Movies
‘Orphan’ Causes Protest, People Still Morons
It isn’t fresh news that adoption agencies are up in arms over Warner Bros. Pictures forthcoming Orphan, as back in May foster care groups forced the studio to amend their trailer removing the line, “It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own.” Since then, I have refused to update the trailer in our database on pure principal, get the f*k over it. Apparently, these groups seem to think that bringing attention to the movie is going to help their cause, when anyone with a brain knows that all they are doing is bringing attention to the movie (just like with Bruno). In fact, the studios LOVE a good protest/boycott, so go ahead, bitch, moan and strike the film, people are still going to see it and you’re still going to be an arsehole with no life. Read on for more on the latest call for a “boycott” (sigh) and tell us what YOU think (I am pretty curious).
Editor’s note: Enjoy the unedited trailer below…
From The Hollywood Reporter:
“Often divided over policy and practice, America’s adoption community has unified in dismay over “Orphan,” a horror movie opening next week that its critics say will fuel negative attitudes toward real-life orphans.
Some adoption advocates are urging a boycott of the movie, which opens July 24. A coalition of prominent national adoption and foster care groups, while not joining the boycott call, has asked for a meeting with Warner Bros. CEO Barry Meyer to discuss their concerns.
“We are concerned that in addition to its intended entertainment value, this film will have the unintended effect of skewing public opinion against children awaiting families both in the United States and abroad,” said a letter to Meyer from the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.
Warner Bros. said it has taken the concerns seriously. Spokesman Scott Rowe told the Associated Press the company is considering adding a pro-adoption message at the end of the film when it comes out in DVD form.
Trailers for the film, shown nationwide for two months, make the basic plot clear without revealing the twist at the end. A couple mourning the loss of an unborn baby decide to adopt a girl from a local orphanage — and their hopes for happiness give way to unease and fear as the new family member turns out to be far different from what they expected.
The trailer itself prompted outrage from many adoption advocates and adoptive families, and Warner Bros. responded by removing a much-criticized line from it in which the orphan, Esther, says, “It must be hard to love an adopted child as much as your own.”
Rowe, while noting that virtually every film Warner Bros. makes offends someone, has stressed that “Orphan” is a make-believe story.
“It is not a depiction of any real-life events or situations and has never been portrayed as anything but an entirely fictional story,” he said. “We apologize if we appeared insensitive with the initial trailer, as it’s never our intent to offend anyone with our products.”
Rowe said he’d not yet seen the letter from the adoption coalition requesting to meet with Meyer.
The letter, co-signed by leaders of 11 adoption and child-welfare groups, noted that an estimated 129,000 children are in U.S. foster care system waiting to be adopted, and that millions of children abroad also need adoptive families.
The letter said the film “may impede recruitment efforts by feeding into the unconscious fears of potential foster and adoptive families that orphaned children are psychotic and unable to heal from the wounds of abuse, neglect, and abandonment.”
Among those signing the letter were leaders of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, the National Council for Adoption, and the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys.
Another signatory was Jedd Medefind of the Christian Alliance for Orphans. His group has launched a Web site — OrphansDeserveBetter.org — featuring a petition urging Warner Bros. to add a pro-adoption message at the end of the film and to donate a portion of box office receipts to aid orphans.
The Web site also asks individuals and families to share real-life stories, pictures and videos about their own experiences with adoption.
The film “seems to suggest that orphans are damaged goods, and that adoption could destroy a life,” Medefind said. “We need truer stories.”
Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, suggested that Warner Bros. could improve matters by helping produce educational materials about the value of adoption.
“It has been a long time since a movie caused this much angst and worry in the adoption, foster care and orphan care communities, even before its release,” Pertman said.
Not every adoption-related group shared the angst.
“The moral panic ‘Orphan’ has induced is more entertaining than the film itself, which will pass into oblivion and DVD a month after release,” wrote Marley Greiner, a leader of the adoptees-rights group Bastard Nation, in her blog.
“The ‘outrage’ is an opportunistic moment for drum banging and fund raising,” Greiner wrote. “What better way is there to make publicity and $$$$$ for yourself than to create a victim where none exists?””
The holiday weekend means a light week for new horror releases, but it does bring the return of Dark Castle Entertainment to select theaters. It’s being joined by 6 new horror movies.
Here’s all the new horror releasing June 29, 2026 – July 3, 2026!
For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.
You wished for it. The highest-grossing horror movie of the year (so far), Curry Barker’s Obsession, arrived on Digital on June 30.
In Curry Barker’s theatrical debut Obsession, after breaking the mysterious One Wish Willow to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Michael Johnston (“Teen Wolf”), Inde Navarette (“Superman & Lois”), Cooper Tomlinson (“That’s a Bad Idea,” Milk & Serial), Megan Lawless (The Death That Awaits), and Emmy Award-nominee Andy Richter (“Conan,” Elf) star.
Based on a story by director James Kondelik (Behind The Walls) and a screenplay by Canadian writer Victor Rose, survival thriller Pitfall headed home to Digital on June 30. Family is murder in this Cineverse release.
In Pitfall, a young man becomes separated from his friends in the woods and plunges into a ten-foot pit lined with spikes, impaling his leg and leaving him helpless. As reality sinks in and his situation grows dire, he realizes the fall wasn’t an accident.
The film stars Richard Harmon (Final Destination: Bloodlines), Alexandra Essoe (The Pope’s Exorcist), and UFC champion Randy Couture (The Expendables) as the ruthless killer who stalks his prey in the woods. Marshall Williams (The Ice Road), Jordan Claire Robbins (The Umbrella Academy), and Matt Hamilton (Murder for Sale) also star.
The Amityville IP leans into Jaws with Amityville Shark House, just in time for the Fourth of July holiday too, as it released on Digital June 30.
Will Collazo Jr. (Amityville Thanksgiving) and Shawn C. Phillips (Amityville Karen) co-direct from a script they wrote with Julie Anne Prescott.
In the movie, after discovering an ominous shark idol hidden beneath the decaying floorboards, Richard unknowingly awakens an ancient and savage force. As the entity begins to merge with him, a quiet coastal town descends into blood-soaked chaos.
With each victim claimed, the monstrous predator grows stronger, fueling a cult’s belief that their dark god has been reborn. Now, the race is on to stop the carnage before evil consumes everything in its path.
Phillips and Prescott also star alongside Tasha Tacosa, Maritza Brikisak, Gigi Gustin (The Retaliators), Adam Marino, and Carl Solomon.
Available on Digital, Blu-ray, and DVD as of June 30 is Jacked, directed by John Fucile from a script he co-wrote with Simon Fraser.
The synopsis: “Set in the summer of 1987, JACKED follows two small-town teenagers whose day at the lake turns into a fight for survival after their car breaks down and they encounter a violent stalker.”
Marla Jean Robison, Tom Koch, Anthony Cipriani, Wynn Reichert, Kam Perez and Bella Marie star.
Get ready to work up a killer sweat and maybe spill some blood with Slashercise, a workout meets slasher hybrid that arrived exclusively on Bloodstream on July 1.
Written and directed by Ama Lea (Deathcember), the retro-styled feature follows “a masked killer known only as Meathead as he stalks the fitness clubs of Los Angeles, turning workout sessions into blood-soaked nightmares. As the city’s top trainers are picked off one by one, a group of determined fitness fanatics must fight back before they become the next bodies on the mat.”
Vanessa Decker (Stiletto), John Bloom (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Spencer Charnas (Ice Nine Kills), Sarah French (Blind), Kelli Maroney (Night of the Comet), Sarah Nicklin (V/H/S/Halloween), Diana Prince (The Last Drive-In With Joe Bob Briggs), Jared Rivet (The Once and Future Smash), Felissa Rose (Sleepaway Camp), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), and Lisa Wilcox (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) star.
After a record-breaking box office run, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ feature debut is heading back to theaters with bonus footage. AMC Theatres is unleashing Backrooms: Everything Must Go Editiontoday, July 3.
In the film written by Will Soodik, the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsvestar.
AMC describes this release as a “theatrically exclusive post-credit” with additional footage from Kane Parsons. Expect 16 minutes of bonus footage, with the new version clocking in at 2 hours and 6 minutes.
The Last Exorcism director Daniel Stamm and Dark Castle Entertainment are back with Lockbox, in select theaters July 3. It adapts Soren Narnia‘s Knifepoint Horror Podcast story “Winthrop” by Emmy-winning playwright Justin Yoffe.
In Lockbox, “Seeking peace after her mother’s death, Ellen retreats to a rural town and takes in her severely traumatized cousin Winthrop. Their fragile domestic balance shatters when an erratic neighbor warns that Winthrop is dangerous. As strange phenomena escalate, Ellen must put everything on the line to defend Winthrop from a dangerous otherworldly entity determined to track him down.”
Lou Taylor Pucci (Touch Me, Evil Dead), Carla Gugino (The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game, The Fall of the House of Usher) and Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps, Backrooms) star.
This week’s new release roundups are presented by Lockbox.
Be careful who you let in. Carla Gugino and Lou Taylor Pucci star in Lockbox, only in select theaters this Friday. Get tickets.
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