and say, “Get me whoever made THAT.”  See it with a crowd, if you can.

“LITTERMATES” (2026)

Directors: Scott Tinkham & Michael Woloson

Writer: Scott Tinkham

A nearly apocalyptic event has left the population of England with memory loss, to the point where they can’t spell or do basic functions.  The enigmatic Chester (Oliver Woolf) “rescues” two such people, Liam and Mel (Joey Bader and Kaylee McGregor), who separately come across his isolated countryside mansion while escaping gunshots and hinted-at chaos. They’re the titular “Littermates,” who Chester treats as children, as they attempt to remember how to be people again.  Is Chester’s altruism genuine, or does this country oasis come at a cost?  

“Littermates” has already been accurately described elsewhere as “Dogtooth” -lite, but it’s nowhere near the trademark bleakness of Yorgos Lanthimos, which is probably for the best.  Woolf’s Chester appears less like a jailer and more like a father of rambunctious kids, coddling them as they sing soft rock in his karaoke lounge.  Like gold stars, Chester awards them “nifties,” a currency of his own invention, for good behavior, but like children, they eventually start rebelling by drinking alcohol and trying to open the gate at the edge of the property.  As absurd as it sounds, it wears thin, even at 87 minutes.  The film’s metaphor for how we are so willing to debase ourselves for the comfortable confines of safety and ignorance is apparent from early on. While there’s absolutely an audience for it, “Littermates” didn’t completely work for me.  However, this is one very memorable joke involving a landmine that I’m still laughing about.

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There’s a farmhouse in Pennsylvania where a family lives a picture-perfect life. Three homemade meals each day. A barn full of happy animals. A flock of homeschooled children. And a woman smiling in front of a camera, capturing it for all the world to see.

This is Black Swan Farm, the living set of popular trad wife influencer Mia Wright—and journalist Jenny Kaplan plans to unmask the truth behind the family’s viral videos. But when Jenny arrives on the farm to embed herself in its daily routines, her investigation takes an unexpected swerve into something stranger than she ever could have predicted.

Something is very, very wrong at Black Swan Farm, and it’s much more frightening than the biting critique Jenny pitched to her editor. In “Trad Wife,” author Sarah Langan delivers a compulsive page-turner that’s piled high with social and cosmic horrors, darkly funny cultural criticism, and the complicated nuance of modern feminism. It’s out on September 29, 2026, from Atria Books. 

Synopsis

A journalist descends into horror as she uncovers the sinister truth behind a trad wife influencer in this “flat-out brilliant” (Paul Tremblay, New York Times bestselling author) blend of chilling suspense and razor-sharp commentary on modern femininity, performative domesticity, and social media—perfect for readers of “Yesteryear,” “Mexican Gothic,” and “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Every day, millions watch Mia Wright, the “trad wife” queen, on her idyllic three-hundred-acre farm. With her handsome husband, seven well-behaved children, and a life of from-scratch meals and pastoral bliss, she’s an icon of modern femininity. But behind every perfect image is a secret. And in this case, the secret is a horror.

Desperate to save her tarnished career, journalist Jenny Kaplan arrives at Black Swan Farm to profile Mia. Jenny is ready to write a scathing exposé, determined to expose the deception behind Mia’s curated life. But soon, Jenny has more to contend with than staged videos and camera-ready poses. There’s something wrong at the farmhouse. Something slithers through Jenny’s dreams, and at night, the children sing strange nursery rhymes.

She’s losing time. She’s losing her hair. She starts to worry that she’s losing her mind.

There is a horror at the heart of Black Swan, and it’s waiting just for Jenny. Trad Wife will make you question what’s real and what’s just a perfectly curated deception…

Will you see the lie?

A Pitch-Perfect Skewer of American Media and Internet Culture

“Trad Wife” comes alive with alarmingly specific details, perfectly replicating the strange and alienating way the internet mediates reality. Mia’s YouTube channel hits the precise vocal cadences influencers deploy. Jenny’s craven editor is simultaneously her ally and her exploiter. Langan twists the knife with the joyful vengeance of someone who’s seen it all up close. 

Though “Trad Wife” has often been discussed among other 2026 novels that mine this conservative subculture, Lance Oppenheim’s “Primetime” may be an even more fitting companion. Both stories examine the gap between the world we live in and the one we see on our screens. There’s a lot of power involved in owning that gap. The people who master it gain the ability to bend reality into new and dazzling configurations.

This is the power struggle that plays out beneath the surface of Jenny and Mia’s interviews. There’s a razor-edged tension in these interactions, and the stakes feel precariously high. The victor will influence how thousands of people—maybe even millions!—think about the world.

At the same time, there’s an inherent absurdity to the situation. What could possibly be pettier than a catfight over whether Mia actually cleans her house or homeschools her children as well as she claims to? Is Jenny really standing up against the patriarchy, or is she tearing down another woman for her own selfish gain? Which brings me to… 

The Impossible Paradox of Contemporary Feminism

Can you be a feminist if you don’t support all women? This is the maddening, bad-faith question Jenny’s forced to grapple with as she’s drawn deeper into the story of Black Swan Farm. 

Jenny desperately needs a comeback after an essay about her abortion shot her to the internet’s highest heights of virality, only to drop her suddenly into the most troll-infested trenches. She’s a character whose life resonates eerily with my own: Left-leaning but insulated by the privileges of whiteness, struggling to believe in journalism while the media industry’s death rattle grows ever louder. Jenny is a feminist, but she’s only recently had to contend with what that could actually cost her. She wants to be a serious writer, but she’s in an industry whose capacity for nuance shrinks smaller every day. 

It’s easy for Jenny and her friends to mock Mia Wright and other women like her: Trad wives who espouse conservative gender roles, dress modestly, and endure near-constant pregnancies. Every week, Mia posts videos designed to please the patriarchy. “Love your man,” she urges her viewers. “He works hard for you. Cherish his seed. It’s holy!” 

But it’s harder for Jenny to maintain her disdain for Mia once she’s on Black Swan Farm. Mia’s routine is grueling and impressive, from her pre-dawn workouts on the treadmill (with a belt to support her pregnant belly) to the scratch-cooked meals to the little warehouse that churns out a steady stream of Black Swan’s cherry-scented products. Privately, Jenny can’t help but long for the warm, homey fantasy Mia’s selling. 

More than that, Jenny begins to suspect that Mia is in trouble. She observes inconsistencies in the stories Mia’s been telling, and she notices that Mia’s most popular videos seem to involve subtle self-harm. She wouldn’t harm the children…or would she?

Soon, Jenny is torn between her desire to publicly squash Mia’s insidious patriarchal messages and her need to help Mia and her children find a way out of Black Swan Farm. The easy math of internet discourse breaks down fast offline. 

Mundane Reality Gives Way to Carcosan Horrors

The mysterious city of Carcosa came alive in the 1880s, first in Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” and later in Robert W. Chambers’ “The King in Yellow.” Like H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, Carcosa soon transcended any singular author and took on a life of its own. “Trad Wife” offers Carcosa’s latest iteration, joining an intertextual tradition that connects everything from “True Detective” to “Game of Thrones.”  

Carcosa’s defining feature is its surreal, distorted landscape, with twin suns and black stars defining its otherworldly skyline. In Langan’s third act, Black Swan Farms’ aesthetic details and Jenny’s distressing dreams merge with Carcosa’s cosmic terrors. I’d heard that the novel takes a horrifying supernatural turn, but I was still utterly unprepared for the unflinching brutality of Langan’s tale. 

Somehow, the cosmic elements perfectly land everything Langan has already put in motion. The Carcosan elements of the story grant Jenny access to a deeper, older history that completes her understanding of the present world. The children’s crayon drawings of “Mr. Yellow” take on a sickening new meaning as Jenny begins to peer past the trappings of our reality into what lies beyond. (Also: You will never think of treadmills in quite the same way again.)   

Ultimately, Jenny achieves every journalist’s dream (discovering the truth) while committing the profession’s greatest sin (becoming a part of the story). 

You can purchase “Trad Wife” here.

You can follow Sarah Langan on Instagram, X, and Facebook.

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Beginning Friday, October 2, “BUDDY” fans at cinemas nationwide can experience the film as never before with a special theatrical engagement of “BUDDY: THE SING-ALONG VERSION,” featuring on-screen lyrics to all of “BUDDY’s” unforgettable songs.

Audiences are encouraged to dress up, sing their hearts out, and join “BUDDY” and his friends for an immersive, one-of-a-kind theatrical experience that turns “BUDDY” into the ultimate event. Fan favorites including “It’s Buddy!,” “You’ve Got to Be Scared to Be Brave” and “The Wrong Place in Town” will come to life on the big screen like never before.

“BUDDY” audiences have inspired us like nothing we’ve seen before,” said Roadside Attractions Co-Presidents Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff and Saban Films Co-President Jonathan Saba. “They’re already singing and dancing in the aisles. “BUDDY: THE SING-ALONG VERSION” is really just catching up with what these amazing fans are already doing — and we think they’re going to love it.”

Ahead of the nationwide opening, “BUDDY” will host a special BIGGEST NIGHT OUT GALA PREMIERE of “BUDDY: THE SING-ALONG VERSION” on Tuesday, September 29th at the historic Alex Theater (216 N, Brand Blvd, Glendale, Calif.). This century-old, 1300 seat movie palace continues its legacy as a destination for unforgettable entertainment experiences, highlighted by the extraordinary success of its 70mm presentation of The Odyssey, which became the highest-grossing U.S. theater screening the film in that format.

Tickets for the exclusive orange carpet event SOLD OUT within three hours of posting on BUDDY’s very own social media pages. Director Casper Kelly, actors Delaney Quinn, Madison Skyy Polan, CJ Williams, and Luke Speakman, and BUDDY himself will attend to sing along with fans!

Kelly (“Too Many Cooks”) co-wrote “BUDDY” with Jamie King (“Jessica Jones"). The film stars Cristin Milioti (“How I Met Your Mother,” The Wolf of Wall Street), Delaney Quinn (If I Had Legs I’d Kick You), Patton Oswalt (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty), and Michael Shannon (The Shape of Water) with Topher Grace (“That ‘70s Show”) and Keegan-Michael Key (“Key & Peele”).

The Roadside Attractions and Saban Films release has grossed more than $25 million over the last five weeks. “BUDDY” is the biggest opening of the year for a film playing fewer than 1800 screens - a big feat for an independent, non-franchise, rated-R horror film.

To date, “BUDDY” is the highest-grossing film for Saban Films since its inception and the third highest-grossing film ever for Roadside Attractions - surpassing Judy, with I Can Only Imagine and Manchester by the Sea ranked number one and number two, respectively.

In the film, “BUDDY”—the bright orange unicorn and star of that classic children' s television show who brought joy and life lessons into your living room? Inside the colorful world of "It's Buddy!", a group of children spend their days singing, dancing, and helping Buddy spread happiness. But when one child refuses to play along, Buddy is not pleased, and cracks begin to appear in this seemingly perfect world.

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“The Glorious Dead” is different from any other film the Adams Family has made.  Yes, they’ve shot in the snow and put their supportive local community to good use on screen, but this time, they’ve expanded their scope and taken another step away from the folk horror that many have come to associate with them.  The film is still very much an Adams joint, and I couldn’t wait to talk to star, co-writer/director, and matriarch Toby Poser about crafting hell on earth.

Poser once again shares script and directorial duties with her husband John Adams, with their co-stars, daughters, and collaborators Zelda Adams and Lulu Adams.  I sat down with Poser at this year’s Fantastic Fest to discuss the challenges of filming during one of New York’s worst winters in a long time.  Also, baby abominations!

Macabre Daily: All of your films are personal, but this one in particular feels like it’s made specifically about your marriage to John, especially the ending.

Toby Poser: I love that you say that, because we weren't going for it, but people are saying that, which is nice. I think it's an ambient closeness that we have.  John and I are always bonded to each other, so I think subliminally, that's always gonna be there.  I really love that you find that element to it. We were really tackling it specifically, almost as if it was homework.  We were like, “let's try to make a movie set in the winter, that takes place over one day of just culminating horror that has drive and momentum, and is more about the local community than a family.

Macabre Daily: There’s really a sense of place as your characters move throughout the town.  You’re already a known quantity to the locals, but did you have trouble getting locations while residents were dealing with all that snow?

Toby Poser: No, because the houses are within our family.  It's more for the color of the film. It was so apt to cast our friends and family, who live in these small towns. They really are the local deer butchers, the local soccer coaches, the local plumbers, and they bring a character and color that I don't think many professional actors can offer. We really wanted that hardcore, small-town vibe.

Macabre Daily: We’re both New Yorkers who remember how brutal this past winter had been.  And here you all are, filming right in the middle of it.

Toby Poser: Oh yeah, the winter was really good to us, because we wanted it to be voluptuous snow, and it was.

Macabre Daily: We have to talk about the colorful abominations, which I call them. What’s the story behind their conception?

Toby Poser: I think there were two or three suits that John made.  We have all these extra prosthetics, like silicone skin, baby parts, and body parts from this guy James Bell. He’s been giving us parts since we made “The Deeper You Dig” seven years ago, and we literally recycled them on every film.  We asked a friend who’s a professional [at this] what it would cost.  He said it was starting at like $40,000, and that’s because we’re friends, so we were like, “Get out the needles” [Laughs]. So John just started sewing them all together.  And I love it! I think thematically, it works that these are these strange, bumbling, innocent creatures. For me, it’s even more creepy because they’re familiar.  They’re human-like, because sometimes the humans are the monsters.  They’re like babies. It’s almost like they don't know what they're doing after they've kind of been birthed from these assholes in the Earth.  They have no rule or sense of law.  Just want and hunger.

Macabre Daily: They’re horrible to look at, but they seem so benign at first, like they don’t know why they’re here, either.

Toby Poser: Yeah, until they're like eating your leg [Laughs].

Macabre Daily: All of your films are deeply personal, and some get explicitly political.  This one, in particular, seems pointed in a very specific way.  How did the constant turmoil of the past few years inspire “The Glorious Dead” to be your next film after “Mother of Flies?”

Toby Poser: “Mother of Flies” was so personal. It was such a cathartic emotional experience. Literally, people still write to us about it. Death, sickness, and loving and caring for people was such a big part of the film’s narrative, so here we were like “let's do a palate cleanser [next].” Something kind of quick and dirty. We wanted to challenge ourselves by doing something that really had a sense of momentum and drive that we’re told most of our films don't have.  We're often told we do a slow burn, so we start off slow [in this film] because it’s important to show that emptiness, and sort of pandemic of disappearance and silence in the small community. But then we wanted the ball to start rolling. We were determined to do something that was escalating over the course of one day.

So that was really the impetus, but also, our films are normally about an insular family, and we wanted to talk more about community. Like the family of humanity.  It's like a conceptual, visual, emotional conversation about what it feels like for Americans to wake up in 2026 in a country that's quite divided, confusing, and sometimes feels very farcical and fucking terrifying at the same time.

Macabre Daily: I have to ask you about the appearance of the great Judith Roberts in your film. When I first saw her, I thought, “Hey, they never use professional actors. That’s cheating!”

Toby Poser: [Laughs] She's a dear friend of mine, and I adore her like nothing else. I played her daughter in a short film several years ago, and we've just stayed thick as thieves.  We just had to get her in our movie!  None of the other people in the film are professional actors, though they bring that color, but we needed that kind of gravitas she can bring.  Nobody can say a line like “not the right kind of Christian”!  [Laughs]. It was a real highlight of my life.

Macabre Daily: You have a shootout in this film, which is new for an Adams Family film. In the snow, too!

Toby Poser: We [also] ran over someone!  That’s the ingenious character of John.  He doesn’t say no. He's like “I can do this.”  We did it so many different days and so many different ways, and he just edited it together. The music helps. and then he completely took out the music for the shootout, so everything in the car was driven by rock music.  I'm so proud of what he did with nothing, you know?

Macabre Daily: You’re known to challenge yourselves with each subsequent film, and make them at a clip. Can you talk about your next project?

Toby Poser: I think it's important that we have a responsibility, to ourselves first and foremost, to try new shit all the time because that's how we're gonna grow.  We know we're comfortable in the woods; we're comfortable with folk magic, but we have to try new things. This next film is called “Killer Funny Bunny.” For me, it feels like a giallo. It's really dirty, gritty, and urban.  We've been shooting it on the festival circuit because we're traveling for several months, so why wait?  It's got a totally different vibe, and I'm excited about it.  It's gonna be nasty [Laughs].

“The Glorious Dead’ has recently been acquired by Shudder for a 2027 release.

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Legendary horror writer and “30 Days of Night” co-creator Steve Niles’s iconic paranormal detective Cal McDonald’s hard-boiled adventures have captivated fans since his first appearance in the 1990 story “Big Head.”  Cal McDonald has seen it all. Vampires, werewolves, ghouls, demons, mutants, maniacs, and every other thing that crawls out of the dark. Throughout his celebrated career, Niles has returned to McDonald in novels, short fiction, and the acclaimed comic series Criminal Macabre. Now, he is revisiting his gruesome gumshoe in “CAL McDONALD: PLAGUE OF EVIL AND OTHER STORIES,” a collection of short stories featuring a foreword by acclaimed actor and horror creator David Dastmalchian (Count Crowley), and a stunning painted cover by master illustrator Joe Jusko. Published by Clover Press’ The Fourth Leaf, a new imprint for creator-owned comics, books, and graphic novels, this 216-page hardcover will collect ten brand-new Cal McDonald stories, each with an illustration by a different beloved comic artist. Fans can support the project on Kickstarter now.

Steve was gracious enough to answer a few questions for us, and you can find our brief conversation below!

Macabre Daily: What's Cal been up to since his last story over 20 years ago, and why is now the right time for his return?

Steve Niles: I started writing Cal as prose way back in my early 20’s but then I shifted to comics for a long time. Now I’m back with the prose and it feels great. Cal is my absolute favorite to write. I usually will write Cal stories for fun and gradually build a book like this one. 

MD: You've said the Cal is your favorite character to write, why is that?

SN: I love his attitude and world view. He’s a lot braver than I am and that makes him a blast to write.

MD: At one point back in 2010 there was discussion around the potential for a Cal MacDonald film. Do you foresee Cal making an appearance on the silver screen or another form of media in the future?

SN: There’s always talk but nothing has stuck yet. Suffice to say, we are always trying to get Cal on film or TV. 

MD: What kind of company (see, monsters) can we expect Cal and Mo’Lock to face off against in this new collection?

SN: You’ll see a few of the regulars; werewolves and vampires but I created a whole slew of new monsters too. Another thing that makes Cal fun to write, there are no rules. 

MD: There is an impressive list of artists contributing to the illustrations in this new volume. How did you decide on who you would partner with, and what kind of direction did you provide them (if any)?

SN: I didn’t give any direction other than they could do something from the story or a generic Cal McDonald and Mo’Lock image. Most went with fitting it to the story so I chose a story for each that I thought would best fit. 

MD: Cal has had comic crossovers with your own work like "30 Days of Night," but also with "Count Crowley." Are there any other crossovers you think that would suit Cal's character best?

SN: For a while there was talk of a Cal/lEvil Dead crossover. I always thought that would be fun. Cal and Ash would not get along at all. 

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The end of summer is marked not only by a change in temperature, but also by the arrival of Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX! Every year, the masses descend upon Central Texas and partake in observing films that are both on the precipice of release as well as ones that will likely be seen over the next 12-24 months. It’s an exciting time, to say the least, and Macabre Daily is fortunate to once again be covering the festival both in-person and remotely! We'll bring you reviews and interviews throughout the rest of the festival and shortly after, and we hope you enjoy our coverage of these “fantastic” films. Now, on to our review of…”The Spiral.”

“THE SPIRAL” (2026)

Writers: Salvatore de Chirico and Paolo Strippoli

Director: Paolo Strippoli

Paolo Strippoli is the most exciting horror filmmaker out there, and “The Spiral” may be the film that gets the world to recognize his greatness. After having his debut directorial feature at Fantastic Fest and last year’s amazing “The Holy Boy,” Strippoli returns with a film that is both psychologically devastating and gleefully absurd in being a very literal interpretation of how parents fuck their children’s lives up. It’s the kind of film that begs to be discussed to unpack what it’s trying to say, even if the meaning is what we bring to it rather than what is intended, and it features some of the best performances seen at the festival this year. “The Spiral” is the kind of movie that you’ll be thinking about days after you’ve seen it, yearning to go back and take another peek at the beautiful misery of this Italian family.

While the story is about the family, it starts with the mother, Anna (Jasmine Trinca), and daughter, Alice (Romana Maggiora Vergano). The obvious tension between the two teases what we are about to see unfold, as Anna is there to admit to Alice that some of the worst things that have happened in their lives, of themselves and the rest of the immediate family, are the result of a series of Faustian deals made with L'estranea (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi). It begins with Alice suffering a dog bite that suggests she will lose her leg, putting the future acting career Anna wants so desperately for her in jeopardy. L’estranea makes her a deal: she will save Alice’s leg if Anna agrees to trade for her son’s, Tobia (Alessandro Carbonara), weight. She describes in detail how Alice could lose her leg, and also how Tobia will gradually and inexplicably gain weight. Anna’s agreement is the first of many, as each deal has an unintended consequence, providing more opportunities for L’estranea to intervene.

In a literal sense, each deal Anna makes eventually creates a reliance on another in the future. As Anna tells Alice, and by proxy the audience, we are shocked at the selfishness that Anna would deploy here, but sympathetic and hypocritical to assume some of us wouldn’t do the same. What makes this so effective is that the consequence seems so arbitrary when faced with a timely decision, but we see its impact over time, and our hearts break along with Alice as she is faced with an uncanny situation of being told her mother has been directly responsible for so much harm to them all. And yet, Alice (and we) don’t fully blame her. Her vanity is deplorable, but her reasoning and desperation are profoundly human. Strippoli has demonstrated consistently that he wants to take ideas we’ve seen before, the Faustian deal, and contort them in diabolical and depressing ways. This isn’t to say there aren’t some moments of levity sprinkled throughout, but they are often followed by some revelation that deflates the balloon of hope like a well-placed dart.

Strippoli showcases both his talents for screenwriting, alongside co-writer Salvatore de Chirico, and his command of the direction as we effortlessly trust him with the next 120 minutes. Strippoli’s last film did struggle to get to the good stuff, but here things kick off with a sense of dread that is almost impossible to ignore and equally as captivating to lean into. The performance by Trinca is perfectly delivered as we both bemoan and feel for Anna despite her decisions, and Tedeschi is such a perfect foil for Trinca, who is simply dining out on being this malevolently vile and fabulous woman. “The Spiral” is a triumphant film on many levels, but primarily because of them is that perfect orchestration of all the key aspects of filmmaking working in tandem to create a symphony of psychological horror unlike anything else seen this year. One of the best films of the fest, without question.

“The Spiral” was screened as part of this year’s Fantastic Fest programming and is currently awaiting further distribution.

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The end of summer is marked not only by a change in temperature, but also by the arrival of Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX! Every year, the masses descend upon Central Texas and partake in observing films that are both on the precipice of release as well as ones that will likely be seen over the next 12-24 months. It’s an exciting time, to say the least, and Macabre Daily is fortunate to once again be covering the festival both in-person and remotely! We'll bring you reviews and interviews throughout the rest of the festival and shortly after, and we hope you enjoy our coverage of these “fantastic” films. Now, on to our reviews of “Screamplay” (1984), “Jim Queen” (2026), and “Adult Supervision” (2026).

“SCREAMPLAY” (1984)

Writer/Director: Rufus Butler Seder

Getting a sneak peek into the future of horror is, of course, one of film festivals' main draws. More recently, festivals are also encouraging us to look to the past. Screening old classics, or criminally underseen past films, is another powerful way to shape the horror universe. To celebrate the upcoming 4K restoration from Muscle Distribution, we were treated to a screening of “Screamplay” by Rufus Butler Seder. This reviewer had never seen this film before, so was delighted to be introduced to this hidden gem in its most polished form. We can’t speak to how it compares to the original, but in its current form it is a glorious spectacle to behold.    

“Screamplay”, while made in the era of campy 80s slashers, uses the structure of The Golden Age of Hollywood to tell the story of Edgar Allan (Rufus Butler Seder) as he arrives in Los Angeles to pursue his dream of writing “murder movies”. Introducing us to a delightfully unhinged cast of characters, most embodying classic Hollywood archetypes, Seder tells us the story of a young man so desperate to succeed that the walls between fact and fiction begin to unravel with frightening effect.

Seder’s ability to meld the cheesy (compliment!) effects and character beats of eighties horror with the style and glamour of old-school Hollywood creates something that still feels transcendent and wholly original in the year 2026. He dabbles in the kind of cinematic meta-humor later that would be popularized by Wes Craven over a decade later. The film can be enjoyed on its surface level as a Looney Tunes-style murder mystery, but still has much to say about the very real human cost that show business can take on those who are caught unprepared. 

The entire cast deserves its accolades for their commitment to the histrionics of their characters, but Seder himself is operating on another level with his portrayal of Edgar Allan. He combines the untethered insanity of a Norman Bates with the look of Buster Keaton and the moves of Charlie Chaplin to create a protagonist we will not soon forget. Fantastic Fest is the perfect venue to reintroduce a film like “Screamplay,” which is deserving not just of past accolades, but of being discovered by a fervent new audience of future fans. 

“JIM QUEEN” (2026)

Director: Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané

Writer: Simon Balteaux, Marco Nguyen, Nicolas Athané, & Brice Chevillard

The queer community has always found strength through the stretching of boundaries. It only makes sense to turn to adult animation as another way of pushing against social norms and sharing our stories. In “Jim Queen”, directed by Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané, we find an unapologetic and proud (in every sense of the word) story that aims to shine a spotlight on the heroism found in every corner of the gay community. Jim Perfect (Alex Ramirès) is, would you believe it, perfect. At least in the eyes of his adoring gym queen (do you see what they did there?) fans. When a mysterious virus known as heterosis begins to decimate his community, turning gay men straight, Jim teams up with his number one fan and closeted twink, Lucien (Jérémy Gillet), to discover a cure. 

The vibrant world of “Jim Queen” is painted with the broad strokes of stereotype. Our characters consist of muscle-men, drag queens, puppies (IYKYK), twinks, allies, and bigots. There’s not a moment of subtlety to be found in this story, and yet Nguyen and Athané make us care for their characters deeply. We were particularly drawn to the story of Glamydia (Harald Marlot), the acerbic and witty drag queen with the heart of gold who serves as the moral center for this story. A tale of gay men learning to love themselves and one another isn’t breaking any particularly new ground, but it is an affecting story told in an entertaining and modern way. 

“Jim Queen” is a film that will offend some. But that isn’t a bug; it’s a feature. We applaud the confidence in Nguyen and Athané’s storytelling. They are not shy about leaning into stereotypes, kinks, and sexual tropes of the gay community. They highlight the joy that many find in the darker recesses of sexual expression and are uninterested in interrogating the morality of the homophobes who threaten Jim, Lucien, and their people. Everyone gets their moment in the limelight, from party-and-play folk to the man in the corner of the bathhouse sniffing dirty sneakers. Not every queer person will see themselves reflected in the world of “Jim Queen,” and that is okay. The beauty of increased representation is the freedom to play in an ever-expanding playbox. The movie takes full advantage of this freedom to celebrate queer diversity and strength, which is needed now more than ever.  

“ADULT SUPERVISION” (2026)

Writer/Director: Alex Schulman

As we were writing this review, Fantastic Fest announced its recognition of “Adult Supervision” as one of its ‘Best Picture’ award recipients. Given our continued captivation by the events that unfold in Alex Schulman’s debut feature film, we couldn’t agree more. This searing and uncomfortable interrogation of the dangerous social dynamics of teenagers, and the tenuous, perhaps nonexistent, influence their caregivers have over it, is easily our favorite of the festival. 

Known as “Arkipelag” in Sweden, its country of origin, Schulman’s film follows three fathers who volunteer to chaperone their daughters’ class field trip. Traveling to the isolated Klippvik archipelago, these men soon find themselves overwhelmed- not just by the brutality of their young wards, but by their own inner demons. The result is a complex morality play that burrows deep into the darkest fears of anyone who has ever wondered if they have what it takes to raise the next generation. 

The strength of “Adult Supervision” lies in Schulman’s willingness to explore the totality of the social dynamics at play on the island. Bill (Gustaf Skarsgård) is the ostensible lead, but the story is truly an ensemble piece, eager to shine its light upon the morals of all the students, parents, and staff involved in the trip. Schulman subverts expectations regarding whom we should empathize with. His plotting is meticulous, with every misplaced attempt to help, every cruelty and kindness, and each backstory eventually culminating in a climax that is as disturbing as it is cathartic. 

The final shot of Schulman’s film is as complicated as the character development that precedes it. As the credits rolled, we felt gutted and complicit, but not without a glimmer of hope for some of the lives touched on the island. As any parent knows, raising children is so much more complex than right and wrong choices. “Adult Supervision” leverages the ambivalence and confusion of these cross-generational relationships to create something truly memorable and unique. 

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Silent Movie Day is nearly upon us! Each year it’s celebrated on September 29th. This gave me an excuse on my journey through silent film to look into gastro horror and gastro horror-adjacent silent films and shorts. Believe it or not, there are some great ones! 

Most silent gastro horror films were made as shorts rather than feature-length films. So I’ve put together a list of shorts, as well as a feature (there are a few!), that I feel are important to the concept of gastro horror or that I simply enjoy for their use of gastro horror elements. I’ve also put them in chronological order of their release.

Let’s get started!

“The Pillar of Fire” (1899)

Director: Georges Méliès

The oldest short film on this list, “The Pillar of Fire” is one of, if not the oldest existing examples of gastro horror elements being used in film that I’ve come across. It features a devil dancing around a giant frying pan and stoking its flames. This causes a woman to appear and do a version of a serpentine dance. The film itself isn’t more than about a minute long, but it’s an important one for gastro horror because it shows a connection to how horror was already being connected to food and cooking. Méliès would revisit this sort of concept in 1903 with “The Infernal Cauldron.”

“The Cheese Mites” (1903)

Director: F. Martin Duncan

Technically, “The Cheese Mites” is an early science video. However, Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa, an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Seattle University, recently suggested I give it a look. Sure, it’s more comedic and science-driven (the footage of the mites is legitimate footage) than horror. That said, I think eating your lunch of cheese and bread while reading the paper, then using your magnifier to inspect your cheese and seeing cheese mites (these are actually a real thing) on your Stilton is pretty terrifying. Especially in 1903.

“Dream of a Rarebit Fiend” (1906)

Director: Edwin S. Porter

This short is an adaptation of a comic strip by Winsor McCay under the pen name Silas. It was brought to my attention by Fritzi Kramer, who runs the site Movies Silently (an excellent resource if you’re getting into silent film). In it, a man eats too much rarebit (a dish of hot cheese sauce on toast) and has some wild dreams. This is another of those shorts that isn’t explicitly horror, but there is some adjacency that would be enough for me to call it as such.

“The Merry Frolics of Satan” (1906)

Director: Georges Méliès  

Georges Méliès was quite prolific in the early days of silent film, so it’s no surprise that he’d show up on this list more than once. In “The Merry Frolics of Satan,” two travelers are pursued by Satan and end up taking a carriage ride to Hell! You may wonder where gastro horror comes into play here. Well, this short has trick work featuring floating tables and disappearing food. Additionally, there is a large kitchen set that is prominently used. The ending has a bit more of a horror element to it, but I won’t spoil it for anyone interested in checking this out!

“The Bewitched House” (1907)

Director:  Segundo de Chomón

We’re finally at my favorite short/film on this list! It is easy to write “The Bewitched House” off as a retread of J. Stuart Blackton’s “The Haunted Hotel,” which was also released in 1907. However, I stand firm in my belief that Segundo de Chomón’s trick work is exponentially better. The short features a group of travelers who find an empty house to stay in during a storm. Unbeknownst to them, it’s full of ghosts! My favorite scene in this is when one of the unseen ghosts slices bread and salami, as well as pours coffee. It’s some of the best trick work of the era!

“A Panicky Picnic” aka “An Incoherent Excursion” (1909)

Director: Segundo de Chomón

I didn’t mention it above, but in my exploration of silent film, Segundo de Chomón has become one of my favorite directors. Despite having minimal narrative structure, I included “A Panicky Picnic” for one scene. During the early parts of the picnic, there are various gross-out gags pertaining to the food. For example, the sausage is cut, and bugs come out of it; eggs are cracked, and mice scurry out; and a cheese is cut open, revealing worms. This is one of the earliest examples I’ve seen of food-related gross-out horror, and I loved every bit of it.

“Sweeney Todd” (1928)

Director: Walter West

This version of “Sweeney Todd” is the oldest existing feature-length adaptation. There was at least one released prior to it, but it is considered lost. This version is also not the easiest to get a hold of, with the BFI holding the only legitimate copy in their archive. This version is framed by a man reading about the story and then dreaming he is in it himself. It’s fascinating to see how it plays out sans the music that most of us are familiar with. If you’re interested in more of a breakdown, we covered it on Final Girls Feast. 

I was inspired this past January to step out of my comfort zone and explore areas of cinema that I felt I had gaps in. Silent film was one of those areas, and I’m glad I did. Not only did I meet some cool folks like Benjamín and Fritzi along the way, but I also learned even more about the gastro horror sub-genre! For more silent gastro horror, you can check out my list on Letterboxd! You’ll see some that didn’t make the cut here, and I’m always hoping to find more! Happy Silent Movie Day!

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The end of summer is marked not only by a change in temperature, but also by the arrival of Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX! Every year, the masses descend on Central Texas to see films that are on the precipice of release and others likely to hit theaters over the next 12-24 months. It’s an exciting time, to say the least, and Macabre Daily is fortunate to once again be covering the festival both in-person and remotely! We'll bring you reviews and interviews throughout the rest of the festival and shortly after, and we hope you enjoy our coverage of these “fantastic” films. Now, on to our reviews of…”POSTHUMOUS,” “RED SNOW,” and “ALPHA GANG.”

“POSTHUMOUS” (2026)

Director: Josh Tanner

Writers: Josh Tanner, Jade van der Lei, Gabriel Bergmoser

While not a full-blown alcoholic, Zoe (Sophie Lowe, so good in “The Slap” and “Blow the Man Down”) definitely has a drinking problem, most likely caused by a strained relationship with her father, Neil (David Roberts), and the death of her mother, Joanne (Kira-Che Heelan), when she was a toddler.  Having returned to her childhood home, Zoe looks back at VHS tapes of her pregnant mother recording “happy birthday” messages for her to watch after she passes from cancer.  Upon discovering her parents were friends with a couple of new-agey types next door, Zoe winds up in possession of another tape that seems to unleash a demon disguised as Joanne.  Can she discover the truth of what happened to her mother before it consumes everyone she loves?

Director Josh Tanner was on hand to celebrate the world premiere of “Posthumous,” which hadn’t even had a “cast and crew” screening yet.  While it’s a little too long and the last third gets slightly convoluted, “Posthumous” is a touching ghost story with some of the best use of VHS-style footage I’ve seen outside of…well, the “V/H/S” series.  There are a few plot holes (Zoe acts surprised to learn she had neighbors in a creepy house she never noticed), but the creepy aesthetic is on-point.  Tanner actually splices in a “REW” effect when flashing back to a previous scene, and we get a POV from inside a VCR with a solid jump scare.

Films like this usually have a laborious explanation of how “something from the Other Side came through, and we have to stop it,” but Tanner (with co-writers Gabriel Bergmoser and Jade van der Lei) utilizes dark geometry to get us there. Heelan (in her FIRST credited film?) is very unnerving in a role that may or may not be malevolent, but I wish they used her for the entirety of the film. Instead, they pivot to a creature design that may have looked great on paper, but underwhelms when you look at it too closely.  Still, by juggling many elements and keeping the emotional center, Tanner proves he should be given the next “Insidious” NOW.

“RED SNOW” (2026)

Director: Ilja Rautsi

Writer: Ilja Rautsi

Speaking of creature design, the Finnish Christmas vampire film “Red Snow” (recently acquired by Shudder) has a really strong one, even if it was clearly inspired by “Predator” and “Blade 2.” Sullen, “Twilight”-loving teen Johanna (Anni Iikkanen) and her family visit their grandmother in her mansion on Christmas Eve, where they’re caught between a vampire dressed as Santa Claus (Hannu-Pekka Björkman) and the crazed vampire hunter (Tommi Korpela) and his grappling gun that launches wooden stakes.  The vampire doesn’t just sprout fangs, but unfurls a gaping maw full of teeth and a proboscis when he’s ready to kill.  It’s always a highlight when he “opens up.”   

Writer/director Ilja Rausti introduced the movie as “kind of a fucked up film for fucked up people,” which tracks once you see the deep well of sympathy Rausti has for the troubled Johanna.  Her mom is too busy for her, her dad (Kari Hietalahti) is a boorish jerk, especially to his kindhearted Vietnamese girlfriend (Marja-Liisa Nguyen), who’s realizing she’s dating the wrong guy, and her little brother (Otava Rossi) bonds a little too easily with the vengeance-driven vampire hunter. When Johanna tries to actualize her desire to be turned by “Santa,” it’s to Rausti’s credit that he makes a case for his protagonist, even though she’s one of the few people in the film who don’t feel like a caricature.  There’s also the hunter’s brooding home care nurse (Krista Kosonen), who is happy to join her latest charge as he inadvertently terrorizes a family in the name of revenge.  One would think the “Daria”-esque character would bond with the semi-goth teenage Johanna, but that’s never explored.

“Red Snow” is like the photo negative of a family Christmas movie about learning lessons and coming together as a family.  However, it’s simultaneously overstuffed and under-baked, with some delicious practical gore and a few great jokes. At least the Finns haven’t lost their sense of humor. 

“ALPHA GANG” (2026)

Director: David Zellner & Nathan Zellner

Writer: David Zellner

The second “secret screening” at this year’s Fantastic Fest comes from Austin natives David Zellner and Nathan Zellner. The quirky comedy “Alpha Gang” blends the earnestly absurd sensibilities of Taika Waititi and Wes Anderson into something proudly strange.  While it boasts a stellar cast and a great soundtrack, it feels like the kind of film your college roommate was really annoying about for a semester.

Aliens come to Earth in the early-mid 20th century, appearing in human bodies and decked out as 50s greasers. As they adapt to their surroundings in a decommissioned European castle, they attempt to hide their experiences grappling with  “emotions,” as they would compromise their mission for global domination.  But they love to dance, so enjoy some inspired needle drops.

The Zellners clearly know the movie they want to make. It's wild to see their actors get wacky in ways they’ve never been on screen. That cast, by the way: Lea Seydoux, Lily-Rose Depp, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Doona Bae, Riley Keough, Dave Bautista, Chris Pine, and Cate Blanchett, all committing to twee lunacy with their whole hearts, is something to see, but despite a few great jokes and sight gags, it lands with a thud.  As I was leaving the theater, I heard C. Robert Cargill say, “They made that movie for 12 people in the world, and I’m one of them!”  Here’s hoping it finds its audience, but alas, I’m not a member of “Alpha Gang.”

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One of my biggest issues with modern found footage is that it has become quite divorced from what it started out as being. A lo-fi experience that is intended to illicit a sense of danger from simply pressing “play” on a tape you’ve randomly found, unsure of what is on it, and more importantly, if it’s real. While cynicism is the enemy of suspending disbelief, the best found footage films are the ones that don’t feel like they were made to be that way, but instead an unholy accident that our eyes were never meant to see. Think more “August Underground” than “Paranormal Activity.”

Turns out I’m not the only one who feels this way, and filmmaker James Cullen Bressack has shared this desire to return to the analog with his new film, “I Have Proof.” At this year’s Fantastic Fest, we were fortunate to spend time with James and the case of the film including Larsen Deane, Lilly Van der Meer, and B.J. Hendricks. We hope you enjoy watching as much as we enjoyed recording, and you can read the review of “I Have Proof” here!

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Visual Vengeance has really ramped up the number of releases they’ve been churning out this year, and we aren’t complaining! There is certainly such a thing as an “embarrassment of riches,” but when it comes to this brand of high-concept/low-budget combination, we eagerly devour each one like a kid on their birthday. The latest release brings a fungus among us in the outrageous and outlandish, “Fungicide,” from Dave Wascavage. A film that dares to ask what happens when a scientist, real estate agent, pro wrestler, and incense-obsessed hippie motel owner fight off an army of mouthy mushrooms. Trust us when we say, you’ve never seen anything like this!

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Deep within a tranquil forest, five strangers meet at a secluded bed and breakfast. But one guest is a mad scientist who uses his vacation to create an army of killer mushrooms accidentally. Now unleashed on the other guests, and with the body count quickly piling up, it's up to the survivors to arm themselves and fight back against these slaughtering shrooms in hopes of stopping them from world domination!

HOW IS IT?

It shouldn’t need reminding at this point, but when it comes to Visual Vengeance, it’s important to understand that we have rated these films on a different scale. While most films are assessed on more objective measures like plot, character development, and pacing, Visual Vengeance films are by default an assault on the viewer, and “Fungicide” is no different. This is a film that offers up a premise that strangely mirrors that of a crass joke, and is so endearing in its delivery that it’s hard to rally against it for being anything more than the silliest of movies. And yet, it’s wildly entertaining to the point of absurdity, and easily the kind of movie that would kill at the midnight slot for an all-night horror-thon.

The setup is as absurd as the title, where 4 people’s lives converge on a small motel as they fight to stay alive from the attack mushrooms that have been genetically altered by a local scientist. The scientist is joined by a greedy and scummy real estate agent, a pro wrestler looking to relax, and the proprietor of the motel, an incense-obsessed hippie who wants people to just chill. Yes, it sounds like the setup for a joke, and yes, what happens is completely outlandish, but that’s part of what makes “Fungicide” such a riot. It’s completely unserious in every way, and feels like the kind of movie a group of friends would make over a weekend rather than something that aspires to penetrate the broader zeitgeist. Considering this was an early 2000s release, it almost feels out of place and possibly the kind of movie that would’ve accidentally killed in the VHS era.

And while “Fungicide” is defiantly unserious in its subject, everyone on the screen seems to be all-in on the joke. At one point, an actor laughs during a supposedly serious moment right before a quick cut, and it’s not hard to understand why, given how amateur the whole affair is. Cardboard cutout mouths and people dressed in giant, phallic mushroom costumes, and lest we forget the CGI swarm of mushroom monsters that the group dispatches with prejudice. It’s micro-budget to the core, and works wonderfully because of it. A particular scene with the giant fabric mushroom driving a car, using a gun, and even kung fu fighting is the kind of momentum that will jolt awake a sleepy crowd or rile up a group of already inebriated viewers. And while being intoxicated isn’t a prerequisite for enjoyment, it certainly doesn’t hurt to help chase down the antics that one sees on screen.

HOW DOES IT LOOK?

“Fungicide” is presented in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio from a new SD master derived from the original tape elements. The 2K scan cleans up quite a bit of the artifacts of SOV filmmaking, and is quite clear and crisp, all things considered. It’s easily one of the better quality visual presentations from VV, and while the cheap and chintzy effects don’t look much better restored, it’s likely miles ahead of what it looked like on DVD!

Images from this release are used throughout this review.

HOW DOES IT SOUND?

Similar to the visual elements, the sound comes by way of a Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo track with English subtitle options included. The sound is quite crisp, which is good so you can hear the weirdly off-putting and somewhat strange score for the film. The balance between dialogue-heavy scenes, music, and action is curated well enough to distinguish between them and not have a lot of bleed into one another. It’s nothing to write home about per se, but it’s audible, and that’s what matters!

ANYTHING SPECIAL?

This is a rare occurrence when it pains me to say that of all the Visual Vengeance releases that we’ve covered in the crypt, this is the one with the least amount of supplemental features. While there are multiple commentary tracks, including a RIFFTRAX version which isn’t all that funny, there is woefully little else save for some alternate opening credits scenes, outtakes, and deleted scenes. None of which necessitate more than a glance to get through. On one hand, we can empathize with the fact that these films are quite obscure to start with, and thus finding supplemental material that exists can be a challenge in and of itself. Still, one of the hallmarks of VV releases is that they are often stuffed to the gills with material, so it’s more a victim of disappointment due to how well VV has treated us for all other releases. 

A full list of special features is below.

Special Features

• Director-approved SD master from original tape elements

• New commentary from director Dave Wascavage and co-writer / co-producer Mary Wascavage

• Archival commentary with Dave Wascavage, Mary Wascavage and David Weldon

• Commentary from Sam Panico of B&S About Movies and Bill Van Ryn of Drive-In Asylum

• Commentary from Schlock And Awe Films

• The full RIFFTRAX version of Fungicide

• Alternate opening credits

• Deleted Scene

• Outtakes

• Image Gallery

• Troubled Moon Trailer Reel

• Fungicide - Producer Trailer

• Fungicide - Visual Vengeance Trailer

• Visual Vengeance Trailers

• Reversible sleeve featuring original home video art

• Folded mini-poster

• ‘Stick Your Own’ VHS sticker set - FIRST PRESSING ONLY

• Limited Edition O-Card - FIRST PRESSING ONLY

• Limited Edition 'Grow Your Own Killer Mushroom' seed packet - FIRST PRESSING ONLY

• Optional English subtitles

LAST RITES

“Fungicide” is one of the more hilariously fun Visual Vengeance films released, which is a shame since it’s also one of the lighter releases in terms of special features. Still, it’s a film worth owning for fans of mushrooms gone wild, and SOV delights from the early aughts!

THE GORY DETAILS

Thank you to the fine fiends at MVD Entertainment for providing a review copy for the crypt! “Fungicide” is available now and can be purchased via MVD DIRECT!

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It's always fascinating to see independent filmmakers dive into the psychological horror field, exploring the inner workings of the human mind and the ways in which we might survive our most painful rudimentary experiences. Over the course of this decade alone, we've seen "Relic" and "Run" (both 2020) spearhead a trend of titles tackling mental and physical health decline within the boundaries of fractured family units. Not often does this subgenre explore strife from the perspective of children, however, which is where the directorial debut of Benjamin Finkel stands out. Does this atmospheric experiment have what it takes to rise beyond a mere gateway into the medium of trauma?

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

Ten-year-old Johanna and her parents Naomi and Harry have moved back to Naomi’s childhood home in the suburbs of Philadelphia. When Johanna hangs a magic birdhouse to protect her ailing father, his illness worsens, dark visions creep in, and her beloved dog vanishes without a trace. Convinced a sinister spirit is to blame, Johanna spirals into a haunting fantasy world that mirrors her deepest fears.

HOW IS IT?

"Family" was written, produced, and directed by Benjamin Finkel as his 95-minute feature debut, which premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film and TV Festival before Vertical picked it up for distribution. Within the first few minutes, right after its jarring nightmare opening kill and snazzy title sequence, there's a brief mixed-media approach that combines full-frame camcorder footage to introduce the film's unreliable narrator, Johanna (Cameron Dawson Gray). Set in 2002, it's a throwback to simpler times that shields its minors from doomscrolling on social platforms and forces them to create a hellscape with their own imagination, making sure to immediately establish the central dynamic and somber attitude with genuinely striking visual flair comparable to any of the output from A24's auteurist lineup à la Ari Aster with "Hereditary" (2018) and the like. Off the bat, the viewer is sucked into the strangely compelling universe of this devastatingly dysfunctional group, with technical merit off the charts; the original score, composed by Logan Nelson, pulses through each instance of internal torment as the three leading subjects come to terms with their shaken circumstances.

I call this a gateway horror picture, but not because it ever handles harrowing subject matter lightly. Instead, it combines coming-of-age themes about the aimless motions of self-discovery that one might experience during relocation in their early years with deeper, nuanced spiritual constructs of acquiring knick-knacks or items of affection that we take as symbols of safety and protection over our environments, agency, and autonomy. In this case, Finkel repeatedly hones in on a birdhouse that Johanna's mother, Naomi (Ruth Wilson), is desperate to box up and dump at the nearest thrift store, despite open discussion of its potential healing capabilities. It calls into question the casual cruelty in depriving someone of a physical de-stressor, and establishes a tangible catalyst for utterly senseless interpersonal conflict within the household. So begins a series of increasingly chaotic, unsettling, and deliberately uncanny events that make the audience wonder whether we're dealing with another cursed-old-object trope, or something much darker behind the closed doors of this seemingly average American family.

Ben Chaplin as Harry is also phenomenal in his role as the struggling patriarch: a man troubled by the mysterious misfortune of a malevolent manifestation within his body that is undoubtedly incurable, which begins to latch onto the people that he is expected to protect and provide for. "Family" centers on the notion that we are quick to forbid individuals ailing from chronic illness from doing mundane tasks around the house, such as mowing the front lawn or exerting themselves by playing a game of tag outside, opening an important discussion early in the film that sticks long after the credits roll. Benjamin Finkel's project is one obviously born out of passion and of the director's own dark childhood fantasies and fears, which is why all of it works so well. These characters feel authentic because they are rooted in lived-in experiences, which elevate the metaphysical material that drives the terror forward.

"Family" isn't exactly supernatural horror, but it includes elements of possession framed as fantasy nightmare scenarios that our main actor cannot wake up from, and they handle it surprisingly well for their age. Additionally, without spoiling anything, the final act dives into cosmic creature-feature territory that feels like an exemplary effort to represent the disillusionment of youth shaped by early trauma. There's a line between Johanna's paranoid delusions and reality that becomes blurred as we witness dogs disappear into thin air, voices whispering out in the open, and sandwiches loaded with broken glass that a parental guardian normally wouldn't attempt to feed their kin. Most of the familial turmoil comes as a result of the sickness, both directly and on its periphery; there's a large mental strain on the child at the center of the story, who is actively spiraling from her parents' perceived reckless and homicidal tendencies, which are ambiguous enough to read equally as a form of misplaced attention and emotional neglect in the face of grief.

THE VERDICT!

Surrealist horror, by nature, is always matched with a psychological component, but here it is driven by the disease as an unknown factor — the uncontrollable beast of the narrative called life that we'll all likely encounter at one point or another. "Family" feels like a 95-minute warning that our eyes will play tricks on us during peak stress, and that our feelings might heighten as the lives of our loved ones are threatened by a force we cannot see or fully comprehend. Ultimately, it is a competently crafted, impressive directorial debut with genuine stakes, heartbreaking performances, claustrophobic production design, and a mind-bending approach to the subject of loss in an era when most tend to get muddled.

“Family” is now playing in select theaters and on demand!

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Many people will never leave their hometown, and of those who do, it’s not uncommon to experience a sort of calling to return to where you came from. Sometimes it’s triggered by a memory, a smell, or other times you’re simply reminiscing, and your mind wanders to the places you’ve left behind. Regardless, the experience of leaving one’s home only to feel the need to return is shared by many, particularly expats who leave their home countries in search of life elsewhere, away from the norm and the familiar.

Author and artist Leopoldo Goût follows Aurora in his latest, novel “Rooted” (read our review). Aurora was born in Mexico, but immigrated to Texas as a child, only to return to assist with the repatriation of artifacts stolen by Europeans. It’s more than professional duty calling her back to Mexico City, as something more supernatural is afoot that links to her childhood. Leopoldo was generous enough to spend some time speaking with Macabre Daily about this book, his experiences, and the importance of going home when you can. You can enjoy the interview below, and if you’d like to purchase “Rooted,” you can do so using this link!

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Have you ever heard of Doris Bither? Chances are, probably not, unless you’re a fan of the supernatural with an encyclopedic knowledge of paranormal occurrences. For everyone else, Doris Bither was the focus of the 1982 film, “The Entity,” which starred Barbara Hershey as Bither, a woman who not only claimed to be haunted but also sexually assaulted by a ghost. Doris’ story has been litigated in both film and book form, and has largely been undiscussed since the 1982 film on account of how troubling Bither’s history is, and how unfairly she may have been portrayed in the media. Much of that was why Director Nick Simon teamed up with screenwriter Thomas Fenton to retell Doris’ story in “What Happened to Doris?”

The film had its world premiere during this year’s Fantastic Fest (read our review here), and we had a chance to speak with Nick as well as his lead actors, Heather Graham (Doris) and Mimi Rogers (Dr. Ross). You can read the interview below, and “What Happened To Doris?” will likely be playing at another festival or theater near you in the future!

This review has been edited for clarity

Macabre Daily: This is Matt Orozco from Macabre Daily here, and I'm here from Fantastic Fest, speaking with some of the cast and crew of What Happened to Doris. So we're here with one of the stars, Doris, who plays Doris Bither, Heather!

Heather Graham (Doris): Hey. Hi.

Macabre Daily: Of course, the other co-star, Mimi Rogers, plays the Dr. Ross.

 Mimi Rogers (Dr. Ross): Hello.

Macabre Daily: And lastly, our director, our fearless Nick Simon. Thank you. Nice to meet. Well, thank you both so much for taking. In fact, the three of you, excuse me, for taking the time to speak today. And first, the question is going to be for you, Heather. You know, when you're going in to prepare for the role of Doris, you're trying to balance what's happened kind of historically with also kind of narrative and editorial decisions. So how do you make a decision as far as how you're going to interpret this character based on those two things?

Heather Graham (Doris): Well, the way that Nick and the writer Thomas Fenton approached the story was let's make it as real as possible. So you know Tom's friends with Brian Bither and he knew a lot about the story. So yeah, I tried to research every aspect that I could about the real story and find out anything I could from Brian about what happened, along with just you know I mean unfortunately Doris is not alive, so I couldn't talk to her. Just making up the rest. So I work with this acting coach. Her name's Warner Lachlan, and we just I create all these core memories and just my whole life and just the fathers of my kids and just my kids growing up, and just create this idea of this woman in the 70s who, you know, at a time when women didn't really-they weren't single moms as much-and she had kids with three different dads. So she was a little, she was an untraditional mom. Yeah, very much so.

 Macabre Daily: And I think you know, it's you did a great job as far as interpreting her life and trying to bring some, I'd say, some sympathy and empathy to her character, as opposed to like what the stories have often portrayed her as. So I think that was more humanistic in that way.

 Heather Graham (Doris): She was a really good mom. I think, however, you know, people wanted to judge her for not being. I mean, now who cares? Nobody cares. We have two kids with three dads. Who cares? But I just think back with young people back then really judged her. But like I feel like she really cared about her kids, and her main goal was like keeping them safe. And so I wanted that to be the main part of her to come across in the story.

 Macabre Daily: That shines through. I mean, speaking of kind of really interesting women, you know, you play Dr. Ross Mimi, and she's based on Dr. Thelma Moss, who, like, is such an interesting character, parapsychologist of the stars, you know, and also led a now defunct parapsychology unit at UCLA, which you know, just mind-blowing. One that there's a woman in this field, kind of leading the charge in this place. So it's just a fascinating character to begin with. But what was it that kind of appealed to you most about her character and what you wanted to portray through through the film?

Mimi Rogers (Dr. Ross): Well, again, going back to the period, it would have been it's unusual that a woman would be heading up a full department, so I was attracted to the idea of kind of her strength and her knowledge, and it's a subtle element that's woven through the story that she had a daughter that she lost, and I think she has a strong maternal instinct anyway. But Doris and Doris's situation also brings that out, and she was again ahead of her time in terms of looking at things from a more feminist perspective, and her kind of annoyance disgust with her teen that, of course, the sexual element that you don't believe. Everything else you believe. Which to me is the most important, because that triggers my whole thought process about what kind of demons would attack, leading to the incubus, leading to the specificity of an entity that actually has a definition and a goal.

 Macabre Daily:  I think that's there is this very much kind of science approach, science-based approach that's taken through the script, which I think is a lot of what often makes paranormal film succeed or fail. Is that how much do we buy into the to the image and kind of Nick for you you know this is obviously an interpretation of a story that we've seen not just through books but also we have the Barbara Hershey film The Entity but you know this definitely presents a different view I would even go as far as say less exploitative right than the Barbara Hershey film for sure so what were some of the non-negotiables for you as far as like what you wanted to get through through this story?

Nick Simon (Director): I really wanted to be about believing this woman and why nobody would do it. Because I feel like you know I was approached with the script a couple years ago, and Tom, as you know, has been trying to get this movie made for like seven years. Yeah, and it was it was scary to me to try to direct this. Like, how do I how am I as a how do I tell this story today in 2026, like, but it's completely relevant. It's it's it's completely. It's a story that doesn't really go away. So like once you once you take all the and you work really hard to be sensitive to all the things that are going to be in this thing that are inevitable, but and try to make them not exploitive and and really tell the story of this woman and. And the things she went through, and we also focus a lot on like the aftermath of such, like the PTSD elements to do it, and things like that. Yeah, we just kind of kept on going back to the source material. You know, Tom's a very collaborative writer, so like the script went through many versions. I'm sure he told you.

 Heather Graham (Doris): (To Macabre Daily) You’re so well informed. I'm impressed by how well you know the story. No, and it's true, and the real story is so has been so well documented. It's been used in so many other movies and so many other books, and they pick pieces from that and put it in poltergeist. And the parapsychology department from Ghostbusters, right? Like it's all it's all part of this story.

 Macabre Daily: We're kind of going beyond like the shock and the awe of it all, but to go into saying like if you first thing you look up you look up doors by there is like they talk about how awful mother she was, and it's like you know I realize that our bias influences how we interpret things at a time, which is why going back to these stories at a later time and revisiting them, giving them that kind of sense of objectivity that we get from just having a distance to it, and of course, we're dealing with heavy material here, right? You know, something that's not only supernatural is asking us to challenge ourselves into something that happens in our real world. So, for all of you, you know, how do you get yourself through some of the most difficult scenes? Because they are really challenging moments in this for all of you, where you have to get really vulnerable. So, how do you not only find the time to you know how do you compartmentalize that I guess so you can move forward without getting too caught up in the severity of it all.

Heather Graham (Doris): I mean when I first heard the script I was so terrified and I just thought I can't think about this too much because I'm going to get too scared. But it's weird because as an actor you can get kind of traumatized by doing it, but also that's why you become an actor to play these interesting, complicated parts where you get to do these really deep, you know, real things that happen. Women get sexually assaulted. You know, it's like I want to represent that accurately and have people have more empathy for women going through these situations.

Nick Simon (Director): I just wanted to hire as many women on this movie as I could. Honestly, like every department head was had was a woman. My cinematographer, my editor, my production designer, my customers-like I, I wanted as much input on that as I could to make sure that we were telling the story the right way. And I feel like that really comes across.

Heather Graham (Doris): And you're a very compassionate man (at Nick), so it's nice to have women plus a very compassionate man, so you get both perspectives.

 Mimi Rogers (Dr. Ross): I had mentioned this before. What I one of the things I love about the film and what Nick did, and even the way it's written is that this could have been very exploitative of Doris and what happened to her, and instead it's it's yes it's a scary movie, but it's also honoring Doris as a person, as a mother, and and looking at the family dynamic, it's it's also the story of a woman and her family, and you know, in terms of the more challenging scenes, I've always thought of it as kind of a magic or chemical synthesis that something happens, at least for me, when a director says action, and I'm in a different space that's kind of volatile and then cut, and then I come out.

Macabre Daily: That's the I mean that's the work, right? That's why you all are professionals and what you do. Is that you're able to get into a headspace and then remove yourself at a safe distance from us that you can portray it accurately without getting sucked up into yourself personally.

 Nick Simon (Director): I was, I'm as a director to show them the film, and if they like it, I feel like I succeeded because I'm putting you, because it's such a trust thing with the director and actors. You know, like is and you said (to Heather) something that really made be really like feel so good, and like I really got emotional about it because you were like, you know, sometimes I don't like movies I'm in, and you did a really great job. Caught me like three times after you saw it, and it really felt like I did because that's always that's my biggest fear is like did did I do them justice to make them look good, you know?

Macabre Daily: This validates with just you know the praise you've just received, which is like the compassion is that it's not just about my vision, but also does my vision accurately portray the people that are collaborating with me. Everybody came together in this. Yeah, and and it shows. I mean, listen, there's absolute chemistry. You have two strong female leads in this who are basically telling all the men to believe them the entire time they're not. It's like the subtext is like. I mean, like in a different time, this subtext would be this would be subtext, but of course, it's really hard not to see it as like as like very very obvious text in our current moment. And real quick one for you all: if you happen to know off the top of your head, if you were asked to program a double feature with this movie, what do you think would make it fun or interesting, pairing with?

Mimi Rogers (Dr. Ross): Wow, double feature horror!

Macabre Daily: Doesn't have to be horror. It could be whatever you want.

Nick Simon (Director): I would say “The Changeling” because I love the movie. 

Heather Graham (Doris): Oh my God, I can't think of it. This movie. I can't. I can't prepare to answer my own question. “Carrie” a lot because I was thinking about the original “Carrie” and the new “Carrie.”

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