Asian Horror Movies

Return to the neighborhood that never lets its dead go. Join **The Rockville Horror Book Club** for a dark, atmospheric discussion of **The Haunting of Velkwood** by **Gwendolyn Kiste**, a chilling suburban ghost story where the past is sealed off—but never silent. Twenty years ago, an entire block of homes vanished behind a mysterious veil, trapping its residents as ghosts and leaving behind only three survivors. Since then, the Velkwood Vicinity has become an object of obsession: whispered about in occult circles, sensationalized in documentaries, and picked apart by theorists desperate for answers. None have succeeded. The truth remains locked inside the neighborhood… waiting. When one of the survivors is drawn back to Velkwood, long-buried memories begin to stir. What really happened that night? What was lost, what was abandoned, and what still lingers inside the veil? As the story unfolds, grief, guilt, and fractured friendships rise to the surface, blurring the line between the living and the dead. Our discussion will dig into the novel’s eerie atmosphere, unsettling mystery, and emotional undercurrent—exploring themes of survival, trauma, and the quiet horror of returning to the place that shaped you. Expect thoughtful conversation, uneasy questions, and plenty of space to linger in the shadows of Velkwood. **Event Details** * **Where:** Rockville Memorial Library — Medium Meeting Room 2nd Floor * **When:** February 24, 2026 * **Time:** 6:30–7:30 PM * **What to Bring:** Your copy of *The Haunting of Velkwood* by Gwendolyn Kiste If you enjoy slow-burn dread, haunted suburbs, and stories that creep under your skin rather than jump out at you, this is the night to come back… if you dare. 👻📚

**CONTENT WARNING: Disease, mutilation, abortion.** **This film contains extreme body horror, prolonged depictions of illness and bodily decay, environmental contamination, and disturbing imagery. It also includes references to pregnancy loss and a graphic act involving the removal of a fetus from a woman’s body. Themes of obsession, emotional distress, and death are central to the film. Viewer discretion is strongly advised. You are welcome to step out at any time.** Please read the original manga ahead of the dicussion: https://mangadex.org/chapter/bf397fc1-17bc-4fa1-8cd7-2cfd35f8170c Hideshi Hino's *Mermaid in a Manhole* is body horror stripped of bravado. When a lonely artist encounters a dying mermaid trapped in an underground sewer, he attempts to care for her — documenting her condition as her body deteriorates in disturbing and intimate ways. What begins as a strange act of compassion transforms into a bleak meditation on decay, obsession, and environmental collapse. Blending body horror with tragic romance, the film replaces shock-for-shock’s-sake with an atmosphere of sickness and inevitability that seeps into every frame.

**NOTE: This is NOT a screening, please watch the movie before the discussion.** *"Hey Ted, where the hell's the corkscrew?!"* *Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter* arrives at a point where the series knows exactly what it is. Picking up immediately after Part 3, the film traps a new group of unlucky victims near Camp Crystal Lake as Jason Voorhees continues his unstoppable march through the annals of horror history. Lean, mean, and packed with some of the series’ most memorable kills, *The Final Chapter* distills the formula to its sharpest elements — suspense, savagery, and a mounting sense of inevitability — before slamming the door shut with brutal efficiency. Often regarded as the strongest entry in the original series, the film balances classic slasher suspense with some of the most effective practical effects of the era. It’s a no-frills, high-impact installment that solidified Jason as a horror icon. ***

Send Help is a 2026 psychological thriller directed by Sam Raimi, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien as two colleagues stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash, leading to a dark, comedic, and unsettling battle of wits.

We will be participating in a trivia night event at craft house located in Fairfax on Tuesday. Trivia starts at 7:30 pm. Parking: There is free parking. Please show up by 7:15 pm so that we organize accordingly. We may field multiple teams depending on turnout. Please plan on arriving and staying for the entire trivia event. To ensure you get a spot on a trivia team: * Please arrive by 7:15 PM, or notify the hosts that you are running late by 7:15 PM. If you arrive after 7:15 or don't notify the hosts, you are not guaranteed a spot on a trivia team and may need to form your own, separate team. * Please RSVP so we know to expect you. Don't be like Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn from Wedding Crashers and crash a trivia event (i.e., don't show up without being on the attendee list). \-\-\-\-\-\-\-\-\- If you have Instagram, you can check out our account at asiandiningandadventuregroup for photos and announcements of group outings!

[Profs and Pints Northern Virginia](https://www.profsandpints.com/washingtondc) presents: **“Love and Monsters,”** on the inescapable bond between romance and horror, with Joshua Barton, scholar of horror and lecturer in English at Virginia Commonwealth University. [Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Available at [https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-love-monsters](https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/profsandpints/nv-love-monsters) .] Romance and horror might seem like opposite genres, but they share a deep emotional core, and the combination of them has captivated audiences across time and culture. Put even your worst Valentine’s Day in perspective by hearing this strange relationship discussed by Joshua Barton, who has earned a big following among Profs and Pints fans with his past talks on cryptids, American horror, and Christmas ghosts. He’ll explore the undeniable and unsettling intersection of romance and horror and examine how and why love and fear intensify each other and combined to create tension, drive narratives, and explore human vulnerability. We’ll look at works that have blended passion and terror, including Gothic literature like the vampire novella *Carmilla* and modern films like *Spring* and *Crimson Peak*. We’ll study the fine line between obsession and adoration running through Stephen King’s “I Know What You Need,” Adrian Lyne’s *Fatal Attraction*, and the timeless *The Phantom of the Opera.* We’ll discuss the seeds of monstrous love that were planted with *Beauty and the Beast* and *Creature from the Black Lagoon* and bloom ferociously in works like *Twilight* and *The Shape of Water*. Through it all, we’ll find the threads of otherness and the taboo that intertwine horror, love, and reflections on identity. Join us for a journey through storytelling that combines the grotesque and the scintillating as we uncover why romance and horror are a match made in the dark. (Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID. Listed time is for doors. Talk starts 30 minutes later.) Image: From the original 1954 advertising poster for *Creature from the Black Lagoon* (Artist: Reynold Brown / Public Domain).