R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead (2025) Review

This scary tale is sure to give you Goosebumps! 13-year-old Sam (Bean Reid) thinks moving to Redhaven is as bad as it gets – until his brother Finn (Seth Isaac Johnson) vanishes and no one, not even their mom, remembers he existed. As Halloween approaches, Sam must team up with an eccentric local and the Sheriff’s daughter to save Finn before he is lost forever to a harvest curse.

Starring Bean Reid, Adeline Lo, Kevin McNulty (Snakes on a Plane), Bob Frazer (Safehaven), Matty Finochio (Love Hard), Seth Isaac Johnson (My Old Ass), Kendra Anderson (Horns) Directed by Jem Garrard (Slay, Invasive).

Not to be confused with the excellent 1988 horror film simply titled Pumpkinhead, R. L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead is written and directed by Jem Garrard and offers up a decidedly more family-friendly take on supernatural horror. While it may never quite reach must-see status, this is nevertheless a cut above average when it comes to kid-friendly scares.

The film gets the balance of horror and accessibility about right for its intended audience. Younger viewers will find a few suitably creepy moments, but there is little here likely to keep them awake at night. That’s quite an achievement considering the story involves black magic, missing children and the rather unsettling prospect of children being sacrificed to a demon. For adults watching alongside their kids, there is enough going on beneath the surface to maintain interest, even if the film occasionally struggles with muddled execution and some decidedly weak dialogue.

The central premise provides the film with its strongest hook. Children are being forgotten by the adults around them, to the extent that it is almost as though they never existed in the first place. There is an intriguing mystery surrounding what is happening and why, which helps to paper over some of the film’s narrative shortcomings and keeps the story moving forward.

It is also refreshing to see the filmmakers embracing practical effects rather than relying entirely on CGI. The Scarecrow, in particular, is a suitably creepy creation and one of the film’s more memorable elements. There is a pleasing Nineties aesthetic running throughout the production, which gives the film a nostalgic quality that should appeal to viewers who grew up on that era of children’s horror.

Adapted from a short story from R. L. Stine’s The Haunting Hour anthology series, R. L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead perhaps inevitably feels as though its source material has been stretched to fill a feature-length running time. At around ninety minutes, the film isn’t exactly overlong, but the later stages begin to feel increasingly jumbled, as though the story is struggling to sustain the momentum established earlier.

There is plenty here to recommend for younger horror fans, and the filmmakers deserve credit for understanding that children’s horror doesn’t need to be completely sanitised to be effective. The scares are appropriately judged, the practical effects are welcome, and there is enough substance to keep accompanying adults reasonably entertained.

Ultimately, R. L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead lacks the charm and spark required to really dazzle, but as a piece of family-friendly Halloween entertainment, it does the job perfectly well. An adequate time-filler for younger horror fans, even if adults may find themselves wishing the material had been developed a little further.

R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead is available on Digital HD and DVD from 17 August. Distributed by Signature Entertainment

UK Trailer

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The Demon Detective (2025) Review

From award-winning writer-director T.C. De Wit (Star Trek: Legacies, Blade: Heart of Darkness) comes a new paranormal chiller set to arrive on UK digital 17 August, courtesy of Miracle Media. A supernatural sleuth must unearth the link between a demonic possession and his tortured past in new mystery occult horror starring Vivica A. Fox, Tom Virtue, Adrienne Barbeau and Doug Jones. The doors to hell are open, can The Demon Detective close them in time to save his soul?

The Demon Detective proves to be a frustratingly talkative affair, offering little that feels fresh or engaging within the well-worn exorcism subgenre. While it begins with some promise as it introduces its demon-hunting duo, any early goodwill soon evaporates beneath an almost relentless barrage of dialogue that simply reiterates points already made.

Rather than building suspense or allowing the supernatural elements to take centre stage, the film becomes mired in lengthy conversations. At times, it felt less like watching a horror film about demonic possession and more like eavesdropping on two strangers chatting at the next table. The constant exposition robs the narrative of momentum, leaving precious little to hold the viewer’s attention.

This is particularly disappointing because, from a technical standpoint, the production is surprisingly accomplished for a low-budget feature. The cinematography is polished, the editing is sharp, and the musical score is more impressive than is often found at this end of the independent horror spectrum. Unfortunately, these strengths are undermined by a screenplay that mistakes endless conversation for meaningful character development.

With very few memorable incidents or genuinely unsettling moments to sustain interest, The Demon Detective never capitalises on its solid production values. Despite competent filmmaking behind the camera, the lifeless, repetitive dialogue ensures the film remains far more mundane than its supernatural premise promises.

The Demon Detective is on UK digital 17 August from Miracle Media

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Carry the Darkness (2025) Review

Set against the backdrop of small-town hysteria and inspired by the true-crime tragedy of the West Memphis Three, this atmospheric descent into paranoia and supernatural terror follows Travis Baldwin, a misunderstood metalhead teen cast as the scapegoat for a series of gruesome atrocities.

As a malevolent entity emerges from the nearby woods, claiming victims and warping minds, the town turns on Travis—driven by fear, fuelled by dogma, and blind to the real darkness stalking them. Blending the eerie surrealism of TWIN PEAKS with the investigative dread of THE X-FILES, this timely horror tale explores the high cost of moral panic—and the monsters it creates.

Douglas Forrester’s Carry the Darkness arrives as a supernatural thriller steeped in the paranoia of the Satanic Panic, blending coming-of-age drama, small-town mystery and supernatural horror against a distinctly Nineties backdrop. The film taps into a period when heavy metal, video games and anything remotely outside the mainstream were often portrayed as corrupting influences on impressionable youngsters, with moral outrage frequently taking precedence over anything resembling evidence.

For anyone who grew up during that era, there is plenty here to provoke a sense of nostalgia. Carry the Darkness captures the look and general vibe of the Nineties well, transporting us back to a time before the internet and social media had taken over virtually every aspect of our lives. It is perhaps ironic that society was so concerned about the supposedly damaging influence of heavy metal and console games when, in hindsight, social media arguably has far greater potential to influence and manipulate its users. But then again, those in positions of authority were hardly going to condemn a medium they could eventually exploit to their own advantage. Heavy metal and video games made convenient scapegoats; social media, not so much.

The film certainly has some worthwhile ideas at its core. The depiction of moral panic and the way fear can be directed towards those perceived as outsiders gives the story some substance beyond its supernatural trappings. The performances are also decent considering the film’s relatively modest budget, and there is clearly an affection for the period in which the story is set.

Unfortunately, the biggest problem for me is that Carry the Darkness doesn’t provide enough beyond its characters talking about things to really pull you in. The film becomes caught up in parent-and-child dynamics, schoolyard bullying and attempts to thwart the local bully and his cronies, while the supernatural elements that initially attracted me to the film are largely left waiting in the wings.

When the supernatural does finally rear its head, the film immediately becomes more interesting. Unfortunately, these moments are few and far between. Just as you begin to get a taste of what the film could potentially offer, it retreats back into its more conventional coming-of-age drama. There is nothing inherently wrong with that approach, but it left me wishing that Forrester had leaned considerably harder into the horror.

The film’s publicity also cites The X-Files and Twin Peaks as influences, which certainly sounds promising. As a fan of both, however, I struggled to see much evidence of either beyond the general Nineties setting. There is certainly an atmosphere of small-town mystery and the occasional suggestion of something lurking beneath the surface, but I was expecting considerably more of those influences to make their presence felt.

Carry the Darkness is by no means a bad film. It has a decent cast, an authentic Nineties aesthetic and some interesting observations about moral panic and the treatment of outsiders. Unfortunately, for a film marketed as a supernatural thriller, there simply isn’t enough supernatural horror to satisfy me. The glimpses we do get suggest that there was a far more compelling and sinister movie lurking beneath the surface, and I couldn’t help wishing that Carry the Darkness had embraced that side of itself more wholeheartedly.

The Horror Collective on home video, on-demand and digital platform everywhere including Tubi and Xumo.
Release Schedule
BloodStream Exclusive Streaming: Friday, August 14, 2026
Rent/Purchase on Digital via Amazon, Apple TV, Direct TV, Google Play, Vimeo: Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Blu-ray (with audio commentary and deleted scenes): Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Streamable everywhere on: Tuesday, December 1, 2026

Trailer

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Terror in the Andes (El Ucumar) (2022) Review

A team of biologists venture deep into the remote jungles of northern Argentina in search of evidence of the elusive Andean bear. Their scientific expedition takes an unsettling turn when locals warn them of the Ucumar—a legendary half-man, half-beast said to stalk the wilderness.

As strange encounters and violent disappearances mount, the researchers find themselves confronting an ancient cryptid that blurs the line between folklore and reality. Trapped in an unforgiving landscape where every shadow may conceal a predator, they must uncover the truth behind the legend before becoming its next victims.

I do enjoy a good creature feature, so I was looking forward to El Ucumar, Octavio Revol Molina’s Argentinian take on the Sasquatch legend. Happily, this is a creature feature that is better than most of the cheap-and-cheerless offerings that seem to dominate the streaming landscape. It doesn’t feel like a trashy quickie knocked together simply to cash in on the genre.

The film centres on El Ucumar, an Andean, Bigfoot-like creature that has become part of local folklore. The film even opens by stating that it is based on a true story. Given the creature’s roots in regional legend, perhaps there is indeed some truth, or at least some real-life inspiration, behind the events depicted here.

Unfortunately, El Ucumar takes its time getting anywhere. Much of the narrative consists of the three central characters debating whether a footprint they have discovered belongs to an Andean bear or to something considerably more mysterious. There is a certain amount of mileage to be had from the uncertainty, but the repeated exchanges of “it’s a bear” versus “it’s not a bear” eventually become rather repetitive.

The film also makes frequent trips back to previous encounters with El Ucumar. These episodic flashbacks and anecdotes offer glimpses into the creature and the mythology surrounding it, but they are generally slight and unremarkable, rarely adding enough to the overall narrative to justify the detours.

When we do eventually get a proper look at the creature, it is actually rather well done. Personally, though, I have always preferred my movie monsters to remain largely off camera. There is something about hearing an unseen creature growling and stomping around in the darkness that allows the imagination to conjure up something far more sinister than anything a filmmaker can necessarily put on screen. In that respect, some of the film’s most effective moments come when El Ucumar remains just out of sight.

There are also a couple of surprises towards the end that provide a welcome jolt after the film’s otherwise leisurely progression.

Ultimately, El Ucumar is a respectable creature feature that deserves credit for being considerably more accomplished than many of its low-budget streaming counterparts. Unfortunately, the slow pace and lack of substantial narrative development make it something of a frustrating experience. There is a decent monster lurking within the film, but too much of the running time is spent circling the same question: is it a bear, or isn’t it?

A promising creature feature that would have benefited from a little more bite and considerably less padding.

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From the director of TRAIN TO BUSAN comes the terrifying zombie horror COLONY released in UK & Irish cinemas on 28th August

YOU TOOK THE TRAIN TO BUSAN… DARE YOU ENTER THE COLONY

WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER HERE

DIRECTED BY Yeon Sang-Ho

WRITTEN BY Yeon Sang-ho, Choi Gyu-seok

Starring Gianna Jun, Koo Kyo-hwan

Enter at your own risk as STUDIOCANAL invites you to a biotech conference gone horribly wrong, in Yeon Sang-ho’s tense, timely and terrifying zombie horror thriller COLONY, released in UK and Irish cinemas on 28 August 2026.

From pioneering director Sang-ho, whose Train to Busan was a cult horror sensation, COLONY is an equally thrilling mass zombie outbreak rollercoaster ride, following a group of survivors trapped inside a high-rise building after a rapidly mutating virus transforms those infected into an unpredictable and seemingly unstoppable new lifeform. Praised by Screen Daily as having “carefully choreographed action sequences unfolding at a breakneck pace, saturated by lashings of gore”, COLONY is a frenetic, graphically gruesome, visually incredible tower block terror trip that demands your big screen attention. Miss it at your peril!

The film, which received its World Premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, will be showing at this year’s FrightFest London, along with retrospective screenings of the directors’ previous films Seoul Station and Train to Busan, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year.

COLONY stars Gianna Jun (My Sassy Girl, Assassination) Koo Kyo-hwan (Peninsula, Escape), Ji Chang-wook (The Manipulated, The Worst of Evil), Shin Hyun-been (The Ugly, He’s on Duty), Kim Shin-rock (Hellbound, Burning), and Go Soo (Missing: The Other Side, The Fortress) and is produced by Wowpoint and Smilegate in association with Midnight Studio.

SYNOPSIS: In downtown Seoul, a professor attends a biotech conference only to witness it spiral into catastrophe when a rapidly mutating virus is unleashed. As the outbreak spreads and the infected begin to transform, authorities seal off the entire facility and the survivors, barricaded inside the building, must contend with the mounting and unpredictable threat.

STUDIOCANAL will release COLONY in cinemas in UK & Ireland on 28 August

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Child | Chilling drama directed by Academy Award® Nominee Cyrus Neshvad

How far would you go to save your child?

A chilling mystery and suspense drama directed by Academy Award® nominee Cyrus Neshvad

CHILD

Coming to UK cinemas from 2nd October

Cynefilms is proud to announce that its compelling feature film Child, directed by Oscar® nominee Cyrus Neshvad, will be released in UK cinemas from 2nd October.

With their young son running out of time, Anne and Greg are willing to sacrifice everything for one last chance to save him. But after crossing an unforgivable moral line, they find themselves trapped in a nightmare where every choice demands an even greater price.

Neshvad was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 2023 for The Red Suitcase, a tense drama about a teenage Iranian girl fleeing an arranged marriage. Child marks his first feature, which asks a question with no comfortable answer: what would any parent do, and where would they stop, to save a dying child?

Watch the trailer here:

Child had its World Premiere in the First Feature strand of the 2026 Raindance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Discovery Award for Best Debut Feature. Early reactions praised the film’s unrelenting atmosphere and moral bleakness, with reviews from outlets including Filmhounds Magazine and Warped Perspective.

Filmhounds Magazine awarded the film four stars, praising how “Neshvad pushes the boundaries of horror cinema focused on grief, love, and desperation with this twisty, unpredictable, fantastical horror” whilst Warped Perspective added that “child works effectively on its own terms, keeping a very humane, character-focused approach throughout its bizarre literal and metaphorical journey.”

Child stars César Award winner Malik Zidi (Oxygen), Brigitte Urhausen (Fils), Lydia Indjova (Sunny Beach), Anne Klein (The Roaming) and Dmytro Yaroshenko (L’été de Jahia).

Child will be in UK cinemas from 2nd October

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Pinocchio: Unstrung | Coming to UK DVD & Digital 7 September

Horror legend Robert Englund (Freddy Kreuger himself) returns for the darkest nightmare yet

Coming to DVD & Digital 7th September

“The biggest and boldest entry in the blossoming Twisted Childhood Universe yet” Macabre Daily

“Rhys Frake-Waterfield has crafted a disturbing reimagining of Pinocchio” Bloody Disgusting

“…inventive, gleefully nasty, and showcases some genuinely impressive practical craftsmanship”HeyUGuys

“…certainly not for the faint of heart” Movie Marker

“…you will need strings to hold you down from watching it again and again” Film Threat

Altitude is thrilled to announce that Pinocchio: Unstrung will be unleashed into UK homes on DVD and Digital from 7th September.

Pinocchio: Unstrung is the latest addition to the Twisted Childhood Universe, which includes Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and its sequel, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare, and Bambi: The Reckoning. The feature is a frightening new take on Carlo Collodi’s classic novel The Adventures of Pinocchio which, during it’s theatrical run, Bloody Disgusting labeled “a disturbing reimagining”.a

In Pinocchio: Unstrung, Geppetto (Richard Brake) introduces his grandson, James, to a magical doll called Pinocchio. Unaware of his naïve nature, James introduces his new friend to the world, resulting in the doll going on a crusade to eliminate all things bad under the guidance of the sinister Cricket (Robert Englund).

From writer and director Rhys Frake-Waterfield (Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey) and producer Scott Chambers (Bambi: The Reckoning, Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare), Pinocchio: Unstrung stars Richard Brake (Barbarian), Robert Englund (A Nightmare on Elm Street) and Cameron Bell in his feature debut.

The film celebrated its UK Premiere in June at Raindance Film Festival, where it was nominated for four awards, including Best UK Feature and Best Performance in a UK Feature for Richard Brake.

Watch the trailer here:

Pinocchio: Unstrung will be available on DVD and Digital 7th September

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16 Strangers. One Subway Car. No Way Out. — SubHysteria 2026

Breaking Glass Pictures Announces August 16 AVOD Release of SubHysteria 2026

Expanded version of the acclaimed indie thriller traps sixteen strangers inside a New York City subway car with no escape

Breaking Glass Pictures is excited to announce the upcoming August 16th AVOD release of SubHysteria 2026, an expanded and newly released version of the 2010 indie thriller. The film will be available on Tubi and additional AVOD platforms.

Directed by Venezuelan filmmaker Leonard Zelig, SubHysteria 2026 places sixteen strangers from different backgrounds and social classes inside a New York City subway car, where they become trapped for days with no communication, no escape, and no contact with the outside world. As their confinement continues and the possibility of death becomes increasingly real, fear and desperation begin to transform the group.

What sets SubHysteria apart is its unconventional approach to filmmaking. Rather than relying on traditional scripted dialogue, the film was built around improvisation, with the actors developing their dialogue and interactions within the framework of the story. The result is an unpredictable and unfiltered examination of human behavior under extreme circumstances.

The new SubHysteria 2026 expands and updates the original film for a new generation of audiences while retaining the central experiment that made the project unique: placing ordinary people in an extraordinary situation and observing what happens when the possibility of survival begins to disappear.

“SubHysteria 2026 puts audiences in an incredibly confined and unpredictable situation where the tension comes from the people themselves,” said Richard Wolff, CEO of Breaking Glass Pictures. “The film has a raw quality that makes the characters’ reactions feel immediate and authentic. We’re excited to introduce this expanded version to a new audience through AVOD.”

The film stars Osvaldo Benavides (Acapulco, Humble Maria, The Good Doctor), Ginger Kroll (Notorious, New York, The Sopranos), Sally Gifford (Farmed and Dangerous, In God’s Country, One Way), Hwalan Shub (The Blacklist, Equal Standard), Elaiza Gil (El Peor Hombre del Mundo, Válgame Dios), Isabella Cascarano (Beast Mode, Payday, Bad Ass), Estelle Bajou (Charming The Hearts Of Men, The Post, 7th Secret) , and Maceo Terrero.

SubHysteria 2026 is produced by Roberto Alcazar, Mario Domina, Javier Perez-Karam, and Pilar de Posadas.

Watch Trailer Here

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This Tempting Madness (2025) Review

Simone Ashley swaps Bridgerton balls and the high fashion world of The Devil Wears Prada 2 for mind-bending thrills, chills and a touch of body horror gore with her latest leading role in This Tempting Madness, set to make its UK debut 10 August, courtesy of Plaion Pictures. I was wondering if you’d be interested in taking a look at the film for review, please see the screener herewith and press release attached for more details.

The hugely talented British rising star is set to turn heads as she ‘showcases the full extent of her range’ (Fangirlish) with an ‘outstanding performance’ in the new ‘stylish psychological thriller’ (Bloody Disgusting). With jaw-dropping twists and turns, the enthralling mystery thriller is perfect for those who love Black Swan, Gone Girl, Girl, Interrupted and Memento.

Born from writer-director Jennifer E. Montgomery’s first-hand experience of tragedy, the film sees Ashley take the lead as Mia, a young woman who, after suffering a near-fatal fall, awakens from a coma with serious brain damage and amnesia. She spirals into insanity when she learns that her husband has been imprisoned for her attempted murder, leaving Mia to piece together her fragmented memories before she completely loses her grip on reality.

This Tempting Madness literally opens with a bang — an unfortunate one, followed by a couple more as our lead character crashes into surfaces while falling from a height at an airport building, eventually landing in a safety net. It is an arresting opening and an effective way to grab the audience’s attention immediately. The sequence makes particularly good use of visuals and sound, suggesting that what follows will be more than workmanlike and that considerable thought has gone into the film’s construction.

Co-writer and director Jennifer E. Montgomery cannot quite sustain that initial momentum or visual zest throughout the film’s duration, but she does deliver a decent, twisting plot that elevates This Tempting Madness above the average thriller. The film wisely keeps its biggest surprises in reserve until the final moments, while maintaining enough intrigue along the way to keep us invested.

There are times when the film sags, but committed performances help maintain interest, as does the central mystery surrounding the circumstances of the accident. What exactly caused a woman to fall from an airport building and suffer severe injuries? Was her paranoid husband, Jake (Austin Stowell), responsible, or is there considerably more going on than initially meets the eye?

The mystery works well enough to keep you guessing, and I found myself partly on the right track when the eventual revelation arrives. The film also isn’t afraid of moments designed to make you wince: watching Mia (Simone Ashley) repeatedly pick at her surgical scars is particularly uncomfortable, adding a visceral edge to the psychological drama.

While This Tempting Madness doesn’t always maintain the promise of its striking opening, its intriguing central mystery, committed performances and willingness to hold its major revelations until the final act make it a worthwhile watch. I was left with one lingering curiosity, though: the film claims to be based on a true story, and I found myself wondering exactly which one.

This Tempting Madness is on digital platforms from 10 August.

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Deadly Games (2025) Review

Get ready to play Deadly Games in a dark and twisted new feature where you must fight for fame, fortune and survival.

From Ojan Missaghi (The Leader) in his directorial debut, make sure you like, subscribe, and press play on high-stakes thriller Deadly Games as it arrives on UK digital on 10 August, courtesy of Miracle Media.

When a group of influencers are lured to an isolated island with the promise of fame and fortune it could cost them the ultimate price in a suspenseful new survival thriller with a 21st Century twist.

Deadly Games often feels like a film soundtrack searching desperately for a story to accompany it. Stylish music and attractive visuals take centre stage, but the screenplay never provides a compelling narrative for them to support.

The film follows a group of influencers who are apparently competing against one another, but the premise is so thinly developed that it’s difficult to become invested in either the competition or the characters themselves. These are influencers who never convincingly feel like influencers, while repeated shower scenes seem to substitute for genuine suspense, character development, or dramatic tension.

As the body count rises and barbed exchanges become increasingly frequent, the film still struggles to generate any real excitement. Rather than sitting on the edge of your seat, you’ll probably find yourself reaching for your phone more often than the cast reach for theirs.

There is virtually no charisma among the characters and little to encourage any emotional investment in their fate. Aside from its undeniably picturesque location, Deadly Games offers very little to sustain interest or justify its running time.

Ultimately, this is a thriller that rarely thrills. Despite its promising title, Deadly Games ends up feeling less like a deadly game and more like a deadly dull experience.

Deadly Games is on UK digital 10 August from Miracle Media

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