Movies

Shudder is Going to Be a Bloody Good Time in May 2022!

Published

2 years ago

April 13, 2022

AMC’s all horror/thriller streaming platform, Shudder, is pulling out all the stops as we head into May 2022 with a familiar mixture of old favorites and new surprises. From new episodes with Joe Bob Brigg’s to an all new season of History of Horror, there’s something for everyone to sink their teeth into!

Check out the full lineup of releases below, and let us know what you’ll be watching on Shudder in the comments on social media!

What’s new on Shudder in May 2022? Keep scrolling!

May 1st:

Eli Roth’s History of Horror Season 3: This season of Eli Roth’s History of Horror continues to explore the fun and the fear of scary films – both timeless classics and wildly frightening films that flew under the radar, tackling the topics of Sequels (That Don’t Suck), Infections, Psychics, Apocalyptic Horror, Holiday Horror and Mad Scientists. All-star lineup of interviewees include Cate Blanchett, Margaret Cho, Jeffrey Combs, Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Lex Scott Davis, Robert Englund, Vanessa Hudgens, Elliott Knight, David Koechner, Christopher Landon, Meat Loaf, Greg Nicotero, Jonah Ray, Giovanni Ribisi, Jessica Rothe, Madeleine Stowe, Quentin Tarantino, Jennifer Tilly, Edgar Wright, Rob Zombie, and many others.

Broadcast Signal Intrusion: In the late 1990s, a video archivist unearths a series of sinister pirate broadcasts and becomes obsessed with uncovering the conspiracy behind them.

Goodnight Mommy: Twin boys who do everything together, from collecting beetles to feeding stray cats, welcome their mother home after her reconstructive surgery. But with her face wrapped in bandages, and her demeanor distant, they grow suspicious of her identity.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2: Chainsaw-wielding maniac Leatherface (Bill Johnson) is up to his cannibalistic ways once again, along with the rest of his twisted clan, including the equally disturbed Chop-Top (Bill Moseley). This time, the masked killer has set his sights on pretty disc jockey Vanita “Stretch” Brock (Caroline Williams), who teams up with Texas lawman Lefty Enright (Dennis Hopper) to battle the psychopath and his family deep within their lair, a macabre abandoned amusement park.

Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III: Driving through Texas, young yuppie couple Michelle (Kate Hodge) and Ryan (William Butler) stop at the Last Chance Gas Station, but after they witness the owner attacking a hitchhiker named Tex (Viggo Mortensen), they panic and flee. In their hasty departure, they get lost and soon find themselves pursued by the chainsaw-toting maniac known as Leatherface (R.A. Mihailoff). While running, the couple bump into survivalist Benny (Ken Foree), who they team up with in an effort to escape.

May 2nd:

The Babadook: A single mother, plagued by the violent death of her husband, battles with her son’s fear of a monster lurking in the house, but soon discovers a sinister presence all around her.

The Midnight Swim: When Dr. Amelia Brooks’ three daughters travel home to settle her affairs after she disappears in Spirit Lake, they find themselves drawn to the mysterious body of water.

May 5th:

Cursed Films II Season Finale: Shudder’s acclaimed documentary series is back to explore the facts and myths surrounding a new batch of famous films some consider cursed. In the season finale, Cursed Films travels to Roma, Italy to discuss the making of what is arguably the most controversial horror film ever made, Cannibal Holocaust. Writer/Director Ruggero Deodato discusses the film from concept through creation, including the famous court case that saw him defending himself for the murder of a performer in the heart of the Amazon. Meanwhile, his cast and crew detail the struggles they faced while trying to meet the expectations of a demanding director, who continually pushed them towards their breaking point.

May 6th:

The Twin: Shudder Exclusive. Following the aftermath of a tragic accident that claimed the life of one of their twins, Rachel (Teresa Palmer, A Discovery of Witches, Warm Bodies, Lights Out) and husband Anthony (Steven Cree, A Discovery of Witches, Outlander) relocate to the other side of the world with their surviving son in the hopes of building a new life. What begins as a time of healing in the quiet Scandinavian countryside soon takes an ominous turn when Rachel begins to unravel the torturous truth about her son and confronts the malicious forces attempting to take a hold of him.

May 9th:

Popcorn: A master of disguise deranged killer begins killing off the college students who are organizing a horror-movie marathon in an abandoned theater.

The Stylist: A lonely hair stylist becomes obsessed with the lives of her clients and descends into murderous madness.

A Ghost Waits: A man’s job requires him to clean a house, which turns out to be haunted. In the course of trying to exorcise the ghost, he falls in love with her.

May 12th:

The Sadness: The city of Taipei suddenly erupts into bloody chaos as ordinary people are compulsively driven to enact the most cruel and ghastly things they can imagine. Murder, torture, and mutilation are only the beginning. A young couple is pushed to the limits of sanity as they try to reunite amid the violence and depravity. The age of civility and order is no more. The film is the feature debut of writer and director Rob Jabbaz and stars Regina Lei (76 Horror Bookstore), Berant Zhu (We Are Champions, How to Train Our Dragon), Tzu-Chiang Wang (It’s Drizzling) and In-Ru Chen. Official Selection Locarno Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, Frightfest and winner “Best First Feature,” Fantsia International Film Festival.

May 16th:

Brain Damage: A young man discovers a disgusting parasite has attached itself to his brain stem. He becomes addicted to the psychedelic euphoria it produces, but in return he must feed it human victims.

May 19th:

The Found Footage Phenomenon: Shudder Exclusive. Directed and produced by Sarah Appleton and Phillip Escott, the documentary tracks the origins of the found footage technique and how it transformed with technological changes throughout the last few decades. The Found Footage Phenomenon features interviews with integral found footage directors whose films impacted the horror genre like no other sub-genre has, around the turn of the millennium. Score by music legend Simon Boswell.

May 23rd:

Tetsuo The Iron Man: A businessman accidentally kills The Metal Fetishist, who gets his revenge by slowly turning the man into a grotesque hybrid of flesh and rusty metal.

Tetsuo the Body Hammer: When metal-worshipping fanatics abduct his son, a father unleashes his dormant destructive power, as his naked rage transforms the once-feeble flesh into a grisly symbiosis of metal and tissue.

May 24th:

The Prowler: An unknown killer, clad in World War II U.S. Army fatigues, stalks a small New Jersey town bent on reliving a 35 year-old double murder by focusing on a group of college kids holding an annual graduation dance.

May 26th:

A Banquet: Widowed mother Holly is radically tested when her teenage daughter Betsey experiences a profound enlightenment and insists that her body is no longer her own, but in service to a higher power. Bound to her newfound faith, Betsey refuses to eat but loses no weight. In an agonizing dilemma, torn between love and fear, Holly is forced to confront the boundaries of her own beliefs. Starring Sienna Guillory, Jessica Alexander, Ruby Stokes, Lindsay Duncan. Directed by Ruth Paxton.

May 30th:

The Unseen: A television reporter and her two friends head to Solvang, California to cover a Danish festival. When there is a mix-up at the hotel and they are left without hotel rooms, the girls accept the invitation of a friendly museum owner to board at his large farmhouse because the rest of the motels in and around town are sold out. But unknown to the women, something is living in the basement of the house. Their stay soon becomes a horrific nightmare when, one by one, they encounter the ‘unseen’.

Demon Wind: The strange and brutal deaths of Cory’s grandparents has haunted him for years. Determined to discover the truth, he has returned to the desolate region where they lived, along with a group of friends, to try and uncover the mystery. Ignoring warnings from the locals that the area is cursed, Cory and his friends soon realize that the legend is true, as the Demon Wind, possesses and destroys them, one by one, turning them into monsters from hell.

May 31st:

Kolobos: Cameras record the violent deaths of several unsuspecting actors on the terrifying set of an experimental film.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Movie Reviews

Panic Fest 2024 Review: ‘Haunted Ulster Live’

Published

1 day ago

May 2, 2024

Jacob Davison

Everything old is new again.

On Halloween 1998, the local news of Northern Ireland decide to do a special live report from an allegedly haunted house in Belfast. Hosted by local personality Gerry Burns (Mark Claney) and popular children’s presenter Michelle Kelly (Aimee Richardson) they intend to look at the supernatural forces disturbing the current family living there. With legends and folklore abound, is there an actual spirit curse in the building or something far more insidious at work?

Presented as a series of found footage from a long forgotten broadcast, Haunted Ulster Live follows similar formats and premises as Ghostwatch and The WNUF Halloween Special with a news crew investigating the supernatural for big ratings only to get in over their heads. And while the plot has certainly been done before, director Dominic O’Neill’s 90’s set tale of local access horror manages to stand out on its own ghastly feet. The dynamic between Gerry and Michelle is most prominent, with him being an experienced broadcaster who thinks this production is beneath him and Michelle being fresh blood who is considerably annoyed at being presented as costumed eye candy. This builds as the events within and around the domicile becomes too much to ignore as anything less than the real deal.

The cast of characters is rounded out by the McKillen family who have been dealing with the haunting for some time and how it’s had an effect on them. Experts are brought in to help explain the situation including the paranormal investigator Robert (Dave Fleming) and the psychic Sarah (Antoinette Morelli) who bring their own perspectives and angles to the haunting. A long and colorful history is established about the house, with Robert discussing how it used to be the site of an ancient ceremonial stone, the center of leylines, and how it was possibly possessed by the ghost of a former owner named Mr. Newell. And local legends abound about a nefarious spirit named Blackfoot Jack that would leave trails of dark footprints in his wake. It’s a fun twist having multiple potential explanations for the site’s strange occurrences instead of one end-all be-all source. Especially as the events unfold and the investigators try to discover the truth.

At its 79 minute timelength, and the encompassing broadcast, it’s a bit of a slow burn as the characters and lore is established. Between some news interruptions and behind the scenes footage, the action is mostly focused on Gerry and Michelle and the build up to their actual encounters with forces beyond their comprehension. I will give kudos that it went places I didn’t expect, leading to a surprisingly poignant and spiritually horrifying third act.

So, while Haunted Ulster Live isn’t exactly trendsetting, it definitely follows in the footsteps of similar found footage and broadcast horror films to walk its own path. Making for an entertaining and compact piece of mockumentary. If you’re a fan of the sub-genres, Haunted Ulster Live is well worth a watch.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Movie Reviews

Panic Fest 2024 Review: ‘Never Hike Alone 2’

Published

1 day ago

May 2, 2024

Jacob Davison

There are fewer icons more recognizable than the slasher. Freddy Krueger. Michael Myers. Victor Crowley. Notorious killers who always seem to come back for more no matter how many times they are slain or their franchises seemingly put to a final chapter or nightmare. And so it seems that even some legal disputes cannot stop one of the most memorable movie murderers of all: Jason Voorhees!

Following the events of the first Never Hike Alone, outdoorsman and YouTuber Kyle McLeod (Drew Leighty) has been hospitalized after his encounter with the long thought dead Jason Voorhees, saved by perhaps the hockey masked killer’s greatest adversary Tommy Jarvis (Thom Mathews) who now currently works as an EMT around Crystal Lake. Still haunted by Jason, Tommy Jarvis struggles to find a sense of stability and this latest encounter is pushing him to end the reign of Voorhees once and for all…

Never Hike Alone made a splash online as a well shot and thoughtful fan film continuation of the classic slasher franchise that was built up with the snowbound follow up Never Hike In The Snow and now climaxing with this direct sequel. It’s not only an incredible Friday The 13th love letter, but a well thought out and entertaining epilogue of sorts to the infamous ‘Tommy Jarvis Trilogy’ from within the franchise that encapsulated Friday The 13th Part IV: The Final Chapter, Friday The 13th Part V: A New Beginning, and Friday The 13th Part VI: Jason Lives. Even getting some of the original cast back as their characters to continue the tale! Thom Mathews being the most prominent as Tommy Jarvis, but with other series casting like Vincent Guastaferro returning as now Sheriff Rick Cologne and still having a bone to pick with Jarvis and the mess around Jason Voorhees. Even featuring some Friday The 13th alumni like Part III‘s Larry Zerner as the mayor of Crystal Lake!

On top of that, the movie delivers on kills and action. Taking turns that some of the previous fils never got the chance to deliver on. Most prominently, Jason Voorhees going on a rampage through Crystal Lake proper when he slices his way through a hospital! Creating a nice throughline of the mythology of Friday The 13th, Tommy Jarvis and the cast’s trauma, and Jason doing what he does best in the most cinematically gory ways possible.

The Never Hike Alone films from Womp Stomp Films and Vincente DiSanti are a testament to the fanbase of Friday The 13th and the still enduring popularity of those films and of Jason Voorhees. And while officially, no new movie in the franchise is on the horizon for the foreseeable future, at the very least there is some comfort knowing fans are willing to go to these lengths to fill the void.

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'

Movies

Mike Flanagan Comes Aboard To Assist in Completion of ‘Shelby Oaks’

Published

2 days ago

May 1, 2024

Timothy Rawles

If you have been following Chris Stuckmann on YouTube you are aware of the struggles he has had getting his horror movie Shelby Oaks finished. But there’s good news about the project today. Director Mike Flanagan (Ouija: Origin Of Evil, Doctor Sleep and The Haunting) is backing the film as a co-executive producer which might bring it much closer to being released. Flanagan is a part of the collective Intrepid Pictures which also includes Trevor Macy and Melinda Nishioka.

Stuckmann is a YouTube movie critic who’s been on the platform for over a decade. He came under some scrutiny for announcing on his channel two years ago that he would no longer be reviewing films negatively. However contrary to that statement, he did a non-review essay of the panned Madame Web recently saying, that studios strong-arm directors to make films just for the sake of keeping failing franchises alive. It seemed like a critique disguised as a discussion video.

But Stuckmann has his own movie to worry about. In one of Kickstarter’s most successful campaigns, he managed to raise over $1 million for his debut feature film Shelby Oaks which now sits in post-production.

Hopefully, with Flanagan and Intrepid’s help, the road to Shelby Oak’s completion is reaching its end.

“It’s been inspiring to watch Chris working toward his dreams over the past few years, and the tenacity and DIY spirit he displayed while bringing Shelby Oaks to life reminded me so much of my own journey over a decade ago,” Flanagan told Deadline. “It’s been an honor to walk a few steps with him on his path, and to offer support for Chris’ vision for his ambitious, unique movie. I can’t wait to see where he goes from here.”

Stuckmann says Intrepid Pictures has inspired him for years and, “it’s a dream come true to work with Mike and Trevor on my first feature.”

Producer Aaron B. Koontz of Paper Street Pictures has been working with Stuckmann since the beginning is also excited about the collaboration.

“For a film that had such a hard time getting going, it’s remarkable the doors that then opened to us,” said Koontz. “The success of our Kickstarter followed by the on-going leadership and guidance from Mike, Trevor, and Melinda is beyond anything I could have hoped for.”

Deadline describes the plot of Shelby Oaks as follows:

“A combination of documentary, found footage, and traditional film footage styles, Shelby Oaks centers on Mia’s (Camille Sullivan) frantic search for her sister, Riley, (Sarah Durn) who ominously disappeared in the last tape of her “Paranormal Paranoids” investigative series. As Mia’s obsession grows, she begins to suspect that the imaginary demon from Riley’s childhood may have been real.”

Listen to the 'Eye On Horror Podcast'