Alam Nyo Ba?

Vrach Frankensteyn

It’s been said that the “brand-new, never-before-seen R-rated Chris Carter director’s cut” of The X-Files: I Want to Believe – Vrach Frankenshteyn will “faithfully restore the filmmaker’s original vision.” Now, you can see for yourself as Entertainment Weekly passes along the new trailer and poster for the recut film, which will be available on Hulu and Disney+ on August 14.

Carter told Entertainment Weekly,

We set out to make a real-life Frankenstein movie, and due to a variety of factors, our Frankenstein never completely left the operating room. A chance to apply the electrodes again was a special thrill.”

The X-Files: I Want to Believe proved to be rather pretty divisive among critics and fans, but twenty years later, perhaps the new cut will add enough elements to recontextualize the movie to satisfy a wider audience. Check out the new poster below.

The original cut was said to be too scary

The X-Files creator Chris Carter explained on the Fail Better with David Duchovny podcast last year that he was given the go-ahead to work on a director’s cut of the film.

“I made it too scary, basically, and I was told so by the brass at Fox, and they wanted a PG-13 movie,” Carter said. “So we cut it back to be a PG-13 movie, and we thought, ‘Okay, we’ve satisfied their demands.’ The critics, the people who rate the movies, said ‘No, it’s not a PG-13 yet, you’ve got to cut it back even farther.’ I can tell you that you can do more on network television, [the censors] are more permissive than they are for the movies.“

He continued, “Now I have a chance to go back and make the scary movie that I always intended. It’s not just doing a director’s cut to do a director’s cut. It’s really kind of bringing to life something that for me was on the page and never got to the screen.“

An extended cut of I Want to Believe was included on the film’s physical media release, totalling about 3 minutes of new and alternate footage. As Carter only started working on this new cut last year, this will likely be different. The film follows Mulder and Scully as they are called back to duty by the FBI when a former priest claims to be receiving psychic visions pertaining to a kidnapped agent.

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The latest chapter of Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s MONSTER anthology, MONSTER: The Lizzie Borden Story, is almost ready to start the spookiest season of the year off with a bloody bang. This time, they are bringing horror fans the series’s first female ‘monster,’ played by Ella Beatty. To mark this momentous occasion, Netflix is thrilled to share a chilling first look at the series and its official release date. Mark your calendars, because the 8-episode mini-series launches on Netflix on September 17, 2026.

“When the repressed daughter of a wealthy New England family and her rebellious maid find themselves trapped in a house built on humiliation and cruelty, they escape into a fantasy of sex, power, and revenge,” reads the show’s official logline. “The gruesome unsolved murders that follow don’t just shock the world—they give birth to an icon who refuses to live imprisoned in a cage, choosing instead to forge her own legend: shocking, monstrous, and gloriously free.”

Ella Beatty on sharing Lizzie Borden’s story

While speaking with TUDUM, Ella Beatty copped to having a personal interest in Lizzie Borden’s legacy, saying she’s fascinated by her story and wants to share it with the world. “I am so excited for viewers to experience our exploration of Lizzie Borden’s story and the questions that her life animates to this day. It has been a dream come true to investigate this complicated person’s psychology and to examine an American crime that feels almost mythic in proportion. This season gives us our first female Monster and delves into female rage and repression which I’ve found to feel strikingly relevant, and I cannot wait to share it with the world.”

Who’s behind the camera?

Starring alongside Ella Beatty in the fourth terrifying installment of the MONSTER anthology are Vicky Krieps, Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall, with Billie Lourd, Joey Pollari, Sarah Paulson, and Jessica Barden. Max Winkler directs episodes 401, 402, 403, 405, 407, and 408, while Sarah Adina Smith helms 404 and 406.

A first look at Lizzie Borden

The teaser art shows Lizzie Borden attacking with an axe while blood spurts on her face, caking her hair with crimson drips of plasma and viscera. Meanwhile, the first official images from the series show the cast inside a stately manor, a darkened dining hall, and a funeral home crowded with coffins.

I’ve been waiting for Murphy and Brennan’s MONSTER anthology to tell Lizzie Borden’s story, and I hope that it lives up to the hype. While female serial killers are rare, they’re as brutal as any other, and Borden was as destructive as any other “monster” in Murphy’s catalog of killers. September is already chock-full of scary releases to set the mood for Halloween, and MONSTER: The Lizzie Borden Story is a great way to add some feminine rage and revenge to the holiday.

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I still remember the first time I ever saw Ken Russell’s The Devils. I was probably about twelve, and it was airing on French TV here in Montreal on a show called Bleu Nuit, which broadcast erotica from around the globe, largely Tinto Brass movies and old Emmanuelle films. Russell’s The Devils was less skin-oriented but far more depraved, centering on the trial of a Catholic priest (played by Oliver Reed) who is accused of witchcraft by a hunchbacked, sexually repressed nun (played by Vanessa Redgrave). When it came out in 1971, it earned an X rating and was out of circulation for many years in North America, although it became popular in Europe, which is why it occasionally aired on French TV here in Canada.

Until now, the only way to really see The Devils was when the Criterion Channel would occasionally stream a censored, unrestored version of the R-rated recut. But in May, Warner Bros., through its new sub-label Clockwork, premiered a 4K restoration of Ken Russell’s original director’s cut at the Cannes Film Festival. The single screening quickly sold out, and now it has been programmed as part of the Toronto International Film Festival‘s Classics section ahead of its theatrical re-release on October 16.

It’s heartening to see Russell’s film finally get a proper restoration. Even though it has been largely unavailable for years, it has remained a touchstone for lovers of cult cinema. Battered 35mm prints have occasionally played repertory houses, while unofficial restorations have circulated on bootleg sites for years. Why did it cause such a stir? Because it was widely viewed as sacrilegious, with moments of provocative content so extreme they can’t really be described here. I urge anyone who’s curious to check this movie out when it gets re-released. It’s one of those films—like Caligula—where you can’t believe it actually exists. That said, Russell’s film has undeniable artistic merit, with Reed and Redgrave delivering astonishing performances. It’s one of the great midnight movies and a film that deserves to be rediscovered as a true classic of its era.

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PLOT: An idyllic summer town descends into madness when an ice cream man serves kids sweet delights with horrifying results.

REVIEW: It’s been very cool to see what Eli Roth has been doing with his independent studio, The Horror Section. Last year, he released Joe Begos’ Jimmy and Stiggs as well as Dream Eater, presenting a great new avenue for Indie Horror to find distribution. Now, he’s stepping behind the camera himself (and in front of it, too), and trying to introduce the world to a new horror villain: The Ice Cream Man. With a trailer that promised plenty of carnage, does Roth’s latest deliver more than just gore?

Ice Cream Man focuses on a small town as a mysterious treat vendor appears, quickly affecting all the kids who partake. We’re mostly following the brother and sister duo of Jared (Charlie Zeltzer) and Lizzie (Sarah Abbott) as they notice the other kids becoming mindless killers. It’s a very basic premise that shares no connection to the Clint Howard film of the same name. Roth’s film is the epitome of a “turn your brain off” kind of movie. Every character is painfully dumb, and it’s got more gore than you’ll even know what to do with. But is that really enough to keep an audience entertained these days?

Roth has always had an issue when it comes to crafting characters that we want to see get killed. He tends to present those characters in a way that makes spending any time with them miserable, and I want them to go away. Ideally, we’d get characters we want to root for and not see die, but that’s simply not in the cards. It doesn’t help that nearly every performance is awful, with the leads being particularly rough. I’m not sure anyone could have made some of this dialogue work, though. The fact that there’s a Mitt Romney joke had me checking to make sure I wasn’t transported to 2012.

I really liked the visual aesthetic of Ari Millen as The Ice Cream Man, but he has shockingly little to do here. I won’t deny that he looks creepy, but his lack of action makes him feel like a complete waste. He’s merely manipulating these kids to commit his crimes. And it’s made even worse by the fact that he’s brushed to the side even further in the final act. Yes, in a movie called “Ice Cream Man“, he’s constantly playing second fiddle. It’s a baffling decision, but one of many that completely misses the mark. At least the kids seem to be having an outright blast murdering every adult that comes across their path.

I never realized how much limiting deaths can increase their effectiveness, but the opposite is assuredly true as well. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good deaths here, but there ends up so being many that they start to just blend together. When someone’s head is being ripped off and it just feels like another day at the office, then there’s too much desensitization going on. And since the gore happens so quickly, it means the final act is the least effective of them all. It doesn’t help that there’s a twist near the end that is so painfully telegraphed that I was surprised they then took so long to actually reveal it.

It’s also hard not to notice the visual similarities between the kids in this and the big finale of Weapons. I’m sure it’s less of a ripoff and more of a coming up with two similar ideas, but it’s going to be hard to avoid the comparison. Especially when it’s shot in the same aspect ratio and features similar locations.

I absolutely loved Thanksgiving, but Ice Cream Man feels like a massive step back for Roth in every conceivable way. This is the kind of movie where if someone is just off-screen, then they do not exist until they actually appear. Had this been more satire, it may have worked, but instead it feels like a lack of forethought or care. The only priority appears to be the kills, and everything else comes second. This results in a film that feels more like a death reel than something with an actual story or characters. While I could easily see this getting a sequel, I’m really hoping this Ice Cream Truck just rides off into the sunset, never to be seen again.

Ice Cream Man is playing in theaters on August 7th, 2026 and you can purchase tickets for it HERE.

Ice Cream Man (2026)

NOT GOOD

4

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PLOT: In a world where some humans have developed paranormal powers and have been wiped out by a fearful public, a mother (Amanda Crew) and daughter (Lorelei Olivia Mote) try to survive while also seeking vengeance for their family.

REVIEW: Freaks is one of the more unique success stories of the past decade or so. Initially an under-the-radar, Canadian-made sci-fi flick that was released without much fanfare, Freaks became an unlikely smash hit during the pandemic when it started streaming on Netflix. Directors Zach Lipovsky and Adam Stein suddenly became in high demand, being hired to make Final Destination: Bloodlines for WB/New Line. It became the highest-grossing film in the series, making over $300 million worldwide. Lipovsky and Stein are now two of the hottest directors in town, with an animated Venom film and a recently announced adaptation of Stephen King’s Desperation on their slate.

But before going all Hollywood, the two took their newfound clout to go indie once again for a follow-up to Freaks, which has already been acquired by Paramount. While a sequel, the film isn’t overly reliant on the plot beats of the first movie, making it easy to understand even if you’ve never seen the original. Basically, Freaks Part II is like a more grounded, horror-tinged take on X-Men, albeit one where being a mutant (or, as they are called here, “Freaks”) is illegal, with them executed on sight.

The movie begins in a harrowing way, with Amanda Crew’s Mary giving birth to a baby that’s immediately detected as a Freak. Lili Taylor’s evil ADF (Abnormal Defence Force) agent throws the baby on the ground and shoots it in the head right in front of its mother, leading Mary to demonstrate her superpower. She can fly, but whenever she takes off, the fallout kills anyone unlucky enough to be close by.

Years later, she’s on the run with her remaining daughter, Chloe, with the story of how she survived with her now-dead father being what the first Freaks was about. Chloe can manipulate minds and project herself anywhere she wants. The two are hunting for Taylor’s Erica Lang, who has become a star in the ADF movement, while never being able to settle down anywhere lest their abilities be detected. This is becoming more of a problem for the growing Chloe, who wants to make friends her own age.

Freaks Part II may have a lower budget than Lipovsky and Stein worked with on Bloodlines, but it’s surprisingly epic, with a lot of world-building. This is clearly a sandbox the two enjoy playing in, with them expanding on the intolerant world the Freaks inhabit. A particularly chilling section is set at a youth camp teaching children to shoot Freaks on sight, with them easy to identify because they weep tears of blood whenever they’re under stress.

The cast is solid, with Crew excellent as Mary, the devoted mother who’s also blinded to her daughter’s well-being by her uncontrollable need for revenge. Lorelei Olivia Mote is also terrific as the now-teenaged Chloe, who is rebelling against her mother’s rules but is also naïve about the world around her. More than anything, she just wants a friend, which she unexpectedly finds in a child recruit in the ADF, played by Reznor Allen.

However, the film is stolen by Lili Taylor, who seems to relish playing a villain, with her sadistic Erica Lang becoming one of the more memorable screen baddies in recent years. Plus, Stephen Tobolowsky has a neat role as another one of the Freaks, with a unique—but kinda gross—power of his own.

What will make Freaks Part II a must-see, though, is certainly the gore effects. One of the reasons Bloodlines did so well was because of how extreme the kills were. There are some really nifty ones here, especially when another Freak, played by Audrianna Lico, enters the fray in the second half. She has the often-gross power of being able to turn people’s bodies inside out, and this is used to excellent effect in the climax. Sequences like these make some of the storytelling flaws easier to ignore, with a few too many convenient twists marring the film’s second half.

It’ll be interesting to see how Freaks Part II performs once it comes out, as the first film, despite its Netflix success, remains pretty under the radar. Still, the barrier to entry is low, and horror fans will enjoy the world-building, gore, and performances even if they haven’t seen the original. It’s a lot of fun.

Freaks Part II

GOOD

7

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Horror fans will soon have another chance to come face-to-face with Jason Voorhees. Six Flags has officially announced Jason: Blood Reign, a brand-new haunted maze inspired by the Friday the 13th franchise that will debut at three of the chain’s parks during this year’s Halloween events. The attraction is coming to Kings Island in Ohio, Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, and Carowinds, which straddles the border of North and South Carolina.

At the moment, Six Flags has only revealed the maze’s title, participating parks, and a brief promotional video. A dditional details about the attraction have yet to be announced, leaving fans to speculate about which locations, characters, and moments from the long-running slasher franchise might be recreated.

While details remain under wraps, the announcement is another major win for fans of Friday the 13th. Jason Voorhees has been one of horror’s most recognizable icons for more than four decades, and Jason: Blood Reign is the latest sign that the franchise’s long-awaited revival is continuing to gain momentum.

Each park will feature the maze as part of its annual Halloween event. Kings Island’s Halloween Haunt runs on select nights from September 25 through October 31, while Fright Fest at Six Flags Great Adventure runs from September 18 through November 1. Carowinds will once again host SCarowinds, although guests should check the park’s official event calendar for specific operating nights.

The Six Flags announcement comes during one of the busiest periods the Friday the 13th franchise has seen in years, with Jason Voorhees recently invading multiple video games (including Dead by Daylight), appearing in the short film Sweet Revenge, and entering the world of tabletop gaming.

Last year, Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights introduced the Jason Universe haunted house at both Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood. Developed in collaboration with Horror, Inc., the attraction took guests through Camp Crystal Lake and recreated locations and moments inspired by Jason Voorhees’ legacy. The haunted house was part of the larger Jason Universe initiative, which was launched to expand the franchise through new entertainment projects, immersive experiences, merchandise, and games.

The momentum will continue this fall with the premiere of Crystal Lake, Peacock’s highly anticipated Friday the 13th prequel series. Produced by A24, the eight-episode series stars Linda Cardellini as Pamela Voorhees and explores the tragic events following the drowning of her young son, Jason, before the events of the original 1980 film.

Crystal Lake is set to premiere on Peacock in the United States on October 15, while Warner Bros. Discovery recently acquired the series for HBO Max across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Sky and its streaming service Now will be bringing the series to the UK and Ireland. The show has also been selected for the Primetime lineup at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, giving audiences an early look before its streaming debut.

After years of legal disputes largely kept Friday the 13th on the sidelines, the franchise is now expanding across multiple platforms at once. Between Crystal Lake, Universal’s Jason Universe haunted house, new collectibles, game collaborations, and now Six Flags’ Jason: Blood Reign, Jason Voorhees is once again becoming one of horror’s most visible figures.

For Six Flags, that timing couldn’t be better. Halloween attractions built around recognizable horror properties have become increasingly popular, and Jason remains one of the genre’s most popular villains. Although Six Flags hasn’t revealed exactly what guests will encounter inside Jason: Blood Reign, the attraction is already shaping up to be a big draw at this year’s Halloween events.

More details about the maze are expected to be revealed as the Halloween season approaches. Until then, fans eager to return to Camp Crystal Lake have one more reason to look forward to this fall.

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One of the most underrated movies of the nineties was undoubtedly Peter Jackson’s The Frighteners. When Universal released it in 1996, it came and went without much notice, but it proved to be an important film in Jackson’s career. It was his first big-budget Hollywood movie following Bad Taste, Braindead, and Heavenly Creatures, with its success behind the scenes paving the way for him to direct The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It starred Michael J. Fox as a con artist who uses his psychic abilities to eke out a living with the help of his ghostly pals, played by Jeffrey Combs, Chi McBride, and the great John Astin.

While a box office dud, The Frighteners found a second life following The Lord of the Rings, building a devoted cult following. It also became one of the standout DVD releases of the early format, thanks to a 14-minute-longer director’s cut and an exhaustive four-hour making-of documentary that was really the first of its kind. In many ways, it paved the way for the extensive special features Jackson would later include with his Lord of the Rings releases.

Now, Arrow Video is bringing The Frighteners to 4K, with the set arriving on October 26, just in time for Halloween. The three-disc release will include both the theatrical and director’s cuts in 4K Ultra HD, with the director’s cut also featuring an audio commentary by Jackson.

Uniquely, Arrow is also including open matte versions of both cuts on a separate Blu-ray. Because the movie was shot in Super 35, the open matte presentations reveal additional picture information, making them a fascinating alternative way to experience the film.

The third disc is loaded with special features, including:

• No Way to Make a Living: A Look Back at The Frighteners, a feature-length documentary produced in 2022 featuring new interviews with Dee Wallace, Jake Busey, cinematographer John Blick, production designer Grant Major, creature and miniature effects supervisor Richard Taylor, visual effects supervisor Wes Takahashi, and producer/editor Jamie Selkirk.
• The Making of The Frighteners, an exhaustive 225-minute documentary exploring every aspect of the film’s production, from script development and casting to post-production and release, originally produced in 1998 for the LaserDisc release, complete with Jackson’s 2005 retrospective introduction.
• A Conversation with Richard Taylor and Alexandre Poncet, a 2022 interview with the man behind the film’s creature and miniature effects.
• Image gallery.

Nearly thirty years after its release, The Frighteners remains one of Peter Jackson’s most entertaining and underrated films, and this looks like the definitive home video release.

Will you be picking up The Frighteners on 4K? Let us know in the comments!

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