Body Count (2026)

Director: Alexander T. Hwang, Hunter Johnson, Jenn Nangle, Richard Trejo

Year: 2026

Country: USA

Alternate Titles: N/A

Genre: Anthology

Plot:

Trapping a group of victims, a maniacal horror hostess and her gang of followers target the group throughout the woods while a series of segments are shown throughout.

Review:

Overall, this was a fairly strong if somewhat confusing genre entry. The segments are generally fun here, mainly presenting a solid series of showcase pieces for the main villain to appear in the different segments, and it makes for a chance to display a different series of archetypes to play off of. With the initial segment being about a character actress taking a role in a disturbing director’s latest film as a last-ditch effort to keep herself afloat in the industry, only to realize it’s the figure responsible for a traumatic incident in her past, a fun dynamic arrives involving her using her genuine acting skills to get on the film to carry out the revenge she needs to take out on him. This is cheesy and immensely enjoyable once the film-shoot scenes take place, similar to the second story about a woman taking revenge on the clique who tormented her as a teen years ago. It’s all well enough and serves plenty of likable factors, but it’s confusing enough to have a similar storyline right after a segment that did the same thing and comes off as a bit repetitive.

The second half, featuring a great bit about a group of vampire hunters tracking down the coven tormenting their town, is a great cheese-filled genre piece that has a lot to like involving its low-budget roots playing out a straightforward vampire-hunter setup. Likewise, the group of friends trying to get the courage to stand up to a dominating friend with a poisoned cake generates some worthwhile tension in who’s going to get the piece close enough to her before she notices the truth, before the tables are turned, and the final piece involving a woman trying a trick a victim only to come face to face with a legendary witch is a spectacular setup that has a lot to like as the supernatural powers she displays are put to good use. The wrap-around, focusing on her and her group of demonic cronies capturing and demonically torturing her victims, is a really strong setup that would’ve been a great segment by itself, but it does have a bit of a problem with setting up the stories in the film, so it serves as a weak lead-in. Combined with the obvious low-budget limitations, these all bring this down.

Overview: ****/5

An incredibly effective and enjoyable indie anthology, there’s a lot with this one that comes together really well in this style, while really only being let down by its format not properly supporting its anthology gimmick. Those with an appreciation for this style of indie genre fare, who are hardcore anthology fans in general, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have the most to like here, while most others might want to heed caution.