May Horror Roundup
- Riley Cassidy
- May 31
- 5 min read
Another month full of trips to the cinema and trips to my living room couch for movie nights, May brought some high highs and low lows. A couple of new personal favorites were released, along with some less impressive features. Read on to hear my thoughts!
NEW RELEASES...
Clown in a Cornfield
Based on the book of the same name written by Adam Cesare, Clown in a Cornfield drops us into the small town of Kettle Springs where tensions run extremely high between the younger generation and their parents and relatives who founded it. The foundation of the town's economy has crumbled with the destruction of the corn syrup factory, resulting in the loss of a large number of jobs for the population. If that's not bad enough, there's also a scary clown on the loose killing teens.
I found myself somewhat outside of the age demographic for this one, a fact that made me feel incredibly old. Nonetheless, it wasn't really my sense of humor, leaving parts of it feeling super slow. While this move wasn't for me, I'm a big fan of solid, gateway horror for younger generations and hope that Clown in a Cornfield brings more fans into the genre.
Where to watch: release date coming soon to Amazon Prime
Final Destination Bloodlines
Now THIS is a movie that I was the target audience for and I absolutely adored it. Final Destination Bloodlines revitalizes the iconic franchise with fresh new characters and fresh new kills. I was either too young or too scared to have seen any of the previous Final Destination films in theaters and I was excited to experience this one on the big screen with a packed audience. It's such a fun movie and I can't recommend going out to see it enough. The soundtrack is killer, the characters are fun and interesting to watch and the death scenes are incredibly graphic and creative in true Final Destination form.
Alongside being fun and thrilling, Final Destination Bloodlines also has a lot of heart, including a beautiful final performance from the late Tony Todd. Just seeing him on screen was enough to start the waterworks, but the context of his role within the film was so poignant and felt like a truly fitting tribute to a horror legend.
Where to watch: in theaters
Fear Street: Prom Queen
I'm not trying to be too big of a hater, but Fear Street: Prom Queen is another movie that didn't do it for me. I really dug the first Fear Street trilogy in 2021, but this new entry left me scratching my head as to why it was made in the first place. Eighties nostalgia is a sub-genre of its own that feels played out in my opinion, even more so when you look at the oversaturation of modern horror movies set in the '80s. The worst part for me was that Fear Street: Prom Queen feels like it was made in 2025, not 1980; it was distractingly modern at certain points. Your time is probably better spent revisiting Prom Night than wading into these waters.
Where to Watch: Netflix
Bring Her Back
This was a doozy, something that will come as no surprise to fans of the Philippou brothers' first feature film Talk to Me. Bring Her Back builds on the topics and themes of their first film and expands on them in breathtaking fashion. Deeply unsettling, haunting, and an emotional gut punch, it feels disingenuous to say I had a fun time, but I did have a rewarding experience watching it. Hearing other people's reactions throughout the film (groaning, crying, etc) created such an immersive experience, that it was hard to shake off when I left the theater.
The performances are stellar, particularly Sally Hawkins as a foster mother who has recently gone through a tragedy of her own. She takes in step-siblings Piper (Sora Wong) and Andy (Billy Barratt) after the death of their father and pushes her unconventional beliefs upon them, largely without their knowledge. Bring Her Back is a rich and chilling exploration of grief that leaves viewers with a lot to unpack by the time it's over.
Where to Watch: in theaters
What I've Been Loving Lately
Heart Eyes (2025)
It is an incredibly difficult feat for a horror comedy to fully deliver on both aspects in equal measure, and Heart Eyes succeeds in exactly that. It's a great rom-com and a great slasher rolled into one great movie. I missed this one when it was in theaters and now that it's streaming on Netflix I'm kicking myself for not getting around to it as it's a movie I would've loved to support at the box office.
Anchored by performances from Mason Gooding and Olivia Holt (who is also fantastic in the series Cruel Summer) as coworkers who become the target of a Valentine's Day serial killer. While fighting for their lives, the two are subjected to every rom-com trope you can think of; fake dating, there's only one bed, enemies to lovers, etc. which adds such a fun layer of self-awareness to the whole plot. Heart Eyes is such a clever mash-up of the two genres, and at a cool 97 minutes, it is well worth a watch.
Where to Watch: Netflix
They Call Her Death (2024)
On the other side of the same coin as Prom Queen, They Call Her Death is a fantastic example that truly feels like an artifact of the time that it's set in. Shot entirely on 16mm Kodak film and with an ultra-low budget, They Call Her Death follows Molly Pray (Sheri Rippel) across the landscape of the American prairie as she avenges the death of her murdered husband. It really feels like an old-school splatter Western from the visual aesthetic to the performances, dialogue, and sound design. While not entirely my favorite style, the authenticity of the filmmaking alone makes They Call Her Death an instant recommendation in my book. It's a funny and gory story of revenge that feels like it was dug out of a relative's attic, a perfect time capsule of a film.
Where to Watch: Shudder
Lady Vengeance (2005)
The final movie I want to shout out this month is the third and final installment of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy, Lady Vengeance. Trippy and dreamlike, Lady Vengeance displays moments of shocking humor alongside moments that are deeply disturbing in a way that feels exemplary of Park Chan-wook's work overall. After being wrongfully imprisoned for 13 years due to a murder she didn't commit, Lee Geum-ja (the wonderful Lee Young-ae) is finally free and determined to get revenge on everyone who had a hand in her sentencing. Helping her along the way is every other inmate she did a kindness for, all in service of her larger plan. Lady Vengeance is a gorgeous meditation on revenge and justice and a glimpse into some of the purest evil there is.
That's all for this month! Let me know if you've seen any of the movies I mentioned above and what you thought, or if there's anything you think I missed. XOXO - Chiller Thriller
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