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Let me start by saying I left this movie with more questions than answers, confused about what I'd just watched. I laughed more than I cowered and I yelled obscenities at the TV more than once because nothing about it made sense to me. The whole time I felt like the direction of the story was being chosen by a Magic 8 Ball rather than a coordinated effort to craft a horror story about a malignancy. From the choppy story telling to the ending that aired on cheesy without closure over what the hell is going to happen to the main character now. I'd also caution I might be the wrong audience for this or maybe missing some key detail that ties it all together but the horror scenes in this movie never lived up to the expectations that the excellent tension and suspense building promised. Directed by James Wan, the horror legend responsible for directing Saw, Insidious, and The Conjuring among various other titles under various roles including writer and producer. Although Malignant isn't my favorite it would be insane to even float that Wan isn't a leader of horror and one of the extremely talented voices that has helped revitalize the genre in recent years and kept it going when the chips were down. The screenplay is by Akela Cooper, the writer for Hell Fest 2018 and M3GAN 2022, and the story is by both Wan and Cooper in addition to Ingrid Bisu. With the involvement of big horror names it's no surprise that Malignant has a ton of great camera work. From wide shots to bird's eye views, navigating houses like they are doll houses through walls and levels, and the camera movements in the action sequences the creativity and innovation in those is engaging to watch. The movie begins with promise, scares, mystery and downright gruesome portrayals of violence. That was consistent throughout much of the earlier parts of the film, leading one to anticipate that style of storytelling and tone for the remainder of the movie. Seemingly out of left field this developed and curated atmosphere is shattered when the violent action sequences waver into hokey 80's spoof territory than anything serious. The more that is shown of the scary monster the less scary that monster becomes, much of the film we aren't privvy to who this mysertious killer is which are the most effective parts. The scene we do learn the truth about this slayer is the turning point for the film, with every choice adding to the tone shift that completely disrupts the building terror. If you have seen the film the turning point I'm referencing is when main character Madison, portrayed by Annabelle Wallis, is locked in a jail cell and the subsequent back and forth in the police station. I couldn't take it seriously and felt like I was watching a comedy more than anything else. I kept thinking of the word ‘silly’ post reveal; how it walked: silly, it crafting its weapon: silly, it climbing up the wall to threaten it's abducted mother in Madison’s attic: silly. My initial fear had dissolved by that point of the movie and instead I found myself cracking jokes about the bad CGI effects in the battle scene and the weird voice given to the monster. This reveal is also why I left more confused than entertained or afraid. I found myself unable to suspend belief enough and felt that the plot hadn't done a good enough job of getting to the point when the monster would've been belivable. In unexplained ways the monster-person has insane strength coupled with wild abilities that aren't explained with training or powers. The ending is also unsatisfying due to the reveal and it feels like no one really faces justice or retribution for the awful actions of the monster-person. The scenario the plot sets up then doesn't make sense and also doesn't end in a way that feels complete and real. In addition to this the characters rely on the strength of one person to stop the events from happening again. The cool transition scenes added with the interesting portrayals of events happening inside of the mind like the world melting around someone are fun but don't quite make up for what the plot lacked. I left watching Malignant feeling like I had when I watched some of the later Saw movies, that the concept is there but ultimately the style choices and script make it hokey and unserious. It isn't a terrible watch but it also isn't satisfying and past the point of the turn it isn't necessarily attention grabbing other than in waves of "WTF happened?!" in response to the directional choices. I'd love to watch a similiar core idea portrayed in a style that was more consistent to the tone of the film throughout and feel that would be a better version. If you want to own Malignant 2021 you can purchase or rent a digital copy from YouTube by clicking here or get the DVD now by clicking here .

Disclaimer: His House (2020) review was originally uploaded February 10, 2022 and updated July 2025. Set in Britain, His House  is about 2 refugees, Rial portrayed by Wunmi Mosaku  and Bol portrayed by Sope Dirisu , who are South Sudanese and from there travel through the English Channel from France to strive for a better life. On their journey they lose their daughter, Nyagak portrayed by Malakia Abigaba, who drowns before making it. Running from a war that broke out between 2 tribes they then arrive in the UK and spend time in a detention center facing a subpar living situation while they struggle with PTSD symptoms. Both are granted temporary asylum and after a 3 month wait period they’re granted asylum and feel that their woes have ended, going to their new accommodations on the outskirts of London. When they arrive they find their new home is sparsely furnished and dilapidated, junk and trash from previous residents crowding even their yard. They are placed under strict probation and face deportation back to South Sudan if they don’t comply perfectly including a minuscule £75 stipend they must survive on. From early on Rial views their situation as a sad and mournful circumstance full of grief which is the opposite of Bol. Bol wants to fully embrace their new culture and forget about the past entirely, moving on from the trauma and focusing on having children. His House (2020) spoilers past this point Already upon arriving the couple faces racism from their neighbors, who are less than happy to have refugees living nearby. Their case worker is the one British person they speak in depth with, portrayed by Matt Smith, but it becomes clear that he isn’t a saint when he tells them he hopes they’re the good ones, stereotyping the refugees he works with and approaching the couple as if they’re beneath him. The system that has been set up makes it so that he does lord power over them and Bol jumps fully into assimilation. On the other hand Rial is resistant to leaving behind who they are to follow this new path that is way more uncertain. An entire psychological horror movie could follow just Rial and Bol’s experiences in England and interactions with the people there. Like most Western countries the clean and “polite” veneer covers a decaying root that is spreading and rotting the whole thing slowly. The racism is permeated through the system they go through all the way through the opportunities available to them once they are given citizenship on leashed terms. They’ve done nothing in life to suggest they are more or less safe than any other person and in fact have gone through a review process that domestic citizens typically don’t face, further ensuring that immigrants attempting proper channels are more vetted than the average citizen. Unfortunately for the couple they are also in the midst of a haunting in their home, seeing their dead daughter and a man coming from the walls. Rial gets to the bottom of things and believes they are haunted by a witch whom has followed them because they owe her a debt in order to have their daughter back. They don’t know what the debt is however and Bol interprets it as ridding themselves of everything they brought from Sudan, burning it all. This doesn’t solve their problems however but it does drives them apart, Bol finally getting upset enough to go to Mark and request a different place, claiming theirs has rats. Mark doesn’t believe him or care about his cause and instead Bol rips the home apart trying to find the witch, or apeth, but just gives Mark reason to threaten their status. Rial wants to go back home to Sudan but Bol is upset by this and traps her inside their house, summoning the apeth to talk to it directly. When he does it tells him that he owes the debt of a life and it offers him to trade his own life to give his daughter life again but he refuses this deal. After he refuses he’s trapped in a comatose state while Rial escapes the house in his subdued state. Instead of being outside of their house in Sudan though Rial enters a classroom from home where she meets old friends. Rial’s friends and her are attacked and become victims in a massacre that she survives because she’s able to find a place to hide. Bol is able to get to her and the couple escape the area as things escalate and become more dangerous. When they get to the bus to leave though they find out only people with children are being allowed to leave so Bol decides to abduct  a child, who is revealed to be Nyagak, the child that has been portrayed as their daughter. The couple claims that Nyagak is their daughter and are allowed onto the bus because of this, leaving her actual mother behind in the war torn South Sudan. Gunfire breaks out and implies that no one left in their area survived the massacre, including Nyagak’s mother. When the three are making their way across the channel Nyagak falls into the water along with others, the journey dangerous and unsafe. Neither Rial nor Bol is able to rescue her and she drowns, and once confronted with the truth of their past Bol gives in and agrees to pay the debt with his life so that Rial can live. Beginning to accept the witch into him as one, sacrificing himself for Rial, and Nyagak enters, having returned. Rial can’t let Bol go though, and saves him by slitting the apeth’s throat and giving up having Nyagak back and absolving those sins. The couple both live and cut to Mark doing an inspection of the house, finding it repaired and cute with Rial and Bol both affirming they intend to make it their home. They tell him the truth that Rial was able to kill the apeth who had been haunting them but Mark doesn’t take them seriously, brushing it off as some sort of cultural humor he doesn’t understand or care to understand. Bol informs Mark that the couple is choosing to live alongside their ghosts from home, even Nyagak, together. Conclusion Whether intentional or not it became clear that Rial and Bol faced different challenges, Rial with more challenges even, based on their genders. While Bol was given a box of donations upon arriving at a local pub Rial was followed, mocked, and told to go back to Africa by boys while trying to visit a doctor. While both experience hardship based on race, class, and immigration status only Rial faces the additional hardship for being a Black woman in a Western culture. This then is a perfect cause and effect situation of the 2 refugees outlooks and desires when it comes to their new life. While Rial wants to retain as much of home as possible and retain their culture Bol is happy to ditch their past and embrace the UK, heightened discrimination towards Rial and all. These socioeconomic elements add depth and layered anxiety to the horror scenarios, not only am I worried about the haunting but I’m worried they’ll be deported and/or die due to non-supernatural circumstances. The witch or apeth is another key horror element, to no shock, and is portrayed through a rotting hole in one of their walls that Bol sticks his arm into. He only finds a cord however and proceeds to pull until it becomes a rope, and then that rope becomes seaweed mixed with other marine life and a doll tangled in all of that, one example of how the witch haunts them with their past in realistic feeling hallucinations. The ending is a neat wrap up of events if not surprising because I would’ve guessed Rial would pick Nyagak over Bol but also sorta seeing that the lead is buried with their connection or lack of connection to the child. Now His House is highly regarded as a piece of Black horror pushed the genre closer to social consciousness plots that do more than just jump scares. Available to watch on Netflix as a Netflix distributed movie His House is well worth a watch if not for the beautifully displayed scares and keen use of horror imagery then the superb acting performances alone. Winning multiple awards and nominations for the acting, directing, storytelling, production design, and effects this movie is a gem worth the watch.

Disclaimer: The Scream (2022) review was originally posted April 29, 2022 and updated July 25, 2025. The revival of the Scream  franchise 11 years after the last installment feels like a confirmation that a new era of horror has arrived and solidified itself into the horror ecosystem. Modern horror tropes take center stage as a new group of teens in Woodsboro face a new Ghostface copycat killer. The 5th installment simply titled Scream (2022)  is the first in the series not directed by Wes Craven who passed away in 2015. The last Scream  film he directed, Scream 4 (2011)  was not well received at the time but cashed in despite feeling like a knock off version of Scream . Costing about $15 million less (over $40 million compared to $24 million budgets) the 2022 installment raked in buckets at the box office, coming in at just under $140 million total. Scream 5 can be watched now on Hulu by clicking here or Paramount+ by clicking here . Rather than rely on Sidney Prescott ( Neve Campbell ) connections Scream 5  opts to follow an entirely new thread and introduces Billy Loomis’ daughter he never met, Sam Carpenter portrayed by Melissa Barrera , and her little sister, Tara Carpenter portrayed by Jenna Ortega , and Tara’s high school friend group. Sam is a loner who’s only non familial connection shown is her boyfriend and coworker, Richie Kirsch portrayed by Jack Quaid , who accompanies her back to Woodsboro following Tara being attacked by a Ghostface mask wearing killer. Tara’s brush with the killer is the phone call that opens the film and establishes that these kids are fans of modern horror like The Babadook  and It Follows  but find slashers like Scream , or Stab  in their universe, corny and dated. Tara is clear she prefers horror with depth that has something to say, similar to my own take on the genre, but this perspective is challenged by the killer. Spoilers for Scream 5 (2022) past this point Sam rushes to the hospital to be by Tara’s side despite the 2 being estranged in part due to Sam’s drug use and focus on rehabilitation. Tara’s friends are by her side when Sam and Richie arrive including Wes Hicks portrayed by Dylan Minnette , Amber Freeman portrayed by Mikey Madison , Mindy and Chad Meeks-Martin portrayed by Jasmin Savoy Brown  and Mason Gooding  respectively. They reunite with Sam, noting she used to babysit them when they were all younger and Amber in particular establishes an overprotective role in Tara’s life, which extends to Sam. Separately that night Vince Schneider, portrayed by Kyle Gallner, is killed by Ghostface and is the official first kill. The Ghostface killer or killers then show up at the hospital to try and finish off Tara. When Sam and Tara are alone she confesses to Tara that she’s Loomis’ secret baby and that she found that out the day their father left, being the reason that he left after their mother lied to him that Sam was his child. Tara doesn’t take this well however and isn’t interested in accepting Sam’s apology for having distanced herself from Tara due to her lineage. Sam and Richie then make their way out of town to find someone who can help them stop the Ghostface killer, the former Sheriff Dewey Riley portrayed by David Arquette . He is hesitant to help them due to the danger but ultimately he agrees and informs Gale Weathers, his ex-wife portrayed by Courtney Cox , and Sidney that the killer has returned and to be on high alert. Sidney is shown running alongside the ocean on a path with a stroller and sounds in high spirits when Dewey calls, confirming she won’t be returning to Woodsboro anytime soon but stays strapped. The group of friends, Sam, Richie, and Dewey all meet at Mindy and Chad’s house who happen to be Randy Meeks’ niece and nephew, Randy portrayed by Jamie Kennedy  in the first Scream . Their mother is Martha Meeks portrayed by Heather Matarazzo  and her reuniting with Dewey in her living room with Randy’s portrait and accolades behind them is a full circle franchise moment. Not only is Randy’s niece Mindy a horror expert like her uncle but they’ve all gathered so she can give them the low down and the rules of the slasher they have found themselves in. Based on the circumstances of the scenario and who the targets have been thus far Mindy argues they’re in a “requel” which differs from a sequel in that it revisits the same material but isn’t a remake and isn’t a continuation of the plots from previous movies. The requel type of movie has become more and more common as old franchises and beloved titles are revamped but not entirely remade or the same stories continued onward (examples: Halloween  2018, Jurassic World  movies, Star Wars: The Force Awakens  trilogy, and Matrix Resurrections  2021). Mindy explains to the group that the killer is likely using Sam’s connection to Loomis to target Tara’s friend group as the new generation, all of them pointing fingers at one another once they realize this. Everyone gives reasons for and against it being themselves or other people in the group and ultimately it’s more up in air who the killers are than before the meeting. The new Ghostface killer then targets Sheriff Judy Hicks, portrayed by Marley Shelton , and her son Wes in their home, causing the media to congregate outside of their home. In this media crowd is Gale, returned because of Dewey’s message. Back at the hospital Tara and Richie are attacked by the killer and a battle between Dewey and Sam against Ghostface ensues. Tara, Sam, and Richie get on an elevator ride away from the killer they believe they’re vanquished but Dewey stays back, arguing that they need to shoot the slasher in the head for the killings to truly be over. When he does go back he’s killed by the Ghostface killer, stabbed viciously and ultimately the killer escapes to slash another day while the franchise says goodbye to one of the legends. Going into this movie it felt certain that a legacy character would die to up the stakes and establish the legitimacy of this new Ghostface but it didn’t hurt any less. After Dewey’s death Sidney does  return to Woodsboro and reunites with Gale, asking Sam to help them like a squad of bad ass final girls uniting to take down a Ghostface duo as wicked as the first. Rather than join up Sam decides to leave town with Richie and Tara, hoping they can get out of dodge and stay safe. Sidney and Gale follow them and arrive at Amber’s house which is revealed to be Stu’s former house and the location of the original Woodsboro massacre. A party to honor Wes ensues that causes more fake outs of potential killers being unmasked but going into the 3rd act no one has been confirmed or ruled out. Screaming at one another around a table, Liv’s hands bloody from Chad’s body outside but denying being the killer is shot in the head by Amber, who reveals herself to be one of the Ghostface killers. Amber battles them around the house but Richie reveals himself to be the other killer and her accomplice, easily capturing Sam and Tara in the kitchen to hear their grand scheme. Sidney and Gale are also witnesses to the bizarre reasoning of the crazed killers. They reveal they were fans of the Stab  films and met online, connecting over their disappointment in the direction of the most recent installment, Stab 8 . Wanting to inspire a new movie they decided to start a killing spree, hoping that it will lead to the new film being created. The couple plans to frame Sam as the killer, knowing about her relationship to Billy Loomis because her mother spread it around town on drunken outings. The battle and struggle culminates in Amber being shot and set on fire, Richie being stabbed countless times then shot repeatedly for good measure, and the badass squad is fine aside from some minor injuries and stab wounds. Tara shoots Amber when she jumps up and comes at the group with a raised knife, badly burned and mangled from the fire. All of the act 3 action takes place in the same house from the first movie, Stu’s, where Sidney confronts the then Ghostface killers, Stu Macher portrayed by Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich  as Billy Loomis. Once the authorities have taken over Gale tells the sisters and Sidney she doesn’t plan to write about these murders so that Amber and Richie die unknown and without notoriety. The twins are still alive and taken to the hospital to return in the 6th installment, leaving a decent number of characters to survive through to the next installment that had been confirmed and planned at the time of Scream 5 ’s release. Conclusion I had low expectations for this movie going into it mostly because it’s the fifth installment in a series after over ten years of no movies being released. I finished the movie pleasantly surprised that all of the tried and true tropes of the Scream franchise popped up in the plot. From exposition on what the rules are for the movie the characters find themselves in, to the killer(s) coming back when they’re believed to be dead, no nod went un-nodded. I will also give the movie props for making the duo seem like possible suspects but then proceeding to make sure that viewers are thrown off of that track through the actions and decisions of Richie and Amber. It was good to see the franchise get a new start that didn’t abandon the things that made it great to begin with, including the original cast. The newer cast members are talented and interesting with creatively set up connections to the franchise that add intrigue to them without much effort being made on the part of the script. The 6th installment of the franchise released the following year in 2023 and I found it to be creative and expanding, taking place in the expansive setting of New York City and including more past characters. I think Scream 6  is well worth a more run of the mill Scream 5  that established the pretenses for 6 to occur. The 6th installment can be watched on Paramount+ or on Amazon Prime with a Paramount+ subscription by clicking here .

Disclaimer: this post was originally uploaded November 12, 2021 with an alternative list and was updated June 2025. Note: The original list in order is The Blair Witch Project 1999, Unfriended 2014, V/H/S/2 2013, Creep 2014, and The Taking of Deborah Logan 2014. Technically found footage made its debut in the 1980 movie, Cannibal Holocaust which utilizes a found footage concept that is more-so "this is based on a true story" but cinema style rather than what we'd expect from a found footage made today. Though the concept was used in this controversial film the horror subgenre we recognize today is modeled after The Blair Witch Project 1999 that used a solely "found" footage format, even if story elements like a true ending couldn't be achieved through this method. Taking the concept very seriously the creators had the actors remain lowkey leading up to the release and utilized "Missing Persons" posters that were actually advertisements for the movie as a guerrilla marketing concept. Since it's success found footage has become an entire subgenre with its own styles, methods, and cliches that have developed through trial and error since 1999. This medium of storytelling challenges the creators to find realistic reasons for characters to be filming and for that filming to continue when they are facing imminent danger and possible death which presents an opportunity for innovation in the genre. Known in part for the cliffhanger endings many found footage films end in screen cards with a few sentences of some off screen outcome after the dust of the movie settled. Although the subgenre has grown exponentially some stand out amongst the rest for most horror fans, myself included. The rest of this post is my top 5 found footage movies that I gravitate towards and find myself rewatching often. Movie spoilers past this point Number 1 - As Above, So Below 2014 Originally As Above, So Below 2014 was just an honorable mention in my ranking of found footage horror but after making the original 2021 post I remembered how much I liked it. Between 2021 and now I don't even want to know how many times I've watched it at this point, but it is safe to say it is now an all time favorite. A found footage that incorporates the more traditional style of a professionally filmed movie being found after a group has disappeared. They use nice equipment and have a professional camera man who follows them throughout the Paris catacomb tunnels as they search for the Philosopher's Stone. Incorporating alchemy and the hunt for the stone in the film is really cool and it stuck with tying the plot to larger and grander ideas. I love the mix of realistic and supernatural scares held together by a building backstory. To rent and watch As Above, So Below now from Amazon Prime click here or to rent from Apple TV+ click here . Number 2 - The Blair Witch Project 1999 There's not a single watch of The Blair Witch Project 1999 that hasn't left me looking over my shoulder and freaked out by the end. The lack of evidence until the building end in either direction of real or unreal turns the suspense dial up to 11 and the interspersed cuts to other, quieter footage following heightened moments created a false sense of security going into the final act. What seemed to be only in their heads starts playing out on the fictional footage captured by the group of 3 after getting lost in the woods turns far more serious and scary. This is the original found-footage movie that captivated audiences into the faux reality that found footage films are now known for. Trail blazing this subgenre to a wider audience than predecessors had managed with a rather simple plot the found footage genre, known for the simplistic filming style and lower budget actors sought for their lack of name recognition it it a studio's wet dream of a project on paper. To watch Blair Witch Project now on Amazon Prime click here . Number 3 - The Taking of Deborah Logan 2014 Verdict is out if I have a bias for 2014 or rather that it was just a good year of horror, possibly a genesis of what I'd call modern horror now but The Taking of Deborah Logan 2014 is too good of a found footage to not include it. The style of the movie follows similar other found footage films, particularly of the time; put together as a raw or rough cut of a documentary, possibly the inclusion of scenes the creators would have ommitted due to the light it paints them in. Deborah Logan, the subject of the documentary, is experieicing straneg symptoms that mimic rapidly onset dementia and her adult daughter who's now returned home to care for her despite their differences. Fairly quickly after the film crew arrives at the Logan household things go downhill, most if not all of the incidences being attrbuted to Deborah's medical condition rather than thinking it could be attributed to spiritual disturbances in Deborah. Basically-she is possessed and this becomes pretty obvious to a viewer watching despite the usual hesistance of the characters to believe they are facing something supernatural. I can't watch this alone or in the dark which is the highest ranking of scary that I categorize movies in, particularly the imagery and blend of real and CGI effects are haunting. To watch The Taking of Deborah Logan now on Amazon Prime click here . Number 4 - Paranormal Activity 2007 Paranormal Activity 2007 really revived the subgenre after the 2nd Blair Witch Project film didn't live up to the expectations audiences had following the first movie. Being unable to recapture that breakout sucess created an uphill battle for future found footage projects, like this movie. Before viral was a known and understood phrase the audience reaction-that of pure terror-went mega viral and attracted audiences to the movies. With a similar schtick to it's predecessors the question, "is this real?," was floated as part of the marketing campaign, and it stuck The haunting of the main couple’s home is the backdrop for the film and the reasoning used for having a camera system set up throughout their home, something considered normal today. The haunting starts small, not even hidden from early on but rather the extent is hidden from the viewer and it picks up as the couple continues to engage with it and observe it through the filming setup. The final scenes (from both endings, of which there are at least 2) shocked moviegoing audiences and left people screaming at their screen for answers. Video footage of audience members watching and reacting to the film were even used in the aforementioned promo to hook audiences. To watch Paranormal Activity 2007 it can be rented from Amazon Prime by clicking here or from Apple TV+ by clicking here . Number 5 - Unfriended 2014 This movie got some hate when it came out and I'm not sure if it's controversial but nonetheless, Unfriended 2014, is one of my all time favorites and I can argue why it deserves a place on found footage rankings. Prior to this film the idea of having a full movie take place only from the POV of looking at a laptop screen was perposterous, an afront to the long standing beliefs about how films ought to be made. It isn't the best plot ever but the feat it accomplishes with the style and fluidity that it does is true craftsmanship and is the very type of innovation that the genre benefits from. With on screen typing and silent moments of panic coupled with tech malfunctions while the story is told from end to beginning throughout the group's game that drives the plot forward and forces the teen characters to stay in the evil videochat despite it seeming obvious that they should close their laptops and run far away. To rent Unfriended from Amazon Prime click here and to rent from Apple TV+ click here . Conclusion & Other Subgenres Horror subgenres are common, developing and evolving over time, and one of arguably the best additions is found footage. I love how the medium pushes creativity and forces creators to take chances on endings that aren't as predictable as the genre continued to develop over the coming years. Although it took some years for the steam to pick up following the 1999 release of The Blair Witch Project and then the not-so-great sequel one year later, Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2 2000, considerably less liked than the original. Despite the twist that the original spun on the genre the lack of success for the sequel likely caused trepidation from studios, possibly seeing it as a flash in the pan rather than something that could evolve into a subgenre. Now a full-fledged subgenre with parameters and guidelines evolving in particular around the technology available now and how we use that tech. Back in 1999 it didn't make sense for people to have a recording device out unless they were a filmmaker, professional camera person or a niche hobby, placing large constraints out of the gate for the plots of these movies. As tech evolved to be intertwined with our everyday lives, to the extent that in Unfriended 2 it is believable that dark web hackers are able to tap into the vast network of surveillance cameras throughout a city. This advancement in real world tech allowed for a more complete story to be believably told in more than ending title cards. Examples get more advanced and sometimes more dystopian to further plots and leaning into the possible horrors of tech while using a creative storytelling format. Of all the subgenres I would say that found footage is my 2nd favorite, I'm not sure what my absolute favorite would be but irregardless this takes spot 2 in my lineup. While not my favorite of all time I rarely dislike a found footage movie, often finding that even B-horror style found footage flics are entertaining and sometimes repeat watched, something I can't say about other subgenres. If you're interested in more subgenres, in particular deep dives into genres I have a cannibalism post and a feminine coming-of-rage post up now and the underlined phrases can be clicked to re-direct to that page now.

The Saw  franchise began as a single movie simply title Saw  that hit theaters in 2004 costing less than $1.2 million to make with a concept that came about due to limited resources available to the creators. As James Wan’s directorial debut the success of Saw is apparent in the numbers, generating roughly $108 million at the worldwide box office with 54% of that being domestic. Originally Wan and Leigh Whannell, the screenplay writer and other story creator, tried to get the film made in Australia, their home country, but instead went to LA with the script. The duo made a short film to help get a producer for the film and by 2003 Evolution Entertainment caused the creation of Twisted Pictures, a horror focused production company. The distribution of the film was secured by Lions Gate  in part due to the positive buzz created by the Saw screening at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival . Rather than go straight to video Lions Gate decided to do a Halloween time film release that year. Part of the marketing campaign for the film involved a Red Cross blood drive called “Give Til It Hurts” that collected over 4,000 pints of blood . Following the initial blood drive annual blood drives occurred which by 2023 had resulted in 112.5K lives saved via just under 40,000 pints of blood donated . Koules, one of the Twisted Pictures founders is quoted saying that the they wanted to make something positive out of the association between Saw and blood .  The first film garnered buzz in part due to it’s willingness to be brutal and the simplicity of the scenario that becomes more complicated as the film goes on. In addition it reverses a typical timeline by beginning in the middle of the action and informing how things began later on in the plot but not necessarily in chronological order in any traditional sense. Personal Connection Personally Saw  is a favorite of mine that I credit with getting me hooked on horror rather than just a fan of a couple horror titles. Back in 2004 I didn’t have any adults who either a) thought it was appropriate to watch Saw or b) liked horror enough to take me to see Saw  under 17 but I recall our family friends going to see it and raving how freaked out they’d been and how good it was. I didn’t watch it until sometime between 2008-2009 when I was able to find the movie posted onto YouTube in parts. It definitely looked like it’d been filmed on a potato, the audio was wonky, and sometimes parts would be copyright stricken down without suitable alternatives in another language or some other quality compromise for illegal streaming. My perception going in was a blood fest that had little substance, watching more so because everyone talked about it and it was R rated rather than an actual interest in the story. Spoiler and Content Warning What I found in Saw  was and still is a roller coaster of a thriller that begins shrouded in a mystery within a mystery under the time constraint that we now associate with a Saw  trap. The remainder of this post will include spoilers for Saw  2004 but if you want to skip an overview of the movie’s plot that includes some commentary click here to jump to the conclusion of this Saw review that includes spoilers or click here to go to all posts. Saw Plot Summary The very first Saw opens underwater with a small light on a keychain floating around until a man, also underwater, suddenly awakes and panics—pulling the drain stop out with his movement that causes the water to be sucked in. The water pulls the keychain right down the drain as the man flails around in the tub in a dark, disgusting, run-down bathroom. This man is actually Leigh Whannell, the writer of the film mentioned earlier in this post who also wrote Insidious  and The Conjuring, named Adam. We learn that Adam is a photographer and he’s chained inside of a ruined bathroom with fluorescent lights opposite Dr. Lawrence Gordon portrayed by Cary Elwes. Gordon is also chained in the bathroom and in between the 2 men is a third man who appears to have shot himself in the head, covered in blood and lying face down near the bathroom’s center drain. It appears he’s been there for a short while, the blood still wet and his body not decomposed yet. In this third man’s hand is a cassette player and both Adam and Gordon have cassette tapes in their pockets. After some initial back and forth exchanging information like names and employment both men display paranoia that the other is somehow more clued in or responsible for the predicament. Both men state that they don’t remember how they got there and cannot think of enemies that might want to trap them that the pair have in common. Adam is able to retrieve the cassette player from the center of the room after some struggle and ingenuity which allows both men to play their tapes one after the other. On Adam’s tape a deep voice taunts him and offers that he could be in the room he dies in. The voice explains that Adam has “lived in the shadows” and spends his time “watching others live out their lives,” calling him a voyeur who he finds apathetic, which the voice states is pathetic. It ends cryptically that Adam can do something about it and essentially participate in the outcome or die. Unfortunately for the pair Gordon’s tape informs him that he must kill Adam before 6:00 on the clock in the bathroom or his wife and daughter will be killed. Not only this but the taped voice offers “ways to win” the game of killing Adam and suggests that within the room are ways to do this. The voice mentions that an ‘X’ in the room marks the spot for a treasure and warns that failing the game will also result in him being left in the room to die and eventually rot away. A heart on the toilet prompts Gordon to pressure Adam to stick his hand in the rotting sewage in the toilet bowl, which he reluctantly does only to discover a bag inside the back tank. Inside this garbage bag is 2 rusty hacksaws and Adam immediately starts sawing at his chain until Gordon interrupts to ask for the other saw to be tossed to him. Adam uses that opportunity to toss what is left in bag inside of the tub he woke up in without Gordon seeing as he’s distracted by picking up his own saw and beginning to work on his chain across the room. Adam’s saw breaks and in frustration he throws it as a mirror, knocking a shard loose as Gordon realizes the rusty saw is useless against the new chains of the leg restraints. He realizes that the saws aren’t meant to cut through chains but rather to cut through their feet—which is a massive leap on first utterance until he explains he may know who trapped them there. He theorizes they are being held by a killer known as Jigsaw that traps his victims and forces them to complete what he calls games in order to survive. It’s revealed that about 5 months before he was interrogated by 2 detectives ( portrayed by Danny Glover and Ken Leung) who inform him one of his penlights was found at the scene of a suspected Jigsaw murder. Despite having an alibi that cleared him he agreed to help the detectives by viewing testimony of the 1 surviving Jigsaw victim, a reformed heroin addict named Amanda Young portrayed by Shawnee Smith. They managed to find Jigsaw’s warehouse using Amanda’s tape and they almost apprehended the killer except Glover’s character had his throat slashed and Leung’s character is killed by a shotgun blast sprung from a trap. All of this is revealed via Gordon’s telling of events that might have helped lead to their entrapment by Jigsaw. It’s revealed that Gordon’s wife and daughter are being held captive who is watching Adam and Gordon via hidden camera broadcasting to a TV. Additionally Glover is watching the house, obsessed with the case which resulted in him losing his job with the police force. Reeling still from Leung, his partner’s, death he is determined to solve the Jigsaw murders and catch the serial killer once and for all. Now caught up to speed with other characters through the present Gordon and Adam are the focus again, Gordon finding 2 cigarettes in his pocket, a lighter, and a one way phone and Adam asks for a cigarette. Both men then tell each other about their abductions, Adam’s taking place after seeing the infamous Jigsaw puppet in his photography darkroom and Gordon’s in a parking garage by someone in a hideous pig mask. Suddenly Gordon’s wife calls on the phone, being held at gunpoint by her captor. She warns that Adam shouldn’t be trusted because Glover’s character, Tapp, paid Adam to spy on Gordon for him. Due to having visited a medical student he was sleeping with the night of his abduction he believes that is why Jigsaw is testing him. Adam then finds a photo of the man shown as holding Gordon’s family hostage and Gordon identifies him as an orderly at his hospital. Since Gordon hasn’t killed Adam yet he goes to kill Gordon’s family but his wife stops him and the 2 get into a struggle. Seeing this from outside Tapp then rushes in to save Gordon’s family and then chase the orderly into the sewers. Tapp is then shot in the chest during a struggle with the orderly and Gordon is shown having heard the gunshots and screaming via the phone that was still on the call. Gordon in a panic saws his foot off then, completely snapped by what he’s heard over the phone. He picks up the gun in the third man’s hand and shoots Adam just as the orderly enters the room seeking to kill Gordon. Adam survived the gunshots however and uses the top of the toilet tank to smash the orderly’s head, killing him. A now freed Gordon is crawling out of the room in an attempt to find help, bleeding out. Adam searches the orderly’s body in hopes that he has a key, believing him to be the Jigsaw killer that they have defeated. Unfortunately he only finds another tape, indicating that the orderly is another victim of Jigsaw rather than him. The orderly that abducted Gordon’s wife and daughter is in his own game, hoping to be given an antidote to a slow acting poison if he does Jigsaw’s bidding. At this point it is time for the biggest reveal of the movie and probably the franchise: the third man, the body that has been lying in the center of the room, isn’t a body at all. The body rises, a man who is very much alive who reaches up and pulls off a bald cap that is the gunshot “wound” and is actually perfectly fine aside from needing a stretch. The man who’s been lying in the center of the room is Jigsaw, who is actually John Kramer portrayed by Tobin Bell, a patient of Gordon’s who has a fatal cancer diagnosis. Kramer reveals to Adam that the key to his chain went down the drain in the start of the film and Adam tries to shoot him—cause that is just insane that he put that  much of Adam’s fate to chance and an almost certainty that the plug would be pulled in Adam’s frantic wakening. Adam is shocked through his chain when Kramer pushes a remote button, revealing he always had the fail safe right there. He then walks out of the room and shuts the door leaving Adam in the dark, alone, and guaranteed to die there. Conclusion From the opening of the movie with the light on a chain swirling down the tub drain I became hooked, asking, “what could that mean?,” while wondering what that could have to do with anything. Prior to watching I hadn’t heard talk about the story, despite all of the little pieces of information and clues connected so fluidly in such a shocking way at the end. I’d heard he sawed his foot off and that had been the gruesome, out of pocket draw of horror at the time—long before Terrifier made the standard far crazier.  Every detail seemed to be crafted without the viewer even knowing that something was afoot but making you feel like you’d solved a mystery at the end. I loved the revenge aspect of it and overall I felt that it addressed something that quickly became a huge political talking point: the American healthcare system. During my first watching of course I didn’t connect those dots but throughout my many rewatches I, along with many other viewers, saw something much bigger. Here we have the antagonist, Jigsaw, abducting people he feels have either wronged him during his battle with terminal cancer or who do not respect their gift of life and placing them in traps which they will either sacrifice to free themselves from or succumb to. Granted, I am not blind to the pretentious notion that Jigsaw has any right to determine who does and does not deserve to live. As an adult I find it absurd and mentally unsound that he bestowed God-like powers upon himself but I do however take into account that he had a brain tumor that could have greatly affected his cognitive state. Nonetheless, his standards are extremely low for what qualifies a person to be in his traps. If it was other serial killers or abusers maybe but to enact such harsh punishments on people because they do drugs or are apathetic in life feels really wild. I think that the intention is that Jigsaw is not relatable or a “good” guy despite many fan analyses done on his methodology and criteria for his murders and traps. The best part of not only Saw  2004 but every Saw  installment happens right towards the end when  the infamous music builds up in the background over the story reveals. This is the scene where all of the pieces come together and the intricacies of Jigsaw’s preplanning are exposed, like a game of “did you notice this?,” that reveals the true chronological order of events, characters true intentions, and character connections alike. Pertaining to Saw  2004 Jigsaw’s ability to stay completely still on a hard, cold tile floor is absolutely insane, that he managed to lie in the middle of that nasty room that long only to reveal himself at the very end is a testament to his crazy. This big reveal was so insane that big reveals and twists became a hallmark in any Saw franchise installment, making the twists wilder and bigger as the movies went on. I always recommend anyone who hasn’t seen the Saw  movies to at the very least sit down and watch the first and second. The first is just a good movie that builds tension well while keeping your interest in the mystery and then the 2nd somehow manages to be even better than the first and takes things to a larger scale. If you’re really digging those I’d say take a gamble on watching through Saw V  2008 because after that time period in the franchise things kind of fall apart but an opinion piece on the series as a whole is for another time. The entire Saw franchise is a roller coaster that has good additions and not so great additions to it. Currently there are 10 movies considered part of the Saw franchise including the 9th that is titled Jigsaw . If you want to add the 10 movies to your DVD collection click here and if you want to add just Saw (2004) to your collection click here . I have the original 8 film collection DVDs that I got prior to the 2021 revival which is also available to purchase still by clicking here .

Disclaimer: Originally posted November 25, 2021 and updated July 2025. For the Thanksgiving holiday I decided to rewatch a movie that takes place over Thanksgiving break at a college, Kristy (2014), rather than a Thanksgiving themed movie. Directed by Oliver Blackburn and starring Haley Bennet as the main character and Ashely Greene as the main antagonist, this movie is definitely worth the watch. Kristy focuses on a college girl who stays on campus over Thanksgiving break and then is hunted down by a group of cult members targeting what they consider “Kristy” like women. Currently the movie is available to watch free with ads on Amazon Prime and Tubi The movie opens to a beaten up car in the forest with a hooded figure sitting inside of it. We flash to someone in a clearing taking photos with their phone of something on the ground. Quickly it is revealed that the dead body of a woman is on the ground with the letter ‘K’ carved into her cheek. Following this there is a montage of what looks like a forum with videos and postings about killing women that are considered to be Kristys which we learn from a voiceover. First and foremost we need to address what a “Kristy” is and why it pisses this group so much. A Kristy is a well liked, privileged, and pretty girl who believes in God and this group believes that by killing Kristy that you are killing God. The first portion of the movie after we establish that there is a murderous group and who they intend to murder is establishing who our main character, Justine, is and what makes her fit the criteria for being Kristy. Justine has a boyfriend, Aaron, who loves her, has friends, is athletic, and studious. She also seems to know just about every worker she encounters on campus. Not only that but she works part time for work study because she is on an academic scholarship and seems close with her family based on a phone conversation we see between her and her mom about her not coming home for Thanksgiving. It’s established that she’ll be staying on campus due to the outrageous cost of airfare. She won’t be alone though because her roommate, Nicole, is also staying behind. There’s a sweet scene of her saying goodbye to her boyfriend where he makes some last ditch attempts to convince her to come home with him over the break. After repeatedly declining he makes a recording of him telling her he loves her and he’s off. Flash forward to Nicole bailing because her family is going to Aspen and she doesn’t want to miss out on it. Nicole also tries to get Justine to come with her for the break but again Justine declines. With Nicole gone she’s on her own with the nice dorm security guard for the break. After spending the day in a well filmed montage swimming, dancing, and making the best of her time alone on campus she decides to take her friend's car and go to the store for some snacks. She is kind enough to ask the security guard if he wants anything and this alone makes me like her and also know that the security guard will unfortunately be killed before the film is over. At the store she sees a hooded girl acting really strange who she has an odd interaction with. It’s really odd to think but our girl Alice from the Twilight movie series is this hooded girl with piercings, crusty lips, washed out skin, dark sunglasses, greasy hair, and a hood. This strange woman tells Justine she likes her car and then attempts to touch her hair while saying that she’s pretty. Obviously, as most of us would, Justine backs up and swerves that girl hard. This offends the weirdo and Justine is off to checkout. The girl comes and wants to buy the glasses and gets into a tiff with the cashier about a discount. Justine, uncomfortable like any of us would be, offers to pay to end this interaction which further offends the woman who slams a twenty down on the counter and leaves. Justine exits the mini mart and is faced head on with the headlights of the rundown car from the beginning of the movie, yikes. The car peels out of there and Justine gets in her friend’s car to leave. She ends up in a road incident with said broken down car but manages to make it back to her campus and then dorm. She lets the security guard know this and he says he’ll check it out. It is important to note that this campus is fairly secure for a college campus and you must have a reason for being on said campus if you want to make it past the gate. My own college campus is in a city and this notion is so bizarre to me but it is a major plot device. Being that this campus is seemingly in the middle of nowhere the electricity, that is being upgraded over break, starts to go on the fritz along with the WiFi. This freaks Justine out when the movie she’s streaming cuts to a failed internet screen. For some reason Justine’s reaction is to bang on the window during the storm to try to get the attention of the security guard making the rounds outside. For what reason I have no clue. Behind her the door opens and the hooded woman is there in her dorm room. They exchange some words and Justine manages to get out and get downstairs hiding from the group behind the security desk after finding none of the phones work. She hears the security guard by the door trying to get in and she tries to warn him about the killers only for him to be killed. The group convenes and lets Justine know that the hunt for her has begun. The next big chunk of the movie is Justine either hiding from them, or running away from them. Notable moments include Justine finding the dead front gate security guard, getting to the groundskeeper house, getting him and his dog killed, and even jumping off of the library roof. Regarding Justine as a character I think she’s extremely smart and resourceful but to further the plot and keep the final battle from happening too quickly they have her character do some dumb things. This woman never locks a door behind her, sits down rather than tries to find any weapons in the first half, lets the dog run right out the door, and when she makes it to the road after jumping off the roof she goes back onto campus to try and save her boyfriend rather than get help. She also shouldn’t have survived enough to be able to run around after jumping off of the roof but that’s neither here nor there. In a rather lackluster scene the group kills Aaron in front of Justine which is partially his fault for not listening to her and running to her while she screamed at him. This causes Justine to strangely say ‘no’ to them a couple times and then run to Aaron’s car which he’s left running. She’s not quick enough however and one of the group members jumps on the hood of the car. He tries smashing into the windshield to stop her but she rams him into a wall, killing him. This clearly intensifies things and Justine manages to get away to the athletic center. She hides and empties Aaron’s backpack she’s taken from his crashed vehicle and finds the recorder. In a clever move she uses the pool as a hiding place, holding her breath underwater while one of the group members searches this area. When he has almost given up he discovers the contents of the backpack and knows she’s near so begins searching again. Justine has been army crawling through the bleachers and has placed a hose into the water. This draws the killer’s attention and she then bum rushes him into the pool. They face off underwater and she ends up cracking his neck with his bat. Justine then goes Home Alone on these assholes, killing the next one in the showers by luring him into a stall with a recording of her whimpering. She unmasks him and takes his phone, becoming shocked that she finds the website from the beginning of the movie. This website reveals that this isn’t the only group of killers but just one of many targeting Kristys across the country. She pretends to be one of the group members and responds that Kristy has been killed and is on the way to meet up with the other group members. She ends up confronting the girl from the gas station who seems to be the ringleader and sets this bitch on fire. The movie ends with Justine’s voiceover saying she’s no longer Justine but is now Kristy. Granted I know it’s not Thanksgiving themed or focused but it does fit the criteria for being around Thanksgiving. This movie has great camera work, good acting, and is well paced. I am still sad the dog died and didn’t even want to go into that part of the movie. All of the plot holes about how she got away or how they found her made sense to continue the plot of the movie so they’re rather easy to look past. If Thanksgiving isn’t your thing but you still want some holiday-ish focused horror then I highly recommend Kristy (2014).

Disclaimer: Hellbender (2021) review originally posted February 24, 2022 and updated July 24, 2025. Available to watch now on Shudder by clicking here , Hellbender  is a 2021 horror movie that bends tropes while creating a broad supernatural world. A protective mother and her adolescent daughter live in rural woods near mountains and bodies of water that they utilize. Living off of foraged plant life Izzy, portrayed by Zelda Adams, and her mother, portrayed by Toby Poser, play in a 2 person metal band together when Izzy isn’t being homeschooled or wandering the woods. Believing she has an autoimmune disorder that requires her to stay away from other people the only exposure Izzy has to the outside world is through her mother who travels to town every so often to run errands. Spoilers for Hellbender (2021) past this point Purchasing art supplies and art like the sick black crown featured on the movie’s theatrical release poster Izzy’s mom tries to keep her contained while also utilizing magic to spy on her from the sky. On a random day Izzy encounters a man hiking while she’s drawing by a creek who is lost and requests directions to the nearby highway. She keeps her distance but this friendly man, portrayed by John Adams, is just excited to find locals and wants to connect with them. During their conversation Izzy’s mom appears on the cliff above them, asking why this man is trespassing and what he wants. With inhuman speed she teleports from above them to right behind the hiker by the time he turns around, revealing early on that they are definitely not run of the mill witches or hippies living in the forest. Offering to guide him back while Izzy returns home her mother leads him into the forest and asks him questions about himself like if he’s married or has children. Just before this he reveals he has a niece around the same age as Izzy who lives on the nearby mountain, offering to introduce them so Izzy has someone around her age to connect with. After he reveals he doesn’t have family or a partner she lifts him off the ground using telekinesis and cuts his arm, causing blood to pool in his hand. She dabs one drop and seems overtaken by it when she consumes it before she turns him to ash that falls to the ground. Unfortunately for her mother Izzy meets the hiker’s niece, Amber, portrayed by Lulu Adams, anyways when Izzy sees her at the pool of a house she’s watching from the forest. Amber calls Izzy over and the pair have fun swimming in the pool together, Amber impressed that Izzy’s in a metal band called Hellbender. She invites Izzy to come play at the pool the following day, saying she has some friends coming over that she can introduce Izzy to. Izzy floats the idea to her mom at dinner but her mom isn’t interested in any ideas that will bring Izzy into contact with other people. At the party Izzy puts on a borrowed bikini and has a good time with Amber and her 2 friends, AJ portrayed by Rinzin Thonden and Ingrid played by Khenzom. She plays the drums and they all think she’s really rad, offering her a shot with a worm in it. Things go haywire then, Izzy letting out a face reddening, blood curdling scream once the worm settles in her stomach, having warned them that she’d always been strictly vegan. As this happens the real owners of the house return home and the teens go running into the woods and off of the property. In the woods Izzy is in a trance, her vision bending and melting like she’s on a drug trip. In this state she goes to choke Amber which Amber perceives as her hitting on her rather than attacking her which results in Amber screaming at her to never come near her again as she runs away from Izzy. Izzy goes back to get her shoes and clothes but then is confronted by the house’s owner, the scene ending on Izzy chuckling in response to him without showing how the interaction concluded. Back at their house Izzy’s mother is worried and concerned when she learns of the situation and that Izzy has consumed a worm. Now that Izzy has consumed meat per-say her mother starts to teach her their ways and what is happening in Izzy. Mother explains that she can help Izzy control her powers that Mother and her own mom had as well, stating her own mother wasn’t good at the mothering portion of raising her. Izzy wants to leave the mountain now that she knows she’s not sick and her mother shows her how to activate their powers by consuming living creatures, using a caterpillar to show her how. A montage shows the pair adapting to their new normal as Izzy continues exploring and expanding her powers, even without her mother present. Her mother encourages Izzy to stay isolated and without humans, arguing they don’t need them and aren’t like humans. Izzy begins to resent her mother’s way of life, in particular feeling that since her mother interacts with outsiders that only she is truly alone. She begins sneaking into the upstairs attic, only accessible when one of them places their palm on a sigil on the door that releases a key through their hand. Inside she places her hand over the book with the same sigil and has visions like her mother’s but her own are triumphant rather than warnings like her mother’s visions. Both of their visions show her mother flying through the sky in flames, screaming while still tied to a post. Photos in the attic show different generations of their lineage at different time periods and Izzy uses a similar spell to her mom’s in order to follow Amber around the woods. On a forest hike Izzy and her mother happen upon the ripped clean skeleton of a deer that Izzy calls beautiful but vicious. Her mother argues it’s neither or and that rather the thing that did it is just acting in it’s nature. Later on by a waterfall she asks her mother what their nature is to which she replies that it is dark. Her mother warns that their ancestors became “drunk on the fear” that their power generates and bent towards hell rather than the heavens, explaining the name Hellbender. She asks Izzy if she wants a legacy of being feared and unloved but Izzy states she doesn’t and the subject changes to a pop quiz of ingredient combos. This reveals they have an almost unlimited range of capabilities if they combine their knowledge with their raw power. Mother reveals that they are self reproducing like ferns, which they agree is awesome, and she shows her how to activate a power they no longer use. By crushing a fern and mushroom into their palm after pricking their palms they can smell warm blooded creatures nearby just as a ranger appears on top of the ridge. He asks if he can talk to them briefly and compliments Izzy’s shirt before asking if they have seen carcasses around the area. He thinks the hiker uncle was killed by a rabid mountain lion but they claim to have no idea of any carcasses. Suddenly after her mother says they have no idea about hikers in the area Izzy tells the ranger that it could’ve been a Hellbender. She proceeds to say it’s a witch, demon, and apex predator cross and that they live off of fear pumping through human blood. She says they’ve been around since the dawn of time but are evolving now and he laughs, recommending she become a writer if not a designer. He tells them to take care of themselves and walks off, leaving them in the woods. Cut to winter and snow has piled on the ground and Mother is out by the water listening and observing, finding more animal carcasses. Using their seeing eye sigil she isn’t able to see through or activate it, causing her to become confused. Later on she gives Izzy a small worm but she says it’s baby food and suggests they eat something larger instead or get burgers even, troubling her mother. She passes her own worm over to Izzy and the conversation is settled. To reconnect her mother shows her what she calls “her special stash” which is live maggots, she states are powerful due to being actual death eaters. She tells Izzy she collected them from a deer carcass that looked like it had a terrifying end which she says enhances the experience. Outside Izzy tackles her mother and tells her she can keep her useless maggots since they won’t allow them to fly, proceeding to vomit up a blood like substance into her mother’s face. Rather than being upset her mother laughs maniacally and throws Izzy off only to repeat the same blood vomit in her face. Both laugh with the bloody maggots in their faces and create images in the sky. Her mother creates a flower that Izzy destroys then a heart she throws an arrow through, and her mother calls her a bitch. Her mother asks if she’s been in her dreams and Izzy says they would make a great pair, her mother suddenly feeling sick and wanting to shower. She tells Izzy that what they did was bad and they couldn’t do it again but Izzy wants to hear about her own mother. She tells Izzy that her mother was a monster who ate an entire village but felt guilty so sewed her own mouth shut. She didn’t starve though but was hung, the rope not having an impact on her. She tells Izzy that her mother died the same way all hellbenders die, “Spring eats winter, winter eats fall. Fall eats summer,” and Izzy asks her age which she says is 147 she believes. When Izzy asks her how old she’ll be she tells Izzy to tell her. Cut to a deserted town street and Izzy comes out to confront Amber as she’s leaving work, offering her swimsuit back with an apology for being weird. Amber says the guy who chased them got attacked by a wild animal and she says she hoped nothing happened to Izzy. When Izzy offers Amber her hair barrettes back and admits to stealing them she tells Izzy to stay away from her and walks away down the deserted street. The next morning Izzy isn’t in the house and her mother is unable to release the attic door’s key, finding it already unlocked and the book missing. She finds the book in Izzy’s room and by placing her hand over the book it reveals Izzy killing the man last summer and swimming until the blood was gone. It also shows that Izzy saw her mother’s witch nanny cam in the sky and used her own powers to disable it and stop her mother from finding out what she’d done. In this moment her mother lets out a scream and is whooshed outside and is standing in front of Izzy who greets her expectantly. She tells her new lyrics she’s written for Hellbender which describe a wolf who tries to be a sheep by “cutting her claws and cracking her teeth” and tried to do the same to her daughter. In the lyrics the daughter grows up and is a wolf still who eats her mother because she’s a sheep. Izzy reveals that her friend Amber is still alive while she consumes her, showing her terrified before her mother leaves the vision state to reveal she’s in Izzy’s room. From down in the basement she hears Amber screaming for help and goes down to investigate. In the basement inside a wooden box is an underground tunnel that looks like it’s lined with innards and earth. Mother crawls through this tunnel towards Amber’s cries for help and ends up in an open cavern where Amber lays injured and unable to move. She wipes up some of the blood and puts it in her mouth, overcome with the strength of Amber’s fear and gets up to look around the cavern. Izzy is down there and says it’s her happy place, admitting she knows that her mother “dusted” Amber’s dad and states she likes that trick, saying she used it in front of Amber. She tells her mom if humans want to believe in hell so bad she intends to give it to them. Izzy tells her mother that she knows all of the bad things her mother has done like killing babies and admits she kept Izzy from being like her. Izzy recites the saying of the seasons eating one another and she asks if her mom’s mother sacrificed herself and taunts her to reveal herself. She does and her face becomes terrifying with more teeth rows and hollow black eye sockets before Izzy tells her she intends to show herself too, turning Amber to dust. Her mom pleads she isn’t ready but Izzy says she isn’t going to eat her and that she loves her, stating she isn’t ready to be on her own. She tells her mom she loves her and she’s going to town, asking if she needs anything and she responds bass strings. Conclusion I like the twist reveal and confirmation that Izzy has known all along what her mother was teaching her and also had no intention of following her lifestyle. Though hints are left throughout, in particular as Izzy’s exposure to hellbender teachings increases and shares her own opinions with her mother, it is a good a-ha moment as a viewer to see the pieces come together. I also like that Amber is a thread throughout and shows Izzy’s attempts at navigating the “real world” outside of the bubble her mother has created. The twist that they’re heavy metal witches on the overprotective mother is cool and allows for more deep thought into the control rather than stopping at the surface of weird restrictions on clothes, words, or opinions. Her control is rooted in fear but rather than pure fear of what Izzy is capable of she’s worried that Izzy will turn on her like she turned on her mother. She tells Izzy she only did what she was taught to do when she’s confronted with her own lifestyle that contradicts her teachings to Izzy. Although her mother has guilt and shame about the pain she’s caused I think her actions and precautions are rooted in not wanting to be usurped by her offspring rather than a true motive to live a different lifestyle than her nature. This tale is about as nature versus nurture as it gets and in the end we see that, as is often true, people are a combination of both. Rather than cruelly kill her mother just because it feels like the natural culmination to events she says she still needs her mother and her mother’s teachings and even offers to get her things from town. This is reminiscent of a teenage girl and her mother fighting in the real world with the stakes raised to a million when compounded with life and death scenarios. One of my favorite things about horror is the ability to make you think about life in simpler terms because you see the same circumstances play out on a grand and fantastical scale. Often the consequences of real life are unseen but in horror the consequences are shown in blood and agony, impossible to miss or escape. Mother’s decision to hide Izzy’s true nature from herself caused her to be even more fascinated and inclined to accept it once she found out. This following a pattern of rebelling against whatever your parent’s stances are even if they’re the other member in your metal band. Hellbender also feels like a grander way to look at womanhood and how different women approach it for better or worse. Passing down your trained womanhood or choosing not to having consequences you cannot readily predict without the 20/20 of hindsight or an aerial view of the scenario. My biggest critique is more of a critique about myself: some scenes moved slower to build suspense and often had quiet moments of tension that I got distracted during. I think those scenes are good and essential however and wouldn’t necessarily replace them but am rather conscious of my social media damaged attention span.

Disclaimer: The My Valentine review was originally posted February 12, 2022 and rewritten July 23, 2025. Into the Dark: My Valentine  (2020) is a Scott Pilgrim vibe that has collided with the post social media music landscape of fandoms mixed with murder. This well lit anthology installation in the Into the Dark franchise uses comic book style editing and sound effects to give a neon feeling to a tale of abuse. Opening with a blue haired pop singers, Trezzure portrayed by Anna Lore , music videos and commentary that bolsters her status in pop culture as an up and coming starlet. In opposition to this glamorized blue banged singer a similarly blue haired singer named Valentine Fawkes portrayed by Britt Baron , sings the same charting song in a dive bar. Alongside Valentine her best friend, Julie portrayed by Anna Akana , plays the guitar and has her back when Trezzure stans heckle them. Into the Dark: My Valentine (2020) spoilers beyond this point Valentine makes a point of stating that the song, which is good enough to download for casual listening titled Edge of the Knife, is her own and was stolen from her. Along with her songs Trezzure has purportedly stolen her look, donning the blue hair for herself as part of her image at Royal’s direction. Royal, portrayed by Benedict Samuel , is an eccentric psycho who happens to be Valentine’s ex-boyfriend and business partner. Once they broke up Royal stole the image, the music, and the brand they were building for himself, finding Trezzure to take Valentine’s place. Royal bribes the bartending manager to close the place early and give them privacy while also ensuring the band that played before Valentine couldn’t get in through the backdoor again. Once Valentine sees Royal in the club she wants to make a hasty exit but is stopped by both her and Julie’s phones missing from their belongings in the back. Royal has stolen these phones and commences his tyrannical tirade at them by revealing he’s done this before smashing both phones. Stuck with the threat of physical harm Royal attempts what he feels is a confrontation of Valentine for continuing to use the look and perform the songs as her own. Due to Trezzure’s success she has stans that also attack Valentine and accuse her of trying to impersonate Trezzure. By enlisting the help and allegiance of the 3 stans that have shown up to the show Royal is able to control the entire situation. It doesn’t make full sense because Royal still cares so much about Valentine despite his success and apparent new love, Trezzure. It becomes clear that the entire thing relies on Valentine’s creative vision and him and Trezzure don’t have material or direction on their own. Through songs and flashbacks the abuse Valentine endured is revealed, showing that despite their instant connection and chemistry he was volatile and unpredictable. Although he claims to only want to confront Valentine and threaten her to relinquish her claims to the persona Royal escalates things when he stabs and kills Julie. She’d been the one to respond to most of his bullshit spin on his relationship with Valentine and his framing that she is the villain, incensing him. He goes on to murder the bartender that he paid off to leave him alone inside with everyone, a witness to who he is and his motive for being there. Trezzure eventually joins them inside the bar, coming in from the limo due to not hearing from Royal in a long time. She’s shocked and seemingly disturbed to hear Valentine’s accusations about Royal and he attempts to keep her happy and appeased. He does snap and the mask falls multiple times when he’s interacting with her, taking out his frustrations with Valentine and the night on her. As Valentine recalls via flashbacks her realization that Royal was abusive and couldn’t be saved at the same time that Trezzure realizes the same through his current behavior. The relationship violence flashbacks are parallels to the more tangible damage of Royal’s indiscriminate murder spree at the bar. Several moments try to break up the seriousness of Royal and display a truly absurd version of him that takes a lot of the bite out of his fearful personage while committing abuse. Him and Trezzure even break out into a full disco dance while Valentine looks on horrified they could do that at a time like that. In addition to moments like this sound effects over Royal using his knife and zoom in reminiscent of the mentioned Scott Pilgrim break up the serious subject matter. The story itself is predictable but the moments of break in action that often air on the side of comedy aren’t. Although these moments are included in what seems to be attempts to be unpredictable it doesn’t make up for the lack of depth to the story. There isn’t enough meat on the story’s bones to carry an entire plot and by the reveals and introductions of all characters it’s safe to tune out without missing much else. If one does watch through the slog that can become the center they will arrive at a gruesome and unnecessary death that Valentine and Trezzure weirdly watch happen from start to finish without intervening. This turns into Trezzure pretending she’ll help Royal only to attack him with a piece of stage equipment, her having witnessed Royal beg for Valentine back and reveal he’d discard Trezzure if he needed to. In a bit of a twist but also somewhat predictable outcome Trezzure wants to continue on as herself and enjoy the fame the persona has granted her. She believes she shouldn’t be punished for what Royal did and deserves to have what she feels she’s worked for. Trezzure even threatens to sue Valentine if she doesn’t relinquish her claims to the persona. Valentine decides to kill her before they leave the bar and instead take back her sunglasses and take on Trezzure’s identity briefly. Once she’s done this it cuts to her “coming clean” as Valentine as if she was just pretending to be someone she wasn’t when using the Paris Hilton style voice that Trezzure has. Conclusion As a longtime watcher of YouTube drama I recognized this tale from the beginning: Trezzure is Poppy, Royal is Titanic Sinclair, and Valentine Fawkes is Mars Argo. Mars Argo alleged that she and Sinclair were in an abusive relationship as well as being business partners and that they together created her persona. Along with her persona they created music and upon their breakup Mars Argo alleges that Sinclair took what wasn’t his and started working with Poppy. She alleges that Poppy’s persona and schtick is almost identical to her own and therefore a violation of intellectual property laws but I don’t think it’s gotten traction. Since this initial coverage on niche media of the story Poppy’s career has skyrocketed and the claims don’t seem to be a hinderance. As a Valentine’s horror movie it is passable but not great, despite it being a love story gone sour that takes place on Valentine’s Day and includes a character named Valentine. It is easy to forget it’s a Valentine’s horror movie because the music industry aspects and story elements take focus. Much of the relationship is via music covered flashback and they also don’t really evoke images of Valentine’s Day when watching. If I put this movie on I find myself just letting it play in the background as I get distracted scrolling on my phone but I wouldn’t say that is necessarily a bad thing. What the movie lacks in depth it makes up for in visually appeasing shots and murder moments that are somehow made silly by Royal.

Disclaimer: The following 1BR review was originally posted February 3, 2022 and rewritten July 22, 2025. Spoilers for 1BR (2019) beyond this point Aerial shots of the Los Angeles city skyline transition into a shot of a quiet apartment building lined street then focuses in on one building with a vacancy sign out front, Asilo Del Mar. Inside the complex is bustling with diverse life, neighbors chatting in a courtyard and readily helping other neighbors as they pass by, laundry being hung on fences and hands being waved in ways not characteristic for 2019. The sunlit courtyard is surrounded by walkway balconies and apartment doors that lead into the individual units where various residents walk around happily. An open house is taking place at the start of the movie and the main character, Sarah portrayed by Nicole Byron Bloom , shows up to view the available unit. She’s recently moved to LA to pursue her dream of becoming a costume designer and taking temp work at a law firm to pay her bills while she attends classes at a nearby design school. She immediately notices the security system with eyes from above that buzz her in at the front door and meets Brian, portrayed by [], who’s checking his mail in the entrance lobby. Brian calms her fears when he brushes off the security system as only being added a few years ago and that the street is much safer now. She follows signs in the complex that lead to the open unit where she discovers over 10 other people viewing the apartment. Upon seeing she’s late to the party she turns to leave deflated but Jerry, the community manager portrayed by Taylor Nichols , stops her and tells her that the apartment isn’t first come first served. She decides to take a look around and does notice some odd marks on the wall 2 circular marks of wear about shoulder length apart but she wants to apply anyways. Jerry warns Sarah that the community is zero smoking and zero pets after she explains she came to the city to start her new life. Back in her hotel room that night Sarah is on the phone with her dad and stepmom, her dad expressing that he doesn’t support her decision to move to LA on her own. This scene not only reveals the dynamics of her family and that her mother passed away as her dad tries to use that to guilt her into coming home but also that she has a cat and lied to Jerry. Her dad questions if she is capable of setting herself up to follow her dreams on her own and she flips the phone off, going to work at the temp agency the following day and meeting Lisa, portrayed by [], who is the opposite of Sarah. Lisa is still pursuing acting in LA while also working at the law firm and offers to introduce Sarah around, saying she knows all of the office gossip. Luckily or unluckily for Sarah she gets a call from Jerry that she’s been accepted into the unit and thus complex. Sarah sneaks her cat in disguised as boxes but is interrupted on the way by Brian who happens to be her down the hall neighbor that admits he put in a good word with Jerry to push her application to the top of the pile. Brian also invites Sarah to the community BBQ which actually becomes a welcome party for Sarah where she officially meets more of the Asilo Del Mar residents. She officially meets the elderly woman she helped when she arrived at the complex, the reason Brian cites for recommending her. This woman, Miss Stanhope portrayed by Susan Davis , requests Sarah call her Edie by the end of the night and introduces her to Esther, portrayed by Earnestine Phillips , a doctor and her husband, Oliver portrayed by [], a lawyer. Edie accidentally calls Sarah the wrong name when she introduces her, more clues to her declining state. She meets Janice, portrayed by Naomi Grossman , Jerry’s wife, and their daughter Natalie, while Janie and her lament that most places aren’t as connected as Asilo Del Mar is at that point in time. The other main person that Sarah meets is Lester, portrayed by [], and is immediately weary of him because he lingers in shadowy pathways donning sunglasses that are missing 1 shade. He is reading a book that he offers to Sarah and says that it changed his life at the BBQ but she politely declines. She learns that Edie is taken care of by everyone in the community because she has no family or friends and everyone agrees that LA can be an especially lonely place. So far at this point in the movie things seem good but too good and there’s a general off feeling about the kindness being shown, feeling somewhat reciprocal or expectant rather than genuine and just because. Sarah feels like her luck has run out quickly however when she is unable to fill her antidepressant prescription and loud sounds from within the walls like pipes keep her up all night. After progressively more intense sleep deprivation and hearing from Edie and Brian that they haven’t heard the same noises at night Sarah is already on edge when she receives a note on her door that is a printed pet policy from her lease with red marker writing, “SOME PEOPLE ARE ALLERGIC YOU SELFISH BITCH!,” with no indication of who could’ve put it there. She rushes outside and everyone appears mostly normal except Lester who stares from a distance with a blank expression. Beginning to snap she turns to go and confront him but Brian stops her and interrupts to invite her to a dinner party that night that she hesitantly agrees to go to. Sarah goes to work and confides about her exhaustion to Lisa and they decide to get Thai food takeout and eat back at Sarah’s apartment. She doesn’t remember that she agreed to go to the dinner party but sees and hears it from Brian’s apartment when she gets to her floor. She warns Lisa and they try to rush by but Brian emerges and they have an awkward exchange as he insists she drop by later for dessert. Inside her apartment Sarah realizes she forgot to apply to her program with everything going on and Lisa thinks her aversion to the apartment is crazy due to how nice it is. Sarah admits she might go home and feels that her dad could be right about everything, admitting she was a daddy’s girl up until she caught him cheating on her dying mother. Lisa encourages her to “sack up” or rather “pussy up” and keep at following her dreams, offering for the pair to get a place together and stand up for themselves. They exchange a motto that it’s their fucking lives and resolve to carry that energy going forward despite setbacks like what Sarah is facing. That night however Sarah is awoken by her fire alarm beeping and she discovers her cat, Giles, inside of it and feels it is Lester attacking her. Before she can make it out of the apartment though she’s stopped and the figure straps her to a chair, and this figure is actually Brian. At first it feels like a Lifetime movie setup where a crazed man stalks and captures the person he’s obsessed with but Sarah gets out of the chair and escapes the apartment screaming for help. Outside she’s met with onlooking community members who seem not at all shocked to see her in that state or to see Brian chasing her. She runs into Esther’s arms, begging for help because Esther is asking what is wrong but quickly it becomes clear she is holding Sarah from running further so Brian can catch up and grab her. He tases her and drags her back into her apartment in a haze, hearing but not fully comprehending the conversation around her. Esther, Brian, and Jerry talk like Sarah isn’t there and Esther admits she feels that they rushed it with the “it” in question being the capturing of Sarah. Brian and Jerry argue that her conversation with Lisa and intentions to move made the sped up timeline necessary as to not lose Sarah. This convo confirms that everyone is in cahoots and also that they have been watching Sarah as well as carrying out some sort of plan on her. Brian stabs her with a syringe of meds that knocks her out and she wakes up on the wooden floor of an empty white walled room. The lower set of windows are covered by wood but windows from higher up let light in with a metal heavy-duty cell door on another wall. Jerry and Brian enter through the door and inform Sarah that they’ve basically excommunicated her from every facet of her life so that no one would suspect her missing. They also play a voicemail from Lisa for her that confirms they have said something to her to make her tell Sarah to never contact her again. Driving home that she has no one they coerce Sarah to comply and place her hands on the wall, revealing the reason for the impressions on her own apartment wall. She is informed that a 2 light buzzer on the wall will indicate when she needs to assume the torturous stance against the wall and when she can rest. Her meals are served on a rolling tray passed through a latch in the door when she complies with her torture. The first time she is left in the room in the torture stance she stares at the wall which is into the camera and resolves that she will get out of there and says, “My fucking life,” like Lisa and her had the night before. Her resolve wethers as time goes on and she’s threatened on the first day with Lester’s own missing eye, concealed by the remaining shade of his sunglasses, a consequence of not complying. Using loud music from an overhead speaker, flashing strobe lights, and long intervals of leaning against the wall they break Sarah down until she’s collapsing on the floor when the buzzer goes off. Just as she’s breaking they bring in Edie to talk to her who reasons that they feel what she was doing with her life was crazy but rather the program is breaking what they call “bad conditioning” and that it must be fixed. She begs for help but Edie recommends that she give in and states she’ll be free if she does. Sarah continues to endure the torture on the wall and collapses from exhaustion while the buzzer is still on, proceeding to ignore demands for her to go back to the wall. Brian and Jerry come in when she won’t and Jerry points a gun at her when she requests for them to just end things. They make her put her hands back on the wall and Brian hammers a nail into the center of each one, Esther revealing similar scars on her own palm when she comes in to nurse Sarah’s wounds later on. Sarah eventually loses it and thinks her dad is breaking in to rescue her and at his pleads she rips her hands from the wall only to discover it was in her head. Esther and Brian’s back and forth confirm that Brian intended to miss important parts of Sarah’s hand and Janice leads her to the “next phase” of her program. Rather than being free after her ordeal it is only the beginning in true cult indoctrination fashion and she goes into a polygraph test interview with Larry and Brian. They ask her to describe her sexuality and sexual experiences as examples of questions shown, displaying the invasive and likely embarrassing nature of the conversations that will likely serve as collateral if she wants to leave or go to the cops. They inform her that one of their founding community principles is openness and that none of them keep secrets. She’s at some point led around the community by Larry who dialogues about the community’s tenets and how things operate there, adapting back into the community after her torture. The scenes she sees mirror the scenes shown at the start of the movie but this time she’s in the scenes, experiencing what seemed benign and innocent in the beginning of the movie. One of the main themes of the cult is combating what they feel is selfishness from modern society and are opting to have a community focused society. Sarah is taught about Charles Ellerby, the author of the book the cult uses as guiding text, and she starts acclimating to the cult while reading the literature. While taking lessons from Larry and Janice she learns the 4 core principles are: selflessness, openness, acceptance, and security. She admits to him and Brian that she caught her dad cheating with her mom’s hospice nurse and he called her bluff when she threatened to tell her mother, something she didn’t follow through on. Her mother died believing her father was a saint and she carries guilt for that outcome, and despite trying to adapt to the tenets she consistently fails the question if she wants to be a part of the community. They recruit her to start contributing to the community and make a point that it is essential for everyone to contribute to the greater of the group. One might ask why she wouldn’t want to be part of the torturous community but it is quite clear in the montages of her time as part of it. On paper the community sounds utopian but in reality their version of selflessness is doing unethical things to protect the group, believing no secrets can exist because they “sow discord” and slapping members when they are perceived to have broken the core tenets, what Ellerby considered correcting “an error” that is then forgiven post-slap. During this indoctrination she is sleeping in the torture room on a mattress with blankets, gaining more creature comforts as she continues onward in the program. Due to the group believing that security is key they have placed cameras in every apartment and watch everyone, thinking people will behave better if they think they’re watched on some Big Brother type stuff. Sarah is brought into the camera office to watch the feeds alongside Brian and other rotating community members and on those feeds they witness Edie struggling. Edie’s declining state has made her not as valuable to the community and they decide it’s time for her to die so that a new member can join that can contribute. Sarah is obviously upset and confused at the callous nature of the situation but Edie is accepting, Brian citing her deep involvement with the community that included recruitment and the welcome wagon at some points. They place a bag over her head and pump gas into it until she suffocates seemingly peacefully while holding Sarah’s hand, squeezing once more before she’s gone. Brian then reveals that the community saved him when Sarah questions the circumstances and Edie’s passing. He says that after getting back from Iraq he felt hopeless until he found the community around 9 years ago. He reasons that the community will go to any length to make her happy if she accepts it and at her next polygraph she passes the final question that she does want to join the community. She’s blindfolded and brought out to the courtyard where the other adult community members are waiting for her to celebrate and welcome her as a full member. Before the celebration commences however there’s the run of the mill cult mutilation ritual to symbolize everlasting devotion via a brand right behind her ear. Larry welcomes her after this and she thanks him, him cockily saying he knew she’d thank him and referencing an initial conversation they had once she awoke in captivity. The group enjoys brand cult symbol cake and chat until Larry announces they’ve found a role in the community for Sarah. She’s going to be taking Lester’s wife’s place, lamenting the loss of her and the impact it had on the community, and present Sarah to him in front of the group. Larry explains that her commitment to Edie made her a great match for Lester and that both of their commitment to the tenets would make them good parents. Earlier Sarah witnessed the school room for the children who watched Ellerby videos under Lester’s watch in desk rows. Sarah is less than pleased and very trepidatious about the scenario, hesitating to follow Lester to their apartment. He explains that her apartment was never actually her apartment and it must remain empty for new recruits, beginning to show Sarah and the audience the tactics that the cult utilizes to manipulate people. Just as she’s going to follow Lester into the bedroom Larry barges in and tells them they have an immediate problem which turns out to be Sarah’s dad at the community. She tells him to come back later and in the interim the community moves her things back into the apartment to stage it like she has been there the whole time. They remind her of the security principle and threaten that she can either get rid of her dad so he doesn’t return or they’ll kill him to eliminate the threat he could pose to them. Her dad is let up when things are in place and they have an emotional back and forth that almost breaks Sarah out of the mental prison she’s in until she sees Brian coming out from the other room with a gun, aiming at her father’s back as they embrace. Sarah’s dad tries to apologize but she goes scorched earth to save his life and is able to get him to leave for good. Back inside their apartment Lester reveals he’s made a space for her sewing machine and costume materials in the walk in closet and she shows she’s willing to make everything work once he reveals he’s not a creep at all. Lester admits he also struggled with being there despite being a very loyal member who carries out the group’s bidding until that point. Quickly another vacancy is listed and the apartment that Sarah formerly occupied goes through the process but this time Sarah sees behind the curtain. They are specifically recruiting Lisa after they realize her connection to Sarah and identify her as a good mark. A montage reveals how similar her experience at the community is to Sarah’s, showing that nothing was spontaneous or unplanned or unaccounted for. Lisa at one point says she thought Sarah would leave after her freak out and Larry asks if Sarah is looking forward to having her friend back as they watch from the security feeds. Rather than show the torture outside the room is shown as Lisa can be heard screaming inside, facing the same torture that Sarah did. Lisa bites Brian in the ear, already more of a struggle to contain than Sarah had been and Larry admits that Sarah had been right to try and deter them because Lisa was stronger than her. They send Sarah in similarly to how they sent Edie in to confront Sarah and Lisa actually gets Sarah to start to break instead. Sarah argues that Lisa is the brainwashed one and not her because she’s still pursuing acting in LA at 38 as an office assistant but Lisa quickly comes back and quashes Sarah’s upper hand in the convo. Lisa tries to get out and almost does but is stopped by Larry who instructs Sarah to hammer a needle in Lisa’s ear as he holds her down, saying she needs to finish what she started. Lisa pleads that it’s Sarah’s life to her and this breaks the spell over her, causing her to stab Larry in the neck with the instrument rather than aid him in hurting Lisa. They begin to walk out of the hallway towards the stairs as they reconnect and fuck-face Larry shoots Lisa through the head from behind, killing her. Sarah jumps into action and stabs Larry repeatedly as she screams “fuck you” to him then takes the keys and door buzzer from his pockets. She sees he also has the brand behind his ear, implying he too went through the same torture as she takes his gun too. Everyone is coming out of their apartments having heard some commotion in the relatively quiet complex. Sarah holds the gun out to ward them off as they begin to close in on her and she screams that they are all free to go because she killed their captor Larry. Janice runs at her with a knife having discovered Larry’s death and Sarah fires a warning shot but Brian informs her that Larry didn’t start Asilo Del Mar. He explains to her that they have no central leader and that Larry was trained by Ellerby to create something that sustains leaderless. The next leader seems to be Brian based on this interaction and she threatens to shoot him if he doesn’t let her leave. He calls her bluff but not repeating the mistakes of her past she shoots him rather quickly after this and makes a break for the door. Lester takes the gun from her when she’s held back by another community member and she tells him to shoot her and just end it. Lester shoots towards the camera with the action behind the shot to conceal who’s shot momentarily and it’s revealed that he’s shot the community member and sparred Sarah. He rushes forward and pushes her out of the front door and shuts it while holding off the other cult members wanting to stop Sarah. Lester holds the gun under his chin as Sarah looks back in horror while the door shuts. Once the door shuts through the glass windows shadows are seen in a scuffle and then a gunshot rings out as blood splatters against the door. Sarah escapes with the door buzzer as the cult members angrily pound on it from the other side. Covered in Lisa and Larry’s blood Sarah runs down the street in a full sprint momentarily. The street is still silent however so she stops and turns to see if anyone is chasing her but the area is clear of signs of life. The darkened car lined street is a relief to her until she notices other buildings have similar security cameras to the community then sees one has the same logo on their community sign. She thinks back to asking Brian in the security office who was watching them and how he explained someone was always watching just as alarms begins blaring from the surrounding buildings. The alarms trigger one by one down the street, lining both sides as far as can be seen into the distance. The red alarm lights casting a glow on Sarah’s blood covered face she chuckles and balls her fists, the camera moving around her to then show behind her. She takes off running down the center of the street as the alarms rage on either side of her and into the distance. This cuts to credits without more details about their community, the other communities, or the extent of power the broader cult actually has. Conclusion 1BR isn't perfect but it does provide an interesting story that is told from multiple perspectives at different points in time throughout Sarah's indoctrination. I like that the indoctrination is shown before going into the tactics used, it made them feel more impactful as a viewer that I too had been tricked by their methods. The speakers at night to keep her up that the other neighbors claim to never hear is one example of mind tricks that always sticks out to me and struck me. So often we brush off noises as our own paranoia or eccentricities in particular if that individual is a woman that lives alone like Sarah is when she moves into Aldis Del Mar. Sarah is highly susceptible like many cult members are when brought in, Larry even admitting that part of the key to success is picking the right candidate. It isn't explicity said that the right candidate is someone struggling or at rock bottom in life feeling lost but the statements from other group members coupled with Sarah and Lisa's experiences match that implicity expressed detail. I think it is clever to show the community from Sarah's perspective as well as from the internal perspective of her helping out to show the contrast in rose colored glasses benefit of the doubt version of the community and the cult that it is revealed to be. The nonchalance is also extremely unsettling, another day at work vibes towards Sarah as they taze then restrain and torture her, feeling that her compliance is childish and misguided rather than justified based on her circumstances. Despite all that happens to her she still engages in the tactics and brings Lisa into the fold which also feels important to include because it is easy to condemn the other characters without really examining the true horror of the cult. I like the contrasting imagery and the use of Lisa and Sarah as 2 very different personalities response to the same cult tactics and indoctrination and wanted more of that. The cult itself is a self sustaining beast at the point we join which doesn't absolve the members but does make one ask the chicken and the egg question of who is really to blame, the cult or the cult members who keep the cult alive, growing, and evolving. Back in 2019 the isolation and impacts of them on society due to COVID-19 felt like sci-fi fiction of tinfoil hat wearing forum dwellers. Now however the plot of 1BR doesn't feel niche at all and more and more cult tactics have become normalized and streamlined to capture entire voting popuations in chokeholds they can't escape. This will always be a film I wish I could've watched prior to the pandemic to view it with that mindset rather than my current one that people are so starved for community something as insidious as Aldis Del Mar like communities could become widespread without much notice being paid.

Disclaimer: This Tournament of Champions review was originally posted January 27, 2022 and was updated July 20, 2025. Escape Room: Tournament of Champions  is the 2021 released sequel to the 2019 horror movie titled Escape Room ,  both directed by Adam Robitel. Robitel is also the writer and director for The Taking of Deborah Logan , which is one of My Top 5 Found Footage Movies which can be read by clicking here. Despite directing both Escape Room  films he didn’t write either and instead the screenplay of the Escape Room  was written by Bragi F. Schut and Maria Melnik with the core story by Schut and Tournament of Champions , was written by Melnik again but additionally Will Honley, Daniel Tuch, and Oren Uziel are also credited. Spoilers for Escape Room (2019) past this point During the 1st movie story details are established culminating in the takeaway that an annual secret corporate-sponsored escape room that wealthy and powerful people bet on for entertainment. The participants face real life and death situations typically unbeknownst to them with little to no instruction or details given. By the end of the film the main character, Zoey Davis portrayed by Taylor Russell , is 1 of the 2 survivors of the Minos escape rooms that promises a chance at winning $10,000 by answering the invite. Towards the end the games master reveals themselves to Ben Miller (portrayed by Logan Miller ), the other surviving character from Zoey’s escape room, and explains some of the operation that Minos is running. He reveals to Ben that the demand for more interesting participants and rooms grows each year in response to inquiries of why all the people in their escape rooms were sole survivors of accidents, although the game designer is responsible for the set up the master runs the production of the game. Fortuneately for them Ben and Zoey kill the games master and are able to escape, rushing to get help immediately. Unfortunately for them Minos vacated the warehouse premises before any authorities showed up, leaving no traces and the property looking undisturbed by anything except squatters. The police believe that her and Ben aren’t reliable sources and as their investigation closes she sees “No Way Out” spray painted on a wall that activates her puzzle mode, being the main puzzle-solver of her escape room. She figures out that it is an anagram for a name consistently written and heard in their escape rooms, left like a taunt for her that she didn't imagine everything . Cut to six months after the police end their investigation both survivors attempt to return to normality, meeting up to catch up with one another post-escape room. Zoey reveals however at their lunch meetup that she’s still researching Minos and looking for clues as to the whereabouts of the escape rooms. Since the escape room fake accidents have been set up and reported on to cover up the deaths of the other escape room participants, confirming a cover up since both watched those same people die in the rooms and not in car accidents and mishaps like reported. Zoey hypothesizes that Minos wanted them to loose and rigged the game against them which has now caused them to be upset and still after them for beating the game anyways. Zoey also reveals she’s deciphered the Minos logo to reveal coordinates to a secret headquarters hiding in plain site in Manhattan, New York City and asks Ben to come with her and confront them. The cafe scene transitions to the inside of a plane in mid flight and flight attendants are rushing to solve an escape room puzzle built into the cabin keeping the doors locked while the pilots have been taken out. They are tasked with getting into the cock pit by solving the puzzle before the plane crashes so they can try to save the plane in time. It appears like the plane is about to crash into the side of a moutain just as they make it into the cockpit but it cuts out to reveal the plane isn't real, but a simulation. This simulation is being conducted by the game designer, who appears via video chat with a distorted voice and no video feed. They give feedback to the testers that it has a 4% survival rate and they plan to trap Zoey in the scenario when her and Ben go to fly to New York, revealing that Minos isn't letting Zoey go. Escape Room: Tournament of Champs (2021) spoilers past here Two years after the release of the first movie Tournament of Champions  released and Zoey is still resolved to confront with the hope she can take them down if she gets proof of their escape room operation. Despite Ben and Zoey barely surviving their first Minos encounter they jump right back into the lion’s den when they use the coordinates from the end of the first film to attempt and track down the Minos headquarters. To include some of the key details from the first movie a montage of scenes plays at the start of the sequel which is reminiscent of a "on last week's episode" catch up at the start of a weekly show. Any time I've attempted to watch this movie I feel like I need to also rewatch the first movie before I do by the time Ben and Zoey start to make their plan to head to New York City. Zoey's therapist encourages her to get on the flight and calls out her paranoia that she's always in a Minos escape room looking for clues even in her therapist's outfit, pen, and office. Zoey isn't able to make it onto a flight after many failed attempts so they decide to drive to NYC and on their drive have some good back and forth that re-establishes their connection. They go immediately to the coordinate when they arrive in the city to find dilapidated warehouse structures and virtually abandoned and derelict streets covered in trash and darkened by the structures. A man shouts at them from inside a tunnel and proceeds to steal Zoey’s necklace, resulting in both her and Ben chasing the assailant into a subway train station and ultimately onto a subway car. Just as they think they've got him the doors close and the train takes off, leaving both Ben and Zoey trapped until the next stop. They make a plan to get off and circle back to keep investigating the Minos property but quickly realize that won't be an option when their train car detaches from the others and takes an alternate route. Ben and Zoey aren’t the only passengers on the rouge train car however and the others are also freaked out and investigating the unanticipated detour. Quickly they all realize they're likely in a Minos escape room and reveal they've all survived one previously but don’t have time to exchange details because the game has already begun. They must escape the now electrified metal train car before they’re electrocuted by solving riddles to play hangman using the train car ads as clues. One passenger does reveal he survived being put in a submarine and the pressure being turned up, popping his ear drums and requiring him to wear a Cochlear implant now. This character Theo, portrayed by Carlito Olivero , doesn’t survive the train car escape room however, being the one person to be electrocuted while they try to solve the hangman style puzzle to release coins that will open the car door. The surviving participants aside from Ben and Zoey include Brianna Collier portrayed by Indya Moore , Rachel Ellis portrayed by  Holland Roden , and Nathan portrayed by Thomas Cocquere . Brianna reveals her room was all influencers and Nathan that his was all priests, even being sent the initial invite as if it was from the Catholic church. They surmise that Minos wanted to find out who’d survive with similar backgrounds like being sole survivors in the first movie. Following the first room they make their way into a 1920’s style bank with high ceilings, marble counters, and a checker tiled floor. Rachel and Brianna want to solve the escape rooms in hopes that they can survive again like they did the first go around and be free. On the opposite end Ben and Zoey don’t want to give in and fulfill the whims of the watching wealthy and Nathan lies in the middle, feeling that there’s no hope in either direction. In the bank room they’re able to work together to solve riddles while avoiding a deadly laser grid activated by tiles on the floor. Once they’re deactivated the lasers they’re able to solve the puzzle to escape the room and travel through a tunnel to an indoor sandy beach with mannequins. Having all survived the previous room they make their way into the bizarrely bright setting next to The Salty Claw, a beach shack on the makeshift beach. The scene is calm and quiet compared to the fairly instant laser encounter in the previous room and the train car electrification in the first room. They split up to look for clues but as they do the sand beneath them turns liquid like quicksand and begins sucking up them and the beach surroundings. Rachel gets sucked down into the sand but Nathan jumps in to save her and manages to pull her out of the pit and back onto solid ground. He is sadly sucked in though and doesn’t resurface, presumably dead and buried beneath the sand. Once Nathan is sucked down more of the beach begins to roll on the surface of the liquifying sand. Inside the beach shack they find a retro fridge that opens into a tunnel that both Rachel and Bri want to go through. Meanwhile Zoey is solving a separate puzzle entirely, which isn’t clear if it’s truly an intended alternate exit or just a different way out of the room she’s creating. Ben stays stuck trying to get Bri to come with them and ends up falling off of the ladder as he climbs the lighthouse to the exit Zoey has revealed. Images flash on the screen of their friendship as Zoey looks on in horror that Ben is gone and Bri is sucked down in The Salty Claw, having spent too long making a decision and becoming trapped there. Zoey immediately friend zones Ben again when her and Rachel discuss after escaping, Rachel reminding her that Minos would’ve found them no matter what even if she hadn’t encouraged Ben to come. Zoey is upset she hasn’t gotten any proof in the previous rooms or clues as to Minos’ operation but Rachel confesses she can’t feel pain and that her room was full of others with similar conditions. She tells Zoey that the games they came up with for what she calls “the pain freaks” were unspeakably terrible. They hear car honking then and follow it up and out of a man hole cover in what appears to be a NYC street blocked off for construction. Excitedly they think they’ve finally made it out of the escape room labyrinth but those hopes are quickly dashed when Bri runs up to them from a different direction. This proves that either option worked for getting out of the previous room but that one made Zoey believe she’d actually beat the game again. The makeshift street they’re on looks realistic with projections on the surrounding walls to mimic life bustling on a street. Bri informs them that when the cross walk counts down to 0 acid ran pours from above and they all get to work escaping. This room is especially difficult, the only way they survive being Rachel knowing that a certain kind of plastic can protect from acid rain and using a bottle to capture enough to bust into a locked phone booth. They’re able to solve the riddles and sustain only minor burns up until Bri and Rachel take refuge in the phone booth and Zoey in a cab as acid rain pours down. The cab doesn’t unlock to let Zoey out and the phone booth doors automatically shut when they rush out to join her in the cab once the rain stops. They try to get in and Zoey tries to open it from the inside but no one is able to do anything but scream in anguish as a false bottom opens, dropping Zoey into a separate room as acid rain pours down over Rachel and Bri. They stand in the street holding hands, facing one another with their foreheads pressed together and Rachel tells Bri not to give them anything as what looks like smoke fills the space where their bodies had just been. Luckily not much is shown of this death by acid rain and instead the camera follows Zoey into the room she’s been dropped into which appears to be an attic converted into a child’s bedroom full of toys. Zoey takes in her surroundings in confusion, not feeling the same certainty from the first game that she understood the meanings of the rooms in the context of the participants. She sees blocks spelling Sonya on a play mat and examines a notebook that is Sonya’s diary that reveals she’s Amanda’s daughter. Just as Zoey makes the connection that the rooms are designed for Amanda from the first movie who she’d believed to be dead drops down into the room. She’s wearing a corporate jumpsuit that looks like a test subject outfit and is on edge, encouraging Zoey to design a game for Minos just like she was forced to do. Zoey is shook she isn’t dead and Amanda reveals that if you didn’t see something happen it might not have happened in this world of escape rooms and Minos meddling. Minos believe the best designers are those who have already survived the games and are basically recruiting Zoey through force and threat. She immediately rips up their invite to Amanda’s horror, inviting and accepting whatever punishment Minos has planned. After she does this a secondary portion of the room is revealed and it’s a tank like structure with a glass wall that Ben is trapped in. Zoey is shocked he’s alive but there’s no time for reunions because the room is filling with water and doesn’t appear to be a puzzle to solve but rather a death trap. Amanda cracks almost instantly and begs to be let out, claiming she tried her best to recruit Zoey. She tries to break the glass with objects including a shovel and Ben tells her to never let them win no matter what and she agrees to never say yes to Minos. Just when all hope seems lost Zoey sees that there’s metal piping along a portion of the room and rips it out, pointing it at the glass wall that holds Ben trapped. Amanda tries to stop her by saying there’s no way to actually be free but Zoey makes a blow torch out of the pipe that blasts at the glass wall and lights the wooden ceiling on fire as well, saying that heat will expand the metal frame and hopefully break the glass. After a hot minute, no pun intended, the glass does  break and Ben along with glass and water come crashing out into the attic. They follow the direction the water is draining out of the room and pull planks off that wall to climb out of the escape room. They quickly bust out of a warehouse that contained these rooms as an alarm sounds in the building while Minos attempts to lock down. The trio is able to escape just in time and make their way onto the streets and to a police station. On a TV in the station coverage of police at the Minos warehouses is playing, showing they’re going down for the secret escape room operation. An agent approaches them and informs that Minos didn’t have time to wipe the place and has been caught this go around. They return Zoey’s necklace, claiming it turned up, and inform that federal colleagues will reach out to them as they build a case against Minos. Ben and Zoey embrace as they celebrate that this time everything is really over and that they will finally receive justice. As they leave they talk about finding their version of normal and Zoey requests Ben to do one more thing for her. The scene outside the station cuts to a plane flight, presumably Ben and Zoey traveling back home. Ben says that he loves flying but Zoey is understandably on edge and begins to wonder if things were a little too easy. She starts to work out that everything lined up perfectly in the rooms for them to be able to be sitting on the plane at that moment in time. He counters that Minos couldn’t fake things to the extent they had with a full on police station of agents that are in on it. A narration comes over of her therapist at the start of the film calling her out for being paranoid and then listing possible clues that she says aren’t clues. As the clues are listed, like a pen, Zoey sees those objects on the plane, even seeing a woman who she mistakes for her therapist due to them looking and dressing similarly. As doom settles in Zoey remembers what she said it would take to get her on a plane again during her therapy session. She explicitly said that it would take seeing the people who’d hurt her and killed her friends brought to justice and stopped from hurting anyone else. Since she believed that to be the case, news coverage and all, she felt safe enough to go on a plane again, freed of Minos. Just as the grave error clicks for her the above head vents start pumping gas into the faces of all the passengers and the games master announces the game only ends when Minos says so and thank them for flying Minos Air. This cuts to black then credits, a cliffhanger that feels like it anticipated a third movie to complete the escape rooms trilogy. Conclusion In my recollection I thought this movie had been so much better but going in after just watching Escape Room I felt like it mirrored it in almost every way. The first rooms have crazy intense circumstances, a literal oven in the first and an electrified tin can in the second. The 2nd and 3rd rooms are switched and in the 1st film they go into a winter cabin survival and then an upside down billiards room whereas in the 2nd they go from the fancy bank with lasers to the beach room which are similar but switched in order. Finally there’s the triage room of hospital beds then a room smushing in on itself compared to the acid rain street and child’s attic in the 2nd, displaying the limitations of the escape room concept. I think the first movie is a really, really creative concept and I think the rooms in the 2nd movie make that come to full fruition with intricate concepts and puzzles not tailored to the active participants. This made it feel more like an escape room rather than a targeted attack like the first movie can feel when separated from the Minos aspects due to the reason they’re selected being related to their disaster survivals. I wish I could take the rooms of the 2nd and combo them with the foundational elements of the first so it doesn’t need to be rehashed in such a hasty and disjointed way. Since there’s a “last week on” montage at the start I would’ve liked more back and forth and world building for Ben and Zoey like in the first movie with some participants being shown solving the puzzle and arriving. Ultimately not a bad set of movies that I hope a third is made so that there’s a definitive conclusion to Zoey’s battle with Minos. Going into a 3rd I’d anticipate a very similar structure and do look forward to seeing them solve the mysteries and puzzles while working together (sometimes poorly). I think Ben and Zoey have great chemistry  as partners facing off with Minos and I would like to have more of Ben’s background explored as Zoey’s has been. I’m equally interested in Ben and Zoey and wouldn’t mind more of their relationship (whatever it is) and more of him aiding in puzzle solving.

Netflix’s algorithm can more than tell from my watch history that I lean towards the macabre content. One of those suggestions, Incident in a Ghostland (2018) which is also titled Ghostland was consistently recommended and I’d consistently avoided it, not feeling interested based on the trailer alone. Crystal Reed plays Beth, the older version of one main character and I loved her in Teen Wolf   but even the familiar face didn’t make me finally watch. Cut to a few weeks after the series of recommendations and a TikTok came up on my FYP that recommended horror movies with twists. I love twists and trying to guess the twist if I know there is one or being shocked by an unexpected twist, 2 of my favorite horror movie features. With the recommend from a horror fan I figured why not with the expectation I’d scroll around social media if and when I lost full interest. While watching however I was shook that I couldn’t look away and rewound multiple times to make sure I didn’t miss clues, hints, or references in the detail laden scenes. To watch Incident in a Ghostland free with ads now on Tubi TV click here . Although Reed plays the older version of Beth the younger version is portrayed by Emilia Jones and the other main character is her sister, named Vera. Vera is another character with a younger and older version, portrayed by actresses Taylor Hickson and Anastasia Phillips respectively. Additionally their mother, portrayed by Mylène Farmer , is a critical character with less screen time. We meet the family of 3 on their journey traveling to their recently deceased distant relatives’ home that they’ve inherited and intend to move into. Their conversation in the car gives some insight into the dynamic of the family, Vera the more typical, well adjusted teen who had a boyfriend and friends she left behind to move and Beth a little weirder, an aspiring horror writer who love H.P. Lovecraft and was a loner. Their mother is French and despite them all knowing French Vera insists they speak English and tends to be mean to her sister Beth without a clear indication of why or a rational reason. It becomes clear that Beth is a “scaredy cat” when she is petrified from a jump scare that signifies possible danger despite being a horror writer, which is very relatable. It’s also revealed through a hushed conversation that Beth has a habit of doing what Vera and their mother call “playing make believe” in her writing. Vera explains that she found a full interview written by Beth as if she is an adult writer being interviewed about an upcoming release like it was real. This plays a big role in the movie later on but for now the focus shifts to the creepy, inherited house. They find a doll emerging from behind a mirror like a messed-up jack in the box and horrifying dolls in varying stages of decay cluttering the house while examining the inside. Their aunt, who’s house they’ve inherited, is described as having been the quirky, weird, French woman who lived in the old house according to an earlier scene with a local Harbinger they interacted with on their journey. A van arrives outside the house, the same one that Vera flipped off on their way to the house and a large man along with a hooded figure who has a knife are inside the van. The van seemingly following them to their isolated destination they are then attacked by the large man and the hooded figure with the knife but Vera is knocked out early in the scuffle. Beth, having been established as the scaredy cat of the family, completely freezes effectively becoming useless as the attack proceeds. Luckily their mom has a fight response rather than flight or freeze and despite taking some damage from the initial ambush she kicks major ass and ultimately wins the standoff. Beth still frozen is just able to look on but suddenly the adult Beth is waking up from a night terror about that event rather than it being the present situation at hand. The older version of Beth, having survived the brutal attack, has become a successful horror writer who now goes by her full name, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is married in the present and has a child named Harlequin, even completed a big televised interview about her upcoming release. This interviewer nudges that the book is based on the incident that her and her family faced at her aunt’s house. She makes it clear in response however that she doesn’t like to talk about the event and it’s apparent that she has not attempted to deal with the trauma of the event yet. There’s virtually no time to dwell on that though because she gets a call from her sister, Vera, who is frantic and screaming for help on the other end. Her sister unfortunately did not come out of the attack as well as she did and rather than turning to art she still suffers from it as if she’s still living in it. Beth’s lack of reaction suggests this is a common, expected occurrence that she’s less than stoked to deal with, probably also worried for her mother’s safety when Vera is in that state of post-traumatic stress. Without being quick to action Beth decides to go check on her sister and mom at the isolated house, slightly worried but not fully panicked yet. She’s unable to get into contact with her mom and get reassurance that this is an episode so resolves to head out there and see for herself. Once there Vera is still having visions of attack they sustained and voluntarily locks herself in the basement and scenes of her being violently attacked by ghosts are shown. It isn’t clear if this is in her head and she’s suffering mentally or if she’s also suffering physically from supernatural attacks that are making Beth and their mother believe she’s not in real physical danger. Beth doesn’t even consider other sources of the visions or Vera’s physical symptoms but rather seems exhausted from dealing with a mentally ill sibling and an aging parent that is struggling to care for them any longer. Their mother tells Beth not to believe anything that Vera says or claims and suddenly Beth starts to get her ass kicked by the same supernatural, invisible entity that has been kicking Vera’s ass up until that point. Beth still  doesn’t believe Vera and something doesn’t add up in light of the invisible entity attack. Vera starts unraveling and stating over and over that Beth needs to wake up and realize what has happened. This reveals the sad truth: Vera and Beth are still trapped in the basement. The older versions of the 2 women are fantasies made up by Beth because their mother did  die in the attack rather than triumphantly rising and defeating the attackers. The 2 women are still girls, trapped in the basement and even Beth’s family was imagined and conjured up from 2 paintings in the basement that Beth can see, one of a Harlequin and the other of a man. She’s disassociated and detached into a fictional reality because her own is too difficult to deal with and that seems more than fair. The reveal is shocking and good, the twist referenced and promised by the TikTok creator’s video but the reveal does happen rather early in the film which begged the question, “now what?,” for the remaining chunk of film time. As Beth learns or rather realizes and remembers the reality of their situation it is revealed that they’re trapped in the house with a very disturbed woman and a large man who seems to have the temperament and intelligence of a small child. The girls are being used as dolls, living dolls, to entertain the large man who is prone to throw fits and attack sudden noises and movements in violent rages. Beth and Vera strategize and craft a way to escape, using the houses charms and their captor’s weaknesses against them to maneuver out of the house. Once they escape they run through the night and fortunately happen upon a police car on the highway that stops to help them. The captors however have managed to make it to the same spot around the same time and shoot the police officers, clearly disturbed enough to not care which makes them way more terrifying. They’re able to capture both girls again and upon this Beth escapes back into the reality she’s created in her mind but this time fights it to not abandon her sister in the real world. The murder of the police officers draws more police and this leads to a face off between the second set of officers and captors that ends in both being killed and both girls surviving their final battle with their captors. When the movie began I didn’t like how little Beth reacted to the action around her but once the whole story comes together it makes sense why she wouldn't. Her mind is too stunned to even react to the situation unfolding to the extent that she builds her own world to escape to and she slips into freeze mode, unable to move or do anything to save her mom. Watching her mother die in front of her quite literally breaks her psyche and creates the world that seems like the flash forward for the viewer to experience alongside her. Her fantasy world draws on her current environment pulling details from her surroundings into her own narrative to make them digestible but distorted to her. It's heart wrenching to watch Vera struggle with both the actions of their captors and the reality of their circumstances after Beth’s situation is revealed while trying to pull Beth back to reality. While Beth is in her false reality she is actually able to make progress towards their escape, finding a weapon in the dolls hair pin and managing to find out how best to attack the "Fat Man" without fully realizing. Even upon the girls escape we cannot breathe a sigh of relief as the captor’s truck returns to not only recapture them but kill both officers, a completely unexpected escalation in action at that point. In that scene I liked the fake out of the truck coming down the road towards the sheriff's car, leading the viewer to believe that it's the truck coming for the girls, but in reality this is just a regular truck, further lowering their defenses for the real danger lurking closely behind them. Though the fact that they got recaptured pissed me off I understood why the plot might've needed just a dash more tension to feel complete upon their survival and the twist that they were still in captivity. Incident in a Ghostland is well worth the watch, in particular for fans of twists in reality or the gore-psychological subgenre combo. The big reveal is guessable past a certain point but I didn't guess the remaining action of the film which kept me on my toes waiting for a conclusion despite feeling that the big reveal had passed rather early in the plot. I'm glad that both girls survive in the end after all that they go through but was sad to find that the mother hadn’t actually survived the initial attack. In part because of that but also just general topics I wouldn’t say this will be a frequent watch due to the heavy nature of the subject matter.

Disclaimer: The original Night of the Living Dead (1968) review was posted January 13, 2022 and was updated July 15, 2025. Prior to starting horror reviews and considerably increasing the variety of horror I watch I didn’t love old movies, in fact I avoided them. Once I watched Night of the Living Dead  (1968) originally for this post I left shocked and sucked into a new world of horror I’d previously left unexplored. My intention when I wrote the post was to cover an important horror moment for Black creators in honor of MLK Day and continually came across Night of the Living Dead  (1968) over and over. Only 3 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated barriers to voting for minorities, particularly Black Americans, Night of the Living Dead  features a Black lead character. Being a trailblazer is not uncommon for horror films, creators, actors, and studios, often ushering in new eras of media by proving an audience exists for an idea. To watch Night of the Living Dead on HBO Max now click here . Night of the Living Dead 1968 spoilers past this point During my watches of this film it is striking to think of the fear inherent in watching Black characters in media as a Black person. My first watch through I sat with anticipation for something terribly racist or offensive to happen surrounding race but it never quite happened. I became so accustomed to bad endings at one point that I avoided Black media all together, not wanting to indulge in media that exploited the pain and suffering through stereotypes, brutality, and lack of representation in stories about Black Americans. Duane Jones  delivers a strong leading portrayal of Ben, a man who is treated like any other man in the film and rather is judged by his actions or ideas rather than the color of his skin. His race isn’t even outright acknowledged in the movie and he’s just a leading survivor in the group facing a zombie apocalypse without any idea what zombies are. The first character to be introduced is not Ben however and is actually another main character, Barbara, portrayed by Judith O’Dea  and her brother Johnny, portrayed by actor Russell Streiner  who is uncredited with the role. While visiting their family’s graves at a cemetery in Pennsylvania the siblings are attacked by a man who is recognizable in modern day as a zombie or undead person back to eat humans. In the eyes of the characters however they don’t know what a zombie is and are initially under the impression that a mad man is attacking rather than a viral outbreak. The zombie kills Johnny who famously taunts Barbara due to her fear about the cemetery just  prior to the zombies appearing and in horror she flees to a nearby farmhouse. Inside the farmhouse she finds what appears to be a half eaten person, the farmhouse resident, on the stairs and Ben then arrives mistaking her for the resident. Notably rather than being rotting corpses the zombie like creatures look more like sullen, hypothermic in Black and White film people who are brainwashed in a hive mind state; but that is somehow scarier. Ben is all action from jump and fights off the approaching horde that are headed right to the house and after making it inside boards up the windows and doors. Barbara is basically catatonic and unable to communicate anything, including that she saw the zombie in the graveyard eat and kill her brother. Ben searches the house and finds a rifle and Barbara finds there are people taking shelter in the farmhouse’s cellar. The group, Harry Cooper portrayed by Karl Hardman , his wife Helen portrayed by Marilyn Eastman , and their daughter Karen portrayed by Kyra Schon  took shelter in the cellar after running from the zombie people who rushed their car and caused them to flee to safety in the farmhouse. Karen was bit by one of the zombies after their car got overturned, which from a modern perspective is obviously the beginning of her demise but to them they believe she is ill and injured rather than transforming into a ticking time bomb they’re locking themselves inside the farmhouse with. Also in the cellar are a couple, Tom portrayed by Keith Wayne  and Judy portrayed by Judith Ridley , who also sought shelter in the farmhouse after hearing an emergency broadcast warning about the killings. Tom and Ben jump into securing the house while Harry worries that being out of the cellar and above ground isn’t safe, scurrying back down to the cellar with Karen. More and more zombies gather outside of the farmhouse, building a scattered horde and making it increasingly unsafe to exit the house. Once they feel secure inside they listen to the radio and TV broadcasts and find reports of what is being called an “army of corpses” that are mass murdering people across the east coast. The broadcasts also report that armed militias of men are clearing the countryside of the undead, ensuring they are really dead by shooting them in the head or causing other damage to their brain or burning them. Information is also provided to them about survival centers they can travel to for safety and protection from the government. The zombies are being attributed to reanimations resulting from a Venus space probe exploding and releasing radiation. Needing medical assistance or supplies for Karen the group resolves that Ben will go outside and refuel his car at a gas pump on the farm and then pick up the group and take them to the refugee camps. In the first ever preparing-for-the-zombie-battle prep the group makes a plan to get this done after back and forth about what the best course of action is. The plan they settle on is Ben’s—to have Harry stay inside and throw Molotov cocktails from a second story window to divert the zombies while him and Tom get into the truck and get to the gas pump. They’re fortunate that the undead in their universe are slow and rather unintelligent, groaning and stumbling along to the loud noises and movement. Using torches and Molotov cocktails they’re able to burn the remaining undistracted undead as they pass safely to the pump to refuel the truck, but the gas spills and causes the pump and truck to catch fire in all the madness. Despite there being some time to flee Judy, who’d been rather needy up until that point and had tagged along on the mission, gets her jacket caught which causes her and Tom to be blown up. The explosion leaves only Ben alive and takes the truck out of the picture. Ben makes it back to the house but Harry is overly cautious (understandably) and doesn’t want to open the door and let him back in. Unfortunately for him Ben isn’t the one to play with and he breaks the door down and gets back inside anyways. Back inside the surviving people try to come up with ways to get out of the situation safely but are interrupted by a less than encouraging news broadcast. The power cuts out during this broadcast, leaving them in the dark, and the zombies finally break into the house via the doors and windows in jarring fashion. All at once the house becomes a death trap rather than a sanctuary and everyone kicks into their own action, Harry grabbing Ben’s gun until to be shot by Ben. After being shot Harry goes back down to the cellar and dies with his daughter, Karen who then dies and then reanimates and then eats him. Rather than bitting her Karen stabs her mother to death, adding to these zombie’s lore and abilities while clarifying some intelligence exists. Barbara and Ben are able to keep the horde out for some time after the family is dead but she is drug outside and away by the reanimated version of her brother, Jonny, from the start of the film. The horde is then inside the house and free to keep advancing towards Ben but he makes it down to the cellar and is able to kill Harry and Helen who’ve reanimated. Ben is able to survive the rest of the night and through to the morning when he emerges from the cellar once he hears guns and sirens outside and goes upstairs to get a lookout. In the most jaw dropping shock ending the armed group shoots Ben sniper style in through the upstairs window where he looks out to investigate the noise. The rescue team believes they’ve just killed another zombie and comes inside to check that all the zombies are dead, and no survivors remain. Ben’s body is thrown on the fire with the rest of the undead corpses, an unceremonious ending for the first big zombie movie protagonist. While I did get this ending, and felt it was really effective at shocking and eliciting a strong response as well as the fact that horror movies don’t typically have happy endings. Generally when they do there’s usually one last remaining scene that implies things aren’t as finished as we’ve been led to believe or even worse than initially. I still wanted Ben to survive though! In large part because he did almost everything right in the zombie-apocalypse scenario and the reward should be surviving, not making it to the point of survival and then getting taken out by not-zombies. Since it is so close to the ending of the movie it didn’t sting as badly. We weren’t forced to watch the movie without Ben and at least we have a definitive conclusion to his story. The movie is entertaining, gross, and triumphant. I can’t imagine how mind breaking this would have been from the perspective of someone in 1968 sitting in the theatre without a zombie template. The movie is entertaining and even from today’s perspective the gore is spot on and unsettling to watch while adding to the horror of the experience. Watching the black and white gore felt scarier at some points than over the top modern day horror gore of similar nature. I loved that Ben did what we would’ve recommended he do from our POV in the future, minus the not so planned attempt at the refueling of the truck. He has good instincts for defense and can critically think about outcomes based on their survival options, standing up for his opinion with the group. Although this is a good trait when he’s right ultimately he’s going to do what he thinks is best regardless and when that doesn’t work there is collateral like Tom and Judy. It is shocking to see him punch out Barbara but honestly, she had been pissing me off too and I can’t say I wouldn’t have done something similar for her to pull herself together in the bizarre circumstances they faced. Although many a horror title has tempted the concept of a society unaware of zombies experiencing the zombie apocalypse, like The Walking Dead universe, Night of the Living Dead is the official first. There is a believability about this in this 1968 film that can’t be faked and is captured in the acting portrayals, makeup, costume design, and even zombie elements. The decisions don’t always follow the same lore we identity as standard for zombies today (unintelligent means of murder like an animal or sole desire to eat people as examples), but these random decisions make the film feel personally more unpredictable than a modern horror film. The film follows the characters learning about the undead assailants alongside the audience with new information reveals evenly spaced in the plot, hitting key inflection points. The decisions of the family that run contrary to their best interest are believable, opening themselves up to being potentially doomed without realizing. The information that the recently deceased are susceptible to becoming undead also isn’t revealed until later around when Karen reanimates and officially poses a threat to the group that had only been suspected and theorized before. The family meets a tragic end all around but the scene of the daughter, Karen, consuming her mother, Helen, is visually and emotionally intense. The chain of events a clear path from action to consequence for Helen and the fact that she’s not killed by being eaten but rather stabbed with a gardening tool is savage and feels more personal. It feels like her daughter is still somewhere in that undead form harboring some sort of resentment that made her kill her in the way she did rather than a more zombie-like way.