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

Another month of me being lazy when it comes to this blog. Since returning to work back in May, I've really struggled to find a way to fit both day job and blog into my life equally. This week though, for sure there will actually be five posts going up! (news flash; there wasn't!) Onwards to the news.

Cinema Epoch have acquired worldwide distribution rights to Vito Trabucco's giallo comedy thriller - The Delicate Art of Cooking Italian and Killing Your Wife. This follows a man whose weekend is upended when he kills his wife - from this point nothing is quite as it seems for the man. The press release states it pays homage to the suspense traditions of Brian De Palma, Claude Chabrol, and Alfred Hitchcock, and stars Vince Cusimano (Blade: The Iron Cross), Tania Fox and Katt Balsan. The Delicate Art of Cooking Italian and Killing Your Wife has a worldwide digital release planned for late October.

The first teaser trailer for corrupted The Wonderful Wizard of Oz inspired; Dorothy: The Haunting of Oz has been released. The story takes place on Halloween where a viral internet challenge results in nightmarish characters appearing in a Californian town. This is to be the feature length debut for 22 year old writer/director, Elijah J. Alvarez, and will star Adrienne Tabag, Caia Bonner, Jordan Sklansky, Aziah King, Andrew Wang, and Thomas Shan.

Bloodstream premieres supernatural horror Evil Follows on Tuesday, August 4th, alongside its TVOD debut. This is written and directed by Brendan Rudnicki, and is a demonic possession horror (one of my favourite sub-genres of horror). In the film, a mysterious box unleashes an ancient evil when Sarah opens it. With her now possessed, her husband and a spiritualist look for a way to defeat the entity.

SEGA Europe and Creative Assembly have collaborated for an event during the UK's premier horror film festival; FrightFest. Over the five days of the festival; Thursday 27th August to Monday 31st at the Odean LUXE Leicester Square, guests will get to play the prologue of upcoming survival horror video game; Alien Isolation 2. The first game is often said to be one of the scariest horror games ever made, and so it is with good reason people are looking forward to seeing what a sequel brings. Staying on the topic of Alien; that original stone cold classic will be playing in the main Dolby Cinema auditorium screen on the Sunday at 15:30. For more info, check out the FrightFest website.

Joe Pellegrino's short horror film, Nymphal, is streaming for free worldwide on YouTube currently. This surreal and psychological story sees a man and his daughter trapped in their trailer backyard and has been described as 'Lynch meets Lovecraft'.

Finally for today, production began this month on psychological horror anthology; The Hours That Keep Us. Writer/director Tommy Jay Dwyer is to bring together three interconnected stories of love, loss, and obsession. Leading the cast are mixed martial artists Paige VanZant and Mickey Gall, Zack Ward (Freddy vs. Jason), and pro wrestler Vinny Pacifico (Mr. Reset and the Society of Turnbuckle & Bone). Produced by Greatest Gram Productions and HollyWoot Film Group, The Hours That Keep Us will shoot on location in Massachusetts.

The Rotting Zombie's News Anthology for Thursday 8th January 2026

My first news post of 2026, and the last one I write before I embark on a full month of working on this blog full time. I'm also on day 5 of a self imposed seven day isolation from the world. Being an introvert; my social battery is beyond drained at the moment, so seven days home alone with all the curtains drawn will do me good I feel. Apparently it's been snowing. Onwards to a trio of terrifying news stories.

I rarely ever mention these, but I happen to have a recent email about the topic, so I will speak of the JustWatch streaming charts for films and TV shows in the UK. These were up to date on 5th January. First with the JustWatch Top 10 Films streaming chart, and I can see there are only two relevant films to mention. Luckily, those two films are at No.1 and No.2 respectively. At No.2 is the almighty 28 Years Later, it makes sense why it is so high with the sequel; 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple just about to hit cinemas. At No.1 is Sinners, a film that I know next to nothing about, other than I believe it's an American film about vampires? Either way, it is good to see horror so high in the film charts at the moment.
Over in the JustWatch Top 10 TV Shows streaming chart, there is more horror but it is also more spread out. No.8 sees IT: Welcome to Derry - the TV show based on Stephen King's IT world. If that ever pops up anywhere I have access to, I will check it out, heard it's good for the lore. Fallout is in fourth position, likely due to it having returned for a second season. I did enjoy season 1, but my Amazon Prime Video subscription has expired, so it will be a time before I get to see season 2. Talking of post-apocalypse, Pluribus is in third place for last week. Got to admit, the only thing I know about it is that it stars Rhea Seehorn (Better Call Saul), and people online have said it is quite slow. Finally, No.1 sees Stranger Things, and personally, I think that position is well deserved. I've seen all the new season up to the final episode (waiting for a friend to catch up before watching that together), so far, I think it has been 10/10.

ARROW's January SVOD line-up has been announced, I will have a quick look through the press release and pull out anything that sounds appealing. Joe Lynch Selects has the director (Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, which stars Henry Rollins. I own this one on DVD, but annoyingly the disc is scratched meaning I can't see the final five minutes or so!) selecting some films for the service. These include Deep Red, Mute Witness, Ms. 45, The Woman, and Bad Biology. 5th January saw giallo - Blood and Black Lace, those type of films are ok, not entirely convinced they are my thing. If it is your thing then rejoice, for Puzzle also arrives on 9th January. Skipping ahead in the press release...more giallo titles, then...Split Second - a serial killer film taking place in a flooded dystopian future. Those were the ones that leapt out, though outside of horror - if you love Jean-Claude Van Damme, plenty of his awesome action films are getting added.

Finally for today, my cover story - Primate. This Johannes Roberts directed primate based horror is coming to cinemas on 30th January, to celebrate, a new featurette titled 'Silence Featurette' has been released.

The Last Matinee (2020) - Horror Film Review

There are few things better when it comes to watching films for review to realise you have come across something a little special. Such was the case with the Uruguayan The Last Matinee (also known as Bloody Matinee, original title Al morir la matinee), a gruesome love letter to the giallo genre of horror/thriller films that was directed by Maximaliano Contenti, who also came up with the idea for it. As the title somewhat suggests, this takes place entirely within the confines of a cinema, to my knowledge the only other horror film I have personally seen with that concept is the brilliant Demons, maybe coincidentally one by director (Lamberto Bava) who himself has directed giallo movies. Sure being a homage it can't be seen as truly original, and it might have a little too much style over substance, but I do love a bit of style.

It is a dark and rainy night and Ana (Luciana Grasso) has arrived at the inner city cinema her father works at in order to cover his shift in the projectionist booth. The last film of the day is a horror film (specifically Frankenstein: Day of the Beast that was directed by Ricardo Islas who plays this movie's antagonist) and it is playing to a dead crowd that is made up of a young boy who has snuck into the theatre, a homeless man, a couple on their first date, a lone girl, and a trio of teenage friends. Unknown to them all there is a secret extra person hidden away, an eye obsessed, glove wearing maniac dressed all in black (Islas). He has barricaded the exit, and as the movie plays out he silently starts to kill the attendees one by one.

What I know about the giallo genre of films is that they feature a gloved man dressed in black whose motif is to get up close and personal with his kills. That much The Last Matinee gets right, this film also takes a side step into the slasher genre, which adds to the melting pot a variety of unique kills that kept things involving. Right away you could see the style that this film had to it, a lovely opener of the mysterious killer entering the cinema, a slow motion shot of people from the previous film walking down the exit stairs. An extra nice shot of a young boy dropping a bag of gobstoppers that bounce down the stairs, the killer stopping to pick one up and hand it back to the boy. That scene in particular had a wonderful call back right towards the end of the film. The first act of this plays out without any kind of horror really happening. Instead it serves to introduce the various characters who make up the small cast. Some characters had more to them than others, I thought the teenage friends were the best of the lot mainly due to the chemistry they had between themselves. Other characters didn't fare as well, sadly that also applied to final girl Ana. Sure she redeemed herself but she was an unknown quantity for much of the film due to not displaying much personality.

Flower of Death (2015) - Short Horror Film Review

Flower of Death (or Fiore di Ferro to give it it's native title) is a short Swedish giallo film that was directed by Viking Almquist who previously directed the bizarre Evil Easter 3: The Final Easter (2013). Whenever I speak of giallo I must Google it to remind myself of what exactly it is, to me it is something that features a female in peril, being stalked by an unseen killer who is usually disguised, and is often wearing leather gloves. A quick search says it is a "Italian genre of literature and film, usually with mystery elements and often with slasher, supernatural horror or crime fiction elements".

On her way home from a night of drinking with her best friend a woman witnesses a masked figure hunched over a prone body in the street. The woman runs home, dropping her phone in the process and so unable to call the police she falls asleep. The next day she decides to walk to the police station to report what she saw, but it seems the masked killer knows where she lives and is stalking her...

The Editor (2014) - Comedy Horror Film Review

The Editor has been nominated for best score for the 2015 Fright Meter Awards and so I thought I would check it out. To start with I had thought I was accidentally watching the wrong film as what I had began to watch looked like it was from the 1970's, I even went as far as to pause the film and check IMDB. The Editor is a pastiche of Italian Giallo films from the 1970's and 80's and as such has a very old vibe to it.

Adam Brooks stars as Rey Ciso; a once legendary film editor who is now editing trashy films after a horrific accident left him fingerless on one hand. The lead actors for the latest film he is working on start to get brutally murdered one by one and so incompetent detective Peter Porfiry (Matthew Kennedy) gets assigned to the case. The killers calling card is to chop off the fingers of his victims which makes Ciso the main suspect. Meanwhile Ciso finds himself increasingly suffering strange hallucinations that make him wonder just what is real...