Five days, eight movies, and three of them didn't survive past the one-hour mark.
It started with a John Wick rewatch, and somewhere around the credits I decided I wanted horror for the rest of the week. What followed turned into an accidental deep dive on the Evil Dead franchise, which then kept bending into whatever new horror release happened to be sitting in my queue. By the end of it I'd watched a bunch of talking sheep solve a murder and actually got a little emotional about it.
Here's how the whole thing played out, in the order I watched it.
John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)
This is the rewatch that started it all. Everything gets turned up from the first two films: more assassins, more lore, more absurd fight choreography, more of Keanu Reeves getting thrown through glass than should physically be possible for one person to survive. The movie's not trying to be deep and honestly, it doesn't need to be because sometimes you just want to watch a man break someone's neck with a book. This one gets an 8.3/10. It was a fun watch from start to finish.
The Evil Dead (1981)
This is where I fell asleep on a horror classic, then gave up on the sequels. I went straight into the original, The Evil Dead, the low budget cabin in the woods film that basically wrote the rulebook every possession horror movie since has been copying from. I fell asleep twice trying to get through it but it was okay for most of the runtime, right up until the ending, where the gross practical effects mixed with animation threw me off completely. The acting and the effects both got so over the top so it came in at a 6.0 for me, decent but not a movie I'd rush back to.
I tried to keep the franchise momentum going and it fell apart almost immediately. Evil Dead II went full comedy on me, and that's not what I signed up for, so it got dropped before it had a real chance. Army of Darkness didn't even make it that far.
What did work was the 2013 remake, Evil Dead, watched the same day Army of Darkness got cut loose. It was loud and chaotic, and had all the blood and gore remakes tend to reach for. It's not really my lane of horror, but it held my attention enough to come away with a 7.0. I'm not done with this franchise, Evil Dead Rise from 2023 and the new Evil Dead Burn from 2026 are next on my list. The two I already dropped will stay dropped.
Leviticus (2026)
This one's the queer horror gut punch of the week. It follows two teenage boys in a remote Christian community whose feelings for each other start manifesting as a violent supernatural entity, and the movie doesn't try to hide that it's a metaphor for conversion therapy and religious repression. I really loved this movie. My only complaint was the runtime. It felt too short for how much I'd gotten attached to these two, my poor babies, and I closed it wishing there was an extra twenty minutes to sit in. It still pulled a strong 8.5 out of me, appreciation and mild heartbreak included.
Backrooms (2026)
All atmosphere, no substance is the simplest way to sum this one up. Kane Parsons, the creator behind the viral Backrooms YouTube series, made his feature directorial debut with this one, and the liminal space visuals are properly unsettling on their own terms. My problem is everything wrapped around them. A therapist chasing a missing patient into an alternate dimension had strong potential, but the story kept reaching for a meaning it never quite built up to. Pretentious is the word I'd use to describe this film, and a 6.3 feels about right to me. I know some people loved this one and will tell me I just don't get it. That's fine, let's just agree to disagree.
Hokum (2026)
This is the one that just didn't work. Hokum wrapped up the week, and it's where things finally fell apart for good. Damian McCarthy, the director behind Oddity, brings the same slow burn atmospheric style to a story about a novelist confronting a witch legend while scattering his parents' ashes at a remote Irish inn. Its got cheap scares, and a whole lot of meh. I know it's supposed to be sitting with grief underneath all the ghost story trappings, but I couldn't bring myself to care. I dropped it around the one hour mark.
The Sheep Detectives (2026)
This is a (sheep) whodunit mystery. After Backrooms and Hokum I just needed something to pass the time, so I put on The Sheep Detectives without expecting much, and it ended up being the best surprise of the whole week. Hugh Jackman plays a shepherd who reads murder mysteries to his flock every night, fully convinced they can't understand a word of it, right up until he turns up dead and the sheep decide they're the ones who have to solve it. Based on the novel Three Bags Full and directed by Kyle Balda in his first live action feature, it's a brilliant little movie with a solid twist and it gets a rating of 8.3 from me.
That's the full ride: a John Wick comfort watch, an Evil Dead franchise that couldn't decide if it wanted to scare me or lose me, two horror movies I actively regret finishing, and a flock of sheep that somehow ended up being the best thing I watched all week. If nothing else, this week proved that horror won't always deliver, but the movie you expect the least from sometimes will.
What have you seen recently?
Drop a comment if you disagree with some of my ratings.
More reviews and takes at The Watchlist Chronicles.