The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 10th September 2026

This year continues ever onwards, before I knew it I can see the end of the year in sight. Least we are out of the heatwaves, and it has been glorious to get lots of rain this past week. Onwards to the news.

Trinity Content Partners announced at the end of July, three UK digital premieres that arrived last month. The first of these is The Demon Detective. Starring Doug Jones, Adrienne Barbeau, Vivica A. Fox and Tom Virtue, this, as the title hints at, has a supernatural detective discovering a link between demonic possession and his past. That arrived on 17th August thanks to Miracle Media. Deadly Games arrived on 10th August. This sees a group of influencers lured to a deserted island; a survival thriller. Last is Soul Snatchers, a supernatural thriller that I reviewed yesterday. A family return to the island they used to live on, to use the power of God to help the poor, but face hostility from the power hungry mayor.

Psychological thriller; A Mind in Chaos has come to Amazon Prime and Plex. Directed by Chris Rakotomamonjy, this follows a corporate executive who survives a mass shooting incident at her office. To recover, she heads to a remote elite therapy retreat, but there she encounters a series of inexplicable events that make her question her sanity.

Finally for today, in August, Blood Magick had its North American VOD digital debut, August 11th. Featuring a guest appearance from scream queen Victoria De Mare, this sees a witch named Aisling who awakens in a costume warehouse with five strangers. With the place under assault from demonic creatures, and the costumes magically being brought to life to hunt the survivors, Aisling must use her magic powers to protect the group, as well as try and work out which of them is the secret mastermind behind the attack.

Soul Snatchers (2026) - Horror Film Review

Religious thriller, Soul Snatchers keeps the supernatural element very close to its chest. So much so that at times I began to suspect that there wasn't even one actually there. This Julio Roman (Fuera de tinieblas) directed and co-written movie often felt more like a Biblical parable unfolding in present day, rather than a realistic story.

As children, Daniel and older brother, Saul witnessed their mother being kidnapped in broad daylight as she evangelised on a remote Puerto Rico based island. Now grown up, the two - Daniel (William Oliver) and Saul (Luis Sebastián Borges - Toxic Shark) have returned to this island alongside their evangelist father, Emmanuel (Cameron Arnett - Nefarious), to try and help the poor there with the power of Christianity and music. In their way however is the island's almost warlord like Mayor. The mayor rules the island with an iron fist, keeping law and order with his small army of enforcers. When their musical instruments are stolen, Daniel against his father's wishes, decides to ask the mayor for help. The help is given, but comes at a cost, with Daniel getting seduced by the power the mayor wields. As Daniel falls to temptation and leaves his family, Emmanuelle believes that love will bring him back home one day.

There was lots here to make this feel more like a fable than a real story. Daniel is the walking embodiment of gullible, all too quick to believe the outlandish lies of the comically evil mayor and his goons. Hot tempered and impatient, his fall to the 'dark side' was entertaining, even if it seemed to happen far too quickly. Along the way, he is asked to beat a defenceless man, gets spiked with a hallucinogenic drug, and too abuses the power he has been given. The mayor was fantastic, sadly, I didn't catch the actor's name, so can't credit him. He put on a wonderful performance, over the top, flamboyant and unpredictable, effortlessly stealing all his scenes. The mayor's spiritual opposite; Emmanuel was also a fun character, albeit in a different way. Full of the love of God, he was extremely peaceful and devout. He also is able to perform literal miracles with his belief in the Lord, early on the film he returns the sight to a blind boy purely from prayer! In a world where it appears God does exist, then too shall the demonic. A slight part of the movie, mostly insinuated than shown, but this part does culminate in a fun horror scene that I really wished more of Soul Snatchers had included.

This is a thriller rather than a horror, the focus on the division between the good and the bad guys. There were a few fight scenes and a couple of on-screen deaths, but these were few and far between. The fact the story had a fable type feel actually made me enjoy it more. Sometimes good and evil really can be plain black and white without any grey areas. Most impressive for the film were the gigantic cast, it felt like nearly every scene was populated with huge groups of background characters. Perhaps a little heavy handed with its message of love and forgiveness, but I was still rooting for the protagonists to win, even if the bad guys were so entertaining.

I liked Soul Snatchers more than I expected to. The mayor actor, Arnett, and Oliver were great in their roles, and the film world felt like a living place due to the abundance of people in the movie. Personally, I wish the horror element had been featured more, but I did enjoy a feel good ending for a change. Soul Snatchers had its digital UK premiere on 31st August thanks to Seven Tales.

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The Dead Don't Die (2019) - Comedy Horror Film Review

I've been in a zombie kind of mood more than usual these past few weeks, and so when a scheduled screener for a review didn't pan out, I decided to check out instead the Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise) written and directed comedy zombie film; The Dead Don't Die. My decision to watch it was based more on hearing it was a bad and boring film then any high hopes, so I wanted to see if that was as boring as had been made out, especially when discovering it was stuffed to the brim with notable actors.

The world is in a bad place. Knocked off its axis, Earth is experiencing ever increasing natural disasters. Not that this is something that is bothering the residents of the small sleepy town of Centerville, who are too caught up in their small town dramas. That is until they get a disaster of their own, with the dead inexplicably returning to life and crawling out of their graves. With the town soon overrun, and events spiralling out of control, the local police force comprised of Chief Cliff Robertson (Bill Murray - Zombieland, Hamlet, Ghostbusters), Officer Ronnie Peterson (Adam Driver - Star Wars: Episode VII - IX), and Officer Mindy Morrison (Chloë Sevigny - Russian Doll, Antibirth), decide to head out on a routine patrol. Despite the overwhelming odds, the trio hope to bring law and order back to their town.

The Dead Don't Die may not be as dull as I was led to believe, but it wasn't without its issues. The comedy is quite dry, so much so that it took me about 45 minutes to realise that yes, this was supposed to be a comedy horror film. It is full of long empty scenes of characters chewing the fat, odd and meandering conversations that at times felt ad-libbed. Murray felt like he was bored in his central role, his character serious and calm, but he never stood out. Sevigny fared worse, a generic 'straight man' role that saw her character panicking and crying throughout the film as opposed to the unfazed duo of Murray and Driver's characters. Every time Mindy spoke it made the film that little bit worse. Driver really was the saving grace, his almost sociopathic pragmatic character took to the zombie apocalypse like a fish to water. I loved his role as Ronnie, and it was him arriving to a crime scene in a ridiculously small smart car that was the first moment here to make me smile. He was a constant delight with his dead cold outlook, and much humour was made of the viewer expecting him to finally react and show emotion, but that reaction never coming, even when he is slicing the head off of a recently killed potential love interest he is still all business. Away from him, the humour really is hit and miss, some parts are so bad as to be distracting. A prime example is late in the film when Cliff asks Ronnie why he has been so certain all along that they will fail to stop the outbreak. This leads to a weird fourth-wall breaking scene where Ronnie explains that he has read the film's script, and so knows how the story will end. This bizarre scene went on far too long, it felt tonally out of place, and it was a bad explanation for what had been a running joke with the character.

There were too many subplots going on, with the film following about seven different stories unfolding. In addition to the police patrol there were three teenage inmates at a juvenile detention centre that were seemingly the only inmates there. Their story was so uninteresting that I honestly can't even remember what the resolution of their part of the movie was. Then there is the off-putting strange Scottish mortician, Zelda Winston (Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin, Doctor Strange). She spends the film casually walking around town killing undead with a samurai sword while making painfully unfunny puns. The same applied to Hermit Bob (Tom Waits - Mystery Men), another character who spent the film visiting various locations. He acted as the in-movie narrator, always happening to be in the background of pivotal scenes to give more information to the viewer. Hermit Bob was totally pointless, adding nothing whatsoever to his scenes. At least the hardware store owner and his friend added a lovely traditional zombie siege story. Sure it was generic, but otherwise The Dead Don't Die would have been missing that trope of zombie films. Even more subplots come with racist farmer - Frank Miller (Steve Buscemi - Ghost World, Reservoir Dogs); another pointless one, and a trio of city folk stuck in the area while travelling through (including popstar Selena Gomez). There was just too much going on, when this should have been something more focussed on just a few storylines. Different subplots rarely intersected with one another and felt disjointed.
The backdrop of the world heading towards disaster was also odd. It seemed to only be there as an excuse why much of the film takes place during daytime, and why no ones mobile phones or radios worked.

It took half an hour for zombies to appear, and then it is just the two of them (including Ziggy Pop in a cameo). Roughly another 30 minutes later and this finally felt like a proper zombie film. There were finally plenty of scenes full of streets of stumbling undead. I was all there for the stereotypical scenes of people being attacked by the ghouls, my highlight of this. Special effects, especially make-up effects were great, and it was an interesting decision to have zombie leak black dust rather than blood when they take damage. More than a few exciting fight scenes against the zombies, and it was novel to have a zombie child make an appearance, still a rare thing for a zombie film to include.

There was potential with The Dead Don't Die, but it would have need a bit of work to transform this. It could have worked as a more serious and traditional zombie film, especially with so much humour falling flat in the current version. I would have also stripped out a lot of the needless subplots, to focus on the more essential ones. I don't get why this was so full of notable actors, it wasn't needed, especially when with the exception of Driver, none of these famous people stood out and did anything interesting. One actor cannot save a film, it was too patchy in its execution to be classed as a good film, but there were plenty of great, if stereotypical zombie scenes here. For me who loves generic zombie stuff, that was one part of the whole that really appealed. The Dead Don't Die is currently streaming on Disney+.

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Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (2026) - Comedy Horror Film Review

I had heard that the Jane Schoenbrun (We're All Going to the World's Fair) written and directed Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma was a dark comedic horror and that it starred Gillian Anderson (The X-Files). That was the extent of my knowledge of this movie heading to the cinema with my best friend to watch it. There was humour, it was suitably dark, and it did star Anderson, but the movie used the concept of horror films to tell its dark romantic story, rather than the horror be the focus.

Hannah Einbinder (Hacks) stars as Kris; a gay up and coming film director who has been given the chance to revitalise a long running slasher film series called - 'Camp Miasma'. The film's trans villain - Little Death (Jack Haven) is seen as problematic for a modern audience, and so the film has been given to Kris, hoping that a gay director will appease critics of the film. Being a huge fan of the original entry, with one particular scene being pivotal to her gay awakening as a child, Kris has decided to track down the film's original final girl, Billy (Anderson), an actress who since that role has became very reclusive. Kris plans to travel to Billy's remote property and try and convince her to come back to the series for a role in the latest entry. Arriving, she is surprised to see that Billy lives at the same location that the first Camp Miasma was filmed at. Kris becomes entranced with the mysterious and strange Billy, and as the days of her visit pass, she becomes more and more taken with the former actress. Also going on in the background - Camp Miasma's slasher; Little Death, might exist in the real world, and might be looking to kill.

I had imagined that this would be a slasher that took place in a meta-way, much as what happened with The Final Girls. It was slightly similar here, though with characters not falling into a horror film (though there is a bit of that), but in a hallucinogenic way falling into the creation of a horror film. Peppered throughout the main movie are scenes from the film within a film - Camp Miasma. It had a filter to give a suitably seventies look, but the directing was pure modern day on how it was shot, and kills were shown in an artsy and stylish way. I enjoyed these film clips, and they integrated into the real story in very purposeful ways. Much of the horror here was from the clips of the film, and so lose any power due to knowing it wasn't real. That isn't to take away from the pleasure of the very violent kills. Little Death is a diminutive white overall wearing trans-person who wears a metal box on their head, and wields a huge spear. During the many lovely looking kill scenes, he tears limbs and heads off of victims, as stylised fountains of over the top red gore spurting out the bodies. These scenes were great fun to watch, the highlight being a protracted massacre scene that focuses the camera directly on Little Death, swinging away as he slashes his way through a room.

The film had a trippy vibe, with the real world blending with the fake. Exterior locations often use obvious painted backgrounds, and characters from the film are encountered in the real world, making for some surreal moments. Unexpectedly, the core of the story is a lesbian love story, with Kris discovering a sexual awakening. It included long (non-graphic) sex scenes of the two leads, which included some nudity. Horror films were key to the plot, but not really the point of the film, being there more as an allegory for desire. Kill scenes are done in a way that aren't designed to create fear, and the protagonists never felt like they were in any threat The humour here isn't a constant, but there were moments that made me laugh out loud, with Dylan Baker (Immortal, Fido) shining in a tiny role as someone Kris is speaking to on a Zoom call - the comedic highlight of the film that had the audience laughing.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma was a good film even if it never felt like it was too much for me. This isn't a slasher, not even a meta-one, and that is perfectly fine, it never said it was. Instead, its a dark gay romantic arty story of self discovery, that nonetheless includes plenty of references to classic slasher films, with everything from Friday the 13th, Halloween, Sleepaway Camp and A Nightmare on Elm Street brought up at one point or another. Just be prepared for some weirdness along the way.

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Bad Karaoke (2026) - Comedy Horror Film Review

Bad Karaoke is a comedy horror co-directed and co-written by Chris Lightbody, with Robert J. Steinmiller Jr also directing. The film is the directorial debut of both men, and with its story about a cursed karaoke machine resonating with me, I was eager to see if this bloody horror with its musical numbers, could possibly live up to its potential?

A cover-band made up of Emily (Lexi Underwood), Noah (Case Walker - The Other Two), singer Hannah (Kat Cunning), and drummer Logan (Kevin Clayette - Neighbours) have headed to a remote AirBnB alongside Hannah's girlfriend, Ava (Jenna Karan - Goon of the Lagoon) and Logan's best friend, Matt (Jonathan Jason Green - 13th Sign). They have a wedding gig the next day, but this evening they plan to party with lots of drugs and alcohol. Enroute to the place they are staying, they visit a local bar, where Melissa is gifted an old karaoke machine which the barman seems all too eager to be rid of. He was eager for them to take it as the machine had been linked to a horrifying incident, and now is cursed. When the friends turn it on in the evening, they fall into a deadly karaoke session where the punishment for a bad performance is a gory supernatural death. The only way for any of the friends to survive the night is to put on the performance of a literal lifetime.

Comedy in horror can always be something tough to get right, thankfully the comedy on offer here mostly lands well more often than not. Dialogue between the characters was witty and the central threat was dumb enough that it was hard to take it too seriously. Emily and Noah are set-up to have unsaid feelings for each others, but this wasn't a source of much tension, with the whole group of friends getting on surprisingly well. Outside of farcical moments such as Mark deciding to cook some food in the midst of all the unfolding terror, there isn't really much conflict to be found here, something that helped with the film's non-straight faced vibe.

In an inspired move, each of the death scenes here is prefaced by a musical number featuring the next potential victim, almost turning Bad Karaoke into a musical horror. Each subsequent song seemed to have more effort and heart put onto it, with singing broken up by music video-lite moments of characters transported to different locations while they sing. Reasonably early on, the machine is believed destroyed, but its power means that any electronic screen it can carry on its session with, its program appearing on phone and car screens. One amusing example was a character sat on a toilet, who is suddenly forced to perform, as his friends offer support from the other side of the locked toilet door. Kills are very bloody, there is no shortage of gore here, with the central location splattered all over in blood. The deaths are supernaturally caused and did look quite cartoonish with the use of CG to do things such as swell up one victims head before it pops. The kills were very hit and miss with how they looked, it is easy to dismiss the silly looking artificial kills as part of the comedy horror, but I feel this was the weakest part of the movie regardless. The plot was basic, but I appreciated the flashback sequence that completely explains how the machine came to be cursed; it all leads to a fun and surprisingly heartfelt finale.

Bad Karaoke is of course a silly concept, and it means that this always feels more comedic than horror filled. Both are combined so strongly that neither overshadows the other. Stupid, but entertaining, there might be some dodgy CG special effects here, but I had a good time with it. Bad Karaoke had its world premiere at FrightFest on August 30th.

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The Rotting Zombie's News Round-up for August 2026

Laziness is the word I would use to describe my blog output this year. Case in point; my news round-up for August is publishing in September. It really should have been up last week. Back in the Rotting Zombie HQ I have once again got a trapped nerve in my back, always joyous, and I do wonder how none of my nerves have rotted away by this point in my un-life

After Impact is a sci-fi thriller (written, directed, produced and starring Michiel Rensen) that is set for a North American digital debut release on September 15th 2026. In this movie, Ethan inherits his father's business just as the world faces the arrival of a deadly asteroid. Surviving by hiding out in his family's bunker, he begins to suspect he is the sole survivor, but this may not be the case.

Coming to North American VOD platforms on September 4th 2026 is the psychological horror film, Influence. The story sees a struggling filmmaker who becomes obsessed with a popular social media influencer and actress. When her pitch to the star is rejected, the filmmaker flips, breaking into her home and taking her hostage.

Indie entertainment group DRagonSTUDIOS are set to release their own streaming platform this October named DRagonFLIX. The press release states this services '...aims to bridge the gap between contemporary indie filmmaking and nostalgic genre cinema'. Subscribers will get access to two hubs at launch; exclusive new indie film that will be debuting directly on the service rather than in cinemas, and a free classic movie channel that will be streaming a 24/7 collection of curated films, including cult classics, timeless films, and vintage horror.

Coming to Amazon Prime Video on September 4th is CHAT, described as 'supernatural AI terror meets dark comedy'. A couple who have recently moved to a new home, face terror when their young son discovers a strange A.I powered tablet that unleashes supernatural horror on the family. Directed by Ole J Hartmann and starring Carter Sirianni and Alexis Schrepple, you can check out the trailer below.

Acorn Media have announced the release of a season 3 of The Terror horror anthology series, titled The Terror: Devil in Silver. Based on Victor LaValle's book of the same name (the stories adapted by the writer himself), this season, the story is a about a man wrongfully committed to a psychiatric hospital, who then discovers the existence of an entity that feeds on the suffering of the place. The Terror: Devil in Silver also comes to Blu-ray and DVD on 5th October.

Finally for today, the official trailer for Illinois based post-apocalyptic zombie horror, Holler has released. The change here that instead of being set before or during the outbreak, this story takes place many years after the undead took over the world, where they have become common to the survivors. There is currently a successful Kickstarter going to complete the film, that can be found here.