Tag: horror

Review: ‘The Hand That Rocks the Cradle’ (2025), starring Maika Monroe, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Raúl Castillo, Mileiah Vega and Martin Starr

October 22, 2025

by Carla Hay

Maika Monroe in “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” (Photo by Suzanne Tenner/20th Century Studios/Hulu)

“The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” (2025)

Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles, the horror film “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” (a remake of the 1992 movie of the same name) features a predominantly white and Latin cast of characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A mysterious woman becomes the nanny for a married couple with two children under the age of 11, but the nanny has a deadly agenda.

Culture Audience: “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the 1992 movie “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” and psychological thrillers that are slow-paced and have very little creativity.

Maika Monroe and Mary Elizabeth Winstead in “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” (Photo by Suzanne Tenner/20th Century Studios/Hulu)

The 2025 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” is an example of a movie that didn’t need to exist. This dull re-imagining of 1992’s campy “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” is more sluggish than scary. The effect of watching this revamped movie about a killer nanny is like falling asleep in a cradle. A plot twist can’t save this plodding and shallow dud.

Directed by Michelle Garza Cervera and written by Micah Bloomberg, the 2025 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” takes place in Los Angeles, where the movie was filmed on location. The 1992 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” was a crime drama directed by Curtis Hanson, written by Amanda Silver, and had Rebecca De Mornay, Annabella Sciorra and Matt McCoy in the starring roles. The 2025 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” is supposed to be more of a horror movie thriller, but there are very little thrills to be had in this mopey rehash with drab cinematography and a story that takes too long to get to any horror action.

The remake of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” begins by showing a 7-year-old blonde girl (played by Arabella Olivia Clark) staring at a house that’s directly across from her. The house is engulfed in flames and has no chance of being saved. It’s obvious that this girl will grow up to be one of the movie’s two main female characters, who are both blonde. It’s revealed later in the movie which of these characters is the adult version of the girl seen in the beginning of the movie and why the house was on fire.

The movie then fast-forwards to the present day. A blonde woman named Polly Murphy (played by Maika Monroe), who’s in her late 20s or early 30s, is being interviewed in an office by housing-rights attorney Caitlin Morales (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who is also blonde and is about 10 years older than Polly. Caitlin is also about eight or nine months pregnant at the time of this interview.

Based on the conversation, Caitlin’s law firm is currently doing an “open house” event for potential clients who have legal disputes related to housing. Polly is apparently gearing up for a legal fight with her landlord, who raised the rent to an amount that Polly can no longer afford. Polly recently lost her job as a nanny because the family who hired her has moved away. Polly thinks the rate of the landlord’s rent increase is unfair and illegal.

Polly tells Caitlin that Polly also had to drop out of a school program that trains people on early childhood education because Polly can no longer afford the tuition. Caitlin assures Polly that Caitlin’s law firm does a lot of pro bono (free) work for people who can’t afford the law firm’s services. Polly notices that Caitlin is pregnant (“You look like you’re ready to pop,” Polly says tactlessly) and asks Caitlin to consider hiring Polly as a nanny if Caitlin needs a nanny.

About six or seven months later, Caitlin’s second daughter Josie Morales (played by twins Nora Contreras and Lola Contreras) has been born. Caitlin and her husband Miguel Morales (played by Raúl Castillo) have another daughter: 10-year-old Emma Morales (played by Mileiah Vega), who is prone to having temper tantrums. Emma and Caitlin have not been getting along with each other for an unspecified period of time.

Miguel’s occupation is unclear. The husband’s job is not relevant to the story, compared to how the husband’s job was part of a plot development in the 1992 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.” In both movies, the family lives in an upper-middle-class home. And whatever the household income is, the family can afford to hire a nanny. That’s what happens when Caitlin is at a farmer’s market with her kids, Caitlin sees Polly again, and Caitlin decides to hire Polly as the family’s nanny.

Polly says she’s still looking for a job, so Caitlin takes up Polly’s offer to be the family’s nanny when Caitlin sees how friendly Polly is with Josie and Emma. Polly provides a work reference to Caitlin: a woman named Rosanna (played by Shannon Cochran), who says that she used to employ Polly as a nanny. Caitlin calls Rosanna, who gives a glowing recommendation about Polly. Rosanna describes Polly as “amazing” and says about Polly: “She really became part of our family.”

The next hour of this 104-minute movie then drags with repetition. Polly secretly puts medication in food to make Caitlin, Emma and Josie sick. Caitlin (who cooks the family’s food) feels guilty because she thinks she’s being an irresponsible mother. Meanwhile, Polly earns the trust of Emma, who seems to like Polly a lot more than Emma likes Caitlin. Polly (who describes herself as being orphaned when she was a child) tells Emma that when Polly lived as a ward of the state in her childhood, she was fed only tuna and could only eat it from a tin can.

When Polly can no longer afford her rent, Caitlin invites Polly to live in the family’s guest house. Caitlin eventually gets suspicious of Polly because Polly defies Caitlin’s orders. Miguel thinks that Caitlin is being paranoid. Caitlin had some sort of nervous breakdown after Emma was born, so Miguel thinks Caitlin is experiencing something similar after the recent birth of Josie. These scenarios are presented as mostly monotonous conversations. The movie’s irritating music score by Ariel Marx sounds like it belongs in an industrial nightclub, not a movie that’s supposed to be a suspensful thriller.

Caitlin and Miguel don’t have a lot of close friends. Their closest friends (and the only friends who hang out with Caitlin and Miguel in this story) are a married couple named Stewart (played by Martin Starr) and Bethany (played by Riki Lindhome), who are a little bit snobby and pretentious. Stewart is a doctor and puts his medical knowledge to use later in the film. Miguel’s parents Javí Morales (played by Rafael Sigler) and Marta Morales (played by Elena Campbell-Martinez) are too far away to visit in person, but they are briefly seen in a video chat. Caitlin’s parents are not seen in the movie.

Early on in the movie, Polly mentions that she dates women and is currently “talking” to a woman who might end up being a love interest for Polly. Caitlin then mentions that Caitlin was dating a woman when Caitlin met Miguel. Polly says she’s not surprised because she says Caitlin gives off “that vibe.” Unlike the nanny in 1992 version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” the nanny in the 2025 version of the movie doesn’t plan to seduce anyone to break up a marriage—even though the 2025 movie has a few tepid and unconvincing attempts to make it look like there’s sexual tension between Polly and Caitlin.

Later, Polly invites her “friend” Amelia (played by Yvette Lu) over as Polly’s date when the family is having a small dinner party. After the party, Caitlin sees Polly having sex with Amelia in Polly’s bedroom and watches them through a window. Polly notices that Caitlin is watching and somewhat smirks. What does this sex scene have to do with the main story? Absolutely nothing. It’s just an example of how this dreadful movie has time-wasting scenes.

Another queerness scene that has no bearing on the plot is when Emma comes out as a lesbian to her parents while they are having a family dinner. Caitlin gets upset because she thinks Emma is too young to know what Emma’s sexual identity is. That’s about all you’ll learn about Emma, who is very underwritten as a character. Even though Caitlin is queer herself, Caitlin blames Polly for trying to influence Emma into prematurely declaring Emma’s lesbian identity. This movie has a misguided way of trying to make queerness look “provocative,” and queerness is misused as an irrelevant distraction in this movie’s boring plot.

In “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,” the nanny has a secret motive for wanting to be the family’s nanny. This version of “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” doesn’t reveal that motive until the last third of the movie. The 1992 version of the movie had a family-employed handyman named Solomon (played by Ernie Hudson), who figures out before the family does that the nanny is devious. There is no handyman character in the 2025 version of the movie, but it’s not really spoiler information to say that Stewart has the role of the person who is the first one to find out some damning information about the nanny.

The movie’s screenplay is so lackluster, most of the cast members of 2025’s “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” just seem like they’re sleepwalking through their roles. Monroe has a vacant stare for most of her performance and acts more like someone who’s spaced out on painkillers instead of someone who should be laser-focused on causing havoc through a revenge scheme. Worst of all: These characters are so underdeveloped, by the time the mayhem starts and concludes in a very stereotypical way, most viewers won’t really care about seeing these characters again after the movie ends.

Hulu premiered “The Hand That Rocks the Cradle” on October 22, 2025.

Review: ‘Shelby Oaks,’ starring Sarah Durn, Camille Sullivan, Charlie Talbert, Robin Bartlett, Michael Beach, Emily Bennett, Keith David, Brendan Sexton III and Derek Mears

October 21, 2025

by Carla Hay

Camille Sullivan in “Shelby Oaks” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“Shelby Oaks”

Directed by Chris Stuckmann

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2020, in Ohio primarily in the fictional city of Shelby Oaks, the horror film “Shelby Oaks” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A woman searches for her younger adult sister (a YouTube paranormal investigator), who went missing in 2008, and finds sinister things along the way. 

Culture Audience: “Shelby Oaks” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of supernatural horror movies that can create intriguing suspense, even if the story re-uses familiar elements from other horror movies.

Camille Sullivan and Sarah Durn in “Shelby Oaks” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“Shelby Oaks” is an adequate horror movie that falls short of being great because of its derivative story and weak ending. The movie’s mystery (about the search for a missing woman) is more suspenseful than scary. Camille Sullivan’s performance elevates the movie.

Directed by Chris Stuckmann (who co-wrote the “Shelby Oaks” screenplay with Sam Liz), “Shelby Oaks” had its world premiere at the 2024 Fantasia International Film Festival and its U.S. premiere at the 2025 edition of Fantastic Fest. “Shelby Oaks” is the feature-film directorial debut of Stuckmann, who made his name in the entertainment industry as a film critic on YouTube. The movie’s primary story takes place in 2020, in Ohio (where “Shelby Oaks” was filmed on location), with many of the story’s pivotal moments taking place in the fictional city of Shelby Oaks.

“Shelby Oaks” mixes the narrative formats of “found footage,” mockumentary and “real time” footage, in a mostly seamless way. The movie begins in “found footage” style, by showing the last-known video of Riley Brennan (played by Sarah Durn), a young paranormal investigator who hosted a YouTube channel called Paranormal Paranoids. Riley (who lived in the fictional Darke County in Ohio) has been missing since 2008.

The “found footage” (which Riley filmed herself) shows her sitting in her bedroom, looking terrified, and saying, “I’m so scared.” There’s a faint sound of howling canines in the background. Riley seems unsure of what to do next. Then, she slowly gets up and walks out the door. As she opens the door, the howling sound grows even louder. This was the last time that Riley was seen alive before she went missing.

The movie then switches to the mockumentary format, by showing that a film crew is doing a documentary about the mysterious disappearance of Riley and the three members of the Paranormal Paranoids production crew: Peter Bailey (played by Anthony Baldasare), Laura Tucker (played by Caisey Cole) and David Reynolds (played by Eric Francis Melaragni), who all went missing around the same time as Riley. The documentary crew is shown doing various interviews with people, but the main interviewee is Riley’s older sister Mia Brennan Walker (played by Sullivan), who has been tirelessly searching for Riley.

Mia firmly states Riley was never a hoaxter and seemed to have psychic abilities ever since Riley was a child. Riley kept a dream sketchbook, where she would illustrate her very vivid dreams. Mia also says that she and Riley had a happy childhood, except for Riley saying that she had a disturbing vision when she was 13. Riley would not go into details. Although many people have assumed that Riley and her Paranormal Paranoids crew are dead, Mia has not given up hope.

During an interview for the documentary, Mia mentions that before Riley disappeared, Mia and her husband Robert (played by Brendan Sexton III) were trying to start a family. But after Riley went missing, they abandoned those plans. Robert declined to be interviewed for the documentary, but he is seen in the background and in conversations with Mia when the documentary film crew isn’t filming them.

One day, after an interview session with the documentary crew, a man knocks on the door of the house where Mia and Robert live. The documentary crew members are still in the house and are just about to pack up their equipment and leave. Mia opens the door, and the man (who is a stranger to Mia), says to Mia: “She finally let me go.” The man then takes out a gun, shoots himself in the head, and dies in front of a horrified Mia.

Mia sees that the man is holding a mini DV cassette tape in his right hand. The tape is labeled “Shelby Oaks.” Mia takes the tape and doesn’t tell police about it when there’s an investigation. Mia finds out from lead detective Alan Burke (played by Keith David) that the dead man was 39-year-old Wilson Miles (played by Charlie Talbert), who was incarcerated for assault at Shelby Oaks Correctional Facility. Shelby Oaks is an abandoned town on the outskirts of Darke County.

The correctional facility and an amusement park were the last places that remained open before Shelby Oaks became a “ghost town,” with shuttered businesses and residents who moved out in droves. The downward spiral of Shelby Oaks began when the amusement park closed in the late 1990s due to a fire. Coincidence or not, the last paranormal investigation that Riley did was at the now-abandoned Shelby Oaks Correctional Facility. Archival video footage shows that Riley felt an extremely cold presence inside the prison. She “freaked out” and didn’t want to go back.

Mia plays the tape that Wilson was holding when he died. “Shelby Oaks” is mostly about how Mia decides to obsessively investigate on her own after seeing what’s on the tape. Her investigation predictably leads her to Shelby Oaks. This investigation is more interesting than the movie’s predictable jump scares. “Shelby Oaks” has elements that are very reminiscent of 1999’s “The Blair Witch Project” movie, but it’s a more polished-looking movie than the scrappy-looking “The Blair Witch Project.”

The supernatural visuals and the supporting actor performances in “Shelby Oaks” are sufficient, but the characters are somewhat generic. The main reason viewers will want to continue watching the movie is to find out the answer to the mystery. When that answer comes, it’s a bit underwhelming and not very surprising, but it is still presented in an effective way until the movie’s clumsy and abrupt ending. “Shelby Oaks” isn’t terrible and is worth a watch if you’re looking for a mildly scary, somewhat gory horror movie with a fairly standard story arc.

Neon will release “Shelby Oaks” in U.S. cinemas on October 24, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on October 20, 2025. “Shelby Oaks” will be released on digital and VOD on November 18, 2025. The movie will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on January 6, 2026.

Review: ‘Black Phone 2,’ starring Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, Demián Bichir and Ethan Hawke

October 16, 2025

by Carla Hay

Mason Thames and Ethan Hawke in “Black Phone 2” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Universal Pictures)

“Black Phone 2”

Directed by Scott Derrickson

Some language in Spanish with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Denver area, the horror film “Black Phone 2” (a sequel to “The Black Phone”) features a white and Latin cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Four years after teenager Finney Blake killed the serial murderer The Grabber who kidnapped him and other boys, The Grabber comes back to haunt Finney and his younger sister Gwen, who has psychic abilities. 

Culture Audience: “Black Phone 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the first “Black Phone” movie, and the short story on which the movies are based.

Madeleine McGraw and Ethan Hawke in “Black Phone 2” (Photo by Sabrina Lantos/Universal Pictures)

“Black Phone 2” is a suspenseful sequel with very good performances. However, this horror franchise has officially run out of unique ideas, now that it’s imitating the “Nightmare on Elm Street” Freddy Krueger concept for chief villain The Grabber. “Black Phone 2” is not a terrible movie, but it’s lost a lot of the original terror impact that was in 2022’s “The Black Phone.”

“The Black Phone” and “Black Phone 2” have the same team of director Scott Derrickson, screenwriter C. Robert Cargill (who co-wrote both movies with Derrickson) and producer Jason Blum. Both movies are based on “The Black Phone” short story in author Joe Hill’s 2005 collection “20th Century Ghosts.” (Hill is the son of horror master Stephen King.) Both movies take place in the Denver area. “Black Phone 2” was actually filmed in Ontario.

Is it necessary to watch or know what happened “The Black Phone” before seeing “Black Phone 2?” Yes, because so much of what happens in “Black Phone 2” depends entirely on what happened in “The Black Phone.” Trailers for “Black Phone 2” already announce what would normally be spoiler information: At the end of “The Black Phone” (which takes place in 1978), teenage protagonist Finn “Finney” Blake (played by Mason Thames) killed the serial murderer nicknamed The Grabber (played by Ethan Hawke), a magician who kidnapped Finney and several other boys in Denver. The Grabber’s real name is not revealed in “The Black” phone movies.

“Black Phone 2” takes place in 1982. Finney, who now goes by the name Finn, is a frequently angry 17-year-old who’s addicted to smoking marijuana to numb the emotional pain and trauma of his experiences with The Grabber, who kept the kidnapped boys in his basement that had a disabled black phone in the room. Because Finn is known in the community for killing The Grabber, he sometimes gets teased and harassed about it by other young people, and Finn usually gets into physical fights over it. Finn’s younger sister Gwen Blake (played by Madeleine McGraw), who is about 15 years old, has psychic abilities and was instrumental in helping find a kidnapped Finn in “The Black Phone” movie.

Finn has psychic abilities too, but they’re not as strong as Gwen’s abilities. In “The Black Phone,” Finn received psychic phone calls on a black phone located on a wall in The Grabber’s basement. The phone calls were from boys who were murdered by The Grabber. Gwen can see the past and present through dreams and visions. She can also communicate with dead people in these dreams and visions.

Hope Blake (played by Anna Lore), the mother of Finn and Gwen, died seven years ago in a reported suicide. The siblings live with their father Terrence Blake (played by Jeremy Davies), who was an abusive alcoholic in “The Black Phone.” Terrence—a former police officer who currently works for Rocky Flats Nuclear Facility—turned his life around after Finn was rescued. Terrence is now a sober and responsible parent.

The story in “Black Phone 2” is fairly simple: Finn, Gwen and their schoolmate friend Ernesto, nicknamed Ernie (played by Miguel Mora), decide to get a job by joining a training program for camp counselors at Alpine Lake, which is a Rocky Mountain-area camp for Christian youth. Ernie has a crush on Gwen, and the feeling might be mutual. At the camp, the three teens and other people are targeted by the ghost of The Grabber.

The three teens travel to Alpine Lake during a snowstorm and find out that the winter session for the camp has been canceled due to the snowstorm. Finn, Gwen and Ernie are told that that they were the only counselors in training who couldn’t be reached in time about the camp session being canceled. (Remember, this is 1982, before cell phones and the Internet existed. Many people also didn’t have answering machines in 1982.) The roads are now closed because of the snowstorm, so the teens have to stay at the camp until the snowstorm makes it safe to travel on the road.

Gwen has been having dreams and visions about three boys being trapped underneath an icy lake and using their fingers to scratch certain letters on the ice while trapped and before they drowned. Gwen finds out later that three boys were named Felix (played by Simon Webster), Spike (played by Chase B. Robertson) and Calvin, also known as Cal (played by Shepherd Munroe), who all died at Alpine Lake. She’s also been seeing The Grabber in her dreams.

The beginning of the movie shows a flashback to 1957, when a young woman (later revealed to be Hope) is seen talking on an outdoor black pay phone in a snowy area. Hope is telling someone on the phone that she also saw boys trapped in the icy lake, but Hope saw the boys carving numbers, not letters. The seven numbers that she saw were the digits of the phone number she called on the pay phone.

“Black Phone 2” later explains where Hope was and the context of Hope’s phone conversation that was shown in the beginning of the movie. As already revealed in the “Black Phone 2” trailers, that same black pay phone is at Alpine Lake. The movie has several scenes of a phone ringing and Finn picking up the phone, saying, “I can’t help you,” and then hanging up the phone,

“Black Phone 2” is essentially a chase movie where The Grabber hunts down Finn and Gwen, who are the only people in the movie who can see The Grabber. Somehow, the Grabber’s ghost is still able to do physical damage in the present day, just like dead serial killer Freddy Krueger of the “Nightmare on Elm Street” horror movie franchise, which has Freddy Krueger appearing in people’s dreams. With The Grabber dead but still being able to kill people in “real life,” the “Black Phone” franchise has backed itself into a corner and is now copying what the “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie series has been doing since the first “Nightmare on Elm Street” movie was released in 1984.

In “Black Phone 2,” the people who help the teens in trying to stop this rampage are Alpine Lake owner Armando, nicknamed Mando (played by Demián Bichir), who is kind and compassionate; Alpine Lake horse wrangler Mustang (played by Arianna Rivas), who Armando’s friendly and brave teenage niece; and a married religious couple who are Alpine Lake’s office managers: Kenneth, nicknamed Ken (played Graham Abbey), and Barbara, nicknamed Barb (played by Maev Beaty), whose names obviously are satirical of Ken and Barbie dolls. Not surprisingly, Ken and Barb are the most sanctimonious and judgmental characters in the movie. Terrence also conveniently shows up because he was able to get a snow plow, even though the roads to Alpine Lake are supposed to be closed.

“Black Phone 2” succeeds in immersing viewers in the sinister and frightening aspects of the movie. (The cinematography for Gwen’s dreams and visions are shown in a grainy tone that resembles a creepy home video filmed on Super 8 film.) There’s also a plot reveal about Hope that is very intriguing and puts a new twist on The Grabber’s backstory. And the performances—particularly from Thames, McGraw and Hawke—are effective. The sibling relationship between Finn and Gwen also shows some meaningful evolution.

However, the contrivance of a ringing outdoor pay phone in the middle of a snowstorm becomes a bit ridiculous after a while. And it’s not a new concept to set the terror in a kids’ camp in a remote wooded area. That’s been a horror cliché that started with 1980’s “Friday the 13th.” The “Black Phone” franchise is in desperate need of a more innovative way to keep The Grabber story alive. Otherwise, the “Black Phone” franchise is going to turn into the “Nightmare on Elm Street” franchise, with the quality of each movie getting worse, and the chief villain becoming a parody of himself.

Universal Pictures will release “Black Phone 2” in U.S. cinemas on October 17, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 4, 2025. “Black Phone 2” will be released on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD on December 23, 2025.

Review: ‘Coyotes’ (2025), starring Justin Long, Kate Bosworth, Mila Harris, Katherine McNamara, Brittany Allen, Keir O’Donnell and Norbert Leo Butz

October 13, 2025

by Carla Hay

Mila Harris in “Coyotes” (Photo courtesy of Aura Entertainment)

“Coyotes” (2025)

Directed by Colin Minihan

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles, the horror film “Coyotes” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Several people encounter deadly coyotes that are running loose in the city. 

Culture Audience: “Coyotes” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and “creature feature” movies that are tacky, mindless and boring.

Justin Long in “Coyotes” (Photo courtesy of Aura Entertainment)

“Coyotes” is a deliberately campy horror comedy movie about killer coyotes on the loose in Los Angeles. However, this sloppily made flop fails to be amusing, scary or interesting, with repetitive scenes of people making incredibly idiotic decisions. And even though “Coyotes” is only 91 minutes long, it feels like longer because this garbage movie is so dull.

Directed by Colin Minihan, “Coyotes” was written by Tad Daggerhart and Nick Simon. The movie had its world premiere at the 2025 edition of Fantastic Fest. “Coyotes” takes place in Los Angeles but was actually filmed in Colombia. In reality, coyotes usually don’t attack humans unless they feel threatened, but since this is a fictional horror movie about killer coyotes, that fact can be overlooked. The movie throws in a not-very-believable “reveal” toward the end to explain why these particular coyotes have been targeting people.

“Coyotes” begins by showing a vain and vapid social media influencer named Kat (played by Katherine McNamara), who is walking her pet Chihuahua named Gigi on a seemingly deserted Los Angeles street. Kat has just come from a nightclub or a party and is yapping on her phone with a friend about how irrisistible Kat thinks she is. “I swear, it’s not intentional, but people just follow my vibe,” Kat says in a phony humble brag. “I’m just magnetic.”

It starts raining when Kat decides to take selfie photos on the street. Gigi goes into some bushes when Kat feels strong tugging on the dog’s leash. She also hears strange rustling in the bushes and the sound of Gigi crying out in pain. Kat doesn’t notice that a coyote is in the background in one of her selfie photos.

You can easily predict the rest: Kat goes into the bushes and sees that Gigi was killed by a coyote. A coyote leaps out and mauls Kat, who stumbles into the street and gets hit by a car. (The driver barely stops before driving away.) Two coyotes then come out of the bushes and look at Kat’s mangled body like fresh prey.

This scene (which is partially shown in the “Coyotes” trailer) is very cliché. However, it’s actually one of the better scenes in the movie because McNamara plays the role with good comedic timing. Unfortunately, she’s in the movie for less than 10 minutes. After Kat dies, the movie has a montage of clips explaining that recent wildfires in the area have driven coyotes closer to highly populated areas of the city.

The rest of “Coyotes” (which has small number of people in its cast) is about other people who encounter the coyotes in the Hollywood Hills area of Los Angeles. The three-person family at the center of this deadly coyote story consists of workaholic writer Scott (played by Justin Long); his homemaker wife Liv (played by Kate Bosworth); and their moody daughter Chloe (played by Mila Harris), who’s about 15 or 16 years old. When Scott first sees the coyotes, even after hearing that they kill people, he acts like they’re just friendly stray dogs. Scott changes his mind when he sees how vicious these coyotes can be.

Other characters in the movie are completely hollow and written as empty-headed shells. Devon (played by Keir O’Donnell) is a fanatical exterminator who was hired by Scott to get rid of a rat infestation in the family home the day before the coyotes show up near the home and go on a rampage. Trip (played by Norbert Leo Butz) is the cocaine-snorting slob who lives next door to the family. Julie (played by Brittany Allen) is a sex worker hired by Trip to spend the night at his place. Tony (played by Kevin Glynn) is Scott’s goofy Irish friend. Sheila (played by Norma Nivia) is a famous actress who is Tony’s nagging wife.

News reports mention that Kat was one of a growing number of people in the area who’ve been recently killed by coyotes. Because coyotes tend to hunt at night, you would think there would be a temporary curfew in the city. You would think that fire department officials (which usually handle wild animal control issues) would be making efforts to find and capture these homicidal coyotes. But no, not in this stupid movie.

On the night before the big rampage, a severe rainstorm hits the area and causes a power outage and several trees to fall down. The day after the storm, Tony comes over to Scott’s house to help Scott remove fallen trees from the family’s front yard. Meanwhile, Trip is distraught because his cat Lucy has gone missing. (Liv found Lucy’s collar, which is not a good indication that Lucy is still alive.)

“Coyotes” has too many plot holes and annoyingly moronic actions to make this an enjoyable movie to watch. The terror scenes are dragged out by making not-believable-at all excuses that certain characters in the movie just happen to have cell phones with dead batteries at the same time. These batteries can’t be recharged because of the power outage. (Apparently, no one in this movie has battery chargers that don’t need electricity.)

Certain people get severely mauled and bitten by coyotes, but their injuries suddenly disappear in later scenes that take place on the same night. (That’s how you know who will be the survivors by the end of the movie.) There are no science-fiction elements in “Coyotes,” so there’s no excuse for these quickly disappearing wounds.

When a family member needs immediately medical care, no effort is made to get medical help for that person. When a phone call for help is finally made, the person making the call decides to contact Devon the exterminator, not emergency services. The same family member who gets a serious wound from a coyote bite worries aloud that the wound will leave a scar, like a “vampire bite.” A family member makes this garbage comment in response: “That’d be cool.”

The movie is also annoying for how it makes Scott a walking contradiction. In the beginning of the movie, he’s so compassionate and concerned about animals, he asks exterminator Devon if there’s a way to trap the house-invading rats and let the rats loose in the wild instead of killing the rats. And yet, later in the movie, Scott shows that he’s not really thinking about getting himself and his family members to safety when they’re in peril. Liv isn’t much better and is also a horribly irresponsible parent, but she’s more likely to take effective action, compared to foolish and incompetent Scott.

The visual effects are what you might expect for a low-budget trashy flick, but it still takes you out of the movie to see the obviously fake coyotes, which look and act more like wolves in the movie. In one absolutely ridiculous scene, a fully grown adult coyote sneaks into the family’s house by going through a dog door that’s small enough to only fit the family’s Yorkshire Terrier named Charlie. The filmmakers of “Coyotes” obviously don’t care about insulting viewers’ intelligence.

Certain people in the story have access to loaded guns, but the movie is mostly pathetic in how it depicts gun action. “Coyotes” tries to be a bit “artsy,” by having occasional freeze frames that look like comic book panels. This visual style looks somewhat random until it’s explained in one of the very last scenes in the movie that Scott is a longtime comic book collector.

The acting in “Coyotes” is nothing special and is mediocre at best. The dialogue is mostly awful or forgettable. Allen has the most entertaining character in the movie and does sufficiently well in the role, but the rest of the characters are just lackluster stereotypes. Long and Bosworth (who are a married couple in real life) have played these types of characters (dorky neurotic for Long, strong-willed love interest for Bosworth) many times before, so there’s nothing new to see here.

“Coyotes” is the type of terribly made “killer animals on the loose” film where even after someone knows that these animals are on a rampage and are close by, that person leaves a front door of the house open, and a killer animal goes into the house. Yes, that really happens in “Coyotes.” And the person who left the door open gets exactly what’s coming. Viewers who’ve been warned about “Coyotes” being time-wasting junk will also get exactly what they deserve if they still want to watch this irritating and monotonous dreck.

Aura Entertainment released “Coyotes” in select U.S. cinemas on October 3, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on October 21, 2025.

Review: ‘Bone Lake,’ starring Maddie Hasson, Alex Roe, Andra Nechita and Marco Pigossi

October 10, 2025

by Carla Hay

Maddie Hasson and Marco Pigossi in “Bone Lake” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment)

“Bone Lake”

Directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Bone Lake” features a white and Latin cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Two couples are double-booked at a vacation house in a remote wooded area near a lake, and one of the couples turns out to be more dangerous than the other couple. 

Culture Audience: “Bone Lake” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of low-budget horror movies that follow familiar formulas but are still suspenseful.

Andra Nechita in “Bone Lake” (Photo courtesy of Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment)

Before it turns into a formulaic slasher flick, “Bone Lake” teases viewers with scenes of psychological manipulation and sexual tension between two couples at a remote lake house. Some of the acting performances are mediocre, but the movie is mostly watchable. There’s also a plot twist that will catch many viewers off guard.

Directed by Mercedes Bryce Morgan and written by Joshua Friedlander, “Bone Lake” had its world premiere at the 2024 edition of Fantastic Fest. The movie takes place in an unnamed city in the United States near a fictional lake nicknamed Bone Lake. The movie was actually filmed in Conyers, Georgia.

There are only six people who are shown acting on screen in “Bone Lake.” The first two are a couple named Brett (played by Clayton Spencer) and Lisa (played by Eliane Reis), who are seen in the beginning of the movie. Brett and Lisa are naked in a wooded area and are running in terror from an unseen attacker or attackers shooting bows and arrows at Lisa and Brett. Lisa dies when she falls down and gets impaled on a fallen tree trunk. Brett dies after an arrow strikes him in the testicles.

The movie then switches to showing the two other live-in couples who are at the center of the story. All four of these lovers are in their 30s. Sage (played by Maddie Hasson) and Diego (played by Marco Pigossi) arrive at the lake house first. Will (played by Alex Roe) and Cin (played by Andra Nechita) arrive next.

Sage is a lifestyle journalist. Her boyfriend Diego, who is originally from Mexico City, is an aspiring novelist. Sage and Diego met when they went to the same college. They are at this rental lake house for a romantic vacation. Diego also plans to propose marriage to Sage and has an engagement ring that he inherited from his grandmother.

However, there’s some tension in the relationship. Diego recently quit his job as a community college teacher so he can work on his first novel. There’s no guarantee that this novel will be published. Sage was a freelance writer who recently took a full-time job as an editor because Diego won’t have an income for an uncertain period of time.

Even though it was Sage’s idea to take this job, she still has some resentment that she is now the only person in their household who will have an income. Sage is more assertive than Diego, but she’s also passive-aggressive when it comes to dealing with conflicts. Diego is insecure about how his novel will be received, so it’s important to him that Sage likes the novel that he will be writing.

Will and Cin (which is short for Cinnamon) are a more affluent couple than Sage and Diego, but they also have a situation where the woman in the relationship has a higher income than the man. Cin says she works as a wealth manager. Will is apparently unemployed. Cin and Will are very open with their sexuality and don’t hesitate to get naked in front of strangers, compared to Sage and Diego, who are more discreet.

Cin and Will arrive at the lake house and say they were booked for the same time period that Sage and Diego are booked at the house. The nearest hotel is 50 miles away. Neither couple wants to leave, since the house rental was paid for in advance. The house owner isn’t reachable and isn’t answering messages.

At first, Diego and Will think the best thing to do is play Rock Paper Scissors, with the winner of two out of three games getting to stay at the house. Cin suggests that all four of them stay at the house, which is big enough for four people. Cin says that if things get weird, or if anyone feels uncomfortable, they can go back to the idea of playing the Rock Paper Scissors game to decide which couple will stay at the house.

From the get-go, Will shows that he’s the biggest troublemaker of the group. It’s his idea to break into the locked rooms in the house. In one room, the couples find bondage gear and sex toys. In another room, they find occult objects, such as a Ouija board.

Both couples have heard the story of how Bone Lake got its name: In the 1950s, a wealthy couple bought a lot of property in the area. Dozens of skeletons were later found washed up on the land. The theory was that the skeletons were originally in the lake, and that’s how these remains ended up on the land.

Meanwhile, a more recent mystery has happened in the Bone Lake area: A married couple named Robert and Marilyn Price went missing 15 years ago. You can bet that this information has a lot to do with what happens later in the movie.

In the lead-up to the terror scenes, “Bone Lake” shows that Cin and Will like to play mind games that will test the relationship between Sage and Diego. When Diego confides in Will that he plans to propose to Sage during this trip, Will tells Diego that Will has similar marriage proposal plans for Cin during this trip. Diego and Will agree to schedule their proposals at certain times and in different places so the proposals won’t be awkward.

“Bone Lake” has a “slow burn” buildup to the inevitable showdown between the “heroes” and the “villains.” There’s some sexual activity that causes jealousies and tempers to flare. Cin tries to put a temptress wedge between Diego and Sage, by planting suspicions in the minds of Sage and Diego while openly flirting with Diego when they’re alone together. Roe and Hassan fare the best in how they portray their characters. Nechita is a little too “over the top” in some scenes, while Pigossi gives the stiffest acting performance in the cast.

Because “Bone Lake” already telegraphs very early on in the story which couple is the problematic couple, there’s no real mystery in that regard. However, the movie does eventually show the villains’ motives and what the targeted couple does about the situation. “Bone Lake” is an uncomplicated horror movie that is more unsettling than scary. If viewers don’t mind watching a movie where most of the action doesn’t happen until the last third of the movie, then “Bone Lake” should be satisfying enough for anyone looking for some harrowing thrills.

Bleecker Street released “Bone Lake” in U.S. cinemas on October 3, 2025.

Review: ‘Good Boy’ (2025), starring Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman, Larry Fessenden and Indy

October 6, 2025

by Carla Hay

Indy and Shane Jensen in “Good Boy” (Photo by Ben Leonberg/Independent Film Company and Shudder)

“Good Boy” (2025)

Directed by Ben Leonberg

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Good Boy” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Against the warnings of his sister, a man moves into an abandoned house previously owned by their deceased grandfather, and strange things start happening, as observed by the man’s loyal dog. 

Culture Audience: “Good Boy” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of uncomplicated horror movies that are effectively scary on low budgets.

Indy in “Good Boy” (Photo by Ben Leonberg/Independent Film Company and Shudder)

“Good Boy” is an impressive example of a horror movie that does a lot with a low budget. This simple story, which is told from a loyal dog’s perspective, can get a bit repetitive with haunted house scares, but it skillfully manages to maintain suspense. And at 73 minutes long, “Good Boy” doesn’t overstay its welcome. It’s a thriller that does what it needs to do in the right amount of time.

Directed by Ben Leonberg, “Good Boy” was co-written by Leonberg and Alex Cannon. Leonberg is also the cinematographer for “Good Boy,” which is his feature-film directorial debut. “Good Boy” had it world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. The movie takes place in an unnamed U.S. city. “Good Boy” was actually filmed in New Jersey, partially in Leonberg’s own home.

This “Good Boy” horror movie should not be confused with the 2020 “Good Boy” feature film that was part of Blumhouse’s “Into the Dark” anthology series on Hulu. Both are horror movies where a dog is the main character but the dog in the “Into the Dark” version of “Good Boy” is the a homicidal villain. It’s established early on in 2025’s “Good Boy” (and shown in the movie’s trailer) that the dog is the heroic protagonist.

Although the specific year of 2025’s “Good Boy” story is not mentioned in the movie, visual clues (such as the types of phones being used) indicate that the movie takes place in the mid-2020s. However, the house that’s at the center of the film is stuck in the 1980s, such as having a television and VCR that’s from the 1980s. The house, which is suspected of being haunted, has been abandoned for years until the grandson of the previous owner moves into the house with his male Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever dog named Indy. (The dog is actually Leonberg’s own dog, whose name is also Indy.)

“Good Boy,” which is told from Indy’s point of view, begins by showing Indy waking up to the sound of an iPhone ringing, as blood is dripping on the phone. Indy’s owner Todd (played by Shane Jensen) is unconscious nearby. Todd’s sister Vera (played by Arielle Friedman) is calling Todd and comes over to his place when Todd doesn’t answer the phone and doesn’t return her messages. Vera is alarmed to see Todd unconscious and calls for medical help.

It’s not directly said out loud, but Todd was unconscious because he attempted suicide. He spends an unnamed amount of time in a hospital and is eventually discharged. Todd decides to leave his home in the city to live with Indy in a dilapidated house in a remote wooded area. This house used to be owned by the unnamed grandfather (played by Larry Fessenden) of Todd and Vera.

This grandfather, who is seen in home video footage, had some type of mental and physical breakdown and was found dead. Vera is convinced that the house is haunted, so she begs Todd not to move into the house. Todd thinks that Vera is overreacting and being unreasonable.

But sure enough, strange things starts happening after Todd moves into the house. He starts having inexplicable nosebleeds. Indy sees a shadowy figure that seems to be lurking around. And one night, Indy sees a dog that looks exactly like Indy and follows this look-alike dog upstairs.

“Good Boy” deliberately obscures the faces of the human characters for most of the time that the people are on screen. It’s a clever technique for viewers to focus on and remember that most of the facial expressions in the movie are from the dog. There are some jump scares that turn out to be false alarms. But fortunately, these false alarms are few and far in between.

Because Todd is living in isolation, the vast majority of the screen time is about showing what happens to Todd and Indy. Todd treats Indy well, but as Todd’s physical condition starts to deteriorate, he becomes impatient with Indy. Todd has a few brief interactions with a hunter neighbor named Richard (played by Stuart Rudin), who knew Todd’s grandfather. Indy has some nightmares, but the movie suggests that this dog might have psychic abilities.

“Good Boy” has adequate acting from the humans, but the movie’s biggest strengths or how well Indy is made into a compelling character, as well as good use of score music, cinematography and visual effects to immerse viewers into the foreboding atmosphere. It’s worth noting that after the end credits, there’s a featurette, narrated by Leonberg, where he gives a behind-the-scenes look at the making of “Good Boy” (which was filmed over a four-year period) that gives an informative explanation of how he and the other filmmakers were able to make the most out of Indy’s facial expressions and actions. “Good Boy” is a promising feature-film debut from Leonberg and is proof that a horror movie with a nice dog as the main character really can be scary.

Independent Film Company and Shudder released “Good Boy” in U.S. cinemas on October 3, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on October 24, 2025. Shudder will premiere “Good Boy” on November 21, 2025.

Review: ‘The Strangers: Chapter 2,’ starring Madelaine Petsch, Gabriel Basso and Ema Horvath

September 26, 2025

by Carla Hay

Madelaine Petsch in “The Strangers: Chapter 2” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“The Strangers: Chapter 2”

Directed by Renny Harlin

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2008, in the fictional town of Venus, Oregon, the horror film “The Strangers: Chapter 2” (a direct sequel to 2024’s “The Strangers”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latin people and one Asian person) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A woman leaves the hospital where she was receiving medical treatment because of a murderous rampage caused by three strangers, who continue to hunt down the woman. 

Culture Audience: “The Strangers: Chapter 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and the 2008 “The Strangers” movie, but this atrocious sequel is proof that “The Strangers” franchise has run out of original ideas.

Madelaine Petsch in “The Strangers: Chapter 2” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

“The Strangers: Chapter 2” is a pathetic excuse for a movie. It just might have the stupidest crime victim in one of the worst horror sequels of all time. The protagonist constantly and deliberately runs away from safety and runs toward danger, as if she wants to get murdered. It’s all so heinous to watch.

Horror movies often have characters who do mindless things that put them at risk of getting killed. But “The Strangers: Chapter 2” (which has mediocre-to-bad acting) makes it obvious that the filmmakers had no real story and just decided to throw together a bunch of chase scenes that relentlessly insult viewers’ intelligence. The violent murders in this bottom-of-the-barrel trashy movie aren’t nearly as offensive as how “The Strangers: Chapter 2” assaults viewers’ time and brain cells.

Directed by Renny Harlin and written by Alan R. Cohen and Alan Freedland, “The Strangers: Chapter 2” is the second movie in a planned trilogy of “The Strangers” movies directed by Harlin and written by Cohen and Freedland. These three movies (which were all filmed back-to-back) continue the story that began with 2008’s “The Strangers.” The villains in each “Strangers” movie are three masked and unidentified serial killers (one man and two women), who drive around and stop at houses in remote areas to randomly murder strangers.

In “The Strangers: Chapter 2,” the three killers are described in the movie’s end credits by the types of masks they wear. The male killer wears a scarecrow hooded mask, so he can be called Scarecrow (played by Matus Lajcak), and he likes to use an axe in his murders. The younger female killer wears a doll mask, so she can be called Dollface (Olivia Kreutzova). The older female killer, who wears a Betty Boop-styled mask and can be called Pin-Up (played by Ema Horvath), is more unhinged than Dollface. The women are more likely to use knives, but all three killers can also use whatever weapon is at their disposal.

In “The Strangers: Chapter 1” (released in 2024), the main protagonists were a dating couple named Ryan (played by Froy Gutierrez) and Maya (played by Madelaine Petsch, one of the executive producers of this movie trilogy), who went on a cross-country road trip from New York to Oregon, because Maya had a job interview in Portland, Oregon. (“The Strangers: Chapter 1,” “The Strangers: Chapter 2” and “The Strangers: Chapter 3” were actually filmed in Bratislava, Slovakia.) Because of car trouble, Maya and Ryan got stranded in the rural town of Venus, Oregon, where they rented a cabin in an isolated wooded area and were targeted by the serial killers. By the end of the movie (spoiler alert), Ryan died, while Maya was in a hospital.

The end of the “The Strangers: Chapter 1” is also mentioned in “The Strangers: Chapter 2,” which shows Maya waking up in the hospital and being told by hospital staffers Nurse Danica (played by Brooke Johnson) and Dr. Tate (played by JR Esposito) that Ryan died from a loss of too much blood. Maya and Ryan had been dating for five years when he was murdered. The couple had been having some relationship problems because Maya wanted Ryan to propose marriage to her, but he was reluctant to make that commitment.

In an unintentionally silly part of “The Strangers: Chapter 1,” the serial killers captured Maya and Ryan in the cabin’s living room and were about to kill them when Ryan had a change of heart about the marriage proposal. He proposed marriage in a scene where Ryan knew he was probably going to die, but he asked Maya to marry him anyway. Maya said yes to the marriage proposal, right before Ryan got the fatal blows from the serial killers.

The reason why it’s important to mention this traumatic marriage proposal is because an unintentionally funny part of “The Strangers: Chapter 2” is Maya always correcting people who describe Ryan has her “boyfriend.” She insists that people describe Ryan as her “fiancé.” It doesn’t matter what people call Ryan. He’s still dead—although Maya has flashback memories and hallucinations of Ryan in “The Strangers: Chapter 2.”

Not long after Maya gets the bad news about Ryan being dead, Maya is interviewed in her hospital bed by Sheriff Rotter (played by Richard Brake) and Deputy Tommy Walters (played by Pedro Leandro), who can only get a vague description from Maya about the killers and the killers’ truck. And quicker than you can say “awful horror movie,” Maya finds herself beng targeted by the masked killers again in the hospital, where all the lighting suddenly turns red.

During this ludicrous chase scene, the hospital staff is nowhere to be found, except for an unlucky orderly (played by Vincent Zaninovich) who walks into the hospital’s morgue at the wrong time. Maya is in the morgue and sees what happens to this orderly. She also ends up hiding in the same storage unit in the morgue where (surprise!) Ryan’s body is being stored. Her reaction isn’t to scream or jump in fright but to caress Ryan’s face and reminisce about the good times they had together.

Maya has multiple chances to be in a safe place and to get help, but she keeps running into the woods, where she knows the serial killers are lurking. Four housemates named Jasmine (played by Ella Bruccoleri), Chris (played by Florian Clare), Gregory (played by Gabriel Basso) and Wayne (played by Milo Callaghan) give a car ride to Maya, who flags them down on a rainy night after she runs away from the hospital. The roommates offer Maya a place to stay at their house, after Maya tells them that she escaped from killers chasing her in the woods. But before they go to the house, Maya jumps out of the car and runs back into the woods.

The movie’s flimsy excuse for Maya’s irrational actions is that she’s paranoid and feels that she can’t trust anyone. That only makes sense up until a certain point. It doesn’t make sense when Maya gets in the roommates’ car and doesn’t ask to be driven to the nearest place where she can emergency transportation out of Venus. Maya left her phone behind at the hospital, but she could’ve borrowed a phone to ask someone in her life to buy her a train ticket or plane ticket.

Maya also doesn’t think about going to the sheriff’s office when she gets a car ride because that would be too logical for an idiotic movie like “The Strangers: Chapter 2.” Maya has been told that the sheriff’s office hasn’t been able to solve the murder spree in the area, including other murders that happened before Maya and Ryan arrived. However, that shouldn’t have prevented her from seeking shelter and protection at a law enforcement station that should be open 24 hours a day.

Doesn’t Maya have any family or friends who can help her? The movie shows that while Maya was in the hospital before the seral killers arrived, she got a video message from her sister Debbie (played by Rachel Shenton) saying that Debbie and someone named Howard (presumably Debbie’s husband or boyfriend) were stuck at Heathrow Airport in London, but they arranged to have a private EMT (emergency medical techician) service pick up Maya in an ambulance. Once Maya saw that the killers found her at the hospital, and Maya escaped, the last thing on her mind should be waiting around for a private ambulance. The only new things that are revealed about Maya in “The Strangers: Chapter 2” is that she has a sister, and Maya acts even more dimwitted than Maya did in “The Strangers: Chapter 1.”

“The Strangers: Chapter 2” attempts to give a backstory for two of the killers, by showing flashbacks of Pin-Up (played by Nola Wallace) and Scarecrow (played by Jake Cogman) as children. However, this backstory is poorly written and unsatisfying. It’s enough to say that Pin-Up and Scarecrow have known each other since childhood, when Pin-Up began showing homicidal tendencies. As a serial-killing adult, Pin-Up is known for knocking on people doors and asking, “Is Jasmine here?” The movie shows Jasmine as a child (played by Pippa Blaylock) and how Jasmine knew Pin-up and Scarecrow when they were all about 7 to 9 years old.

“The Strangers: Chapter 2” can’t even get small details right. During all the frantic and brutal fights that Maya has in the movie, her gold-painted fingernails continue to look perfectly manicured. And there’s a scene in the woods where dirty and disheveled Maya suddenly pulls out a needle and thread to sew up a wound. Where did that needle and thread come from while she was running for her life? Don’t expect any logical answers in a movie that has no logic and can only shovel up cinematic garbage because that’s all this terrible movie has to offer.

Lionsgate released “The Strangers: Chapter 2” in U.S. cinemas on September 26, 2025.

Review: ‘Him’ (2025), starring Marlon Wayans, Tyriq Withers, Julia Fox, Tim Heidecker and Jim Jefferies

September 18, 2025

by Carla Hay

Marlon Wayans and Tyriq Withers in “Him” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

“Him” (2025)

Directed by Justin Tipping

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. state, the horror film “Him” features a racially diverse cast of characters (African American, white and a few Latin people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: An aspiring pro football player is mentored by his longtime idol (a celebrity quarterback), but the protégé finds out there’s something sinister about this football star and the people around him. 

Culture Audience: “Him” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and horror movies with a sports angle, but “Him’s” weak narrative and tangled plot add up to a bunch of jumbled nonsense, most of which isn’t scary at all.

Maurice Greene and Tyriq Withers in “Him” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures)

Watching the atrocious horror movie “Him” is like being forced to watch someone’s wretched psychedelic fever dreams about making American professional football look demonic. This incoherent mess is embarrassing for all involved. If “Him” were a football team in a game, the team’s final score would be zero because of all of the team’s incompetent fumbles.

Directed by Justin Tipping, “Him” was written by Tipping, Skip Bronkie and Zack Akers. The movie seems to want to make a statement about people selling their souls to the devil for fame and fortune. The problem is that the story is told in a boring and witless manner. There is absolutely no suspense, but the irritation level from viewers who watch this dreck will increase as the movie lurches and stumbles to its terrible end.

“Him” begins by showing a boy named Cameron “Cam” Cade (played by Austin Pulliam), who’s about 9 or 10 years old, as he enthusiastically watches the LXVII Championship football game on TV. The real team names and logos for the National Football League (NFL) and the Super Bowl are not in the movie, presumably for legal reasons. However, “Him” depicts this story in the world of the “big leagues” of American professional football. It’s supposed to be the NFL without the movie actually saying it out loud or showing the words.

Cam is excited because his football hero Isaiah White (played by Marlon Wayans), the star quarterback for the San Antonio Saviors, is playing in the game. Cam’s father Cam Cade Sr. (played by Don Benjamin) is also cheering on Isaiah. Cam Sr. encourages Cam Jr. to admire Isaiah so much, Cam Sr. tells Cam Jr. that he expects Cam Jr. to be just like Isaiah.

The movie gets the title “Him” from a scene early in the movie where Cam Sr. and Cam Jr. are watching Isaiah on TV. Cam Sr. asks Cam Jr. who Cam Jr. wants to be like. Cam Jr. responds by looking at Isaiah on TV and shouting: “Him!”

While watching this championship game, superfan Cam Jr.’s elation turns to dismay when Isaiah gets seriously injured. However, Isaiah is able to recover. Cam Sr. comments to Cam Jr. about this injury that could’ve ended Isaiah’s career: “See that, Cam? That’s what real men do. They make sacrifices. No guts, no glory.”

“Him” then fast-forwards 14 years later. Cam Sr. is dead (the movie never says how he died), but Cam Jr. (played by Tyriq Withers) is a rising star quarterback who’s being hailed as “the next Isaiah White.” Cam is predicted to be a top pick for the upcoming Scouting Combine for the football league that shall not be named in the movie. But before that happens, one of Isaiah’s fanatical fans (played by Maurice Greene), who’s wearing in a ghoulish ram’s head as mask, attacks Cam with an axe while Cam is alone at night on a football field. This so-called fan is never caught.

Cam doesn’t die, but he has to get surgery that leaves noticeable stitches on his head. Cam is self-conscious about the injury and scar, but it doesn’t stop him from pursuing his longtime dream of being a star quarterback on a professional football team in America’s biggest football league. And that’s why Cam is extremely flattered and jumps at the chance when Isaiah personally invites Cam to train with Isaiah at Isaiah’s remote compound somewhere in a desert area. (“Him” was actually filmed in New Mexico.)

Cam has several people who also encourage Cam to go to this compound: his widowed mother Yvette (played by Indira G. Wilson), who’s also a football fanatic; his supportive girlfriend Jasmine (played by Heather Lynn Harris), who’s been his sweetheart since they were in high school; his older brother Drew (played by Geron McKinley); and Cam’s opportunistic agent Tom (played by Tim Heidecker), whose annoying personality is supposed to be the movie’s comic relief.

It should come as no surprise that Cam and his supporters expect him to be a quarterback for the San Antonio Saviors. Isaiah is still the star quarterback for the San Antonio Saviors, but he’s at an age when most professional football players retire or are very close to retiring. Isaiah’s invitation to train Cam seems to be a clear indication that Isaiah wants to groom Cam to be Isaiah’s successor.

Jasmine is a little possessive of Cam and says that she would be okay with him not playing professional football. But it’s a statement that’s hard to believe because Jasmine does things like tag along with Cam when he does interviews to make sure that the coverage mentions that Cam has a girlfriend. Jasmine already seems to be imagining her share of the fortune that she expects Cam to make as a pro football player.

“Him” repeatedly shows that Isaiah has a bizarre cult following of people who dress like they got lost on the way to an occult Halloween party. They wear masks that look like ram heads, or they wear garish clown makeup that would fit right in at an Insane Clown Posse concert. Isaiah’s most fanatical followers don’t want him to be replaced, which is an unrealistic belief because all professional football players eventually leave their leagues (voluntarily or not) and are replaced.

One fan in particular named Marjorie (played by Naomi Grossman) takes things to extreme: When Cam arrives by car at the compound, Marjorie and some other obsessed fans are standing on the side of the road that leads to the compound. Marjorie spits at the car window where Cam is and yells at him, “We don’t want you!” Marjorie is seen again later in a violent and degrading scene.

Even though “Him” is told in six chapters, it doesn’t make the movie more cohesive or interesting. Each chapter is just a series of dull, repetitive and/or nonsensical scenes. At the compound, Isaiah is hard-driving but also insecure about being an aging athlete. Does Isaiah really have an interest in helping Cam? Or is it a case of the old saying, “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer”?

As soon as Cam arrives at the compound, Isaiah tells Cam that Cam will be experiencing a “mini-boot camp” that has “radical detachment” from electronic devices. Cam’s phone gets taken away, and he’s told he can’t use any computers. However, Cam doesn’t really have a “radical detachment” from electronic devices because during his time at the compound, Cam uses other phones to call his loved ones. It’s one of many inconsistencies in the movie.

Cam eventually meets some creepy people in Isaiah’s inner circle, including Isaiah’s vixenish wife Elsie (played by Julia Fox), who’s a social media influencer with a vacant stare and an evil smirk. Elsie flirts with Cam in a way where you know it will eventually lead. She does things such as show up in the compound’s gym while she’s wearing a skin-tight metallic evening gown, just so she can lean over Cam as he’s lifting weights and he can get a good look at her body.

Also in Isaiah’s entourage is Isaiah’s sports doctor Marco (played by Jim Jefferies), who does something weird when Cam is taking an ice bath: Marco injects Cam with Isaiah’s blood without Cam’s consent. Marco tells a shocked Cam as Marco walks away: “Many religions would consider his blood holy.” This movie is not subtle at all.

Isaiah and Elsie have the same publicist, whose name is Adrienne (played by Tierra Whack), a vapid sycophant who doesn’t do much in the movie but tag along with Elsie. Other supporting characters are Isaiah’s trainer Malek (also played by Greene) and Cam’s close friend Murph (played by Akeem “Guapdad 4000” Hayes), who is also star-struck by Isaiah.

“Him” can’t even be clever when it comes to the movie’s cliché scenarios. There are scenes of Cam going through brutal athletic training, with Isaiah shouting at him like a tough coach. There are multiple scenes of Cam injecting steroids, as he feels pressure to be a better athlete than Isaiah. There’s the inevitable scene of Cam partying in a nightclub, as he’s surrounded by female strippers and other women who are ready to seduce him. And there are many scenes of Cam having nightmares and hallucinations, which are jump scares that go nowhere.

Oscar-winning “Get Out” screenwriter Jordan Peele is one of the producers of “Him.” Peele’s name is being prominently used in the marketing for “Him,” which is more proof that slapping Peele’s name on a project won’t guarantee that the project will be any good. Peele was once hyped as the next great horror filmmaker, but he hasn’t made a horror movie yet that is as Oscar-worthy as 2017’s “Get Out,” which was Peele’s feature-film directorial debut. Somewhere, M. Night Shyamalan is nodding in agreement.

Although there is some effort from Withers to make his Cam character more complex than Cam really is, the rest of the cast members in “Him” just coast by on the superficiality of how their characters were written. “Him” tries to make a grand statement about how wealthy owners of American football teams buy and sell athletes like prize horses, and the athletes are complicit in how they are dehumanized in these transactional deals. But this dreadful dud of a movie can’t even get that messaging right when it’s thrown in toward the end, where a final showdown is more “bloody bore” than “terrifying gore.”

Universal Pictures will release “Him” in U.S. cinemas on September 19, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on October 7, 2025. “Him” will be released on 4K UHD and Blu-ray on November 11, 2025.

Review: ‘The Conjuring: Last Rites,’ starring Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Mia Tomlinson and Ben Hardy

September 12, 2025

by Carla Hay

Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga in “The Conjuring: Last Rites” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“The Conjuring: Last Rites”

Directed by Michael Chaves

Culture Representation: Taking place in Pennsylvania and in Connecticut, in 1964 and in 1986, the horror film “The Conjuring: Last Rites” (loosely based on true events) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Paranormal investigator spouses Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren and their daughter Judy Warren get involved in a case of a haunted mirror that is a conduit for an evil spirit. 

Culture Audience: “The Conjuring: Last Rites” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, “The Conjuring” franchise, and formulaic horror movies that bungle key aspects of the storytelling.

Kila Lord Cassidy in “The Conjuring: Last Rites” (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures)

“The Conjuring: Last Rites” is a jumbled horror movie that has too many plot holes and too many over-used clichés. This bland story (about a haunted mirror and demon possession) is a mix of dull family scenes and unimaginative terror scenes. Although “The Conjuring” movies are loosely based on the real case files of Connecticut-based paranormal investigator spouses Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren, everything in “The Conjuring: Last Rites” not only looks fictional but it also looks like sloppily made fiction.

Directed by Michael Chaves, “The Conjuring: Last Rites” was written by Ian Goldberg, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick and Richard Naing. “The Conjuring: Last Rites” is the fourth movie in “The Conjuring” movie series that began with 2013’s “The Conjuring” and continued with 2016’s “The Conjuring 2” and 2021’s “The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.” Ed Warren (played by Patrick Wilson) and Lorraine Warren (played by Vera Farmiga) are the main characters in all four of these movies.

In real life, Ed Warren died in 2006, at the age of 80. Lorraine Warren died in 2019, at the age of 92. The Warrens were controversial among skeptics, but the couple also had a large fan base of believers. As depicted in “The Conjuring” movies, the Warrens kept many artifacts that they believed are cursed. These items were locked up in a room in their house in Monroe, Connecticut, and were eventually put on display in the Warren Occult Museum, which has been permanently closed since 2019.

“The Conjuring: Last Rites” begins in 1964, when young spouses Ed (played by Orion Smith) and Lorraine (played by Madison Lawlor) have arrived at a house in an unnamed U.S. city. Ed and Lorraine are at the house to interview a woman named Victoria Grainger (played by Paula Lindblom), who says that her father was found hanging from a noose in his shop. Victoria is convinced that her father was murdered by something evil that lives their house.

Lorraine is about eight or nine months pregnant during this investigation. She goes upstairs and sees a tall mirror with goblin-like creatures carved at the top of the frame. Lorraine says to the mirror, “My name is Lorraine Warren, and I can feel your spirit.” And when a pregnant woman is in a demon possession horror movie, you know what that means.

As soon Lorraine announces herself and says she can feel the spirit in the room, the mirror cracks, and she clutches her abdomen in pain. Lorraine goes into labor. Ed frantically drives Lorraine to a hospital, where Lorraine gives birth to a girl who appears to be stillborn.

Lorraine and Ed are emotionally devastated, as Lorraine holds the baby and prays out loud intensely by repeating: “Please bring her back.” Within a few moments, the baby starts breathing again. Lorraine and Ed think it’s a miracle. They name their baby Judy.

“The Conjuring: Last Rites” then fast-forwards to 1986. In the city of West Pittson, Pennsylvania, the Smurl family is celebrating the Catholic Church confirmation of daughter Heather Smurl (played by Kila Lord Cassidy), who’s about 15 or 16 years old. After the confirmation ceremony, the family heads back to the family home for a celebration dinner.

The other members of the Smurl family who are at this dinner are Heather’s parents Jack Smurl (played by Elliot Cowan) and Janet Smurl (played by Rebecca Calder); Heather’s sister Dawn Smurl (played by Beau Gadson), who’s about 13 or 14; Heather’s fraternal twin sisters Carin Smurl (played by Tilly Walker) and Shannon Smurl (played by Molly Cartwright), who are about 9 or 10 years old; and two of Heather’s grandparents (played by Peter Wight and Kate Fahy). who do not have names in the movie.

The grandparents have given Heather a gift that the grandparents said they found at a swap meet. It’s a tall mirror that has goblin-like creatures carved at the top of the frame. The mirror is also cracked. The family dog immediately starts barking at the mirror. And you know what that means.

What isn’t as easy to explain is why anyone would give a child such a creepy-looking and damaged mirror as a gift. Don’t expect this movie to explain why. It’s one of the many lapses in logic in “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” which retreads the horror movie stereotype of a demon that targets teenage girls or young women.

Not long after the mirror is in the Smurl home, strange things start to happen. A ceiling falls partially down on Heather and injures her. Carin and Shannon have a crawling baby doll that seems to be able to move from room to room by itself.

Heather and Dawn eventually believe that the mirror is cursed. And so, they both take the mirror to be thrown out with the rest of the family’s garbage. A garbage truck is shown taking the mirror and the other garbage away. Inside the garbage truck, the mirror is shown being crushed by a garbage compactor. Remember that when the mirror is seen again uncrushed in a crucial part of the story.

Even though the mirror is out of the Smurl house, strange things still happen to the Smurl family, such as Dawn vomiting blood in the kitchen sink and finding shards of glass in her mouth. The Smurl parents eventually go to the media with their story, but they experience ridicule from many people in the community. The Smurls eventually enlist the help of a Catholic priest named Father Gordon (played by Steve Coulter), who knows Ed and Lorraine. The character of Father Gordon was also in the previous three “Conjuring” movies.

After the haunting in the Smurl family home begins, the movie shows a caption announcing that the Smurl family case is the last case the Warrens investigated because the case devastated the Warrens. But it takes an awfully long time in the movie before the Warrens go to the Smurl house to investigate. The Warrens and the Smurls don’t actually meet each other until the movie is more than halfway over.

An overly long stretch of “The Conjuring: Last Rites” is about drama in the Warren family in the family’s home city of Monroe, Connecticut. Judy (played by Mia Tomlinson), who is now 22, has fallen in love with a former police officer named Tony Spera (played by Ben Hardy), who is currently unemployed. Tony loves Judy too, but he knows his unemployment status doesn’t make him an ideal boyfriend.

When Judy introduces Tony to her parents at a Warren family barbecue party, Ed predictably doesn’t approve of Tony, who tries hard to get Ed to like him. Lorraine is more understanding and more accepting of Tony. Ed and Lorraine are semi-retired from paranormal investigating and have been giving speaking appearances at places like college campuses, where they have poorly attended lectures. Most of the people who show up are skeptics or seem bored.

A scene from Judy’s childhood shows that Lorraine found out that Judy has psychic abilities that are similar to Lorraine’s. And you know what that means: adult Judy wants to become a paranormal investigator too, but her parents are very reluctant to have her join the family business. Judy hears about the Smurls and decides to go to West Pittson to investigate on her own. You can easily figure out what happens during the rest of the film.

Throughout “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” certain people have nightmares or visions of a decrepit elderly woman and a man in overalls with a bloody axe. The movie explains who these people are in a rushed and disjointed way. The same goes for the revelations about the demon and what the demon wants.

The movie’s biggest plot hole has to do with the mirror. After the mirror was hauled away and crushed in the garbage truck, the mirror ends up in the attic of the Smurl house in the same condition it was in before the mirror was hauled away and crushed in the garbage truck. The movie gives an idiotic reason for why the mirror has reverted back to its original form and has somehow magically transported itself back into the Smurl house without anyone noticing until the inevitable showdown scene. Ed makes a nonsense comment by saying that evil has a way of doing unexplainable things, and that’s why the mirror found its way back to the Smurl house.

The jump scares in “The Conjuring: Last Rites” have all been seen and done before in other horror films. And there’s a lot of inconsistency in the plot and in the action scenes. For example, during the movie’s big showdown scene, someone gets a serious leg injury where skin is ripped apart and there’s a lot of blood. And yet, by the end of this scene, this person is standing up and moving as if the injury doesn’t exist.

Of all the cast members in “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” Farmiga makes the most effort to be convincing in her role. The other performances in the movie are adequate. Several characters from previous “Conjuring” movies make cameo appearances in “The Conjuring: Last Rites,” including police officer Brad Hamilton, played John Brotherton.

Benjamin Wallfisch’s haunting music score is very effective and is one of the highlights of this otherwise lackluster horror movie. However, the best performances and score music in the world still wouldn’t be able to overcome the movie’s poorly constructed plot that falls short of being truly innovative or terrifying. The movie’s visual effects are fairly standard for a major-studio horror movie.

“The Conjuring” franchise is set to include a spinoff TV series (debuting on HBO Max sometime in 2026), and it remains to be seen what direction the franchise will take with this TV series. Anyone who knows anything about blockbuster horror movie franchises should not believe the hype that “The Conjuring: Last Rites” is the last “Conjuring” movie. But when it comes to creativity, unless “The Conjuring” franchise can redeem itself with a better movie, a more accurate title for “The Conjuring: Last Rites” is “The Conjuring: Last Legs.”

Warner Bros. Pictures released “The Conjuring: Last Rites” in U.S. cinemas on September 5, 2025.

Review: ‘Hell House LLC: Lineage,’ starring Elizabeth Vermilyea, Searra Sawka and Mike Sutton

August 23, 2025

by Carla Hay

Joe Bandelli in “Hell House LLC: Lineage” (Photo courtesy of Terror Films Releasing/Iconic Events/Shudder)

“Hell House LLC: Lineage”

Directed by Stephen Cognetti

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2025, mostly in the fictional town of Abaddon, New York (with flashbacks to 1989 and 1993), the horror film “Hell House LLC: Lineage” (the fifth movie in the “Hell House LLC” series) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asian people and African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: The owner of bar is haunted by murders that have a common connection, a journalist is investigating the murders and wants to do an exorcism of a haunted hotel, and a killer clown is on the loose.  

Culture Audience: “Hell House LLC: Lineage” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Hell House LLC” movies, but this dreadfully dull sequel is a letdown on all levels.

Elizabeth Vermilyea in “Hell House LLC: Lineage” (Photo courtesy of Terror Films Releasing/Iconic Events/Shudder)

“Hell House LLC: Lineage” should be called “Hell House LLC: Garbage.” This lethargic sequel wallows in the muck of bad acting, a disjointed plot that copies ideas from the “Final Destination” franchise, and scenes that are a snoozefest instead of a scarefest. “Hell House LLC: Lineage” abandons the “found footage”/faux documentary format of the previous “Hell House LLC” movies to make the movie a real-time investigative murder mystery, but this change in format does not improve the quality of the “Hell House LLC” franchise.

“Hell House LLC: Lineage” was written and directed by Stephen Cognetti, the writer/director of all the previous “Hell House LLC” movies, which began with 2015’s “Hell House LLC.” “Hell House LLC: Lineage” is the fifth movie in the series. Is it necessary or helpful to watch the previous “Hell House LLC” movies before seeing “Hell House LLC: Lineage”? No. “Hell House LLC: Lineage” is so boring and muddled, there’s almost nothing in the story that would spark interest in watching or re-watching the previous “Hell House LLC” movies to better understand what happens in “Hell House LLC: Lineage.”

“Hell House LLC: Lineage” takes place mostly in the fictional town of Abbaddon, New York, whose Abbaddon Hotel is haunted. (“Hell House LLC: Lineage” was actually filmed in Pennsylvania.) Abbaddon and its surrounding communities have been plagued by a series of murders committed by a non-verbal killer clown, which is called the Hell House Clown in the franchise’s end credits. Joe Bandelli, the producer of the Hell House LLC” movies, has played the role of the Hell House Clown in this franchise.

“Hell House LLC: Lineage” begins with a flashback scene taking place in June 1989, at the Carmichael Manor in Rockland County, New York, which is adjacent to Abbaddon. Members of the wealthy Carmichael family (who first appeared in 2023’s “Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor”) are mourning the death of a young woman named Margaret Carmichael (played by Victoria Andrunik), who was killed in a car accident. It’s the day of Margaret’s funeral.

Margaret’s surviving siblings Patrick Carmichael (played by Gideon Berger) and Catherine Carmichael (played by Cayla Berejikian) are in a room together. They both look devastated. Catherine tells Patrick, “Mom wants you to say the prayer at the cemetery … If you need to to do it, I will.”

Patrick says he’s not going to say goodbye. He adds, “They’re all going to be punished.” Catherine replies, “Pat, you have to let it go.” He then gives an evil smirk and says, “Never.” This scene gives context to the events of “Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor.” However, it’s not necessary to see “Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor” because “Hell House LLC: Lineage” explains the circumstances of Margaret’s death and why Patrick wanted revenge.

“Hell House LLC: Lineage” then jumps to 1993, at the Rockland County Fair. A man named Troy Hopewell (played by Kenneth Andrew) is seen alone at night on the fairgrounds. What is her doing there by himself? Don’t expect an explanation because this scene is just a setup for the movie’s first murder. Troy sees the Hell House Clown and gets trapped in a room with the clown. You know what happens next.

“Hell House LLC: Lineage” then segues to 2025. Vanessa Shepherd (played by Elizabeth Vermilyea) is the 37-year-old owner/manager of a bar named Auerbach’s Cellar, which is located in Abbaddon. She’s seen in a one-on-one therapy session because she’s been having nightmares and not getting enough sleep. Vanessa says she’s having trouble distinguishing between dreams and reality.

Vanessa’s therapist Dr. Farrell (played by Felicia Curry) is convinced that Vanessa has post-traumatic stress disorder because the town of Abbaddon has gone through “collective trauma” because of all the murders that have happened over the years in the Abbaddon area. Vanessa doesn’t seem to be listening and thinks there must be another reason why she’s having these nightmares, which include visions of Margaret Carmichael telling Vanessa that Vanessa is going to die. Vanessa later finds out that a young man named Max (played by Nicholas Stoesser), who works for Vanessa as a bartender, is also having the same problems of having nightmares and insomnia.

Vanessa, who is separated from her husband, is living with a roommate named Crystal (played by Emily Fan), who is in her mid-to-late 20s. Crystal doesn’t have much purpose in the story, except to be the character in the movie who is sympathetic to the unraveling protagonist but also skeptical when protagonist becomes more paranoid. “Hell House LLC: Lineage” has the over-used horror movie cliché of a woman who thinks evil spirits are targeting her, but she is not believed.

The killings don’t stop, of course. One of the people who gets butchered by the Hell House Clown is Bobby Hopewell (played by Bo Bogle), who has one of the stupidest-looking deaths in the movie. If Bobby’s last name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the son of Troy Hopewell, the first person whose murder is shown in the movie. Troy’s body was never found, so Troy is still considered a missing person.

Bobby, who is a bachelor who lives alone, is in his house at the top of a staircase when he sees the clown at the bottom of the staircase. Bobby slowly walks down the stairs, as he and the clown have a staredown at each other. Bobby then turns his back to the clown, which makes it easy for the clown to stab Bobby to death.

Bobby was a patient of Dr. Farrell too. And not long before Bobby was murdered, he had called Vanessa to tell her about all the nightmares and hallucinations he’d been having. Vanessa barely knew Bobby, so this phone conversation was the extent of their contact with each other.

Alicia Cavalini (played by Searra Sawka) is a journalist who arrives in Abbaddon to investigate the Abaddon Hotel deaths and the details of what happened to the Carmichael Family. Alicia doesn’t think it’s a conicidence that people from the certain families have been murdered or gone missing in Abbaddon. She has a theory that there is a curse on thee families, with the Abbaddon Hotel somehow involved.

Alicia meets up with Vanessa to see if Vanessa can help her with more information. Vanessa tells Alicia that she doesn’t have any surviving family members. Vanessa says she had a twin brother, who died when they were children. (As soon as Vanessa tells this information, you know where this movie is going to go.)

Alicia decides that the abandoned Abbaddon Hotel needs an exorcism. And so, she enlists the help of a Catholic priest named Father David (played by Mike Sutton), who is one of the dullest and least-interesting exorcism priests you could ever see. “Hell House LLC: Lineage” has a lot of scenes of nightmares, but the cast members’ performances are so sluggish and bland, it seems like almost everyone in the movie is sleepwalkng.

Don’t believe the reports that “Hell House LLC: Lineage” is the last film in the “Hell House LLC” franchise. The movie ends on a cliffhanger, which makes it obvious that this franchise has plans to continue. The “Hell House LLC” movies aren’t that great to begin with, but “Hell House LLC: Lineage” is an unwelcome stain on this franchise’s legacy.

Terror Films Releasing/Iconic Events/Shudder released “Hell House LLC: Lineage” in U.S. cinemas on August 20, 2025.

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