Don’t Look Down

After the success of 2022's eighteenth century set Prey, director Dan Trachtenberg has returned to the Predator franchise once more, this feature titled Predator: Badlands (2025), again coming up with a wholly different concept that transports the story in an engaging new direction. Taking place about as far away as possible from his previous effort (a concept developed by Trachtenberg and Patrick Aison, the latter then writing the screenplay), this one opens on Yautja Prime, the home planet of the Predators (who are formally known as Yautja), where the audience meets Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) – the weakling runt of the family who hasn’t earned his camouflaging cloak... which, if you known Predator culture, is not a good thing.

elebrating its 85th anniversary this year, Arthur Lubin’s Buck Privates started Bud Abbott and Lou Costello on their path to superstardom. Though they had already gained some fame on the vaudeville and burlesque comedy circuits, as well as gathering some traction on the radio (and lest we forget their small roles in their first film, One Night in the Tropics, the year before), things would be wholly different soon after. Combining their very different talents as the perfect straight and funny men (their longtime writer and ideas man John Grant came along for the ride – and would be involved on most of their future movies), it also didn’t hurt that cinema goers found plenty of comedic fun in its topical premise as tensions grew around the fears of the lengthening World War II – making Universal the most money it had ever earned up until that point (four million dollars – a lot of cash when tickets were between ten cents and a quarter depending on the location).

Finding an intriguing milieu somewhere between the recent popularity in witch related films over the past decade (think The VVitch, Hereditary, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, and Weapons) and a spooky atmosphere somewhat reminiscent of the Stephen King room related 1408, Hokum (2026), written and directed by Damian McCarthy, is another worthy entry in the horror genre. In many ways about battling your own demons, Ohm Bauman (Adam Scott) is a successful writer with a very troubled past – making him a bitter, cantankerous, and bluntly rude human being, he is currently writing the trilogy-ender to his successful Conquistador series (which serves as a bookend for this film). Suddenly haunted by his parents’ ashes sitting upon his mantle (as well as being hit with a form of writer’s block), he decides to fly to Ireland to spread them at one of the places he knows they loved – a kitschy inn called The Bilberry Woods where long ago they honeymooned.

Intriguingly playing like two separate movies, Massimo Pupillo’s Lady Morgan’s Vengeance (1965), opens like a melodramatic romance with a psychologically tinged mystery before its second half genre switch into a much more gothic horror tale. An Italian production, though funnily enough set in Scotland (though that is definitely not English they are speaking), the attractive Lady Susan Morgan (Barbara Nelli), niece of the wealthy aged Sir Neville Blackhouse (Carlo Kechler), finds herself betrothed to Sir Harold Morgan (Paul Muller) when she truly loves the French man who has been hired to restore portions of the massive manor home, Pierre Brissac (Michel Forain).

Wow, another year, another CAPE... also known as the Cornwall and Area Pop Event, which celebrated its impressive 11th anniversary on April 25th and 26th of 2026. Furthering the celebration of all things pop culture – think film, television, animation, cos-play, comic books, video games, and so very much more, it is hard to believe that it has now brought more than a decade’s worth of memorable fun. Drawing thousands from in and outside the city of Cornwall (good luck finding a parking spot!) for the two day event, the Benson Centre was packed with joyous people exploring the diverse activities