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 Ash (2025). It started streaming on Shudder yesterday, and I unfortunately missed it in theaters, so I am happy to have finally had a chance to see it. I’ve heard mixed things about it, but that never really deters me. After watching, I thought Ash was pretty good.
Most of the negativity I saw directed towards Ash was about the story being derivative. First of all, something being derivative should not automatically be construed as a negative. As a lifelong fan of genre films, I’ve seen countless genre movies where the plot and story are derivative of tons of other movies. But if a movie is done well, even if it’s familiar, it can still be entertaining. It can still be good.
So, slight spoilers here, but the core of the story in Ash, once everything is revealed, is essentially like about 100 other post-Alien (and a few pre-Alien) sci-fi horror movies. I won’t say what happens specifically in Ash, but if you’ve seen it, hopefully you know what I mean. The difference between Ash and other “alien loose in a spaceship or isolated facility” movies is the way the story is told.
Ash goes for a wonderfully atmospheric setting and a psychological approach. Most of the action has already happened as the movie begins, and we watch as the main character, Riya (Eiza González), tries to figure out what happened despite a shattered memory and the arrival of a crewmate she struggles to remember. I think the disconnect for some people is that the movie builds up something psychological and deep, but it ends up being fairly straightforward in the end. I can see where some people might think it’s pretentious. Like a B-movie masquerading as high art (both are good, by the way). It’s almost like Ash wants to be deep and meaningful like 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it’s really just Forbidden World in a fancy package. That’s exactly what I like about it though.
If you want to see it for yourself, Ash is currently streaming on Shudder and AMC+.
Events On This Day
First in birthdays today is Juliette Lewis, born June 21, 1973. Juliette has appeared in a good number of horror and thriller films, including From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Cape Fear (1991), Ma (2019), and most recently, Opus (2025). My favorite movie of hers will likely always be Natural Born Killers (1994).
Also born on June 21st, in 1964, is David Morrissey, best known to many horror fans as The Governor in the TV series The Walking Dead.
Also celebrating a birthday today is Connor Christopher Levins, who was born June 21st, 1999, and played young Billy, the son of a murderous principal, in Trick ‘r Treat (2007).
In 1985, forty years ago today, Lifeforce was released in theaters. If you’ve never seen it, Lifeforce is an incredibly fun sci-fi horror movie about the crew of a space shuttle doing research on Halley’s Comet and find a craft traveling with it. Inside the structure are three bodies who appear human, but are actually “space vampires” that can suck the life force out of other beings. Tobe Hooper directed the movie, and it’s filled with fun moments that I don’t want to spoil here. I’ll just say that Patrick Stewart has a small role in the movie, and his scene is highly memorable.
In the News
Yesterday’s horror news was rather sparse again, so here’s a rapid-fire list to get you all caught up:
- Sinners sets its Max streaming date for July 4th.
- The serial killer comedy Suburban Psycho, featuring Ron Perlman, Malin Akerman, and Dennis Haysbert, has officially wrapped production.
- A new trailer for The Toxic Avenger was released.
- So was a trailer for Push.
- Brad Caleb Kane, the showrunner, writer, and executive producer of the Crystal Lake series, announced on his Instagram that the show is currently in production.
That’s all for today. Here’s to a good weekend full of horror movies!
