Day: May 28, 2026

Welcome to the summer that is changing horror

It is really in the air. The new brand of filmmakers is changing the industry

The summer of 2026 is already shaping up to be the summer that changes horror… and possibly movies in general.

There’s a new generation of young directors making creative horror films such as Obsession and Backrooms.. and especially with Obsession, there’s been a word-of-mouth popularity surge that really hasn’t been seen since probably The Blair Witch Project. It became the sleeper hit of the late spring season almost entirely because people kept telling other people to go see it. Audiences wanted to know what all the buzz was about, and once they got there, they thoroughly enjoyed it.

The movie is getting rave reviews and, more importantly, it feels different. That’s the key.

For too long horror has relied on remakes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Exorcist, and countless recycled ideas from the past. People grew tired of it. The villains that once terrified audiences during the late 20th century slowly started becoming pop culture jokes instead of actual horror icons.

But this new breed of horror filmmakers is giving audiences something fresh again.

Obsession is an absolutely perfect example of that. The movie reportedly only cost around $750,000 to make, yet it’s already tracking toward potentially making close to $100 million. The profit margins are insane, but it’s not just about profit. People are genuinely enjoying the art behind what this movie provided. They’re talking about it afterward. They’re debating it and  recommending it to friends.

And even more interesting than the box office itself is the demographic showing up to see it.

The audience is heavily made up of the 18-to-25 crowd!

When I went to see it, I felt like a geezer… and I’m not even that old. The theater was packed with teenagers, college kids, and younger adults. That means something. Younger audiences are actually returning to theaters when a movie feels worth leaving the house for. They’re sitting through the 25 minutes of ads and commercials and eventually, if you’re at AMC, that famous Nicole Kidman theater speech about why movies are better in a dark room with strangers.

For years people have cried that movie theaters were dying out, but maybe the formula was always simpler than we thought: people will still go to theaters for movies that are actually good. Go figure..

And horror has always been on the cutting edge of culture.

Horror reflects the fears, anxieties, politics, and social atmosphere of its era better than almost any other genre. The SAW movies probably would not have exploded in popularity during the 1980s, but during the War on Terror era it hit audiences at exactly the right moment. The same thing happens throughout horror history over and over again.

Oddly enough, professional wrestling and horror movies might be two of the greatest indicators of where society is emotionally at any given time. Both constantly evolve alongside culture, controversy, fear, anger, escapism, and public mood.

Unfortunately horror also gets a bad reputation with the elites and Red Carpet Crowd  because of the endless flood of cheap, lazy, ridiculous films pushed out simply to make a quick dollar.  But there’s a new generation of filmmakers emerging right now with creativity, atmosphere, originality, and actual vision.  They’re changing not only horror itself, but possibly the movie industry as a whole because their success is proving audiences still care deeply about cinema when it feels unique.

Now we’re on the verge of another major moment in the summer of 2026.. this is really not an overstatement but clearly a cultural moment is being defined by a new set of talented people .. FINALLY..

As this post is being written, all eyes are beginning to shift toward Backrooms, directed by young filmmaker Kane Parsons, known online to many as Kane Pixels. There’s a real possibility that this film pushes things even further and helps cement the summer of 2026 as a turning point for modern filmmaking.

For those paying attention, something historic honestly feels like it’s happening here.

You can feel it in the air.

Movies do not have to be what they once were in order to succeed. In fact, if you simply recreate movies exactly the way they used to be made, chances are audiences may not care anymore. People want something different. They want creativity and atmosphere.. along with originality. They want filmmakers willing to take risks again.

And this new spirit of filmmaking is finally giving audiences that thing they’ve been searching for.

So cheers to good movies… and cheers to hopefully seeing full movie theaters again in your neck of the woods.

Because this weekend people will undoubtedly be lining up excitedly to see Backrooms… and maybe, just maybe, another horror film will make history.

It’s time to move into the Boroughs

The show is fast but good.. while some more character development could have been helpful, the Boroughs is a great sci-fi summer show.. especially for Stranger Things fans

We just got finished watching the The Boroughs on and we are highly recommending it. \First off, this review is going to stay mostly spoiler free, and honestly, we recommend you go into the show that way as well, binge away or space it out.. there is a lot to ‘consume’ in this show.

Let’s go through some of the positives and negatives.

The biggest compliment that can be given is this: this feels a lot like Stranger Things, just with an elderly population.

As a matter of fact, the very last sequence of episode eight gave off serious vibes of the final scene from the first season of Stranger Things. And maybe that’s not surprising considering the Duffer Brothers are executive producers. To clarify, they didn’t actually write the show, but their fingerprints are definitely all over the atmosphere and tone.

Where was this spirit during Season 5!?

There’s also a mixture of classic Steven Spielberg style science fiction throughout the series, and even the theme music at times felt inspired by old-school sci-fi scores or even the theme music for M Night Shymalan’s SIGNS. Some people may call it borrowed, but honestly it feels more like a tribute to that era and genre of storytelling.

Beyond the mystery and supernatural elements, the show surprisingly carries some real emotional weight about aging, respecting the elderly, and understanding that time itself is a thief. That message becomes evident across many of the episodes, and it gives the series more heart than people may initially expect. It also chose perhaps the only Bruce Springsteen song that seems tolerable..

The acting was great, and the character development was genuinely fun to watch unfold. Geena Davis — and yes, her seemingly larger-than-normal teeth were a little distracting at times — still brought a lot of charm to the role, and she was believable enough as a younger love interest within the story.

The soundtrack was solid, the graphics and effects were fun, and nearly every episode ended with some sort of cliffhanger that kept us wanting to immediately continue.

If there’s one major complaint, it’s honestly that the episodes were too short. There just wasn’t enough episode in some of the episodes. Several ran under 47 or so minutes, and with credits lasting around five minutes each, they moved very quickly. But if anything, maybe that gives fans hope that a season two could be filmed and released faster, especially considering the glitchy ending this season leaves viewers with.

Overall, this show is highly recommended. It has a great summer feeling to it, it’s creative, it’s different, and for Stranger Things fans longing for something remotely similar, this absolutely scratches that itch. It may not be the perfect replacement, but it’s a really fun addition to the genre and definitely leaves you wanting more.

The only thing we would have changed? The song “Mother” should have played during the ending credits.

Duck duck gone..

With Google forcing an AI search on us, we’re left wondering where’s Jeeves when you need him!

Google announced several days ago that it’s moving toward a more AI-based chat box experience as opposed to its traditional and long-running search engine model. That announcement had a huge ramification almost immediately, with reports of a major increase in downloads for alternatives such as DuckDuckGo. Some reports claimed downloads jumped by around 30 percent as people began looking for search engines that still function more like the internet many of us grew up with.

It’s an interesting concept. Google is moving toward a more ChatGPT-style model in which the search engine anticipates what you’re searching for and becomes more conversational instead of simply finding the websites you wanted to find in the first place.

People who have used Google for decades know the changes over the past several years have been very noticeable. Tons of sponsored ads in the first results. Queries that come back saying there are only ten pages of results when you know there are twenty years of internet history connected to the search term you typed in. And somewhere between all the fluff, sponsored content, SEO manipulation, and results that have almost nothing to do with what you searched for, you occasionally find something genuinely useful.

Alternatives like DuckDuckGo and Startpage have increased in popularity over time, but this new wave of anti-AI sentiment will probably push that even further.

At this point, everyone is going to be watching to see just how successful Google’s initiative and transition really become. What makes this especially interesting is the timing. Colleges are now booing speakers talking about AI during graduation ceremonies. Corporations such as Chase Bank are running advertisements centered around people instead of prompts in an effort to make customers feel more comfortable and human again. Meanwhile, data centers are front and center across the country as debates rage at town halls over massive AI-related developments moving into local communities.

So Google’s reliance on AI may actually be arriving at a strange and possibly ill-timed moment given the sentiment brewing around parts of the country.

People often say, “If you don’t like AI, don’t use it.” But the counterargument is simple: companies are increasingly forcing it onto consumers regardless of whether they want it or not. That’s part of the reason DuckDuckGo and other alternatives are becoming more popular in the first place.

And that’s not to say those search engines won’t eventually become AI-driven as well. They probably will.

But one of the biggest and most interesting consequences of search engines going full AI could ultimately be the slow killing of the internet itself.

Think about it. Little websites with a wealth of information, personality, niche knowledge with bad Gifs, or just good common sense about the topics they discuss may no longer show up in search results the way they once did. Instead, users may simply receive an AI-generated answer inside a chat window without ever clicking through to the source material. Traffic to websites could absolutely collapse over time because of that.

This is a reinvention of the internet itself because Google has been instrumental for decades in determining which websites gained credibility, notoriety, popularity, or visibility.

We’ll see how it all turns out, but one thing is for sure…

The internet ain’t what it used to be.

Remember when there were dozens of search engines to choose from? Remember when different search engines gave you completely different results? Remember discovering strange little websites, forums, fan pages, conspiracy pages, archived newspaper scans, weird hobby sites, and independent voices that somehow felt more human than corporate?

That era feels like it’s ending.

Now we have chat windows and AI models that will probably anticipate your next search before you even finish typing the current one.

Where is Jeeves when you need him?