My Review of Whistle (2026)

 

Written by Owen Egerton 

Directed by Corin Hardy

Chrys: "What if I don't want to die?"

Ivy: "Then you shouldn't have been born."

So far this year and with one exception, every 2026 movie I've watched so far had been in the horror genre. That might not change any time soon as there's other movies I need to catch up this month.

This one was released last month but I caught up with it late last night. You've got a bunch of high school students, a religious hypocrite and a cursed whistle. The ideas were perfectly sound but the execution left a little bit to be desired.

The cursed whistle in question turned out to be a death whistle. If you want to die, just blow into it and death would soon follow. This was explained by occult collector Ivy Raymore (Michelle Farley). She explained it following the death of her grandson, Mason (Stephen Kalyn). It was needed exposition for this movie.

The group of students who had the misfortune to deal with the cursed whistle were a mixed bunch. There was Chrys Willet (Dafnee Keen), who had substance issues as well as dead parents. She was living with her cousin, Rel Taylor (Sky Yang). Throw in a jock named Dean Jackson (Jhaleil Swaby), his girlfriend Grace Browning (Ali Skovbye) and a love interest for Chrys named Ellie Gains (Sophie Nélisse).

With this group, they are mostly decent characters but largely they're scrambling to beat the cursed whistle while also having to deal with an annoying youth pastor/drug dealer Noah Haggerty (Percy Hines White). As a human antagonist, Noah's pretty annoying to watch, which did make his comeuppance a bit more satisfying to watch.

The love story between Chrys and Ellie drove some of the second half of the movie. The two of them were able to work together to outsmart the cursed whistle and there's decent chemistry between Dafnee Keen and Sophie Nélisse.

- A mid credit scene had a new student blow the whistle in front of the whole school. Nick Frost briefly appeared as the teacher Mr. Craven.

- Olmec alluded to Mexico, which was where the whistle originated from. Chrys was short for Chrysanthemum.

- Standout music: Divinyls Back To The Wall.

- Chronology: Months passed between the opening kill to the main story to the aftermath of the story.

Whistle (2026) was an okay teen horror film. Decent enough cast, main love story and scares. It's diverting, won't tax your brain but I'll be surprised if it's on anyone's favourite horror movie list by the end of the year.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of The Van (1996)

 

Written by Roddy Doyle 

Directed by Stephen Frears 

Bimbo: "I'm going to kill it."

Larry: "What?"

Bimbo: "I'm going to kill the poxy van."

In the final part of The Barrytown Trilogy and I'll admit that while I do like this movie, it's probably my least favourite of the three. Saying that, it's still a worthy watch.

As someone who's not a big football fan, I also have some flashbacks to how much of a big deal Ireland's performance in the World Cup in 1990 was for the country. It's a bit of a plot for this movie as well.

The focus here was on a baker named Brendan "Bimbo" Reeves (Donal O'Kelly). He lost his job but gained a van and decided to go into business with his friend, Larry (Colm Meaney). The business being to sell fish and chips to the locals. As business ideas went, it was a guaranteed success.

In fact for a good portion of the movie, there was a good team up with Bimbo and Larry as well as the former's daughter, Diane (Neilí Conroy). That was until the van itself got shut down due to poor hygiene, thanks to the rather officious health inspector, Des O'Callaghan.

There's a breakdown in friendship between Bimbo and Larry and there was also a look into the former's marriage to Maggie (Ger Ryan) but again, the focus was largely on Bimbo and Larry. The latter in particular resorted to extreme measures in order to get their friendship back on track.

- Again because of rights issues, Colm Meaney had to play Larry instead of Jimmy Rabbitte Sr.

- Neilí Conroy's brother, Rúaidhrí also appeared as Kevin and Brendan O'Carroll popped up as Weslie.

- Standout music: Frederick Loewe's Wand'rin' Star.

- Chronology: Once again, we're in Barrytown, Dublin, during the 1990 World Cup.

While it is the weakest of The Barrytown Trilogy, I still would recommend watching The Van. It's a good enough closing story to this trilogy of films and both Colm Meaney and Donal O'Kelly are on good form.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of The Snapper (1993)

 

Written by Roddy Doyle

Directed by Stephen Frears

George: "Sharon, please, I have to talk. I'm tormented!"

Sharon: "You're tormented? You've made me the laughing stock of Barrytown, I can't go out without being jeered at. You're tormented? You prick ya!"

If I ever compile a list of Top 10 Irish movies (and I really should at some point), I promise that this particular movie will be very high on that list. I've seen it a ridiculous amount of times and it's without a doubt the best movie in The Barrytown Trilogy. I genuinely mean that.

Had rights issues not been a thing, this would've been directly connected to The Commitments but alas they were, so the Rabbitte family became the Curly family for this movie alone. Don't worry, that doesn't negatively impact the overall story as such.

Our protagonist would be twenty year old supermarket worker Sharon (Tina Kellegher). She's just found that a drunken one night stand with her best friend's father has resulted in an unexpected pregnancy. Of course there's her own family to break that news to.

Ireland in the 1990s wasn't always the most progressive with issues like this but here, Sharon had a support system. Both her father, Dessie (Colm Meaney) and Kay (Ruth McCabe) accepted that they were going to be grandparents and Sharon's five siblings also seemed to be unfazed about her being pregnant as well.

Sharon even had the support of her friends - Yvonne (Karen Woodley), Jackie (Fionnuala Murphy) and Mary (Deirdre O'Brien). Except when it was revealed that it was Yvonne's creepy father, George Burgess (Pat Laffan) that slept with Sharon and was the father of her child. That certainly created an even split in the friends group.

Anyways, the rest of the film dealt with Sharon being something of a local pariah with tension in her own family before the movie ended up with her giving birth to a girl. Of all the names and in spite of her insistence that it was a Spanish sailor who did the deed, Sharon willingly chose to name the girl Georgina. I don't think she thought that one through to be fair.

- Sharon's siblings for the movie were Craig (Eanna MacLiam), Darren (Colm O'Byrne), Sonny (Peter Rowan), Lisa (Joanne Gerard) and Kimberley (Ciara Duffy).

- Brendan Gleeson popped up as Dessie's well meaning but slightly dim friend, Lester. 

- Standout music: Lick The Tins Can't Help Falling In Love.

- Chronology: Set in 1990s Barrytown, Dublin. The book came out in 1990 itself.

I absolutely love The Snapper. Yes, it's a topical film that came out at a rather pivotal time in Ireland but it's also a deeply funny and heartfelt movie as well. Both Tina Kellegher and Colm Meaney are brilliant throughout the whole thing.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of The Commitments (1991)

 

Written by Dick Clement And Ian La Frenais And Roddy Doyle

Directed by Alan Parker

Dean: "You don't think, eh, well, like maybe we're a little white - for that kind o' thing."

Jimmy: "Do ya not get it, lads? The Irish are the blacks of Europe. And Dubliners are the blacks of Ireland. And the Northside Dubliners are the blacks of Dublin. So say it once, say it loud. I'm black an' I'm proud!"

Seeing as it's the month of March, I do want to try and get a few Irish films in as best I can and there's a certain trilogy that I've been meaning to review for a while now. Yup, it's The Barrytown Trilogy of course.

Starting with this one, what do you do with a group of strangers who want to form their own soul band? That was something that working class lad Jimmy Rabbitte (Robert Arkins) was about to find out as he really wanted to break into the music scene and couldn't do it all by himself.

Nope, he needed a band who could play instruments and could sing soul music like he could. This band would be called The Commitments and it's members were definitely a lively bunch of people, who brought their own talent and chaos into the group.

The back up singers included Bernie McGloughlin (Bronagh Gallagher), Natalie Murphy (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and Imelda Quirke (Angelina Ball). All three women would be seduced by trumpet player Joey Fagin (Johnny Murphy). This caused a certain degree of tension within the group itself.

The rest of the group included lead singer Deco Cuffe (Andrew Strong), guitarist Outspan Foster (Glen Hansard), keyboardist Steven Clifford (Michael Ahearne), alto saxophonist Dean Fay (Félim Gormley) as well as bassist Derek Scully (Kenneth McCluskey) and drummer Billy Mooney (Dick Massey). It's a large group of characters to focus on.

As a band, The Commitments actually did have talent and were even securing some good gigs until one of them lead to disaster and the band's eventually dissolution. There's a nice montage towards the end that showed how each of the groups lives changed and in most cases, for the better tbh.

- The other two movies in this trilogy are The Snapper (1993) and The Van (1996). Colm Meaney played Mr Rabbitte in this movie but different characters in the other ones.

- If you're a fan of The Corrs (it was the 1990s), Andrea had played Sharon Rabbitte while her siblings had smaller roles here.

- Standout music: Mustang Sally, Dark End Of The Street and Try A Little Tenderness.

- Chronology: Roddy Doyle's book came out in 1987 and it's set in the Northside of Dublin.

The Commitments gets The Barrytown Trilogy off to an excellent start. It's a riot of a film with a brilliant cast, a brilliant soundtrack and a nice exploration into the working class and aspirations for more. How can anyone not be entertained by this one?

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Betrayal"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl 

Diana (re Cooper): "The rebirth has begun."

And we're into the finale - or will it be series finale? If it's the latter, then Ryan Murphy learned nothing when he ended the likes of Ratched and Grotesquerie on cliffhangers. Hopefully the same fate isn't awaiting this one.

To this finale's credit, it's an improvement on the penultimate with three plot strands being weaved into one another with decent results. Even the Bella plot suddenly became a lot more interesting as a result of this episode.

Bella met up with the hunky Conor (Carson Rowland) who offered to sleep with her to pass on the Beauty. Conor also took an extra dose and Bella became horribly mutated as a direct result. It's probably the most sci-fi looking moment we've had in the entire show.

Bella's grotesque transformation was not only pitiful to look at but it became another reason for Byron to grow a conscience. Yes, our villain of the piece finally realised that his little product was causing a 17% rate of damage. What also spurred this change of tack? Oh yes, Byron's dopey sons.

Being good looking did nothing to improve Tig and Gunther's IQ as they decided to inject Franny with the Beauty. Franny now looked like Nicola Peltz Beckham and she wasn't happy about being younger. In fact, her reasoning for it not only made perfect sense in general but it was the thing to get through to Byron. That also put both Byron and Tig at odds with each other.

Tig aligned with Diana and they had a reverse for the Beauty that Cooper was willing to try. The cliffhanger being everyone reacting to the reversed version of Cooper. Do we get Evan Peters back next season? Will there even be a next season? 

- Franny II was styled the same way that Isabella Rossellini was in Death Becomes Her. It was a nice nod.

- Ray was killed off screen and Gunther didn't seem to be part of Tig's attempts to usurp Byron.

- Standout music: Guns N' Roses Sweet Child O' Mine.

- Chronology: From where the penultimate episode left off.

Beautiful Betrayal made for a strong enough finale. The main plots looped together rather nicely but has the show done enough to get a second season? I bloody hope so.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Beauty Day"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl 

Student (re Tina): "She got the shot."

To get this one thing out of the way first - I would have taken these last two episodes, condensed parts of this one and merged it with the last episode. This was a complete filler episode that probably needed to happen earlier in the season or not at all.

I mean it did pick up from where Cooper had been transformed into a pre-teen and Jordan doing her best to reassure. The reality was that Jordan had no idea if Cooper would ever grow up and I think Cooper knew that as well.

On the other hand, I liked the bond that Jordan has formed with both Jeremy and the Assassin. Some snarky banter, both of them seemed surprisingly sympathetic to Cooper's current predicament. Cooper remained determined to actually stop Byron in his tracks.

Then there's Beauty Day. It came and went and The Beauty itself was spreading like wildfire among the American population. The focus on most of this episode was on the unfortunate Bella Grant (Emma Halleen).

Bella wanted to get The Beauty having witnessed a formerly dumpy classmate named Tina get the desired results as well as an influencer she followed online. Bella's parents on the other hand weren't going to let her do, rightly pointing out the possible side effects of the treatment.

The last scene saw Bella being openly envious of her friend Ruthie (Annabelle Wachtel/Paige McGarvin) being turned so dramatically by the process. Ruthie explained to Bella there was another way fot her to get the treatment. Then the episode abruptly ended.

- Bella's father was using Ozempic and this episode was rather critical of that too.

- Emma Halleen who played Bella previously appeared in American Horror Stories episode, Bestie. 

- I think people were way too calm about Tina being aggressive and even that classmate starting his transformation in the middle of class.

- Chronology: A week since the events of Beauty Day.

Beautiful Beauty Day was pure filler as an episode. It's fine for what it is but it didn't need to be it's own episode. I would've merged these last two episodes together.

Rating: 6 out of 10 

My Review of I Swear (2025)

 

Written And Directed by Kirk Jones

John Davidson: "The problem is not Tourette's, the problem is that people don't know enough about Tourette's."

After the uproar of last week's BAFTAs, this movie was something I needed to watch. I'll admit that I don't have an extensive knowledge on Tourette's but I was familiar with real life campaigner John Davidson. This movie was about the earlier part of his life.

The movie began with his early days as a 12 year old and when played by Scott Ellis Watson. He had aspirations to be a footballer but it was around this time his Tourette's had started to come into play. It was something that also saw his parents Heather (Shirley Henderson) and David (Steven Cree) desperate as well.

The movie mostly focused on an older version of John, played by Robert Aramayo. We saw the strain between John and his mother while a chance reunion with John's old school friend, Murray Achenbach (Francesco Piacentini-Smith) had John moving in with the latter's mother, Dottie (Maxine Peake).

The relationship between John and Dottie was by far the best thing about the movie. Dottie's experience as a nurse factored into her empathy for John. Dottie seemed to be able to help John in ways that his mother wasn't able to. She helped him get a job in the community centre and John formed a close relationship with his boss, Tommy (Peter Mullan).

As the movie progressed, John had to witness Tommy's death, had been a victim of an assault and had interactions with the law. They weren't as understanding of his condition. He also learned to live on his own and even stepped up for the community centre after Tommy's death.

Towards the end of the movie, we saw the ways in which John was able to live with his condition and even saw the positive impact he was making within his community as more people were trying to understand Tourettes. From this movie alone, it's hard not to admire John Davidson.

- The end credits of the movie had clips from the John's Not Mad documentary as well as others.

- A lot of this movie did focus on John's meeting with the Queen and how that went down.

- Standout music: New Order's Blue Monday and Oasis's Stop Crying Your Heart Out.

- Chronology: This started in the early 1980s Galashiels, Scotland with most of the movie set in the 1990s and 2000s.

I would definitely recommend watching I Swear as a movie. It's a brilliant look into the condition and into the life of John Davidson. Robert Aramayo gave one hell of a performance throughout as do Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson and Peter Mullan.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Industry - Season 4 (2026, HBO/BBC)

 

Written by Mickey Down And Konrad Kay And Joseph Charlton

Directed by Mickey Down And Konrad Kay And Michelle Savill And Luke Snellin

Whitney (to Henry): "Everybody wants you. You're worth everything. Everybody wants you."

I started this show as the fourth season was making the rounds on HBO and BBC respectively and managed to catch up with the current season as it was heading into it's final three episodes. I really have become a convert in such a short space of time.

With Pierpoint no more and the sexiness that was Harry Lawtey's Robert Spearing absent, it was really a case of Yasmin and Harper being the last two standing. Both women were in separate places at the start of the season and were further pulled apart by the end of the season.

In fact both women really went in very different directions. With Yasmin, her marriage to Henry really did both her and Henry no favours. In fact I was rooting for them to divorce and was more than happy when the finale granted my wish. However where Yasmin ended up, post divorce just showed how far she's fallen as a person.

Yasmin and Henry getting into bed with Tender and it's CFO Whitney Halberstram (Max Minghella) certainly compromised their morality. There's a Talented Mr. Ripley vibe between Henry and Whitney that nearly crossed into some homoerotic tension. As a villain, Whitney's brilliant to watch and there's something delightful in seeing Henry getting the better of him by the finale.

As for Harper, this season might have been her at her least scheming and most sympathetic. She's largely working with Sweetpea and newcomer, Kwabena Bannerman (Toheeb Jimoh) and even formed a partnership with Eric before things went spectacularly bad for the latter. Was that a permanent exit for the character? I'm not so sure.

For this season, Harper was on the right side. She knew something was up with Tender and actively made the right moves in order to try and expose Whitney. She even tried to pull Yasmin back from the dark path the latter was heading towards. I don't think I've ever been more Team Harper than I was with this season.

- Episode titles were PayPal of Bukkake, The Commander and the Grey Lady, Habseligkeiten, 1000 Yoots, 1 Marilyn, Eyes Without A Face, Dear Henry, Points Of Emphasis and Both, And.

- Lot of new characters this season including escort Hayley Clay (Kiernan Shipka), journalist James Dycker (Charlie Heaton), Labour Minister Jennifer Bevan (Amy James-Kelly). Those three got a lot of screen time. Claire Forlani and Kal Penn also popped up this season.

- Rishi really went off the deep end in his grief and addiction, which led to a mid season exit for the character.

- Henry turned forty in the second episode, had visions of his dead father (Jack Farthing) and admitted that he's slept with men in boarding school.

- HBO and BBC confirmed that the fifth season will be it's last one.

- Chronology: Mostly set in 2025 and 2026 and mainly in London though the fifth episode was set in Ghana.

I really have gotten into this show in such a short space of time and this fourth season made for some captivating television. The dynamics between Henry/Whitney and Harper/Yasmin were the best thing and there's timely commentary on various issues to boot. Honestly, this show has gotten better every season. I can't wait to see how it'll end.

Rating: 9 out of 10 

My Review of The Dreadful (2026)

 

Written And Directed by Natasha Kermani

Morwen (to Anne) "They will pull you down to Hell."

In the last few days I've watched three horror films released this year and this would be the third one, so to speak. I guess I fancied something medieval with two former Game Of Thrones actors in the mix.

Those actors of being Sophie Turner and Kit Harington. Once pon a time, they were sort of half siblings on the show that launched their respective careers. In this movie, they're more than that and oh god, the chemistry isn't there.

I mean it's not unusual to see actors go from playing relatives in one production to playing lovers in another and there's been enough distance since Game Of Thrones ended. Unfortunately, they just don't have an ounce of chemistry.

Needless to say that's a bad thing because this movie needed then to be convincing as an ill suited couple and they just dont have what it takes. I don't know which one of them might be miscast here. Maybe both. Maybe Kit Harington should have been cast as a different character or the romance between Anne and Jago should've been scrapped altogether.

In flashbacks, both Anne and Jago were childhood friends along with Anne's husband, Seamus (Laurence O'Fuarain). Then Jago and Seamus went off to war and Anne was under the control of her domineering mother in law, Morwen (Marcia Gay Harden). The latter seemed to enjoy constantly gaslighting Anne, including dragging into murdering people in order to scrape by.

Needless to say Anne got caught between both Morwen and Jago trying to control her as well as a supernatural killer Knight with a cursed helmet. Throw in corruption, betrayal and asserting agency, this movie ended on a rather ambiguous note for Anne. 

- Sophie Turner was a producer for this movie and Jonathan Howard appeared as the doomed Brother Pentos.

- Jago killed Seamus when the latter went mad during the war but it seemed like he did just to get Anne.

- Both Sophie Turner and Kit Harington talked about much they didn't like playing a couple and it absolutely reflected in their performances.

- Chronology: Medieval times, during the War of the Roses.

It's tempting to say that The Dreadful lived up to its title because it's not a good horror film whatsoever. Casting two actors with no romantic chemistry what so ever didn't help and the ideas are largely undercooked. It's very disappointing.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

My Review of Twisted (2026)

 

Written by Jonathan Bernstein And James Greer

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman 

Robert: "I'm a surgeon. God plays to me."

If you read my blog posts and you're a Doctor Who fan and I said the word Mindwarp, it may give you a clue as to what the general concept of this movie might be. I mean there are likely better comparisons I should make but right now, it's the one springing to mind the most.

Anyways, you've got Lauren LaVera, who thanks to the Terrifier franchise has managed to solidify herself as a modern day Scream Queen. In this movie she's a reasonably charismatic con woman named Paloma Joia. Along with her friend/girlfriend Smith (Mia Healey), the two of them have a sweet operation scamming tenants.

It was a sweet operation until Paloma (pretending to be Marnie) set her sights on a doctor named Robert Kezian (Djimon Hounsou). Trying to scam him went spectacularly wrong when he saved her from a would be attacker. Let's say that Robert's bedside manner could do with a lot of work.

On a serious, Paloma realised to her absolute horror that Robert was keeping her prison with the rather brain damaged Lenny (Renes Rivera) effectively guarding her. It turned out that Robert's wife, Rebecca (Alicia Witt) needed a healthy brain. Unfortunately, that wasn't good news for Paloma.

We got to see Paloma's attacker with Smith's brain inside him before it went wrong and Paloma's hope of rescue with Robert's co-worker Bradshaw (Neal McDonough) were a no go when Robert killed the latter for being opposed to the brain transfer idea.

Throw in two rather ineffective detectives with Crase (Jacob Lukas Anderson) and Warricker (Gina Philips) and Paloma was basically doomed. Robert essentially got what he wanted but he didn't live long to enjoy it. 

- Paloma went through names and wigs during the course of the movie before her head was shaved. Her family died in a car crash three years ago.

- There was a few literary allusions, including a timely reference to Wuthering Heights.

- Standout music: Sylvia Massey's American Dream.

- Chronology: Present day New York City. I did like Robert's Brownstone place.

Twisted (2026) had a good premise and there are undoubtedly solid performances from both Lauren LaVera and Djimon Hounsou. That's the good bit but it's also a movie with an intriguing premise let down by sloppy execution and dull direction at times.

Rating: 5 out of 10 

My Review of Scream 7 (2026)

 

Written by Kevin Williamson And Guy Busick And James Vanderbilt

Directed by Kevin Williamson 

Sidney (to Jessica): "Past my prime? Fuck you!"

I promised myself that when I'd get around to both seeing and reviewing this movie that I was going to be fair and objective with it. I wasn't going to mindlessly bash it or praise it out of my love towards the franchise. I will say one thing though - Spyglass/Paramount your treatment of cast members certainly deserves all the criticism in the world and you should be ashamed of yourselves.

The movie itself decided to go a little nostalgic at the beginning. The home of Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard) was now a tourist attraction. This was a way to introduce Stab fan Scott (Jimmy Tatro) and girlfriend, Madison (Michelle Randolph) into the mix. They also made up the opening kills with the latter getting the sort of death that she didn't want to happen to her. 

That's your lot for Woodsboro because the rest of the movie took place in Pine Grove. Sidney Prescott-Evans (Neve Campbell) ran The Little Latte cafe, was married to a cop named Mark (Joel McHale) and was struggling to connect with her oldest daughter, Tatum (Isabel May). Tatum wanting to know more about her mother's past was a source of contention for Sidney. You'd think by now Sidney would realise that she can't avoid her past.

In fact this movie kind of drove that point home. Ghostface rocked up in Pine Grove and began to make the usual threats to Sidney. Soon enough, Tatum's friend circle were dropping like flies. The likes of Hannah Turman (McKenna Grace), Chloe Parker (Celeste O'Connor), Lucas Bowden (Asa Germann) and even boyfriend Ben Brown (Sam Rechner) were all subjected to a variety of gruesome deaths but had little characterisation before meeting their ends.

As a friendship circle, they're disappointing in the sense that they're not fleshed out particularly well. Tatum herself fared better but being the daughter of Sidney and Mark, she kind of had to, didn't she? I do think Isabel May did well with the material that she's given and by the end of the movie, Tatum had a better understanding of who her mother really was.

In terms of returning faces, I actually really liked how Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) was used in this movie overall. This was a Gale that was going back to her roots and had taken on both Mindy (Jasmin Savoy Brown) and Chad Meeks-Martin (Mason Gooding) as her interns. The twins in particular were utilised rather well and I liked their scenes with Tatum and the latter's friends.

I also loved the examination into Sidney and Gale's complicated relationship and that after thirty years, Gale got to interview Sidney on live television, courtesy of Robbie Rogers (Mark Consuelos). There was something cathartic in that moment with bits of the old Gale resurfacing as both her and Sidney mused the possibility of Stu being alive. Spoiler: he's still dead.

Now, the Ghostface part of this movie would be where a lot of the criticism would be justified. There's Lucas's mother, Jessica (Anna Camp). She was a disillusioned Sidney fangirl who wanted to make Tatum into the new Sidney. Her motive wasn't that outlandish and I think Anna Camp played the reveal part pretty well. Saying that, we've had better female Ghostfaces and that almost included the previous one.

The other two Ghostfaces are almost not worth mentioning because they felt so irrelevant to the plot and had no personal connection to anyone. There was mental patient/serial attacker Karl Gibbs (Kraig Dane) and mental asylum employee Marco Davis (Ethan Embry). The movie did nothing to flesh them out and I was happy to see them out of the way. I honestly think it should've just been Jessica doing everything. It would've worked better overall. 

- Sidney's younger daughters, Emma and Rebecca briefly appear but were staying with Mark's mother in Denver.

- Every single Scream movie got a shout-out, including AI cameos from Dewey Riley (David Arquette), Nancy Loomis (Laurie Metcalf) and Roman Bridger (Scott Foley). Jessica was also a big fan of Sidney's Out Of Darkness book and Tatum wore Sidney's leather jacket from the second movie.

- Between movies, Gale lost her morning TV show with a pointed reference to her contract not being renewed. Mindy also wanted to usurp Gale and wasn't shy about it either.

- There's references to some Wes Craven movies, the Halloween franchise (yet again) and in fitting timing, Wuthering Heights.

- Standout music: Wouldn't be this franchise without the use of Red Right Hand. Oh and there's Ice Nine Kills and McKenna Grace's Twisting The Knife.

- Chronology: Began in Woodsboro, was mostly in Pine Grove and took place thirty years after the original movie.

Scream 7 in my opinion doesn't deserve the review bombing it's currently getting. In no universe would I consider this to be a bad movie, even in this franchise alone. At worst/best/take your pick, it's mostly decent with some nice Easter Eggs, some much needed character moments but it's also slightly letdown by a weak third act/Ghostface choices and not doing anything too meaningful with it's commentary on AI and Deep Fakes. I imagine when the heat dies down, it'll be reassessed more favourably as a movie.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

DCU Blog - February 2026 Edition: WB/Paramount, Puppy Bowl And Little Else

Disappointingly enough, this wasn't the most eventful month for DC, except for maybe the future implication of a newly announced merger. Anyways, let's get on with it, shall we?

Warners Brothers have been bought by Paramount for $111 billion after Netflix decided to step aside and not match their offer.

Clayface will now be released on October 23rd. David Dencik has also been cast in an undisclosed role.

Man Of Tomorrow (July 9th 2027) is in pre-production. Filming will begin in April, so expect more cast announcements soon.

The recent Puppy Bowl put the focus on Krypto, including a clip from Supergirl (June 26th) showing a younger version of the character.

Junkie XL will now compose the music for Supergirl. He's previously composed Zack Snyder's Justice League.

The Batman - Part II (October 1st 2027) will start filming in late May. We'll be getting more casting soon.

The logo for upcoming HBO series, Lanterns was revealed this month. The show will premiere after the third season of House Of The Dragon has finished airing.

James Gunn has stated that The Brave And The Bold will come out before Matt Reeves does a third movie for The Batman universe.

DC Next Level will see releases for the likes of Zatanna, Batwoman, Lobo and Firestorm to name a few over the next few months.

The Absolute DC Universe comic books have continued to sell well, have warranted several reprints and will continue well into 2026.

Zack Snyder has recently expressed interest in continuing his Justice League through comics or animation. That's not saying it'll happen btw.

Quick reminder that we've got upcoming season of both of My Adventures With Superman and Batman: Caped Crusader to look forward to. Hopefully we'll get release dates for both in the next few weeks.

That's it for the month. Hopefully more exciting news for next month.

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Evolution"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Crystle Roberson Dorsey

Cooper: "I'll do it but not like this."

Oh fuck. There's two episodes left and while it was always possible that Cooper would eventually have a transformation of his own, I didn't think it would go this way.

I actually thought with the way this episode was going down, we were going to end up with Cooper being dead. Fortunately that didn't happen. Instead he ended up looking like a teenager and will now be played by Hudson Barry. I already miss Evan Peters in the role.

Anyways the black ops team from the last episode came to rescue Cooper, Jordan, the Assassin and Jeremy and it was revealed rather quickly they're both Deacons and working for Dr. Diana Sterling. She wasn't wasting any time this episode.

For a character who made her debut this week, Diana was determined to bring four people together in order to assassinate Byron. Yup, that woman's motives for Byron being dead might be as a result of him shutting her robotics down but she's making a strong impression in this final hurdle of episodes. I'm partially rooting for her.

Now, the reason why Cooper needed the transformation was that he was the only one who could take out Byron but he needed a new look. Cooper opted to sleep with Jordan in order to become a new person. Granted, it also felt like a culmination of their "will they, won't they" dynamic and then that ending happened.

The show definitely has done a lot of ludicrous things but turning Cooper into a teenager might be the strangest one yet. Will he succeed in taking out Byron? Can Diana actually be trusted or are her Deacons another disaster waiting to happen? 

- I did laugh at Jeremy calling Diana "White Mama" because he couldn't remember her name. 

- Cooper was losing both teeth and nails during his much longer transformation scene.

- Standout music: Cinema Orchestra and Patrick Watson's To Build A Home.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off and two days until Byron's big launch.

Beautiful Evolution certainly upped the horror with Cooper's transformation. I was shocked by the end results but I liked his scenes with Cooper. Diana's also an interesting conundrum. Right now, she's a beneficial ally but could be a future threat.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of The Beauty: "Beautiful Brothers"

 

Written by Ryan Murphy And Matthew Hodgson 

Directed by Michael Uppendahl 

Meyer (to Cooper): "Do as you're told."

We're in the final two weeks of the show and it's tine to go into double bills. It feels like the show only just started but here we are. After last week's episode, there's more focus on Byron and a new player added into the mix.

The new player being Dr. Diana Sterling (Ari Graynor). It turned out that prior to The Beauty itself, Byron was very much interested in robotics being the future of preserving humanity. Robotics are now out of fashion and Diana's pretty miffed about being replaced as a direct result.

Keeping with Byron, he opened the episode by waxing lyrical about his upcoming Beautiful Day launch for the Beauty with another big ad campaign. Franny was once again not remotely interested in Byron's lofty ambitions.

There was also the arrival of their sons - Tig (Kevin Cahoon) and Gunther (Eric Peterson). Honestly, I can see why Byron didn't respect them. They're both idiots and clearly Franny had a massive blind spot towards their stupidity. Their idea for a bro themed streaming service sounded absolutely pointless as a pitch.

Saying that, they did serve a purpose when both of them ended up falling victim to another drug overdose and Byron had them transformed into Ray Nicholson and Brandon Gillard respectively. Franny swore revenge but maybe Byron did their idiot children a favour, even if it was a selfishly motivated.

As for Cooper and Jordan, it was funny to see that they ended up in a begrudging alliance with the Assassin and Jeremy. Byron screwed over the latter two and Meyer tried to get Cooper to do what he was told. Then we had some black ops swoop and the episode ended on an abrupt note.

- Byron was 5% Nigerian, which was used to explain why Gunther was now biracial. The costume choices for Tig and Gunther was something else.

- Diana admitted to sacrificing a family in order to continue her work with the Deacons. She's unsurprisingly cold in nature for someone into robotics.

- Jeremy was given a lot more information in between Cooper and Jordan trying to outsmart both him and the Assassin.

- Chronology: From where the previous episode left off.

Beautiful Brothers did live up to its title on the shallow end of the scale. Will bring beautiful suddenly make Tig and Gunther smart? Byron better hope not or they'll usurp. The episode was good but too short and so was the next one.

Rating: 7 out of 10 

My Review of The Hitcher (1986)

 

Written by Eric Red

Directed by Robert Harmon

Jim Halsey: "What do you want?"

John Ryder: "I want you to stop me."

Sometimes there's a lesson to be had. The lesson being that it's probably not a good idea to give a stranger a lift. Especially when it's a rather unhinged looking guy to begin with.

This would be a lesson that Jim Halsey (C. Thomas Howell) learned in the worst way possible. Jim was delivering a car from Chicago to San Diego and in the West Texas desert, he made the big mistake of trying to be a help to a mysterious hitchhiker (Rutger Hauer), also known as John Ryder.

The hitchhiker himself came across as creepy from the moment he stepped into Jim's car and when Jim realised that he was a nutcase, he found a good way of getting rid of Ryder. That should've been a good thing for Jim but his day was going to get much worse.

John Ryder managed to get a lift from an unsuspecting family and still went out of his way to terrorise Jim. The family didn't survive and there was some carnage with a trucker before Jim ended up in a restaurant with bad food and a waitress named Nash (Jennifer Jason Leigh). 

As a character, Nash isn't the greatest but she did try to both be an accomplice to helping Jim with dealing with the overzealous John Ryder when she wasn't being sceptical of Jim's story to begin with. Unfortunately for Nash, she took was a casualty of Ryder's psychotic spree. Her death was gruesome, albeit not graphically depicted. Character wise, she's rather poor.

As for the rest of the movie, Jim had a foil in a series of genuinely incompetent coppers who failed to believe him about Ryder and then failed to keep him behind bars afterwards. There's a great but bittersweet standoff between Jim and Ryder and it's the best part of the whole movie.

- The movie spawned a 2003 sequel titled The Hitcher II: I've Been Waiting and a 2007 remake.

- As gory as the movie was, had it stuck to the original script it would've been a much gorier movie.

- Standout music: Mickey Jones Don't Stop Lovin' Me.

- Chronology: Largely set in West Texas over the course of a day. 

The Hitcher (1986) has earned its right as a classic horror/thriller. Rutger Hauer gave a rather unhinged performance and C. Thomas Howell certainly made for a compelling protagonist. Both men played off each other well.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Hamnet (2025)

 

Written by Chloé Zhao And Maggie O'Farrell

Directed by Chloé Zhao

Will:"Is it true, you know everything about a person, by touching them here?"

Anne: "Not everything."

With the Oscars due next month, I had to catch up with this movie. Even if it wasn't being nominated for every award under the sun, I'd still want to watch it. I mean, how could I not? Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are two of the best Irish actors working these days.

In this movie, Buckley took on the role of Anne Shakespeare, formerly Hathaway, the wife of William, played by Mescal himself. Also the mother of his children. Their romance isn't always highlighted in movie adaptations but this movie not only centred on their union but also a very brutal shared tragedy between the couple as well.

The tragedy being the death of their son, Hamnet (Jacobi Jupe). Yes, this particular time in their lives saw both Anne and William struggle with their grief over losing Hamnet while unable to console one another. Anne's grief was more straightforward and relatable to the audience as a collective whole.

William's on the other hand manifested in the writing of one of his most infamous plays, Hamlet. William poured his grief, anger and frustration out into that play and even with some of the actors during its rehearsals. One of those actors happened to be the young man playing Hamlet (Noah Jupe) before a live performance of the play took place.

Anne had to find out in the worst way aka through her stepmother, Joan (Justine Mitchell) that William was putting on a tragedy. She certainly felt a lot of anger as the play started off while her brother Bartholomew (Joe Alwyn) tried to support her. However as Hamlet played out and she saw William's own grief play out on stage, she able to laugh for the first time.

I've seen more than enough movies, TV shows etc on the topic of grief and there's something genuinely gut wrenching in this one. Both Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal absolutely convey the harrowing loss and pain of losing a child and both of them deliver exceptionally heartbreaking performances. Give them all the awards.

- Other strong performances in this movie came from Emily Watson and David Wilmot as William's parents. The actors playing William and Anne's daughters were strong too.

- The movie's based on a book that was written by Maggie O'Farrell. She was the co-writer of the movie.

- Anne was likened to a witch and mentioned being able to see things. She also had a hawk. William was teaching to pay off his father's debts.

- Anne was also referred to as Agnes and the opening scene pointed out that Hamlet and Hamnet were considered the same name.

- Standout music: Max Ritchie's score absolutely elevated the movie along with the use of On The Nature Of Daylight.

- Chronology: Hamlet debuted between 1599 and 1601. The second half of the movie was set in that period. The movie was set in Stratford upon Avon and London, including the Globe Theatre.

Hamnet has now easily become my favourite award contender. What an incredible movie. Absolutely gutting and beautiful to watch, the most compelling performances from both Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal. Chloé Zhao and Maggie O'Farrell also deserve all the acclaim for the writing and directing. Truly exceptional from start to finish.

Rating: 10 out of 10

My Review of Wuthering Heights (2026)

 

Written And Directed by Emerald Fennell

Heathcliff: "I pray one prayer, I repeat it until my tongue stiffens. Catherine Earnshaw, may you not rest as long as I am living! You said I killed you, haunt me, then! Be with me always, take any form, drive me mad, only do not leave me in this abyss, where I cannot find you. I cannot live without my life... I cannot live without my soul..."

Ah, the first real controversial movie of 2026 or is it? I think Emerald Fennell does have aspirations of being a provocateur but at the same time, I feel she doesn't quite commit to the idea in itself. This movie really drove that point home.

There have been countless adaptations of Emily Brontë's infamous romance novel. Some have been more faithful than others and while this one was sort of faithful to the source material, oftentimes it felt like an an adaptation in name only.

The castings of Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as Cathy Earnshaw and Heathcliff respectively certainly brought about it's own discourse. They're both simultaneously miscast and incredibly perfect for their respective roles. At the very least, the chemistry between the two was largely on point. That really did help the movie a lot.

Cathy and Heathcliff met each other as children when played by Charlotte Mellington and Owen Cooper. Cathy's father, Mr. Earnshaw (Martin Clunes) adopted Heathcliff and often treated him badly. He wasn't much better to Cathy either. Cathy also had a tendency to treat Heathcliff like a pet. Heathcliff both loved and was rather cruel towards Cathy as well.

Look, Cathy and Heathcliff have never been a literary romance that screamed "couples goals". It's always been toxic, abusive and tragic. In this adaptation, there's also an element of BDSM thrown into the mix but again, it's something that Emerald Fennell never really committed to. I think Fennell's knowledge on the practice isn't that dissimilar to EL James's to be honest.

Anyways Cathy and Heathcliff grew up. Mr. Earnshaw practically drove them into poverty and died and companion, Nelly (Hong Chau/Vy Nguyen) was mostly a foil to the doomed romance between our volatile pairing. In fact, Nelly did as much harm as she thought she was doing good throughout this whole film. 

Then there's Edgar Linton (Shazad Latif) and his ward, Isabella (Alison Oliver). The former ended up in a loveless marriage with Cathy and the latter (who's rather infantalised) ended up in a submissive role upon being married to Heathcliff. Both Edgar and Isabella have their moments as characters and play off well with Cathy and Heathcliff. 

As for the rest of the movie, again this was an adaptation that decided not to go with the second half of the book. There are no future generations to break the toxic cycle. In fact Cathy ended up dying from complications of a miscarriage and Heathcliff was haunted by her death. It's a bleak ending but I actually think it worked rather well for this particular adaptation.

- Cathy seemed a bit turned on by hangings and even stuck her finger rather pointedly into a fish at one point. Isabella picked up on the former bit.

- Various characters like Hindley are excluded here and the role of Joseph went to the much younger Ewan Mitchell.

- If you liked Saltburn, Emerald Fennell had no problem bringing back certain actors for this one.

- Styling the title in quotation marks was an interesting thing to do. 

- Chronology: Charli XCX was the soundtrack for this movie but the standout songs were Everything Is Romantic and Chains Of Love.

- Chronology: It started in 1771 England. Halfway through the movie, Heathcliff left Cathy for five years. Cathy was aged up in nearly being a spinster before marrying Edgar.

Despite some obvious issues, I actually liked Wuthering Heights (2026). Is it the best adaptation? No, probably not. Is it the worst? Definitely not! Could they have gone with more accurate casting? Yes. Are Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi actually good in their roles? Also yes! Will I ever watch this again? Also yes.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: "The Morrow"

 

Written by Ira Parker And Ti Mikkel

Directed by Sarah Adina Smith 

Ser Dunk (to Maekar): "I think I'm done with princes."

And so endeth our first season. It's been a short six weeks but not boring. If there was a show that truly proved that "less is more" can work as an approach, it's this show.

Time moved on since the events of Baelor's death. In fact we got his funeral and a guilt stricken Duncan attended. This led to some choice words from Prince Valarr. Needless to say that Valarr wasn't happy about Dunk surviving over his own father. 

Dunk in general just wasn't happy at all. The Trial had really knocked his confidence and he bluntly told Maekar that he was done serving princes after the latter wanted Dunk to continue to squire Egg. Was the great TV partnership about to end after only six episodes? Of course not.

Egg wasn't going to give up on being a squire. In fact, not only was he determined to be one but by the end of this episode, he abandoned his own family in order to continue being a squire fot Ser Duncan. Given the state of his family, you can hardly blame him.

Looking at the Targaryens so to speak, Egg's hatred for Aerion intensified to the point where Maekar had to stop Egg from killing his older brother. Daeron's a little bit better but even he knew that Egg would be better with Dunk than remaining with the family. It really did say a lot about the Targaryens as a unit.

Last but not least, there was Raymun. He's been the closest to a friend that Dunk's had in the show and he was genuinely touched upon being given one of Dunk's horses to keep. Raymun's also cut out toxic family members and was about to start a family of his own with Rowan. I hope we see him again.

- Egg pointed out to Ser Duncan that there was nine kingdoms and then the title card changed accordingly.

- More flashbacks had Set Arlan failing to tell Dunk about never being knighted. Dunk revisited the tree from that flashback.

- Egg's hair was growing back before his failed attempt to kill Aerion. Dunk refused Lyonel's offer to go to Storm's End.

- Chronology: By the end of this episode Aerion was heading to the Free Cities and Dunk and Egg were heading to Dorne.

The Morrow made for a short, sweet and satisfying finale. This show had modest expectations that it managed to surpass rather well. I liked this show a lot and I'm looking forward to the second season.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Saw X (2023)

 

Written by Peter Goldfinger And Josh Stolberg

Directed by Kevin Gruetert 

John: "Hello, everyone. It's time to play a game. You all pretended to cure me. But what I have planned for each of you, is very real."

In nearly two decades, this franchise has veered into being often needlessly gruesome and also presenting a morally complicated anti-villain main character in John Kramer/Jigsaw (Tobin Bell). He's a complex guy, isn't he?

Anyways with the previous benching the character completely, this tenth installment went for the opposite idea. If ever there was a Saw movie where John Kramer was front and centre to proceedings, it was this one. It's also the best movie in the franchise.

Having cancer has been a huge thing with John's character and in this movie, he was given the opportunity to be cured. Naturally he took it and believed that Dr Cecelia Peterson (Synnøve Macody Lund) could help him. He was more than willing to part with his cash and go to Mexico for the cure.

Of course it turned out that Cecelia and various others, including the likes of Diego (Joshua Okamoto), Mateo (Octavio Hinojosa), Valentina (Paulette Hernández) and Gabriela (Renata Vacation) had all scammed him. John wanted his usual bout of revenge and justice and Amanda Young (Shawnee Smith) was more than willing to help. This movie was also Amanda at her most likable. John too for that matter.

In fact, I'd almost go as far as to say that John and Amanda were closer to even being heroic. Especially when you look into how absolutely despicable Cecelia turned out to be as a character. She might be the nastiest character ever introduced into the franchise and her boyfriend Parker Sears (Steven Brand) wasn't any better.

As bad as John and Amanda, even they wouldn't intentionally kill a child. Cecelia was more than willing to harm poor Carlos (Jorge Briseño) when she wasn't willing to betray Parker to try and save herself. There was something immensely satisfying in seeing her comeuppance play out the way it did.

- A mid credit scene had Kramer and Mark Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) putting Henry (Michael Beach) in a device as revenge for his role in scamming John.

- John actually fell victim to one of his own traps in order to save Carlos. I'm surprised it took that long for such a thing to happen.

- Standout music: José Miguel Ortegon's Mascara del Diablo.

- Chronology: Predominantly set in Mexico and within the same timeframe as the first two movies.

I think Saw X might be the best movie in the whole franchise. I thought it was a brilliant use of John, Amanda and even Mark as character and Cecelia was such a vile piece of work as a character. The change of location also helped too.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Spiral: From The Book Of Saw (2021)

 

Written by Josh Stolberg And Peter Goldfinger

Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman 

William: "John Kramer was right. The spiral: a symbol of change, evolution, progress."

If you ever wanted to know if the Saw franchise could make a movie that didn't feature John Kramer/Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) in any capacity and still work, there's this movie. Aside from a few needed mention, this was a John Kramer free zone.

Even more surprising was the addition of Chris Rock to this franchise. Horror's not something he's done a lot of in his career and I'm surprised he opted for a well known franchise rather than A24 potential critical darling. He's also rather good in this movie.

Chris Rock played a demoted detective named Ezekiel "Zeke" Banks. Zeke's pretty coarse and set in his ways and he's not particularly happy with being paired with the more modern thinking Detective William Schenk (Max Minghella). Nope, he's not happy at all.

This time around though it's not ordinary citizens or even criminals being targeted by a new Jigsaw. It's the police themselves, mostly the corrupt and inept ones. This Jigsaw wanted to clean up police corruption and using John Kramer's method of self inprovement was the way to do it.

This obviously made Zeke determined to catch Jigsaw and even had him accepting William's way of thinking as well. It also meant Zeke confronting his retired police captain father, Marcus (Samuel L. Jackson). Marcus wasn't particularly the most likable of characters but there's a joy to be had in seeing Chris Rock and Samuel L. Jackson share several scenes together.

As for Jigsaw himself, I don't think Schenk was that shocking but the lengths he went to avoid early detection were impressive. The guy even managed to fake having a baby in order to gain Zeke's trust. As a Jigsaw successor, William did seem closer to what Kramer would have wanted but he was also motivated by revenge. He also got away too with Zeke and Marcus being the final casualties of the movie.

- This movie was the lowest grossing in the franchise and fell victim to be released during COVID.

- Various victims included Detective Marv Bozwick (Daniel Petronijevic), Detective Fitch (Richard Zeppieri) and Captain Angie Garza (Marisol Nichols).

- Standout music: Young Nudy's You Ain't Hard.

- Chronology: Present day, July 4th at the beginning of the movie.

I really enjoy this movie. Spiral: From The Book Of Saw effectively was a spin-off movie and it was great. Chris Rock, Max Minghella and Samuel L. Jackson were all on fine form. This would easily be high up in my list of movies for this franchise.

Rating: 7 out of 10