Welcome for another daily horror digest! There was a decent amount of horror news yesterday to catch up on, and there are lots of birthdays today. Before that though, I want to share my thoughts about an indie slasher movie I watched last night.
Movie of the Day: The Legend of Gilbert Flay
Last night I watched the micro-budget indie slasher The Legend of Gilbert Flay. Looking at the Instagram profile for the movie, the film made the festival rounds in 2024, and it was just released on Prime Video last week. It was directed by Richard A. Worthy in what looks like (according to IMDB) his feature film writing and directing debut. I have a soft spot for slasher movies, especially low-to-no-budget slashers, so I was looking forward to The Legend of Gilbert Flay when I discovered it last week. I’m happy to say it delivered. It has a good story, and it prompted some genuine laughter from me at the right moments.
The story follows a small, dysfunctional film crew as they gather to compete in a 44-hour filmmaking competition. The main focus is on Sentry Day, a photographer who is joining the crew for the first time. Sentry is hesitant about getting involved with these people whom she barely knows, and her instincts telling her to leave prove to be correct. The group pushes her into participating in a “game” inspired by the local urban legend of Gilbert Flay, and afterward everything starts falling apart. Tensions lead to arguing, and people start dying.
I mentioned laughter earlier. The Legend of Gilbert Flay isn’t a comedy, but the dialogue is clever and often quite snarky (or outright mean from a character perspective). It’s amusing throughout, but there’s one scene a little over halfway through that is hilarious. I don’t want to spoil any of it, but it involves the frustrated director trying to orchestrate a scene when his actors aren’t getting it. One of his actors is fence-post dumb, and watching the director try to instruct him was probably my favorite part of the movie. That leads directly to one of the most interesting horror moments as well, so the scene as a whole was really well done.
And really, the whole movie is well done. The characters are interesting and well played. The characters we’re supposed to dislike are very unlikable, so when bad stuff happens to them it’s gratifying. The story is simple but effective. There’s a twisty moment at the end that isn’t strictly necessary, but it did tie up a loose end in a satisfying way, so it worked fine.
The budget is very low, so not much is shown on screen when it comes to the kills, but we get the idea. Not seeing much blood and gore is totally understandable for an indie film like this, and it’s handled well. Plus, the killer looks good, and that goes a long way to making the movie memorable. So yes, I enjoyed this quite a lot.
The Legend of Gilbert Flay is currently available as a digital rental and purchase on sites including Prime Video. I’d recommend this to any fan of micro-budget slashers with a supernatural twist.
In the News
A trailer for Die’ced: Reloaded was released yesterday. The 1980s-themed Halloween slasher is an expanded re-imagining of the 50-minute short film Die’ced released by writer/director Jeremy Rudd in 2023. Take a look below.
- Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) is set to appear in the upcoming indie horror film Mystery of the Mothman. (Variety)
- Robert Englund’s official Instagram account posted a story announcing that he will be receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 11:00 a.m. on October 31st!
- Madeleine McGraw (The Black Phone) will star in the supernatural coming-of-age thriller SuperUnknown. (Deadline).
- Hiam Abbass (Hellraiser 2022, Succession) will star in the war-trauma horror movie The Shelter. (Variety)
- Zach Cregger says that his Resident Evil movie won’t stick completely to the lore of the games, but will instead aim for providing an “authentic” feeling. (SFX Magazine via Bloody Disgusting)
Birthdays
Ari Aster was born on July 15th, 1986. Ari burst onto the horror scene as a writer and director in 2018 with Hereditary, and he followed that up in 2019 with Midsommar. Since then he’s moved away from horror with Beau is Afraid (2023) and the upcoming Eddington (2025), but all of his movies so far have a very dark side to them.
Also born on July 15th, in 1961, is Forest Whitaker. He is one of the best and most interesting actors of his generation, and he has a wide array of powerful roles crossing through many different genres. He’ll also appear in straightforward genre fare, which is one of the many things I love about him as an actor. Forest has appeared in a few horror movies, including Species (1995) and Body Snatchers (1993).
Martin Stephens was born on this day in 1949. Martin is a former child actor whose most recognizable roles are as Miles in The Innocents (1961) and as David in Village of the Damned (1960). He quit acting in 1966 and went on to become an architect.
Also born today, in 1951, is Jesse Ventura. Jesse is known not only for his acting, but also for his time as Jesse “The Body” Ventura in pro-wrestling, and as the governor of Minnesota from 1999 to 2003. Jesse’s biggest role in a horror movie was in Predator (1987) as Blain, the character who “ain’t got time to bleed.”
Other birthdays today include Diane Kruger (1976) who recently starred in The Shrouds (2024), Terry O‘Quinn (1952) who was in The Stepfather (1987) and the TV series Millennium (1996-1999), Willie Aames (1960) who was in the adventure-horror film Cut and Run (1984), Emily Roeske (1991) who played Sophie in the Halloweentown movies, and Brigitte Nielsen (1963) who was in 976-Evil II (1991) and played the title character in Red Sonja (1985).
Events on This Day
On July 15, 1971, the erotic horror film Vampyros Lesbos was originally released in West Germany. Director Sean Baker thanked the movie’s director Jess Franco and its star Soledad Miranda in the credits of Anora (2024). He said in an interview that the scarf Mikey Madison’s character has in Anora was inspired by the red scarf Soledad Miranada’s character wears in her film. In fact, the cover of the Criterion 4K release of Anora takes direct inspiration from the poster for Vampyros Lesbos. You can stream it on Plex.
The South Korean supernatural horror film Voice (aka Whispering Corridors 4) was released in its home country on July 15th, 2005. The movie is about a student at an all female school who is killed by a mysterious presence. She becomes a ghost who can be heard only by her best friend, and the two of them try to figure out what happened and who is responsible. You can stream Voice on Apple TV+.
The first episode of Stranger Things began streaming on Netflix on July 15, 2016, and the first episode of the series American Horror Stories started streaming on Hulu on July 15, 2021.
As always, thanks for reading! Today is the traditional day for home-video releases, so that’s my cue to start scouring the streaming sites for even more new horror movies to watch. Check the site later on for a full list!
