Chasing Your Dreams: Somnium (2025) Review

Director: Racheal Cain

Notable Cast: Chloe Levine, Will Peltz, Peter Vack, Grace Van Dien, Clarissa Thibeaux, Draya Michele, Jonathan Schaech, Gillian White, Steve Eifert, Bries Vannon

 

You know, Somnium has such a fascinating premise, and it is one hell of a hook. An overnight "sleep sitter," Gemma, played by Chloe Levine, works for a clinic that uses sleep suggestions on rich folks to change their habits and ideologies, and she struggles to adapt to her new life in LA. She made the trek from her small town in Georgia to be an actress all by herself, and now, as she desperately tries to get auditions with no real understanding of how the system works, she randomly stumbles into this job at Somnium that analyzes, reprograms, and writes dreams and feelings into people. Even on a baseline plot level, well, shit, I’m intrigued. It’s blending 1980s dream-science-fiction cinema with a more modern, slow-burning personal horror. Yes, please, go ahead and put my name on the list for that. 

 

Even more fascinating is how Somnium is treating its core ideas around ‘dreams.’ There's this interesting idea that the big city can feel dreamlike to someone from a small community (a feeling I know all too well, growing up in a farm community in South Dakota) and that everything can feel like both a threat and an opportunity. For Gemma, played with such a passionate, wide-eyed balance of confusion and fake confidence by Chloe Levine, it is the dream. The big city, the possibility of success, and leaving behind a life that felt like it was suffocating, particularly after a rather hard breakup with her hometown boyfriend, Hunter. Chasing the dream in a place that feels like a dream while working in a dream clinic. 

 

Fanning the Flames: Scream 7 (2026)

Director: Kevin Williamson

Notable Cast: Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox, Isabel May, Jasmin Savoy Brown, Mason Gooding, Roger L. Jackson, Anna Camp, Joel McHale, Celeste O’Connor, Sam Rechner, Asa Germann, Mckenna Grace, Mathew Lillard, Kraig Dane, Ethan Embry

 

You know, just when you thought things were going pretty fuckin’ well, Paramount and Spyglass had to go and do something real dumb and fire Melissa Barrera. The ‘rebooted’ Scream series found a lot of interesting paths to address creatively with both Scream (2022) and Scream VI for its new characters, and the producers/studio decided it would be a great idea to just detonate a landmine under the whole thing. The ripple effect of that decision was wild. They lost Jenna Ortega (who had found a very strong following in young viewers), and they lost their director, Christopher Landon, who went on to make the highly entertaining Drop in 2025. It didn’t quite look like the Scream franchise was, perhaps like Scream 4, going to be able to see this new era through.

 

However, Scream VI did make a franchise high best in theaters, so never count out the bean counters when it comes to a horror franchise. Thus, Scream 7 exists. To be fair, while this seventh entry into the meta-slasher iconic series does rank towards the bottom, it isn’t the horrific train wreck that I was expecting. Bringing back Kevin Williamson and Neve Campbell is one hell of a pivot, particularly since producers/studio seemingly gave the latter the middle finger regarding her involvement in Scream VI, and there are a lot of interesting aspects of this film that carry it through. Sure, it's very obvious that this was a script rushed through into production, and the overall thing feels more like a spin-off than a legitimate sequel, but it features some fantastic kill sequences, and Kevin Williamson is bringing a lot of old-school solid filmmaking to it, so it doesn’t feel quite like a side dish. For that, I will give it credit. 

A Stitch in Time: The Bride! (2026) Review

Director: Maggie Gyllenhaal

Notable Cast: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Penelope Cruz, Annette Bening, John Magaro, Jeannie Berlin, Jake Gyllenhaal

 

When the trailer for your film features the slogan “Here comes the motherfucking bride” in big bold letters, one might expect that audiences might be prepared for an audacious cinematic experience. The title ends with an exclamation mark. It’s not like it’s trying to necessarily hide the fact that it’s going to be a rather wild ride of a film. Yet, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s second feature-length film, The Bride!, was met with a lot of pearl-clutching and some dismissiveness from critics and audiences alike regarding its messy nature and the bold choices it makes in its writing, characters, design, and overall intentions. 

 

Well, if there’s one thing that I love in a movie, it’s audacity. Whether it works or not, I’ll take a film that swings for the fences and tries to throw its weight around. Given that the Frankenstein mythos, including The Bride of Frankenstein, has been adapted in one million ways for various audiences and with varying degrees of success, please give me something that, as a film, feels as scattered, sewn together, and fighting for life as its characters. To quote one of the iconic film critics, Joe Bob Briggs, “The only sin of a movie, in my opinion, is to be boring.” And The Bride! is certainly not that. Far from it. 

 

In fact, The Bride! might end up being one of the best films I’ve seen this year. It’s absolutely crafted with a sense of rage at the world, where a repeated phrase, “I would prefer not to,” becomes a war cry against expectations, social pressures, and a system built against you. Gyllenhaal takes the Bride of Frankenstein concept, updates it for the modern meta-textural era, and adds a lingering undercurrent of ‘fuck you’ to the conventions of storytelling and cinematic language. Yet, it still manages to feel humane with its characters and honest with its messages, and never feels like it's screaming just for the sake of screaming. There’s a heart beating in this monster, and just like its two leads, you might not always hear it because of what you see on the surface, but it's there nonetheless. 

 

Panic Fest 2026: Cruel Hands (2026) Review

Director: Al Kalyk

Notable Cast: Mavournee Hazel, Diesel La Torraca, Josh McConville, Genevieve Lemon, Harry Greenwood, Iolanthe, Glenda Kalyk

 

I can already see it now. The comments that will cascade down from the internet as horror fans react to Cruel Hands and its 1970s-inspired stylistic choices. Comments about how it's ‘not horror enough’ or that ‘it's not a real horror film’ will garner thousands of reactions and probably just as many arguments around the spectrum of genre labels.

 

You know what? Good. Cause quite frankly, Cruel Hands is the kind of film that will need a bit of online discourse to push it further into the genre fans’ circles for viewing. Call it what you will, horror, thriller, dark drama, or whatever other sub-genre you want. This 1970s-inspired slice of atmospheric tension and visceral domestic horror is worth watching. It’s one of those palpable, character-driven, slow-burning old-school horror films that manages to curdle into the crevices of your heart and mind. Powered by some incredible performances, a steady hand at tone and atmosphere, and a real sense of grounded grit to its writing, Cruel Hands manages to be both subtle and impactfully hard-hitting. It’s the kind of throwback film that should be garnering some real fans when it finds a full release. 

 

Panic Fest 2026: Grind (2026) Review

Directors: Ed Dougherty, Brea Grant, Chelsea Stardust

Notable Cast: James Paxton, Christopher Rodriguez Marquette, Rob Huebel, James Urbaniak, Barbara Crampton, Vinny Thomas, Aubrey Shea, Courtney Pauroso, Ify Nwadiwe, Jessika Van, James A. Janisse, Sharlene Cruz, Jon Gabrus, Teri Gamble, Hannah Alline, Gigi Saul Guerrero, Anastasia Washington, Bries Vannon

 

Well, if you’re going to make a socio-political satire horror film, taking a shot at the gig economy is a great way to do it. In an age where satire is essentially dead, thanks to real-world events that could not possibly be any dumber, it’s nice to see a film like Grind succeed at being successfully funny and manage to be creatively empowered to have something to say while doing it. It helps that the talent in front of and behind the camera are working with the same spirit and tenacity to make it all work, but Grind manages to blend comedy and horror in some refreshingly fun and smart ways. Each story in this anthology has its own distinctive voice without betraying the film's overall intention, and the combination proves to be lethally hilarious. 

 

Panic Fest 2026: Frogman Returns (2026) Review

Director: Anthony Cousins

Notable Cast: Nathan Tymoshuk, Alexis Allotta, Natalie Tran, Chelsey Grant, C.Andrew Kogolenok, Brian Villalobos, Benny Barrett, Tom Ringberg, Karen Schovajsa

 

“Time to croak, bitch.” 

 

Despite the surprising amount of world-building that erupted in the third act of Frogman, I’m not sure I would have expected there to be a sequel. Yet, the film proved to be something of a massive cult hit, and when Frogman Returns was initially announced, I was pretty stoked. While the original certainly used the tropes and style of found-footage horror well, balancing comedy, horror, and exploitation into one slurpy stew, its third act went fully off the lily pad and straight into the deep end, with some wild ideas and wicked body horror. It’s the kind of film that comes with a built-in cult following. 

 

Frogman Returns follows in those leaps and hops with an eagerness to extend and deepen the insanity of Frogman’s world. Powered by some returning cast, a slightly meta approach to the original, and the pace of the Energizer Bunny on crack (is the Energizer Bunny even still a thing? Probably in Frogman’s world as a real cryptid), this sequel does go bigger, badder, and bolder with the ideas planted by its predecessor. And, don’t worry, the third act goes even more bizarre than expected. It’s insane and ‘ribbit-ing.’ You know, like riveting but for frogs. Or something. Sorry, I’ll show myself the door. 

 

Panic Fest 2026: Ivan (2026) Review

Director: Damien Fannon

Notable Cast: Anna Mirodin, Tayna Clarke, Julia Tomasone, Stephen Bogaert

 

When I read that Ivan would be a film centered around a piece of technology, specifically an AI device named - you guessed it - Ivan, I do not think I would have ever expected that the film would be a period piece. Not that it’s given a definitive year, or does it make the horrible mistake of littering the film with a plethora of needle drops and references to pop culture, but Ivan surprisingly takes its audience back to a time and place where having an electronic device that can watch, hear, and talk to you is almost beyond understanding. 

 

It’s one of the bold choices that Ivan makes throughout that sets it aside from many of the other films in this year's Panic Fest. Director and co-writer Damien Fannon takes a familial drama and inserts this technological horror aspect as the catalyst to address many dark family issues, and manages to craft a rollicking thriller that regularly sidesteps expectations and delivers a surprisingly potent mix of horror and drama. And that’s before the ending slams its audience with two or three new layers of intensity. 

 

Panic Fest 2026: The Burning of Broken Beak (2026)

Director: Christian Carroll

Notable Cast: Briar Rose, Lydia Peckham, Katlyn Wong, Joel Tobeck, Jonny Brugh, Rob Kipa-Williams, Bruce Hopkins, Bala Murali Shingade, Beth Alexander, William Zhang

 

I’m a sucker for a good folk horror story. Throw in some kind of ancient legend, told in rhyme and shown with stylized animation, and put in a touch of body horror, and suddenly I’m doing a skip down the walk in anticipation of seeing it. For The Burning of Broken Beak, writer/director/editor/most everything under the sun Christian Carroll is aiming for something of a modern folk horror tale and he manages to conjure up something that feels like it owes its cornerstones to the folk horror of yesteryears, but manages to modernize in a way that feels relevant and potent for the last couple of years. While the film tends to play things slightly on the safe side with its horror elements until its final act, spending much of its runtime on a murder-mystery plot, it also packs an impactful amount of dynamite into its final act, putting it above and beyond some of its indie genre peers. And it certainly doesn’t feel bird-brained in the process. 

 

Its central character, Emma, played by Briar Rose, returns to New Zealand with her girlfriend from her life as a photographer in New York to attend the reading of her adopted uncle’s will after he is horrifically murdered. However, with a massive inheritance on the line, the family quickly comes into odds with one another. It’s too bad, though, because their squabbles have seemingly unleashed a curse upon the family of the old Māori legend of a human-sized bird who was slaughtered when she stood up against colonists. Now the family is being killed one by one, leaving Emma as the prime suspect. Visions of Broken Beak haunt her, and Emma must uncover whether the curse is real or if there’s more to her family than even she thought. 

 

Panic Fest 2026: Buffet Infinity (2026)

Director: Simon Glassman

Notable Cast: Kevin Singh, Claire Theobald, Donovan Workun

 

Much of modern storytelling, through whatever media you choose - whether it's book, TV, movie, or even the internet, is being built on nostalgia and meta-narratives. For many of us, remembering what something was like in the media from 20 or 30 years ago is ripe for analysis and exploitation. Releases like ‘legacy sequels’ or shows like Stranger Things aim to evoke nostalgia and meta commentary to sell their material. Remember how we felt about Star Wars? Or the old Steven Spielberg films? Remember when Rosanne was one of the best sitcoms on TV? Try out The Connors. You’ll feel the same. 

 

However, there’s a sect of artists out there who use these same tactics to weaponize those concepts against their viewers, creating intriguing slices of art. The Adult Swim segment Too Many Cooks used the opening credits of an early-90s sitcom to kick-start its own descent into unnerving territory. Watching that on my phone while riding on a train in the middle of the night certainly added to it, but there was a bold, artistic, and often satirical slant to it that left me unnerved. 

 

It’s been over a decade since I saw that segment, and this approach to undercutting nostalgic elements is only finding more footing. Take Buffet Infinity as the prime example of such. This instant cult classic uses local commercials as canvases to paint a narrative around the horrors of capitalism through a cosmic-horror lens. Yes, you read that right. Buffet Infinity is an entire film made of clips of fake commercials for small-town businesses, news segments, and infomercials. Yet, it’s incredibly poignant in its tone, sociopolitical commentary, and razor-sharp writing that it manages to be hilarious, sorrowful, and utterly terrifying - oftentimes within one moment. It’s fucking brilliant. 

 

Panic Fest 2026: Pitfall (2026) Review

Director: James Kondelik

Notable Cast: Alex Essoe, Marshall Williams, Richard Harmon, Jordan Claire Robbins, Matt Hamilton, Randy Couture

 

Within the first ten or fifteen minutes of Pitfall, there are literally three instances of deer being killed. Now, granted, one of them is in a hallucinatory state for one of its lead characters, but it certainly set the stage for how I was going to watch this film.  Cause that’s certainly a silly choice, and I kind of appreciate it cause it does set the stage for what one can expect from the two-tone approach that Pitfall is using as its concept. 

 

Despite perhaps hitting the hammer on the head about the film’s ‘nature can be dangerous’ themes that are layered into the two genres that it's mish-mashing together - the survival film and the slasher, Pitfall is certainly a film that has a lot more going for it in the undertones than what I expected. This is the two-tone approach that director James Kondelik is aiming for with this film.  

 

Get Cooked: Hellfire (2026) Review

Director: Isaac Florentine

Cast: Stephen Lang, Scottie Thompson, Chris Mullinax, Johnny Yong Bosch, Dolph Lundgren, Michael Sirow, Harvey Keitel

 

Back in the late 00s and the early 10s, if you wanted to find great old school action, you would scan the internet for Isaac Florentine. His ‘straight-to-video’ (a term that essentially doesn’t exist thanks to streaming now) affairs were some of the best you could find. His work with classic icons like Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme was fun, and his partnership with Scott Adkins defined that era for incredible action. I’d still argue that Ninja: Shadow of a Tear is one of the greatest action films ever made, and I will absolutely fight you if you disagree.

 

However, Florentine’s career has been much rockier lately. Some of this is due to trying some new styles, working in slightly different genres, or partnering with different stars, but it felt like some of the shine was being dulled. It culminated in Hounds of War, an ultimately droll affair with Frank Grillo on autopilot and horrendous editing and action design that felt completely out of sync with what one expects from a Florentine flick.

 

Thus, my expectations for Hellfire were relatively muted. Sure, it has a hell of a cast, including Stephan Lang as the special ops veteran caught in the criminal web of a small town, but even that was not necessarily as exciting as I hoped for. Yet, while Hellfire certainly struggles to find some of its voice in the first 45 minutes and really loves to hammer down on those straight-to-VOD action tropes, it is something of a bounce back for Florentine. Its foundations are solid, the main performances - even if tropey - feel engaged, and the back end of the film really starts rollicking once tensions of its generic script finally pop. By the end, I was totally engulfed by the fun and surprising moments that Hellfire was delivering. Enough so that there’s a part of me that hopes Florentine has found his new franchise in the wandering warrior that Stephan Lang is bringing to the table. 

 

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.