“Whalefall” comes from the mind of author Daniel Kraus, with his 2023 book following the panic and pain of a young man processing the death of his father, going diving in the ocean to work through his complex feelings. It’s the stuff of classic literature, pitting man against nature during a tender time of extraordinary vulnerabilities. The main character is soon sucked into the mouth of a roving sperm whale, left with an hour of oxygen to find his way out, which is the stuff of classic survival cinema. Director Brian Duffield (who did well with 2020’s “Spontaneous” and 2023’s “No One Will Save You”) has the challenge of merging two sides of “Whalefall,” and he’s mostly successful with the adaptation, making sense of interior lives and ferocious battles for air and several forms of liberation, keeping suspense mostly involved with a story that deals with whale-related horror, but primarily wants to be a study of fathers and sons. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Works from author Patricia Highsmith have been cinematically explored for the last 75 years, with filmmakers drawn to the writer’s sense of seduction and threat, delighting in her fascination with murder. The “Ripliad” has been a particular source of inspiration, examining the ways of character Tom Ripley and his strange personal entanglements and propensity for violence. “A Talent for Murder” isn’t an adaptation of a Highsmith book, but an idea born from playwright Joanna Murray-Smith, who turns her 2014 stage production into a screenplay that toys with the world of Highsmith and her interactions with someone hired to bring her out of seclusion. “A Talent for Murder” strives to blur the line between reality and fantasy, putting director Anton Corbijn (“Control,” “A Most Wanted Man”) to work generating a special aura of pulsating creativity as the characters get down to business in this enjoyable riff on the literary highlights of Tom Ripley. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Jennifer Peedom has built most of her career around the study of nature, with emphasis on the mysteries of mountains. She scored critical hits with documentary endeavors such as 2015’s “Sherpa” and 2017’s “Mountain,” and examined the labor of mountaineering in other efforts, getting a full sense of the dangers and passions involved with such extreme physical challenges. Peedom looks to summon all this experience for “Tenzing,” embarking on a dramatic understanding of the 1953 ascent of Mount Everest, which involved leadership from Tenzing Norgay. There have been many stories about activity around Everest, leaving screenwriter Luke Davies (“inspired” by the book “Tenzing: Hero of Everest,” by Ed Douglas) to find a more emotional approach to the tale, mixing elements of an underdog story with the pained ways of climbing. “Tenzing” runs too long, spinning its wheels at times, but Peedom successfully captures an epic quality to the picture, also overseeing many strong performances. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Alex Prager is a celebrated artist and creator of short films. She’s invested in imagery, looking to grab viewers through powerful compositions and artful additions, and Prager accepts a feature-length challenge in “DreamQuil,” joining co-writer Vanessa Prager for this study of reality as humanity faces the lure of an AI-filled tomorrow. It’s an enticing exploration of purpose handed a stylish and semi-satirical approach by the helmer, who’s attempting to build worlds of temptation and domestic complication on a small budget. It’s debatable if “DreamQuil” manages to land its big ideas on identity, but Prager certainly makes an interesting looking picture, and the story’s early turns carry some dramatic power, bringing the audience into a mystery of behavior and a quest for a solution that’s open for a more aggressive examination. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Surprisingly, “Love of Your Life” isn’t based on a book. Screenwriter Julia Cox (“Nyad”) certainly takes inspiration from literary offerings for the feature, employing a patience with storytelling as she creates a decade of life for a character experiencing the highs and lows of relationships that alter her personal ways. There’s obvious intimacy in play here, but also something of an epic quality as years pass and situations change, giving the film a lot to work with despite not following much of a plot. Director Rachel Morrison (who impressed with 2024’s “The Fire Inside”) goes dreamy and dramatic with the endeavor, following Cox’s lead as they embark on a mission to detail the inner life of a woman who’s worked hard to detach herself from the world. “Love of Your Life” is a tearjerker, but also deeply felt and involving for the most part, breaking free from soap opera-y entanglements to deal with hard emotions and troubling behavior. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

There are a lot of horror movie options that arrive every Halloween season. It’s a crowded field of competitors, but most fail to become memorable, even with heavy amounts of violence and disturbing content. “Hallowarrior” is no roller coaster ride of a film, but writer/director Ben Sottak (making his feature-length helming debut) manages to cook up atmosphere and urgency with the low-budget offering, and he’s committed to the Halloween vibes of the picture, examining a holiday preserved by a young woman after the rest of the world succumbs to a plague. “Hallowarrior” eventually gets around to more physical peril, but it’s mostly a study of a stand-off with periodic breaks to deal with gory and dire events, and Sottak provides some suspense in the stillness, best when he gets weird and wilder with the small-scale production. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“Crawlers” is a spider attack picture, trying to sustain the subgenre after two previous efforts, 2023’s “Infested” and 2024’s “Sting,” failed to attract audiences. Writer Jayson Rothwell hopes to keep things eventful with the endeavor, managing a limited budget and many personalities with escalating trouble set inside an apartment building, ready to explore the inhabitants and the critters out to make life horrible for those who can’t escape. There’s not much of a set-up, but the material has the benefit of speed, getting survival challenges going fairly quickly, creating a few effective sequences of suspense. It’s the rest of “Crawlers” that disappoints, as Rothwell doesn’t have a big enough imagination for an effective final act, and director Angel Gomez Hernandez can’t land big enough scares during the run time, eventually losing suspense as the production tries to find a way out of the cinematic mess it’s created. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Ben Affleck returns to directing with “Animals” after reviving his helming career with 2023’s “Air.” Affleck also co-scripts with Billy Ray and Connor O. McIntyre, and takes a leading role, emerging as a man of many jobs on the production, which moves away from the lighter corporate gamesmanship of “Air” to deal with political and personal entanglements during a long night in Los Angeles. The feature is something of a riff on Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low” (which Spike Lee remade last year as “Highest 2 Lowest”), putting the characters through a test of morality and financial strain as they confront an unthinkable situation of sacrifice. “Animals” isn’t a rousing thriller, but Affleck lands many scenes of suspense, and brings together a capable team of actors to explore the pressurized situation, also playing into election season insanity as political gain often battles honor in this offering. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Director Rob Savage is working on his genre interests, sticking with horror offerings such as 2021’s “Dashcam,” and he found success with 2023’s “The Boogeyman,” which managed to attract an audience. Savage is back in the darkness with “Other Mommy,” which is an adaptation of a book by Josh Malerman (titled “Incidents Around the House,” which is not something that pops on a marquee), joining screenwriter Nathan Elston for a study of a seven-year-old girl who’s tormented by a demon that’s desperate to take over her body and experience life as a human. It’s an icky premise stuck inside a labored picture, finding the moviemaking fighting to make something that’s clearly designed for literary exploration make sense as a cinematic experience. “Other Mommy” has a little visual punch at times, as Savage works hard to put on a show, but it’s a dud everywhere else, unable to summon suspense or even make much sense as it speeds through the central crisis. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

Hollywood making movies out of toy lines is nothing new. The Matchbox brand of little cars has been around since 1953, and let’s be real here, there’s not a lot to be done with the toys on a cinematic level. Screenwriter David Coggeshall (“Orphan: First Kill,” “The Family Plan”) accepts a challenge to transform a collection of little vehicles into an action movie event, and he does so by…mostly ignoring what Matchbox cars are. “Matchbox: The Movie” is a baffling viewing experience, as Coggeshall comes up with a global spy thriller and team comedy, not a celebration of child playthings, and he generates an incredibly generic plot in the process. Director Sam Hargrave (“Extraction” and its sequel) has been hired to deliver big thrills, and there’s a lot of screen activity to help distract from the reality of Coggeshall’s uninspired writing and a general disregard for the brand. There’s just not enough physical peril to save the film from slipping into dull routine. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

16 years ago, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin turned a book about the rise of social media titan Facebook into a movie about the battle for control of the company. Directorial duties were handed to David Fincher, who crafted a slick, sharp understanding of ego, working with Sorkin’s love of words and terms. “The Social Network” intended to identify the growing problem of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, viewing him as a villain, but one who didn’t fully understand the monster he was becoming. 16 years later, Zuckerberg is now fully established as a global menace, and Sorkin returns to the Facebook saga in “The Social Reckoning,” exploring whistleblowing efforts from an employee who understood the threat of the corporation. Fincher is now gone, replaced by Sorkin, who isn’t the same type of filmmaker as his predecessor, but he remains fired up about Zuckerberg’s reign, trying to deliver a call to arms with “The Social Reckoning,” out to dramatize the transformation of social media into a weapon. The helmer doesn’t always have the right ideas for a crowd-pleaser, but his passion for the subject is unmistakable, making sure viewers grasp the enormity of the issue. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

When Bob Uecker passed away at the age of 90 in 2025, the world of baseball lost an absolute legend. Uecker was known for his time playing the sport and reporting on it for 54 seasons as a sportscaster for the Milwaukee Brewers, also achieving a great deal of fame through baseball-themed commercials and acting gigs over the decades. Heck, his nickname was “Mr. Baseball,” branding Uecker as a premiere personality and someone synonymous with Major League Baseball. Directors Steve Farr and Michael T. Vollmann recognize the specialness of the man and his professional mission, creating “Ueck,” which attempts to be an informational journey about the subject and his love of the game, only to become a valentine for Uecker and his longstanding dedication to the MLB. “Ueck” is built for Brewers fans, but the production makes sure everyone is welcome, presenting a warm, frequently hilarious, and heartfelt appreciation for a ballplayer who became a character, and soon an entertainment icon. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

One year ago, the “V/H/S” franchise hoped to provide a seasonal jolt in “V/H/S/Halloween,” assembling a collection of shorts involving horrible things largely happening to horrible people, much like the rest of the series. Horror is back in “V/H/S/Mixtape,” only now genre interests take a more musical turn, with the latest chapter of anthology storytelling providing tales of singing, producing, and performing, with each story highlighting violent interactions triggered by sound in many forms. “V/H/S/Mixtape” remains in line with previous endeavors, offering a few clunkers along the way, but when it connects, there are a few nightmarish experiences to enjoy, finding bits of creativity and weirdness to help flavor another round of short-form storytelling. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

“A Prayer for the Dying” is not an easy film to watch. An adaptation of a 1999 book by author Stewart O’Nan, the story reaches plenty of bleakness as it follows the spread of sickness in a small Wisconsin town during a post-Civil War time. As the title suggests, there’s little hope for the characters involved in this quest for survival, with writer/director Dara Van Dusen taking her time detailing suffering and confusion as weeks pass. It’s not a feature for casual viewing, but for more adventurous viewers who appreciate darkness, “A Prayer for the Dying” certainly has its cinematic merits, including artful visual choices and strong performances from a cast asked to inhabit troubled people. Dramatically, it’s not the most fulfilling meal, but Van Dusen delivers an interesting picture that lingers on doom, but also tries to inspect purpose and authority in the midst of chaos. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com

For his third release of 2026 (following “The Strangers: Chapter 3” and “Deep Water”), director Renny Harlin keeps things chaotic and professionally manageable in “The Beast.” It’s an action film set almost entirely inside a moving car, following the President of the United States as he endures a hellish 90 minute ride to an extraction point while a global conflict breaks out around him. Harlin reunites with actor Samuel L. Jackson, and the pair did well in previous endeavors such as “The Long Kiss Goodnight” and “Deep Blue Sea.” “The Beast” isn’t as lavishly budgeted or tightly scripted as past films, but there are bursts of screen energy in the offering, especially when it deals with heat-of-the-moment attacks and panicked driving. Screenwriter Umair Aleem hopes to add a deep groove of psychological torment to the picture, but Harlin remains at his best when organizing mayhem. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com