There aren’t any huge heavy hitters in this week’s releases, but Random Acts of Violence certainly has me intrigued as it’s written by Jay Baruchel (Freaks and Geeks, How to Train Your Dragon). The movie is about a comic book artist (Jesse Williams) who goes on a road trip with some friends (Baruchel and Jordana Brewster), where they begin to notice some eerie similarities between their comic book characters and real-life murders.
Be sure to let us know what you’ll be watching this week in the comments below!
Aug. 17
Hellmaster (Shudder)
About: This regional horror weirdness from Michigan begins on a college campus in the late 60s, where mad professor John Saxon once performed murderous atrocities under the aegis of a secret government eugenics project before being shot dead by one of his associates. Twenty years later, a string of murders seems to indicate the professor’s return from the dead. As it turns out, Saxon’s experiments produced a drug which transmogrified him into a superhuman being capable of manipulating the will of others.
Original release date: Dec. 16, 1992
Runtime: 92 minutes
Director: Douglas Schulze
Key Cast: John Saxon, David Emge, Amy Raasch
Tomatometer: NA
Jawbreaker (Shudder)
About: High school. A time of sweet innocence. Untainted youth. Goal-oriented teenagers. NOT! At fictional Reagan High School, these are the times of feeling awkward and discovering who you are while trying to fit in with everyone else. And belonging to a “clique” is a life or death matter, especially when that clique rules the school. Courtney Shane, Julie Freeman, Marcie Fox, and Liz Purr are all best friends. They are at the height of their popularity when an innocent birthday prank accidentally kills Liz, the sweetest member of the clique. During their panicked attempt to cover up the murder, the class nerd, Fern Mayo, stumbles upon them. In order to keep Fern quiet Courtney offers to make her popular, and the results are a dark, comical Faustian tale of corruption, redemption and makeover madness!
Original release date: Feb. 19, 1999
Runtime: 87 minutes
Director: Darren Stein
Key Cast: John Saxon, David Emge, Amy Raasch
Tomatometer: 11%
Uncaged (Shudder)
About: A teen (Ben Getz) gets tired of his disruptive sleepwalking habits and affixes a camera to himself to discover the real reason behind this nightly event, only to discover a disturbing secret.
Original release date: Feb. 2, 2016
Runtime: 96 minutes
Director: Daniel Robbins
Key Cast: Ben Getz, Kyle Kirkpatrick, Zack Weiner
Tomatometer: NA
Aug. 20
Unacknowledged (Hulu)
About: “Unacknowledged” focuses on the historic files of the Disclosure Project and how UFO secrecy has been ruthlessly enforced-and why. The best evidence for extraterrestrial contact, dating back decades, is presented with direct top-secret witness testimony, documents and UFO footage, 80% of which has never been revealed anywhere else. The behind-the-scenes research and high-level meetings convened by Dr. Steven Greer will expose the degree of illegal, covert operations at the core of UFO secrecy.
Original release date: May 9, 2017
Runtime: 100 minutes
Director: Michael Mazzola
Key Cast: Giancarlo Esposito, Steven M. Greer, Carl Sagan
Tomatometer: 76% (audience score)
John Was Trying to Contact Aliens (Netflix)
About: John Shepherd spent 30 years trying to contact extraterrestrials by broadcasting music millions of miles into space. After giving up the search he makes a different connection here on Earth.
Original release date: Aug. 20, 2020
Runtime: 16 minutes
Director: Matthew Killip
Cast: John Shepherd
Tomatometer: NA
Random Acts of Violence (Shudder)
About: What are the real consequences when life begins to imitate art? Comic book creator Todd Walkley, his wife Kathy, assistant Aurora and best friend, Hard Calibre Comics owner Ezra, embark upon a road trip from Toronto to NYC comic con and bad things start to happen. People start getting killed. It soon becomes clear that a crazed fan is using Todd’s “SLASHERMAN” comic as inspiration for the killings and as the bodies pile up, and Todd’s friends and family become victims themselves, Todd will be forced to take artistic responsibility.
Original release date: Aug. 20, 2020
Runtime: 80 minutes
Director: Jay Baruchel
Cast: Jesse Williams, Jordana Brewster, Jay Baruchel
Tomatometer: 82%
(Editor’s note: We include releases from Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Shudder and Tubi. If you’d like to see additional streaming channels include, please let us know in the comments below.)
