Slice of Strife: The Wailing (2025) Review

Director: Pedro Martín Calero

Notable Cast: Ester Expósito, Mathilde Ollivier, Malena Villa, Claudia Roset, José Luis Ferrer, Lia Lois, Sonia Almarcha, Tomás del Estal, Lautaro Bettoni, Alex Monner

 

The entire arthouse horror aspect of pairing "haunting" and "trauma" has now become a staple of the genre, but The Wailing approaches it in a fascinating way. The film essentially tells its tale through three women through two different time frames. It's a slow-burn narrative that focuses on how this haunting builds from the mundane to the manic, and on not being up front with its terrors, but seeding them under the skin and in the folds of the brain. Sure, it’s the kind of horror film that seems fairly par-for-the-course now in a post-A24 era, but don’t sell The Wailling short - it has a voice, and it's executed impressively. 

 

The Wailing is a film that might be compared to other haunting/trauma films, like the socio-hauntings of It Follows or the technological horrors of The Ring, but it wholly wants to present itself as a slice-of-life film. It just happens to feature various characters who are terrorized by an unseen horror that creeps up through an outside lens (in this case, the camera), thereby highlighting the technological aspect that was so prevalent in late 90s and early 00s J-horror. However, the film certainly takes its time with each of its characters as they go about their lives, and with how each one eventually succumbs to the horror of this ‘curse’ passed down to them. The process of getting there may be fairly mundane to some, with its incredibly meticulous pacing and seemingly meandering character beats, but it all fits with the complexity of its themes and the humanity that is tragically lost as the horror grows closer. 

 

Peril at Sea: Rescue at Dongji (2026) Review

Directors: Fei Zhenxiang, Guan Hu

Notable Cast: Zhu Yilong, Leo Wu, Ni Ni, Yang Haoyu, Chen Minghao, Ni Dahong, William Franklyn-Miller, Li Jiuxiao, Wang Yiquan, Kevin Lee

 

Living in the shadow of Hollywood, the big war story blockbuster is essentially its own genre. Although Chinese cinema handily receives the “jingoistic” label more often than not, let’s be up front and honest here - they learned how to do it from Hollywood. And judging from Rescue at Dongji, they’ve taken the classic war-film elements, given them a Chinese cinematic twist, and let them rip. Rescue at Dongji is a bombastic flick, layered with incredible performances, white-knuckle action, and a heartfelt narrative that speaks universally. While it certainly feels like it owes much of its success to lessons learned from previous films, it does so in a way that makes it feel fresh, and that’s ultimately what matters. 

 

Part of what makes Rescue at Dongji (sometimes noted as Dongji Rescue) so fresh is that it strikes a balance between the rousing heroics and the war's innate brutality, which these films so often miss. Its narrative is certainly centered on the village's heroics. The focus remains on two brothers, played by Zhu Yilong and Leo Wu - outcasts even on the island they were raised on, adopted by a local fishing family, and their relationship with each other and the life they live in the village. By focusing on them and then building the settings around them, the film moves from being just a historical action drama to a film about humanity. It’s an incredibly smart choice.

 

Fangs For Everything: Night Patrol (2026) Review

Director: Ryan Prows

Notable Cast: Jermaine Fowler, Justin Long, RJ Cyler, Nicki Micheaux, Freddie Gibbs, Phil Brooks, Dermot Mulroney, YG, Flying Lotus

 

Watching Night Patrol made me realize something. Boy, do I really miss Tales from the Crypt. Not just the show, but there was a time in the 90s when the HBO horror series made the leap to the silver screen for a couple of films. (Do we count that third Tales from the Crypt movie, Ritual, that no one saw?) Watching the strange concoction that is Night Patrol gave me the vibes of when I saw Demon Knight some decades ago. The offbeat humor, the bold swings in lore-building, the use of fantastic character actors, and the ambitiously deranged social commentary just give off big Tales from the Crypt vibes. And, quite frankly, I am 100% here for it. 

 

Night Patrol is the kind of independent horror that ought to find a very dedicated audience with time. Not only does it encapsulate the era of its release, particularly in how it portrays police violence and a distinct arm of the law that seemingly operates with no limitations, but it also does so by creating its own world that runs parallel to our own. Ryan Prows’ second feature-length effort is so oddly satisfying in the threading of its tones and themes that it immediately cements itself as a cult classic - brutally punchy in its efforts, but so incredibly watchable nonetheless. 

 

One Way Ticket: Ghost Train (2026) Review

Director: Tak Se-woong

Notable Cast: Joo Hyun-young, Jeon Bae-soo, Choi Bo-min, Kim Ji-in, Kim Woo-kyum, Jung Han-bit, Kim Na-yeon, Lim Cheol-soo, Hyun Bong-sik

 

When it comes to a horror anthology, it’s always a joy to see how the creative team can conjure a structure, balance the stories, and make it all pay off. If you get it right, find the tone and keep up the pace, even if one or two of the smaller stories don’t hit fully, the whole retains its strengths.

For Ghost Train, director Tak Se-woong goes all in on the urban myth of a haunted train station, delivering a handful of great ghost stories and a surprisingly solid wraparound that presents each tale in a shockingly fun, modern way. If anything, the film often comes off as less of an anthology, particularly in the latter half, and it plays with expectations in fun ways that deliver jump scares without ever pulling away from the character piece and themes at its core. Needless to say, Ghost Train is a spooky, conceptually fun way to kick off 2026 in horror. 

 

Being in the content creation industry for a larger company is not always easy, and for Da-kyung, played by Joo Hyun-young, her horror YouTube channel is in danger of being drowned out by all the beauty tip channels. However, her latest series, which is based on the hauntings around a particular train station, has caught the eye of a young producer at her company. She schedules an interview with one of the station's workers, an older gentleman who should have plenty of stories, and as he shares each, she finds herself delving deeper into the realm of the supernatural. 

 

Great Dragons Conceal Their Power: Blades of the Guardians (2026) Review

Director: Yuen Woo-Ping

Notable Cast: Wu Jing, Yu Shi, Chen Lijun, Nicholas Tse, Sun Yizhou, Ci Sha, Li Yunxiao, Tony Leung Ka-fai, Max Zhang, Jet Li, Zhang Yi, Kara Wei, Liu Yaowen, Xioung Jinyi

 

Considering the substantial cast and having an icon like Yuen Woo-Ping sitting in the director’s chair for this one, I could start this review out by stating things how Blades of the Guardians is an action fan’s dream come true or that Yuen Woo-Ping has delivered his best film in decades - both of which are true - but I think I want to start this off with a bit more heat. 

 

Thank you, Chinese streaming movies. 

 

Sure, Blades of the Guardians is the big title being released for Lunar New Year, and it’s probably going to slaughter in the international box office. It’s the kind of grandiose combination of spectacle, A-list names, and entertaining action cinema that will appease fans and newbies alike. And yet, as the film played out, using its dusty setting, well-choreographed action set pieces, and broad-stroke classic wuxia characters was not a reaction to the success of low-budget wuxia films on streaming sites like iQIYI. 

 

While the Chinese box office has been dominated by big CGI-focused fantasy-driven wuxia films over the last 10 to 20 years (which is fine for films like Creation of the Gods, but feels unwieldy and bloated for films like Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants), there was something of a counter movement in the streaming sector that pulled away from that. Smaller stories, big characters played by charismatic actors (often names from action films versus fantasy ones), and a focus on strong intimate action featuring plenty of stylish wire-work sword play. Films like Eye for an Eye, Blade of Fury, or Butcher’s Blade have reignited my own love of the gritty wuxia film. 

 

And, dare I say, Blades of the Guardians has far more in common with those films than it does with the fantasy-driven wuxia, and it’s better for it. Yuen Woo-Ping and his team pull away from the bloat that weighed down some of his previous wuxia efforts (particularly The Thousand Faces of Dunjia) and instead drive home a film about heroes, villains, justice, and a whole lot of sword-slashin'. The monsters here are people driven by power lust, not creatures from folklore, and the plotting has far more in common with Mad Max: Fury Road than with the Shakespearean politics of a film like Creation of the Gods. Blades of the Guardians is old-fashioned, brilliant action, slathered in modern spectacle and driven by heartfelt characters. And yes, I will argue that it’s one of Yuen Woo-Ping’s best films. Period. 

 

Dino Crisis: Jurassic World: Rebirth (2025)

Director: Gareth Edwards

Notable Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey, Rupert Friend, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Luna Blaise, David Iacono, Audrina Miranda, Philippine Velge, Bechir Sylvain, Ed Skrein

 

Truthfully, I could go on for ages about how fascinatingly bizarre and laden with misfires the Jurassic World series has been. The entire Jurassic Park franchise, now with seven entries, has been a roller coaster, with ups and downs that have been both thrilling and perplexing. It’s one of the reasons why I love franchises. Yet, I’m pretty sure all the best and worst choices around Jurassic World can be dissected by looking at how Universal approached Jurassic World: Rebirth, the latest entry into the dinosaur mayhem franchise. 

 

The previous film, Jurassic World: Dominion, was bloated, filled with too many ideas, too many characters, too much nostalgia, and a wild approach that felt like it was simply trying to be both a legacy sequel and take the series into a new era. It didn’t work. Like, at all. Thus, Jurassic World: Rebirth aims to reignite the franchise by continuing the series as a sequel while moving away from the issues that have plagued Dominion and Fallen Kingdom. It also doesn’t work. Like, at all. 

 

Survive Yesterday: Back to the Past (2026) Review

Directors: Ng Yuen-Fai, Jack Lai

Notable Cast: Louis Koo, Raymond Lam, Bai Baihe, Jessica Hsuan, Sonija Kwok Sin-Nae, Joyce Tang Lai-Ming, Michael Miu Kiu-Wai, Louis Cheung, Kevin Chu, Wu Yue, Timmy Hung Tin-Ming, Chris Collins, Liu Kai-Chi, John Tang Yat-Kwan, Michelle Saram

I suppose, deep down in my lizard brain, I knew this was coming, but the ‘legacy sequel’ trend that has exploded in Hollywood over the last decade or so is creeping over to Hong Kong and China. Not that they haven’t dabbled in it before, I certainly remember From Vegas to Macau, but I certainly didn’t expect there to be a movie sequel to the early 00s TV drama, A Step into the Past. Yet, here we are with Back to the Past, a strange combination of big-scale silver screen spectacle and made-for-TV movie melodrama that moves at breakneck speed and manages to entertain despite relying so heavily on its audience's memory of the original show. It’s the kind of love letter sequel that will have some viewers clamoring and others scratching their heads.

It’s been 20 years since Hong Siu-lung, played by the always reliable Louis Koo, was left stranded in the era of the Qin Dynasty. He’s raised a family, but he lives knowing that his protege, Chiu Poon, played by a very intensely scowly Ramond Lam, has become the Emperor and may come after him and his family at any time. When other future travelers come back in time to steal antiques to bring back to the future (time pirates?) Hong is forced to face off against Chiu once again - and possibly find a new path back to his time. 

Bullet Break Dancing: Baby Assassins 3 (2025)

Director: Yugo Sakamoto

Notable Cast: Akari Takaishi, Saori Izawa, Atomu Mizuishi, Tomo Nakai, Mondo Otani, Sosuke Ikematsu, Atsuko Maeda, Kaibashira, Karuma, Mr. Bunny, Satoshi Kibe

 

If there was ever an action franchise that I would watch for eternity, quality be damned, it’s definitely the Baby Assassins series. While I thoroughly enjoyed both of the first two entries into this strange mixture of slacker comedy and highly choreographed assassin action, this latest entry, Baby Assassins 3 (or Baby Assassins: Nice Days, as it was released in some markets), is perhaps the best of the lot. Not only does it continue to thread the needle with its two off-kilter genres mashed together, but there’s an extra layer of nuance and emotional payoff that lifts this above its predecessors. 

 

In preparation for this film, I rewatched the previous two entries over the course of a couple of weeks prior. It’s strange that for a series that has primarily been made by the same creatives, including writer/director Yugo Sakamoto (who also delivered the highly entertaining horror action hybrid Yellow Dragon’s Village), this one just feels so much more cinematic. Not only in its visual stylings, which grow more refined as the series goes on, but also in the writing. It’s a prime example of a case where the team behind this series is simply getting better at making these movies, despite never having had a misstep. 

Follow the Bloodline: Hell House LLC: Lineage (2025)

Director: Stephen Cognetti

Notable Cast: Elizabeth Vermilyea, Sierra Sawka, Mike Sutton, Joe Bandelli, Cayla Berejikian, Victoria Andrunik, Gideon Berger, Bridget Rose Perrotta, Destiny Leilani Brown

 

For a series that found its success for being an incredibly effective blend of documentary and found footage horror, it’s certainly baffling to some degree that director Stephen Cognetti would abandon the style for the “final” entry into the Hell House LLC series. He had already dabbled in narrative/traditional filmmaking with his first film outside of Hell House, the already-forgotten 825 Forest Road, so to come back to Hell House and NOT continue with the style that he found success in really does make one scratch their noggin. 

 

The fifth - and again supposedly final - entry, Hell House LLC: Lineage, has its audience return to the layers of lore established by the previous four entries as Vanessa (from Hell House LLC III) and Alicia (Hell House LLC Origins) tentatively team up to put together the entire story and find out what the hell is killing people in Abaddon and try and put an end to it. 

 

The Tragedy of Fate: Hunter in the Dark (1979) Review

Director: Hideo Gosha

Notable Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Yoshio Harada, Keiko Kishi, Ayumi Ishida, Makoto Fujita, Sonny Chiba, Isao Natsuyagi, Kayo Matsuo, Ai Kanzaki, Tatsuo Umemiya, Hajime Hana, Tetsuro Tamba, Koji Takusho

 

It’s a simple shot, towards the end of Hideo Gosha’s late-70s chanbara epic Hunter in the Dark, that really encapsulates the director's artistry and his take on various genres. A young woman sits leaning over a gravely injured lover. Not to spoil too much about the scene, but it’s a classic sequence where she begs him to get up, not to die, and he responds in the well-trodden “go, you need to go” kind of sacrificial statements. Truthfully, it’s not the best-written scene; it’s carried by two incredibly strong performances, but then Gosha does what Gosha does. He shoots it while slowly pulling the camera back, encircling the two characters in their square of light as the blackness around them grows, slowly shrinking the scene as it plays out until it's barely a fifth of the screen. By the end of it, it’s two characters, bared to the truth, both in denial about their respective places, and they are completely boxed in by the blackness around them.

I cried. Full on, tears down the face, cried.