Grave Tone: Horror Podcast

Colony (2026) review: Yeon Sang-ho went back to zombies and made them learn. Meaghan and Arthur break down the Train to Busan director's newest outbreak. Colony traps biotechnology professor Kwon Se-jeong (Jun Ji-hyun, credited internationally as Gianna Jun) inside a mixed-use Seoul high-rise when disgraced scientist Seo Young-chul (Koo Kyo-hwan) releases an engineered virus at a biotech conference and announces that he is the only vaccine. The infected do not just bite. They share a hive mind, they trade information, and they get better at hunting you every hour.### Colony 2026 Review: Yeon Sang-ho Returns to the Zombie Movie Colony is a standalone story with no ties to the Train to Busan timeline, and the outbreak starts in a completely different way. World premiere at Cannes Midnight Screenings on May 15, 2026, South Korean release May 21, Canadian premiere at the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival, North American theatrical release August 28, 2026 through Well Go USA. Scores: Meaghan 7.5, Arthur 8. [LINK: Colony] Hive Mind Zombies and the Fungal Virus Explained The infected share information across a hive mind, so a skill one of them picks up spreads to all of them within minutes. They start on all fours like animals, then stand, then learn to use their senses, then start throwing each other at people. The fungal and spore basis gives the film a real Last of Us flavour, and it is also why everything eventually turns sticky. The Colony Cast and Who Survives the Lockdown Jun Ji-hyun (Gianna Jun) plays Kwon Se-jeong, a blunt biotech professor attending the conference with her ex-husband Han Gyu-seong (Go Soo). Koo Kyo-hwan plays Seo Young-chul, the ousted scientist who engineers the virus, keeps the only vaccine in his own body, and has a real reason for doing it. Ji Chang-wook is security guard Choi Hyun-seok and Kim Shin-rok is his older sister Choi Hyun-hee, an IT employee and wheelchair user spending the day with him. Shin Hyun-been plays scientist Gong Seol-hee, working the outbreak from outside the building. A Sealed Seoul Tower: Mall Horror After Dawn of the Dead Retail at the bottom, office tower above, and the whole thing locked down once the authorities clock the bioterror attack. The film uses the full building (mall floors, offices, parking garage) with an actual reason to move each time, rather than clearing levels like a video game. Very Romero, with a bit of [REC] in the quarantine. Zombie Choreography and Practical Body Horror Movement was designed by choreographer Jeon Young, who also shaped the zombies in Train to Busan, Peninsula and Hellbound, using breakdancers, contortionists and modern dance troupes. The first person to turn gets an iconic contortion scene, the same way Train to Busan handled its first turn. The set degrades across the runtime, going from clean and shiny to fully overtaken, and characters start getting stuck to walls. The horde reminded us of the dancer sequence in Smile 2. Is the Zombie Subgenre Oversaturated in 2026? Measured against We Bury the Dead, This Is Not a Test and 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, plus a decade-plus of The Walking Dead spinoffs. The verdict: the standard zombie is exhausted, but the twists are not. Colony and The Bone Temple both prove there is room left. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Insidious: Out of the Further review, and we did the homework first. We rewatched all five previous Insidious films in one week, then walked into the sixth one with fresh eyes and a much better understanding of what this franchise is actually building. Vote for us at the Sacred Crypt Awards for the Rising Star category! Vote here , thank you! Insidious: Out of the Further Review and Our Rating We rewatched all five previous Insidious films before seeing the sixth, and it changed how much of this one landed. You do not need to, but it helps. Both of us landed on 5.5. It is a solid installment that does more with its lore than we expected going in. Not scary so much as gross. Multiple "ew, yuck" moments and almost no gore, which is a strange trick to pull in a PG-13 supernatural horror movie. The makeup and practical effects are the best they have looked in a few installments. Cast: Amelia Eve, Lin Shaye and Sam Spruell Amelia Eve plays Gemma Hall, a single mother raising her daughter Maya (Island Austin) in her childhood home. Lin Shaye returns as Elise Rainier, the only person to appear in all six Insidious films. Sam Spruell plays Cyrus Lam, a cult leader who kept the job after death. Tall, blindfolded, genuinely menacing. Brandon Perea (Nope) plays Nick, Maisie Richardson-Sellers plays Clare, and Joseph Lopez turns up as Lester after starring in Passenger earlier this year. Set Design, Lighting and the Pillow Fort Sequence The pillow fort scene is the best set piece in the movie. It looks soft in the trailer; it is metal underneath, and she cannot get through it. Rooms in the Further open outward as the camera moves, revealing four walls floating in nothing. Clever, cheap, effective. Insidious has always loved a nice house, from the Lambert home to Elise's childhood place to Dalton's dorm in The Red Door. Take a safe space, make it unsafe. Six movies in, someone finally bought a working flashlight. You can actually see things. Further Lore, the Doors and the Post-Credits Scene The entities in the Further have a hierarchy, and Cyrus brought his cult with him. Everyone over there wants out. Gemma does not just astral project. She can pull things out and shove them back in, which is a genuinely new ability for this franchise. Every film pushes harder toward our world. This one gets the furthest without fully succeeding, and we think that is deliberate. The post-credits scene resolves Cyrus and leaves the door open (literally and otherwise) for whatever comes next. Our Biggest Gripe: No Specs and No Tucker Specs and Tucker have appeared in every other Insidious film. They are not in this one at all. Not even a cameo. Clare fills their narrative slot as the in-between helper, except she has an ability and they never did. Spectral Sightings, their in-universe company, used to have a real website. It is now a parked domain for sale. Huge missed marketing opportunity. If we missed a second credits scene, tell us in the comments. We checked. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fantasia Film Festival 2026 is over, and we saw more than 20 films between us. These are the six that stuck. Meaghan and Arthur close out Grave Tone's Fantasia Film Festival 2026 coverage with a mini wrap-up of their best horror films of the fest. No ranking (Meaghan ranked hers anyway). Just the movies that are still living in our heads two weeks later, plus honorable mentions and the release dates you actually need. Fantasia Film Festival 2026 wrapped , and we saw more than 20 films between us. No ranking, just the six that stuck, plus when you can watch them. Fantasia 2026 Vampire Horror: No Rest for the Wicked Kasper Kalle's queer vampire period piece , set on the Faroe Islands in 1862, follows a young fisherman and a stranded whaler. The vampire lore here is not the lore you know, and that is the whole point. Gorgeous start to finish (the Robert Eggers comparison is earned) with chemistry that carries the entire film. Won two Cheval Noir awards at Fantasia. Opens in Danish cinemas September 3. No North American date yet. Korean Zombie Horror: Colony from Yeon Sang-ho The Train to Busan writer-director returns to zombies a decade later, and it is nothing like Train to Busan. A biotech conference gets sealed off after a bioterrorism attack. The infected share information through spores and function as a hive mind. Characters make smart decisions, which is Arthur's entire personality at this point. Yeon Sang-ho's zombie run: Train to Busan, the animated Seoul Station, then Peninsula in 2020. Colony is a standalone. Killer Mascot Horror: Buddy and the Too Many Cooks Effect Casper Kelly (Too Many Cooks, Adult Swim Yule Log) made a horror movie that asks what if Barney was a monster. We caught the international premiere at Fantasia and stayed for the Q and A. It uses the uncanny sitcom-credits trick from Too Many Cooks and pushes it somewhere much worse. Funnier than you expect and considerably gorier than you expect. Superpowers as Horror: Freaks Part II Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein's sequel closed the festival as a world premiere. Think X-Men, except the powered people are the ones being hunted. Each generation born to powered parents comes out stronger, which is where the sequel expands past the first film's isolation. The original Freaks (2018) is streaming free with ads on Plex. Watch it first. Queer Slasher Joy: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma Jane Schoenbrun's film is a full 180 from the sadness of I Saw the TV Glow. Made from joy and love for the horror genre, and every frame shows it. Self-aware about slasher tropes without ever sneering at them. Instant cult classic (the merch already exists). Our full review episode is up. Honorable Mentions and Release Dates The Leader dramatizes the Heaven's Gate UFO group, with Vera Farmiga and Tim Blake Nelson. Colony and Buddy both land in theatres the same day at the end of August. Make a weekend of it. Freaks Part II has distribution but no date yet. More Grave Tone incoming: mini episodes, childhood trauma entries, and interviews. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Junction Row review time, and this Fantasia 2026 world premiere is the one that split us right down the middle. Meaghan and Arthur close out their Fantasia International Film Festival minisodes with Ashlea Wessel's feature debut, a Canadian sci-fi horror creature feature starring Katharine Isabelle as Juno, an army veteran in recovery who returns to the housing compound she walked away from. Her friend Ruby is missing. A new drug called The Link is tearing through the place. And something underneath Junction Row is a lot worse than the dealers running it. Junction Row Review: Ashlea Wessel's Sci-Fi Horror Feature Debut Ashlea Wessel moves from festival shorts (Tick, Weirdo, and segments in the anthology Creepy Bits) to her first feature, and the ambition is all over the screen. Katharine Isabelle plays Juno, an army veteran in recovery who returns to the Junction Row compound to find her missing friend Ruby. Co-written by Wessel with Adam Cesare (the Clown in a Cornfield novels) and Matt Serafini. Meaghan came out of it satisfied. Arthur wanted the film to reveal more instead of asking him to reverse-engineer it. Katharine Isabelle as Juno and the Junction Row Cast Making Juno an army vet is a real choice, not set dressing. She has the tactical knowledge, she can fight, and she can plan an infiltration. Isabelle kicks a genuinely absurd amount of ass here (Ginger Snaps and American Mary fans, this is your action-star era). Kyle Mac plays Miles, Juno's former dealer, and steals every scene he lands in. He is an asshole, and he is very funny about it. A lot of familiar Canadian faces round out the compound, which Meaghan is never going to stop enjoying. Sci-Fi Horror Design: Retro Ads, Future Tech, Budget Limits The film mixes 60s and 70s styling in its advertising and posters with technology that feels well ahead of ours. The phones and tablets look like sheets of paper. A pharmaceutical company is weaponizing addiction inside the compound with a new drug, and what it does to people is where the horror lands. Some of the visual effects get wonky, which is what a lower budget buys you. Meaghan is fine with that here and would not be fine with it from a studio sitting on all the money in the world. Sci-Fi Horror That Withholds: Meander, Coherence, and Ambiguity Arthur's whole issue is explanation. He wants a film to reveal more as it goes, even if the ending stays strange. Coherence is his counter-example for slow, conversational sci-fi that still tells you what is happening. Meaghan raised the same complaint about Home Bodies a few episodes back and it did not bother her at all here. Junction Row's open ending worked for her. Bagman Short Film Review: Wildlife Cams and Recursive Dread Bagman, from brothers Connor Gaston and Vaughn Gaston, screened with Junction Row and Arthur loved it. [LINK: Bagman] Nat monitors a wildlife camera feed tracking deer and bears. One frame there is nothing, the next frame there is a black garbage bag in the brush. Her supervisor goes to check it out while she watches through the live feed, and it gets very bad very fast. The ending did not land for Meaghan. Arthur calls it a solid jump scare with recursive implications that get worse the longer you sit with them. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Glorious Dead review: the Adams Family wake a small town to blood in the taps and dead that will not stay buried. Meaghan and Arthur close out their Fantasia 2026 coverage with a mini review of The Glorious Dead, the sixth consecutive film from the Adams Family to world premiere at Fantasia. John Adams and Toby Poser wrote and directed it. Poser stars as Sheriff Deb McCloud, who wakes up on her day off to a total blackout, blood coming out of faucets, missing people, holes in the ground that should not be there, and creatures in the woods. Zelda Adams plays her deputy Mikey. The whole thing unfolds over roughly twenty four hours in the dead of an upstate New York winter, and it goes exactly where you do not expect. The Adams Family and Their Sixth Fantasia World Premiere John Adams and Toby Poser write and direct together, Poser stars, and daughters Zelda and Lulu Adams act in the films. They shoot, score, and edit as a unit out of upstate New York. The Glorious Dead is the sixth consecutive film from the family to world premiere at Fantasia, following The Deeper You Dig, Hellbender, Where the Devil Roams, Hell Hole, and Mother of Flies. John Adams told the room before the screening that Fantasia is where they find out what their movie is actually about. They screen it, they read the reaction, then they know what they made. The Glorious Dead: Blood in the Taps and a Town Coming Apart Toby Poser plays Sheriff Deb McCloud, woken on her day off by a full blackout in the dead of an upstate New York winter. No power, no wifi, no cell service. The cars still run (do not think about it). Zelda Adams plays Deputy Mikey, bringing in reports of blood from faucets, missing people and holes in the ground that nobody can explain. The story covers roughly twenty four hours. Calling it a zombie movie is technically true and completely misleading. Adams Family Style: Quick Cuts and a Heavy Metal Score Fast interspersed cuts, deadpan performances everyone fully commits to, and a metal score the edit syncs to. There is a shot of windshield wipers moving in time with the beat and it rules. Every film in their catalogue is a different subgenre: supernatural thriller, folk horror, Great Depression period piece, creature feature body horror, dark fantasy. Mother of Flies is streaming on Shudder now if you want an entry point The Ratings and the Ending Nobody Called Meaghan started around a six on the night and moved up to a seven after a few days. The first two thirds landed immediately, the ending took time. Arthur went a hard seven, setting the film's closing message aside. The last ten minutes are wild enough that he wanted more of that energy earlier. TERM: Dean Norris, Mark Hamill and a Hell of a Short Written and directed by Chadrick Preuss, also a Fantasia 2026 world premiere, playing before The Glorious Dead Dean Norris of Breaking Bad carries the whole thing basically alone as a state senator facing a miracle that turns into a nightmare across one night before a major vote on abortion. Every other character speaks to him over the phone, and one of those voices is Mark Hamill. The producing team reached out to Hamill on a maybe and got a yes. Ask for the thing. Where Fantasia Shorts Go After the Festival Shorts this good are almost impossible to watch again once the festival ends, and that is a real problem worth naming. Fingers crossed for a Shudder pickup on The Glorious Dead, since most of the family's catalogue already lives there. One more Fantasia 2026 minisode is coming for the closing film Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Home Bodies review time. Casey Walker's Canadian sci-fi horror had its world premiere at Fantasia 2026, and it left us with a lot to chew on. Two children, Red and Blue, have been raised in total isolation by an automated house. The fridge restocks itself the second you close it. The dishes vanish into the trash. A disembodied voice they call Papa runs the whole operation. Then a stranger arrives as a Christmas gift, the kids name it Pal, and twelve years of routine come apart. Home Bodies Fantasia 2026 World Premiere Home Bodies had its world premiere on July 23, 2026, at the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal. Casey Walker directs. The pitch is simple and nasty: two children raised in total isolation by an automated house start asking questions after an enigmatic stranger arrives from outside. We call it dystopian science fiction more than straight horror, but the premise alone is horror enough if you sit with it for a second. No wide release date yet. VVS Films is handling distribution, and the film also screens at Tubi FrightFest 2026 in London. The Cast: Emma Ho, Ian Ho, and Ess Hödlmoser Red and Blue are played by real-life twins Emma Ho and Ian Ho, and that is the single biggest reason the film works. The arguments land because the chemistry is real. Ess Hödlmoser plays Pal, the silent gift who arrives at Christmas. Hödlmoser is a Toronto contortionist, aerial performer, and stunt artist. Their credits are a genre deep cut list: Pennywise motion capture and contortion work on It, Cindy on The Boys, S on Station Eleven, M on Motherland: Fort Salem, plus The Expanse, Titans, Code 8, Star Wars Outlaws, and Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. Retro-Futuristic Production Design That Steals the Movie The house is the best thing in Home Bodies. Seventies futurism, worn in and lived in, and every appliance is doing thematic work. Close the fridge and it restocks. Throw dishes in the trash and they disappear. Arthur wants to live there. That is a problem the film is aware of. Total automation is why the kids never learned to take care of themselves. The convenience is the cage. Cain and Abel: The Sibling Dynamic One sibling starts questioning everything. The other does not want to anger Papa. That split is the engine of the whole film. Pal's arrival is what tips the balance. Two becomes three, and the routine that held their world together stops holding. Screenwriters Adrian Murray and Marcus Sullivan build the rules carefully, which makes the breaks land hard. Where Home Bodies Loses Us Meaghan's issue is the final quarter. Too much gets revealed too quickly and there is not enough time to sit with any of it. Arthur's counter is that we only ever see what the kids see, so the abruptness is the point. Take your pick. Both of us want more. The door for a sequel or an expanded universe is wide open, and we would watch it. Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Los Vampires review, plus The Leader, both caught at Fantasia 2026 and both built on things that actually happened. Meaghan went to these two solo (Arthur could not get into either screening) so this one runs as a spoiler-free double feature. Los Vampires is Craig Mitchell's fictionalized account of the 1931 Spanish Dracula, the version George Melford shot overnight on Tod Browning's sets while Bela Lugosi's crew slept. Henry Ian Cusick plays Luis de Ossario, the Spanish actor handed the Count and ordered to copy every mannerism off the dailies of Kürt Orlov (Thomas Kretschmann), his English-language counterpart. The rivalry turns ugly. Then people start dying on the soundstage. Meaghan calls it the more fun of the two and the period detail is why: 1930s costumes, one location worked every way it can be worked, English and Spanish trading off inside the same scene. It runs a little long and starts repeating its ideas, which is the only real knock. Rating: 8/1- digs. The Leader is the harder watch. Michael Gallagher wrote and directed this one about Heaven's Gate, the UFO cult that ended in 39 deaths at Rancho Santa Fe in March 1997. Tim Blake Nelson plays Marshall Applewhite. Vera Farmiga plays Bonnie Lu Nettles, the nurse who went from dissatisfied wife and mother to co-running one of the most notorious cults in American history. Jim Parsons plays Warren, a follower, and it is one of the best things he has done. The tone swings between absurd and awful on purpose. Not horror by category. Real-life horror by every other measure. Rating: 9/10 digs. The Spanish Dracula Night Shoot That Los Vampires Rebuilds In 1930 Universal ran two Dracula productions on the same sets. Tod Browning had the day with Bela Lugosi. George Melford had the night with a Spanish-speaking cast, because dubbing technology did not exist yet. The Spanish version starred Carlos Villarías as the Count and Lupita Tovar as Eva Seward. Tovar died in 2016 at 106. Plenty of critics now argue the Spanish cut is technically the better film. Melford's crew watched the day's dailies before shooting, which is the exact detail Los Vampires builds its entire rivalry on. Los Vampires Cast, Craig Mitchell, and What Actually Works Henry Ian Cusick (Desmond Hume on Lost, Marcus Kane on The 100) plays Luis de Ossario, the Spanish actor handed the Count. Peruvian-Scottish, debonair, exactly right for the period. Thomas Kretschmann plays Kürt Orlov, the Lugosi stand-in. Their scenes in the dailies room are where the tension actually lives. Oscar Nuñez (The Office), Daniela Couso, Jefferson Mays and Jorge Diaz fill out the cast. The film switches between English and Spanish and it never feels forced. The real complaint: it runs long enough to start repeating its own ideas, and the single-location staging starts to feel like a play. Meaghan's rating: 8/10 digs. The Leader and the Heaven's Gate Story Michael Gallagher wrote and directed. World premiere at Tribeca on June 5, 2026, Canadian premiere at Fantasia, with distribution reportedly in motion for the US, UK and Canada. Tim Blake Nelson (O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Minority Report, Syriana, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) plays Marshall Applewhite. Vera Farmiga plays Bonnie Lu Nettles, and she was at the Fantasia screening. Jim Parsons plays Warren, one of the followers, and it is one of the best things he has done since The Big Bang Theory. The film tracks Nettles from nurse and unhappy wife to cult co-leader, which is the 180 that makes the whole thing land. Why a Cult Movie Belongs on a Horror Podcast The tone swings between absurd and awful on purpose. You laugh at what these people believed, then the next scene is a humiliation ritual and it stops being funny. Heaven's Gate taught that the body was a vehicle to be shed, and sexual desire was repressed hard. The film gets into what that did to people. Bonnie Nettles died of cancer in 1985, twelve years before the 39 deaths at Rancho Santa Fe in March 1997 that were timed to Comet Hale-Bopp. Meaghan's rating: 9/10 digs. Not horror by category. Real-life horror by every other measure. What Is Coming Next From Fantasia 2026 Colony from Yeon Sang-ho, Buddy from Casper Kelly (the Too Many Cooks guy), and Freaks Part II from Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, which closes the festival. Shorter episodes are coming while festival coverage runs, and most stay spoiler-free since wide release dates are not locked yet. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

No Rest for the Wicked is a queer vampire love story from the 1862 Faroe Islands, and it wrecked us in the best way. This one had our attention before the festival schedule even dropped, and it earned every bit of that hype. Kasper Kalle's world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival follows Baldur (Egor Venned), a young fisherman stuck caring for his widowed mother on a treeless island in the North Atlantic, and Helge (Pilou Asbaek), the drifting whaler who washes into his life and changes everything. What starts as a reluctant friendship turns passionate, then turns strange; there is a supernatural element folded into the story that gives us one of the most unusual takes on vampirism we have seen on film. A Queer Vampire Love Story in the 1862 Faroe Islands Kasper Kalle's world premiere follows Baldur (Egor Venned), a bored young fisherman caring for his widowed mother, and Helge (Pilou Asbaek), a drifting Danish whaler who washes into his life. A reluctant friendship turns into a passionate, secret relationship on a tiny, deeply religious island where hiding is survival. Set on a treeless island in the North Atlantic, with dialogue in both Faroese and Danish (yes, it is subtitled, and worth it). The Cast: Egor Venned and Pilou Asbaek Carry It Newcomer Egor Venned (himself from the Faroe Islands) plays Baldur, and we would have handed him a performance award too. Pilou Asbaek (Euron Greyjoy in Game of Thrones, Overlord) plays Helge, a full swing away from the villains he usually gets, and it is a great look for him. Sofia Nolsoe Mikkelsen plays the mother, and Johannes Haukur Johannesson (Succession, Captain America: Brave New World, Vikings: Valhalla) turns up as a villager. Robert Eggers Vibes and Nordic Gothic Atmosphere The natural light, the fog, the night shots with barely any lighting (because 1862): it all felt very Eggers-esque, just softer and more romantic. The score is beautiful the whole way through, and there is a funeral song halfway in that nearly had Meaghan crying in the theater. The film leans on the real landscape instead of manufactured spectacle, and it earns that authenticity. A Vampire Movie Unlike Any We Had Seen This is a vampire film at its core, but nobody is running around biting the village. The supernatural element is quieter, stranger, and much more beautiful. No Dracula crossing from Transylvania, no jump-scare machine. The dread is woven in naturally, and the horror stays understated. Underneath it all: religious oppression, repression, and a real theme of acceptance by the end that a lot of these stories skip. Fantasia 2026 Awards and Where to Watch No Rest for the Wicked won Best Director (Kasper Kalle) and an Outstanding Performance award (Pilou Asbaek) in Fantasia's Cheval Noir competition. Screening at the New Zealand International Film Festival on August 9, with a Denmark release on September 3 through SF Studios. No North American release confirmed yet. We are hoping for a VOD or limited theatrical run, so keep an eye on a cinema near you that plays foreign genre films. Coming Up on Grave Tone: Fantasia Closing Week The Glorious Dead, the new one from the Adams family (Hellbender, Mother of Flies, The Deeper You Dig). Junction Row, the Katharine Isabelle creature feature, plus the Comic-Con darling Buddy and the festival closer Freaks Part II. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Penny Lane Is Dead review: the 1986 Ozploitation slasher that dropped a Fantasia audience member on the floor, plus the world premiere of Someone's Daughter. PENNY LANE IS DEAD The feature debut from Australian writer-director Mia'Kate Russell, and a straight throwback to 1980s Ozploitation. It is 1986, three friends are celebrating at an isolated beach house, and Penny's jealous cousin Kat turns up with a container of spiked cupcakes. What starts as a prank collapses into a home invasion and then into a revenge film. Meaghan covers the content warnings up front, the tonal wobble between dark comedy and genuine brutality, the practical effects (excellent), the final girl payoff, and the audience member who fainted during the Fantasia screening. Streaming on Shudder August 28. Meaghan gives it 7 digs. Cast: Bailey Spalding, Tahlee Fereday, Alexandra Jensen, Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn, Ben O'Toole, Steve Le Marquand, Fletcher Humphrys. SOMEONE'S DAUGHTER The world premiere of Wiebke von Carolsfeld's survival thriller, shot in Quebec's Eastern Townships. A criminal defense lawyer and the client she once got acquitted of an assault charge wind up stranded together in the wilderness, and the longer they walk, the less certain she is that she was right. Pascale Bussieres and Francois Arnaud carry nearly the whole film. Slow burn, very quiet, gorgeous, and not as twisty as the thriller label suggests. Meaghan gives it 7.5 digs. PENNY LANE IS DEAD: MIA'KATE RUSSELL'S OZPLOITATION SLASHER DEBUT - Feature debut from Australian writer-director Mia'Kate Russell, who previously screened shorts at Fantasia. Premiered at the Adelaide Film Festival in October 2025. - Set in 1986. Three friends celebrating at an isolated beach house, one jealous cousin, one container of spiked cupcakes, and a prank that turns into a body count. - Prank-gone-wrong film, home invasion film and revenge film stacked on top of each other. - North American premiere at Fantasia on July 20. Streaming on Shudder August 28. CONTENT WARNINGS AND THE TONAL BALANCE PROBLEM - Meaghan flags the assault sequence up front. It happens off-camera but is heard, and the film sits in rape-revenge territory. Go in knowing. - The film plays as horror dark comedy, but the brutality keeps overriding the jokes. Some laughs did not land in the room. - Reviews are split, and Meaghan gets why. Australian horror runs mean, and this one leans all the way into it. - Comparison point on-mic: The Loved Ones. THE CAST, THE GORE AND THE FANTASIA FAINTING - Sophia Wright-Mendelsohn as Kat is the engine of the whole film. Ben O'Toole as Angus is genuinely unhinged. - Bailey Spalding plays Penny, Tahlee Fereday plays Toni, Alexandra Jensen plays Amy. Jensen was also in Talk to Me from Danny and Michael Philippou. - Practical gore and makeup effects are the highlight, and the final girl payoff earns its catharsis. - Yes, someone fainted at the screening. Meaghan was there and is not convinced the film gets the credit. SOMEONE'S DAUGHTER: A QUIET QUEBEC SURVIVAL THRILLER - World premiere at Fantasia. Directed and co-written by Wiebke von Carolsfeld, whose Marion Bridge won Best First Canadian Feature at TIFF in 2002. - Criminal defense lawyer Sam ends up stranded with Paul, the client she once got acquitted of an assault charge. The longer they walk, the less sure she is. - Pascale Bussieres and Francois Arnaud carry nearly every frame. Peter Outerbridge turns up early. - Shot in the Eastern Townships, and the landscape works as a third character. Meaghan gives it 7.5. SHORT FILM SPOTLIGHT - Best Friends with the Devil, from writer-director Hugo de Sousa, played before Penny Lane Is Dead. Nine minutes, a missing friend, a hiking trail, and a comedy of errors that keeps escalating. - Someone's Daughter screened without a short. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nightborn review time. Hanna Bergholm's Finnish folk horror lands on Shudder July 31, and we caught it at Fantasia first (the North American premiere, no less). This is her follow-up to Hatching, and it takes the motherhood horror thing somewhere darker and a lot more visceral. The Setup: Hanna Bergholm's Folk Horror Follow-Up - Nightborn is Hanna Bergholm's second feature after Hatching (2022), and it pushes deeper into body horror and Finnish folklore. - Saga (Seidi Haarla) and her British husband Jon (Rupert Grint) move into her crumbling childhood house deep in the forest and start a family. - World premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in February; North American premiere at Fantasia Film Festival on July 22 as part of the festival's 30th anniversary. Motherhood Horror as Allegory - The whole film reads as an allegory for postpartum and first-time motherhood, the fear, the isolation, and nobody believing you. - Saga names the baby Kuura (frost) and refuses to call him anything but 'it' while everyone insists she is the one who needs help. - It lands somewhere between Rosemary's Baby and We Need to Talk About Kevin, run through Finnish folk horror. Use of Space, Set Design, and the Score - The house does storytelling work: the broken floor, the renos, the tree growing up through the middle as Saga's bond with the child shifts. - The gothic-in-the-woods nursery is a standout, dark greens and muted grays with a cloud light and hot air balloon over the bassinet. - The score is by Eicca Toppinen, Finnish cellist and founder of Apocalyptica, and it carries the tone scene to scene. Body Horror, Gore, and the Growling Baby - There is a real amount of gore here, plus visceral childbirth and body-transformation makeup that earns its warnings. - The CG baby munching meat and growling tips into accidental comedy, which becomes part of the experience. - Content note for parents especially: some of the motherhood and childbirth material hits hard. The Verdict - Seidi Haarla carries the whole film and makes the impossible stuff believable; her performance is the anchor. - Arthur landed closer to a seven; Meaghan sat around a six, with the tonal 'too on-the-nose' quality as her main sticking point. - If you like folk horror and films about the harder edges of motherhood, this one is worth your time. Nightborn streams on Shudder from July 31. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Fantasia 2026 reviews: Tight Lettuce and Attack on Paradise, two world premieres, spoiler free and we loved both! Tight Lettuce: A Quebec Family Drama Built on a True Story Harrison Houde's debut feature had its world premiere at Fantasia on July 18, and his co-writer Dakota Daulby stars as Joel. Emmanuel Bilodeau plays Bodo, a father who moved from heroin to fentanyl about five years back. That performance is the whole reason to see this one Joel lives near the Ontario and Quebec border, works construction, and has built his adult life around saving his dad The film closes on real documentary footage of the man it is based on, and it lands hard The Opioid Crisis On Screen and What It Costs to Love an Addict Films usually show addiction across a bad few years. This one shows decades, and that changes everything about how it plays Maxim Roy plays Joel's mother Lucy and Christie Burke plays his partner. Every character makes a different call about how much they can carry. Joel's whole operating theory is that loving someone hard enough will fix them. The film takes that apart carefully The comedy is real and it never undercuts the drama, which is a difficult thing to pull off Attack on Paradise: The Raid Meets Die Hard in Antwerp Bob Colaers' Belgian and Dutch co-production world premiered at Fantasia on July 19, in Dutch and Arabic [LINK: Attack on Paradise] Saïd Boumazoughe plays Suleyman, out after seven years, walking into an apartment block run by Prince Hamza (Achmed Akkabi) The cops raid the building the same day, so he is boxed in from both directions and wants no part of either Injuries stick. He takes one in the shoulder and the arm stops working, which is a small thing that changes the whole texture of the action The Everyman Action Hero and Why This One Matters John McClane, John Wick, Monkey Man, and exactly where Suleyman fits between them Boumazoughe originated the story because he did not see anyone who looked like him leading these films The 80s and 90s build (Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Van Damme) against an action lead who reads like an actual person Also a genuinely great look at how a crime lord gets seen as a protector by the people living under him What's Next From Fantasia 2026 Nightborn is up next for us, screening at Fantasia on July 22 and streaming on Shudder July 31 More Fantasia 2026 coverage , reviews and dispatches are collected over on the site. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Her Private Hell is the most beautiful movie we couldn't explain. Nicolas Winding Refn's first film in a decade opened the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival, and we sat on this one for days before we could even record (we needed to). This is our Her Private Hell review, and honestly? We're still turning it over. Refn's neon fever dream drops Sophie Thatcher's Elle into a futuristic metropolis swallowed by fog, while Charles Melton's soldier hunts for his missing daughter and a masked killer called the Leather Man picks off young women. Two movies in one, a father-daughter subplot running through both, and a color palette so stunning it almost carries the whole thing (there is no green anywhere in the film, and there is a reason for that). Nicolas Winding Refn's First Film in a Decade The Neon Demon (2016) was his last feature; Her Private Hell is his first in roughly ten years, and you can feel him swinging for it. Refn has said a near-death experience (25 minutes) reshaped the film's obsession with rebirth and reinvention. Fantasia handed him the Cheval Noir Career Achievement Award as the 30th edition kicked off. The Cast, and the One Who Steals It Sophie Thatcher plays Elle, a model-actress worn down by an industry that chews women up. Charles Melton plays a soldier searching for his missing daughter, fresh off Beef season 2 and still Reggie to the Riverdale crowd. Kristine Froseth (Hunter) has the best comedic timing in the film; the ditzy-blonde bit is funnier and more honest than it has any right to be. Dougray Scott and Havana Rose Liu round out a genuinely stacked cast. Beautiful to Watch, Hard to Explain The color palette is stunning, and there is no green anywhere in the film (the director is colorblind, and it shows on purpose). Pino Donaggio's score, from Brian De Palma's longtime collaborator, was written first; Refn built the movie to fit the music instead of the other way around. Surprisingly phenomenal action sequences, a Neo-Tokyo look somewhere between Blade Runner and a dark Jetsons. The Spoiler Talk (Two Movies, One Fog) Our read on the Leather Man: he stands in for the industry itself, swallowing women whole. The sapphic storyline Refn added halfway through filming feels shoehorned in, and because he shot in sequence, you can see the seam. The ambiguity is a lot; loving how a film looks doesn't cancel out leaving with zero real answers. Fantasia 2026 and What's Next Her Private Hell opened the 30th Fantasia International Film Festival; Freaks Part II closes it. Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga both hit the festival, so we're still holding out for a Conjuring reunion. More Fantasia coverage is dropping almost every other day through early August. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma review, spoilers included, straight off its Canadian premiere at Fantasia. Jane Schoenbrun made a queer slasher that loves slashers, and we did not see it coming. Hannah Einbinder plays Kris, a director handed a dead franchise (a "zombie IP," in her words) to reboot; Gillian Anderson plays Billy, the original final girl who vanished into a reclusive Hollywood mystery. The two of them meet at the abandoned camp where the first film was shot, and things get bloody, horny, and genuinely strange from there. JANE SCHOENBRUN'S QUEER SLASHER LANDS AT FANTASIA - Camp Miasma had its Canadian premiere at Fantasia Festival , with Jane Schoenbrun on hand for the post-screening Q&A. - It's Schoenbrun's third feature after We're All Going to the World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow, and easily their funniest and brightest. - The film goes wide in theaters August 7 via Mubi; it opened Un Certain Regard at Cannes and won the Queer Palm. THE CAST IS FANTASTIC - Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) plays Kris, the director handed the reboot; Gillian Anderson plays Billy, the reclusive original final girl. - Jack Haven plays the killer, Little Death, reuniting with Schoenbrun after playing Maddy in I Saw the TV Glow. - Jasmin Savoy Brown (Yellowjackets, Scream) plays Mari, with Sarah Sherman, Patrick Fischler, and Montreal's own Kevin McDonald rounding it out. A HOMAGE THAT LOVES THE SUBGENRE - The opening credits sequence tears through the whole life cycle of a slasher franchise (sequels, space, arcade games, a reboot) and it's brilliant. - There's a fully playable Camp Miasma board game the production team built, rulebook and all, that surprised even Schoenbrun. - Little Death's design is the standout: a box-within-a-box head, a hazmat suit, and a spear that flings victims around like a flag. SEX, DEATH, AND LITTLE DEATH - The killer's name translates straight from la petite mort, the French phrase for an orgasm, and the film weaves sex and death together on purpose. - It sits with the problematic history of older slashers (the transphobia of Sleepaway Camp, the homophobia stitched into the genre) without losing its love for them. - We kept spoilers light since the film isn't out until August 7. Watch it, then come back and yell at us. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Infernal Tramps: Tales of Weird Terror is out today, and Alex Grass sat down with us for a horror author interview that went everywhere we hoped it would. He traces his horror education back to a father who took him to see Terminator 2 when he was six, and a mother who kept buying him pulp paperbacks based on how cool the covers looked (she had no idea what was inside). The Fly is the one that did the real damage. The body horror hooked him, but it was the descent into the beast that stuck. INFERNAL TRAMPS: WHAT IT ACTUALLY IS - Seventeen stories, flash fiction up to novelettes, and they do not connect. Start in the middle, at the end, wherever. - His standing pitch: if you want the experience of David Cronenberg and Clive Barker smoking bath salts together and then writing short stories, he has that for you. WHERE TO START READING - “A Woman of Distinction” for short, punchy and kind of funny. Dark, but one of the less weird ones. - “A New World Basement” if you want to start dark. - “The EP™ Implant” if you want to start weird. This is his pick for the weird entry point. HOW ALEX GRASS GOT INTO HORROR - A father who took him to Terminator 2 at six, and a mother who bought him pulp paperbacks because the covers looked cool (she had no idea what was inside). - The Fly is his childhood trauma pick. Body horror hooked him, but the descent into the beast is what stuck. THE GROTESQUE AND THE LINE OF WEIRD - Horror done right holds a wistful beauty and a brutality at once. Alex points at real life: dying is not pretty, and you remember the good times anyway. - The inversion is aspiring toward beauty and creating the grotesque instead. He calls it the silicone industrial complex. Arthur clocks it: sounds like he has seen The Substance. He has. He loves it. - Defining weird takes a rollerblader in lingerie and a man walking an ocelot through Bushwick. The line is where benign deviancy starts causing somebody pain. The Elvis version is even better. PROCESS, OR THE LACK OF ONE - He planned two of the novels. Short stories have too much flex in the joints; his outline would read “one, eggs. Two, eggs with spider legs.” - It is not that the settings are mundane; it is that terrible things wait inside mundanity, and power gets wielded dumbly and cruelly inside bureaucracies. - The notebook he carried while drinking produced “what if cheese pocket” and “soda cans equals hypocrisy.” Usable ideas out of it: zero, not once. - The routine is 300 words, day off, 3,000 words, day off, reset. He is not trying to fix it. HORROR BOOKS ALEX GRASS RECOMMENDS - Reggie Oliver, for M. R. James-style English academic occult stories. “The Mortlake Manuscript” runs a lineage from John Dee to Aleister Crowley. - Clive Barker’s Rawhead Rex, closer to what Alex writes. - Bentley Little, who made the bank, the store, and the town terrifying. People keep asking for a horror story about an HOA. He wrote it. It is appalling. - Attila Veres out of Hungary via Valancourt Books, hallucinatory stuff about a vineyard serving something that is not quite wine. - The Butcher of Nazareth by David Scott Hay, and not the anti-Christian book Alex expected. Find Infernal Tramps on Amazon (search “Infernal Tramps by Alex Grass,” G-R-A-S-S, like the green grass) or at infernaltramps.com. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Evil Dead Burn review: Sébastien Vaniček made the nastiest movie in this franchise, and it starts fast and never lets up. We came home from the theatre and recorded immediately. Evil Dead Burn drops French expat Alice (Souheila Yacoub) into a house full of in-laws who never wanted her there, and then turns them into Deadites one by one. The early hype said you are not ready. Usually, that hype is nothing. This time it is one of the exceptions. Sébastien Vaniček Brings French Horror to the Evil Dead Franchise Second feature after Infested (2023), the spider movie that got him hired. Sam Raimi saw it and handed him the keys. Vaniček's stated goal was a visceral sensory experience that punches audiences in the gut and leaves them physically drained. It works. The dry humour running through the crematorium scenes is unmistakably French, in the same family as Le Manoir. Evil Dead Burn Cast and Performances Souheila Yacoub (Climax, Dune: Part Two) plays Alice, the French expat widow, and she carries the whole film. Hunter Doohan (Wednesday) as Joseph, Luciane Buchanan as Thya, Tandi Wright as Susan, Erroll Shand as Edgar, George Pullar as Will. Maude Davey plays Polly, the grandmother, and she is the only real levity in the movie (she is also the funniest thing in it). Mostly lesser-known actors, which is what this franchise keeps getting right. Practical Effects, Gore, and the NC-17 Problem The holes in Edgar's skull hold up in close-up for most of the runtime. Mostly practical with a VFX layer on top. The original cut was rated NC-17. Vaniček trimmed one long, cold, raw scene to land the R. There is one head sequence where you see everything. If you are squeamish, skip the popcorn. Necronomicon Lore and the Evil Dead Timeline The grandfather's link to Professor Raymond Knowby finally gives the modern films connective tissue back to 1981. The Kandarian dagger returns as the only thing that kills a Deadite for good. The Circle of Wise Men reaches back to the mage in Army of Darkness. Burn's cold open brings back Jessica from Evil Dead Rise's lakeside prologue. Evil Dead Wrath (Francis Galluppi, April 2028) is a prequel set in 1972. Trigger Warnings and Scores Animal death: the dog dies. Domestic violence is a heavy plot point, not a background detail. Arthur: 8. Meaghan: 7.5 to 8. Two credits scenes, one mid and one post. Stay for both. We are not telling you what they are. Coming Up Fantasia International Film Festival , 30th edition, July 16 to August 2, 2026. We have media accreditation. Our horror movie picker quiz is four questions and gives you three films we actually like. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The best Canadian horror movies don't get talked about enough, so for Canada Day we counted down ten we genuinely love (killer jeans included). This is Grave Tone doing what it does when there's no new release to chase: pulling from the deep, weird catalog of Canadian horror films and arguing about them. Canadian Horror Comedy That Actually Lands Slaxx (2020) is Elza Kephart's killer-jeans satire skewering fast fashion and sweatshop labor, and the kills are great. Suck (2009), Rob Stefaniuk's vampire rock 'n' roll road movie, somehow got Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Henry Rollins, Moby, Alex Lifeson, and Malcolm McDowell into one cast. Vicious Fun (2020) traps a horror-mag critic in a support group for serial killers; high energy, fun from start to finish. Buffet Infinity (2025) tells a full cosmic-horror story entirely through fake TV commercials, SCTV style. Weird, and it works. Werewolves, Zombies & Body Horror Ginger Snaps (2000) is still the definitive werewolf-as-puberty coming-of-age film, carried by Katharine Isabelle and Emily Perkins. Pontypool (2008), based on Tony Burgess's novel Pontypool Changes Everything, is a zombie movie where the virus lives in language. Stephen McHattie is perfect. Possessor (2020), Brandon Cronenberg's body-swap assassin nightmare, sits at 94% on Rotten Tomatoes for a reason. Les Affames (2017), Robin Aubert's French-Canadian zombie film, took Best Canadian Feature at TIFF. Psychological Dread & Dark Web Terror Red Rooms (2023), Pascal Plante's dark web true-crime thriller, barely shows violence and stays unbearably tense. Juliette Gariepy is the whole movie. Come True (2020), Anthony Scott Burns's sleep-study descent, is nonlinear, strange, and impossible to shake. Undertone (2025) is audio horror about a cursed podcast; turn the lights off and let it get to you. Cult Classics & Deadly Labyrinths Cube (1997), Vincenzo Natali's deadly-labyrinth cult classic, was made for roughly $350K and arguably paved the way for Saw. A 4K restoration hit Fantasia in 2024. Kryptic (2024), Kourtney Roy's strange, goopy creature study, is our sleeper honorable mention. Screamers (1995) is the fully sci-fi one that scared Arthur as a kid; we covered it in our Childhood Trauma series. What's Next: Fantasia 2026 & In a Violent Nature 2 Fantasia's 30th edition runs July 16 to August 2, 2026 in Montreal, and will be covering it in full! In a Violent Nature 2 moves Johnny to a summer camp; Chris Nash writes, Nathaniel Wilson directs, expected 2026. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Meaghan and Arthur welcome Eleazar for a Childhood Trauma episode that doubles as one of the deepest Evil Dead franchise dives we've done. They cover the full arc — from Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's proof-of-concept short film Within the Woods, through the legal chaos that forced Evil Dead II to basically remake the first twenty minutes of its own predecessor, through Army of Darkness and its cursed rights issues, through Ash vs Evil Dead and the weird, wonderful lore that keeps expanding with every entry. 🎙 About Our Guest: Eleazar of Nightmare Echoes Eleazar is the host of Nightmare Echoes Podcast , a horror podcast exploring classic and modern genre films with a rotating roster of co-hosts. The show has covered every film in the Evil Dead franchise — and has been running for 120+ episodes across multiple seasons. Meaghan and Arthur appeared on Nightmare Echoes earlier this year to discuss The Substance . Follow Nightmare Echoes: Instagram & Threads @nightmareechoespod 🎬 The Evil Dead & Evil Dead II: Origins & Chaos Within the Woods (1978) — Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell's proof-of-concept short film, used to secure the $90,000 needed to make the original. The same bootstrapped-short-to-feature pipeline Curry Barker used decades later with YouTube. The original Evil Dead (1981) was shot in extreme cold in a Tennessee cabin that was slowly falling apart — the fireplace was their only heat source, power tools were stolen off the set, and the crew's housing was converted into a brothel mid-production. Evil Dead II (1987) couldn't use footage from the first film due to a multi-studio rights dispute — so it re-created the first twenty minutes, quietly altering character counts and relationships to sidestep the issue. Linda is played by a different actress in every film in the series. Same with the character count: Evil Dead has five friends; Evil Dead II drops it to just Ash and Linda. Rights issues explain both. Ted Raimi (Sam's younger brother) wore a full latex suit in Evil Dead II during the extreme Tennessee summer heat. Buckets of sweat were reportedly dumped out of the suit between takes — and the perspiration is visible in the film. 📖 The Necronomicon: Franchise Lore Explained The Necronomicon (Book of the Dead) evolves in detail and design across every Evil Dead film — each entry adds new layers of mythology and expands what the book can do. Evil Dead II introduces a crucial detail: pages from the Necronomicon can function independently of the book, which becomes a plot point involving Jake throwing them into the fireplace — a decision the hosts describe as one of the franchise's most frustrating character choices. Army of Darkness introduces three Necronomicons on a pedestal — two fakes and one real — and Ash picks the wrong one (partly) because he can't say the words correctly either. Evil Dead Rise confirms that all three books across the franchise's history are separate Necronomicons, placing every film in a shared universe. Evil Dead Burn appears to introduce a fourth. 🪓 Ash Williams: Character Arc Across the Franchise In The Evil Dead (1981), Ash is almost passive — nearly self-effacing, not the commanding presence he becomes later. The hosts note how strikingly different he is between films one and two. Bruce Campbell's physical comedy and willingness to be repeatedly destroyed is the engine of Evil Dead II. The hand-severing sequence remains one of the franchise's most iconic (and genuinely terrifying) moments. Sam Raimi originally intended to go straight from Evil Dead into what became Army of Darkness (working title: Medieval Dead ). Stephen King's rave review of the first film helped secure funding for a sequel — but the studio wanted more of the same, not a medieval adventure. Evil Dead II was ultimately designed as setup for Army of Darkness — a bridge film Raimi made funnier because he knew where the story was going. 🔥 Evil Dead Burn & The Franchise Future Evil Dead Burn hits theaters July 10, 2026. Directed by Sébastien Vaniček ( Infested ), produced by Sam Raimi and Robert G. Tapert, executive produced by Bruce Campbell and Lee Cronin. The crew discuss the fan theory that a voice heard in Evil Dead Rise's vinyl record sequence is Bruce Campbell's — suggesting Ash is still time-traveling through the franchise timeline, trying (and failing) to prevent Deadite uprisings. A Deadite glimpsed in the Evil Dead Burn trailer appears to match the lake woman from Evil Dead Rise — potentially linking the two films and suggesting the franchise's shared universe is tighter than any official confirmation has stated. Evil Dead Wrath (directed by Francis Galluppi) is also in development, marking the first time two Evil Dead films have been in production simultaneously. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Arthur and Meaghan dig into William Bagley's Hold the Fort (2025), now available on VOD. They saw it first at its world premiere at the 2025 Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, loved it enough to re-watch it the second it hit digital, and they're still laughing. This is that kind of movie. HOLD THE FORT — EPISODE SHOWNOTES ABOUT THE FILM ▸ Hold the Fort (2025): written and directed by William Bagley, co-written by Scott Hawkins ▸ Distributed by Sunrise Films (North America); available on Digital HD via Apple TV, Prime Video, and Fandango at Home as of June 23, 2026 ▸ Runtime: 74 minutes · Genre: Horror Comedy ▸ World premiere: Fantasia International Film Festival, Montreal, July 2025, also screened at FrightFest London, Sitges, Beyond Fest, and Toronto After Dark THE CAST ▸ Chris Mayers (Ozark) as Lucas, the new homeowner who definitely did not read the HOA contract ▸ Haley Leary as Jenny, the more sensible half of the couple, and yes, also a nurse ▸ Julian Smith (social media comedian and producer) as Jerry, HOA president, keeper of the lore, cheese stick casualty ▸ Levi Burdick as Ted and Michelle Lamb as Annette, the neighborhood veterans who've been doing this for years ▸ Tordy Clark as Leslie, the neighborhood's better-living-through-chemistry advocate ▸ Hamid-Reza Benjamin Thompson as McScruffy, the hired weapons expert who gets taken out of commission early ▸ Luke Michael Williams as Marcus, the mechanic who changes everyone's oil for free (this is genuinely nice) THE MONSTERS ▸ Witches, recurring annual visitors; killable with bullets (magic doesn't stop bullets — remember that) ▸ Spirit Ninjas, possession-based entities that reanimate corpses as kung fu experts; require a peachwood sword to kill ▸ Kamikaze Bats, bats that fly into people and explode. Yes, really. Arthur loves these the most. ▸ The Werewolf, big, campy, old-school practical suit. Excellent snout. ▸ The Stick Man, the final boss. Blue. Gooey. Genuinely unsettling. THE SHARED UNIVERSE ▸ Hold the Fort is the second feature from William Bagley, following The Murder Podcast (2021) ▸ The films share a universe: a character from The Murder Podcast appears at the very end of Hold the Fort, moving into the neighborhood ▸ The line 'magic doesn't stop bullets' originates in The Murder Podcast as a TV commercial gag; it becomes a recurring rule in Hold the Fort ▸ Arthur and Meaghan watched both films back-to-back, recommended viewing order: Hold the Fort first, then The Murder Podcast WHAT WE LIKED / WHAT WE DIDN'T ▸ The creature variety is unlike most horror comedies; you're never dealing with just one type of monster ▸ Fight choreography is clean and well-shot for a crowdfunded indie production ▸ Jerry is the MVP, and Julian Smith plays the character with incredible comic timing ▸ The film has genuine emotional moments you won't expect, given how goofy everything else is ▸ McScruffy lands slightly over-the-top compared to the rest of the cast, the writing for that character pushed just past the line ▸ Final ratings: both Arthur and Meaghan sitting around 6.5/10, fun, not perfect, absolutely worth watching Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Leviticus review: the queer Australian horror film Joe Bird stars in just opened, and we saw it opening night. Here's our raw reaction. Leviticus (2026) — written and directed by Adrian Chiarella — is one of the best horror films of this year so far. It's sitting at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and the praise is not overstated. This is a queer coming-of-age horror film that follows Naim (Joe Bird, Talk to Me) and Ryan (Stacy Clausen) — two teenage boys in a small, deeply religious town in rural Australia whose emerging feelings for each other trigger a supernatural entity that stalks anyone who's had a conversion ritual performed on them. About the film Leviticus (2026) — written and directed by Adrian Chiarella in his feature debut. Released June 18, 2026 in Australia; June 19, 2026 in the US via Neon. Premiered at the Sundance Film Festival 2026 (Midnight section). Produced by Causeway Films (also behind Talk to Me, The Babadook, Bring Her Back). Distributed internationally by Neon, acquired in a reported seven-figure deal post-Sundance. Running time: 88 minutes. Currently sitting at 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and 84 on Metacritic. Nominated for an audience award at SXSW. Cast and Crew Joe Bird as Naim — best known as Riley in Talk to Me (2022). AACTA Young Stars Award 2025 winner. Leviticus is his first leading film role. Stacy Clausen as Ryan — praised by critics for conveying warmth beneath Ryan's guarded exterior. Mia Wasikowska as Arlene, Naim's mother — widely known for Crimson Peak , Alice in Wonderland . Plays the film's quiet, devastating antagonist. Nicholas Hope as the deliverance healer. Jeremy Blewitt as Hunter. Ewen Leslie as Rod. The Queer Horror Conversation Leviticus sits within a larger queer horror tradition — the film draws deliberate comparisons to It Follows (2014) in its use of a supernatural entity as social metaphor. The film's central metaphor: a post-exorcism entity that takes the form of whoever the victim desires most. It follows them. It adapts. It doesn't stop. The implication — that sexuality cannot be prayed away — is embedded in the film's rules. Meaghan also draws a comparison to Grave Tone's coverage of At the Place of Ghosts , another recent queer horror film dealing with queerness and small community dynamics. The book of Leviticus (specifically Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13) provides the film's title — and its central indictment of religious doctrine used to justify violence against queer people. Australian Horror's Moment Causeway Films has quietly built one of horror's most consistent track records: The Babadook (2014), Talk to Me (2022), The Moogai (2024), Bring Her Back (2025), Leviticus (2026). Arthur and Meaghan discuss what makes Australian horror feel distinctively raw and stripped-back — less Hollywood gloss, more visceral grounding in real places and real dread. Director Adrian Chiarella filmed across Victorian regional towns including Geelong and Bacchus Marsh — specific locations chosen to reinforce the film's claustrophobic, isolated atmosphere. Production Details Joe Bird and Stacy Clausen completed two weeks of pre-production bonding exercises — including a shopping complex improvisation (staying in character while buying each other gifts as their characters). Director Chiarella drove both leads around the filming locations before production began to build atmosphere and connection. A significant portion of the film's dialogue and movement was improvised on set. Production designer chosen specifically for her subdued, drab color palette — a deliberate visual choice to reinforce the emotional bleakness of the setting. Score composed by Jed Kurzel. Cinematography by Tyson Perkins. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Summerween is a real thing (Gravity Falls coined the term back in 2012, and it has only picked up steam since), and this episode is our full lineup of summer horror movie recommendations, vampire picks, slasher books, and the horror TV shows we cannot stop talking about. On the movie side: The Final Girls, The Vast of Night, the new survival horror film Pitfall, The Lost Boys, Joyride, Sean Byrne's shark thriller Dangerous Animals, the live-action Scooby-Doo, the horror sequel Influencers, The Gift, and The Ruins. For summer horror books, we cover Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley, You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron, The Last Astronaut by David Wellington, I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones, Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan, and Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare. And for horror TV, we get into Widow's Bay (just renewed for season two), Midnight Mass, Eerie Indiana, and True Blood. Use the chapter markers below to jump straight to whichever category you're after, movies, books, or TV, and check the full shownotes for links to everything we mention. If even one of these sends you down a rabbit hole this summer, our job here is done. Stay scared, stay tuned. Please vote for us for the Rising Star category at the Sacred Crypt Awards . What Even Is Summerween? Summerween comes from Gravity Falls (2012-2016), which had an actual episode by that name about a town that celebrates Halloween twice a year, and the term has stuck around as its own horror content category ever since. New Horror Releases for Summerween 2026 Pitfall (2025): survival horror slasher from director James Kondelik, starring Richard Harmon, Randy Couture, and Alexandra Essoe, about a hike that turns into a hunt. Dangerous Animals (2025): Sean Byrne's shark horror, starring Jai Courtney as a fisherman who feeds victims to sharks for no reason other than that he likes it. Influencers (2025): the Fantasia Festival sequel starring Cassandra Naud as CW, now hiding out in the south of France until another influencer catches her eye. Vampire and Slasher Throwbacks The Lost Boys (1987): Joel Schumacher's California-pier vampire classic, queer-coded and iconic, perfect for Pride Month too. Joyride (2001): Paul Walker, Steve Zahn, and Leelee Sobieski in a cross-country road trip gone very wrong. The Final Girls (2015): a meta horror comedy where friends get sucked into the slasher Camp Bloodbath, starring Taissa Farmiga, Nina Dobrev, and Adam DeVine. Scooby-Doo (2002): the definitive live-action take on these characters, with Matthew Lillard as Shaggy. Sci-Fi and Southern Gothic Throwbacks The Vast of Night (2019): 1950s New Mexico sci-fi horror loosely based on the Kecksburg UFO incident and the Foss Lake disappearances. The Gift (2000): Cate Blanchett, Keanu Reeves, and Katie Holmes in a Southern psychic thriller. The Ruins (2008): friends trapped on a Mexican pyramid by something far worse than they expected, based on the Scott Smith novel. Summer Horror Books for Your TBR Breathe In, Bleed Out by Brian McAuley: a wellness retreat slasher whodunit set in Joshua Tree. You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron: a full-contact summer camp terror experience, final girl included. I Was a Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones: small-town Texas, summer 1989, told from the killer's side. Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan: Texas funeral-home women vs. rising vampires, with serious Southern charm. Clown in a Cornfield by Adam Cesare: Frendo the killer clown, now four books deep. The Last Astronaut by David Wellington: space horror that'll give you chills no matter how hot it is outside. TV to Binge This Summerween Widow's Bay: just renewed for season two, with the season one finale dropping next week. Midnight Mass shares Hamish Linklater with Widow's Bay, and is still one of the best vampire stories around. Eerie, Indiana (1991-1993): Omri Katz (Hocus Pocus' Max) investigates the weird stuff in his new town, a great horror gateway show. True Blood: Louisiana, heat, accents, vampires, and vibes that carry the whole series. Housekeeping: Awards, Anniversary and Where to Find Us We're up for Rising Star at the Sacred Crypt Awards, nominations open through July 12. Our one-year anniversary as a podcast is right around the corner. Ad-free listening is only on Spotify, that's the one platform where we run without ads. Take our horror movie picker quiz at gravetonepod.com if you need help deciding what to watch tonight. Follow us & Subscribe: Spotify Apple Podcast TikTok Instagram Threads Grave Tone Horror Podcast Website Background music by: Steve Swisher from the Producer's Chair Podcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.