Memorial Day Scares🎆, Our favorite BBQ scenes in Horror🥩, Freddy's Revenge at 40, and more

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It’s BBQ season. The sun is out. The grill is on. Someone’s uncle is about to become a cautionary tale.

This week, in honor of Memorial Day (and the collective delusion that outdoor eating is relaxing), we’re spotlighting cookout horror for obvious reasons: Memorial Day weekend typically means barbecues, sunburns, and probably an unsupervised child running toward danger. In this week's issue, we're reminded by these films that nothing good happens when you mix heat, meat, and unresolved family drama.

So why do BBQs work so well in horror?

Maybe it's because they’re vulnerable. They require trust: in the host, in the propane hookup, in the weather, in your aunt not bringing up your failed engagement again. And horror, as a genre, lives to betray that trust. The moment everyone’s relaxed, holding a drink, making small talk, that’s when the monster pounces.

Or maybe it's just the grill. Seriously, have you seen how many sharp tools are involved? Tongs. Skewers. Knives. Those giant forks. It’s a killer's dream arsenal.

Whatever the reason, cookouts in horror remind us that no space is sacred. That even your neighbor's perfectly mowed lawn can be the site of something unspeakable.

Expect disaster. Expect questionable meat. Expect to never look at a propane tank the same way again.

Issue 046’s Letterboxd list can be found here

With The Horror Section, his new studio venture, Eli Roth is keeping busy these days. While we wait for Thanksgiving 2, he's producing a German remake of his film Knock Knock, as well as directing Final Cut and The Ice Cream Man.

Hulu's Predator: Killer of Killers has a new trailer. The film, from Prey director Dan Trachtenberg, will premiere on June 6, 2025.

Tickets for the U.S. and Canadian premiere for Hell House LLC: Lineage are now available for it's August 20th release. Purchase them here.

Craig Perry, Prouder of Final Destination 3, has confirmed that all the characters are dead. We can all now move on.

There's new swirling around that Near Dark, the 1987 film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, is going to be made into a TV series by A24.

‘You’re all my children now’ - 40 years of Freddy’s pool party

Who says Freddy Krueger doesn’t like to party?

Growing up in rural West Virginia, one of my gateway horrors was A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge, which my father, bless his soul, taped on VHS. Back in my day (I’m showing my age here), HBO was on basic cable. We were able to catch some pretty integral horror movies - Child’s Play 2, Halloween II, etc. Renting movies was seen as an occasional treat in my family, so I devoured my father’s VHS collection anytime I could. Freddy’s Revenge stood above the rest, a personally influential film that would guide me throughout the ensuing years. Jesse (Mark Patton) was the hero I needed in my life; a deeply flawed character, he is a rare Final Boy archetype that joined the likes of Nancy and Alice. But that’s not the point of this piece.

As this week’s newsletter theme is BBQs or cookouts in horror movies, I couldn’t help but think of the iconic pool party when Freddy (somehow) leaps out of the dream world into real life. A metaphor for coming out, the sleep demon has possessed our lead, and this moment is like a declaration - the big reveal, you could say. What the audience sees is a deranged psychopath covered in burned skin and wearing a fedora, and red and green sweater. What we know is that Jesse, struggling to break free, finds himself at the mercy of himself. Freddy consumes Jesse’s body, a manifestation of society’s strict rules about gender.

That pool party scene also sees the filmmakers completely contradicting the Freddy lore solidified in the previous film. As Nancy proved, Freddy can only enter our world from someone grabbing him right when they wake up. He’s considerably weaker without the magic of dreams to aid him. Once someone shows they are no longer afraid of Freddy’s taunts and metal claws, they zap all his energy. And he vanishes - simply a ghost of their nightmares. Freddy’s Revenge, however, suggests that Freddy can possess someone’s body (in this case, Jesse’s) to make the transition to the real world and brings with him an unnatural strength to overpower his victims. After enjoying a little dip in the pool and a selection of BBQ-approved food, the party-goers notice the pool water coming to a boil and objects moving on their own. Freddy then catches them all by surprise when he pops out of thin air to slaughter as many teens as he can.

Freddy makes his entrance all about the spectacle. He corrals the clearly traumatized group of teens and barks the iconic line, “You’re all my children now.” Backlit by a raging fire, it’s a moment that’s seared into my brain. The way the fire glistened in his eyes; the scared gazes of the teens; and knowing Jesse was trapped inside Freddy’s form all conspired to send chills down my spine. Despite the confusion of Freddy’s lore, the pool party proved to feed my hunger for horror movies over the next two decades. Even now, I’m still blown away by the scene that dared to do something different and stand all by itself.

As Freddy’s Revenge turns 40 this year, it remains my favorite sequel of the franchise. From its overtly gay text to Freddy’s far more sinister and cruel personality, the film doesn’t just defy the constraints of the franchise but continues to be a deeply personal story about self acceptance, breaking the mold, and surviving an unjust society. Where the pool party is Jesse’s unwitting sexuality confession, the final few minutes (which sees Jesse emerge from Freddy’s charred carcass) is like a butterfly being birthed from a cocoon - finally learning how to embrace all parts of himself. And Lisa (Kim Myers) is there to welcome him with open arms. It might be the polarizing outlier of the bunch, but it’s also the boldest and most experimental.

This Memorial Day weekend, fire up the grill, get those floaties out of storage, and pray Freddy Krueger doesn’t decide to make an unwanted visit.

Since it's Memorial Day weekend (here in the U.S.), expect your social media feeds to be filled with BBQ content. From hot dogs and steaks and to photos of people in swimming pools or on beach chairs, it's time for a nice holiday weekend to keep us busy. However, no matter what you're doing, be safe... and watch out for cannibals, broken glass on the ground (or in your drinks), and just about anything else that seems out of the ordinary. Check out the list on Letterboxd.

Kyra Elise Gardner's new film, SLAY, starring Aya Cash and Shawnee Smith, has wrapped filming. A release date has yet to be announced.

Arrow Player's June 2025 schedule has been released. Check it out here.

According to When to Stream, Clown in a Cornfield will be available on VOD and digital platforms on June 10, 2025.

The Woman in the Yard freshens the grass on Blu-ray on May 27th (and is already available on Digital now).

Isaac Ezban's Párvulos: Children Of The Apocalypse comes to VOD on June 3, 2025.

The Chattanooga Film Festival makes its triumphant return to the Chattanooga Theatre Center for the 12th edition of what MovieMaker Magazine calls one of The 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World! It all goes down in-person June 20-22 with the virtual side of the festival continuing through the 28th.