As one of the biggest up-and-coming streaming services on the market, Screambox is looking to take a big bite of the genre pie with a slew of exclusives and premieres throughout the month as they capitalize on the goodwill established during their launch last year. This time around, we've looked at the trio of new titles set to air on the service exclusively going forward so let's dive into the new titles including a pair of psychological thrillers and a wacky Asian splatterfest.
In Dreams (Mathias Maltrasio)-
The first of the two thrillers, this new one stars Bianca Van Damme (yes, Jean-Claude's daughter) as a woman struggling to get her troubled mind under control with a trip to a family-owned cabin to take her mind off things only to slowly deteriorate the longer she's there. In terms of setup, execution, and overall tempo, this one is certainly watchable as the general idea of what's going on is spelled out nicely with the anniversary of her family's death impacting her toward the inevitable psychological collapse at the heart of the film as well as the eventual build towards uncovering the deeply impactful incidents in the past that set everything in motion. As the other couple arriving only exacerbates that to the point of paranoia-fueled violence, there's a lot of fun to be had here once the film gets to the cabin. However, that brings about the main flaw here as it tends to ignore the psychological trauma in favor of action setpieces that are wholly out-of-tone with what's been built up before as very few of the activities present here feel in line with what's happened before. It's enough to knock this down just enough overall.
Dawning (Young Min Kim)-
The other new thriller on the service is about a trauma therapist who returns to her childhood countryside estate to console her younger sister following her breakup with an abusive ex and is forced to face her family's dark past while trying to help out. This one comes off quite a bit more enjoyable with a fantastic premise that brings about a rather ominous tone and atmosphere throughout here. Again concerning psychological grief and trauma as she continually witnesses strange and unnerving incidents spurned on by the attempting bonding that goes on between the two of them, this all provides a rather engrossing throughline here with the whole act merging between the grief they share preventing them from overcoming the traumatic lives that ties them together. While this setup can present itself more as a wholly uninteresting character study drama for the viewers who prefer more visceral and overt genre scares instead of the more subversive psychological ones present, that doesn't detract from a wholly engrossing and enjoyable genre effort that has a lot to like.
Signal 100 (Lisa Takeba)-
A new spin on 'Battle Royale,' this one concerns a group of students hypnotized into a trance-like state that will force them into violently killing themselves upon experiencing several triggers and must find a way to reserve it before the experiment concludes with one last survivor being released from the condition. As a splatterfest, this one delivers in spades with a slew of highly impressive and brutal sequences as the class members go through a myriad of bizarre and wacky setpieces that bring about a great sense of fun while also managing to bring about the fun central setup of the experiment taking place that requires them to partake in the central study while also trying to find a way to get out of their predicament before they're all killed. This is all fun and generates a lot to like, while the main setback here comes from the general familiarity of the scenario where the film plays incredibly similar to 'Battle Royale' with the same point about students being forced to kill and the whole exercise proving to offer an intense exploration of friendship and bonding that can make this feel a bit like a ripoff than it should. Otherwise, there's not much to dislike here.
All of these titles, and more, are available exclusively on Screambox so check them out and see what awaits on one of the newest genre streaming services!
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