The world is a hellhole, so that usually means that horror is in a golden period. You can quantify the success of the horror genre in a variety of ways in 2023.

This year brought all sorts of questionably sticky treats to choose from. Softcore naughtiness and Lovecraftian horror? You got it! Alien invaders? They’re here! Killer dolls? Killing it.

So — let’s take a spooky trip down memory lane and look back at the best horror of 2023.

Suitable Flesh (Joe Lynch)

It’s no mean feat to try and capture the spirit of the legendary Stuart Gordon, who brought us Lovecraft adaptations such as Re-Animator and From Beyond. Joe Lynch manages just that whilst retaining his own style.

Suitable Flesh is down and dirty in the world of Lovecraft, with Heather Graham showing a natural affinity to the horror genre alongside stalwarts such as Barbara Crampton, and promising young things like Judah Lewis.

Horny body-swapping madness slathered in a deliciously skeezy 90s erotic thriller coating.

Huesera: The Bone Woman (Michelle Garza Cervera)

I can’t deny I roll my eyes when I see a horror movie doing the ”everyone thinks that I’m going crazy because of this supernatural entity haunting me” trope, but that’s mainly because there are, so many terrible examples of it. The top tier stuff just makes it more aggravating.

Huesera: The Bone Woman is one of those top-tier examples of it being done right. A woman’s pregnancy is seemingly haunted by an entity that terrorizes and manipulates her even after the child is born. Of course, it appears to the outside world that she is suffering from the realities of motherhood. Cervera ensures there’s reasonable doubt about the truth and isn’t afraid to dig under the skin of her protagonist and unnerve many a parent in the process.

No One Will Save You (Brian Duffield)

After being surprised by Brian Duffield’s superb splat-tastic romance movie Spontaneous, I was excited to read his next film, which was an alien invasion thriller with a home invasion spin. But No One Will Save You still managed to pull the rug out from under me with its tight and tense action.

Despite a wordless performance, Kaitlyn Dever commands the screen as a traumatized and isolated young woman battling against alien invaders that start out in a traditional grey bipedal form before chucking in some interesting new ones as the battle for survival goes on.

Saw X (Kevin Greutert)

Jigsaw and Spiral: From the Book of Saw were supposed to reinvigorate the Saw franchise by taking it further from the influence of Tobin Bell’s John Kramer. Instead, it falls to Bell to put the jumper cables to the series’ flesh with a prequel that goes back to the heady heights of those early days.

Saw X is a worthy new entry because it puts much more focus on character, fleshing out Jigsaw’s reasoning for his brutal justice with a more personal edge against a seemingly worthy adversary.

It’s like the villain version of Spider-Man 2, where there’s a glimmer of a life that could be for John Kramer before the world reminds him why it needs him (well, at least that’s how he sees it!)

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (Stephen Cognetti)

Now and then, a found-footage horror movie comes along and reminds me why I fell in love with the sub-genre. I genuinely did not believe the fourth entry in the Hell House LLC series would be one of them, but here we are.

Hell House LLC: The Carmichael Manor takes the action away from the Abbadon Hotel of previous films, which does refresh the formula to some degree, but really its greatest quality comes from taking things back to basics in building unease and dread.

M3GAN (Gerard Johnstone)

Chucky has the cynical, blood-splattered killer doll thing down to a tee, and Annabelle has the supernatural entity schtick going. So, where does M3GAN sit? It’s a rather bloodless film, with a checklist of overcooked modern tropes in its execution, but it’s on this list, so why?

Because it’s a really fun time and is fully aware of its limitations. M3GAN itself may feel like a cynical attempt to create a new horror icon, but it has worked because, visually speaking, she lives on the precipice of the uncanny valley that makes that effect so unsettling.

When Evil Lurks (Demián Rugna)

Demonic possession done differently. Rugna’s When Evil Lurks is a nasty piece of work that floods the screen with apocalyptic despair as it treats demons like a multipurpose disease, polluting the soil and the soul in equal measure.

When Evil Lurks doesn’t shy away from showing the devastating consequences of causing a deadly outbreak, nothing is off the table, and the demon may never be seen in physical form, but its malicious and manipulative intent is always on show.

Birth/Rebirth (Laura Moss)

There have been plenty of takes on the Frankenstein story, and Laura Moss achieves the admirable feat of recreating the gothic horror of the source material whilst feeling incredibly fresh in its modern womanhood-centered spin.

Marin Ireland is superbly cold, clinical, and antisocial as Dr. Rose Casper, a modern Dr. Frankenstein type, and Judy Reyes as nurse Celie Morales brings tragic obsession to the party as the unlikely pair team up to handle the reanimated body of a young girl.

Birth/Rebirth surprises with dark humor, heartbreaking tragedy, and abhorrent behavior as Rose and Celie push way beyond moral boundaries.

Godzilla: Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)

While 2016’s Shin Godzilla made the radioactive lizard an abomination (in a good way!), it’s been quite some time since we got a pure angry creature from the sea Godzilla.

Enter Godzilla Minus One. Essentially another reboot of the Godzilla origin, but taking it back to before the gargantuan monster first waded from the ocean. Post-war Japan is in tatters in a variety of ways, and just as life is starting to return to some kind of normalcy when the mutated local legend Godzilla takes personal offence to people living in what it considers its territory.

And so Godzilla is a destructive force once more. Not friend to man, just generally annoyed man is in the way.

Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg)

Brandon Cronenberg is really growing into his own skin (which feels like an apt description) and forging his own weirdo path as a director. He follows up surreal and violent bodyjacking in Possessor with a very different kind of body abuse in Infinity Pool.

There was no way a tale of two young couples meeting at a swanky resort was going to end well in a film that features a Cronenberg in the director’s chair, but yeah…Infinity Pool is a bit sadistic.

It’s helped on its way by two very different performances. Alexander Skarsgard exudes naivety and obliviousness in equal measure, while Mia Goth is menacingly manipulative and just a bit batshit.

Enys Men (Mark Jenkin)

Mark Jenkin’s Bait made for a striking audiovisual experiment, utilizing supposedly outdated and niche equipment to create an unsettling and intense tale of tensions in a cornish fishing village. It was abrasive and artful. Jenkin reteamed with many of that film’s cast to create Enys Men, an actual horror movie that doubled down on those qualities.

Enys Men is a low-fi folk horror that tells the story of a wildlife volunteer (Mary Woodvine) isolated on an uninhabited island off the British coast. Her secluded life appears to unravel in a strange dreamlike fashion.

It’s a film that I hadn’t even finished and knew would be the subject of divisive reviews. Enys Men is as experimental a horror film as you can get in the modern day. That comes the same year as the equally divisive and evasive Skinamarink gives some hope that horror can still be as strange, complex, experimental, and against the grain as this.

Brooklyn 45 (Ted Geoghan)

Being a chamber piece horror set in the aftermath of World War II means Brooklyn 45 could be accused of being little more than a fancy stage play being called a movie. However, its theatrical nature is what enhances it as an unorthodox ghost story.

A group of wartime pals, all of whom have personal grief and trauma from their time at war, reunite on a chilly December night in 1945 to support one of their number after the death of his wife. A cozy reunion becomes something more supernatural as the group’s dirty laundry is laid bare by literal ghosts of their past.

Brooklyn 45 features just the seven cast members, but all get to make an impact in a punchy, twisty-turny 90 minutes.

Evil Dead Rise (Lee Cronin)

Ten years had passed with an Evil Dead movie, and folks had started to come around to Fede Alvarez’s gore-soaked 2013 edition. So naturally, that vibe is what Sam Raimi brought back with director Lee Cronin taking the Deadite action to the city in Evil Dead Rise.

While it’s a bit disappointing just have a whole apartment block infested with Deadites, the fairly contained blood-splattered adventure we get does feel like a transference of the traditional Evil Dead setup. It largely works because of Alyssa Sutherland’s unhinged demonic performance.

Talk to Me (Danny & Michael Phillipou)

Arguably the breakout horror hit of the year. The Phillipou brothers’ fresh take on possession, curse movies, and general teenage tomfoolery is a fine example that old ideas can be refreshed in horror when done right.

The film’s mean streak propels it into unsettling territory, and the interpersonal drama that gets wrapped up in a possession gone wrong adds to the impact of their consequences.

Dark Harvest (David Slade)

I’m still not exactly sure how I feel about David Slade’s Dark Harvest. It has a really strange tone, feels like it was smushed together from several different interpretations, and it’s genuinely difficult to tell if some performances are meant to be bad as they appear.

And yet Dark Harvest’s story of small-town boys competing to beat the literal stuffing out of a supernatural scarecrow is dark, funny, and just the right kind of chaotic to make it stick in the mind. I genuinely would not be surprised to see this become a cult favorite of sorts in years to come.

The post Best of 2023: 15 Horror Movies Worth Watching appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

Final Destination creator Jeffrey Reddick will produce and star in the themed slasher movie New Fears Eve, which is currently in post-production. To celebrate the turn of the year, a New Fears Eve poster has been unveiled.

New Fears Eve Poster and Details

Reddick is joined by genre stalwarts Hannah Fierman (V/H/S), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), and Dave Sheridan (Scary Movie). It’s directed by P.J. Starks and Eric Huskisson (Volumes of Blood).

As the coming year approaches, three best friends reluctantly prepare for Hooper Industries’ annual New Year’s Eve bash. The clock ticks down, and the body count rises as a psychotic murderer known as The Doctor is on the loose.

This sadistic surgeon of death leaves the town of Owensboro covered in blood as local police and FBI are forced to navigate through a maze of bodies left in his wake. Unbeknownst to the three best friends, their mandatory party is about to turn deadly when the killer sets his sights on them. December 31 becomes a party to die for when Leslie, Brian, Moses, and their colleagues are trapped inside an inescapable building with a bloodthirsty madman hell-bent on carving his way to midnight.

New Fears Eve is set to be released digitally in 2024.

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The Korean horror thriller The Human Trap heads to Prime Video and other VOD streaming platforms in early January 2024.

The Human Trap Details and Release Date

The film, also known as A Trap, was first released in 2021, but didn’t make its way overseas until earlier this year.

Two young couples go to a camping site for a getaway. Little did they know the risk they were getting into.

Their idyllic vacation turns sour as the foursome gets forcibly taken to a makeshift medical lab where a deranged Christian doctor and his assistant plot disturbing medical experiments on the captive youths. Infused with pitch-black humor, The Human Trap unleashes waves of shocking violence as the terrified teens fight for their lives.

The Human Trap is directed by Lee Moon-young (Rainbow Goddess). It stars Kim Dong-ho, Byeol Kang, and Park Yeon-woo (Love is for Suckers).

The Human Trap will be released on VOD platforms on January 11, 2024.

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The wait for Toho Godzilla movies is relatively slow. In the last decade, the Western variant of the giant radioactive lizard has appeared in three films and a TV show with another movie on the near horizon. In that time, we’ll have had two Japanese offerings.

But that wait is clearly worth it because, well, look at Godzilla: Minus One.

The 70th anniversary of Godzilla wades into view in 2024 and Takashi Yamazaki’s movie encapsulates everything that made Godzilla such a long-lasting icon of monster movies. Godzilla is symbolic in nature, and sure, sometimes the symbol is ”this big lizard smacking about a big monkey could earn us a few bucks,” but at its best, it’s used as a weapon to self-flagellate and repent. An unstoppable monster.

Godzilla: Minus One is about the destructive nature of a mutant force, but its strength comes from the delicate position of a nation that played for the wrong side in a global war and had its civilian population suffer horrifically in the process. The message early on in the film is shame, anger, bitterness, and disillusion among those left behind. Who is to blame for what has happened? What should life be going forward?

A rebuilding of Japan of course, does occur, but the scars of war still burn in much of its population, and while still at its lowest ebb, along comes the physical manifestation consequence of atomic warfare. A giant lizard of legend made colossal by mankind’s meddling that sees Japan as a part of its stomping ground.

The build to Godzilla eventually making landfall in Minus One puts a dreadful urgency into the air. There’s a very insistent message that the monster will obliterate a fragile country if left unchecked and so some poor schlubs get the unenviable task of destroying the beast with tools barely fit for vanquishing a shark. Those scenes carry the kind of terror reminiscent of Jaws’ shark hunting scenes quite fittingly, but here we already know a bigger boat stands about as much chance as the small wooden one the ragtag group of haunted military survivors and wannabes have.

When Godzilla does reach land, the impact is chaotic and devastating. So far, so Godzilla, right? But putting us back at the human level of the creature’s destruction shows the weight of every step and swipe of the tail on the cityscape. There’s no malice or meaning behind Godzilla’s actions, it’s simply defending its territory.

But it’s when Godzilla responds to being attacked that the real horror sets in. The charging sequence brings a tingling sense of dreadful anticipation that delivers in a jaw-dropping moment of disaster and Godzilla’s thermonuclear breath effectively vaporizes a massive chunk of the city, and we get the full effect of it from the ground.

The aftermath sees our somewhat fortunate protagonist Koichi surviving the blast, but faced with fresh devastation and frustration about his own defincies. His hopelessness is defined by a futile guttural scream at Godzilla across a landscape of rubble, corpses, and thick black rain.

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Dan Curtis’ 1976 horror mystery movie Burnt Offerings is getting a special edition Blu-ray release from Kino Lorber.

Burnt Offerings Special Edition Blu-ray Details

Evil Has a New Home! Step inside a vacation house of horror in this terrifying thriller that does for summer homes what Jaws did for a dip in the surf.

Karen Black (The Pyx), Oliver Reed (The Brood) and Bette Davis (What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), star in this riveting haunted-house chiller that delivers hidden terrors mounting creepily as the film builds to a climax of pulverizing fright. Marian (Black) and Ben (Reed) find it hard to believe that for only $900 they’ve rented a sprawling country mansion for the entire summer.

But as they settle into their isolated estate with their son (Lee Montgomery, Ben) and Ben’s aunt (Davis), they find themselves surrounded by an evil, hypnotic living presence that feeds on torture, fear, and murder. The stellar cast includes Burgess Meredith (The Sentinel), Eileen Heckart (The Bad Seed), Dub Taylor (Gator), and Anthony James (High Plains Drifter). Co-written, produced, and directed by horror legend Dan Curtis (The Night Strangler, Trilogy of Terror).

Special Features:
• Audio Commentary with Director/Co-Writer/Producer Dan Curtis, Actress Karen Black, and Co-Screenwriter William F. Nolan
• Audio Commentary by Film Historian Richard Harland Smith
• Interview with Actor Anthony James
• Interview with Screenwriter William F. Nolan
• Interview with Actor Lee Montgomery
• TRAILERS FROM HELL with Steve Senski
• Image Gallery
• Theatrical Trailer
• Optional English Subtitles

The Burnt Offerings Special edition Blu-ray will be released on February 6, 2024.

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Loop Track, a mind-bending survival horror movie released earlier this month deals with the unknown of the New Zealand wilderness. The film, backed by Dark Sky Films, was shot in the New Zealand bush, and tells a twisty-turny tale of isolation and paranoia.

Director Thomas Sainsbury helped Dark Sky end ”Loop Track Week” by discussing the wildlife that could be in the lesser-charted regions of New Zealand.

A four-day journey turns into a fight for survival. This is a psychological thriller about Ian, who wants to get as far away from humanity as possible, into the New Zealand bush. Some other individuals get attached to him. And he has the feeling that they are being followed. Is that real, though?

The trailer gives you a taste of Loop Track’s spiral into paranoia.

Loop Track stars director Thomas Sainsbury alongside Hayden J. Weal (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), Tawanda Manyimo (Ghost in the Shell, The Meg), Noa Campbell (The Umbrella Man), and Bianca Seinafo.

You can watch Loop Track on digital platforms now.

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Not only was it a fine year for horror movies, but it was also punctuated by a variety of intriguing, interesting, enticing, and downright mesmerizing performances in them.

From scenery-chewing villains to heartbreaking characters of tragedy, here are some of the best horror movie performances of 2023.

Alyssa Sutherland (Ellie in Evil Dead Rise)

The Evil Dead franchise is notable for two things. Ash Williams and Deadites. If one isn’t there, then it sure as hell needs a hefty showing from the other.

Evil Dead Rise features no Ash, so it leans heavily on its Deadite action, and Alyssa Sutherland performs like, well…a woman possessed.

Sutherland’s ”maggot mommy” is a mixture of Evil Dead Deadite old and new. Mischievous wise-cracking is there to a degree but with the nasty streak of Fede Alvarez’s 2013 movie.

Mary Woodvine (The Volunteer in Enys Men)

Enys Men is a difficult watch. Its discordant sound, grainy visuals, and repetitious story beats all serve a worthy purpose, but I can see how people might struggle with it.

Anchoring the increasingly swimmy tale of a remote lighthouse is Mary Woodvine. Her protagonist, known only as The Volunteer, serves as a vessel for our feelings on the strange turn of events depicted on screen whilst going on a narrative voyage of her own.

A lot of her performance has to come from facial expressions, and Woodvine conveys the dismay, worry, and horror of the story beautifully.

Heather Graham (Dr. Elizabeth Derby in Suitable Flesh)

Heather Graham’s expressive face just works wonders with Suitable Flesh. Joe Lynch’s cosmic horror madness works so well because Graham is at the heart of its body-swapping tale and conveys each of her personalities with fluid ease and no small amount of glee.

More Heather Graham in horror movies, please.

Larry Fessenden (Lt Col. Clive Hockstatter in Brooklyn 45)

I really enjoyed Ted Geogahn’s World War II chamber piece because its ensemble of characters pulled the tale in all sorts of fascinating directions, but its catalyst is undoubtedly Lt. Col. Clive Hockstatter played by genre stalwart Larry Fessenden.

Fessenden’s manic, heartbroken turn as a grieving army man sets the supernatural events of Brooklyn 45 in motion, and he continues to play a disturbing part of proceedings throughout.

Mia Goth (Gabi Bauer in Infinity Pool)

Mia Goth is a supreme weirdo, and we should be oh-so grateful she does horror movies. Case in point, her turn as Gabi Bauer in David Cronenberg’s unsettling and surreal latest Infinity Pool.

Goth’s Gabi is enchanting and alluring in a slightly dangerous way at first, but as we delve deeper into the film’s story, she reveals her sadistic, manipulative ways and her frankly deranged glee in tormenting Alexander Skarsgaard.

After the 1-2 punch of X and Pearl, Goth is on her way to becoming a genre icon.

Sophia Wilde (Mia in Talk to Me)

Talk to Me was one of the surprise hits of the year, thrusting its creators, Danny and Michael Phillipou, into the limelight. Its unique take on possession sees it used as a drug. And like any drug, the consequences can be devastating. Which Talk to Me emphatically shows us.

Central to that is the tortured protagonist Mia, played by Sophia Wilde. She enters the story already grieving, and when the possession game appears to offer some closure, she carelessly pursues it, with a horrendous impact on the lives of those around her.

Wilde’s complicated character is believable and sympathetic, and yet that doesn’t stop us from watching in abject horror as she goes down a self-destructive path.

Justin Long (Mayor Henry Waters in It’s a Wonderful Knife)

This was a toss-up between Long and his younger co-stars Jane Widdop and Jess McLeod who delivered a warm-hearted Christmas romance story in the bitter cold of a slasher movie. But Long perhaps best encapsulates what director Tyler MacIntyre and writer Michael Kennedy were going for.

Long’s almost cartoonishly evil Mayor is very much a throwback to the kind of boo-hiss baddie of a certain Frank Capra Christmas classic but with the more obvious murderous edge. Justin Long’s likable qualities convert well to playing utter pricks, and Mayor Henry Waters is a fine example of that.

Kaitlyn Dever (Brynn in No One Will Save You)

Brian Duffield’s follow-up to the superb Spontaneous blends alien invasion with home invasion to tremendous effect. It’s near-wordless, but that doesn’t stop its star from shining bright.

Kaitlyn Dever’s performance as the troubled recluse Brynn relies heavily on movement and expression to convey her character’s somewhat self-imposed isolation. Brynn’s struggles, both internal and external, come across on screen without a word being said, and Dever communicates them with a natural ability.

Joaquin Phoenix (Beau Wassermann in Beau is Afraid)

Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid hops genres constantly, sometimes to its detriment, but Beau himself is living in a personal horror movie, and as such, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance as the titular character is a notable horror performance.

That’s most readily apparent in the opening, where Aster and Phoenix put on a masterclass in ratcheting up anxiety-ridden uncomfortable tension. Beau utters every word like he believes the world will punish him for it.

Phoenix absolutely delivers on the title’s sentiment because Beau is afraid, always, in so many different and uncomfortably relatable ways.

Judy Reyes (Celie Morales in Birth/Rebirth)

A female-centric modern-day spin on the Frankenstein story, Birth/Rebirth focuses on womanhood and the ability to bring life into this world and the tragedy found within that. Both leads in Laura Moss’ superb horror represent that in quite different ways, to begin with, but common ground unites them in a horrifyingly twisted vision.

Judy Reyes may don the scrubs once more, but her character Celie Morales couldn’t be further removed from that sitcom variant. It’s a tough call to pick between the performances of Reyes and Marin Ireland in Birth/Rebirth, but the tragedy at the center of Celie’s story and the lengths she ends up going to in trying to reverse it make for a heartbreaking and shocking journey.

Amie Donald/Jenna Davis (M3GAN in M3GAN)

Both Amie Donald and Jenna Davis need mentioning in the performance of murderous robot M3GAN because both the physical and vocal performance make the character what it is.

The deadpan line delivery of Davis is as deliciously cutting as the unnerving physical delivery of Donald is deadly.Sure, you could say the film’s always angling to make M3GAN a bonafide modern horror icon, but the attempt wouldn’t have been successful without the two actors involved.

Russell Crowe (Father Gabriele Amorth in The Pope’s Exorcist)

The Pope’s Exorcist is a terrible movie. It’s the most cliche-ridden exorcism/demonic possession nonsense you’ll see wrapped into a single film.

But here comes Father Gabriele Amorth, riding in on his scooter and chugging caffeinated beverages whilst kicking demon arse with a tongue sharper than a butcher’s knife. Russell Crowe drags the film kicking and screaming into relevance with a wonderfully outlandish performance.

It’s the kind of role that feels like it should somehow allow Crowe to make a dozen more of these films. All technically terrible, but used as the perfect scaffolding for Amorth to strut his stuff again and again.

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I can’t say I expected much out of The Nun II. The first film did very well for itself at the box office and made the character a new horror icon of sorts, but as a horror film, its content struggled to match the lofty vision of its Gothic European setting and atmosphere.

The Nun is a lavish-looking ghost house for the most part, and that represents a frustrating missed opportunity considering the high bar of the film it was born from (The Conjuring 2). The Nun II is possibly even more frustrating because it contains one superbly-set up scene that shows up the rest of the film’s rather humdrum nature.

I am, of course, talking about the newsstand sequence. It is a largely practical affair that you can’t help but admire for the effort that goes into it. Pages and imagery turn at speed to eventually reveal the devilish figure of the demonic Nun Valak. It’s no surprise it was hyped up before the film’s release, it’s easily the best-crafted sequence in the film, and that’s a big problem for the rest of The Nun II.

The Nun II suffers for two things in 2023. That sequence, and the existence of The Pope’s Exorcist. The rest of the film isn’t terrible by any means, just by the numbers and predictable. The latter is true of The Pope’s Exorcist, which combined with a generally awful level of plot predictability, should be a death sentence, but that film has a strong central figure in Russell Crowe, who tears through scenery like Godzilla through cities. His consistent presence ensures it’s not a total wash. It’s an entertaining disaster.

The Nun II has one scene of strength that almost feels disconnected from the rest of it. The film’s false confidence in the strength of its characters and their relationships from the first film don’t help it away from the scares, and that also impacts the sense of peril that is needed to make the scares work. Lord knows it tries to up the ante on peril in the story by setting much of the movie in a school, but a lack of teeth is clearly visible when it comes to what happens when Valak comes up against kids.

By the time we reach the theatrical finale, The Nun II has gone through every garden-variety horror scare (ooh, there’s The Nun! being the general theme behind them). Even in that standout scene, that’s essentially what it is dressed up as something fancier, but that’s what the whole film should be aiming for.

The Nun II never had to be this groundbreaking horror movie sequel. It just needed more craft and consistency in how it delivered its horror. The old favorites can still feel fresh when the structure is there to back them up.

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George Romero and Stephen King’s E.C. Comics-inspired horror anthology classic Creepshow will be getting a Walmart-exclusive 4k SteelBook release in February 2024.

The 1982 movie directed by Romero and written by King brings five tales of terror with a cast that includes Hal Holbrook, Leslie Nielsen, Ed Harris, Ted Danson, Adrienne Barbeau, Tom Savini, and Tom Atkins.

The movie spawned two sequels, a television series, and will soon become a video game.

The Creepshow 4k SteelBook comes from Shout! Factory, and has all the features of the original 4K Collector’s edition.

Creepshow 4k SteelBook will be released on February 26, 2024. It’s currently listed as sold out on Walmart’s website, but it’s best to keep an eye on availability there and in local outlets in the next few weeks.

Bonus Features for Creepshow 4K SteelBook

DISC ONE (4K UHD):

• NEW 2023 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
• In Dolby Vision (HDR 10 Compatible)
• Audio: NEW Dolby Atmos Track, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
• Audio Commentary With Director George A. Romero And Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini
• Audio Commentary With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick
• Audio Commentary With Composer/First Assistant Director John Harrison And Construction Coordinator Ed Fountain
• Audio Interviews With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick, Actor John Amplas, Property Master Bruce Alan Miller, And Make-up Effects Assistant Darryl Ferrucci
• Mondo Macabre – A Look At Mondo’s Various Creepshow Posters With Mondo Co-Founder Rob Jones And Mondo Gallery Events Planner Josh Curry
• Collecting Creepshow – A Look At Some Of The Original Props And Collectibles From The Film With Collector Dave Burian
• The Colors Of Creepshow – A Look At The Restoration of Creepshow With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick
• Into The Mix – An Interview With Sound Re-recordist Chris Jenkins
• Still Galleries – Poster And Lobby Cards, Movie Posters, Color Stills, Special Effects Makeup, Behind The Scenes

DISC TWO (BLU-RAY):

• NEW 2023 4K Scan Of The Original Camera Negative
• Audio: NEW Dolby Atmos Track, DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
• Audio Commentary With Director George A. Romero And Special Make-Up Effects Creator Tom Savini
• Audio Commentary With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick
• Audio Commentary With Composer/First Assistant Director John Harrison And Construction Coordinator Ed Fountain
• Audio Interviews With Director Of Photography Michael Gornick, Actor John Amplas, Property Master Bruce Alan Miller, And Make-up Effects Assistant Darryl Ferrucci
• Terror And The Three Rivers – A Round Table Discussion On The Making Of Creepshow With John Amplas, Tom Atkins, Tom Savini, And Marty Schiff
• The Comic Book Look – An Interview With Costume Designer Barbara Anderson
• Ripped From The Pages – An Interview With Animator Rick Catizone
• Horror’s Hallowed Grounds – A Look At The Original Film Locations Hosted By Sean Clark
• Tom Savini’s Behind-The-Scenes Footage
• Deleted Scenes
• Theatrical Trailers – English And Spanish
• TV Spot
• Radio Spots

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While there were larger, more obvious horror games that grabbed the attention of gamers this year, the genre’s health is rudest in the smaller spaces.

Smaller-scale horror games are the building blocks for the genre’s future, and this year has given us such an interesting mixture of horror in all its shapes and sizes.

So here is my list of notable indie and small-scale horror games of 2023 for ComingSoon.

Killer Frequency (Team 17)

Killer Frequency takes the simulator approach to building a unique flavor of horror. You play a washed-up DJ in the 1980s, slumming it a small-time radio station, and you get the unbridled joy of working the night shift. That does allow you to actually take calls, swap records out, play with mixers, play ads and sound effects, and go for the high score in throwing balled-up pieces of paper into the waste paper bin across the studio.

But that alone wouldn’t be much of a horror. An almost mythical killer from the town’s past has seemingly emerged on this night,a nd only you can guide callers out of their personal sticky situations with the killer by finding the right materials around the station to keep them in the land of the living.

Killer Frequency takes place in real-time during these calls, and each caller could potentially die if you don’t help them in time or help them in the right way. It makes for a refreshing intensity and pressure, but also makes good use of your limited environment as a subtle puzzle box.

Stasis: Bone Totem (The Brotherhood)

This throwback to isometric point-and-click adventures was one I took a while to finally play, but its aquatic horror themes were a great hook once I got there.

Mac and Charlie, a husband and wife duo, who make their living scouring the ocean for salvage. But, when they stumble upon an abandoned oil rig in the Pacific Ocean, they uncover a horrific secret that Cayne Corporation will do anything to keep hidden.

Stasis: Bone Totem is an audiovisual feast. The grungey, dripping locations feel far more expansive than a screenshot might suggest. The unraveling of a great mystery under the ocean also manages to grow in its horrifying nature the deeper Mac and Charlie go.

Lethal Company (Zeekerss)

Chances are you’ve probably seen or heard about Lethal Company in recent weeks. Since its Early Access launch in October, this humble take on the co-op extraction shooter has provided players with all manner of wacky, hilarious, and frightening anecdotes.

You and your crewmates are sent to abandoned, industrialized moons to salvage goods for your company. While there, you need to amass enough goods to meet the required quota and thus be allowed back home.

Sounds easy enough until you realize just how many strange and sinister monsters like to hang out on these moons. Each has its own unique ruleset that, once learned, will make them easier to handle. But Lethal Company never makes it easy for you and your team.

Homebody (Game Grumps)

You might suspiciously eye a horror game from the people behind Dream Daddy and a comedic YouTube channel, but you really shouldn’t because Homebody is an intriguing time loop slasher game reminiscent of classic Clock Tower.

A young woman named Emily meets with her friends at a remote house to view a meteor shower and generally reconnect after various issues caused them to grow apart. But as night falls, a masked killer arrives and slays the group.

That is until Emily finds herself alive and back at the start of the evening. As time keeps looping and people keep dying, Emily, who is the only one who seems to be aware of the loop, must uncover the puzzling secrets of the house to break the loop and stop the killer.

Amanda the Adventurer (MANGLEDmaw Games)

One of the lovely things about itch.io, the site that gives indie game makers a space to publish their games, is that it allows for some fascinating short-form experiments that can potentially turn into fully-fledged experiences. Amanda the Adventurer is a great example of this.

Having inherited their Aunt Kate’s house, Riley Park starts exploring what the reclusive woman left behind. In the attic, Riley is surprised to find a stack of VHS tapes next to an old TV set. The tapes seem to be episodes of an early 2000’s era children’s cartoon they have never seen before. Intrigued, Riley pops the first tape into the VCR.

The television show that follows is crude and may well cause parents with a disdain for Cocomelon to shudder just looking at it, but that’s not where the horror lies. There’s something sinister about the show, and it could well have a connection to where Riley stands in the present day.

The Outlast Trials (RedBarrels)

I will make no secret of my distaste for RedBarrels’ Outlast and its sequel. But The Outlast Trials shows those games were mere stepping stones on the way to the developer’s true potential.

The Outlast Trials puts a multiplayer spin on things by making you a somewhat unwilling participant in a government brainwashing program that sees you complete various horrific tests. The only way to win is to survive the terrors you must endure and be broken enough to become a pliable husk of humanity. Cheerful stuff!

Even in Early Access, The Outlast Trials is one of the strongest horror multiplayer experiences around. The nervous intensity of survival in the trials is bad enough when you’re riding solo, but with others, the worst of humanity can be teased out and change your fate in mere seconds.

My Friendly Neighborhood (John & Evan Szymanski)

On the surface, My Friendly Neighborhood would appear to be another eye-rolling attempt at mascot horror in the wake of Five Nights at Freddy’s monumental success. Its offbeat spin of a Seasame Street style show gone wrong does little to dissuade the casual observer of that.

But the reality is that My Friendly Neighborhood is much more of a classic survival horror experience with a demented and inventive sense of humor in its characters, environments, and most of all, in its weaponry. The surprise is that it’s actually a refreshing take on both survival horror and mascot horrror.

The Szymanski’s take the ball of Saturday morning kids show gone rogue and run with it to the point it distorts the reality the game exists in. From those bonkers weapons to world design that amplifies the vibrant and unusual nature of the game’s story.

El Paso, Elsewhere (Strange Scaffold)

The premise of El Paso, Elsewhere feels so typically early 2000s PC gaming that I can almost feel the sting of my eyes from another unadvisable all-nighter on Quake 3.

It’s not like Quake though; it’s instead like a more cosmic and supernatural take on Remedy’s Max Payne with a hardboiled detective slaying werewolves in slow-mo within the confines of a reality-shifting motel.

But it’s what El Paso, Elsewhere does with that setup that makes it so special. It’s inventive, odd, and, as advertised, full of more slow-motion dives than you would think it is humanly possible to fit into a single video game.

Varney Lake (LCB Game Studio)

Last year, I fell in love with LCB Game Studio’s homage to pulp novels and 80s text adventures Mothmen 1966. Its simplified, yet striking color palette, intriguing spin on B-movie sci-fi horror, and general presentation made it a surprise hit for me.

Varney Lake arguably improves on that experience in every way. A tale of innocence lost as three kids enjoying their Summer in 1950s America encounter a vampire that will change their lives forever.

The story has an air of Stephen King to it, especially with the back and forth between the kids’ fateful Summer and the aftermath in their adult lives. It definitely retains the pulp feel of its predecessor, but there’s a bit more of a tragic human connection to Varney Lake that makes it stick in the brain.

Dredge (Black Salt Games)

The term Lovecraftian gets thrown around a lot for a certain kind of horror game, but very few actually translate the feeling of Lovecraft‘s work and instead simply copy the notes. Dredge is one of those that captures the unsettling dread and feeling of cosmic insignificance. And it’s basically just an open-world fishing sim.

In Dredge, you become the local fisherman for an archipelago with a mysterious past. Sketchy locals, hushed warnings about the dangers of the sea at night, and you pulling up your line and exclaiming ”what in the hell is that thing?” are signs all is not right with this place.

The better you get at Dredge, the more disturbing and horror-led it becomes. The price of increased freedom on the waves is coming face to face with the terrors of the deep. Effective horror is offset by the sometimes tranquil scouring of the ocean on your dinky trawler.

Incident at Grove Lake (ToothandClaw)

Itch.io is home to many fantastic short horror experiences. And when I say short, I mean somewhere between tea and lunch break short. Dan McGrath’s Incident at Grove Lake clocks in at about 25 minutes and manages to show off the style and atmosphere that another recent, and certainly more hyped, alien abduction game (Greyhill Incident) failed to conjure up once.

Part found footage, part PSX-style first-person adventure, Incident at Grove Lake taps into the 90s alien paranoia of Fire in the Sky and The X-Files by giving us various perspectives of the titular incident from past and present, and then layers on a dressing of reality with the use of real public radio shows concerning alien conspiracy.

That last part helps create a strong ending to the game, with the frenzied chattering of a caller convinced the government is out to get them echoes what we’ve seen in chilling fashion.

Slay the Princess (Black Tabby Games)

You’re on a path in the woods, and at the end of that path is a cabin. And in the basement of that cabin is a Princess. You’re here to slay her. If you don’t, it will be the end of the world.

She will do everything in her power to stop you. She’ll charm, and she’ll lie, and she’ll promise you the world, and if you let her, she’ll kill you a dozen times over. You can’t let that happen. Don’t forget, the fate of the world rests on your shoulders.

That’s the hook for Slay the Princess. It’s a game that teases and tricks the player and draws you into a hand-drawn world of cosmic horrors. To say more would tarnish the experience.

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Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise is a fine addition to the Evil Dead canon, but I must admit to being a touch disappointed it didn’t use its setting in a different way.

Much of Evil Dead Rise’s runtime takes place in a dilapidated, near-empty apartment complex, with a Deadite outbreak being unleashed after an unholy vinyl gets played by a curious youth. To be fair to the lad, he probably didn’t factor in the demonic destruction of his family would come from listening to an LP, despite what so many 70s-era conservatives might have told us.

It’s genuinely refreshing to take the big-screen Evil Dead adventures to a different location given that 60% of them have taken place in a cabin in the woods. The concept of Deadites in an apartment complex is enticing, and for me, it instantly brought to mind Lamberto Bava’s Demons 2.

In Demons 2, the demonic infestation of the first film returns through a television set (the first movie summoning them from a movie theater screen), and absolute carnage ensues as tenants of a 10-story high-rise apartment building have to contend with the toothy, sharp-clawed monsters that inhabit anyone they draw blood from.

The setup allows for multiple perspectives and set pieces for various tenants and ultimately begins to draw them together as the number of survivors dwindles. It’s Demons by way of David Cronenberg’s Shivers. Its plot is inarguably a bit of nonsense, but it delivers on the promise of Demons going nuts in an apartment building.

So, with that in mind, Evil Dead Rise felt like a bit of a letdown. In fairness, it’s not on Lee Cronin that I had that expectation, and the film sets up plenty of good reasons for the building being underpopulated, but the pre-release chatter didn’t exactly set the levels for the just how many Deadites gone wild in a high-rise we’d be getting.

Naturally, that left me with a feeling of what could have been. I’m not saying you need hundreds of people and Deadites to justify using an apartment building as a setup, but I do feel it’s missing the point of using such a location to house an Evil Dead story.

Technically, Evil Dead in the city, even restricted to one apartment building, should be upping the ante in the Deadite department. We know what small-scale Deadite action is, and Army of Darkness went for a whole other scale. Something in the middle would have made Evil Dead Rise truly refreshing.

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In a summer where Barbie battled Robert Oppenheimer, and it was somehow a serious thing to say out loud, the big dumb box office gem of 2023 was lurking below the surface, chomping away at the fallout.

Meg 2: The Trench lacked narrative teeth and swam against the current of logic, but hot damn, if it wasn’t a gleefully willing slab of monster-sized nonsense that may not have done much feeding in US box office waters, but overseas it ate up the competition.

I can totally understand the repulsion from some quarters, I myself was wholly disheartened by how lethargic and toothless 2018’s The Meg was in comparison to Steve Alten’s gripping novel. Meg 2: The Trench is even further removed from the science-heavy chatter of its own source material, but it does at least deliver on multi-creature madness and a literal jumping of the shark, which feels oh-so intentional by the film’s abrasive director Ben Wheatley.

If you want plot, then the bones of one are absolutely there. In fact, they are bones assembled from the skeletons of both The Meg and The Trench novels. From the opening dino-chomping scene taken from the first book to the smarmy billionaire plotting nefarious undersea shenanigans. They are just bones, though, because entire cool moments are left on the cutting room floor (giant prehistoric reptiles replaced by smaller land-dwelling ones, for example), but Wheatley clearly only cares about shoving lots of monster action and Jason Statham ass-whoopings onscreen, and I genuinely do not blame him for taking that approach. In fact, that’s exactly why I found it so entertaining.

The use of Statham here, compared to the previous film, is a great example of embracing your casting and just rolling with it. With the greatest of respect to Mr. Statham, who I think is a marvelous action star, buying him as anyone that isn’t beating seven shades out of goons is very difficult, so by keeping things a bit too strait-laced in The Meg, it prevented Statham from truly embracing the absurdity of his character.

Now he’s like a living Lucas Lee movie, and you just look at him doing tricks on a jet ski as he evades Megaladons or somehow surviving deadly depth pressure, and you barely think about him being anything other than Jason Statham wearing the coat of a crumbling middle-aged shark-obsessive.

Meg 2 really comes into its own in the last 45 minutes. It’s pure cinematic stupidity, and it 100% knows it. Statham has plot armor so thick it’s probably how he physically survived the ocean depths, and the creature nonsense escalates to the point the film clearly struggles to decide which monsters to follow and for how long. It becomes the cinematic equivalent of a sugar-hopped child trying to pick between a shelf of brand-new games.

And I’m trying to say, please give me more loud, hyperactive, and knowingly stupid blockbuster movies at the summer box office.

The post Best of 2023: A Salute to Meg 2, The Big Dumb Blockbuster That Could appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

The Fred Savage family comedy Little Monsters is getting a Walmart-exclusive SteelBook Blu-ray release in early 2024.

The SteelBook edition is part of the Vestron Video Collector’s Series and features audio commentary with experts and interviews with cast members including Howie Mandel (Gremlins) and Fred Savage (The Princess Bride).

A young boy (Ben Savage) is scared of the monster under his bed. He asks his 6th-grade brother (Fred Savage) to swap rooms for the night as a bet that the monster really exists. Soon, the brother becomes friends with the monster (Howie Mandel) and discovers a whole new world of fun and games under his bed where the main attraction is pulling pranks on kids and other monsters.

You can pre-order the SteelBook at Walmart’s site now. It will be released on March 12, 2024.

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One horror film this year has stuck with me in a particular way. Ted Geoghegan‘s Brooklyn 45 uses the supernatural and post-World War II America as tools to tell a chamber piece story that is presented like a stage play. It’s not exactly the first to do any individual element, but the combination makes it both surprising and intimate.

It’s a freezing December 27th evening in 1945 when five military veterans who are also longtime friends, reunite in the ornate parlor of a Brooklyn brownstone. While each carries their own emotional baggage from World War II, on this night, they have come together, along with partners, to support their most troubled friend.

What should have been a warmly emotional reunion shifts and changes as their host reveals his true intention. A séance to help heal his soul. The group reluctantly agree, but things do not go well, and a supernatural occurrence ends up being the least haunting revelation of the night.

We arrive at the brownstone at the same time our guests do, and depart with them at the film’s end. we may not be privy to the dark and tragic secrets and traumas of these characters yet, but we are there for this one event in this one location in its entirety, watching it unfurl from cosy small talk to sobering, devastating decisions.

Brooklyn 45 has to rely heavily on its dialogue and performances to carry its story, and Geoghegan has a strong cast for it. Anne Ramsay (Mad About You, The Taking of Deborah Logan) plays a former interrogator for instance, and you wouldn’t; think it when you witness her warmth and empathy in the early scenes, but as the situation changes, the weary wartime edge to her comes out, and the performance is filled with the reluctance and self-disgust of having to reprise a life she’d hoped to pack away forever.

And that’s just one of several examples in Brooklyn 45’s story of wartime horrors. Otherwise regular people are being reshaped by a torrid time in history and end up capable of unspeakable things that will haunt them for life.

Some characters here deal with it better than others. Larry Fessenden’s downtrodden and manic host Lt. Col. Hockstetter is the story’s core. the one man who cannot shelve the guilt, grief, and anger of his post-war life. The man who ultimately causes everyone else to confront the ghosts of their recent past, sometimes literally.

Hockstetter provides the story with more than one of its brief but visceral flashes of bloody violence. The conversations and revelations spoken between the group keep the narrative train rolling on, but every so often, they are punctuated with a visual shock to the system. Sometimes dark and bleak, sometimes a bit absurd and unbelievable. All relevant.

By the time we leave that brownstone with the group, a lot has changed, and the existence of the supernatural is not the biggest. The haunting truth that the dynamic of their friendship was significantly altered by the war and the only way to continue that relationship is to adjust to the fact they all did horrific things in the name of freedom and none of them will ever be truly okay with that.

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David Cronenberg’s 1975 debut movie Shivers is getting a Walmart-exclusive SteelBook Blu-ray release in 2024.

Shivers SteelBook Blu-ray Details

The Vestron Video Collector’s Series release features an alternate green-hued take on the classic artwork, and extras such as commentary with David Cronenberg, and an interview with him and star Lynn Lowry.

The movie has the burgeoning building blocks for Cronenberg’s now distinct style that the Canadian director has cultivated for nearly five decades.

The story of Shivers sees a rogue parasite being unleashed upon a suburban high-rise apartment, causing all those it infects to become mindless sex fiends that only exist to seek out others to turn into the same thing.

Shivers was written and directed by David Cronenberg and stars Paul Hampton (Babylon 5), Joe Silver (Klute, Creepshow 2, Rabid), Lynn Lowry (The Crazies, Cat People), Allan Kolman (Se7en), and Barbara Steele (8 1/2, Black Sunday).

The Shivers SteelBook Blu-ray will be released via Walmart on March 12, 2024.

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Funko has released two new miniature Pop! figures inspired by Scott Derrickson’s 2021 horror mystery The Black Phone, featuring two versions of the film’s terrifying serial killer, The Grabber. 

The first collection features the villain wearing his customary mask, which retails for $12.00. It also comes with a rare version of The Grabber without a hat. The second collection depicts The Grabber as a blood-soaked villain. Called the Red Molding, the figure stands approximately 4 inches tall and costs $15.00.

You can purchase The Grabber miniature versions via the toy company’s official website. Check out the new The Black Phone-inspired vinyl figures down below: 

The Black Phone gets promising update

Based on Joe Hill’s short story, The Black Phone centers on 13-year-old Finney Shaw (Mason Thames), who was kidnapped by a sadistic child killer (Ethan Hawke) and left behind in a soundproof basement. 

A few months after it was revealed that The Black Phone was returning for a sequel, the returning cast for The Black Phone 2 was unveiled. This includes Hawke, Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and Miguel Mora. It was also previously reported that the first movie’s director and co-writers, Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, are returning for the horror sequel. 

“The film tells the story of Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, who is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney,” the official synopsis reads. 

Other details about the sequel have yet to be announced. 

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RLJE Films has revealed the When Evil Lurks Blu-ray release date for Demián Rugna‘s apocalyptic demonic possession movie.

When Evil Lurks Blu-ray Release Date and Movie Details

The bleak, shocking Argentinian horror movie from Terrified director Rugna has been the subject of much praise following its release earlier this year in theaters and subsequently on horror streaming service Shudder.

A pair of brothers find a mutilated corpse near their property and convene with the locals to suss it out. They soon learn that the odd happenings in their village are the cause of a spirit that’s found its way into a local man waiting for the proper protocols to rid his body of the festering demon. An escape attempt ensues as the film keeps its protagonists on edge, racing against imminent danger to shake the spirit’s relentless clutches.

In my review of the film for ComingSoon, I wrote that When Evil Lurks is a superb slab of unrelenting apocalyptic horror that turns the possession movie formula on its head; it evokes the doomy mood perfected by the likes of Fulci and Carpenter. Still, thanks to its grounded human story and almost rhythmic timing for moments of pure shock and awe, it is much more than its influences.

When Evil Lurks will be released on Blu-ray on March 26, 2024, it is streaming on Shudder now.

The post When Evil Lurks Blu-ray Release Date Revealed for One of 2023’s Best Horror Movies appeared first on ComingSoon.net - Movie Trailers, TV & Streaming News, and More.

MystiveDev, the creators of the indie horror gem Mirror Forge, recently released the latest trailer for its upcoming bodycam horror game Chasmal Fear.

The brief trailer showcases plenty of aquatic horror nastiness viewed through the disconcerting lens of a bodycam.

Chasmal Fear Trailer

Chasmal Fear is a cooperative experience developed in Unreal Engine 5. It’s a first-person tactical shooter survival horror game that puts players in a mysteriously empty sci-fi underwater facility where something has gone terribly wrong. Ammo is scarce. The odds are stacked against you. Choose wisely between fighting or sneaking past the monstrosities which once killed might mutate into something even worse.

Unlock hidden areas and solve puzzles to uncover the truth of what happened in this top-secret facility. Every decision will impact your gameplay experience, some swarming relentless monsters against you while others offering the chance to employ stealth and cunning to survive.

Below are some of the key features of the game.

• LIMITED RESOURCES
  Limited player ammo and scarce ammo boxes will encourage players to think strategically and be cautious while traversing the abandoned steel hallways.
  
• IMMERSIVE BODYCAM
  Artistic direction that utilizes the perspective of a bodycam footage. Set in the near future, players are also equipped with an AR Interface to help you through the dark hallways of the Magnus Facility.
  
• MONSTER MUTATION SYSTEM
  Some monsters will randomly start to mutate when killed into a stronger form. Do not be surprised when you encounter more dangerous foes in an area you thought you cleaned out. Make sure to end them before the mutation starts.
  
• CHOICES AFFECT YOUR PLAYTHROUGH
  Your choices will affect your gameplay experience. Choosing to open one way will close other paths to your next goal. Depending on your choice, you can dive guns blazing or sneak stealthily above a swarm of enemies; hide in the shadows or use your environment to squash the monstrosities.
  
• FULLY RANDOMIZED EVENTS
  Randomized events occurring throughout the game that provide replayability from varying sounds, crumbling ceilings, floors and unexpected scares.
  
• ULTRA-REALISTIC ENVIRONMENTS
  Ultra-realistic, sci-fi underwater station built underneath the waves and inside a massive ocean cliff. Its hallways seem abandoned. It is up to you to find your way out and survive the things that lurk within.
  
• CO-OP POSSIBILITY
  Bring a friend to Chasmal Fear and survive this nightmare together. The difficulty changes procedurally based on whether you play singleplayer or multiplayer co-op.

Chasmal Fear can be wishlisted on Steam now. MystiveDev’s previous title Mirror Forge is available to buy now on Steam.

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Scream 7 will no longer be directed by Christopher Landon, as the director announced his departure in a statement today. The Freaky and We Have a Ghost director’s exit comes after the departure of Jenna Ortega and the firing of Melissa Barrera. No replacement has been named yet for the upcoming horror movie.

“I guess now is as good a time as any to announce I formally exited Scream 7 weeks ago. This will disappoint some and delight others,” wrote Landon on X. “It was a dream job that turned into a nightmare. And my heart did break for everyone involved. Everyone. But it’s time to move on. I have nothing more to add to the conversation other than I hope Wes’ legacy thrives and lifts above the din of a divided world. What he and Kevin created is something amazing, and I was honored to have even the briefest moment basking in their glow.”

What is the status of Scream 7 without Jenna Ortega?

As of now, it’s unclear exactly what the status of the next entry in the Scream franchise is. There’s currently no script or schedule for the next movie in the popular horror series as of late 2023.

Alongside Barrera, the most recent two entries have starred Ortega, Jasmin Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding as the four main members of the new era of Scream. With Barrera and Ortega not returning, it seems the group will be fairly different in the next installment.

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The mysterious Blumhouse supernatural horror Night Swim is still a couple of weeks away, but its director has urged viewers to look out for an Easter Egg in the film’s early moments that may set up a potential sequel.

Night Swim Sequel Opportunity Bubbles Up

Bryce McGuire, who first created the story of Night Swim as a short in 2014. spoke with SFX magazine where he promised the story will hold deeper secrets that may not all become clear in the span of the film, and even though he’s cautious about the film’s success, he has made sure there are green shoots for future entries.

“There’s a little Easter egg in one of the early scenes that, to me, points a path to where I’d like to go. It would be fun to explore and expand the mythology.”

Certainly better than full-on teasing of a sequel that might never be in an end-credits stinger, and hopefully part of a richer mystery overall.

Starring Wyatt Russell (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) as Ray Waller, the rest of the Night Swim cast includes Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin) as Eve, Amélie Hoeferle (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) as Izzy, and Gavin Warren (Fear the Walking Dead) as Elliot. 

The forthcoming horror film is executive produced by Michael Clear, Judson Scott, and Ryan Turek, with Wan and Jason Blum serving as producers. 

Based on the 2014 short film by McGuire and Rod Blackhurst, the official synopsis for Night Swim reads:  “In the film, Ray Waller, a former major league baseball player forced into early retirement by a degenerative illness, who moves into a new home with his concerned wife Eve, teenage daughter Izzy, and young son Elliot. Secretly hoping, against the odds, to return to pro ball, Ray persuades Eve that the new home’s shimmering backyard swimming pool will be fun for the kids and provide physical therapy for him. But a dark secret in the home’s past will unleash a malevolent force that will drag the family under, into the depths of inescapable terror.”

Night Swim is out in theaters on January 5, 2024.

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