It’s so tough for a prequel to achieve the level of greatness established by its predecessor, let alone beat the original at its own game. It certainly happens from time to time, and that seems to count doubly for horror movies. There are rare examples – like Annabelle: Creation, The First Purge, and Ouija: Origin of Evil (though that one had a low bar to beat) – but they’re conspicuous for their scarceness. Though these instances may be few and far between, they certainly exist and should be celebrated accordingly. A more recent example that fits the bill is a horror prequel directed by William Brent Bell.

Orphan: First Kill takes place prior to the events of Orphan, catching up with an adult Estonian woman called Leena (Isabelle Fuhrman), who has the physical appearance of a young child, as she escapes confinement in a psychiatric hospital. Leena ultimately assumes the identity of a missing American girl called Esther. When Esther is “reunited” with her parents, Allen and Tricia (Julia Stiles and Rossif Sutherland), things initially seem to go well. Yet, as Esther “rejoins” her “family,” strange things begin to happen, and we quickly realize that absolutely nothing is what it seems. Even in the age of streaming abundance, Orphan First Kill is only available to watch on Paramount+, and it’s worth looking out for.

This 2022 Horror Prequel Is Even Better Than Its Predecessor

We’re not alone in our assessment that Orphan: First Kill outdoes the original. One need look no further than the aggregate film review site Rotten Tomatoes to verify that claim. Orphan is narrowly fresh on the site, with a critical approval rating of just 60%. However, Orphan: First Kill boasts a more impressive approval rating of 70% with an even higher audience rating.

As for why critics favor the prequel, there are a number of good reasons for that — not the least of which is the way the follow-up takes some of the best parts of the original and runs with them. The original features moments of camp that make the flick stand out from similarly themed offerings, yet the film never goes into full-fledged absurdity like Orphan: First Kill does.

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Orphan: First Kill hits the ground running, thanks, in no small part, to the fact that the cat is out of the bag from the get-go. Rather than waiting to learn that Esther isn’t a child at all, we know that going in. That allows the film to start with a crazy, unhinged baseline, and then just continues to build.

Seeing as the first film hinges on a twist, it seems only appropriate that the follow-up does as well. We won’t veer into spoiler territory to tell you how; we’ll only say that the twist here is just as shocking as the one featured in the original, if not more so. At the point at which all is revealed, we learn of a chilling revelation that forever shifts the dynamic between Esther and the couple that takes her in as their missing daughter.

Aside from a great twist, the flick also features a terrific sense of humor. Screenwriter David Coggeshall dreams up a series of chilling scenarios that are often tinged with campy humor. The scene where we see Esther (who looks like an 11-year-old) piloting a stolen car with a cigarette pressed between her lips is a stroke of genius. There are several other standout sequences likely to make you chuckle, but we’ll stop there so as not to spoil all of the comical setups in store for the uninducted.

On the whole, Orphan: First Kill takes the groundwork laid by its predecessor and improves upon it. This is a prequel that leans heavily into the camp value inherent to the setup and delivers an undeniably good time in the process. Moreover, this follow-up effort features a killer twist and a wicked sense of humor. If we’ve successfully sold you on checking out the flick, you can find the film streaming on Paramount+.

If you’ve experienced Orphan: First Kill, we’d love to hear your thoughts. How do you rank it compared to the 2009 original? Let us know in the comments section below!

The post Paramount+ is the Only Place to Watch One of the Only Good Horror Prequels appeared first on ComicBook.com.

This year has seen some great horror releases, but 2024 still remains a standout year for the genre. Films like Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu, Osgood Perkins’ Nicolas Cage-led Longlegs, and Tim Burton’s long-awaited Beetlejuice sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, pulled in massive box office hauls and earned rave reviews from critics and audiences alike. Many of those titles have since made their way to streaming platforms, including the best horror movie of 2024, but there’s a major catch.

Streamers like Netflix, HBO Max, and Prime Video are some of the most well-known platforms out there, and their libraries frequently boast some of the biggest titles in recent years. However, a lesser-known platform, Mubi, is streaming The Substance as of this August. Director Coralie Fargeat’s epic body-horror satire centers around Elisabeth Sparkle, a fading actress who in an effort to recapture her youth injects herself with a mysterious drug that promises a younger, better version of herself, but also comes with horrible side effects.

Why You Should Watch The Substance

In a year filled with memorable releases, The Substance was a standout. The movie is one of the best horror movies of 2024 and also one of the best horror films of all time. The Substance managed to find an ounce of originality in a crowded genre, and is self-aware in its societal commentary on aging and Western culture’s obsession with female beauty and youth, depicted through truly gruesome and grotesque body horror. Both thought-provoking and visually disturbing, The Substance made for an unforgettable cinematic experience that will be just as enthralling at home.

The Substance earned plenty of praise for its unflinching and often grotesque storyline, but where the movie really shines is in its cast. Fargeat’s movie is led by Demi Moore as Elisabeth Sparkle, alongside Dennis Quaid as her producer Harvey and Margaret Qualley as Sue, a younger version of Elisabeth. All three actors deliver unforgettable and emotionally-charged performances, but Moore in particular is a standout in the film. The actress delivered a raw and visceral performance as a self-loathing and fading Hollywood star trying to deal with societal pressures in what is without a doubt a career-best. Her portrayal of Elisabeth in The Substance even earned Moore her first Oscar nomination, a rare feat for a horror film, a genre often overlooked at the Academy Awards. Moore didn’t take home the Oscar for Best Actress, but she did win a Golden Globe Award, Critics’ Choice Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award.

Other Top Horror Movies Now On Mubi

Mubi is not as well-known as other streamers in the growing field of subscription streaming options, but the platform has a can’t-miss collection of movies for fans of all genres. The streamer has an especially impressive collection of horror titles, and The Substance is just one of them. See some of the other horror movies streaming on Mubi now below.

Sick of Myself
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Four Unloved Women, Adrift on a Purposeless Sea, Experience the Ecstasy of Dissection
The Babadook
The House That Jack Built
Night Tide
A Field in England
The Nest of the Cuckoo Birds
House of Seven Bells

The post The Best Horror Movie of 2024 Is Available to Stream (But There’s a Catch) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

When the first Ghostbusters film debuted during the summer of 1984, it revolutionized the horror-comedy genre, and had us all proclaiming that we weren’t “afraid of no ghost.” While that may be true, there are still plenty of scares to found in Ghostbusters in between the laughs. Who can forget the movie’s iconic opening at the New York Public Library with the formidable Library Ghost? Or Slimer terrorizing the Sedgewick Hotel? We’ve never looked at marshmallows the same after Gozer took the form the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and trudged down Central Park West. However, there’s one scene that definitely skewed more horror than horror-comedy in Ghostbusters, and it’s still the scariest scene in the movie, along with all the other films that have followed.

The scene comes at the end second act of Ghostbusters as Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) heads back to her apartment to get ready for her date with Ghostbusters Peter Venkman (Bill Murray). On her way, she bumps into her neighbor, Louis Tully (Rick Moranis). Louis cajoles Dana into stopping by his party with Peter. Dana hedges and enters her apartment, where she takes a call from her mother.

As Dana has her very ho-hum conversation with her mother, the foreboding starts to build. We, the audience, see that the door to Dana’s bedroom is eerily glowing before she does. The film’s score turns ominous, and just as Dana glimpses claws pushing at the door, the scaly, clawed limbs emerge from the armchair she’s sitting in! They hold her down against the chair, making escape impossible, no matter how much Dana screams. Her armchair magically turns and slides toward the now-open bedroom door, where a massive Terror Dog with fangs and glowing-red eyes await her. The next time we see Dana, she’s been possessed by the otherworldly gatekeeper, Zuul.

Dana’s Possession in Ghostbusters is True, Undiluted Horror

Dana’s possession is so darn scary because director Ivan Reitman chooses not to undercut it with any humor. Dana’s not the only character to get possessed in Ghostbusters, but in contrast, there’s more wackiness and gags when Tully succumbs to the Keymaster in the following scene. In Dana’s case, we’re lulled into a false sense of security with the friendly exchange between neighbors that comes before her possession. Especially since Dana’s engaging in a mundane task—talking on the phone with a loved one—right before she’s attacked, adding to the sense that what follows can happen to us too.

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Reitman expertly builds the suspense and apprehension after Dana hangs up with her mom. The camera pans around so we see Dana’s glowing bedroom door before she does, and the imprint of the Terror Dog’s paws against the door is plays on our sense of dead of what’s on the other side. It’s a clever misdirect, both Dana and the audience are so busy trying to figure out what’s knocking against the door that the jump scare of the limbs ripping out of chair and pinning her to it can fully land. Also, integral to the scene’s scare factor are Bernstein’s eerie score. The composer’s use of strings underscores the uncanny’s steady increase during the scene.

Of course, the scene wouldn’t have worked at all without Weaver’s arresting performance. No stranger to horror after her star turn in Alien five years prior, Weaver plays Dana’s placidity and then discovery of the monster a moment too late perfectly. It’s a swift shift, but we’re right there with Dana screams and thrashes against the ghoulish limbs and unseen forces dragging her to her monstrous fate, albeit temporary. Funnily enough, the Terror Dogs themselves stemmed from Weaver, who in her audition with Reitman, acted out being possessed by a dog. The director was so taken with her fearlessness and performance, he included it in the film.

This dose of undiluted horror, albeit tame enough to exist in a movie children adore, comes at the exact right spot in Ghostbusters. It introduces a heightened sense of danger to the film as the story goes into its finale and establishes the scale of the monster that the Ghostbusters will be up against. Further proof of the scene’s fear factor is how the Terror Dogs have endured in pop culture. Even before their reprisal in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the monsters were one of the most recognizable memorable creatures to come out of Ghostbusters, since they scared the bejesus out of us, and also created the terms of the balance to be struck between the two genres in future movies in the franchise.

What scene scares you the most in the Ghostbusters films? Let us know in the comments!

The post This Is Still the Scariest Scene in the Ghostbusters Franchise appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Zach Cregger’s Weapons continued to perform very well at the box office in its second weekend, and the acclaimed horror film has already made more money domestically than one of the year’s most infamous flops. According to Deadline, Weapons is poised to repeat as box office champion this weekend, bringing in about $25 million in the United States. Not only is that a very strong hold for the feature (a drop of just 43%), it raises Weapons‘ domestic total to roughly $89 million over its first 10 days. That surpasses the $87.2 million Disney’s live-action Snow White remake earned for its entire run.

Embroiled by multiple controversies as it entered theaters, Snow White struggled to make much of an impact in theaters. Budgeted somewhere between $240-270 million, the remake opened with just $42.2 million domestically and quickly fell down the charts. It suffered a staggering 66% drop in its second weekend, becoming a bomb. Snow White grossed only $205.6 million globally.

Snow White eventually found an audience when it hit streaming. It was the most popular movie on Disney+ back in June, beating out titles such as the original animated Lilo & Stitch and Predator: Killer of Killers. Still, that wasn’t enough to make up for its lackluster box office performance — especially as the live-action Lilo & Stitch remake broke records en route to $1 billion worldwide. Snow White‘s struggles forced Disney to hit the pause button on the live-action Tangled remake.

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In contrast, Weapons had no problem leaving an impression on audiences. Bolstered by very strong word of mouth and a mysterious marketing campaign, the original horror film exceeded projections in its first weekend, grossing $43.5 million in its first three days. That opening frame was more lucrative than the entire box office run of Cregger’s previous film, Barbarian.

Weapons has emerged as another box office win for Warner Bros., which has enjoyed a resurgence this spring and summer. It was the studio’s sixth straight film this year to debut with $40+ million domestically, a new record. Weapons is already profitable, having recouped its $38 million production budget last weekend. Its success has generated excitement not just for what’s next for Cregger (his Resident Evil movie just became that much more anticipated), but also further stories in the Weapons universe. In particular, there’s interest in building a prequel film around breakout character Aunt Gladys, played by Amy Madigan.

There’s no reason why Weapons shouldn’t be able to continue to hold well over the next few weeks. The rest of August doesn’t feature much in the way of high-profile competition. This week’s new arrival, Nobody 2, had to settle for third place in its debut (just $9.25 million). In addition to bringing in general moviegoers thanks to the word of mouth, Weapons can also corner the horror/thriller demographic until September, when movies like The Conjuring: Last Rites and The Long Walk open. It’ll be interesting to see how high Weapons goes.

The post Weapons Just Made More Money in 10 Days Than a Major Disney Flop Did in 2 Months appeared first on ComicBook.com.

We’re currently in a very interesting era of the horror genre where two things are working very well: elevated horror like Midsommar and reboot-sequels like Scream. But most horror fans still point to the 1980s as the definitive decade for the genre, and while it was genuinely difficult to narrow 10 years down to 10 entries, what follow are the best of the best. A few big names didn’t qualify because they were genre blenders where the primary emphasis was only arguably horror or definitely not horror, e.g. Altered States and An American Werewolf in London (which is as much comedy and romance as it is horror). Other examples include Evil Dead II, Videodrome, Gremlins, Fright Night, Re-Animator, The Return of the Living Dead, April Fool’s Day, Night of the Creeps, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, The Lost Boys, Predator, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, and The Monster Squad.

We would also be remiss to not at least give a shout out to some excellent straightforward horror movies that nonetheless just missed the cut. These were The Fog, Alligator, The Burning, Halloween II, The Howling, My Bloody Valentine, Christine, Cujo, Sleepaway Camp, Day of the Dead, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Angel Heart, The Stepfather, Creepshow, and Possession.

1) Friday the 13th

Friday the 13th, be it the original film or the franchise as a whole, is primarily known for one thing: inventive kills. But there were plenty of gory slashers released in this film’s wake that did the same thing, yet they’re not nearly as effective.

In other words, Friday the 13th doesn’t receive nearly as much respect as it deserves. It’s perfectly paced, with a consistent upping of stakes that slowly makes you grip the seat. It also possesses a very natural look, making the viewer feel as if they’re a camp counselor right there at Camp Crystal Lake with Alice, Bill, Steve Christy, Brenda, Jack, Marcie, Ned, and Annie (though poor Annie never quite makes it to the premises). Toss in an iconic soundtrack, an unhinged performance by Betsy Palmer, likable characters it’s hard to say bye to, and one of the best horror movie kills of all time (experienced by a young Kevin Bacon, no less), and Friday the 13th is a true classic.

Rent Friday the 13th on Amazon Video.

2) The Shining

A film so elaborately constructed that people are still discovering things about it 45 years later, Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is a masterclass on tension building, cinematography, and acting. It was a filming process that took a major toll on some involved, but it’s hard to argue with the end result.

This is, of course, the Jack Nicholson show. Author Stephen King has oft pointed out that Nicholson’s Jack Torrance is blatantly unhinged from the first frame, and he’s not wrong, but like Heath Ledger’s work in The Dark Knight, this is a performance that is fully captivating throughout.

Rent The Shining on Amazon Video.

3) The Evil Dead

Evil Dead II may not have made the cut because it’s more of a live action Looney Tunes movie than something that is actively attempting to frighten the audience, but 1981’s The Evil Dead is still fair game. And, while Evil Dead II is most fans’ favorite installment of the franchise, it doesn’t quite have the particular horrifying, hair-raising power of the original.

Like with the counselors at Camp Crystal Lake, the audience feels stuck in the cabin with the film’s protagonists. This is the ultimate cabin in the woods movie, and the scene where the now-possessed Cheryl correctly guesses the cards in the deck in spite of being 10 feet away looking out the window is one of horror’s most terrifying scenes.

Rent The Evil Dead on Apple TV.

4) Poltergeist

If there’s a film on this list that is a starter horror movie, it’s Poltergeist. The bathroom mirror scene is gross but, overall, this one is fine to show to the kids.

Poltergeist‘s greatest strength is just how believable the primary cast is as a family. When the youngest member is taken from them, the audience wants to join in the hunt to get her returned to the Earthly plane. The suburban setting was also fantastic. All of the film’s events are taking place in an area we most frequently associate with safety. But in this house, no person is safe—they’re all equally susceptible to the ghostly interference.

Rent Poltergeist on Amazon Video.

5) The Thing

John Carpenter helmed two perfect films throughout his directing career: Halloween and The Thing. An ingenious look at Cold War era paranoia punctuated by what may very well be the best practical effects ever seen in a horror film, it’s a masterpiece. It also comes equipped with a doozy of an ambiguous ending.

Like quite a few of the best movies of all time, The Thing was not properly appreciated in its time. Some found it too grotesque, others found it too slow; it was divisive at best. But time has seen its reputation grow immensely, and deservedly so. If any Carpenter film deserved a Best Picture nomination, it was this one.

Rent The Thing on Amazon Video.

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6) A Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street was the shot in the arm the slasher subgenre needed. While it would keep cranking out forgettable entry after forgettable entry for another five years, it was a subgenre already running on fumes by 1984.

Enter Freddy Krueger and the game-changing idea of having a killer come for you while you are at your most vulnerable. You can’t run from Freddy, you can’t even kill him, you can just try and figure out what’s happening to you only to realize it’s too late. Visually inventive, displaying an iconic turn by Robert Englund, and featuring an early role for Johnny Depp, A Nightmare on Elm Street is tied for first with Scream on the late, great Craven’s filmography.

Rent A Nightmare on Elm Street on Amazon Video.

7) The Fly

The sequel may have been incredibly weird and unnecessary but David Cronenberg’s “original” (it was a remake, but far different from the ’50s version) The Fly was, and remains, a heartbreaking work only he could have produced to its maximum potential impact. And The Fly does carry a ton of impact.

While the film’s Academy Award winning makeup effects are certainly a selling point, it’s really the gradual descent into madness and desperation experienced by Jeff Goldblum’s Seth Brundle that keeps the audience viewed to the screen. Not to mention, Goldblum’s chemistry with Geena Davis (the two would marry the following year) was white hot and forces you to feel for their characters and believe their suffering.

Rent The Fly on Amazon Video.

8) Hellraiser

Hellraiser gave birth to a franchise that continues to this day, with even a video game on the way. But, in spite of the quality of Hellbound: Hellraiser II, the only one that is necessary viewing for fans of this film, Clive Barker’s best film works optimally as a one-off.

Everything about the original Hellraiser works. It was a genuinely impressive directorial debut by novelist Barker, who knew exactly how to bring his vivid, grim imagination to the big screen. The central hook of having a woman bring her dead lover (who is on the run from demons) back to life via sacrificing unsuspecting men is a great core, but even better is the design of the Cenobites, who have just enough screentime to make a skin-crawling impression.

Stream Hellraiser for free with ads on Pluto TV.

9) Near Dark

Near Dark is a severely underrated vampire movie that is having a hard time expanding its audience considering it’s almost impossible to find. This was The Hurt Locker helmer Kathryn Bigelow’s solo directorial debut, and right out the gate she proves herself an auteur who knows how to pay serious attention to character development.

It’s a tragic story, one that makes you hate some of the vampires while feeling outright empathy for others. It’s also something of an Aliens reunion. Bigelow knew James Cameron at the time (they would marry two years after Near Dark‘s release), and one year after Aliens came out this film brought on three of its cast members: Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein. Not to mention, Cameron has a blink and you’ll miss it cameo.

Near Dark is not available for digital rental or streaming.

10) Child’s Play

There’s an argument to be made that Child’s Play isn’t a particularly scary film. And, while it’s the scariest of the franchise, it’s also a fair enough argument.

But it was without a doubt influential. Thanks to Brad Dourif’s on-point vocal work as Chucky (not to mention the character’s design), the killer doll became a motif that horror tried to emulate repeatedly in subsequent years. With snappy pacing, the aforementioned iconic antagonist, an underrated soundtrack, and top-tier work by Catherine Hicks, Child’s Play is a winner.

Stream Child’s Play on MGM+.

The post 10 Best Horror Movies Of The 1980s appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Horror comedies seem to be a common trend in recently released films. From Stephen King adaptations like The Monkey to A24 fantasies like Death of a Unicorn, studios are frequently deciding to utilize comedy within horror films. One of the best examples of a horror/comedy is the Zombieland franchise. With an incredible ensemble, including Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, and Woody Harrelson, and an all-time great cameo by Bill Murray, the duology successfully delivers on both genres, bringing a new perspective to the zombie film that made a massive impact on the viewer. Whether they are looking for a Twinkie or decapitating zombies, these films have great stories despite their absurdities.

Both Zombieland movies do an incredible job of building character and creating fantastic zombie sequences, and a third film is necessary to end a trilogy. With the way the second film wraps up, there are so many directions that the next film could go in, and it’s strange that there has yet to be an announcement for a third movie.

Why Is There Not a Zombieland 3 in Development?

Zombieland was a critical and audience hit upon release, scoring an 89% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and an 86% from audiences. On a $23-million budget, the film went on to gross $102 million at the worldwide box office according to BoxOfficeMojo, making it a relatively big success for Columbia Pictures. Despite being a success on nearly every front, it took ten years for a sequel to come out. Zombieland: Double Tap was not as successful with critics, but still holds a fresh 68% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, however, gave it an 88% approval rating, surpassing the score of the original. With a doubled budget of $42 million, the film ended up grossing more than the first film, picking up $122 million at the worldwide box office. Despite receiving worse reviews, the box office of the sequel shows that people are still eager for more content in the Zombieland universe.

With the box office success and moderate acclaim of both films, why hasn’t a third movie been announced? There have been tons of rumors about why the studio has not greenlit the film yet, with a heavy emphasis on scheduling between the actors being the main issue. With actors like Emma Stone and Jesse Eisenberg becoming A-list movie stars since the release of the first film, it’s justifiable that they have yet to green-light a third movie. Director Ruben Fleischer and the rest of the cast have been asked numerous times, and while they have expressed interest, according to interviews, nothing has been set in stone on a potential third movie in the series.

Another reason why filmmakers may be skeptical about making a third movie is the failure of the 2013 television show, Zombieland: The Series. Acting as a reimagining of the original film, the series never made it beyond the pilot episode, as no studio picked up the show, which led to its eventual cancellation. Whereas that show failed for not having the original cast returning, people would be much more excited for a third Zombieland movie, as the cast is one of the main reasons why people enjoy the films.

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There Are Many Directions to Take a Third Zombieland Movie

It wasn’t until the second movie that the filmmakers began to fully develop the world of Zombieland, introducing a plethora of new characters and locations for the characters to explore and call home. The end of Zombieland: Double Tap saw Columbus and Wichita, played by Eisenberg and Stone, getting engaged after a short-term break-up. The film also saw Nevada, played by Rosario Dawson, joining the main crew on their adventures as they drive away from Babylon. With newly introduced love interests and marriages, a third film could explore the idea of potentially raising children in a zombie apocalypse. Not only would this further develop the main antagonists, but it could strengthen the tension by giving the characters more to lose.

A third film also has the potential to make Little Rock, played by Abigail Breslin, a much stronger character. In both Zombieland movies, Little Rock is sidelined to the “child” role, being constantly told what to do by everyone around her, with too many rebellious subplots. In a third film, now that she has aged out of adolescence, it allows the writers and filmmakers to give her a stronger progression, other than the stereotypical “child in a horror movie” trope. Not only would a third Zombieland movie be a welcome addition to the franchise, but it would also give the filmmakers the opportunity to build on their previous work.

Even though the Zombieland movies aren’t making hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for their studio, they are extremely fun and well-made movies that deserve to have more sequels. With their signature sense of humor and incredible cast of A-listers, this is a franchise that should be pumping out new releases every few years, not every decade.

Do you think there should be a third Zombieland movie? Put in the comments below what you think Zombieland 3 should be about!

The post 6 Years Later, This Zombie Franchise Still Deserves a Third Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Much of John Carpenter‘s filmography has gotten the appropriate amount of love given the respective merits of the projects. Assault on Precinct 13, The Fog, Starman, Christine, Big Trouble in Little China, and They Live are all rightly deemed minor classics while Halloween, Escape from New York, and The Thing are all completely appreciated as full-on classics of cinema. Furthermore, Memoirs of an Invisible Man and Escape from L.A. were and continue to be (justifiably) dismissed as missed opportunities. But what about the movies that have fallen between the cracks, as it were? The ones that have merit yet have been lumped in with Memoirs of an Invisible Man by some, if not most, cinephiles.

Those are the ones that follow. They’re not golden eggs in Carpenter’s oeuvre, but they’re not lumps of coal, either.

1) Ghosts of Mars

A flawed but underrated action-horror movie, Ghosts of Mars unsurprisingly bombed hard when released during 2001’s summer movie season. It was always going to be niche, and its over-stylization and surprisingly cheap production values (at $28 million in 2001, it didn’t have a microscopic budget) were bound to kill repeat business.

And, admittedly, it’s perfectly understandable why Carpenter fans saw it as arguably his worst film. But time has been fairly kind to Ghosts of Mars. It’s not fully trying to be scary, it’s more trying to be fun, and once you get past how much of a drop it is from his Halloween and The Fog days, it succeeds in being that. For all intents and purposes, this is Carpenter’s swan song (in no way does The Ward feel like his), and it was an interesting final project to tackle.

Stream Ghosts of Mars for free with ads on The Roku Channel.

2) Village of the Damned

Like the next entry on this list, Carpenter’s Village of the Damned remake is an excellent example of the primary issue with the director’s latter half filmography. Specifically, many of the films start out very well but then proceed to gradually lose their way.

But unlike a few other examples, Village of the Damned opens phenomenally, then merely dips down to average. It’s also Christopher Reeve’s theatrical film swan song, and that alone gives it a considerable cultural curiosity factor (though the less said about Kirstie Alley’s performance, the better).

Rent Village of the Damned on Amazon Video.

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3) In the Mouth of Madness

There’s enough of a cult following for In the Mouth of Madness to warrant the release of a book in 2025, 31 years after the film’s release, but it’s still not one of Carpenter’s more popular films. It’s not hard to see why, as it’s arguably the best example of the main problem with Carpenter’s later career, which is the aforementioned tendency to open well then go downhill.

But, even after going downhill, Madness is still impressive in its ambition. And, for H. P. Lovecraft fans, it’s an unmissable love letter. It also puts Sam Neill to better use than the regrettable Memoirs of an Invisible Man.

Stream In the Mouth of Madness for free on Hoopla.

4) Vampires

As a whole, Carpenter’s ’90s output was far inferior to his ’80s output, but Vampires is a lot of fun. It’s impressive because vampire movies are a well-worn staple of the horror genre, and outside the odd Abigail here and there, they mostly feel played out.

The key to Carpenter’s vision for the monster is that most of the focus isn’t on the monster (though Thomas Ian Griffith is well cast as Jan Valek), it’s on the vampire hunters. Admittedly, Daniel Baldwin isn’t particularly great as Anthony Montoya, but as the head vampire hunter Jack Crow, James Woods is magnetic. One wishes the film had more scenes of the whole vampire team doing their thing, because those first 20 or so minutes are so fun, but it’s not as if the movie treads water after they’re all slaughtered. It’s a mixed bag of a movie, but still the high point of Carpenter’s ’90s.

Stream Vampires for free on Netflix.

5) Prince of Darkness

A grim horror flick with an incredibly messed-up ending, Prince of Darkness is arguably Carpenter’s most ambitious work. And, because of that, it can occasionally feel a bit all over the place. But in that inconsistency, there’s quite a bit of gold and a few of the director’s scariest scenes.

The plot follows a classroom of quantum physics-studying college students (most of whom do not look college-aged) as they go to an old church to analyze a big cylinder filled with a pulsing green liquid. It turns out this liquid is the embodiment of Satan, and it’s desperate to be released. This was Carpenter’s middle installment of his “Apocalypse Trilogy,” which started with The Thing and ended with In the Mouth of Madness. And, while it’s no The Thing, it’s better than Madness.

Rent Prince of Darkness on Amazon Video.

What do you think are Carpenter’s most underrated movies? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 5 John Carpenter Movies That Don’t Get Enough Love appeared first on ComicBook.com.

A great horror movie ending is an art form, often delivering the last twist of the knife that recontextualizes everything the audience has just witnessed. However, while many horror films opt for a triumphant finale where the surviving heroes vanquish evil, some of the most memorable horror movie endings choose a different path. They steer directly into the darkness, concluding with an outcome so bleak, so shocking, or so profoundly unfair that it lingers long after the credits roll. These are the endings that spark debates and leave viewers stunned, endings that feel both completely wrong and absolutely perfect.

This brand of messed-up finale is a high-wire act. If mishandled, it can feel cheap or nihilistic for its own sake. When executed perfectly, however, it serves as the thematic capstone to the entire story. We’ve selected the horror endings that achieved a legendary status because they dare to deny the audience any sense of comfort, leaving them with a chilling truth.

WARNING: Major spoilers below 

1) Sleepaway Camp

The 1983 slasher Sleepaway Camp spends most of its run time as a fairly standard, if exceptionally strange, summer camp murder mystery. The story follows the painfully shy Angela Baker (Felissa Rose), who is sent to Camp Arawak with her cousin Ricky (Jonathan Tiersten). Soon after their arrival, a series of grisly and inventive killings begins to plague the camp, with each victim having recently bullied or wronged Angela in some way. The film plays with audience expectations, setting up multiple red herrings as it builds toward its infamous final reveal.

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Sleepaway Camp‘s place in horror history was cemented in its final moments, which remain one of the most jarring and controversial twists in the genre. Counselors discover a naked Angela on a beach, humming eerily while holding the decapitated head of her crush, Paul (Christopher Collet). As she stands up and turns, it is revealed that “Angela” is actually her long-lost brother, Peter, who was raised as a girl by his eccentric aunt after the real Angela died in a boating accident. The image of Angela’s face on a male body, accompanied by an animalistic hiss, is a truly unsettling conclusion that fans were not prepared for. While the initial reaction to this ending was divisive, Sleepaway Camp has since been reappraised for a perfectly wacky ending.

2) The Descent

Neil Marshall’s claustrophobic masterpiece, The Descent, follows a group of female friends on a caving expedition that goes horribly wrong. One year after a tragic car accident claimed her husband and daughter, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) joins her friends for an adventure intended to help her heal. Their trip becomes a fight for survival when a cave-in traps them in an unexplored system, which they soon discover is home to a species of vicious subterranean predators. The Descent is a relentless exercise in tension, compounding the terror of the monstrous “crawlers” with the paranoia and betrayals simmering within the group.

The Descent is famous for having two different endings, but it is the original UK version that delivers the truly devastating blow. In this cut, Sarah manages to escape the caves, drive away, and then hallucinates her dead friend Juno (Natalie Mendoza) in the passenger seat. This is revealed to be a fake-out, as Sarah awakens back in the darkness of the cave. She then has a peaceful vision of her deceased daughter holding a birthday cake, a brief moment of happiness before the sounds of the approaching crawlers seal her doom. This finale is a perfect encapsulation of the film’s title, showing a psychological descent from which there is no escape.

3) Drag Me to Hell

Sam Raimi’s return to horror, Drag Me to Hell, is a gleefully cruel cautionary tale starring Alison Lohman as Christine Brown, a mild-mannered loan officer who, in an attempt to secure a promotion, denies a loan extension to a mysterious old woman named Mrs. Ganush (Lorna Raver). In retaliation, Mrs. Ganush places a powerful demonic curse on Christine, dooming her to three days of escalating torment before the demon Lamia drags her soul to hell. 

Drag Me to Hell is a chaotic blend of supernatural horror and Raimi’s signature dark humor as Christine desperately seeks a way to break the curse. After numerous failed attempts to appease or transfer the curse, Christine believes she has finally succeeded by burying the cursed object, a button from her coat, with Mrs. Ganush’s corpse. In the final scene, her boyfriend Clay (Justin Long) proposes to her at a train station. As he gives her an envelope containing a rare coin she thought she had lost, he reveals she accidentally gave him the envelope with the cursed button. Realizing her fatal mistake, a terrified Christine stumbles back onto the train tracks just as fiery hands erupt from the ground and drag her screaming into hell.

4) Rosemary’s Baby

Roman Polanski’s 1968 classic Rosemary’s Baby is a slow-burn psychological horror following Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow), a young wife who moves into a new apartment building with her aspiring actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes). After being drugged, she has a terrifying dream of being sexually assaulted by a demonic entity. Soon after, she becomes pregnant and is isolated by her overly helpful neighbors and her own husband, who are all part of a satanic coven with sinister plans for her unborn child. Of course, the truth is only revealed in the movie’s final stretch, leaving both Rosemary and the audience questioning her sanity.

The film’s horrifying conclusion validates all of Rosemary’s worst fears. After giving birth, she is told the baby died, but she soon discovers her child alive in the neighbors’ apartment, surrounded by the coven. They reveal that she has given birth to the son of Satan, the Antichrist. Though initially horrified, Rosemary’s maternal instincts take over when she hears the baby crying. The final shot shows her rocking the demonic infant’s cradle, a quiet acceptance of her horrific fate and her role as the mother of evil.

5) Saw

The film that launched one of horror’s most successful franchises, 2004’s Saw introduced a new level of intricate plotting to the genre. The story centers on two men, Adam (Leigh Whannell) and Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes), who awaken chained in a derelict bathroom with a corpse lying between them. Through a series of cassette tapes, they learn they are pawns in a deadly game orchestrated by the Jigsaw Killer, a moralistic murderer who forces his victims to endure horrific trials to prove their will to live. According to the game’s rules, Dr. Gordon is tasked with killing Adam before his time runs out, or his wife and daughter will be murdered.

The ending of Saw is a series of stunning revelations that fundamentally redefine the entire film. After a desperate Dr. Gordon saws off his own foot to escape, the supposed hospital orderly Zep, who the players believed was Jigsaw, is revealed to be just another victim of the game. The true gut-punch comes in the final moments when the “corpse” that has been lying in the center of the room the entire time rises to its feet. It is John Kramer (Tobin Bell), the real Jigsaw Killer, who was present and watching them the whole time. He seals the door, leaving Adam to die in the dark, a perfect twist that left audiences speechless.

6) Hereditary

Ari Aster’s debut feature, Hereditary, became famous for its deeply disturbing exploration of grief, trauma, and inescapable fate. The film follows the Graham family as they unravel following the death of their secretive matriarch. Then, after a horrific accident leads to the death of her daughter, Charlie (Milly Shapiro), Annie (Toni Collette) descends into a spiral of grief and desperation, which makes her vulnerable to a seemingly benevolent support group member named Joan (Ann Dowd). What starts as a harrowing family drama slowly transforms into a supernatural nightmare, revealing that a sinister force has been manipulating the Grahams for generations.

The final act of Hereditary reveals that the family was always doomed. Annie’s mother was the leader of a cult dedicated to the demon Paimon, who needed a male host. The cult orchestrated every tragedy to break down the family and prepare Annie’s son, Peter (Alex Wolff), for possession. In the finale, a possessed Annie decapitates herself while a naked cult watches, and Paimon’s spirit successfully enters Peter’s body. The film ends with Peter, now King Paimon, being crowned in a treehouse shrine surrounded by the headless corpses of his mother and grandmother, a truly bleak culmination of the family’s inherited curse.

7) Eden Lake

James Watkins’s 2008 British thriller Eden Lake stands as one of the most relentlessly punishing films in the survival horror subgenre. The story follows a young couple, Jenny (Kelly Reilly) and Steve (Michael Fassbender), who travel to a remote quarry for a romantic weekend. Their peaceful getaway is quickly shattered by a confrontation with a gang of aggressive local youths, led by the intimidating Brett (Jack O’Connell). 

The film’s infamous ending delivers a soul-crushing blow that has haunted viewers for years. After enduring unimaginable torment and witnessing Steve’s brutal murder, a battered Jenny manages a desperate escape from the woods. She finds help in a nearby town, collapsing in a home during a house party. Her momentary relief turns to absolute terror when she realizes she is in the home of her tormentors. The parents, upon understanding what their children have done, do not offer aid but instead close ranks to protect their own. The last we see is Brett deleting incriminating footage from his phone while Jenny’s muffled screams confirm she is being murdered by the adults, erasing the last witness.

8) The Wicker Man

The 1973 version of The Wicker Man is a foundational film in the folk horror subgenre. The story follows the devoutly Christian police sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), who travels to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. Upon his arrival, he is disturbed to find a community that has abandoned Christianity in favor of pagan Celtic rituals. Furthermore, the islanders, led by the charismatic Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee), are welcoming but evasive, denying the girl ever existed. As a result, Howie’s investigation becomes a battle of faith as he grows more horrified by the island’s culture.

Howie eventually discovers that the missing girl was a lure, and he was the intended target all along. The islanders’ crops have failed, and they believe that only a human sacrifice, a willing virgin who comes of his own free will, will appease their gods. In the film’s iconic and horrifying finale, Howie is forced inside a giant wicker man statue and burned alive. His terrified Christian prayers are drowned out by the joyous singing of the islanders as they watch him burn, a truly unsettling ending where the hero’s faith is powerless against the community’s beliefs.

9) The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods is a brilliant deconstruction of the horror genre. The film starts with a familiar premise, as five college students, who each fit a specific horror archetype, head to a remote cabin for a weekend of fun. Meanwhile, from a secret underground facility, two technicians (Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford) manipulate the environment, unleashing zombies upon the students. As the story unfolds, it is revealed that this is part of a ritual sacrifice, enacted worldwide, to appease malevolent beings known as the Ancient Ones who live beneath the Earth.

The Cabin in the Woods‘ ending subverts horror tropes one last time. The two survivors, Dana (Kristen Connolly) and Marty (Fran Kranz), discover the truth and unleash all the facility’s monsters, causing chaos. They are confronted by the Director (Sigourney Weaver), who explains that for humanity to survive, one of them must die. Instead, Dana and Marty choose to let the world end, sharing a final joint as a giant hand erupts from the ground, destroying the facility and everything else. It is a cosmically bleak and hilarious finale that punishes the audience and the genre itself for its rigid demands.

10) The Mist

Frank Darabont’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella, The Mist, is famous for having one of the most soul-crushing endings in cinema history. Following a violent storm, a mysterious mist envelops a small town in Maine, trapping a group of shoppers, including David Drayton (Thomas Jane) and his young son Billy (Nathan Gamble), inside a supermarket. They soon discover the mist is filled with otherworldly creatures that tear apart anyone who dares leave the building. At the same time, inside the store, fear and paranoia take hold, with a religious zealot, Mrs. Carmody (Marcia Gay Harden), convincing a faction of survivors that a human sacrifice is needed.

In the final moments of The Mist, David and a small group, including his son, manage to escape the store and drive into the mist. After their car runs out of gas, they lose all hope. Believing a gruesome death by the creatures is inevitable, David agrees to use his four remaining bullets to mercifully kill the other four passengers, including his own son. Out of bullets for himself, he steps out of the car to face the monsters, only to see the mist recede and the US Army emerge, having defeated the creatures and ready to rescue the survivors. The realization that he killed his son for nothing, just moments before rescue, is an absolutely perfect gut punch.

Which horror movie ending do you think is the most perfectly messed up? Let us know in the comments.

The post 10 Horror Movies With Messed-Up (But Perfect) Endings appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Some genres refuse to die. There’s a touch of irony to that statement, given that the era of zombies is back (again) and quite possibly stronger than ever. Zombie movies have been making waves for what feels like generations, terrorizing and thrilling fans while showcasing the terrifying feats of the undead. Horror history is littered with zombie films and franchises, though some have left a larger imprint on our memories than others. The zombie horror trend has admittedly come and gone a few times, and all signs point to another zombie resurgence, and we are here for it. The latest Paramount news helps solidify this fact.

In case you didn’t hear the latest undead news, Paramount Pictures has announced its intention to bring a decade-old movie back for another run. That’s right, World War Z is finally getting the teased sequel, proving that zombies will never stay down for long. It’s sort of their thing.

The Zombie Moment of the Early to Mid-2000s

People love zombies and creatures of the undead. It’s a fascination that society never wants to fully let go of, though we can clearly get burned out on a subject. We’ve all seen its popularity wax and wane, and realistically, we know that this current wave will probably come to an end within the next few years.

The early 2000s brought several new zombie franchises to the forefront, including a film adaptation of the beloved video game series, Resident Evil. The first film hit theatres in 2002, with new additions coming out every few years. Notably, the Resident Evil films were a little bit hit or miss, especially later additions that didn’t necessarily follow the source material.

This same zombie boost gave rise to 28 Days Later, a post-apocalyptic horror film starring Cillian Murphy. Let’s be real, this movie is still one of the most unforgettable zombie movies of its time. A mere two years later, Shaun of the Dead hit the scene. The latter is a zombie comedy that put a fresh spin on a premise similar to the classic Dawn of the Dead, so it immediately earned a soft spot in our hearts (or is it brains?).

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Coming Back to Life During the 2010s

The zombie phenomenon died back a bit after that, though films like Zombieland squeezed in between bursts of popularity. When a treasured comic series got a TV adaptation, we saw the beginning of another wave. The Walking Dead took the world by storm in 2010, and it still has a strong hold over a dedicated audience. This franchise quickly spiraled, with spinoffs still popping up to this day.

It was this boost in popularity that allowed Max Brooks’s World War Z to get an adaptation, albeit one that doesn’t follow the book all that closely. Paramount put a lot of faith (and money) into the adaptation, and while it made its money back, the margin was small enough to presumably cause some hesitation about that promised sequel.

The same year World War Z was released, there was another notable adaptation. Warm Bodies was a zombie romantic comedy based on Isaac Marion’s novel. Obviously, the Resident Evil movies were still in full swing. Let us not forget other zombie classics of the time, such as Train to Busan (2016), Anna and the Apocalypse (2017), and Juan of the Dead (2011).

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Zombies Are on the Rise Again

The returned promise of a World War Z sequel is the latest addition proving the zombie train is on the move. HBO was quick to lock in the rights for a live-action adaptation of The Last of Us. Season 1 broke waves and records, and that almost certainly got a lot of other streaming services paying attention. Season 2 continued to make waves, increasing the stakes, breaking our hearts, and portraying a new take on the zombie story, complete with infected humans and haunting settings devoid of humanity.

Last, but certainly not least, we have to acknowledge the impact made by 28 Years Later. This post-apocalyptic film is the long-awaited sequel to the 28 Days Later franchise, releasing over two decades after the first movie infected our nightmares. If people weren’t falling back in love with the living dead before this point, they certainly were after. 28 Years Later reportedly pulled in over $150 million worldwide, easily beating the budget. In other words, it was enough to get Paramount searching for IP to revive.

World War Z’s sequel could be primed to debut before the latest zombie craze comes to an end, bringing Brad Pitt back for another daring adventure. Fans have been waiting a long time to see what this sequel has to offer.

Are you glad to see zombies making a comeback? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Paramount’s Sequel to the Biggest Zombie Movie Ever Continues the Best Horror Trend appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Resident Evil film franchise, particularly the six-movie saga helmed by Paul W.S. Anderson, holds a strange place in the history of video game adaptations. The movies were a massive commercial success, grossing over a billion dollars worldwide and becoming the highest-grossing film series based on a video game for a time. Yet, for many fans of the original Capcom survival horror games, they are a source of endless frustration. The films famously diverged from the source material, prioritizing stylized action over atmospheric horror and, most controversially, sidelining the games’ beloved protagonists in favor of a new, movie-exclusive hero. This creative decision to center the story on Milla Jovovich’s Alice meant that when iconic characters from the games did appear, their roles were often drastically altered.

Instead of leading the narrative, fan-favorites like Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, and Leon S. Kennedy were reduced to supporting characters in Alice’s story. Their complex backstories, defining character arcs, and critical relationships from the games were frequently simplified or ignored entirely. In addition, villains were stripped of their nuance, and heroes were rendered less capable to ensure Alice remained the central figure. Even the 2021 reboot, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which aimed for a more faithful adaptation, struggled to do justice to its ensemble cast, cramming the storylines of two games into one film. As a result, the cinematic legacy of Resident Evil is littered with characters who were arguably ruined by their big-screen counterparts.

1) Carlos Oliveira

In the narrative of Resident Evil 3, Carlos Oliveira is a character of surprising depth, an Umbrella mercenary whose innate decency wins out against his corporate allegiance. He begins as a cocky soldier, but through his partnership with Jill Valentine, he grows into a genuine hero, risking his life to navigate a zombie-infested hospital in a desperate search for a vaccine to save her. This arc, from a man just following orders to one making a moral stand, gives him a substance that makes him a fan favorite.

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The film franchise, after a passable introduction for Carlos (Oded Fehr) in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, systematically demolishes that integrity. His arc is immediately subverted to serve Alice, and his significance is tied exclusively to her survival. The ultimate insult to the character arrives when he’s given a heroic sacrifice in Extinction, only for the series to bring him back as a series of mindless clones in Retribution. This transformation from a man who found his honor in a moment of crisis into endlessly disposable cannon fodder is a complete betrayal of his character’s core appeal.

2) Claire Redfield

The cinematic failure of Claire Redfield stems from a total misunderstanding of her origins. In her video game debut, Claire is not a soldier or a hardened survivor, but a resourceful college student searching for her missing brother, Chris. Her appeal comes from witnessing an ordinary person adapt and fight back against impossible horrors, her strength forged in her resolve to protect others, especially the young Sherry Birkin. The audience connects with her because they see her become a hero in real-time, her courage and empathy shining through the terror.

Both film adaptations rob Claire of this essential journey. The Anderson movies introduce Claire (Ali Larter) as an already-established leader of a heavily armed desert convoy, presenting her as a finished product without a past. The 2021 reboot takes a different but equally flawed approach, making Claire (Kaya Scodelario) a paranoid conspiracy theorist driven by a separate orphanage trauma. Neither version trusts the audience to engage with her transformation, instead opting for a pre-packaged figure who shares little with the source material beyond a name and a red jacket.

3) Chris Redfield

Chris Redfield is a character built on legacy. In the games, he is a man carrying the weight of a lifelong war against bioterrorism, from his traumatic experiences in the Spencer Mansion to his globe-trotting missions with the BSAA. His history, his intense rivalry with Albert Wesker, and his protective bond with his sister Claire are the pillars that support his entire character, making him one of the franchise’s central figures, a man who famously punched a boulder into a volcano out of sheer will.

The movies present a version of Chris (Wentworth Miller) with no legacy at all. Introduced in Resident Evil: Afterlife, locked away in a prison cell, he is immediately diminished and treated as a forgotten relic. Plus, his epic feud with Wesker is reduced to a single weightless fight scene where the dialogue is hollow because the two share no history. The reboot’s take on Chris (Robbie Amell) is similarly anemic, portraying a generic soldier completely detached from his gravitas. The films gave us the uniform, but not the man inside it.

4) Nemesis

The terror of the Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 is rooted in its absolute inhumanity. Nemesis is a biological weapon of singular purpose, whose entire existence is justified by its desire to hunt and destroy its targets. As an unstoppable force that stalks the player with intelligence and a rocket launcher, it creates a unique and persistent dread that few video game villains have ever matched. As a result, Nemesis is frightening precisely because it is an “it,” a relentless, intelligent killing machine that cannot be reasoned with, only survived.

The filmmakers behind Resident Evil: Apocalypse made the catastrophic error of trying to give the creature a backstory. By revealing their Nemesis (Matthew G. Taylor) to be a mutated version of the sympathetic Matt Addison (Eric Mabius) from the first film, they instantly neutered its menace. The narrative choice to give the monster a conscience, culminating in a moment where it defies programming to help Alice, is a profound misunderstanding of what made the creature work. It’s a classic case of explaining the monster away, trading lasting dread for a moment of cheap pathos.

5) Jill Valentine

In the source material, Jill is a top-tier hero, and her later brainwashing plot in Resident Evil 5 is a dramatic storyline built on her deep history with Chris Redfield, making her rescue a crucial and emotional mission. For a brief moment in Resident Evil: Apocalypse, it seemed the Anderson movies got Jill Valentine right. Sienna Guillory’s look and attitude were a perfect match for the elite S.T.A.R.S. operative from the games, a fan-favorite known for her cool-headed competence and unbreakable will.

That strong start makes her subsequent treatment in the films a story of squandered potential. After being written out, Jill returns in Resident Evil: Retribution as a mind-controlled henchman in a shallow echo of the game’s plot, her rescue feeling like a minor inconvenience in Alice’s story rather than a critical objective. Furthermore, the reboot version of Jill (Hannah John-Kamen) has a personality so far removed from the original that she is unrecognizable. Both timelines took one of gaming’s most capable protagonists and relegated her to a supporting role or a side note.

6) Leon S. Kennedy

Leon S. Kennedy’s evolution from a rookie cop on his first day to a seasoned government agent is one of the great character arcs in gaming. His persona is a finely tuned mix of wry humor, professionalism, and the quiet confidence of a man who has survived hell and come out the other side. Fans appreciate him because his incredible skill feels earned, making him one of the franchise’s most popular heroes.

The film adaptations have managed to fail Leon twice in completely different, yet equally disastrous, ways. The Anderson series gave us a Leon (Johann Urb) who was little more than a mannequin, a stoic action hero with none of the charm or personality that makes the character tick. The 2021 reboot swung in the opposite direction, turning its Leon (Avan Jogia) into an incompetent oaf for comic relief, a character so useless it’s a wonder he survives the night. One version was hollow, the other was a joke, and both were a slap in the face to the famously capable agent of the games.

7) Albert Wesker

The entire sprawling narrative of the Resident Evil games orbits the magnificent ego of Albert Wesker. He is the ultimate villain, a brilliant, treacherous mastermind whose ambition is nothing less than to remake the world in his image. From his initial betrayal to his evolution into a superhuman megalomaniac, Wesker’s charismatic menace and personal hatred for Chris Redfield make him a truly legendary antagonist. In addition, his desire for power is his entire reason for being, a force that drives the plot for decades.

The Anderson film franchise inexplicably turns Wesker into an underling. Across his appearances, Wesker (played by Jason O’Mara and later Shawn Roberts) is a corporate executive who takes orders from others, including a computer program. This is a complete contradiction of the character’s core motivation for absolute control. The reboot’s Wesker (Tom Hopper) is even worse, a blandly written cop with a flicker of moral conflict who is totally devoid of the original’s style or presence.

Which Resident Evil character do you wish had a better representation in the movies? Share your picks in the comments!

The post 7 Resident Evil Characters Ruined by the Movies appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Zach Cregger’s Weapons includes an Easter egg to his career in comedy that is as moving as it is funny. The second horror movie written and directed by Cregger, following 2022’s Barbarian, Weapons centers on the unexplained disappearance of 17 children at 2:17 am in the town of Maybrook, Pennsylvania. The children were all students in the class of local elementary school teacher Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), with her student Alex Lilly (Cary Christopher) the only one turning up in her classroom the following day. The kids’ disappearance shakes the entire town to its core, with Weapons telling a non-linear story from the perspective of characters like Justine, Alex, one of the missing kids’ father Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), and others as the mystery unfolds.

While Weapons is not packed with a huge amount of comic relief, the movie does have its moments of dry humor. One such moment is found in a scene in which Maybrook Elementary School’s principal Marcus Miller (Benedict Wong) meets a student’s family member, with the scene also involving a collection of seven hot dogs prepared for Marcus’s lunch. While that might seem like an arbitrary detail to zero in on, it turns out the scene is actually an in-joke to Zach Cregger’s history in sketch comedy and specifically a tribute to one of his dearly departed colleagues from that era of his career.

WARNING: Spoilers below for Weapons

The Hot Dog Scene in Weapons Pays Tribute to the Show The Whitest Kids U’Know

The hot dog scene in Weapons takes place when Gladys (Amy Madigan), who is responsible for the children vanishing, visits Marcus Miller’s home, with Marcus’s husband Terry (Clayton Farris) in the midst of preparing lunch. Specifically, Terry has prepared a collection of seven hot dogs topped with mustard, along with a few side items like chips, carrots, and cookies. The specific count of seven hot dogs will likely go right over the heads of many moviegoers, but it is a clever reference to a skit on the sketch comedy series The Whitest Kids U’Know called “Hot Dog Timmy.”

In “Hot Dog Timmy,” Trevor Moore portrays a doctor who asks his patient, Timmy (Timmy Williams), what his average daily intake of hot dogs is. Timmy replies that he usually eats seven hot dogs per day. Zach Cregger overtly including the specific count of seven hot dogs in the scene in Marcus’s home in Weapons is a sly tribute to this scene, which becomes especially clear when looking back on Cregger’s own pre-directorial history and working relationship with Trevor Moore.

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Zach Cregger’s Comedy History Was Part of the Genesis of Weapons

The Whitest Kids U’Know originally began as a comedy troupe consisting of Zach Cregger, Trevor Moore, and Sam Brown, with the group originally forming in the year 2000, with other members like Darren Trumeter and Timmy Williams joining. The group’s growing popularity eventually led to the development of the The Whitest Kids U’Know sketch comedy show on the network Fuse (later moving to the channel IFC), with the show airing for five seasons between 2007 and 2011.

While The Whitest Kids U’Know troupe continued in the entertainment world after the end of the show, Trevor Moore tragically died on August 7th, 2021, at the age of 42 after falling from his home’s balcony. The untimely death of Moore deeply affected his co-stars from The Whitest Kids U’Know, including Cregger, and this played directly into Cregger’s development of Weapons.

Speaking to the Rolling Stone, Cregger revealed that he had been in post-production on Barbarian when Moore died, and he began writing the script for Weapons as an outlet while dealing with the loss of his friend and colleague. As Cregger puts it in the Rolling Stone interview, “The town is dealing with a loss. And so was I. It was the biggest direct hit I’d ever taken,” which illuminates the subtle importance of the Easter egg to The Whitest Kids U’Know in Weapons.

The Hot Dog Scene in Weapons Is Both Funny & Moving in Its Tribute to Trevor Moore

At face value, Terry’s carefully prepared lunch of seven hot dogs might seem like a throwaway moment, but it plays on the same kind of humor as the original “Hot Dog Timmy” sketch on The Whitest Kids U’Know. Many people can relate to the concept of having very specific and seemingly peculiar culinary practices, such as a very precise number of hot dogs whenever one is preparing lunch. Like Timmy before him, Marcus and Terry seem to have the idea that no fewer than seven hot dogs make a full meal, which adds a touch of humor to the horror story of Weapons.

On a deeper level, Cregger, like the population of Maybrook, was experiencing a period of tremendous personal grief and tragedy when he penned the spine-tingling screenplay for Weapons. With the movie focusing heavily upon how the townspeople, and especially the parents of the missing kids, do their best to cope and go about their daily lives while trying to locate the kids, the story itself reflects Cregger penning Weapons as a healing mechanism for his own real-life loss. The hot dog scene in Weapons adds some sly humor to the movie, but in the end, it is also a loving Easter egg and tribute to Cregger and Moore’s comedy collaboration and friendship on The Whitest Kids U’Know.

Weapons is now playing in theaters.

Did you catch this Easter egg in Weapons? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Weapons Is Hiding a Hilarious Easter Egg for a Cult Comedy Show appeared first on ComicBook.com.

With the number of games that make up Resident Evil as a franchise, there are a ton of bosses that you end up fighting. Unfortunately, not every boss fight is necessarily fun or an amazing experience that capitalizes on the game’s mechanics and lore. Instead, you face a number of boss fights that are annoying at best and unbearably frustrating at worst. These are the kinds of bosses that make you reluctant to replay a game more than once simply for the sake of avoiding the fight, or you start a replay and get to the boss section for the dread to set in when you realize what you have to face next.

This list of bad boss fights ranges from tedious to downright broken battles. They aren’t the only fights that end up being criticized, but they receive a lot more criticism compared to other bosses. While there are plenty of great fights to offset these battles, that knowledge doesn’t always make it easier to jump into a replay of a RE game when it has a fight you dread reaching.

1) Del Lago (Resident Evil 4)

Del Lago’s fight is pretty bad in both the original Resident Evil 4 and in the 2023 remake. True to the habit of games making bosses that you fight in a water section at least annoying, Del Lago is a bad fight because of the way you’re forced to essentially play a waiting game.

In both versions of RE4, you don’t have a way to speed up this fight. You have to wait, dodge attacks, and then attack Del Lago when the opportunity comes up. It’s not the worst feature that can happen in a boss fight, but when you already know what to do and still have to drag out the fight due to its design, it gets annoying.

2) Simmons (Resident Evil 6)

The annoying part about Simmons is that his boss fight is drawn out across several boss fights, similar to William Birkin in RE2, but he’s less interesting as a villain and the evolution of his forms for each fight don’t make a lot of sense.

A few of these boss forms are a pain to deal with, like his flying form and the T-rex form, and some of the forms were more fun to fight against. However, Simmons kept appearing as a boss with a new form so many times that fighting him grew old quickly, even as the mechanics of the fight changed. Leon’s campaign could’ve benefited from having a variety of bosses instead of a variety of Simmons forms.

3) Ndesu (Resident Evil 5)

Ndesu is similar to the El Gigante fight in RE4, but you instead fight him with the use of car-mounted guns. In RE5, Ndesu is another giant, but one that’s infected with uroboros, which causes bug-like creatures to burst out of his seams as weak points.

On higher difficulties, Ndesu can be tough to defeat. However, his fight is rather frustrating on all difficulties simply because you’re forced to use the guns on the vehicles against him, making it feel more like a rail shooter style of game and preventing you from moving to better angles. In the end, it feels like El Gigante round 2, but more bland.

4) Infected Bat (Resident Evil 0)

The Infected Bat is a boss fight that you might not be prepared for, because the game doesn’t make it feel like you’re about to enter a boss room. If you know that it’s coming up, you can be prepared with the grenade launcher and enough rounds to use against the bat. If you don’t know that it’s coming up, you’re likely going to have an awful time because this creature is incredibly difficult to kill without the grenade launcher.

Plus, you can soft-lock the battle by not having enough ammo to kill the bat when you enter the boss room, and you can’t exactly leave the room in the middle of a fight to go grab more. Instead, you end up having to load a past save and redo sections of the game. It’s quite frustrating.

5) Heisenberg (Resident Evil Village)

Heisenberg’s whole area is easily the most difficult to get through in RE Village, so it makes sense that his boss fight is unbearably tough. Unfortunately, Heisenberg’s fight is too extreme in its difficulty, and it ends up being a section that leaves players stuck. It takes only a couple of hits from Heisenberg to kill you, depending on difficulty, and those hits require both luck and precision to avoid. Even if you go in with a strategy, such as moving toward his right arm to dodge the attacks of his left arm, you’re still going to have a tough time defeating him. It’s enough to make some players give up on the game entirely.

RELATED – Capcom Insider Gives Update on Missing Resident Evil Remake

There’s a lot of fun to be had in Resident Evil, but like any game, not every part of the series is perfect, or even always enjoyable to go through. One big factor in what makes a section fun or frustrating lies in the design of that area’s boss fight. After all, you can only fight a boss so many times before you have to take a break from the game, and these bosses are some that tend to lead to those breaks.

What are your most frustrating boss battles in Resident Evil? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 5 Worst Resident Evil Boss Fights appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Some duos are so iconic that they transcend the thing they are a part of. Even people who don’t watch or know anything about basketball are aware of how well Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen played together for the Chicago Bulls in the late ’90s. DC Comics’ Dynamic Duo, Batman and Robin, are in the same boat. There isn’t one without the other, but the Dark Knight has been known to leave his sidekick at home from time to time when he teams up with another character. One notable instance occurred over 20 years ago, when Batman decided to fight crime with Image Comics’ most popular anti-hero, Spawn.

Spawn creator Todd McFarlane was making waves in the early ’90s, which put him on Frank Miller’s radar. The acclaimed writer and artist agreed to guest-write an issue of Spawn, which laid the groundwork for the Spawn/Batman one-shot that saw The One and the Caped Crusader come to blows in New York City. Well, after 25 years, McFarlane and Miller are working together again, collaborating on a cover for The Curse of Sherlee Johnson #3.

During an interview with ComicBook, McFarlane explained what the process of working with other popular creators was like a couple of decades ago and how much the industry has changed.

“When we were both back in the late ’80s and ’90s, the formality of doing comic books wasn’t there like it is today in terms of, like, people started getting under exclusive contracts, and you only work with one [company],” he said. “There was a lot of just being friends back then, of like, ‘Hey, I’ll do a cover for you, you do a cover for me.’ And you didn’t really have to get any clearance to some extent through the editors of the company, cause you just swapped pages and did stuff, and it was way easier. And especially when exclusives came around, it got tough.”

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Todd McFarlane’s Latest Collab With Frank Miller Is Long Overdue

McFarlane also can’t believe how long it’s taken for him and Miller to link back up after the success of Spawn/Batman and their other projects.

“When Frank and I did a couple of things back then, and the big one, which was the Spawn/Batman, you know, again, it was just like, ‘Let’s have some fun together, right?’ I mean, that’s it,” he continued. “Let’s come up with a crazy idea and do it, and here we are now again, 25 years later. And again, it just shoots you back to like, ‘We should’ve done this.’ Like, as you mentioned, it’s been 25 years. Like, why? There’s no good reason it should’ve taken this long for any two friends or collaborators to not have done it over and over.”

The Curse of Sherlee Johnson #3 arrives in stores on September 17th. Miller drew a variant cover for the issue, and then he and McFarlane worked together on another one. McFarlane can’t wait for readers to get their hands on both and decide which one they like better. Let us know in the comments below which one you are going after!

The post Todd McFarlane Details Collaborating With Frank Miller Again After 25 Years (Exclusive) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

So far, 2025 has given some spine-chillingly, gut-wrenchingly horrific films, and the horror landscape has been richer for it. We’ve gotten some nauseatingly fascinating body horror in the form of films like Together and a healthy dose of the gory absurd with the likes of The Monkey. And, of course, we must mention the most beloved of them all, i.e., Sinners— although I’d argue that Sinners is more of a thought-provoking social and existential commentary than a scary movie. But one film gave it all, from unfiltered violence to existential reflection, leaving me as uncomfortably, intimately horrified as it left me thoughtful. And oddly, it’s a retelling of a classic fairytale.

Directed by Emilie Blichfeldt, The Ugly Stepsister is a Norwegian film that takes a story we’ve known since childhood and twists it into something disturbingly, skin-crawlingly intimate. From the very first frame, it pulls you in with lush, period-drama elegance before sinking its claws deep with grotesque body horror. 

Why The Ugly Stepsister Earns the Crown for Best Horror of 2025 (So far)

The premise of the film is deceptively simple. Cinderella’s ugly stepsister, Elvira (Lea Myren), is in love with the prince and will do anything to have him. She decides, at the urging of her mother (Ane Dahl Torp), to go through a “makeover” that would help her win his heart. This is, of course, reminiscent of the million and one films where the female lead goes through a transformation that nearly unfailingly endears her to the heart of the male lead. Except here, the transformation is visceral, sewing away at eyelids and wrenching worms out of guts to enforce society’s beauty standards.

With The Ugly Stepsister, Blichfeldt crafts a Cinderella story filtered through the lens of Cronenbergian body horror, turning every act of beauty transformation into something monstrous. The film’s most nauseatingly unforgettable moments never feature gore for gore’s sake. They’re loaded with commentary on the absurd, damaging lengths society pushes people toward in pursuit of perfection. The performances are a big part of why it works. Myren, playing the titular and quintessential ugly stepsister, Elvira, shows the aching vulnerability beneath the character’s growing madness, and the rest of the cast match her beat for beat. Every sneer from the stepmother feels like it could cut flesh. Every glance from Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) carries the weight of judgment disguised as charm. The costumes and set design lull you into thinking you’re watching a traditional period drama, but the longer you stay, the more everything rots at the edges. Silk turns to stained fabric, candlelit halls start to feel suffocating, and the camera lingers just a little too long on things you wish you hadn’t noticed.

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It’s also a film that knows how to play with tone. One minute you’re laughing nervously at an absurd bit of dark humor, and the next, you’re clenching your jaw as the score builds into something shrill and nightmarish. The music, pulsating and shifting, keeps you on edge, making even the quietest scenes feel loaded with dread. What surprised me most, though, was how The Ugly Stepsister managed to be both grotesque and deeply emotional, which is something not many horror films can pull off. Beneath the stitched eyelids, the bloody scissors, and the maggot-laced gowns, there’s a story about self-worth and how it can be slowly carved away by the people around you. What we have here is a tragedy, and by the end, I wasn’t sure if I was shaken more by the violence or by the raw sadness running underneath it all. That duality is what makes it linger. After all, it’s easy to make one flinch, but it takes a special something to haunt you days later. 

Somehow, The Ugly Stepsister reclaims a story, sharpens its edges, and dares you to bleed a little with it. By the final act, the film transforms into something almost mythic. There’s no happily ever after here. Instead, it’s the lingering reminder that fairy tales have always been, at their core, warnings. Deftly, and with incredible dread, Blichfeldt summons forth all the darkness and shadows of the original lore spun by the Grimm brothers and splatters it on the screen. It’s fearless, it’s grotesque, and devastating. And it’s going to be one of the movies we’re still talking about when 2025 is long over.

You can stream The Ugly Stepsister on Prime Video.

The post I Think This Is The Best Horror Movie of 2025 (And It’s Not Even Close) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Newer isn’t always better, and that tends to be the case when it comes to sequels. But in 2016, one horror movie sequel defied the odds when it broke the mold and became better than its predecessor. That movie is now streaming on Tubi following its Friday exit from Netflix, and its from none other than Mike Flanagan. The filmmaker has emerged as one of the most prominent figures in the horror genre following his string of Netflix original horror shows like The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Flanagan’s filmography includes his 2011 debut feature Absentia, Hush, Doctor Sleep, and The Life of Chuck.

The surprisingly good horror film is Ouija: Origin of Evil, Flanagan’s 2016 prequel to Stiles White’s 2014 Ouija, based on the Hasbro board game. The film arrived on Tubi Saturday as part of the Fox free streaming service’s August 2025 arrivals. One of the best horror sequels ever, the movie is a must-watch for any horror fans or fans of Flanagan’s other works.

Ouija: Origin of Evil is set in late 1960s Los Angeles and stars Elizabeth Reaser as Alice Zander, a widowed mother to daughters Paulina (Annalise Basso), seen in the original film as an old woman, and Doris (Lulu Wilson). When Alice incorporates a Ouija board into her séance scam business, she unwittingly invites authentic evil into her home, and the family must confront unthinkable fears to save Doris, who is overtaken by the merciless spirit.

The movie is a solid entry in the horror genre, and one of the best horror sequels. Brought to life as a result of Ouija’s $100 million box office haul, Ouija: Origin of Evil managed to significantly improve upon its predecessor. The strong performances from the movie’s cast, solid direction from Flanagan, atmospheric horror, and limited reliance on jump scares helped the movie drastically overcome Ouija’s poor critical response, which earned it a measly 6% Rotten Tomatoes score. Ouija: Origin of Evil is “Certified Fresh” with an 83% critics’ score and a consensus that reads, “Ouija: Origin of Evil swerves its franchise’s planchette unexpectedly to YES with a surprisingly scary and dramatically satisfying follow-up to its lackluster predecessor.”

Ouija: Origin of Evil is now streaming for free on Tubi. 2014’s Ouija is available to stream on Netflix.

New on Tubi

Halloween is still a few weeks away, but streamers are already preparing their libraries for those spooky season horror movie watches, and Tubi is no exception. Fox’s free streaming service has already added several must-watch horror titles to its content catalog this month, with even more set to arrive in the coming days. See the full list of Tubi’s August 2025 horror arrivals below.

August 1st
Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
I See You
Priest (2011)
Slice
The Grudge 2 (2006)
The Omen (2006)
The Strangers: Prey At Night

August 8th
XX

August 13th
Room 203

August 16th
Ouija: Origin of Evil

The post One of the Most Surprising Horror Movies Is Now Streaming Totally Free appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Horror movie Weapons surprised everyone when it dominated the box office in its opening weekend. Not only did the film beat box office expectations by opening to $43.5 million stateside, but it also outearned the box office total of writer-director Zach Cregger’s last movie, Barbarian. Now, after becoming a huge success, Warner Bros. and New Line are looking to work with Cregger to develop a prequel movie centered around the fan-favorite character Aunt Gladys, played by Amy Madigan. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, Madigan talks about the prequel movie and whether or not she’d be willing to return for the project.

When speaking to the outlet, Madigan responded by ultimately likening the prequel to those calling for her portrayal of Gladys to receive an Oscar nomination. For her, until it happens, it’s not real. “It’s not that I discount it, but in this business, nothing’s real till it’s real,” she said. “I just had such a great time working with Zach and being inside that brain of his. That’s really the gift of how the movie came out. The other stuff has to do with all sorts of conversations that I would never be privy in and business things like that. But, you know, I love Gladys, so I’ll leave it at that.”

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Madigan’s response isn’t entirely wrong, of course. While Warner Bros. and New Line are eager to work with Cregger again, and all parties are looking to develop a movie centered around Aunt Gladys, the project is still in the early stages. No official deals have been made. This is because Cregger is currently busy working on his reboot of Resident Evil for Sony. That project, which Cregger has described as an original story inspired by the lore of the video games, is now gearing up for production in Prague.

Cregger, of course, does have an idea for a Gladys prequel movie. There was a chapter from Weapons that would have focused on Gladys’ backstory that was cut; it’s thought that this chapter will be reworked into a treatment for a prequel film. Still, even with a basis for the project, there is still no timeline on a potential Weapons prequel. Along with his work on Resident Evil, Cregger has also penned a screenplay titled Henchman that takes place within the DC Universe. Warner Bros. and DC Studios are expected to be considering that project, which could push back a Weapons prequel movie even more.

For now, fans can enjoy Madigan’s breakout performance as Aunt Gladys in Weapons (and get ready to dress as the iconic character for Halloween). The hit horror movie has already surpassed $108 million worldwide on a meager $38 million budget. The movie is expected to keep the top spot at the box office in its second outing with an estimated $27.5 million. While Weapons does not yet have a streaming release date, fans can already pre-order the movie on 4K Blu-ray with a special edition steelbook case.

Weapons is now playing exclusively in movie theaters everywhere.

The post Weapons Star Addresses Possible Prequel Movie For Breakout Character appeared first on ComicBook.com.

If you’re looking for another brilliant horror film in between repeat viewings of Weapons, look no further than Barbarian. Also written and directed by Zach Cregger, Barbarian is another thoughtful, frightening foray in the horror genre that inventively explores trauma in the most bone-chilling way possible. The film, which was a surprise hit when it debuted in theaters back in 2022, marked a major industry departure for Cregger and served as his directorial debut. Barbarian also features one of the best recent actors in the genre in a smart, subversive capacity. And lucky for us, it’s currently streaming on Netflix.

In Barbarian, young professional Tess Marshall (Georgina Campbell) checks into an AirBnb in Detroit to discover there’s already a guest there and that the house has been double-booked for the night. Tess is initially and understandably wary of the other guest, Keith (Bill Skarsgård), but ultimately stays the night — with Tess taking the bedroom and Keith crashing on the couch. While she at first thought Keith might be a threat, Tess soon discovers a series of secret tunnels in the rental’s basement that house a larger, even deadlier threat.

While Barbarian adheres to many time-honored tropes of the horror genre, and uses them quite effectively, Cregger deftly subverts many of the genre’s conventions. For instance, the first act is essentially one long dialogue scene between Tess and Keith. It’s a masterclass in tension, playing on our expectations of what a horror movie is supposed to be.

Furthermore, there’s also the fact Keith is played by none other than Skarsgård, who rose to fame playing Pennywise the Clown in the IT remake, which adds another meta layer of expectation about how the interaction will go. We spend the entire scene on edge, so when Tess and Keith’s first conversation doesn’t end with a murder or in an equally gory manner, we’re both disoriented and lulled into a false sense of security. In turn, it makes the reveal of the movie’s actual monster that much more terrifying and surprising.

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Without spoiling anything, Cregger also skillfully makes Barbarian‘s monster a tragic figure. The movie would be just as scary and entertaining without the context of Barbarian‘s antagonist. However, Cregger’s inclusion of its circumstances, along with contrasting it with other “regular” characters in the ensemble, allows the filmmaker to make a nuanced statement about sexual assault that not only lingers with its viewer long after the credits roll, but also earned its place among the top horror films in recent memory.

For an independent horror film, Barbarian grossed an impressive $45 million worldwide against its modest $4.5-million budget. The movie’s success only becomes more incredible when one realizes that Barbarian was Cregger’s first horror project. In fact, he’d spent the last 15 years as a popular name in comedy, starring in the TBS series Wrecked and being a founding member of The Whitest Kids U Know, a comedy group that had an eponymous sketch show on Fuse. Given Weapons smash success at the box office, though, we doubt Cregger will be returning to his funnyman roots anytime soon, especially since he’s helming a Resident Evil reboot for Sony.

Barbarian is currently streaming on Netflix.

What are your thoughts on Barbarian? Let us know in the comments below!

The post One of the Decade’s Best Horror Movies Is a Must-Watch on Netflix Right Now appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Alien: Earth takes the Alien franchise into a new frontier in TV episodic format. In case you didn’t notice, though, the new show opens on a surprising tribute to the original Alien. Taking place in the year 2120, Alien: Earth sees the crew of a Weyland-Yutani cargo ship, the USCSS Maginot, which gets decimated by a bloodthirsty xenomorph, causing the ship to crash-land on Earth, unleashing the xenomorph upon the local populace. While there have been numerous previous attempts to bring the xenomorphs to Earth – from some of the original concepts for Alien 3 to the Earth-based story of 2007’s Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – Alien: Earth accomplishes that mission while building out the Alien mythos in some very unexpected ways.

With the first two episodes of the first two episodes of Alien: Earth also make some loving nods to the iconography of the first two Alien movies. One in particular unfolds right from the very opening moments of Alien: Earth, with the series beginning its story in a very familiar fashion to the original Alien.

Alien: Earth’s Opening Pays Tribute to the Opening of Alien (1979)

Alien: Earth‘s first episode opens with the crew of the USCSS Maginot awakening from an extended sleep in cryostasis, with the groggy crew exiting their cryochambers and eating breakfast. This scene is a near-perfect parallel to the opening of Ridley Scott’s Alien, in which the crew of the Nostromo similarly awakens from hypersleep as they near their return to Earth.

Moreover, the tribute to Alien is even more unmistakable from the musical cues, and by the way in which the show’s title is introduced. Like Alien‘s slow title reveal, Alien: Earth‘s title comes in the form of each letter gradually phasing into view until the title is completely spelled out. Adding the fact that Alien: Earth‘s 2120 timeframe takes place just two years before the 2122 setting of Alien, it is quite clear that the intent from the beginning was to build a connection to Scott’s film from the very first minutes of the series.

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What really stands out about the introductory episodes of Alien: Earth is the subtle seasoning of nostalgia, borrowed from both Alien and Aliens. In its first episode, Alien: Earth adopts the slow-burn horror movie style of Alien to remarkable effect, culminating in a rogue xenomorph slaughtering the crew of the Weyland-Yutani freighter, causing it to crash on Earth. Interestingly, Alien: Earth shifts gears in its second episode in a manner markedly similar to the tone shift of Alien to Aliens.

The second episode of Alien: Earth plays more like the action-horror hybrid of Aliens, with the xenomorph unleashed in a sprawling apartment complex and an elite team of soldiers trying to contain it. Neither of Alien: Earth’s first two episodes oversteps the line of nostalgic tribute into distracting territory, either, simply hewing to a similar rough template of Alien and Aliens while lovingly but subtly paying homage to both, like tipping its hat to the opening of Alien. In doing so, Alien: Earth also continues another trend the Alien franchise has seen of late.

Alien: Earth Is Continuing the Alien Franchise’s New Winning Streak

For every timeless classic the Alien franchise has produced like the original Alien and Aliens, it has also had its share of divisive entries like Alien 3, Alien: Resurrection, and the Alien vs. Predator movies, with the franchise never quite managing to hit with the same impact as its first two installments. That is, until the release of Fede Álvarez’s acclaimed Alien: Romulus in 2024, which not only acts as a kind of narrative intersection for the Alien franchise (including some of the teases established in Ridley Scott’s Promotheus and Alien: Covenant), but one which emerged as one of the most widely beloved Alien movies since the original two.

With the strong early response to Alien: Earth, the Alien franchise is snowballing into quite a resurgence, not unlike that of the equally re-energized Predator franchise. Ultimately, Alien: Earth marks a new beginning of sorts for the Alien franchise as its first episodic entry, so it is fitting that the first moments of the show’s first episode should harken back to where it all began with the show’s Easter egg reference to Ridley Scott’s Alien.

The first two episodes of Alien: Earth are available to stream on Hulu, with new episodes releasing on Tuesdays.

The post Alien: Earth’s Opening Is A Perfect Easter Egg Callback to Ridley Scott’s Original Film appeared first on ComicBook.com.

There are plenty of horror movies out there that should have kicked off franchises. But, be it a divisive reception from general audiences or, far more commonly, general audiences just not showing up, it never happened. This is especially true of the slasher subgenre. Many “man in a mask” movies came out in the wake of Halloween and Friday the 13th‘s success and, while Sleepaway Camp and Prom Night received sequels, the following examples did not. We’re not saying they’re fantastic slashers, but they do have something that many other one-offs did not. Just that little extra edge that helps them become slightly more memorable.

But, to be included, the slasher’s narrative must have left a window open for a sequel. Meaning, nothing applied where the finale is concrete. The killer is dead, there’s nothing in the film’s rules that allow for resurrection, cut to credits. In other words, nothing like The Burning or Fade to Black.

1) Blood Rage

Blood Rage is a little seen 1987 slasher with a solid plot, Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman star Louise Lasser in the lead role, Mark Soper doing well in dual roles, and some fantastic kills. It also has a rather ambiguous ending.

The narrative follows twin brothers Todd and Terry. The latter is a psychopath, and after they see their mother making out with her boyfriend while they’re all at the drive-in theater, Terry kills a teenager with an axe and proceeds to frame his brother for the crime. Ten years later, Todd has escaped from the mental health clinic where he’s been hospitalized and makes his way home. Little does he know Terry’s murderous rage has come back, and while everyone is terrified of Todd, it’s Terry who is butchering people. Their mother has never caught on that Terry is the villain of the two, and when Todd arrives home she shoots who she thinks is Todd, but is actually Terry. Thinking she’s murdered the bad son, she takes her own life. Technically, it’s a happy ending, as the serial killer is dead. However, we’re left with a lingering shot of Todd that makes us wonder how sane he really is and, especially after seeing his mother take her own life, whether he’ll pick up where his departed brother left off.

Stream Blood Rage on Night Flight Plus.

2) Curtains

Curtains is a fairly traditional Agatha Christie-style murder mystery. It’s just all the suspects are ambitious aspiring actresses vying for the same role. It could be any of them.

It’s a great core concept, and we eventually learn that ambition and dislike of competition is, in fact, Patti O’Connor’s motive. Patti is the only one to leave the film’s mansion locale with a pulse, and the final scene has her in a psychiatric hospital. She very easily could have broken out of that hospital in a sequel, or even pulled a Halloween II within the hospital. It may have been a little clunky or cliche, but whenever a flesh and blood movie killer is still alive at the end, that hints they’ll return some day.

Stream Curtains on Prime Video.

3) My Bloody Valentine

One of the very best holiday slasher movies ever made, My Bloody Valentine is the best installment of the entire subgenre to never receive a sequel. It received a remake in 2009, but that doesn’t count as the 1981 movie kicking off a franchise.

Throughout the film, we think that the much discussed killer in a miner’s outfit, Harry Warden, has come back. After all, there’s someone celebrating his murder spree anniversary by committing a murder spree in a miner’s outfit. But Harry Warden is dead, and the killer is actually one of the two protagonists, Axel Palmer. The last we see of Axel, he’s dragging himself away with his one remaining arm screaming that he’s not done yet. It’s great as a one-off ending, because we the audience just imagine Axel out there, but it was clearly trying to lead to a sequel. It could have been great, but at the end of the day My Bloody Valentine did not live up to the success experienced by Friday the 13th (another Paramount film) the year before.

Stream My Bloody Valentine on Kanopy.

4) He Knows You’re Alone

He Knows You’re Alone was a little too slow to be a massive hit like Friday the 13th, but it still has an ending that’s open to interpretation when it comes to sequel potential. Not to mention, this film’s killer is still alive at the end.

Specifically, the narrative kicks off by having a man murder his ex on her wedding day after she dumps him for a new man. The end of the movie has Amy, the final girl, dump Phil, the man she’s with towards the beginning (who isn’t a big part of the film’s events). She is now engaged to Marvin, the man with whom she does share the screen throughout the movie. She is in her wedding dress in front of a mirror, spins around, and says “Phil, what are you doing here?” and then we hear her scream. Furthermore, she does not kill the film’s antagonist, Ray, so really a sequel could have Ray, Phil, or both as the killer or killers. Perhaps they could have had Tom Hanks return in the sequel and do something other than randomly walk around a theme park with the protagonist for 20 minutes then disappear from the narrative entirely.

Rent He Knows You’re Alone on Amazon Video.

5) Shocker

Before he was reinventing horror in the ’90s with Scream, the late Wes Craven was closing out the ’80s with Shocker. It was his attempt to replicate the success of A Nightmare on Elm Street and, suffice to say, this wasn’t it. But it does have its fans.

Freddy Krueger operates in the dream world, but Shocker‘s Horace Pinker thrives via electricity. He was killed by the electric chair, so now the current is his world. And, by film’s end, he appears to be caught in a television. But just as Nancy turned her back on Freddy and seemingly made Nightmare a one-off, Shocker could have received a sequel. It’s not as if either Craven film played by the rules of reality, so Pinker certainly would have returned had the film been a hit. But it only netted $16.6 million. Fortunately, Craven would come back strong with The People Under the Stairs, which was a critical and commercial hit.

Rent Shocker on Amazon Video.

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6) Slaughter High

Slaughter High is hampered by its cheapness (it’s an accessible watch, but next to impossible to find a cut of this movie that doesn’t look like it was ripped from a VHS tape) and the acting is quite spotty, but it’s a straightforward old school slasher. It even has a score by Harry Manfredini, whose contribution to Friday the 13th became iconic. In fact, his music for those films makes a few-seconds cameo here and, as a whole, the soundtrack sounds awfully similar in spots to Friday the 13th: A New Beginning‘s.

We follow a group of ten twenty-somethings who mercilessly bullied a kid named Marty when they were in high school. Their harassment escalated so much that poor Marty ended up disfigured. Now, ten years later, they’ve received an invitation to a high school reunion, only to find out the high school is shut down and they’re the only invites. Dressed in a jester costume, Marty kills them one by one. And, by film’s end, Marty is the only survivor, so there was definitely the opportunity for this film to have led to a sequel.

Stream Slaughter High on Tubi.

7) The Final Girls

For the sake of clarity, we haven’t been saying that these slasher films should have received sequels, but rather that the door was open for a potential sequel. Some of these movies work best as one-offs, and of them all, that’s never been more true than The Final Girls.

The narrative centers on Taissa Farmiga’s Max Cartwright, whose mother was an actress who once starred in a Friday the 13th-esque slasher titled Camp Bloodbath. Max’s mom died in a car crash three years prior to the events of the film, and there’s now a screening of Camp Bloodbath at the local theater. She and her friends go but then find themselves sucked into the movie itself. For Max, this is a mixed bag. On one hand, she gets the chance to experience some closure with her mother. On the other hand, she and her friends have to deal with a masked killer. The end of the movie has them escape the film, but in the final scene we and they come to realize that it’s merely the start of Camp Bloodbath 2: Cruel Summer.

Stream The Final Girls for free with ads on The Roku Channel.

The post 7 Underrated Slasher Movies That Should Have Started Franchises appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Spawn Universe continues to grow with the addition of a new hellspawn. One of the most impactful stories in the early days of Spawn involved the murder of a seven-year-old girl by the child serial killer Billy Kincaid. Released in 1992, Spawn #5 featured the first appearance of Billy Kincaid, who would later become a recurring villain throughout the series. But while most Spawn fans have focused on Billy Kincaid, there was another character that went overlooked, who is now getting the spotlight. That character is the little girl that Billy seemingly killed: Sherlee Johnson. Her story is being explored in a Spawn spinoff, and it will include another debuting character.

ComicBook spoke to Todd McFarlane, Daniel Henriques, and Jonathan Glapion about The Curse of Sherlee Johnson #3, with the creators revealing that the issue introduces a new hellspawn. “This is a pretty cool issue, and I say that as somebody who keeps seeing all of Jonathan’s pages,” Henriques said. “So we have a lot of new settings, a lot of new stuff happening because it’s been a lot of running and surviving. Things kind of calm down a little bit. And with that, we start getting into the ecosystem of Hell and new characters start showing up.”

He added, “I’m not going to get into a lot of crazy details about it, but there’s this new hellspawn showing up in Issue #3, that’s one of the coolest splash pages that Jonathan ever drew in my life in all of this. So I’m very excited for people to see that one.”

The Curse of Sherlee Johnson Explores Untold Spawn Story

In an earlier interview, Daniel Henriques discussed what drew him to create this story that expanded on Sherlee Johnson’s fate at the hands of Billy Kincaid. As Henriques pointed out, while Spawn sought justice for Sherlee by killing Billy and dropping his body off with the cops, he never stopped to see if she was still alive.

“We don’t actually know that she’s dead,” he said. “What if she’s not? What has Spawn just done — or what he has NOT done, which is actually save the victim that got him there in the first place.”

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He noted that if Sherlee was alive and conscious during Spawn’s confrontation with Kincaid, she would have seen “him beating he crap out of Kincaid, maybe this giant flash of him teleporting away, and that’s it, and she’s left to die alone. I was always like, ‘This has to go somewhere, what happens next?”

To his credit, Todd McFarlane loved the idea and how it also shows Spawn as a hero with flaws that are ripe for exploration.

“The problem with the hero playing judge, jury, and executioner is, there are ramifications for it, right?” he said. “So, we’ve tried to turn over those rocks on the Spawn character. You have to assume most heroes think they’re doing good, but at times you can ask, ‘Did this actually make things worse?’ Because there was no vetting, it was like, ‘Oh, he killed kids, I’m going to kill him,’ and he walks away. He didn’t really dig any deeper than that, he was just being very simplistic in his actions, that now are going to cause complications here.”

The final order cutoff for The Curse of Sherlee Johnson #3 is August 25th, so make sure to pre-order your copy at your local comic book store. Comic book legend Frank Miller is also providing a variant cover. Let us know your thoughts on the book and the entire Spawn Universe in the comments below!

The post Spawn Spinoff Series Curse of Sherlee Johnson Introduces an All-New Hellspawn (Exclusive) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Within the anime community, there is a large portrayal of classic entertainment genres: fantasy, sci-fi, romance, and action. While these tend to trend in popularity due to their easy adaptive nature onscreen, one such genre that is often overlooked tends to be horror. The horror genre is already extremely subjective and divisive among audiences— what might be considered scary or terrifying to one person could be laughable to another. Despite this fact, there are undoubtedly a handful of horror anime that stick the landing and are recognized as a league above the rest.

Some classic horror anime you might have already watched or heard of are titles such as Perfect Blue, Mononoke, and Hellsing. While these shows inspired or paved the way for additions on this list, there are plenty of other horror anime that have been forgotten or slept on. So, we’re going to be taking a closer look at 10 great additional horror anime you might not be familiar with and why their scares are anything but cheap.

1) The Summer Hikaru Died

The Summer Hikaru Died is one of the newest additions to the horror anime genre. It was released in July 2025 and is currently set to have a total of 12 episodes in its first season. The plot follows Yoshiki and his best friend, Hikaru. When Hikaru takes a trip into the mountains surrounding their town, Yoshiki is disturbed to find that the person who returns is not his childhood friend. Instead, an entity has mimicked Hikaru after his friend’s untimely death and is now living his life under its stolen identity’s guise.

The plot of The Summer That Hikaru Died follows Yoshiki and “Hikaru” exploring the strange and unsettling events surrounding their hometown. Yoshiki must simultaneously cope with the loss of the original Hikaru, and his struggle in maintaining a friendship with the alien being that wears his friend’s face. Themes of grief and identity are explored while delivering on elements of body horror, uncanny settings, and body-snatchers.

2) Elfen Lied

Elfen Lied is a classic anime that delves into the psychological and emotional aspects of horror. The anime aired back in 2004 and had a total of 13 episodes in a single season. In the show, a research facility houses a new race— the Diclonius, mutated humanoid beings with telekinetic arms nicknamed vectors. The Diclonius are deemed to be filled with hatred for regular humans and are set to replace them as Earth’s dominant species.

Lucy (formerly Kaede) is a Diclonius that was captured after going on a violent rampage and locked away in a lab. After escaping, Lucy forms a secondary personality named Nyu, a childish persona that protects her from the trauma and injury she sustained both in the lab and from fleeing it. The series does not shy away from serious themes like child abuse, mental health, and murder. With a generous helping of gore, Elfen Lied explores the darkness of humanity and the path towards potential redemption and change.

3) Hell Girl

Hell Girl is a relatively overlooked horror anime presented in an episodic format. The show was first aired in 2005, and ended on 74 total episodes split between its four seasons. Each episode presents a new self-contained story that contributes to the overall themes and plot points of the anime’s narrative. In general, we’re introduced to a character who has gone through some extreme form of abuse, bullying, or wrongdoing and turns to The Hell Correspondence, a website that promises revenge with a price.

This revenge comes in the form of a demonic-like presence, otherwise known as Ai Enma, a young girl who appears to the website’s user and offers a contract. While the target of revenge will be sent to Hell, the catch is that the one who forges the contract will also go to Hell once they die. Hell Girl focuses on themes of hatred and the cyclical nature of seeking revenge. Much of the anime’s tone is steeped in misery and darkness, presenting psychological horror on top of its supernatural elements.

4) Monster

Monster is a philosophically driven horror anime that urges the watcher to reflect on the consequences of one’s choices. The series first aired in 2004, and had a total of 74 episodes before ending its run. In the show, we follow Dr. Kenzo Tenma, a neurosurgeon known for his skill in the field. Tenma saves a young boy, Johan, in critical condition. When given a choice between treating Johan and performing surgery on his local mayor, Roedecker, he prioritizes the boy despite pressure to focus on the wealthy politician and hospital donor. This results in mayor Roedecker dying under a less competent surgeon’s care, leading to the loss of Kenma’s status and credibility.

Flash forward years later, and Johan is linked to a string of gruesome murder cases that Tenma has also become a suspect in. Tenma must now follow Johan across the country to put a stop to the murderer whose existence he feels responsible for permitting. Monster is a compelling thriller that focuses on psychological horror to drive home its point, all while presenting a classic serial killer chase. The anime dissects the complexity of personal choice and being haunted by past actions that result in future chaos.

5) Another

Another is a horror anime in a classroom setting that dabbles in the terrifying nature of curses. This show started back in 2012, and featured a total of 12 episodes in its single season. The anime follows transfer student Koichi Sakakibara, who enrolls in Class 3-3 at a brand new middle school. He quickly realizes that the class he’s a part of is strange and harboring a dark secret between the students; this secret is uncovered after Koichi meets Mei Misaki, an ignored girl in his class, who teams with him to solve the puzzle of their surroundings.

Both students learn more about Class 3-3 and its curse: due to a student dying in the past, there is now an unknown phenomenon occurring where the students will acknowledge the existence of a student that is not actually living. This ghost, or “extra”, is undetected by the others of Class 3-3, but its presence brings about the slow deaths of students and their family members until the “extra” is found out. Another deals with aspects of memory, mass hysteria, and grief through the guise of a supernatural curse that is as eerie as it is dangerous.

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6) Tokyo Ghoul

Tokyo Ghoul was one of the most anticipated anime during its initial release in 2014. It has a total of 48 episodes split among three seasons (with the third season split into two parts). While the anime has been critiqued for diverging from the manga and its weak ending, it still remains one of the most modern examples of horror anime that obtained popularity in its first season.

The show follows Ken Kaneki, a college student who is attacked by a Ghoul while on a date. Ghouls are cannibalistic beings that are human in appearance; their human-like features are betrayed by kagune, enhanced senses, superior strength, and faster speed that give their secret away quickly. Kaneki’s near-death experience ends with him partially turned into a Ghoul and maneuvering the politics of existing in such a society, along with his own impulses and hunger. Tokyo Ghoul is notable among the genre for its gore, depictions of cannibalism, and fight scenes.

7) Shiki

Shiki is an incredibly underappreciated horror anime that came out in 2010. The show had a total of 22 complete episodes, though two bonus episodes were later released. This anime starts in the small town of Sotoba, a rural area where nothing of interest tends to happen until a family moves into the abandoned castle at the edge of the city. The Kirishiki family heralded a darker turn in the show with their secretive, nighttime arrival.

Shortly after the Kirishiki’s arrive, strange deaths begin occurring around Sotoba, including that of a young teenage girl. These deaths prompt hospital director Toshio Ozaki to start investigating what is causing the sudden tragedies plaguing their town. Hint: the Kirishiki are “shiki”, or essentially vampires feeding on and turning the town’s population. Shiki’s haunting imagery only enhances the anime’s exploration of death and damnation in relation to those turned into creatures of the night.

8) Parasyte: The Maxim

Parasyte: The Maxim was a short series based on an 80s manga series. The anime came out in 2014, and had a total of 24 episodes before concluding its run. Its story revolves around Shinichi Izumi, a young high school student who lives a quiet life until small parasitic creatures invade Earth. One such creature attempts to invade his body but fails to properly hijack Shinichi’s brain, taking root in his hand instead.

This parasite, named Migi, is a separate being from Shinichi with its own personality and goals due to the two not fully merging. Their journeys together cause both to encounter numerous parasites and their hosts; Shinichi enlists Migi’s help in fighting and destroying these parasites before they can consume the human they’re preying on. Parasyte: The Maxim relies heavily on body horror and invasive monsters, though the anime also asks provocative questions about the nature of both humanity and morality.

9) Angels of Death

Angels of Death is another modern horror anime that has a dedicated group of fans. It debuted in 2018, with a total of 16 episodes in its singular season. The anime follows Rachel, a 13-year-old girl who wakes up in a large, secluded building with no recollection of her past besides her desire to die. As she journeys on her own briefly, Rachel encounters Zack, a mysterious man who carries a scythe and is shown to be a remorseless, violent killer.

Though Zack is initially aggressive, he later decides to help Rachel search the building’s floors and understand more about her past and the reason for being there. Each floor uncovers a new “floor master” with twisted ideals and obstacles for Rachel to overcome in order to move on. Angels of Death doesn’t shy away from violence and blood: the tone is overall dark and bleak in regard to the outlook Rachel carries throughout most of the show. In spite of these themes, the anime still manages to present deeper reflections on the power of understanding oneself and how it affects your response to life.

10) Junji Ito Collection

Junji Ito is known as a big name in Japanese horror for a reason— his tales evoke senses of dread, hopelessness, and unease that very few stories can match. The Junji Ito Collection takes many classic tales and some new ones, and combines them into an anthology-style anime. First airing in 2018, the show has a total of 12 episodes and two special episodes.

Each short story is self-contained, though there are a few recurring characters and themes that the show places emphasis on. In “Tomie”, we see the classic tale about a girl who can regenerate and escape death; “Slug Girl” follows a young girl whose body parts morph into a slug; “Fashion Model” explores a group alone in the woods for a movie shoot with a model who might have eaten human flesh. The Junji Ito Collection doesn’t shy away from uncomfortable shots or taking advantage of the audience’s discomfort with the grotesque and disturbing.

Have you watched any of the anime included in this list? Tell us about your favorite horror anime in the comments.

The post 10 More Great Horror Anime That Are Worth Watching appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Anna Faris and Regina Hall are stepping back into the shoes of Cindy Campbell and Brenda Meeks. After sitting out the 2013 installment, the two stars are set to return in Scary Movie 6. Paramount Pictures and Miramax’s upcoming sixth installment in the popular spoof franchise is written and produced by the Wayans brothers – Marlon Wayans, Shawn Wayans, and Keenen Ivory Wayans – and Rick Alvarez. The film is set to release in theaters on June 12, 2026. Marlon announced Faris and Hall’s casting Friday on Instagram alongside a throwback photo of the pair from the original 2000 movie.

“We can’t wait to bring Brenda and Cindy back to life and be reunited with our great friends Keenen, Shawn and Marlon — three men we’d literally die for (in Brenda’s case, again,” Faris, 48, and Hall, 54, said in a joint statement to Deadline.

Farris and Hall are the first announced cast members of the movie and have starred throughout the franchise as best friends who constantly find themselves in the middle of horror-movie-worthy plots that pull directly from and parody storylines in classics like Scream, The Sixth Sense, The Blair Witch Project, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Paranormal Activity. They made their debut in the roles in 2000’s Scary Movie, which kicked off the franchise and pulled in over $278 million at the box office. The three subsequent films – Scary Movie 2 (2001), Scary Movie 3 (2003), and Scary Movie 4 (2006) – released to similar success and helped shape the horror-comedy subgenre.

Faris and Hall were notably absent from Scary Movie 5, which released to lesser critical acclaim and box office success and starred Ashley Tisdale, Simon Rex, Terry Crews, Heather Locklear, Jerry O’Connell, Molly Shannon, and Snoop Dogg, among others. Faris said in an interview with PEOPLE last summer that she would be open to reprising her role as Cindy under two conditions: “money. But mostly all Regina!”

The upcoming sixth Scary Movie film was confirmed to be in the works in October. The Wayans brothers said at the time that they “couldn’t be more excited to be a part of the new Scary Movie and work with each other again. This is a franchise we created more than 20 years ago. We remember people laughing in the aisles and hope to see that happen again.”

Miramax boss Jonathan Glickman added, “We are thrilled to reunite Scary Movie with the Wayans brothers, the brilliant creators behind the beloved franchise. The timing is perfect to bring back the series to the big screen and we’re lucky to have Keenen, Marlon and Shawn’s unique comedic vision bringing it to audiences around the world.”

Plot details and further casting haven’t been announced. The movie is being written and produced by the Wayans brothers and Alvarez, with Michael Tiddes directing. Jonathan Glickman, Alexandra Loewy, and Thomas Zadra are attached as executive producers.

Scary Movie 6 is scheduled to hit theaters on June 12, 2026.

The post Scary Movie’s Best Stars Confirmed To Return for New Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

In the latter half of the 20th century, director Ridley Scott redefined the look of cinematic sci-fi with the one-two punch of Alien (1979) and Blade Runner (1982). With those two films, Scott almost singlehandedly took the colorful, hopeful space fantasy of Star Trek and Star Wars and gave it a dark, dystopian makeover. Alien and Blade Runner function like two sides of the same coin, presenting a grim future where large, faceless mega corporations run both Earth and space. Naturally, fans would want to put both franchises in the same universe. Unfortunately for them, Alien: Earth just killed any hope of an Alien/Blade Runner connection in canon.

Alien: Earth begins with a bit of onscreen text detailing the universe’s three forms of artificial life: cyborgs, synths, and hybrids. Noticeably absent are Replicants — Blade Runner‘s genetically engineered synthetic humans. With one single omission, the series effectively put an end to a 26-year-old fan theory that Rick Deckard and Ellen Ripley once breathed the same polluted air.

The Alien & Blade Runner Shared Universe Theory Began With A DVD Special Feature

The fan theory that Alien and Blade Runner are set in the same universe originally stems from the 1999 release of the Alien: 20th Anniversary Edition DVD. The disc included a biography of Tom Skerrit’s Dallas in the bonus features, which briefly mentions that the captain worked for Blade Runner‘s Tyrell corporation before joining Weyland-Yutani. Fans took that one Easter Egg and ran with it, pointing out other similarities between the Alien and Blade Runner franchises as proof that they belong to a shared universe.

And make no mistake, there are several things Alien and Blade Runner have in common. Both movies inhabit bleak capitalist dystopias — one where corporations have effectively replaced the Government, and the Asian infiltration of American culture that dominated ’80s sci-fi is in full swing. From there, it’s not hard to speculate that Weyland-Yutani’s colony on LV-426 in Aliens is one of the same “off-world colonies” mentioned in Blade Runner.

Meanwhile, the Alien/Blade Runner shared universe fan theory turned out to also be a creator theory. In a commentary track on the same Alien: 20th Anniversary Edition DVD, Ridley Scott expressed his opinion that the Earth the Nostromo crew was desperately trying to get back to was the same world inhabited by Deckard and the rest of the Blade Runner cast. Over a decade later, the Blu-ray of Scott’s confusing Alien prequel Prometheus would include a booklet containing a diary entry from Guy Pierce’s Peter Weyland that further cemented the connection between Alien and Blade Runner.

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In the diary entry, Weyland mentions a mentor who ran his company, “Like a god on top of a pyramid overlooking a city of angels,” and focused on “genetic abominations” rather than “simple robotics.” While Weyland never mentions Eldon Tyrell by name, a sentence about this “mentor” implanting his creations with “artificial memories” leaves little doubt who the CEO is talking about. These special features would seem to confirm the theory that Alien and Blade Runner are connected in some way, if not for two simple facts: 1) Special features aren’t generally considered canon, and 2) out of all the various creators involved with the Alien and Blade Runner franchises Ridley Scott is the only one pushing the narrative that the two IPs are related.

Creator-Fueled Fan Theories Are Nothing New

Believe it or not, directors expressing non-canon theories about their films is fairly common. A good example is Adam Marcus claiming that Jason Voorhees was a deadite. The director said this after including the Necronomicon in Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday as an Easter Egg, but every single other Friday the 13th film contradicts his claim. The same can be said for Ridley Scott’s claim that two of his most influential films share a setting.

As fun as the idea of Alien and Blade Runner being set in the same universe is, nothing on screen has ever directly supported the idea. Neither Blade Runner 2049 nor Alien: Romulus makes any direct references to a shared universe between the two. Scott himself could have put a reference to the Tyrell Corp in Prometheus proper rather than burying it in the special features of the film’s home release if he really wanted to canonize the connection. Instead, we have the complete opposite with Alien: Earth putting the fan theory to rest once and for all.

Alien: Earth Shows Us An Earth Too Bright and Clean For Blade Runner

It’s not just the series’ deliberate lack of Replicants that disproves the fan theory but the way Earth itself appears. The planet — at least what we’ve seen so far — looks too clean, too nice to be the same Earth from Blade Runner. Then again, it seems to be too clean for a planet run by giant businesses as well, but that’s neither here nor there.

In addition to that, the series states that five corporations control the Earth and most of space: Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic, Threshold, and Prodigy. One would assume that, were the Earth in Alien: Earth‘s title the same Earth from Blade Runner, one of those corporations would be the Tyrell corporation or, at the very least, the Wallace corporation from Blade Runner 2049. Instead, no replicants, no Tyrell/Wallace, and no rainy, pollution-ridden backdrop, point to no connection between Alien and Blade Runner.

But hey, thanks to Predator: Badlands, it looks like we’ll be getting a new crossover between the Predator and Alien franchises. If that proves to be successful, who knows, maybe we’ll get an official Blade Runner/Alien crossover someday. And until then, there’s nothing wrong with personal headcanons.

Were you disappointed in Alien: Earth putting the kibosh on Blade Runner and Alien being set in the same universe? Let us know in the comments.

The post Alien: Earth Just Killed This 26-Year-Old Fan Theory appeared first on ComicBook.com.

13 years ago, a group of fairly young actors, including a pre-Thor Chris Hemsworth, jumped into a project that seemed to follow the most overdone horror formula imaginable: friends gather, drive into nowhere, a secluded cabin, and the promise of a weekend that obviously wouldn’t end well. Everything pointed to yet another forgettable, unremarkable horror flick destined to vanish among the countless others. Instead, what hit theaters was a twist that completely broke the genre’s rules, mocked its clichés, and rebuilt horror from the ground up. This bold move in the early 2010s was called The Cabin in the Woods.

So, what exactly makes this movie so iconic in the horror landscape? It’s not just the plot; it’s how it plays with audience expectations. At first, you think you’re about to watch another typical horror movie – and that’s exactly what it wants you to think. Slowly, though, it starts layering in meta-commentary that turns the lens back on the horror industry itself. This isn’t just a slasher with creative kills; it’s a smart satire that, while paying homage to classic horror, also exposes just how repetitive and manipulative the genre can be. So if you think you’ve seen the most clever horror movies out there, think again.

Chris Hemsworth, playing Curt Vaughan, deserves a special shout-out. Back then, he wasn’t yet the global Marvel Cinematic Universe star, but in The Cabin in the Woods, he already nails the timing needed to balance serious moments with the absurdity of the situations. That’s tricky, since it’s easy to slip into a cheesy, over-the-top tone that undercuts the story. Curt could have easily been just the stereotypical jock, but the production gives him (and the rest of the cast) nuances that subvert classic genre roles. Kristen Connolly, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison, and Jesse Williams round out a cast that clearly gets the game and fully commits to this mix of horror and humor.

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Above all, the script is the real engine driving the experience, written by the director Drew Goddard and Joss Whedon, known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Justice League, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and the legendary sci-fi Firefly. That alone tells you the caliber of this project. The story starts predictably but quickly opens up into a subworld of manipulation, science, and rituals, showing that nothing in the plot is random. Horror here doesn’t just come from monsters or isolation – it comes from forces controlling everything, treating violence as both entertainment and necessity. It’s a sharp commentary on audiences who consume these stories, and it works because few films dare to be this clear about it.

Visually, the movie has fun with its own excesses as well. Once the plot reveals what’s really going on behind the scenes, all sorts of creatures appear: zombies, werewolves, and nightmare-fuel monsters designed for hardcore horror fans. At this point, the film proves it’s committed not just to a great story, but to a visual payoff that rewards the audience. By the third act, it’s a calculated chaos festival, forcing viewers to pause and absorb the insanity.

Over a decade later, The Cabin in the Woods still holds up. Critics loved it, with over 90% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, appealing to both hardcore horror fans and those looking for something fresh. No, combining dark humor, cultural critique, and bloody horror wasn’t entirely new, but rarely had it been executed with this much freedom, confidence, and precision. Sure, some found the self-aware approach almost cynical, as if the movie was laughing at the audience. But for many, that’s the fun: laughing along with it. It’s not a parody; it’s a real horror movie that also delivers sharp punches.

Also, the impact of The Cabin in the Woods isn’t just the initial shock or the climax, but it’s how it lingers in your memory as a truly unique experience. It’s the kind of film you remember long after seeing it because it genuinely rises above the endless stream of typical horrors. Audiences expecting simple scares left with an uncomfortable reflection on why they consume these stories and what they expect from them. The movie holds up a mirror to horror without holding back, while still delivering first-rate entertainment. Even today, a few good original productions exist, but they owe their boldness to trailblazers like this one.

13 years later, it’s easy to see why The Cabin in the Woods still comes up in discussions about the best horror movies of all time. It not only survived the years but became a sort of “entry test” for anyone wanting to understand the genre on a deeper level – going beyond formulas and embracing the irony of being a fan. For Chris Hemsworth, it was a showcase of versatility before global stardom; for audiences, it proved horror can still surprise.

In a market that can feel oversaturated, it’s rare to find a movie that balances fun, critique, and daring execution as perfectly as The Cabin in the Woods.

The Cabin in the Woods is available on Prime Video.

The post 13 Years Ago, Chris Hemsworth Starred in One of the Best Horror Movies of All Time appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Netflix’s Wednesday brought one of our favorite supernatural families back to the forefront, and we’ll always love the show for that. This series has overall been pretty well-received by both critics and audiences, and that has a lot to do with the writing, actors, and overall tone the series has to offer. That said, there are a few things that fans haven’t been able to overlook, details here and there that simply don’t make sense. Thus far, the second season hasn’t done anything to solve this confusion. With Season 2 Part 2 still on the horizon, there’s still a chance, but we won’t count on getting all the answers to these questions.

Wednesday is a supernatural drama and comedy following the titular Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega). As part of the classic Addams Family, she is naturally quite obsessed with all things macabre. In particular, Wednesday has an obsession with murder and mystery, with a seemingly strong compulsion to solve cases around her. The first season brought Wednesday to Nevermore Academy, where she found herself among Outcasts, not to mention monsters and murderers. While we have overall loved the adventure that Wednesday has provided up until now, we’re still scratching our heads about some character decisions or scenes.

7) Gomez Addams’ Shame About Self-Defense & Murder

The Addams Family is known for many things, including their extremely comfortable relationship with death. The family is full of supernatural characters, aspiring serial killers, and the like. Likewise, they all seem to fondly remember how those who came before them died. They’re not an evil family, but they do have a morbid fascination with the world around them.

Furthermore, we know that the family has a different sense of morality and ethics than most. All of which would leave the viewer inclined to believe that Gomez Addams would not be ashamed of being accused of murder. This is especially true had he murdered in self-defense, or in the defense of the love of his life. Thus, Gomez’s apparent shame at being arrested for a cold case murder is…odd. Yes, we know he didn’t commit the murder, but Gomez seems like the type who would proudly take the fall for his wife.

As a reminder, nobody batted an eye at Uncle Fester’s ever-expanding list of crimes. His cameo in both seasons makes it pretty clear that Fester is up to his usual antics: robbery, murder, and mayhem. Given that Wednesday celebrates this, but judges her parents for their foray into crime, makes it all the stranger.

6) The Overly Complicated Canoe

Early in the series, Wednesday is pulled into a school event, the classic spirit building sort of event you’d expect to see at a boarding school. Sure, it’s not even remotely Wednesday’s cup of tea, but she’s been given a pretty good reason to care about how the event (called the Poe Cup) goes down.

The competition involves a canoe race to an island, during which the Sirens of the school have a natural advantage. Many teams have tried to counter this advantage by decking out their canoes, with everything from swinging axes to spears.

Truthfully, these canoes seem more complicated than effective. Take the canoe with the axe; this axe swung relatively slowly, giving plenty of time for four team members to dodge with ease. Even if they hadn’t dodged, they likely wouldn’t have gotten all that hurt. So how did the benefit outweigh the downfall? One can only imagine that added a fair bit of weight to the canoe, slowing them down. Is this complaint pedantic? Yes, and it still bugs me.

5) Nevermore’s Lack of Defense Against Siren Tactics

Nevermore Academy is full of Outcasts, and truthfully, we have a lot of questions about them. Largely, we have to hope that future seasons will highlight a larger variety of Outcasts, while explaining details about them as they go. However, Season 1 immediately brought one important question to the forefront: Does Nevermore Academy seriously have no standard defense against Sirens?

Let’s take a step back. Sirens are known for their captivating songs, capable of mesmerizing any target. The Siren students at Nevermore can all be spotted sporting necklaces made of Corinthian Coral to help tone down their siren songs. There’s a problem with this method, as it requires the students to willingly wear the necklaces at all times. See the problem?

Bianca’s early story revelations help explain why this is a problem. Her mother all but confirms that Bianca abused her siren song as a means of gaining entry to the school. This implies that the higher-ups do not have any protection against the song. This fact is further highlighted by Principal Barry Dort, who does have his own protection. Bianca’s surprise at that speaks volumes.

4) Forced Mother/Daughter Issues

Wednesday Addams likes to think she’s different from everyone around her, yet she’s going through some pretty stereotypical teenage coming-of-age style lessons. That in itself isn’t a problem, especially as it helps make the series more appealing to a broader audience. The problem is that Wednesday and her mother have a lot of issues, and most of them feel forced.

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Upon her arrival at Nevermore Academy, Wednesday begins her protests, declaring she’s nothing like her mother and that she does not want to live up to her expectations. Those declarations would make a lot more sense if Morticia were actually pressuring Wednesday to follow in her footsteps. The fact that Nevermore Academy was a backup plan makes it clear that this wasn’t their intention for Wednesday.

Yet Wednesday continues to rebel against her mother. It’s classic teenage drama, but it feels oddly trite coming from such a character. As she loves to point out, she’s bigger than this sort of drama, so why does she keep creating it for herself?

3) Where Did The Teens Get a Water Truck Full of Paint?

Who can forget the dramatic events of the Nevermore Dance, aka the Rave’N? Unfortunately, this fantastical night was interrupted by a prank, and that leads to the next bit of confusion. A bunch of local teenagers (all normies) created a pretty clever plan to sneak onto the school grounds and dump fake blood on all the Nevermore students.

We’ll overlook how potentially suicidally stupid it is to make a bunch of werewolves and vampires mad, and focus on a different point. Part of the ingenious plan required a water truck full of watered-down red paint. First, where on Earth did they get that truck, and how did they fill it with the right proportion of paint to get that effect? Second, how did they know how to interact with the sprinkler system without triggering any alarms? Given the school’s age, the latter is probably somewhat easier to overlook, as an older system would probably have more faults.

2) Where Did Joseph Crackstone’s Staff Come From?

Joseph Crackstone is, both directly and indirectly, the big bad of Wednesday Season 1. He’s a pilgrim from the distant past, and it’s safe to say he harbored quite the grudge against Outcasts. His grudge cost many people their lives, including his own. Ever the hypocrite, Crackstone vocally hated Outcasts, but didn’t seem to have any problem using magic for personal goals, such as revenge.

We won’t hash over all the details of his return; everyone can watch Season 1 to see how that plays out. While we have so many questions about how he and his family obtained this magical knowledge, the biggest question revolves around his staff. While alive, Joseph Crackstone can be seen holding a staff. When he’s brought back from the dead, he is again seen with a staff, though this time it’s pretty clear that it’s magical in nature. It allows him to cast spells and conjure flames, horrible things like that. Where would somebody like Crackstone have gotten this staff? It’s a big part of his backstory to just gloss over.

1) Wednesday’s Hereditary Powers

Wednesday is an Addams through and through, and that means her solo series has her getting hereditary powers. The series reveals that Wednesday has some psychic abilities that give her visions into the past, which she immediately abuses to solve her cases.

Unfortunately, there are a couple of problems with the hereditary nature of these powers. From the beginning, viewers are informed that this is an Addams family power, going back to Goody Addams (and possibly farther than that). We know this because Goody was Wednesday’s psychic mentor, explaining why Wednesday kept having visions of her. However, Wednesday’s mother, Morticia Addams, is also a psychic who acts like an expert on the matter of Addams’ visions and abilities. To make matters more confusing, Morticia’s sister, Ophelia, is also psychic.

Notice a problem with that? Moticia famously married into the family, as she was originally a Frump. So how does she fit into the hereditary line of Addams’ powers? There is one logical explanation for this: Morticia’s family is also a descendant of Goody Addams. It would be in keeping that the Addams Family would marry distant relatives. It’s the sort of thing they’d openly discuss, and yet it hasn’t come up.

Wednesday is available to stream on Netflix.

The post 7 Things That Still Don’t Make Sense About Wednesday appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Predator‘s crossover with the Marvel Universe sets its sights on the home of the X-Men. One of the many positive things to come out of Disney acquiring 20th Century Fox is that it allows Marvel Comics to release comics featuring 20th Century assets like Predator and Alien. We’ve seen Predator paired with several Marvel heroes like Wolverine, Black Panther, and Spider-Man, but the Yautja are now going big-game hunting in Predator Kills the Marvel Universe. The first issue is in stores now, and things aren’t looking good for our Marvel heroes. The next stage of the Predator assault brings the action to the X-Mansion.

ComicBook has the exclusive first look at Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #2 by Benjamin Percy and Marcelo Ferreira. After facing the Guardians of the Galaxy and Fantastic Four in space, the Yautja turn their attention to an Earth attack. They already know that in order to secure a victory, they’ll have to take out the likes of the X-Men and Avengers. The Predators decide to focus on the X-Men first, who are in the middle of a Danger Room session with the attack begins.

Predator Looks to Wipe Out the X-Men at the X-Mansion

X-Men founder Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto are playing a quiet game of chess when Xavier receives a psychic alert. The message he gets is so overwhelming that Xavier buckles and falls out of his wheelchair. We see images of the Fantastic Four in Xavier’s mind, and Marvel’s First Family appears to be in peril. Next, we get a glimpse outside the X-Mansion, where the Yautja assault is taking place. The Predators descend from their ships in the dead of night as rain falls from the sky.

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Inside the X-Mansion, Cyclops, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Beast, and Storm are in the middle of a Danger Room session against the evil robotic mutant-hunting Sentinels. The only problem is that a Predator isn’t part of the Danger Room programming, and Cyclops catches one trying to sneak up on him from behind as the first look at Predator Kills the Marvel Universe #2 ends.

“Over the past few years, I’ve been having the time of my life writing the Predator Vs. series,” Percy told IGN. “The Yautja have hunted Wolverine across the decades. They’ve battled Black Panther and plundered Wakanda of its vibranium. And they’ve faced off against Spider-Man and Kraven during a blackout heatwave in New York. These stories have been patiently building toward something epic. Their interconnectedness will be revealed in this explosive, blood-drenched, five-part story.”

“That title? It’s not misdirection,” he continued. “This one’s gonna hurt. Your favorite heroes and villains will fall — even as others rise up against this extinction-level event. The Predator King is here — the Yautja are armed with vibranium — and Earth is now a hunting preserve.”

The post X-Men Battle a Yautja Army in Predator Kills the Marvel Universe First Look (Exclusive) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Alien: Earth lives up to its name, focusing on events on the planet humanity calls home rather than a ship in the far reaches of space. A cold war is brewing between five different companies that all share the same goal: to guide humanity into the future. The main players in Alien: Earth‘s first two episodes are the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, the company responsible for most of the major events in the Alien franchise, and the Prodigy Corporation, which is the new kid on the block. Prodigy’s CEO, Boy Kavalier, is making a name for himself as the world’s youngest trillionaire, but his work is mysterious, as he keeps everything close to the vest.

The following contains spoilers for the first two episodes of Alien: Earth.

It comes to light that Kavalier is building synthetics with the sole purpose of placing human consciousness inside of them, creating a new form of life known as hybrids. Since adult minds are unable to survive the transfer, he targets children who don’t have long to live because they’re expendable. Getting a second chance at life is too much for the kids to pass up, so they agree to become hybrids and embrace their new bodies. However, the hybrids don’t yet know their own strength, as they have the potential to be the strongest beings in the universe.

Alien: Earth‘s Hybrids Blow Synthetics Out of the Water

Of course, Weyland-Yutani’s claim to fame in the majority of the Alien franchise is its synthetics, androids that appear human but are so much more. They often accompany humans on missions to serve as guides and science officers, dishing out probabilities and facts. Unfortunately, they aren’t all that helpful in the combat department because they aren’t designed for it. A synthetic’s best weapon is its mind, as it can predict events before they happen and create a solution.

David is a notable example of a formidable synthetic, as he wipes out an entire race of beings in order to conduct experiments on their bodies and create the perfect being. The only way David gets an edge, though, is by getting the drop on everyone. If he ever had to face off against a hybrid, he would have a tough time because a child’s mind is unpredictable.

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Cyborgs Could Give Hybrids Problems in the Alien Universe

The other kind of being that makes its franchise debut in Alien: Earth is an enhanced human known as a cyborg. Morrow, part of the crew of the USCSS Maginot, which goes down in Episode 1, is a ruthless cyborg who works for Weyland-Yutani. Despite his crew dying all around him, he shows little emotion, opting to focus on the mission. Surviving the crash proves just how durable cyborgs can be, and they’re just as formidable in the practicality department, with Morrow’s robotic hand having several notable attachments, including a knife and a torch.

Taking down a xenomorph is no easy feat, but Morrow does it easily when he catches up to the one that escaped the Maginot in Episode 2, pushing the idea that cyborgs are humanity’s strongest creation. The only issue with that logic is that a hybrid has yet to face off against a xenomorph, and if the creature reacts to it like it does to a synthetic, the cards may not be in its favor. The question is sure to have an answer by the end of Alien: Earth‘s first season, but as it stands, hybrids have the edge in the strength debate.

Alien: Earth is streaming on Hulu.

How strong do you think Hybrids are in Alien: Earth? Do you think they could beat a Cyborg? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Alien: Earth – Are Hybrids Stronger Than Synthetics (and Cyborgs)? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The ‘80s were a defining decade for the slasher genre. Films like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and Child’s Play littered multiplexes and kicked off franchises that are still part of the pop culture consciousness to this very day. It’s no great surprise that fans hold that time period in high regard after all these years. Despite a great run with so many memorable efforts released during the ‘80s, we gradually began to see a collective fatigue set in that signaled a shift away from the slasher films that dominated the horror space. By the early ‘90s, fans witnessed a noticeable pivot to more psychological horror fare, with serial killer thrillers rising to prominence.

That move away from slasher fare remained in effect until 1996, when Scream,reignited mainstream interest in slasher cinema. Not only did Scream pave the way for renewed interest in the slasher sub-genre, it also popularized meta horror, a trend that we still see in a lot of genre output to this day. Moreover, the film is considered by many to be the greatest slasher picture of the ‘90s and kicked off one of the best horror trilogies ever made (before even more sequels followed with different results). Sadly, the entire original Scream trilogy is about to leave streaming at the end of the month, with HBO Max – its exclusive streaming home for some time – about to drop it out of the catalog.

Why Scream Is the Best Slasher Film of the ‘90s

Scream delighted fans and critics in equal measure upon release. The film is equal parts scary and funny. This celebrated picture won over its audience by lovingly poking fun at slasher tropes while simultaneously adhering to many of them. The film features a smart, well-written script from Kevin Williamson, coupled with masterful direction by the great Wes Craven.

Scream serves up a strong ensemble cast, with many of the core characters coming across as both relatable and endearing. Not to mention, the key players are surprisingly well developed for a slasher movie. Heading up the proceedings is Neve Campbell as Sidney Prescott, a plucky teenager grieving the recent loss of her mother. Sid and her pals are no different from your average teenagers, that is, until they begin receiving crank calls from a menacing presence obsessed with horror movies. The voice on the other end of the line is more than just talk. Sid’s friends begin to drop like flies, leaving her peer group with the realization that they are trapped in their own horror film.

Williamson’s script playfully references the horror movies of years past, calculating the rules for survival, what to do, and what not to do. Because this is a horror movie, many of the core cast members break the rules and pay the price. Yet, what makes Scream stand out from countless other efforts past and present is that the rules are constantly changing, and the identity of the killer isn’t easy to establish upon an inaugural viewing. Suspicion shifts, with characters coming under scrutiny only to seemingly later be exonerated.

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There are plenty of clues regarding the true identity of the killer (or killers) buried throughout the picture that make repeat visits great fun. You can go back for a rewatch and pick up something new each time you take in the flick.

In the years since it first bowed, Scream has become one of the most influential horror films of the modern era. You can see a similar brand of self-referential humor in slasher pictures that followed, like Cherry Falls, Halloween H20, Urban Legends: Final Cut, and many more. Even more recent efforts like Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon, Cabin in the Woods, Detention, and The Final Girls share a similarly meta approach to their commentary on the horror genre.

Not to mention, Scream paved the way for a series of successful sequels that bear a similar tone, wit, and charm to the iconic film that started it all. Though the quality varies slightly, each successive effort is plenty enjoyable. In fact, some of the sequels even come close to the brilliance established by the original.

All in all, Scream is the best slasher film of the ‘90s, hands down. It’s smart, funny, and sets the stage for what the slasher genre would look like in the decades that followed. If you’re keen to pay the film a visit, you can find it streaming on HBO Max.

Do you agree that Scream is the best slasher picture of the ‘90s? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Let us know in the comments section below!

The post Horror Fans Only Have Days Left To Stream One of the Best Trilogies Of All Time appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Dexter: Resurrection appears to be setting up the resolution to something the franchise set up four years ago. In 2021, Dexter Morgan came back to our TV screens for the first time in nearly a decade for Dexter: New Blood. After eight seasons of the original show, Michael C. Hall needed a break from the character, but was open to returning under the right circumstances. Original showrunner Clyde Phillips eventually pitched him the story for New Blood which clicked for Hall and allowed him to have proper closure with Dexter. Although the show was largely well-received, the ending for Dexter: New Blood was extremely controversial. It brought Dexter back just to immediately kill him and didn’t tie up all loose ends. Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Dexter: Resurrection from this point.

Fans felt the finale was a bit rushed, fumbled in some areas, and built up to things that never even paid off. One of the biggest promises that Dexter: New Blood made was that Angel Batista, Dexter’s old co-worker and former best friend, would confront Dexter for faking his death and potentially being the Bay Harbor Butcher. However, once Dexter learned that Batista was on his way to Iron Lake, he realized his arrival would likely cement his fate in prison. Dexter then broke out of jail before eventually being shot and killed by his son… at least until doctors saved him in Dexter: Resurrection. The new show has allowed Dexter Morgan to carry on and fulfill some promises.

Dexter: Resurrection Episode 7 Finally Tees Up Dexter and Batista’s Long Awaited Showdown

At the end of Dexter: Resurrection Episode 7, titled Course Correction, finally sees Dexter and Batista going head to head for the first time. The two reconnected at the beginning of the season with Batista being somewhat suspicious, but far from where he is now. Batista has been investigating and pursuing Dexter all season long, but has finally caught up to him. After Dexter returns home one night, he goes upstairs to Blessing’s apartment to find Batista mingling with the family. Batista is clearly putting the pressure on Dexter, prompting him to offer Batista a ride back to his hotel.

The two have a very intense conversation in the car with Dexter warning Batista that this won’t end well for him if he keeps going down this road. Unfortunately, this warning doesn’t work as Batista emphasizes that he won’t let Dexter get away with all of the damage he has done over the years. Dexter eventually kicks Batista out of the car, but the detective slips his AirPods into a compartment on the side of the car door so that he can track Dexter’s whereabouts going forward. The episode ends with with a needle drop of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Showdown”, obviously foreshadowing that these two are about to settle their conflict once and for all.

This obviously raises a ton of questions about what will happen between Dexter and Batista. Will Dexter get caught and locked up? That seems somewhat unlikely given Dexter: Resurrection is planned to have multiple seasons and it would be hard to do that with him behind bars. Will Dexter kill Batista? It’s not totally out of the question. Dexter has wrestled with killing people who have investigated before, including Doakes and LaGuerta. Dexter ultimately decided he wasn’t going to kill Doakes as he saw a way to frame him, but he staged a trap to kill LaGuerta and was moments away from pulling it off before Deb did it for him.

Dexter killed Stan Liddy, an ex-cop who captured him in order to turn Dexter in, and Coach Logan in Dexter: New Blood, so he’s not above getting his hands a bit dirty. Would he be willing to do it again with someone he once considered a friend? Is it possible that Harrison gets involved to save his dad as they continue to patch up their relationship? We’ll just have to see, but it’s clear things are getting intense and Batista will have to be dealt with some way some how by the end of Dexter: Resurrection Season 1.

However, it seems unlikely all of Dexter’s problems will just wash away if Batista is taken out. Joey Quinn is still out there and Batista had teased to him that something that he was pursuing something big. It’s likely Quinn would just take his place if Batista died. Not only that, but the NYPD will likely continue to take interest in Dexter as well. It’s clear things are only getting messier and messier as Dexter lives on and that he will probably never be able to escape this without leaving his vigilantism behind.

The post Dexter: Resurrection Is Finally Addressing a Major Plot Twist 4 Years Later appeared first on ComicBook.com.

In space, no one can hear you scream… about how confusing Alien canon truly is. Comprised of several mainline films, spin-offs, novels, and video games, and no clear-cut line between what is canon and what isn’t, like Star Wars, the franchise can get, well, a bit convoluted. Any fans hoping that the newest edition to the Alien saga, Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth, would help answer some of the franchise’s most burning questions are out of luck. So far, the new series has only further muddied the franchise’s timeline and introduced some new wrinkles to the current Alien continuity.

To be clear, these are only problems based on how they’re presented in the first two episodes of Alien: Earth. It’s entirely possible that further episodes will expand upon and make sense of these continuity-busting plot points. For now, though, here are five problems Alien: Earth creates within the current Alien canon.

1) Weyland-Yutani Knows About Xenomorphs Before the Events of Alien

Alien: Earth kicks off with a Weyland-Yutani science vessel crashing on Earth with several deadly creatures onboard. One of those creatures happens to be a xenomorph — or at least the facehugger stage of the xenomorph life cycle. The series never states explicitly that the xenomorph on board the crashed ship was born mid-voyage. Either way, it brings up the issue of the company being aware of facehuggers/xenomorphs years before the events of Alien.

One of the biggest questions fans have about the original Alien is “How much did the Weyland-Yutani corporation know about xenomorphs before sending the Nostromo to LV-426?” All the film tells us is that the Nostromo was on its way to Earth when it was diverted to investigate a “distress signal” coming from the uninhabited planet, LV-426. This was based upon a standing order that all company vessels must explore any situation involving potential alien life or else forfeit their crew’s wages.

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Later, after the existence of the xenomorph is revealed, Ash, the Nostromo’s Synth science officer, reveals a second directive only he is privy to: Special Order 937. That order states that the capture and preservation of the alien species is Weyland-Yutani’s highest priority, and the company considers the Nostromo’s crew expendable. Even taking Special Order 937 into account, all we know is that Weyland-Yutani knows about the existence of generic alien life on LV-426.

If the company did know there were facehuggers on LV-426, why not send a crew of Space Marines to capture one rather than a bunch of blue-collar space truckers? Furthermore, the 2014 video game Alien: Isolation, which is largely considered canon, details the moment Weyland-Yutani discovers what happened to the Nostromo crew, something they wouldn’t be eager to find out if they already had reason to believe a xenomorph had probably massacred the crew.

The two Alien prequels, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, further expand upon Weyland-Yutani’s xenomorph knowledge by revealing that the company knows about the Engineers — the species responsible for the black goo the android David uses to create the xenomorphs — and later, thanks to the short film Alien: Covenant – Advent, the black goo itself. Nothing in canon, however, implies that the Weyland-Yutani corporation knows about the xenomorphs specifically until Alien: Earth, that is.

Perhaps the series will establish that Weyland-Yutani has several clandestine departments, all ignorant of what the other are doing. But until then, Weyland-Yutani’s knowledge about the existence of xenomorphs at the time of Alien: Earth makes many canon events questionable.

2) If Weyland-Yutani Already Knows Where To Acquire Facehugger Eggs, Why Do So Many Movies Revolve Around the Company Trying To Figure Out How To Get One?

Alien: Earth creates an even bigger problem than the fact that Weyland-Yutani knew about xenomorphs before Alien, namely that they apparently know where to get them. Now granted, we know absolutely nothing about how the crashed ship acquired the dangerous specimens it’s carrying, but given that it’s carrying multiple facehuggers, it’s safe to assume that there’s more where they came from.

So why then is the company so hard-up for xenomorphs by the time of Alien that they’re willing to sacrifice an entire crew and a ship potentially worth billions just to maybe capture one? If Weyland-Yutani already knows where to get prime, Grade-A facehuggers, why in Aliens are they willing to sacrifice an entire colony, a marine unit, and again, billions of dollars worth of equipment to capture one?

Unless everyone who knows about the Weyland-Yutani mission to collect dangerous species dies by the end of Alien: Earth, the fact that anyone at the company knows a better way to get facehuggers than waiting for employees to stumble across them creates some pretty major plot holes in the franchise. And while we’re on the subject of dangerous alien lifeforms…

3) Weyland-Yutani Is Obsessed With Xenomorphs Despite Having Access to at Least Four Other Deadly Species

Alien: Earth introduces four new alien species alongside the tried and true xenomorphs: an eyeball octopus, a pair of bloodsucking insects, a carnivorous plant, and briefly, a winged monstrosity. From what we’ve seen already in the first two episodes, each of these new aliens have the potential to be as deadly as a xenomorph, at least in a one-on-one encounter. But even if a traditional xenomorph is better suited for wholesale slaughter, so what?

That may sound glib, but it’s an honest question. We are told in other Alien media that Weyland-Yutani wants a xenomorph for their Bio-Weapons Division, implying that they are going to use it to develop new weapons/soldiers, not try and tame it to fight directly for them. Presumably, whatever combat advancements could be gleaned from dissecting and reverse engineering a xenomorph, something similar and just as effective could be created based on the biology of one of the other species.

Even if the xenomorph represents the perfect killing machine, surely something 80% as effective but easier to retrieve/control would be a better investment.

4) Alien: Earth Introduces Two New Types of Artificial Lifeforms, but We Only See Synths Throughout the Rest of the Alien Series

Alien: Earth begins with the following on-screen text: “In the future, the race for immortality will come in 3 guises: Cybernetically enhanced humans: Cyborgs, Artificially intelligent beings: Synths, and synthetic beings downloaded with human consciousness: Hybrids” Meanwhile, since 1979 the only artificial life we’ve seen in the Alien franchise are Synths, the Alien universe’s version of androids, which begs the question, what happened to the Cyborgs and Hybrids?

Given that the show’s main Hybrid, Wendy, is shown constantly forgoing orders in favor of doing things her way, it’s entirely possible that Hybrids — an invention of Alien: Earth‘s new mega-corporation Prodigy — are quickly discarded in favor of the more easily controllable Synths. But Cyborgs? We can’t help but feel like many situations throughout the Alien franchise could have been improved by cybernetic implants.

Like many of the other entries on this list, these previously unmentioned artificial lifeforms shine a light on the biggest problem with prequels: the desire to add new elements to an already established universe while somehow justifying why the audience has never seen them before.

It’s possible that Noah Hawley will take the easy way out and proclaim that Hybrids and Cyborgs have always been a part of the Alien franchise, we’ve just never seen them. However, we’d like to think that such a cheap narrative copout is beneath the Fargo creator. Hopefully, Alien: Earth will give fans a legitimate reason behind the sudden absence of Hybrids and cyborgs following the series.

5) Alien: Earth‘s Xenomorph Runs Around on All Fours

We admit this one isn’t as important in the grand scheme of things as the other list entries, but the fact that the normally bipedal xenomorphs are now suddenly quadrapeds is indeed weird. Xenomorphs traditionally adopt some of the physical characteristics found in their host species. Most of the aliens we’ve seen throughout the franchise have gestated in humans, so for the most part, they stand and walk upright. When a xenomorph gestates in a four-legged animal, like in the underrated Alien 3, it then walks on all fours like that animal.

The xenomorph in Alien: Earth, however, is hinted to have burst out of one of the humans aboard the ship carrying it, but for some reason runs around on four legs like a dog or cat. Maybe it’s a stylistic choice, but it definitely seems to contradict some already established xenomorph lore.

What did you think about Alien: Earth deviating from Alien canon? Did it bother you, or do you have faith that Noah Hawley will give everything a satisfactory explanation by the end of the season? Let us know in the comments.

The post Alien: Earth Has Already Created These 5 Problems With Alien Continuity appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Fog, Prom Night, Friday the 13th, Maniac, My Bloody Valentine, Poltergeist, Firestarter, The Toxic Avenger, and soon, Silent Night, Deadly Night. These are just some of the 1980s horror films that have since been remade. There are plenty more that could be listed alongside those, and very nearly as many that are just as ripe for a remake. What follows are a few of those ’80s scarers that have, to date, never received either a remake or a legacy sequel. Some of them weren’t the best movies. We’re not saying they were. But we are saying a remake of them could work, perhaps even going so far as to fix the problems present in the original.

Admittedly, there are also some really excellent ’80s horror movies that don’t feel like they would work today. For instance, Sleepaway Camp, the ending of which would not play at all these days but was and remains hugely effective as a 1983 film. But these films that follow, they could be pretty great as a modern day horror flick.

1) The Island

There is no better type of movie to try to remake than 1980’s The Island. Specifically, it had a great concept that was not executed well, so there’s really no where to go but up. It was directed by Michael Ritchie, who was certainly talented, but really only excelled with comedic materiel, e.g. The Candidate, The Bad News Bears, Fletch, and The Golden Child. He knew how to pace stuff like that, but not so much an adaptation of a Peter Benchley (Jaws) action-thriller-horror work.

Michael Caine starred in three horror thrillers in a row, all three of which were ambitious but none of which quite landed as well as they could have. The Island was first, then Brian De Palma’s Dressed to Kill, then Oliver Stone’s The Hand. Here he plays Blair Maynard, a British-born American journalist and Navy vet who wants to learn about the Bermuda Triangle. He and his son travel there and, while fishing, are capture by a group of pirates and held hostage.

Rent The Island on Amazon Video.

2) An American Werewolf in London

There are two entries on this list where the original is so highly regarded, it helps explain why no one has tried to touch it. One of them is John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London. Then again, while it hasn’t received a remake, it’s not as if Hollywood has found it truly untouchable, as 16 years later it received a very loose sequel, An American Werewolf in Paris.

Perhaps An American Werewolf in Paris is the true reason why no one has attempted to remake London. That sequel was so critically maligned it may have put the concept on ice. But it’s possible, as long as a few key factors are covered. For one, the iconic transformation sequence would be kept in no matter what, but they would do well to avoid CGI for that. They may just want to avoid CGI for the werewolf altogether. Two, the North York Moors opening sequence is integral to making the film as a whole work as a horror film instead of an outright comedy. It establishes the tension and the rest of the movie builds off that. Three, the humorous yet frightening dream sequences should remain present, but this is where the filmmakers could get really creative and make the new take on the narrative their own. Lastly, while this is a werewolf movie, it’s just as much a love story, so they need to cast two leads who can replicate the chemistry shared by David Naughton and Jenny Agutter.

Stream An American Werewolf in London on Prime Video.

3) The Funhouse

Tobe Hooper’s slasher movie The Funhouse has some pretty interesting turns in its plot and a very memorable mood. The mood is definitely something that should be retained in a remake.

The villain, however, could remain mostly the same or be entirely altered. The trepidation comes from the fact the killer is intellectually disabled, which works for Jason Voorhees because it’s barely received a mention throughout 12 films, but it’s very much obvious here. The Funhouse would be tricky in spots to make work for a modern audience, but it’s not an impossible task. Not to mention, carnivals are a great horror film location, and outside the odd Hell Fest here or there, it’s an underutilized locale.

Stream The Funhouse on Prime Video.

4) Scanners

David Cronenberg’s Scanners is the other film on this list that has such a high-quality original it might make studios nervous to try and replicate that quality. In fact, Hollywood seems to have avoided Cronenberg’s filmography outright. Sure, there was The Dead Zone TV series, but the only one who has remade a Cronenberg film was Cronenberg.

That likely wouldn’t be the case here, so what is most important is that a director is enlisted who can similarly balance science fiction and horror. A remake was announced way back in 2007, but it never went anywhere.

Stream Scanners on HBO Max.

5) Christine

One of the best Stephen King movies of the ’80s, Christine is a movie that works because you believe the characters. And you believe the characters because of the work of the cast, particularly Keith Gordon.

A Christine remake needs to have someone who can play the tragic character of Arnie Cunningham as well as Keith Gordon. Car chase sequences aren’t hard to replicate, and if anything the scene of the Plymouth rebuilding itself is easier to do now, but Arnie is a factor that absolutely must be nailed.

Rent Christine on Amazon Video.

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6) Curtains

Some underrated horror movies should have started franchises. Others are like Curtains, which are underrated horror movies that are fully one-offs. Curtains is an old-fashioned mystery slasher, and as the continued success of the Scream franchise has shown, there’s still a market for that.

While the original Curtains is solid, it’s not spectacular, so with a higher budget and a similarly on-point cast, it could make for a successful streaming original. And, considering the original hasn’t accrued the fanbase of the Friday the 13ths of the world, they could even keep the killer the same. As far as scripting goes, Curtains wouldn’t need many alterations.

Stream Curtains on Prime Video.

7) Ghoulies

A horror movie featuring a pre-fame star (Mariska Hargitay), Ghoulies was a massive hit for Empire Pictures. It was also incredibly low budget and showed every ounce of its limitations.

As anyone who has seen Ghoulies (or anything from Charles Band) knows, it’s a very silly film, filled with magic spells and the like. If a remake lost the magic element, it wouldn’t be a fatal loss. However, there’s still an opportunity to keep this IP alive, and it would be fun to see the Ghoulie toilet seen in a modern movie (that scene was unforgettable on the original film’s VHS case, yet didn’t actually happen until Ghoulies II, which is the best of the bunch).

Stream Ghoulies on fuboTV.

8) The Gate

Some horror movies develop a cult following, but are best described as an interesting concept that wasn’t executed as well as it could have been. For instance, The Gate, starring a young Stephen Dorff.

The narrative follows a little boy who accidentally opens a gateway to Hell, which then releases a bunch of little two-toed, horned demons. The little demons then try and initiate the rise of their malicious Gods via a spell. It’s up to the little boy and his pals to save the day. In short, it’s a horror movie that is aimed at kids even more than adults. There’s nothing particularly frightening and even the little demons are more cute than scary. The issues come more on the writing front, as the script oscillates between cliche, cutesy, and outright confusing. With a tightly written script and the right child actors (one of the things the first one nailed), though, a The Gate remake could make for a solid Netflix or HBO Max original.

Stream The Gate on The CW.

9) Dolls

It’s surprising Dolls never got a sequel, because there was more to explore here. The core of it is pretty simple: an elderly couple uses their own, hand-crafted dolls to teach fatal lessons on adults who behave poorly.

If they could find the right actors, a Dolls remake could be great. It just has to retain some of the original’s dark foggy night atmospherics, ensure the dolls are practical creations instead of CGI, and find the right child performer to serve as the lead.

Stream Dolls on fuboTV.

10) Pumpkinhead

A great horror film with a sad ending, the late, great makeup artist Stan Winston’s directorial debut, Pumpkinhead, is an interesting late ’80s scarer. And considering how its central themes of loss and revenge are always relevant, it’s ripe for a remake.

Lance Henriksen stars as Tom Harley, whose child is run down by some reckless youthful dirt bikers. He strikes a deal with a witch to exact his revenge, via a big ugly demon. The thing is, every time this “Pumpkinhead” kills, a piece of Harley is killed too. There have been rumors of a Pumpkinhead for quite some time now, and it even seemed to gain some traction in 2021, but nothing has come of it as of this point.

Stream Pumpkinhead for free with ads on The Roku Channel.

The post 10 ‘80s Horror Movies That Really Need a Remake appeared first on ComicBook.com.

It’s almost feeding time, as Marvel Zombies will arrive a bite sooner than expected. The next four-part Marvel Animation series after Eyes of Wakanda — which also shifted from its original Aug. 27 release date to Aug. 1 — has been brought forward. It’s now a pretty consistent trend for Marvel projects to be moved around, with delays a regular part of the production schedule.

But in this case, according to Collider, all four episodes of the Marvel Zombies have now moved forward nine days and will stream Sept. 24 on Disney+. The show was originally slated to premiere on Oct. 3. Spinning out of the “What If… Zombies?!” episode of Marvel’s What If…? and based on the comic book saga that originated in a 2005 issue of Ultimate Fantastic Four, the new series is essentially a movie split into four parts.

“Originally, we were thinking it’d be a movie. Like, ‘Ooh, we should release it as a movie,'” director Bryan Andrews told the outlet. “‘We should just do a movie.’ But there were some things that came up, certain issues that we just had to kind of, ‘Let’s break it [up]. We’ll have to break it up into four episodes.'”

“So basically it’s like a four-episode mini-event, like a film broke up into four parts,” he added, confirming it’s “one story” unlike the anthology series What If…?, which ended after three seasons in 2024.

Andrews also directed “What If… Zombies?!,” which followed a cloak-wearing Spider-Man (voiced by Hudson Thames), the Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), King T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), and the severed head of Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) as survivors of the zombie apocalypse in a mish-mash of 2018’s Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Infinity War.

The episode saw zombified versions of heroes like Wanda Maximoff/the Scarlet Witch, Steve Rogers/Captain America (Josh Keaton), and Tony Stark/Iron Man become flesh-munching monsters after Hope van Dyne/Wasp (Evangeline Lilly) contracted a quantum virus that spread across the globe as patient zero of the zombie apocalypse.

Unlike that episode, however, Marvel Zombies will be rated TV-MA. “It was Kevin [Feige, producer and president of Marvel Studios] that really pushed for doing something with the zombies,” Andrews said. “And it turned out well.”

“I think once the response came in, when people saw the episode, I think that helped seal the deal” for a Marvel Zombies spinoff series, Andrews continued. “Relatively soon after [What If…?], it was, ‘Well, we got to do another one.'” Brad Winderbaum, Head of Marvel Television and Marvel Animation, suggested that instead of another zombie episode of What If…?, “It should be like its own thing, and hence the beginning of us figuring out what on Earth to do.”

While plot details remain in the grave, MCU stars Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda Maximoff/the Scarlet Witch), Florence Pugh (Yelena Belova), Simu Liu (Shang-Chi), Awkwafina (Katy), Randall Park (Jimmy Woo), David Harbour (Alexei Shostakov/the Red Guardian), Hailee Steinfeld (Kate Bishop/Hawkeye), Iman Vellani (Kamala Khan/Ms. Marvel), and Dominique Thorne (Riri Williams/Ironheart) are confirmed to voice their respective characters, with Hudson Thames (Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man) voicing Peter Parker.

“It’s TV-MA, so we don’t have to pull punches,” Andrews said in the show’s press notes. “We can be a little bit more hardcore. We go for the throat — no pun intended. It’s pretty wild, pretty out there.” Added Winderbaum, “In many ways, animation is the most direct access you’ll ever have to a filmmaker’s imagination. If you can conjure it in your mind, you can put it onscreen. Marvel Zombies is proof of that. It’s not just a zombie story, it’s a sweeping adventure — one with themes of hope and despair, and that’s what you want from a rich zombie story.”

Marvel Zombies premieres September 24 on Disney+.

The post Marvel’s Next Big Disney+ Series Will Premiere Even Sooner Than Expected appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Jason Universe is finally here with the thirteen and a half minute vignette Sweet Revenge, and it’s absolutely enough to get fans of the Friday the 13th franchise excited for what is to come. It comes about as close as a modern project can get to recapturing the tone of the first four installments. It also has a fun new spin on Harry Manfredini’s score, particularly bringing to mind Manfredini and Fred Mollin’s work on Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Then there’s the design of Jason, which is right in line with the one seen in Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter as opposed to the bulky Kane Hodder Jason or extra tall Ken Kirzinger Jason of Freddy vs. Jason.

The vignette is presented by Angry Orchard, and follows Eve (an excellent Ally Ioannides) as she, two friends, and her fiancé travel out to what appears to be a standard, tranquil waterfront cabin. She is told about the property’s bloody history by its owner and, shrugging it off, proceeds to take a leisurely canoe ride out on Crystal Lake. After an encounter with Jason she returns to the rented cabin to learn a heartbreaking truth, at which point Jason once more pops up to break some hearts of his own.

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The short was helmed by Mike P. Nelson, who is also reviving the Silent Night, Deadly Night franchise later this year. If Sweet Revenge is any indication, that film will come equipped with some bloody, inventive kills.

Up next for the Jason Universe is Peacock’s Crystal Lake, which is set for release on that streamer at some point in 2026. It comes from Brad Caleb Kane, who is also co-showrunner on IT: Welcome to Derry, which will see the highly anticipated return of Bill Skarsgård’s Pennywise the Dancing Clown. As for Nelson’s Silent Night, Deadly Night, that hits theaters on December 12th.

The full press release from Horror, Inc. is as follows: “One of horror’s most iconic figures is back and more brutal than ever! Jason Universe is thrilled to announce the release of Sweet Revenge, a chilling new vignette presented by Angry Orchard. Now available to watch on the Jason Universe YouTube Channel, this spine-tingling story resurrects Jason Voorhees in a fresh, terrifying light.”

“Written and directed by Mike P. Nelson (Silent Night, Deadly Night) and starring Ally Ioannides (Into the Badlands) as Eve and Schuyler White (Haunt) as Jason, Sweet Revenge delivers a mix of suspense, atmosphere and satisfying savage kills, all packed into 13 unforgettable minutes.”

“Whether you’re a die-hard slasher fan or just love a good, blood-soaked comeback, Jason’s return delivers the endless brutality and edge-of-your-seat tension horror lovers crave. Revenge has never tasted better.”

Head over to the Jason Universe YouTube Channel to watch Sweet Revenge. Check it out for a return to Camp Crystal Lake. Or, as it’s now called, Cabins at Crystal Lake.

The post First New Friday the 13th Story In 16 Years Finally Lands Online appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Alien series and the Predator franchise each have a dedicated base that will show up at the box office when either property releases a new installment. Not surprisingly, viewers turned out in droves when, 21 years ago today, the two came together for a mashup of what might have been epic proportions. Although Alien vs. Predator (AvP) was a major financial success, it generated plenty of controversy, frustrating many fans and failing to win over critics. The crossover film made waves for disregarding established lore and watering down the source material for a commercially friendly PG-13 rating. Not to mention, this maligned offering also caught heat for largely prioritizing kill scenes over character development.

With all that said, this divisive flick has at least a handful of fans who have managed to see past what doesn’t work and appreciate what does. Even still, the overarching consensus suggests that Alien vs. Predator is something of a misguided dud that never really finds its footing. In honor of the film’s release date anniversary, we’ll be taking a look back on where it goes wrong (as well as what it gets right).

This unhinged effort unfolds during an archeological expedition and follows a crack team of scientists who quickly learn that they are caught between the titular species, who are at odds with one another and determined to duke it out in violent fashion.

Alien vs. Predator Is Flashy Spectacle (That Largely Fails to Meet Expectations)

It almost feels like this flick was doomed from the start. All of the Alien movies sport an R-rating, and so do all of the Predator pictures. On that basis, it seems like a foregone conclusion that Alien vs. Predator would follow suit and deliver not just an R-rated spectacle, but a hard, boundary-pushing R-rated spectacle. Unfortunately, the suits at 20th Century Fox (now 20th Century Studios) had different ideas. They seemingly wanted to take two beloved IPs and leverage their marketability while appealing to a wider audience. That decision makes a certain amount of financial sense, and it even resulted in an impressive take at the box office. $177.4 million to be precise. However, they largely alienated (no pun intended) both fanbases in the process.

While Alien vs. Predator probably deserves a level of credit for featuring plenty of onscreen kills, each sendoff is lacking the viscera for which each of the respective franchises is so well known. Worse yet, the film introduces a sizable cast of largely underdeveloped human characters, only to systematically kill them off when the titular creatures arrive on the scene.

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Fans also took issue with the timeline. The film is set in 2004 and establishes that xenomorphs have long been used as a hunting tool by predators. That assertion contradicts the events of Alien, which sees the cast discovering what appears to be one of the very first xenomorph sightings in 2122. That seems like a particularly bold move for a film catering to the respective fanbases. Setting AVP further into the future would have gone a long way toward making the chronology less distracting.

Additionally, some of the film’s vocal detractors have taken care to point out that the flick often places style over substance. Many have posited that writer/director Paul W. S. Anderson seems content to eschew a cohesive narrative in favor of flashy visuals.

With all that said, the film isn’t entirely without merit. Even the picture’s most staunch detractors have to give this crossover event credit for the brilliant scene where environmental technician Lex (Sanaa Lathan) uses a detached xenomorph head as a shield. That sequence is both epic and inventive!

Fans who connect with the flick also argue that this is a spectacle not meant to be taken too seriously. So, if you view the film through that lens, you will likely get more bang for your buck than if you go in expecting perfection.

On the whole, Alien vs. Predator is a controversial effort that divided fans, with more coming out against it than in favor. The PG-13 rating surely didn’t help matters, nor did the lack of character development. Even still, there are a few standout moments that make this movie worth checking out at least once.

If you’re keen to do so, you can stream Alien vs. Predator on Disney+ and Hulu. You can also check out new episodes of the celebrated series Alien: Earth on Hulu weekly. If you’re itching for even more Alien, Fede Alvarez is also hard at work on a sequel to Alien: Romulus.

The post Over 20 Years Ago Today, The Most Controversial Franchise Crossover Ever Happened appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Hulu’s horror lineup continues to grow. The Disney-owned streamer has updated its content catalog for August 2025, with new TV shows and movies set to arrive throughout the remainder of the month. Now streaming on Hulu alongside other August 2025 Hulu horror arrivals like The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Ready or Not, and The Monkey is one of the goriest horror movies of all time that many consider to be one of the best horror reboots ever.

Hulu subscribers can now watch Evil Dead, Fede Álvarez’s 2013 remake of Sam Raimi’s cult classic horror pic The Evil Dead. Marking the fourth installment in the Evil Dead film series, the movie follows a group of people who come under attack at a remote cabin in the woods after they find a mysterious book and read an incantation from it, awakening an ancient demon. Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, and Elizabeth Blackmore star in the film, which is rated fresh on Rotten Tomatoes with a 63% critics’ score and 64% audience rating.

When it comes to horror, gore usually comes with the genre, but Evil Dead went above and beyond the usual. The film’s 85-minute runtime packs some of the most gruesome moments and memorable deaths in horror, complete with plenty of violence and fake blood – more than 70,000 gallons of it, to be exact, with 50,000 gallons alone used for one scene in the third act.

Apart from establishing itself as one of the goriest horror films, Evil Dead was also a solid reboot. Álvarez’s decision to strip the comedic tones from earlier Evil Dead movies helped establish his 2013 film as a straight-horror work, though the movie still managed to honor the franchise’s roots while also carving its own path. All in all, Evil Dead was well-received, and was a box office hit, grossing $97 million against a $17 million production budget.

Evil Dead’s arrival to Hulu comes as work continues on the franchise’s upcoming next installment, Evil Dead Burn. Helmed by Sébastien Vaniček, production on the movie began in July. The film is described as a standalone spinoff and stars Souheila Yacoub, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, and Tandi Wright. Evil Dead Burn is on track for a 2026 release.

New on Hulu

Evil Dead is one of several horror films now streaming on Hulu. The streamer began stocking its catalog with new titles on August 1st, with even more TV shows and films set to arrive throughout the month, including numerous horror titles. See the full list of Hulu’s August 2025 horror arrivals below.

August 1st
The Exorcism of Emily Rose
One Hour Photo
Ready Or Not
Resident Evil: Extinction
Take Shelter

August 7th
The Monkey

August 15th
It Feeds (2025)

August 17th
Thanksgiving

August 22nd
Eenie Meanie (Film Premiere)

August 26th
Little Bites

August 29th
Hell of a Summer

The post Hulu Now Streaming One of the Goriest Horror Movie Reboots Ever appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Alien: Earth is proving to be a hit for FX-Hulu after the two-episode premiere event, in terms of review scores, and the necessary buzz indicative of a new show’s impact. Along with all the popular fan theories about Alien: Earth come a lot of new questions the show (and possibly the larger franchise) has to answer. From the mysterious new alien lifeforms that have now been set loose on Earth, to the powers and potential of the world’s machine being trifecta (synthetics, cyborgs, and the newly-invented “hybrids”).

It may be a minor detail of Alien: Earth‘s first episodes, but it’s certainly a conspicuous one fans are noticing: The halls of the Boy Kavalier’s (Samuel Blenkin) “Neverland” research facility are growing with some kind of black goo, which requires a mysterious figure in a hazmat suit to combat. Knowing everything we do about the Alien franchise, it’s hard to believe this is just a coincidence.

Have We Seen This Black Substance In Alien Before?

Alien: Earth showrunner Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) is always playing 4-D chess with multiple levels of meaning, visually and thematically. While Boy Kavalier may not react to it, the sight of the hazmat worker and the black goo on the walls is obviously going to be triggering to anyone who has watched the Alien movies – and especially the prequel films directed by Ridley Scott, Prometheus, and Alien: Covenant.

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What’s especially curious is that Hawley and FX executives have been pointing out that his show will honor the continuity of the original Alien (1979), as well as the recent film Alien: Romulus from Fede Álvarez, ostensibly side-stepping Scott’s prequels. That gets tricky, as Romulus did borrow from Scott’s prequels for a key part of its story: Weyland-Yutani’s development of Compound Z-01. The Renasiance Space Station’s entire mission was harvesting the xenomorph corpse from the USCSS Nostromo‘s wreckage, extracting the mutagenic goo (“Prometheus Fire”) from the creature, and filtering out the genetic features that make xenomorphs highly durable and able to withstand any environment. The ultimate goal for the megacorporation was human augmentation and life extension – goals that are conspicuously similar to what Prodigy is doing.

Has Prodigy Already Experimented With Xenomorph DNA?

The hybrid program that Boy Kavalier is pioneering would potentially going to be the biggest leap forward for human augmentation – that is, if the timeline of Alien didn’t already portend its doom. Seeing how quickly Boy changed focus from his hybrids to securing the creatures Weyland-Yutani collected suggests that he may already have bioweapon projects of his own locked away in a secret lab somewhere. It would be a major twist in Alien: Earth‘s story to find out that Boy already has a sample of that mutagenic goo in his possession, and is all too aware of its infectious dangers. It would actually explain a lot of early implications about Neverland: why Boy relies more on synthetic beings than humans (less potential for infection); why he’s willing to risk the Lost Boys to retrieve the creatures (he’s already connected the data on the xenomorphs to the black goo); it could also explain the mystery of Wendy’s enhnaced abilities and sensory powers, as well as why her hybrid transfer was kept secret from her family.

If Boy and his scientists injected Marcy (Florence Bensberg) with some black goo compound before she became “Wendy,” then it would(after all, what was there to lose if the host body died?), then it could mean Wendy is actually the pinnacle of biological and mechanical life, and a much more important figure in the Alien canon than anyone knows.

Then again, the black substance on Prodigy’s walls could also be a subtle ode from Hawley to just how bad environmental conditions are getting on Earth, and why the need for humanity to evolve is getting so dire.

Alien: Earth is streaming on FX-Hulu.

The post Alien Earth – What Is The Black Goo Growing Inside of Prodigy’s Neverland? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

In the 1980s, horror TV delivered crypt ghouls and cursed antiques that invaded our living rooms each week. The decade, when VHS ruled home video, also saw a rise in the number of television programs being produced, allowing for more exploration into the darker corners of the genre. Networks embraced anthology format shows in the lineage of The Twilight Zone (including an actual TZ reboot in 1985) and mixed camp, classic monsters, and practical effects to create some truly fun and frightening series. 

While the ‘80s are known primarily for iconic horror films like Poltergeist and A Nightmare on Elm Street, the TV of the era is also worth revisiting. Pushing the limits of what could air on network television at the time, many of these shows went on to become cult classics that still inspire modern horror filmmakers and showrunners. Today, streaming has resurrected many of these ‘80s nightmares for a new generation, making it easier than ever to rediscover the decade’s creepiest classics.

1) Monsters

Tales from the Darkside was George A. Romero’s horror grab bag, but unfortunately, it’s not streaming anywhere at the moment. Thankfully, its grotesque sibling Monsters has been resuscitated for modern audiences. Monsters followed the reigning anthology format of the time, with each episode featuring a different creature. Rubber-suit aliens and demon puppets were among them, often creeping alongside the show’s wicked sense of humor.

Beloved for leaning into its low-budget, the show became a TV variant of the Midnight Movie. Today, all episodes are available to stream on Prime Video and Tubi. For fans of practical effects and oddball horror tales, Monsters is a must-see.

2) The Twilight Zone (1985)

The ‘80s revival of Rod Serling’s legendary anthology was a darker take on the classic formula. With contributions from legendary horror directors like Wes Craven and writers such as Stephen King and Harlan Ellison, the series used the original’s recipe of speculative sci-fi and chilling horror tales. Its willingness to embrace more graphic scares and morally ambiguous endings helped it stand apart from its mid-century predecessor. That, and, it was in color. 

While it’s not currently on a major streaming service, many episodes are available to watch for free on YouTube. And while not as widely beloved as the original, the ‘80s Twilight Zone proved the format’s timeless power and gained its own devoted fanbase.

3) Elvira’s Movie Macabre

Long before the first YouTube reaction channel, Cassandra Peterson’s mistress Elvira turned camp horror movies into essential viewing with her razor-sharp sarcasm and bewitching goth-meets-Valley Girl charm. Each episode presented a low-budget or just plain bad creature feature, then added Elvira’s camp comedy commentary, breathing life into otherwise forgotten horror stories.

You can stream Elvira’s Movie Macabre on Prime Video, Tubi, Philo, and YouTube TV, making it easier than ever to soak in her Queen of Halloween persona. Tune in for the so-bad-they’re-good movies and stay for Elvira’s horror hosting and roasting.

4) The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents

This reboot of the 1955 classic used colorized introductions from Alfred Hitchcock himself, combined with newly filmed stories and the occasional remake of an original episode. The result was a blend of old-school suspense with the more modern edge, featuring guest stars like Martin Sheen, Melanie Griffith, and even a young Tippi Hedren.

While not available on traditional streaming, you can watch all of the episodes completely free on Internet Archive. And while the dated effects might give away its age, the tight storytelling and clever twists remain effective. We already know that Hitchcock’s formula for suspense is hugely influential, but this largely overlooked show is a reminder that it’s truly timeless. 

5) Freddy’s Nightmares

Capitalizing on Freddy Krueger’s movie fame following Craven’s 1984 hit Nightmare on Elm Street, this anthology set in Springwood, Ohio, features Robert Englund’s killer hosting and occasionally starring in a series of grisly tales. While the small budget and TV restrictions kept the horror generally lighter than the films, the series pushed boundaries with its surreal tone and dark humor.

Plex TV currently offers free streaming for both seasons of Freddy’s Nightmares, making it easy to indulge in the ultimate ‘80s horror spinoff. The pilot episode even tells Freddy’s origin story, something the films never fully explored.

6) Werewolf (1987)

Taking influence from shows like The Fugitive and The Incredible Hulk, this short-lived Fox series followed Eric Cord, a man cursed to transform into a werewolf, not just during a full moon, but whenever his pentagram birthmark bled. His quest to kill the werewolf who infected him played out like a supernatural road movie, complete with gnarly practical FX transformations that were cutting-edge for the time. The contemporary rock soundtrack also set the show apart.

For many years, the show has been hard to track down. However, thanks to archival YouTube channels like Silver Bullet Fan, many of these lost episodes are now available to watch for free, letting you rediscover a series that was way ahead of its time.

7) Hammer House of Horror

Produced by Britain’s legendary Hammer Films, this series of vignettes delivered everything supernatural horror fans wanted at the time: gothic mansions, demons, curses, and even occasional gore. Each of the 13 episodes told a standalone story, ranging from possession to witchcraft, and featured future stars like Pierce Brosnan.

The complete series is currently streaming on Prime Video and Peacock, as well as free channels like Tubi, giving you more options than ever to revive Hammer’s horror for yourself. Even today, its atmospheric cinematography and moody pacing set it apart from more Americanized horror anthologies.

8) Darkroom

Hosted by James Coburn, Darkroom offered two to three short stories per episode, each brimming with paranoia, psychological tension, or supernatural menace. The opening credits alone are legendary, featuring a creepy camera pan through an empty house that was nightmare fuel for many ‘80s kids.

While currently unavailable, you can favorite the show on NBC to stay up to date on when it becomes available to stream again. And in the meantime, many fans have noted success digging up full episodes on YouTube and Internet Archive.

9) Friday the 13th: The Series

Despite the name, this show had nothing to do with Jason Voorhees. Instead, it followed cousins Micki and Ryan as they tracked down cursed antiques that brought death and chaos. The mix of supernatural mystery and horror made it more of an occult adventure series, but the dark tone and creature effects cemented its cult following.

While not streaming in any official capacity, channels like Lionheart Filmworks have resurrected many of the most iconic episodes, including “Tales of the Undead” and “Hallowe’en” for those ready to hunt down some cursed curios. Fans remain hopeful the show will find its way onto Paramount+ in the near future. 

10) Tales from the Crypt

The king of horror anthologies, Tales from the Crypt brought EC Comics’ gory plays to life with big-name directors, A-list actors, and the unforgettable Crypt Keeper. Each episode was a self-contained story, mixing horror with dark humor and twisted endings that had us grinning and squirming in our seats.

Unfortunately, the series isn’t streaming anywhere thanks to a copyright licensing issue, but the series remains essential viewing for horror TV fans, and you can get a taste for perhaps the most iconic and inspirational 80s horror show of all time with full episodes on YouTube.

What’s your favorite ’80s horror show? Let us know in the comments!

The post 10 Best ‘80s Horror TV Shows (And Where to Stream Them) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

When Witchboard first arrived in 1986, it tapped into the Ouija board craze of the time, spinning a supernatural tale of a cursed object. The result failed to impress critics but turned a modest profit, leaving it as a minor relic of ’80s horror that would take years to be rediscovered, and even then without much fanfare. That’s why it feels odd that nearly four decades later, a remake of Witchboard is making its way into theaters. With so little to salvage from the original beyond the basic premise, this new movie retains only the idea of a dangerous board and a couple of callbacks, struggling to justify itself as a remake. However, Witchboard‘s bigger problem is how, from start to finish, it’s caught between two incompatible impulses, trying and failing to juggle mindless genre fun and serious character drama.

The new Witchboard story centers on Emily (Madison Iseman) and Christian (Aaron Dominguez), a young couple opening a restaurant in New Orleans. While picking up mushrooms in a nearby woods, they come across a witchboard once owned by French sorceress Naga Soth (Antonia Desplat). Unaware of its sinister history, they bring it home. Soon, Emily becomes the target of Naga Soth’s spirit, enduring a string of disturbing visions and freak accidents that affect the people surrounding her. Christian, meanwhile, refuses to take the events seriously until it’s too late.

Witchboard‘s premise offers a familiar cursed-object setup, but director Chuck Russell, of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors fame, is a horror veteran who knows how to shoot a scene for maximum tension. One early standout sequence in the restaurant kitchen, for instance, draws out the suspense by lingering on glinting knives and spinning blades, daring the audience to guess how the inevitable disaster will play out. In these moments, Witchboard hints at the unapologetic pulp fun that horror fans crave, and which should obviously have been the single focus of the movie. Unfortunately, the movie spends too much time steering away from its best elements.

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Instead of leaning into the over-the-top horror promised by its best scenes, Witchboard repeatedly hits the brakes to explore its characters’ internal struggles. This would be admirable if the characters were compelling, but they are constructed from one-note traits. Emily is a former addict, Christian is a wide-eyed dreamer who has sunk his life savings into their café, and his ex-girlfriend Brooke (Melanie Jarnson) is a wild-card instigator. These surface-level archetypes are perfectly serviceable for a bloody romp, but the script insists on treating them with a seriousness it cannot sustain. As a result, the more Witchboard spotlights their inner turmoil, the more their lack of depth becomes painfully obvious.

This identity crisis of Witchboard is most glaring in its treatment of witchcraft. The film can’t decide if its central witch, Naga Soth, is a cartoonish monster meant only to cause chaos, or a tragic figure of historical oppression. A wildly entertaining horror movie can absolutely feature a purely evil witch — Sam Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell is a masterclass in this — but Witchboard also tries to give Naga Soth a sympathetic backstory, framing her as a victim of patriarchal witch trials. These two goals are fundamentally at odds, and it’s even worse when a movie tries to be conscious about women’s oppression while also failing to give most of its female characters genuine agency over their fates. Fortunately, Desplat seems to know exactly what kind of movie she’s in, delivering a wonderfully manic performance. She and Jamie Campbell Bower, playing a deliciously evil occult expert, offer a perfect proof-of-concept for the gleefully campy film that the Witchboard remake could have been.

Witchboard‘s flaws are magnified by a padded run time that stretches to nearly two hours. The genuinely inventive horror set pieces are the main attraction, but they are separated by long, sluggish stretches of melodrama. This pacing issue culminates in a frustrating finale that wastes the film’s most original idea, tacking on an extra 20 minutes simply to arrive at a tidy, unearned happy ending.

There is still some fun to be had with Witchboard. A few of the kills are ingeniously staged, and Russell’s direction shines when he employs practical effects. However, even these moments are often undercut by the distracting use of digital blood and fire. While likely a concession to budget, the effect is bothersome because an unconvincing practical blood still feels more tangible than its weightless CGI counterpart. In the end, Witchboard is a decent but deeply flawed film that offers just enough standout moments to justify a casual watch. Its failure to commit to a consistent tone, however, makes it an ultimately forgettable experience. It’s a shame, because somewhere inside this bloated and scattered movie is a tighter, crazier, and far more entertaining film screaming to get out.

Rating: 2.5/5

Witchboard lands in theaters on August 15th.

The post Witchboard Review: Quirky Horror Remake Caught Between Two Very Different Movies appeared first on ComicBook.com.

The Xenomorphs may not find Prodigy City as fun a playground as a ship with a crew that has no chance of escaping. In Alien: Earth, after a Weyland-Yutani ship goes down, Ms. Yutani wants to retrieve the dangerous cargo, which is now running amok. However, Prodigy CEO Boy Kavalier (Samuel Blenkin) believes he has a claim to whatever is on the ship because it’s now in his territory. To ensure he gets everything he wants, Kavalier agrees to send his “Lost Boys,” a group of new hybrid beings, combining synthetic bodies with human consciousnesses inside. They’re untested in the field, but Prodigy has high hopes for them, especially after learning what their leader, Wendy (Sydney Chandler) is capable of.

Wendy is happy to play Prodigy’s game because her brother, Joe (Alex Lawther), is a medic in Prodigy City and one of the responders to the scene of the crash. There’s an opportunity for her to see him again, so she doesn’t care about what dangers lie ahead. Unfortunately, Wendy is in more trouble than she realizes because of a strange buzzing sound, which only she can hear, that keeps bothering her.

There’s Something Strange Going on in Prodigy City in Alien: Earth

The culprit behind the crash is a xenomorph drone that gets loose. Of course, at this point in the timeline, the events of the first Alien movie have yet to take place, meaning the Weyland-Yutani crew isn’t aware of what Facehuggers are capable of. The familiar horrors take place, and the ship crashes into a tower full of people. Prodigy Search and Rescue answers the call and shows up on the scene, ready to help. As they make their way through the ship, though, they start to realize the crash didn’t kill most of the crew. Some of them died from having their chest burst open, while others kicked the bucket in strange ways. It soon comes to light that creatures other than the Xenomorph are free, such as a bug-like monster that sucks the blood out of people.

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When Wendy and her friends arrive in Prodigy City, they meet the extraterrestrial threats, but some of them are more inquisitive than frightened. They realize they aren’t humans anymore and don’t break easily, so they push forward as if they’re indestructible. While Wendy embraces that attitude, she can’t shake this strange feeling because she keeps hearing a buzzing sound in her ears. Alien: Earth doesn’t explain the cause of it in its first two episodes, but there are plenty of possibilities, and none of them mean good things for Wendy.

Alien: Earth‘s Hybrids May Not Be as Perfect as They Seem

The easy explanation for Wendy’s issue is that one of the aliens is in her head. xenomorphs don’t have that kind of ability, so it would have to be one of its fellow lab rats that’s behind the whole thing. However, that scenario doesn’t explain why Wendy gets singled out. It might be because she’s the first to undergo the hybrid procedure, but that seems unlikely at the moment. Alien: Earth does go out of its way to point out that Wendy is different from her counterparts, being able to control technology without being taught how to do it and withstand frequencies too high for the human ear. She may be evolving, which allows her to form a connection to higher forms of life.

Kavalier never goes into detail about what he uses for the hybrid creation process. Still, his excitement at the thought of stealing Weyland-Yutani’s property sure makes it seem like he’s aware of the power that resides in the cosmos. He could have some of his own back on Neverland and is using it to create the hybrids. That would explain why the buzzing sound gets worse when Wendy gets close to the eggs in Episode 2, as she’s just as much alien as she is human. The absence of hybrids from the rest of the Alien franchise makes it feel like Wendy is living on borrowed time, and if that’s really the case, there’s no doubt that the buzzing sound could have something to do with her impending demise.

Alien: Earth is streaming on Hulu.

What do you think the buzzing sound that Wendy is hearing in Alien: Earth is? Do you think she’s forming a connection to the Xenomorph? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Alien: Earth – What Is that Strange Buzzing Sound (And Why Can Only Wendy Hear It)? appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Like the Yautja are synonymous with the Predator franchise, the Xenomorph is synonymous with the Alien franchise. Every time a crew steps on a ship, there’s a good chance a Facehugger is going to get hold of one of them and make them a vessel for the next step in their evolution. The latest project in the Alien franchise, FX’s series Alien: Earth, begins with the same formula, following the crew of the Weyland-Yutani ship Maginot as they transport creatures from the darkest corners of space back home. There are Facehuggers among the crowd, which leads to the birth of a Xenomorph that wreaks havoc on the ship.

Alien: Earth‘s Xenomorph is only the tip of the iceberg, though, as its escape unleashes all sorts of creatures, each one with a gimmick more terrifying than the last. Through two episodes, it’s clear that, while the Xenomorph and its eggs will lead the charge once again, there’s no reason to overlook the rest of the extraterrestrial threats because they may very well be the future of the franchise.

“Alien” Means More Than Just Xenomorph in Alien: Earth

Since the events of the first Alien movie have yet to occur, the Weyland-Yutani Corporation isn’t focused on any one kind of creature. It’s been sending ships out into the cosmos to collect anything and everything, and when Alien: Earth kicks off, the Maginot is nearing its destination. Unfortunately, the crew loses control, and everyone dies except for a cyborg, Morrow, who hides from the Xenomorph as the ship crashes into a tower in Prodigy City. The Prodigy Corporation quickly sends out a Search and Rescue team to contain the situation, but they’re in over their heads because monsters are loose. A bug-like creature attaches itself to two grunts and removes all of the blood from their bodies. A couple of Prodigy hybrid discovers the terrifying scene, but they can’t spend much time wrapping their heads around it because something else reveals itself.

A regular house cat is on the crashed ship, giving itself a bath when the hybrids walk in. When it turns its head, however, its eye jumps out of the socket, unleashing another beast with tentacles that looks to replace one of the hybrid’s peepers. They call out for Kirsh, their synthetic handler, but it takes him a minute to arrive because he’s outside examining another alien that looks similar to a flower bud. It doesn’t seem as hostile as the creatures inside the lab, but there is still plenty of time left in Alien: Earth for it to last out. No matter what the bud creature does, though, it’s clear that the FX show is taking the franchise in a new direction, one that doesn’t rely on the Xenomorph for all its scares.

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The Alien Franchise Is Finally Moving Beyond the Xenomorph

While there is always some variation of the Xenomorph around, the real terror in the Alien franchise comes from the humans. Corporations like Weyland-Yutani and Prodigy are willing to do whatever it takes to get ahead in the information race, whether it’s creating hybrid humans or unleashing monsters onto the world. With that being the case, there’s no need for the Xenomorph to be the sole focus anymore. Noah Hawley and his collaborators are proving that every distant planet houses its fair share of dangerous lifeforms that are capable of being every bit as formidable as the ones that hatch from the black eggs. However, they aren’t the first ones to try it because 2024’s Alien: Romulus also swings for the fences with its Big Bad.

A group of young people travels to a Weyland-Yutani space station in Romulus to search for a big score. When they arrive, they accidentally unleash Facehuggers that begin to pick them off and unleash Xenomorphs. The chaos leaves Kay, who is pregnant, badly injured, so she injects herself with a fluid harvested from the Facehuggers to help her heal. The process rewrites her DNA and changes her baby, turning him into a human-xenomorph hybrid. The creature grows to a giant size quickly and nearly kills the rest of the group before being shot into space. While Romulus‘ monster seems much more dangerous than the eye creature in Alien: Earth, they’re two sides of the same coin, helping usher in a new era for the popular horror franchise.

Alien: Earth is streaming on Hulu.

Do you like the new creatures that Alien: Earth is introducing? Do you want the franchise to continue to move away from the Xenomorph? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Alien: Earth – New Creatures Are Exactly What the Franchise Needed appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Hard as it might be to believe, the fall is quickly approaching, and that means Halloween isn’t too far behind. We’re already starting to see some stores stocking up for what’s become a major holiday. It never hurts to be prepared early, and if you’re looking for something scary to play during that season (or right now) there’s a deal knocking a horror game down to 80% off. Not all horror games are created equal of course, but this one happens to be very highly-regarded. If you’ve never played Alien: Isolation, there’s never been a better time to do so.

Alien: Isolation can be purchased for just $5.99 right now on the PlayStation Store, in a deal that will run through August 28th at 2:59 a.m. ET. The base game normally costs $29.99, while Alien: Isolation – The Collection is priced at $39.99. It’s worth noting that The Collection has not received a discount during this sale. That said, the difference between the two versions comes down to DLC. Luckily, the PlayStation Store has dropped the price on the DLC options for the game during this sale, so users can buy them each individually, if they want anything beyond the main campaign.

Why Alien: Isolation Is One of the Best Horror Games Ever

Since the game’s release back in 2014, Alien: Isolation has earned a great reputation among fans of the source material, as well as just players in general. Right now, the game has a “Very Positive” player rating on Steam, with more than 44,000 players having shared their opinions. Over the last 11 years, a lot of praise has been heaped on the Alien itself. Earlier this year, ComicBook’s Hadley Vincent declared the Xenomorph “the scariest video game monster of all-time.” Considering some of the truly great horror monsters we’ve seen in video games, that’s pretty high praise.

Among the game’s fans is Alien: Romulus director Fede Alvarez, who even included references to the game in last year’s movie. Alien: Isolation even saw a huge influx of players following the movie’s release, and there’s a good chance we’ll see that happen again thanks to the recent premiere of Alien: Earth on Hulu. Of course, those that never played Alien: Isolation might want to do so now in preparation of the sequel, which was finally announced last year.

Other Horror Game Deals to Check Out

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If you’ve already played Alien: Isolation, or Xenomorphs just aren’t your thing, there’s another great horror game on sale right now on PS5. Konami’s 2024 remake of Silent Hill 2 saw a discount at multiple retailers, dropping the price by a stunning $40. The game is still full price on the PlayStation Store, but Best Buy, Amazon, and Target are all offering the game for just $29.99, as of this writing. Like Alien: Isolation, Silent Hill 2 has been pretty well-regarded, and readers interested in learning more about the game (and discount) can do so right here.

Are you planning to take advantage of this sale? Have you been looking for a good horror game to play lately? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

The post One of the Greatest Horror Games Ever is 80% Off appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Tubi is one of the best streaming services out there, providing free access to thousands of TV shows and movies. What viewers may not know is that Fox’s free streaming service is a treasure trove for Stephen King fans. The famed horror author has established himself as the King of Horror through genre-defining and genre-spanning novels released over the course of more than 50 years, beginning with 1974’s Carrie, and many of his books have since been adapted for the screen, most recently in Neon’s The Monkey from director Osgood Perkins and Francis Lawrence’s upcoming The Long Walk.

Some of King’s TV and film adaptations have found streaming homes on platforms including Hulu, Netflix and HBO Max, while a handful of others are available to stream for free (with ads) on Tubi. From one of the most classic horror films to a more obscure adaptation that should be a must-watch for any of King’s fans, these are seven perfect movies for fans of the author to watch on Tubi.

7) A Good Marriage

One of the newest and more obscure installments in King’s film library, A Good Marriage pulls from his novella of the same name about a union that is anything but. Directed by Stephen Askin, the movie stars Joan Allen as Darcy Anderson, a woman who discovers that her husband is hiding a chilling and deadly secret when she discovers a trove of evidence in their garage linking him to the serial killer known as “Beadie.” A Good Marriage was mostly received poorly by critics, but it did earn some praise for its haunting and compelling storyline and its exploration of a marriage on the brink.

6) Sometimes They Come Back

Sometimes They Come Back is not the most well-known adaptation, nor did it ever release on the big screen, but this 1991 horror film is a solid offering in King’s horror catalog. Directed by Tom McLoughlin from a screenplay written by Lawrence Konner, the movie is based on the 1974 short story of the same name and centers around a high school teacher who returns to his hometown only to find himself tormented by the spirits of those connected to a tragedy from his childhood. The movie, released as a TV movie on CBS after getting its start as a segment of Lewis Teague’s Cat’s Eye anthology, features solid performances from a cast that includes Tim Matheson, Brooke Adams, and Chris Demetral, as well as a strong script and creepy atmosphere.

5) Maximum Overdrive

Sitting in the bottom half of King’s movies on Rotten Tomatoes with a 14% critics’ score, Maximum Overdrive is not the best adaptation of King’s works, but it’s certainly memorable. Based on the author’s short story “Trucks” from his Night Shift anthology, the movie feeds off the fear of technology as it spins a tale of sentient objects brought to life with homicidal notions when a comet passes by Earth. The film, which has become something of a cult classic, marked the first and only time King has stepped behind the camera to direct.

4) Apt Pupil

Apt Pupil may not be as well-known as the two other adaptations from King’s 1982 novella collection Different Seasons, 1986’s Stand By Me and 1994’s The Shawshank Redemption, but this 1988 thriller helmed by Bryan Singer is respectable in its own right. The movie features compelling performances from Brad Renfro and Ian McKellen, who star as a high school student and his neighbor who develop an unhealthy relationship after Renfro’s Todd Bowden discovers his neighbor is actually a former Nazi death-camp officer.

3) Creepshow 2

Five years after Creepshow established itself as one of the best horror anthology movies, director Michael Gornick’s 1987 sequel, Creepshow 2, proved to be another solid entry into the genre. Written by George A. Romero and based on a selection of King’s works, the film features three segments, including “The Raft,” which had a lasting impact on audiences due to its use of suspense and creature effects and remains one of the best entries in the franchise.

2) Children of the Corn

One of the most iconic horror films from the ‘80s, Children of the Corn, is streaming on Tubi for free. An adaptation of the author’s 1977 short story of the same name directed by Fritz Kiersch, the movie centers around a murderous cult of children in the Midwest who, following an entity referred to as “He Who Walks Behind the Rows,” ritually murder all the town’s adults. Children of the Corn isn’t the best in the long roster of King adaptations, and it’s certified rotten on Rotten Tomatoes, but the film had a significant impact on pop culture and the horror genre and even spawned a film franchise that now includes a total of 11 films.

1) Stand By Me

Directed by Rob Reiner and featuring a cast of young stars including Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, and Jerry O’Connell, the nostalgia-packed 1986 coming-of-age classic Stand By Me is not only one of the best adaptations of King’s works, but also one of the best movies of the ’80s. Based on King’s 1982 novella The Body, the film explores themes of companionship and the loss of innocence as it follows a group of young boys on the verge of teenagehood as they embark on a journey to find a missing dead body. The movie is one of King’s highest-rated films on Rotten Tomatoes, and even King himself has dubbed it the best adaptation of his work.

The post 7 Great Movies Stephen King Fans Can Watch for Free Now appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Alien: Earth has premiered its first two episodes on FX-Hulu, and it already seems like an overwhelming majority of fans are enjoying showrunner Noah Hawley’s (Fargo, Legion) take on the Alien franchise. That said, Alien: Earth experienced more turbulence going from production to the screen than the spaceship whose fiery crash-landing kicks off the events of the show. One of the biggest points of both confusion and tension in the development of Alien: Earth was its place in the franchise timeline. By ultimately setting the show two years before the events of the original Alien (1979), the Alien TV series immediately invited a lot of probing questions from diehard fans and continuity purists.

Well, two episodes aren’t enough to answer all the questions floating around the Alien fandom; however, Alien: Earth may have created space for fans to explain one of the bigger continuity issues that has plagued the Alien franchise for over a decade now.

Prometheus & Alien Covenant Created Some Big Problems

In the 2010s, Alien director Ridley Scott finally returned to the franchise… sort of. Scott endeavored to make a prequel film/spinoff of Alien, titled Prometheus (2012), which eschewed the traditional prequel format to examine deeper themes of creationism and new scientific theories (of the time) about extraterrestrial life and its possible connections to Earth’s origins. While Prometheus was a modest box office hit by modern blockbuster scale, its $403.4 million haul is still the highest for the Alien franchise (ignoring inflation), and its reputation as a heady sci-fi/horror cult-hit has only grown with time. The biggest criticism from fans, however, was that Prometheus only gave fans barest sketches and inferences about the origin of the facehugger parasites, the xenomorph drones, and the crashed ship on LV-426 in the original film.

Scott’s sequel film, Alien: Covenant, tried to be more direct with its prequel ties, but ended up confusing things even further. SPOILERS: The twist ending reveals that Prometheus’s nefarious synthetic, David (Michael Fassbender), has killed and replaced the USCSS Covenant‘s noble android officer Walter (also Fassbender), which was great for shock value, but not continuity. The film posited the idea that it was David who experimented with the black goo of the Engineer species while stranded on their homeworld, used it to genetically engineer the first facehugger eggs, and subsequently gave “birth” to the iconic version of the xenomorphs the franchise is known for. However, that origin story created massive new questions – the most prominent being how David went from spreading xenomorph samples across the galaxy, to an entire Engineer ship full of eggs crashing on LV-426, sealing the ill fate of the USCSS Nostromo and its crew, who are eventually sent by Weyland-Yutani to investigate.

Alien: Earth May Explain the Continuity Gap Between Alien & Its Prequel Films

Alien: Earth showrunner Noah Hawley made the controversial choice to side-step the events of Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, choosing instead to build within the new continuity shared by Alien (1979), and the recent reboot film Alien: Romulus. So while the show may not answer how that Engineer ship ended up on LV-426, it does give the franchise continuity a key off-ramp. The premise of Alien: Earth sees a Weyland-Yutani Corporation space vessel, the USCSS Maginot, crash-land on Earth after a nearly 70-year voyage into the deepest regions of space, searching for dangerous lifeforms. One of the five species the Maginot crew captured is the xenomorphs (obviously), or more specifically, a small collection of facehugger eggs that are brought back to Earth (which promptly hatch and run rampant).

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Hawley has now established the retcon that Weyland-Yutani knew the xenomorph species existed decades before the events of Alien. Not just knew about the deadly alien creatures, but coveted them as the ultimate bio-weapons, thanks to the exploration and research done by the Maginot. Hardcore fans could extend the theory even further to fully connect the franchise continuity, to include the idea that the Maginot was actually sent out by Weyland-Yutani to track down David (a rogue company android), the USCSS Covenant (a company colonization vessel), or both. That could explain how the Maginot crew eventually discovered and captured the facehugger eggs, after catching up with David.

Whether you include Prometheus or Covenant in the theory or not, the franchise continuity is now cemented in the fact that Weyland-Yutani had knowledge of xenomorphs before the events of Alien, as well as motivation and means to keep searching for new xenomorph samples, after the ones in Alien: Earth presumably get destroyed (eventually). This retcon makes the fate of the Nostromo even more tragic, as it now seems like Ripley and her crewmates were purposefully sent to LV-426 as sacrificial lambs. It’s why the company was so quick to label the crew expendable, and why secret orders were given to synthetic officer Ash to ensure the xenomorph sample got delivered. The company didn’t want to fail a second time to collect it. By the time of Alien: Romulus, Weyland-Yutani eventually gets its wish (third time’s the charm): xenomorph DNA it can use to reverse-engineer the all-powerful (and volatile) Prometheus serum.

Alien: Earth is streaming on FX-Hulu.

The post Alien: Earth May Have Solved a Major Franchise Continuity Problem appeared first on ComicBook.com.

“They won’t stay dead!” declares the poster for George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, the 1968 zombie movie that spawned a franchise — and a genre. While the dead would walk the Earth in such films as Dawn of the Dead (both Romero’s 1978 original and Zack Snyder’s 2004 remake) and Return of the Living Dead, and video game adaptations like Resident Evil and House of the Dead, zombie movies died off. But then there was 28 Days Later, and Shaun of the Dead, and Zombieland, and The Walking Dead was at one point the biggest show on television.

Paramount Pictures capitalized on the reanimated zombie craze with 2013’s World War Z, Marc Forster’s adaptation of the 2006 Max Brooks book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War. An account of the worldwide Zombie War that has plagued humanity for a decade, the book was adapted into an action-thriller that followed newly-retired United Nations investigator Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) as an unidentified virus strain rapidly started to spread across the globe.

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World War Z grossed $540 million at the global box office in the summer of 2013, with the zombie blockbuster becoming the biggest zombie flick of all time and one of the highest-grossing horror movies ever. But with a reported total price tag of $430 million — including the P&A costs and Pitt’s rich deal — the costly WWZ barely broke even, and a sequel that was set for June 2017 never materialized.

But with this summer’s F1 speeding past the worldwide total of World War Z to become Pitt’s highest-grossing movie ever with $575 million, newly-merged Paramount Skydance is looking to bring the IP back from the dead. (Skydance Productions co-produced 2013’s World War Z with Paramount and Pitt’s Plan B.)

David Ellison, the chairman and CEO of Paramount Skydance Corporation who served as an executive producer on World War Z, told press during a media event Wednesday that a WWZ II is on the table. Ellison named the Star Trek franchise and Tom Cruise’s Top Gun as “a priority” for the new Paramount, which also has new Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies in the works, including an announced crossover with G.I. Joe and the live-action The Last Ronin.

Ellison — also a producer on the Paramount-based Mission: Impossible, Terminator, and Jack Ryan franchises — now heads the studio that is renewing its interest in both horror and R-rated comedies. (Paramount’s highest-grossing R-rated comedy remains 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop at $316 million.) The studio has already slated A Quiet Place Part III for July 9, 2027, and Smile 3 is expected to begin filming this year, with slasher Scream 7 set for February 27, 2026.

J.A. Bayona (The Impossible, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom) was attached to direct the World War Z sequel that was announced in 2015 with Steven Knight (Girl in the Spider’s Web, Bond 26) penning the script. That version ultimately never moved forward. In 2019, David Fincher — a frequent collaborator of Pitt’s who directed the actor in Se7en, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and the upcoming The Adventures of Cliff Booth — was set to reunite with Pitt on World War Z 2, only for Paramount to pull the plug on the smaller-budgeted sequel.

“It was a little like The Last of Us,” Fincher previously told GQ UK of the sequel, referring to the hit Sony PlayStation video game turned into a hit HBO television series. “I’m glad that we didn’t do what we were doing, because The Last of Us has a lot more real estate to explore the same stuff.”

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The post 12 Years Later, Paramount Is Finally Planning a Sequel to the Biggest Zombie Movie appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Well-done plot twists in TV shows have a very unique effect: they don’t just surprise, they make the viewer rethink everything they’ve watched up to that point, after many episodes and seasons. Sometimes, the impact comes from a twist that’s actually pretty simple, but full of consequence. Other times, it changes the entire story, subverts expectations, and flips the game out of nowhere. It’s not just about shock value, because what really hits are those twists that affect the characters, their relationships, and even the meaning of the plot. Now, imagine that happening in horror? That’s where the genre shows its most creative and striking side (and even traumatizes).

This list brings together seven of the best horror twists that are truly mind-blowing and completely changed my experience of watching the show. Each one here represents a turning point that goes way beyond just being scary or creepy – they’re way too smart and totally stand out.

WARNING: Major spoilers ahead

1) Squid Game‘s True Mastermind

When Squid Game showed that Il-Nam (Oh Yeong-su), after faking his death (which was already shocking), wasn’t just another player, but the architect behind all that horror, my reaction was basically: “Did I really fall for that?” The character was written with so much vulnerability and charm that it was easy to feel empathy for him (maybe a little too easy). And that’s exactly why the twist works so well: it doesn’t just hit as a shock, but as a direct break of trust with the audience. It’s a well-executed trick, I have to say, and it retroactively gives new meaning to several scenes in the show.

But the coolest part is that more than just a basic “villain plot twist,” Il-Nam reshapes the moral debate of the show. It’s not just about inequality and desperation; it’s about how power corrupts even empathy. He created the games out of boredom and curiosity – and that’s what makes it so disturbing. It was the kind of twist that made me rethink everything I had bought into about the story up to that point. And considering it’s a horror show at its core, it’s a pretty phenomenal twist (even if it’s a bit frustrating too).

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2) Widespread Infection in The Walking Dead

Few twists in horror shows change the rules of the game as much as this one: in The Walking Dead, everyone is already infected. When Dr. Jenner (Noah Emmerich) whispers that to Rick (Andrew Lincoln) at the end of the first season and the information only comes out later, the entire show flips upside down. It’s no longer about avoiding being bitten, but simply accepting that death, in any form, will turn you.

Sure, the show had plenty of truly scary moments and other great twists, but this was when I felt it truly embraced horror for the first time. There’s no cure and no exceptions for anyone. The fight to survive becomes a race against something that, in the end, is inevitable. And that completely changes the atmosphere of the universe. It’s one of the simplest twists in concept, but one that carries huge consequences. And that’s why it’s still one of the most memorable in the show.

3) The Real Monsignor Pruitt in Midnight Mass

This one was subtle, but more uncomfortable than everything the show had been building. In Midnight Mass, the series slowly starts planting the doubt: who exactly is this Father Paul (Hamish Linklater)? And when we find out that he’s actually Monsignor Pruitt, rejuvenated by vampire blood, everything clicks. It’s worth saying that this is one of those twists that isn’t just shocking because of the reveal itself, but because of what it confirms: you realize you were ignoring the obvious clues because you didn’t want to believe that was really it.

I like how this revelation changes the way you see the “miracles” happening on the island. Suddenly, they turn into a curse, faith becomes fanaticism, and what seemed divine is actually completely monstrous. Obviously, from the start, everything is so mysterious that you know something’s going to come out, but when it finally happens, it’s still mind-blowing. The impact hits hard.

4) The Real Bent-Neck Lady in The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House has a twist that totally caught me off guard and honestly stands out as one of the best-crafted in modern horror. Finding out that Nell (Victoria Pedretti) had always been the Bent-Neck Lady, a figure that had haunted her since childhood, left me frozen for a good few minutes. It’s uncomfortable, it’s tragic, and it absolutely makes you want to go back and rewatch everything with a different lens. That’s the magic of Mike Flanagan.

What hit the hardest was how the show didn’t use it as just another scare, but as a pretty much inevitable consequence of a trauma cycle. The monster was her all along, and that twist redefines the kind of horror the show is trying to deliver. It’s not really about haunted houses, but about how the past is always part of the present, and how pain can become your fate. When you stop and think about that, it ends up being way scarier than any ghost or supernatural creature.

5) Bob’s Possession in Twin Peaks

Twin Peaks was a phenomenon and became a cult classic, but to this day, it still has one of the most shocking plot twists of all time. Even knowing the show would never go for a conventional ending, I still wasn’t ready to see Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan), who spent two seasons as the ultimate hero, give that disturbing smile in the mirror. The fact that it was his doppelgänger possessed by Bob (Frank Silva) is devastating, with no warning.

Here, the twist wasn’t even bold; it was deliberately cruel. It’s the kind of ending that forces you to deal with the collapse of your sense of justice. It’s uncomfortable to watch the protagonist be consumed by darkness, but it’s also exactly the kind of twist that turns a show into something unforgettable. Even now, I have to say that laugh still bothers me – but that’s exactly why it works and why David Lynch is a genius.

6) Dead the Whole Time in American Horror Story: Murder House

An anthology series with plenty of bizarre moments, American Horror Story has delivered its fair share of twists, but for me, nothing tops Violet’s (Taissa Farmiga) arc in Murder House. The fact that she was dead the whole time is still one of the most powerful moments in the entire show. It’s not just the shock factor, but how the reveal is built up. No one could’ve predicted it. When Tate (Evan Peters) shows her decomposing body, the horror isn’t just hers – it’s ours, too.

I really appreciate twists that shift the viewer’s perspective without feeling forced, and this one nails it. Violet’s death completely reframes all her interactions and turns her storyline into something far more tragic (and therefore unforgettable to fans). This twist is about someone who has already lost the fight and didn’t even realize it. Within AHS‘s world, it’s cruel and impactful in just the right way.

7) The Real Time Loop in Dark

If you made it to the end of Dark, you probably felt the same as I did: your mind spinning. One of the best-written shows out there, it simply delivers, after so many twists, an ending where you’re not even sure what to think anymore. Jonas (Louis Hofmann) and Martha (Lisa Vicari) aren’t just victims of the time loop: they are the loop itself, and that literally changes everything. There’s no villain, let alone a simple solution to unravel the whole mystery. The knot that binds the worlds is fueled by their choices.

This twist is not meant to shock, but to give emotional weight to what had already been hinted at. It’s smart. These two characters aren’t just pieces on a board; they are the whole board. They perpetuate the cycle while trying to save it, and that’s as desperate as it is brilliant. When the show reveals this, you realize a happy ending was never an option. Honestly, I really respect when a series has the guts to own that.

What are your favorite twists in horror TV? Let us know in the comments below!

The post 7 Horror TV Show Twists That Blew My Mind appeared first on ComicBook.com.

2025 has been just an outstanding year for horror geeks. Granted, the entire genre has been on a resurgence for the last decade, thanks to mid-2010s hits like It Follows and The Babadook that saved the realm from found-footage purgatory. However, this year has been especially kind to horror devotees thanks to outstanding movies like Sinners, Weapons, and The Ugly Stepsister, not to mention other gems like 28 Years Later, The Monkey, and Final Destination Bloodlines. Best of all, the visual and atmospheric impulses of these titles have been wildly varying, in the process providing a striking reflection of how horror’s endless creative possibilities.

Still, no year of horror cinema is devoid of misfires and 2025 is no exception. In particular, one acclaimed 2025 horror film stands out to me personally as the year’s most overrated horror title. Despite receiving high praise from the likes of Stephen King, The Rule of Jenny Pen just didn’t hit the spine-tingling spot for yours truly.

What Is The Rule of Jenny Pen?

Based on the Owen Marshall short story of the same name, writer/director James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen follows elderly judge, Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush), recovering in a care home after a debilitating stroke. This grouchy, abrasive fellow quickly discovers the resident who quietly runs this facility: Dave Crealy (John Lithgow). Though he presents himself as a silent, harmless figure to the care home’s staff, Crealy and his hand puppet, Jenny Pen, cause endless cruelty towards others. Crealy gets Mortensen in his crosshairs, and as the judge loses more and more of his faculties, Crealy ramps up his viciousness.

The most frustrating part of Jenny Pen is that it simply struggles to function in either of its admittedly audacious modes. As a straightforward horror movie, it’s not especially frightening. One or two of Crealy’s cruel tricks involving Jenny Pen are effective in terms of sheer shock value and grossness. Mostly, though, the frights are either generic jump scares or derivative of ominous moments in superior horror films. When something like The Rule of Jenny Pen can’t even excel as a surface-level horror film, something’s gone wrong.

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Jenny Pen’s goal of also functioning as a grounded, thoughtful drama about the anguish of aging also doesn’t go according to plan. Ashcroft is too obsessed with the usual hallmarks of sensationalized depictions of the elderly, like uncontrollable bodily functions. It’s not that these elements aren’t part of a 70+ year old existence, but the way they’re explored here (both narratively and visually) is incredibly predictable. If there’s anything no horror movie can afford to be, it’s predictable.

Plus, Jenny Pen’s refusal to flesh out background elderly characters or more uniquely explore their psyches leaves the proceedings emotionally uninvolving. Crealy’s rampage across this nursing home is just occurring to distant silhouettes, not engaging figures worth getting invested in.

Talented Actors Go Through The Motions in Jenny Pen

Major props to Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow for both committing wholeheartedly to The Rule of Jenny Pen. Rush, especially, is a fixture of award season material rather than this kind of lower-brow cinema, which makes his presence here sporadically amusing. Still, Jenny Pen doesn’t offer either actor much new material to sink their respective teeth into. The script, for instance, often lets Rush ramble on endlessly as a demonstration of Mortensen flaunting his “intellectual” status. It’s a character detail too reminiscent of past Rush characters, similarly fixated on pontificating and making great use of the actor’s soothing vocal chops.

Lithgow, though fitful fun as this elderly home’s menace, has played so many psychotic antagonists over the years (in projects ranging from Blow Out to Ricochet to Cliffhanger) that his Creary character often feels like a rerun. There just isn’t much new going on in The Rule of Jenny Pen, either thematically or visually, to take familiar talents from these two talented artists into exciting, fresh territory. It’s another aspect of The Rule of Jenny Pen that leaves much to be desired.

The slower pacing similarly underwhelms. A gradual, methodical execution simply can’t make a rudimentary script as compelling as the screenplays for, say, Weapons or Companion. While I didn’t walk away from The Rule of Jenny Pen thinking it was offensively bad, I was immensely frustrated that it struggled to work as either trashy horror fun or “respectable” arthouse scary fare. Stuck between these two domains, Jenny Pen settles for being forgettable and drab instead.

Its generally positive reception, including outright euphoric responses from horror legends like Stephen King, makes it clear this title is working for many. For me, though, The Rule of Jenny Pen’s wasted potential makes it the most overrated title in an otherwise exemplary year for horror.

The Rule of Jenny Pen is now streaming on AMC+

The post I Think This Is the Most Overrated Horror Movie of the Year appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Pennywise the Dancing Clown is returning to terrorize the sleepy town of Derry, Maine in the upcoming HBO series IT: Welcome to Derry, and viewers have already been given a glimpse at the latest form he will take on. A new collection of Funko POPs from the series has been unveiled (via Funko POP News! on Twitter/X), which shows two standard Pennywise designs alongside the character Bob Grey. This ties directly into the history of Pennywise as a monstrous presence in Derry, as revealed in 2019’s IT: Chapter Two.

In IT: Chapter Two, the adult Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) meets the elderly Mrs. Kersh (Joan Gregson), who lives in the apartment formerly occupied by Beverly and her father, while trying to find a trinket to use in the Ritual of Chüd in order to destroy Pennywise. Beverly also sees a photograph of a Bob Grey, a circus performer and Mrs. Kersh’s supposed father, which Beverly quickly comes to realize is actually Pennywise in another disguised form, before being chased out of the house by Mrs. Kersh, herself revealed as a disguised Pennywise.

The fact that Bob Grey has been given his own Funko POP heavily indicates that Welcome to Derry will build significantly upon his brief cameo in IT: Chapter Two, which saw a terrified Beverly seeing Bob Grey transform into a more clown-like appearance before her eyes. Bob might not be the only alternate form Pennywise takes either, with the Funko POPs also including a character named Skeleton Man, whose mouthful of razor-sharp teeth certainly resembles the carnivorous mandibles of Pennywise.

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IT: Welcome to Derry serves as a prequel to Andy Muschietti’s IT: Chapter One and IT: Chapter Two, the two films adapted from Stephen King’s eponymous novel. IT: Chapter One focuses on a collection of kids known as “The Losers Club” who encounter the supernatural creature Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård) over summer break in 1989 and fight to destroy the monster. IT: Chapter Two focuses on the Losers re-uniting in 2016 as adults after Pennywise inexplicably returns to Derry, with the friends joining forces to permanently defeat him.

IT: Welcome to Derry will focus upon Pennywise’s long history in Derry before meeting the Losers, with the series set in 1962 and Pennywise (played by the returning Bill Skarsgård) up to his old ways of preying upon and devouring the children of Derry. Welcome to Derry has multiple seasons planned already, which will reportedly stretch back even further into the 20th century. Moreover, Welcome to Derry also ties into the larger Stephen King universe, with Chris Chalk portraying The Shining character Dick Hallorann (who has a role in the story in King’s IT novel), one of numerous ways in which Welcome to Derry could be establishing a Stephen King shared universe.

With the Welcome to Derry Funko POPs revealing the return of Pennywise’s Bob Grey form, the series seems set to heavily utilize Peynnwise’s shape-shifting abilities. The Losers know better than anyone about Pennywise’s ability to take on the likeness of any person in order to lure his prey into a trap. With Bob Grey’s return for IT: Welcome to Derry, its seems like viewers could see that ruthless tactic put to even more extensive and terrifying use by the relentless monster that is Pennywise the Dancing Clown.

IT: Welcome to Derry will debut on HBO in October.

The post IT: Welcome to Derry’s New Pennywise Form Revealed appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Zach Cregger’s latest horror movie, Weapons, is already making huge waves at the box office and is being lauded by many fans and critics as a “masterpiece.” Similar to his horror feature directorial debut, Barbarian, Cregger has proven his capability as a filmmaker who knows how to blend horror and humor to great effect, and often in unexpected ways. Weapons is told through various perspectives of the movie’s main characters, roughly a month after 17 kids disappeared from their respective homes randomly one night at 2:17 a.m. After following Julia Garner’s character, the teacher Justine, we then switch to the point of view of grieving father Archer (Josh Brolin), who begins investigating the disappearance of his son. Archer’s investigation leads to a familiar face (and hilarious moment) that Barbarian fans will especially appreciate.

Warning: Spoilers below for Weapons

Archer obsessively watches the footage from his front door’s Ring camera of the night his son, Matthew, ran off. When he attempts to trace the direction his son and classmates were running, Archer decides he needs to review additional footage and asks the mother of another missing child if he can look through their camera’s history, knowing the file has been saved since they all had to submit the evidence to the police. The mother, Erica (Sara Paxton), is uncomfortable letting Archer review the video and denies his request. So what does Archer do? He waits in his truck for her husband to come home so he can ask him instead. Funnily enough, Erica’s husband, Gary, is played by none other than Barbarian’s Justin Long.

Justin Long Has Become Cregger’s Secret Weapon

When Long’s character, AJ, first appears in Barbarian, it’s via a sudden mid-film cut that takes audiences from a nightmare scenario with the main character, Tess (Georgina Campbell) (who is trapped in an Airbnb basement from hell), to a sunny scene featuring AJ happily singing and driving down a coastal highway. The shift is jarring and completely changes the tone of the film, which is apt considering AJ himself acts as a major transition in the plot until his storyline eventually interlinks with Tess. It’s a fantastic example of Cregger’s balance between scary and funny, and the filmmaker utilizes Long in a similar way in Weapons.

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Unlike Barbarian, where the actor is one of the main characters of the movie, Long is only in Weapons for a minute or two, but his character is leveraged as a unique mid-film cut that is initially humorous (just like his introduction in Barbarian) and serves as a fun Easter egg for fans of Cregger’s first film, who truly understand the significance of Long’s cameo. In Weapons, Long’s character, Gary, is seemingly intimidated by Archer, who now easily gains access to the footage he’s looking for. Not only are Long’s mannerisms played for laughs, but so is the image of Archer watching the footage with Gary sitting next to him as a frustrated Erica watches on from only a few feet away, glaring at the two men.

The scene is effective in briefly lightening the mood for the audience and works well on its own merits. Cregger bringing Long in to turn this short scene in Weapons into an Easter egg callback to Barbarian is nothing short of brilliant and makes it all the more special for fans, who now might be eager for the next time Long pops up in a Cregger project.

Weapons is now in theaters. Barbarian is available to stream on Netflix.

The post Weapons Has a Clever Barbarian Easter Egg (and Fans Are Loving It) appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Netflix’s Wednesday has been taking the internet by storm, bringing a beloved family back to the forefront. The series is a modern spin-off from the Addams Family, focusing on the titular daughter, Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega). Her adoration of all things creepy is a solid foundation for the series, and that includes her compulsive need to solve crimes. The series first dropped in 2022, and luckily, Season 2 Part 1 is officially available on Netflix. That has us looking back at the scary, spooky, and haunting scenes the series has to offer. While several moments will always stand out, there’s one scene in particular that takes the cake.

Wednesday combines gothic mystery with coming-of-age, but with a Wednesday Addams twist. She may be a teenage girl, but she follows the beat of her own drum. Does that mean she’s chasing after killers in a very unhealthy fashion? Yes, but that’s part of what makes her story so thrilling—and terrifying. Season 2, Part 1 has some haunting moments, and we do not doubt that Part 2 will somehow up the ante.

Most fans can agree that while Wednesday had some things that could be changed, Season 1 was solid from start to finish. It had plenty of mystery and a ghoulish monster, not to mention charming characters and high stakes. The season finale, “A Murder of Woes,” will stand out forever due to how it carried us from one terrifying scene to the next.

Raising the Stakes & Joining the Conflict

Most fans spent Season 1 speculating who could be the Hyde and his master, but Episode 8 removed all doubt. “A Murder of Woes” did more than showcase Tyler (Hunter Doohan) as a monster; it made him a true threat. He gleefully taunts Wednesday, revealing the truth with no witnesses to defend her. Unfortunately, things only get worse for the titular character, as she’s kidnapped and forced to participate in a ritual (well, her blood is utilized at any rate). We all remember what happens next, as a ghost of the past comes back to get his vengeance on all Outcasts.

That probably should be the scariest part of the episode, but all that is merely setting the scene. Against all odds, Wednesday survives and escapes, only to run face-to-face with her monster, Tyler. Her once-potential love interest is no more, and all semblance of affection has been unceremoniously tossed out the window.

The Villain’s Transformation

There’s a lot that could be said about Wednesday and Tyler’s confrontation in the woods. There’s something deeply chilling about seeing Wednesday seemingly isolated with a twisted villain. Hunter Doohan’s performance is deeply unsettling, as this subtle menace transforms into something larger than life, and that’s before his transformation. There is something oddly human about Tyler’s need to transform before he attacks; a need to stack the odds in his favor. Perhaps that is why this scene left such a mark.

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Right before her eyes, Wednesday sees Tyler transform into the Hyde. He grows in scale and slams the ground before tackling her into a tree. Realistically, this would have been the end for Wednesday Addams had she not become best friends with a werewolf.

Hidden Meanings & Interpretations

Interestingly, Tyler’s combat with Enid can tell us a lot of things. For starters, the fact that he lost a fight to an inexperienced wolf (with some help) means that this antagonist is not used to people who can fight back. Let that sink in. Tyler, as Hyde, took particular enjoyment in hunting easy prey. He’s a monster in every sense of the word, and he clearly wanted Wednesday to be his next victim. It’s hard to let that go.

This conflict sets the scene for another haunting moment, this time in Wednesday Season 2, Part 1. While some fans had theorized that Wednesday might become Tyler’s master, it’s safe to say we have a long way to go before that path could make sense. These two are still very much pitted on opposite sides, and they’re going to make it everyone’s problem before the story comes to an end.

Wednesday has created a chilling phenomenon in part because it doesn’t rely on one means of terror. It combines psychological horror with fear of the unknown. Likewise, Wednesday is a character who classically craves control over her world, so some of her most terrifying moments will always revolve around a loss of control, something we can all find too terrifyingly relatable.

Wednesday is available to stream on Netflix.

The post This Is Still the Scariest Scene in Netflix’s Wednesday appeared first on ComicBook.com.

Bringing the Alien franchise to the small screen is a huge risk. Up to this point, anytime Ridley Scott or anyone else wanted to deliver a terrifying story featuring Xenomorphs, they went the movie route. In fact, Alien is on a bit of a hot streak in theaters after the success of Fede Álvarez’s Alien: Romulus. It’s hard to turn down an idea when Noah Hawley is leading the charge, though. Best known for the Fargo TV series and Legion, Hawley knows how to play in someone else’s sandbox and elevate the material. Alien: Earth is the same kind of challenge, and Hawley is going all out to ensure that it’s a winner for FX.

The following contains spoilers for Alien: Earth.

Like all great Alien projects, despite featuring monsters big and small and plenty of androids, Alien: Earth is a human story at its core. Wendy (Sydney Chandler) wants nothing more than to reunite with her brother, Joe (Alex Lawther), who believes she’s dead because she was suffering from a terminal illness. The connection between Wendy and Joe is so important that Hawley finds a way to place himself in the middle of it.

Noah Hawley Is Hiding in Plain Sight in Alien: Earth

Hawley pulls a similar trick to Ridley Scott, who many don’t know hid his own blink-and-you’d-miss-it cameo in the original Alien. He voiced the chestbursting alien for that key scene. Decades later, Noah Hawley appears in a flashback sequence, very briefly, playing the father of lead characters Wendy and Joe.

Following the obligatory opening that focuses on a ship in space hauling strange creatures, Alien: Earth shifts its focus to Marcy, a young girl who’s very sick. The Prodigy Corporation is taking care of her on Neverland, a remote island where they’re attempting to do the impossible: transfer a human consciousness into a synthetic. Marcy is the first to undergo the procedure, and to make the process smoother for her, they show her clips from the Disney movie Peter Pan. Once she wakes up, she goes by a new name, Wendy, and quickly embraces her role as big sister to the other hybrids.

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In between giving lessons to the other kids, Wendy spends time watching over her brother, Joe, who works as a medic in Prodigy City. He doesn’t know she’s alive because the hybrid experiments are a secret, and Prodigy CEO Boy Kavalier doesn’t want any loose ends. Regardless, Wendy holds out hope that she will see her brother again one day. She even finds a way to send him a message via a Prodigy robot, which drums up happy memories from their childhood. Joe isn’t ready to let go of the past because he’s the only member of his family left, having lost his father a year prior. However, there is still a chance that Joe and Wendy’s dad still has a major role in Alien: Earth.

Joe and Wendy’s Connection to Their Dad Could Be a Major Factor Going Forward

Since Joe is a little older than his sister, he remembers more about his dad. The thing they would bond over the most was baseball, with Joe being named after New York Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio. All these years later, Joe still listens to games and makes a baseball reference whenever he can. The mission to the Maginot crash site even gives Joe a chance to reminisce a bit when he stumbles upon a rich man’s memorabilia collection that features a famous ball hit by Reggie Jackson. However, Joe’s focus changes when Wendy walks into the room and starts acting strangely. At first, he brushes her off because he learns she’s a synthetic, but her friend, Slightly, spills the beans about her true identity.

After the initial shock, Joe embraces Wendy, finding comfort in the fact that she’s still alive and part of his life again. Unfortunately, Xenomorphs don’t care about love, with the one that escaped the Maginot ruining the reunion by showing up and tackling Joe. Alien: Earth Episode 3 will surely follow Wendy’s efforts to save her brother, opening the door for the show to provide more insight into Hawley’s character. After all, Joe learns that his dad gave up his sister to a strange corporation without telling him, which isn’t an easy thing to move past.

Alien: Earth is streaming on Hulu.

Were you surprised to see Noah Hawley in Alien: Earth? Do you hope he shows up as Joe and Wendy’s dad in future episodes? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Alien: Earth’s Secret Cameo Continued a Trend Started by Ridley Scott’s Original appeared first on ComicBook.com.