Minimalist survival thrillers live or die on commitment, and In Darkness commits hard. Written, directed by, and starring Evan Jacobs, the film strands its audience in the same place as its protagonist: injured, disoriented, and completely blind in a dark garage. The hook is deceptively simple.
Read MoreA Movie Theater as a Portal to the Soul: Inside The Anna Game
At first glance, The Anna Game sounds like it might be another crime-adjacent thriller, but director Jamie Grefe has something far stranger and more introspective on his mind. This is a film less interested in plot mechanics than emotional drift, using magical realism to explore boredom, regret, and the quiet terror of asking whether your life actually means anything. It is an ambitious, sometimes uneven, but undeniably sincere piece of work that wears its heart right on its sleeve.
Read MoreWhispers in the Pines: The Dead Guy Wants Justice
There is a scrappy confidence to The Dead Guy that makes it immediately clear this is a passion project first and foremost. Directed by King Jeff, the paranormal thriller leans hard into atmosphere and ambition, telling a story about voices that refuse to stay buried and the man cursed or gifted enough to hear them.
Read MoreBad Girls Go Home: Turn Your Phone Upright for Redemption
There is something quietly bold about Bad Girls Go Home. Not just in its subject matter, but in how it chooses to tell its story. Shot entirely in vertical 9:16 on an iPad Pro, this 2025 drama leans into its format rather than apologizing for it.
Read MoreLady In The Urn: Ashes in the Walls, Secrets in the Air
Kevin Stevenson’s Lady in the Urn is a small film with a quiet confidence, the kind that understands exactly how much space it needs and refuses to ask for more. Built as a contained psychological mystery, the film takes a deceptively simple hook and lets it rot slowly from the inside. A man inherits a modest suburban home.
Read MoreAfter Divorce: Love, Loss, and Literal Magic in a Trailer Park
After Divorce is not a movie that eases you in. It drops you straight into the fractured headspace of Jerry Smith, a lonely veteran spiraling after his wife leaves him, and it refuses to blink. Living alone in a trailer on the outskirts of town, Jerry is stuck in a loop of grief, guilt, and self loathing.
Read MoreRun, Royalty, Run: Saving the Alpha CEO and the Rise of Vertical Chaos
There is something kind of beautiful about how unapologetically unhinged Saving the Alpha CEO is. It knows exactly what lane it is in and floors it. This is a vertical feature that embraces heightened melodrama, secret bloodlines, billionaire peril, and last minute destiny reveals with zero hesitation.
Read MoreLove, Blood, and Bad Decisions That Look Incredible: Luc Besson’s Dracula
Luc Besson isn’t interested in giving us just another cape-flapping, coffin-hopping Dracula. With Dracula, hitting theaters nationwide on February 6th, 2026, via Vertical, Besson leans hard into gothic romanticism, tragic obsession, and visual excess, crafting a lavish, blood-soaked love story that wears its heart on its sleeve and occasionally trips over it. This version of the legend opens with a 15th-century prince, Vlad, played by Caleb Landry Jones, whose world collapses after the brutal murder of his wife, Elisabeta.
Read MoreAncient Gods, Tight Spaces, and Uneasy Possession: The Morrigan Delivers Solid Pagan Horror
There is something immediately reassuring about The Morrigan. From the jump, it looks far more expensive than you would ever expect, leaning hard into Ireland’s rugged landscapes, weathered stone, and claustrophobic cave systems to sell its world. Directed by Colum Eastwood, the film taps into Gaelic mythology with sincerity, even when it stumbles in execution, and that commitment goes a long way.
Read MoreBrad Anderson's Worldbreaker Finds Beauty, Fear, and Frustration in Survival
Brad Anderson’s Worldbreaker opens with a premise that feels intentionally stripped down. A father and daughter living in isolation after the collapse of the world, training not for hope but for inevitability. It is a setup that immediately recalls post-apocalyptic touchstones like A Quiet Place, but Anderson is less interested in constant escalation than he is in mood, restraint, and unease.
Read MoreThe Confession: Rats, Religion, and a Story That Can’t Find Its Focus
There is a genuinely solid movie buried inside The Confession. The problem is getting to it without losing patience along the way. Written and directed by Will Canon, The Confession opens on an immediately unsettling note.
Read MoreWhen the Woods Fight Back: Grizzly Night Isn’t the Bear Movie You Think It Is
There is something eternally appealing about a good animal attack movie. Put people in the wilderness, add bad decisions, stir in teeth and claws, and let nature do the rest. Grizzly Night arrives looking like it wants to sit comfortably in that tradition, but what it ultimately delivers is something a little stranger, a little heavier, and far more grounded than its marketing might suggest.
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