Will your life ever be the same after “Disclosure Day?” We suspect it will be. Then we’ll continue our dive into franchise sequels with “Wishmaster 3: beyond the Gates of Hell”, “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans,” and “Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III.” It seems that the films’ names grow longer with each iteration.
And we’ve got a creepy 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 Disclosure Day
Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: David Koepp, Steven Spielberg
Stars: Emily Blunt, Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth
Run Time: 2 Hours, 25 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Aliens are real and some people want to disclose and some people really, really want to keep it a secret. So we have two and half hours of back and forth chasing and strangeness and science fiction mish-mash.
We both thought it was on the long side, with too much filler and not enough disclosure.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open with wrestlers beating each other up in the ring. Daniel Kellner sits in the audience, not interested in the show at all. We soon see that he’s there to pay the ransom for Jane. The kidnappers release Jane to him, but they’re a big, well-run group, and Noah Scanlon is in charge. He wants the “device” that Daniel has, and it’s very dangerous. Noah warns that there’s no reset for what Daniel’s about to do, but Daniel knows this.
Jane asks what kind of treason Daniel’s done, and he says it’s complicated. He’s got a big bag full of memory cards of data, and he calls Hugo Wakefield to take them.
We see that Noah is working for Wardex, who works for the government, and they’ve had a big leak of security information. Many people from their own organization didn’t show up for work this morning, including Hugo, so it’s some kind of organized betrayal.
Daniel explains to Jane that he stole the data that he was paid to protect. “People have a right to know,” he whines.
In Kansas City, Jackson and Margaret joke about her newscaster audition. She sees a random cardinal bird and then starts speaking Russian. She doesn’t even know she was doing it. When a cop pulls her over, she knows all about the cop; telepathy or something. She’s the weather person on the news, and she suddenly starts talking Korean to a guest; she doesn’t speak Korean. When it’s time to actually give the weather report, she just makes weird clicking sounds.
Noah gets a report about Margaret speaking in clicks on national TV. The sound she makes matches something that upsets him greatly. Margaret has had nightmares all her life and doesn’t remember much about her childhood.
Danny and Jane go with a guy to a safe house. He explains that Wardex deals with dead aliens from the 1970s. Not just that, but they’ve tortured and dissected live aliens as well. This has been going on for 79 years, and Daniel’s got proof of all of it. He wants full disclosure of all of it to the entire world. Jane’s not sure the world needs to know; it’ll be really disruptive. She’s afraid people will lose their religion.
Margaret runs from the Wardex guys and talks to Hugo, who warns her to stay away from those guys. Jackson has no idea what’s going on, but he does what Margaret says. Hugo shows Margaret’s clicking to Daniel, who thinks it’s all English, he understands it perfectly.
Noah tries using one of the alien devices, and doesn’t like the results. He tries it again, and takes partial control of Margaret’s body remotely. He then projects himself there to have a conversation with her, where he gets her location. Margearet somehow picks up all this and warns Daniel to run. He then steals a car and shows us how incompetent the Wardex guys are.
Jackson thinks there’s something wrong with Margaret, and she knows he’s about to break up with her if she moves. She knows more about everything than she should. She abandons him at a convenience store where everyone is panic-buying the gas and merchandise because of news and stuff.
The Wardex guys raid the motel where Daniel and Jane are staying. She gets away with a device, but the baddies catch Daniel and the backpack.
Just on instinct, Margaret is not far behind. She knows all the secret codes, so the guards let her right in. Noah knows who she is and lets her leave with Daniel. All the guards see them, but they appear to be friends and relatives, so they let them pass. They all see something very personal. Daniel doesn’t really understand it, but he had a strange encounter with a cardinal as well.
Noah and Hugo have a “diving” conversation, and Hugo says he’s working for the aliens. They both believe the other is irrational.
Jane talks to Sister Maura about religious ideas. The existence of aliens might or might not make people of faith lose their minds.
Margaret and Daniel finally make it to where Hugo is. He’s rebuilt a copy of her childhood home so she can regress to her missing childhood. “When you do, you’ll know everything, more than is humanly possible.” He was gifted to understand the aliens, and she was gifted to understand the humans. They get a vision of animals visiting her as a child, but they aren’t really animals. “They present as animals to calm us,” explains Hugo. We see both Daniel and Margaret as the aliens abducted them and “upgraded” them.
Noah and his men arrive and come inside, but they don’t see anything; Margaret has “cloaked” them all. They drive away in an invisible fire truck, heading to KCXE, her news station, which is broadcasting the beginning of WW3. The station manager immediately cooperates with everything Margaret tells him to do. Noah gets to work cutting the power for the building before they can broadcast anything.
The power at the station goes off, and the emergency generator comes on. They cut the generator off just as Margaret’s about to go live. Jane sneaks in and gives Margaret one of the devices, which powers up all the equipment for her. Noah doesn’t make any move to stop her, so she goes live on the air with lots of video footage of alien stuff. All the news outlets in the world immediately start showing the footage, without any kind of verification at all.
At the station, Hugo’s men wheel something in. It’s a very old alien and it has a message for us…
Brian’s Commentary
This is in no way “Horror,” but it’s billed as an alien invasion film, so we went with it anyway. The alien CGI was surprisingly not-s0-great, like something from twenty years ago. The pacing was OK for such a long film, and it didn’t get boring.
The first hour kept reminding me of the weirdness that was the first half of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977). Later, it became more like “E.T.” in a lot of ways, but it’s also very different from both.
Somehow, I doubt the news agencies would be that quick to show all the footage without any kind of verification. It could simply be a big hoax; they wouldn’t know. Also, why did Noah just give up right at the end? His assistant, Boyd, was ready to stop the broadcast, and he could have just shot everyone, but no, he just let it go.
It’s fine. I’d have been way more interested in seeing the aftermath of all this; what effect did the revelation have on everyone? We don’t know much about the aliens or what their message was.
It’s long, but it gives us way too much about what we didn’t need and not enough about what we wanted to know. They should have done the disclosure at the halfway point and showed us what came after.
Kevin’s Commentary
I’m going to go with well made, because of course after 30 some movies Spielberg knows how to make them, and also mediocre. It trots along for an awfully long time being somewhat interesting but mostly nothing that we haven’t seen before. The acting is great. The script didn’t impress me. There were a lot of plot holes and things that worked out fine because the plot required it.
Maybe the CGI looked better on the big screen rather than being so blatant for home viewing?
It was just okay overall. I would have rather seen an hour less of the first part of the movie and more tacked on at the end after the actual disclosure.
2001 Wishmaster 3: Beyond the Gates of Hell
Directed by: Chris Angel
Written by: Alex Wright, Peter Atkins
Stars: Jason Connery, A.J. Cook, Tobias Mehler
Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Someone finds the ruby gem, the Djinn is freed, death and mayhem happens, they find a way out at the end. It’s a familiar formula used a third time. It’s been a downward slide though. This one doesn’t have Andrew Divoff, it lacks dark humor, and it’s on the dull side. It’s not bad, but middling.
Spoilery Synopsis
Diana has a nightmare about the traffic accident that killed her parents. Her boyfriend, Greg, suggests she needs therapy over the incident.
The next morning, Diana and Katie go to school with Billy, Katie’s boyfriend. The professor might have a thing for Diana, which annoys Greg.
The professor asks Diana to come in after class to help him at the museum. As she waits, she opens a puzzle box from ancient Persia, and finds a big red gem inside. The professor shows up and reads the words on the box and then wants to go out for dinner. She turns him down, and he’s annoyed.
The Djinn shows up to the professor, and he wants to know more about Diana. He wishes for the two most beautiful women in the world to be in love with him; they show up and tear him apart. The Djinn then changes shape to replace the professor.
Katie hangs up a big bull’s head with Chekov’s horns poking out. Then she makes out with Billy. Diana translates the writing on the box and knows what’s going on with the Djinn; Greg isn’t interested in the story. She thinks the professor has been killed, but it’s only been two hours, so he thinks she’s overreacting.
“The professor” wants to see Diana’s transcript, and the woman who runs the record department wishes the whole department would just burn up, which it does– with her inside.
Diana tells her three friends about the professor, the Djinn, and the woman in the records department, and they all think she’s literally losing her mind.
The professor goes looking for Diana at Eleanor’s place, and ends up leaving a message with Greg. The Djinn need Diana to make three wishes. He shows her Anne, who wishes to lose weight, which she does.
Diana wishes for the Angel Michael to come down and stop the Djinn, and Greg changes into Michael. Turns out, Michael’s a bit of a wimp, and has to run away. Eleanor has a thing for old men, like the professor, and she wishes for him to break her heart. Ouch!
Angel Michael tells Diana that only she can defeat the Djinn. He gives the “Sword of Justice,” which is all flamey magical. It burns her, but Michael can fix that.
Billy has a run-in with those horns we saw on the wall earlier. We saw that coming a long way back. The Djinn threatens to go after Katie next, who finds what’s left of Billy. She runs to the science lab to hide, where she wishes there was somewhere to hide. The Wishmaster overhears her and puts her in a cage with a bunch of hungry rats.
The professor and Michael fight, and there’s a sort of car chase– and a crash. They all end up on the roof of the dorm, and he yells “Make your wish!” Rather than do that, she jumps off the roof, but the Djinn grabs her instead. She grabs the sword and stabs the Djinn, and they both fall. She dies, and the djin vanishes back into the crystal. Michael then vanishes, but heals Diana as he goes.
Brian’s Commentary
This is all pretty dull. The Djinn is played by a new actor, as the old one wanted nothing to do with it. It’s just another movie with college students getting picked off one by one in not-terribly creative ways. The Djinn here is mean and more than a little violent, very different from the one in the previous films.
The gore and special effects are all pretty good, which helps offset the not-so-good acting and plot. There’s just too much running around in the final half hour, and it got pretty boring.
It’s a pretty major step down from the first film, and since it was filmed at the same time as the fourth one, I don’t have high hopes for that one now, either.
Kevin’s Commentary
I went into this fearful of the lack of Andrew Divoff as The Djinn. Trivia says that he was originally planning on reprising the role in part three, wrote a screenplay for the third movie, and presented it to producers. They went with this script instead. He hated it so much he turned it down.
It seemed like the genie wasn’t as constrained by rules this time - something I thought added a lot to the first movie. And the deaths weren’t as interesting.
It was filmed back to back with the fourth movie.
Aaron Smolinski, playing Billy Matthews, was baby Superman in the 1978 movie - the kid holding up the car when the jack slips.
The script does have a decent story though the pacing is clunky. The special effects and makeup are very good. It’s definitely the weakest of the third films, but I wouldn’t say I hated it.
2009 Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
Directed by: Patrick Tatopoulos
Written by: Danny McBride, Dirk Blackman, Howard McCain
Stars: Rhona Mitra, Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy
Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is a prequel to the first two movies, showing the origin of the lycans and the start of their war with the vampires. Some of the cast returns because their characters are hundreds of years old. It’s full of loads of action with the horror aspects on the back burner - in fact there’s only one scene that has any humans in it. The mix of CGI and practical effects gets the job done, and the story is interesting, filling in gaps in our knowledge about the Underworld universe. It entertained us both.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s twenty years since the creation of both vampires and werewolves, and the war had already begun. The werewolves were simply vicious monsters. Lucian was born, the first lycan who could turn into a human form; Viktor wanted to kill him, but spared him for some reason. He bred more lycans and started using them as servants and slaves. Credits roll.
We watch a scene where Sonja runs from three wolves and Lucian shoots them. Viktor is impressed, but he sees that Lucian likes Sonja, his daughter, and that displeases him.
Colomon complains to Viktor that the werewolves are killing the local humans, and they need the humans for many reasons.
Meanwhile, Lucian sneaks into Sonja’s room, and they have some sexy-time. They’ve been doing this for a while, and he expresses his plan to escape slavery and help his people, but he wants her to go with him. The vampire Tannis sees them together, but he doesn’t say anything to Viktor… yet.
The human nobles approach the castle for a scheduled visit. Sonja and the others ride out to escort them in and prevent any werewolf attacks.
Lucian senses that there are too many and rides out to help, which is forbidden. He saves Sonja, but then releases himself from the slave collar and reveals himself to the other wolves, who all pay attention and back off. Viktor is not amused and orders that Lucien be punished.
In prison, Lucian explains the difference between the mindless werewolves and the partly-human lycans to Raze, another prisoner. The other prisoners, all humans, are impressed with his attitude.
More human nobles show up, this time, with large chests of money. He says their mines have been overrun with monsters and blames Viktor.
Sonja comes to Lucien and tells him that her father plans to kill him in the morning, so he needs to escape tonight. Tannis, promised a seat on the council, slips Lucien a key.
Raze and the other humans are led to Viktor, who forces them all to be bitten by a lycans. Viktor wants to use them as soldiers, but most choose to go with Lucien instead. There’s a massive jailbreak of all the slaves.
Lucien sends Raze to gather human volunteers while he goes to the main werewolf den.
Viktor confronts Sonja about hooking up with Lucian, which she denies. So Viktor takes a quick nip of blood from her neck, and it gives him visions of exactly what she’s been up to. He is not pleased.
Lucien wants to break back into the castle to rescue Sonja. He gets in easily, but they have to fight their way out. During the fight, Sonja reveals to Viktor that she’s pregnant with Lucien’s child, and that makes Viktor even less pleased than before, if that’s at all possible. They soon find themselves back in cells.
Sonja goes on trial for treason and interspecies crimes. The council votes for death, but it’s up to Viktor, who agrees. Lucien is whipped repeatedly as Sonja watches and then Sonja is exposed to sunlight and dissolves.
Viktor comes in to assess the situation, and Lucien wolfs out and escapes again. In his wolf form, he’s pretty much unstoppable, but they fill him full of arrows.
Raze and the others assault the castle, and there are hundreds of them. They break in and kill just about all the other vampires and release the rest of the slaves as well. Of course, it all boils down to Viktor versus Lucien in a sword fight. Viktor ends up with a sword through the head.
Lucien goes outside to Raze and the rest of his people, saying “This is just the beginning.”
We then cut to Viktor on a ship with Tannis being put into sleep for another hundred years. We get a quick recap of Selene’s story that we’ve seen before.
Brian’s Commentary
How does Michael Sheen, Lucian, look younger here than he did in the first film, eight years previous? Bill Nighy must have spent weeks getting his face un-scowly after all the grouchiness. We were twenty minutes in before Kevin realized that Rhona Mitra wasn’t actually Kate Beckinsale.
It’s the prequel we didn’t need of a story that we actually already saw in flashbacks in previous films, only stretched out to feature length. Still, it’s an excuse to bring back cool characters that died in the earlier films, so there’s that going for it.
Kevin’s Commentary
This might be Bill Nighy’s surliest role.
That’s totally not Kate Beckinsale though I had to keep convincing myself of that throughout because Rhona Mitra resembles her so much here. In fact it’s said that Rhona was originally up as a possibility for the lead role in Underworld, which led to her getting the role in this. It was a plus that they resemble each other so much, satisfying a plot point.
Brian asked a good question - How are there any humans left in this land at this time? Between lots of vampires needing blood and the lycans eating human meat, there would be a huge local body count.
It’s not a happy movie, though we knew how it was going to end ahead of time after seeing the previous two movies. But it is very well made and entertaining. I liked it a lot.
1990 Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III
Directed by: Jeff Burr
Written by: Kim Henkel, Tobe Hooper, David J. Schow
Stars: Kate Hodge, Ken Foree, R.A. Mihailoff, Viggo Mortensen
Run Time: 1 Hour, 25 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
Leatherface is back with a new family, tormenting a young couple and a survivalist. This sequel moves even further away from the grit and grind of the original movie. It’s more in the direction of a standard 80s/90s slasher film. With the stakes a little bit on the low side with such a small pool of people.
We both thought it was pretty good, not a strong thumbs up but it’s there from both of us.
Spoilery Synopsis
We get a voiceover recapping the events of the first film. Sally survived but died in an institution. One of the cannibal family, W.E. Sawyer, also survived but was executed. Leatherface was assumed to be an alternate personality of W.E. Sawyer, so his case was closed. If that’s not the case, then Leatherface remains at large… Credits roll.
Michelle and Ryan are driving through Texas on the way to Florida. They hear a news report about the discovery of a mass grave nearby. The two have to stop at the roadblock as the police clear out the 40 or 50 bodies there.
The next day, they stop at the Last Chance gas station. The attendant, Alfredo, is an extreme weirdo, but the other guy, Tex, is more helpful, but still a little creepy. Tex suggests a shortcut off the highway, a road that’s not even on the map. Tex catches Alfredo doing a poopy-peeky with Michelle and starts a fight. Alfredo shoots out their rear window and then shoots Tex.
Night falls, and someone in a truck starts chasing the couple on the isolated country road. They get run off the road and stop to yell at each other for a while as they change the tire.
Suddenly, Leatherface shows up with his chainsaw, but they drive off and avoid him. Instead, they nearly hit another driver, Benny, on the road, and they both crash. Ryan tells them that they’re being hunted, but Benny doesn’t really believe it. He gives them pain medication that makes them sleepy.
Another man shows up to help, Tinker, and he’s weird. Benny notices a chainsaw in the back of Tinker’s truck and gets suspicious. Turns out, Tinker’s not here to help, and neither is Leatherface, who gets distracted by a girl in the woods and runs off.
The girl finds Benny and explains that she’s been with the baddies for a week; she was also ambushed on the road. They split up, and she soon dies. Leatherface finds Ryan and Michelle, and he gets his foot caught in a trap, so Leatherface has his way with him.
Michelle runs to a nearby house and lets herself in. Inside, she finds a little girl who’s playing with corpses. Tex is there as well, and he’s not as dead as we were led to believe. He nails her hands to a chair. They feed her blood to Grandpa, who is clearly dead. Mama shows up, and she’s not nice either. Tinker drags in Ryan, so now they’ve got fresh meat.
Meanwhile, Benny follows Alfredo through woods, and the lunatic gas station man is disposing of bodies in the swamp (isn’t this the Texas desert?).
As Leatherface gets ready to slice up Michelle, Benny reaches the house and starts shooting excessively. Mama gets shot, as does what was left of Grandpa. Benny and Tex fight, and that goes badly for Tex. Benny, Leatherface, and the brand new saw go into the swamp and fight some more. Turns out, the saw swims better than Benny.
Leatherface comes after Michelle, who beats him to death with a rock. In the morning, Michelle makes it back to the road, which is back in the desert again. Benny drives up in Alfredo’s truck, except Alfredo is there as well. Michelle shoots him and then helps Benny into the truck. “There’s roadkill all over Texas,” she quips.
We see that Leatherface has survived.
Brian’s Commentary
After the previous films’ focus on the whole family, this one switches to Junior’s new family, a whole different bunch of killer kooks. Does this take place in the desert, the swamp, or a forest? All three at varying times.
It was fine. Not on the same level as the previous two, but not terrible either.
Kevin’s Commentary
Trivia says that the original script was even more brutal with such explicit scenes that the producers made them tone it down. Even then they still had a hard time toning it down enough to get an MPAA rating, sending it to them 11 times and cutting a little more every time.
That was strange, as Brian pointed out, how it was desert, then forest, then swampland, then desert again at the end. Which probably hurt the final product. Ending up with a movie that’s pretty good but lackluster without much new to see. It’s more along the lines of 80s and 90s slasher movies, cleaned up from how grimy the original movie was.
And Leatherface still lives, making more future movies possible.
I’d call it middling overall, liked more than disliked.
Short Films:
2026 Short Film Motion Detected
Directed by: Vincent Dormani
Written by: Vincent Dormani
Stars: Frank Dormani
Run Time: 7:12
Watch it:
What Happens
A man comes home from work and notices some things inside the door have been knocked over. He checks the security footage on his tablet and notices that every night at 9 p.m., a strange woman appears in his foyer. A very strange woman.
The next night, he waits for her to appear. What could go wrong?
Commentary
This one doesn’t explain anything at all, so it’s a mystery as to why this is all happening. That said, for having no real dialogue, it’s easy enough to understand exactly what is happening at all times. It’s short, looks good, and the special computer effects are well done.
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