There is an immediate sense, watching Dooba Dooba, that you are seeing something you are not supposed to see. Shot almost entirely through static home security cameras and lo-fi video fragments, writer-director Ehrland Hollingsworth’s unnerving babysitting nightmare doesn’t just flirt with discomfort, it lives there. This is analog horror stripped to its rawest nerve, messy, abrasive, and deeply unsettling in a way that feels intentional rather than indulgent.
Read MoreMy First Year Off Campus: A Micro-Budget Thriller That Knows Exactly What It Is
There is a certain kind of indie horror that knows better than to oversell itself. My First Year Off Campus falls squarely into that camp. It is a micro-budget film, even if it does everything it can to keep you from noticing, and that quiet confidence ends up being one of its biggest strengths.
Read MoreWe Bury the Dead Finds Fresh Life in a Worn-Out Genre
We Bury the Dead opens on an unexpected note: Kid Cudi and Ratatat’s “Pursuit of Happiness” echoes through the darkness. It is a bold way to begin a zombie film, but the choice pays off by immediately tapping into a reservoir of millennial nostalgia. The soundtrack throughout does something similar, unlocking memories as it slips between moody ambience and familiar needle drops. From the first scene, the film signals that it is not interested in rehashing the usual undead formula.
Read MoreThere Is Gnome Place Like Home: Gnome Sick: 7 Slays Til Mithras
Gnome Sick: 7 Slays Til Mithras is exactly what it promises and then some. Killer gnomes terrorize Christmas, California. A Santa slasher legend resurfaces. A craft-fair cult quietly plots the Gnomepocalypse. All of it unfolds in a scrappy, chaotic holiday horror-comedy that understands one key truth: you can never really go home, especially when your hometown worships Mithras and turns people into lawn ornaments.
Read MoreWandering Europe with Daryl Dixon: A Spin-Off That Finally Pulled Me In
I’ve never been a big fan of The Walking Dead. My parents are the real devotees in the house. They’ve followed every twist, every cliffhanger, every spinoff, and every behind-the-scenes featurette since the beginning.
Read MoreBryan Fuller’s Dust Bunny Is a Future Filmmaker’s Fever Dream
Bryan Fuller’s Dust Bunny feels like the kind of film a future filmmaker will treasure as a kid, the sort of movie that plants the idea that cinema can look and feel like anything. It is whimsical, eerie, funny, beautiful to look at, and anchored by a sincerity that sneaks up on you. Fuller brings the sensibilities of Pushing Daisies and Hannibal into a fairy tale about fear, imagination, and the emotional truth of childhood.
Read MorePearl (2025) 4KUHD
Ti West’s Pearl has always stood apart from the rest of the X trilogy—at least for me. While X delivers retro-slasher grit and MaXXXine goes full neon fever dream, Pearl is the one that lodged itself under my skin and refused to leave. Maybe it’s Mia Goth’s fearless, feral performance.
Read MoreMaXXXine (2025) #4KUHD
Second Sight Films has built a reputation for giving modern genre standouts the premium treatment, and their new Limited Edition 4K UHD release of MaXXXine might be one of their most elaborate yet. The studio pulls out all the stops to showcase the glam-soaked, neon-drenched finale of Ti West’s celebrated X trilogy, complete with new artwork, a 120-page book of essays, and a wide slate of newly produced special features that dig into the craftsmanship behind the film. Even though MaXXXine was my least favorite entry in the trilogy, that says more about the sky-high expectations than the film itself
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