leebutler Documentary, Review

Occupy Cannes (2025) – Tromatic

Released: 31st July
Seen: 13th September

Ever since 1974, Troma has been one of the best-known independent movie companies on the planet. The company responsible for bringing us such treasured films as The Toxic Avenger, Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. and Class of Nuke ‘Em High have managed to somehow keep their doors open for 5 decades and counting, through a combination of making quality cheap underground films and just raw determination. They’ve also just been relentless in trying to sell their films, pimping their product like a desperate Girl Scout trying to make quota. One of the many tactics that they’ve used over the years to get their films distributed is to attend the Cannes Film Festival and use guerrilla marketing stunts to get attention, and in the documentary Occupy Cannes, we get to see just how that goes for them.

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leebutler Comedy, Crime, Review

The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man (2025) – Crap

Released: 12th September
Seen: 12th September

This year, I managed to make it to my favourite film festival in the world, the Sydney Underground Film Festival. It’s the kind of film festival that pushes the boundaries of good taste and often surprises me with what it presents. Last year, I didn’t have the time to actually review what I’d seen because of my full-time job, so it’s really nice that this year I can return to reviewing what I went to see this year. This is the third film that I saw there, and when I looked at the schedule of what was on offer, I saw that on the same day there was a perfect pair of films. The first was the documentary on the Butthole Surfers, which I absolutely adored. Within an hour of that film finishing, I would then be able to see a film called The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man… Well, you can imagine my delight at the comedic value of following Butthole Surfing with Pee Pee Poo Poo, that’s too perfect a pair to pass up and with a title like The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man, surely it’ll be some dumb fun to numb the brain with, right? Well… it was dumb, I can definitely call it dumb.

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leebutler Documentary, Review

Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth And Nothing Butt (2025) – Bodacious

Released: 15th August
Seen: 12th September

In 1996, a song called Pepper made it onto the charts and became somewhat of a hit. While it only barely made it to the top 40 on the mainstream charts, it hit number one on the modern Rock charts, which back then actually meant something. It was at least enough to get you noticed, maybe even get a performance on Letterman. It also didn’t hurt that the band’s name was The Butthole Surfers, a name so immediately iconic that it would go on to be referenced by The Simpsons and remain a punchline for decades to come. Pepper turned The Butthole Surfers into one of those magical acts that can lovingly be called “One Hit Wonder”, which is still a pretty big thing for a lot of young bands… by the time The Butthole Surfers got their one hit, they’d been a pretty popular underground touring band for 15 years with a fascinating history that is presented with great adoration by the film Butthole Surfers: The Hole Truth And Nothing Butt.

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leebutler Comedy, Horror, LGBT, Review

Queens Of The Dead (2025) – Dance Or Die

Released: 11th September
Seen: 11th September

In 1968, the world of cinema changed forever with the release of a little underground horror film with the simple but provocative title of Night Of The Living Dead. To say it changed the world of cinema forever might be an understatement. It revolutionised the Horror genre, presenting a form of violence that hadn’t been put on the screen before. It contains one of the greatest examples of a black main character in horror, was at the start of the independent film boom of the 70s and, of course, essentially created the modern Zombie that everyone has referenced since then.

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leebutler Horror, Review, Thriller

The Long Walk (2025) – Run!

Released: 11th September
Seen: 14th September

In 1979, Stephen King released the book The Long Walk under the pseudonym Richard Bachman (a name he picked partially to avoid saturating the market with King books and partially to test if his success was based on skill). The book was well received like a lot of early King works were and has been named one of the best books for teenage readers by the American Library Association. Like a lot of King books, there have been talks about an adaptation of The Long Walk for years, way back in 1988 it was going to be made by George Romero, but that ultimately fell through. Next up was Frank Darabont, who took a shot in 2007 and then in 2019, one André Øvredal (the man behind Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) had a go, but none of these versions made it. Finally, someone looked at the content of the books and presumably went, “Hey, this feels kind of like a more fucked up Hunger Games… why don’t we just get the Hunger Games guy?” and so Francis Lawrence was gifted the chance to make The Long Walk… and made one of the best films of 2025.

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leebutler Action, Comedy, Horror, Review, Sci-Fi

The Toxic Avenger (2025) – I Love You Toxie

Released: 29th August
Seen: 30th August

In 1984, a little independent film company known as Troma released a film that would change the course of the company forever. What started as a little low-budget horror film tentatively titled Health Club Horror would be released with the more memorable name The Toxic Avenger. To say that this film became a cult hit would be a massive understatement. The Toxic Avenger was the kind of cult hit that defined Troma. Toxie would turn into their official mascot and appear in several other movies. The Toxic Avenger would also turn up in other media, video games, comic books, a hit off-Broadway musical and even a Saturday morning children’s cartoon named The Toxic Crusaders. 40 years later and a certain subsection of the world still loves this big green freak in his torn up tutu, so much so that it almost feels inevitable that Hollywood was going to remake this little underground film because that’s just what happens to these cult films, someone will always try to recreate the lightning in a bottle that the original somehow had… so imagine my shock when they actually pulled off the magic trick of making this film work!

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leebutler Horror, Mystery, Review, Thriller

Clown In A Cornfield (2025) – Friendo Loves You

Released: 8th May
Seen: 24th August

In 2020, Adam Cesare released the young adult novel Clown in a Cornfield. The novel was a big success, ending up winning the Bram Stoker Award for Best Young Adult Novel and pretty much instantly getting optioned for a film. There would end up being 2 more novels written in the Clown in a Cornfield series over the years but the film took a little while to get made (probably because 2020 was not exactly a great time to try and film a movie, what with all the COVID hanging around) but eventually a little film called Clown in a Cornfield came out and made a brief splash before getting eclipsed by Final Destination: Bloodlines… which is a shame because it’s the kind of movie that deserves a lot more love.

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leebutler Horror, Mystery, Review

Weapons (2025) – Loaded

Released: 7th August
Seen: 23rd August

In 2022, the film Barbarian was released to an unsuspecting public. No one knew what it was about and audiences kept the core details quiet so everyone could be surprised but there was one thing that was pretty universally acknowledged by those who saw it… Barbarian was one of the best horror movies of 2022. That’s saying quite a lot, because 2022 is widely considered one of the best years for horror cinema in general. Hell, when I made my best-of list for 2022, a solid half of the list was horror films, with Barbarian being the highest on the list. After that movie I was truly excited and a little nervous to see what writer/director Zach Cregger would do for an encore… turns out he would go absolutely fucking insane and for that we thank him and ask him to do it again as soon as possible.

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leebutler Horror, Review, Thriller

Dangerous Animals (2025) – Bloody Good Time

Released: 12th July
Seen: 15th August

I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, sometimes the simplest ideas done well make for the best movies. An elevator pitch, a single sentence concept played out to its absolute limit, is often a great way to ensure a fun, exciting film for the audience. This feels especially true regarding Horror films which can have concepts as basic as “Girl going through puberty has telekinetic powers” or “Man in mask stalks babysitters”…. Or, in the case of Dangerous Animals, “Shark obsessed serial killer goes on a spree”, and in its brutal brilliant simplicity you end up with one of the most gloriously fun horror films of the year.

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leebutler Drama, Mystery, Review, Thriller

Drop (2025) – Pick Me Up

Released: 17th April
Seen: 9th August

Every time a new technology comes out, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before the horror genre takes it on and plays with its darker elements. AI brought us M3GAN, mobile phones led straight to the novel Cell by Stephen King. This goes back to VHS’s ending up inspiring things like The Ring, so every new piece of tech can be used in a terrifying way. A pretty perfect piece of technology for this exact situation would be something like the airdrop, a way for someone to just anonymously drop an image or message onto your phone without needing to know your number. They don’t need to know who you are, you just have to be within range and then you can have whatever they want sent to you. Drop takes this idea of a mysterious man sending secret messages to someone and it is pulse-poundingly brilliant.

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