PREVIEW: Helloween (2025 Film) - Killer Clowns Unleash Carnage in a New Horror Nightmare

 

Preview by Jon Donnis

Killer clowns are rampaging across the nation and one determined doctor is set on finding the truth. Can she save her family and the world from true evil, and a fate worse than death, in a hair-raising new horror

Get ready for one hell of a fright night as the cult of clown descends this spooky season in Helloween.

Featuring Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott, Michael Paré and Ronan Summers, this killer chiller comes from writer-director Phil Claydon and is produced by Shogun Films. It makes its UK digital debut on 29 September 2025 courtesy of Miracle Media, followed by a Blu-ray release on 13 October 2025 from 101 Films.

The year is 2016. The ‘killer clown’ craze is in full swing, the streets are in chaos and the media is fuelling the fire with fearmongering headlines. Inside a high security psychiatric hospital, embattled psychiatrist Dr Ellen Marks, played by Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott, is facing a very real threat. One of her patients is the notorious child serial killer Carl Cane, portrayed by Ronan Summers.

Jeanine Nerissa Sothcott

Determined to uncover the cause of the anarchistic clown uprising, Marks teams up with American investigative journalist John Parker, played by Michael Paré. Their search for answers pulls them closer to home than she ever feared possible. As Carl Cane’s evil gospel spreads, the pair begin to question whether the murderous inmate could really be orchestrating events from deep within the hospital.

Then he escapes, and he does it in shockingly brutal fashion. Now the doctor is in a race against time to save her daughters from the killer’s maniacal revenge. As bloody carnage rages outside, she is forced into a fight for survival, facing something that may not even be of this world.

Prepare for clownmaggedon this Helloween, as one evil entity is intent on tearing society apart.

https://apple.co/3HRDrwo

REVIEW: The Death of Snow White (2025 Film) - Starring Sanae Loutsis, Chelsea Edmundson and Tristan Nokes

 

By Jon Donnis

The Death of Snow White takes the fairytale most people grew up with and shoves it headfirst into a pit of blood, occult rituals and feverish invention. Director Jason Brooks wastes no time tearing apart the clean, polished version and replacing it with something far darker. The opening alone sets the stage, with Chelsea Edmundson’s Queen slicing her own palm in the middle of a spell. From that moment, you know exactly what you have signed up for. It is dramatic, unashamedly violent, and makes no attempt to hide what it wants to be.

The forest setting is more than just a backdrop. It feels alive, a twisted labyrinth filled with shadows and strange predators. When Snow White, played with unexpected grit by Sanae Loutsis, finds herself in its depths, the whole energy of the film shifts. The dwarves here are not harmless miners or comic foils. They are cold blooded killers, each with such exaggerated traits that they almost tip into parody, yet somehow the tone makes it work. Watching Snow White slowly adjust to their brutal world is oddly rewarding. Brooks clearly wanted her journey from hunted girl to fierce avenger to feel real, and it does.

Chelsea Edmundson’s performance as the Queen is the beating heart of the film. This is not the usual vain and spiteful monarch. She is something much more dangerous, a woman who has already burned through every limit and is now exploring what lies beyond. The production design of her castle is both grim and captivating, and the magic rituals have a physicality that makes them memorable. The limited budget shows when the computer effects appear, but rather than detract from the experience, it fits the rough edged B movie personality of the piece.

The final act pulls no punches. The apple is not a delicate weapon of deception here, it is the trigger for a violent curse. What follows is a relentless battle where no one is safe, and characters you have grown to like are cut down without warning. The practical gore effects manage to be both stomach churning and inventive. Snow White’s ultimate fight with the Queen is raw and savage, ending with a moment involving Tiny’s axe that delivers the sort of bloody satisfaction fans of this style of horror will appreciate.

It is not perfect. The middle section loses momentum for a short stretch, and a few smaller roles are not as strong as the leads. Yet as a twisted, unrestrained reworking of the Snow White story, it is a triumph of gleeful excess. It may not be for everyone, but for those who enjoy their fairytales soaked in blood and chaos, this is one of the most entertaining takes in a long while. I left the film grinning, which is probably not the most comforting thing to admit.

Out Now

Apple TV - https://apple.co/3Hun5cP

FrightFest 2025: Short Films Take Centre Stage with Four Terrifying Showcases

FrightFest’s short film programming has always been one of the festival’s sharpest claws, and for 2025, it’s going for the jugular. With a record-breaking number of entries, this year’s edition brings together four showcases brimming with bite, tension, satire and, frankly, a whole lot of blood.

Across four days, thirty-six films from nine countries will screen at the Odeon LUXE West End, including twenty-nine world premieres. Each showcase offers a different shade of horror, from bleak comedy and psychological torment to supernatural dread and creature carnage. As ever, there’s a strong showing from UK talent, alongside bold new work from the US, Australia, Europe, and beyond.

Friday kicks off the bloodbath with Showcase 1, where bad days spiral into existential nightmares and tech seduction threatens family life. There’s the French gem Dead Tooth, where a simple dentist appointment unravels into chaos, and the unnervingly cute-but-not Obey!, about a dead influencer dog that won’t stay silent. You’ve also got Tapestry, where grief turns occult, and Pandora, Inc., where loneliness opens the door to A.I. manipulation. It all builds to a crescendo of dread with the Nordic folktale Vӓsen, and a standout performance in Murderbird, a relationship drama that takes a turn into the feathered abyss.

Saturday’s Showcase 2 keeps things grounded in dread, with almost the entire lineup hailing from the UK. Highlights include Needleteeth, set on an Irish farm with a slow-burning menace, and No One Is Coming to Rescue You, where polite family introductions mask something far darker. You’ll also meet Gilda, who’s trying to entertain kids but ends up summoning the occult, and Inebriated, which injects some twisted emotion into possession tropes. The programme ends on a gorgeously uncomfortable note with You Look So Beautiful, a hazy romance that might be more cursed than cute.

Showcase 3 on Sunday leans into surrealism and sharp genre jolts, from the Mumbai-set Leopard (Waagh), where urban sprawl and natural instinct clash, to the freakishly fun Pimple, which might be the goriest puberty metaphor yet. In DIY, a simple attempt to hang a picture spirals into horror far beyond the hardware store, while Cruz (The Kook Cook) wins points for being one of the most bizarre (and darkly funny) entries, think desert-dwelling surfer with hipster-hunting tendencies. And if you're in the mood for romantic horror, It Loves Me So and Praying Mantis offer very different takes on love gone very, very wrong.

Monday closes the curtain with Showcase 4, bringing a more introspective, sometimes quietly devastating flavour to the mix. In Watch Me Burn, a deaf girl’s loneliness leads her down a dangerous path, while Frame finds horror in the silence of digital spaces. There’s some wicked levity too, with Ouija Go Out With Me?, a dating-gone-dead comedy that has fun with séance clichés. But it’s Undertone, with its creeping sound design, and Don’t Look, which builds a whole mythology around the act of seeing, that really unsettle. And if you’re looking for a strange fable to end things, Grandma Is Thirsty is here to rewrite your childhood bedtime stories.

FrightFest continues to be a reliable launchpad for fresh horror voices, and this year’s shorts underline the importance of letting weird, personal, and darkly funny visions through. There’s folklore. There’s body horror. There’s AI. There are birds with issues. It’s the kind of programme that doesn’t just scare, it surprises, amuses, provokes. Sometimes all in the same scene.

FrightFest 2025 runs from 21–25 August at Odeon LUXE Leicester Square and Odeon LUXE West End. The short film showcases screen across the 22nd to the 25th. Bring popcorn. Maybe don’t look directly at the screen.

For full programme details & tickets: http://www.frightfest.co.uk/

Top Ten Horror Film Reimaginings

The Grudge
The Grudge was very successfully re-made for just two short years after the original Japanese version came out by the same Director, Takashi Shimizu.

Synopsis: Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as Karen Davis who is an American Nurse moves to Tokyo and encounter a supernatural spirit who is vengeful and often possesses its victims. A series of horrifying and mysterious deaths start to occur, with the spirit passing its curse onto each victim. Karen must now find a way to break this spell, before she becomes its next victim.

The Ring
The 1998 Japanese film ‘Ringu’ was re-made and renamed THE RING in 2002 by Director Gore Verbinski.

Synopsis: Ruthlessly murdered by her father, the ghost of a seer's daughter kills all those who watch a weird video after 7 days; unless the viewer finds the escape clause.

I Spit on Your Grave
Originally made in 1978 I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE was re-made in 2010 with the help from the original writer Meir Zarchi.

Synopsis: Jennifer (Sarah Butler), a writer, rents an isolated cabin in the country so she can work on her latest novel. The peace and quiet is soon shattered by a gang of local thugs who rape and torture her, then leave her for dead. But she returns for vengeance, trapping the men one by one. Jennifer inflicts pain on her attackers with a ferocity that surpasses her own ordeal.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre
The 1974 slasher TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE was re-vamped in 2003, starring Jessica Biel and with help from the original write Tobe Hooper.

Synopsis: After picking up a traumatized young hitchhiker, five friends find themselves stalked and hunted by a deformed chainsaw-wielding killer and his family of equally psychopathic killers.

House of Wax
52 years after the original was released in 1953, HOUSE OF WAX was recreated starring Chad Michael Murray and Paris Hilton.

Synopsis: A group of unwitting teens are stranded near a strange wax museum and soon must fight to survive and keep from becoming the next exhibit.

Dawn of the Dead
26 years after the popular action horror DAWN OF THE DEAD was released in 1978, it was reimagined in 2004 by Zack Snyder.

Synopsis:  Following an ever-growing epidemic of zombies that have risen from the dead, two Philadelphia S.W.A.T. team members, a traffic reporter, and his television executive girlfriend seek refuge in a secluded shopping mall.

The Last House on the Left
Another of Wes Craven’s famous horror’s in THE LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT, re-made in 2009 and directed by Dennis Iliadis.

Synopsis: After kidnapping and brutally assaulting two young women, a gang unknowingly finds refuge at a vacation home belonging to the parents of one of the victims: a mother and father who devise an increasingly gruesome series of revenge tactics.

The Thing
John Carpenter’s 1982 classic film, THE THING was re-made in 2011.

Synopsis:  In remote Antarctica, a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog. When they take in the dog, it brutally attacks both human beings and canines in the camp and they discover that the beast can assume the shape of its victims. A resourceful helicopter pilot (Kurt Russell) and the camp doctor (Richard Dysart) lead the camp crew in a desperate, gory battle against the vicious creature before it picks them all off, one by one

The Hills Have Eyes
The 2006 remake of Wes Craven’s 1977 film THE HILLS HAVE EYES is based on a family road trip that takes a terrifying turn when the travelers become stranded in a barren atomic zone established by the U.S. government. However, the unlucky travelers discover to their horror that the wasteland is far from uninhabited, a band of bloodthirsty mutants prowls the area, and there is nothing they like better than fresh meat.

Poltergeist
POLTERGEIST, from legendary filmmaker Sam Raimi (“Spider-Man,” Evil Dead,” “The Grudge”) and director Gil Kenan (“Monster House”).

Synopsis: It contemporizes the 1982 classic about a family whose suburban home is haunted by evil forces.  When terrifying apparitions escalate their attacks and hold the youngest daughter captive, the family must come together to rescue her before she disappears forever.

POLTERGEIST Arrives on Blu-ray 3D™, Blu-ray™ & DVD on 26th October

Buy from Amazon at the link below.
Poltergeist - Extended Cut [Blu-ray + UV Copy] [2015]