Macon Blair’s The Toxic Avenger is both a tribute to Troma’s midnight-movie legacy and a bizarre reinvention that feels like it escaped from the wrong decade. Somehow, it manages to feel like Troma and not like Troma at the same time. It is gruesome, brutal, cheap-looking in an oddly expensive way, and packed with over-the-top performances.
Read MorePig Hill (2025) #FF25
Kevin Lewis has built a reputation for fearless genre filmmaking, and his latest, Pig Hill, arrives at FrightFest 2025 with plenty of anticipation. After the cult success of Willy’s Wonderland, Lewis trades in tongue-in-cheek animatronic mayhem for something much darker: an adaptation of Nancy Williams’s novel rooted in Meadville, Pennsylvania’s unsettling urban legend of the “pig people.” The setup is promising.
Read MoreStrange Harvest (2024)
Stuart Ortiz, best known for co-directing Grave Encounters, returns with a daring experiment in horror storytelling: a faux true-crime documentary that blurs the line between reality and nightmare. Strange Harvest unfolds with such meticulous authenticity that, if stumbled upon mid-broadcast, it could easily pass for a legitimate investigative docuseries about a serial killer. The story follows Detectives Joe Kirby and Lexi Taylor as they unravel the return of “Mr. Shiny,” a sadistic killer whose ritualistic murders are tied not just to occult symbolism but to forces of a distinctly cosmic persuasion.
Read MoreBrute 1976 (2025)
Director Marcel Walz’s latest film, Brute 1976, is a blood-soaked, bell-bottomed descent into grindhouse homage. Co-written with Joe Knetter and released by Cinephobia Releasing, the film aims to channel the chaotic spirit of ‘70s horror staples like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Hills Have Eyes. It mostly succeeds—but not without hitting a few potholes on the desert road to cult glory.
Read MoreHell House LLC: Lineage (2025)
The Hell House LLC franchise has built its reputation on atmospheric scares, lore-heavy storytelling, and an uncanny ability to make simple images like a clown standing still in a dark hallway feel utterly terrifying. With Lineage, the fifth and supposedly final installment, writer-director Stephen Cognetti takes a new approach by moving away from found footage and into a more traditional narrative style. The result is a film that is both ambitious and frustrating, offering moments of genuine tension alongside stretches weighed down by exposition.
Read MoreWitchboard (2024)
Chuck Russell makes a triumphant and gloriously over-the-top return to the horror genre with Witchboard, a deliriously fun reimagining of the 1986 cult classic. The filmmaker behind A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors and The Blob is clearly in his element, blending practical effects, camp, and chaos into a film that feels like a 1990s VHS treasure, rewound and reborn in a high-def 2024 package. Set in the voodoo-rich atmosphere of New Orleans, Witchboard introduces us to Emily and Christian, a couple opening an organic café in the French Quarter.
Read MoreMcConadilla (2024) #HHFF
There’s something undeniably charming about a puppet serial killer movie, especially one that leans into its own absurdity with as much heart and grit as McConadilla. While it doesn’t quite hit the same highs as Puppet Killer, it still carves out its own space in the niche but growing subgenre of killer puppet horror-comedies. And let’s be honest, there’s always room for another puppet with a taste for blood.
Read MoreNo Tears in Hell (2025)
Watching No Tears in Hell feels like flipping through the pages of a disturbingly well-written novel—one where you know the ending won’t be happy, but you can’t look away. Set in the bleak chill of an Alaskan winter and based on the horrific true story of Russian serial killer Alexander Spesivtsev, the film drips with tension, discomfort, and a grim fascination that sticks with you. Luke Baines commands the screen in a way that’s hard to shake.
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