We’ll start off this week with the much-discussed “Backrooms” that just hit streaming this week. We’ll then watch three sequels to major franchises: “Underworld: Evolution” (2006), the second in that series, “Return of the Living Dead III” (1993), and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2” (1986).
And we’ve got two very fun short films 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 Backrooms
Directed by: Kane Parsons
Written by: Will Soodik, Kane Parsons
Stars: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, Mark Duplass
Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The IMDB.com description says “When a counselor’s client vanishes into a surreal realm of infinite corridors, she is forced to journey into the abyss to bring him back.” But it’s more complicated than that with infinite layers of weirdness. Which is the backrooms, which is the real world, and which is just distorted memories?
It’s a very strange film, and we both liked it.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s 1990, and we open on a guy filming inside an empty set of rooms. He stops in a room full of radio equipment, and he reports that he’s never been this far before, and he really wants someone to come and get him.
As he continues, we see that birds, leaves, and nature have somehow intruded into the hallway, and various pieces of furniture are embedded into the walls. Then something jumps out and kills the guy. The video ends, and the credits roll.
We get a voiceover about making the same mistakes over and over again, and we see Clark coming to work at Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, a furniture store. “Rip Off” is painted in the window, and he’s got a bunch of past due bills on his desk.
Clark talks to his therapist, Mary, about his sad life. He talks about the night Barbara left him. He’s a little bitter about his career.
Kat and Bobby record Clark doing a really bad pirate commercial. The electric bill is higher than it should be, so he calls in an electrician to find out why. There’s a whole bunch of power being used, but not for the store. That night, we see that Clark now lives in the store, and there are still electrical problems at night.
A light comes on the downstairs area, so Clark goes down to shut it all off, except it won’t shut down. When it does finally shut off, he notices a light behind one of the walls; a secret door? He leans on the wall and goes right through, into a large yellow room with buzzing fluorescent lights. The portal seems to work both ways, so he starts to explore a bit.
He walks through the place, a lot larger than it appears, until he comes to a stop sign in a dark place. He skips that and goes a different direction. He finds a dead bird and more rooms.
He eventually finds a backpack behind a hidden door hiding a tunnel. On the other side, he finds various shoes embedded in the floor. He hears something weird moving around in the tunnels and runs back to the first room, where he started. The portal is still there, so he goes back to his own world.
We see that someone has a video camera in the backrooms and knows that Clark was there.
Clark goes to see Mary for another session. He’s agitated about what he’s found and sounds like a lunatic.
Clark has Kat and Buddy come back in with the video recorder. He shows them the door, drawn on the wall, and they think he’s insane– until it works. He then shows them around the huge place. Kat’s terrified of the whole place, but Buddy is as curious as Clark is. Bobby goes down into a kind of pit and sees someone down there– pulls him back in and does something bad to him.
We cut to Mary, a little girl who’s not allowed to go outside. “They’re all over the place,” warns her mother. Then adult Mary wakes up. She gets a cryptic call from Clark that he won’t be coming back. She goes to the furniture store to look around; it’s unlocked and has been for days, but no customers ever come here. She goes downstairs and sees the door outline on the wall.
Soon, Mary is in the yellow room. As with the others, she starts wandering around the place. She finds Clark, who grabs her and chokes her out.
Mary then flashes back to her weird childhood and insane mother. Clark explains the weird people that are in these room; it’s sorta-kinda how the room remembers them, just not quite right. Everything here is just a little bit mis-remembered. The poorly recreated people, as it turns out, are edible, since they’re made of food.
Mary wants to help Clark, psychologically, but he’s got some special needs. He’s gone pretty much insane, and makes Mary wear his wife-stand-in’s hair. Mary gets annoyed and says Clark’s problem is all the whining. He likes it in here. “For the first time in a long while, I feel like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
Suddenly, a giant pirate lumbers into the room, and Clark says Mary was just leaving. The huge thing takes a bite out of Clark, and Mary runs away. The creature pursues her until she finds a trap door in the ceiling and gets back into the actual furniture store. Except it’s not really the store, it’s just more of the same, and the big pirate is still there. Somehow, she gets to another room with men in hazmat suits who gas her into unconsciousness.
Now, Mary’s in some kind of endless hospital/lab, and there are lots of scientists there. Eventually, a guy named Phil comes in. He wants to know how she got in here. He’s been exploring the place for a very long time, and he knows it’s all super important.
… And that’s all.
Brian’s Commentary
“Furniture Store: The Movie”
The whole “backroom/liminal spaces” thing on Reddit never made any sense to me, so I didn’t expect much going into this. I was expecting something like “Skinamarink” only with bigger sets.
Turns out, there’s a whole story here, with acting and everything. The sets are really well done, and it all looks like it’d be a fun place to explore– until it’s not.
I was thoroughly entertained, but the ending was just out of nowhere and too abrupt. I didn’t expect there to be an explanation, but the story just basically stops.
Overall, it was far better than I expected. I liked it!
Kevin’s Commentary
Just think of all the money you could make harvesting furniture, electronics, and oddities out of The Backrooms and selling them on eBay.
I agree with Brian that it was much more entertaining than I expected. But I’m not sure it was worth the hype. I liked it, I didn’t love it.
2006 Underworld: Evolution
Directed by: Len Wiseman
Written by: Danny McBride, Len Wiseman, Kevin Grevioux
Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman, Bill Nighy
Run Time: 1 Hour, 46 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
After a flashback to a battle in 1202 AD and a little narrative to catch up, this continues immediately following the first movie. The action is stepped up even more, putting the horror elements on the back burner again. They answer more questions about events of the past.
It’s pretty consistent in look and quality with the first movie, not quite as good but almost. If you liked that one, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well.
Spoilery Synopsis
We’re reminded about the war between vampires and lycans, two groups started by two immortal brothers. Markus, bitten by a bat, and William, bitten by a wolf. They became the first of their species.
In 1202 AD, we see Markus, Amelia, and Viktor arrive at a slaughter perpetrated by William, who has gone rogue. Suddenly, the dead get, turning into werewolves. There’s a major battle, and William is captured. Markus, his brother, wants William released, but Viktor and Amelia have other ideas. Viktor says William will be imprisoned for all time, and then credits roll.
We cut to Selene, in the present, who reminds us about the first film. She’s run off with Michael, the only person she can trust. She’s now on the run from both races. Her plan is to re-awaken Markus before he’s killed by Kraven.
The two hide out in a safehouse that used to be used for experimenting on lycans.
Meanwhile, back at vampire castle, Kraven goes into the sleep chamber and orders Markus to be re-awakened. The dead scientist from the previous film is still laying there in a pool of blood that has run down into Markus’s pit. He’s already gone.
Markus shows up, looking like a big flying demon. The scientist’s blood has given Markus the whole true story of the last film. Kraven doesn’t last long.
A bunch of men in a helicopter land on a big ship and carry several bodybags inside. They come to an old man who leads them. The soldiers update him on more events from the first film. Two of the three elder vampires are dead now, brought in the body bags, and he wonders about Markus.
The old man, Corvinus, looks at what’s left of Amelia, Lucien, and Viktor. He pulls a metal disk out of Viktor’s chest and smiles.
Michael goes out for dinner and finds that human food doesn’t work for him anymore. His face comes up on the TV screen as “wanted” and the local police draw their guns. He makes a scene on the way out.
Selene and Michael are soon tracked by Markus, who tries to bite her. Michael fills Markus with holes, and they run for it. The sun starts to rise before they make a clean getaway, and Michael has to take over. After a bit of completely unnecessary first-aid, they have sex in a storage container.
We watch as Corvinus’s men clean up the werewolf-experimenting lab to keep it from the normal humans.
Selene sorta remembers Michael’s locket and wants to talk to Tanis, the vampire historian, about what it means. Tanis isn’t big on visitors, and he’s got a trio of werewolves as guard dogs. Tanis explains that Markus was the first true vampire, Viktor came later. He also explains about the first Lycans, who couldn’t take human form at all. If either Markus or William is killed, their whole species will go extinct. Turns out, Selene’s father was the one who built William’s prison. Turns out, Selene knows where William’s cell is, and Michael had the key. She doesn’t remember any of this, but her blood knows, and Markus can read it.
Selene and Michael go to visit Alexander Corvinus, the father of them all. He’s been cleaning up his sons’ mess for many centuries. He won’t kill either of his sons. Markus drops in unexpected;y and fights with Michael. He drinks Selene’s blood, so now he knows what she knows about the key and the cell. He leaves, and Michael dies.
Markus and Corvinus talk about family. Markus then stabs the old man and steals the second key. As he dies, Corvinus tells Selene how to beat Markus; he feeds her his own blood.
Markus goes to the location where William’s cell is and opens the door. Selene and Corvinus’s soldiers approach outside.
William, now free, attacks Selene and the others, as does Markus. With her Corvinus-upgraded blood, she’s able to go one-on-one with Markus now. During the fight, dead Michael wakes up, not dead at all.
Soon, it’s Selene vs. William, and she brings down the house, literally burying all of them. Michael rejoins the fight against William, while Markus works on escaping his prison. Markus gets out and pulls the helicopter into the room with them (someone’s gonna end up in that rotor!)
Selene fights Markus as Michael fights William. Michael rips William’s head right off, and Markus proves me right about the helicopter rotor.
In the morning, the sun comes up, and it doesn’t burn Selene. She and Michael kiss. Selene explains that chaos and infighting is inevitable, but the future is wide open…
Brian’s Commentary
This one takes off just after the events of the first film, and most of the actors return, even if their parts are small. It added a bit to the lore with the two brothers and the father, but between them and now all three ancient vampires being dead, there’s room for lots more drama in the further sequels.
As before, the special effects and fight sequences are excellent, but overall, I preferred the first one. Still, for a sequel, it’s not bad.
Kevin’s Commentary
I’d never seen this one before, only the first movie. I thought it does a good job continuing the story. I almost felt like it could have been just one big movie. The consistency was very good, though it did feel like a small step down around the edges. I was still entertained.
1993 Return of the Living Dead III
Directed by: Brian Yuzna
Written by: John Penney
Stars: J. Trevor Edmond, Melinda Clarke, Kent McCord
Run Time: 1 Hour, 37 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
After the first two movies and in another place, different mayhem ensues as the military tries to weaponize Trioxin animated corpses and things spiral out of control. This one is less funny and more grim than the first two movies were, with no cast returning and barely a hint of the events that came before. The practical effects are nice and juicy.
It’s not bad, but it lacks the unique humor that made the first one so excellent.
Spoilery Synopsis
Colonel John Reynolds meets Colonel Sinclair, here from Washington; she’s been working on reanimating dead people for use as weapons. John says his program is more humane, and then they wheel a corpse into the lab. John notices that he’s lost his ID badge somewhere.
We cut to a bunch of stereotypical teenagers, including Curt Reynolds, John’s son, who has stolen his father’s security pass. His girlfriend Julie wants to investigate because she thinks they’re experimenting on poor, suffering lab animals.
Back in the lab, the corpse is exposed to trioxin. Curt and Julie basically walk right into the warehouse and proceed toward the lab. They watch as the dead man revives. The teens then leave, shocked. The soldiers shoot it in the head, and it dies. No– not really, he was faking it. The corpse sits up and kills one of the techs. Failure! They strap down the dead subject, but then the dead lab tech gets up and starts trouble.
Julie seems obsessed with what they saw at the lab. John comes home and says they’re being relocated due to his failure. They argue and Curt and Julie storm off on his motorcycle, which goes badly. They soon crash, and Julie goes face first into a telephone pole and dies. Then he remembers the key card to the lab in his pocket.
Curt carries Julie’s body into the lab and exposes her to the trioxin, just as he saw it done earlier. Not knowing how all the equipment works, he just punctures the canister. She starts to twitch and move, but the creature inside the canister starts to move as well. She wakes up and doesn’t remember much, and he explains it to her as they leave.
A bit later, John watches the security footage and knows what Curt’s done. Anyone that Julie bites or attacks will also change, and she’s really hungry. They stop at a convenience store, and she’s being weird. The people in the store rob the place, and Julie ends up biting one of them on the way out. Julie also ends up eating the store owner’s brains in the getaway car.
John and the army drive through town, doing “damage control” and cleaning up the bodies as it spreads. Julie starts sticking herself with pins and screws since the pain makes the hunger go away. She says she’d rather be dead than like this.
Mogo, the criminal that Julie bit, starts getting sick, and Santos, the leader of the gang, decides to find Julie and make her pay. Meanwhile, Colonel Sinclair replaces John as leader of the project, so he takes off alone.
Curt and Julie hide underground with Riverman, a homeless guy who’s got a whole lair in the sewers. She’s still hungry and still cutting herself to relieve the feeling. As Curt sleeps, Julie gets into all kinds of body modifications. The gang continues to follow Julie through the sewers, and they soon catch up. Julie shows up, looking like someone from a Hellraiser film. The gang dies very quickly, but they don’t stay that way.
John shows up and disables the undead gang members. He wants to shoot Julie, who just wants to die. John shoots her as well.
John and Curt make their peace, but Julie has been given to the Colonel as a new project. The Colonel’s specialty is mechanically augmenting the dead with exoskeletons. “Biomechanical weapons driven by meat batteries.” What could go wrong?
We soon find out, as the augmented Riverman breaks loose and Curt releases Julie. Soon, all the monsters are free and the triocin cans are smashed. As they try to get out, Curt is finally bitten by a zombie. He and Julie walk into the incinerator and burn up.
Brian’s Commentary
It takes the basic ideas from the first two films and does something completely new. None of the cast of the previous films makes a return, so this is a sort of reboot.
Unfortunately, they’ve done away with almost all the humor, which was what made the first two films really unique. As a straight-up horror movie, it’s fine, but it doesn’t really fit in with the crazy humor that made the first two films great.
Kevin’s Commentary
I was bracing myself for awfulness, but I was pleasantly surprised by this. It’s not a great film, but it was a decent original continuation of what can happen in a world where Trioxin exists. It was different from the first in the level of comedy which was tamped down, and horror which was ramped up. So it was more of a mid-level straight up horror rather than horror comedy. But still pretty entertaining.
1986 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2
Directed by: Tobe Hooper
Written by: L.M. Kit Carson, Tobe Hooper
Stars: Dennis Hopper, Caroline Williams, Jim Siedow
Run Time: 1 Hour, 41 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
“The saw is family.” It’s years later, and the family is still up to their mischief. This time they tangle with a radio DJ and a Texas marshal obsessed with taking them down. They kept a lot of the grindhouse vibe, but it’s not as organically gross and grimy as the original. Though the gore is bumped up. And there is a lot more humor and satire this time, still grim with horror but almost making fun of itself. It’s pretty entertaining, different, but worth checking out if you’re a fan of the original.
Spoilery Synopsis
We get a brief recap of the events of the first film. Lawmakers could never find the cannibals, so officially, it never happened. Except that it did happen. Credits roll.
A couple of young preppy guys (with a car phone!) are on the way to a party, and they cause some trouble on the road. “Stretch” is a radio DJ, and they call in and harass her. They pass the wrong truck to cause trouble. A maniac on a truck pulls out a chainsaw and cuts through the roof of the moving car. The driver loses his head as Stretch listens at the radio station.
In the morning, Lieutenant Lefty Enright is there to investigate what’s left of the “accident.” He’s got a personal connection to the chainsaw killings fourteen years ago, and this might be related. He wants information. Stretch comes to him with a recording of what she heard last night, but he’s hesitant to even listen to it (why not?). She’s a wanna-be reporter, and he’s not getting involved with that.
As stretch leaves Lefty’s room, she and L.G. watch a Texas Chili Cook-Off where one of the winners is Drayton Sawyer, who seems to win a lot of chili cook-offs. Second year in a row, but he says the secret ingredient is the meat. “This town loves prime meat!”
Enright goes to a chainsaw shop and starts waving the merchandise around, creeping out the store’s owner. He goes all “Leatherface” on the log outside. After, he wants to listen to Stretch’s tape; he wants her to play it on her show so everyone can hear it. He thinks the killers are here in Dallas.
The cook, Drayton, gets a phone call from his family about the recording that they heard on the radio, and he’s not pleased. Not long after, Stretch encounters Chop-Top, a very strange man who claims to be a fan. He wants a tour of the radio station and really creeps her out. Suddenly, Leatherface barges in and starts chasing her around.
Stretch hides behind a big steel door, and Leatherface can’t get to her. L.G. returns, oblivious to what’s going on, and catches Chop-Top digging through the records. He doesn’t live long after that. Stretch, on the other hand, knows exactly how to distract Leatherface, who lets her go– sorta.
As Leatherface and Chop-Top leave with L.G.’s body, Stretch jumps in her car and follows them to Texas Battleland, a theme park that’s closed. Lefty shows up, and he’s not as much help as he should be when Stretch falls into a pit full of corpses.
Lefty gets out his own chainsaw, and he’s maybe a little unhinged. Stretch wakes up in the family meat locker, and she hears Cook ranting to the others. Cook’s got a food truck, and he’s been really successful selling the human meat to tourists. Stretch watches and Leatherface gets L.G. ready for cooking. Leatherface catches Stretch hiding, but she talks him into sparing her again, and soon, she’s wearing L.G.’s face. They dance, then he ties her up and leaves.
Turns out, L.G. isn’t dead yet, but he’s missing his face and a lot of skin. He cuts Stretch loose before dying of shock. She sneaks around as the three baddies rant and act goofy. Meanwhile, Lefty is somewhere else, chainsawing the tunnels apart.
Leatherface corners Stretch again, and again, she tries to talk her way out of it. Too late– the others show up. They know Leatherface lied about killing her earlier.
Stretch soon wakes up, tied at the dinner table as Cook rings the dinner bell. The Sawyer family wheels in Grandpa, who’s on a liquid diet… of blood. The old man’s not as spry as he used to be and can’t even hold a murder weapon anymore.
Lefty shows up, and confronts the family. Lefty’s gone all delusional, and releases Stretch. He then gets into a chainsaw battle against Leatherface as Stretch runs from Chop-Top.
Lefty gets his chainsaw stuck inside Leatherface and then pulls out his spare for more. Things get a little weird at this point, as Cook pulls out a hand grenade and drops it.
Chop-Top chases Stretch outside to where they have Granda all propped up, with a chainsaw of her own. She finally shows Chop-Top who’s the boss. She does the “Chainsaw Dance” at the end, the only survivor…
Brian’s Commentary
Link to the first film: https://www.horrorguys.com/the-texas-chainsaw-massacre-1974/
What kind of theme park is this? It’s a very weird set.
If you count screams-per-minute, Stretch is gotta be way up there on the “scream Queen” chart. She’s constantly screaming and freaking out in nearly every scene.
It’s got most of the same elements of the first film, but this one steers well into over-the-top silliness territory.
Dennis Hopper said this was the worst film he’d ever been in, at least until “Super Mario Brothers.”
Yeah, it’s a weird one. Not bad, but a lot more mainstream than the gritty, dirty original.
Kevin’s Commentary
Jim Siedow who plays Cook here is the only cast member to return from the original, where he was credited as Old Man.
Stretch certainly is a screamer in this one.
I love how the family has their lair decorated with all the salvaged stuff, bones, and lights.
I think it’s necessary to have seen the first movie to really enjoy this one, or it at least helps. I’d say that I liked this sequel better than the first movie.
Short Films:
2026 Short Film Siren Head
Directed by: Nicolo Fumero, Luca Zanlorenzi
Written by:
Stars: Matteo Fumero
Run Time: 4:41
Watch it:
What Happens
An electrician is sent out into the remote countryside to fix a damaged electrical pole. When he gets there, he sees it’s all torn up, as if something big smashed it. Before he can get to work, he gets a phone call from his little brother and then notices an abandoned building that he checks out. Inside, he finds graffiti on the wall and a cryptic radio message…
Commentary
It’s a longtime copypasta meme thing, and I don’t know any of the lore behind the creature, but it’s pretty neat. This version of the story is very well done, albeit way too short. It’s just one guy out in a creepy wooded area, running from a CGI monster, but it’s well done.
2026 Short Film Help
Directed by: Collin Black
Written by: Collin Black, Erin Bechler
Stars: Erin Bechler, Chris Herring, Jim Cumings
Run Time: 11:29
Watch it:
What Happens
A woman watches scary videos on her phone in the car and then decides to walk to her home in the dark. She has to walk past a house with newspapers all over the windows first, since she lives in the back. We see that someone’s following her home. Wait– is that a zombie? Sure looks like it, as she hides and grabs a knife.
Commentary
I love how much effort she puts into locking the door and then leaving the window wide open. People in horror movies are always ignoring the windows! This is paced really well, looks clear and sharp, and we always know what’s going on– except that we don’t!
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