Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Resident Evil, You’re Next, and The Earth Dies Screaming

This week’s new release is “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” (2026). We’ll also begin watching the Resident Evil series with “Resident Evil” (2002). “You’re Next” (2011) is up next, and finally is 1964’s “The Earth Dies Screaming.”

All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #61, for October 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 Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

* Directed by: Jane Schoenbrun

* Written by: Jane Schoenbrun

* Stars: Jack Haven, Hannah Einbeinder, Gillian Anderson

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 52 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Sexual and psychological hijinks occur when the director who is going to reboot a classic horror movie franchise visits the camp where the first movie was filmed and tries to talk the final girl from the first movie into returning to acting. And of course she has to convince her agent that’s a good idea too. It’s weird and surreal and gets more so as the movie progresses, almost like being about horror and fandom than actually being horror, and it blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.

We both agree it had good parts, and was interesting, but we were kinda bored for big chunks of it.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a movie set, and then cut to a young couple walking through a field. A crazy man with a box on his head, “LIttle Death,” kills them excessively. Credits roll as we see newspaper clippings about what a hit the movie, “Camp Miasma” was back in the days of videotape. There are numerous sequels and merchandising gimmicks. Nowadays, it’s considered a “problematic classic.” But now, there’s a new reboot in the works!

Kris calls Mari, who talks about Thor, about the new remake. She gets to the strange little Hilton Inn and talks to the proprietor about borrowing a DVD player that he has to dust off. She watches Part VI of the franchise, and it is pretty awful.

She eventually comes to Camp Tivoli, which is clearly closed for the winter. They do, however, have a building marked “Cinema,” so she has to check that out. At just about the point where she’s expecting a jump scare, Billy Presley, the star of the films, shows up. She just might actually believe that Little Death is real. He’s still waiting down at the bottom of the lake, and he always comes back. We then get a montage of them eating fried chicken…

The two discuss how Camp Miasma isn’t woke enough for modern audiences, but if they hire a queer director like Kris, that makes it OK. Kris explains all about being polyamorous, which is new to Billy. It’s a long conversation, and after, Kris wants to leave. Still, it’s late, so Billy convinces her to stay the night.

Meanwhile, out in the center of the frozen lake, something glows and starts to break free.

The two women watch the original film, released back in 1980, and it’s clear that Billy still identifies with the younger version of herself in the film. We watch as the camp counselors arrive ahead of the kids and tell the legend of the Little Death. There was a weird mute kid there one summer who was a boy on some days and a girl on others. Eventually, the other kids just drowned him. We see Little Death rise from the cold dark lake. He immediately starts killing people and spraying CGI blood everywhere. LOTS of CGI blood. He kills all the counselors within a few minutes.

Back in the real world, Kris and Billy continue watching the film. There’s a sex scene involving young Billy, and we see the killer approaching them. Just as the Little Death is about to kill them, the power goes out and the film stops.

Then we stop as Kris takes her shirt off to seduce Billy, and it appears to work quite well. Kris has visions of Little Death right in the middle of sex, which she finds annoying. Kris wants to be the victim of Little Death, or at least that’s her fantasy,

The next day, Kris does a video conference with the backers for the film. Kris reports that she’s pretty sure she’s signed Billy to be in the project, but the others aren’t at all impressed with that idea. They all expect a Little Death origin story, but she explains her concept for the film, and it’s pretty weird. [At this point, I’m looking to see how much longer this is]. The producers decide to… get back to Kris.

Kris, on the other hand, finds herself suddenly in the Miasma movie, with all the original actors and characters. Then she goes back to camp to dance and hang out with Billy again.Billy talks about losing her virginity, and it was its own “Little Death.” Kris sees Little Death rise out of the lake to chase her. She obliges by stripping down to her panties and a shirt with no bra. Mari and Thor show up just in time to be killed. So does her agent and others as things get more and more over the top like she’s in a Miasma movie.

As Billy and Kris make love in bed, Little Death approaches from outside and kills them both, which seems to be a romantically happy ending? Little Death creates the next film in the series, which stars Billy and Kris.

We flash back over all the dead bodies of people that Little Death really did kill, as he walks back out into the lake until next time. Both dead girls wake up, their fantasies fulfilled…

Brian’s Commentary

It truly is the golden age of gummy candies.

There’s so much product placement that it probably made a profit even before it was released. The in-movie movie, Camp Miasma, is a send-up of all the slasher films of the 80s, mostly the Jason Voorhees ones, but it’s far more over-the-top than those films ever really were. There’s also a lot here about washed-up actresses and ruined careers.

Most of the outdoor scenes are clearly not real places, but it gives the whole thing a surreal side that emphasizes the weirdness of the camp setting. The visuals overall are quite nice, and the in-movie gore is excessively silly, but very appropriate.

Much like the director’s previous film, “I Saw the TV Glow,” this one is heavily LGBTQ and trans friendly. It’s kinda all over the place, storywise. The in-movie Miasma stuff is hilariously gory, but the wraparound story with Kris and Billy really drags and drags.

It’s a weird one, but I have to say I was bored through about 35% of it.

Kevin’s Commentary

I too noticed the product placement. Lots of it and pretty obvious.

I thought casting Amanda Fix as young Billy, AKA young Gillian Anderson, worked really well.

Candy. There is so much candy in this movie.

I’d call it at least interesting. The visuals and acting are great. But not a lot happened in the first half, and I thought the second half started dragging. I was longing for more movie within the movie. But the ending was intriguing. I’m going to go with I liked it more than disliked it.

2002 Resident Evil

* AKA “Biohazard”

* Directed by: Paul W. S. Anderson

* Written by: Paul W. S. Anderson

* Stars: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ryan McCluskey

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 42 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A special military unit has to infiltrate an underground research facility where they deal with the undead, mutated dogs and people, and a protective computer system. And some amnesia in the mix just for fun. It’s heavy on science fiction, set in the future, and it plays out a lot like a video game for very good reason. The horror elements are there, and lots of action. It felt a little dated seeing it now, but it’s still well made and entertaining. And the ending leaves it wide open for the sequel.

Spoilery Synopsis

We are briefed on the events that led to the incident at Racoon City. We’re told that The Umbrella Corporation had become the largest commercial entity in the United States. They have products everywhere, including bio-weapons. Credits roll.

We watch as a scientist packs up some samples and then releases a virus into the air system of the science base. The dogs used as test animals notice the smell first, but the people don’t. There’s a biohazard warning, and all the doors lock down. The gas is channeled into the rooms, killing most of the employees. The people in the elevator, on the other hand, are gas-free, but trapped.

Somewhere else, Alice wakes up, naked, in the shower. She looks in the mirror and notices strange bruises. She’s alone, but finds some weapons in a locked vault.

Suddenly, ninjas attack! One of them grabs Alice and demands a report, but she doesn’t remember anything. There’s a man there, Matt, who insists he’s supposed to be there. The whole group descends to the mansion’s basement, where there’s a whole secret subway station. On the train, they find another guy with memory loss. We can see that someone is following their progress through the security monitors.

One explains to Alice and the other guy, Spence, that they all work for the corporation to protect the secrecy of the hive, where they are now. Alice, Spence, and all the soldiers enter the hive, the science base we saw earlier. “The Red Queen has locked onto us, she knows we’re here.” The Red Queen is the AI that controls the hive.

The group comes across a room full of pods, and inside those pods are people. The group’s leader, One, walks ahead of the others and unlocks the doors. Turns out, it’s a trap, and that goes badly for four of the soldiers and One.

A holographic representation of the Red Queen appears and warns them to leave immediately. Alice and JD plant the EMP device, which goes off and shuts down the computer. It also shuts down all the containment things in the building and opens all the doors. Turns out, all those scientists who died have become zombies; one of them bites Rain.

A bunch of zombies attack, and there’s a great deal of shooting. After the fighting, mutated weird things start breaking out of the pods. Alice runs into mutant zombie dogs and one of the soldiers. She does martial arts on the undead security guard and remembers that she’s a trained fighter.

Meanwhile, Matt, playing the corporate weasel (every movie’s got one one), sneaks off by himself. Turns out, he was here to spy on Umbrella and expose them to the press. Alice starts to think she might be the inside agent who was leaking the secrets outside.

The group only has about an hour to get out of the building before the doors all lock and they’re buried here, forever. They have to turn the Red Queen back on to get the doors open. The queen explains all about zombies and how to kill them.

Still, the numbers are overwhelming, and most of the soldiers die. Alice and Spence, along with Matt and the clearly infected Rain, are all that’s left. Alice gets a flashback showing her that there’s a cure for the virus. The blue vials are the virus; the green is the cure. Spence also gets his memories back; he’s the baddie who released the infection.

Spence locks everyone in a room and returns to the train, where he hid the antidote. The Red Queen, on the other hand, has released the scary mutant monster in the same place. It kills him and then uses his DNA to mutate further.

The group meets up with Kaplan, who didn’t die after all. They give Rain the antidote and get back on the train. Kaplan drives the train, at least until the big mutant gets him. Alice stabs the creature in the tongue, but then Rain turns into a zombie after all and attacks from the rear. Matt shoots Rain; Alice kills the mutant.

Alice and Matt barely make it out of the hive before lockdown happens. Matt, who was scratched, starts to turn, but a bunch of scientists storm in and cart him away. Alice is also taken away for further study.

Alice wakes up some time later in a lab, but there’s no one else there. Turns out, this lab has gotten infected as well. She breaks out of the Racoon City Hospital and sees that it’s gotten all post-apocalyptic outside.

Time for a sequel!

Brian’s Commentary

The poor Umbrella Corporation gets the blame for all of this? The corporation was legally creating bioweapons for the government. Spence was the one who released it, with help from Matt, Alice, and Matt’s sister.

There’s lots of shooting, jumping, kicking, and puzzles, almost as if this was based on a video game or something. It’s got a lot of action, one damned thing after another, but it never gets boring. The story is fine, although there really aren’t any surprises; the acting… well, it’s a videogame movie.

The CGI mutant has not held up, but the rest is all pretty good.

Kevin’s Commentary

I thought this one still holds up pretty well overall for entertainment, but it’s dated looking around the edges. Like a video game, it keeps moving steady from one thing to the next. I’d recommend it if you’re in the mood for something fun and violent.

2011 You’re Next

* Directed by: Adam Wingard

* Written by: Simon Barrett

* Stars: Sharni Vinson, Joe Swanberg, AJ Bowen

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 35 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The family gets together for mom and dad’s anniversary at their huge house in the country. Home invaders crash the party and things get deadly and violent. It becomes a cat and mouse game, and we’re left wondering who is going to survive to the end. Home invasions have been done before, but this was an especially good one. We would recommend it.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a couple having bad sex. Erik goes off for a shower, and she turns on some music. He comes out of the shower and sees “You’re Next” written on the mirror in his girlfriend’s blood. He is, in fact, next.

Paul and Aubrey arrive at the house next door to Erik’s, and the front door has been opened. They go in and start cleaning up. Paul goes to check out the upstairs, but is interrupted by Crispin, their son, and Erin, who have just arrived. There is, however, someone up there. Aimee and Tariq show up next, along with Felix and Zee.

The next morning, Crispin’s brother Drake and wife Kelly arrive and annoy Crispin. Aubrey sends Erin over to Erik’s house to borrow some milk. She goes over there but doesn’t see Erik’s body.

Dinnertime rolls around, and soon, the whole family is arguing. Tariq notices someone outside, and whoever it is out there shoots him in the head. The shots just keep on coming, and Drake gets it in the back as well. Panic ensues.

They talk Aimee into running for help, and that goes very badly, very quickly. More screaming ensues as Aimee dies from a wire-cut throat.

Aubrey goes upstairs to cry, but she’s attacked by a killer in a fox mask. Erin is also attacked, but fights him off. “You’re Next” is written on the wall. Kelly gets out the front door and runs to Erik’s house, where she runs into a sheep-masked man who finishes her off with an axe.

Crispin decides it’s his turn to run for help. Tigerman breaks in through the window, but Erin beats him to death– and she’s sure he won’t be getting up again. Paul thinks this whole thing was an organized attack and that they’ve been watching the house for days, but then he gets his throat cut and can’t elaborate further.

Turns out, the animal-men are working for Felix and Zee. Erin is still out there trying to find a way out. Sheepface finds the dead tigerman and freaks out; that was probably his brother or something. He runs into Drake, who still isn’t dead, but Erin runs him off before anyone else dies.

Drake and Erin meet up with Felix and Zee to barricade the doors. Erin says she grew up in a survivalist compound, and she’s learned some weird stuff. Felix stabs Drake repeatedly with multiple screwdrivers, and this time, he’s really going to die.

Erin jumps out the window and starts running through the woods. Sheephead steps on a nail trap which he finds annoying. Zee wants to have sex with Felix on the bed next to his dead mother. Erin hides and overhears Felix yelling at the killers for their incompetence.

Erin stabs sheephead in the forehead, and he looks dead. She then sets out “Home Alone-ing” the house. Naturally, the fox-head comes in through the window instead of the booby-trapped door. Erin uses a flashbulb to distract him and then kill him. No more masked men, just Felix and Zee are left.

Felix attacks Erin, who kills him very creatively. Zee simply gets stabbed in the head.

Felix’s phone rings; it’s Crispin, wanting to know if the murders are done. Erin is just a bit unhappy that her boyfriend would set her up to be murdered. He goes inside and runs into Erin. He explains that there was a reason she was there; as a surviving witness. He knows they can work through this as a couple. Will she join him as an accomplice?

No, she stabs him. Then she falls over; the cops have arrived and shot her. He opens the front door, which is still booby trapped, and gets an axe to the face. Credits roll.

Brian’s Commentary

We both would have insisted that we’d seen this before, but we hadn’t. It was probably since the movie poster looks so much like similar movies with home invasions by people in animal masks.

Rich people, out that far in the country, and they didn’t even have a hunting rifle? I am skeptical. I do like that these killers aren’t mysterious, unstoppable forces. They’re just guys in masks, and, although not stupid, they aren’t super overcompetent, either.

I did like this one.

Kevin’s Commentary

I suspected before the reveal that Felix was in on it. It seemed unnecessarily elaborate and drawn out though if he just wanted it to look like home invaders killed everyone else - they took their time doing it with missed opportunities to wrap things up faster. Crispin being in on it too caught me by complete surprise.

The house where it was filmed was pretty awesome.

It was kind of refreshing to see Erin break the trope of knocking down a bad guy, then running away and giving them a chance to get up and resume the chase. When she got one down, she made sure they stayed down permanently.

I thought this was a very good one. I liked it a lot.

1964 The Earth Dies Screaming

* Directed by: Terence Fisher

* Written by: Harry Spalding

* Stars: Willard Parker, Virginia Field, Dennis Price

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 2 Minutes

* Watch it:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Set in England, a small group of survivors are left after alien robots gas the planet and kill most of the population. It’s kind of interesting, but we both felt like more could have been explained and done with it. With such a short run time, they could have done a bit more to up the satisfaction. We’d both call it interesting and not bad. At least it’s a short watch.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a train derailment. A man at the station passes out. No, everyone passes out at the same time. The train crashes, a plane crashes, people are flopping down everywhere. Credits roll.

A Jeep drives into town, and Jeff Nolan, the driver, is the only one who’s awake. He steals a radio from a shop window. He checks both it and the TV, but nothing’s on but static. A man and a woman come in behind him with a gun. Quinn and Peggy are locals, and they don’t know what’s going on. The others are not sleeping, they’re dead. Jeff was up in a plane, Peggy was in an oxygen tent in a hospital. Was this some sort of attack? Quinn suspiciously doesn’t say where he was.

Violet and Ed introduce themselves. They were in a car crash and just woke up. They were fooling around in a lab that had processed air. This all indicates that maybe it was a gas attack.

Men in metal space suits come into town, and Violet runs to them. One of them turns around, touches her, and she dies. They aren’t just men in suits. Two new people drive into town, Mel and Lorna. They slept in an air raid shelter last night when this all happened.

The whole group explores a nearby army base and gets more guns and supplies. Then it’s back to the hotel where they all hang out watching for trouble and getting to know each other better.

That night, one of the weird robots returns to town and watches Lorna through a window. Jeff watches it spying on her. Quinn sneaks out in the middle of the night and packs up some food to take with him. Virginia, who died earlier, gets out of bed and goes downstairs. Quinn shoots Virginia, who is possessed somehow.

Quinn whacks Jeff over the head and then insists that Peggy leave with him. Peggy runs back to the hotel where they’d all been staying, but he’s right behind her. She gets caught between a robot man and animated dead people. Jeff arrives in his car just in time to save her by ramming the robot and shooting the zombified humans.

Jeff and Peggy return to the army base for the others, but find that Lorna is in the process of having her baby.

Jeff listens to the radio and hears the same sound that the robots are using. He thinks maybe the robots are using a local radio transmitter to control themselves. If they can find that transmitter, they might be able to disable all the robots at once. They soon find it, unguarded out in the woods.

Back at the base, Quinn leads a group of robot men inside where Peggy and Lorna are. With no time to lose, Jeff positions the explosives and gets ready to blow up the tower. Boom! The tower falls down, and so do the robots.

They all board a plane and head South.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s only 62 minutes, and the credits are quite long. Everyone just sorta falls over dead, there was no screaming as the Earth died.

It’s a few days after the end of the world, but oddly enough, the power doesn’t go off and the gas pumps work perfectly. I guess the robots kept the power running because of their radio transmitter, maybe.

Who was behind all this? The robots didn’t seem like the brains behind the attack. Also, that one little radio tower wasn’t controlling all the robots in the world, so there have to be a lot more out there.

Kevin’s Commentary

It’s said in trivia that the scenes in the opening of a plane crashing because the pilot passed out, and the car crashing into the brick wall for the same reason are recycled from “Village of the Damned” (1960).

My theory was that the invading robots were keeping the power going for their own purposes.

I thought the setup and idea was interesting, but they didn’t do enough with it. It’s uneven and the pacing drags. Though it is only about an hour long, and that helps. I didn’t hate it, but I wouldn’t really recommend it either. A solid 5 out of 10 for me.

Short Film:

2026 Short Film: Long Pork

* Directed by: Iris Dukatt

* Written by: Iris Dukatt

* Stars: Lena Headley, Marc Menchaca, Zoe Cipres, Catherine Curtin

* Run Time: 12:37

* Watch it:

What Happens

A butcher kills a pig, but the assistant gets squeamish about it. Later, the main butcher and chef talks to a friend and says “He shows promise.” The chef starts having flashbacks to her own dead daughter, and we see that they live in a strange, religious future that is very pro-birth.

The new “Chancellor of Righteousness” comes in for dinner. They talk about fresh hogs, and he grew up on a farm. He wants to see the slaughterhouse in back, so she leads him on a tour. He’s all about the babies, very anti-abortion. The chef, on the other hand, has a problem with that…

Commentary

It took a minute to realize the cook they were referring to as him and was pregnant was a trans man. Still, in this future, abortions are completely illegal, and the situation is much more like “The Handmaid’s Tale” than it is now. This was written in response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and it’s obvious where the filmmaker stands on that issue.

I knew what “Long Pork” was even before the story started, which kinda spoiled where things were going for a bit.

This one really stands out with excellent acting, music, and pacing. I want some of what they’re having!

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