Sticky (2026) Review

Hollywood is in a panic as another serial killer stalks the Hills. Four people have gone missing in the space of a week, but two washed-up artists believe they know the identity of the culprit. What follows, at least in theory, is a darkly comic thriller mixing murder, Hollywood satire and laughs. In practice, Sticky proves considerably less effective at sticking the landing.

Described in its marketing blurb as “a dark comedic thriller full of satire, suspense and laughs”, Seanie Sugrue’s film unfortunately comes up short on all three counts. It begins promisingly enough, establishing a quirky tone and demonstrating a welcome sense of humour, but soon runs out of gas.

Given that a serial killer is supposedly on the loose in the Hollywood Hills, there’s a remarkable lack of police presence throughout. Instead, the focus remains firmly on the handful of central characters, who spend much of their time bickering and shouting at one another. A little friction between characters can be entertaining, but when virtually every exchange descends into an argument, it quickly becomes wearing. Constantly raising your voice isn’t a substitute for comedy, and it certainly doesn’t make for particularly engaging viewing.

This is a shame, as the cast is decent and the premise has potential. Unfortunately, the screenplay repeatedly wanders off into scenes that add little to the story or provide any meaningful insight into its characters. One such example involves Roddy (Damian O’Hare), an alcoholic ex-husband, picking a fight with a young couple in a bar. It feels like padding rather than anything that serves the narrative, leaving you wondering why we’re watching it in the first place.

On the plus side, Jake Weber is, as always, thoroughly watchable as Don. Providing support for Roddy’s drinking problem, Weber brings a welcome presence to the proceedings, stealing every scene he appears in. Drew Powell is equally enjoyable as Ralph, displaying a knack for the sort of humour the film desperately needs more of. Both actors demonstrate what Sticky might have achieved had the writing been consistently as sharp as its better performances.

Then there’s the repeated use of “paper mache” instead of the correct “papier-mâché”. Admittedly, this is a relatively minor gripe, but in a film seemingly striving for a degree of sophistication through its Hollywood setting and satirical intentions, such details can become oddly distracting.

Written and directed by Seanie Sugrue, Sticky has the ingredients for an entertaining black comedy, but never quite figures out how to bring them together. The performances provide occasional flashes of life, and there’s an appealing idea buried beneath all the noise, but too much bickering, unnecessary padding and a distinct shortage of genuine laughs leave it feeling decidedly undercooked.

For a film about a killer lurking in the Hollywood Hills, Sticky is surprisingly short on thrills, satire and comedy. It starts with promise, but ultimately struggles to make much of an impression.

STICKY ON DIGITAL AND ON DEMAND 25 OCTOBER 2026

The post Sticky (2026) Review appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.

Night of the Living Dead (1990) Review

Given that director Tom Savini made his name as one of horror cinema’s premier make-up and gore effects artists, his remake of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968) is surprisingly restrained when it comes to splatter. Having contributed his gruesome talents to Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978), I was expecting considerably more bloodshed from Savini’s directorial debut. In that respect, the film is something of a disappointment. Some of the effects are also surprisingly ropey, with the dummy representing Barbara’s brother proving particularly unconvincing as his head strikes a gravestone. In another director’s hands, such shortcomings might be forgivable. Given Savini’s reputation, however, they’re rather harder to overlook.

These gripes aside, this Nineties reworking of the zombie apocalypse has enough inspired touches to make it a worthwhile companion to Romero’s original. The pacing is brisker, and I particularly like the decision to make the farmhouse the home of the young Tom rather than simply a property occupied by a conveniently deceased stranger. It gives the siege a slightly different dynamic, even if the film sacrifices much of the eerie, creeping tension that made the 1968 version so effective. In its place, we get considerably more screaming, much of which feels unnecessary. Sometimes silence really is golden, particularly when the dead are walking.

The climax also departs from the original, allowing Barbara to survive the ordeal without succumbing to the catatonic state that defined her earlier incarnation. Returning to the farmhouse, she discovers that Ben has become one of the undead and that Mr Cooper is still alive, although his continued existence is about to become rather less comfortable. The film also incorporates a sequence inspired by an idea considered for Romero’s original screenplay, depicting zombies hanging from a tree and being used for target practice. It’s a bleak, effective addition that reinforces the casual brutality of a world in which the living can be every bit as monstrous as the dead.

Another notable alteration involves Cooper’s zombified daughter, who chooses to bite her mother rather than dispatch her with a garden trowel. Savini provides a satisfying splash of gore involving the trowel, offering a visual nod to the original film, but the moment lacks the sheer horror of Romero’s infamous stabbing scene. There was something particularly disturbing about the original sequence, not least because the method of attack seemed so horribly incongruous with the creature committing it. Of course, the word ‘zombie’ remains conspicuously absent from the dialogue, as it was in the original.

The pivotal role of Ben went to Tony Todd, who beat out competition reportedly including Laurence Fishburne and Eriq La Salle, and who would subsequently become a horror icon thanks to Candyman (1992). Todd delivers a strong, assured performance, bringing a welcome authority to the role. Patricia Tallman’s Barbara, on the other hand, left me somewhat unconvinced. Her characterisation is frustratingly inconsistent, alternating between steely determination and a more traditional damsel-in-distress approach. One minute she’s channelling Ellen Ripley; the next, she’s screaming as though the entire apocalypse has come as something of a surprise. Given everything she endures, a little consistency would have gone a long way.

Ultimately, Savini’s Night of the Living Dead is an affectionate homage to Romero’s landmark horror film. It never comes close to matching the original’s atmosphere, social subtext or sustained sense of dread, and the shortcomings of some of the effects are particularly disappointing coming from a man of Savini’s considerable talents. Nevertheless, the faster pace, revised character dynamics and handful of worthwhile additions give the remake an identity of its own.

It may not dethrone the original, but it doesn’t disgrace it either. For fans of Romero’s classic, there are enough changes and surprises to make this return to the farmhouse worthwhile. The dead may walk again, but at least Savini gives them a slightly different route to follow.

The post Night of the Living Dead (1990) Review appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.

Sometimes They Come Back (1991) Review

Following the critical and commercial success of Carrie (1976), Hollywood wasted little time snapping up the rights to Stephen King’s work, seemingly convinced that anything bearing the author’s name could be turned into box-office gold. For every The Shining (1980), however, there was a Graveyard Shift (1990) or Dreamcatcher (2003) to muddy the waters. Producer Dino De Laurentiis struck gold when he enlisted David Cronenberg to adapt The Dead Zone (1983), but his subsequent involvement in King adaptations proved decidedly more hit-and-miss. Among the less successful efforts is this made-for-television offering, Sometimes They Come Back.

Originally intended as one of the stories featured in the big-screen anthology Stephen King’s Cat’s Eye (1985), the short story was eventually deemed worthy of a standalone production. Unfortunately, De Laurentiis may have overestimated its potential. Taken from King’s Night Shift collection, the original story runs to barely thirty pages, hardly the most substantial foundation for a feature-length film. The padding soon becomes apparent, and after a promising opening, Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal’s screenplay settles into a functional, predictable routine, sacrificing King’s talent for unsettling scares and believable characters in favour of thinly drawn caricatures.

Tim Matheson stars as Jim Norman, a family man who reluctantly returns to his hometown with his wife, Sally (Brooke Adams), and young son, Scott (Robert Hy Gorman), after accepting a job as a high-school history teacher. His departure from Chicago was apparently prompted by a temper-related incident, although the details remain frustratingly vague.

Jim’s troubled past stretches back to when he was nine, when his older brother Wayne (Chris Demetral) was murdered by a gang of teenage punks. The brothers had taken a shortcut through a railway tunnel while returning library books when the gang attacked. As Jim watched helplessly, a train entered the tunnel, killing the fleeing hoodlums alongside his brother.

Now, decades later, Jim’s return appears to have disturbed something from beyond the grave. The dead punks begin targeting his favourite pupils, killing them and assuming their identities as supposedly new transfer students. Their ultimate objective is to murder Jim, just as they murdered Wayne, thereby securing their escape from the eternal punishment awaiting them in Hell. To recreate the original circumstances, they also need Jim’s son Scott and the involvement of Carl Mueller (William Sanderson), the sole surviving member of their gang.

As horror premises go, there’s certainly potential here. Unfortunately, Sometimes They Come Back struggles to turn it into anything particularly frightening.

Of course, no school-set horror film would be complete without a troublesome student determined to make life difficult for the new teacher. Here, hunky quarterback Chip (Chadd Nyerges) establishes early on that Jim’s classroom is unlikely to be a peaceful environment. Things take a decidedly supernatural turn when the first of the undead arrives to replace Billy Sterns (Matt Nolan), whom the gang has driven off the road. Jim immediately recognises Richard Lawson (Robert Rusler, previously seen in Vamp and A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy’s Revenge) as one of his brother’s killers, yet says nothing, preferring to stare at him suspiciously.

Admittedly, confronting a student with, “Didn’t you die twenty-seven years ago when a train hit you in a railway tunnel?” might raise a few awkward questions, but Jim’s silence is hardly the most convincing response either.

Director Tom McLoughlin initially establishes an effective atmosphere of small-town unease, but once the dead return and begin picking off students, the film quickly becomes repetitive. Matters are not helped by Jim’s increasingly unfortunate habit of being present whenever a pupil dies, or knowing precisely where the bodies can be found. Unsurprisingly, suspicion soon falls upon him. Apparently, nobody considers the possibility that a teacher might be investigating a series of grisly murders rather than orchestrating them.

Meanwhile, the undead gang members are hardly the stuff of nightmares. With their heavy eye makeup, incessant sneering and irritating giggling, they resemble a particularly unpleasant bunch of greasers who have wandered off the set of Grease (1978). One has to wonder how nobody notices that the new transfer students dress like members of the T-Birds, or how they manage to persuade Principal Simmons (William Kuhlke) that they are legitimate pupils rather than vengeful spirits returned from the afterlife. Is there some supernatural admissions office processing applications from delinquent souls desperate to avoid Hell?

The gang’s increasingly tiresome antics undermine whatever menace the film initially establishes, while the supporting characters are afforded little opportunity to develop beyond familiar horror-movie stereotypes. Brooke Adams, so effective in Cronenberg’s The Dead Zone, is particularly wasted as Jim’s wife, Sally, whose role amounts to little more than functional domestic support. There are occasional echoes of Stand by Me (1986), another King adaptation based on a short story, with its depiction of threatening youths and the vulnerability of childhood, but those comparisons only serve to highlight the gulf between the two productions.

Given McLoughlin’s previous directorial effort was Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986), a film that has its admirers but never quite convinced me, perhaps Sometimes They Come Back should not have come as such a disappointment. King adaptations tend to benefit enormously from a filmmaker capable of bringing something distinctive to the material. Brian De Palma delivered with Carrie, Stanley Kubrick transformed The Shining into a horror landmark, Cronenberg found the human tragedy within The Dead Zone, and Rob Reiner brought warmth and emotional depth to Stand by Me and Misery. Frank Darabont would later demonstrate a similar understanding of King’s work with The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile and the criminally underrated The Mist.

McLoughlin, by comparison, seems content to deliver a workmanlike supernatural thriller that never develops into anything more substantial. The premise promises a disturbing tale of childhood trauma, revenge and the lingering consequences of violence, but the execution is too pedestrian to make much of these themes. The scares are sporadic, the characters underdeveloped and the narrative increasingly predictable.

Revisiting a film some twenty years after first seeing it can occasionally reveal hidden qualities that were overlooked the first time around. Sadly, Sometimes They Come Back offers no such pleasant surprise. It remains a flaccid, mediocre adaptation that wastes a potentially intriguing premise on routine scares and uninspired storytelling. Unless you’re a Stephen King completist determined to work your way through every screen adaptation of his writing, this is one resurrection that would have been better left in the grave.

The post Sometimes They Come Back (1991) Review appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.

The Haunting (1999) Review

When I first heard that DreamWorks SKG was remaking Robert Wise’s The Haunting (1963), it never crossed my mind that they might make a complete hash of it. Steven Spielberg, one of the driving forces behind the company, had openly declared his love for Wise’s original, describing it as one of the greatest horror films ever made. Surely, with Spielberg’s name attached, we were in safe hands?

After all, Spielberg had already dipped his toes into horror as a producer on Tobe Hooper’s Poltergeist (1982), a gloriously entertaining supernatural thrill ride that still holds up today. Surely he would have some influence over director Jan de Bont, best known at the time for the high-octane action of Speed (1994) and Twister (1996), as he tackled Shirley Jackson’s classic novel.

If Spielberg did have any meaningful influence, it certainly doesn’t show. Aside from some effective sound design reminiscent of the effects that made little Carol Anne Freeling’s supernatural ordeal so memorable in Poltergeist, and a handful of striking visuals, this is a remake that feels less interested in psychological terror than in appealing to the widest possible audience. Subtlety is out, spectacle is in, and the result is horror filmmaking by committee.

Clearly aimed at a younger teenage audience, the psychological complexity of the original has been jettisoned in favour of a rather daft story involving the spirits of children trapped in the house by the sinister, demonically inclined Hugh Crain. This also makes a nonsense of the film’s tagline, ‘Some houses are born bad’. Here, it isn’t the house itself that is evil, as in Wise’s film, but the circumstances and cruelty that have tainted it. It’s a fundamental shift that strips away much of what made the original so unsettling.

The production design initially promises something special, with Hill House transformed into an enormous gothic playground of elaborate architecture and eye-catching detail. Unfortunately, the interiors appear to operate according to the laws of Doctor Who, with rooms that are impossibly vast compared with the exterior. The sets are undeniably impressive to look at, but there’s something artificial about them, as though they were constructed for a Universal Studios tour and designed to be dismantled and reassembled once the paying customers have gone home. The illusion is never quite convincing enough to make the house feel real, let alone threatening. Mind you, given the sheer number of surfaces to polish, it’s little wonder that housekeeper Mrs Dudley (Marian Seldes) looks so thoroughly fed up. I’d be miserable too.

Lili Taylor plays Eleanor Vance, the troubled young woman at the centre of the story, and her early appearance, complete with hairstyle and clothing, brings to mind a young Jamie Lee Curtis in Halloween (1978). Unfortunately, the resemblance ends there. Eleanor should be a deeply vulnerable, psychologically fragile character, but Taylor’s portrayal never quite captures the emotional turmoil that ought to make her plight compelling. Instead, she spends much of the film reacting to one increasingly elaborate special effect after another. As the shocks become more predictable, her performance grows monotonous, and it becomes increasingly difficult to invest in her fate.

In a rather bizarre reversal of expectations, the film’s most entertaining presence is Catherine Zeta-Jones as Theodora. Yes, really. I’m as surprised as you are. Even then, her performance is merely average, which says rather a lot about the competition.

Then there’s the sheer illogicality of it all. Curtains billow dramatically to allow ghostly children to communicate with Eleanor, yet somehow leave her hair completely undisturbed. A gigantic statue drags Dr David Marrow beneath the water before obligingly spewing blood all over him. Todd Field turns up, says very little and disappears again, presumably already contemplating the rather more accomplished films he would go on to direct, including In the Bedroom (2001). None of these moments generates genuine dread; they simply pile one extravagant visual flourish on top of another, as though the filmmakers believe that bigger automatically means scarier.

It doesn’t.

De Bont’s The Haunting has neither tension nor momentum. There is little sense of creeping unease, no sustained atmosphere and precious few moments that genuinely get under the skin. Instead, we’re treated to a procession of expensive effects and overwrought set pieces that seem designed to distract us from the absence of anything remotely frightening. With The Blair Witch Project and The Sixth Sense both arriving in 1999 to demonstrate how effectively atmosphere, imagination and psychological tension could unsettle an audience, this lavish misfire feels particularly misguided.

I’ve read that some of the film’s eerie creaks and ghostly moans were recorded in advance and played to the cast during filming to encourage more natural reactions of fear. It’s an interesting idea, but one has to wonder how effective it could be when the finished film feels so calculated and emotionally hollow. Perhaps the prospect of a substantial pay cheque was a more powerful motivator than the prospect of making a genuinely frightening movie.

The most baffling aspect is the apparent belief that Robert Wise’s original somehow failed to do justice to Shirley Jackson’s story, and that de Bont’s version could improve upon it by leaving more to the imagination. The irony is that Wise understood precisely what made the material work: suggestion, uncertainty and the creeping suspicion that the greatest horrors might be taking place inside the characters’ minds. De Bont, meanwhile, seems determined to show us absolutely everything, usually at considerable volume.

For all its lavish sets, impressive effects and expensive production values, The Haunting is a hollow remake that mistakes spectacle for suspense and noise for terror. Spielberg’s apparent admiration for the original makes the result all the more disappointing. Some houses may indeed be born bad, but this one feels as though it was built by people who never understood what made it frightening in the first place.

The post The Haunting (1999) Review appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.

As TV audiences in the UK brace themselves for a gnome invasion with the UK release of horror-comedy series GNOMES on Disney+, Lead Director Matthias Hoene reflects on the challenges of making horror-comedy, the joy of creating murderous gnomes and working with Obsession star Inde Navarrette.

Gnomes has been described as a mix of Gremlins and Hot Fuzz. As the lead director, how did you approach balancing the comedy with the genuine horror of a small town being terrorised by garden ornaments?

The challenge was finding the right cinematic language for two genres that often want completely opposite things. Comedy wants you to see. Horror wants to hide. Comedy thrives on action and reaction happening together, often played at speed. Horror builds through anticipation — withholding information, slowing things down and letting the audience imagine what might be lurking just outside the frame.

But underneath all of that, the characters had to feel real. However ridiculous the world around them becomes, their fear, relationships and emotions cannot be part of the joke. If we believe in them, we can throw as many homicidal garden ornaments at them as we like and, hopefully, the audience will come along for the ride.

What do you think it is about garden gnomes that makes them so uniquely terrifying yet hilarious?

It’s easy to dismiss garden gnomes as chintzy kitsch, but they have a surprisingly long and troubled history. First appearing in 19th-century Germany as wood-carved and ceramic figures believed to bring good luck, they were sneered at by the horticultural establishment and embraced by working-class gardeners as cheerful, affectionate lawn ornaments.

What I love about gnomes is the contradiction. They represent innocence, happiness and a slightly chintzy vision of peaceful country life. So when they suddenly turn on us, there is something inherently funny and deeply unsettling about it. To me, they make perfect horror-comedy villains: cute enough to love, ridiculous enough to make us laugh, and just dangerous enough to make us regret ever putting one in the garden.

The show relies on a blend of practical puppetry and visual effects. What were the biggest logistical challenges of making inanimate, tiny objects look actively murderous on set?

I grew up without a TV and spent my time reading books, building Lego spaceships, painting Warhammer miniatures, sculpting dioramas and making homage film posters with an airbrush and acrylic paint. I’ve always liked making things by hand. My first short film featured an animatronic mobile phone, for which I used servos scavenged from my remote-controlled car. Having inhaled films like Gremlins and Critters as a kid, I was very keen to give Gnomes that same handmade, crafted feel. We worked with creature designer and puppeteer Justin Dix and his excellent team, who sculpted gnomes by hand in clay, as well as 3D modelling and printing some of them. There is nothing quite as joyous as a hand-puppeteered killer garden gnome. There’s an immediacy to having the creature physically there on set — the actors can touch it, fight it, throw it across a room.

To make it all work we created the Gnome Unit – a guerrilla unit working in parallel with the main shoot, wrangling our little terracotta terrors while the main unit was off filming the actors. Of course, we also needed help from VFX, and often we used a hybrid approach: body and movement from puppetry; eyes and facial expressions from CGI. That allowed us to keep the physicality and imperfections of something handmade while giving the gnomes a much greater range of expression.

You are well-known for directing Cockneys vs Zombies. How did your experience directing fast-paced, comedic zombie gore influence the way you directed Gnomes?

I approached the series with the same mischievous sense of play as Cockneys and wanted to push the show as far as we could. The first few episodes are very character-driven, but the show keeps ramping up – getting bigger, crazier and more outrageous – until the action explodes into an epic finale in episode six.

One of the elements that runs through all my work is that I try to give every story a lot of heart. And that extended to the gnomes themselves. I never wanted them to feel like one anonymous horde of monsters. That became part of the fun: however big and chaotic the action became, the gnomes weren’t just things attacking people. They were characters with their own personalities, grudges and particular enthusiasm for violence.

Gnomes was created by Joel Kohn. How closely did you work with him to bring the scripts and overarching vision for the series to life?

The collaboration with Joel was fantastic. We developed the scripts together with our amazing writers, Tegan Higginbotham and Paul Verhoeven, and worked very closely throughout prep to establish the world, the tone and the rules of the gnomes.

As pilot director and co-showrunner, a big part of my role was establishing the overall cinematic language of the series – how we balanced horror and comedy, how the gnomes moved and behaved, and how the practical puppetry and VFX would work together.

Once we started shooting, Joel and I alternated between the main and second units. While I directed my episodes: 1, 2, 4 and 6, Joel would often be out with the Gnome Unit shooting gnome sequences. Then, while Joel or our other director, Sian Davis, were directing their episodes, I would shoot second unit for them. It was a genuinely collaborative way of making the show – and probably the only way we could have pulled off something this ambitious on the schedule we had.

The series features an incredible lead cast including Asa Butterfield (Sex Education, Ender’s Game) and Megan Smart (Class of ’07, Black Snow). What do they bring to the comedic dynamic of the show?

It’s incredibly important to me to create a great atmosphere on set, and Asa was one of the best collaborators I could have wished for. He brought this wonderfully easy-going energy that everyone responded to and that made the set a genuinely fun place to be.

But underneath that chilled demeanour, he was incredibly hardworking. He would prep scenes with his co-stars the day before and came to set ready to play. He brought an enormous range to Arnold Kipps — brilliant comic timing, but also a real emotional truth that grounds all the insanity happening around him.

Megan brought tremendous warmth and emotionality to the show, and her chemistry with Asa is fantastic. Gnomes is, at heart, a love story, and from the beginning Asa and Megan felt like two people who had known each other for years. That gave us the freedom to push the comedy and the craziness around them because the relationship at the centre always felt real.

Tess Haubrich (Alien: Romulus) had to spend four hours a day in make-up to become our Gnome Queen. But when she finally stepped onto set and started casting her spells, it wasn’t only the terracotta armies that were entranced — I could hardly bring myself to say cut either.

However absurd the world became, I never wanted the actors to play the absurdity. They played their characters and relationships for real — and we let the homicidal garden ornaments take care of the horror comedy.

Your next feature film is the survival horror thriller INVERTIGO. What can you tell us about it?

INVERTIGO is a rollercoaster survival thriller about five teenagers who become trapped on an unfinished rollercoaster during a thunderstorm in Florida.

The film stars Inde Navarrette and Tim Roth, and we’re currently in post-production, with the release planned for 2027.

It’s an edge-of-your-seat thriller, but what I’m most excited about are the characters and the performances. You put five young people hundreds of feet in the air, take away any obvious means of escape and then start applying pressure — physically and emotionally — and you very quickly find out who they really are.

We shot the film with Tea Shop Productions across Bangkok, London and Florida, and I can’t wait to share it with the world when it’s ready.

What was it like working with the cast, especially with Obsession star Inde Navarrette.

I remember watching an early screening of OBSESSION at Fantastic Fest in Austin, and my producer James Harris recommended I check out Inde. No surprise, I was blown away by her performance, and when she responded well to the script, we set up a meeting and I offered her the role straight away.

Inde is a very collaborative and giving actor, and we had a lot of fun developing her character during prep and on set. Everyone knows she has oodles of charisma and that the camera loves her. But what is really magical to watch is how instinctive and effortlessly natural she is as an actress

The Invertigo shoot was incredibly demanding. We often filmed eight metres up on a steel rollercoaster, at night, in torrential rain, and I could sometimes only give direction through a megaphone. Despite all that, Inde pulled out amazing performances over and over again. More than that, she was so giving and supportive that everyone around her was able to do their best work too — and I think that really shows in the rushes and in the finished movie. She deserves all the success and recognition coming her way, and I can’t wait for everyone to see her in INVERTIGO next year.

What is it about the horror genre that you particularly like?

Horror is the ultimate morality tale. I love that horror can be anarchic, mischievous and incredibly visceral. It bypasses the intellectual part of your brain and goes straight for the nervous system. You can physically feel an audience holding its breath, tensing up, and then releasing all of that tension together.

That’s one of the things I love most about cinema. I want to take the viewer somewhere, make them forget for a while that they’re sitting in a room looking at a screen.

Finally, looking ahead, what other projects are there in the pipeline?

I had an enormous amount of fun making Gnomes, so I’m excited to do more television, particularly as a showrunner and pilot director. We have a few projects we’re pitching at the moment.

On the feature side, I’m in prep for the wellness-retreat horror film Transformation with Stone Village (Station Eleven), and character-driven battle royale Best Enemies with Parallel 42, as well as another top-secret project with Tea Shop and Capstone..

GNOMES is currently streaming on Disney +.

The post Exclusive Q & A with filmmaker Matthias Hoene – Lead Director on Gnomes appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.

‘Dark Winds Season 4’ critically acclaimed ‘must-watch’ noir thriller arrives on Blu-ray DVD & digital 14 December 2026

‘A mesmerising and moving gem… career-best work… a defining touchstone that withstands the test of time’ RogerEbert.com

‘Packs a powerful punch… simply no other show out there like Dark Winds… continues to live up to expectations’ Collider

‘A series best… a visual triumph, the writing is dashingly smart … Without a doubt, Zahn McClarnon is the unstoppable force of the season and the show as a whole… has outdone itself once again’ Comic Book Resources

‘Impeccable acting and characters… Kiowa Gordon puts on an absolute acting tour de force… breathtaking performance… twists and turns aplenty… expertly paced to keep viewers on edge… yet another excellent instalment in one of the best mystery shows on television’ Screen Rant

The critically acclaimed Navajo noir thriller, Dark Winds, is back to blow audiences away with more pulse pounding mysteries and supernatural secrets. Zahn McClarnon (Fargo, Reservation Dogs) and Kiowa Gordon (Blood Quantum, The Red Road) return as the tenacious crime fighting duo Leaphorn and Chee in the thrilling fourth series of ‘the most ambitious Native-led TV show ever made’ (The Hollywood Reporter).

Dark Winds Season 4 is set to arrive on Blu-ray, DVD and digital on 14 December 2026, courtesy of Acorn Media International, following its transmission on U&Alibi. With a fifth season already on the way, now is the perfect time to embrace this atmospheric and intense chiller that ‘begs to be binged’ (Guardian).

Lauded as a ‘must watch’ (Screen Anarchy) and an ‘instant classic’ (AV Club), the smash hit ‘70s set thriller is based on Tony Hillerman’s best-selling Leaphorn & Chee mystery novels and is exec-produced by Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin alongside late great Hollywood legend Robert Redford. This season sees Zahn McClarnon make his directorial debut.

Following the dramatic season three finale, Lt. Joe Leaphorn (McClarnon) is now facing life alone after his wife, Emma (Deanna Allison), walked away from their marriage, unable to handle her husband’s ongoing struggles. Turning to meditation and personal healing, he slowly reorients himself to the traditional Navajo ways. With the realisation that his job has turned him into someone he doesn’t like, he contemplates retirement, but when a local girl disappears, he is drawn back to the force for one last case…

When Billie Tsosie (Isabel DeRoy-Olson – Three Pines), a young girl from a local Catholic school, is reported missing, Joe reunites with Jim Chee (Gordon) and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten – Frontier, Tribal) – who are finally in a romantic relationship after years of tension – to track her down, but they aren’t the only ones on the prowl. Sinister new villain Irene Vaggan (Franka Potente – Run Lola Run, The Bourne Identity), a cold-blooded killer with ties to organised crime, is also after the teen. In a deadly race against time, our Navajo trio compete with Vaggan to see who can find Billie first, with the epic investigation spanning outwards into a seedy 1970s Los Angeles.

Masterfully blending compelling character-driven stories, Navajo culture, dark supernatural elements and breathtaking cinematography, return to Dark Winds for ‘one of the best psychologically thrilling mysteries on television today’ (Collider).

SPECIAL FEATURES include:
A Look at Season 4
Director’s Spotlight – Zahn McClarnon
Set Tour with Kiowa Gordon
Stakeout Gone Wrong
Joe vs Vaggan
Escaping Vaggan
How to Annoy Zahn on Set

The post ‘Dark Winds Season 4’ critically acclaimed ‘must-watch’ noir thriller arrives on Blu-ray DVD & digital 14 December 2026 appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.

THE VAMPIRE LESTAT ORIGINAL SERIES SOUNDTRACK – VINYL EDITION AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 27

PERFORMED BY THE VAMPIRE LESTAT

Original Music by Series Composer Daniel Hart

1xLP Available on “Purple Smoke” Color Vinyl w/ Full Color Insert

Set against the backdrop of a global rock phenomenon, The Vampire Lestat follows Lestat de Lioncourt as played by Sam Reid on an electric multi-city tour while he’s haunted by “muses” from his wild and rebellious past. As his band’s popularity and star power rises, so does Lestat’s influence over vampires and human’s alike, leaving others to contend with Lestat’s power in the face of The Great Conversion, an unnatural surge in the vampire population. In addition to Reid, The Vampire Lestat star Jacob Anderson, Assad Zaman, Eric Bogosian, Delainey Hayles, and Jennifer Ehle, and is executive produced by Mark Johnson, creator, writer, and showrunner Rolin Jones, Hannah Moscovitch, Christopher Rice, and the late Anne Rice.

Preorder the Album

https://lakeshorerecordsshop.com/products/the-vampire-lestat-purple-smoke-vinyl-the-vampire-lestat?variant=49527364190435

Shop The Vampire Lestat Merchandize

https://shop.amc.com/collections/the-vampire-lestat-tour-accessories

Track Listing:
Side 1

1. Long Face
2. Black Licorice
3. Why Do I Have To Feel?
4. Your Biggest Fan
5. The Loneliness
6. All Fall Down
   Side 2
7. Cabbage
8. Brutal Love
9. When I Call Out Your Name
10. Stained Glass Eyes
11. Butterscotch Bitch

The post THE VAMPIRE LESTAT ORIGINAL SERIES SOUNDTRACK – VINYL EDITION AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 27 appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.

Trick and Treats (2026) Review

Get ready for some Trick and Treats this spooky season with Eric Hector’s twisted horror debut, starring screen legends Malcolm McDowell and Gary Busey (Point Break, The Buddy Holly Story). Following its US release, the film arrives on UK digital on 19 October, courtesy of Miracle Media.

As the eighteenth-century English and American nursery rhyme goes: “Peter, Peter, pumpkin eater, had a wife and couldn’t keep her, so he put her in a pumpkin shell, and there he kept her very well.” Fast-forward more than 200 years, and Halloween finds a twisted jack-o’-lantern named Trick (voiced by McDowell) residing inside a decaying old biker clubhouse beside the highway. Pastor Joseph (Busey), convinced that Trick is the very pumpkin from the infamous nursery rhyme, attempts to steal it, only to fail spectacularly. His warnings are dismissed as the ravings of a madman, but a group of young friends are about to discover that there may be more to this paranormal pumpkin tale than they bargained for.

While celebrating Halloween, Ashley (Loren Ledesma) and her costumed friends stumble upon the roadside bar, where a gang of bikers takes them captive and threatens them with torture and death. With escape seemingly impossible, Ashley begins hearing Trick’s voice inside her head. Is the ancient pumpkin attempting to help her, or does this malevolent gourd have even more murderous intentions?

Relentlessly nasty and determined to make its audience uncomfortable, Trick and Treats offers precious little beyond a relentless barrage of screaming women, jeering men and enough deranged cackling to make Dr Evil sound positively restrained. Gary Busey’s appearance amounts to little more than an extended cameo, while Malcolm McDowell’s vocal contribution struggles to make itself heard above a soundtrack that seems to believe volume can compensate for everything else.

I’m no stranger to grim horror. Films such as The Last House on the Left and I Spit on Your Grave have plumbed similarly unpleasant depths, but both offer a sense of catharsis through their eventual retribution. Here, however, the emphasis is almost entirely on subjecting the central female characters to prolonged abuse, with little apparent purpose beyond provoking a reaction. The near-constant telepathic exchanges between Ashley, the more resourceful of the captives, and Trick provide a thin narrative thread, but do little to alleviate the misery unfolding on screen.

There is something decidedly retro about Trick and Treats, from its special effects to its treatment of its female characters, who are sexualised before being subjected to an exhausting catalogue of male brutality. Unfortunately, nostalgia for a less enlightened era of exploitation horror is not enough to make this an engaging experience. It may not reach the extremes of the aforementioned films, but it also lacks their impact, leaving viewers with all the unpleasantness and precious little payoff.

Quite who the intended audience is remains a mystery. Horror fans can certainly stomach some grim material, but there is a difference between confronting the darker side of the genre and simply enduring an exercise in prolonged misery. Trick and Treats feels like torture for its characters and, ultimately, for anyone watching.

As the directorial debut of writer-director Eric Hector, it is an unfortunate misfire. And, just when you think the ordeal is finally over, the film appears to leave the door open for a sequel. Some treats are best left uneaten.

Verdict: A mean-spirited slice of exploitation horror that mistakes relentless nastiness for entertainment. Even a murderous pumpkin and two familiar genre names cannot rescue this joyless Halloween offering.

Trick and Treats arrives on UK digital on 19 October, courtesy of Miracle Media.

The post Trick and Treats (2026) Review appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.

Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned (Review)

Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned offers a twisted, supernatural horror spin on Emily Brontë’s enduring literary classic. Come in… if you dare!

Following her death, Catherine’s vengeful ghost haunts Wuthering Heights and its unfortunate occupants. To keep her malevolent spirit at bay, Heathcliff must satisfy her bloodlust. But when a dashing new neighbour enters the picture, Catherine’s obsessive lover succumbs to her dark desires, descending into a murderous madness.

Starring Ross Townsend-Green (War of the Worlds), Sky Cheema (The Sikh Soldier), Elle O’Hara (River City, Tommy’s Honour) and Nicola Wright (EastEnders, Sexy Beast), the film is directed by Rebecca J Matthews.

Essentially, Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned is a collection of jump scares loosely strung together around a plot featuring characters borrowed from Brontë’s classic. Unfortunately, it plods along at a snail’s pace, seemingly unsure what to do with its source material or where to take its story.

There is certainly potential here. A vampiric reimagining of Catherine and Heathcliff’s doomed romance could have been a deliciously macabre affair, offering plenty of opportunities to have some twisted fun with the original novel. Instead, we get their lodger, Mr Lockwood (Ross Townsend-Green), spending an inordinate amount of time at Wuthering Heights rather than in his own lodgings, poking his nose into everyone’s business while creepy things happen around him, and occasionally to him.

Of course, this isn’t the first time a beloved literary classic has been given a horror makeover. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies took a similarly cheeky approach, demonstrating that the right combination of literary familiarity and genre madness can make for an entertaining proposition. Sadly, as with that film, the concept here sounds considerably better on paper than it translates to the screen.

I’ll confess that the title had me hooked. It’s gloriously lurid, promising gothic horrors and supernatural nastiness aplenty, and I was genuinely keen to see what the filmmakers had in store. Alas, the finished product left me wanting, with a meandering narrative that seems every bit as directionless as its overly inquisitive Mr Lockwood.

Repeated jump scares can only get you so far, and when they’re doing most of the heavy lifting, the result quickly becomes tiresome. There’s a potentially entertaining horror film lurking somewhere within Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned, but it remains frustratingly out of reach. A cracking title, certainly, but a rather less compelling film.

Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned will be yours to own from October 19. Distributed by Signature Entertainment

The post Wuthering Heights: The House of the Damned (Review) appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.

Remembrance (2026)

Psychological chiller Remembrance is the latest British feature from writer-director and star James Matthew Denton, co-directed by Richard Oakes (Feed Me, Hosts) and produced by Marc Zammit (Jitters, Witch). Released digitally in the UK on 19 October 2026 through Reel2Reel Films, it follows a young woman whose fractured memories may hold the key to a brutal kidnapping.

After escaping her attacker, seriously injured Grace (Alyssa Haymor) wakes in hospital following a week-long coma with no idea who she is or what happened to her. All she can retrieve are scattered fragments of memory, leaving detectives with the unenviable task of solving both the crime and the mystery of Grace’s identity.

With her kidnapper still at large, Grace is moved to an isolated English country house for her protection. Unfortunately, safety proves rather less reassuring than advertised, as PTSD, disturbing visions and increasingly unreliable memories blur the line between what is real and what exists only inside her traumatised mind.

Detective Isaac Phelps (Denton) is determined to unravel the mystery, but the deeper he gets into Grace’s fractured world, the more complicated things become. On paper, there’s plenty here to make for an effective psychological thriller: an isolated location, an unreliable protagonist, fractured memories and a potentially dangerous antagonist still at large.

Unfortunately, Remembrance struggles to turn that potential into tension.

Isaac Phelps gets shouted at a lot. His boss shouts at him, Grace shouts at him and, when nobody is shouting at him, someone else is usually shouting at someone else. This seems to be the film’s preferred method of conveying drama, resulting in two distinct levels of dialogue: normal speaking and full-volume arguing.

The film starts promisingly enough. The premise is solid, the acting is reasonable if variable, the setup establishes an intriguing mystery and the image quality is impressively crisp. Sadly, the dialogue soon becomes the film’s biggest obstacle. Rather than building suspense, much of it is so risible that it repeatedly punctures whatever atmosphere the film has managed to create.

There are moments when Remembrance threatens to become the psychological thriller it clearly wants to be, but these are too often drowned out by characters bickering at one another. Instead of feeling increasingly unnerved, I found myself waiting for someone to finish shouting.

The result is less an intense psychological chiller and more a small-cast television soap in which the only real fireworks occur whenever somebody loses their temper. And that, unfortunately, does not a thriller make.

On UK digital 19 October from Reel2Reel Films

The post Remembrance (2026) Review appeared first on My Bloody Reviews.