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- Happy ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ remake day 🎅🏻, Fave home invasions 🪓, ‘Monster Party’ revisited 🏠, & more!
Happy ‘Silent Night, Deadly Night’ remake day 🎅🏻, Fave home invasions 🪓, ‘Monster Party’ revisited 🏠, & more!
Intro by Brett Petersel | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd
With all of the horror subgenres available, there's one, and my personal favorite, that strikes a nerve in many people because it's an off-the-screen instance that happens in real life: Home Invasions. We've seen the Ring doorbell camera videos on Instagram and TikTok of intruders entering a home without warning, attacking or murdering its occupants, and then disappearing into the day or night. While the subgenre paints home invasion films in a sometimes lighter manner, with intruders wearing colorful masks and with or without a proper agenda other than brutally terrorizing its residents, there is still no doubt that it's a traumatizing experience.
The subgenre has created a number of great films, including The Collector (2009), Don't Breathe and the widely (and well-deserved) popular You're Next, but it's the hidden gems, such as Kidnapped, Home Sweet Home and Trespassers, that truly deliver a blow to those who watch them. The subgenre continues to innovate, sometimes incorporating technology into the mix (Keep Watching), but let's not forget that a home invasion, with and without masks and technology, are scary. Period.
In this issue, including with Bee & Sarah's Double Trouble, as well as both our RIYL and Let's Get Listicle sections, we highlight not only a few films from the subgenre, but its impact on what we've seen and what's to come.
Stay alert...
RIYL: YOU’RE NEXT (2011)
Lock the doors. Close the blinds. Set the alarm. Go about your business. You may think these precautions will keep you safe, but someone or some people have different plans. Adam Wingard’s You’re Next showed us how that being in a “safe” location and with loved ones is anything but. Check out other films like You’re Next that we think you should check out. Follow the list on Letterboxd.
IN THE NEWS
Brett Petersel | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd
🎮 Kill Screen nabs David Dastmalchian for lead role
Greg McLean (Wolf Creek, The Belko Experiment) is gearing up to get behind the camera once again. This time, he’s directing David Dastmalchian in Kill Screen, a film about people searching for a missing person, and then find themselves fighting for survival in a virtual reality horror game where everything isn’t what it seems.
😴 Nine Inch Nails’ Robin Finck releases Sleep Awake with Blumhouse Games
While he may be touring right this moment with Nine Inch Nails, guitarist Robin Finck created a video game, Sleep Awake, with Blumhouse Games, which is available for Playstation, Xbox and PC. Check out the trailer here.
The 5th annual #HorrorMoviesForTheHolidays Challenge, which encourages participants to celebrate the holiday season by watching their favorite holiday horror movies, runs November 24, 2025 to January 2, 2026. |  |
DOUBLE TROUBLE
Bee Delores | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd & Sarah Stubbs | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd
There's a reason I named Bryan Bertino's The Strangers one of the best horror films of all time for Daily Grindhouse. Nearly two decades later, it remains a perfect example in how to build tension and mood. It's the reason I keep my doors locked at all times, no matter the time of day -- I obsess over it, actually. Its story is timeless: a young couple are home alone when three strangers show up and terrorize them. It's a lean and mean narrative that doesn't need big action sequences or a high body count. Bertino leans into subtle scares, e.g. when a masked intruder pops out of the darkness in the living room. And the grim, nihilistic ending is pure cinema -- "Because you were home" always sends chills down my spine. Classic. [written by Bee]
Home Invasion Horror is typically not my jam but I have to pair The Strangers with it's own sequel, The Strangers: Prey at Night because it's an entry of this sub-genre that I not only like, but actually love! Johannes Roberts' take was also co-written by Bryan Bertino and released a decade later. This combination creates a bit of an 80s vibe to the franchise (likely due to the resurgence of 80s nostalgia because of shows like Stranger Things finding success) instead of the nihilistic aughts tones of the original. The grit and gore is all this there but when the film is over, you're more likely to be thinking about the Total Eclipse of the Heart pool scene (I still adore this bit of filmmaking) instead of feeling like you need a palette cleanser. The soundtrack is also a total banger. Don't skip this one! [written by Sarah]
RECOMMENDED READING
Candi Norwood | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd
Home Invasion Horror Recommendations:
The Cabin at the End of the World by Paul Tremblay- This is one of the first novels I read in recent memory that played with the home invasion trope in an interesting way. When four strangers take Wen and her adopted dads hostage at their vacation cabin, they are regretful and insist a sacrifice is needed to save the rest of humanity from an apocalypse. Tense, personal, and makes you question, are the captors mad-people - or heroes?
The Wych Elm by Tana French- Tana French is pretty much an auto-read for me. I love her Dublin Murder Squad series, but The Wych Elm is a standalone - and at over 500 pages will be a good excuse to stay in your cozy chair reading all weekend long. Though most of the novel is a psychological thriller and mystery involving a human skull unearthed from beneath a wych elm at his uncle’s country home, Toby’s decision to leave Dublin was incited by a burglary of his apartment where he was brutally attacked. Grab your cat and your mulled wine - you’re staying home this weekend.
Weekend Getaway by Tom Deady- Don’t have time to read 500 pages? Tom Deady’s novella is only about 80 pages but hits as hard as any full length work. It opens at a funeral for John Baxter’s wife, and the main narrative is what he leads us to believe is the story he tells his seven-year-old grandson about the attack he and his wife endured at their vacation cabin many years before. A brutal story to share with a 7-year-old but an effective gut-punch - emotionally and psychologically - for us adults. Also: “Anticipatory Anxiety” could be the name of my autobiography.
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara- I know, this account of Joseph James DeAngelo’s crimes which included breaking into homes and holding men captive while assaulting their wives is technically true crime, but 1. Michelle McNamara’s writing was so personal, and her passion for this case caused her to neglect her own health, contributing to her death, effectively made her the Golden State Killer’s final victim and 2. After reading this on release day and before GSK was unidentified, I didn’t sleep for two days even though I was separated by 30 years and 2500 miles from his last home invasion - few straight horror novels can do that. Bonus: McNamara’s investigation led to GSK’s capture shortly after the book’s release, sadly too late for her to see. Bonus 2: The HBO series is beautifully produced and is more likely to make you cry than lose sleep.
MACABRE DAILY: WEEKLY UPDATES
WHAT TO WATCH
In The Mother, the Menacer, and Me, James Austin Kerr stars as Eddie Matthews, an aspiring filmmaker who has just moved in with his mother-in-law. Eddie is down on his luck, but he hasn't let his passion for filmmaking fade. His 9-to-5 grind can be quite soul-sucking, but he funnels that frustration into his work in extraordinary ways. His film, Killing Karens, is all he ever thinks about. He lives, breathes, sleeps, and eats the story. While his mother-in-law clearly doesn't understand his ambitions, Eddie, like many millennials, is used to being denigrated for what others see as frivolous dreams. With his villainous imaginary companion in tow, Eddie gets the break of his life, which could lead to the film's most epic kill. The Mother, the Menacer, and Me feels very Dead Like Me coded, and it's always nice to see Leah Remini on-screen. [written by Bee] |  |
1984’s Silent Night, Deadly Night is exactly the slasher trash that’s needed a more modern, fresh update. While there’ll always be room for Charles E. Sellier Jr.’s original, it hasn’t aged well—particularly for its treatment of women. Mike P. Nelson, the man behind a V/H/S/85 segment (“No Wake/Ambrosia”), the long-awaited Jason Voorhees return (Sweet Revenge), and the criminally underrated Wrong Turn (2021), turns in a thematically timely script with obvious references to a certain political corner that thrives on hate. In his hands, the film yanks the source material into 2025 with a focus on pushing the genre forward. It leaves behind misogynistic tropes (such as a young topless woman answering her front door), cringy gay jokes, and the general ickiness of many 1980s slashers for something far more progressive. [Read Bee's review] |  |
Writer/director Angela Gulner’s The Beldham is one of the year’s biggest surprises. Fitting somewhere between Relic and Goodnight Mommy, the indie feature taps into mental decay, a mother’s primal senses, and postpartum psychosis. Its effectiveness relies heavily on Gulner’s taut, character-driven script that uncovers the insidious fear stemming from memory loss and the cruelty of human existence. The cast, which includes Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond) and Katie Parker (The Haunting of Hill House, The Fall of the House of Usher), digs their teeth into the material with remarkable urgency. [Read Bee's review] |  |
A horror film that takes big swings is far better than one that’s just plain boring. Director Joe Badon comfortably fits into the first category with his latest film. The Wheel of Heaven (now streaming on Cranked Up) lives in the same realm as KUSO and HeBGB TV; they are all strikingly similar yet wildly different (and would make a killer triple feature). Badon, who co-wrote the script with Jason Kruppa, works the senses into a hyper-kinetic overdrive as he erratically flips through images that’s not unlike brain freeze (complementary). Billed as a “mini-series,” the film mashes together many cultural touchstones (Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Star Trek, and Elvis Presley among them) and references several iconic horror films, including Alice Sweet Alice and Carnival of Souls. [Read Bee's review] |  |
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TIMEWARP
Bee Delores | Bluesky | Instagram | Letterboxd
Monster Party Deserves More Praise
A rabid dog finally breaking free from his iron-wrought cage, Julian McMahon’s Patrick Dawson licks his chops, an appetite for curdled flesh pulsing in his stomach, and spits through his teeth: “I’m ready to make the Dawsons great again!” The slogan that has permeated every corner of American culture for three years is injected with even more gutting relevance, as the onscreen violence bares a striking resemblance to the evening news. McMahon’s gleefully twisted smile is enough to send a shockwave of chills down your spine, tingling your own disturbing bloodlust for gore, bottom-feeding scum and depraved brutality. And, boy, does Shudder’s new exclusive Monster Party ⏤ a brisk 90-minute blood-splattered jamboree written and directed by Chris von Hoffmann (Drifter), whose craftsmanship perfects the typical heist-gone-wrong sub-genre with delightful relish ⏤ offer up a taut storyline of three transient 20-somethings seeking a way out of the ho-hum of middle America.
Virginia Gardner (Halloween 2018) plays the bubbly, hopeful and pregnant Iris (she’s two-months along) who works a day job in catering in between various money-grabbing capers. Her ever-compassionate and supportive boyfriend Dodge, Brandon Michael Hall (CBS hit God Friended Me) possesses an endearing magnetism that works to counterbalance his dude Casper’s (Sean Strike, whose credits include Leatherface and Nightflyers) neuroticism and unhinged desperation to help his father climb out of debt and from under the thumb of a fiendish, despicable club owner. Together, they not only blur the lines of morality but they lure you into the thrill ride of your life.
Once Casper sets his sights on the Dawson Family’s seemingly-bottomless well of wealth, he coaxes Iris and Dodge into playing fake servants for a lavish dinner party that turns out to be more than they bargained for ⏤ a support group meeting for reformed murderers. Unwittingly, Casper sets off the house security system and mayhem and satisfyingly-grotesque mutilation falls like dominos right into his lap. Dawson matriarch Roxanne is portrayed with unsettling subtlety by Robin Tunney, whose face you’ll surely recognize from her work in 1996’s The Craft, and right from the outset, her performance is psychologically-frayed and frightful and gives you pause on the addictive quality of killing, a theme explored right on the surface. Daughter Alexis (Erin Moriarty, known for her work on Jessica Jones) further unties those threads, often wavering between upholding her familial duties and her own devotion to breaking the cycle. Even the underlying “dog” storyline, which boils over quite nicely in the third act, begs the question: is murder ingrained in the DNA as much as any other addiction?
Such secondary players as Kian Lawley (whose Elliot Dawon is both primally-sexual and coldly-detached), Chest Rushing (the daft Cameron) and Jamie Ward (as the perversely-intriguing drug addict named Jeremy) operate to punctuate the film’s sleek humor while splicing apart its surrounding savagery. The cast, as a whole, rounded out with Diego Boneta (Ollie), Lance Reddick (the cultish leader and support group beacon Milo) and others, bounces off one another with nimble writing and dialogue that never veers too far into the outlandish. It’s a glorious 90-minute popcorn flick imbued with heart without taking itself so serious to be deflating, and the final act of redemption is just downright rewarding.
YOU’RE NOT SAFE AT HOME
The Horrorverse team picks their favorite Home Invasion horror films. Check out our list on Letterboxd (and then lock your doors!).
THE HORRORVERSE TEAM
BEE DELORES | BRETT PETERSEL |
CANDI NORWOOD | SARAH STUBBS |
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