The Poppies of Terra #78 - Quarter Past

We’re rapidly approaching the end of the first quarter of 2026, and I happen to have seen just over twenty-five films theatrically, so I thought it might be useful to make this column a capsule review roundup. 

Here are my ultra-condensed thoughts on each of the twenty-five films I watched in a movie theater since January 1st, with two bonus titles after the main list.

Seen Theatrically So Far in 2026

1. The Plague – Engrossing and deeply affecting coming-of-age drama that taps into universal emotions through hyper-stylized specificity. Memorable use of external aesthetics to convey interior states.

2. We Bury the Dead – A remarkably chill, domestic hangout relationship drama masquerading as a semi-octane, global zombie apocalypse. 

3. Primate – Unabashed Cujo-esque horror romp with killer location and tasty death scenes. ASL is cleverly integrated into the plot.

4. 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – Poignant and reflective while also mercilessly savage and brutal, this is the apex, for me, of the series. Genuinely innovative, Alex Garland’s script and Nia DaCosta’s direction push genre boundaries through a deft handling of philosophical quandaries.

5. Mercy – Derivative, uninspired, and cinematically flat. You won’t have a hard time figuring out who the baddie is in the first ten minutes.

6. Return to Silent Hill – Many of its individual scenes reveal both fidelity to, and affection for, the video game source material, but lacklustre acting, flat dialogue, and an overall lack of storytelling cohesion render this a messy misfire.

7. Iron Lung – Fans of the game are lapping it up, but I found it as visually clunky as its central deep-dive vehicle, full of portent and bluster without payoff or ingenuity. Overlong and, because of its repetitiveness, tedious.

8. Send Help – But not in Sam Raimi’s direction, because he doesn’t need it! A desert island black comedy revenge thriller that commits to both its nastiness and humor and sees the director firing on all cylinders with his uniquely amped up brand of campy, super-kinetic filmmaking.    

9. The Strangers: Chapter 3 – Thin, reheated gruel, a completely anti-climactic finale to likely the most ill-conceived and stretched-out genre trilogy of all time.

10. Whistle – Efficient and lean cursed-object teen horror drama with a hooky premise and several outstanding kills. Formula filmmaking at its consummate best. 

11. The Moment – Spinal Tap for the modern generation. A smartly absurdist, dry-humor send-up of modern popularity, the music biz, and the crisis management of optics.

12. “Wuthering Heights” – An archly indulgent, rampantly expressionistic music video of a book adaptation that’s equal parts fever dream and fetish object. I was entranced and moved. 

13. Crime 101 – There’s a captivating, coiled energy to this slick heist thriller/drama, but the screenplay’s muscularity is too frontloaded, along with some extraneous character digressions and contrivances. Still, mesmeric performances and oodles of ambiance.

14. Cold Storage – Thoroughly entertaining, a pulpy B-movie with a quirky sense of humor. Like a well-paced 80s horror flick, brimming with attitude, amusing dialogue, and gory set pieces, magically transplanted into modern times.

15. Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die – Starts off phenomenally, with offbeat, really macabre satire, but as the underlying plot started to show more of its hand I became less enthused, and found the climax overwrought. Very well executed from a craft perspective and conceptually suspenseful until the end. Good odds of becoming a cult Verbinski title.

16. Midwinter Break – Sparse, understated and very slowly paced, this one may be too bleak and laconic for most viewers, but I found its central duo achingly well-realized by its leads and I appreciated the literary flavor.

17. Psycho Killer – An inexplicably cliche-ridden failure, this 90’s throwback thriller is neither scary nor tense, and becomes bizarrely improbable as it goes completely off the rails in the last twenty minutes. I’m honestly still surprised this played in theaters and hope that one day we’ll discover how it came to be written by Andrew Kevin Walker of Se7en fame.

18. Pillion – Beautifully acted and staged, a tender and transparent look at a gay male BDSM relationship that portrays its characters with a refreshing lack of judgment.

19. Scream 7 – If you come to this franchise primarily for the opening prologue, the kills, and the character development, you’ll be served well. If you’re mostly interested in the franchise’s long-running meta-commentary or the mystery leading up to a satisfying reveal of the killer(s), you’ll be sorely disappointed. On the balance, this one ties with Scream 3 for me at the bottom of the series, but I can still appreciate its merits.

20. Dolly – Retro-slasher aficionados and grindhouse purists will enjoy this movie’s guerrilla-style filmmaking antics, raw Super 16mm film texture, and artisanal prosthetics and effects, but I found the protagonist’s lack of common sense – let’s call it idiocy – trying and ultimately deflating of the entire enterprise.

21. The Bride! – Conceptually lopsided, tonally disjointed, and thematically over-determined, this aggro-punk re-interpretation of Mary Shelley-derived material is visually provocative but emotionally uninvolving.

22. Hoppers – A brilliant outing from Pixar. Stunning animation, timely and timeless themes tied to a clever, fun narrative that progressively spins out plot complications from its basic what-if premise to generate a thrilling character-driven ride.

23. Kokuho – This three-hour long kabuki-focused historical melodrama stuns with its gorgeous production design and attention to detail. The sprawling saga of classic rivalry loses some of its steam in the third act, but many individual scenes will burn upon the stage of your mind long after curtain call.

24. Project Hail Mary – The feel-good summer science fiction blockbuster of the year, only it didn’t come out in the summer. Unapologetically populist and jocular, but don’t let that distract you from its intriguing ideas and earnest sentiments.

25. Undertone – Watch, and listen, carefully, for all is not what it seems. Despite appearances to the contrary, I contend that this film, which boasts next-level sound design, in fact contains zero supernatural elements.

Bonus Titles

26. Monument – A well-researched and handsomely mounted story, inspired by true events, that champions fundamental humanism and compassion.

27. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come – Visceral, sometimes funny, and occasionally inspired, but mostly a retread of the original movie’s splatter-laden mechanics. 

(I also rewatched Marty Supreme in the theater; just as grand the second time as the first.)

Forthcoming Theatrical Releases

There’s a ton of great titles in the offing in what remains of the year. Here I’ve selected fifty that beckon to me personally. 

The mathematically inclined will note that if we were following the approximate rule of twenty-five releases per quarter, this list would be seventy-five, rather than fifty entries, long. However, I’m going to stick to fifty, because there’s many movies yet to be announced, and some which have been announced currently have no set release dates. 

Many festival-first prestige titles, of course, only get distribution after those limited premieres, which typically leads to a glut of dramas and indie movies vying for critical cache in the fourth quarter of the year. So it's easy to imagine appending a further quarter-hundred titles to the list as they’re unveiled in the coming months. 

But for now, here’s what I’m looking at:

1. Alpha (Mar 27)

2. They Will KIll You (Mar 27)

3. The Drama (Apr 3)

4. Hamlet (Apr 10)

5. Faces of Death (Apr 10)

6. Exit 8 (Apr 10)

7. Lee Cronin’s The Mummy (Apr 17)

8. Mother Mary (Apr 17)

9. Normal (Apr 17)

10. Michael (Apr 24)

11. Hokum (May 1)

12. Deep Water (May 1)

13. Mortal Kombat II (May 8)

14. The Sheep Detectives (May 8)

15. Obsession (May 15)

16. In The Grey (May 15)

17. Star Wars: The Mandalorian & Grogu (May 22)

18. Passenger (May 29)

19. The Backrooms (May 29)

20. Pressure (May 29)

21. Masters of the Universe (Jun 5)

22. Scary Movie 6 (Jun 5)

23. Disclosure Day (Jun 12)

24. The Death of Robin Hood (Jun 19)

25. Supergirl (Jun 26)

26. Toy Story 5 (Jun 19)

27. The Odyssey (Jul 17)

28. Evil Dead Burn (Jul 24)

29. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Jul 31)

30. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Aug 7)

31. The Third Parent (Aug 7)

32. Fall 2 (Aug 7)

33. Flowervale Street (Aug 14)

34. Insidious: The Bleeding World (Aug 21)

35. Resident Evil (Sep 18)

36. Digger (Oct 2)

37. Other Mommy (Oct 9)

38. The Social Reckoning (Oct 9)

39. Sense and Sensibility (Oct 16)

40. Street Fighter (Oct 16)

41. Whalefall (Oct 16)

42. Wildwood (Oct 23)

43. Clayface (Oct 23)

44. Wild Horse Nine (Nov 6)

45. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (Nov 20)

46. Narnia: The Magician's Nephew (Nov 26)

47. Violent Night 2 (Dec 4)

48. Dune: Part Three (Dec 18)

49. Avengers: Doomsday (Dec 18)

50. Werwulf (Dec 25)