Frightening Strikes

As the weather warms and the evenings grow lighter, those cosy nights spent with something dark and unsettling start to feel a little rarer. Still, May looks set to be a solid month for horror fans, with a line-up that covers a wide range of the genre. The month’s releases range from supernatural horror and psychological chillers to creature features, offering a mix of intense genre thrills with slower, mood-driven stories. Whatever your preference, there’s a good spread of titles arriving throughout the month. Here’s a look at what the horror films in May have in store. Hokum A reclusive novelist travels to a remote Irish hotel to scatter his parents’ ashes, hoping for solitude and closure. Instead, he finds himself drawn into the hotel’s unsettling atmosphere, where staff whisper of an ancient witch said to haunt a long-sealed honeymoon suite. As disturbing visions take hold and a sudden disappearance deepens the mystery, his grief begins to intertwine with something far more s...

The Mummy is a wild and winning blend of possession horror and adventure, with a good chunk of sensationalist gore. Don’t expect anything resembling the Boris Karloff classic or the Brendan Fraser-era swashbuckler - this is something else entirely. Director Lee Cronin takes a familiar framework and reworks it into something darker, stranger, and very much his own. Katie Vanishes Charlie and Laurie Cannon are raising their children in Cairo when their daughter Katie vanishes from their home. The police are called, and a young officer, Zaki, is assigned to investigate. Keen to make an impression on her first case, she is overruled by a dismissive superior officer, who throws suspicion on the parents, and the investigation falters. Eight years later, the Cannons are back in the United States, trying to maintain as normal a life as possible, but are deeply scarred and still haunted by the loss of Katie. Until a phone call changes everything. Unnatural Aging Katie is found alive, inexplica...

The Wretched opens with a terrifying scene as a babysitter arrives at a house for what should be a routine job, only to stumble into something far more sinister, witnessing an unspeakable act that traps her in a hellish nightmare. It sets the scene for a witch-in-the-woods horror film that blends teen thriller elements with folk horror. Thirty-five years on, we’re introduced to Ben, who is staying with his dad for the summer after his parents’ divorce. Already battered emotionally and physically - his broken arm the result of a bungled attempt to steal from a neighbour - Ben arrives as a defensive, chippy teenager, testing the boundaries of his newfound adulthood, but still young enough to need a guiding hand. So Far, So Beverly Hills 90210 Next door, a young family has moved in for the summer, and mum Abby and her son, Dillon, unwittingly have a brush with a ghoulish witch in the woods as she tries to tempt Dillon into her lair. Although thwarted, the creature isn’t put off easily...

Body Cam is the latest film from director Brandon Christensen, whose early work greatly enjoyed. His more recent outings ( Puppet Master , Night of the Reaper ) didn’t quite have the same impact, but putting that aside, I waslooking forward to see what he would do with this new story of two police officers responding to a domestic disturbance that spirals into something far darker than either of them is prepared for. A Nightmare With no Escape When officers Bryce and Jackson arrive at a rundown property to attend to a routine domestic distubance, a volatile confrontation escalates into a tragic shooting. Faced with the consequences, the pair agree—after heavy persuasion from Bryce—to manipulate their body‑cam footage and engineer a cover-up. But as the night unfolds, something far more unsettling is revealed and what starts as a desperate attempt to hide the truth quickly descends into a nightmare, as the officers realise that whatever they’ve tried to bury may not stay hidden—and may...

April is a quieter month for horror, with fewer high-profile releases but a steady stream of smaller titles arriving across cinemas and digital platforms. It’s the kind of line-up where the star attractions take a break and the undertsudies get to take centre stage. There’s still a good mix on offer, though—from creature features and supernatural setups to psychological and character-driven stories. It may not be the busiest month, but there’s enough variety here to keep things interesting. Faces of Death Margot is a content moderator tasked with reviewing the darkest corners of the internet stumbles upon a series of increasingly disturbing videos that blur the line between staged horror and something far more real. Drawn deeper into this disturing material, Margot begins to uncover a hidden network built on exploitation and voyeurism, where the cost of looking away may be just as dangerous as continuing to watch. “Disturbing, timely, and hard to shake.” – Horror Scope Runtime:  98...

Anything for Jackson is one of those little gems you come across every now and then and wonder why you hadn’t watched it before. It had been on my radar for a while, but I’d never quite felt compelled to commit. The idea of an elderly couple performing a reverse exorcism didn’t feel like a “must-see”. That said, taking the plunge turned out to be a good decision. This is a surprisingly elegant and well-handled horror from Justin G. Dyck—better known for films with “Christmas” in the title. An Ancient Satanic Ritual Henry and Audrey Walsh are an affluent but otherwise unremarkable couple. Henry is the town doctor, Audrey his composed and quietly driven wife. After the loss of their grandson, Jackson, they turn to an ancient satanic ritual in an attempt to bring him back and repair their damaged lives. Early on, Audrey and Henry kidnap a pregnant woman and hold her prisoner in their home in order to perform the ritual and the couple go to great lengths to acquire the knowledge they need...