All five of our films this week are new releases:
We’ll open on a nice dog story; really, he’s a “Good Boy.” A not-so-good-boy is the star of “The Toxic Avenger.” We’ll go back in time and watch the prequel, “Borley Rectory: The Awakening.” Then we’ll watch a couple of documentaries, one real, “Lost Contact: UFOs After Wartime” and one not-so-real “Strange Harvest.”
Spoiler: We liked them all!
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Mainstream Films:
2025 Good Boy
Directed by: Ben Leonberg
Written by: Alex Cannon, Ben Leonberg
Stars: Indy, Shane Jensen, Arielle Friedman
Run Time: 1 Hour, 12 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The main character of the movie is a dog, with everything slanted toward his point of view, which is interesting. His master, Todd, is afflicted with both a terminal illness and dark forces that are working against him. Both things that seem to have been impacting his family for quite a while. But he’s got Indy by his side. It’s unique, which helps it out a lot, but it’s actually pretty slow moving on a low simmer. We both thought it was pretty good.
Spoilery Synopsis
Indy the dog protects the house at night; he hears strange sounds that concern him. The phone keeps ringing, and it turns out that Todd is having some kind of seizure. His sister, Vera, comes in and calls 911. Credits roll.
We watch old footage of Indy being a puppy and growing up with Todd and his family. Todd’s got a lot of health problems, and Indy is a big help.
Todd and Vera argue about him going to stay at Grandpa’s house; neither Vera nor Indy think that’s a good idea. The house is very remote in the country. When they arrive, Indy really doesn’t want to get out of the car. The place is a mess, but Todd says it beats the hospital.
Todd calls Vera, and they talk. Grandpa used to have a bunch of dogs, but they kept all running away. As he watches old home videos of grandpa, Vera points out that no one has lived in that house for more than a few weeks; she says it’s haunted. Meanwhile, Indy checks out shadows that he doesn’t like. Indy explores the old house, but he doesn’t find anything.
The next morning, Todd and Indy go for a walk in the woods. They stop at the family cemetery, and Todd points out that most of them died pretty young. They run into a neighbor, and he mentions traps and snares all over the woods. The neighbor mentions how strange the area is, too. Todd, on the other hand, thinks it’s nice and peaceful.
Vera, still on the phone, mentions that dogs can detect all sorts of things that people can’t, so he should be keeping an eye on Indy for signs of trouble. The next day, Todd goes off and leaves Indy at home, and Indy is not pleased. Indy spots another dog in the house and follows it, but all he finds is the dog’s bandana– and a vision of something nasty that “got” the other dog. Todd comes home, unwell; he’s been at the hospital again.
Indy has nightmares that night. He wakes up and patrols the house, hearing and seeing things that shouldn’t be there. He watches as Todd goes to the kitchen and bangs his head on a door repeatedly– sleepwalking? There appears to be some kind of black ghost or monster that’s creeping around the place.
Todd gets sicker, and the doctor says he doesn’t qualify for her clinical trials. The neighbor, Richard, warns him again about his fox traps. As Todd obliviously works on his Feng Shui, Indy watches all sorts of horrors going on in the next room and especially in the basement.
One night, Todd collapses and a door shuts Indy in the next room. Indy notices the window is open and jumps down to get outside. Indy runs through the woods toward Richard’s house to get help but gets caught in a snare instead. The next thing we know, Todd is chaining up Indy outside in the rain. The monster terrorizes Indy, who can’t escape because of the chains. Indy does eventually break loose, and then he finds the skeletal remains of Bandit, Grandpa’s last dog.
Inside the house, Todd gets a scare of his own until Indy comes in and comforts him. The monster then grabs Todd and drags him to the basement, but Indy knows another way in. “You’re a good dog, but you can’t save me,” Todd says as he turns into a skeleton.
In the morning, we see that Todd has died in his bed. Vera comes to the house and finds Bandit’s bones in the cellar while letting Indy outside. Indy goes off to live with Vera.
He was a good boy!
Brian’s Commentary
All Grandpa’s dogs ran off… we see why.
It’s told from Indy’s point of view, which is interesting and unique. Dogs do sense things that humans can’t, and this film makes heavy use of that fact. Indy the dog gets top billing here, primarily because we don’t see any shots of the character’s faces through the majority of the film.
It’s actually very slow moving and quiet. I suspect some will say it’s boring, but it had my attention throughout. If you’re a dog lover, you’ll like this one.
Kevin’s Commentary
Indy the dog, playing himself, does an impressive job and belongs to the director - possibly he was raised with this role in mind. He does indeed seem to be a Good Boy. It was cleverly filmed to accentuate Indy’s point of view, with the human character’s faces shown very little throughout the movie.
It’s well made, and the novelty of it saves it. It’s actually kind of slow. There is creepiness that builds some, and Indy having fearful dreams, but not a lot happens for much of the film.
I’d mark it as a win that isn’t quite great, but I liked it quite a bit.
2025 The Toxic Avenger
Directed by: Macon Blair
Written by: Macon Blair, Lloyd Kaufman, Joe Ritter
Stars: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige
Run Time: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This remake does a good job of paying tribute to the original while being different enough to still entertain. It is still stupid fun and over the top, but with a different vibe. It’s saturated and colorful, almost cartoonish, with less of a thrown together feeling that the original had. When the gore kicks in, it’s the goriest gore. The humor is hit and miss but mostly hit. We both enjoyed it, but it doesn’t quite live up to the original.
Spoilery Synopsis
Winston narrates his story, which begins on the other side of town. Mel Ferd, the reporter, gets footage from the BTH Headquarters. He’s got evidence that they’ve been dumping toxic waste illegally. Just then, a group of goons break in and kill him. He dies hard. His junior reporter, J.J., gets away. Credits roll.
In St. Roma’s Village (or Tromaville), we meet Winston, who lives with his son Wade and can’t cook breakfast. We see there are some really weird people in the town. There are some bad guys who are forcing shopkeeper Daisy to sell her place.
Winston goes to work at BTH as a janitor, and it doesn’t look like OSHA would approve of the place at all. He gets a call from his doctor, who says he has an inoperable case of @#$$#@, He’s got six months to a year to live. Winston then calls his insurance company who explains things like insurance companies always do. Yeah, he’s screwed.
Meanwhile, at the Garbinger Mansion, BTH Owner Bob may have passed his prime, but he’s getting an infusion of gorilla blood. His brother Fritz comes in, and he’s tremendously weird. Fritz’s friends, The Killer Nutz, were the ones who botched the reporter’s murder. Fritz sends the Nutz after J.J. to finish the job. They are not subtle.
Meanwhile, at New Chemical High School (New Chem High), Wade auditions for a talent show. It goes badly. Winston tries to cheer him up, but he’s just not good at that.
Bob Garbinger is attending a big fancypants banquet. His business is losing a ton of money, but he’s trying to bluff his way through that. He meets with the town’s big mob boss who wants payment on what he’s owed. Winston interrupts to ask Bob for money for his treatments. Bob promises to sort it all out, but he has no intention of doing anything.
Winston goes to BTH, and when he opens the gate, J.J. sneaks inside. Winston dips his mop in the toxic goo and threatens the security guard with it to rob the company’s treasury. The Nutz show up and shoot him dead. They drop his corpse into a big vat of nastiness and throw in the mop for good measure. Down in the vat, Winston is transformed rather dramatically.
Winston goes home to Wade, who takes one look at the little monster in the window and freaks out. The real estate swindler is there and shoots Winston. Winston gets angry and rips the man’s arm off. Almost instantly the town forms a mob, complete with torches, to chase the monster away. He passes out.
In the morning, Winston wakes up in a hobo’s camp. The man there, Gunther, is pretty crazy. Gunther gives him some wise superhero advice and sets him upon a mission, giving him his mop which he found.
Meanwhile, the Miss Meat restaurant, The Nasty Lads, another gang, have taken over the place. They’re angry that the place has changed its name and mascot, and they’re heavily armed. Suddenly, a little green man with a toxic mop breaks in the back door. His mop does some really bad things to the Nasty Lads and saves the hostages.
Now a hero, the press starts calling Winston the “Toxic Avenger.” Wade sees all this on the TV and knows who he really is. J.J. comes to the door and explains the whole thing to him. The Nutz show up, and they both run away. But one of the Nutz tags Wade with a tracking device.
The mob boss and his son, who lost his arm last night, also see the news and orders his men to kill Toxie. Bob, Fritz, and Kissy also know who he is, and they aren’t happy. His geeks and nerds explain how the mutations happened. Can they reproduce the mutation?
Wade and J.J. run into Winston on the street. They talk for a minute until the mob guys show up and shoot Winston again. J.J. gets shot by the Nutz, and everybody runs. Toxie takes out his baddies, and he takes J.J. to Gunther, who used to be a doctor before he was a crazy hobo. Or maybe not, because Winston ends up patching her up with the healing power of his blue blood.
Fritz and Bob have taken Wade to lure in Winston.
At the St. Roma Village’s Festival, the Nutz are playing on the stage. J.J. tampers with the sound system so Winston can sing his song instead. The crowd loves “Toxie.” Winston mangles the band right there in front of everyone. They torture the big baby-headed chicken man to get Wade’s location.
Toxie and J.J. head to Bob’s mansion and are promptly captured and chained up. He does the gloating routine, and Toxie threatens him. The scientists remove some of Toxie’s blood and do tests on it. That’s when the mob boss shows up, and he’s not happy. Bob, knowing his death is near, drinks the stuff extracted from Toxie.
And he changes. The mob guys don’t last long. Kissy tries it too, just a little bit, and she gets even weirder.
Toxie gets himself and J.J. out of the chains by peeing acid urine on them and goes after Wade. Wade gets blown to pieces.
Suddenly, Bob shows up, completely mutated. They fight, as do J.J. and Kissy. As Toxie gets ready to kill Bob, Fritz shows up with Wade - Fritz rescued him just in time. Bob, naturally, gets back up and has to be finished off spectacularly.
Kissy isn’t out of the action yet. She stabs Toxie and kills Fritz before blowing up everyone.
Winston wakes up in the hospital and watches the news, which explains how BTH has fallen. His doctor is there as well, he reports that his @#$$#@ has completely gone away, and he’s healthy now. We see that J.J., Wade, and even Fritz have survived and are doing well. Toxie is the town’s biggest hero!
And there is an important and very dramatic after-credit scene.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s got a big budget and has many references to old Troma films. Still, it’s awfully polished and doesn’t have the low-budget schlocky feel of the originals. A lot of the jokes and puns are pretty obvious, and a lot of them fall flat.
The actors, especially Elijah Wood and Kevin Bacon, are obviously having a great time in their roles. Wood looks like a cross between the Penguin and Riff-Raff. Peter Dinklage… I have no idea how that happened.
The original was a hilarious parody of horror and superhero films, this was much more straightforward and not nearly as funny.
It’s fine, and definitely entertaining, but not as good as the classic original.
Kevin’s Commentary
I noticed lots of throwbacks and references to the original “Toxic Avenger” and other Troma movies. An interesting bit of trivia is that once Winston becomes Toxie, there is an actress, Luisa Guerreiro, doing the body work under all those prosthetics.
Some of the humor was lame, but lots of it was not. I laughed and chuckled many times watching this.
Overall, I’d call this good and entertaining, but not as quite good (?) and entertaining as the original.
2025 Borley Rectory: The Awakening
Directed by: Steven M. Smith
Written by: Christopher Jolley, Steven M. Smith
Stars: Julian Glover, Patsy Kensit, Jess Inchbald
Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is actually a prequel and the third Borley Rectory movie, “based on terrifying true events.” Borley Rectory was a real house, damaged by fire in the late 1930s and demolished in the 1940s, that was said to be the most haunted house in England. This has a slow build, starting with normalcy and getting creepier as it goes along. But it’s heavy on talk and low on action, with some scares but no casualties except for those who died long ago and are ghosts. So overall, it’s not too bad, but it’s tame.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on Borley Rectory in 1888. The guests want to hear a ghost story about the place, and old Harry Ball has stories. He tells the story of a nun named Marie who was against God, and the priest beat her severely. Suddenly, a white-faced woman jumps out into the room and scares all the guests half to death– it’s a prank. Harry laughs and says there are no ghosts, and ghosts aren’t real.
That night, Harry has a nightmare, as does one of the young guests. The old man gives his son Henry a box.
Twelve years later, Henry runs the rectory, and all his sisters come for a visit. Mabel, Caroline, Freda, and Kitty are all there now. Their mother, Constance, says the girls are far too spoiled and argues with Henry about marrying off Kitty soon.
Kitty finds a priest-hole and inside is that box from earlier. They take it to Henry, who doesn’t look happy to see it. There are secrets inside, letters from Reverend Shaw.
Mr. Somerset comes for a visit; Constance doesn’t like him. The girls are out walking and see a strange woman in a nun’s habit on the grounds. The woman is just like the one old Harry described in his story many years ago. Kitty tells Constance about the strange woman, and Constance thinks maybe Henry knows more than he’s saying. As they argue, they feel a strange presence in the house. Naturally, they split up to investigate, and this time, Constance sees the nun, Marie, who warns her to hide from the evil priest.
Constance goes into shock, but the doctor says she’ll be fine tomorrow. The doctor knows all about the place being haunted and says the ghost has been awakened since the family has been talking about Harry’s recently-found writings. She explains how old Harry was just the latest in a long line of paranormal protectors of the whole village.
Constance talks to the ghost of her own dead mother, or maybe it’s just a dream. They talk about the nun and the priest, and also about saving the family from evil.
Henry talks to the four girls about the situation. That night, Somerset, Henry, and Kitty stay up all night to see what happens. They all watch the priest and nun repeat their story.
Kitty writes to Reverend Shaw, her father’s confidant about all things supernatural. Kitty and Henry then talk about the priest, who probably enjoyed killing the nun, who was pregnant with his child. As they talk, something bad happens to Caroline and Mabel.
The next day, Constance, Mabel, and Caroline leave to stay in town, leaving Henry, Kitty, Freda and Somerset to deal with the ghosts. Reverend Shaw comes, as invited, and the ghostly priest attacks him. Not long after, the young people explain to him what’s been going on. He’s a bit of a psychic, and he “feels” things in the house.
That night, we get a full-on flashback to the nun and priest’s story. She gave birth to a baby, and the priest took it away. Later, Shaw explains that the old priest, Waldergrave, used to regularly rape the nuns and probably already got Caroline. When Marie got pregnant, he killed her, but he was then burned alive.
There’s more argument and discussion when Shaw suggests one of them allow the ghost to possess them. Kitty and Shaw have a discussion while preparing things, and Shaw confesses there aren’t records that he spoke of - he is psychic and knows the history by hearing and feeling the ghosts.
This, of course, leads to a seance. Shaw calls on the ghosts to come to them, and soon, Kitty starts screaming as Marie, the nun. Shaw becomes the priest and they all pray the priest away. Marie shows up, happy now, and they all know that her child survived.
The cycle of the nun and priest is over, but the rectory is old, and there are many other supernatural problems within. Those, however, are stories for another time. Kitty realizes that she’s one of Marie’s descendants.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s an interesting location, and it’s definitely a creepy place. The actors all do old-timey accents, and I didn’t find the dialogue very convincing. It seems that everyone knows the place is haunted, and yet all they do is sit around and discuss it.
Still, as the story progresses and we learn more about what’s going on, it does pick up a bit. Everything is what you’d expect in a 19th century ghost story, but it’s all terribly drawn out and slow.
If you’re really interested in ghost stories, this isn’t bad, but it’s awfully tame and I have to admit, a little dull.
Kevin’s Commentary
Reading about the real house and the history is actually pretty interesting - and it sounds like the supernatural elements should be looked at with a skeptical eye. Taking it as a fiction movie on its own, it’s creepy with a bit of a mystery. Brian mentioned the dialogue - it’s British and period and upper crust - which does make it sound pretty stilted. And there is a lot of dialogue talking about things.
There are scares, but no one is physically injured throughout the movie. It’s very tame and talky overall. It’s not bad, but it didn’t connect much with me.
2025 Lost Contact: UFOs After Wartime
Directed by: Seth Breedlove
Written by: Seth Breedlove
Stars: Aaron Deese, Dewey Edwards, Micah Hanks
Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s another interesting documentary from Seth Breedlove, obvious from the title, focusing on UFO sightings during and after World War Two. The film is put together with stock footage, aged CGI recreations, movie clips, interviews, historical accounts, and recounted eyewitness reports. Some of the scenes might lead people to believe they’re seeing the actual events and saucers in the sky when it’s a mashup of real military footage from other events and realistically created digital footage. There’s a heavy focus on one case in particular, a fatal crash by pilot Thomas Mantell, known as “The Mantell Incident.”
Spoilery Synopsis
The Thomas Mantell Case took place in Kentucky, and there’s quite a bit of mystery surrounding it. There was a horrific military crash in a rural area, and we are shown the peaceful-looking spot where it happened many years ago. Credits roll.
We get a brief recap of World War II and the aircraft involved in the fight. We then get an overview of the magic and natural beauty of Kentucky. We then segue into discussion about UFO sightings during the war. We are told about one sighting in 1943 where dozens of glowing discs were seen, then a 1944 sighting of a black, teardrop shaped craft. Throughout these stories, we see a great deal of old stock footage of airplanes and aged-looking CGI re-enactments.
By 1947, UFO sightings were everywhere. Mt. Rainier, Roswell, Maury Island, and other sightings all took place around that point. Were they alien spaceships or were they advanced military prototypes or even something natural? That’s always the question with UFO sightings and “lights in the sky.”
In January of 1948, the Mantell Incident took place. A pilot shot at a UFO, which shot back, and the pilot, Thomas Mantell, crashed and died. The military plane crashed because of an alien attack. The story has changed and expanded over the decades, and it’s become hard to know what really happened.
Thomas’s two grandsons are interviewed, and they give us a lot of biographical information about the deceased pilot. There were many sightings of something in the sky that day, and they took off to investigate. Of the four planes, Mantell was the only one who ascended beyond what his oxygen level would allow, he passed out, and crashed.
We then get a string of living witnesses who saw the crash in 1948, and they each tell their stories. Did Mantell fly too high chasing a weather balloon, or was he shot down? The military claimed that Mantell was chasing Venus, which was visible at that time.
Brian’s Commentary
I always enjoy these documentaries, but this one includes lots of computer-generated footage of flying saucers and such, but they’re “aged” to make them match the many stock footage clips, which makes it all look historical. This seems dishonest, not something you’d want in a documentary. It becomes easy to imagine that it’s all real footage, but it’s not– but some of it could be real old footage, there’s no way to know. Everything the people on-screen are saying is either factual or at least their own opinions, but that’s not necessarily true of what we see.
Otherwise, it’s well put together, has lots of good interviews, and overall is an interesting look at one of the major UFO mysteries that was never fully explained. It mostly focuses on the Mantell incident, and if that interests you, you should absolutely check this one out.
Kevin’s Commentary
It’s another work from Seth Breedlove that is put together well and interesting. This has lots of good stock footage, accounts of historical events, accounts of historical stories and sightings, and interviews with historians. As always, it’s left up to the viewer if they want to believe it or not. But as Brian mentioned, the way real footage - even if it’s not from the actual event they are talking about - is combined with recreated footage is concerning. Some folks could be confused and misled.
2025 Strange Harvest
Directed by: Stuart Ortiz
Written by: Stuart Ortiz
Stars: Peter Zizzo, Terri Apple, Andy Lauer
Run Time: 1 Hour, 34 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was put together in a realistic documentary style, as detectives recount their struggles trying to catch a serial killer in California. One key difference is there is a lot more gore than a documentary would have. It gets steadily creepier as we hear more details and learn that the murders were not at all typical. If you’re a fan of true crime television, you might especially like this. We both thought it was very good.
Spoilery Synopsis
Detective Joe Kirby is being interviewed about a crime in Los Angeles– something unusually terrible happened to the Sheridan family. After hearing from a few involved people, we start seeing police bodycam footage of the officers on the scene. They find three bodies tied, taped up, and posed as well as being obviously murdered. There’s a weird symbol painted in blood on the ceiling. The officer recognizes the symbol, and it’s not good. Credits roll.
Detective Lexi Taylor, Joe Kirby’s partner, tells us about why she became a cop, as does Joe. They describe some ritualistic serial murders that they were involved with. The first was in 1993, and the victim, a girl, was missing several body parts. The suspect’s name was discovered at a local motel, “Albert Shiny.”
In 1994, an old man was found and killed in a similar fashion; he was missing an eye. The killer left a fingerprint, but that didn’t pan out. In ‘95, a little boy was killed and his liver removed.
Eventually, the police received a letter from the killer. It claimed there would be ten more killings. Then there weren’t any more killings for fifteen years until the Sheridan family in 2010. The family, after being tied up and posed, were cut and made to bleed out into carefully measured buckets.
Then there were more. A woman’s head was found in a park and her boyfriend was set on fire– but didn’t die. They come up with a suspect, Victor Shamaz, who is really sketchy, but he turns out to be innocent.
Another murder is a man who was killed by a huge number of leeches. A lot of leeches.
A homeless man barely escapes being killed, which leads the police to a house in the hills. The house was rented to Albert Shiny. They get a fingerprint, and this time, it identifies a man named Leslie Sykes.
The next murder is caught on a livestream, as the victim is an influencer. We see his weird mask as he draws the symbol on the wall. As he begins some kind of ritual, the camera flakes out. The victim actually survives somehow, but then is killed inside the hospital.
One thing leads to another, and they learn that Sykes had spent that missing fifteen years overseas. An occult bookseller remembers a spell book that Sykes stole. They find a storage locker that belonged to Sykes, and there are body parts inside. “Hail Azragor” is painted on the wall. It appears that there’s only one more murder before “Azragon” is set free.
Sykes kidnaps a baby on Friday the 13th, the same day as a weird triangle-shaped planetary conjunction. The police track down Sykes in a campground park and do a search. Thanks to a 911 call, they find a cabin where he was seen with the baby. By the time two police officers got there, Sykes had fled into the woods. The police pursuit, drawn by the baby crying, went very badly for the officers.
We watch on one of the cops’ bodycam as Sykes gets his ritual started. The baby is on a pyre that Sykes lights up. The bodycam shows a bright light appear in the sky that turns into a cloud with red eyes. Detective Kirby shows up, shoots Sykes, and all the weirdness stops. The baby is saved, one of the attacked cops survives, and they find Sykes dead in a nearby creek.
We then see the various interviewees discussing their feelings upon hearing that Sykes was killed. Sykes did, however, send a final letter, where he promised to return…
Brian’s Commentary
It’s all done in the style of a true-crime documentary, and it’s really well done. The difference is the graphic footage of the victims and sometimes the murders.
The killer sends various letters that are briefly shown on screen while a computer-altered voice reads it. The letters aren’t on the screen long enough to read and the voice is unintelligible.
I’m not generally a fan of true crime tales, but this is really well made!
Kevin’s Commentary
I wasn’t aware of this movie at all before Brian fired it up, and it took me a few minutes to determine it was a horror movie not a documentary. It’s put together very much like one. We’re told all about a number of murders in California, done by a serial killer they referred to as Mr. Shiny because the name Albert Shiny was given more than once. It’s very realistically made. But the graphic nature gives it away as horror. There is a lot of gore shown, the bodies of victims, which a real documentary wouldn’t do.
I thought it was excellently made and thoroughly creepy. Chilling even.
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