DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 9, 2026

Killdozer! (1974) A crew of six construction workers are stationed on an uninhabited island to build an airstrip for their oil company employers. Not long after they start work, they uncover an ancient meteorite that sends a strange blue light into their bulldozer, causing the blade to start humming. Against the advice of the mechanic, the foreman orders the bulldozing to continue, but as soon as the machine is turned on, it sets about trying to kill off all the humans. Declaring the malevolent machine to be a murderer, the remaining crew try to figure out a way to execute it. If we're being honest, this isn't as good as my nostalgic brain wants it to be, but eight-year-old me who saw it when it first aired doesn't want to hear any of that.

Of course, there's a patron saint of construction workers, along with builders, brick makers, plumbers, tile makers, and related trades. That would be Saint Vincent Ferrer, who was a Dominican friar, preacher, and missionary in the late 1300s. Vincent wasn't actually a tradesman, so his patronage is more symbolic. He earned the title because of his heroic efforts in "building up" the Church through preaching, missionary work, and conversions. Perhaps most important was his work in undermining the antipope Benedict XIII, which helped bring a resolution to the Great Western Schism in 1417. Saint Joseph gets a nod as the patron of all workers, but if your need is particularly construction related, Saint Vincent Ferrer is your man.

Inferno (1980) While doing some research in New York City, poet Rose finds an ancient text detailing how The Three Mothers use their witchcraft to rule the world. And, wouldn't you know it, Rose discovers the Mother of Darkness might just be living in her apartment building. Rose's brother Mark tells her to keep her head until he can get there from Rome, but poor Rose ends up doing just the opposite. Arriving in the Big Apple to search for his missing sister, Mark finds himself embroiled in all kinds of supernatural shenanigans. This follow-up to Argento's Suspiria retains its predecessor's distinctive stylization, as well as its tenuous dream logic that sort of makes sense while you're experiencing it in the dark, but falls apart once you're back in the light and thinking about it too much. For proof, I offer the sequence involving a cat murdering antiques dealer, hundreds of rats, and an enraged hot dog vendor. Still, you don't really go into Argento looking for logic, do you? So, while Inferno never quite reaches the delirious heights of Suspiria, it's absolutely a worthy deranged sequel.

The word "Inferno" doesn't actually appear in the Bible or the writings of the Early Church Fathers. It's usage as a synonym for Hell is owed mostly to Dante's Divine Comedy and that work's influence on Western culture in general and medieval/Renaissance Christianity in particular. In fact, one could make an argument that Dante's fictional imaginings of Hell as a layered realm full of jail-keeping demons meting out tortuous punishments fit for each sinner's crimes is more ingrained in the public consciousness than the vague descriptions of Hell that are actually in the Bible. Even so, the Church has celebrated the Devine Comedy, emphasizing the work's alignment with Catholic theology through its portrayal of sin, redemption, mercy, and divine love. So, the work might not reflect the literal reality of Hell, but as St. Pope John Paull II noted, it is a "vision of reality that speaks of the life to come and the mystery of God with the vigor of theological thought transformed by the combined splendor of art and poetry."

DAILY CALL SHEET: FEBRUARY 2, 2026

Death Machine (1994) You know what's scarier than hiring Brad Dourif? Firing Brad Dourif. And that's just in real life. Now imagine you're his boss in a movie where he's a sociopathic weapons designer and hacker supreme who can send his murder machines to disembowel you in less than a minute, something he's already done to the person who previously held your position. Then, when you actually do work up the nerve to let him go, he develops a crush on you, and promises not to eviscerate you if you'll promise to schedule sex time with him. That's what happens to poor Hayden Cale in this near-future flick when she's put in charge of dealing with the public relations mess caused by one of Dourif's cybernetic solders malfunctioning. Soon, she's on the run for her life while being pursued by Dourif's invincible killer robot. And then the eco-terrorists show up. Definitely hampered by its relatively small budget, but with character names like John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, and Scott Ridley (huh?), you know right where the filmmakers' hearts are. They do their best with what they have to honor their influences.

Part of the Church's social doctrine is the principle of the dignity of work. Basically, this is the idea that workers are persons with inherent dignity and their employers have moral obligations to treat them accordingly, not just as disposable tools for profit. Under this theory, employers must pay a just wage, provide decent and safe working conditions, not hinder the right of workers to organize or defend their interests, and avoid placing unjust burdens on their employees. For their part, the workers are required to  carry out their assigned tasks, respect the employer and their property, contribute to a positive work environment, work with regard to others, and avoid violence or disorder when pursuing grievances. Obvious to say, Brad Dourif's character in Death Machine oversteps in regards to that last point. A bit.

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: Faith-filled and gritty? This week for Aleteia I take a look at the new film Moses the Black.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 29, 2026

Diabolique (1955) When cruel boarding school headmaster Michel Delassalle isn't busy beating his sickly wife Christina, he's spending his spare time beating his mistress Nicole. Bonding over their common abuse, the two women plot to drug Michel and drown him in a bathtub, thereby solving both their problems at once. They run into a bit of a hiccup, however, when Michel's body disappears after the deed is done. Even worse, signs begin to appear that Michel might still be alive and well and ready to start the beatings again. With the clock ticking, the two new besties must solve the mystery of Michel before the police close in and/or Christina's weak heart gives out. Not all goes the way you might think. Diabolique is part suspense, part horror, and all classic, with one of the most recognizable and lauded set pieces in cinema history. Even for those who can't stand them, this one is definitely worth the subtitles.

Interestingly, while the film's source novel makes it pretty clear that the written versions of Christina and Nicole hook up with one another while plotting against Michel, the movie adaptation removes any explicit reference to such a relationship. The opposite occurs with the Bible. Other than a single verse which lumps female same-sex attraction in the same boat as all other sexual relationships outside of marriage between a man and a woman (that would be the "don't do it" boat), there are zero lesbians in Scripture. However, some modern LGBTQ+ scholars have tried hard to add such context to the story of Ruth and her mother-in-law Naomi because the two women "clung" to each other after Ruth's husband died. That's not a widely held view, though. That's because it's usually considered infinitely more accurate to interpret the original texts in the context of when they were written rather than attempt to force your pet theory back through the ages to a time where they would be very unwelcome.

Mega Shark vs. Mecha Shark (2014) Dr. Debbie Gibson is back, for a few minutes anyway, and she's here to offer advice on what to do after another megalodon  breaks free from the iceberg it was frozen in and destroys the Sphinx. Yes, a giant shark in the ocean destroys the Sphinx. Just take my word for it, okay. Two other scientists, having obviously seen their share of Godzilla movies, decide the best course of action is to build a giant robotic version of the megalodon and arrange a match-up. After a few rounds, though, Mecha Shark malfunctions and goes rogue, attacking anything it feels is a threat, even the good guys. Now, with two oversized menaces headed towards Australia intent on making it the land down underwater, what are the big brains to do? This is the third (let me repeat that, third) movie in the direct-to-video Mega Shark series from Asylum studios, so whatever you thought of the first two, this one isn't going to change your mind one little bit.

The book of Genesis does mention God creating the great sea monsters, but it's unlikely this meant megalodons, plesiosaurs, or anything else form the fossil records. This is because the Bible is interested in salvation history and could care less about prehistoric creatures. Alas, this hasn't stopped skeptics from trying one of their go-to gotchas; how can the book of Romans say that death came into the world through sin, when the fossil record shows the world was literally littered with animal bones by the time humans came along? Well, as Aquinas argued, the nature of non-human animals inherently involves mortality, predation, and decay as part of material creation's order, and therefore their deaths would naturally precede that of humanity's. Humans, on the other hand, were created in a state of original holiness and justice—free from sin, with preternatural gifts including immortality. Sin removed that gift, leaving humans as mortal as any other animal, which is what Romans was referring to.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 25, 2026

Possessor (2020) Thanks to devices implanted in unwitting victim's brains, regret-ridden assassin Tasya Vos is able to transmit her mind into their bodies and use the controlled individuals to kill her real targets. However, this mingling of minds is beginning to interfere with Tasya's relationship with her husband and daughter, as she starts to have difficulty separating her own thoughts from the temporary ones she has usurped. Things go really awry when Tasya unwisely accepts one last assignment to kill a nigh untouchable executive using the body of his daughter's fiancé and her muddled mind gets stuck in it. Soon, other assassins enter the fray, including Tasya's boss, who is determined to squash Tasya's burgeoning sense of right and wrong. With bodies being possessed left and right, it becomes impossible to tell who is trying to kill who. Can Tasya and her conscience survive? Brandon Cronenberg does an excellent job carrying on his dad's legacy of body horror while also exploring the consequences of detachment and guilt.

In Catholic theology, charity is the theological virtue by which we love God above all things and love our neighbor as ourselves. The deliberate murder of another human being directly rejects charity. It places the killer's own will, passions (e.g., anger, envy, greed), or perceived good above their neighbor's dignity and above God's commandment not to murder. The resulting loss of sanctifying grace caused by murder is fundamentally a spiritual reality but, since humans are a unity of body and soul, this loss can also indirectly influence psychological and emotional well-being. Mortal sin, of which murder is definitely one, can burden the conscience, leading to guilt, anxiety, or desolation, all of which explains Tasya's problems as the movie starts. Sadly, repeated mortal sin can progressively weaken moral sensitivity, thereby deadening a person's conscience. Which is what Tasya's boss wants her problem to be by the end.

The Night House (2020) Following her husband's suicide, Beth spends most of her evenings getting plastered, especially since her own near-death experience left her with the belief that there is nothing beyond this life. Things get worse when Beth starts seeing frightened ghost women who look extremely similar to her jumping into the lake near her home. Following these apparitions across the water, Beth discovers her late husband has constructed a mirror image of her own home. Searching her husband's laptop for a reason, she discovers lots of photos of more lookalikes, as well as information on voodoo rituals. Has Beth discovered her husband was a satanic serial killer with a penchant for victims who looked like his wife, or was something much more weird going on? The movie's not entirely successful, but Rebecca Hall's performance as Beth is pretty great and there are some genuinely creepy moments.

One of the central conceits of The Night House is that death is terrifying because there is nothing awaiting you after it, no consciousness, no heaven, no continuation of any sort. There's one or two questionable plot points that seem to contradict this, but that's the movie's main gist. Obviously, the Church disagrees with this supposition, teaching that the soul's immortality can be satisfactorily known through natural reason alone. The seven proofs she offers include humankind's power of abstraction, our knowledge of immaterial realities (non-physical truths), the desire for immaterial goods, our ability to self-reflect, the innate desire for eternal life, the universal human testimony of nearly all cultures, and an objective morality that demands justice, especially if it's unrealized in this life. Each of these deserve their own discussion, which, of course, Aquinas is more than happy to give you if you're curious.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 22, 2026

Now Showing at a Blog Near You: Need a little loveliness to counteract the ugliness cluttering up your screens? This week for Aleteia I take a look at EWTN's new series ‘Seeking Beauty’.

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010) City folk have always been a little leery of what lies beyond the suburbs, and after spending the early 70s watching Leatherface dance jigs with a chainsaw and Ned Beatty get forced to squeal like a pig, one might expect no self-respecting modern urbanite would be caught dead outside the city limits. According to Hollywood's hillbilly horror movies, however, dead is exactly the way they can be caught in the countryside, at least if the local yokels have anything to say about it.

In her book, Post-9/11 Heartland Horror: Rural Horror Films in an Era of Urban Terrorism, author Victoria McCollum, PhD notes, “The rural has loomed large in the popular imagination for some time and has served as a vast repertoire for cinematic terror. Considered the provincial cousin of the American slasher film, and a lower form of 'quintessentially low' cinema, the politics of 'hillbilly horror' are said to lay bare the flipside of popularly constructed rural idylls. In doing so, American rural horror of the 1970s exposed the onerous impact of social, cultural and economic processes on rural regions in the United States.”

But whatever socio-political relevance hillbilly horrors may have held in the 70s, it had all but vanished come the new millennium. By the time such films as Wrong Turn arrived, backwoods bad guys were serving a less lofty purpose. As the fine folks at the TV Tropes website explain, hillbilly horror “too often crosses into unfortunate implications and is swiftly falling into being a discredited trope, as the social construction of the ignorant hillbilly has been compared to blackface in terms of being an unfounded stereotype used to make people living in cities and the suburbs feel better about themselves.” In short, politics has given way to prejudice.

Now, when it comes to dealing with an evil like unwarranted bigotry towards bumpkins, or any evil for that matter, there are a lot of ways to combat it. One of the most successful approaches, however, is to ridicule it. As St. Thomas More once pointed out, even the Devil himself cannot endure to be mocked. His pride makes him so vulnerable to scorn that some well-done mocking can actually cause him to withdraw rather than persist in futile temptations. Well, nothing mocks hillbilly horror better than Tucker and Dale vs. Evil.

As is the custom in the genre, the movie begins with a group of mostly obnoxious college kids headed into the wilderness for some camping and drinking, though more of the latter than the former. Stopping at a small country store to restock their beer supply, the kids bump into Tucker (Alan Tudyk) and Dale (Tyler Labine), two happy-go-lucky hicks on their way to a newly purchased vacation shack in the woods. The bashful Dale is immediately smitten with one of the girls, Allison (Katrina Bowden), and though he assumes she would never be interested in someone with his appearance, he gives in to Tucker's urgings to go introduce himself.

Unfortunately, upon approaching Allison, all the socially awkward Dale can manage is a few incoherent mumblings. No doubt having seen Wrong Turn (not to mention Wrong Turn 2: Dead End, Wrong Turn 3: Left for Dead, Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings, Wrong Turn 5: Bloodlines, and Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort), the young campers immediately assume the flustered Dale is some sort of semi-mute backwoods maniac and chase him off.

As fate would have it, Allison and her pals decide to setup camp not too far from Tucker and Dale's cabin. That evening while fishing, Tucker and Dale observe Allison bump her head and fall into the lake. The pair manage to pull the unconscious girl from the water, but when they try to call out to her fellow campers for help, their cries of “we've got your friend” are mistaken as hostile. Assuming Allison has been kidnapped, the rest of the kids make plans to rescue their friend from being tortured or eaten or whatever it is the movies say hillbillies do to interlopers in their territory.

Frightened upon first awakening, Allison quickly discovers that Tucker and Dale are actually nice guys who have only her best interests at heart. But before she can communicate this discovery to her friends, the terrified twenty-somethings launch an attack (of sorts) on the cabin. In the chaos that ensues, one of the boys manages to gruesomely impale himself on a log. Once again assuming Tucker and Dale are responsible, the remaining kids vow vengeance on the confused clodhoppers.

To reveal more would be to ruin a lot of the fun. Suffice to say that the remainder of Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is “splatstick” at its finest as both the mutual misunderstandings and the bloody body count continue to rise. With likable leads in Labine and Tudyk, a pitch-perfect mix of humor and cartoonish gore, and plenty of lighthearted jabs at the underlying provincial undertones of the hillbilly horror genre, Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is one of the finer horror-comedies of its decade. Even most city folk might agree.

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 18, 2026

Island of the Fishmen (1979) Castaway military doctor Claude de Ross and a bunch of shipwrecked convicts (aka fishman fodder) wash up on an uncharted island where Professor Marvin is transforming humans in Creature from the Black Lagoon knock-offs. The well-meaning Marvin hopes to save the planet's ecology by creating fish/human hybrids who can live off the unlimited resources of the ocean, but his evil benefactor Rackham just wants to use the scientist's creations to plunder the lost city of Atlantis. Smitten with Rackham's daughter (Barbara Bach), Clause decides to try and escape with the girl. Meanwhile, the island's local voodoo priestess Shakira (no, she doesn't dance) plots to destroy the entire island. If released 10-15 years earlier, Island of the Fishmen might be more fondly remembered for the Hammer-style creature feature it is. Alas, post-Star Wars, it was a bit too old-fashioned to make many waves.

There are, of course, no patron saint for fishmen. For fishermen, though, there's a few. St. Andrew the Apostle, who was himself a fisherman, is traditionally the go to for this role. However, St. Anthony of Padua is often invoked as well, particularly in the coastal regions of Portugal, Italy, France, and Spain, due to a famous miracle known as the "Sermon to the Fishes." The story goes that while preaching in Rimini, St. Anthony couldn't get the local heretics listen to him. Irritated, he went to the seashore and called on the fish to listen instead since the heretics were too stupid to do so. So many fish poked their heads up to hear Anthony's sermon that the heretics were shamed into converting. Interestingly enough, St. Anthony is also the patron saint of lost things and lost people, so if you combine his different patronages, he could qualify to be the patron saint of people lost at sea, which works pretty good for the characters in Island of the Fishmen.

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) Although America hasn't entered WWII yet, milquetoast Mr. Limpet attempts to enlist in the military to please his super-patriotic wife, but is rejected due to his weak eyesight (and weak everything else to be honest). Wishing he could just be a fish, which he prefers to humans, Limpet accidentally falls into the ocean and finds himself transformed into an animated denizen of the deep (who still needs glasses). In no time at all, Limpet befriends Crusty the hermit crab, gets a girlfriend he names Ladyfish, and discovers he has the ability to unleash a massive underwater roar he calls a thrum. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Limpet offers his services to the Navy, using his thrum to signal the location of German U-boats. But what happens when the Nazis catch on and develop thrum-seeking torpedoes? And what will Limpet's wife have to say about his new finny female friend? There are better Don Knotts movies from this time period, but this will do in a pinch.

The little fish outline decal many Christians have on their cars is actually one of the oldest and most recognizable symbols of Christianity in history. The Ichthys (from the Greek word ἰχθύς, meaning "fish") was adopted by Christians in the 2nd century AD as way to identify other believers during the Roman persecutions. One person would draw part of the symbol in the sand, and if the other person was able to complete the fish shape, then both parties knew they were safe. It was also used to identify Christian meeting places. The name of the symbol is actually an acrostic. The Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ stand for:

 Ι — Ἰησοῦς (Iēsous) = Jesus

Χ — Χριστός (Christos) = Christ

Θ — Θεοῦ (Theou) = of God

Υ — Υἱός (Yios) = Son 

Σ — Σωτήρ (Sōtēr) = Savior.

Combined, this forms the phrase "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior."

DAILY CALL SHEET: JANUARY 15, 2026

The Invisible Man Returns (1940) Sir Geoffrey Radcliffe is falsely accused of killing his brother and sentenced to death. To help him escape so he can ferret out the true murderer and avoid the electric chair, Radcliffe's pal Dr. Frank Griffin—the brother of the original invisible man—slips Sir Geoffrey some invisibility serum. However, Griffin warns Radcliffe that he has limited time to succeed in his mission as the serum inevitably drives anyone who takes it stark raving mad. The guilty party is soon revealed, but is it too late to prevent another invisible maniac from being set loose on society? A young Vincent Price (sans mustache, which is kind of weird) dons the obligatory sunglasses and bandages in this first sequel to the Universal classic and that, along with some nifty effects for the time period, help make this a pretty satisfying sci-fi romp.

Because life, and by association physical health, are gifts from God, the Church teaches we have a serious moral duty to preserve both of them through reasonable care. However, this is not an absolute duty. Given specific situations, some risks to one's health are morally permissible. Vocational duties like law enforcement, the military, or healthcare goes without saying as they save lives by risking theirs. Living organ donation and medical research are allowable within reason. Normal everyday things like sports and travel are fine, assuming they aren't done recklessly. As for the scenario in The Invisible Man Returns, it probably gets a pass as well as one may endanger their health to save others, or oneself. The key principle in all cases is proportionality: a risk to health or life is allowable if it is proportionate to the good being sought and there is grave reason for the risk.

Virus (1999) A sentient electrical surge from outer space transfers itself to a Russian research vessel and begins turning the crew into killer cyborg slaves. A week later, a down on his luck tugboat captain and his crew come upon the ship and decide to claim it as salvage. The surge has its own plans, though, which include murdering all humans on the face of the planet because it sees us as little more than a virus infecting Earth, and good for little more than spare cyborg parts. Lots of man versus machine violence ensues. Directed by a special effects artist, all the practical cyborg-thingies are definitely cool, and much gooier than the Borg for what that's worth. Unfortunately, Donald Sutherland, Jamie Lee Curtis, and the rest of the human actors are pretty much wasted.

There are a number of fringe philosophical and activist movements that view humanity as something akin to a virus on the planet. Many of these groups are either Antinatalists, who purport that procreation is morally wrong due to the inevitable suffering human existence brings, or Ecofascists, who believe overpopulation has transformed mankind into a destructive cancer on nature. Either way, they are all anti-human life. Pope Francis was having none of such nonsense. In the encyclical Laudato Si', he noted that blaming population growth instead of extreme and selective consumerism is simply refusing to realistically face the issues. The real solution to the problems pointed out by the anti-lifers is responsible stewardship of Earth's resources, not depopulation or extinction.