Buddy, Hallowarrior, Hope, and The Room Below

All New releases this week again, starting with “Buddy” (2026). We’ll follow that up with the post-apocalyptic “Hallowarrior.” “Hope” is a very cool Korean monster story, and “The Room Below” was out this week 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 Buddy

* Directed by: Casper Kelly

* Written by: Casper Kelly, Jamie King

* Stars: Cristin Milioti, Delaney Quinn, Topher Grace

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It’s a fun and colorful kid’s show full of joy and fun. Until cracks appear in the happiness that start to show the horror underneath. The pacing is a bit clunky, but that aside it’s really weird and darkly funny and well put together. After a bit of a slow start, it gets going nicely. We both liked it quite a bit.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on the intro to the “Buddy” children’s show; it’s like Barney the Dinosaur, but Buddy’s a big unicorn. The mailman comes around, and the talking mailbox announces the mail. Buddy shows up to give the kids courage about dancing at a party. Josh doesn’t want to dance, even with magic dancing shoes, and he won’t cooperate with the big unicorn. Something bad happens to Josh offscreen. After everyone does a little dance, the show is over and the 1999 in-story credits roll.

Then it’s time for another episode and the credits roll for that one. This time, Freddy and Wade discuss what happened to Josh; his book is covered in blood. Mr. Mailbox, who saw what happened, has lost his mouth. Buddy has excuses for the “red paint” on the book. Freddy isn’t convinced, and Strappy the Backpack agrees with her.

Freddy and Wade go to Nurse Nancy and talk about Josh and Buddy. When the nurse confronts Buddy, he kills her. Then that episode ends.

For the next episode, the two kids delay summoning Buddy and try to do an episode without Buddy, but that’s not as easy as it sounds. They try to tell Oliver and Hannah, the other kids on the show, what they’ve seen, and the four kids try to make it to Charlie the Train to leave town. Buddy stops them. Buddy rips Charlie’s face off. Freddy tells Betty Bunny that Buddy’s going to kill Wade.

Freddy and Wade set Buddy on fire instead. Burned, he then stabs the mailman to death in front of the kids. He does manage to kill Wade as the others climb over the fence. The episode tries to end, but it’s not working, the credits are all wonky.

Out in the real world, Grace fixes Timothy’s scraped knee. Other son Derek and husband Ben join them for dinner. Grace looks at an empty chair and screams; she doesn’t understand why. She decides that she needs a therapist, and Ben doesn’t argue. She feels as if she’s missing or forgotten one of her children.

The therapist doesn’t help, so she brings in a psychic instead. She senses something and has the family do a seance. Suddenly, the Buddy show comes on TV, and Grace recognizes it but Ben shuts it off fast. Grace looks for the Buddy show and can’t find that it exists. She comes to the conclusion that the unicorn on TV kidnapped her child and then made the whole world forget the child ever existed. Ben, for some reason, thinks that’s a weird theory.

That night, the show comes back on TV, and this time, Buddy pulls Grace right through the TV. The house changes like she never existed.

Freddy, Oliver, and Hannah are lost in the woods, and they all argue. They also talk about not remembering ever going to the bathroom before. Oliver pees on a flower, and the flower isn’t pleased. None of the kids remember life before Buddy.

Buddy goes to see the new nurse, Nurse Grace, about his burns. He complains that he can’t end the episode and heal unless he hugs the kids onscreen, but they’re gone now. Buddy then gets sexually inappropriate with the new nurse.

The kids run into a puppet named Willy and George, a weird cowboy. They tell their story; a guy named Larry sang “The Buddy Song” and used mean words instead of the lyrics; it changed Buddy. The whole group eats psychedelic flower petals and goes on a trip.

In the morning, the two newcomers are gone, and they’ve taken Strappy with them. Buddy catches up with Willie and George and tries to use them to end the show, but they’re too old. He kills them both. The kids, however, manage to rescue Strappy. They’ve been making their way to Diamond City, but it’s not a real place.

Buddy catches them, hugs them, and the episode ends. Finally!

Next episode, Buddy’s been restored, and Wade has been replaced with Tyler, a new kid (who’s always been there). The trio of escapees still remember what’s really going on, so it’s pretty awkward. Freddy has to go see the nurse, who is actually her mother, and they sort of recognize each other.

The children attack Buddy by singing the nasty version of the theme song, and he screams. He sprouts horns, sheds his colorful fur, and turns into a demonic looking thing. Nurse Grace stabs it and grabs Freddy; she remembers her now. They shelter in the clubhouse, Mr. Mailbox points to the Worry Well, and they get the idea that may be the portal out. Some of the other characters meet messy ends.

Grace distracts Buddy as the kids crawl down the well; she dies. Tyler hugs Buddy, which resets him into his unicorn form again. He’s too big to fit down the well, but he cuts his hips off to fix that.

Buddy catches up and kills Hannah and Oliver, leaving Freddy by herself. Freddy ends up impaling Buddy on Mr. Mailbox’s post. He dies.

Freddy climbs through a TV into the real world. Strappy and Mr. Mailbox become inanimate objects. The Mexican man comes into the room and has no idea who she is.

Brian’s Commentary

It’s obviously playing off Barney and all the other similar children’s shows, and they get the look and visuals just right.

I like that even at the end, the big monster still looks like a guy in a cheap rubber suit.

It’s a little slow getting started, but once it gets moving, it’s really good.

Kevin’s Commentary

I liked the concept and it connected with me, but I thought the pacing was a bit too long and drawn out. When things do kick in, they kick in good. Overall, I really enjoyed it. The look and vibe of the kids show was right on with the colorful sets and living inanimate objects. And the trick of forced perspective with Diamond City was a hilarious surprise. There was loads of dark humor.

I’d recommend it.

2026 Hallowarrior

* Directed by: Ben Sottak

* Written by: Ben Sottack

* Stars: Milly Shapiro, Sannyn Sossamon, Ajani Russell

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 20 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A lonely survivor after a plague throws a Halloween party and sends an open invitation over the airwaves. The problem with that is you never know who is going to show up. It’s reminiscent of “The Strangers” set in a post-apocalyptic world, and it’s very good.

Spoilery Synopsis

We open on home videos of a little girl, Pumpkin, carving a pumpkin for Halloween. She calls herself a “Hallowarrior.” Credits roll.

Years later, Pumpkin has grown up and lives in a post-plague-apocalyptic wasteland. Even after everyone else died, she still celebrates her favorite holiday, Halloween. She’s very alone, and she thinks she might be the last girl on Earth. There are no trick-or-treaters this year.

Just as she’s about to kill herself from loneliness, Pumpkin hears someone on her radio breathing loudly, but the radio falls apart before she can really talk to them. She starts imagining ghosts in the house.

There’s someone outside on the porch, and Pumpkin chases them into the woods but the person gets away. When she returns to the house, there’s a man and a woman inside taking her food. They are Thalia, Royce, and Wendy. They have more “friends” outside who want in.

Pumpkin talks a lot about Halloween, but the others have been too busy surviving out there to care about that. Pumpkin is really nice to Wendy, but Wendy knows something bad’s going to happen. When they find Pumpkin’s mother’s corpse on the couch, they wonder who’s worse. Then, out of the blue, Wendy stabs Royce in the back of the neck and Pumpkin shoots him.

Thalia shows up with the newcomers. Wendy warns Pumpkin to run and avoid them, and Pumpkin takes Royce’s crossbow. The new people are… weird. Gauze, Wax, Breather, and Worm show up with Thalia in the lead.

Wendy shoots Gauze, and the others outside cut up his body and eat it, while he’s still mostly awake. Wendy and Pumpkin put on their masks, “In here, we’re the monsters.” They go through the house and “Home Alone” it with traps.

Wendy watches as Breather eats a razor-blade-candy bar while Wax torments Pumpkin. Wax burns and Breather stops breathing. Pumpkin shoots Worm, but before dying, he injects her with a drug that really makes Halloween come alive for her.

Thalia comes inside and injects Wendy with an overdose of the drug. She and Pumpkin then fight. Pumpkin tricks Thalia into shooting Royce with her crossbow. Then giving Thalia a faceful of the orange powder drug gives Pumpkin the upper hand.

In the morning, Pumpkin and Wendy have Thalia at crossbow-point and lead her outside. Thalia promises that they’ll regret letting her live and then walks away. “She’ll be back,” says Wendy. But they agree to leave together, and it will be nice to not be alone.

Brian’s Commentary

Why does everything look filthy and rotten if the plague was only four years ago? Buildings and cars don’t decompose that fast. As Kevin mentioned, it’s a bit of a mashup between The Strangers and Home Alone, but it’s a good mix and pretty entertaining.

Kevin’s Commentary

It’s a rare post apocalyptic movie where they remember that bicycles exist.

The trouble with sending out an open invitation over the airwaves when you’re a survivor is that you never know who’s going to answer the call.

The amount of decay and grime was a good look for the movie and very atmospheric, but it seemed excessive. The plague seems to have killed all the animals and most of the people and plants don’t grow any more, but that doesn’t explain how rotten everything looks after only four years. Or perhaps the plague just affects everything.

Once it got going, and you could kind of see where it was going, it reminded me very much of “The Strangers,” or similar home invasion movies. And then they went lethally “Home Alone” on the invaders. But I thought Milly Shapiro was great, and there were enough new elements to keep it interesting. It’s a mighty grim movie.

I’d say I liked it a lot.

2026 Hope

* Directed by: Na Hong-Jin

* Written by: Na Hong-Jin

* Stars: Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon

* Run Time: 2 Hours, 37 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

It starts with the discovery of a dead bull outside of town and quickly escalates into a battle for survival against something big and angry. The action starts early and even the calm parts are tense. There’s loads of fast vehicles, gunfire, explosions, gore, and general carnage. And they manage to work in quite a bit of dark humor. The writing is especially good, as is the acting.

It’s a long one but it was feeling worth it. Until the very ending which didn’t make enough sense and was too abrupt. Kevin hates it for the ending.

Spoilery Synopsis

It’s the 1980s in South Korea.

A policeman goes to a remote farming area, where there’s a dead bull blocking the road. The huge cow has been torn apart. None of them saw what did it, but it was big. Could it have been a bear or a tiger? Supposedly, tigers come down from Siberia every once in a while, right through the minefields. Credits roll.

Sung-Ki and “The Boys” laugh at the tiger story they told the policeman, but then they find a ruined fence that something big went through. While the policeman goes back to town, Hope Harbor, the guys find a smashed up farm that the dead bull came from – and more dead bulls. And a shredded human arm hanging from a tree.

The police chief, Beom-Seok, drives past a building with a big hole in the side. There’s a dead woman inside, and the place has been wrecked. Whatever it is, it’s in town now. He meets up with an old hunter and they continue to track the creature. They end up shooting a guy by accident and try to patch him up with toilet paper.

Meanwhile, Sung-Ki and the hunters are out in the woods by the farm. They find strange blue goo on a fallen tree as well as a very large, very dead bear.

Beom-Seok and his partner finally find the creature, and it’s a twelve-foot tall, very fast, humanoid monster with big claws. They fill it full of bullets from two carbines and all it does is make it mad. Soon the partner is dead and Beom-Seok is the one being chased. A policewoman, Sung-Ae, shows up with a grenade launcher/machine gun that finally does some damage but not enough. She picks up Beom-Seok. Even with a leg missing, the creature is still able to just about outrace her speeding police car.

At last, Beom-Seok gets a good look at the monster, and it’s clearly afraid of them now. It gets completely smooshed when a truck runs over it. It’s dead!

… And then we cut to the hunters in the woods again. They come across a large hunting camp that’s been destroyed, but no sign of bodies.

An old man tells Sung-Ae that there are more of those creatures out in the woods. He saw three of them a few days ago in the woods. We get a flashback and see four of them.

A medical examiner goes with Beom-Seok to examine the dead creature. She tries cutting into its chest, but it’s so tough it takes a chainsaw. She finds organs that she doesn’t recognize.

A guy comes to Beom-Seok and says he’s got a dead monster he killed in his freezer at home. Turns out, he does have one; a small alien. This looks like a small version of the monster from earlier, could it have been a child? Beom-Seok puts it together that the big one was just looking for its baby.

The guys in the woods find a big silver sphere parked there. Are the monsters aliens? There are six oversized chairs on the spaceship. Soon, they’re all back outside being hunted. All the aliens look different, each one a different type but all are really hard to kill. There’s lots of hunters being hunted and mayhem. Then Sung-Ae and company show up with heavy armament to join the fight.

There’s a great deal more running, driving, and shooting, and then the massive mothership shows up, crashing in flames. We cut to the aliens’ point of view with subtitles; the emperor’s ship is falling. It falls from the sky and takes out an entire mountain. Then it explodes, big-time. The aliens are on Earth searching for their prince.

… And then it stops as the two aliens discuss plans for what comes next.

Brian’s Commentary

There’s a lot of effective humor here as the only policeman in town spends half the movie looking for a monster and doesn’t even catch a glimpse of it. The police just might be a tad underfunded in this town.

“Where’d all these guns come from?” “You really wanna ask that?” comes up several times in the film. I’m guessing guns in Korea aren’t common.

It’s super long, but it’s got a lot going on at all times, very high energy, action packed, and with a lot of good monster action.

Was that the ending or a lead-in to a second part? It was awfully abrupt.

Kevin’s Commentary

We finally get a good look at the creature about 45 minutes in, and it was very effectively handled up to that point. I was really impressed with the script, it flows well and manages to work in some humor. The back and forth between places worked and kept it more interesting.

Michael Fessbender makes a weird, and perhaps unnecessary, cameo as one of the aliens in one of their forms.

I believed everything about the movie except how much injury Sung-Ki takes and then does some really acrobatic antics.

It’s on the long side but with enough cool stuff happening to keep it entertaining. I liked it until the very end when they threw some POV alien stuff at us with royalty and a blown up emperor and some politics or something that didn’t make enough sense. And then an abrupt ending. WTF? What a letdown after such a good movie.

2026 The Room Below

* Directed by: Kurt Martin

* Written by: Kurt Martin

* Stars: Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Alyssa Sutherland, Goran D. Kleut

* Run Time: 1 Hour, 32 Minutes

* Trailer:

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

A single mother loses her son to cancer and befriends another boy to take his place. She gets carried away with things and a retired detective becomes interested in the case of the missing boy. And there’s some creature action in the mix but not much. The actual horror is pretty low-key.

There’s a strong cast doing good work, but we both thought it was a long dull slog.

Spoilery Synopsis

Mia works in a diner and gets the call that her son has died in the hospital. Something starts growing on the wall in her apartment. She jumps off the ledge as credits roll.

Several years later, pregnant Mia still keeps her son Axel’s room the way it always was. She writes children’s books, but not recently– she needs another new hit. She starts hallucinating her dead son, but it’s been ten years, so she thinks she’s crazy. She goes to a group grief-counseling session. John, one of the men there, asks her out for coffee; his son Henry went missing a while back.

The next day, she finds a dog in the park and takes him home. She meets a little boy, Simon, and she thinks he looks like Axel. She makes plans to see him the next day, but he doesn’t show up; she imagines all kinds of abuse. She eventually does see him again and invites him home for oysters. She patches up his real abuse cuts and scars.

The dog barks at the mirror. Is something growing there? Mia locks Simon in Axel’s bedroom, which is a cell in the basement. She calls John to talk. When she goes to group again, he isn’t there. Simon makes an escape attempt and Mia accidentally breaks his leg locking him back up again. When she does meet John again, he explains that he’s a detective working on Simon’s missing persons case.

John goes to Simon’s father’s house and finds the man dead, probably poisoned. Meanwhile, Mia has pulled some kind of weird creature out of the mirror and tends to it.

Frank, another detective, comes to see John. John’s not a detective anymore; Frank’s the one who’s supposed to find John’s son. Mia tells Simon that his father is dead, which he doesn’t really believe. Mia hallucinates a monster killing Axel and freaks out.

John visits, and despite Simon being able to hear them talking in normal voices upstairs, John can’t hear him yelling. Later John gets the call that they’ve closed the case on his missing son Henry.

Simon starts calling Mia “Mom,” but it’s just an act while he works on his escape. Meanwhile Mia has another hallucination about the creature getting angry in its room. As Simon gets closer and closer to Mia, he starts acting more accepting of her. She takes him upstairs for dinner and shows him a draft of the book. Simon takes the opportunity when she’s hallucinating to stab her in the belly and starts to leave. But he doesn’t do enough of a job, and she knocks him out with a blow to the head.

Then she takes off her prosthetic belly and goes to bed. With a flashback to when she survived the suicide attempt and was told she can never have more children. Next she imagines going through the mirror completely to a blurry world on the other side.

She tells John she lost the baby, and she has Simon tied up in his bedroom now. She starts chemotherapy on him, with the implication that Axel didn’t have cancer - she poisoned him in her craziness. She sees the monster hovering over Simon that night, and she’s not sure if it’s real or not.

John comes over, knowing something’s wrong, and he gets the feeling that there’s someone in the house. He suspects and wants to help her make it right. Meanwhile, Simon’s lost all his hair and cannot even sit up on his own anymore.

We see that Simon isn’t the first child Mia’s kidnapped; Henry was just one of her previous victims. Mia kills John with an axe and cuts him apart with an electric saw. The monster, Death, finally comes for Simon, who dies from the chemo treatments. On the other hand, Mia’s got another hit book!

Mia buries Simon in the backyard, next to three other graves. Time for another one…

Brian’s Commentary

It’s well-acted and looks good. The plot is pretty predictable; a woman kidnaps a small boy and hallucinates a monster. It’s got some good points, but it’s so incredibly slow that I lost interest about halfway through.

It’s very, very dull.

Kevin’s Commentary

I groaned a bit at John not being at all careful at the point he was figuring things out. As a former cop, he would have known better. He knew she was a poisoner and drank the lemonade she offered. Then when he finds Simon he puts his gun away and kneels with his back to the door.

I’d call this one a case of good actors doing their best in a weak script. It wasn’t very interesting and it dragged on. It got a little more interesting toward the end, as movies sometimes do with a bit of a twist, but it didn’t save it overall.

Short Film:

2026 Short Film: Tapestry

* Directed by: Jason Sheedy

* Written by: Jason Sheedy

* Stars: Erin Ownbey

* Run Time: 7 Minutes

* Watch it:

What Happens

We see that the woman’s son was left in the car by her husband and died. Unwilling to let that be the end, she does a ritual to bring back her dead child. What’s the price for that, you might wonder? She’ll find out…

Commentary

It’s short, and there’s no real dialogue, but it’s always obvious what’s going on and who’s who. It’s well shot and colorful, the acting is good, and it basically tells the whole story in under ten minutes. Very nice!

Contact Info:

Email: mailto:email@horrorguys.com

Websites:

https://www.horrorguys.com

https://www.horrormonthly.com