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THE FANTASTIC GOLEM AFFAIRS wastes no time announcing its intentions: this is not a world bound by rules. Within the first minutes, a rooftop game between friends ends with one of them plummeting to his death — only his body doesn’t break in the way ours would. Instead, he smashes into porcelain shards, as if he were never human at all. It’s a shocking image, absurd and unsettling, that sets the tone for what follows: a surreal odyssey where death, bureaucracy, and friendship intersect in a Spain that feels both familiar and utterly alien. This film isn’t what you think it will be, and then when you think you understand what it is, it resets expectations and becomes something else entirely.

STRANGER EYES is one of those films that gets under your skin before you even realize how deeply it has sunk in. Marketed as a surveillance thriller, it begins as a story of a couple unraveling in the wake of their daughter’s disappearance, only to transform into something far more — a meditation on observation, grief, and the ways people fracture under relentless scrutiny. While its icy craftsmanship is in the tradition of cerebral European and Asian thrillers, Yeo Siew Hua’s direction never settles for homage. Instead, it carves out its unnerving exploration, sometimes alienating in its patience, but never less than fascinating.

High school movies never truly go out of style; they simply reflect the anxieties and experiences of each generation. ALMOST POPULAR joins that lineage with a familiar setup—a pair of misfit best friends chasing the approval of the cool kids—but it spins that story with a blend of modern social media, heartfelt friendship, and a clear love for the teen comedies of the ’90s and 2000s. Director Nayip Anthony Garcia makes his feature debut with something that manages to be both broad and unique, balancing humiliation with a sincere message about self-worth.

Sometimes the most powerful stories come in the smallest packages, and TOO GOOD proves that six minutes is more than enough time to spark laughter, provoke thought, and challenge long-held ideas about morality and judgment. The short opens the door to an afterlife that is far from solemn, instead giving viewers a sharp-edged, comic spin on the eternal question: what makes a person “good enough”?

Every year, haunted attractions across America open their gates to thrill seekers eager to be chased by chainsaws and scared by masked actors. For many, they are temporary playgrounds of fear. For Keith Boynton, Markoff’s Haunted Forest in Maryland was inspiration enough to build an entire feature film around — one that not only delivers the screams of a slasher but also captures the humanity of the people who bring such places to life. THE HAUNTED FOREST is at once a love letter to Halloween culture, a horror drama, and a character study. In trying to juggle all three, it sometimes frays at the edges, but its ambition is what makes it stand out in a crowded festival lineup.

In the late 1990s, Hollywood was eager to mine television nostalgia, repackaging classic titles with blockbuster budgets. LOST IN SPACE arrived in 1998 as part of that wave, promising an epic rebirth of the campy 1960s series into a sleek, effects-driven spectacle. With a cast including Gary Oldman, William Hurt, Matt LeBlanc, and Heather Graham, it looked poised to be both a crowd-pleaser and a new franchise starter. Yet, despite moments of genuine entertainment and now with an Arrow Video 4K restoration that reminds us of its visual ambition, the film never quite found its footing. Instead, it became a curious artifact: half-genuine family space adventure, half-awkward reminder of the perils of big-budget remakes.

SELF-HELP opens with a setup that feels all too believable in the modern age: a daughter watches her mother slip under the influence of a mysterious figure, and in desperation, she infiltrates the very group that threatens to consume her family. From there, director Erik Bloomquist and co-writer Carson Bloomquist craft a story that is part cult horror, part family drama, and part commentary on the manipulation of trust. It is a film rooted in modern anxieties, dressed in familiarity, but clever enough to find fresh angles.

Where DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS lured audiences with sleek elegance and erotic menace, Harry Kümel’s companion piece from 1971, MALPERTUIS, plunges headfirst into a labyrinth of myth, madness, and surrealism. Adapted from Jean Ray’s novel, it is a film that wears its strangeness proudly, offering an experience that feels more like wandering through a fever dream than following a conventional narrative. With its star power, elaborate production design, and ambitions, MALPERTUIS is both a fascinating artifact of European genre filmmaking and a divisive entry that continues to split audiences to this day.

DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS isn’t the kind of vampire film that lures its audience in with sharp teeth and spurts of blood. Instead, it glides into view with a quiet elegance, letting its atmosphere wash over you like waves against the Belgian shoreline where the story unfolds. From its very first moments, there’s a sense of unease lurking beneath the polished surfaces, as though the film is more interested in seduction than shocks. Harry Kümel, working at the height of his career, crafted something that plays as both a piece of Gothic horror and an artful exploration of desire, repression, and control.

In 2003, Platinum Dunes, the studio newly founded by Michael Bay, took a gamble: remaking Tobe Hooper’s 1974 horror landmark THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. At the time, the decision sparked anger among purists who believed the original should remain untouched. What followed was a grisly, unapologetic reimagining from director Marcus Nispel and screenwriter Scott Kosar. It would not only become a massive box office success but also ignite a wave of horror remakes throughout the 2000s (for better or worse). Two decades later, the film remains as divisive as it was at release — but it’s hard to deny the impact it left.

When Platinum Dunes rebooted THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE in 2003, the film split audiences but proved the franchise still had teeth at the box office. Only three years later, the studio doubled down with THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE BEGINNING, a prequel meant to show how Leatherface and the Hewitt family’s reign of terror began. Directed by Jonathan Liebesman and written by Sheldon Turner and David J. Schow, the result is a relentlessly grim entry that aims to be the nastiest of the Chainsaw films yet. Whether that approach works depends entirely on what you want from this series.

Some horror stories rely on monsters, and then there are horror stories that reveal the monsters we’ve been taught to carry within ourselves. SKIN, written and directed by Urvashi Pathania, belongs squarely to the latter category. SKIN makes an immediate impression as a short film that utilizes genre tools to dissect a very real and corrosive issue: colorism and the pressures imposed on women of color to conform to Eurocentric ideals. This is the third indie film I've seen in the last two months that tackles this subject in one way or another, each equally as powerful with its own unique twists.

WE DO OUR BEST is a short film with the weight of something much larger. At just fourteen minutes, it’s easy to imagine this story getting lost in the crowd. Yet, once its premise is laid bare — a mother helping her daughter pose as an older woman for one night out in Manhattan — the emotional core proves impossible to shake. Written and directed by Hannah Rose Ammon, it’s a deeply personal story that has been transformed into something we can all connect with.

THE INNKEEPERS is a horror film that refuses to chase the easy scares, instead embracing atmosphere, character depth, and long stretches of unease before unleashing its most frightening moments. Directed and written by Ti West, this 2011 indie film has slowly grown into a cult favorite, largely due to its commitment to being a slow-burning ghost story. Now, with its 2025 release by Second Sight Films, the film has a chance to reach a new generation of viewers who may not have experienced its subtle yet lasting impact upon its initial release.

The second season of ANNE RICE’S MAYFAIR WITCHES wastes no time throwing its characters — and its audience — into a gothic spiral of inheritance, power, and consequence. Picking up after Rowan Fielding (Alexandra Daddario) gave birth to the embodiment of the entity Lasher, the story sharpens its focus on what happens when the supernatural curse of a bloodline grows before our eyes. As Lasher accelerates unnaturally from infancy to adulthood, the Mayfairs face the full weight of their family’s dark pact, and the results are more sinister and volatile than anything hinted at in the first season.