Your Your Daily Horror Digest for July 12, 2025
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the onsen.
It’s the weekend, and I’m going to try to see as many of the movies that came out this past week as I can. I started with a silly one.
Movie of the Day
If you read my enthusiastic write-up about this movie the other day, then it shouldn’t be a surprise what I watched last night. Today’s movie of the day is Hot Spring Shark Attack. I loved it. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see it in theaters (the closest theater playing it was a 90 minute drive away from me), but it began streaming on Friday. So I rented it, and I got exactly what I wanted. Hot Spring Shark Attack is fun, ridiculous, and dumb in awesome ways.
The story takes place in the hot spring town of Atsumi. Naked bodies with unusual bite marks start showing up on the town’s shores, and the local police can’t figure out what is responsible for the deaths. It turns out that the construction of a gigantic resort uncovered ancient sharks, and they’ve come back to life. These sharks have “soft” bodies, and they’re able to squeeze themselves into pipes. The naked bodies found on the beach? They were actually attacked while bathing in public baths (onsens), and then they were dragged underground into the water that feeds the hot springs. Yes, it’s goofy, but it gets goofier.
There’s a musclebound guy that fights sharks and wears a shirt that says “The Onsen Guardian,” the chief of police is infected with some kind of shark disease, and the sharks develop the ability to basically swim anywhere they want by manipulating the town’s underground water. And that’s not even all of it. This is a deeply silly movie that kept me smiling and entertained for its entire 87 minute run time.
The special effects are done with a combination of CGI and practical effects that include miniatures and puppets. It’s a tokusatsu comedy that knows exactly how ludicrous it should be. It’s the kind of movie that is impervious to criticism, because it is genuine in its attempts to be fun and dumb. It’s not faking being bad to pander to a “so bad it’s good” crowd. Hot Spring Shark Attack is a genuinely good movie because it achieves the exact level of homage and silliness that it wants.
I think by now you already know if you’re going to like it or not, so I’ll stop writing. If you want to check it out for yourself, and I suggest that you do, it’s currently streaming as a digital rental and purchase on platforms including Prime Video.
Related Movie Recommendation
I’m not really a fan of the Sharknado movies because I feel like they’re the kind of movies that do pander to the “so bad it’s good” crowd (I know, my standards are weird). But I’m going to recommend one today. Specifically, I’m recommending the Rifftrax Live version of Sharknado. Mike, Bill, and Kevin can make any movie better, and they certainly do with Sharknado. You can stream it on Tubi.
In the News
Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing are returning as Aunt Jet and Aunt Franny in Practical Magic 2. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman were previously announced to return as well. The film is scheduled for release on September 18, 2026. (Deadline)
The movies In a Cold Vein and Blockhead have been acquired by Blue Finch Films. Both titles will have their premieres at FrightFest which takes place August 21-25, 2025 in London. (Variety)
Maggie Levin (V/H/S/99) will write and direct an adaptation of the novel Ghost Eaters by author Clay McLeod Chapman. Scott Derrickson (The Black Phone) will serve as a producer. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Birthdays
There are many birthdays today, so I’ll keep them brief. I’ll start with actors born on July 12th (birth year in brackets, followed by examples of horror credits):
- Michelle Rodriguez (1978) – Resident Evil, The Breed
- Lee Byung-hun (1970) – I Saw the Devil, the Front Man in Squid Game
- Edwin Neal (1945) – the Hitchhiker in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)
- Mylène Jampanoï (1980) – Lucie in Martyrs (2008)
- Kristen Connolly (1980) – Dana in The Cabin in the Woods
- Joseph Whipp (1941) – A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Scream (1996)
Continuing with filmmakers who do most of their work behind the camera, also all born in July 12th:
- Tod Browning (1880) – director of Dracula (1931) and Freaks (1932)
- Jeffrey Reddick (1969) – creator of Final Destination
- Glen Morgan (1961) – writer on The X-Files
- Tak Fujimoto (1939) – cinematographer for The Silence of the Lambs and The Sixth Sense
- Eiko Ishioka (1938) – won an Academy Award for costume design for Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
Events on This Day
On July 12, 2002, Halloween: Resurrection was released in theaters. This is the Halloween movie in which Laurie dies in the first few minutes, then later Busta Rhymes does kung fu against Michael Myers. It’s also the final movie in the timeline that includes the first two movies and Halloween H20. After this would be Rob Zombie’s two Halloween movies, then the 2018 legacy sequel that follows the 1978 film. If you want to watch Halloween: Resurrection, it’s streaming on Paramount+.
Released on this day in 2022 was Killroy Was Here. It’s a horror movie directed by Kevin Smith, but it was released as an NFT. That means I haven’t seen it.
July 12th 2019 was a pretty good day for horror. That day saw the release of the alligator movie Crawl, the Pollyanna McIntosh directed Darlin’, and the home invasion movie Trespassers.
Thanks for reading! I still have a lot of new stuff to catch up on, so I better get to it.
