Tag: Film Review

Resident Evil (2026) | REVIEW

Austin Abrams behind the steering wheel while being bothered by an infected individual in RESIDENT EVIL — PHOTO: Sony Pictures Releasing / TriStar Pictures.

Directed by Zach Cregger (Barbarian; Weapons) — Screenplay by Zach Cregger and Shay Hatten.

The Resident Evil franchise is one of horror gaming’s most popular, and yet it has struggled to find the same critical success on the big screen that it has reached through multiple video games. The Paul W. S. Anderson-shepherded films starring Milla Jovovich made money, but none of the six Jovovich-led films resonated with critics or audiences. Johannes Roberts’ Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City from 2021 was meant as a more faithful adaptation of the early Resident Evil games, but still, audiences and critics were left underwhelmed. Now Zach Cregger is giving it a go, following his critically lauded horror-thriller films Barbarian and Weapons. The on-the-rise horror filmmaker with a keen understanding of how to plant comedic beats in even the darkest storylines has opted for a different strategy than Roberts. Cregger has deliberately decided that he would not slavishly recreate the story of the games. However, he has nonetheless managed to honor the games in his own way while, at the same time, turning in a genuinely thrilling film.

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Adult Supervision (2026) | Fantastic Fest 2026 | REVIEW

Linus Wahlgren, Fares Fares, and Gustaf Skarsgård in Alex Schulman’s ADULT SUPERVISION. Image provided by Fantastic Fest. Courtesy of Heretic.
Linus Wahlgren, Fares Fares, and Gustaf Skarsgård in Alex Schulman’s ADULT SUPERVISION. Image provided by Fantastic Fest. Courtesy of Heretic.

Directed by Alex Schulman – Screenplay by Alex Schulman.

These are exciting times for writer-director Alex Schulman. Earlier this month, Alex Schulman’s debut feature, Adult Supervision (known as Arkipelag in Sweden), was announced as Sweden’s official submission for the upcoming Academy Awards’ Best International Feature category. Just last weekend, a few days ago, it had its world premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, and its theatrical release in Sweden is set to kick off on October 9th. Swedes and audiences around the world have something great to look forward to. Adult Supervision is a well-cast, thought-provoking, and sometimes even disturbing film that takes a closer look at modern parenting and troubling modern social dynamics in school classes. 

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The Squirrel (2026) | Fantastic Fest 2026 | REVIEW

Pasi (Miro Lopperi) admiring the titular creature in Markus Lehmusruusu’s THE SQUIRREL. Image provided by Fantastic Fest. Courtesy of Cinematic Red PR.
Pasi (Miro Lopperi) admiring the titular creature in Markus Lehmusruusu’s THE SQUIRREL. Image provided by Fantastic Fest. Courtesy of Cinematic Red PR.

Directed by Markus Lehmusruusu – Screenplay by Markus Lehmusruusu.

Hot on the heels of this month’s announcement that it is Finland’s official submission for the Best International Feature category at the upcoming Academy Awards, Markus Lehmusruusu’s The Squirrel just had its international premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas. The feature – an international co-production between Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden – had its world premiere in Finland earlier this year, and it marks the second feature film from Lehmusruusu. It is also relatively unique as it is a Finnish science-fiction film. I had the chance to see the film, and I can say that I think it works quite well despite some pacing issues.

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No Rest for the Wicked (2026) | Fantastic Fest 2026 | REVIEW

Pilou Asbæk biting Egor Venned’s chest in Kasper Kalle’s NO REST FOR THE WICKED. Image provided by Fantastic Fest. Courtesy of SF Studios / Obscured Pictures.
Pilou Asbæk biting Egor Venned’s chest in Kasper Kalle’s NO REST FOR THE WICKED. Image provided by Fantastic Fest. Courtesy of SF Studios / Obscured Pictures.

Directed by Kasper Kalle – Screenplay by Rasmus Birch.

Following its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival earlier this year, at which it won two awards for directing and acting, Kasper Kalle’s No Rest for the Wicked just had its US premiere at this year’s Fantastic Fest. It is a remarkable horror-romance film that I found to be deeply moving and often outright stunning. 

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A Prayer for the Dying (2026) | Fantastic Fest 2026 | REVIEW

John C. Reilly and Johnny Flynn in Dara Van Dusen’s A PRAYER FOR THE DYING. Image provided by Fantastic Fest. Courtesy of Quiver Distribution.

Directed by Dara Van Dusen – Screenplay by Dara Van Dusen.

Following its world premiere at this year’s Berlinale, the western-adjacent drama, A Prayer for the Dying, from debut feature filmmaker Dara Van Dusen, just had its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest 2026. As part of my remote coverage of the latter festival, I got the opportunity to watch this ambitious debut. Dusen’s Western-adjacent debut, which is being prepared for a post-festival US theatrical release on October 9th, contains fascinating surreal imagery, pitch-black dark character predicaments, and a challenging role for its competent leading man. Although it has some blemishes, I thought it was mostly quite effective.

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Mayday (2026) | REVIEW

Kenneth Branagh and Ryan Reynolds in “Mayday,” now streaming on Apple TV.

Directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley — Screenplay by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley.

The latest straight-to-streaming Apple TV+ film, Mayday, is the third directorial feature for creative duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, best known for their hit comedy Game Night. Although their directorial debut, Vacation (a 2015 sequel to the National Lampoon’s Vacation film series), was critically panned (It’s not great, but I think it has its moments), they’ve managed to garner a solid reputation over the years. They bounced back, in a great way, with the aforementioned original comedy Game Night, before they tried their hands with another major franchise, namely Dungeons & Dragons in 2023. Though that fantasy comedy, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, was classified as a box office disappointment, it was a really fun film that deserved a much better fate than it got. So, with such a reputation, and with those films under their belt, I was excited to see what their first straight-to-streaming film would look like. Thankfully, it’s a really effective action-comedy, despite some blemishes.

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‘Cold Storage,’ ‘The Wizard of the Kremlin,’ ‘The Devil Wears Prada 2,’ and More (2026) | Bite-Sized Reviews

Top Row: Cold Storage (StudioCanal); The Wizard of the Kremlin (Gaumont); Over Your Dead Body (IFC / Amazon Prime Video).
Bottom Row: Mortal Kombat II (Warner Bros. Pictures); The Devil Wears Prada 2 (20th Century Studios); Propeller One-Way Night Coach (Apple TV).

In this edition of Bite-Sized Reviews, I want to share my thoughts on six films released this year. This time around, I want to talk about 1) an underseen zombie-adjacent film with a surprisingly strong cast, 2) a political drama about Putin’s rise to power, 3) a genre-blend from the director of Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, 4) Mortal Kombat II, 5) the long-awaited sequel to a beloved fashion-focused film, and 6) John Travolta’s directorial debut. If you follow me on Letterboxd, do know that some of these bite-sized reviews have previously been posted on my Letterboxd profile (either partially or entirely). Should you wish to get a sneak peek at what films I see, I advise you to follow me on that social media platform.

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How to Make a Killing (2026) | REVIEW

Glen Powell as Becket Redfellow in HOW TO MAKE A KILLING — PHOTO: StudioCanal (Still image from trailers).

Directed by John Patton Ford — Screenplay by John Patton Ford.

John Patton Ford’s How to Make a Killing is a black comedy thriller about the wealthy Redfellow family and its inheritance. Before our film’s protagonist, Becket (played by Glen Powell), was born, his mother was disowned for choosing not to end her pregnancy prematurely. When he loses her, the rest of the Redfellows stay as far away from Becket as they had been during his mother’s adult life. After encountering a woman named Julia (played by Margaret Qualley), whom he knew when he was younger, he decides to avenge his mother and fight for the life she deserved by trying to murder the family, one by one, so that he can claim the family inheritance.

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The Whisper Man (2026) | REVIEW

A distraught Adam Scott looks up at Robert De Niro in THE WHISPER MAN — PHOTO: Netflix (Still image from the trailer).

Directed by James Ashcroft — Screenplay by Ben Jacoby and Chase Palmer.

Every once in a while, something goes straight-to-streaming that looks the part, so to speak, of something that, once upon a time, would not only go to theaters but also draw a crowd. As The Whisper Man is evidence of, a serial killer movie with an A-list star and an otherwise recognizable cast is now likely to land on a streamer and face the potential sad fate of being buried in a vast and ever-growing content library while the world moves on. Although The Whisper Man is certainly nowhere near as good as the stone-cold classics of the genre that it is clearly inspired by, it is, however, too watchable to deserve being fully ignored or be treated as background noise for your nightly doomscrolling. It definitely won’t wow you, but I suspect that thriller die-hard fans will feel that this is the kind of film that definitely scratches the right itch, even if it isn’t particularly memorable.

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Yndige Mennesker (2025) | REVIEW

Albert Rudbeck Lindhardt in the Danish horror anthology film Yndige Mennesker (int. title: Adorable Humans) — Still image from the international trailer.

Directed by Anders Jon, Michael Kunov, Kasper Juhl, and Michael Panduro.

Yndige Mennesker (or, Adorable Humans) is a Danish horror anthology film from four Danish directors, none of whom are household names in their home country. Each story is loosely inspired by select stories originally written by world-renowned Danish writer and poet Hans Christian Andersen, who is primarily known for his many beloved fairy tales. Although Lars von Trier’s Riget series (int. title: The Kingdom) and Ole Bornedal’s Nattevagten (int. title: Nightwatch) are both beloved titles in Denmark, the country isn’t known for the horror genre, and it is very rare for Danish horror to land well over here. In recent years, the most successful Danish horror title is Christian Tafdrup’s Speak No Evil, which has already gotten an American remake. Indeed, perhaps a new generation of filmmakers is now ready to make the horror genre feel more at home. In any case, Yndige Mennesker shows that some Danish filmmakers are trying to tell stories in the genre.

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