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Review by Chadd Clubine  2026 is already shaping up to be a strong year for horror, but May in particular is looking like a standout month for the genre. Kicking things off with Hokum, nearly every week in May brings another major horror release, all leading up to Backrooms at the end of the month. Right in the middle of that lineup is Obsession, a new horror film that absolutely shouldn’t go unnoticed. With both critics and audiences praising it, this is quickly becoming one of the must-watch horror movies of the year. After seeing it, Obsession is destined to become a modern horror classic. Writer and director Curry Barker first built a following through YouTube, where his work has steadily gained attention over the years. If you aren’t familiar with his name yet, this film is going to change that. Even if Obsession wasn’t initially on your radar, the growing word of mouth surrounding it will be impossible to ignore for long. What Barker accomplishes here is genuinely extraordinary. The film is just as uncomfortable as it is terrifying, constantly keeping viewers on edge. Barker repeatedly subverts expectations in ways that not only enhance the horror, but also deepen the film’s thematic storytelling in a meaningful way. What makes the film even more impressive is Barker’s ability to craft a story that resonates from multiple perspectives. While the narrative does explore the male point of view, it never blindly validates it. Instead, Barker highlights the flaws and insecurities within that perspective, allowing audiences — especially female viewers — to connect with the story in their own ways. The online discourse surrounding the film already reflects just how many interpretations viewers are taking away from it. None of these characters are particularly likable, yet they all feel deeply human. Just when you find yourself relating to someone, the film forces you to reevaluate that connection through the disturbing choices these characters ultimately make.  Michael Johnston may be the film’s lead, but Inde Navarrette is undoubtedly its breakout star. Johnston delivers a layered performance as a deeply flawed character, grounding the film in a way that makes its story and themes truly work. Without his performance, the emotional core of the film would fall apart. However, Navarrette is the one who elevates the movie into something unforgettable. She taps into something completely unhinged and emotionally raw, reminiscent of the intensity Naomi Scott brought to Smile 2. Navarrette fully commits to the role, delivering a performance that deserves to be remembered as one of the year’s very best. She completely disappears into the character, and it’s hard to imagine this film not becoming a major turning point in her career. Unfortunately, like many standout horror performances, it’s unlikely to receive the serious awards recognition it deserves — a frustrating reality for the genre that still hasn’t fully changed. The film is just as darkly funny as it is horrifying. Much of the humor comes from sheer disbelief that the movie is willing to go as far as it does in certain scenes. The shocks are outrageous at times, yet they never feel cheap because the film fully earns them through its storytelling and character work. It can be frustrating watching Michael Johnston’s character make certain choices, but the way he continually forgives Inde Navarrette’s character adds another layer to the film’s themes and emotional complexity. Just when it feels like the story has reached a natural stopping point for these characters, the film pushes even further into darkness, culminating in a finale that lands on a haunting note and lingers long after the credits roll. Overall, Obsession fully lives up to the hype, delivering not only one of the strongest films of the year so far, but potentially a future horror classic. The performances are consistently strong across the board, with the entire cast bringing weight and authenticity to the material. Still, it’s Inde Navarrette who delivers the standout performance, anchoring the film in a way that will likely define her as one of the year’s best. Thematically, writer-director Curry Barker crafts a story that lingers well beyond its runtime. It’s the kind of film that doesn’t just end—it settles in, slowly revealing new layers the more you sit with it, leaving you reflecting on its ideas the more you think about it. Obsession releases in theaters May 15th! RATING: 4.5/5
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 Jessica Rothe began to earn her title of “Scream Queen” with the hit horror\comedy Happy Death Day back in 2017. She has made her mark in other films like her co-starring role in Boy Kills World, her supporting role in La La Land and the star of a short lived MTV show Mary + Jane, but her horror work is where she thrives. While it has been 6 years since the last Happy Death Day movie, Jessica has still been thriving in the horror genre and she landed her new starring role in Affection. In Affection, Jessica plays Ellie/Sarah a woman who wakes up with no recollection of the husband and daughter that she wakes up to, but actually remembers an entirely different life with another husband and son. As she starts to recover from her condition, Ellie begins to discover different oddities about her newfound life; she uncovers the secrets behind it all. First off, major props on the feature film debut of writer/director BT Meza with a solid new addition to the horror/sci-fi genre. Affection is mainly centered around grief and how damaging obsession can be to a person’s mental faculties. The characters Meza wrote here are fleshed out and keep the story interesting with the incredible performances from Jessica Rothe, Joseph Cross and Julianna Layne. Seeing Joseph annually deal with grief in the Christmas classic Jack Frost, this was an interesting role for him to tackle so many years later. In the beginning, Ellie is freaking out about her sudden new reality in this farmhouse with strangers and Bruce (Cross) has a calming yet untrustworthy aura about him that leaves you uneasy immediately. Julianna is a very talented young actress and her reactions to the scary moments felt quite authentic, but Jessica Rothe is the star of Affection. Rothe acts almost animalistic when she wakes up in a stranger's home. Throughout the movie, she also has physical muscle spasms and seizures and makes them look so real and unsettling. Her almost possession-like movements could rival Linda Blair back in The Exorcist.  As Ellie starts to peel back the curtain and sees what’s happening, the visuals darken, the audio drops and prepares to force urine to exit your body. While speaking on the visual look of Affection, the practical effects and makeup team are the shining stars of this project. When the climax reveal comes, Ellie has some physical changes that will sear themselves permanently into your brain and disturb you to the core. While the story is a bit too predictable at times, the eerie visuals and the plot reveal at the climax do the heavy lifting.
In the end, Affection may have some familiar plot elements to other films in the genre, but it has a unique visual identity that is unforgettable. Affection shows the audience the importance of working through your grief, rather than trying to distract yourself or substitute the void. BT Meza created a creepy world puppeteered by a madman trying to create his utopia using people like avatars. Jessica Rothe has become a sci-fi/horror queen and she has rightfully earned such a title with performances like Affection. Don't order a bunch of food or popcorn before walking into your theater, because while the title may sound like it may, Affection does NOT care about your feelings. Affection is playing in select theaters starting May 8th! Rating: 3.5/5 Review by Steve Barton II  With the previous installment releasing to mixed reviews, Mortal Kombat 2 had to make some adjustments if they wanted to win back the soured fans and critics alike. Mortal Kombat as a video game series is one of the most successful fighting franchises in history, but the films are the opposite side of the coin. The first film had moderate success back in 1995 critically and financially, but Mortal Kombat: Annihilation was so horrible in every way that it ended the film franchise until 2021! The coronavirus pandemic unfortunately played a major role in the box office for the 2021 reboot of the franchise, but it was also released on HBO MAX. Fans and critics liked the gore and fan service, but that’s about it. After five grueling years, Mortal Kombat II picks up right after the last movie with Shao Kahn as the emperor of the Outworld challenging Earth’s best fighters to a tournament to defend their realm. To fill out their team, Sonya Blade and Raiden recruit the renowned martial artist and action star Johnny Cage. The filmmaking team behind Mortal Kombat II did the unthinkable and listened to the criticism from the first. Many people didn’t care for Lewis Tan’s character, Cole Young as the main character and his screen time was significantly reduced. Instead, they let Karl Urban eat up the screen and portray Johnny Cage in spectacular fashion! While the fan campaign behind The Miz from WWE was convincing, Karl Urban nails the sarcastic humor and tough guy persona from his experience as The Butcher and Judge Dredd for Johnny. The filmmakers also must’ve dug deeper into the lore of Mortal Kombat because they did tons of fan service from characters, settings, gnarly deaths and the familiar iconic tune that every fan knows. When the Mortal Kombat theme hits those theater speakers in Dolby Atmos, your heartbeat will start pumping to the beat and you’ll be ready to FIGHT!  With Mortal Kombat being such a fantastical world, they’re forced to create a lot of the world with digital effects and imagination. Major props to the entire cast for the fight choreography and miming the motions of blasting someone with a weapon or decapitating their opponents and making it look seamless when the effects are added in the end. With the invention of virtual production walls, it helps the performers put themselves in the fictional environment and gives the added authenticity that they desperately needed. The action is cut to the incredible soundtrack from Benjamin Wallfisch, adding to the engrossing tension and elevating the great sound design.
In the end, Mortal Kombat II improves on the first film in every way. Simon McQuoid listened to the fans and teamed up with Jermey Slater to create the world that fans have been itching to see since 1992. The technological advancements have made this mystical world identical to the games and the actors having fun bring these icons to life with their cheese-drenched dialogue and incredible costumes. If you enjoy gory action, silly dialogue and incredibly creative visuals and sound design, Mortal Kombat II awaits you on the big screen. Mortal Kombat II begins the fight in theaters starting May 8th! Rating: 3.5/5 Review by Steve Barton II  In the current Hollywood landscape, book adaptations come out almost every weekend and it’s hard to decide which ones are worth the time. Luckily, if you see the name Olivia Newman on the director’s chair, you’ve made the right choice! Olivia directed 2022’s Where the Crawdad’s Sing and several episodes of the series adaptation of Laura Dave’s novel The Last Thing He Told Me, so she’s had some solid reps in the adaptation department. Remarkably Bright Creatures is the newest Netflix original film and it’s an adaptation of the beloved 2022 novel from Shelby Van Pelt. The film follows Tova (Sally Field) as an aging widow who works in a local aquarium as the night shift janitor and she grows a bond with Marcelleus, the old octopus voiced by the legendary Alfred Molina. After Tova suffers a leg injury, she’s forced to train her replacement, a newcomer to the small town named Cameron (Lewis Pullman) who is lost in life and looking for his birth father. The two lost souls develop an unlikely bond and learn how to live through grief and loss together. While it may be rewarding to read the novel before seeing Remarkably Bright Creatures, it’s not required text to enjoy this film. From my limited knowledge, the story is faithful to the source material and it will absolutely rip your heart out to show it to you. The major themes explored are grief, aging and the magical power of friendship. With the brilliant narration creatively filling in context through an aging octopus, aspects like this make it stand out among the rest. Rather than a hardly written side character that’s purely there for exposition dumps and comedic relief, Marcellus is a major contributor to the overarching plot and creates a genuine connection with these lost souls.  Sally Field is putting in her bid early for an Oscar nomination and I’m gladly co-signing! Sally has had a storied career and has been in so many iconic films like Smokey and the Bandit and Lincoln and even won 2 Oscars back in the 1980s. With her role as Tova, Sally digs into some real emotions as an older actress who has surely dealt with loss being typecasted into basic “grandmother” roles in more recent years like 80 for Brady. She and Lewis Pullman bounce one another in scenes so perfectly and their emotional scenes will have the whole house in tears. Both of their characters have been dealt horrible hands in the game of life, yet they find meaning again in themselves and others with the help of their eight-armed friend.
Remarkably Bright Creatures may cause you to grab the tissue box on several occasions to wipe away the sad tears, you’ll need them for the happy ones too! While Tova may be an older woman, her spunk and personality keeps her young at heart. She has no problem putting folks in their place and standing up for what’s right, with a couple dashes of sass that only Sally can do. Lewis Pullman also has an incredible acoustic rendition of Radiohead’s I Can’t that hits like an emotional gut punch, especially after learning all the pain that Cameron has experienced over the years and the power of overcoming it. The rest of the cast is full of great performances that fill in this small town that makes it feel adorable and claustrophobic in the next breath. In the end, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a film that you’ll never regret spending the time watching. Everything from the incredibly touching story and the exorbitantly talented cast will certainly have fans of the novel fulfilled and satisfy newcomers too. The world collectively paused when Alfred Molina returned to Doc Ock back in 2021 and they will do the same for Marcellus (eventually). Remarkably Bright Creatures is available on Netflix starting May 8th! Rating: 5/5 Review by Steve Barton II  The vast, sprawling world of nature documentaries has become a popular genre over the last 10 years. With high profile releases like the many BBC’s Planet Earth series or the variety of releases from National Geographic, a few of them were destined to find their way into the mainstream consumer’s consciousness. While many viewers report that they turn on Planet Earth to relax and take in nature at its purest state, they may find it difficult to find any moment of peace and relaxation while watching The Python Hunt. The Python Hunt follows several groups of unique people from different walks of life that share one common goal…killing as many pythons as they can! The documentary follows an annual event in the Everglades called The Python Hunt where the local government offers a monetary reward for whoever harvests the most pythons by the end of the 5 day hunt. With the incentive of small riches, many colorful characters show up to live out their strange desires to kill, while others are doing it to save the wildlife. The strongest aspect of The Python Hunt is the variety of subjects the audience is introduced to throughout the runtime. During your watch, you’ll hear from the locals who directly deal with the fallout from this invasive species, tourists who are purely present for money and others who are battling with themselves over the ethics of the whole event. The variety of viewpoints/perspectives makes this a unique and interesting experience to watch. Throughout the quick paced 90 minute extravaganza, you hear and see different points of view that may cause an internal conflict of which side you’re really on, with convincing arguments on the ethics of killing these animals who are only acting in their nature. In the same breath, you also hear some borderline conspiracy theories, but that comes with the Florida man territory.  When The Python Hunt first begins, it can be mistaken for a narrative feature rather than a documentary purely from how it’s shot and edited. The cameras and lenses that Xander Robin and his crew shot with gives the film a polished look and can quickly make you forget that you’re watching real footage of snake hunters. Unlike many documentaries that rely on B-roll and assets that fill in gaps of moments or subjects they couldn’t film, The Python Hunt rarely has to cut away. The subjects let these cameras in all aspects of their lives during this hunting week without bias and it gives the feeling that you’re along for the wild adventure. They use extreme close-up shots a few times throughout the emotional beats of the film and while they could come across as comical, the music embedded underneath helps it stay grounded.
In the end, The Python Hunt is a uniquely beautiful and insightful documentary that’s as informative and intriguing as it is disturbing. During the runtime, you hear first-hand accounts of how the pythons are destroying the ecosystem and killing wildlife, but you also know that it’s a man-made issue and the snakes didn’t choose to live in the Everglades. Some of the people participating are doing it to help nature and to save their home, while others do it purely for a payday and to act on their desires to kill. Strong art and films will inherently cause debate and The Python Hunt shows both sides of the ethical dilemma and leave the audience to choose their side. Even though we all have our own opinions on the ethics of the hunt, we can all agree that Granny Anne is absolutely terrifying! The Python Hunt slithers its way into select theaters starting May 8th! Rating: 4/5 |