Final Grrl Horror

No Spoilers Book Review

Imagine a fashion influencer getting hurled into a blood-soaked body horror nightmare that only gets stranger with every page. That’s the chaotic energy of Fabulous Bodies. Chuck Tingle’s latest horror novel arrives July 7, 2026 from Tor Nightfire, and the audiobook, narrated by Mara Wilson, is an excellent way to experience it.

This book follows Poppy Stringer, a Palm Springs fashion influencer navigating success, image, and the pressures of building the life she wants. When events spiral completely out of control, Poppy gets pulled into a gruesome, bizarre ride that keeps escalating in unexpected ways. Fabulous Bodies is fast, weird, cinematic, and completely unafraid to go big. The story gave me the same chaotic momentum I love in John Dies at the End and Like a Hole in the Head. Not because the plots are similar, but because it has that “where is this even going?” energy that kept me engaged from start to finish.

Poppy is a strong main character: a ruthless influencer mom, a glamorous hustler, and a morally flexible single mother. She isn’t trying to be a perfectly lovable heroine, which makes her feel all the more believable. As a fellow single mom, I connected with parts of her more than I expected. Her balancing act between motherhood, ambition, and maintaining a public image felt surprisingly relatable, even when her choices definitely weren't.

That character work is what makes the novel's stranger elements so effective. For all its outrageous horror and escalating absurdity, the story stays grounded in Poppy's perspective. Tingle balances satire, horror, and character development well, giving the emotional beats weight without slowing the momentum. The body horror gets gruesome, but not gratuitous. It’s graphic when it needs to be, and the horror serves the story rather than existing purely for shock value, making the stranger moments land even harder.

Mara Wilson’s narration is a major highlight. She brings Poppy to life with a performance that captures the character’s confidence, control, and growing desperation as events spiral further out of hand. Her delivery complements Tingle’s characterization perfectly, and the pairing of Wilson’s narration with Poppy’s distinct voice makes the audiobook especially effective. Fabulous Bodies is not a slow-burn Gothic or a subtle psychological horror novel. It’s bloody, bizarre, and unapologetically in your face. If you want Victorian atmosphere or something soft and moody, this probably isn’t the one. But if you like body horror, influencer culture, morally messy characters, and stories that embrace chaos, it’s well worth picking up.

Headlights by C.J. Leede

I’m a huge C.J. Leede fan, so I went into Headlights with a lot of curiosity. Releasing June 9, 2026, this latest novel moves into supernatural thriller territory with a male FBI agent at the center of the story. While Maeve Fly remains my favorite of her books, I’ve enjoyed seeing her tackle different styles, and Headlights feels like another interesting step in that direction.

Headlights follows Special Agent Daniel Stansfield, an FBI agent who gets pulled back into a disturbing case connected to his past. People are being found on the side of highways with no memory of what happened to them, and the details around the victims are strange, gruesome, and impossible to ignore. Daniel is already carrying a heavy personal history, and as the case unfolds, the mystery starts digging into parts of his life he never fully understood.

I listened to this one as a NetGalley audiobook, and Andrew Eiden does a good job with the narration. It took me a little bit to settle into the voice and tone of the story, partly because this isn’t my usual lane and the male lead gave me a different entry point than I expected. Once I got into it, though, the performance worked. Daniel feels grounded, tired, complicated, and believable, and the narration fits that.

What impressed me most was Daniel’s backstory and the way Leede writes trauma. The flashbacks and memories are woven into the present in a way that felt true to PTSD, where the past can intrude without warning and blur together with the present. That aspect of the book was especially strong, and Daniel’s history and the mystery surrounding his identity ended up being my favorite part.

Leede’s writing is fantastic. She creates complex characters with real emotional wounds beneath the plot, and Headlights stands out from a standard FBI thriller thanks to its supernatural elements and haunted atmosphere.

That said, this was more restrained than I expected, and I found myself wanting it to go further. The body horror is there, but the book ultimately feels more like a supernatural thriller with horror elements than a full-on horror novel. That’s not a bad thing, but it did affect how hard it hit for me personally.

I also didn’t connect with the romantic thread as much as I wanted to. The scenes between Daniel and Hannah are well-written, and Leede handles Daniel’s perspective convincingly, including the intimacy. Still, I was far more invested in Daniel’s personal history and the central mystery than in the relationship.

The Shining influence is also pretty clear, and I had mixed feelings about it. Early on, I liked the nods. Calling him “Danny” and leaning into the idea of him being special was enough for me. I love The Shining, so I appreciated the connection. But as the book went on, some of those elements started to feel a little forced. I found myself wondering whether the story might have been stronger without leaning so heavily on that influence.

I’d recommend this especially to readers who like crime thrillers, supernatural thrillers, FBI investigations, trauma-heavy character work, and horror that doesn’t go completely off the rails. If Maeve Fly was too much for you, Headlights may actually be a better fit. It retains Leede’s sharp writing and dark imagination while being more accessible and thriller-forward.

If you’re looking for a well-written supernatural thriller with a complicated lead, disturbing imagery, and a strong emotional core, Headlights is absolutely worth picking up.

**Rating: 4/5 ⭐️ **

#horror #thriller #CrimeThriller #NetGalley #headlights #cjleede #NewBook #bookrelease #bookrecommendations #bookstagram #BookTok

No Spoilers Book Review

House of Margins by Tlotlo Tsamaase, releasing May 25, 2026, is an adult horror novel with a really interesting setup: a young African author disappears after being invited to an exclusive writing residency, and her sister is left trying to piece together what happened. The book blends haunted house elements, literary-world tension, podcast-style investigation, and bigger ideas about language, race, authorship, and who gets access to success in publishing.

There is a lot here that I found intriguing. I liked the podcast-style structure, the mystery around the missing writer, and the way the book uses the residency setting to create unease. There are also some strong horror images that stuck with me, and I appreciated that this felt like it was trying to do something more layered than a straightforward haunted house story.

Where I struggled more was with the audiobook format. Some of the podcast elements felt like they could have been pushed further in audio, especially moments where the text references music or production cues. I think actual sound design could have made that structure clearer and more immersive. There are also sections involving African languages that are not always translated or explained in the audio, and while I understood that this connects to what the book is saying about language, access, and whose voices are expected to be legible to a wider audience, it still made parts of the listening experience harder to follow.

This is definitely a book that made me think. I could appreciate the themes and the ambition, especially around publishing, identity, colonial history, and creative ownership. It is smart, layered, and doing something intentional with discomfort, language, and perspective. At the same time, I sometimes felt like I was working harder to orient myself than I wanted to be, and I think this may be a stronger experience in print, where the structure, language shifts, and formatting might be easier to sit with and process.

Last night, my daughter and I went to see Fangoria’s Staff Pick at Regal, which was An American Werewolf in London (1981).

If you haven’t heard, Fangoria partnered up with Regal to bring their staff pick to theaters each month on the 13th for $13 per ticket. Unlimited memberships still apply. They also give you a $10 small popcorn/soda combo with your ticket and a special patch themed to the movie! I’m a little annoyed I missed the first month and the patch for Sinister, but I’ll live, I guess. 😒

Anyhoo, it was so fun seeing the movie on the big screen last night. As you may know, I saw Evil Dead on its 45th anniversary, and I highly recommend revisiting these in the theater. I wasn’t born yet in 1981, so I didn’t have the chance back then, but it really enhances these films.

I was so impressed by the makeup work and practical effects in this. They’re fantastic! The way they figured out how to do the werewolf transformation, and even the transformation of the undead, was so ahead of its time.

Another cool little surprise was that viewers got an after-the-movie special with makeup artist Rick Baker! I was so impressed by his work on this. He was only 30 years old at the time, and a lot of his ideas were revolutionary. He didn’t know how he was going to implement the things director John Landis wanted, but he just wanted the chance to try. Very cool insight into the project. I’m glad I got to see it.

I actually was thinking I should have filmed it on my phone for you all. 🤣 Hopefully it will be on social media later.

They haven’t announced next month’s movie yet, but I’m so excited to do this again! If y’all get the chance, I recommend going to these so theaters know we want horror opportunities like this.

#Horror #Fangoria #Regal #NowPlaying #Movie #Werewolf

I just finished the book Grief Eater by Emma Osborn and while it doesn’t come out until June 1, 2026 - You need to make note of this one.

Grief Eater has a new take on zombies. They are able to retain their memories and thoughts but are driven by their hunger much in the way animals with high prey drives can’t control that aspect of themselves. Additionally, they can recount their “food’s” memories as well. Which brings in a whole new level of heartbreak for the reader even if the main character states these things plainly as it’s happening as the reader gets to experience the implication, even if she doesn’t. It’s a new take I haven’t experienced before, and I thought it was fresh in a way I didn’t think zombie books or movies could come up with at this point.

The reader is thrown right in Kristina’s life as she is turned and so we are along for the ride of her processing her life’s trauma as an queer teen into young adult and what that means for her life and mission as a new zombie. The writing is well done and while it’s not a long book, the story is told poignantly. I really felt emotion for Kristina. She felt real. Her family is not accepting of her and it’s heartbreaking. Her journey is satisfying and the ending is prefect.

If you’re looking for a fresh new look on zombies, this is it! I highly recommend.

I saw The Evil Dead in theaters for its 45th anniversary, and I’m honestly so glad I did. I had seen it before, but the last time was probably around 20 years ago, and for some reason I had this memory that I liked Evil Dead II more and that the first one was maybe not essential. After seeing it again, I no longer believe that at all.

The Evil Dead, written and directed by Sam Raimi, follows a group of friends who head to a remote cabin and accidentally unleash something they absolutely should have left alone. It’s the kind of setup horror has used a million times since, but this movie still has a specific energy that makes it feel alive, unhinged, and weirdly dangerous in a way a lot of cleaner horror movies don’t.

No Spoiler Film Review

Mārama was so much better than I was expecting. I’m not even sure what I expected to be honest, but this far exceeded anything I could have imagined for an indie film that wasn’t promoted highly. It came out in U.S. theaters on April 17, and I didn’t think I was going to get a chance to see it in a theater at all. It wasn’t playing anywhere near me, so when I saw a showing pop up yesterday, I grabbed a ticket immediately because I had no idea how long it would actually stick around. I’m so glad I did. This is not a shudder original. This is a proper film, and I really think it deserves awards attention. Writer/director Taratoa Stappard made his feature debut with it, and it does not feel small in ambition at all.

Set in 1859 in Victorian England, the film follows Mary, a young Māori woman who was adopted and raised away from her birth parents but grew up around other Māori people and learned her culture through them. After receiving a letter from a man claiming he can tell her about her parents, she travels to a remote cabin, only to find he has already died. From there she is taken to a grand, isolated manor by a captain who seems welcoming on the surface, but very quickly gives off the sense that something is wrong. He collects Māori artifacts, speaks about Māori people in a way that immediately feels off, and attempts to immediately install her in the house as governess for his granddaughter. That is where the mystery really starts to unfold. Mary is also a seer, and the movie builds from that as the situation becomes more dangerous. Ariāna Osborne plays Mary, and I was floored by her acting. I don’t often feel emotional during horror, but she got me in one particular scene where a mockery is being made of the Māori people.

What I really enjoyed is how beautiful and fully realized this movie is. The costuming, the set design, the cinematography, all of it looks incredible, dark and gothic. The manor had a rich, eerie, old-world look, but it is not just pretty for the sake of being pretty. It feels loaded. Theres something deeper and you can feel it everywhere.

As I mentioned before, Ariāna Osborne is fantastic. She makes Mary feel strong, perceptive, and grounded in who she is, even when everyone around her is trying to define her differently. You can feel that she knows exactly who she is as a Māori woman, and because of that, the way people around her claim to admire or respect her culture while clearly not respecting it at all lands even harder. As an Indigenous person myself, there were moments in this that really hit me. The movie shows how ugly that kind of so-called admiration can be.

When it comes to the horror, it’s in the gothic styling, dread and revenge. I’m trying not to spoil anything, but it absolutely goes there and is earned. I think that anyone could watch this movie despite being outside the Māori culture, can still understand what Mary, or Mārama, is going through and why it’s so messed up (to put it lightly). There is anger, grief, and purpose in this film.

No Spoilers Book Review

Courier by Zoe Rosi is a psychological thriller that leans hard into obsession, voyeurism, and the idea of getting involved in someone else’s life by crossing a boundary as a stranger.

The premise is what pulled me in right away, a courier who becomes fixated on a woman during a delivery and starts inserting himself into her life based on what he thinks is happening behind closed doors. That “stranger watching strangers” angle worked really well for me, especially because you’re stuck in his perspective the whole time. You’re constantly questioning what’s real, what’s assumed, and how far he’s actually going to take things.

The obsession aspect is probably the strongest part of the book. It feels believable, uncomfortable, and very controlled in a way that makes it even more unsettling. It’s not over-the-top chaos, it’s calculated, and that made it land better for me.

I listened to this on audiobook, and I think the narrator was a really solid choice. He doesn’t come across as overly charming or polished, but just enough that you can understand how the character might present himself to others. It made the performance feel more grounded and believable, and he did a great job with the different voices throughout.

There were a few moments where I wanted a little more forward momentum, especially in the middle, but the writing itself is strong enough that it kept me engaged. And honestly, the ending made it worth it. It pulls everything together in a way that feels satisfying without overcomplicating things, and it really reinforces what the story was building toward the whole time.

Overall, this is a well-written, character-driven thriller with a strong premise and a payoff that lands. If you like stories centered around obsession, unreliable perspectives, and that creeping feeling that something is not quite right, this is definitely worth picking up.

No Spoiler Movie Review

Lee Cronin’s Mummy may be THE horror movie of 2026. If you liked The Exorcist franchise, Evil Dead Rise, and When Evil Lurks, you are going to want to see this immediately. That comparison is important, because this really does feel like it’s pulling from that same kind of vicious possession horror, that close, uncomfortable, visceral body horror that Lee Cronin clearly knows how to do so well. I went into this not even realizing at first that it was the same director as Evil Dead Rise, and when this movie (his third) really got moving, it made perfect sense. You can feel his style all over it. This did not disappoint at all.

The movie follows a family caught in the fallout of an ancient evil being unleashed, and from there it turns into a brutal, supernatural nightmare built around possession, grief, and survival. I’m keeping that broad on purpose because this is absolutely the kind of movie that works best when you don’t know every turn ahead of time. What matters is that the story works. It’s not just a parade of gross-out set pieces. It actually has a strong emotional spine underneath all the horror, which is part of why it lands so hard.

And yeah, this movie is absolutely not for the faint of heart when it comes to body horror. If you’re the kind of person who gets really triggered by visceral, physical, gross body horror, this is probably one you’re going to want to skip. It has that same kind of wet, intense, gag-inducing grossness as Evil Dead Rise, but honestly pushed up another notch. The shock factor in this is incredible. There were multiple moments where it just goes there in a way that feels bold and disgusting in the best possible sense. The gore is not casual. It is full-on, upsetting, and very effective.

And since I know some people care about this a lot, I’ll say it here too, even though I usually don’t give trigger warnings. There is a pet bird death right at the beginning, and children are heavily involved in the movie. Nothing about that is sexual, but there is violence involving kids, so if that’s something you’re sensitive to, you’ll probably want to skip this one too.

What really surprised me is that the story is actually very good. This is not just some effects showcase. It has a real sense of momentum and escalation, and even when it gets huge and grotesque, it still feels anchored. The ending was satisfying too. It doesn’t leave things hanging in some annoying open-ended way, but if they ever wanted to do more, I could absolutely see a path for that. It works on its own, but it also doesn’t feel like a dead end.

Visually, this thing is gorgeous. It’s beautifully shot, and you can tell a lot of effort went into the locations and the staging. That really mattered because it gave the movie a scale that made everything feel even more immersive. It actually reminded me a little of The Exorcist III in that respect, and part of why I also thought of When Evil Lurks is because this movie shares some of that same grim possession energy, where what’s happening feels ugly, serious, and kind of unstoppable, even if the actual story goes in a different direction.

Performance-wise, Jack Reynor, who a lot of horror fans will already know from Midsommar, does great here even though I’m personally never going to fully disconnect him from that role. That is more my issue than his. He’s very strong in this. The rest of the cast is great too. I honestly don’t think there was one weak performance in the movie, from the parents to the kids. Everybody understood the assignment. Hayat Kamille is a standout too, because she brings exactly the kind of eerie, commanding energy that role needs and makes the whole thing feel even more dangerous whenever she’s on screen. There’s even a little detail with her daughter being named Layla that almost feels like a wink to the role a lot of people know her for, which was a fun touch if that was intentional.

I got to see this as part of the halfway-to-Halloween special event in the Dolby theater at AMC, and before the movie there was a short sit-down with Lee Cronin, Jason Blum, and James Wan. It wasn’t super in depth, but it was still cool hearing them talk about the movie a little before it started. There were also a couple of really cool stylized teaser spots beforehand, including an ad for the Wish Stick from the new movie Obsession and what looked like a furniture commercial for The Backrooms, which was a fun bonus.

Overall, I have to be honest, I didn’t put Mummy at the very top of my anticipation list compared to some other horror coming this year, and it absolutely blew my mind. This is the bar now. If something tops it by the end of 2026, then wow, because this set the standard ridiculously high. For me, this is a full 5/5 which is rare and I’ll gladly give it.

No Spoilers Book Review

Morsel by Carter Keane, narrated by Lindsey Dorcus, releases today! April 14, 2026 from Tor Nightfire / Macmillan Audio. It follows Lou, who is already miserable in a dead-end office job when a bizarre self-improvement MLM starts creeping into her workplace, and from there the story keeps mutating into something darker, stranger, and much more intense than it first seems.

What I liked most about this book is that once it gets going, it really gets going. There is a lot happening here, and I mean that in a good way. It starts with a mystery where neither the reader nor the main character fully understands what is going on, and that worked for me because the writing is strong enough to make you just go with it. I was happy to stay in that confusion for a while because it felt intentional, and because the story kept evolving in ways I was not expecting. That was probably my favorite thing about it. Every time I thought I knew what kind of book it was turning into, it shifted again.

I also really liked Lou as a main character, and I loved the relationship between her and her best friend Emma. Their banter felt natural and gave the book some genuinely funny moments, which helped balance out the darker material. And as a dog person, I do want to say the dog matters here. There are definitely moments where readers may feel emotional stress over that part of the story, but overall I would still consider this safe enough for dog lovers. The dog is not just background decoration either, which I appreciated. That connection actually matters.

The other thing that really worked for me was how this leaned thriller for a while before the horror fully showed its hand. It is not trying to be full-force horror on page one. It takes a little time to set the story up, which was fine with me because things do start happening pretty quickly after that, and there were multiple points where I was like, oh, this is actually kind of wild. The gore and darker turns hit well, and the book leaves you thinking about what you would do in that kind of situation, which I always like.

I listened to this on audiobook, and overall I thought Lindsey Dorcus did a great job. She kept me engaged and really sold the voice of the story. The only thing that did not translate quite as well for me in audio were the sections involving texts and podcast-style inserts. Those got a little confusing at times, and I think that is one area where a physical or ebook copy might read more smoothly. But otherwise, I thought the audio worked really well.

No Spoilers Movie Review

Faces of Death (2026) surprised me. I was into it from the beginning and thought the story was interesting right away, but at first it felt a little more in that Shudder range visually, still solid, still intriguing, just not necessarily looking like it was about to go as hard as it did. Then midway through it really turns into a proper horror movie. The suspense gets stronger, the horror starts landing, and that’s when I realized, damn, this is actually really good.

The movie follows Margot, played by Barbie Ferreira, a content moderator who gets pulled into a violent mystery tied to recreated death footage and a much bigger story underneath it. Instead of just redoing the original Faces of Death concept beat for beat, this movie updates it for internet culture, viral gore, and the way people consume disturbing content now, which is actually a smart direction to go in. Barbie Ferreira, who a lot of people know from Euphoria, is great here and really carries the movie.

She was a huge part of why this worked for me. I loved that she’s not the usual super-traditional final girl in body type or look, and I really loved seeing a bigger, thicker girl represented in a role like this and absolutely pulling it off. She’s gorgeous, she’s believable, and it was cool seeing her kick ass and step into being one of the newer final girls. That worked for me a lot.

But honestly, the antagonist is a massive part of why this movie lands. Dacre Montgomery is genuinely scary in this. He doesn’t just play the villain like some loud maniac the whole time. He’s intense in a way that keeps shifting. Sometimes he’s dead serious and controlled, and sometimes he slips into this other, kind of nerdier version of himself to manipulate and that somehow makes him even more unsettling. That contrast worked. It gave the character more personality and depth instead of a faceless slasher. At times he honestly reminded me a little of Jared Leto just in the face and that locked-in intensity, but way more effective here. He and Barbie play off each other really well, and that tension helps the whole thing.

What really sold me, though, is that this movie is actually scary. Not just violent, not just dark, but genuinely suspenseful in places. There are moments where I was actually freaked out (granted I was completely alone in the theater at 10pm).

The gore was good too. It’s not over the top extreme, but it definitely has more bite than “Scream” for example, and it gives you enough blood and brutality to feel satisfying. So if someone wants a horror movie with real struggle, violence, suspense, and actual scary moments, this absolutely has that.

I also liked that there’s an actual story here. With a title like Faces of Death, and especially with the baggage of the original, this could’ve very easily just been empty shock value. Instead, it has an interesting storyline and it knows exactly what kind of remake it is. There’s a little monologue about remix and nostalgia, and that really worked for me because it’s basically calling out exactly what’s happening. Here we are in a theater watching a “remake” of Faces of Death in 2026, and the movie knows that. It’s kind of breaking the fourth wall without fully doing that, and I thought that was smart.

That part also works because the filmmakers clearly understood what they were doing with this. Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei, who also worked together on Cam, didn’t just grab an infamous title and phone it in. They built this version around the idea that Faces of Death basically already exists online now, with how easy it is to stumble into violent footage, shock content, and algorithm-fed horror. That makes this feel a lot more current and a lot more self-aware than I expected it to.

Of course there are still a few moments where you’re like, what the hell is she doing, why would she do that, because it’s horror and people always do dumb shit or there wouldn’t be a plot. But honestly, it wasn’t nearly as bad about that as some recent horror movies I’ve still liked anyway, so I can’t act like that ruins it. It doesn’t.

Final Grrl Horror No Spoiler Movie Review

Exit 8 is a fantastic and unique movie. With that being said, I already know it’s not going to work for everybody, and I’m just going to say that right up front. If you don’t like slow-burn, creepy Japanese horror, this probably isn’t your movie. This is not action-packed. It’s not loaded with gore. It’s more psychological, more atmospheric, and way more interested in dread, repetition, and unease than in big flashy scares. But for me, this really worked.

The film is directed by Genki Kawamura, who co-wrote it with Kentaro Hirase, and that actually made me even more interested once I looked into him. He’s not mainly known as a horror director. A lot of people know him more as the producer behind huge Japanese films like Your Name and Weathering with You, and his directorial debut, A Hundred Flowers, won Best Director at San Sebastián. That background makes a lot of sense here, because Exit 8 doesn’t feel like somebody just trying to crank out a spooky game adaptation. It feels thoughtful, controlled, and way more layered than that. The movie is based on Kotake Create’s 2023 indie game The Exit 8, and Neon handling the North American release also feels right, because this is exactly the kind of strange, high-concept movie they’ve been putting in front of the right audience.

The basic setup is simple, but really smart. A man finds himself trapped in an endless Japanese subway passageway and has to follow a set of rules to escape. If he sees an anomaly, he has to turn back. If he doesn’t, he keeps moving forward. The goal is to reach Exit 8, but one mistake sends him right back to the beginning. That premise comes straight from the game, and the movie does a really good job of making you feel those mechanics without turning the whole thing into something flat or repetitive. You really do start scanning every poster, every door, every little detail, trying to catch what changed before the character does

One thing I liked right away is that you can absolutely feel the game influence. It starts in a first-person point of view, which was really cool, and for a second I almost thought it was going to stay that way the whole time. That opening was intentional too. Coverage around the film noted that the first scenes were shot that way because it’s based on a video game, and you can really feel that translation happening onscreen. It almost gave me a quick flash of Maniac energy, not because it’s that kind of movie or because this guy is some villain, but just because of that perspective choice. It doesn’t stay there, and honestly that’s probably for the best. If it had kept that up too long it could’ve turned into that queasy, found-footage-adjacent thing where you just want the camera to calm down. Instead, the movie knows when to shift and when to open things up, and that helps keep it from getting monotonous.

That’s one of the most impressive things about it, really. This could’ve been boring so easily. It could’ve felt like a gimmick stretched too far. But it doesn’t. It stays suspenseful, mysterious, and weirdly interactive because you’re basically doing the same thing the character is doing the whole time. You’re counting, watching, checking, trying to catch the anomalies before they do. That made it fun in a very specific way. You’re not just watching the movie, you’re kind of playing along with it in your head. And because of that, the slow pace didn’t drag for me the way it sometimes can in other game adaptations.

I also think the movie has more going on than just the surface-level puzzle. It felt layered to me, like it is actually about making a decision around a huge life milestone and getting trapped in the fear and repetition of that. I’m keeping that vague on purpose because I don’t want to spoil anything, but it did feel like it had more than just “spot the creepy thing and move on.” The research backs that up too. Reviews have described the movie as adding emotional and existential weight to the game’s structure, turning the loop into something more human and psychologically loaded. Kawamura has also said he wanted to blur the borders between movies and games instead of making a standard adaptation, and that really shows.

Visually, this movie is phenomenal. Even though it mostly lives in one setting, it doesn’t feel cheap at all. It’s a very cool-looking movie, and you can tell it took real craft to pull off. The production built a replica of the original game’s underground passage in Tokyo, which makes sense because the whole thing feels way too controlled and polished to be some tossed-off little experiment. It may sound simple on paper, but it absolutely doesn’t look simple onscreen. Kawamura also talked about taking inspiration from The Shining for the sound design, which tracks because the sound in this movie really does get under your skin in that same mentally cornering kind of way.

The acting is strong too. Kazunari Ninomiya plays the Lost Man, and I had a feeling I recognized him. He’s been in Letters from Iwo Jima and the live-action Gantz films, so that may be why he looked familiar. He’s really good here because he has to carry so much of the movie’s tension inside such a repetitive structure without losing your attention. Research around the production also said he contributed script ideas as a gamer familiar with the source, which honestly tracks because the adaptation really does feel like it understands what makes this kind of game work instead of just borrowing the title and hoping for the best. Yamato Kōchi is also a huge part of why the movie works as well as it does. As the Walking Man, he becomes this really unsettling presence that the film keeps finding new ways to make creepy. The cast also includes Nana Komatsu, who some viewers may know from The World of Kanako and Silence.

Coming off things like Silent Hill adaptations that didn’t work for me and Iron Lung, which had a lot going for it but dragged badly in pacing for my taste, Exit 8 was a really nice surprise. It’s slow, but it bypasses that painful kind of slowness because it stays suspenseful and mysterious the whole time. You really do feel like you’re counting the anomalies and non-anomalies right along with the characters, and that keeps you in it. And honestly, when I walked out of the theater I felt kind of surreal as one does after a movie they were very invested in. I’d gone downtown to the big fancy mall in my area, the one with a million elevators and confusing parking, and trying to find my way back after watching this movie was tripping me out. I was already in that weird headspace the movie puts you in, so suddenly wandering around this maze-like place afterward felt way too on theme.

No Spoilers Book Review

Sarafina by Philip Fracassi debuted on April 7th of this year and is a historical horror novel set during the Civil War, following three brothers who desert the Confederate army and find shelter in a remote home deep in the woods. What begins as a survival story gradually shifts into something darker, stranger, and far more supernatural.

What stood out to me most here was the writing. This is a very well-written book, and even early on it is easy to see why so many readers are responding to it. Philip Fracassi has a strong command of tone and character, and the story clearly has a lot of care behind it.

For me, the biggest distance came from the subject matter more than the quality. I am generally not drawn to military or war-heavy stories, so that part of the setup was a harder sell for me personally. Even so, I could absolutely see what the book was doing, and I can understand why it works so well for readers who enjoy historical horror and slower-building dread.

From there, the novel seems to open up into a much darker and more fully horror-driven story, and I think that shift will be especially satisfying for the right audience. Readers who like historical settings, strong prose, and horror that gradually turns more visceral and unsettling will likely get a lot out of this one.

No spoilers book review

Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher, narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal, released March 24, 2026, is a book that completely pulled me in with atmosphere before I even knew where it was going. Set in 1899, it follows Sonia Wilson, a scientific illustrator who takes a job illustrating insects for the reclusive Dr. Halder at his North Carolina manor house. What starts as an intriguing professional arrangement slowly opens into a much stranger mystery involving the house, the surrounding woods, the woman who came before her, and the unsettling behavior of the local animals.

What grabbed me right away was the atmosphere. From the moment Sonia arrives, the setting feels off. The town, the strange local details, the eerie sense that something is wrong just under the surface, all of it worked for me immediately. Even before the horror fully takes shape, the book creates such a strong creepy mood that I was hooked. It also helps that Sonia is an easy character to follow. I liked being in her head, and I enjoyed the mystery of the previous illustrator and Halder’s missing wife unfolding alongside the job itself. The writing voice here is excellent, and the audiobook narration by Mary Robinette Kowal really elevated that even more for me. She kept me fully immersed in the story the entire time.

I also really liked how the bug material was handled. I am not somebody who is naturally excited by insect talk, but this book made it fascinating and disgusting in the best way. There are details here that are genuinely creepy, especially once the biological horror starts to sharpen. It never felt like body horror just for shock value. Instead, it added to the growing dread and made the whole concept feel fresh. That was one of my favorite things about the book overall, actually. It did not go where I expected, and I appreciated that.

There were a couple of places where I thought the pacing could have tightened a little, but even then I stayed engaged because the atmosphere, the mystery, and the voice were all strong enough to carry me. This is more suspenseful and atmospheric than nonstop scary, but I thought the payoff worked really well, and by the end I felt like the book had earned where it went.

Overall, I thought Wolf Worm was a fresh, eerie, and memorable horror novel with a fantastic setting, a strong central mystery, and just enough grossness to make it effective. I would absolutely recommend it, especially to readers who like gothic atmosphere, biological horror, and stories that feel a little different from the usual horror setup. 4.5/5.

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She Waits Where Shadows Gather by Michelle Tang, releasing May 5, 2026, is a haunted house novel set in Manila that blends family tension, generational history, and Filipino folklore into a more layered, culturally grounded horror story. It follows Avery and Carlos as they move into Carlos’s ancestral home, where long-buried family secrets and spiritual forces begin to surface.

What stood out to me most was the cultural depth. The folklore, family dynamics, and generational weight gave the story a strong identity and made it feel more complex than a typical haunted-house setup. That aspect was easily the most compelling part for me and added a richness that sets it apart.

For me, though, the overall reading experience felt slower and less engaging than I was hoping for. I wanted more tension earlier on, and I never found it as unsettling or gripping as I expected from the premise. The character dynamics also kept me at a distance, which made it harder to stay fully invested, even as the story moved into bigger supernatural territory and began pulling its ideas together.

As the book progresses, it leans more heavily into its folklore and emotional resolution, bringing its central elements into clearer focus. I could see what it was building toward, but I wanted that sense of momentum and payoff to arrive sooner and hit a little harder.

No Spoilers Movie Review

They Will Kill You is a 2026 action-horror comedy from Kirill Sokolov, who co-wrote it with Alex Litvak, and this is one I absolutely should have seen the second it came out. I waited until Tuesday so I could go with a friend, and the whole time I was sitting there I was thinking, yeah, I should have been here immediately. This movie hit so many things I love at once. It opens in a way that immediately put me in mind of The Shining, Rosemary’s Baby, and Suspiria, which makes sense once you settle into what kind of story this actually is. There’s that sinister-building energy, that occult dread, and that heightened, almost dreamlike visual language right from the start. And then the movie keeps going instead of just borrowing those vibes and calling it a day. Sokolov previously directed Why Don’t You Just Die!, and after seeing this, I’m fully ready to go down that rabbit hole.

The setup follows Asia Reaves, played by Zazie Beetz, an ex-con who takes a housekeeping job in a wealthy New York high-rise called the Virgil, only to realize pretty quickly that this is not a normal building and these are not normal residents. That is all I really want to say about the plot, because one of the best things about this movie is that the teaser trailer does not give away much. That was such a relief. These days trailers have a bad habit of showing you every big moment and basically handing you the whole movie in under two minutes. They Will Kill You does not do that. There were multiple turns and details here that I had no idea were coming, and it made the whole thing way more fun. The film stars Beetz alongside Myha’la, Patricia Arquette, Paterson Joseph, Tom Felton, and Heather Graham.

Once it gets moving, this thing has an absolute shot of adrenaline energy to it. The acting is great, the fight scenes are killer, and the whole movie is beautiful to look at. The cinematography by Isaac Bauman gives everything this rich, heightened, stylized look where the color and set design are doing real work instead of just sitting there looking expensive. There are scenes in this movie that feel like art. Not in a pretentious way, just in a this-is-flat-out-gorgeous way. The camera movement, the framing, the color choices, all of it has real intention behind it.

And then once you really get into what the movie is doing, it shifts into something that felt to me like Kill Bill, Kung Pow! Enter the Fist, and Evil Dead got thrown into a blender in the best possible way. I do not mean that it is operating on the exact level of Kill Bill, because that is a very high bar, but the fight scenes gave me that same kind of excitement. The choreography is that good. The movie knows how to make action feel sharp and satisfying. Then you throw in the blood, gore, and campier chaos, and that is where the Evil Dead part starts to kick in. And then there are little choices in the color, framing, and general visual rhythm that reminded me of Kung Pow! in a way that just weirdly worked for me. It is funny, it is out there, and it commits.

Zazie Beetz is awesome in this. She plays Asia with so much control and intensity, and she completely sells the transition from somebody walking into danger to somebody who can actually tear through it. A lot of people are going to know her from Atlanta, Deadpool 2, and Joker, but this was her first lead role in a feature film, and she more than carried it. Beetz also talked about how physically demanding the shoot was, including long nights in freezing fake rain, and that tracks because this performance feels fully lived-in on a physical level. She is not just standing in the middle of action happening around her. She is driving it.

That was one of the things that impressed me most. I was sitting there thinking, if she did a lot of this herself, that is incredible, and the reporting around the movie really backs up how physical the role was for her. The choreography and action staging are just so much better than they need to be. There is weight to the movement. The fights are exciting to watch. They are staged clearly, and they keep escalating in ways that stay fun instead of getting repetitive. That is a huge part of why the movie works.

I also really liked that underneath all the chaos, the story is actually good. A movie can have great gore and great action, but if the story is weak, I’m going to question it. Here, I didn’t. There was a point near the end where I started wondering if the movie was about to fall short of greatness for me, and then it didn’t. It fully delivered. The ending landed. That pushed it over the edge.

This is also just a genuinely funny movie. Not every joke is trying to wink at you. Not every laugh comes from some lazy self-aware bit. It is just funny in a way that fits the total insanity of what is happening. There is a little bit of camp, a little bit of blood-soaked absurdity, and a real sense that the movie wants you to have a great time. I did. Completely. And if you like any of the movies I mentioned earlier, I really think this will be your kind of thing too.