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The Weekly Scream
New: Dust Bunny (VOD)
With READY OR NOT 2: HERE I COME exploding onto movie screens tomorrow, you may be in the mood for something to stream that blends horror, action, and comedy, and I cannot recommend DUST BUNNY more. Bryan Fuller reunites with his Hannibal muse, Mads Mikkelsen, to create the hitman fairytale of your nightmares — and my dreams! Truly bonkers work that will leave you screaming with joy. Rent it on VOD now.
GORE-O-METER 🩸🩸 out of 5
Classic: Bad Moon (Shudder)
In the early 1990s, horror found itself in a post-slasher wilderness. Studios then doubled down on reinventions of Universal Monsters, some with grand budgets and elevated aims (BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, MARY SHELLY’S FRANKENSTEIN) and some trying to be anything but a horror movie (WOLF and MARY REILLY… oof). Eric Red, meanwhile, followed up his grand guignol BODY PARTS with his own interpolated werewolf take, where the family dog is the hero, the transformations are terrifying, and the movie is a genuine undersung classic. BAD MOON is so much better than it has any right to be. Highly recommended and now on Shudder.
GORE-O-METER 🩸🩸🩸 out of 5
“How Is This Free?” Frailty (Fandango At Home)
Bill Paxton was originally approached to star in Frailty, but he made his case to make this Southern religious horror his directorial debut as well. The story focuses on two young boys who learn their father has been murdering men in the family basement, but hey, he has his reasons. He claims every one of them was secretly a demon. As heartfelt as it is heartbreaking, you should seek this one out. Watch it now on Fandango At Home.
GORE-O-METER 🩸 out of 5
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FRESH BLOOD
It’s Giving “Mother”
A24 dropped the very first images from their upcoming FRIDAY THE 13th prequel series CRYSTAL LAKE over at Bloody Disgusting, due to air on Peacock sometime in 2026. We don’t see much, but it does look like poor Claudette and Barry from the 1980 original’s cold open are in for yet another empty-box-filled room encounter with one angry Mrs. Voorhees.
Socks, shoes, shorts… everything stays on! (credit: A24/Peacock)
Mama has work to do! (credit: A24/Peacock)
Not So Sunny After All
Count me amongst the many fans saddened to read that Hulu had decided to pass on the new Sarah Michelle Gellar/Chloe Zhao-produced reboot of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER. Titled NEW SUNNYDALE, the action would have picked up with a new Slayer and Buffy swinging in at the end of the first episode in a new kind of Watcher-esque role. There’s still hope that another streamer or network might want to pick up the baton, but given the 22-year- long history of unrealized Buffy spin-offs, we might never get this particular Scooby Gang back together.
Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ryan Kiera Armstrong flank their trainer as they buff up for filming the pilot to the now scrapped Buffy reboot. [credit: Instagram]
The Autopsy
My goal is to always make this a positive space where we build community around horror movies… but I had to slam my spoon into my oatmeal when I saw this:
Now, Joe is a very genuine, passionate horror creator online, but come on: “Horror is back” — from WHAT?! From three weeks ago, when SCREAM 7 earned a franchise-best opening weekend haul? From a few weeks before that, when Markiplier’s self-financed IRON LUNG adaptation earned $21 million? Or are we “back” from Sam Raimi’s return to horror, SEND HELP, which has earned nearly $100 million worldwide? In 2025, horror films surpassed the $1 billion mark in theaters on the backs of hits like SINNERS, FINAL DESTINATION BLOODLINES, THE CONJURING: LAST RITES, and WEAPONS, just to name a few. At some point, we have to lose the Rodney Dangerfield-esque “We don’t get any respect” attitude and admit that the genre is one of the major drivers in getting butts in theater seats and eyeballs on screens, and not some pathetic also-ran that will never regain the monoculture highs of the 1980s and 90s.
It should be noted that there have been quite a few misses this year alone. Some that are deserved (looking at you, THE STRANGERS CHAPTER 3 and RETURN TO SILENT HILL) and some that deserved much, much better (especially 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE), but the reason for the current high volume of horror is that these movies are often cheaper to produce, like UNDERTONE’s $500k price tag, which makes its return-on-investment so attractive. That said, there is a saturation point, and I believe that too many horror titles are getting crowded into theaters too close to one another, which results in them “drinking each other’s milkshakes up.” If I learned anything from the epic 2022 run of horror titles, a two-to-three week buffer helps build anticipation, allows marketing to get the word out, and makes the ritual of going to the movies more habit-forming.
March has been particularly egregious, with February’s SCREAM 7 pushing into THE BRIDE!, UNDERTONE, READY OR NOT 2, and THEY WILL KILL YOU, all releasing in consecutive weeks - plus indie releases like DOLLY, BODYCAM, and PRETTY LETHAL on top of that. Can we expect even the dedicated horror audiences to want it this much, and this often?
Die Laughing
Just one meme that made us laugh this week…
The King of Memes is at it again. [credit: sarahhhhchristine on Threads]
Killer Conversation
Let’s all get to know each other a little better…
Last week’s poll asked which of the entries in FRIDAY THE 13th you considered the pinnacle of the franchise, and JASON LIVES squeaked into the top spot just above PART 2 and THE FINAL CHAPTER. These are all good choices, so I wasn’t surprised to see the vote spread out so evenly. But every rose has its hockey-masked thorn, so let’s find out which film you think deserves to live at the bottom of the Voorhees barrel.
Unlucky 13
Make sure to check back in next week to see if your pick “won” top honors!
Have you told your friends yet about SCREAM SHARE? It would mean the (under)world to me if you would pass on the word to a friend! Click the link below and share it with someone who needs more scream in their lives.
Pod People
This week on the Kill By Kill podcast, we took a break from ReMarch to celebrate FRIDAY THE 13th and delve into a heartbreaking question: What is the worst couple in the entire franchise? We’re talking sex inventors, defensive boxes, raising rabbits, kneecap makeouts, Dirty Peanuts, Sloppy Childs, nippleless bots, the plot of Cruising, and the OG of “Have You Considered My Penis?” boyfriends!! All this, plus a multi-decade spanning edition of Choose Your Own Deathventure, and we’ve got the best Bad Romances in Crystal Lake history. Check it out!!
