One of the most loathsome horror movie characters since Alan Chambers of Return to Sleepaway Camp uses magic to put his crush into an involuntary state of psychological limerence. He abuses her physically, mentally and emotionally then plays the victim when it all goes wrong. Made for those Gen Zers, Millennials who are neurotic, playing off their relationship, communication and intimacy issues, anxieties. Others may not get what all the fuss, hype is about. Inde Navarrette does her best Neve Campbell. It is the Monkey’s Paw 2026. Awkward, creepy but nothing new or original.
Where to Watch: In Theatres
For those who weren’t born in twenties or thirties, “hokum” means “nonsense”, “bullcrap”, that kind of thing. It isn’t a word that would appear very often in casual 2026 banter which makes it a very weird title, a title that wouldn’t connect to the average movie-goer but perhaps that was director, writer Damian McCarthy’s intent, to convey how the echoes of the past can still resonate, send ripples through the here and now.
It is definitely something that belligerent, irritable fantasy author Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) would say and does. He isn’t a people person especially when he cannot figure out how to conclude his highly successful Conquistador trilogy of books. For a change of scenery and to scatter the ashes of his deceased parents, Bauman heads to a hotel in Ireland where they spent their honeymoon. There, he blunders, stumbles into a murder mystery. At the centre of it all, is a haunted hotel room.
Watching Hokum is like wandering down into your grandparents’ basement in their creaky, old house, alone. There’s the rickety stairs that complain and protest with each of your steps. It is as if they are warning you to retreat back to the daylight, the security above. There’s the uncomfortable silences broken only by your own breathing. There’s that lingering fear of what could be in the dark corners of the basement, the places where that dim lighting and sunlight doesn’t quite reach. In those moments, McCarthy takes use by the hand leading us through his basement and never lets go until the murder, mystery is solved. Elementary, my dear McCarthy.
There are many instances during which McCarthy could have let things go off the rails very easily but with 2020’s Caveat and 2024’s underappreciated Oddity under his belt, McCarthy is proving to be a master of not only supernatural horror but also knowing when to pull things back from the edge at just the right moment. With each film he is getting better and better at what he does best and it is perhaps time Hollywood and the horror fandom stood up and took notice. Despite its obtuse title or perhaps because of it, Hokum is one of the best horror movies of 2026.
Where to Watch: Theatres, VOD
The only knock I have against The Whistler is that it features the latest horror movie trope that needs to go the way of the Beta videotape: The main characters are in mourning. This approach to establishing characters is pure and utter lazy filmmaking. Whether it is yet ANOTHER broken Gen Z or Millenial director unable to process their own personal grief or the screenwriter cutting character development corners, we have seen enough of this. Just stop already.
Besides that, Diego Velasco’s The Whistler spotlights one thing horror movies don’t get enough credit for ever: Cinematography. Yes. the composition, lighting, colour choices do matter even in a horror movie. Whether it is the rural farm in Venezuela or the jungle surrounding it, The Whistler looks fantastic. Camilo Monsalve Ossa should take many bows.
Grieving married couple Nicole (Diane Guerrero) and Sebastian (Juan Pablo Raba) travel from America to the family farm in Venezuela to attend the funeral of Sebastian’s father. In parrel plotlines, Sebastian investigates the cause of his dad’s bizarre death while Nicole contacts squatters in the jungle who even though they have been giving Sebastian’s family multiple headaches, they might have a way for her to communicate with her dead daughter one more time.
Making these matters even more complicated is the legend of a vengeful spirit who could be stalking the family and the choices of Nicole, who even though she makes things right in the end, she makes one of the dumbest mistakes in horror movie history. If you can get past the fact that The Whistler is another horror film built around characters unable to process their own grief, The Whistler is a unique and creepy story.
Where to Watch: VOD
Lee Cronin is taking a page out of John Carpenter’s book it seems. There isn’t any better brand marketing for a director that to work your name into a movie’s title. Instant recognition…well…after awhile anyways. It also deflects some of the criticism you might get for not following tradition. This is clearly his take on a Mummy story.
There really isn’t much of a Mummy in the movie so get those visions of Boris Karloff, Chaney Jr. or Christopher Lee shambling along in search of victims. This is a more aptly described as a possession movie. The Cannon family’s young daughter goes missing in Egypt. Unable to find her they move back to the United States and try to continue their lives. Eight years later, she is found in a sarcophagus, wrapped up as a mummy. She barely speaks and she is malnourished. As they nurse her back to health strange happenings and an ancient vengeful spirit shatter their joyful reunion.
The Mummy might as well have been called Evil Dead Rise 2.0 and that works for and against this film. All that was good about Evil Dead Rise returns in The Mummy but that in itself doesn’t show any growth or advancement as Cronin repeats himself a little too much here. The Mummy is a decent film. Some fans though will be very familiar with the material and that may take something away from experience for them. Cronin’s take ends on The Mummy concept sure is different although it could be far too different for some.
Where to Watch: VOD
When I was a teenager, the Faces of Death movies were the stuff of legend. Purported to contain real, uncensored scenes of electrocutions, beheadings, etc, those VHS tapes became infamous rather quickly and the holy grail of any serious, tape trading/collecting horror fan.
The legend that was the Faces of Death all came crashing down when it was revealed by the producers themselves fake a lot the scenes using one of the producers’ special effects company and the rest was news footage, medical researchers. No human being actually dies on camera in the film. The only part of the film that was unscripted was the body of a dead surfer that washed ashore. The filmmakers just happened to be in the area at the time. No animals actually died either. With all the realism taken out of the series it lost a lot of its infamy.
The Faces Death 2026 film has a very cool concept at its core. A psychopath is recreating scenes from the original movies and posting them online. Margot Romero (Barbie Ferreira), a content moderator for a TikTok or YouTube clone, comes across the clips in her daily work suspecting they are real murders. Naturally, she doesn’t get much support at work because that kind of controversial content is streaming gold. Romero and her roommate Ryan (Aaron Holliday) begin investigating the source of the videos.
The one dark cloud hanging over this otherwise clever remake or true reimagining I have ever seen is that the film American Sweatshop came out before it. In that 2025 film, Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart is also a content moderator who witnesses what she thinks is a real crime in a video and is compelled to investigate. It is basically the same story without the Faces of Death hook.
On its own though, Faces of Death has a cool hook that is sure to snag your interest.
Where to Watch: VOD
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