V/H/S Mixtape, Ice Cream Man, Insidious: Out of the Further, and The Ghost

All New releases this week, starting with the latest in the VHS series, “V/H/S Mixtape” (2026). We’ll follow that up with the sorta-remake of “Ice Cream Man.” “The Ghost” is a very cool Irish ghost story, and “Insidious: Out of the Further” was the latest in that series as well. And we’ll watch a cool short film too!

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 V/H/S Mixtape

* Directed by: Ernest Dickerson, Flying Lotus, Tobias Forge

* Written by: Zoe Cooper, Ernest Dickerson, Matt Landsman

* Stars: Mike Ferguson, Omar Mustafa Adem, Sarah Berman

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 38 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s the twelfth V/H/S movie, again an anthology of short horror tales. This time with the performance rockers Gwar hosting the wraparound. And the stories all have the theme of music and sound as horror elements.

We’re both in agreement that we hated the Gwar segments, but the shorts were all quite good, some more favorite than others. The shorts range from very short to full story mini-movies of their own.

Despite the Gwar, we both call it a win.

Spoilery Synopsis

As with the other films in the series, this one’s an anthology, but with an audio/music theme to it. A guy in a cheap monster mask comes out with a monster mask and babbles about hot dogs. Gwar then introduces the first tape…

Dance Dance Dance Dance

It’s a children’s show with puppets, and they all sing about death, at least until the show was cancelled. We cut to people discussing rebooting, or re-imagining the series. George was a little boy on the original show, but now he’s grown up and very protective of the puppets. The technician scans the puppets to reproduce them for the new show. The computer scans show hideous monsters, not fun puppets.

George shows the crew the original set for the puppets. He makes each of them put on a puppet and sing the song with him. The puppets turn lethal as they sing the song. The whole studio seems to come alive for the final guy.

Another Cabin

The stop-motion animated boy looks out the window to see a giant creature with an even bigger tongue. It eats his grandmother. Then it eats him. The creature looks toward the next cabin.

Heartbeat

Wes and Maya, a couple of urban explorers find what might be a hidden military base in Bulgaria and rush right there to explore it. They cut their way inside and see that it’s been sealed up since 1967. They find a room labeled “Testing Room” and open it up.

It’s a soundproof room, and they soon find themselves locked inside. Wes hears a heartbeat down near the floor. And other noises. It drives him insane, so he pokes out his eardrums and throat and dies. Maya continues on, going mad from hearing her own body sounds and the heartbeat of her unborn child.

When she starts getting hungry, Wes is right there.

The Music of Mr. Sze

Phil puts on recording glasses to record his neighbors for a documentary he’s making. The neighbors are all weird and talk about Mr. Sze who plays weird music on the top floor. The music is both horrible and very good at the same time, and Phil is enthralled. He tells Mr. Sze that it’s brilliant and that he’d like to record him. Sze is interested and allows the recording.

Mr. Sze gets terrified when Phil hums the music he heard last night and the whole room goes crazy. Phil moves to a downstairs apartment, and when he sees Sze again, the man now has gray hair and won’t talk to him. That night, he hears more playing upstairs and investigates.

Phil sneaks into Sze’s apartment the next morning and snoops around. He gets a vision of another world and a very Cthulhu-like place and monster. It follows Phil back to this world and wreaks some havoc.

Premature Burial

It’s a music video from the death metal band “Repugnant.” A woman kills a man then does an autopsy on him. Except the man isn’t dead; she’s faked his death to bury him alive as an act of revenge.

Death Tone

Lydia talks about her music producer father who recently died. He leaves her instructions on how to mix a song that will keep him with her forever. She can’t find just the right sound, so she starts taking his drugs. She lures a guy home with her and chains him to the bed. She uses a winch to rip him in half and records the sound it makes.

Now she needs a vocal layer. She invites another guy home, and this time, she tears him up with a chainsaw.

She still needs more, so this time, she “hires” a homeless woman to move some stuff for her. She stabs her repeatedly and records it all.

A police officer comes to the door about several missing persons. More deaths are needed to complete the album. The officer comes back with a warrant just as Lydia decides to put herself into the work as her father’s recording advises.

As the detective closes in, she finally gets the right tone. As she dies, she says the song is perfect now.

Brian’s Commentary

All the GWAR stuff, the wraparound “story,” is just stupid and would probably bore a five year old.

“Another Cabin” barely had a story, and “Heartbeat” didn’t have much to it either. I liked most of the other segments, probably “The Music of Mr. Sze” the best, although “Dance Dance Dance” was also fun.

It was pretty decent.

Kevin’s Commentary

I wasn’t at all impressed with the Gwar intro/wraparound thing. That was more dumb than funny or entertaining.

But I enjoyed the segments. Especially “The Music of Mr. Sze.” Who knew Cthulhu could be tamed with a song? Up to a point anyway. “Death Tone” was a good one too - an artist taking the death metal genre of music literally.

So, except for the Gwar, which wasn’t that much of the movie, I really liked it.

2026 Ice Cream Man

* Directed by: Eli Roth

* Written by: Eli Roth

* Stars: Ari Millen, Charlie Zeltzer, Shiloh O’Reilly

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 26 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

The Ice Cream Man comes to town with treats for the kiddos. The result is horror with dark humor and over the top gore and violence with many creative kills.

Neither of us were very impressed by it.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a stereotypical suburb with children playing outside, so we know this is just a movie. Credits roll.

It’s a baseball game, and all the kids get ice cream afterward. Jared’s team loses, and Hank, the coach’s son, is a bully. Jared’s older sister, Lizzie takes him to the store, where Roger the shopkeeper really hates kids. She also points out that Jared is lactose intolerant, so he can’t have any ice cream.

A strange ice cream commercial keeps playing automatically on everyone’s phones, and Jared keeps noticing people puking on the side of the road.

That night, the ice cream man drives by the children’s homes, and the kids start killing their parents in various brutal ways. In their minds, they see silly cartoon versions of the gory deaths.

Apparently, only Jared and his family have been left out of the murder spree. School is nearly deserted, and many of the kids who do show up are covered in ice cream or blood. It takes far too long for the adults to notice the kids have become zombies.

The ice cream man drives by the school, and all the kids get up and march out for more ice cream. Soon, they’ve killed all the teachers, and only Jared, Tommy, and Mia are left uninfluenced. They call Lizzie for help, so the older sister runs through the neighborhood to find them.

This just goes on and on with running and screaming for six more hours until the three kids get into the church basement, where they find the source of the ice cream. The old priest explains that this is all his fault. The ice cream man got blamed for the actions of a pedophile priest and convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. The lawyer involved was Jared’s grandfather. A necromancer came to visit the ice cream man and promised him revenge. To stop the ice cream man, they have to dig up and kill the necromancer. The priest explains how to kill the necromancer, and it’s a convoluted process.

All the characters get in Chris’s truck and drive to the graveyard. The ice cream man is already there, waiting for them. They dig up the grave and there are two bodies. They behead one body, which turns out to be Jared’s father, and their mother is the other. Meanwhile, Chris is killed; Mia and Tommy are turned to the other side, leaving Lizzie and Jared all on their own.

We see that the old priest we saw earlier was actually the necromancer. The ice cream man drives off with the children following behind…

Brian’s Commentary

This is not a remake of “Ice Cream Man” (1995). It’s not even close. It’s probably more similar to “Weapons” (2025) than anything else. It’s basically a bunch of possessed children killing adults in ridiculous ways.

It did have some interesting, creative kills, but it didn’t have much of anything else. Overall, this wasn’t very good.

Kevin’s Commentary

Apparently adults don’t eat ice cream in this town, only the kids.

We’re just along for the ride watching things happen because… reasons. The kids go “Children of the Corn” on all the adults because they ate special treats from the Ice Cream Man. The movie just seemed like a delivery system for over the top gore and violence for much of the journey. But we do finally get an explanation of sorts. And a nasty surprise at the end. That was a bummer of an ending.

I thought it was kind of clunky without enough going for it. I didn’t care for it.

2026 The Ghost

* AKA “An Taibhse” (2024)

* Directed by: John Farrelly

* Written by: John Farrelly

* Stars: Livvy Hill, Tom Kerrisk, Anthony Murphy

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

After the Irish famine, 1850s, a father and daughter are caretakers in a remote mansion over the winter. It should be a simple job, but as the title hints, there are supernatural happenings that make things complicated and horrifying. It’s entirely in the Irish language, said to be a first for a horror movie, and it’s subtitled.

It’s beautifully filmed with great sound and a strong cast of two in an excellent setting. They made a very entertaining movie. It’s slow moving and tense with a gradual build, pretty low on action, but still keeps you watching.

It’s really good!

Spoilery Synopsis

Maire and Eamon ride a carriage to the big, isolated house where they’re going to spend the winter. They’re father and daughter, and he shows her around the house in the morning. They’ve taken jobs as caretakers in the house for the winter, but there are rooms they aren’t allowed to use.

While doing the laundry, Mary hears a scream in the woods. And maybe footsteps in her room at night. She goes into the forbidden library and hears a voice, “Don’t be afraid.” She is very afraid.

That night, Mary hears banging from her closet door and investigates. No one’s there, of course, but it still seems like something is in there. Something grabs her from behind…

In the morning, Mary makes breakfast and looks at the knife and her wrists oddly. Eamon cuts himself in the foot with an axe, and Mary sees blood where it shouldn’t be. Mary tells him that Alexander is back, and he says there’s no such thing as ghosts.

That night, Mary’s bedroom door opens by itself, and she takes a lantern to investigate. She gets a weird vision, and then something grabs her and drags her off.

The next morning, Mary notices that she’s leaving blood puddles on the floor. She tells Eamon, and he’s much less argumentative about the ghost now. Since his foot is all bandaged up, now she needs to do his job too. It’s a lot of work for her alone. While he drinks excessively and plays a solitaire marble game.

Eamon gets drunk and accuses Mary of cutting and bruising herself; he still doesn’t believe in Alexander. That night, she sees Eamon walking around naked in the woods and then returns to the house to find a creepy doll in her bed.

Every morning, Mary wakes up dripping blood; is the ghost raping her, or is Eamon? She points out to him that it’s been a month since he hurt his foot, so it ought to be getting better; he has no idea how long it’s been. He denies having been in the garden last night and says it must be one of her fantasies.

They argue, and afterward, he admits his foot is much better now. He finds her work to be inadequate and rants about her laziness for quite a long time.

Snow arrives, and brings a scene of Eamon leading Mary with a rope leash. Then locking her in the room telling her he’ll be back in 20 minutes so she can make dinner. Then she’s locked in the kitchen for two hours to cook. She’s his prisoner or in sight of him at all times now.

Then a man arrives on a carriage. Mary escapes out her window, but Eamon grabs her and ties her up before she can get to the guy. He’s been sent to check on the property. Eamon denies Mary is there. After an inspection and awkward dinner, the steward stays the night. In Mary’s room.

In the morning, Eamon is nowhere to be found, so the Land Steward goes looking for him. He finds Mary tied up and gagged in the closet, but then Eamon kills him with an axe. Eamon then burns the man’s body in a huge bonfire– he’s gone completely insane.

Eamon wants Mary to wear her dead mother’s dresses and dance with him. Mary now sees the ghost as her mother telling her not to be afraid. She’s dragged into the library, where a secret door opens. She goes inside and finds her naked father, who chases her back into the main house.

Then we see that Eamon has been the monster all along using Mary for incest; “Alexander” was just her mental coping mechanism. She pulls the knife out from under her pillow and stabs him to death.

Brian’s Commentary

The location and sets are really good for such a low-budget film. It’s supposed to be the first Irish-language horror film (really? How is that possible?), and it was mostly filmed during Covid for around 3,000 Euros. Impressive!

Storywise, I kept seeing similarities to “The Shining,” although this one adds a lot of folk-horror elements. Eamon and Jack Torrance are equally bad at caretaking. I’m not sure if the ending was supposed to be a twist or if we were supposed to see that coming from early on, but it didn’t come as a surprise.

There’s not a lot of action, and it’s definitely a slow-burn film, but the atmospheric sets and visuals really keep it all interesting throughout. It was pretty great.

Kevin’s Commentary

Trivia says it was put together with a budget of just over 3000 Euro. It was clearly a team of talented people who ran a tight ship. The acting and production values are excellent.

As slow moving as it is, I kept expecting boredom to set in, but not so. It kept my interest throughout.

Brian is correct on “The Shining” elements that are there. No kid or actual “shining,” but isolated caretakers encountering the supernatural, him with a drinking problem making things worse, her fearful and getting more so. And he likes to use an axe.

I liked this one a lot.

2026 Insidious: Out of the Further

* Directed by: Jacob Chase

* Written by: Jacob Chase, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, Leigh Whannell

* Stars: Amelia Eve, Island Austin, Lin Shaye

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 46 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A young single mom living with her daughter in the house she grew up in starts being able to see and hear ghosts and travel to The Further, and all sorts of creepy weirdness happens. It’s a freshening up of the franchise, with all new characters except for the continuity of Elise played by Lin Shaye.

We were both impressed, considering it to be one of the best of the series.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open in Pittsburg in 1999. A little girl, Gemma, walks into a house and finds her mother passed out in the kitchen. She then cleans up the house and makes her own dinner. When her mother eventually wakes up, she’s disoriented and weird, and Gemma seems a little afraid of her. We soon see that the mother has some serious mental issues. She beats herself to death in the bathroom. And credits roll.

Twenty years later, Gemma is a grown up and a dentist. As she walks her daughter Maya home, we see the neighborhood and the all-too-normal neighbors– except for a trio of creepy, slow-moving people who don’t belong. That night, Gemma encounters some weirdness that reminds her of the past. She gets a phone call from her long-dead mother begging for help. No, that was all a dream– maybe.

We meet Gemma’s boyfriend Nick who is also a patient. Later she gets trapped in a “Backrooms” extension of Maya’s cushion fort. She’s not alone in there, either; those three weird old people from outside are in here as well. “He’s coming,” says the old man, and then Gemma wakes up. She’s brought something back with her this time though, a brooch with a pin.

At work, she gets the same old man as a client as she cleans his teeth. He’s weird and gross, not saying a word. His mouth is a mess and the x-rays are… scary. He grows a second set of teeth and bites her, which somehow sends her to The Further.

It’s all pretty awful, but just as the creatures are about to tear her apart, a mysterious old woman shows up and runs all the monsters off. The woman is Elise, from all the previous films, and tells Gemma that she needs to find her in the real world. Gemma leaves Maya with Nick and goes searching for Elise.

Gemma learns that Elise died in 2011 (in the first film) and lives in the Further now. She goes to find Clare, who knows all about this stuff and channels Elise so that Gemma can talk to the dead woman. Elise explains that Gemma’s not been having dreams, she’s really being transported to the Further, where she sees the dead; she’s a traveller. She has a special gift; she can bring things back to the real world from the Further, which is really convenient for the bad things that exist there.

Back at home, Nick starts seeing the dead as well; she’s brought one back with her– well, half of one. The trio of old people move into the neighbor’s house, but they won’t speak to Nick, a policeman. While he keeps them busy, Gemma sneaks in and looks around; there’s a great deal of weirdness there. There’s a videotape of a cult leader, Cyrus Lam, and the tape talks to Gemma personally.

Clare stops by and says Elise has explained the baddies’ plan to her. She also has a plan to stop Cyrus Lam and his gang of the dead. They want Nick to break into the old peoples’ house and turn off their sedation so they can’t guard the red door anymore. Clare will then talk Gemma through the process of going to the Further and stopping the evil plan.

Gemma and Elise find themselves inside Gemma’s mothers’ memories. Turns out, she was fighting Cyrus way back then and wasn’t as crazy as she looked. She killed herself to prevent Cyrus from using Gemma as the portal. Gemma and her mother get a chance to talk and make peace with each other, but it’s not over. Cyrus uses Maya to come back to our world.

That’s not enough, as he wants to bring a bunch of dead followers back to our side. Soon, the house is crawling with undead people, and all the characters work together to stop the one remaining guardian, the creepy old man, who’s buried himself inside the walls of the house. Elise possesses the old man to steal Maya, and then Gemma sends the whole house back to the Further.

The disappointed dead turn against Cyrus, who failed in his promise to get them all released. Gemma, Maya, Clare, and Nick all hug, as it’s a happy ending for them. Elise and Gemma’s mother are still dead.

Brian’s Commentary

I’ve written more than two thousand horror movie reviews at this point, and the old man’s mouth-cleaning scene may be the first thing I’ve literally had to turn away and not look at. Of all the monsters and all the demons, it was the dentist who finally got me.

The ending had a lot of the same vibes as “Poltergeist” (1982) although Gemma made it clear that she was the one who was haunted, not the house.

This is the sixth film in the series, which is trying its best to move on beyond Patrick Wilson, who isn’t in this at all, focusing more on new characters and situations while still cashing in on the series’ goodwill.

The visuals are excellent, the acting is good, and the creatures get plenty of screen time. It was a bit long, but there aren’t really any draggy parts. Overall, I liked this quite a bit more than many of the previous films in the series.

Kevin’s Commentary

For a character that died five movies ago, Lin Shaye has gotten a nice recurring job playing Elise in every film.

When I learned there was another Insidious movie and we were going to watch it, I said, “Oh for F- sake.” I am suffering from franchise fatigue, partially because I mix it up with the Conjuring universe, and it feels like there have been almost 20 movies.

But they did try to make a fresh restart with this one, with almost all new characters, and it is very well made. With some unsettling dentistry scenes as well as some other effective creepiness. It taps into the mythos while adding enough new elements to make it interesting. With a cool ending.

I’m going to go as far as saying this was the most entertaining movie in the series for me. My expectation going into it was quite wrong.

Short Film:

2026 Short Film: Haunted Basement

* Directed by: Hailey Choi, A.J. Serrano

* Written by: Hailey Choi, A.J. Serrano

* Stars: Marcel Freda, Alice Highman, Nicolas Orsatti

* Run Time: 10 Minutes

* Watch it:

What Happens

Mikey is a big fan of horror films, but he’s only twelve, and they’re causing issues. He’s afraid of the dark, and more importantly, he’s afraid to go into the basement, a problem his parents are insistent that he get over. One night, he’s told to go down there and make sure the lights are turned off before bedtime. What could happen?

Commentary

The acting is good, the house & settings are good, and the creature effects are just perfect for the story. The pacing is right there, telling the whole story without dragging or making us guess about things. The happy ending makes it appropriate for the younger crowd as well.

Nice!

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