We’ve got another fun mix of films for you this week. We’ll start off with “Passenger,” a fun road trip film. Next, we’ll celebrate New Year a bit late with “New Year’s Absolution,” both of which are newish releases.
For our classics, we’ll watch the first of five “Underworld” films, and then go way back and visit “The Stepford Wives” of 1975.
And we’ve got a very weird short film this week as well.
All this, as well as the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #58, for July 2026, is out now! Check out all the back issues, as well as our other books, with one easy link: https://horrormonthly.com
Mainstream Films:
2026 Passenger
Directed by: André Øvredal
Written by: Zachary Donohue, T.W. Burgess
Stars: Jacob Scipio, Lou Llobell, Melissa Leo
Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A young couple living van life on the road encounter a car accident and end up unintentionally picking up a passenger while they are at it. It relies excessively on jump scares, but it’s quite good anyway. The main duo is really good together, and it’s well made. We were both entertained.
Spoilery Synopsis
Lucas and Daniel drive along the empty road late at night, and they’re both bored. They whine about Lucas’s dry mouth and needing to pee. Not long after, Lucas does have to pee, so they stop. When Lucas gets back to the car, Daniel is gone and the car is all scratched up. Suddenly, Daniel flies into the windshield, dropped from high up. Lucas gets back in the car and speeds away, but he keeps passing the same man on the side of the road, over and over. Credits roll.
Maddie and Tyler pack up their big-city apartment to live in a van. They start their big road trip. Six weeks later, they’re living the mobile lifestyle, stuck in traffic and missing out on their reservations. Tyler proposes to her, right there in the van. Suddenly, a neighborhood watch guy bangs on the door and makes them move. They drive on, another hour to a motel.
A car with a crazy driver overtakes them and passes; it’s Lucas, from earlier. He crashes the car not far ahead. The couple stops to help. Lucas starts to crawl out of the car, but something yanks him back in. Maddie hears something moving around out in the woods.
They get to the motel for the night, but there just might be something hiding in their van. In the morning, they find a claw mark just like the one on Lucas’s car.
The couple goes to a “Van Life” meetup, and there’s a lot of people there. Maddie notices a whole bunch of “Missing” posters on the wall. She meets a long-term van person, Diane, who vaguely warns her to stay off those lonely roads.
That night, after leaving a gym, Maddie runs into some creepiness in the parking lot. The Passenger attacks her in the van, and she scares it off with Tyler’s St. Christopher medal. The dashcam that showed the man before, doesn’t work now. She tells Tyler, who doesn’t really believe any of this.
Maddie buys a book that discusses “The Hobo Code” and learns that three slashes means “Not Safe,” and there’s a whole bunch of lore behind that. The van has three deep gashes in the side that won’t buff out.
Maddie’s ready to go back to a normal life, but Tyler’s talking about living remotely forever. She’s hesitating marrying him because of the van thing; it’s not fun anymore. It seems like they’re just about to break up, when Tyler finally sees something unnatural. They run inside the van, and the creature shakes the whole thing crazily.
Tyler can’t find his keys, so he gets back out of the van to look around for them. He sees the creature again, and now he understands what Maddie’s been telling him. “This thing latches onto you when you’re on the road,” Maddies explains. “Some people call him ‘The Passenger’.”
Maddie wants to contact Diane, who seemed to know about the creature and warned her. They get a flat tire, and suddenly the bolts go missing. Something drags Madddie off while Tyler is stuck under the van.
Maddie wakes up next to a car accident, where a car hit a motorcycle. Tyler catches up to her, no, it’s really the monster. The real Tyler shows up just in time to break the spell, and they drive off.
They arrive at another camper meetup, looking for Diane. Diane just wants them to get out of here, as do all the many other campers. They all know about the trouble. “He’s the highwayman from Hell. It’s demonic!” There’s a St. Christopher church that might offer protection and weaken its powers. She offers to take them there. The demon kills Diane right there in front of them.
Suddenly, it’s night again, and they’re still out on the road and almost out of gas. Maddie notices more Hobo Code symbols and follows them– off the road. They pass a bunch of old, deserted cars, all with the creature’s claw mark on them. Also, there are thousands of dead bodies in sheets, but Tyler doesn’t think those are real. But they all go “squish” and “thump” as the van drives over them.
The demon appears inside the van and torments Tyler before being thrown outside. When Maddie reaches the holy grounds of the church, the creature starts to smoke and steam. She drives right through the wall of the church, with the creature on the hood, and he’s not happy about it. She ends up impaling him on the St. Christopher statue’s sword. The demon melts in front of her.
The church explodes in fire, and Maddie gets out of the van to escape. She meets up with Tyler. Still, they’re out in the middle of the desert with no van or supplies. Somehow, the police show up (why? how?). Maddie and Tyler agree to get married and buy a normal house.
Brian’s Commentary
It’s the “Van Life” horror movie. The YouTubers all make this look like a fun lifestyle, but the movie shows the other side of it. Living in a van, your life will be full of overloud jump-scares.
It looks good, it’s very well paced; the acting is good. Overall, I liked it a lot, but there are a lot of jump scares.
Kevin’s Commentary
It was heavy on the jump scares to make them a little predictable and annoying. Other than that, it’s a movie that moves well, and I thought the casting was excellent. There wasn’t a lot new here, but I enjoyed it.
2024 New Year’s Absolution
Directed by: Nick Leisure
Written by: Damion Stephens
Stars: Michael Copon, Joel Brady, Josh Gilmer
Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A group of eight friends get together for a New Year’s Eve party. The movie takes a while letting us get to know the group. It’s short enough that the pacing moves things along really well. Then something happens and leads to something else, and it ends up being the worst party ever. It’s got some horror elements, but it seemed more like a crime thriller. We both thought it was very good.
Spoilery Synopsis
Claire and Damon are expecting guests for New Year’s Eve. Stuart and Travis are the first to arrive, with their dog. Travis brings his weird little dog, Cookie, to the party. They talk about Stuart’s new $50,000 antique car that doesn’t even have airbags. Jacob and Misty show up next, and he might be a fitness nut on steroids. Roy and Kira come last, and they’ve brought drugs.
It starts raining, so Roy and Kira go to the bathroom for sex while Misty watches from afar. After, the four men play a game where they write out New Year’s resolutions and then draw them out of a hat. They have to try to do the thing over the next year. Stuart gets to write a novel. Roy has to apologize to someone. Damon has to do something for his spouse, even if it hurts. Jacob’s says he has to kill someone.
Jacob gets angry and goes to leave. The others try to stop him, and he shows them that he’s got a gun. He then uses it to accidentally shoot Travis in the leg. Roy, who’s a doctor, starts working on the leg when his drugs begin to kick in. No one wants to call the cops because that’ll ruin Jacob’s career, so they put him in the bathtub to hold the bleeding.
Damon tells the story of Ben, the fifth friend who died in a game-related sporting accident in 2014. Kira suggests the whole thing is just done to show off. They go back in to check on Travis who is very, very dead now. “People don’t just look the other way when white cops shoot gay black dudes, bro,” Jacob whines. Roy and Jacob, who are both at fault, cook up a plan to explain it all in the morning.
Misty, who thinks Travis is hot, sneaks into the bathroom and finds he’s dead. She looks down his pants and leaves, oblivious to him being dead. Meanwhile, Damon is obsessed with cleaning up blood stains on the hardwood floors.
It’s time for the countdown to the new year! As the others celebrate, Stuart finds Travis’s body. Kira says, “You couldn’t even wait till midnight to kill someone,” she says, also adding that Roy killed a patient out of negligence because of their game last year. Soon, she’s dead too. Claire and Damon come in and learn what’s been going on. Damon’s upset about the blood on the floor.
Misty starts threatening everyone, which annoys Claire. Why not go for three? Claire stabs Misty. They pull out the knife, and she bleeds out all over Damon’s floor. Jacob then empties his gun into Claire.
Jacob, Roy, and Stuart talk about their secrets. Damon snaps, comes out of nowhere, and strangles Jacob with the Christmas lights. Stuart didn’t do anything, but Roy says he will blame him for Kira’s death if he doesn’t help cover things up.
Stuart runs outside, where he’s attacked by Damon, and both wind up in the swimming pool. Damon, who can’t swim, drowns. Now Stuart’s killed someone too. Roy comes up with a story that covers, well, some of it. Roy then spikes Stuart’s drink with all his drugs.
Roy amends his story to include Stuart overdosing on medications. Roy then calls 911, he just woke up because someone hit him, hangs up, and breaks a bottle over his own head to fake a wound.
Cookie the dog survives too.
Brian’s Commentary
This takes place on New Year’s Eve of 2024/New Year’s Day 2025, so it’s a little slow being released.
It also takes a while to get to the action, but once it does, it’s all pretty intense. It’s pretty low-budget, with eight actors and one house, but it all looks good, is nicely paced, and never lets up.
I guess Roy got away with it in the end? I was half-expecting an end credit scene with a twist, but that was just the real ending. Overall, it was fun.
Kevin’s Commentary
I was expecting more outright horror, but this was pretty low key. I’d call it more of a crime thriller or drama. Whatever the genre, I thought it was really well made and entertaining. It’s short and moves well. I liked it.
2024 Short Film: Fish Balls
Directed by: Anwar Johari Ho
Written by: Victor Yee Fei Chen, Andy Darrel Gomes, Anwar Johari Ho
Stars: Kahoe Hon, Elise Shick
Run Time: 15 Minutes
Watch it:
What Happens
A man cries in the shower; he’s got a serious problem. We flash back to him cutting up fish, which he somehow turns into an erotic thing. We later see him with a bulge in his pants, and it’s throbbing excessively. He pulls the dead fish out of the trash can and buries it in the yard.
Not long after, he finds that he’s losing his hair and his skin is getting scaly. But that’s not the worst of it…
Commentary
Well, that’s a truly unique story.
It’s from Malaysia, and we don’t see much from them, so this is a nice surprise.
It’s not always entirely clear what’s going on, but some of it is all too clear. Our main character has a lot of self-control and self-esteem issues, and that leads to problems of a sexual nature.
The green lighting gives it all a sickly feel, but at times it’s too dark to see clearly, which is not good. The body horror and prosthetics are just about right, and it’s plenty weird.
1975 The Stepford Wives
Directed by: Bryan Forbes
Written by: Ira Levin, William Goldman
Stars: Katherine Ross, Paula Prentiss, Peter Masterson
Run Time: 1 Hour, 55 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A family moves to the small town of Stepford, Connecticut, where the wife and mom starts noticing a sinister undertone and some strange behavior from the wives of the town. It’s a good slow burn thriller and a time capsule of the society and life of 1975. It’s very dated and very entertaining.
Spoilery Synopsis
Joanna looks depressed at moving out of her big-city apartment. She, husband Walter, and the two kids are moving to a small town named Stepford. It’s a huge house, much bigger than what she’s used to.
Carol, one of the neighbors, comes over and brings a casserole and an offer of assistance if they need it. Walter is impressed. After sending the kids to school, Joanna is almost immediately bored.
The lady who runs the newspaper comes over and has lots of questions for Joanna. She notices how romantic the couple across the street are. Walter comes home and talks about being invited to the Men’s Association, where all the important men in town get together.
The family witnesses a minor fender-bender at the grocery store, and everyone freaks out. They call an ambulance for the woman who bumped her head but keeps insisting she’s fine. Joanna notices that the ambulance drives off in the opposite direction from the hospital.
Walter goes to the Men’s Club meeting and when he comes home, something has him very disturbed.
Joanna meets Bobby, who’s also a new transplant from the city. She’s very plainspoken and energetic, almost pushy.
The men from the group come over that night, and Joanna meets Dale Coba, AKA Diz, a multimillionaire who used to work at Disneyland. As the men make summer plans, one of them draws a creepy sketch of Joanna– especially detailed in certain parts of her face.
Diz throws a party, and Joanna and Bobby make jokes about the other women there; the women are strange. Carol gets especially weird, wandering around repeating herself. Diz catches on and so does her husband, who chastises her for drinking too much and leads her away.
The next day, Carol comes around and apologizes for being an alcoholic. Joanna comments that this town needs some more Women’s Lib. Marie and the other local women aren’t at all interested in that. Between ironing, baking, and gardening, the women are all too busy to join a movement. Eventually, they come to Charmaine, who seems normal and is interested in joining the two women. She also has only just recently moved here.
Claude comes over, also wanting to interview Joanna for no particular reason, just a hobby of his he says. He wants her to read a bunch of stuff into a tape recorder for voice sampling. She refuses unless the Stepford wives come to her Women’s Lib meeting, so the husbands all make sure their wives attend. All the women then show up, but they don’t participate at all. They do like talking about housework.
Joanna goes out to walk the dog, and the local policeman warns her not to go out at night. It’s a tiny, quiet town, so that seems odd to her.
The next day, the old newspaper lady comes around bragging that a black family is going to move into town soon; Stepford is such a liberal town! She mentions that there used to be a big Women’s Lib group in town, but interest in that all just suddenly dried up. Carol, of all people, used to be the president of the group.
Joanna and Bobby drive by Charmaine’s house and notice them tearing up the tennis court. Charmaine explains that her husband always hated tennis, and all she cares about now is pleasing him. She seems very different. She’s fired her maid and now likes to do all the housework herself.
Bobby literally thinks there’s something in the water in this town. There are so many computer, technology, and chemical companies in town, they could be doing something. They take a water sample to one of Joanna’s old boyfriends, but he says there’s nothing wrong with the water.
Bobby doesn’t like this answer and says she plans to leave town. Joanna asks Walter about moving, but he likes it here. Still, he agrees to move in the fall. Joanna and Bobby start looking for houses in a nearby town. Bobby mentions that her husband has a weekend getaway planned for them this week.
After Bobby gets back from her weekend, she’s dressed differently. She looks and acts differently. She loves housework, just like Charmaine!
Joanna tells Walter all about Bobby, and he says she’s going crazy. He goes on and on about how their house is a dump; when is she going to start fixing up the house? He makes a logical argument, and she’s not sure what to say or think.
Joanna goes to a psychiatrist, and the doctor knows Stepford is “unsocial.” Joanna tells the doctor her suspicions, but what can she do? She doesn’t want to become like one of those robots in Disneyland.
Joanna goes home to find the kids are away; only Walter is there, and he’s been drinking. She runs to Bobby, gets into an argument with her, and stabs the other woman. Bobby doesn’t bleed. Bobby does start glitching out in strange ways.
Joanna goes to “The Association’s” building to find her children, but the place looks deserted. She runs into Diz there, and he says she’s had the wrong idea all along. “It’s just another stage,” he explains. “Why? Because we can.”
She runs down the hall, into an exact replica of her bedroom; even her dog is there. So is she– an exact copy of her, but with weird unfinished eyes and bigger boobs. The robot approaches Joanna menacingly…
Some time later, we see the various women at the grocery store, as well as that new black family. All the women are there, including Charmain, Carol, Bobby, and yes, even Joanna is there now, doing the happy shopper things. She’s one of them now..
Brian’s Commentary
I saw this on network TV when it was first released, probably around 1976 or so, and I’d heard it was about robots. I was expecting something like “The Six Million Dollar Man” and was sorely disappointed– I was way too young to be entertained by this.
So many wood-paneled station wagons.
“Women’s Lib” and equal rights for women were the big topic when the film came out, and the whole film is basically pointing that out, contrasting “free” women from the subservient types. The whole thing is a little comical today, but it was a big deal back in the day.
It’s very dated, but I was still entertained.
Kevin’s Commentary
It’s said in trivia that the original screenplay by William Goldman included an ending where we see the Joanna robot violently kill the real Joanna. Director Bryan Forbes didn’t like that and did some rewriting, which angered Goldman, and they never spoke again.
As I was watching this, I realized I saw this at the theater when it came out (OVER FIFTY YEARS AGO?!?) and barely remembered it. So this was a refresher. I read the book more recently, and that’s really good too.
Katherine Ross is great in the role, I especially liked her scene talking to the therapist.
I’d consider this a classic. It’s excellent.
2003 Underworld
Director: Len Wiseman
Writers: Len Wiseman, and Danny McBride
Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Michael Sheen, Shane Brolly, Bill Nighy
Runtime: 121 minutes (2 hours 1 minute)
Trailer Link:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Vampires and werewolves have been at war for hundreds of years. Things get more complicated when one of the vampire warriors falls for a human that the werewolves seem to want for some reason. A reason we do find out in a complicated political situation and backstory. Out 23 years ago, the effects still hold up well. The movie is high on action and low on the horror elements, on the long side, but pretty entertaining.
Spoilery Synopsis
We’re told that Lucien, the leader of the Lycans, has been killed and the Lycans all ran off to hide. The vampires have won the age-old battle. Six-hundred years later, the war continues. New Lycans don’t need the full moon anymore, so they’ve become even more dangerous. Selene is a Death-Dealer, a vampire whose job it is to hunt and kill Lycans.
Selene follows a man into the subway, but she’s not the only one following him. Suddenly, there’s a massive shootout, and Selene’s partner dies painfully from sunlight-filled bullets. Selene picks up a gun with special bullets from one of the dead Lycans, but she has to avoid the many others.
Back in the mansion, the vampires get upset when they see the bullets, but Kraven advises not taking the battle to the dogs. She then goes to a room with some ominous-looking manhole covers on the floor. Selene says that Viktor would be more proactive in the battle, but he’s asleep right now, leaving Kraven in charge of the local situation.
Meanwhile, a mad-scientist-type injects a man with a new serum. The leader of the werewolves comes in to check his progress. It’s another failure. We then cut to Michael, the man the wolves were following in the subway; he’s a doctor, and still the subject of their hunt.
At the big vampire party, Kraven is annoyed when Selene goes off looking for Michael instead of staying at the party. She finds him at home, but he has no idea why they’re after him. There’s an immediate attack, and Michael runs off– right into the Lycan leader. Selene shoots the man a few times, but he still has time to bite Michael and get a blood sample.
Selene gets stabbed and passes out, and Michael tries to save her since he’s a doctor. The werewolf leader says because of the bite, Michael will soon be one of them. Turns out, Michael’s blood tests positive– he is the one they’re looking for.
Michael is having nightmares now, and it gets worse when he sees his first vampire and runs off.
Kraven, on the other hand, seems ridiculously jealous of Michael for no particular reason. Turns out, he’s been meeting with the werewolf leader in some kind of backstabbing ploy. The werewolf leader is revealed to be Lucien, the old-time leader who is supposed to be dead. Kraven and Lucien faked the werewolf leader’s death centuries ago.
Knowing that there’s something wrong about Kraven, Selene sneaks into the manhole cover room and awakens Viktor, one of the ancient vampires. It’s not actually Viktor’s turn to wake up, Amelia was just about to awaken Marcus tomorrow night; Viktor is a hundred years too early.
Selene explains to Michael what’s going on. She tells him about her origin story, where Viktor turned her as a child. As all this is going on, the Lycan load their guns and trucks, preparing to attack the vampire castle.
Viktor isn’t sympathetic to being awakened early and says Selene must go on trial when Amelia, the current leader, arrives. Amelia soon does arrive, by train, and they hear the Lycans howling outside. They’re massacred on the train while Kraven and his vampires stand by and do nothing to help.
Selene comes for Michael as the Lycans break into the building beneath them. He gets captured by the Lycans, sees the full moon, and starts to change.
Selene brings the mad scientist before Viktor and Kraven. She makes him tell about Michael’s special trait. Michael is a descendant of the original creature who gave birth to both Lycans and Vampires. Michael can combine the two bloodlines into something new. He also fingers Kraven for helping Lucien escape six hundred years ago.
Viktor orders Selene to kill Michael immediately.
Michael and Lucien have a talk, and Lucien makes a lot of sense. We get a flashback to what actually started the war. Viktor had Lucien’s vampire wife killed - his own daughter - because he couldn’t abide the mixing of the races. Kraven then shoots Lucien in the back with a liquid silver bullet. Raze, the number two Lycan, finds Lucien’s body and then fights a vampire with silver whips.
Viktor shows up, and quickly demonstrates his badassery. Selene rescues Michael as Lucien watches from afar. Kraven shoots Michael with silver, and then reveals that it was Viktor who actually killed Selene’s parents long ago. Lucien tells Selene to bite Michael, and he’ll be half-and-half. Kraven then shoots Lucien repeatedly.
Viktor walks in, and he looks Michael over before throwing him into the next room. He’s not happy. As he and Selene argue about old times, Michael turns into a new kind of creature and attacks Viktor. Viktor gets the advantage, but Selene turns against him and slices her Maker’s head in half. She and Michael walk off together.
Meanwhile, back at the vampire castle, the dead mad scientist bleeds into the manhole cover in the floor, which will wake up Marcus, the third ancient vampire…
Brian’s Commentary
Probably the best part of all this is the complicated backstory, politics, and world-building behind the plot. The sets and costumes are memorable, and the special effects are good as well. The werewolves don’t quite hold up to today’s CGI, but they aren’t bad.
It was good in 2003, and it still holds up really well today. Well, except for the cheap foldable cellphones everyone uses.
Kevin’s Commentary
I saw this at the theater when it came out, and I’d forgotten how high in action it is. It’s got style too. And a real lack of bright color.
The effects hold up pretty well, though the CGI is pretty obvious at times. It felt a bit on the long side, but I was still entertained seeing it again.
Contact Info:
Email: mailto:email@horrorguys.com
Websites:
