As June 2025 hurtles towards its end, I thought I’d look back at what I’ve watched during the month for today’s digest. Also, stick around for some fun trivia, and news about a big change in the journey for Warner Bros. to finally make a live-action Akira film.
A Look Back at This Month’s Best Movies
I ran out of time last night, so I wasn’t able to watch anything new. But since yesterday was the final major movie release day for June, I thought I’d take a quick look back at a few of my favorite new movies I watched during the month. You can find where to watch all of these in our New and Upcoming Horror Movies tracker.
Dangerous Animals
I saw Dangerous Animals and The Ritual in theaters on the same day, and one of those movies skyrocketed towards the top of my favorites for the year. The other one was The Ritual. Seriously though, Dangerous Animals is a superb blending of genre thrills that is tense, lean, and filled with amazing performances.
Resurrection Road
The most surprising movie for me in June was Resurrection Road. It’s a horror Western, so I figured I’d enjoy it fine, but I ended up liking it quite a lot. It gets a little rough towards the end with some special effects that are too ambitious for its budget, but the story is good, the actors are great, and the fact that they used squibs and blanks rather than CGI for most of the gunfire made a huge impression on me.
Best Wishes to All
Weird and bleak are two things that I enjoy very much in a movie. Best Wishes to All is both of those things at a very high level. It’s a movie about happiness. Sort of. And when you learn the source of a family’s happiness, the story starts working on psychological, metaphorical, and visceral levels.
Found Footage: The Making of the Patterson Project
I wrote about this one just a few days ago, and I’m still thinking about it. Found Footage is such a fun movie. I can be very picky when it comes to horror comedies, but this one hits everything just about right. If you love movies about making movies, or found footage, or horror comedies, definitely check this one out.
Events on This Day
Born on this day in 1948 is Kathy Bates who won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Misery (1990). Other horror/thriller roles include Dolores Claiborne (1995) and recurring roles in American Horror Story.
Also born on June 28th, in 1946, is Bruce Davison. His acting roles are plentiful and varied, and his earliest horror film was as the title character in Willard (1971). He’s still doing prominent roles in horror, most recently being featured in Suitable Flesh (2023).
And born today in 1954 is Alice Krige whom horror fans might know best from Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), Gretel & Hansel (2020), and Silent Hill (2006).
On June 28, 2006, Blade: The Series premiered on Spike TV. Variety reported at the time that the two-hour debut had 2.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched original series premiere in Spike TV history.
June 28 is also the original due date of Rosemary’s baby in the movie… Rosemary’s Baby (1968). She mentions the date to her original doctor on a phone call late in the story.
In the News
Here’s some news that might be good or bad depending on how you look at it. The Hollywood Reporter says that the movie rights to the iconic Japanese manga and anime Akira have lapsed since Warner Bros. failed to produce anything despite having the movie rights to the property since 2002. The rights have reverted back to Kodansha, the publishers of the original manga.
Deadline has a first look at the upcoming thriller Recluse, the feature directing debut of Henry Chaisson (co-writer of Antlers). The one image they have isn’t much to look at, but they do report that Sasha Frolova, Xander Berkeley, Kimball Farley, and Toby Poser have joined the cast.
And finally, James Wan spoke to Entertainment Weekly, saying that The Last Train to New York is still a “passion project,” but he’s not sure when or if the movie will move forward into production. Wan also said that the movie isn’t really a remake of Train to Busan, but instead exists within the same world as the South Korean original.
I watched a lot in June, but there were so many new horror movies released this month that I’m still far behind. I have to pick up the pace!
