Leviticus, Until Dawn, Wishmaster 4, Underworld: Awakening

We’ve got another batch of weird ones for you this week. We’ll open on “Leviticus,” and you’ll hear what we thought about that. “Until Dawn” takes us on a time-loop adventure, while “Wishmaster 4” brings an end to that franchise. And then there’s “Underworld: Awakening,” which takes that franchise in a whole new direction.

And we’ve got a creepy short film this week as well.

All this, plus the latest issue of “Horror Monthly,” issue #59, for July 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 Leviticus

* Directed by: Adrian Chiarella

* Written by: Adrian Chiarella

* Stars: Stacy Clausen, Joe Bird, Mia Wasikowska

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Two teenagers run into trouble when a shapeshifting entity fixates on them. It’s not a happy movie, and it’s very slow-paced. But it’s got an interesting story, and it’s well made. The acting is excellent. Neither of us disliked it, but we were kind of meh.

Spoilery Synopsis

The lifeguard stays late after the pool closes to take a naughty shower. Something bad happens to her that we don’t see, but it involves lots of screaming and blood. Credits roll.

Ryan and Naim play with a snake and break into an abandoned mill to vandalize it and hang out. It doesn’t take long before the two are fighting with each other– and then kissing. Ryan warns Naim later not to tell anyone about what happened. Later, both boys stare at each other as the church group sings.

Some time later, the boys are back inside the mill making out again. Naim’s mother is highly religious and often drags him to church groups. They also know Hunter, who is Rob, the preacher’s son. Naim sees Hunter and Ryan kissing in the backyard and realizes he’s not exclusive. Naim tells Rob what he saw and things go badly for Hunter at home after that. Ryan and his family as well.

The church does a whole big thing for the two gay boys to drive the sin out of them, and there’s quite an embarrassing crowd. The Deliverance Preacher says, “All your lust, indecency, and desire has to go now!” Both boys fall down in a seizure in the middle of the ritual, going into convulsions. Naim watches all this and is terrified, since it’s partly his fault.

At school later, Ryan starts getting bullied. Ryan warns Naim that he has to stop. Naim follows Ryan to the skating rink, where Ryan acts like he’s not alone. Something invisible in the photo booth attacks Ryan and scratches him up good. Ryan tells Naim to just leave him alone, he thinks it was Naim that attacked him.

Naim questions Hunter about what happened at the ritual. “Did it work?” After following Hunter, he finds that Hunter’s being followed by something invisible as well. He watches as Hunter is dragged away and killed that night.

Naim goes to the police about what he saw; he thinks it’s going to kill Ryan next. The detective tells Naim’s mother everything, and it’s an awkward drive to the church where Rob and the Deliverance Preacher awaits him too. The men drag him inside and do the same ritual to him.

Naim tells Ryan what happened, and then Ryan attacks him. Except Ryan was inside and didn’t do anything. “You saw it, didn’t you!” Izzie, Rob’s daughter, knows something. “It comes for you when you’re alone,” she explains about two girls. One, Marnie, died in the opening sequence, but the other one didn’t. The girl who lived, Jessica, hangs out all day and night at a hospital so she’s never alone.

Ryan and Naim take the bus to see Jessica, who explains that the monster looks like the person you have a crush on and then it kills them. “Nothing can make it stop. Stay away from your friend, you’re only making it worse!” For a moment, Naim is alone, and he sees it coming for him as both Ryan and Hunter.

On the bus ride home, the two kiss and make out, which they both know is only going to make it worse, but they can’t help themselves.

Izzie takes the two boys to the Deliverance Preacher to “take it back,” but it’s a trap. A large group of trouble makers start to beat them up, but they steal Izzie’s car to escape. Unfortunately, Ryan learns who it was who told on him.

Naim tries to tell his mother about the creature, but she doesn’t understand. He sees Ryan/The Creature several more times. It just about kills Naim, but Naim soon learns that it’s vulnerable to fire.

Naim runs into the old mill, with Ryan not far behind. Naim sets the place on fire with the Ryan thing inside.

Naim tells his mother the story, but she already knows. This was supposed to happen, and it can’t be undone. Ryan has apparently run away or otherwise disappeared. Naim goes to the bus stop and meets him there, where they leave the depressing town altogether sitting next to each other sharing music. Along the way, Naim sees “Ryan” standing beside the road.

Brian’s Commentary

“What if conversion therapy actually worked?”

It’s about depressing characters in a depressing town going through depressing situations– fun!

It’s a good concept and it’s got good acting and cinematography, but it’s very slowly paced. There’s also an inconclusive ending– did leaving town stop the problem? It seems unlikely, but we don’t know.

It was… okay. A little on the dull side.

Kevin’s Commentary

It’s a very strange romance. With a sort of happy ending, and not a solid wrap up. The problem is going to continue, from the look of it.

The two leads were great, as was the supporting cast. All the production values were very good. It wasn’t unpleasant to watch, but I thought it was a little too long and drawn out.

2025 Until Dawn

* Directed by: David F. Sandberg

* Written by: Gary Dauberman, Blair Butler

* Stars: Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Odessa A’zion

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 43 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A group of friends gets trapped in a time loop house of horrors. All they have to do to escape is survive Until Dawn. It’s a variation on the Groundhog Day time loop scenario with a video game vibe. The movie is pretty well made, but there wasn’t a lot here we haven’t seen before. We both thought it was on the tedious side. It was just okay overall.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on a woman crawling through a tiny tunnel, and there’s something nasty behind her. The evil clown catches up to her and kills her. “I can’t take it again!” Credits roll.

Clover, Max, Nina, Megan, and Abe discuss what they are going to do for closure after they arrive. Clover’s sister, Melanie, went missing about a year ago, and they’re here to say goodbye.

Megan’s a bit of a psychic, and she leads them all in a little ritual that almost gets them all run over in the street. The man inside the gas station says a lot of people go missing in Glore Valley, just up the road.

After a very strange storm, they stop at a building that’s in the eye of the rainstorm, but that’s not really a thing. None of them have any cell signal, and the rain seems to be falling everywhere except where they are. The calendar inside the inn says it’s 1998. Abe finds a whole bulletin board full of “Missing” posters.

The sun goes down, and the weird sundial clock on the wall turns itself over. Abe’s car suddenly comes to life just outside the rain circle. One thing quickly leads to another, and the clown shows up, cutting Abe in half. Max soon gets a knife in the face as well. Megan gets face-planted repeatedly, but then Clover stabs the clown in the back– to no effect. He kills her as well.

Time resets, and suddenly, everyone is alive again. They all remember what happened. Now their photos are on Missing posters as well. “It has hold of us now,” Megan says. As the hourglass continues to run down, Megan says it feels different this time. She’s apparently possessed by the former victims of the place. “Don’t let it in,” she says before she dies.

There’s a knock at the door, and Clover hears Melanie’s voice. There’s no one out there. Also, there’s an old house that wasn’t there before. Clover’s dragged into the old house, but the others are forced back into the house they’ve been in.

Clover looks around the strange house, and there’s an old woman there: the Glore Witch. “You either survive the night or become a part of it.” Max comes looking for her, but Abe and Nina jump in the car to drive away, which they soon learn is a bad idea. The others also die… again.

Megan’s losing hair and not looking so good this time around. They all have some minor health issues now– Abe starts coughing up teeth and explodes. Clover tells the others about what the witch said to her. Nina then explodes as well. Megan explodes just a little bit at a time until there’s nothing left. As Clover lays down, ready to try another round, the man from the gas station comes in. “You almost made it. Almost but not quite.”

Time resets again. Clover finds the ID for Dr. Hill, the man she talked to at the gas station. He was a doctor who was brought in a few years back when the whole town got swallowed in a mine disaster. They figure out that each time they’ve died, it’s been something different, just to keep them afraid.

Max finds a videotape that explains a lot about what Dr. Hill was doing here in town. He turned a man into a wendigo. Hill explains that four of them can leave, but one of them must die. First, the clown kills Abe and Nina, then the wendigo gets Megan. Max and Clover run into Melanie, who is now a wendigo. But first, more death.

None of them can remember how long they’ve been there. Tonight might be their last chance. Wait, Megan isn’t here on this go-round, maybe her time was up? They look at Abe’s phone and see videos of many, many previous deaths and monsters.

Clover decides it’s time to stop running away and elects to go into the tunnel, and the surviving three join her. It leads to the submerged ruins of the town that sank in the mine collapse. All the wendigos appear to be down there, now chasing them. They fight back more this time.

Clover runs into Dr. Hill, who explains that the monsters are a manifestation of their psyche. While her friends are getting hunted down, she manages to slip a bit of water into the doctor’s coffee, which makes him explode. Clover grabs his keys and rescues Megan. They all climb upward as the sand almost runs out. Aaaaand… they make it out as the sun comes up.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s another time-loop / Groundhog Day-type movie. The characters die over and over. It started out pretty great, but it dragged a lot in the final half hour. There was lots of running around in the tunnels, but the “puzzle” part of the film was over by that point, and it slowed way down.

It was… OK.

Kevin’s Commentary

I didn’t realize this was based on a video game until we got started and I checked out the trivia.

The attacks seemed too random, and what they could do about it seemed too limited. It was too hopeless and pointless. It’s pretty well put together, but there isn’t much to root for.

The beginning had promise, but it got bogged down and repetitive. I thought it was on the tedious side more than entertaining.

2002 Wishmaster 4: The Prophecy Fulfilled

* Directed by: Chris Angel

* Written by: John Benjamin Martin, Peter Atkins

* Stars: Tara Spencer-Nairn, Michael Trucco, Jason Thompson

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 30 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Once again, someone frees the Djinn from the ruby, and he’s on his mission to end the world when the one who freed him makes three wishes. It’s a little more complicated this time when love enters the picture.

Like the third movie, this one lacks the humor and interesting killings of the first two movies, and Andrew Divoff as the Djinn added a lot to those.

We both thought it was just okay. Not a strong finish to the series.

Spoilery Synopsis

A young couple, Lisa and Sam, buy their first house and have sex as the credits roll.

Three years later, Lisa goes to a fancy house to see Steven Verdel, her lawyer. He’s bought her a gift, a big red jewel in a box. Sam was in a motorcycle accident, and Steven is representing them in a lawsuit. When she touches the jewel, she gets a weird vision. She leaves, and he puts the jewel in his safe.

The Wishmaster appears to Steven and offers him a wish. He needs Lisa to make three wishes, and to do that, he steals Steven’s face and appearance, just as he did in the previous film.

Steven shows up at the house, and soon, Lisa wishes to get a quick settlement for the case, which he grants. Sam thinks that Lisa has been waiting for this to leave him. At dinner, Lisa wishes that Sam could just walk again, and now he can, but he’s in a crazy load of pain from it. Turns out, the only place he has any feeling is in his legs; the damage is still there.

Steven stalks Lisa at work. Later, Sam admits that he’s done with Lisa. Steven still needs Lisa to make one more wish, and then his people can ravage the Earth. She wishes she could love Steven for who he really is. Uh-oh.

The Djinn’s boss appears and insists that the Wishmaster release them from Hell as prophesied, but he refuses: he’s in love now. They send a hunter to kill Lisa, which will solve the problem.

Steven goes to see Tracy, Lisa’s friend. She wishes for some killer sex, and that happens.

The Hunter shows up at Lisa’s store, and Jennifer, the clerk, tries to help him. He pulls out a sword and kills her. Meanwhile, the Djinn goes one on one with a bouncer, and it’s not much of a fight.

Steven and the Hunter fight, which makes no sense, since the Hunter needs the Wishmaster to fulfill the prophecy. It doesn’t matter since the Hunter loses badly.

Lisa goes home and finds a note from Sam, who has left her for good now. Steven shows up, and there is much kissing now. Sex ensues. He asks if she loves him for who he is, and she’s evasive. He can’t make her love him, that’d be against the rules. “It was the plan; I gave you what you wanted.”

Lisa finally sees Steven in his true form and freaks out. “I am only a monster if you choose to see me as one.” He wants her to be his queen when his people take over the Earth.

Sam shows up and shoots Steven a few times, which does nothing. Sam wishes for a way to kill the Wishmaster, and grants him a sword. But the Djinn runs Sam through with his own sword.

The Wishmaster takes on the form of Sam so Lisa will finally love him. Lisa finishes things by shoving the Wishmaster into Sam and his protruding sword, impaling the Wishmaster and killing him.

Brian’s Commentary

This was filmed at the same time as the third film, but I found the story to be a lot more interesting. It wasn’t particularly bad, but it wasn’t very interesting, either. All the actors showed up on time, but none were particularly great. The special effects were minimal, and even the deaths weren’t that creative.

It was OK, but not especially good.

Kevin’s Commentary

Knowing that it was filmed back to back with the third one, I didn’t have high hopes, but it ended up being moderately entertaining. If it was stand alone, it would be held up differently, but it’s being compared to the earlier movies. I’d put it as my number three favorite of them.

2012 Underworld: Awakening

* Directed by: Mans Marlind, Bjorn Stein

* Written by: Len Wiseman, John Hlavin, J. Michael Straczynski

* Stars: Kate Beckinsale, Michael Ealy, India Eisley

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

With the war between the vampires and the lycans over, humans find out about the monsters, and they’ve shifted to humans vs. vampires and lycans. There is a lot of action fighting, but more to the story than just that.

It seemed a little short and rushed, and maybe unnecessary, but it’s pretty well made and still has some entertainment value. It was a step down from the previous movies, but worth checking out if you’re a fan of the series.

Spoilery Synopsis

We get a quick recap of the storyline. Now, a new darkness has arisen.

We get a news report that vampires and werewolves have been discovered and made public; everyone knows about them now, and there are tests to determine if you’re human or not. Marshal law has been declared, and Dr. Jacob Lane is interviewed on TV about the situation. We watch Selene fighting human soldiers as the credits roll.

Selene’s not a typical vampire; she’s a Death-Dealer, and not so easy to kill, even without a gun. She arrives at the dock to meet Michael, who is shot with silver bullets and blown up, along with Selene.

In the hospital, “Subject 1” is awakened from Cryo-sleep. That’s Selene, who was frozen for some reason. Dr. Lane is called, but she kills his assistants. She escapes after causing much carnage. She breaks into a store for clothes to find that they sell “Real Vampire Teeth” and “Real Lycan Teeth.”

Selene runs into a security guard who tells her that the fight with Michael happened twelve years ago.

Two detectives talk about a recent murder; it’s been years since the last Lycan killing. Detective Sebastian is assigned to the Selene escape from the lab. Sebastian goes to see Dr. Lane, who explains that they killed the subject; no one actually escaped. For some reason, he lies about what happened. The detective soon discovers the lie.

Selene interrogates one of the scientists about “Subject 2,” whom she assumes is Michael. She gets glimpses of visions through #2’s eyes. Another vampire, David, comes to Selene, and he says the lycans have been hiding for years, but something has been getting them stirred up recently. They rescue a young girl from an impending lycan attack.

The lycans do attack, right in the middle of a busy street, and they want that girl they have. They break in and bite her, but she’s meaner than the wolves. Turns out, the girl is Subject #2, and she’s Eve, Selene’s daughter somehow. Selene tastes Eve’s blood and verifies the story.

David takes Selene and Eve home to his coven, and the leader there, Thomas, doesn’t trust Selene at all; he knows her history. The vampire doctor is astounded at Eve, since she doesn’t have any bite marks. It’s likely that Eve is the daughter of both Selene and Michael, something between the two races.

The humans arrive at the coven hideout. David wants to fight, Thomas wants to evacuate. Turns out, the attackers aren’t human, they’re lycans, led by one giant one. Thomas gives Eve over to the lycans.

Selene goes to see Detective Sebastian. Something isn’t right that lycans still not only exist but have some unnaturally big specimens. They put it together that the lab is helping the lycans. And then we see that Dr. Lane and his minions have made themselves lycans through science. Lycans that are immune to silver. And they want to rule the world.

Meanwhile, Selene armors up to make an assault on the lab and get Eve back, with Detective Sebasian’s help. For plot reasons, Selene can walk around in the daylight now, and she uses that to sneak into the lab. Dr. Lane sends his chief goon, Quint, to stop Selene.

Selene finds Michael, frozen in a cryo tube, but she has to choose to free him or help Eve. She shoots his tube and runs off.

Selene makes it to the parking garage and stops Lane’s van, but she has to fight Quint, who is the big bad wolf. Sebastian shoots Lane, who is a lycan, and they fight as well. Sebastian loses, but then Lane has to fight Eve. David shows up out of nowhere and helps. Both lycans lose messily.

Selene, Eve, and David leave as Sebastian promises to misdirect the police who are arriving. They stop by the lab and see that Michael is gone.

Will the vampires survive?

Brian’s Commentary

This one gives up all the supernatural politics and lore of the first three films and becomes more of a post-vampire-apocalyptic action film. With the exception of Selene and barely Michael, none of the characters make a return appearance.

It was fine. It lost a lot by leaving the politics and scheming out. The human scientists just weren’t that interesting. Still, there’s room for at least one more sequel.

Kevin’s Commentary

It was a way to keep things going, just do a time jump. Michael is out of commission for the movie, shown briefly and not quite Scott Speedman, but they don’t list Michael in the IMDB credits. Digging in the trivia, it’s said that a stand-in played Michael and Scott Speedman was digitally superimposed. It wasn’t a very good special effect.

I’m not sure we needed this movie, but I don’t regret seeing it. It’s not as good as the previous ones, but still pretty good.

Short Films:

2022 Short Film: Résistance

* By: Alex Chauvet, Anna Le Danois, Quentin Foulon, Fabien Glasse, Juliette Jean, Julie Narat

* Stars: Animated

* Run Time: 6:36

* Watch it:

What Happens

A trio of human-sized cockroaches enjoy a fine dining experience. The staff, on the other hand, don’t particularly care for roaches.

Commentary

It’s a grisly meal all around. It’s even better when you realize it’s based on the French Resistance of WWII and true events. The animation is excellent, the pacing is good, and it’s always extremely clear what’s going on at all times. Very good!

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