Certified Forgotten

Podcast: The Best Horror at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival From 'Leviticus' to 'Saccharine,' Matt Donato shares his picks for the standout horror films of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

In this week's edition of the podcast, @donatobomb.bsky.social gives us a full rundown of the horror films at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.

‘Night of the Demon’ Is The Bigfoot Slasher You've Always Wanted Brendan Jesus unearths the troubled history of James C. Wasson's 'Night of the Demon,' a video nasty with Bigfoot as the star.

"As Jay falls over, his blood starts pooling in the deep, dermal-ridged track left by Bigfoot. It’s a simple kill, but one that acts as a beautifully bloody overture for what’s to come." New at the site: here's @brendanjesus.bsky.social on NIGHT OF THE DEMON, your new Bigfoot slasher obsession.

'Return To Silent Hill' Review: Uncanny Valley of Game Adaptations Christophe Gans's 'Return To Silent Hill' is better than you fear, but still gets caught in the uncanny valley of video game adaptations.

"It’s less storytelling and more a Silent Hill theme park ride, one that highlights standout moments from the game for curious audiences." Here's @monagle.bsky.social on why RETURN TO SILENT HILL isn't QUITE as bad as it's been made out to be.

Podcast: Ryan Prows on 'Los Bastardos' Writer-director Ryan Prows ('Night Patrol') joins the podcast to talk about vampire cops and Amat Escalante's 'Los Bastardos.'

This week on the podcast, @ryanprows.bsky.social talks with @donatobomb.bsky.social and @monagle.bsky.social about NIGHT PATROL, his latest mashup of vampires and cops. He also shares his enduring appreciation for Amat Escalante's LOS BASTARDOS.

Streaming free on Tubi!

X-CROSS is very “It Was Made For Me! This Is My Hole!” **

** hits like an adaptation of a non-existent PS2 survival horror game and is super wlw coded

Certified Misdirected.

I love X-CROSS so so so much. Please watch X-CROSS. You certainly won't have a bad time watching X-CROSS.

'X-Cross': The J-Horror Gem That Feels Like A PS2 Horror Game Meg Shields explains why Kenta Fukasaku's 'X-Cross' is the closest we'll ever get to a faithful adaptation of PS2 J-horror.

"X-CROSS is completely bonkers. It’s girly-pop, over-the-top folk horror that ends with an Aly & AJ needle drop." Reports of her writerly demise were greatly exaggerated: we've got @theworstnun.bsky.social on the site today talking about her favorite retro survival horror wannabe.

Grief, Horror, and Netherworld Breakdancing in 'Hello Dracula' Rob Hunter explores the whacky and wonderful world of 'Hello Dracula,' a kids' movie with '80s style and a lot of heart.

"In HELLO DRACULA as in other jiangshi films, the 'dead' hop along behind the sorcerer, each of them with a paper talisman attached to their head to keep them under the holy man’s control." We're kicking off a new series in 2026 from the one and only @fakerobhunter.bsky.social. It's gonna get weird.

‘28 Years Later: The Bone Temple’ Review: Beauty & Misery Collide Siddhant Adlakha explains how '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' follows up 2025's sequel in ways both gloomy and surprisingly intimate.

"DaCosta may not break new stylistic ground the way Boyle has in the past, but her skillful balance between the extremes of misery and euphoria makes for a rapturous studio oddity." We've got @siddhantadlakha.bsky.social on this site this week with his review of 28 YEARS LATER: THE BONE TEMPLE.

Good to know! I (Monagle) have used that comparison before and gotten blank looks, but I KNEW it was a useful way of talking about movies! Let us know what you think if/when you see it!

Podcast: 'Primate' Gets Uncertified Matt Donato and Matthew Monagle sit down to discuss 'Primate,' Johannes Roberts's killer 'killer monkey' movie.

Did you really think we weren't going to record a podcast episode about a killer monkey movie? C'mon. Here's @donatobomb.bsky.social and @monagle.bsky.social in conversation on PRIMATE.

Support writer-owned publications. Always.

'Primate' Review: Creature Feature Meets Monkey Slasher 'Primate,' the latest film from Johannes Roberts, is a gnarly (complimentary) mashup of slasher and creature feature tropes.

"PRIMATE is a small miracle of costume design and performance, turning a silly concept into a genuinely tense game of cat and mouse (or, well, monkey and human)." Here's @monagle.bsky.social on this weekend's much ballyhooed simian slasher cinema.

'Savageland' Offers Real-World Horrors | Certified Forgotten Sarah Miles explains how 'Savageland' uses the faux documentary subgenre to craft a perfect political horror story for modern America.

Right? It was a pandemic discovery from me off of a recommendation from @slimyswampghost.bsky.social.

Absolutely love it, wrote a little thing on it for Certified Forgotten:

certifiedforgotten.com/the-horrors-...

'We Bury the Dead' Review: Apocalyptic Scale Minus the Stakes 'We Bury the Dead,' the latest film from 'These Final Hours' director Zak Hilditch, offers apocalyptic scale but little human connection.

"Hilditch’s latest fails to meet the moment in a genre increasingly dominated by post-pandemic allegories for survivor’s guilt." @monagle.bsky.social finds the good (and the not-so-good) in WE BURY THE DEAD, now playing in theaters.

Absolutely lit on fire about this movie after seeing it at Telluride Horror Show. Can’t wait for a rewatch.

Podcast: 'It Ends' Gets Uncertified Matt Donato and Matthew Monagle talk Letterboxd and high-concept horror in their discussion of Alexander Ullom's 'It Ends.'

"We get up and we find out something terrible has happened almost every single day, and we just have to go do our job." In this week's episode of the podcast, @donatobomb.bsky.social and @monagle.bsky.social discuss the numbing, existential horror of Alexander Ullom's IT ENDS.

It’s a Christmas edition of #UterusHorror! Be sure to go to @certifiedforgot.bsky.social to read all about THE SACRIFICE GAME and how it finally gives us the UH movie ending we want.

'The Sacrifice Game' Brings Horror Home for the Holidays Molly Henery shares horror for the holidays with her essay on Jenn Wexler's Christmas film 'The Sacrifice Game.'

“THE SACRIFICE GAME shows two very different girls at different stages of self-discovery.” It wouldn’t be the holidays without a Christmas-themed column from @mollyhenery.bsky.social.

Went to @moviemadness.org to visit my shelf! Loved seeing a couple of the films rented out and people perusing the shelf while I was there. Thanks so much to the MM team for inviting me to curate this selection of #UterusHorror films I love. Be sure to visit MM and rent from my shelf while you can!

Podcast: Paul Gandersman and Peter Hall on 'Noroi: The Curse' Paul Gandersman and Peter Hall, the duo behind 'Man Finds Tape,' discuss their debut feature and Kōji Shiraishi's 'Noroi: The Curse.'

We actually did a whole podcast with @certifiedforgot.bsky.social about NOROI if you're curious. share.google/Lcwc8WlqA3sE...

This is getting a novelization from @echohorror.com and I’m actually hyped because it sounds unnerving!

Why 'Deadly Games' Is the Horror Fan's 'Home Alone' | Certified Forgotten Katie Liggera carves out space in the holiday horror canon for Rene Manzor's 'Deadly Games,' aka 'Dial Code Santa Claus.'

"Steeped in violence and exploiting some of our most childhood moments, DEADLY GAMES is a fitting entry in the Christmas-horror genre that birthed it." Looking for a new holiday favorite? Well, look no further than the French home invasion horror-thriller DEADLY GAMES.

Podcast: 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2' Gets Uncertified (with BJ Colangelo) Film critic BJ Colangelo joins Matt Donato to discuss 'Five Nights at Freddy's 2,' the latest adaptation of the popular video game series.

If anyone was going to defend FIVE NIGHTS AT FREDDY'S 2, it was going to be @donatobomb.bsky.social and @bjcolangelo.bsky.social. Hah, that's not happening. In this special Uncertified guest episode, two of the loudest champions of Freddy Fazbear's film debut discuss where the sequel goes so wrong.

Four articles on the Certified Forgotten homepage: Sheitan, Dead End, Silent Night, and Anna and the Apocalypse

Every month, we change the Spotlight section of our home page with new bunch of article recommendations. This month, we're sharing just a few of the Christmas-themed horror films that have been written about at Certified Forgotten. certifiedforgotten.com

Give A Gift That Doesn’t Suck, Get A Gift That Doesn’t Suck | Defector Big holiday news: If you buy an annual gift subscription to Defector or Normal Gossip before the end of December 2025, we’ll comp you a gift subscription to your choice of a participating site on the ...

Our friends at @defector.com are trying something really cool: if you subscribe to Defector this holiday season, you can get a complimentary subscription to @certifiedforgot.bsky.social or a handful of other great sites at no additional cost.

I believe the Certified Forgotten fellas were the FIRST EVER to invite me on a podcast back in 2020!

Will Letterboxd's Video Store Be Good for Indie Horror? Film distribution guru James Emanuel Shapiro explains why Letterboxd's Video Store strategy has good intentions but tough sledding ahead.

"Letterboxd will need to do more than just focus on alerting the users who have watchlisted a specific horror film." What hurdles will Letterboxd's Video Store need to overcome to be successful? Distribution guru James Emanuel Shapiro weighs in on the platform's biggest swing yet.