Three hundred episodes. Plus One.
When we first decided to do a podcast, we thought one about Alfred Hitchcock's films would be fun. Partway through the second episode, we realized that he only made about 50 films, and we wanted to do something more ongoing. We decided to make it more generically about horror films in general.
We chose well; with over 1700 films reviewed so far, there is no end in sight– they keep making more horror films, and there are still plenty of oldies we haven’t seen. There are so many new films coming out (especially this month and next, with Halloween coming!) that we must prioritize and choose among the latest releases. There aren’t enough days in the week for all the terror!
But still… there are more things in the world than just horror. We’ve noticed that while watching our movies, we both really enjoyed the old movies a lot. I’ve even written books about them. We’ve decided that we like doing “Horror Weekly” so much that we want to branch out and do a more unlimited podcast about older films.
Say hello to “Classics Weekly,” a brand-new Podcast/Newsletter devoted to classic films. Our first episode, devoted to “Casablanca,” will drop sometime next week. It’ll all be very similar in format to Horror Weekly, but since it’s only one film each week, we can go more in-depth with trivia and commentary. It’ll be fun! Sign up for the newsletter or subscribe to the podcast at
https://www.classicsweekly.com
Anyway, this time around, we’ve got a slight focus on “home invasion” films. We’d been sitting on the most recent two “The Strangers” films for a few weeks due to that prioritizing I mentioned, but then “Sunset Superman” (2024) released this week, and they all just went together so well that we had to include the three films. We’ve also got “Lyvia’s House,” a tale of romance and gaslighting, as well as “Mother Nocturna,” a new release about mental illness, depression, and family.
Don’t miss out on our next members-only edition of the newsletter, coming toward the end of the month. Paid subscription info can be found at https://www.horrorweekly.com/
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Indie Films:
2024 Lyvia’s House
● Directed by Niko Volonakis
● Written by Patricia V. Davis
● Stars Tara Nichol Caldwell, Joshua Malekos, Danielle Octavian
● Run Time: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This one is heavy on the mystery and thriller aspects and low-key on horror. The cinematography, cast, direction, and story keep a long movie interesting. It didn’t seem long, though it does take quite a while to start wrapping things up and telling us what’s going on and why. We liked it quite a bit and would recommend it.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on farmers working in an orchard. Ed then takes a break and buries a man alive in the field. Credits roll.
We cut to karaoke night at the bar, and Tara and Helen laugh at Johnny, who’s “singing.” Tara’s mother is not a fan of Johnny, who is “making” Tara move from the city way out into the country. They stop at a house and meet a really weird guy named Georgie there.
Eventually, they get to their own house, and it’s a big one. Johnny says they have a landline, but no WiFi, which she needs for work. There’s a painting on the wall of Lyvia, a famous Italian painter, who used to live there. Lyvia got called back to Italy and had to sell the house cheap, and Johnny just got lucky.
That night, as they sleep, a rat climbs up on the bed and licks Tara on the face. She screams, Johnny searches, but there are no rats to be found.
A week passes, and Tara’s mom complains that she’s hard to reach by cell phone; Mom might be a little crazy. We flash back to Tara finding a photo of her mother with a man she doesn’t recognize when Mom freaks out.
Tara goes for a walk and bumps into a strangely silent man who warns her about coyotes. Later, we see that man flying a small airplane over the countryside.
Tara goes to the Post Office to send a fax, and Mary Ann, the woman who runs the place, tells her how to get Internet access. She tells them about Dale, a local guy who can fix them up. The bar also has WiFi. Georgie is there too, and he’s still weird; he sings to them. Johnny is weirdly protective, but maybe in a creepy way.
Johnny and Tara go to the bar and talk to Annie about the situation. Georgie comes in, and Mike the bartender throws him out. The quiet man from earlier comes in, he’s Sergeant Brian. Annie doesn’t like Brian. Mike doesn’t like Georgie.
Tara thinks she sees someone outside, and Johnny goes out to check on it; he says the phone lines have been damaged, either chewed or cut.
We cut to Annie, out in the woods, who encounters a masked killer. We then cut to Sergeant Brian out shooting beer bottles. Johnny and Tara take a shower together as Georgie peeps in through the window; Johny sees him and overreacts, at least in Tara’s eyes. The next morning, Tara calls Helen and tells her what’s been going on.
Tara goes to the Post Office and arranges for Internet with Dale, who says he talked to Johnny last week, and Johnny never called him back. Mike calls Mary Ann to say that Annie’s been murdered. On the way home, Tara sees Johnny visiting a grave in the graveyard. When he leaves, she checks out the grave, someone named Gloria.
Mary Ann tells Tara about Mr. Takahashi’s orchard about twenty years ago. The old man found a strange hole in his field that was filled in that night; there was a body buried there, and then they found 24 more graves. They caught the killer, Ed Mackay, who died in prison years ago.
Tara finally gets WiFi and tells Helen that she doesn’t want Johnny to know that she’s rented a car. She wants to follow Johnny and spy on him. It’s all very sketchy, and there are no red lights at all. That night, Tara dreams of Lyvia being dead in their house. Tara confronts Johnny, and he has an answer for everything, mostly that it’s all in Tara’s imagination.
Tara asks Mary Anne about Gloria Rivera, the headstone that Johnny visited. Gloria killed herself many years ago when her husband cheated on her. That husband was Ed Mackay.
Tara follows Johnny to an old farmhouse where he keeps his pet rat. Yes, he’s been lying to her about that all along. Helen tells her to leave him right now, but Tara won’t do it until she finds out why. Helen says Johnny probably killed Annie, too. Helen says Lyvia’s body was found, and since Georgie was the one who found her body, he got the blame. She offers to fly up there tonight.
That night, Tara is ready for the rat, and she kills it. In the morning, Johnny cries as he secretly buries his rat. Then he starts digging a larger grave. Afterward, Mary Ann gives him a ride home. She calls Sergeant Brian afterward, he’s her father and runs to his plane.
Tara packs her stuff, waiting for Helen. She does some research on Glora Rivers and recognizes her from the photo her mother has. She calls her mother, wanting to know why she had a photo of Gloria in her desk. Her mother freaks out. It turns out that Tara’s mother was the other woman for Ed, and that Ed and Gloria had a son, Johnny.
Johnny calls; this was all done to get revenge on Tara’s mother for breaking up his family. Johnny admits that Lyvia was his wife, and he admits that he killed her. He did all this so that Tara would kill herself. Oh, and by the way, she’s his half-sister. Incest is best. Ew.
She whacks him with a stick but doesn’t finish the job. She runs outside, and sure enough, Johnny gets up to pursue. Brian flies overhead and lands with his rifle in hand. The two men argue until Tara whacks Johnny with a shovel.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s very colorful, sharp, and very visual, with many really artistic shots of the country and various settings. It’s not boring at all, but it does take a really long time to get to the main plot.
I don’t understand why Tara wouldn’t have driven back to the city at the first opportunity and just dumped Johnny. Even without the gaslighting, he’s an ass. Especially after she learned the truth about the rat. Helen makes sense in every scene that she’s in, but Tara just refuses to leave.
The mystery develops well, but Johnny’s motivations are a little sketchy.
Kevin’s Commentary
The only real criticism I have is Tara staying around after she knows that something is very wrong about Johnny. She’s got the means to leave, a best friend or a mother she could stay with, but chooses to stay. Which of course lets the second half of the movie unfold like it does. Other than that, it’s well made, and overall I liked it.
2024 Mother Nocturna
● AKA “Madre Notturna”
● Directed by Daniele Campea
● Written by Daniele Campea
● Stars Susanna Costaglione, Sofia Ponente, Edoardo Oliva
● Run Time: 1 Hour, 40 Minutes
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This starts out slow, quiet, and gloomy. Then it gets more so. The acting and production values are all very good. It’s just a script that doesn’t go places. It wallows in misery. There are some horror elements that give it some interesting moments, but we didn’t much care for it.
Spoilery Synopsis
A woman dances as the credits roll. We cut to a hospital, where Agnese is getting released after thirteen years. Her husband, Riccardo, talks to the doctor, and he says Agnese is recovering, and he’s optimistic after thirteen years of treatment, but they don’t know what the problem is. The conversation shifts to Riccardo’s daughter, Arianna, who is graduating this year. They all go home together.
Agnese asks Arianna if she still dances; Agnese is a wolf biologist. The mother and daughter go out to the woods and look at wolf tracks. Agnese puts up trail cameras to watch the wolves. At school, Mateo asks Arianna out on a date, and she avoids answering him. After a while, Riccardo has to leave to make a house call; he’s a doctor and has to go.
Agnese spends her day looking at old bones in the field before watching videos of the wolves. A lone wolf comes to her door, and she smiles, but then it’s gone. Riccardo is surprised to hear about that, since there haven’t been any wolves around in ages. She’s clearly suffering from depression, and he knows it and tries to cheer her up.
We hear about COVID lockdowns on the news; the lockdowns are getting started. At dinner, Agnese sees something in the room with them that terrifies her. Arianna’s not even sure she’s happy that her mother is home. “Are you sure it won’t happen again?” That night, Agnese wakes up and talks to the darkness until Riccardo sends her back to bed. In the morning, she notices her feet are dirty. Did she sleepwalk outdoors?
Riccardo goes to work again, leaving Arianna alone with Agnes, who talks about her favorite depressing opera. Arianna gets a phone call; Riccardo has tested positive for COVID and can’t come home. By morning, they hear that he’s been intubated and is not doing well.
Agnese mentions dreaming she was out in the woods, becoming something else, and Arianna points out that she was sleepwalking last night. Could it be her medication making her do that? We flashback to Arianna and Riccardo having a conversation about her first period.
Agnese looks at Leonardo’s pictures and says he was the light of the house. She cries, and Arianna looks annoyed. Little Leonardo’s death is what got her spiraling into depression.
Agnese falls down and has a seizure; she sees the woods. That night, Arianna dreams about being outside with the wolves as well. Caring for her mentally ill mother starts taking its toll on Arianna. She listens to old tapes from her father; Agnese had started sleepwalking right after Leonoardo died, and the depression soon followed. A suicide attempt was next, and he had no choice but to put Agnese in the hospital for everyone’s safety.
That night Agnese slips out and heads for the woods again. Oddly enough, so does Arianna, who sees someone covered in blood coming out of the darkness toward her. In the morning, they both wash the dirt off their feet. Agnese eats some raw meat out of the fridge, tearing it apart with her teeth.
Arianna asks how Leonardo died; she doesn’t believe the story that he died in his sleep, and now she wants to know the truth. Agnese tells the story about how she was sleeping with the baby and she had those “walking in the woods” dreams. She saw a young man wearing wolf skins. When she woke up, Leonardo was on the floor next to her, dead. They said the baby had rolled out of bed, and Riccardo blamed her. She says guilt from Riccardo was what drove her mad, but Arianna remembers it differently. Agnese explains that Riccardo had been cheating on her for years, and Arianna doesn’t know him as well as she thinks she does. Arianna denies it, but Agnese has real proof– letters and photos. This soon devolves into Agnese throwing a fit.
Agnese dreams of a tall, blonde woman out in the woods. Arianna looks outside to see her mother bent over a dead rabbit, eating it. Agnese looks up and has black eyes, and Arianna climbs a tree to get away from her. Agnes then pushes the tree down and then sniffs Arianna all over. A wolf howls, and Agnes is gone.
We get a flashback of much-younger Arianna coming into her mother’s bedroom and killing little Leonardo as her mother sleeps. Arianna killed the baby and let her mother take the blame.
Brian’s Commentary
For a while, early on, it gave off hints that it was going to be a werewolf movie; we wish we were that lucky.
It’s extremely slow, atmospheric, and moody. For the first hour, the only real action is the occasional shots of Arianna dancing, and those don’t really have any relevance to the plot. We’re just past the one-hour point before we get any hint that this might be a horror movie.
It’s dark and depressing; well shot and looks good throughout. It’s good at showing the stress of dealing with someone who has mental illness and family tragedy, but there’s really very little actual story here. Even the reveal at the end about Leonardo's death was not surprising or particularly impactful.
Nope. Didn’t like it at all.
Kevin’s Commentary
This had some moments that I enjoyed, and I thought the wrap up was interesting. But mostly it felt like a long depressing slog. I didn’t much care for it.
2024 Don’t Mess with Grandma
● AKA “Sunset Superman”
● Directed by Jason Krawczyk
● Written by Jason Krawczyk
● Stars Michael Jai White, Jackie Richardson, Billy Zane
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was awesome fun. There’s always a hint of a horror element to home invasion and being cut off without the ability to call for help, but this one is more humor and action than anything else. We really enjoyed it.
Spoilery Synopsis
JT delivers food to an old man with a goose that hates him; the goose, not the old man. We get flashes of how hard his job can be sometimes; it’s a sort of Meals on Wheels organization, and he’s not very good at it. His coworker Trent asks if he’s talked to his grandma about a nursing home; she lives two hours away, and he visits every day.
Credits roll as JT makes the long drive to Grandma’s house, listening to awful audiobooks. Grandma’s dog hates JT, just like the goose. The bossy old lady has JT carry a bear’s head and hide upstairs. They’re having chicken corn chowder for dinner, but there’s no chicken– or corn. Grandma’s house is full of taxidermied animals, work done by the now passed-on grandpa.
Grandma’s sink upstairs is broken, and JT gets to work on fixing it; it’s either that or reading erotic novels to Grandma. While he’s upstairs working, several men wearing pig masks and carrying knives break in the window. As one of the men approaches Grandma, JT beats him silly. The other man tries to stab JT, but stabs her accomplice accidentally. When the stabbed man starts to cry and scream, JT orders him to shut up before Grandma finds out. He literally throws them out the window onto the porch as the guard dog sleeps in the corner.
Ted, Carl, and Kim argue about the useless masks; they couldn’t see anything during the fight, and Kim stabbed Ted in the back since she couldn’t tell who was who. They weren’t expecting JT to be there. Kim thinks JT is probably a Satanist; they all come out here for orgies and sacrifices and stuff.
Indoors, Grandma continues reading her pornography. JT hunts around and finds a gun and some ammo. He takes Grandma’s hearing aid so she can’t tell what’s really going on. JT goes outside to find that the three bandits have turned into seven. Stan is the leader, and he’s not especially smart either.
Every time JT gets the drop on the bad guys, Grandma interrupts, wanting something; now it’s dinner time. They sit at the table, and he talks about a nursing home. She lays on the granny-guilt about being an inconvenience to him. Carl offers to ransack the house, and JT and Grandma can just sit on the porch. They want something in the house. Carl makes it inside and meets Rufus the guard dog, who finally decides not to like him either. There is much screaming, and eventually, JT comes back inside.
Inside, JT and Rufus debate over their next move, and they don’t seem particularly upset. Bill, one of the baddies, tries to crawl in the bathroom window, and Rufus tears him apart– we have our first fatality! Grandma comes up for her bath, and JT has got all the blood splatter and corpse cleaned up. “Why is the water red?” “It’s the raspberry soap, Grandma.”
“Grandma is literally bathing in the blood of my enemies,” he points out to himself. Pam gets into the house, and she fights with JT; she’s undefeated with her Ju-Jistu black belt– until now. JT argues with bandits over the meaning of the word “defenestrated.”
JT grabs a hostage and takes him inside. Grandma finally sees him– it’s Carl, the guy who brings her groceries. She invites him for chowder and a card game. Meanwhile, the idiots outside try to figure out what to do with Bill’s body. Even after dinner, Grandma is still oblivious to the burglary. Carl and JT talk about medical school and crime. Stan and Jan have been doing this regularly to rob old people. This time around, they want that bear’s head– it’s an extinct California Grizzly. It’s priceless, even with the googly eyes.
Grandma finds a pamphlet for “Shady Acres” in the trash and starts to read it. She discusses the idea with Rufus, who won’t be able to go with her. JT gives Carl the bear’s head.
Outside, Stan has called in reinforcements, and there are at least a dozen of them out there now. JT and all the others call each other names for a while. He offers them Carl and the bear head, but Stan wants more. They want the copper pipes from the house too, so they turn down the offer. The new group has some big goons, but they don’t fare well either; now JT actually looks angry.
Grandma goes up to the attic to look at old photos and memorabilia. Does she really want to leave her home of so many years? Meanwhile, JT fights about a dozen guys in the front yard. They finally overwhelm him, and he sits up and talks about being a loser as he gets right back up. Fully recharged, he goes into ass-kicking mode and gets serious. “I’m gonna be sore tomorrow,” he tells Rufus, “and I’m pretty drunk.”
Stan himself finally gets into it, but JT isn’t fazed. Stan whines about not being able to afford the down payment on a boat. “Go home! We’re done here!”
JT’s friend Trent from work shows up and helps JT back inside. JT brings Carl in to look at Rufus. Stan whacked the dog with his shotgun, and the dog was injured.
Grandma catches up to JT and admits that she’s been too hard on him. She pulls out the Shady Acres pamphlet, and she thinks maybe that might be a good idea. As they talk, Carl fixes up Rufus, so he’ll be fine.
Grandma wants JT, Trent, and Carl to play Rummy. Pam brings back the bear head and gets roped into the game, too. The baddies are outside, packing up to go home.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s a very serious, terrifying home invasion film. OK, well maybe not so serious. The writer said he wrote this specifically to see “Michael Jai White punch as many people as possible in 80 minutes."
JT laughs and wisecracks throughout the film; he never gets angry and sees the whole situation as amusing. His attitude and self-narration throughout is the best thing here.
Kevin’s Commentary
Michael Jai White is perfect in the role and the script was very fun. I liked everything about it.
Mainstream Film:
2018 The Strangers: Prey At Night
● Directed by Johannes Roberts
● Written by Bryan Bertino, Ben Ketai
● Stars Christina Hendricks, Martin Henderson, Bailee Madison
● Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
They took the elements of the first movie and dialed it up a bit in this one. It’s more of the same, but more so in victims, action, and violence. They improved on it with this one. It’s a worthy sequel that we’d recommend.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on an old pickup truck with three people inside. They pull off the side of the foggy road near a house. An old woman wakes up; there’s a knock at her door. Turns out, the knock is coming from inside the house. Someone in a doll mask lays down in bed next to the old woman’s sleeping husband. Credits roll.
We cut to Mike, Cindy, and their daughter, Kinsey, who are packing for a trip. They pick up their son, Luke, on the way to Uncle Marv and Aunt Sheryl’s place. Kinsey is going to a boarding school that her parents can’t really afford. Kinsey has done some bad stuff this year, so now she’s being sent away to straighten up.
They arrive at Marv and Sheryl’s place, near the house we’ve seen before the credits. They get their own mobile home, but soon, there’s a knock at the door. A girl is there, wanting to talk to Tamara. The “Tamara” woman comes back and asks again.
She leaves, and then Kinsey and Luke talk about their futures. They walk to another mobile home that has its door left open. They walk right in and help themselves to the booze in the cupboard. They hear a noise from the back and find the dog trapped in a bedroom. There’s also the smell of death and a crazy wall of “Hellos.” Then they find a body.
They run and tell Mike, who comes to investigate. Kinsey and Cindy return to their own trailer to find their cellphones have all been smashed. The doll-faced woman comes out of nowhere with a knife and traps them in the bathroom. Kinsey gets out through the skylight, but Cindy isn’t fast enough and gets stabbed repeatedly.
Mike and Luke find the bodies untouched, but there are two people in masks also there, and they can’t get out. Mike gets Uncle Marv’s gun, and the two cross the field back toward their place and find what’s left of Cindy. They crash the car, and Mike can’t get out, so Luke is left with the gun and on his own. As soon as Luke leaves, the man in the mask sits next to Mike in the car and stabs him.
One of the doll-woman stabs Kinsey in the leg just as Luke comes in with the gun and makes her back off. He can’t bring himself to shoot the gun, so they run away.
Luke goes into a closed-down store and calls the police, but he doesn’t know exactly where they are, and by the time he figures it out, he isn’t alone. Luke knocks out and stabs one of the doll women to death, and he’s pretty thorough about it. The sack-head man chases Luke around the pool and eventually stabs him. Kinsey pulls him out of the pool before he dies, but he’s in pretty bad shape.
Kinsey continues on toward the main road. She runs right into a cop who helps her off the road, but they don’t see the other doll woman who walks up and slices his throat. Kinsey uses the policeman’s shotgun to shoot the second doll woman. “Why are you doing this?” Kinsey asks. “Why not?” says the about-to-die killer.
The man in the sack mask is still out there. He rams the police car so Kinsey can’t use that to get away. The gas leaks out of his car, and she makes his truck go boom. Still, he’s a hard maniac to kill, and he chases her some more, flaming truck and all. He gets out and menaces her on foot, but he’s badly burned, shaking, and he’s been impaled with glass. He collapses.
A young mother and son see Kinsey on the road and stop to help. We see that Bagman is very persistent and not at all dead yet.
We cut to Kinsey sitting next to Luke in the hospital; he didn’t die. Someone knocks on the door, and she responds in terror.
Brian’s Commentary
Kevin noted immediately that the actor who plays Teenage Luke is Bill Pullman’s son. I noted that this is a normal-looking mobile home park full of occupied houses with lights on. None of them hears anything or calls the cops, even when Mike drives his car into one of the houses. Yes, it was explained that it was the off-season, but that doesn’t account for all the parked cars and lights on.
The small mobile homes don’t allow for the hide-and-seen antics of the first film, so they had to do something else here.
It was the same as the first one, only they went to new places with this one, and actually improved it, in my opinion.
Oh, and the man in the bag mask has good taste in 80s music. Just sayin’.
Kevin’s Commentary
At least the daughter is really a teenager. I liked how they stepped everything up in this one a bit. More victims, a bigger playground for the cat and mouse, more violence and action. I would say that I liked it better than the first movie.
2024 The Strangers Chapter 1
● Directed by Renny Harlin
● Written by Alan R. Cohen, Alan Freedland, Bryan Bertino
● Stars Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez, Richard Brake
● Run Time: 1 Hour, 31 Minutes
● Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was well made, with good effects, believable acting, and ample suspense. But it wasn’t much of anything new that we hadn’t seen before. There were many similarities to the first two films in the series. On the other hand, there is only so much they can do about the idea. If you liked the previous movies, you’ll probably like this one but don’t expect many surprises. If you haven’t seen the previous films, you’ll be okay just starting with this one - which is the first part of a new trilogy.
Spoilery Synopsis
A man runs through the woods in terror. The Strangers approach him, and the bag-head man hacks him with his ax. We are told that 1.4 million people go missing every year– seven just since the film started!
Somewhere in Oregon, it’s Ryan and Maya’s fifth anniversary (of dating). They complain about having no phone signal here in the middle of nowhere. They stop at a diner, and everyone stares at them. Eden and Neil are friendly, but most of the others aren’t. They see a “Missing” poster for Jeff Morrell, the guy killed in the pre-credit sequence.
When they leave, their alternator is dead, so they have to order a part; they have to spend the night. Waitress Shelly recommends an AirBNB locally. Ryan thinks mechanic Rudy is scamming them, but Maya is more trusting. They get to the Airbnb, and it’s way nicer than a motel.
Just as the couple starts getting a little romantic, there’s a knock at the door. “Is Tamara here?” asks the shadowy girl. Ryan has left his inhaler in the car, which is in town, so he makes the trip on a motorcycle to go and retrieve it. Alone now, Maya hears knocking at the door. Again, it’s “Is Tamara here?” As she deals with the weirdo at the door, she loses her phone.
In town, Ryan runs into Rudy, the mean mechanic, gets what he came for, and stops to pick up food.
At the house, Bag-head watches Maya take a shower, and he’s not subtle about it; she’s oblivious. Suddenly, the power goes out. When she gets out of the shower, there’s a fire in the fireplace and signs that she’s not alone in the house. Then she sees a woman in a doll mask and runs to hide. By the time Ryan returns, she’s terrified. He thinks she’s hallucinated the whole thing. He runs off the “Tamara” girl outside yet again, and they eat their dinner.
They find a dead bird hanging in the kitchen and finally decide it’s time to lock all the doors. Too late, Scarecrow hacks the door down with his ax. Doll Face and Pinup are there as well, and they quickly take over the house, with Ryan and Maya hiding in the bedroom.
Suddenly, it gets quiet downstairs, so they assume the strangers have left the house. They run for the motorcycle parked outside, but it explodes just before they get to it. They run back into the bathroom and try getting out through the rat-infested crawl space underneath. Maya impales her hand on a nail but can’t scream, or she’ll get caught. Ryan pulls out the nail and bandages everything in complete silence.
When they do get out of the crawlspace, Ryan drops his inhaler. They hide in a shed, but Pinup is already in there. Ryan finds a shotgun and shoots— the homeowner, who had come to repair the refrigerator. They take the man’s car, but Scarecrow rams them repeatedly with his truck, so that’s not gonna help.
Maya hides in the woods as Dollface hunts for her; she uses the homeowner’s phone to call 911, but there’s hardly any signal. She rolls over and finds the skeleton of one of the former victims. Dollface knocks her out and drags her back to the house.
Meanwhile, Scarecrow and Pinup pursue Ryan through the same woods. He gets the drop on Pinup, but she doesn’t act the way he expects, daring him to shoot her. This simply delays things before Scarecrow knocks him out.
The unhappy couple wakes up inside the house, all tied up. Ryan chooses this romantic moment to propose to Maya, and she accepts. Pinup immediately stabs him as the other two watch. “Why are you doing this to us?” screams Maya. “Because you’re here,” answers Pinup. Scarecrow then stabs Maya as well.
Sirens blare as the police finally approach; Maya’s 911 call did get through. The strangers get into their truck and drive away. We zoom in on Maya, who isn’t quite dead.
Maya awakens in the hospital. “To be continued…”
Brian’s Commentary
This is the third film of the series and also the first of a new trilogy. All three new films were filmed simultaneously. Since most of the baddies died in “Prey at Night,” this is a prequel or requel to the original two films. Also, it has numerous similarities and repeated plot points to “Prey at Night,” but if it’s been a few years since you saw that one, the similarities might not be as noticeable (we watched it just yesterday, so it was pretty obvious).
This has all the dumb tropes. Maya hears things inside the house and knows there’s someone outside, so she decides to take a shower. Ryan gets home, and she doesn’t insist that she actually saw Dollface inside the house. She smoked a little pot, so Ryan thinks she hallucinated. They have a peephole in the front door that they never use, not even once.
It was awfully similar to the other two films, but if you liked those, you’d probably like this one as well. You do NOT need to have seen the previous films to know what’s happening here.
Kevin’s Commentary
It was good in every way, but the idea is limited, so there is quite a bit here that’s been seen in the previous two movies. There was a real facepalm moment when there had already been strangeness going on for quite some time, and they suddenly decided it was time to lock the doors and windows. I liked it okay, but I didn’t feel like I was seeing anything new.
Short Films:
2024 Short Film: 0 Lux - The Hatman Film
● Directed by Matt Sears
● Written by Matt Sears
● Stars Sam Alan, Philip Ridout
● Run Time: 6:52
● Watch it:
What Happens
A man’s father has recently died, and he comes to the old man’s house to go through his things. He packs some photos and things and then finds a bag containing a video camera. He turns on the camera and looks through it; nothing special. Then he turns on “0 Lux” mode, the night-vision mode. He starts seeing things through the camera that he’s just not meant to see…
Commentary
This is based on “The Hatman,” a ghost-like entity that many people have supposedly reported seeing. He’s often reported as just standing in the corner of the room, just watching. Unless, of course, you have a special camera…
It’s good. It’s got a full story, it’s concise, and even without much dialogue, it’s clear what’s going on.
2022 Short Film: Street No. 4
● Directed by Lark Lee
● Written by Lark Lee, Koji Steven Sakai
● Stars Tonia Hammerich, Susan Bush, Elsa Luan
● Run Time: 7:30
● Watch it:
What Happens
Julia has recently moved into a new house with her husband who is away, and she’s pregnant. She loves the new house, but he doesn’t; they fight over it over the phone. She finds that her stove won’t light, so she goes to the neighbor’s house to borrow a lighter. The woman next door freaks out when Julia mentions that she’s moved in next door to number 4. What could be so terrible about that house?
Commentary
It’s well-shot and looks good. We don’t get a full explanation of why things are happening, but we never have any doubt as to what is happening. There’s a ghost in the house, and it seems to be concerned with the baby, but why?
You’ll have to watch to find out.
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