Flesh and Fluids: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) Review

Director: Jane Schoenbrun 

Notable Cast: Hannah Einbinder, Gillian Anderson, Amanda Fix, Arthur Conti, Eva Victor, Zach Cherry, Sharah Sherman, Patrick Fishler, Dylan Baker, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Quintessa Swindell, Kevin McDonald, Jack Haven

 

Considering that there have been dozens of films that have deconstructed and analyzed the slasher genre, when director/writer Jane Schoenbrun decided to give their take on crafting a (somewhat) meta slasher, it was easy to jump on board. Jane has already crafted one hell of a career in just two prior feature-length films, the incredibly poignant We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and A24’s I Saw the TV Glow, and with their latest entry, the incredibly titled Teenage Sex and Death At Camp Miasma, certainly cements them as one of the brightest auteurs working in cinema. 

 

Teenage Sex and Death At Camp Miasma, which I will shorten for the sake of my arthritis to Camp Miasma (fitting considering how the movie treats its fictional franchise), continues some of the themes that Schoenbrun has baked into their material, but it manages to take the surrealistic stylings and expand them immensely. The result is a dynamic combination that wears its genre influences on its sleeve but still feels fresh and exciting in its approach to the material. It’s a film that has pure adoration for slashers and those who grew up with them, but it's also not afraid to address its flaws with thoughtful analysis and a delightful tongue firmly planted in cheek.

 

It’s not a stretch to imagine that Camp Miasma, at least to some degree, feels like Schoenbrun is continuing to interrogate their own feelings about how media consumption can be both problematic and enlightening. If We’re All Going to the World’s Fair is meant to interrogate how the internet is a double-edged sword for connection and I Saw the TV Glow intends to navigate the concepts around television fandom and identity, then this latest film wants to - as the title very blatantly indicates - contemplate how audiences use horror cinema as catharsis for feelings around sexuality and mortality. 

 

What better genre to discuss sex and death than a slasher, right?

 

The Learning Dead: Colony (2026) Review

Director: Yeon Sang-ho

Notable Cast: Gianna Jun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Shin Hyun-been, Kim Shin-rock, Go Soo

Ten years after setting the world ablaze with his smash-hit zombie phenomenon, filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho has spent the years releasing a plethora of films spanning many genres, such as thrillers, more horror, sci-fi, and even a superhero film. The man is quite busy and has put out many successful films, and a few miniseries at that. Yeon is a busy man, and in just one mere decade, he has put out his fourth zombie offering into cinemas across the globe. In the line of those before it: Train to Busan, Seoul Station, Peninsula, and now... Colony. This film takes the zombie formula, sets it in a high-rise mall, and while the setting is very familiar, the execution and the ideas within the story are quite unique and make for one of the freshest offerings in the zombie sub-genre that I've seen in many years. Add putting Gianna Jun back on the big screen for the first time in a long while, and you have a formula for success.

Professor Se-jeong (Jun) is attending a biotech conference one evening in a room on one of the many floors inside of a high-rise mall. We have restaurants, a myriad of stores, and, as the floors climb, office spaces and conference rooms, et cetera. Once the "hivemind" focused science presentation concludes, a crazed terrorist launches an attack and spreads a specialized virus within the hallway right outside. The infection begins to spread in classic zombie fashion, and Se-jeong and various other survivors find themselves fighting to survive and planning their escape. I don't wish to delve too much into the details, but the formula itself feels quite tried and true, and where Colony truly shines and sets itself apart is in the small ideas and the way things are executed. The zombies learn, adapt, and ultimately evolve as a group via a hive-mind communication system. The infected will stop, and yes, before I continue, I know some people will be screaming these aren't traditional zombies, but purists aside, I think these are zombies, but anyway... they stop, and one begins to click its throat and screech, and the others stop and take in the newly learned information, and they begin to transform their abilities. I don't want to spoil anything once more, but where this leads and how it plays out are very thrilling and refreshing, with so many unique ideas on display.

Characters in Yeon's zombie films have always been a strong point in these stories, and while maybe not reaching the emotional heights of Train to Busan, Colony probably has the best bunch of characters with the most unique traits out of all of them. They perhaps don't get fleshed out as well, or not as much time to shine as in other offerings; still, these characters and their traits or even gimmicks always have their moment to shine, and we see the film circling back in on itself repeatedly to bring these beats and character archetypes into a full-circle moment, and it happens time and time again. There is a character in a wheelchair, for example, and the film showcases her relationship with her brother quite well, and her being in the wheelchair bleeds into the zombies' learning, and into the story, and this comes up an is harkened back to tie and time again, and this happens with many characters across the board, and it is great, offering smaller but very impacting emotional moments, and helps to build the way the film keeps taking the many turns that it does. I never quite knew what evolution would bring next, or what intense situation our group would find themselves in around every corner. No one ever seems safe, and danger lurks within every single corner of this massive playground that is the high-rise mall. Many great sequences unfold within, and Colony has some of the most distinctive and satisfying zombie carnage put on screen since Romero's iconic classics.

In addition to Yeon's frenetic action and stellar filmmaking, certain performances stand out, such as Gianna Jun as the tough and extremely intelligent Professor Su-jeong, the vehicular lead who pulls other great side characters along as she spearheads the action and keeps the plot advancing. She does action so well, and it takes me back to her work in Kingdom or Blood: The Last Vampire. She is one of the most versatile actresses working in South Korea, and it was great to see her in a big theatrical film once again. 

The standout performance to me, more than any of the side characters or Jun herself, would be the villainous performance by ever-impressive Koo Kyo-hwan, who steals the show every time he comes into frame. He has this sort of timid presence on the surface, but an unhinged tenacity and determination that boils over as he watches this premeditated terrorist attack unfold. The strings he pulls are impressive, and I love watching him manipulate everyone around him. He also, and no I'm no native speaker of Korean, does this thing with the way he speaks that I really love. It adds this small oomph to his already terrifying and unhinged character. He feels like a comic book villain, but never leans into farce or playing it too melodramatically. He nails the role, and I think folks will be looking back at his performance in this horror offering for many years to come.

With a unique spin on the zombie formula, the way things unfold in the ever-twisting narrative, many fun characters, and exhilarating set pieces that keep the action moving at a brisk pace, Colony stands among the very best cinematic offerings that Yeon has to offer. I am a massive fan of his early animated works (King of Pigs, The Fake) and his mammoth known as Train to Busan, but I think this stands nearly shoulder to shoulder with those great pieces of cinema. This is a very confident piece of action horror, and a zombie movie determined to win its place in many moviegoers' hearts this year. One of the best of 2026 for me thus far, and while this film isn't a masterpiece, any stretch, it is a near-perfect piece of popcorn entertainment, and it gets my highest recommendation for people looking for a good time.

Written by Josh Parmer

Life for a Life: Eye for an Eye (2022) Review

Director: Yang Bingjia

Notable Cast: Xie Miao, Gao Weiman, Xiang Hao, Liu Ben, Zhang Di, Gao Yi, Zhang Haosen

 

“It’s a life for a life. You don’t need to take 10,000 lives. Don’t you understand that?”

 

In a sequence prior to the final showdown with the film’s nemesis in Eye for an Eye, our hero Cheng is informed that one of his cohorts has fallen. The manner in which Yang Bingjia shoots it is caked in deep black shadow, Cheng’s back to the woman telling the story through her tears, as he sits on his knees. The moment is intercut with the villain, Yuwen Ying, preparing his team for the eventual showdown with a ritual in falling snow as drums beat heavily and dancers in all-white costumes move swiftly around. 

 

The juxtaposition between the deep black of Cheng’s pre-war ritual and the bright whites of the Yuwen’s personal guard in the snow, partnered with the stillness of our hero and the scattered movement of the enemy, makes for a fascinating contrast of ideology, invoking a yin-yang style of interconnectedness with its color scheme, and how each character is treating how their roads will intersect. Cheng, a blind swordsman and bounty hunter, pulls his sword from his cane while still kneeling in the darkness and opens his eyes for the first time in the film; the paleness of his eyes pops like the metal of his sword in the blackness. He only closes them as he sheathes the sword once again. He might be blind, but his sword sees the truth of this moment, opening his eyes in this split second, before being closed again. The moment ends as it cuts to black, then cuts to Yuwen, his eyes closed, only to open upon Cheng's arrival at his front door. No words are exchanged, and the final bloody conflict commences. 

 

Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Deadite: Evil Dead Burn (2026) Review

Director: Sébastien Vaniček

Notable Cast: Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan, Luciane Buchanan, Erroll Shand, Maude Davey, George Pullar

 

If there’s one thing that I am willing to give the most recent run of Evil Dead films, starting with the remake back in 2013, it’s that they very much feel like the directors are given a decent amount of freedom to create ‘their’ Evil Dead film. So much so that, whether the audience wants it or not, there is an underlying theme in each one. Fede Alvarez used Evil Dead (2013) to explore drug addiction, and Lee Cronin used Evil Dead Rise to delve into the complexities of motherhood. The latest, technically the sixth film in the series, continues that trend with a new director and new themes to eviscerate. 

 

For the latest, the Evil Dead curators Raimi and Tapert have handed off the franchise to up-and-coming French filmmaker Sébastien Vaniček, and he has his own take on the demonic forces of this franchise’s world that both doubles down on the visceral violence, suffocating tension, and its traumatic themes. His film, Evil Dead Burn, represents a continuation of the series with more continuity to previous entries, while managing to certainly be a film with its own identity - which has already resulted in some mixed reactions from fans. However, Vaniček ably blends the two like blood and snow to deliver a vicious film that never pulls its punches, even in its rather nihilistic themes and narrative choices. Yes, it’s absolutely what I want in an Evil Dead film.

 

While most fans are going to be coming to a new Evil Dead movie for its horror pedigree, it’s perhaps more fitting to discuss the film’s plot and narrative first. Not that the film lacks in its horrors, in fact it’s quite the opposite, but the most fascinating aspect of Evil Dead Burn is how it manages to replicate the necessary components of the franchise: isolated setting, a group of people to get Deadite’d, some lore around the evils manifested on Earth, and a wild array of creative ways to get pulverized, while still managing to push the series forward.