Match is directed by Danishka Esterhazy, who remade Slumber Party Massacre. It’s all about Paola (Humberly González), whose first date with a man she met online takes place inside a terrifying house and involves a way-too-long tea with his mother, ending with her knocked out and tied up. What’s next?

Lucille (Diane Simpson) lives in a suburban home that’s really a prison for multiple people, including her deformed son Henry, whom Paolo thinks she’s been talking to the entire time. Instead, she’s been chatting with Lucille, who is looking for the perfect woman to mate with her beloved boy.

All along, Paola’s sister, Maria (Shaeane Jimenez), has been telling her there are so many red flags. When her sister doesn’t return in time to see their father before his surgery, she starts to worry. That brings her to the same house of horrors, where another date.

The reveal that Lucille has been catfishing as her son Henry adds a layer of psychological voyeurism. It’s not just a kidnapping; it’s a mother’s twisted attempt at curating a bloodline. Diane Simpson’s performance as Lucille is genuinely unsettling, oscillating between a doting mother and a predatory architect of a human breeding program.

Written by Al and Jon Kaplan (Zombeavers, Lowlifes), this has two scenes that are guaranteed to blow your mind. In one, Lucille explains sex to Henry while jerking off her son and another where Paolo stops Henry from assaulting her by, well, snapping a mousetrap on his meat. I’ve never seen that before!

What motivates Lucille to create this twisted breeding program for her son? How does Paola’s sister, Maria, react when she discovers the truth about what happened to her? What consequences will Paola face after her harrowing experience in Lucille’s home? So many questions. Don’t pass this one up just because it’s a low-budget Tubi original. There’s something good here.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Remember how wild Adopted was? I mean, it ended up with ten-year-old Dylan (Jayden Aguirre) facing a literal firing squad of cops. I’m so excited that Chris Stokes is back with a sequel, because that movie earned one.

Dylan starts the movie inside a mental health facility. But he soon escapes and finds his way inside the home of another family, a place where he can be so sweet until the time when he loses it, yet again, and threatens everyone’s life.

Directed by Chris Stokes and written by Marques Houston, who returns as Detective Dante Miller, this finds the Andrews family — Ava (Princess Love Norwood), Caleb (Don Benjamin) and Mason (Preston Best) — repeating the pattern of Dylan: at first, he’s so full of love. By the end, he’s shotgunning blasting your favorite aunt. They’re just getting over the loss of a son, and now, they’ve let a total wildman into their home.

While many sequels try to reinvent the wheel, Chris Stokes and Marques Houston know exactly what their audience wants: high-stakes melodrama and a child who embodies true evil. Aguirre plays Dylan with a terrifying on/off switch. One moment, he’s the healing balm for a mother’s broken heart; the next, he’s a tactical mastermind wielding a shotgun with the efficiency of a seasoned action star.

Look, this is almost the same movie as the first, but that doesn’t mean that I won’t watch the third.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Director and writer Jem Garrard has made R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead, the Invasive movies and Slay for Tubi. All of these movies are in the upper tier of originals made for the streamer, so when I see their names above the credits, I know I’m about to watch something unique.

Nova (N’kone Mametja) is the anchor of a scuzzy, fluorescent-lit diner that seems to be held together by grease and broken dreams. It’s the kind of 2 A.M. haunt where the coffee is burnt, and the hope is non-existent. The tension ramps up when Nova becomes convinced that the silent, unassuming man at Table 5 isn’t just a late-night regular. He’s the serial killer currently dominating the local news cycles.

The evidence is mounting: a suspicious car, a body-shaped bundle in the backseat, and a demeanor that screams predator. But Garrard pivots from a standard slasher into something much more cynical. Once Nova’s co-workers catch wind of the massive bounty on the killer’s head, the diner transforms into a pressure cooker. To these wage slaves, the man at table 5 isn’t a threat to be feared; he’s a winning lottery ticket wrapped in a blood-stained jacket.

Shot in South Africa, this feels like it could be anywhere in America, a lonely place where no one cares about anyone. There’s no future, and that lack of future could end a lot sooner than anyone believes. I really enjoyed the downtrodden nature of this, as well as the constant twists.

You can almost smell the stale cigarettes and floor cleaner. Garrard balances this grim reality with a relentless series of twists that force the audience to constantly re-evaluate who the real villain is: the man with the dead body, or the “normal” people willing to do anything to escape their poverty. As with their other films, Garrard has made something special here.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Directed by Amara Cash and written by Arland Digirolamo and Alana Wexler, Get Off My Lawn starts with Jackie (Camila Banus) and Jason (Tahj Mowry) getting a too good to be true deal on the house of their dreams. That’s until they meet Alec Todd (Jonah Hwang), the next-door neighbor who believes their home should be his.

That’s because his grandfather had promised it to him. However, his father, Denny (Max E. Williams), wanted it sold, so Alec convinces his mother, Denny (Max E. Williams), to sell to the young couple, hoping to get them to move quickly. Every single thing they do enrages him, from moving Gramps ‘ rules of the house off the mantle to getting rid of the backyard memorial to him. 

While Alec’s best friend Ethan (Tyler Lofton) and girlfriend Ray (Kayla Maisonet) are normal teenagers, he’s stuck in the 1950s and seems as prim and proper as anyone could be. He repeats, many times, that “rules must be followed or there will be consequences.” That seems to mean using his friends to prank the married couple out of their new home. One wonders how he keeps his girlfriend, or if the villain even cares.

I love my mom’s house and want her to stay in it as long as she can. So I get how it feels to lose a home that you love so much. That said, I would not go as murder-crazy as Alec, but man, he’s a great character. Alec’s behavior quickly shifts from creepy to dangerous. He leaves a dead rat on their doorstep and claims his grandfather is buried in their yard. He grows increasingly insane as the film progresses, and without him, this movie would fall flat.

You can watch this on Tubi.

When his brother Finn (Seth Isaac Johnson) disappears and everyone forgets that he existed, Sam (Bean Reid) must unravel the mystery before his sibling is lost for all time. Directed and written by Jem Garrard (Slay, which a character watches in this movie, as well as Takeout and Invasive) and based on the R.L. Stine short story of the same name from Nightmare Hour, which was also adapted as part of The Haunting Hour TV series, R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead is a Tubi Original with a lot going for it.

The town of Redhaven is presented as a slice of heaven where the harvest never ends. However, this prosperity is built on a dark foundation. The secret horror of the child-stealing curse is psychological as much as it is supernatural; when a child is taken by the curse, they aren’t just physically gone. They are erased from the community’s collective memory, leaving only a few to live with the truth.

Sam and his family have just moved to Redhaven and know nothing of its secrets. The child-stealing ritual coincides with Mr. Palmer’s Harvest Festival, which is when the old farmer opens up his farm to everyone. There, as Sam is acting out, he steals a prize pumpkin. Finn brings it back for his brother under the sheriff’s order and is taken. Soon, no one but Sam remembers his brother, except for a girl named Becka (Adeline Lo), who will introduce our hero to the lore and legacy of her town.

I really liked this. It’s inspired by Stine but not slavish to his work. However, it gets the feel right. It’s a gateway horror movie, even if the ending may leave some kids upset, confused and disappointed. That’s why you watch films with them, so you can talk through the things that happened and see what you can learn from it.

The Palmer Farm is filmed on the same location as Pa Kent’s farmhouse on the WB series Smallville. 

You can watch this on Tubi.

Directed by Maya Table and written by the duo of Donna Christopher and LisaBeth Willis, the movie centers on a tragedy that strikes at the heart of a family when a gang shooting leaves young Nathan (James Jay Alexander) — the son of Faith (Ciera Angelia) 00 fighting for his life in a coma.

The film sets up a high-stakes investigation led by a detective who admits the shooting is likely gang-related, but Faith has little confidence in working with the police. As the plot unravels, her internal conflict shifts from as she goes from a grieving mother to a woman seeking her own brand of justice.

Benny (Raymond Seay) leads the gang who shot Nathan, and he makes his henchmen follow a code of silence, betting on the fact that nobody’s going to talk. The film takes a surprising turn toward religious themes. While it begins as a standard urban thriller or revenge flick, the closing acts lean heavily into the spiritual battle Faith faces.

This was the top movie on Tubi for a few weeks, and you can see why: it tells a story people want to see, with an incredibly dramatic performance by its lead actress. 

You can watch this on Tubi.

When the President of the United States (Gayle O’Grady) collapses during a historic peace accord with Russian President Kasparov (Jason Piette), all hell breaks loose. Yes, terrorists have hacked her pacemaker, threatening not only her life but also global stability as she attempts to negotiate peace with Russia. Now, a team of fearless agents — led by Jacob Pike (Jesse Kove) — must figure it out before either the President’s heart stops or she stops peace from finally happening.

Between Lorenzo Lamas and David Chokachi playing the security detail to the hacker terrorists known as the Patriot Front, this is packed with action, romance (of course,, the agent is dating the President’s daughter, Amelia, played by Gina Vitori), airplane derring-do and so much more. Sure, it’s a movie by The Asylum, but I had fun. Paul Logan as Agent Breacher and G. Anthony Joseph as the main bad guy also make this way better than it has any right to be. Give it up for director Nick Lyon and writers Geoff Mead and Kenny Zinn. 

You can watch this on Tubi.

Based on the Wattpad sensation The QB Bad Boy and Me by Tay Marley, and the sequel to Sidelined: The QB and Me, Sidelined 2: Intercepted finds USC freshman quarterback Drayton (Noah Beck) dealing with an injury rather than taking the field. His girlfriend, dancer Dallas (Siena Agudong), is attending CalArts and working toward becoming a professional dancer. Can they stay together despite the pressures of their new lives?

Directed by Justin Wu and written by Crystal Ferreiro, this is one of James Van Der Beek’s last roles as Drayton’s father. 

For Drayton (Noah Beck), his identity is tied entirely to being the “star QB.” Being sidelined by an injury isn’t just a physical setback; it’s a psychological one. The trailer hints at the friction this causes, with his coach telling him he can get with the twos or get out. This vulnerability makes him susceptible to the sparks he finds with his physical therapist, Charlotte (Roan Curtis).

A new layer to Dallas’s story is the soaring cost of her education at CalArts. With tuition increasing by roughly 30%, or around $18,000, she is forced to juggle a new job alongside her rigorous dance schedule. This professional pull makes her realize that Drayton is a dream, but not her only dream. Plus, she finds a good friend — and perhaps more — in coworker and musician Skyler (Charlie Gillespie)

It’s funny because I never dated in high school, yet I keep watching these romantic comedies and go through all the ups and downs with these kids without knowing what it’s like to really be in this world. Then again, I do the same with giallo films. At least these are less dangerous to my health.

You can watch this on Tubi.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

Official synopsis: Executive produced by J.A. Bayona, directed by Martín Mauregui, and starring Carmen Maura, the horror genre film follows Pedro (Daniel Hendler), after receiving a call from his ex-girlfriend asking for help looking after her senile mother for the night, Alicia (Maura). But what seems like a simple task soon turns into his worst nightmare: when Pedro arrives at the house, Alicia suggests they play an extremely sadistic game, and what happens next leaves you in SHOCK (this film contains explicit scenes which may be disturbing to some viewers).

Dear readers, the Shudder folks who wrote up that synopsis are not exaggerating about the shocking and disturbing aspects on display in this film, and the main two that I’m thinking about as I write this review don’t involve explicit gore. I don’t want to give anything away because Crazy Old Lady (Vieja loca; Argentina/Spain/U.S., 2025) absolutely lives up to its title and the reasons why are jaw-dropping. 

Suffice it to say that if you care for either humans or animals, or perhaps even both, something is bound to disturb and perhaps even offend many viewers in writer/director Martín Mauregui’s darkly comedic horror film. His work at the helm is one of aplomb, and the production values are terrific. The pacing and chilling set pieces are spot on. The cast is incredible, naturally with the great Carmen Maura rocking the titular character role of Alicia with fierceness and fearlessness, and Daniel Hendler as Pedro, the hapless ex-boyfriend of her daughter Laura  (Agustina Liendo), who is driving far away from Alicia’s home with her own young daughter Elena (Emma Cetrángolo).

The film’s depiction of a character with dementia is questionable, and that’s just the beginning of what some viewers will find upsetting. But those who are willing to take the challenge should find plenty of entertainment with Crazy Old Lady. It doesn’t quite reach the anxiety-inducing heights or pitch-black humor of the Spanish shocker The Coffee Table or its remake The Turkish Coffee Table, but darned if it doesn’t try.

Crazy Old Lady streams on Shudder from February 27. 

Olivia (Rosemary Idisi) is an influencer, but her latest product demo has gone wrong. Seeking to escape the chaos and the negativity of her digital life, she organizes a glamping trip to a remote cabin to reset. However, the tension isn’t just external; the group is rife with internal friction, with friends openly admitting they are pretending to enjoy each other’s company.

The group finds the rental highly unsettling from the start, with one character noting that the vibes are off and another observing that they are all determined to ignore the warning signs of the spiritual plane. I just wish this had the slasher moments happen faster; you’re going to spend the first forty minutes with people you hate.

There is a twist at the end that somewhat redeems this. Directed by Niki Koss (Blood, Beach, Betrayal and Crushed) and written by Alexa Garster, this was inspired by an award-winning short of the same name by star Idisi. She is really great in this, much better than the movie that she finds herself in.

David Hernandez from American Idol is in the cast, and if the house seems familiar, it’s the Jarvis house from Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

You can watch this on Tubi.