The Morrigan (2026) | Great Irish folklore setup and mood, then the effects team released a PS2-era snake and lazy logic took over. #jackmeatsflix

My quick rating - 4.3/10. I'll admit, the trailer for The Morrigan did get my attention. It takes a stab at mythological horror with a strong concept and some genuinely creepy atmosphere, then unfortunately trips over its own cursed artifacts and faceplants into the CGI bargain bin.

We open in “Pagan Ireland, 1500 years ago,” which is cinematic shorthand for - bad things are about to happen to people with poor armor and worse luck. Cue crusading soldiers, throat-slashing, and enough grim mood to let you know nobody here is getting a happy ending or dental coverage. It’s a promising start that suggests folklore-heavy dread is on the menu.

Fast-forward to modern day, where archaeologist Fiona (Saffron Burrows, who brings instant credibility just by showing up) is explaining the legend of The Morrigan, a vengeful war goddess with a serious grudge and apparently no hobbies outside of possession and murder. She heads to Ireland with her teenage daughter, Lily (Emily Flain), who is fresh off an expulsion and fully committed to the Teen Horror Movie Daughter Starter Pack. Sulking, eye-rolling "whatever" responses, and wandering off at the worst possible times.

The Irish scenery does some heavy lifting here with misty hills and ancient sites scoring points, though the script occasionally forgets basic geography. There’s a snake incident that raises a big question. Did The Morrigan also banish St. Patrick and sneak the snakes back in? Because Ireland is famously snake-free. Even Google would’ve caught that one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ9g3GP24BM

Joining the expedition is Jonathon Horner (Jonathan Forbes), a character so aggressively handsy and glory-hungry that you can practically see the red “DO NOT TRUST” label hovering over his head. Sure enough, someone finds a mysterious burial casket, and the one person least qualified to open it decides to open it anyway. Archaeologists everywhere screamed into the void at that scene.

There are a few moments where the tension actually works. The possession arc with Lily builds some decent unease, and her glowing-eyed Morrigan look is legitimately creepy. Unfortunately, the film keeps undercutting itself with rough effects and logic-defying escape scenes, including a “throw lighter - random explosion - freedom” sequence that feels like the writer yelling, “We’ll fix it in post!”

The CGI animals, especially the snake and dog attacks, are distractingly bad. Not charmingly bad. Not “so bad it’s good.” Just “1999 cable TV original at 2 a.m.” bad. Every time the atmosphere starts to thicken, a rubbery digital creature shows up and kicks the tension down the stairs.

Character depth is pretty thin across the board, and the script never digs as deep as its own tomb. Still, Burrows and Flain do what they can with the material, and the mythological angle remains engaging enough to keep things watchable.

It almost wraps up in a respectable way - and then, like a horror villain with franchise ambitions, it pops back up for a sequel tease nobody asked for. The Morrigan may be eternal, but this script needed another rewrite ritual. It's a decent legend trapped in less-than-legendary execution.

The Morrigan (2026)

https://jackmeat.com/the-morrigan-2026/

The Vindicator (2025) | A serial killer hosts the world’s worst livestream, forcing podcasters into cringe confessions with logic gaps big enough to escape through. #jackmeatsflix

My quick rating - 3.2/10. The Vindicator opens the way many slashers do. A woman running for her life, chased by someone we’re clearly supposed to fear. Don’t worry, we’ll definitely come back to that. Or at least, the movie thinks we will. From there, we’re introduced to a group of true-crime podcasters who could generously be described as “annoying” and less generously as “a few dipshits with microphones.” Naturally, they’re given the opportunity of a lifetime, getting exclusive access to the last known location of the infamous serial killer known as The Vindicator. What could possibly go wrong?

Instead of journalism, they’re treated to a bargain-bin Saw setup crossed with a live-streaming podcast gimmick. The hosts are locked into a gameshow-style nightmare where The Vindicator himself forces them to play a twisted version of truth or dare. They’re fitted with shock bracelets that supposedly keep them trapped. Bracelets they put on themselves and could absolutely remove just as easily. But hey, the movie needs to happen, so let’s all agree not to think about that too hard.

The “tasks” are where the film really shows its hand. If you’re expecting elaborate death traps or creative brutality, think again. This isn’t Saw. It’s more like Oversharing: The Movie. The killer’s grand plan mostly involves forcing people to answer embarrassing or morally compromising questions on camera. It’s less horrifying punishment and more awkward group therapy session run by a murderer. Riveting stuff.

The acting is, unfortunately, terrible across the board. And while bad acting can sometimes be fun, here it just compounds the real problem - the writing. The dialogue feels like it was drafted during a lunch break in elementary school, revised once, and immediately sent to set. I’m confident I wrote better material in high school without even trying. I bet you did, too. The plot twists, or lack thereof, are especially painful. You will guess the killer almost immediately, not because you’re clever, but because the film gives you no other viable options. It’s like a whodunit where only one person bothered to show up.

And the motivation? I won’t spoil it outright, but let’s just say it relies on the killer playing an absurdly long game with absolutely no guarantee it would ever pay off. If you watch this nonsense, you’ll know exactly what I mean. Add to that moments where victims fail to notice the killer standing practically beside them, and you’ve got a film that regularly insults basic human perception.

To its credit, The Vindicator doesn’t look cheap. The production value is surprisingly decent, and it at least resembles a real movie rather than someone’s home project uploaded with confidence. I should also clarify that despite sharing a title with an ’80s film involving robots (yes, that was a thing), this has absolutely nothing to do with that movie. Too bad, since killer robots might have been an improvement.

The Vindicator (2025)

Ultimately, The Vindicator hopes to be edgy and witty, trying desperately to be relevant in modern social circles. But what it really manages is to be frustrating, and even comically so. Watch this for an evening only if you enjoy yelling at screens and wondering just how something with this premise managed to go so wrong.

https://jackmeat.com/the-vindicator-2025/

The Watchers (2024) | Giving extra meaning to the whole "everyone is watching" environment. I doubt that was a social mistake in this horror thriller. #jackmeatsflix

My quick rating - 6.1/10. I flipped on The Watchers, knowing it was the directorial debut of Ishana Shyamalan, daughter of M. Night Shyamalan. Thankfully, I didn't see a case of “nepo baby sleepwalking through a movie.” Her direction is confident, and she clearly understands pacing and atmosphere. Knowing how to let tension simmer rather than scream at you just works in this flick. The story is very much within familiar survival horror territory, but its setting and characters prevent it from feeling like something you’ve seen a dozen times already.

Dakota Fanning plays Mina, and she is very good in the part. She's resourceful, believable, and avoids the horror movie trope of people forgetting how to walk when something scary happens. The rest of the cast - Georgina Campbell, Oliver Finnegan, Olwen Fouere - round out the trapped, all bringing just enough character to the film that I cared, well, a little, which of them would survive when things inevitably went wrong.

One of the film’s biggest strengths is the setting. That Irish forest is gorgeous. You might even forget it’s actively trying to kill everyone. Cinematographer Eli Arenson does some nice work, capturing sweeping shots that make the wilderness feel both magical and deeply unsettling. The constant play between light and shadow gives The Watchers a moody, fairy-tale-gone-wrong vibe that works really well.

Of course, this being a Shyamalan-adjacent project, there’s a twist. And yes, you’ll probably see it coming. That’s the downside of carrying that last name. Expectations are sky-high. The twist isn’t bad, it just doesn’t hit with the “oh damn” energy needed to push the movie into something great. It lands more in “yeah, that was my guess” territory, which is a bit of a letdown after such a strong buildup.

The horror itself is handled with a pretty gentle touch. This is less of a nightmare and more eerie bedtime story, making it surprisingly family-friendly. That restraint helps the atmosphere, but us hardcore horror fans definitely wanted Shyamalan to take a bloodier bite. Still, the tension is steady, and I never found myself losing interest.

In the end, The Watchers is a visually striking, well-acted debut that shows real promise. It doesn’t fully capitalize on its concept, but it’s engaging and original. A solid launching point for Ishana Shyamalan’s career in my eyes. And if you’re picking up on some extra meaning behind the whole “everyone is watching” vibe…Yeah, I seriously doubt that was a social mistake.

The Watchers (2024)

https://jackmeat.com/the-watchers-2024/

The Plague (2025) | A solid, uncomfortable coming-of-age drama about bullying. Just don’t expect full horror, expect emotional chlorine burn instead. #jackmeatsflix

My quick rating - 6.1/10. I thought The Plague was going to make me afraid of swimming pools forever or infect me with something deadly. Instead, I got a movie that tried to psychologically scar me, and reminded me in an uncomfortable way that kids can be kind of terrible (just like adults, go figure)

The plot revolves around a nervous 12-year-old’s experience in a vicious social world at an all-boys water polo camp, and being nice is a disease. The tradition here is to shun one kid who is referred to as ‘The Plague’ due to illness, though it is not specified what kind...Is it real? Is it rumor? Is it just weaponized puberty? The movie clearly wants that uncertainty to be the engine of dread.

First, let’s address the chlorine-scented elephant in the room. This is supposed to be a U.S. summer camp, but it is so obviously shot somewhere in Eastern Europe that it’s distracting (the credits confirmed it's Romania). The architecture, the locations, even the general vibe scream “discount Baltic sports facility.” I half expected someone to spike the Gatorade with beet juice. It pulled me out of the immersion more than once.

Joel Edgerton shows up as the coach/dad figure and, once again, proves he is physically incapable of giving a bad performance (Train Dreams, anyone?). The man could convincingly play a conflicted folding chair. The problem is, where are the rest of the adults? This camp seems to be run on a staffing model of “one stressed coach and vibes.” These kids have more unsupervised psychological warfare going on than a reality TV show.

The film is tagged as horror, which feels generous. There’s tension, yes. There’s cruelty, absolutely. There are looks from Eli (Kenny Rasmussen) and Ben (Everett Blunck) that could curdle milk at twenty paces. But very little of it escalates into anything that truly stands as horror. It’s more social dread than genre dread. One scene feels directly inspired by Full Metal Jacket’s group punishment sequence, just resized to junior edition.

Performance-wise, Everett Blunck is the standout and carries a wide emotional range convincingly. That said, I struggled with the intended sympathy for Ben. Yes, bullying is wrong - full stop - but the script makes some choices that undermine him hard. Treating Eli like a human being? Good. Noble. Rubbing lotion on his back in front of a pack of middle-school piranhas? That is not bravery, that is social self-detonation. And later, when he throws Eli under the bus, any remaining moral high ground gets power-washed away. I found myself thinking, “Well…consequences are clearly on the way.”

The themes are solid. Rumor as disease, conformity pressure, adolescent cruelty, and vulnerability. The dread builds slowly, sometimes too slowly, and the pacing can wobble. There’s not a lot of spontaneity in the scene construction, but the performances and mood keep it watchable.

The Plague didn’t hit as hard for me as it clearly will for some, especially those with personal bullying scars, but it’s still worth a look. Just don’t go in expecting a horror film. Think more along the lines of psychological poolside anxiety drama.

The Plague (2025)

https://jackmeat.com/the-plague-2025/

We Bury the Dead (2026) | Not really a horror film, more a quiet zombie-adjacent road trip driven by grief and crunchy jaw noises. #jackmeatsflix

My quick rating - 5.5/10. This one wasn't exactly what I was expecting. We Bury the Dead is a movie that shows up wearing a “zombie horror” name badge, then spends the entire runtime insisting it’s actually here for your feelings. I mean, honestly? That’s mostly fine, just don’t come in expecting wall-to-wall carnage ala 28 Years Later or Romero-style apocalypse chaos, because this is very much a slow, dramatic character piece. It just happens to have the undead lurking around like an emotional support threat.

The opening does a solid job setting the tone, hinting at a world that’s unsettled and strained without going full end-times. The film wisely keeps the disaster contained. This isn’t the fall of humanity, just a very bad, very specific situation. Ava (Daisy Ridley), grieving and lost, enters a quarantine zone to search for her missing husband. The military line is that the dead are “harmless,” which should immediately trigger your internal horror-movie lie detector. Still, the film never lets the zombies be the undead as escalating threats in the way the marketing suggests. That part of the summary flat-out doesn’t happen.

Ava quickly gets paired with Clay (Brenton Thwaites), an Aussie with a relaxed moral code, a stolen motorcycle, and zero hesitation about heading down the coast to help a stranger chase closure. Their dynamic works well, largely because Thwaites brings an easy-going energy that offsets Ava’s quiet grief. The Tasmanian locations are a huge plus, too. The cinematography really lets the landscape breathe, making the isolation feel earned rather than convenient.

This is very much a “what we will do for love” story, and that theme is hammered home hard. Maybe a bit too hard. The flashbacks meant to justify Ava’s dangerous quest don’t exactly scream “risk your life against zombies for this guy,” which makes some of her choices feel more stubborn than romantic. Still, Ridley sells it. She carries the entire movie, evolving from withdrawn and fragile to absolutely feral when pushed far enough. When she starts beating a zombie senseless, I thought she should save some for the husband.

The zombies themselves are more unsettling than frightening. The jaw noises - crunch, crackle, wet icky business - are genuinely nasty and easily the creepiest element. Attacks are rare, which makes you question the film’s own mythology. If the dead rise due to “unfinished business,” does that mean they already failed to kill someone and had to come back for round two? The movie doesn’t care to explain, and neither should you if you want to stay sane.

There’s a mean streak running through the story, and while one major revelation feels predictable, the film seems convinced it’s pulling the rug out from under you. The ending, though, is where it really lost me. That uplifting “humanity survives, hope endures” finale felt unnecessary and toothless after all that bleak introspection. Sometimes it’s okay to end on a bruise.

We Bury the Dead (2026)

Zak Hilditch swings big here, delivering a distinctly Aussie take on the zombie genre that prioritizes mood and grief over gore. It’s well-acted, well-shot, and thoughtfully made. Just mislabeled. This isn’t horror. It’s a zombie drama-thriller that moves slowly, thinks a lot, and occasionally trips.

https://jackmeat.com/we-bury-the-dead-2026/

Train Dreams (2025) | Strong performances and gorgeous scenery carry this one, though the romance felt rushed and just not Best Picture-level impact in the end. #jackmeatsflix

My quick rating - 6.9/10. Another Best Picture nominee strolls into the room wearing suspenders, carrying an axe, and speaking in a hushed, poetic voiceover. And that would be Train Dreams. Directed by Clint Bentley and based on Denis Johnson’s beloved novella, this is the kind of film that doesn’t knock on the door, it gently taps once, then waits while you check the peephole for interest.

The story follows Robert Grainier, a logger and railroad worker living through the early 20th century as America slowly trades trees for smokestacks. It’s a portrait of a simple, decent man trying to build a simple, decent life, which of course means cinema law requires tragedy to drop in unannounced like a piano from a third-floor window. The emotional core is intentionally minimalistic - love, family, loss, memory, and the slow erasure of ways of life that once felt permanent.

Joel Edgerton delivers a terrific performance as Robert Grainier, restrained and quietly powerful. He does more with silence and posture than some actors manage with three monologues and a courtroom breakdown. I’m honestly surprised he didn’t land a nomination here. He also recently popped up in The Plague with another strong showing, though with less screen dominance than he commands here. Felicity Jones plays Gladys, the love of his life, bringing warmth and softness to a role that, unfortunately, feels a bit underdeveloped.

And that’s where the film stumbled for me. The central love story, the emotional engine that’s supposed to power the grief, feels too abbreviated. We’re told it’s profound rather than truly showing it becomes profound. When the tragedy hits, it lands more as an idea than a gut punch. It’s the difference between reading a love letter and seeing the relationship unfold. One stings more.

There’s also one moment that genuinely made me tilt my head like a confused dog. When men are dragging away Robert’s Asian co-worker, our concerned hero grabs the guy’s legs in a way that looks less like intervention and more like he’s helping move a couch being thrown off the bridge. It didn't look like confronting the men for assaulting the coworker - it looked like assisting them in the assault. Maybe I misread the staging, but it stuck out enough to make my notes.

Visually, though, the film is a beauty. The forest landscapes are rich and immersive, the period detail is excellent, and the wildfire sequences are shot with suffocating dread. Bentley directs with a delicate hand. This movie is a whisper while most theaters are busy screaming explosions at you. It’s meditative, patient, and atmospheric, sometimes a bit too much. The pacing is undeniably slow, and while that will absolutely work for some of you, the story never quite builds enough tension or momentum to leave a lasting impression with me.

Train Dreams (2025)

Still, it’s thoughtful and well-crafted, just a bit too emotionally distant to hit masterpiece status. A good film, a respectable nominee, but not my Best Picture of the year.

https://jackmeat.com/train-dreams-2025/

The Rip (2026) | The Rip is a gritty Miami cop thriller carried by Damon and Affleck, with solid twists for your Netflix and chill night. #jackmeatsflix

My quick rating - 6.5/10. Netflix brings us The Rip, one of those big-budget ($100 million) cop thrillers that feels comfortably familiar but still manages to keep you guessing. Set in Miami, the story kicks off in the shadow of an unresolved crime. The murder of a captain that’s been sitting cold for six weeks, delayed by the typical bureaucratic red tape. The officers of the Tactical Narcotics Team are understandably angry and itching for something resembling justice. Or at least momentum. When a tip about a cartel stash surfaces, it feels less like a mission and more like a pressure valve finally being released.

What follows initially plays like a fairly standard heist setup. A crew, a target, and the promise of a big score. But once inside a derelict stash house, the team uncovers far more than expected. Millions in cash, and with it, the slow erosion of trust among officers who should have each other’s backs. As word of the massive seizure spreads, outside forces start circling. Suddenly, loyalties, motives, and long-standing relationships are all up for re-evaluation. Being based on a true story only adds more unease to the proceedings.

The true key to the success of The Rip is the chemistry between Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. Their performances are what keep the film moving, even when it threatens to go down a familiar genre path. It is obvious that writer/director Joe Carnahan recognizes this and allows it to happen, populating the film with a supporting cast that has just enough screen time to introduce themselves before being used later on down the line. It’s good storytelling, and for the most part, it worked for me.

Pacing is one of the film’s stronger elements. While it starts off like many other crime thrillers, Carnahan peppers in enough twists and double crosses to keep things moving. The first hour is particularly strong, tense, and confident. The action, however, is a mixed bag. The initial shootout leans heavily on shaky cam, which feels unnecessary and distracting, while the later action scenes are staged far more cleanly and effectively. There’s also at least one moment where Affleck unloads an impressive amount of ammunition into a moving bulletproof vehicle, which is, um, a choice. LOL.

The third act, however, sees a bit of a slowdown. The ending feels rushed compared to the good foundation that was laid. I was also a bit tired of the whole accusing each other thing. Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s a necessary evil if we are going to get this story. I just didn’t really know where it was going, and when that twist is finally revealed, it wraps up quite nicely.

The Rip doesn’t rewrite the genre, but it doesn’t need to. It’s a dark and gritty crime flick with a touch of mystery. If you are in the mood for a Netflix-and-chill evening that is morally messy with a bit of cynicism sprinkled in, the red N has something for you.

The Rip (2026)

https://jackmeat.com/the-rip-2026/