Chapter 38
THE SPRINKLER Chapter Thirty-Eight
10.1.2026
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Chapter 38
A Monthly Film-First Dispatch
Psycho Studios (Phoenix)
Film Image of the Month
The movie that really kicked my love for horror films into overdrive! I was a teenager when I went on my one and only blind date. Her name was Deanna and we went to see Halloween! The movie rocked me, the music, the story, the cinematic theme! I was hooked. Carpenter is one of our favorite directors of all time! The character of Michael Meyers lives on, and Jamie Lee is a bona fide scream queen carrying the torch from her mother Janet! The Night He Came Home!
EDITOR’S NOTE
Contents:
Film: New release review, and our Psycho Scale.
From the Vault: Films from the 1930s through the 1980s. Simply a watch suggestion.
VHS Corner: One film suggested, do you own a VCR?
Music: This is about music that is directly linked to a film or films. One soundtrack suggested.
Spotlight: Sometimes we honor those film & music greats from days gone by.
Bonus Review: TV or Film random reviews
**We use the Psycho Scale when reviewing movies with a score, it is 0-Psycho (10) and these scores are real and true.
FILM
New Release
Ice Cream Man – 2026 Rated R – Runtime 1h 27m
By the Numbers:
Budget $5.5 million – Box Office $6.7 million
Ice Cream Man
Ice Cream Man opens in the quaint little town of Bayleen Bay. A baseball game is underway, families are enjoying themselves, and an old-school blue-and-white ice cream truck rolls into town playing that familiar childhood tune.
How wholesome.
That lasts about 15 minutes.
Co-written by Eli Roth from a story he conceived more than 20 years ago while making Cabin Fever, Ice Cream Man has nothing to do with the wonderfully terrible 1995 Clint Howard movie of the same name. This is an entirely different flavor of insanity.
I should probably mention that I'm not a huge fan of movies centered around kids, and this thing has kids wall-to-wall. But I'm an Eli Roth fan, so I had to give it a shot.
The setup is actually pretty good. The cinematography and production values are solid, the ice cream truck is suitably creepy, and Roth himself turns up playing the strait-laced father of our young protagonist. Then the children start eating the ice cream.
And murdering their parents.
One little girl takes a saw to Mom. A boy introduces Dad's skull to a baseball bat. Another girl asks Daddy to retrieve something from the garbage disposal. You can probably figure out how that goes.
The gore quickly reaches Terrifier territory, except instead of Art the Clown doing the carving, we've got elementary-school kids laughing their asses off while mutilating adults. At one point they remove the top of a teacher's skull and spoon out his brains. Intestines are pulled out. Eyes are stapled. And my personal favorite: a little girl makes a snow angel in a hallway filled with blood.
Winner, winner, chicken dinner.
The children under the Ice Cream Man's influence are conveniently identifiable by the colorful melted crap smeared around their mouths and their zombie-like behavior. Fortunately, our hero hasn't eaten the evil ice cream.
Why?
He's lactose intolerant.
Fucking A.
Unfortunately, the movie begins melting faster than a Popsicle on an Arizona sidewalk. We spend what feels like an eternity inside a school watching increasingly elaborate murders before the story suddenly decides it needs mythology.
Enter a priest. A falsely accused Serbian ice cream man. Corrupt clergy. A necromancer. A cemetery. Symbols. An undead body. And apparently a poor man's Medusa situation where you're not supposed to look at somebody.
What the fuck is this movie?
By the time three kids are receiving instructions on how to defeat a necromancer, the plot has become so complicated I wasn't sure I could follow it, much less them.
Then comes the big revelation: the Ice Cream Man is our hero's grandfather.
Fucking A, Part II.
With about 15 minutes remaining, everybody heads to the cemetery for the grand finale. There are possessed children, coffins, decapitations, slow motion and sad music apparently intended to make us suddenly feel something.
Instead, I was thinking: 15 minutes left.
Fifteen too many.
There is one genuinely cool visual worth mentioning. One of the possessed little girls bears a striking resemblance to Karen Cooper, the infected child from George Romero's original Night of the Living Dead. Intentional or coincidence, I'd love to ask Eli Roth because the similarity jumped off the screen.
I wanted to like Ice Cream Man. I like Roth. I liked the premise. The movie looks good, and if you're simply looking for gallons of blood and completely over-the-top practical gore, there is plenty here to enjoy.
But gore eventually needs a movie surrounding it.
By the time the Ice Cream Man slowly drives out of Bayleen Bay with his army of possessed children following behind, I was ready to follow him out of town.
I briefly considered giving this a 5 because I've wondered whether I've been too hard on movies lately.
I'm not.
There are just a lot of bad movies.
Turns out lactose intolerance might actually save your life.
More like melted ice cream!
Psycho Scale: 4 out of 10.
New Release
Resident Evil – 2026 Rated R – runtime 1h 37m
By the Numbers:
Budget $80 million – Box Office $197 million
Resident Evil
Let's get something out of the way.
I've never been a fan of the Resident Evil movies, and I'm not a gamer. I've watched my son Mykal play the games, so I know enough about the Umbrella Corporation, infected dogs and the general universe to be dangerous, but I'm reviewing this as a horror fan, not a Resident Evil fan.
The new film comes from Zach Cregger, which gave me reason for both hope and concern. I totally dug Barbarian. I hated Weapons. And that's not an understatement.
So, I went into Resident Evil hoping Cregger would land somewhere in the middle.
The movie follows a young man whose job involves transporting human organs. After making a delivery, he accepts another job he probably shouldn't have, considering his vehicle isn't exactly designed for driving through snow-covered mountain roads in the middle of nowhere.
Naturally, he hits a blood-covered woman.
And we're off.
One thing I'll give Resident Evil: it looks damn good. The production values are excellent, and Cregger knows how to create atmosphere. An underlying musical pulse early in the film almost feels like a heartbeat. The snowy landscape works, the pacing is initially strong, and the opening hospital sequences strangely reminded me of Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead.
The lead actor is solid, too. He carries most of the movie and gives us somebody worth following through all the insanity.
And there is plenty of insanity.
Before long we have infected people, crashed vehicles, a dead sheriff, vicious dogs, isolated farmhouses, shotguns, Umbrella Corporation shenanigans and human bodies splitting open while tentacle-like appendages come crawling out.
Which brings me to John Carpenter.
Some of the creature effects owe such an enormous debt to The Thing that I half expected MacReady to walk out of the snow carrying a flamethrower. Even some of the sounds reminded me of Carpenter's masterpiece. There's also an isolated farmhouse that gave me serious Night of the Living Dead vibes.
That's not necessarily criticism. If you're going to borrow, borrow from the best.
There are also moments designed specifically to resemble a video game, including shooting sequences presented from a gamer's perspective. I suspect longtime Resident Evil players will get considerably more out of those touches than I did.
The problem is that I'm simply not wired for this kind of horror.
Give me Michael Myers walking across a suburban lawn. Give me Jason in the woods. Give me something tangible and relatively grounded, even when I know damn well the killer should have been dead three movies ago.
Once people start sprouting tentacles, regenerating body parts and transforming into giant mutant creatures, you begin to lose me.
But I hung in there.
It could have been worse. I could have been watching Weapons.
The mysterious organ our hero has been desperately transporting eventually turns out not to be an organ at all. It's connected to an antidote for the outbreak, and our hero, naturally, has already been bitten.
By the time he finally reaches the hospital, the movie is barreling toward exactly the kind of final act I feared it would.
Scientists. Infection. Transformation. Giant creature. Carnage.
Our protagonist eventually mutates into one of the monsters himself, tears a scientist in half and goes sailing out of the 28th floor of the hospital. Somewhere in all this is a hypodermic needle containing the antidote.
Both fall toward the street.
Cut to black.
Well, shit.
Here's the strange part: I think this is probably the best Resident Evil movie I've seen.
I also didn't particularly like it.
Those two things can coexist.
It's well made. It looks terrific. The lead performance is solid. Cregger delivers some effective sequences, and fans of the games may appreciate references and imagery that sailed directly over my head.
But a good-looking movie filled with things I don't particularly enjoy is still a movie filled with things I don't particularly enjoy.
I went in with an open mind. I always want a movie to be good.
This one just wasn't for me.
Better than the other Resident Evil movies I've seen.
That's the compliment.
Psycho Scale: 6 out of 10.
FROM THE VAULT (1930s–1980s)
Rabid - 1977 Rated R – runtime 1h 31m
Before David Cronenberg became one of cinema’s undisputed masters of body horror, Rabid helped establish exactly where his wonderfully twisted mind was headed.
Released in 1977, the film follows a young woman who undergoes experimental surgery after a motorcycle accident, only to develop a disturbing physical mutation and an uncontrollable need for human blood. From there, Cronenberg turns the story into a strange mixture of infection thriller, sexual nightmare and apocalyptic horror.
The inspired wild card is Marilyn Chambers. Best known at the time as a porn star, Chambers was attempting to cross into mainstream acting, and Cronenberg gave her a genuine opportunity to do it. She brings an unexpected vulnerability to a role that easily could have become pure exploitation.
You can already see Cronenberg's lifelong fixation with the human body: infection, mutation, sexuality, medical experimentation and flesh betraying its owner. Ideas he would explore throughout his career are all over Rabid.
It's raw, uncomfortable and unmistakably Cronenberg.
Long before body horror had a name, David Cronenberg was already cutting it open to see what was inside.
VHS CORNER (Available only on videotape)
The Vineyard 1989 Rated R – runtime 1h 35m
The Vineyard is exactly the kind of wonderfully strange horror movie that seemed to thrive during the VHS era. Directed by and starring James Hong, the film mixes zombies, black magic, exploitation, camp and supernatural horror into one bizarre little package.
I still remember renting The Vineyard on VHS from a small mom-and-pop video store. This was when wandering the horror aisle and studying those oversized VHS boxes was half the fun. I liked the movie enough that I eventually had an original The Vineyard poster hanging in my guest room.
Is it a great movie? No. But that's almost beside the point. The Vineyard has that low-budget late-'80s horror charm that simply can't be manufactured today. It's weird, cheesy, occasionally creepy and completely committed to what it is.
Sometimes a movie sticks with you because it's a masterpiece. Sometimes it sticks with you because you remember exactly where you were when you discovered it.
The Vineyard is one of those movies.
MUSIC (That collides with film)
Stabbing Westward Haunting Me: The Faculty 1998
Typically, this section lists several songs from a film, this time it’s just one incredible song with history for my son and I.
Formed in Chicago in 1985, Stabbing Westward carved out a distinctive place in the 1990s alternative rock scene by blending industrial rock, electronic textures and intensely personal lyrics. Led by vocalist Christopher Hall and keyboardist Walter Flakus, the band developed a dark, atmospheric sound built around themes of obsession, isolation, heartbreak and emotional damage.
The band broke through with 1996’s Wither Blister Burn & Peel, featuring the hits Shame and What Do I Have to Do? Their 1998 follow-up, Darkest Days, pushed their sound even further and included one of their most haunting tracks, Haunting Me.
Haunting Me was featured in the 1998 sci-fi horror film The Faculty, a perfect marriage of song and movie during an era when alternative rock and horror soundtracks frequently went hand in hand.
Stabbing Westward disbanded in 2002 but eventually reunited, proving that their brooding industrial sound still had an audience. Decades later, the music remains unmistakably theirs: dark, melodic, aggressive and beautifully miserable. As Mykal did say: Fuck, this song kills me.
Psycho Studio’s Spotlight
Thomas Harris (Author)
Thomas Harris is one of the most influential writers of modern psychological horror and crime fiction, best known for creating one of literature’s most unforgettable villains, Dr. Hannibal Lecter.
Born in Jackson, Tennessee, in 1940 and raised in Mississippi, Harris began his career as a journalist and reporter before turning to fiction. His first novel, Black Sunday, was published in 1975, but it was Red Dragon in 1981 that introduced readers to Hannibal Lecter. Harris followed it with The Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal and Hannibal Rising, creating a series that would have an enormous impact on books, film and television.
Harris is famously private, rarely gives interviews and has published only six novels across a career spanning five decades. His meticulous approach to writing shows. His work combines crime, horror and psychological suspense with deeply drawn characters and an unsettling understanding of human behavior.
Few authors have created a character who escaped the pages of a novel quite like Hannibal Lecter. More than four decades after his introduction, Lecter remains one of the defining monsters of modern popular culture.
Psycho Studio’s Random Review!
Motor City 2025 1h 43m. Rated R.
103 minutes. Five lines of dialogue. Seriously.
Motor City is one of those movies that almost sounds like an experiment somebody dared a filmmaker to attempt. The screenplay kicked around Hollywood for years before finally making it to the screen, starring Alan Ritchson in a gritty revenge story set against 1970s Detroit.
And somehow, it works.
With literally only five lines of dialogue during its 103-minute runtime, the film relies on visuals, music, movement and performance to tell its story. Ritchson has the physical presence to carry a movie this stripped down, while a terrific supporting cast gives the film some added weight. Ben Foster, in particular, is great.
The real star, though, may be the atmosphere. Motor City has a cool retro look, a strong 1970s vibe and a pace that keeps the movie moving without making the lack of dialogue feel like a gimmick. For most of the runtime, the tone is remarkably controlled.
Unfortunately, the final quarter doesn't live up to everything that came before it. The movie begins pushing things too far, losing some of that restraint and eventually becoming almost a caricature of itself.
Still, Motor City is different, stylish and absolutely worth seeing for the sheer audacity of what it attempts.
Five lines of dialogue. 103 minutes. And for most of it, you don't miss the other 102 minutes' worth. Psycho Scale 6.
CLOSING THOUGHT
We refrain from speaking to politics, religion and the strife across the globe. Film has been an incredible connection and enthusiastic distraction, hobby and life pursuit. 2026 is Psycho Studio’s year, and we look forward to sharing thoughts, experiences and the like. We will start sharing some interesting details about this journey in chapter 38 of The Sprinkler. We wish everyone a safe and happy end of summer.
Mykal and I shared this credo with one another a couple years ago; it was poignant then & surely is today!
Be cool to one another
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Mykal and I wish everyone a positive month! Be safe and stay psycho! We would love to hear from our audience. Comments, feedback and suggestions are welcome!
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Mike & Mykal - Psycho Studios Phoenix – 10.1.2026
Thank you, Psychos! Chapter 38
