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: Once upon a time, Yuri was one of Japan’s deadliest assassins, but she’s retired now and spends her days running an underground brothel. A news report about a former colleague who has died under mysterious circumstances doesn’t quite sit right. The dead man’s son is now the target of a military manhunt, and Yuri will do whatever it takes to keep him safe.

 You’ll come for the plentiful action and intrigue but you’ll stay for the great acting, splendid cinematography, and gorgeous period costumes and set design with director Isao Yukisada’s Japanese film Revolver Lily, set in 1924 Tokyo. The army and navy are at odds with each other over a large sum of money for which a third party has different plans (I won’t spoil the details here).

For an anti-war film, Revolver Lily is heavy on the gunplay and martial arts combat. The action is choreographed well, and star Haruka Ayase is terrific in the lead role of Yuri Ozone, a former spy and assassin who has tried to leave her past behind her. Action film devotees know that this never works in the genre. Ozone is often stoic until it comes time to kick butt, and Ayase nails both the dramatic and physical requirements of the role. She was nominated for Best Actress at the 2024 Japanese Academy Awards for her work in the title role, and rightfully so.

The supporting players are also solid, including Jinsei Hamura as Shinta, a young orphan boy with all kinds of dangerous people on his tail; Hiroki Hasegawa as Ozone’s confidant Iwami; and Kotone Furukawa and Kavka Shishido as two employees at the brothel that Ozone runs. Loads of other renowned actors are also featured — too many to name here as the cast is quite sizable. 

Yukisada helms Revolver Lily masterfully. It’s a slow burner that runs 2 hours and 19 minutes, but the film is so well crafted and acted that you won’t be checking your watch at any point. Strongly recommended for cinephiles of all stripes.    

Revolver Lily, from Well Go USA, receives a digital release on January 27, 2026 and lands on Blu-ray and DVD exclusively through Amazon on February 10.

After witnessing a fatal shootout, three waitresses — Nia (Ciera Angelia), Stacey (Bella Chadwick) and Tonya (Robyn Rose) — hide the cash that remains. As you can imagine, this may not end well for any of them.

Nia has an abusive boyfriend. Tonya is trying to get her career moving. Stacey wanted to be a doctor, but caring for her dying father has led her to work at the bar, the same place Nia and Tonya are toiling away. As they just try to do their jobs, they get caught in a battle between drug dealer Victor Brown (Marcus Woods) and second-generation cop Ethan Craig (Don Snipes). Ethan is sure that Victor killed his cop hero father and wants to get revenge. 

Directed by David Y. Chung (The Divorce Lawyer, Dark Deceptions) and written by Jhayla Mosley (Surprise 2, The Deceitful Wife), this has a much better story than you’d expect from a Tubi Original. This one is worth watching.

You can watch this on Tubi.

Sophie Park (Amy Keum), a young Korean American woman, wants to learn more about her heritage. Every other girl at her college knows where they come from. However, Sophie’s family doesn’t even speak Korean. There’s a reason: her grandmother (Vana Kim) once fought a curse, and now, it has reawakened for our heroine.

Directed by Réi and written by Regina Kim, this finds Sophie asking her parents, Gabriel (Joseph Lim Kim) and Kelly (Eliza Shin), to tell her more about her family and Korea. Grandmother won’t allow this to happen. That said, she gets a new boyfriend, Jun (Kevin Woo), and, aside from dealing with her roommate Ari (Alice Bang), everything seems fine.

Then she brings Jun home, and her grandma goes nuts.

This brings in a lot of things I haven’t seen in horror: Japan and Korea’s complicated history, the power of Korean names and family history, and how ghosts tie into all of that. The evil man in the hat looks incredible, too. This movie should definitely be on your watch list, as it’s a lot better than your average streaming horror movie. Plus, it’s just 81 minutes.

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: From writer/director SkyDirects (Run Nixon), Afraid? follows a group of high school friends whose Halloween weekend getaway spirals into a deadly game of What Are You Afraid Of? — a chilling look at how fear manifests when trust turns to survival. The film stars Kendre Berry, Teairra Mari, and features a cameo by four-time Grammy nominee Mase.

 Director SkyDirects makes a valiant attempt at crafting a throwback-feel slasher movie with mostly Black characters at the forefront with Afraid? (AKA What Are You Afraid Of?), but the result is a film that seems to try to do too much and ends up being unfocused. Its reliance on slasher movie cliches without bringing much new to the table is also a detriment.

The cast members and their performances are the stand-out in terms of positives for the film. They put their all into their roles, although the writing gives them little to work with other than bickering, flirting, or making up with one another before the kills begin. The screenplay is also heavy on cliches, from the red herring seemingly insane local to the rednecks hassling the protagonists to the standard cabin in the woods with no cellphone reception, and beyond. Also, it takes a solid hour before the slasher first strikes.

Plot points are brought up and then dropped; for example, the “What Are You Afraid Of?” game that makes up the alternate title — shown to start the end credits — is only used long enough to set up a scene for one character. Edits are also sometimes head scratchers, including one jump from the characters to seemingly stock footage.

I wish I could offer more positives to offer for Afraid?. I would recommend it for slasher movie completists and aficionados of lower budget indie horror. 

Afraid?, from Cleopatra Entertainment, received a DVD/Digital release on December 16, 2025. For more information, visit https://www.ovid.tv/. 

 Based on one of The Love List’s 2024 Best Unproduced Romance Scripts, this film — directed by Stephen S. Campanelli (a camera operator on everything from The Vindicator and Vanilla Sky to several of Clint Eastwood’s films) and written by Kaitlin Reilly and Dorian Keyes — How to Lose a Popularity Contest is about Ellie (Sara Waisglass), who is about to graduate and go to a major college, leaving behind her horrible high school years and the nickname she hates, Max, given to her by Nate (Chase Hudson). This being a teen romantic comedy, she may just fall in love with him before then.

Somehow, that involves a class president contest, playing flip cup and dealing with parents who don’t understand who their teens really are. Plus, you get characters like Streaker Dupont (Aiden Howard), who gets his first name because he likes to get naked constantly.

This is a cute teen romance that’s all about learning that people you don’t like or look down on can be very close to you. There are some nice lessons in here, and Tubi has been really getting into making films like this. Sure, I’m old and way out of high school, but I get it. 

You can watch this on Tubi.