News

The 1990s were a golden era for straight-to-video horror films. While these productions often had limited budgets and resources, they compensated with creativity, bold storytelling, and memorable scares. Here’s a countdown of just Some of the straight-to-video horror gems from that decade.

10. Ice Cream Man (1995)

Plot: A deranged ice cream vendor terrorizes a suburban neighborhood.

Why It’s Great: Starring Clint Howard in a wonderfully creepy performance, Ice Cream Man is a cult favorite that blends absurd humor with gruesome horror. Its mix of over-the-top kills and campy charm makes it unforgettable.

9. Ticks (1993)

Plot: Genetically engineered ticks wreak havoc on a group of troubled teens at a wilderness retreat.

Why It’s Great: With impressive practical effects and some genuinely disturbing moments, Ticks delivers gooey creature-feature thrills. Plus, it features a young Seth Green and an unhinged performance by Alfonso Ribeiro.

8. Leprechaun 2 (1994)

Plot: The titular leprechaun returns to...

For horror fans, October is sacred. Commonfolk wear costumes, visit haunted attractions, and celebrate all things festively creepy en masse. Television channels, streaming platforms, and theaters dedicate overwhelming program blocks of Halloween favorites. Horror is en vogue, but with that attention comes the invariable onslaught of taste-maker trades showing their whole-ass behinds. Those who treat horror as unworthy for 11 other calendar months suddenly have opinions about horror's "resurgence," "death," or incoming "fatigue." It's a clockwork tradition that riles internet hordes — with good reason.

This year, two specific articles dominated genre discussions despite their wildly unsubstantiated and data-ignorant claims. The Hollywood Reporter warned that studio executives are worried about "Horror Fatigue," while Vulture opted for the headline "Horror Movies Are Just Trying To Survive." I hate the phrase "Horror Fatigue"; it's a made-up phenomenon that's been disproven year after year. Yet, sites like THR and Vulture approach horror-centric journalism with a goldfish's attention span.

Director Coralie Fargeat’s body-swapping, body-horror masterpiece The Substance has proven itself to be a hit in theaters thanks largely to the incredibly positive word of mouth, the film injecting over $40 million into its worldwide box office haul. But if you’ve been unable to see the movie in theaters, you’ll be thrilled to learn that it’s now home for Halloween!

The Substance is streaming exclusively on distributor Mubi’s own streaming service, but you can also purchase the film Digitally on outlets including Amazon and Fandango at Home.

Start your 7-day free trial for Mubi or purchase the film for $19.99 now!

Demi Moore stars as a fading celebrity who injects herself with a cell-replicating substance that literally makes her give birth to a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley).

With its shades of David Cronenberg and Stuart Gordon, The Substance catapults Fargeat (Revenge) into the realm of mad genius,...

After making its World Premiere at the Nightmares Film Festival this month, Bloody Disgusting has learned that Mark Andrew Hamer’s Replicator is coming home in December.

The film will be available on demand December 10 from Cranked Up Films.

Exclusively watch the official trailer for the Lovecraftian horror movie Replicator below. You’ll also find the film’s awesome official poster underneath, designed by artist Nicolas Rossius.

Replicator won two Nightmare awards at the Nightmares Film Festival on Sunday, including Best Supporting Performance for Brian Spangler and the “Gag Reel | FX” festival award for David Henson Greathouse for his practical special FX makeup and creature design work.

In the film, “Scarred by a troubled past, small-town public defender Darby Vincent is in constant pursuit of justice in a town littered with morally and ethically challenged individuals. When the town’s more nefarious citizens begin one-by-one to make 180 degree turns to righteousness,...

It seems like everyone’s talking about (and unfortunately sharing social media Gif spoilers from) The Substance, Coralie Fargeat’s body-swapping, body-horror masterpiece starring Demi Moore as a fading celebrity who injects herself with a cell-replicating green substance that quite literally makes her give birth to a younger version of herself (Margaret Qualley).

With its shades of David Cronenberg and Stuart Gordon, The Substance firmly catapults Fargeat (Revenge) into the realm of mad genius, and distributor Mubi has managed to scare up $34 million at the worldwide box office thanks largely to the incredibly positive word-of-mouth. Granted, this movie should be making way more money than that, but I digress.

If you’ve been dying to experience The Substance but haven’t been able to get out to your local theater, the good news is that Fargeat’s new movie is coming home for Halloween!

In fact, The Substance heads home On Halloween.

Since 1997, Days of Our Lives’ resident mad scientist, Dr. Wilhelm Rolf, has been on hand to resurrect the dead, brainwash Salemites, and more. Originally played by William Utay, the part was later recast in 2022 with Richard Wharton as the devious doctor. If either iteration of the demented scientist seems familiar, that’s probably because he resembles a character actor who starred in several horror classics.

A Puppet Master Like Dr. Rolf

Guy Rolfe was a British actor who appeared in films since 1937 and starred in several classics, including Ivanhoe (1952), The Barbarians (1960), and King of Kings (1961). But it was his role as the title character in William Castle’s Mr. Sardonicus in 1961 that made horror fans take notice. In the film, he played a man whose face froze in a creepy and disturbing grin.

He appeared in several subsequent TV shows, including The Champions (1968), which starred General Hospital’s Stuart Damon...

There are some stories in the history of film that end up being repeated over and over again. Some of these are just simple categories like vampire, werewolf, and zombie films. Some of them get a little more granular and specific like the story of Dracula or Frankenstein’s monster. Finally, we can get even more granular and look at a specific title that has made the rounds a few times. I Am Legend by the wonderful and prolific Richard Matheson was made into three different movies with Last Man on Earth, The Omega Man, and finally I Am Legend. While King Kong and Phantom of the Opera probably have the most, Invasion of the Body Snatchers has the most consistent offerings. The 2007 iteration was a bust but the other 3 are all incredibly solid. With the 90s version turning 30 we thought it was worth seeing if it was a generic...

Stephen King has a wide taste in literature, loving novels like "Lord of the Flies" and "Watership Down" over horror literature and weird fiction, but that's not to say he doesn't pay attention to other masters of the genre. The bulk of King's novels are horror stories, and he clearly took a lot of inspiration from the pulp horror, genre magazines, and EC Comics of his childhood. Indeed, King wrote "Creepshow" in 1982, openly paying homage to the "Tales from the Crypt" and "Shock SuspenStories" issues he read as a youth in the 1950s. King wears his horror influences on his sleeve. 

As for the literature that inspired him, King recalls reading a lot as a child, and that he loved a wide variety of books. He enjoyed the fantastical stories of Ray Bradbury, the Nancy Drew mysteries of Carolyn Keene, and, yes, even horror novels like Robert Bloch's "Psycho.

This Halloween, check out the free streaming platform for cult classic and indie horror films: Dark Matter TV.

With Halloween approaching, you may be wondering what free streamers there are out there to set the tone with a scary movie as you eat candy corn and wait for trick-or-treaters to raid your candy stocks. One to consider is the aptly named Dark Matter TV, a free ad-supported streaming platform that will bring the screams this Halloween without scaring your wallet. Keep reading to see if you should add Dark Matter TV to your streaming library.

Watch Now Free darkmattertv.com Everything You Need to Know About Dark Matter TV:

What Is Dark Matter TV?

How Much Does Dark Matter TV Cost?

What Hit Movies Can You Watch on Dark Matter TV?

What Platforms Can You Watch Dark Matter TV With?

What Is Dark Matter TV?

Dark Matter TV is a free,...

Desire, audacity, and revulsion dominate Coralie Fargeat's The Substance. No fuss, it's a primetime body-horror banger. Shades of Paul Verhoeven, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Frank Henenlotter blend into a monstrously chic showbusiness roast session. Fargeat's weaponization of the male gaze becomes a biting commentary that sizzles, smolders, and shimmers with magnificent ickiness. The Substance punches exponentially harder than you're ready for, as Fargeat charges guns-blazing into territories contemporary horror seems hesitant to embrace (or return to).

Demi Moore throws herself into the agonizing existential demise of Elisabeth Sparkle, a celebrity aerobics icon aging out of the spotlight on her 50th birthday. Station bigwig Harvey (Dennis Quaid) demands a younger, hotter host — he fires Elisabeth on her birthday. Distraught, the discarded pop-culture figure finds herself watching a promotional video advertising an underground serum called "The Substance." If Elisabeth enrolls in the confidential program and injects herself with the "Re-Animator Green" concoction,...

Of all the subgenres of horror, body horror has a way of getting under our skin like no other, figuratively and otherwise. There’s no end to the creative ways body horror violates, mutilates, and mutates basic biology, finding endless ways to test the gag reflex in the process.

Body horror has also long provided fertile ground for filmmakers to explore the psychologically and physically disturbing ways human anatomy can be abused. Case in point? This week brings the theatrical release of The Substance, Coralie Fargeat’s rage-filled and absurdly funny body horror magnum opus. In celebration of one of the year’s best horror offerings so far, this week’s streaming picks are dedicated to body horror movies that’ll make you squirm.

Whether you’re in the mood for gallows humor or squeamish frights, these five body horror movies put the emphasis on repulsive horror filled with abnormal growths,...

You used to hear the refrain from horror film fanatics with a lot more frequency – the original was so much scarier.

And while this is still true to some degree (the films of John Carpenter have been remade with an oddly uniform lousiness), there are still plenty of horror films that have been remade well. Sometimes the remakes are just as good as the original. In rare cases, it even surpasses the original.

Here is our definitive list of the very best horror remakes ever.

(United Artists) “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” (1978)

Don Siegel’s 1956 classic “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” is based on Jack Finney’s story “The Body Snatchers,” which was serialized in Collier’s in 1954 and published as a novel shortly after, has been remade several times over the years. But the very best iteration is still the 1978 version, the first since Siegel’s, from director Philip Kaufman and writer W.D. Richter.

When Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator was released back in 1986, the director and production team surely never, in their wildest dreams, imagined that their cult classic horror flick would become a trilogy. Yet, here we are. If you caught our last video on sequel Bride of Re-Animator, you’ll know by now that, although I dug the VFX and carnage in all of its practically made splendor, the movie had little else going for it. Plus, Bride didn’t have a proper theatrical run to show that continuing the series would be profitable from purely a box-office perspective. However, what makes horror the very best genre known to the movie-making universe, which of course it is my fellow gore-hounds, right? Is that despite certain movies being ridiculed or unappreciated by unimaginative critics, they become cult classics regardless. Which is a wonderful thing. Just consider daft horror flicks like Night of the Lepus,...

Way back in the 80s and 90s, there was one spin-off horror genre that consistently produced some highly memorable movies, often for better… Or worse; Comedy Horror. The genre has been hugely popular ever since it introduced audiences to films such as Dr. Pickle and Mr. Pryde and The Monster from the mid 20s, all the way to classic titles such as Young Frankenstein and The Rocky Horror Picture Show from the 70s. In the early 2000s the genre started poking fun at horror movies in general, plus specifically the Scream series, with the popular but ridiculous Scary Movie franchise. While those movies were fun, they were basically a polished piss-take of better movies and lacked the kitsch and schlocky fun of earlier, more inventive entries. Which brings us nicely to the Re-Animator series, which has its roots firmly set in those 20s and 30s flicks, with a sprinkle of...

Joe Johnston’s 1991 superhero movie The Rocketeer begins in the usual way, with orange opening credits against a black screen. Only the slight tinkling of piano hints at something greater, little notes of inspiration under the art deco script on display. Sure enough, after the title reveal, the score pauses. The black screen is revealed to actually be the doors of a hangar bay, and the strings in James Horner’s score rise to a crescendo. They are announcing the hopes hanging on the yellow biplane that emerges.

A warm, confident scene of pilot Cliff Secord (Billy Campbell) proving to his mechanic Peevey (Alan Arkin) and their pals that he’s got what it takes to win a race is an odd way to open a superhero movie, even one of the pulp-inspired films that Hollywood cranked out after Batman hit it big in 1989. By the end of The Rocketeer,...

In the escalating chaos of the modern world, it makes sense that some gamers would leave their action-adventures and first-person shooters behind in order to focus on more easy-going titles meant to simulate a less stressful life. While I’ve personally avoided this new genre of “cozy games” due to my obsession with survival horror, I couldn’t help but find myself becoming fascinated by the release of Black Salt Games’ Dredge back in 2023.

A bizarre mix of fishing simulator and Lovecraftian horror, this addicting trek into uncharted waters is a terrifying delight and one of the best indie experiences in recent years. I’m clearly not the only one who thinks so, as production company Story Kitchen has already announced that it’ll be turning the game into a live-action horror film set to release in the near future. And while we anxiously wait for a release date, as...

The legendary Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, Pa, as seen in the original horror classic The Blob, is playing host to Beyond Re-Animator: A Jeffrey Combs Retrospective on Friday, June 21 and Saturday, June 22, with Jeffrey Combs himself appearing live!

The special event is presented by Exhumed Films, and it will feature Nine Jeffrey Combs films across the two days, along with trailers, shorts, limited merch, live intros, and Q&As.

From the official press release, “Exhumed Films and The Colonial Theatre are proud to present a weekend-long celebration of one of genre cinema’s most iconic actors. For over forty years, Jeffrey Combs has been a cult movie mainstay and one of the most beloved character actors of his generation. From his breakout role as the deranged scientist Herbert West in Stuart Gordon’s cult classic Re-Animator to his unforgettable appearances in various iterations of the “Star Trek ” franchise, Combs...

The Bloody Disgusting-powered Screambox is home to a variety of unique horror content, from originals and exclusives to cult classics and documentaries. With such a rapidly-growing library, there are many hidden gems waiting to be discovered.

Here are five recommendations you can stream on Screambox right now.

King of the Ants

While Stuart Gordon cemented himself as a master of horror with early works like Re-Animator and From Beyond, his later output is also worthy of exploration. 2003’s King of the Ants kicked off a trio of intense thrillers (alongside Edmond and Stuck) that would end up being Gordon’s final features. It was also one of the first productions from The Asylum, who would go on to create Sharknado, Z Nation, and Black Summer.

Based on the 1992 novel by Charlie Higson, who also wrote the screenplay, the film’s unusual structure makes it unpredictable. Struggling to make ends meet,...

“I’m much more comfortable being the underdog,” Kevin Feige recently told Empire.

If anyone has lost the right to call themselves an underdog, it’s got to be Feige, right? After all, he’s the head of Marvel Studios, the architect of a film franchise that dominated box offices for over a decade. He’s a key member of Disney’s corporate empire, a byword for a producer who knows how to please fans and executives alike.

Why in the world would he use that word to describe himself? Well, you don’t have to look much further than recent Marvel movie reviews and disappointing box office showings to find the answer. A degree of superhero fatigue has set in, and audiences no longer automatically line up for an increasingly unwieldy number of new Marvel entries.

Sure, some dedicated fans will disagree, but Feige clearly knows and accepts the truth.

Clockwise from bottom left: Halloween (Compass International Pictures); Hellbound: Hellraiser II (New World Pictures); Mandy (XYZ Films); Re-Animator (Empire Pictures); Chopping Mall (Concorde Pictures) (Screenshots: YouTube)Graphic: The A.V. Club

We’re halfway to Halloween, and even though October 31 is still six months away, there’s still one place...

Brimming with must-see screenings, immersive experiences, special guests, and a tarantula experience that had to be seen (and felt) to be believed, this year's Overlook Film Festival was the biggest one yet, and if you've been following Daily Dead's Instagram and Twitter accounts, then you know we had yet another unforgettable time at the "summer camp for horror fans."

Be sure to keep an eye on Daily Dead for more coverage of Overlook 2024, and in the meantime, the festival revealed their juried and audience winners for features and short films, including Oddity, Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, and The Looming!

Press Release: April 11, 2024 | New Orleans, LA – The Overlook Film Festival announced today the winners of the audience and juried prizes, as well as festival highlights, from the most heavily-attended edition yet of the annual celebration of all things horror.

The feature film Audience Award, voted on by festival attendees,...

The Alien Report: "The Alien Report follows "The Abductee" (Braxton Hale), an everyday American who finds himself hijacked by extraterrestrial beings and taken on a terrifying journey of self-preservation, running afoul of classic "grey aliens", disturbing human-et hybrids, and the U.S. government's shady Men in Black. Based on countless documented reports made by self-proclaimed abductees, The Alien Report is a meticulous, straight-faced look at what an real-life alien abduction would be like, from the perspective of first-person cameras.

The Alien Report has screened at festivals worldwide, winning awards in the U.S., UK, Australia, and Brazil. Shot on iPhone and GoPro cameras as a non-traditional narrative composed of re-assembled found footage, the picture plays out as both a sci-fi thriller and first-person documentary. It is the intended first chapter in a trilogy of films about extraterrestrial abductions.

The Alien Report was directed by Patrick Donnelly and produced by Kevin Schroeder and Michael Sell.

It’s April and we’re bringing even more fun to Screambox, with new films including Stuart Gordon’s King of the Ants, the Lebanese found-footage horror What Is Buried Must Remain, and bonkers B-movie Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies.

What Is Buried Must Remain haunts Screambox on April 12. A modern ghost story with ancient roots, the timely Lebanese found-footage hybrid finds young filmmakers confronted by supernatural forces engaged in a war for the very soul of the land.

Screambox goes to war with Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies on April 12. Indie horror staple Bill Oberst Jr. (3 From Hell) stars as the President who emancipated the slaves, saved the Union, and slaughtered the undead.

Rise of the Zombies also takes a bite out of Screambox on April 12. Its all-star cast includes Mariel Hemingway (Manhattan), Ethan Suplee (Mallrats), LeVar Burton (“Star Trek: The Next Generation”), Danny Trejo (From Dusk Till Dawn), and French Stewart...

These days, Peter Jackson is best known for directing big budget spectacles. He took the Hobbits to Mordor, he cast Benedict Cumberbatch as a dragon, he brought us the sight of a motion-capture King Kong smacking around a bunch of dinosaurs. But when he was just getting his career started, he was making very different kinds of movies: horror comedies that were drenched in blood and pretty much every other bodily fluid you can think of. In 1992, he brought the world what may be the bloodiest film ever made: a zombie comedy he would call Braindead, but many fans know it as Dead Alive. And if you haven’t seen this one yet (you can watch it Here), it’s the Best Horror Movie You Never Saw.

Peter Jackson never had any formal film school training, and not just because they didn’t have such courses in his home country of New Zealand.

The Overlook Film Festival announced today their initial lineup for the upcoming 2024 edition, taking place April 4 – April 7 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

“We are finally able to see the fruits of post-pandemic productions and it’s a sight to behold,” said Michael Lerman, co-founder and director of film programming of The Overlook Film Festival. “This year’s lineup is full of bigger, scarier, more personal, more bombastic fever dreams that are sure to haunt you for the rest of 2024.”

This wide-ranging initial festival lineup includes 43 films (20 features and 23 shorts) from 11 countries, as well as four live presentations and five immersive experiences.

“This festival has always been as much about horror’s history as it is about its future,” said Landon Zakheim, co-founder and executive director of The Overlook Film Festival. “The expanded retrospective screenings, with some of our favorite heroes once again joining in person, allow us to celebrate what drew...

These past two years I've been fortunate to experience everything from a séance and a Vampire Ball to Halloween costume parties in April at The Overlook Film Festival (you can read all about it in my previous event report), and as I prepare to attend "summer camp for horror fans" for a third year in a row, the initial lineup for the festival's 2024 edition already has me wishing it were time to head to the Big Easy.

Brimming with must-see screenings and immersive experiences, the initial lineup for The Overlook Film Festival 2024 has plenty for horror fans to mark on their calendars between April 4th–7th, including Cuckoo, Abigail, I Saw the TV Glow, Blackout, a 50th anniversary screening of Phantom of the Paradise (with Paul Williams in attendance), and a 10th anniversary screening of Oculus with director Mike Flanagan, who will be in attendance along with Kate Siegel to...

For this month’s installment of “TV Terrors” we revisit Showtime’s “Masters of Horror,” which was created by Mick Garris and aired for two seasons between 2005 and 2007.

It seemed like a horror fan’s wet dream: a horror anthology series with some of the greatest horror filmmakers of all time lensing short format horror films for premium cable. Although horror icons had teamed in the past to bring us series like “Tales from the Darkside” and “Tales from the Crypt,” there wasn’t a modern series that brought them all together to have a chance to tell their stories in the anthology format. “Masters of Horror” seemed like a prime opportunity to re-invent the waning anthology horror format, and while it didn’t quite re-invent the wheel as planned, it brought with it a lot of great content from some bonafide horror icons.

“Masters of Horror” was originally envisioned...

Stars: Robert Miano, Benjamin Philip, Silvia Spross, Cyril O’Reilly, Rico E. Anderson, Kurt Bonzell, Jon Budinoff, Scott Vogel, Timothy Muskatell, Roger Garcia, Elli Rahn | Written and Directed by Chad Ferrin

Chad Ferrin, director of the outrageous fun Exorcism at 60,000 Feet follows up his 2020 foray into the world of H.P. Lovecraft, The Deep Ones, with The Old Ones – an even truer take on the work of Lovecraft than ever before, including the likes of Captain Marsh, Cthulhu and R’lyeh.

Speaking of Captain Marsh, The Old Ones sees two fishermen, Dan Gordon (Scott Vogel) and his son Gideon (Benjamin Philip), pull an old man out of the water. He turns out to be Marsh, who explains that he’s been kept alive for the past 93 years as a vessel of the Great Old One and then sacrificed to the same gods by the cult of worshippers – as seen in this film’s animated intro.

The first shot after the opening titles of Tilman Singer’s savvily conceived but undercooked Cuckoo is like a reverse angle of the opening shot of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Here, a family drives through beautiful but implicitly foreboding mountainous terrain. And we’re located in the cab of the car with Gretchen (Hunter Schafer), an angsty teen who’s been forced to relocate from her home in the U.S. to a relatively remote corner of the Bavarian Alps.

Steep, imposingly snow-capped, and dotted with romantic castles and high-end ski lodges, the Bavarian Alps are tourist magnets, and justifiably so. But this part of Germany was also a favorite of Hitler’s, and today it’s the heart of traditional conservativism in the country. Like Appalachia in the U.S., it’s a place a horror movie might take us to in search of scary people—except here...

Silly Done Right

January featured plenty of highs and lows on Horror Queers. We started with the brilliant sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (listen) and the silly subversiveness of German film Killer Condom (listen). Then we descended into trash for two weeks with The Covenant (listen) and The Roommate (listen).

Thankfully we wrapped the month on a high with Stuart Gordon‘s playful, gory and mean-spirited adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft‘s Re-Animator (1985).

Featuring a career defining performance by Jeffrey Combs, the film follows eccentric burgeoning scientist Herbert West (Combs) as he befriends/seduces aspiring doctor Dan Cain (Bruce Abbott), much to the chagrin of Dan’s girlfriend, Megan (Barbara Crampton) and her secret admirer, creepy Dr. Hill (David Gale).

As the experiments – and the corpses – begin to pile up, it’s unclear who the real villain is. Will Herbert successfully test his serum? Will Dan live to become a doctor? Or...

Fedora fashion.

After kicking off 2024 with discussions on the better-than-it-has-any-right-to-be sequel Hellbound: Hellraiser II (listen), the surprisingly progressive Killer Condom (listen) and the very gay (and very terrible) The Covenant, we’re wrapping up January with a conversation about Christian E. Christiansen‘s pseudo-remake of Single White Female: The Roommate.

The Roommate sees Sara (Minka Kelly), a young design student from Iowa, arrive for college in Los Angeles. Her wealthy roommate, Rebecca (Leighton Meester), is more than eager to take Sara under her wing and show her the ropes. The two become close, but when Sara begins to branch out and make more friends on campus, Rebecca becomes resentful. This brings out her more psychotic tendencies as she embarks on a mission to prove that Sara only needs one best friend: her.

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get a new episode every Wednesday. You can subscribe on iTunes/Apple Podcasts,...

Director Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2, Mayhem), screenwriter Dennis Paoli – who worked on the screenplays for the Stuart Gordon-directed H.P. Lovecraft adaptations Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, Dagon, and Masters of Horror: Dreams in the Witch-House – and producer Barbara Crampton (who had acting roles in Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Castle Freak) recently teamed up to make a new Lovecraft adaptation called Suitable Flesh (read our review Here) in tribute to Gordon. The movie recently received a Blu-ray and DVD release (copies can be purchased at This Link) that includes such extras as audio commentary, featurettes, and bloopers – but if your taste is more old school than that, it’s also coming to VHS, courtesy of Broke Horror Fan and Witter Entertainment!

Copies of the “limited edition, fully functional” Suitable Flesh VHS can be purchased through Witter Entertainment. “It arrives on VHS in slipcase packaging with art by Creepy Duck Design.

One of last year’s fan favorite horror movies, director Joe Lynch’s Lovecraft adaptation Suitable Flesh is now streaming on Shudder, and it’s coming to VHS – yes, VHS! – in March.

Broke Horror Fan presents Suitable Flesh on limited edition, fully functional VHS, and the retro-style release is now up for pre-order through Witter Entertainment.

The H. P. Lovecraft adaptation is directed by Joe Lynch and written by Dennis Paoli. Heather Graham, Judah Lewis, Bruce Davison, Johnathon Schaech, and Barbara Crampton star.

It arrives on VHS in slipcase packaging with art by Creepy Duck Design. An orange tape variant autographed by Joe Lynch with a CthulhuScope sticker is also be available (limited to 50). Each tape includes an exclusive introduction by Lynch.

For optimal VHS viewing, the film has been cropped from its original aspect ratio to 4:3 full frame. It is officially licensed from Rlje Films and approved by Joe Lynch.

Stars: Julia Nagano, Yuichi Nakamura, Kohshu Kirano, Shun Nishime, Kanon Miyahara | Written by Junichiro Ashiki | Directed by Kôichi Sakamoto

With a title like Ninja vs Shark you might think this is another Mark Polonia film along the lines of Sharkula or Shark Encounters of the Third Kind. Or maybe one of the more bizarre Chinese kaiju films such as Land Shark. But you’d be wrong, it’s actually a Japanese film written by Junichiro Ashiki and directed by Kôichi Sakamoto.

During Japan’s Edo Period, Sayo, a pearl diver from the village of Okitsu, swims back to shore only to find the remains of one of her fellow divers washed up on the beach. This has been happening a lot since Lord Koshiro Mizuchi of the Crimson Devil Clan demanded the villagers hand over their pearls to him. When they refused he used sorcery to turn the sharks into living weapons.

Faith is a powerful thing. There’s almost no limit to what can be accomplished when enough people share the same beliefs. However, this power can be easily misused, and a group of misguided believers can do a lot of damage during their search for enlightenment. That’s why it’s no surprise that there are so many scary movies about the dangers of cults.

From Rosemary’s Baby to Midsommar, filmmakers have been using these volatile groups to tell some incredibly chilling stories since the beginning of cinema, and that’s precisely why we’ve decided to compile a list highlighting six of the scariest cults in horror.

For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining a “cult” as a fringe group of extreme believers bound by a shared (fictional) faith. And while we won’t be officially including it on the list due to a possible conflict of interests,...

Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein remains as influential as ever, with numerous notable adaptations and horror movies inspired by the literary classic released in the last year alone. With news of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Bride of Frankenstein-inspired feature on the horizon, it doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.

The story of a mad scientist creating a monster stitched together from various body parts has contributed to one of horror’s most enduring monsters, bringing with it over two centuries of stage plays, movies, and television adaptations influenced by the classic horror story.

This week’s streaming picks highlight some of the more unique horror movies inspired by Frankenstein. These five titles use the base story to explore new terrain, whether through comedy, gore, or explorations of contemporary themes.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home,...

Director Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2, Mayhem), screenwriter Dennis Paoli – who worked on the screenplays for the Stuart Gordon-directed H.P. Lovecraft adaptations Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, Dagon, and Masters of Horror: Dreams in the Witch-House – and producer Barbara Crampton (who had acting roles in Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Castle Freak) recently teamed up to make a new Lovecraft adaptation called Suitable Flesh (read our review Here) in tribute to Gordon. The movie was given a theatrical and VOD release back in October and will be reaching the Shudder streaming service in a couple weeks… but if you want to own a physical copy, you’ll be glad to know that Suitable Flesh is now available on Blu-ray and DVD! Copies can be purchased at This Link.

Described as an “erotic body-swapping horror”, this adaptation of The Thing on the Doorstep stars Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) and Judah Lewis (The Babysitter...

Stuart Gordon was the master of cinematic H.P. Lovecraft adaptations. Sadly, he passed away in 2020, but his Lovecraft franchise lives on with Suitable Flesh (read our review Here), which comes from the team of director Joe Lynch (Wrong Turn 2, Mayhem), screenwriter Dennis Paoli – who worked on the screenplays for Gordon’s Lovecraft movies Re-Animator, From Beyond, Castle Freak, Dagon, and Masters of Horror: Dreams in the Witch-House – and producer Barbara Crampton (who was in Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Castle Freak). The movie was given a theatrical and VOD release back in October, and at that time we heard it would reach the Shudder streaming service this January. Now we know exactly when it’s going to start streaming: January 26th!

Described as an “erotic body-swapping horror”, this adaptation of The Thing on the Doorstep stars Heather Graham (Boogie Nights) and Judah Lewis (The Babysitter). Graham plays psychiatrist Elizabeth Derby,...

Whereas splatter movies wield gore and carnage like a weapon to evoke a visceral response, splatter comedies push the onscreen violence and gore into outlandish territory for the sake of a hearty laugh. Peter Jackson and Sam Raimi, for example, began their filmmaking careers defining the modern splatter comedy with their early works, pushing the boundaries of taste, horror, and humor through cartoonish bloodletting.

This week brings the arrival of a new splatter-comedy, Destroy All Neighbors, presenting the perfect excuse to laugh your way through the excess entrails and arterial spray the niche subgenre has to offer. These five splatter comedies vary in style and tone, but all seek to tickle your funny bone through humor, fun, and a whole lot of guts.

Here’s where you can stream them this week.

For more Stay Home, Watch Horror picks, click here.

Blood Diner – The Roku Channel

Before becoming a standalone film,...

Anyone who knows me would say my taste runs ever so slightly counter to the popular opinion but up top I wanted to shout out some big titles that I appreciate but didn’t quite make my favorites list. Oftentimes it feels like the days of true-blue horror icons are behind us, but Gerard Johnstone and Akela Cooper’s M3GAN was a veritable hoot that gave us an instantly iconic tiny terror in tights who more than lived up to the memes and showed everyone that hasn’t quite come around yet on HBO’s Girls just how #mother Allison Williams is. Also, that Skatt Brothers “Walk the Night” needle drop took up residence in my head last January and has not left. Talk to Me was one of the more intense in-theater experiences I had this year, and though it lost something the more I sat with it, what...

Hey there! If you’re reading this, you must still be around, and I’m glad to see it. These are the films that entranced me the most with their visions of movie magic; I couldn’t get to everything , but I saw what I saw, and that’s that. (Time seems to be set on permanent acceleration these days.)

It was another great year for horror, and judging by this alphabetical, 100% accurate and objective list, one teeming with variety; from Beau is Afraid’s bone-dry hilarious foray into existential Mothering, to Stuart Gordon-inspired Skinamax bodyswapping (Suitable Flesh), and straight tributes (Thanksgiving).

Here are a few of my favorite horror things from the year two thousand and twenty-three:

Beau Is Afraid:

Look, I get it: Ari Aster’s work is very much lump it or leave it. Hereditary and Midsommar are big, ambitious films that instantly found favor...

Happy New Year! 2023 has been a strange one at times, and while not the worst year in recent memory, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to turn the calendar page and start something new. But that being said, there were a number of things over the course of this year that made it not only tolerable, but downright fun at times. I will always turn to art and media in stressful times, and 2023 gave me a great mixture of new films, exciting series and other projects that I found to be entertaining, enlightening, or even heart-touching.

M3GAN

2023 started off with a banger in the form of a sentient monster doll by the name of M3GAN. I haven’t had this much fun in a theater since 2021’s Malignant, which was also written by the great Akela Cooper. I had so much fun with this one.

The best way I can describe the past year is as a year of trend shifts in the film zeitgeist. In a film environment where the most popular discussions often revolved around the never-ending slate of superhero blockbusters (and Martin Scorsese’s opinions on them for some reason), 2023 positioned itself as a time of change in the film industry.

Between the struggles faced by once-dominant cape flicks to break even at the box office and the SAG-AFTRA/WGA strikes being at the forefront of industry shakeups into awards season, 2023 has been a year of unlikely and/or unusual success stories for off-kilter genre movies.

In 2023 alone, we bore witness to a horror game adaptation outperforming superhero movies from both Marvel and DC, video game movies in general overtaking the conversation surrounding films and of course, the Barbenheimer double feature born from a meme before blossoming into two of the most successful films of the year.

To say it’s been a strange, turbulent year might be a bit of an understatement. Historically, 2023 marks the year of the dual strikes by WGA and SAG-AFTRA, the first time in over 60 years that Hollywood writers and actors went on strike at the same time. While both fought for better working conditions and deservedly won, the work stoppage no doubt plays a large role in the theatrical slate both this year and at least into the next. Through it all, horror continues to thrive. Box office records were shattered and indie darlings and international gems continue to surprise audiences. Of course, it’s in the most turbulent times where horror thrives most; audiences turn to horror for catharsis or release from real world anxieties and fears.

That reflects in 2023’s horror offerings, which has given everything from unexpected lo-fi indie hits like Skinamarink and Screambox’s can’t-miss The Outwaters...

This episode of the Horror TV Shows We Miss video series was Written and Narrated by Niki Minter, Edited by Adam Walton, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

So what happens when your first anthology was cancelled but you’ve got round three on the back burner? Well, actually, it’s complicated. We’ve spoken previously about Mick Garris’ Masters of Horror, which brought life into the anthology genre when we needed it again. A year later, Fear Itself brings anthology horror back to primetime.

Now, if you’re me, anthologies are kind of your life. This is one of my favorite parts of Horror, and so being able to see what new takes and tales are on the horizon excites me. Fear Itself was essentially the spiritual third season of Masters. The first episode Eater drug me down the rabbit hole and before I knew...

A new slasher is heading our way next month, Punch, featuring a horror villain that borrows from historical puppet show Punch and Judy. A brand new trailer gives a closer look at the Mr. Punch styled killer.

Punch slashes its way onto Digital and VOD on January 16, 2024.

In the film, “Before heading back to university, Frankie craves one final night out in her coastal hometown, but sinister local legend Mr. Punch is on the prowl, and chaos ensues as Frankie and her friends fight for survival in this eerie slasher.”

Watch the trailer below to see Mr. Punch begin his prowl.

Andy Edwards (Midnight Peepshow) wrote and directed the feature.

Kierston Wareing, May Kelly, Dani Thompson, Jamie Lomas, and Mark Sears star in the upcoming horror movie.

The Mr. Punch character and his wife Judy have been around for centuries, with the Punch and Judy puppet show centering around slapstick humor and violence.

JoBlo.com recently launched a new weekly documentary series called 80s Horror Memories, where each year of the 1980s has five episodes dedicated to it. Looking back at 1980, we discussed Maniac, Dressed to Kill, Alligator, Friday the 13th, The Shining, Prom Night, and The Fog. The second five episodes were a journey through 1981, covering The Funhouse, The Burning, Friday the 13th Part 2, My Bloody Valentine, Halloween II, The Evil Dead, The Howling, and An American Werewolf in London, as well as the careers of horror hosts Elvira and Joe Bob Briggs. The next five were, of course, all about movies that came out in 1982: Conan the Barbarian, The Thing, Halloween III: Season of the Witch, and Poltergeist, with an examination of the short-lived 3-D boom along the way. For 1983, we talked about a trio of Stephen King adaptations, Jaws 3-D, Sleepaway Camp, the rise of TV horror anthologies, and...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film Forum

“50 from the ’50s” continues with films by Howard Hawks, Elia Kazan, Stanley Donen, and many more.

Bam

“Let the Record Show” offers films built from archival material.

Museum of the Moving Image

Reverse Shot celebrates its 20th anniversary with a months-long programming run, continuing this weekend with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button on 35mm and two by Maren Ade.

Anthology Film Archives

Work by John Carpenter, Stuart Gordon, and more play in a series of films inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, while two from Buñuel show in “Essential Cinema.”

IFC Center

An extensive William Friedkin series continues, while The Holy Mountain and Army of Darkness play late; Oldboy screens in a new restoration.

Museum of Modern Art

A series on pre-revolution Iranian cinema is underway, as well as a collection of female-made silent cinema.

Roxy Cinema

The Shining...

Edgar Allan Poe may have enjoyed some amount of popularity during his lifetime, but he certainly could not have predicted just how influential his writing would become in the ensuing years. Even over two centuries later, we’re still seeing reverential homages to his work in modern media, and that’s not even including the immeasurable impact the author had on the horror genre as a whole.

And with Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher reinventing the author’s stories for the streaming generation, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the best Poe adaptations to watch after binging Netflix’s horrific treat. After all, there’s something for everyone when it comes to reinventions of Edgar’s tales of mystery and imagination.

And with hundreds of adaptations to choose from, we won’t be limiting ourselves to either film or...

It was a moment film nerds could only dream of: Actor/director Joe Lynch was seated next to Quentin Tarantino at an event, and they were going deep on lenses. Specifically, how Tarantino had gotten his mitts on Ultra Panavision 70, a 70mm format from Ben Hur, for his 2015 Western The Hateful Eight. Not much could distract Lynch from a moment like that — until he heard Stuart Gordon, of Re-Animator fame, discussing his latest collaboration with screenwriter Dennis Paoli: a modern-day retelling of H.P. Lovecraft’s story “The Thing at the Doorstep” called Suitable Flesh.