The Bloody Disgusting-powered SCREAMBOX is home to a variety of unique horror content, from originals and exclusives to cult classics and documentaries. With such a rapidly-growing library, there are many hidden gems waiting to be discovered.
Here are five recommendations you can stream on SCREAMBOX right now.
The Barn
Before The Barn Part II streams exclusively on SCREAMBOX on May 26, catch up on the 2016 original. The Barn stands out among the glut of ’80s slasher throwbacks because it’s not satirical or a send-up; the unapologetic love letter approaches the well-trodden material with a refreshing earnestness. Capturing not only the style but also the spirit of his influences, writer-director Justin M. Seaman taps directly into horror fans’ nostalgia while introducing an imaginative mythology with ample heart in a charming package.
At its core, the film is a coming of age tale about a teenager who doesn’t want to grow up; it just happens to be framed by murder and mayhem. Set in 1989, the film follows best friends Sam (Mitchell Musolino) and Josh (Will Stout) as they embark on a final Halloween hurrah before graduating high school. A trick-or-treating pit stop turns deadly when they learn that the urban legends of The Boogeyman, Hallowed Jack, and The Candycorn Scarecrow are all true. Each of the killers has its own unique look and backstory.
The ’80s atmosphere is established immediately by the retro-style production logo at the top of the film and doesn’t relent for 88 minutes, complete with gory practical effects, fake film grain, a synthesizer score composed by former Evanescence drummer Rocky Gray, and appearances by genre icons Linnea Quigley (The Return of the Living Dead) and Ari Lehman (Friday the 13th).
Antrum
Subtitled “The Deadliest Movie Ever Made,” Antrum is presented as a long-lost movie from the late ‘70s. Akin to Ringu, The Ring, and John Carpenter’s Masters of Horror episode “Cigarette Burns” — all three referenced in the dialogue to avert claims of ripping them off — it’s rumored that no one who has ever seen the cursed film has lived to talk about it. Do you dare watch it?
The 2018 Canadian film is bookended by brief faux-documentary segments featuring film experts providing context on the fatal history. The rest of the 94-minute runtime is presented as the only known copy of Antrum, complete with subliminal “peculiarities” spliced into the print designed to provoke physical and psychological effects on the viewer.
The story follows siblings Oralee (Nicole Tompkins, Resident Evil 3) and Nathan (Rowan Smyth) on a literal descent to Hell as they attempt to save their recently euthanized dog. Writing-directing duo David Amito and Michael Laicini not only capture the 1970s atmosphere better than many productions with bigger budgets, but they also convincingly build a creepy, Blair Witch Project-esque mythology on top of it.
Doom Asylum
10 years after being wrongfully pronounced dead only to survive and go on a killing spree, Mitch Hansen (Michael Rogen) — who looks like a Wish.com version of Frank from Hellraiser and spouts Freddy Krueger-esque one-liners — has become something of an urban legend. A group of friends — including Frankenhooker‘s Patty Mullen as final girl Kiki LaRue and Sex and the City star Kristin Davis in her film debut — go trespassing in the asylum that Mitch has turned his killing grounds. In addition to the killer, they also have to contend with a group of over-the-top punks.
Billed as a horror-comedy, it’s difficult to tell if the humor in 1987’s Doom Asylum is intentional or incidental at first. Once director Richard Friedman (Phantom of the Mall: Eric’s Revenge) and writer Rick Marx introduce Kiki’s quirk of referring to her boyfriend as “mom” to comfort her on the anniversary of her mother’s death, however, it’s clear that the satire is deliberate. The lines between genuinely funny beats, dated ’80s humor, and inadvertent camp are blurred throughout the runtime.
The film is intercut with clips from old black-and-white movies, a 1936 adaptation of The Demon Barber of Fleet Street among them. Some of them cleverly tie into the plot, while others seem to exist only to pad the scant 78-minute runtime. There’s some solid gore along the way, including a particularly memorable death scene in the final act. Doom Asylum may not be a top-tier slasher, but it’s certainly entertaining enough to warrant a cult following.
Savageland
One could easily mistake Savageland for a genuine true-crime documentary rather than what it actually is: a convincing, cleverly-plotted faux-documentary about the largest single-day homicide in the history of Arizona. Co-written and co-directed by Phil Guidry, Simon Herbert, and David Whelan, the clever take on found footage horror succeeds because it fully commits to the gimmick.
After the entire 57-person population of Sangre De Cristo — a small border town colloquially known as Savageland — is wiped out, undocumented Mexican immigrant Francisco Salazar (Noe Montes) is caught covered in blood. He never speaks a word in his defense and, based on the overwhelming evidence against him, is sentenced to death. What seems like an open-and-shut case proves to be anything but when a roll of photos shot by Salazar on the day in question is discovered, as retracing his steps via the 36 exposures paints a clearer picture of what happened.
The incorporation of real-life sociopolitical tensions — including conservative hate-mongers using the tragedy to perpetuate their bigoted beliefs, ignorant officials wanting to wash their hands of the whole ordeal, and activists speaking out for justice — helps to ground the material. Even when genre elements are introduced, credible filmmaking and natural performances (including Wolverine and Swamp Thing co-creator Len Wein as an expert photographer) lend verisimilitude.
Kolobos
1999 direct-to-video obscurity Kolobos has been described as “The Real World meets Saw by way of Suspiria.” Fresh out of film school, co-directors Daniel Liatowitsch and David Todd Ocvirk drew inspiration from the then-novel concept of reality TV and then-obscure Italian horror to craft a colorful addition to the ’90s slasher canon.
The film finds five young people (one-time WWE diva Amy Weber among them) living together in a snowy mountain resort while their every move is filmed for a “groundbreaking experimental film.” After dedicating the first act to character development, horror aspects are swiftly introduced when the first victim is claimed via booby trap and all exits are sealed. More ruthless deaths executed by a faceless killer follow as the dwindling few fight to survive.
Shot on 35mm for $500,000, Kolobos smartly utilizes an ingenious premise with a single primary location and a handful of characters. It’s visually interesting and well paced, save for the superfluous epilogue that was tacked on to pad the runtime. The awkward title — inspired by the colobus monkey, from a Latin term meaning “mutilated” — may not inspire much confidence, but the movie deserves more attention.
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