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Netflix has done it again. And by "it" I mean foisted another instantly forgettable streaming movie on us all. Sometimes Netflix can be a force for good, such as when the streamer reminded us all that David Ayer's pretty good 2008 film "Street Kings" existed. But sometimes, the company is one of the main culprits in contributing to the cavalcade of generic "content" that pollutes our contemporary cultural landscape. "Killer Book Club," for example, is a Spanish horror effort that, despite sitting at an equally horrific 14% on Rotten Tomatoes, has proven popular since its August 25, 2023 debut on Netflix.

Disclaimer: I have not seen "Killer Book Club." But according to the official synopsis it's about "Eight horror-loving friends," who have to "fight for their lives when a killer clown who seems to know the grim secret they share begins to pick them off, one by one." Sound familiar? It's "Scream," it's just a "Scream" rip-off.

Carlos Alonso Ojea’s Killer Book Club doesn’t hide its intentions to remix Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s Scream — you’ll see both Scream and It referenced by name in the Netflix synopsis. The problem is, over two decades later, who hasn’t attempted to bottle that meta-slasher magic anew? Tyler MacIntyre’s Tragedy Girls and Scott Glosserman’s Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon thrive in a post-Scream world by creatively spinning meta-hilarious screenplays into uncharted territories, a lesson Killer Book Club doesn’t learn. Writer Carlos García Miranda does Scream but worse, foolishly begging for comparisons to a 90s horror classic because subverting expectations requires more labor versus copying someone else’s homework.

The story centers around aspiring best-selling author Ángela (Veki Velilla) and her misfit book club. They meet in an afterthought hangout den out of their school’s public eye, discussing serial killers and ghost stories.

This past Tuesday saw the release of six new horror movies, including the new Screambox Original movie Subject. Guess what? Six More new horror movies are out Today!

Here’s all the new horror that just released for August 25, 2023.

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.

Shark attack sequel Meg 2: The Trench has thus far gobbled up $319 million at the worldwide box office, and it was just put up for grabs on Digital outlets today.

You can rent the film for $19.99 or purchase it for $24.99.

In Meg 2: The Trench, “A research team – including Jason Statham – encounters multiple threats while exploring the depths of the ocean, including a malevolent mining operation.”

Meg 2: The Trench is directed by Ben Wheatley (In the Earth, Free Fire), from a screenplay by Jon Hoeber & Erich Hoeber (The Meg, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) and Dean Georgaris (The Meg,...

This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn't exist.While the late Wes Craven’s original horror masterwork Scream has always cast a long shadow over the genre with its gleeful snark and the genuine fear it creates, there is something uniquely strange about how the Netflix horror Killer Book Club has made what feels like a largely humorless reimagining of that. Written by Carlos García Miranda and directed by Carlos Alonso Ojea, it centers on a group of eight college friends who all love horror and are soon hunted by a masked killer clown who seems to have an intimate knowledge of a deadly incident that unites them. When she and her friends begin getting sent chapters from this clown of a horror story that mirrors what they did...