The Dollmaker, The Voices of Our Mother, Project: Hail Mary, Underworld: Blood Wars, and 20 Million Miles to Earth

We’ve got FIVE big films to discuss this week. We’ll open with “The Dollmaker,” which was the favorite of the week for both of us. “The Voices of Our Mother” comes up second, followed by the sci-fi sorta-apocalypse with “Project: Hail Mary,” all three of which are recent releases. For our oldies, we’ll wrap up the vampire series with “Underworld: Blood Wars” and then a real oldie, “20 Million Miles to Earth” from 1957.

All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #59, for August 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 The Dollmaker

* AKA “Encantador”

* Directed by: Jose Maria Cicala

* Written by: Jose Maria Cicala, Griselda Sanchez

* Stars: Mario Alarcon, Alejandra Baldoni, Griselda Sanchez

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

In a town filled with quirky characters, Tomas leads a quiet life taking care of his mom and working two jobs with doll making and collecting as a hobby. But women are disappearing in town, and when a police inspector comes to town to help, things start getting even weirder. It’s a strange movie, kind of surreal, almost a Twin Peaks vibe. We both thought it was great.

Spoilery Synopsis

We watch some crafty credits, and then get on with it. A girl gets whacked in the head with a shovel and dragged off.

Tomas finds a doll’s head on the road on the way to the doctor’s office. He makes and repairs the world’s ugliest CPR dolls for the doctor. He hallucinates his mother suffering in the mental ward. He then attends a group therapy session where Tina talks about her family as Tomas sketches her. The bloody ghost of her dead mother attends the session as well. He follows her most of the way home afterward.

A new inspector starts, and the police chief shows him around the town of Palacios. The chief doesn’t even carry a gun. Soon, they get another missing woman complaint. They aren’t necessarily dead, so that’s not a crime, the sheriff explains. We soon see these cops are just a little on the incompetent side.

Tomas goes home and finds his mother on the floor; she’s not well. He sometimes sees her as a big plastic doll, and he has to carry her around. He tells her about Tina, his new bride-to-be (I’m totally getting the Norman Bates vibe from him and think she’s probably really a doll).

We cut to the missing woman being handcuffed and raped in a dark room.

Tomas drives Tina to the drag-dancing-diner she works at after her next session, but he can’t stay because his mother is home waiting for him. She mentions having a daughter, but Tomas sees her with a child doll and thinks she’s delusional. Plus Tomas gets the wrong idea about her obviously-gay friend, Robert. He goes home and yells at Mother. Then he apologizes later and she forgives him.

Tomas, who works for a very weird video store, goes to a client’s house to pick up an overdue film. The police arrest Tomas outside the house, and he misses his “date” with Tina. It turns out, the house (and video) belonged to one of the missing girls. The sheriff soon releases him and chews out the dumb cops.

In case we forgot about the missing women, there’s a scene of a girl getting chopped up with a hand-saw while another captive screams watching.

At the video store, the police want a list of clients. They notice the strange locked room in the back, but they don’t have a warrant. Turns out, all the missing women were clients of the video store where Tomas works.

Tomas asks Tina to come over for dinner, so he has to clean up the house; he explains it all to Mother and then puts away all his way-too-heavy dolls. He goes to pick her up at work, but she left earlier because she got a call about a problem with her daughter. He ends up going home and throwing a tantrum.

In the morning, Tomas goes to the video store to find his boss being arrested. The boss, the doctor, and the priest are identical triplets, which confuses the police. Tina apologizes, blaming her sick child (who Tomas thinks is a doll).

We finally see Tomas in the dark room torturing the kidnapped women; yes, it really is him. He cuts out body parts, to please his mother, who really is a doll herself. He puts some real eyes in the mother-doll.

Tina comes over for dinner as promised this time. She spends the night, but in the morning, she hears screaming from another part of the house. She finds “Mother” and freaks out, running away.

At the police station, the video store boss implicates Tomas, who delivered gift cards to the victims’ house. Tina goes to work and tells Robert about the doll with real eyes and a heart– and the screams. They both wonder if it was real or if Tina is having another “episode.”

That night, Robert goes to Tomas’s house and snoops. He, too, gets a shovel to the face.

Tina and her “daughter” come to Tomas’s place to apologize, and he’s got bodies all over the place that he has to clean up in a hurry. Tomas knows his mother is a doll, and he believes Tina’s daughter is one as well. They are made for each other. He’s got a “roomful of dolls” to show the daughter.

The video store owner admits that Tomas is the police chief’s son, and the old man has been hiding things. Tomas killed his mother when he was very little, and there was a whole coverup by the three triplets. Soon, everyone is out searching for Tomas and Tina.

While Tina is talking, Robert crawls up out of where he was being kept, not quite dead. He knocks over mom’s ashes, Tomas freaks out and kills him with a pitchfork, Tina screams and Tomas clubs her.

Meanwhile the sheriff and the doctor kiss and then commit suicide. Tomas then gives a warm loving speech to all his collection of “dolls.” As the inspector comes in and sees what’s happened. We get to see Tomas’ last hallucination, with the assumption the inspector shot him dead.

Brian’s Commentary

That diner is even weirder than Waffle House.

The police in this town are absolutely comic-relief material. It’s weird, and a little funny in a Twin-Peaks kinda way. We don’t know for sure who the killer really is until very far into the film, although there are numerous weird characters who could have been it. There are also influences from “Psycho” here as well.

It’s a little dull and hard to follow in the beginning, but once we learn who’s who, it all gets pretty good.

It was very weird. I liked it!

Kevin’s Commentary

Tomas had a Norman Bates vibe going from early on in the movie, and I suspected early on he was the killer. And it turns out he’s even loonier than I expected.

That diner-bar-nightclub-dragshow-karaoke place where Tina works looks fun. In addition to Tomas being so whacked, the whole town has a little bit of a surreal vibe to it, full of odd characters.

It’s very strange, and I really liked it a lot.

2026 The Voices of Our Mother

* Director: Mark O’Brien

* Writers: Mark O’Brien

* Stars: Sheila McCarthy, Georgina Reilly, Mark O’Brien, Carolina Bartczak, Alex Ozerov-Meyer

* Runtime: 93 minutes (1 hour 33 minutes)

* Trailer Link:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A complicated family relationship is made worse when four siblings return home to help out their ailing mother, who seems to either have a possession or dementia. Either way, she’s not right and things get worse as the movie progresses. Mark O’Brien does a really good job as writer, director, and one of the siblings. It builds steadily to a conclusion that was pretty satisfying. We both enjoyed it.

Spoilery Synopsis

A woman reads a book but stops when she hears something large stomping around outside. The thing tears the door off and the fireplace suddenly goes crazy. She grabs a gun, but that’s not going to help. “You’re mine and no one else’s,” says the monstrous voice. “I need your help, Annika.” Then she sits up– it was a nightmare. Later, Annika remembers talking to her grandma about helping her mother. Credits roll.

Two old women sit in church, almost the only ones there, and listen to Father Roslovic’s sermon. They go home and one reads a story to the other. Harriet is Johanna’s daughter, and she’s got problems. “You’re mine and no one else’s,” Johanna repeats over and over. In the morning, Johanna is dead. Harriet dramatically crawls to the phone to call for help.

Therese, William, and Martin are the children, and they all soon arrive. Dr. Meyer talks to them about Harriet, who seems to be healthier and mentally like a child now. It wasn’t a stroke, it’s not dementia, it’s something else. William is bitter about the whole thing and thinks Harriet should be institutionalized.

Annika, the fourth child, is a nun, and she doesn’t really want to go home, but the other nuns convince her that she should; she talks about being abused by her father.

The three siblings take Harriet home, and Annike is there waiting for them. We take a little time to learn all the siblings’ problems. William is broke and has a gambling problem. Therese is an angry widow. Martin is a useless junkie and was written out of the will.

At the funeral service the next day, Harriet freaks out and punches the preacher. She’s soon back in the hospital, but the doctors can’t find a problem.

Therese accuses William of having an affair with her dead wife and may have been the one who killed her. She’s got a bit of a grudge. As they all argue, Harriet starts laughing upstairs. Harriet says the others have done awful things, they aren’t pure like Annika. They got Martin to kill their father and maybe Therese’s wife as well. Then Harriet walks out the window and vanishes.

Annika finds Harriet standing outside the church, just staring. They take her home and build a jail cell in the basement for her. Father Roslovic comes over and talks about her odd behavior. Is she possessed? This leads to more arguing. Annika insists that they let the priest assess Harriet.

It soon becomes clear that Harriet is possessed, big time. Grandma’s prayers were holding the thing back, but now it’s free to “infect” all of them. She’s not subtle about it. The priest says the demon is feeding on the family conflict; their father was really a good man until Harriet corrupted him.

The siblings all get drunk, and Martin admits to shooting their father with William’s help. Harriet bangs on the wall in the basement as they all yell at each other. Therese and William decide it’s time to just kill Harriet. Annika tells about the time her grandma asked her to take care of Harriet the way she did, so this is technically all her problem now. She knows the whole story about how Grandma made a deal with Satan.

Father Roslic gets a letter mailed by Johanna before her death with some instructions.

Martin decides to come clean about killing their father, and William attacks him to prevent him from leaving and going to the police. Before long, William and Therese are dead. Martin then shoots himself, leaving Annika alone in the house with Harriet.

Annika hears the big demon stomping around upstairs and takes the gun. Roslovic comes in and hands her the instructions before he is also killed.

As the house burns around her, Annika finally sees the gargoyle-like demon that is really her mother. She prays really hard, and the demon goes away. Harriet is there, and she looks normal again. Since smoke inhalation isn’t a thing in horror movies, Annika picks up the old woman and carries her outside through the burning house. “You’re mine and no one else’s,” she repeats over and over.

Brian’s Commentary

It starts off really slow, with lots of family drama, but it gets more and more ominous as it proceeds. At least we didn’t have to sit through another exorcism.

I didn’t quite understand what Harriet was, but the ending is far from a happy one. What happens when Harriet eventually dies of old age or something?

Kevin’s Commentary

It was a good script, weaving the family drama and issues into the supernatural and amplifying things.

All the effects were good, but I thought the demon effect at the end was especially cool.

I liked the double implication of “You’re mine and no one else’s,” that could be ominous or benevolent.

I dug it. It was very good.

2026 Project Hail Mary

* Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

* Written by: Drew Goddard

* Stars: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Milana Vayntrub

* Run Time: 2 Hours, 36 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A solitary astronaut wakes up from a hibernation sleep on a starship with huge gaps in his memory, and slowly discovers he is on a desperate mission to save Earth from a solar-system-killing threat. After waiting years for this adaptation of Andy Weir’s hit novel, we weren’t sure if the movie could pull off the book’s almost-excessive science and central alien friendship– but they did. We both loved it. It takes a few visual liberties with the math and science (it’s a movie, not the book), but it’s a wild ride. The special effects are amazing, and it’s just plain fun. The long run time flew by, and we were both entertained.

Spoilery Synopsis

“I’m allergic to peanuts,” is pretty much the first functional thought Ryland Grace has as he wakes up in a sterile chamber attached to tubes. Two of his crewmates are dead in their pods beside him, reduced to mummies. He doesn’t even remember his own name, let alone why he’s in deep space.

As his memory slowly trickles back through flashbacks, he remembers that he was a middle school science teacher recruited by Eva Stratt—the head of a global task force. She explained to him that a microscopic organism named “Astrophage” is eating the Sun’s energy, threatening a global extinction-level ice age. In fact, all the nearby stars seem to be fading. Except for one. Why?

The star Tau Ceti is the only one reasonably close that seems to be immune to the infection, so humanity built the Hail Mary, a probably-suicide-mission starship powered by Astrophage fuel, to travel there and find out why. Naturally, Ryland had a big part in the design of the engine they use; actually, he learns that he’s the world’s biggest expert on the Astrophage, so he’s indispensable to the mission.

While orbiting Tau Ceti, Ryland makes a shocking discovery: another ship is in the system. He makes contact with an alien vessel operated by a five-legged, spider-like creature made of heavy stone who communicates entirely through musical chords. Ryland names him “Rocky.” Rocky’s home sun is also dying from Astrophage, and he is also the sole survivor of his own crew.

The two science nerds form an instant bond. They build a pressurized airlock tunnel between their ships so they can work together. Ryland learns Rocky’s musical language using a laptop program, and together they start running experiments on Tau Ceti’s atmosphere. They discover a natural predator to Astrophage: a microbe they name “Taumoeba.” However, breeding Taumoeba in lab conditions presents a huge problem—the microbe dies when exposed to tiny traces of methane.

Through dangerous trial and error, Ryland selectively breeds a line of Taumoeba that can survive methane exposure. With enough Taumoeba bred to save both Earth and Rocky’s home planet of Erid, they stock their respective ships and part ways. Ryland sets course back to Earth, sending unmanned probes ahead to carry the data and samples, ready to probably starve to death on the journey home. Shortly after departing, Ryland realizes a fatal flaw: the methane-resistant Taumoeba he bred has adapted to eat through Xenonite, the material Rocky’s ship is made of.

Rocky’s fuel tanks are going to be destroyed, leaving him stranded to die in space. Ryland makes the ultimate choice: He redirects his ship, sacrificing his last chance to return to Earth, and saves Rocky just as his ship breaks down. He hopes the probes containing samples and data that he sent to Earth arrive safely.

Much later, Ryland is living on Rocky’s home world among the Eridians. He receives news via long-range light signals that Earth’s Sun has recovered, meaning his probes made it home. He spends his days happily doing what he loves most: teaching a classroom full of little alien kids. Rocky tells him that they fixed his ship up and he could return to Earth any time he wants to. But maybe he’ll stick around there for a while yet.

Brian’s Commentary

I’m skeptical that anyone could learn a complex alien language based entirely on musical pitches using a basic Excel spreadsheet. I had high expectations coming into this one after loving the book, and it really delivered. Actually, I thought there was a little too much science in the book, and it dragged at times; the movie fixes that problem. Gosling carries the solo screen time effortlessly, and the CGI for Rocky makes a giant rock-spider surprisingly adorable. The many flashbacks as he recovers his memory is straight from the book and well done.

It’s every bit as good as you’ve heard.

Kevin’s Commentary

The science holds up surprisingly well for a blockbuster, though there were points here and there that kind of work because the plot requires it. Such as the speeds they travel at.

But overall it’s a movie that’s hard to nitpick. It’s a big story, and I really liked how we gradually figure out what’s going on along with Ryland as some of his memories return, and we see lots of flashbacks revealing how he got there. And what the problem is that he has to solve. I’ve never read the book, so I went into this pretty blind.

In some ways it reminded me of “The Martian,” not surprising since it’s by the same author, but this one has a buddy factor that livens things up. And Ryan Gosling was the perfect choice for the role.

Sometimes, highly hyped movies don’t live up to it, but this one really does. It’s entertaining from the beginning to the end. A great ending by the way. For such a long run time, I was never bored.

2016 Underworld: Blood Wars

* Directed by: Anna Foerster

* Written by: Cory Goodman, Kyle Ward, Kevin Grevioux

* Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Theo James, Tobias Menzies

* Run Time: 1 Hours, 31 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

More time has passed since the last movie and the lycans and vampires are in all out war again. While looking stylish and cool in a world seen through a blue filter where humans are barely seen or mentioned. Selene and David are still teamed up, with Michael no longer in the picture. It’s a decent continuation of the story, but it skips the contents of the previous movie in most ways. It’s not perfect, but we were pretty entertained. If you liked the previous movies so far, you’ll probably enjoy this one as well.

Spoilery Synopsis

We get some recap of the earlier films before the credits roll.

Selene is nearly captured by a bunch of humans and a lycan until she’s rescued by David. He’s looking for Eve, Selene’s daughter, and he says the lycans have a new leader, Marius, who wants to capture Eve. David gets shot in the battle, and he’ll need help.

Meanwhile, the vampires apparently have a new castle somewhere. Thomas, from the previous film, comes to visit Samira, who is in charge now. She complains that they’re losing the war to the lycans. She’s afraid of a large-scale lycan attack. Samira wants Selene to hunt Marius and train new Death Dealers. She’s got some Corvinus blood and has special powers above all the other vampires.

At the lycan camp, Marius is making plans to kill all the vampires. Thomas addresses the vampire council, convincing them to bring in Selene, whom the whole council hates for killing Marcus and Viktor.

Thomas and Selene arrive at the new vampire castle and meet the other potential Death Dealers. Cassius, one of the new elders, is really not pleased about Selene being there. Varga is their best lycan killer, but he’s nowhere near Selene’s league. In a practice battle, she clearly beats him, but he sticks her with a poison nightshade blade. He immediately kills all the new Death Dealer recruits at Selene’s instruction and frames Selene: double cross!

Thomas fights off Samira and Varga as Thomas escapes with Selene, but the old vampire doesn’t survive the fight. Samira sends Alexia to track Selene, but she’s really working for Marius.

Selene and Thomas head to the far north, where there’s one last isolated coven that’s friendly to them. The place seems to be full of Targaryen vampires, led by Vidar. He reveals that Amelia, one of the grand elders, was Thomas’s mother, who left him a magic sword. Turns out, Thomas is supposed to be the leader of all the vampires.

Suddenly, lycans attack. The lycans brought guns, but the vamps only have swords and crossbows. Selene and Marius fight, as do David and Lena. With Alexia’s help, Marius gets the better of Selene, but she really doesn’t know where Eve has been hiding. Marius says he’s running out of time and needs to attack Samira’s coven right away. Selene hides under the frozen ice to get away from Marius.

Later, Lena uses her elf-magic to revive Selene. Meanwhile, Samira uses the blood she stole earlier from Selene to supercharge herself. Alecia returns and disables the security system. Samira knows all about Alexia’s treachery and kills her for it. Samira then turns on the council and does a coup, just as David shows up to take over as last of the purebloods.

Varga turns against Samira just as the lycans attack. The vampires do pretty well until the lycans start breaking windows and letting the sunlight in. It’s all looking pretty grim until Selene returns, now blonde and supercharged with northern elf-magic, along with a bunch of Nordic vamps as backup.

Marius fights Selene again. David fights Samira, who dies. Selene tastes Marius’s blood and learns that he’s the one who killed Michael; he’s been injecting himself with Michael’s blood to supercharge himself. She pulls his spine out.

The Eastern and the Northern covens join up, and Selene is appointed to be one of the main elders now.

Brian’s Commentary

How did the humans allow that many vampires to occupy a fortress after the events of the previous film? This is all about the vampires vs lycans again, mostly ignoring the human threat set up in the previous film.

This one is a bit of a mess. It doesn’t really continue the main plotline of the previous film, instead going back to the formula of the first two films (which is probably for the better). Eve, the main Maguffin of the previous film, is mostly forgotten here. And what’s up with the blonde elf-vampires? They have magic now? The CGI version of Marius, with his human face, is ridiculous.

There is talk of a sixth film in 2026, which will probably be a reboot. Not sure how they’ll handle that with Kate Beckinsale in her mid-fifties now. I guess we’ll see.

Kevin’s Commentary

Yeah, like Brian points out, what happened to an outraged humanity who knew vampires and lycans existed and wanted to wipe them all out? This movie, we’ll just ignore humans pretty much completely. And speaking of humans, what were those blond vampires feeding on out in their isolated fortress out the middle of the frozen wasteland?

Selene takes more abuse in this one one than any of the previous movies, but of course she comes out okay in the end. I’m assuming that if they reboot it, there will be a new Selene actress.

It’s not quite on par with the first movie, or couple movies, but I was still entertained.

1957 20 Million Miles to Earth

* Directed by: Nathan Juran

* Written by: Robert Creighton Williams, Christopher Knopf, Charlott Knight

* Stars: William Hopper, Joan Taylor, Thomas Browne Henry

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 22 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The first manned expedition to Venus crash lands when it returns to Earth. A collected specimen starts small and grows into a gigantic creature that runs amok to terrify the world. The effects are quite good, considering the year, with a stop-action creature. The cast is good, the script has a decent story that moves well. It’s all around a fun 1950s creature feature.

Spoilery Synopsis

We’re told about the way scientific advances just seem to jump up on us, like atomic power and now… space travel! Credits roll.

Italian fishermen complain about catching cows in Texas. Suddenly, they stop and look up– it’s a space rocket! It crashes right next to the fishing boats. They spot a hole in the side and check it out. Two men climb inside the huge rocket and go down deep inside and find several dead Air Force men, along with two survivors. Just as they exit the ship, it sinks below the sea.

Later, at the Pentagon, General McIntosh and Dr. Uhl don’t know where the ship crashed down, but they’ve had sightings. They get the report that the ship has been found.

Back in Sicily, Pepe, the little boy from the boat, finds a device, “Project 5” and hides it in a cave. He opens the tube, and inside is a small, slimy lump. The Italians bring Dr. Leonardo, a vacationing American scientist, and his daughter Marisa to investigate. Pepe takes the thing he found to Leonardo to sell it for 200 Lira.

Colonel Robert Carter, one of the astronauts, wakes up and wants to know what’s going on. The other man, Dr. Sharman, has something growing on his face, and Carter knows it’s terminal. Sharman wants to know what happened to his sample, and they assume it went down with the ship. Then Sharman dies.

The gooey blob hatches into a little lizard-man in the professor’s trailer, and Marisa and Leonardo see it. They put it in a cage, but the next morning, the thing is much bigger.

General McIntosh and Dr. Uhl arrive in Sicily and meet Bob Carter. They explain the whole Venus expedition to the Italian Consul, Contino. The ship was hit by a meteor on the way back. Several members of the expedition died from some contagion they caught on the surface. They brought back, but lost, a sample of the lifeforms of Venus.

Colonel Bob offers Pepe money to tell him about the sample container and tells them about Professor Leonardo, who is on the way to Rome.

On the road, the creature, even bigger now, breaks out of the cage and runs off. Shortly after, the Americans catch up and hear the story. It shouldn’t have grown so fast or so large, but maybe there’s something on Earth that’s affecting it.

The creature comes upon a farm and eats from a bag of sulfur; it also wounds the farm dog. Bob and the others show up, and they all have it cornered in the barn. They try and fail to force it into a cage, but when the farmer hits it with a pitchfork, it attacks him. Bullets don’t seem to have much effect on it.

The Italian officials insist now that the creature must be destroyed. They start searching the hills, as the Americans search with helicopters. Bob and Dr. Uhl fly over the creature and capture it in an electrified net.

The general gives a press conference, where he explains everything again. The creature’s being held at the zoo, and he’s gotten way bigger. They keep it asleep with a constant flow of electricity. They’re studying how the creature breathes on Venus and adapting that for humans. This gives Bob and Marisa plenty of time to flirt.

Suddenly, the power goes out and the creature wakes up. It breaks loose and attacks an elephant. The two go back and forth through the streets of Rome, crushing cars and people all along the way past several landmarks. The elephant eventually loses the battle, but the creature keeps on going.

The creature disappears into the river for a few hours, and when it comes out, it’s even bigger. It hides inside the Coliseum, where Bob shoots it with a rocket launcher and it falls to its death.

Brian’s Commentary

The creature is another of Ray Harryhausen’s stop-motion designs, and it’s really well done. This was also his last black-and-white film, as well as his last film set in the modern age. The “Italians” in the film are stereotypes and I doubt they’re even remotely Italian.

It’s pretty standard stuff for a 50’s giant monster film, but it stands out mostly for the effects, which were great for the time. We get a lot of creature action in this one.

Kevin’s Commentary

It’s 1957, so they didn’t know yet there wasn’t any advanced life on Venus and they wouldn’t be landing people there. There weren’t probes until the 1960s.

The special effects look good, if obvious and dated, and they get the job done. I thought it was good storytelling and interesting to start it out with the rocket crash on Earth.

It’s a good one from the era.

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