Damian McCarthy’s Hokum made its world premiere in SXSW’s Midnighter lineup, and from the jump, it announces itself as a horror film deeply committed to vibe. From its opening moments, the film settles into an eerie, funereal atmosphere that never fully lifts, even when the movie briefly pretends it might. This is a haunted hotel story soaked in shadow, dread, and folkloric menace, one that wants to crawl under your skin before yanking the floor out from under you.
Read MoreMostly a True Story and Fully Unhinged: Chili Finger Is a SXSW Standout
Chili Finger opens with a title card informing you that what you are about to see is “mostly a true story,” which immediately sets the tone for what follows. This is a film deeply invested in the idea that reality is often stranger, dumber, and funnier than anything we could fabricate. From its first moments at SXSW, the movie announces itself as a small-town crime story with big personalities and a wickedly patient sense of escalation.
Read MoreDrag Is an Unhinged, Winch-Inducing Crowd Pleaser
Drag is exactly the kind of movie that makes SXSW feel electric. It is laugh-out-loud funny, deeply uncomfortable, and so physically brutal that you start wincing in anticipation rather than reacting in the moment. You know that feeling when you see someone get hit in the nuts, and your whole body reacts in sympathy?
Read MoreSnake Oil and Blood Money: Monsters of God Slithers Into SXSW
Monsters of God, Eric Goode’s latest descent into obsession and ego rot, feels like the natural next mutation after Tiger King and Chimp Crazy, only colder, darker, and more quietly unhinged. Premiering at SXSW with its first two episodes, the HBO and A24-backed docuseries wastes no time letting you know this is not a quirky animal story. This is about power, fixation, and a black-market ecosystem so normalized that even the people enforcing the law seem confused about why any of it is wrong.
Read MoreSecrets Are Better on Disc: Talamasca Season 1 Comes Home
There is something oddly satisfying about seeing Anne Rice’s Talamasca: The Secret Order land on physical media. A show built around secrecy, archives, and centuries of guarded knowledge feels right at home on a shelf rather than floating in the algorithmic ether. Season 1 is now available on Blu-ray and DVD, courtesy of Acorn Media International, with the full run also available to buy and keep digitally.
Read MoreMichael Madsen’s Final Lesson: Mr. Wonderful and the Weight of Legacy
Mr. Wonderful is the kind of indie drama that sneaks up on you. It looks modest on the surface, almost disarmingly casual, but beneath that low-key presentation is a bruised, profane, deeply human portrait of family, failure, and the quiet terror of getting older without having figured anything out. The film tracks three generations of men orbiting the same emotional black hole.
Read MoreClocked In and Losing It: Grind Turns Gig Work Into Horror
There is something immediately comforting about Grind opening inside a massive, soulless warehouse that looks like it could ship you a Fleshlight, a coffin, or a life-sized Bezos statue within two business days. It is a clever framing device for a horror anthology, grounding everything in a familiar capitalist nightmare before letting the film spiral into four very different stories that all feel like they crawled out of the same corporate hell. From the jump, Grind plays by its own rules.
Read MoreKill Me Walks the Line Between Murder and Misery and Nails It
Kill Me wastes absolutely no time. An intense cold open slams you into the movie, followed by a killer needle drop, “Trouble” by Cage the Elephant, and a slick, confident stylistic intro that basically dares you to keep up. It hooks you immediately and never really lets go. From the jump, this thing feels sad, funny, and heartfelt, dark in exactly the right ways.
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