Last night, AMC presented the first wide screening of Tuner under their Screen Unseen banner. First screened at festivals last year, the film starts Leo Woodall as Niki White, a professional piano tuner with a hearing impairment. When his intricate and curious nature leads him into learning safe-cracking, he finds his life’s constants spiraling as he pursues a spontaneous double life.

The film also stars Dustin Hoffman and Tovah Feldshuh as Niki’s family, as well as Havana Rose Liu as Ruthie, a composer and pianist Niki meets on the job. The crime elements staying fairly low-key and street level combined with the delicate nature of Niki’s job help the film feel grounded in reality. The script feels very natural in its characters’ interactions, shortcomings, and struggles; It keeps the characters feeling more human than just “characters”.

The soundscape of the film is, on its own, so incredibly calculated that I’m tempted to see it again if there are Dolby releases nearby. The cut I watched last night is still so fresh in my mind with how it heightened every tense, overstimulating scene by taking the audience with it. The ringing, pulsing, muddled panic that accompanies each sensory attack Niki experiences is so stressful we were talking about it the whole car ride home. Often in Tuner, I would find myself second-guessing who had however much information about his condition, and who was loyal enough to be there for him in such vulnerable moments no matter what.

As is typical with AMC’s Screen Unseen, I went into this film completely blind, but I’d also never heard of this film at all prior to the screening. Walking out of the film satisfied, though, I did have to worry about the competition for its true opening weekend, May 22. This month has been big for horror as a genre, with hits like Hokum and Obsession and Backrooms in discussion. The weekend of the 22nd, however, Tuner will be up against André Øvredal’s Passenger. In addition, Boots Riley’s I Love Boosters already has much buzz for that weekend. Perhaps this should be viewed as the three films taking on the real big-budget juggernaut of that coming weekend, Jon Favreau’s Star Wars film The Mandalorian and Grogu. I personally feel all the lower-budget hits of the coming Memorial Day weekend should be given equal spotlight—it is a three-day weekend, after all.

Tuner releases in theaters nationwide May 22nd before a wider release on May 29th, 2026. If you’re hungry for more out-of-this-world crime films, check out The Maltese Falcon over on our sister site, Galxy!

In our first Galxy movie spotlight, we’re taking a look at Edward L. Cahn’s It! The Terror from Beyond Space from 1958. In this indie science fiction space horror, a reconnaissance crew is the second team sent to Mars, scoping out the fate of a previously sent crew who had perished. All but one—Col. Edward Carruthers (Marshall Thompson), whose own account of events contradicts the general consensus. Widely believed to have been the reason for his crew’s passing, Col. Carruthers insists someone else—someTHING else—is to blame. Quickly, the second crew learns there’s more truth to the colonel’s words than anyone had thought.

The large ensemble cast playing off each other keeps the stakes in It! high without making the film feel like any other desolate space horror. Quite the opposite, with the lively nature of characters like Ann Anderson (Shirley Patterson), Col. Van Heusen (Kim Spalding), and even It (Ray Corrigan) itself keeping the rhythm of the film flowing from one beat to the next. This film marked Corrigan’s final role in a theatrical release.

In the cut of It! available on Galxy, the set pieces by Herman Schoenbrun still shine all these years later, right alongside the costume design work by Jack Masters. Retro-futurism as a style still holds up even in newer films as we’ve seen with Fantastic Four: First Steps, but this is a great example of the aesthetic in action in its prime. The light greys of the ship’s walls stand distinguished as the crewmates hide in the shadows from It, the gentle fade into each other emblematic of the very unknown the crew has delved into.

If you’re looking to check out one of the earliest, most affective space horrors in the medium, check the film out! Even in black and white, the film is anything but devoid of color. Whether in its cast, design, or narrative, there’s something lurking in It! that keeps people coming back a century later.

It! The Terror from Beyond Space is now available to stream on Galxy.

This weekend saw the release of Neon’s Hokum, starring Adam Scott in the starring role as disengaged writer Ohm Bauman. Arriving at the site of his late parents’ honeymoon to spread their ashes, he soon realizes the guests within the hotel are not what they seem, least of all the presence wandering the honeymoon suite.

The way this film keeps its audience suspended in tandem with its protagonist feels like a breath of fresh air. A chill ran through the theater during my screening every time Ohm eased closer to a space he was taking a risk on. Any jumpscare sequence throughout its runtime isn’t exactly graphic, but this was also what I found so unique about it. Like Ohm, we know well that something lurks within the chambers of the honeymoon suite, and when and where they might rear their head next is anyone’s guess.

What I took away from Adam Scott’s dramatic role in this film alongside his work in a series like Severance is his ability to play a flawed character you don’t quite root for, but certainly don’t root against. Hokum keeps its audience guessing as to what secret any given character is hiding, including Mr. Bauman himself.

Even as whispers of the truth behind the hotel keep slipping through the cracks, I never found many of the twists and turns the film took to be cliché or predictable at all. One discovery leads into another realization, all the while utilizing or re-introducing a clue you may have overlooked before.

Shooting this film on location in Ireland definitely helps bring the whole thing together. The way the characters discuss Irish folklore makes it feel as though this whole section of the country is teeming with secrets and supernatural energy. I wanted to know what lay beyond the hotel and nearby forest as much as the hotel’s bartender or the homeless man in the forest.

Since its release last Friday, Hokum has already made back its $5 million production budget. In an interview with RogerEbert.com, Adam Scott described his portrayal of Ohm in the film as somewhat method, which may explain how close the audience reaction to its unease flies to Mr. Bauman’s own. Being a “skeptic” just like his character, Scott mentioned “being a stranger in a strange land came somewhat naturally” as he also explored the film’s setting for the first time.

Hokum is now playing in theaters nationwide.

This month on our sister site Galxy, we’ve got a brand new slate of movies for all our readers (and viewers) to check out, spotlighted from May 1st. Our monster collection comes to life with classics such as It! The Terror from Beyond Space, leading right into more galactic flicks like Dark Space. Here’s our full list!

Wow Signal

Based on a true story, Wow Signal documents the titular radio signal detected in 1977 from the Big Ear radio telescope deep in outer space. The transmission has sustained the search of many extraterrestrial skeptics for years since its initial (and only) broadcast throughout the cosmos.

Starcrash

This space opera stars Caroline Munro and David Hasselhoff among an ensemble cast, released following the science fiction boom brought by George Lucas’ Star Wars. Will the Count’s army prevail, or will the Emperor strike back against them?

The Avenging Eagle

A wuxia classic produced by the Shaw Brothers, starring Ti Lung as Qi Mingxing, an ex-bandit in training leaves his life of projected crime behind following a rescue by his mentor’s adversary. Joined by a man seeking to avenge his family’s murder by the bandits, the two choose to confront the bandits and Qi’s former mentor.

It! The Terror from Beyond Space

This 1958 indie classic takes you to Mars with a reconnaissance crew, the second sent to the planet, scoping out the fate of who came before them. When a survivor comes forward with his series of events, the recon crew is skeptical until it quickly becomes apparent they aren’t alone, whether on the planet or their own ship.

Shapeshifter

A maximum security prison holds a titular shapeshifter, a predator by nature whose hunt knows no bounds. When he breaks free, it’s every man for himself within the prison’s confines as some attempt to band together to use the creature’s secrets against it.

Female Werewolf

Written, directed, edited, composed, and shot by Chris Alexander, Female Werewolf starts in an office but ends wherever She (Carrie Gemmell) finds herself. Convinced of her transformation into a werewolf after many rude awakenings, She must balance her everyday office life and the now horrifying revelation she must explore in secret.

House of the Wolf Man

Don’t be fooled by the thumbnail! House of the Wolf Man is a 2009 indie monster flick shot in tribute to classic Universal Monsters films. Ron Chaney stars as Dr. Bela Reinhardt, a mad scientist who’s devised a cruel game to decide which of his five guests will inherit his estate. Chaney’s family history is rich with Universal Monsters cred, with his grandfather (Lon Chaney Jr.) and great-grandfather (Lon Chaney) both starring in the original film series.

Challenge of the Lady Ninja

During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, China during World War II, a woman named Wu Shiau-kuei (Yang Hui-Shan) trains herself in covert arts. When she learns her brother is aiding the Japanese in Hong Kong, Wu assembles a team of female fighters to stop him.

Buck Rogers in the 25th Century

Also being developed in the wake of Star Wars‘ success for space epic cinema, Buck Rogers stars Gil Gerard as the titular man transported over 500 years into the future by complete accident. When he learns Earth is on the brink of invasion and conquer, what else can Buck do but join the resistance as its newest (or oldest) unexpected member?

Dark Space

After six friends far in the future rent a spacecraft for the holiday, they find themselves crash landing on an uncharted alien planet. What’s worse than being stranded in space? Being hunted. The crew now find they’re all they have to stick to as they try not just to survive, but to escape.

13/13/13

In a world where a day has been added to the calendar every four years, on the titular date all of humanity turns demonic. All… except leap year birthdays. The minority of these leap year miracle workers now must face the music together as they face the demons of humanity.

These spotlighted films for the month of May can all be viewed now on Galxy. Safe travels!

On Friday, Netflix released Apex, its newest survival thriller directed by Baltasar Kormákur and penned by Jeremy Robbins. When hobbyist climbing couple Sasha (Charlize Theron) and Tommy (Eric Bana) get caught in a storm atop a wall in Norway, the latter loses his life while Sasha survives. Months later, she travels alone to Wandarra National Park in Australia—the late Tommy’s homeland—meeting a peculiar figure named Ben (Taron Egerton) along the way. Soon on the run from Ben, Sasha faces both her past and present threatened by the predatory presence lurking in Wandarra’s woods.

The concepts presented in this film aren’t nearly as primitive to me as they might’ve been about a year ago. Not the grieving parts, but climbing. Bouldering is great fun, and I can definitely see the foundation of why someone would seek a thrill from a more treacherous climb with much looser (or nonexistent) guardrails. Maybe, in Sasha’s case, the adrenaline of the climb itself would even overpower any in-the-moment grief and memories that may come to mind. Unfortunately, I found the climbing not to matter very much at all in the long run in this movie. There are exactly two climbing scenes in Apex, one at the beginning and one at the film’s climax. In fairness, it’s not the longest film, but with how core the hobby seemed to her and Tommy’s life (as well as the film’s title), I did expect it to focus more on that.

Though, you know well by this point Apex does not refer to a peak but the predatory Ben, a cannibalistic Australian who joins an unwilling Sasha on her trek through the wilderness. I didn’t quite find the two to have the rapport that would’ve made the movie work for me more, but their dynamic was inoffensive overall—just a bit lacking in depth between the apex (pun intended) of the movie’s thrills.

Apex is now available to stream on Netflix. If you want more thrilling wilderness chase movies like this, check out White Raven on our parent site, Galxy!

The “stoner comedy” is a subgenre often left out of its respective category’s discussion, though the narrative style is far from dead as seen in Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher’s Pizza Movie, recently released to Hulu and Disney+. Given the movie’s premise, I thought no film better to start the week reviewing than this one.

Pizza Movie stars Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone (Stranger Things, The Goldbergs) as roommates Jack and Montgomery, two ostracized college students in danger of a transfer to Gralk Hall. Said dorm is essentially the final nail in the coffin for anyone enrolled. In search of something new to help decompress, the two discover a tin of unmarked tablets to provide a relaxing high, so long as it’s supplemented with pizza. Navigating the perilous halls of their dorm while avoiding any trouble at the hands of their RA, the boys go on a journey that takes them anywhere but the food delivery automaton at the front door.

The film’s marketing was subject to something of a takeover online—screencaps of the film’s trailer only captioned with “IM GOOD BRO” implied feelings that seemed to resonate with many people on Instagram, X, and other social media platforms. McElhaney and Kocher themselves seemed puzzled by the image and its many variations, though it all came down to its actual reception upon release. While Pizza Movie won’t set the world on fire, I found it to be probably the most well-rounded and engaging stoner comedy I’ve seen in years.

Pizza Movie‘s hallucination sequences contain some of the most creative and innovative shots and concepts I’ve seen in a subgenre not known for much besides cheap laughs. The premise introduced at the beginning for Jack and Montgomery adds an underdog aspect to the story that keeps the audience hooked on what will become of the roommates. The telltale third-act breakup does feel earned as well, Matarazzo and Giambrone’s acting really selling the problems one character has with the other like they’ve been dealing with them their whole life.

The film is never super deep, though—it treats its audience like they’re more intelligent than most stoner comedies would, but the keyword of the subgenre is still comedy (depending on who you ask). Inventive as the hallucinations are, or each next phase of the drug shifting over from the last, some elements of the film feel random for the sake of randomness. I will say the parts that lean the heaviest into this chaos are in the first introduction to the drug’s effects, so the following phases of the drug don’t break the immersion as much as those early parts would if moved later into the film. At the same time, though, when some of the earliest parts feel like the peak, it makes the rest of the film feel like it’s Jack and Montgomery coming down from the high, so narratively it still makes sense the way it’s formatted. Again, it’s not that deep, but analyzing this in the same critical vain as any other movie will make some cracks start to show.

Pizza Movie is an addition to the long list of stoner comedies that I would argue pushes that type of storytelling in the right direction. At once, it combines the long-winded journeying nature of a series like Harold & Kumar but grounds it in reality by containing the high within the same building the movie starts in. It takes the viewer as many places as Jack and Montgomery, being meta and weird and funny and puzzling at the same time. And yet, the amount of devices employed by the subgenre here never feels as overwhelming for the audience as it does for its main characters. And given the day of the year, you won’t find a better movie this year to eat pizza along to while couchlocked.

Pizza Movie is now streaming on Hulu and Disney+.