Culture Representation: Taking place in outer space, the sci-fi horror film “Ash” features a racially diverse group of people (white, African American, Latin and Asian) portraying astronauts.
Culture Clash: Two astronauts from the same spaceship crew try to find out what happened when one of the astronauts wakes up to find out that most of the crew members have been murdered.
Culture Audience: “Ash” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and sci-fi horror movies that take place in outer space.
Kate Elliott and Beulah Koale in “Ash” (Photo courtesy of RLJE Films)
“Ash” is obviously influenced by the “Alien” movie franchise. This sci-fi horror flick (about two astronauts trying to solve the mystery of a massacre on their spaceship) has some pacing that’s too slow, but this low-budget film is watchable overall. The acting is sufficient, and the movie makes up for its dull parts in the last third of the film, which has the most action.
Directed by Flying Lotus and written by Jonni Remmler, “Ash” has its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Flying Lotus also composed the impressive music score fo the movie. “Ash” begins by showing an astronaut named Riya (played by Eiza González) waking up on a spaceship in outer space and finding out that everyone she knew on the spaceship has been butally murdered, except for an astronaut named Catherine Clarke (played by Kate Elliott), who is missing.
Riya walks around by herself in a daze, inside and outside the ship. She is soon joined by another astronaut namd Brion Carlisle (played by Aaron Paul), who suddenly appears on the ship and tells her that he was part of the spaceship crew too. Riyah doesn’t remember Brion and wonders if he’s lying. He insists that he’s telling the truth.
Together, Riyah and Brion try to find out who or what killed these other astronauts, whose names are Adhi (played by Iko Uwais), Kevin (played by Beulah Koale) and Shawn Davis (played by Flying Lotus), who was captain of the spaceship. Several flashback scenes show what happened leading to up the murders. These astronauts, who had good camaraderie with each other, have been living on an isolated planet with many craters and where breathable air has become scarce. Brion and Riyah speculate that maybe Clarke breathed toxic air and possibly had psychotic break from reality.
The astronauts were on a mission to find a way to get more breathable air. Riyah and Brion are both very strong-willed and opinionated. It leads to inevitable conflicts when they have different ideas on how to solve immediate problems. The acting performances in “Ash” aren’t anything special, but they aren’t completely terrible either.
The spaceship has a non-verbal robot with artificial intelligence called the Mobile Diagnostic Surgery (M.D.S.) Bot, which can quickly diagnosis a medical problem and do surgery if necessary. Riyah constantly uses a medical patch on her neck to treat a fever that she says she has. The M.D.S. Bot performs a diagnosis on Riyah and determines that she has swelling in the brain. Her feverish memory could be the result of this brain swelling or could be the result of something else.
Much of “Ash” consists of Riyah and Brion clashing because they have a hard time trusting each other. At times, Riyah and Brion suspect each other of being the spaceship’s mass murderer. Riyah mainly thinks Clarke is the prime suspect and believes the best plan is to try to find Clarke to get answers on why this massacre happened. Brion disagrees and says it’s better to get off the planet because they’re running out of breathable air.
Because “Ash” has a limited number of locations in the story, some viewers might grow tired of seeing the same places over and over in the movie. However, the movie’s intention is to show how the ship and this desolate planet are very confining to the inhabitants. The mystery of who caused the massacre is fairly easy to solve after a while, and the buildup requires patience. However, there are some striking visuals in “Ash,” which ends in a predictable but satisfying way.
RLJE Entertainment released “Ash” in U.S. cinemas on March 21, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the horror film “Hell of a Summer” features a predominantly white group of people (with one African American and one Indigenous person) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Counselors at a summer camp experience a deadly rampage by masked serial killer.
Culture Audience: “Hell of a Summer” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching slasher films that rip off all of their ideas from better slasher films.
Cast members of “Hell of a Summer.” Pictured in front row: Billy Bryk, Finn Wolfhard and Krista Nazaire. Pictured in back row: Abby Quinn, Julia Lalonde and Fred Hechinger. (Photo courtesy of Neon)
The derivative and dull horror movie “Hell of a Summer” wants be like 1996’s original “Scream” movie and 1980’s summer-camp horror flick “Friday the 13th.” “Hell of a Summer” is woefully inferior to both films and has comedy and scares that are unimpressive. “Hell of a Summer” has a talented cast but ultimately falls short of being an entertaining horror movie because of the weak screenplay that doesn’t have enough originality or wit.
Written and directed by Billy Bryk and Finn Wolfhard, “Hell of a Summer” is their feature-film directorial debut. Bryk and Wolfhard, who are better known as actors, also co-star in “Hell of a Summer,” which had its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival. “Hell of a Summer” takes place in an unnamed U.S. city, but the movie was actually filmed in the Canadian province of Ontario.
It would be an understatement to say that “Hell of a Summer” is riddled with horror movie clichés. All of the movie’s plot aspects have been copied from other movies. The location (a remote area in the woods) and many of the characters are also just lazy collections of stereotypes.
“Hell of Summer” borrows so heavily from “Scream” (masked killer slays young people who talk in self-referencing quips, with a surprise reveal toward the end) and “Friday the 13th” (masked killer slays counselors at an isolated summer camp), it’s like a mashup of both movies but very watered down, without anything to make any ideas in “Hell of a Summer” truly creative and unique. It’s like if someone tried to mix chocolate syrup and milk together and sold it as chocolate milk, but it ends up tasting like stale water.
“Hell of a Summer” is a checklist of body counts until it’s revealed who’s responsible for the murderous mayhem. What makes the original “Scream” a classic horror film is that the characters were memorable, and much of the dialogue was genuinely entertaining. “Friday the 13th” was not a great horror movie, but it had a great villain, which is the reason why “Friday the 13th” (just like “Scream”) became a long-running successful horror franchise. “Hell of a Summer” doesn’t go beyond having hollow characters and a lot of boring dialogue.
“Hell of a Summer” begins by showing the murders of John (played by Adam Pally) and Kathy (played by Rosebud Baker), the spouses who own Camp Pineway, which is getting ready to host its annual summer camp. John and Kathy are sitting around a campfire. Kathy asks John to perform the song “Pineway,” which he sings while playing an acoustic guitar
Kathy temporarily leaves the campfire area to get some beer nearby. She comes back to the campfire to find John impaled with the guitar neck. A terrified Kathy runs away to her car, but a killer wearing a devil’s mask is hiding in the back seat and murders Kathy from behind with a knife.
And so begins the body counts in “Hell of a Summer,” which assembles a group of mostly annoying people in their 20s to be the next potential victims. All of these other characters are the camp counselors. They have arrived early for orientation sessions before the summer camp attendees are expected to be there.
The movie’s protagonist is a cheerful dork named Jason Hochberg (played by Fred Hechinger), a 24-year-old who has been a Camp Pineway counselor for the past six years. Near the beginning of the film, after Kathy and John have been murdered, Jason is shown getting a car ride to the camp, with his mother Maggie Hochberg (played by Susan Coyne) driving the car. Maggie wants Jason to become a lawyer, and she expresses disappointment that Jason has chosen to spend his summer being a Camp Pineway counselor again instead of doing an internship that he rejected.
Maggie also disapproves of the low salary that Jason gets as a Camp Pineway counselor: “One hundred dollars a week is not employment,” she says. Jason comments to Maggie about Camp Pinaway: “I have my whole life to be a lawyer, but how many summers do I get to spend here?” Maggie replies, “A lot, apparently.” This is the type of mundane dialogue that the movie wants to pass off as comedy-worthy.
The other counselors at the camp are:
Claire (played by Abby Quinn), who is smart, sarcastic and the obvious potential love interest for Jason.
Christian, nicknamed Chris (played by Wolfhard) is a nerdy goofball.
Bobby (played by Bryk) is Chris’ easygoing best friend who might or might not be secretly in love with Chris.
Shannon (played by Krista Nazair) is a self-absorbed diva who rejects the advances of any of the men who show a romantic interest in her.
Demi (played by Pardis Saremi) is an even more self-absorbed diva, and she wants to document her camp activities on social media.
Mike (played by D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai) is a vain and arrogant self-described ladies’ man.
Ezra (played by Matthew Finlan) is a flamboyant “drama queen” who wants to stage a “political re-imagining” play of “Pinocchio” at the camp.
Ari (played by Daniel Gravelle) is an aspiring screenwriter.
Miley (played by Julia Doyle) is a generic young adult with a forgettable personality, which means she won’t last long in this slasher flick.
Noelle (played by Julia Lalonde) is a moody loner who has a fascination with mysticism and the occult.
When the counselors arrive, some are concerned that they don’t see John and Kathy. However, Jason finds a note from John and Kathy saying that John and Kathy had to temporarily leave to take care of a minor emergency. Jason doesn’t know it at the time, but that note was not written by John and Kathy.
One by one, certain people in this group of camp counselors get murdered by someone wearing a devil’s mask. After the first murdered body is discovered, the remaining counselors panic and try to leave, but they find out that they can’t use their cars, which have all been disabled. The camp counselors also find out that all of their phones were stolen, which is the least believable part of the movie, because most people in real life keep their phones nearby so that the phones are close enough to reach.
“Hell of a Summer” tries to pad out its very thin and flimsy plot with tedious storylines about potential hookups and unrequited crushes. Jason has a crush on Demi. Ari and Chris have a crush on Shannon. Claire has an obvious crush on Jason, even though she says she has a boyfriend. And then the inevitable happens when the people in the group start to suspect each other of being the killer. One person in particular is repeatedly accused of being the prime suspect.
All of the technical aspects of “Hell of a Summer” (directing editing, cinematography, etc.) are very mediocre. And although the cast members, particularly Hechinger, try to do their best to convince viewers that “Hell of a Summer” is a clever horror comedy, they can’t overcome the inane dialogue and unrealistic scenarios that pollute this dreadful dud. “Hell of a Summer” has a few quirky moments, but this horror comedy ripoff is more likely to elicit yawns instead of laughs.
Neon will release “Hell of a Summer” in U.S. cinemas on April 4, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on April 22, 2025. “Hell of a Summer” will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD on July 8, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place on the Staten Island Ferry in New York City, the horror film “Screamboat” (inspired by the animated film “Steamboat Willie) features a predominantly white group of people (with a few African Americans, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A killer 2-foot-tall mouse named Screamboat Willie goes on a deadly rampage on the Staten Island Ferry.
Culture Audience: “Screamboat” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of campy slasher films and horror movies that are parodies of other films.
Jesse Posey and Amy Schumacher in “Screamboat” (Photo courtesy of Iconic Events Releasing)
“Screamboat” is a predictable but entertaining horror comedy that’s a slasher film parody of Disney’s 1928 animated film “Steamboat Willie.” The cast members give performances with knowing cheekiness, which makes it easier to watch. The visual effects for this low-budget movie are hit and miss.
The movie has a questionable filmmaker decision to make Screamboat Willie, the serial killer mouse who’s at the center of the story, only about 2 feet tall. However, he has extraordinary strength, which explains why he is able to kill so many people. Screamboat Willie is played by David Howard Thornton, who is also known for playing serial killer Art the Clown in the “Terrifier” horror movie series. Screamboat Willie and Art the Clown are both non-verbal, with personalities that can be described as being both ferocious and mischievous.
Directed by Steven LaMorte (who co-wrote the “Screamboat” screenplay with Matthew Garcia-Dunn), “Screamboat” takes place during the course of one night on New York City’s Staten Island Ferry, where the massacre happens. The movie pokes fun more at horror stereotypes than at “Steamboat Willie,” which was the first animated film to star Mickey Mouse, who played the mischievous title character. Minnie Mouse, who also makes an appearance in “Steamboat Willie,” is the inspiration for a plot development in “Screamboat.”
“Screamboat” introduces numerous characters who might or might not be alive by the end of the movie. The character who gets the most screen time is Selena (played by Allison Pittel), an aspiring fashion designer who has moved to New York City from Minnesota. Selena is on this nighttime boat ferry trip because she’s a reluctant guest of a birthday party for Cindi (played by Kailey Hyman), a “queen bee” type who likes to be the center of attention.
Cindi is a variation of the name Cinderella. The other women in the party also have variations of Disney princess names. Ilsa Arindel (played by Sarah Kopkin) is supposed to be like Elsa from “Frozen.” Ariana (played by Savannah Whitten) is a parody of Ariel from “The Little Mermaid.” Bella (played by Stephanie Bates) is a version of Belle from “Beauty and the Beast.” Jazzy (played by Poonam Basu) is a satire of Jasmine from “Aladdin.”
Selena wants to distance herself from the five other young women in the party because the other women are drunken cacklers and screechers who look and act like they watch too many reality shows about dating where people get drunk and make fools out of themselves. Selena is a “nice girl” who doesn’t partake in their intoxicated obnoxiousness. Selena is so studious about her fashion designer plans, she has brought a fashion sketchbook with her on this trip.
Before she boards the ferry, Selena asks a ferry employee named Pete (played by Jesse Posey) to help her ditch her party friends by telling Pete to point the party women in the wrong direction if they ask where Selena is. Pete willingly obliges. Quicker than you can say “horror movie romance,” you can tell that Selena and Pete are attracted to each other and will probably act on that attraction later. Pete’s older brother Mike (played by Tyler Posey, Jesse Posey’s real-life older brother) is the boat’s radio operator.
Other people on the boat include the blowhard Captain Clark (played by Brian Scolaro); a know-it-all emergency medical technician (EMT) named Amber (played by Amy Schumacher); various police officers and boat employees; and a doting mother named Aubrey (played by Allyson Sereboff) and her son Matteo (played by Rumi C. Jean-Louis), who’s about 11 or 12 years old. The comedic elements of “Screamboat” are what save the movie from being a formulaic bore. The cast members maintain a tricky balance of making their terror believable while also conveying that they’re in on the joke that “Screamboat” is a campy movie.
A running joke in the movie is that various people, through choice or circumstance, have to be the captain of the ship and sometime argue about it. “Screamboat” gives a nod to Mickey Mouse’s whistling in “Steamboat Willie” by having Screamboat Willie whistle “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” when Screamboat Willie is about to attack a victim. “Screamboat” spoofs a horror cliché—someone who reports seeing something strange but is not believed—when Selena sees Willie in action but hardly anyone believes what she saw. Selena describes Screamboat Willie as “a demonic mouse with shorts and a hat.”
The origins of Screamboat Willie are explained later in the movie. Because he’s supposed to only be only about 2 feet tall, “Screamboat” has awkward cutaway edits during the action scenes involving Screamboat Willie. These edits and visual effects don’t make the height/depth ratio look entirely consistent or convincing. However, some of the kills are gruesomely memorable, such as when a guy dressed as the Statue of Liberty has his torch prop used against him.
“Screamboat” is aiming for the same tone and audience of the “Terrifier” movie series. The kills in “Screamboat” aren’t meant to be as shocking as they are in the “Terrifier” movies, but “Screamboat” makes effective use of the concept that the victims are trapped on a vessel in a large body of water. This concept could work as a series, as long as the “Screamboat” filmmakers don’t keep using the Staten Island Ferry as the location in every “Screamboat” movie. An end-credits scene shows that “Screamboat” won’t be the last movie in the Screamboat Willie saga, which is good news for viewers looking for more monster mouse madness.
Iconic Events Releasing will release “Screamboat” in select U.S. cinemas on April 2, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional city of Dixon, Georgia, the horror film “The Woman in the Yard” features all-African American group of people representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A widow and her two underage children experience terror when a mysterious veiled woman shows up on their house’s front yard and won’t go away.
Culture Audience: “The Woman in the Yard” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of star Danielle Deadwyler and people who don’t mind watching incoherent horror movies.
Peyton Jackson, Estella Kahiha and Danielle Deadwyler in “The Woman in the Yard” (Photo by Daniel Delgado Jr./Universal Pictures)
“The Woman in the Yard” has a mysterious title character who is shrouded in a thin black veil. This ineptly made horror film is shrouded in lousy storytelling in making a thinly veiled, bungled statement about grief and tragic deaths. People might be confused by the ending of “The Woman in the Yard,” especially if they fall asleep during this very boring and muddled film.
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Sam Stefanak, “The Woman in the Yard” has a small number of people in the movie’s cast. That doesn’t mean you will feel like you know these underdeveloped characters by the end of this 88-minute movie. “The Woman in the Yard” might have been more effective as a short film with a better ending, because what’s in the final cut of “The Woman in the Yard” is too flimsy for a feature-length film.
In “The Woman in the Yard” (which takes place in the fictional city of Dixon, Georgia), all the present-day scenes happen at the farm house of a widow named Ramona (played by Danielle Deadwyler), who is the movie’s protagonist. Ramona is recovering from injuries that she sustained during a recent car accident that killed her husband David (played by Russell Hornsby in flashback scenes), who worked as a farmer. The movie has a few flashbacks that show what happened at a location that isn’t the house.
Because of this car accident, Ramona has to use crutches, and her right leg is in a brace. She also has recurring dreams and visions of David. Ramona is isolated at the house with the two kids that she had with David: Taylor (played by Peyton Jackson) is her rebellious 14-year-old son. Annie (played by Estella Kahiha) is her obedient 6-year-old daughter.
It’s implied that’s because Ramona has been so caught up in grief, she’s neglected basic household responsibilities. The house has no electricity or phone service. The family is also running out of food. The only vehicle that the family has is the car that was in the accident. The car is damaged, and Ramona cannot drive any vehicle because of her injuries. Taylor isn’t old enough to have a driver’s license.
The family has a Labradoodle named Charlie. (And you know what that means whenever there’s a family pet in a horror movie: Expect the pet to go missing.) An early scene in the movie shows Charlie vomiting because Taylor fed non-dog food to Charlie because there’s no more dog food in the house. Ramona promises Taylor that she’ll get more dog food when she can.
In one of the flashback scenes, it’s revealed that there were problems in the marriage of Ramona and David. The family had moved from an unnamed large city to a rural farm because Ramona felt that city life was too stressful for he. But now that she’s been living on a rural farm, Ramona still isn’t happy, because she had to give up her career in the city to be a farmer’s wife. On the rainy night of the car accident that killed David, the couple had an argument at the restaurant where they went for dinner.
One day, after David has died and the family is stuck in the house, the mysterious Woman in the Yard (played by Okwui Okpokwasili) suddenly appears in the front yard. She is seated on an ornate lawn chair. Taylor is the first to notice her. There’s no explanation for how she and the chair got there. Maybe she got the lawn chair at a yard sale where mysterious entities in bad horror movies get their furniture.
Ramona goes outside and asks the woman what she’s doing there. The woman asks Ramona what her name is, but Ramona will only introduce herself by saying her first name. The mysterious woman refuses to say her name, where she’s from, or how she got there. However, the woman seems to know a lot about Ramona and the family.
The Woman in the Yard also knows how to throw some shady comments. When Ramona says that her husband bought the farm house as a fixer-upper, the Woman in the Yard snarkily comments on the run-down house: “It still looks like he’s got a lot to fix.”
Ramona asks the woman to leave, but the woman refuses. Ramona nervously lies and says her husband will be home soon, but the Woman in the Yard isn’t fooled. The woman tells Ramona that she knows Ramona is lying, and David will never come back.
The woman then says a few other creepy things that are supposed to be clues to her reason for being there. The woman tells Ramona, “Your children are such darlings … ripe enough to eat.” The woman also says that Ramona already knows that Ramona called her. “Today’s the day,” the woman says ominously in a sing-song voice. Ramona then passively goes back into the house and tells her children that they shouldn’t disturb this woman in the yard.
This lazy movie then goes on a repeat loop of one of three scenarios: (1) Taylor wants to do something that Ramona says he can’t do, but Taylor does it anyway. (2) Ramona loses her temper, yells at her children, and implies that she might harm them. (3) Ramona tries to cover up information that she knows about the Woman in the Yard and disagrees with Taylor on how to handle this unwelcome stranger.
Viewers have to pay attention and remember some obscure clues that are supposed to make sense by the end of this awful film. Here’s one of the clues: Annie has been drawing and writing in a coloring book and keeps asking Ramona if she spelled certain words correctly. Annie has trouble spelling the letter “r,” which she spells backwards, like someone with dyslexia would spell this letter.
Although there’s nothing terrible about the acting performances in the movie, there’s not much to this poorly written story, which is a hodgepodge of psychological trauma and angry outbursts. A more accurate title of “The Woman in the Yard” is “The Woman in the House, Where She Constantly Scowls and Yells at Her Kids” because that’s really what this jumbled movie shows in too many scenes.
Don’t expect to feel scared when watching “The Woman in the Yard.” Just expect to be disappointed. If you’re still confused by the movie’s ending, a public-service announcement at the end of the movie should inform viewers what happened to one of the main characters. It should also ensure that this forgettable flop won’t get a sequel.
Universal Pictures released “The Woman in the Yard” in U.S. cinemas on March 28, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed U.S. city, the fantasy/horror/comedy film “Death of a Unicorn” features a predominantly white group of people (with one Latina and two Asian people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: An attorney and his college-age daughter go on a weekend business retreat at the mansion of the rich family who employs the attorney, and they all fight for their lives when unicorns appear and go on a killing spree.
Culture Audience: “Death of a Unicorn” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and people who don’t mind watching empty and repetitive horror movies.
Paul Rudd and Jenna Ortega in “Death of a Unicorn” (Photo by Balazs Goldi/A24)
“Death of a Unicorn” isn’t as scary or funny as this horror comedy thinks it is. The cast members give capable performances, but the movie sinks due to a weak script that doesn’t go beyond unicorns on a deadly rampage and tired clichés of wealthy villains. The unicorns are simply a gimmick to an over-used concept about rich and greedy people getting their come-uppance in a slasher flick.
Written and directed by Alex Scharfman, “Death of a Unicorn” is his feature-film directorial debut. Scharfman has previously been a producer of several other movies, including the horror films “Resurrection” (2022) and “House of Spoils” (2024). “Death of a Unicorn” had its world premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival.
Although “Death of a Unicorn” has a very talented cast, the movie is a collection and checklist of horror movie stereotypes. The story takes place in a remote wooded area in a unnamed U.S. city. (“Death of a Unicorn” was actually filmed in Hungary.) And every single character in the movie becomes a hollow parody at some point. It should come as no surprise how the movie uses the Final Girl horror stereotype.
The beginning of “Death of a Unicorn” shows widowed attorney Elliot (played by Paul Rudd) driving himself and his sullen college-student daughter Ridley (played by Jenna Ortega, in yet another role as a pouty young adult) on a road trip to this remote area for a weekend retreat at the mansion of the snooty and greedy Leopold family. Elliot works as a business attorney for the Leopolds, who made their fortune in a pharmaceutical business called Leopold Laboratories.
The mansion is located on the Leopold Wilderness Reserve in an expansive wooded area. Elliot tells Ridley what his agenda is for this trip: ingratiate himself into Leopolds’ inner circle so that he can be named to the Leopold corporation’s board of directors and earn enough money for Elliot and Ridley to be comfortable for the rest of their lives.
On the way to this mansion, Elliot and Ridley do some boring father/daughter squabbling, where Ridley tries to prove she’s anti-establishment by saying things such as, “Philanthropy is just reputation laundering for the oligarchy.” That’s about as “edgy” as the dialogue gets in this movie. Elliot and Ridley are both grieving over the death of Elliot’s wife/Ridley’s mother (played by Denise Delgado), but Elliot thinks Ridley should at some point not use this death as an excuse to be perpetually mopey and negative.
Elliot suddenly sneezes while driving, which causes him to temporarily take his eyes off of the road. He ends up hitting what he thinks is a deer because it’s about the size of a young deer. But when Elliot and Ridley get out of the car for a closer inspection of the injured animal on the road, they’re shocked to see that it’s not a deer. It’s a unicorn. And the unicorn’s blood is purple.
Aside from this initial shock, there’s no lengthy discussion between Elliot and Ridley about why unicorns exist. They act like it’s rare to see a unicorn but not completely bizarre. The movie apparently takes place in an alternate universe where seeing a unicorn isn’t enough to question one’s sanity.
The unicorn is injured severely enough that it looks unlikely to survive. Ridley touches the unicorn’s glowing horn and suddenly has a psychedelic-like experience where she’s in a pulsating, kaleidoscope-looking world that seems to have no time or space. Ridley gets snapped out of this trance when she sees Elliot take a tire iron and beat the unicorn for a “mercy killing” to put the animal out of its misery.
Ridley and Elliot do not leave the unicorn outside, which is what most people with common sense would do, especially since no one else saw the car accident or Elliot beating the dying animal. Instead, Ridley and Elliot put the unicorn in the back of the car and leave the animal uncovered. The movie doesn’t really show why they made this decision, but it’s implied that it was probably Elliot’s idea so he could figure out a way to cash in on the rarity of this unicorn.
There are three Leopold family members at this mansion: demanding patriarch Odell Leopold (played by Richard E. Grant), who has a terminal illness; shallow matriarch Belinda Leopold (played by Téa Leoni); and their spoiled bachelor son Shepard “Shep” Leopold (played by Will Poulter), who are all as pretentious and entitled as you think they will be in a movie that makes everyone a two-dimensional caricature. Belinda explains to Elliot and Ridley that there are very few staffers in the mansion because the Leopold family wants to keep Odell’s illness as private as possible.
The Leopold family’s sycophantic employees who are part of the story include a stern personal assistant named Shaw (played by Jessica Hynes) and a haughty British butler named Griff (played by Anthony Garrison), who has some of the best lines in a movie that doesn’t have a lot of great dialogue. Two scientists named Dr. Bhatia (played by Sunita Mani) and Dr. Song (played by Steve Park) become part of the story when they are recruited to figure out the mystery of the unicorn’s magical powers.
The unicorn’s magical powers are first discovered by Ridley in an awkwardly staged sequence. “Death of a Unicorn” is so sloppily written, Elliot tries to pretend to the Leopold family that nothing unusual happened to cause Elliot and Ridley to be tardy when they arrived at the mansion. And yet, there’s a unicorn in plain view in the back of Elliot’s car that’s parked in the driveway. The front of Eliot’s car is also noticeably damaged.
When Ridley and Elliot arrive at the mansion, Ridley has some of the unicorn’s purple blood on her face. Shepard points out to Ridley that she has something on her face. (There’s no explanation for why Elliot didn’t notice this blood first.) Ridley excuses herself to go to a bathroom to wipe off the blood. Shaw and Griff notice Ridley nervously looking out a window at the car, as Ridley as walking to the bathroom. And that’s when these two employees see what looks like a dead animal in the back of the car.
Inside the bathroom, Ridley wipes her face with a towel and notices that her acne has disappeared as soon as she touched her face with the parts of the towel that had the unicorn’s blood. That’s how she discovers that the unicorn’s blood has self-healing powers. She also deduces that when she touched the unicorn’s horn, some type of bond or connection was formed with the unicorn.
These healing powers won’t be a secret for very long. Elliot tells Ridley that he got some of the unicorn’s blood in his eyes when he bludgeoned it. Elliot soon discovers that he now has perfect vision and no longer needs to wear the eyeglasses that he was wearing when he arrived at the mansion. When he wears the eyeglasses, his vision becomes blurry. Elliot also had allergies that have now disappeared.
All the people at the mansion soon find out that the unicorn in the back of Elliot’s car is not really dead. The unicorn bursts out of the car, and all hell breaks loose. As already revealed in the synopsis for “Death of a Unicorn,” the unicorn is an infant. And its parents eventually come looking for it.
The rest of “Death of a Unicorn” clumsily tries to balance a storyline of the corrupt Leopolds trying to figure out how they can make huge amounts of money from this magical unicorn with a rushed-in storyline of the unicorn parents going on a rampage. The Leopolds become more ruthless and unhinged (including recovering drug addict Shepard going on a binge of snorting unicorn dust, like it’s cocaine) in trying to capture these unicorns, while everyone else does some version of trying to stay alive.
After a while, “Death of a Unicorn” just becomes another horror film with an unsurprising body count. The movie tries to shoehorn in a redemption arc for Elliot that just doesn’t ring true, considering Elliot aspired to be just as unscrupulous and elitist as the Leopolds. Ridley also goes through a sudden personality transformation that is not convincing, just so the movie can pander to horror stereotype that a Final Girl has to be likable and sympathetic. Even with the novelty of unicorns killing people in a horror movie, “Death of a Unicorn” doesn’t quite live up to its potential.
A24 will release “Death of a Unicorn” in U.S. cinemas on March 28, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on March 24, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, the horror film “Locked” (a remake of the Argentinian film “4 x 4”) features a predominantly white group of people (with some African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A divorced father, who’s desperate for money to fix his broken car in time to pick up his daughter from school, decides to steal a Dolus SUV (a fictional luxury vehicle) in an nearly empty parking lot, but he deliberately gets trapped inside by the SUV’s sinister owner.
Culture Audience: “Locked” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and horror movies where ridiculously illogical things happen.
Anthony Hopkins in “Locked” (Photo courtesy of The Avenue)
“Locked” is a moronic horror movie that gets worse as it goes along. In this poorly written story about a desperate man who gets tricked into being trapped in a car, viewers will feel tricked and trapped into watching this train-wreck film. “Locked” might have been better as a short film because this 95-minute movie stretches the already flimsy story to the breaking point, by making a detour that takes the story in the wrong direction.
Directed by David Yarovesky and written by Michael Arlen Ross, “Locked” takes place during a one-week period in New York City. (“Locked” was actually filmed in the Canadian province of British Columbia.) “Locked” is a remake of the 2019 Argentinian film “4 x 4,” directed by Mariano Cohn and written by Cohn and Gastón Duprat. “4 x 4” isn’t a great movie, but it’s a lot better and more believable than “Locked,” which has a clumsy mix of brutality and schmaltz toward the end of the movie.
“Locked” begins by showing a divorced father named Eddie Barrish (played by Bill Skarsgård) at a mechanic shop, where he is there to pick up his car that was in the shop for repairs. A greasy shop worker named Karl (played by Michael Eklund) tells Eddie that a car part is needed to complete these repairs, and it’s going to cost $835 for this car part. Eddie only has $300 and doesn’t have access to any more money.
It’s later revealed that Eddie is an ex-con who’s had problems finding a steady job because of his criminal record. His ex-wife Amy (who’s only heard on the phone in a voice performance by Gabrielle Walsh) thinks Eddie is a loser and a deadbeat dad to their adorable daughter Sarah Barrish (played by Ashley Cartwright), who’s about 7 or 8 years old. Eddie owes two years’ worth of child support, but he’s been trying to turn his life around and prove that he can be a responsible parent.
On this particular day, Eddie is supposed to pick Sarah up from school. And he doesn’t want to be late, like he has been in the past. (In “4 x 4,” there is no “cute kid” angle to the story.) Desperate people do desperate things, but it seems like too much of a stretch to believe that someone who already owes two years’ worth of child support would risk stealing and going back to prison, just so he can be on time to pick up his daughter at school.
As soon as you hear that’s the reason why Eddie wants to steal to get fast cash, you might immediately think, “Hasn’t Eddie heard of taking a taxi, a car service or public transportation to pick up his daughter from school?” Apparently, the filmmakers of “Locked” just don’t want viewers to think at all, because almost everything about this movie is an insult to common sense. (The thief in “4 x 4” didn’t have a motive beyond pure greed, which is actually makes more sense than the garbage storyline shoveled up in “Locked.”)
Before he leaves the mechanic shop, Eddie gets a phone call from Amy, who yells at Eddie by saying he better not be late to pick up Stephanie from school. The pressure is on for Eddie. He steals a wallet that happens to be conveniently on a table in plain view in the mechanic shop. Eddie finds only $210 in cash in the wallet, and he throws the wallet away.
Next, Eddie scours the streets for something valuable to steal. He finds a nearly empty outdoor parking lot in a run-down neighborhood. And in that parking lot is a pristine black Dolus SUV, a fictional luxury vehicle. Eddie thinks there might be something valuable to steal in this SUV. He can’t believe his “luck” when he finds out that the SUV is unlocked. But eventually, Eddie discovers that the SUV will be locked for days, with him trapped inside the vehicle.
The SUV has tinted windows and extreme soundproofing so that no one can see or hear what’s inside the vehicle. It’s all part of a sinister plan by the SUV’s owner: a Welsh-born doctor identified only as William (played by Anthony Hopkins), who communicates with Eddie first by a phone in the car, and then by making an appearance in person. William tells Eddie that the SUV was broken into six times before, without the perpetrators getting caught, so William decided to take extreme anti-theft measures. According to William, Eddie’s attempted theft was the seventh time there was a break-in for the SUV.
It’s hastily explained that William has rigged the car so that the horn can’t be honked. And because Eddie doesn’t have the keys to the car, Eddie can’t turn on the blinker lights to signal for help. Eddie has a gun with him, but he finds out the hard way that this SUV is bulletproof. The movie addresses the issues of how Eddie eats, drinks and relieves himself of bodily waste while trapped in this vehicle—except “Locked” unrealistically ignores the reality that Eddie should have bowel movements during this period of time.
The second half of “Locked” goes off the rails when William is able to operate the car remotely. And although self-driving cars exist, the silly way that this technology is portrayed in the movie is enough proof that “Locked” is just time-wasting junk. Skarsgård has plenty of scenes where he yells a lot, and Hopkins portrays yet another cold-blooded villain character, but none of the performances in the movie can be called very good or even consistently engaging. “Locked” takes viewers on a sloppy and idiotic ride that robs viewers of their time, patience and brain cells.
The Avenue released “Locked” in U.S. cinemas on March 21, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on April 22, 2025. “Locked” will be released on Blu-ray and DVD on August 26, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Mexico, in 2025, the horror film “I Heart Willie” features a predominantly Latin cast of characters (with a few white people and one black person) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Four young adults travel to a remote wooded area to investigate the legend of Mouse-Boy, who is said to be a reclusive serial killer.
Culture Audience: “I Heart Willie” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching slasher horror movies with uninteresting characters and mostly terrible acting.
Daniela Porras, Maya Luna, Sergio Rogalto and Micho Camacho in “I Heart Willie” (Photo courtesy of Rubey Entertainment)
“I Heart Willie” is a weak and tedious horror movie depicting Mickey Mouse’s “Steamboat Willie” character as a serial killer. Note to filmmakers who want to make a slasher flick based on a public domain character: Do something clever with the character’s unique life story. Don’t just put the killer in a costume and horror makeup and have the killer act like any generic serial killer in a forgettable slasher flick.
Directed by Alejandro G. Alegre and written by David Vaughn, “I Heart Willie” tells viewers almost nothing about the Willie character in the movie and just uses the Mickey Mouse imagery to get people’s interest in the movie. It’s an annoying bait and switch. “I Heart Willie” is just a substandard, formulaic slasher flick where the serial killer’s motives and personal history are never revealed, except he was reported as dying in a fire at age 16.
The serial killer in “I Heart Willie” is named Willie (played by “I Heart Willie” screenwriter Vaughn), but he’s been given the nickname Mouse-Boy. Why? Because he wears a mouse mask that’s similar to what Mickey Mouse would look like if Mickey Mouse were a twisted murderer in a bad horror movie.
“Steamboat Willie” (directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks) is a 1928 animated short film that is the first officially released movie featuring Disney’s Mickey Mouse character. Mickey Mouse is not named Willie in the movie, which gets its title because Mickey whistles “Steamboat Bill” in the film. In “Steamboat Willie,” Mickey portrays a mischievous steamboat operator, who frequently irritates the boat’s captain, whose name is Pete. Minnie Mouse is in the movie too.
What does the plot of “Steamboat Willie” have to do with “I Heart Willie”? Absolutely nothing. The movie doesn’t even take place on or near a steamboat. The murderous mayhem takes place in the most-overused idea for a horror movie location: a remote wooded area.
There are two other 2025 horror movies inspired by the “Steamboat Willie” movie: “Mouseboat Massacre,” directed by Andrea M. Catinella, is set for release by ITN Studios on March 26, 2025. ITN Studios is behind the Twisted Childhood Universe movie series, which makes serial killers out of children’s entertainment characters (such as Winnie-the-Pooh and Peter Pan) that are in the public domain. “Screamboat” (directed by Steven LaMorte and starring Allison Pittel and “Terrifier” movie series star David Howard Thornton) has a U.S. release date of April 2, 2025, through Iconic Events Releasing. “Screamboat” actually takes place on a boat, unlike “I Heart Willie,” which does nothing with the “Steamboat Willie” horror parody idea except put the killer in a tacky Mickey Mouse horror mask.
In the beginning of “I Heart Willie” (which takes place in an unnamed city in Mexico), a montage of newspaper clippings show that Mouse-Boy was trapped in a house fire at age 16. Mouse-Boy was the nickname for Willie, whose spirit is believed to still haunt the house that used to be owned by Willie’s parents. This is the house where Willie died. (“I Heart Willie” was filmed in Michoacán, Mexico.)
The first person to be killed in “I Heart Willie” is a mouse exterminator (played by Craig Morgan), who shows up at the house and is then tortured and slaughtered. Another unnamed man (played by Emiliano Nova) in the house has already been tied up and tortured and will eventually be killed by Willie. Don’t expect the movie to explain who this other murder victim is.
Meanwhile, four people in their 20s (three of them dress like they’ve stepped out of a 2005 emo fashion time warp) are traveling by car to this isolated house in the woods to look for Willie. All four of them want to see if the stories are true that Willie is alive and is murdering people who’ve disappeared close to this house. The plan is to do a video investigation, with the hope that what they record on video will go viral. This movie is so stupid, these curiosity seekers aren’t even shown making any of the videos that they planned.
These are the four dimwits who make the trek to inevitable mayhem:
Daniel (played by Sergio Rogalto) is the self-appointed leader of the group. He’s predictably cocky and arrogant.
Nora (played by Maya Luna) is Daniel’s ex-girlfriend. She’s the most introverted one in the group.
Nico (played by Micho Camacho) is the “horror nerd” of the group. He has a not-so-secret crush on Nora.
Jess (played by Daniela Porras) is the daredevil “bad girl” of the group. Predictably, she’s depicted as a horny temptress, and she wants to seduce Daniel.
One of these four people has an ulterior motive for this trip. The movie makes it too obvious who it is. During the car ride to the house, there’s exposition-dump dialogue with a jumbled explanation about why these four travelers are interested in finding out if Willie is real or a myth.
Willie, also known as Mouse-Boy, was born in 1928, the same year that “Steamboat Willie” was released. Since the story in “I Heart Willie” takes place in 2025, Willie is supposed to be 97 years old. When someone in the car points out that Willie would be 97 years old if they find him, Nora says cryptically: “Evil never dies.”
Whether or not Willie is a ghost or a living human being who has immortal superpowers, his appearance is as an adult man (usually shirtless) who is not elderly and not a teenager. Willie has burn scars and other injury scars on his body. And he’s wearing a Mickey Mouse-inspired mask.
Predictably, Willie does not speak in the movie. If he spoke, he would have to say the awful dialogue that the speaking characters utter in this dreadful film. “I Heart Willie” is just a “body count” horror flick, where each character is gruesomely murdered, except for the two most obvious characters who will live.
“I Heart Willie” is not even scary. It’s just a checklist of derivative kills seen in many other slasher flicks. Nava is the movie’s only cast member who brings some believability to her performance. All of the other cast members are stiff and unconvincing in how they deliver their lines of dialogue. The movie’s cinematography is drab, while the pacing is often slow.
“I Heart Willie” is supposed to be a parody, but the movie takes itself too seriously, considering how idiotic and unimaginative it is. Like a lot of terrible horror movies, the ending (including an end-credits scene) hints that there could be a sequel, although it’s unlikely there will be enough audience demand for an “I Heart Willie” sequel. “I Heart Willie” is more likely to have people thinking, “I Hate Bad Horror Movies.”
Rubey Entertainment released “I Heart Willie” for a limited one-night engagement in select U.S. cinemas on February 26, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in South Korea, the horror film “Dark Nuns” (a spinoff to the 2015 movie “The Priests”) features a predominantly white cast of Asian characters (with one white person) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A nun with a troubled past tries to break into the male-dominated world of exorcists and wants to save an adolescent boy who is apparently possessed by a demon.
Culture Audience: “Dark Nuns” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and generic horror movies about exorcisms.
Lee Jin-wook in “Dark Nuns” (Photo courtesy of Well Go USA)
Considering the numerous exorcism horror movies that already exist, “Dark Nuns” doesn’t do enough to stand out from the pack. The visual terror setups in the movie are better than the mostly underwhelming results. Although the performances in “Dark Nuns” are adequate, the story is muddled, clichéd and often very dull.
Directed by Kwon Hyeok-jae, “Dark Nuns” was written by Hyo-jin Oh and Kim Woo-Jin. The movie takes place in an unnamed city in South Korea and is a spinoff to the 2015 South Korean film “The Priests,” starring Kim Yoon-seok Gang Dong-won as exorcist priests. “Dark Nuns” begins by showing an exorcism scene where a boy named Choi Hee-joon (played by Moon Woo-jin), who is about 12 or 13 years old, is getting an exorcism done inside a church. He is tied to a wheelchair as he does the usual writhing around and hissing that possessed people do in exorcism movies.
Suddenly, a nun named Sister Giunia (played by Song Hye-kyo) bursts into the church and announces that she’s from the Liberation Order. She’s walking quickly as she carries a gas carton. Is she going to set something on fire with gas? No.
The gas carton is filled with holy water, which Sister Giunia pours on Hee-joon. She then says to the demon that she thinks has possessed Hee-joon: “You coward, taking a child’s body.”
Hee-joon is taken to a hospital, where he is put under the care of Father Paolo (played by Lee Jin-wook), who is a priest/psychiatrist. Father Paolo thinks that Hee-joon is probably mentally ill, and there could probably be a scientific/medical way to treat him. Hee-joon’s single mother keeps a vigilant watch over him.
Father Paolo is annoyed when he hears that Sister Giunia tried to perform an exorcism on Hee-joon. For starters, Father Paolo thinks the Liberation Order is a group of phony exorcists. He believes only ordained priests in Rosicrucianism can do exorcisms. Father Paolo also sternly lectures Sister Giunia by saying that he thinks Hee-joon could be faking his mental illness to cope with the bullying that Hee-joon gets at Hee-joon’s school.
The rest of the movie is essentially about Sister Giunia trying to prove that Hee-joon really is possessed by a demon and that she can legitimately get rid of the demon by performing an exorcism on him. Sister Giunia gets help from another nun named Sister Michaela (played by Jeon Yeo-been), who basically has a sidekick role in the story. Father Paolo might or might not change his opinions of Sister Giunia, but you can still easily predict Father Paolo’s story arc.
“Dark Nuns” has flashbacks to Sister Giunia’s troubled childhood, when she was orphaned at a young age. Her birth name was Kang Sung-ae. And ever since she was a little girl, she felt she was cursed. It didn’t help that when she was a child, she found a female friend hanging from a rope in an apparent suicide.
Sister Giunia has a contradictory personality: She’s determined about the future, very insecure about her past, and somewhat of blank void when it comes to the present. Even with all the flashbacks and nightmarish visions that she has in the movie, viewers will still feel like Sister Giunia is a big mystery
Other characters in the movie are three other exorcists: Father Andrea (played by Huh Joon-ho) is another priest. Hyo-won (played by Kim Gook-hee) is a rare female shaman. Ae-dong (played by Shin Jae-hwi), who was mentored by Hyo-won, stutters when he talks, but his stutter goes away when he is saying things as part of the exorcism rituals.
“Dark Nuns” mishandles the backstory of Sister Giunia by making it too vague. The flashbacks are very atmospheric, but they have no real substance and leave too many questions unanswered. Likewise, the demon’s origins are hurriedly rushed into the story when someone finds—horror movie cliché alert—an old book with ancient myths to indicate that the demon has been around for centuries. (Aren’t they all, in horror movies like this one?)
“Dark Nuns” has probably one of the most drawn-out and long-winded exorcism showdown scenes you’ll ever see, where there is too much time wasted on showing the preparation of the exorcism and then tedious scenes of Hee-joon talking like a demon. The makeup and visual effects are compentent, but a lot of “Dark Nuns” isn’t as scary as it could be.
One of the biggest flaws in the movie is that not enough is told about Hee-joon and how he could’ve ended up possessed by a demon. “Dark Nuns” also does not completely convince viewers that Sister Giunia truly cares about Hee-joon as a person, or if she just sees Hee-joon as a convenient opportunity to prove that she’s just as capable and worthy to be an exorcist as the men who dominate the exorcist profession.
Almost every exorcism movie has a big showdown scene, which is supposed to be the highlght of the film. In “Dark Nuns,” this showdown scene turns into a nonsensical mess. Without giving away too many details, one of the main characters does something that is supposed to be surprising and tragic, but it actually doesn’t ring true as something this character would do, considering what the rest of the movie showed about this character. “Dark Nuns” has all the visual elements of being an entertaining horror movie but it’s ultimately let down by an uninspired and clumsily constructed story.
Well Go USA released “Dark Nuns” in select U.S. cinemas on February 7, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on July 15, 2025. The movie was released in South Korea on January 24, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Vancouver, the horror comedy film “The Monkey” (based on the short story of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Identical twin brothers are haunted by a mysterious toy monkey that used to be owned by their father and causes gruesome deaths to the people who become targets of the monkey’s curse.
Culture Audience: “The Monkey” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and filmmaker Osgood Perkins, but some viewers might find the movie’s dark comedy off-putting and awkward.
Theo James in “The Monkey” (Photo courtesy of Neon)
“The Monkey” blends dark comedy with gory deaths in this horror film about a homicidal toy monkey. The movie (whose first half is better than the second half) isn’t that scary and is more about seeing the bizarre ways that people die. “The Monkey” is far from being a masterpiece, but it’s a good-enough option for people who like horror movies about deadly toys.
Written and directed by Osgood Perkins, “The Monkey” is based on Stephen King’s 1980 short story of the same name. Not much was done to expand on the short story, which is why the screenplay often seems thin and repetitive. After writing and directing the grim horror movies “Gretel & Hansel” (released in 2020) and “Longlegs” (released in 2024), Perkins makes his first horror comedy with “The Monkey.”
The results are mixed. The big showdown scene at the end of “The Monkey” drags out for too long and nearly ruins the film, because by this point in the movie, it’s obvious who will live and who will die. However, up until that point, “The Monkey” is a spectacle of creatively staged kill scenes that are meant to be absurdist.
“The Monkey” (which was filmed on location in Vancouver) begins sometime in the early 1990s, by showing an airline pilot captain named Petey Shelborn (played by Adam Scott) frantically bursting into a pawn shop and carrying a creepy-looking toy monkey that is seated with a drum. The monkey has a wind-up screw that makes the monkey play the drums when the screw is wound up. Petey, who has blood on his pilot uniform, doesn’t care about selling this item. He just wants to get rid of it.
Petey tells the unnamed pawn shop owner (played by Shafin Karim): “I need you to take this thing off my hands and make it someone else’s problem … It’s not a toy. Don’t ever call it that … You do not ever want the drumstick come down. Because if it does, we are all fucked to hell.”
The pawn shop owner takes the monkey with curiosity. And the most predictable thing happens next: The monkey still has some of its playing power left over from when the last time it was wound up. The monkey starts playing the drums.
A rat in the shop suddenly chews on a rope, and the broken rope causes the pawn shop owner to be harpooned by a spear that was in the shop. It’s an elaborate booby-trap-styled kill. Petey then uses a flamethrower to try to burn the monkey.
The movie then abruptly cuts to 1999. What happened to Petey? It’s never revealed exactly, but his wife Lois (played by Tatiana Maslany) hasn’t had contact with Petey for years. Lois has bitterly assumed that Petey has abandoned her and their identical twin sons Hal (played by Christian Convery) and Bill (also played by Convery), who are about 13 or 14 years old in 1999.
Why has Lois assumed that Petey is a deadbeat absentee dad? Because of his pilot job, Petey traveled a lot and was an unfaithful husband, according to Lois. She has assumed that Petey ran off with a mistress and started a new life somewhere else. That’s what she has been telling Hal and Bill, who have mixed feelings of resentment toward Petey but also wishing that Petey was still in their lives.
Bill was born first and is a dominant bully to sensitive and introverted Hal. An adult Hal is the narrator of the film. Most of the movie’s scenes that take place in 1999 are about Bill being cruel to Hal. But one day, Hal decides he’s going to get revenge on Bill. And he knows just how to do it.
Before Petey disappeared, he would come home from his airline travels and bring gifts for his Lois and the twins. One day, Hal and Bill are rummaging through things in their home when they discover a wind-up toy monkey that can play a drum. It’s the same monkey that Petey tried to get rid of at the pawn shop. The monkey is mute.
It isn’t long before the twins find out that if the monkey plays the drum, someone nearby will soon die a very violent death. However, as repeated in the movie, the monkey “doesn’t take requests” on who will be the next to die. Therefore, anyone who tries to use the monkey to kill someone might accidentally have someone else killed who isn’t the intended target.
That’s the main reason why watching “The Monkey” is an unpredictable ride. However, movie falls short when it comes to developing characters that viewers will actually care about besides Hal. The deaths in the movie are so freakish, “The Monkey” tends to over-rely on these deaths in substitute for an suspenseful story.
Hal and Bill have a babysitter named Annie Wilkes (played by Danica Dreyer), who takes the twins to a Benihana-type of Japanese restaurant while Lois is on a blind date. (Fans of King’s books will notice that Annie Wilkes is the same name for the villain in King’s 1987 novel “Misery,” which was later made in to an Oscar-winning 1990 movie of the same name.) The monkey is left in the car and starts playing the drums. It’s the first time that the twins see the evil power of the monkey.
Without giving away too much information, at one point in the movie, Hal and Bill have to spend time living with Lois’ brother Chip (played by Perkins) and Chip’s wife Ida (played by Sarah Levy), who don’t want really want to spend time taking care of children. Chip also tells the twins that he and Ida are swingers. You can easily predict that something bad will happen to Chip and/or Ida.
When Bill and Hall find out that they’re in possession of an evil monkey toy, they decide to do something about it. These actions will follow them into their adulthood, which is shown in the second half of the movie. This second half of “The Monkey” is a bit of a tonal mess but has fairly good performances, despite the movie going overboard with nonsensical kills.
The adult years for Bill and Hal take place in 2024. Hal (played by Theo James) is now a single father who works at as a low-paid sales clerk at a general store. Hal is an emotionally aloof loner who has a distant, almost non-existent relationship with his teenage son Petey (played by Colin O’Brien) not because of a custody arrangement but because Hal deliberately does not want to get too emotionally close to Petey. Hal, who sees his son Petey only once a year, still has a lot of unprocessed trauma from his past regarding the toy monkey and Hal’s own absentee father.
Hal’s son Petey (who is about 13 or 14 years old) was born from a fling that Hal had with Petey’s mother (played by Laura Mennell), who doesn’t have a name in the movie. Petey’s mother is married to a pompous self-help guru/author named Ted (played by Eljah Wood), who is a religious expert on fatherhood. Ted has written books titled “Jesus Dad” and “Fatherhood VII.” Hal starts to regret being mostly unavailable to Petey when Hal finds out during his annual visit with Petey that Ted is going to adopt Petey.
Hal and Bill (also played by James) are estranged and have not seen and spoken to each other in years. But in a movie like “The Monkey,” you know that there will be a reason for Hal and Bill to see each other again. Meanwhile, Hal decides to take Petey to an amusement place called Horror Heaven during a father/son excursion that will take place just a few days before Ted officially adopts Petey.
The “daddy issues” are all over this movie because there’s a flimsy subplot about an unnamed cop (played by Paul Puzzella) and his hooligan son Ricky (played by Rohan Campbell), who has been hired to find the menacing monkey. Why can’t this monkey be destroyed? There’s a rushed and not-very-believable explanation for that in the movie.
“The Monkey” walks a fine line between being wickedly laughable and being downright silly. The origins of the monkey are never explained, which is a huge letdown in the movie’s flawed screenplay. The cast members are serviceable in their roles, but the movie starts to lose its edge once the monkey is in the hands of adults, not children. The filmmakers of “The Monkey” obviously want this film to be the start of a series or franchise, but any other stories based on this one should have more reasons to care about the main characters.
Neon will release “The Monkey” in U.S. cinemas on February 21, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on February 12, 2025.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Iceland’s Westfjords region in 1870, the horror film “The Damned” features an all-white cast of characters representing the working-class.
Culture Clash: Fishing workers in a remote part of Iceland encounter strangers and a possible supernatural killer on the loose.
Culture Audience: “The Damned” will appeal mainly to people who don’t mind watching well-acted horror movies that aren’t about non-stop violent scares but are more about psychological torment.
Pictured clockwise, from left: Joe Cole, Lewis Gribben, Rory McCann, Turlough Convery, Mícheál Óg Lane, and Francis Magee in “The Damned” (Photo courtesy of Vertical)
“The Damned” is a “slow burn” psychological thriller about a widow leading a group of fishermen with a “survival of the fittest” attitude in a remote part of Iceland. It’s a horror film about the evil that can come from extreme mistrust. Some viewers might be bored by the movie’s deliberate pacing, or if they are expecting a typical slasher film. “The Damned” is more about toxic fear that can develop from being isolated.
Directed by Thordur Palsson and written by Jamie Hannigan, “The Damned” had its world premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival. The movie takes place in the winter of 1870, in a remote area in Iceland’s Westfjords region, where the movie was filmed on location. Certain viewers who might immediately be disinterested in watching this movie because of the time period and location because they might want to watch a movie taking place in modern times.
The main protagonist of “The Damned” is a young widow named Eva (played by Odessa Young), whose husband Magnus died the previous year, near the rocks at sea during a fishing expedition. Magnus was the owner of a fishing station business that employs fishermen for seasonal work and provides lodging for them during their employment. After the death of Magnus, Eva took over the business. Magnus and Eva did not have any children.
There is trouble brewing because of a decreasing supply of food. In the movie’s very first scene, Eva can be heard saying in a voiceover: “We should not be here. Magnus said it was a place of opportunity if you can enjoy the cold, the long nights, the hunger.”
As empty fish racks are shown, Eva says in the voiceover: “This time last year, all of these racks were full. Yesterday, we started eating the fish set aside for bait. The men don’t want to think of anything but the next day at sea. Perhaps, that way they can survive. But walking blindly into the dark is something I will not do.”
The fisherman are mostly roughneck types who are crude and not accustomed to a woman being their boss. Many are somewhat skeptical about Eva’s abilities to be a leader. However, whatever doubts that these fishermen have about Eva, they still know that she is their employer, so they follow her orders.
In an early scene in the movie, the fishermen are gathered at night around a table to drink alcohol and eat. The men tell Eva that Magnus had a tradition of giving the fishermen a drinking toast on a mid-winter’s night. Eva feels pressure to continue the tradition, and she gives a short and slightly awkward toast: “May the Lord protect you from hidden rocks, harmful creatures and dangerous pirates.”
The only other woman in this isolated group is middle-aged Helga (played by Siobhan Finneran), who has cooking and cleaning duties for the living quarters. Helga is very superstitious and is the person in the group who is most likely to tell folk tales and ways to ward off evil spirits. Helga has a certain flair for storytelling which can make people wonder if there’s some truth in what she’s saying.
When “The Damned” begins, about 10 fishermen are part of the crew that uses a large rowboat (owned by Eva) for their fishing duties. Daniel (played by Joe Cole) is close in age to Eva. There’s an unspoken attraction between Eva and Daniel. The movie shows whether or not Daniel and Eva act on this attraction. At one point, Eva tells Daniel: “Magnus was my family … The fishing station is all I have left.”
Many of the other fisherman are generic characters that don’t have significant speaking roles. However, some of the men are deliberately written as having noticeable personalities. Daniel is mostly a “good guy” who is genuinely respectful of Eva, unlike some of the other men, which is why Eva trusts him the most. Ragnar (played by Rory McCann) is aggressive and highly suspicious of people whom he considers to be “outsiders.”
Aron (played by Mícheál Óg Lane) is mostly mild-mannered and seems to have learning development that’s slower than the other men. Jonas (played by Lewis Gribben) is a very religious Christian. Skúli (played by Francis Magee) doesn’t believe in ghosts or anything supernatural. Hákon (played by Turlough Convery) is an unpredictable loose cannon.
“The Damned” has a total running time of 89 minutes. Not much happens for the first 20 minutes, but a pivotal point in the movie is when the Eva and the fishermen see a recent shipwreck from a distance. Eva agrees with Ragnar’s adamant opinion that they shouldn’t help anyone from this shipwreck because they can’t trust these strangers, and there isn’t enough food to accommodate anyone new in their small and isolated community.
At night, Eva accompanies the fishermen on the boat to get a closer look at the shipwreck and to see if they can take any valuables that were left behind. The shipwreck has some survivors, who try to fight their way on to boat. All hell breaks loose, setting the course of the rest of the story. The tone of “The Damned” is best described as “brooding and spooky” instead of “intensely scary.”
The cast members capably perform their roles “The Damned,” whose emotional core is primarily with Eva. Young gives a compelling performance in the role. The movie keeps viewers guessing if Eva has psychic abilities to see the supernatural or if she is mentally ill. Either way, as tensions begin to soar within the community, Eva sees disturbing things that affect her tenuous authority over the increasingly agitated fishermen.
Viewers who appreciate “The Damned” have to be open-minded enough to not expect a formulaic horror movie or an assumed outcome. The movie (which has excellent cinematography by Eli Arenson) gets a little repetitive, but it’s effective at showing how monotony and desperate starvation can erode relationships, trust and loyalty in a community. What’s most haunting about “The Damned” isn’t any real or imagined supernatural activity but how destructive inhumanity can be.
Vertical released “The Damned” in U.S. cinemas on January 3, 2025. The movie was released on digital and VOD on January 21, 2025.
