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FILM

EVENT PREVIEWS | REVIEWS | FEATURES



New Release Review - "Thrash"

If the premise of Thrash sounds familiar you might have run across the movie when it was announced back in 2024 under its original title "Beneath the Storm." Or perhaps in 2025, when it was retitled "Shiver" and set for a theatrical release in August of that year. Now the movie has been renamed once again and its cinema release scrapped. Sony have sold it off to Netflix, who have dumped it on their platform with all the ceremony of an unwanted goldfish being flushed down a toilet.





 



Celebrate Secretary's Day Week with WORKING GIRLS FILM SERIES at The ShowRoom

(ASBURY PARK, NJ) -- Celebrate the grind, the gossip, and the glass ceilings this Secretary's Day week at The ShowRoom in Asbury Park with WORKING GIRLS, a special three-film series spotlighting the humor, frustration, and resilience of women in the workplace. Running from April 19-25, 2026, the series brings together a trio of sharp, character-driven films led by standout ensemble casts.




Trenton Film Society presents a Regional Documentary Film Festival

(TRENTON, NJ) -- The Trenton Film Society presents a Regional Documentary Film Festival on Friday, May 1, and Saturday, May 2, 2026 at the Mill Hill Playhouse. Screenings are scheduled at 6:30pm on Friday and noon, 3:00pm, and 6:00pm on Saturday, followed by a reception and awards ceremony.




Puffin Cultural Forum and Teaneck International Film Festival present "Horsegirls" as part of the 18th Annual ReelAbilities Film Festival

(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Teaneck International Film Festival (TIFF) is proud to announce an exciting new partnership with the ReelAbilities Film Festival—the largest film festival in the world dedicated to films by and about people with disabilities. This marks the first time TIFF will serve as an official New Jersey host site for ReelAbilities, further advancing its commitment to inclusive storytelling and diverse voices.




Learn the Perils of Plastic Pollution During Documentary Screening of "We're All Plastic People" in Surf City

(SURF CITY, NJ) – The Long Beach Island Branch of the Ocean County Library will host a screening of the documentary film We're All Plastic People Now on Wednesday, April 29, 2026 at 2:00pm. The film investigates the hidden story of plastic and its effects on human health.












FEATURES


Puffin Cultural Forum and Teaneck International Film Festival present "Horsegirls" as part of the 18th Annual ReelAbilities Film Festival

(TEANECK, NJ) -- The Teaneck International Film Festival (TIFF) is proud to announce an exciting new partnership with the ReelAbilities Film Festival—the largest film festival in the world dedicated to films by and about people with disabilities. This marks the first time TIFF will serve as an official New Jersey host site for ReelAbilities, further advancing its commitment to inclusive storytelling and diverse voices.




2026 New Jersey International Film Festival to Take Place from May 29th to June 7th

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) -- The Rutgers Film Co-op/New Jersey Media Arts Center, in association with the Rutgers University Program in Cinema Studies, presents the 2026 New Jersey International Film Festival which marks their 31st Anniversary. The NJIFF competition will be taking place on the Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between May 29 - June 7, 2026 and will be a hybrid one as they will be presenting it online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University.




PBS' Independent Lens Launches 20th Season of Free Pop-Up Screening Series in Teaneck and Nationwide

(TEANECK, NJ) -- The award-winning PBS documentary series, INDEPENDENT LENS, presents the launch of the upcoming season of Indie Lens Pop-Up in partnership with the Teaneck International Film Festival and the Puffin Cultural Forum. The season kicks-off on February 4, 2026 with The Librarians and continues through May. The series is free for all but sign up is required.









 

LINKS

* Film Festivals in New Jersey







 

EVENT PREVIEWS

(RED BANK, NJ) -- The 2026 Count Basie Center Breakthrough Filmmaker Fest, the annual competition celebrating New Jersey's emerging crop of young filmmakers, takes place Saturday, April 25th on the Count Basie Center campus (99 Monmouth Street) in Red Bank.



(EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ) -- On Thursday, April 30, 2026, the Screen Alliance of New Jersey (SANJ) will host its second NJ Film Expo at Meadowlands Arena in Rutherford. Building on the strong success of its inaugural year, the expo returns on an even larger scale with several panels, hundreds of vendors, live music and food trucks to showcase New Jersey's expanding role in film and television.



(LOVELADIES, NJ) -- What role does film play in shaping a nation's sense of humor? How have films like Some Like it Hot, Blazing Saddles and Bridesmaids left a lasting impression on American society?



(LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ) -- The Lighthouse International Film Festival (LIFF) presents a rare five-day acting masterclass led by acclaimed actor and director Jason Alexander, taking place June 7–11, 2026 on Long Beach Island, New Jersey, just prior to the opening of the Festival's 18th edition, which runs June 10–14.










REVIEWS

If the premise of Thrash sounds familiar you might have run across the movie when it was announced back in 2024 under its original title "Beneath the Storm." Or perhaps in 2025, when it was retitled "Shiver" and set for a theatrical release in August of that year. Now the movie has been renamed once again and its cinema release scrapped. Sony have sold it off to Netflix, who have dumped it on their platform with all the ceremony of an unwanted goldfish being flushed down a toilet.





 



New Release Review - "The Mortuary Assistant"

After decades of failures, video game adaptations are suddenly a hit at the box office, with screen translations of such heavy hitters as Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog and Minecraft among the biggest earners of recent years. Just as there are cult movies, there are cult video games. Take The Mortuary Assistant, in which the player takes on the icky job of the title and attempts to finish their night shift at a morgue while evading demons. With another cult horror game, Five Nights at Freddy's, spawning two hit movies, it's no surprise that The Mortuary Assistant has now received a cinematic adaptation.




New Release Review - "Pretty Lethal"

Pitting teenage ballerinas against heavily armed Hungarian mobsters, Pretty Lethal gives new meaning to the term "balletic violence." It's a throwback to all those '70s/'80s exploitation thrillers in which stranded cheerleaders were menaced by mouth-breathing rednecks. Surprisingly for a movie debuting on a mainstream streaming service in 2026, it carries over the extreme violence of those movies, along with the threat of sexualised violence, but its tongue is firmly in its cheek.




New Release Review - "Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come"

2019's Ready or Not was a mediocre riff on the old The Most Dangerous Game template of a pleb being hunted by wealthy elites. The twist was that the murderous toffs weren't engaging in their hunt for the love of the sport but rather to avert a family curse that eventually saw them all explode at dawn, having failed to kill their prey. As a horror-comedy it was a dud for two reasons: the final girl, Samara Weaving's Grace, was so competent compared to her antagonists that we never felt she was in any real danger; and it simply wasn't funny.




New Release Review - "Project Hail Mary"

Whenever two movies that share a similar premise are released in the same year, movie geeks like to figure out which one is Deep Impact and which is Armageddon. Those two 1998 blockbusters shared the same setup of an asteroid on a world-ending collision course with Earth, but took very different approaches. Deep Impact was a relatively sombre affair while Armageddon was a Michael Bay action comedy.