MoreHorrorMovies.c0m - The acclaimed Argentine thriller/slasher NO ONE WILL HEAR YOUR SCREAM, directed by Mariano Cattaneo (The Weirdest Girl in the World, which has garnered over 2 million views in Latin America on Disney+), is now streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Tubi throughout North America. The film features Sol Wainer (A Silent Death, Perdida), Byron Barbieri (El Eternauta, Cielo Grande), and German Baudino (What the Waters Left Behind, Historia de lo Oculto), along with a strong ensemble cast. Set during the intense backdrop of the 1990 FIFA World Cup, the story follows Micaela, a young woman working in a record store, creating personalized mixtapes for her customers. While the nation is engrossed in Argentina’s matches, a murderer uses the games as a cover for a series of brutal killings. Micaela soon realizes that the victims are linked by a compilation tape she made and sold. With each match, another body is discovered. As she desperately seeks the killer's identity, she overlooks the most terrifying question: How many matches remain before it's her turn? NO ONE WILL HEAR YOUR SCREAM combines elements of Summer of 84, Fear Street, and Scream. Early genre reviews have highlighted the film’s atmosphere and emotional depth. CineDump praised its authentic ’80s/’90s aesthetic, describing it as reminiscent of discovering a lost VHS-era slasher — a nostalgic quality that significantly contributes to the film’s appeal. Grimoire of Horror emphasized the film's narrative twist, which compels the audience to reevaluate everything that came before, and the relationship between Micaela and Tomás as its emotional and thematic core. Beyond being a slasher, the film can also be interpreted as a story about friendship and the psychological effects of experiencing a period of significant historical and social change.

MoreHorrorMovies.com - Dark Sky Films and Fathom Entertainment are bringing Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre back to theaters tomorrow, August 18, 2026, for the annual Texas Chain Saw Day celebration, and this year’s event comes loaded with several theatrical exclusives. Dark Sky Films and Exurbia Films have unveiled the first official still from their forthcoming hand-animated, rotoscoped reimagining of Hooper’s 1974 horror landmark. The ambitious project remains in production with a planned 2027 debut. Audiences attending Texas Chain Saw Day screenings will get an even deeper look at the project through an exclusive behind-the-scenes featurette exploring the rotoscoping process, along with additional hand-animated footage unavailable outside participating theaters. The project transforms the original film frame by frame through traditional rotoscope animation. Artists trace Hooper’s live-action footage entirely by hand, preserving the original performances and atmosphere while creating a radically different visual presentation. According to the production, artificial intelligence plays no role in the animation process. Paul Beck, the Austin-based multimedia artist whose credits include Richard Linklater’s Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, and Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood, serves as Animation Director and Art Director. The team also includes Lead Animator Max Peake, Lead Animator and Special FX Artist Nate Bayless, and Background Artist Jeremy Martinez. Texas Chain Saw Day will also include a new four-minute theatrical-only audio experience created by Dread Central, Be Afraid Media, and the horror podcast Creepy. Narrated by Creepy creator Jon Grilz and several of the podcast’s narrators, the piece recounts the fictional events of August 18, 1974, setting the stage for the horror that follows. Fans in Los Angeles and Austin will receive additional programming following their screenings. Legendary Texas Chain Saw Massacre cinematographer Daniel Pearl will participate in a live Q&A at Regal LA Live! in Los Angeles, while original cast members Teri McMinn and Allen Danziger will appear for a Q&A at AMC Barton Creek in Austin. Presented by Dark Sky Films and Fathom Entertainment, Texas Chain Saw Day returns The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to theaters nationwide in a new 4K presentation for one night only on August 18, 2026. The date holds a special place in the film’s mythology: Hooper’s opening narration famously places the massacre on August 18, 1973, a fictional date that has since become permanently welded to one of horror cinema’s most influential films. Tickets are available through participating theaters and Fathom Entertainment.

MoreHorrorMovies.com - Epic Pictures and Dread are heading back into drive-in horror territory with Gator Face, a new creature feature built around practical effects, real locations, and one particularly simple promise: real alligators, real teeth, real terror. Written and directed by Padraig Reynolds, Gator Face will open in select theaters September 11, 2026, before arriving on digital platforms September 15. The production leans heavily into the tactile side of horror filmmaking, with Epic Pictures emphasizing the use of practical effects and the film’s affection for classic drive-in cinema. In an era when creature features can disappear beneath layers of digital effects, there is something immediately appealing about a movie willing to put actual physical elements in front of the camera and let the danger feel close enough to bite. The title alone tells you what kind of movie you’re walking into. Gator Face sounds like something you would have spotted glowing from a battered marquee sometime after midnight, preferably during a double feature where the second movie involved either radioactive insects or a swamp nobody should have entered in the first place. Reynolds has built his career around genre filmmaking, and Gator Face appears designed for horror fans who still appreciate monsters with weight, texture, and teeth. Actress Tabitha Brownstone stars in the film and, along with Reynolds, will be available for interviews surrounding the release. Epic Pictures and Dread will release Gator Face in select theaters September 11, followed by digital platforms September 15.

MoreHorrorMovies.com - Zombies have spent decades shambling across movie screens as flesh-eating corpses, virus-infected hordes, and convenient metaphors for everything from consumerism to social collapse. The new documentary Black Zombie digs considerably deeper, tracing the monster back to a history rooted in colonial Haiti, slavery, spiritual belief, and the stripping away of human agency. Directed by Maya Annik Bedward, Black Zombie opens September 11, 2026, in New York City and Los Angeles. The documentary examines how the zombie existed long before George A. Romero rewrote the cinematic rulebook with Night of the Living Dead. Within Haitian history and folklore, the figure carried an entirely different horror: the possibility of remaining alive while losing control over your own body and will. Against the backdrop of enslavement and colonial power, that idea takes on a meaning far removed from the undead creatures that eventually became horror-movie staples. Bedward follows that transformation from Haiti into Western popular culture, exploring how Black spiritual traditions became distorted, sensationalized, and increasingly disconnected from the cultures that gave them meaning. Along the way, Black Zombie revisits films including Victor Halperin’s White Zombie, Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, and Wes Craven’s The Serpent and the Rainbow. Archival material and vérité footage sit alongside interviews with historians, artists, spiritual practitioners, and genre figures including Yves-Grégory Francois, Mambo Labelle Déesse, Slash, Tom Savini, and author Tananarive Due. That history makes the zombie particularly fascinating as a horror icon. Hollywood eventually turned it into one of the genre’s most durable monsters, yet its earliest cultural meaning placed the zombie closer to the ultimate victim: a person whose freedom, identity, and agency had been stolen. The film has already drawn strong responses from critics. RogerEbert.com’s Brian Tallerico praised it for unpacking the origins of one of horror’s most popular genres, while The Austin Chronicle called the documentary “an act of reclamation.” Dread Central described it as “a smart, nuanced love letter to Haiti,” highlighting the film’s examination of Caribbean spiritual traditions and their later treatment on screen. Variety called the documentary a “thought-provoking perspective” that could add another layer to the way audiences experience zombie cinema. For horror fans, that may prove to be the film’s most compelling territory. Monsters rarely remain frozen in the culture that created them. They mutate. Filmmakers borrow them, audiences reinterpret them, and eventually the original story can disappear beneath decades of movies, games, television shows, Halloween costumes, and pop-culture shorthand. Black Zombie goes looking beneath all of that accumulated mythology. And considering how thoroughly zombies have conquered modern horror, finding out where the dead first started walking may change the way some viewers look at the entire genre. Black Zombie opens September 11 in New York City and Los Angeles.

MoreHorrorMovies.com - A new true-crime film exploring the crimes of notorious South Carolina serial killer Donald “Pee-Wee” Gaskins will arrive on Digital and On Demand on August 28, 2026. Gaskins became one of South Carolina’s most infamous murderers, with a criminal history that stretched well beyond the killings that eventually led to his convictions. Before authorities connected him to multiple murders, Gaskins had already served prison sentences related to assault and burglary. According to the film’s official synopsis, Gaskins murdered more than a dozen people through methods including stabbing, shooting, drowning and poisoning. The investigation eventually led police to eight bodies buried in shallow graves near his home. The film traces Gaskins’ violent history and the investigation that exposed the extent of his crimes, revisiting a case that remains one of the darker chapters in South Carolina criminal history. Official Synopsis: Donald “Pee-Wee” Gaskins was an American serial killer from South Carolina who stabbed, shot, drowned, and poisoned more than a dozen people. Before his convictions for murder, Gaskins had a long history of criminal activities resulting in prison sentences for assault and burglary. Police eventually discovered eight bodies buried in shallow graves near Gaskins’ home. This is his story. The film arrives August 28, 2026, on Digital and On Demand. Stay tuned to MoreHorrorMovies.com for more horror, true crime and independent genre releases.

MoreHorrorMovies.com - Breaking Glass Pictures has announced the August 16th AVOD release of SubHysteria 2026, an expanded version of the acclaimed 2010 indie thriller. Available on Tubi and other AVOD platforms, this film, directed by Leonard Zelig, traps sixteen strangers in a New York City subway car with no escape and no contact with the outside world. As days pass, fear and desperation transform the group, offering an unfiltered look at human behavior under extreme conditions. What makes SubHysteria unique is its improvisational approach, allowing actors to develop their own dialogue within the story's framework. This new version updates the original film while maintaining its core experiment of observing ordinary people in extraordinary situations. CEO Richard Wolff highlights the film's raw quality, noting its immediate and authentic character reactions. The film features a talented cast, including Osvaldo Benavides, Ginger Kroll, Sally Gifford, Hwalan Shub, Elaiza Gil, Isabella Cascarano, Estelle Bajou, and Maceo Terrero. Produced by Roberto Alcazar, Mario Domina, Javier Perez-Karam, and Pilar de Posadas, SubHysteria 2026 invites a new generation of audiences to experience its intense and unpredictable narrative.

By Seth Metoyer, MoreHorrorMovies.com - Eli Roth’s Ice Cream Man has generated plenty of conversation, although much of that discussion quickly moved away from the quality of the film itself and toward one increasingly volatile subject: artificial intelligence. Roth initially described some of the film’s animated imagery as material he had drawn before handing it over to animators for refinement. Questions followed when viewers noticed an AI/VFX company among the credits. Roth later acknowledged that generative AI contributed to a small portion of several scenes and said that he had “misspoke.” For filmmakers working within independent budgets, AI represents another tool capable of closing the distance between imagination and available resources. That debate will continue for years. The more interesting issue with Ice Cream Man concerns transparency. If a filmmaker uses AI, they should just say so. I’ll be using AI myself—Grammarly and the integrated AI engine in this writing platform (Wix); to edit this article for grammar and spelling. Run it through an AI detector and you’ll probably get an “AI Used” result. Whatever. If that bothers you, just move along. Similarly, audiences can decide how they feel about the choice afterward. Roth owns the movie, the creative decisions and the consequences that come with them. The technology itself becomes far less interesting than an artist appearing reluctant to clearly explain how it entered the process. I am cool with that. His film, his vision, and he can use whatever tools he wants in order to properly express what he wants with his creation. Yet, once you start looking beyond Ice Cream Man, AI quickly becomes one of the simpler conversations surrounding Eli Roth. The Eli Roth Persona Roth has spent his career cultivating an unusually strong authorial persona: gorehound, provocateur, horror historian, practical-effects evangelist, Jewish filmmaker, Tarantino orbit guy and political loudmouth. That persona has always existed alongside his movies. Cabin Fever and Hostel helped make him one of the defining filmmakers of the 2000s horror boom. The Green Inferno leaned into his fascination with exploitation cinema. Thanksgiving finally transformed one of the fake trailer that he eventually (took him forever) turned a feature-length slasher. With Roth, the filmmaker frequently becomes part of the entertainment. His increasingly public political commentary has complicated that relationship. Jewish Identity and Israel Let me preface this by mentioning that I'm Ashkenazi Jew, though I am not a practicing Jew. Roth has spoken forcefully in support of Israel, particularly since the October 7 attacks. He signed public statements condemning Hamas and supporting Israel and later joined the criticism directed at The Zone of Interest filmmaker Jonathan Glazer following Glazer’s 2024 Academy Awards speech. That Glazer controversy reveals something more complicated than a simple argument between “pro-Israel” and “anti-Israel” camps. Both Roth and Glazer are Jewish filmmakers drawing lessons from Jewish history, the Holocaust and antisemitism. Roth has emphasized Jewish survival, security and the continuing threat of antisemitism. Glazer used Holocaust memory to speak about dehumanization in the present. Those positions emerge from the same historical wound and lead toward very different political conclusions. The larger public discussion often becomes confused because Judaism, Jewish identity, Zionism, Israel and the policies of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government routinely get treated as interchangeable concepts. They aren’t. Judaism describes a religion and an enormous intellectual tradition. Jewish identity can involve ancestry, ethnicity, culture, religion and history. Zionism encompasses several traditions surrounding Jewish national self-determination. Israel is a modern nation-state. Netanyahu represents a particular political movement and government within that state. Separating those things makes serious discussion possible. The Biblical Argument Gets Complicated Too The Israel debate also carries a distinctly American evangelical component. Many Christians grew up hearing that Scripture commands believers to support Israel politically. Genesis 12:3 — God’s promise to Abraham that those who bless him will receive blessing — regularly gets translated into a modern foreign-policy directive. That interpretation requires several theological steps that the verse itself does not spell out. The Hebrew Bible absolutely preserves a profound Jewish relationship to the land. That relationship runs through scripture, history and centuries of Jewish memory. The same Bible also contains prophets who relentlessly condemn Israel’s rulers, religious institutions and abuses of power. Amos attacks exploitation. Isaiah condemns religious ritual divorced from justice. Jeremiah tears directly into the national and religious mythology of his own people. The prophetic tradition treats election as responsibility. That is of importance when modern political arguments invoke Scripture as though Israel receives automatic moral immunity through biblical covenant. Ancient Israel never received that immunity within its own sacred texts. For modern discussions about Gaza and Israel, the principle remains straightforward: historical trauma deserves remembrance and political power deserves scrutiny. Hamas murdered civilians, kidnapped hostages and deliberately used terror on October 7. Israeli civilians deserve security. Palestinian civilians deserve life, food, homes, families and dignity. Antisemitism remains real and vicious. Palestinian dehumanization deserves the same moral attention. Those realities can exist simultaneously. When Roth’s Horror Persona Enters Politics Roth becomes even more controversial when his familiar splatter-film rhetoric moves from fictional horror into actual political disputes. His comments about activist Greta Thunberg and other critics of Israel have included cannibalism jokes and the kind of deliberately grotesque imagery that audiences associate with Roth’s movies. Within The Green Inferno, cannibalism functions as exploitation cinema. Directed toward an actual person during a humanitarian crisis, the same language carries considerably different measures. Roth has always enjoyed provocation. Horror allows filmmakers to play with ugliness, bad taste and offense inside a fictional framework. Politics removes some of that insulation. That makes the rhetoric worth examining on its own terms. Rumors, Reputation and Evidence Roth has a bit of an online reputation for being “creepy,” with rumors about his behavior circulating for years. Various filmmakers and industry figures have shared, both publicly and privately, that they’ve had unpleasant experiences with him. Several of my own colleagues in film production and directing have echoed these sentiments. At the end of the day, those claims ultimately require evidentiary discipline. Roth also worked with Chilean filmmaker Nicolás López, whose misconduct history became very real and very serious. López’s actions belong to López. Collaboration and association can raise legitimate questions, while questions still require evidence before they become allegations against somebody else. At this point, credible evidence establishing sexual misconduct by Roth himself remains elusive. That difference is important, especially online, where a reputation can quickly turn into an accusation through sheer repetition. A rumor is still just a rumor. A documented allegation comes with a different weight of evidence, and a conviction carries even more. Horror journalism should maintain those distinctions even when the filmmaker involved has spent decades deliberately cultivating a provocative persona. AI May Be the Simplest Part of the Eli Roth Conversation That brings everything back to Ice Cream Man. The AI debate surrounding the movie reflects a larger cultural fight over technology, artistc labor and creative authenticity. Roth’s handling of the disclosure deserves scrutiny. His right to experiment with new filmmaking tools also remains his own. The larger Eli Roth conversation reaches much further. His career now sits at the intersection of horror culture, artificial intelligence, Jewish identity, Israel, Gaza, antisemitism, celebrity politics and the increasingly c0mmon demand that audiences determine whether an artist has passed an ideological purity test before deciding how they feel about the work. People don’t often fit neatly into categories, and Roth is no exception. You can dislike Ice Cream Man while still supporting his right to use AI. You can question how transparent he’s been about using it. You can understand the historical context behind his support for Israel yet still critique the language he uses to defend it. Each issue deserves its own consideration. After all the noise surrounding Ice Cream Man, AI may actually be the least complicated thing about Eli Roth.

By Seth Metoyer, MoreHorrorMovies.com - John Carpenter has spent decades shaping horror through a combination of stark imagery, relentless atmosphere and unmistakable music. Now the filmmaker and composer behind Halloween, The Thing and Prince of Darkness has returned with Cathedral, an original project that combines a graphic novel with a full-length companion album. That's the closest we'll come to a new horror film at the moment. Both are available now. The project grew from a vivid dream Carpenter had in 2024 involving an abandoned church in downtown Los Angeles and a descent into something far darker beneath it. The graphic novel follows Lieutenant Christine Marks and detectives Paul Hernandez and Steve Mayfield after the killing of a police officer draws attention to a long forgotten cathedral. Their investigation leads them into the building’s catacombs and toward a centuries-old evil imprisoned below. Carpenter devel0ped the story with his wife and longtime creative partner Sandy King and writer Sean Sobczak. Federico De Luca and Luis Guaragna handled the artwork, with Sian Mandrake on colors and Marshall Dillon on lettering. Storm King Comics published the graphic novel. Carpenter Turns Up the Volume The musical half of Cathedral comes from John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies, the trio behind much of Carpenter’s recent recorded work. This time, the sound gets heavier. Being a metalhead, as well as a guitarist, I really dug the guitar work on this. Carpenter has described Cathedral as “kind of our first heavy metal album,” pushing his familiar synth-driven style into darker and more aggressive territory. The album contains 14 tracks, with each piece corresponding to a section of the graphic novel. The structure turns the record into more than a standalone soundtrack. Readers can follow the book while moving through the album and experience the story with Carpenter’s score unfolding alongside it. The connection between the music and imagery becomes especially interesting on Spotify. The visualizer accompanying the track “Revenge” features a bloodied, pale-faced figure with black hair and darkened eyes. For horror fans familiar with Carpenter’s most famous creation, the image carries an immediate visual echo of Michael Myers. From the John Carpenter track "Revenge" on Spotify. However, The figure appears to belong to Cathedral’s own mythology rather than the Halloween continuity, but the resemblance creates an intriguing bridge between Carpenter’s past and his latest work. Nearly five decades after the blank white mask of Halloween became one of horror cinema’s most recognizable images, the visual language still resonates with horror fans. From Halloween to Cathedral Carpenter’s music has always functioned as a major part of his storytelling. His minimalist score for 1978’s Halloween became nearly as recognizable as Michael Myers himself. A few repeating piano notes could announce The Shape before audiences ever saw him move across the screen. Cathedral extends that relationship between sound and imagery into another medium. Instead of scoring a completed film, Carpenter and his collaborators built music around a graphic narrative. The result lets readers effectively create the pacing themselves: turn the page, follow the corresponding track and allow the score to provide the atmosphere. The story also enters territory that should feel familiar to fans of Prince of Darkness. An ominous Los Angeles church, religious imagery, hidden catacombs and an ancient evil lurking beneath the surface all place Cathedral firmly within Carpenter’s particular brand of apocalyptic horror. The project functions somewhere between an album, a graphic n0vel and an imagined film. For longtime Carpenter fans still hoping to see him return behind the camera, Cathedral offers another route into that world. The visuals live on the page, the score offers up the tenson, and the rest plays out inside the reader’s head. John Carpenter’s Cathedral graphic novel is available through Storm King Comics. The accompanying album by John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter and Daniel Davies is available through Sacred Bones Records and on all streamin and digital platforms.

MoreHorrorMovies.com - Spider One is bringing a new masked killer to the screen with Big Baby, a meta-slasher set to make its UK premiere at Tubi FrightFest London on August 27. Written and directed by Spider One, frontman of industrial metal band Powerman 5000, the film also counts Cher (Moonstruck) among its executive producers. Big Baby follows a writer whose nightmares about a maniac killer wearing a baby mask inspire his latest screenplay. As his life begins to unravel, however, the murderous figure at the center of his story starts looking considerably less fictional. The film stars Brandon Scott (Descendent), Krsy Fox (Little Bites), Adam Marcinowski (Bury the Bride), Catherine Corcoran (Terrifier), Chaz Bono (American Horror Story) and David Howard Thornton, best known to horror audiences as Art the Clown in the Terrifier franchise. Lightbulb Film Distribution will release Big Baby in the UK on Digital, DVD and Blu-ray September 7, following its FrightFest premiere. With Spider One behind the camera, Thornton among the cast, and a killer stalking the boundary between a writer’s imagination and reality, Big Baby looks primed to bring some strange new nightmare fuel to the slasher aisle. Synopsis: Nightmares of a maniac killer in a baby mask inspire a writer’s new script. But as his life begins to spiral out of control, he discovers Big Baby’s murderous rampage may be more than fiction.

Studio Dome Unveils Official Trailer for HATE THYSELF Before September 1 Release MoreHorrorMovies.com - Studio Dome has released the official trailer for HATE THYSELF, a psychological thriller directed by Shivaan Makker, featuring Oscar Torre (The Haves and the Have Nots) alongside the late horror icon Tony Todd (Candyman). The film is set for digital release in the United States and Canada on September 1, 2026. Combining the suspense of a serial killer investigation with a chilling psychological journey, HATE THYSELF follows Detective Angelo Matteo (Oscar Torre), a devout investigator whose steadfast faith is challenged when he and his partner, Rufus, are tasked with capturing a sadistic killer targeting young men. As the number of victims grows, Angelo is pulled into a disturbing realm where the boundary between justice and obsession blurs. Haunted by the crimes' savagery, Angelo's hunt for the murderer stirs up long-suppressed personal demons, endangering his marriage, sobriety, and ultimately his moral compass. As the investigation progresses, the pursuit of a serial killer transforms into a compelling exploration of guilt, faith, trauma, and the darkness that can engulf even the most virtuous individuals. The screenplay is penned by Sullivan McGuffin. The film also features Happy Anderson, Corin Nemec, Deborah Rennard, Danforth Comins, Vincent Banks, Gary Brunner, Evan Daigle, and Christina Urias. Partially inspired by the heinous acts of real-life serial killer Robert Berdella, HATE THYSELF delves into the psychological toll of facing unimaginable evil while presenting a suspenseful, character-focused thriller. "This film explores what occurs when someone who views the world in black and white is compelled to face the gray areas of human nature," said director Shivaan Makker. "We aimed to narrate a story that isn't solely about apprehending a killer, but about the emotional and spiritual impact that evil has on those who dedicate their lives to combating it." "Shivaan has created a captivating psychological thriller that extends beyond the conventional crime procedural," said David Josh Lawrence, Acquisitions at Studio Dome. "HATE THYSELF is an intense, thought-provoking film that challenges viewers while providing genuine suspense, and we're thrilled to present it to audiences this September." HATE THYSELF will be available in select theaters and on digital platforms starting September 1, 2026.

By Seth Metoyer, MoreHorrorMovies.com - Every time an independent horror film explodes across the internet, two competing emotions rise inside me. First, I feel genuine excitement. I have spent a substantial part of the past 15 years producing more than 20 independent films and composing music for several others. I know how difficult it is to get one of these things made, much less convince the world to stop scrolling long enough to watch it. Then comes a small, admittedly petty flicker of jealousy. Every independent filmmaker dreams of watching something they helped create break through the concrete ceiling separating “promising little horror movie” from full-blown cultural phenomenon. Curry Barker’s Obsession punched through that ceiling like somebody had made a wish on a cursed tree branch. Made for around $1 million, the film has earned more than $400 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film in Focus Features history (at the time of this post). After finally watching it, I understand why audiences showed up. The Story Baron “Bear” Bailey, played by Michael Johnston, works at a music store alongside his longtime friend Nikki Freeman, played by Inde Navarrette. Bear wants their friendship to become something more. Nikki clearly does not share that desire. After Bear fails to express his feelings, he purchases a novelty-store object called a One Wish Willow. The small branch promises to grant one wish when broken. Bear wishes that Nikki would love him more than anyone else in the world. The wish works. Enter the nightmare. Nikki suddenly adores Bear with an intensity that initially appears flattering. Her affection soon becomes suffocating, unnatural and increasingly violent. Bear receives exactly what he requested, stripped of every romantic illusion he attached to it. Written, directed and edited by Curry Barker, Obsession stars Michael Johnston as Bear, Inde Navarrette as Nikki, Cooper Tomlinson as their friend Ian, Megan Lawless as Sarah and Andy Richter as music-store owner Carter Harper. Going In With a Chip on My Shoulder I approached Obsession the way I approach most heavily hyped films: partially expecting disappointment. Movies rarely survive the weight of their own publicity. Once the internet starts declaring something “the scariest film of the decade” or announcing that an actor has delivered a generation-defining performance, expectations grow fangs. The film eventually arrives dragging a thousand TikTok reactions behind it. I had repeatedly heard that Inde Navarrette delivered an incredible performance. People say that every year. Occasionally, someone such as Anya Taylor-Joy, Florence Pugh or Lily-Rose Depp actually appears and earns the coronation. Could Obsession really give us another kick-ass young actress with that elusive, impossible-to-manufacture “it” factor? Yes. It could. I also avoided the trailer. Modern trailers frequently operate like three-minute Wikipedia summaries with dramatic music. Social media still leaked pieces of the film into my orbit, especially Nikki’s already-famous “No, no, no, no, no” breakdown. That gave me another small chip to carry into the movie. Betty Gabriel had already turned the words “no, no, no....no, no...” into pure psychological terror in Jordan Peele’s Get Out back in 2017. Barker was around 17 when Get Out arrived, so he had graduated from elementary school, though probably still had homework. Whether his scene intentionally nods toward Peele’s film remains unclear. That comparison disappeared quickly for me as Navarrette claims the m0ment as her own, and Obsession establishes its identity long before that particulr scene arrives. The Horror of the “Nice Guy” The premise sounds almost aggressively simple. Dude wants girl. Girl likes dude as a friend. Dude discovers magic stick. Dude forces girl to love him. The title Obsession also lands somewhere between perfectly accurate and painfully generic. Searching for it online feels like wandering through a video-store shelf filled with erotic thrillers from 1987. Fatal Attraction comes to mind. Yet Barker finds something sharp inside that familiar setup. Bear belongs to the lineage of the rightly named “nice guy”; the man who treats kindness like an investment account. He listens, waits, offers emotional support and quietly assumes that these actions will eventually earn him romance. Dr. Robert A. Glover, author of No More Mr. Nice Guy, calls this kind of arrangement a covert contract. One person performs favors while expecting an unstated reward from someone who never agreed to the terms. When the imagined payment never arrives, affection curdles into resentment. Bear’s wish represents the ultimate covert contract. He eliminates Nikki’s ability to reject the deal. The film posits that coerced love remains coercion, even when it arrives wrapped in awkwardness, insecurity and apparent vulnerability. Bear may look harmless. His desire still overrides Nikki’s autonomy. The One Wish Willow simply transforms an emotional impulse into supernatural law. A particularly revealing scene involves the “real” Nikki asking something of Bear. She never confesses that she secretly wanted him. She never retroactively validates his fantasy. His response reveals the transactional machinery beneath his wounded puppy routine. In that moment, Bear becomes brutally honest without realizing it. He wanted Nikki’s love on his terms. Her actual inner life barely entered the equation. Real Nikki, Wish Nikki and Freaky Nikki Navarrette makes the entire film work. She effectively plays several fractured versions of the same woman: the authentic Nikki, the artificially devoted Nikki and the feral creature fans have dubbed “Freaky Nikki.” Each version shares the same face while carrying an entirely different psychological temperature. Her physical performance sells the transformation. The fixed smiles, sudden movements, emotional ruptures and unnerving stillness all suggest that something has crawled behind Nikki’s eyes and started operating her body through unfamiliar controls. Navarrette never treats the character as a one-note “crazy girlfriend.” She preserves a buried sense of violation beneath the madness. Somewhere inside this romantic automaton, the real Nikki remains trapped beneath Bear’s wish. That makes the performance horrifying and strangely tragic. Navarrette possesses tremendous confidence in her craft. She commits completely, physically and emotionally, without looking like she wants the audience to applaud the effort. She simply becomes the thing the scene requires. The Academy rarely invites horror performances into its marble temple unless prestige drama arrives wearing a monster mask. Navarrette deserves serious consideration. Whether Hollywood recognizes her remains another question. Her work already carries the authority of a breakthrough. Johnston also deserves credit. He keeps Bear human enough for the story to remain complicated. For a while, we feel sorry for him. Then the movie gradually removes the soft lighting from his behavior and reveals the entitlement underneath. The supporting cast performs well across the board, particularly Cooper Tomlinson and Megan Lawless. Andy Richter (yes, that Andy Richter) brings welcome some humor in without turning the film into a joke. Small Spaces, Huge Impact Obsession uses relatively few locations and keeps its physical world compact. That limitation strengthened the film for me. Made it feel claustrophobic. A good thing. Independent filmmakers often believe scale creates legitimacy. More locations, more extras, more effects and more spectacle supposedly make a movie feel “real.” A strong story creates scale inside the viewer’s head. Barker gets this. He focuses on character, escalation, sound, timing and performance. Barker came from sketch comedy through the YouTube channel “that’s a bad idea,” and his comic background clearly sharpened his control over rhythm. Comedy and horror both depend upon tension, timing and involuntary audience reactions. Barker knows exactly how long to hold a moment before twisting it. The film also demonstrates something people outside independent production rarely appreciate: finding actors who can truly carry a movie remains incredibly difficult. A clever premise can get a film financed. Performances make people care. Barker found the right people. That may explain why Obsession connected so powerfully with me and 0thers. The movie has a sharp focus, with every department seemingly tuned to the same wavelength. While the central idea isn’t revolutionary, the execution creates that rare spark where familiar elements suddenly feel vibrant and alive. Believe the Hype Obsession lived up to the hype. The film stayed with me for days, which remains one of my most reliable measurements of success. Plenty of technically impressive movies evaporate before the credits finish. This one keeps crawling around inside your thoughts. Was it groundbreaking? No. The cursed-wish story reaches back through The Monkey’s Paw and countless variations of the ancient warning to choose our desires carefully. Barker himself has cited W.W. Jacobs’ story and a Simpsons monkey’s-paw episode among the film’s inspirations. Obsession does something more valuable than inventing an entirely new mythology. It finds a live cultural nerve inside an old one. The film turns the “friend zone,” romantic entitlement and obsessive attachment into supernatural body horror. Bear thinks he wants perfect devotion. Perfect devotion destroys the person he claims to love. That concept clicked with audiences. The performances clicked. Barker’s direction clicked. Occasionally, all the pieces of an independent film lock together with the satisfying finality of a trap closing. Fans recognized it. I recognized it. Independent horror has produced several of these moments lately, and I am absolutely here for it; even when the producer inside me watches the box-office numbers with a tiny green demon perched on his shoulder. Will There Be an Obsession 2? Barker has confirmed that he has an idea for Obsession 2, though he has no intention of rushing directly into it. He has also discussed turning the One Wish Willow concept into an anthology, with each story following a different wish spiraling out of control. Michael Johnston has clarified that no sequel currently has a formal plan. An anthology could offer the stronger route. The One Wish Willow contains enough mythological potential to become horror’s answer to The Twilight Zone: ordinary people making ordinary wishes and discovering the infernal precision of literal fulfillment. Whatever Barker does next, I’ll be watching. For now, here’s to Real Nikki, Wish Nikki and Freaky Nikki. I salute all three of you. Rating: 4 out of 5 bloody wishbones

By Seth Metoyer, MoreHorrorMovies.com - If you grew up during the 198os, you probably remember encountering a very specific kind of late-night television fever dream. You would flip through the channels looking for some gloriously cheesy horror movie on USA Up All Night, only to stumble across women in brightly colored leotards bending, stretching and sweating to generic pop music. Neon leg warmers glowed against black studio floors. Synthesizers pulsed. Everyone smiled with the unsettling enthusiasm of someone trapped inside a fitness cult. Those were the days. Written and directed by Ama Lea, Slashercise resurrects that peculiar corner of VHS-era culture and drenches it in stage blood. The result plays like an aerobics tape discovered in the back room of a condemned video store; a tape that someone probably should have left buried. The film follows Meathead, a masked killer stalking fitness clubs across Los Angeles and turning workout sessions into elaborate crime scenes. As instructors begin dropping faster than exhausted gym members after leg day, a group of fitness fanatics must fight back before Meathead adds them to his body count. That kind of makes Slashercise sound like a conventional slasher movie, but the actual film takes a much stranger route. For a substantial portion of the runtime, Slashercise operates as a genuine retro workout video led by Vanessa Decker (horror.vixen on Instagram). At first, I struggled to understand where the movie intended to take me. The exercise sequences continue long enough to feel like a separate production attached to the narrative feature. Then the film shifts gears and introduces its loose slasher plot, connecting the two halves in a deliberately peculiar fashion. Once I understood the concept, everything clicked. The workout section actually works as a workout video. Viewers can follow along, sweat through the routine and presumably exercise a few demons in the process. I should probably try it myself, though the bone spurs in my hips and left knee may require a gentler approach. It's hard out there these days being an ’80s kid in 2026. Anyone still several decades away from this particular chapter of the human experience should trust me: it becomes a brutal ride. Decker carries the film with the natural charisma of someone completely comfortable commanding both a camera and an exercise class. She sells the movements, the jokes and the absurdity without stepping outside the strange little universe the film creates. She could probably convince Laurie Strode to finish one more set of crunches. Then we have Meathead (hilarious name btw). Meathead represents everything terrible about gym culture compressed into one ridiculous slasher villain. He is arrogant, obnoxious and hilariously committed to his own mythology. Watching him receive his inevitable punishment brings a particular kind of satisfaction. Every gym has had some variation of this guy wandering around, occupying three machines while offering unsolicited advice. Slashercise simply gives him a mask and follows the concept to its bloodiest conclusion. The production wears its low budget like a sweatband. Ama Lea fills the screen with neon lighting, synth music, slick practical gore and an atmosphere inspired by the horror aisle of an old neighborhood video store. The movie realizes the visual grammar of 1980s fitness tapes: exaggerated enthusiasm, artificial smiles, relentless repetition and bodies presented like products under fluorescent light. The supporting cast and cameos strengthen the film’s connection to horror culture. Sarah Nicklin remains someone I enjoy seeing in anything, and the ensemble includes familiar genre faces such as Sarah French, Kelli Maroney, Felissa Rose, Tiffany Shepis, Lisa Wilcox, Diana Prince and John Bloom—better known to horror fans as Joe Bob Briggs. Joe Bob appears as a gym janitor, and he fits the role with alarming ease. Perhaps he missed his calling. Cinema gained an essential drive-in critic, though some alternate universe probably contains the cleanest and most sarcastically maintained fitness club in Los Angeles. The cameos also create a bridge between the VHS culture Slashercise celebrates and the modern horror community that continues keeping that culture alive. This movie belongs to the same spiritual bloodline as the low-budget films once shown on USA Up All Night or TNT’s MonsterVision: odd, playful movies that understood entertainment could thrive without prestige, solemnity or restraint. Slashercise never aims for an intricate mystery or a deeply layered mythology. The plot provides enough c0nnective tissue to move between workouts, murders, jokes and cameos. The film succeeds through personality, atmosphere and commitment to its absurd premise. The unusual structure may initially confuse viewers expecting Meathead to start carving through the cast within the opening minutes. Once the film reveals its actual rhythm, the lengthy exercise material becomes part of the joke, part of the experiment and part of the experience. This is a slasher movie you can literally work out to. Feel the evil burn. Ultimately, Slashercise delivers a fun slice of horror comedy that viewers can actively exercise along with or leave running in the background during a gathering. It feels like something discovered after midnight in 1988, sandwiched between an aerobics infomercial and a heavily edited slasher movie hosted by someone making jokes from a trailer park. Grab the leg warmers. Stretch carefully. Keep an eye on the mirrors. Meathead may already be standing behind you. Slashercise premiered exclusively on BloodStream on July 1, 2026, and will expand to additional platforms beginning October 1, 2026. Follow Seth Metoyer on Instagram at @sethmetoyer and follow More Horror at @morehorror for more horror news, reviews, interviews and independent film coverage.