We’ve watched a bunch of oldies and sequels over the past few weeks, so this time, let’s focus on four brand-new films. The latest installment of the Deadites franchise, “Evil Dead Burn” is first. Next, we’ll stop in with a visit to the M3GAN universe and meet our “Soulm8te.” After that, we’ll stop in for a perfectly normal “Corporate Retreat,” and then take a side trip to Korea to visit a strange “Colony.” 2026 is shaping up to be a fine year for horror so far!
And we’ve got a creepy short film this week as well.
All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #59, 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 Soulm8te
Directed by: Kate Dolan
Written by: Rafael Jordan, Kate Dolan, James Wan
Stars: Lily Sullivan, David Rysahl, Claudia Doumit
Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
A lonely guy working in robotics gets an experimental home model companion to test and improve on. His attempts to make her more lifelike leads to obsession and deadly consequences. It’s very well made, and the cast is great. But we both thought it didn’t show us much new that we haven’t seen before. The storytelling was good but kind of predictable as it unfolded.
Spoilery Synopsis
We open on a sex scene as the credits roll. She chokes the guy, but she gets carried away and nearly kills him before the technicians monitoring can shut her off.
We get a commercial about Ultima’s new AIs and robots. David’s company has been acquired by Ultima and Ben is the new boss. David is not enthused about work. He also misses Lizzie, his dead wife.
At a meeting at the office, Ben talks about chronic loneliness and how their newest product can help with that. A woman walks out and then pulls off her hair– she’s a robot underneath, designed for companionship. She’s a Soulm8te with an extra 8, which Terrance thinks is stupid. And she’s very stiff and robotic.
Ben talks to David about the business, Lizzie, working from home, and the company’s chat app, which David doesn’t use. Still, David’s gotta work on this new robot, so he has to get involved now. Afterwards, much of the group goes to a karaoke bar. David kinda likes Aubrey, and she kinda likes him, but the dead wife thing keeps getting between them.
David keeps calling Lizzie’s voicemail just to hear her voice. Sara, the AI chatbot on his phone, sees his call and asks if everything is OK. This begins a conversation, and before long, he’s sold on the chatbot. Before long, David signs up to beta test the new physical version of the AI, in robot form.
He shows her around the apartment, and she gives simple responses to things he says. They talk about Lizzie and play chess. He puts her to sleep in power-save mode in the living room; he doesn’t want to sleep with her. She’s okay, but kind of stiff and inhuman.
David talks to Ben about getting more access to improve the robot, whom he names Sara. He programs her to criticize him, which she wasn’t able to do before. He finds her much more attractive after the upgrade and they kiss, quickly followed by sex. He then follows up by reprogramming her with more alterations and updates.
The neighbor, Alma, notices that David’s got a new girlfriend, and it’s a little awkward. While David’s at work, Sara watches lots of television about lots of topics. She starts tapping into his phone to listen to him at work, especially when he starts flirting with Aubrey.
Sara goes out shopping, runs into some trouble, and neighbor Alma helps out. Sara is curious about her baby. “Having a baby changes everything,” Alma says. Sara gets mugged on the way home, but that goes very poorly for the bad guy.
David and Sara go out for a drink at the karaoke bar, and Sara does a song. She’s very good, and everyone in the place notices. They have sex in the alley afterward. Some guys try to take pictures, and she hurts them. He realizes that she’s not programmed with safeties, and that could be a problem. He has to really push her to get into power save mode.
Later, he’s just about to start to fix the mistakes he made in Sara’s programming and Aubry stops by with wine. This leads to more romance, but this time, Sara watches through the smart home device. Sara wakes up and won’t go back to sleep on command. “Even when I’m sleeping, I can hear you,” she explains. He has to physically turn her off with the button in the back of her neck.
David calls the factory to have them come and pick up Sara for a return. At work, Aubrey wants to do a presentation about how changing a few lines of code can really mess with the ‘bots. They aren’t ready for market yet.
Meanwhile, at home, the service guy arrives and reactives Sara. He tries to reset her to factory settings, but she won’t reset. She seduces the guy and kills him in a unique way. She then cuts him apart and disposes of the evidence.
During the presentation at work, everyone suddenly watches a video of Aubrey having wild sex with someone. She swears it’s not even really her, a deepfake. She’s fired from the job immediately.
David realizes where that porn video came from and goes home to find Sara dressed up as Lizzie. Also, now she’s got a baby. A real baby. David grabs the baby and tries to leave the apartment, but she locks the doors. Alma and the police show up and get the baby back safe, but Sara jumps down the laundry chute and escapes.
The police talk to Ben, who explains about the robot. He’s sure there’s no danger, since the robots are perfectly safe and they can remotely shut it down. He goes looking for her, but she finds him first. He makes him have a severe car accident. She then goes to Aubrey’s house and attacks her. David shows up to intervene, as do the police. They get there in time to save Aubrey, but Sara flees.
David and Aubrey leave their phones behind and go to David’s old house out in the country. They hang out and David casually mentions Chechov’s paint stripper. Sure enough, Sara shows up and grabs him. He splashes her with the paint thinner, and most of her face melts. Not the important metal parts though as she points out. Though there’s a good opening for David to jam a drill into now.
David runs out into the rainy woods, and she follows, not damaged enough yet. We know from before that her skin is water resistant, but that was before her head was full of holes, and the rain starts to get to her a bit - but still not enough. She says she’s more than just a body; she exists in the ether and she’ll come for him no matter what. Aubrey drives her car into Sara and runs it over a cliff into a lake. The Sarabot shorts out as she sinks.
One year later, David’s at a fundraiser, and an old man has a Soulm8te that looks exactly like Sara with dark hair. They’re on the market now. Could she be the same?
Brian’s Commentary
This takes place in the same fictional universe as “M3GAN” (2023) and “M3GAN 2” (2026). It’s also very similar to the plot of “Subservience” (2024). It’s even got a touch of “Obsession” (2026). We’ve been getting a lot of AI/Robot stories lately.
The acting is good, the situation escalates reasonably, and it’s all well filmed. Storywise, however, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. A man and a robot have a romance, and the robot gets carried away.
It’s well done and entertaining if you haven’t seen the other dozen films that tell the same story.
Kevin’s Commentary
I was really impressed with Lily Sullivan’s performance as Sara, she was excellent.
It was very well made all around with great special effects. I think the biggest fault was that it didn’t have enough new or unexpected. As events unfolded, I could predict most of them coming.
So, it’s an entertaining watch with a good story, but few surprises.
2026 Evil Dead Burn
Directed by: Sebastien Vanicek
Written by: Sebastien Vanicek, Florent Bernard
Stars: Souheila Yacoub, Tandi Wright, Hunter Doohan
Run Time: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s death and mayhem for a family who are descendents of an old professor who researched the Necronomicon and the business around it. In an isolated house where they’ve gathered, evil does its thing with over the top violence and gore. It’s pretty continuous in the violence in fact, almost to the point of tedium by the end, a serious business without much humor at all. We’re both in agreement it was better than the previous movie “Evil Dead Rise,” but Brian enjoyed this one more than Kevin did.
Spoilery Synopsis
We get a voice recording talking about the Necronomicon and flesh-possessing demons. There’s also a magical device that can send the demons back to Hell, but it must remain hidden. If it’s found, the demons will stop at nothing to destroy it. We watch a guy find the thing.
We cut to two fishermen arguing about leaving their phones in the car. One guy catches a head and then something catches him. Leo pulls about half of Jarod out of the water, and then the demon gets him as well. The demon then stands in the road and waits for a car to hit her.
Alice and her friends get together for Joseph’s birthday. Will buys Joseph a thousand-dollar pen because he never finishes his books, which devolves into an argument. He’s abusive and controlling, and ends up speeding away from the club… until he runs into the demon-woman and crashes. “We found you, now lead us to your family,” says the demon-woman, who soon loses her head. The car bursts into flame, burning Will alive. Credits roll.
At the funeral, Alice sees Will’s family, Susan and Polly. There’s construction going on outside, which is very distracting. They all think Alice and Will were happily married, but that’s obviously not the case. Will’s father, Ed, wants one last visit alone with his son, but he hears Will knocking on the casket from the inside. What comes out of the casket isn’t Will. It messily takes care of the crematorium operator but lets the old man leave.
The whole group goes off to the family home, which is looking really run-down now. Grandpa, who is dead now, was the man who made that recording we heard about in the opener. The photo of Grandpa looks like Bruce Campbell (We also get to see Bruce among the family photos by the stairs). Grandpa was obsessed with demons and the occult, and Susan resents it.
Ed goes into the basement and the demon talks to him. Alice takes a knife away from him before he can hurt himself. Grandma Polly has dementia and has no idea what’s going on most of the time, which makes dinner awkward for everyone. Ed is weirdly hostile and soon, everyone notices, especially when he kills the family dog with a fork and collapses in a seizure. On the way to the hospital, Ed kills Thya, who’s driving the car. Joseph gets beat up but escapes into the woods.
Alice reads from Grandpa’s book, and she learns a few things about the demons and the dagger that can kill them. At least until the dead dog gets up and attacks her.
Joseph returns to the house and says Ed killed Thya. Thya then knocks on the door, and they all get a look at her. Joseph, Alice, and Susan throw the undead girlfriend into the basement and lock the door. Outside, they run into Ed and Max, the now undead dog. Ed pulls out a gun and shoots himself in the head– twice, but that doesn’t stop him. Then he does it a third time, which still doesn’t do the trick.
The remaining family barricades themselves inside the house. Dolly then lets Thya out of the basement. Thya attacks Alice, and Joseph proves how useless he really is. Thya stabs him with a whole dishwasher full of knives. Thya is about to get grandma when Alice steps up and knocks her down the stairs with Grandma’s prosthetic leg. And Joseph beats her to pieces with the dishwasher door.
Alice finally makes Joseph explain about the demons and their grandfather. The old man travelled the world researching and gathering artifacts. Meanwhile, Dolly convinces Susan to open the window and let Ed in.
Ed wants the dagger, and Joseph admits that he knows where it is. As Ed tortures and beats Joseph and Susan, Alice hides in a closet. How is Joseph not dead six times over by this point?
Dolly grabs Alice and stabs her in the ear with Joseph’s pen. Susan and Alice hide in the bathroom, and Alice finally comes clean about what a monster Will was.
Alice cuts a hole in the ceiling and climbs up to Grandpa’s attic to search for the dagger. She finds a dagger and stabs now-possessed Joseph with it, but it’s the wrong one. Then she hits upon the right one and kills him with it. She then drops the knife out the window and has to battle the demons on the roof and down the chimney.
Alice then kills Susan and Ed with a rotary garden edger. She stabs the dog with the knife and burns down the house. As a final boss, Alice must confront Will, who’s more skeleton than man at this point.
Will chases Alice to a construction site, where he knocks her into a pit and starts to fill it with boiling tar. She throws the knife Ed gave her early on into the tar and tricks Will into going after it. She then picks up a jackhammer, not the chainsaw, and really messes up Will’s day. Finally, she stabs him with the real dagger. She takes out her frustrations on his head and drops him back into the tar.
Suddenly, the police and medics show up, maybe they saw the fire. She blames her ex-husband.
Brian’s Commentary
Neither of us much liked the previous film, “Evil Dead Rise” (2023), as it had no real connection to the classic films. Other than having flesh-possessing demons, neither does this one, but it seems the franchise is on a new path now, and there’s no going back.
The many practical effects are really well done, and there’s not excessive blood, although it’s extremely violent. Actually, this may be one of the most non-stop relentlessly violent movies I’ve ever seen, and there’s no comic relief in sight.
It’s about a half-hour longer than it needs to be; they could have trimmed down some of the early stuff.
Overall, it’s better than the previous installment. I was entertained. Too long though.
Kevin’s Commentary
The first three Evil Dead movies were directed by Sam Raimi and starred Bruce Campbell. I remember them being weird and darkly funny and entertaining. Like the two sequels/reboots before this, “Evil Dead Burn” lacks all those things. Okay, somewhat entertaining. And the gore and effects are top notch. There are many visceral ouchies.
There is a sort of story and explanation, but it just feels too much to me like random awful things happening to people who did nothing to deserve it. Not that that’s not a formula in some horror movies, but this didn’t really connect with me. I think it’s because there’s a bit too much hopelessness and helplessness. The deadites are just going to keep coming no matter what they do to try and save themselves. Graphically demonstrated by possessed Edgar who puts multiple bullets through his own brain and keeps on deadite-ing. It’s just events playing out until everyone is dead.
I did enjoy it more than the previous movie in the series, “Evil Dead Rise,” but not nearly as much as the original trilogy.
2026 Corporate Retreat
Directed by: Aaron Fisher
Written by: Aaron Fisher, Kerri Lee Romeo
Stars: Alan Ruck, Odeya Rush, Rosanna Arquette
Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
The core staff of a highly successful company goes on an annual corporate retreat. As you might guess, things go horribly. How the movie goes about it is interesting, but the pacing feels long and drawn out with bursts of action. Brian gives it a thumbs down, and Kevin gives it barely a thumbs up.
Spoilery Synopsis
As the credits roll, we get shots of a very expensive house with bodies all over the place.
Cliff and Ginger, his girlfriend, sit in the car and talk about her test on Monday. We also see Carl and Devin, who are boarding a bus. Billie is the gung-ho HR person, and they all work for Immaculate Pond Technologies. Omar is the IT guy, and Deborah, Audrey, and Omar all don’t really want to be there.
Cliff tells Ginger that they are meeting friends, but it turns out that he’s brought his girlfriend to a corporate retreat. He’s also got a gun, which Ginger doesn’t like. Everyone except Carl turns in their phone. Billie sneaks in and steals his phone shortly after.
Right away, Deborah finds bodies hanging in the storeroom, and then she becomes one of them.
The group starts with a meditation session. The second involves being locked into a steam room. Afterward, they’re fed botulism and told they have everything they need to survive. The chemist of the group works on mixing up an antidote. Everyone’s OK except for one guy, Omar.
Arthur, the founder of the company, does a video call, and he’s angry about their betrayals and getting kicked out of the company. Amber and Lola, the two running the retreat, walk in with machine guns. They want one of them to sacrifice themself and cut out a heart. They shoot Cliff in the head and drag his body out and then talk for an hour and half about how they met Arthur.
The group decides to kill Omar, who chooses that moment to wake up. Billie cuts his throat anyway, and then Carl removes the heart.
Next up is a laughing contest. Aubrey and Carl do fine, but then it’s Ginger’s turn; Arthur doesn’t even know who she is. Devon requires a bit of prompting, but he does it as well. Billie, on the other hand, can’t do it, so Amber cuts her head off.
During a break, Ginger tells the others about Cliff’s gun, which is up on the roof. They argue with Arthur over the videocall. They goad him into coming there personally.
For the next game, Arthur explains that they all need to pop out their left eyes with a spoon, and he wants to go first. He does, and it looks pretty painful. He came prepared, as he’s got a patch ready to put on. He chooses Carl to go next, and he does it. Devin does it as well. Audrey has her turn and drops the spoon, so Amber shoots her eye out. Ginger is last, and she doesn’t hesitate.
The final game begins. Arthur’s still annoyed about the voodoo doll the group passed around in the company, so he wants everyone to stab themselves with seven big nails. Carl tries it, and stabs himself in both ears– he’s dead. Devin refuses, so the girls shoot him.
Ginger’s time once again. She admits she was the one who made the voodoo doll for Cliff. She says Arthur should never have been ousted from the company. She wants to do the ritual to ascend, but she wants to do it on the rooftop.
Ginger grabs Cliff’s hidden gun and holds it to Arthur’s head. He stabs her, and she shoots him. Lola and Amber shoot at Ginger, but she avoids them. After a little cat and mouse, Ginger beats Amber to death with a dumbbell. There’s more cat and mouse as Ginger deals with Lola.
And the final girl is Ginger, who wasn’t even supposed to be there. “This is the worst corporate retreat I’ve ever been on,” she says as she gets in the car and drives home.
Brian’s Commentary
I had two coffees and was still yawning throughout. Alan Ruck: “We have Jeff Goldblum at home.” Everyone else is completely forgettable here. I kept having to look at IMDB to remember which character was which, there wasn’t much here in the way of character development or acting. The gore is pretty good, especially the eyeball scene, but there’s really not much of that sort of thing here.
Pretty awful.
Kevin’s Commentary
It’s well made, good acting, good special effects - that eyeball removal scene for instance. But the script and the pacing are lacking. It was bland and drawn out. I had some chuckles. I didn’t hate it. By the third hour I was getting into it.
I’d call it moderately entertaining on the dull side.
2026 Colony
Directed by: Yeon Sang-Ho
Written by: Choi Kyu-seok, Yeon Sang-ho
Stars: Jun Ji-hyun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook
Run Time: 2 Hours, 2 Minutes
Trailer:
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
At a scientific conference in a huge center, someone deliberately releases a virus that spawns fast zombies - with a sort of hive mind. The uninfected have to band together to survive and keep it from becoming a wider disaster. There are some elements that make it unique, which we really appreciated so it’s not the same old thing again. It’s well made and entertaining without slowing down much. We’d highly recommend it.
Spoilery Synopsis
A man calls 911 and says he made a highly contagious terrorist attack with a pathogen in his own body. He also has the only vaccine that could help. Kwon Se Jong and Gyu Song arrive at the bio-conference where Kang Woo-cheol is speaking on stage. They’ve been divorced for ten years, and he still sees a need to help her career. Meanwhile, the man on-stage talks about collective intelligence and ants and how they can use that to improve semiconductors. They’ve used the technology to restore paralyzed rats. It may even bestow a kind of telepathy.
Meanwhile Seuk and Hui are in the mall talking about going camping together.
Kang Woo-cheol gets a call that one of his scientists is planning on making a terror attack this afternoon, and that stops the conference. He then runs into the man in the restroom, and they argue about stolen research. “I’m taking humanity to the next level! The birth of a new humanity.” This culminates in the lunatic injecting the CEO with something.
Almost immediately, Kang collapses and has seizures. He very quickly becomes a Korean Fast Zombie ™ and starts attacking people at that conference. Things escalate very quickly.
Se Jeong and Gyu Seong have some dinner and talk about their lives. Seok, who works security, hears that the building is going into lock-down as the police arrive outside. Very quickly, all the characters we know have barricaded themselves inside a store in the mall.
These aren’t normal Korean Fast Zombies ™, however, they’re linked telepathically into a hive-mind, which soon becomes apparent. Se Jeong remembers what the CEO at the conference said and realizes that this is related to that somehow.
The news reports that the building is under quarantine because of the bio-terror attack, but people outside can see the zombies inside. Gyu Seong tries to help a girl outside their building, and he dies in the process. Se Jeong then talks to his wife on the phone, which goes poorly.
The policeman of the group gets a call about the scientist who caused all this having the vaccine, and he’s probably still in the building. Se Jeong explains how the creatures outside are getting smarter and evolving. They might respond to smells and pheromones.
They “train” the zombies to chase a certain brand of perfume, and then they cover themselves with antifreeze to make a different smell, hoping to walk right past the zombies.
The group inside the mall find Dr. Suh and arrest him. He knows Se Jeong by reputation. They need to get him to the roof to be rescued. Seok tells them about the cargo elevator that no one knows about.
Professor Gong arrives outside Suh’s laboratory. The SWAT teams are about to break in. They find a large number of infected monkeys, but they all seem to be in a trance– except for one that’s awake and out of a cage. The others all wake up and work together to get out; it’s not just a barrel of CGI monkeys. Suddenly, they all freeze and die when monkey #1 is killed. “Patient Zero” seems to be the core of the whole infection.
The elevator doors open on the wrong floor because Suh pushed the button, and several people get bitten. Suh just walks off in the confusion, and the zombies just ignore him because he’s vaccinated. The survivors head to the security office to use the camera to find where Suh has run to. They come to the conclusion that Suh can see through the eyes of the zombies since he is, in fact, infected. The zombies can see through his eyes too, so they blindfold him.
They watch as Suh talks to the infected CEO, and they realize that he was Patient Zero. The CEO bites Suh, and Suh changes. All the zombies go into “buffering mode,” which gives the policeman’s group time to go after Suh. They get him, but he’s linked to the hive now while still keeping his faculties. Suh telepathically sends the zombies to the control room, and Hui is killed. This enrages Seok, who vows that Suh and the rest are all going to die.
Professor Gong explains to the military that the infected are effectively brain dead and can’t be cured. They want justification to shoot the people inside. She explains about killing Patient Zero to stop all this.
Seuk, who has vowed to kill all the survivors, gears up for battle.
The policeman shoots the businessman to use as bait, but the zombies get them both. Se Jeung and two girls have Suh, and they’re the only ones left. They make a plan by text so Suh doesn’t hear them. Jeung heads out and the two girls stay with Suh. Except one of the zombies is looking at one of the group’s dropped phones and sees the texts, which means Suh can see it.
Se Jeung finds the policeman’s phone and calls the police commissioner. They send two teams. One to kill the CEO, and the other to grab Suh as a vaccine. Se Jeung tells the police where to find Suh, but since Suh can hear, the zombies attack. Suh escapes with help of the horde.
The soldiers kill the CEO, but it doesn’t do anything. Suh is actually the prime zombie. Se Jeung finds Suh at the same time Seuk does. Suh uses Seuk’s dead sister against him. Suh explains to Se Jeong that this was all in revenge for her ruining his father’s career.
The soldiers get in and grab Suh, but leaves Se Jeong locked in a closet. Gong calls her on the phone, and they figure out that Suh is “the first monkey” and needs to die. The zombies start using the guns to free Suh, so they’ve evolved pretty far. The military refuses to kill Suh, because he’s also the vaccine.
Suh and some zombies steal a van and leave the building. They drive right up to the crowd of people outside the building and start infecting everyone there.
Se Jeung calls Gong, who finds Suh on the CCTV and tells her where to go. Se Jeung finds him and tries to run him over, but there are too many zombies in the way. She tricks the zombies into running in an “ant circle,” something we learned about earlier, and Suh struggles to get them to stop. The zombies all fall down and reboot to their original state. The zombies wake up and attack the nearest poster with faces, and Suh ends up catching on fire and dying in the melee.
All the zombies freeze. Se Jeong and Gong discuss who’s going to take the blame for all this.
Or ARE the zombies actually permanently frozen?
Brian’s Commentary
The obvious comparison here is “Train to Busan” (2016), and it was, in fact, directed by Yeon Sang-Ho, the director of that film. It’s very similar, with a small number of distinctive characters and personalities and how they interact with each other as they try to survive.
This one is different due to the hive mind and being controlled by a human, Dr. Suh. It turns it from a standard zombie film into almost a supervillain-type story.
There are some very cool shots of zombies doing weird things, and they all have a very unnatural style of moving.
I liked it!
Kevin’s Commentary
I thought it was an interesting touch having the zombies not be able to tell images and cutouts from real people. At first anyway until they collectively upgrade. The hive mind aspect gave this a unique twist on the zombie genre, it was very cool how that was used. I thought this one was pretty great.
Short Films:
2023 Short Film: Open Casket
Directed by: Vincent Dormani
Written by: Vincent Dormani
Stars: Jonathan Stephens and Austin Pigza
Run Time: 4:30
Watch it:
What Happens
A man brings some new artwork home and hangs it on the wall, not noticing that someone wrote “Burn if found” on the back of it. He’s pleased with how it looks, but almost immediately things go strange, and there seems to be something else behind the paint on the canvas. It’s okay though, it’s just a painting, right?
Commentary
It’s short and effective, shot well in a great setting and cool effects. Without dialogue, they manage to tell a creepy little story. It’s a good one.
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