MOVIE

‎Annapurna Sriram’s F*cktoys is a bold and audacious feature debut that combines transgressive humor, spiritual exploration, and sharp social commentary. The film follows AP, a young sex worker played by Sriram, who, after losing a tooth, visits a tarot reader for answers. The reading isn’t favorable: the cards predict doom, with the curse of a mysterious force upon her. The tarot reader, portrayed by Big Freedia, delivers the news with unsettling certainty but also offers a solution—AP can change her fate with a thousand dollars and a sacrificial lamb. ‎ ‎Annapurna Sriram in ' F*cktoys. ' ‎Trashtown Pictures LLC ‎ ‎Premiering at SXSW, F*cktoys won a special jury prize in the narrative feature competition and follows AP as she embarks on a chaotic quest for spiritual redemption in the fictional world of Trashtown, U.S.A. Her journey is filled with unexpected reunions, strange encounters, and moments of real danger. Sriram’s film, which merges John Waters’ penchant ...

‎In Ash, Flying Lotus’ atmospheric sci-fi thriller, a woman awakens to the low hum of a malfunctioning system. The room is drenched in eerie neon blue, accented by the frantic red of an emergency light. Despite her blurry vision, the woman, identified later as Riya (Eiza Gonzalez), quickly absorbs the scene: overturned tables, shattered test tubes, and bloodied corpses—her crew members, who have met grim fates. Flickering memories reveal a mutiny, but the mystery deepens—who betrayed whom, and why is Riya the sole survivor? ‎ ‎Eiza González in ' Ash. ' ‎Courtesy of RLJE Films & Shudder ‎ ‎The film unfolds with an emphasis on atmosphere, enveloping the audience in a sensory experience that complements its muted narrative. Flying Lotus, known for his directorial debut Kuso and his unique music compositions (he also scored Ash), experiments with perspective, lighting, and sound to construct a tense psychological journey. The film’s dreamlike visuals and trippy aes...

‎Hallow Road, British-Iranian director Babak Anvari’s latest offering, is a taut and unrelenting psychological thriller that builds on the intensity of his acclaimed 2016 debut, Under the Shadow. In contrast to his earlier work, this film takes a minimalist approach, largely unfolding within the confines of a car. The narrative follows an anxious set of parents who race through the night in response to a distressing call from their college-age daughter. With high-stakes performances from Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys, Hallow Road delivers a psychological slow burn that gradually introduces a darker, mythic dimension. ‎ ‎Rosamund Pike in ' Hallow Road. ' ‎Julie Vrabelova ‎ ‎The film's structure is streamlined and impactful, particularly in William Gillies' debut screenplay. The opening scenes set the tone of unease: a house in disarray with an uneaten dinner and broken glass, suggesting a sudden argument that has interrupted a family dinner. Maddie (Pike) i...

A chilling new trailer for Bambi: The Reckoning has just been dropped, offering a deeper look into the upcoming horror adaptation based on the beloved children's book character, Bambi. This film is part of the growing "Twisted Childhood Universe" (TCU), the same dark world that introduced Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey and Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare. In Bambi: The Reckoning, the story unfolds around Xana (Roxanne McKee) and her son, Benji (Tom Mulheron), who find themselves in a deadly car crash, caused by a nightmarish, monstrous version of Bambi. Though filming for the movie wrapped in January 2024, its release has been delayed, and fans can now expect the film to hit theaters in summer 2025. Bambi in the shadows in ' Bambi: The Reckoning. ' The Twisted Childhood Universe Jagged Edge Productions has unveiled an intense new trailer for Bambi: The Reckoning, providing a closer look at what promises to be a terrifying addition to the Twisted Chi...

Every great horror film needs a terrifying antagonist, and Heart Eyes delivers in spades with its chilling Heart Eyes Killer (HEK). A Valentine’s Day slasher with a twist, HEK only targets couples, making him the ultimate nightmare for those in love. His signature heart-shaped eyes serve as night-vision goggles, adding an eerie red glow to his perspective (reminiscent of Silence of the Lambs). Armed with a crossbow that shoots deadly cupid’s arrows, HEK's deadly charm is matched only by his backup weapon: a butcher’s knife. This killer is the perfect adversary in Josh Ruben’s (of Werewolves Within fame) witty, horror-comedy hybrid that cleverly merges the worlds of romcoms and slasher films. ' The Heart Eyes. ' Sony Pictures Rom-Com Tropes Meet Killer Thrills The film opens with all the classic rom-com conventions. Think high-powered professionals, mishaps over coffee orders, accidental head bumps, and “will they, won’t they” chemistry. Ally (Olivia Holt), a jew...

Spoiler alert: two of the Scream franchise's murderers have risen from the dead! Or are they? Deadline reported on Thursday, Jan. 30, that Scream 3's 52-year-old Scott Foley will return in an unnamed role for the horror series' seventh picture, set to release in February 2026. The same day, Matthew Lillard, 55, who appeared in Wes Craven's original Scream, shared a video on Instagram implying that he will also participate in the impending sequel. The strange video appears to show Lillard's hand scrawling his character's iconic remark from the 1996 horror film: "My mom and dad are gonna be so mad at me!" The Ghostface killer in ' Scream. ' Brownie Harris/Paramount Pictures   Scream fans are probably wondering, didn't both Lillard and Foley's characters die in their respective films? It certainly seemed like it at the moment! Details concerning the narrative of filmmaker and original Scream screenwriter Kevin Williamson's...

Netflix has set a release date for the much anticipated third season of Squid Game. The Korean-language drama, which was announced during the streaming service's main slate presentation, Next on Netflix, will return on June 27. Following the release of season two on December 26, Netflix's most popular series, Squid Game, will return for its last chapter. The series has the largest single-week viewing count of any streaming title in the United States in 2024, with 4.92 billion minutes of viewing from December 23 to December 29. Netflix 's ' Squid Game ' will return for its third and final season this summer. Noh Ju-han/Netflix Returning from the cliffhanger of season two, the final season follows "Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) after losing his best friend in the game and being driven to utter despair by The Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), who was hiding his true identity to infiltrate the game." Gi-hun persevere in his desire to terminate the game, while t...

The cape, the fangs, and the frightful manicure are all Bill Skarsgard's. But it is Robert Eggers who imbues Nosferatu with diabolical purpose, and the film unfolds as if it is under a malignant spell, possessed. This seems like something the writer-director has been working on since his unnerving 2016 first picture, The Witch. It's exciting, nasty, and beautiful in equal measure. This masterfully created fever dream, steeped in deep atmosphere and horrific poetry, is the darkest Christmas counterprogramming you can find. Lily-Rose Depp in ' Nosferatu. ' Focus Features Eggers has created a frightening body of work based on history, folklore, religion, fairy tales, and mythology. His debut picture depicted 1630s New England, when a farming family driven from a Puritan community experiences magic in the woods. His second novel, The Lighthouse, places two 1890s men in claustrophobic solitude on a rugged island off Maine, battered by the weather and roaring sto...

Paramount and Temple Hill are beaming broadly. Their new film, Smile 2, is leading the US box office with an estimated $23 million after grossing $9.4 million on Friday, including more than $2 million in previews. That would place the film's premiere just ahead of the first Smile, a sleeper smash that opened to $22.6 million in late September 2022 and went on to generate more than $217 million globally against a $17 million budget. Naomi Scott in ' Smile 2. ' Paramount Pictures According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film, written and directed by Parker Finn, follows an evil spirit that jumps hosts via a diabolical grin, this time infecting a troubled pop diva (Naomi Scott) with a ton of pain to feed on. Scott stars alongside Lukas Gage, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Miles Gutierrez-Riley. This time, the budget was $28 million, which is a low figure for a large studio. Smile 2 received a B CinemaScore from audiences, matching the score of the first picture. It faces s...

Sony Pictures has released the final trailer for "Venom: The Last Dance." Tom Hardy reprises his role as Eddie Brock, or Venom from the "Spider-Man" comics, in the concluding installment of the trilogy. According to the official logline, "Eddie and Venom are on the run." Hunted by both worlds and with the net closing in, the two are forced to make a heartbreaking decision that will mark the end of Venom and Eddie's final dance. Sony Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Peggy Lu, Alanna Ubach, and Stephen Graham star alongside Hardy. Kelly Marcel, the writer and producer of the original two "Venom" films, directed "The Last Dance" from a screenplay she authored. The story for "Venom 3" was developed and produced by Marcel and Hardy in collaboration with Avi Arad, Matt Tolmach, Amy Pascal, and Hutch Parker. Joe Caracciolo Jr. is the executive producer. Hardy's previous two comic book tentpoles, 2018...

Hollywood has a history of resurrecting the decaying corpses of long-dead films with belated sequels, so it was only a matter of time before someone dug into the tomb marked Beetlejuice. That someone was always going to be Tim Burton, the director of the original 1988 film, and despite rumors that a Beetlejuice sequel was in the works for decades, Burton insisted that he would only consider it if Michael Keaton reprised the title role and any sequel remained true to the spirit of the morbidly eccentric original film. On both criteria, Beetlejuice succeeds. A suitably manic Keaton as the mischievous demon "bio-exorcist" scuttles across the film like a huge cockroach in a striped costume, while the decaying DNA of the original picture is evident in every hyperstylised frame of the sequel. Michael Keaton in ' Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. ' Parisa Taghizadeh/Warner Bros. Possibly a touch too much at times. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice teeters on the brink of the same ...