Welcome to another daily horror digest from Creepy Catalog with movie recommendations, news, trivia, and more. My name is Chris, and I love horror.
What I Watched Last Night
Last night’s movie was The Matriarch. It was released on streaming last week, and it’s a low-budget indie thriller about a mother chasing her daughter with murderous intent.
The movie follows Missy, a thirteen year old girl who uses a kitchen knife to defend herself from the advances of her mother’s criminal boyfriend. The boyfriend dies, and Missy’s mother, Annette, is so filled with hate and anger that she tries to kill Missy. This all happens within the first fifteen or so minutes, and the rest of the movie is a dark cat-and-mouse chase as Missy tries to stay a few steps ahead of her mother’s murderous wrath.
Most of the movie is set within Missy and Annette’s home, and a few moments here and there take some substantial suspension of disbelief in order to accept what’s happening and why certain decisions aren’t made. But none of those moments kill the mood, which is often quite brutal (and occasionally bloody). The characters of Missy and Annette are well written, and when they’re both in fight and/or flight mode, Juliette Greenfield and Kate Logan are excellent in their respective roles. This isn’t a movie I’d suggest to everyone because of some of the themes, but if you like retro exploitation-movie vibes, then you might enjoy The Matriarch.
The Matriarch is currently streaming on digital rental platforms including Amazon Prime Video.
Events On This Day
On this day in 2017, Annabelle: Creation had its premiere at the LA Film Festival. I think it’s generally agreed upon that this is the best movie in the Annabelle trilogy. Though, the story of this movie did make Annabelle’s overarching story in the Conjuring Universe rather complicated.
Also on June 19th, in 1957, I Was a Teenage Werewolf and Invasion of the Saucer Men began screening as a double feature. Neither movie is a classic, but they’re both cheesy fun. I can only imagine how awesome it must have been to go to a drive-in and see a double feature of a werewolf movie and an alien movie. I’d love it if some of the few remaining drive-ins would recreate screenings like this.
Birthdays today include Sadie Frost (1965) who played Lucy Westenra in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), and Robin Tunney (1972) who played Sarah in The Craft (1996).
In the News
The biggest news for horror fans yesterday, as reported by numerous outlets, was that Blumhouse bought Twisted Pictures’ stake in the Saw franchise. Lionsgate still owns 50% and they have distribution rights, but this means that James Wan will almost certainly be involved in future Saw films since his Atomic Monster company merged with Blumhouse in 2024. It also means Leigh Whannell will also potentially be involved.
On one hand, I’m rarely a fan of one company buying up the rights to multiple franchises. In this case though, I think it’s a good move. Having Saw back with James Wan can only mean good things. I’m not the biggest fan of the Saw sequels, but I think the first movie is really good. Hopefully Wan will move the series away from its insistence on repeatedly dipping back into its own past and creating a tangled mess of plot threads.
In other news, filmmaker Michael Shanks has responded to claims that his upcoming film Together plagiarized a 2023 indie film titled Better Half. You can read more details in the article posted by Variety, but the central point of Shanks’ rebuttal is that he registered his script for Together with the WGA in 2019. The lawsuit against him alleges that the creator of Better Half initially pitched his movie to Dave Franco and Allison Brie in 2020… after Shanks’ script was registered. Shanks says he didn’t even meet Franco until 2022. We’ll see how it all plays out, because as of now it looks like the case will continue.
We also have a couple of newly scheduled release dates:
- Silent Night, Deadly Night – December 12, 2025
- Return to Silent Hill – January 23, 2026
And finally, if you’re a fan of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), be on the lookout for Fathom Entertainment’s “Texas Chain Saw Day.” Coming this August, Fathom will screen the original movie in theaters for one day only, along with a sneak preview of the new documentary Chain Reactions. You can sign up on the Fathom Entertainment web site to get an alert when tickets go on sale.
Before I go, here are a few recent articles from us that I wanted to share in case you missed them:
- 5 Space Horror Movies Featuring Female Astronauts to Stream on the Anniversary of Sally Ride’s Historic Space Flight
- 8 Dystopian Movies to Watch if You’re Just Sitting Around Waiting for WWIII to Start
- First Look at the Trailer for Destry Allyn Spielberg’s Please Don’t Feed the Children
- 6 Best Cillian Murphy Horror and Thriller Movies, Ranked
