Cher’s son, Elijah Blue Allman, has reportedly been indicted on a felony criminal mischief charge months after allegedly forcing his way into a New Hampshire woman’s home and smoking a cigarette on her couch. The indictment represents the latest development in a pair of criminal cases involving the 50-year-old musician, who was arrested twice within three days earlier this year.

Allman pleaded not guilty to charges related to the alleged home invasion. The proceedings have since been delayed while he receives treatment at New Hampshire State Hospital.

5

A New Hampshire grand jury indicted Allman on a felony criminal mischief charge connected to the alleged March 1 incident in Windham, according to court records obtained by the Daily Mail. His arraignment on the newly indicted charge is scheduled for October 2.

An indictment indicates that a grand jury found sufficient probable cause for the charge to proceed. It is not a finding of guilt.

Allman previously pleaded not guilty to criminal mischief, burglary, and breach of bail charges stemming from the same incident. The criminal proceedings have been delayed while Allman undergoes treatment at New Hampshire State Hospital. He is also scheduled to face a competency hearing in November in connection with a separate case involving St. Paul’s School in Concord.

Competency proceedings determine whether a defendant can understand the criminal case and assist attorneys with a defense. They do not decide whether the defendant committed the alleged offenses.

Police Say He Broke Into An Occupied Home

5

Windham police responded to a residence on March 1 after a woman reported that an unknown man had entered her home while she was still inside. The homeowner reportedly hid inside a closet and called 911. Authorities allege that Allman forced his way through a back door before sitting on the woman’s couch and smoking a cigarette. Police said he did not have permission to enter the residence.

According to PEOPLE, investigators alleged that Allman used loppers to force his way inside. Damage to the home, including the broken door and a burned rug, reportedly totaled more than $2,700. Police did not accuse Allman of stealing anything from the residence.

Allman was arrested and initially ordered held in preventive detention. The incident allegedly violated conditions imposed after his earlier release, resulting in an additional breach-of-bail charge.

The Arrest Came Days After An Alleged School Disturbance

5

Allman’s Windham arrest occurred two days after police were called to St. Paul’s School, a private boarding school in Concord. Police said Allman had no known connection to the school and was reported as an unwanted visitor. The musician allegedly presented himself as the parent of a prospective student to gain access to the campus. Authorities said he later became belligerent inside the school’s dining hall.

According to the Associated Press, Allman was charged with two misdemeanor counts of simple assault, as well as criminal trespass and criminal threatening. He was also accused of disorderly conduct, which is classified as a violation rather than a crime under New Hampshire law.

Police alleged that Allman poked a student with his cane during the disturbance. Students also claimed he approached female students and attempted to start conversations before school security intervened.

Student Described The Scene After Police Arrived

5

A student who witnessed the aftermath said multiple police vehicles arrived outside the dining hall. “I was walking through campus, and I saw the cop cars outside the dining hall,” the student told the Daily Mail. “At that point the guy [Allman] was sitting against a car, talking to police. It looked like he was handcuffed, and everything looked pretty calm.”

The student said friends who were inside the dining hall described Allman as behaving strangely before officers arrived. “What I do know, from a few of my girl friends, is that right before he was in the dining hall bothering people,” the student said. “He was right in front of a girls’ dorm, trying to get in. They slammed the door in his face.”

The witness also claimed Allman appeared to be looking for companionship but focused his attention on female students. “He was so weird. He wanted friends, I guess, but the only kids he was trying to talk to were girls,” the student recalled. “He kept hitting on all the girls. It was kind of scary for everyone.”

Allman Has A History Of Substance Abuse

5

Allman is the only child Cher shares with her late second husband, musician Gregg Allman. He has publicly discussed struggling with substance abuse from a young age and undergoing multiple periods of rehabilitation.

In June 2025, Allman was hospitalized after reportedly being found unconscious in Joshua Tree, California. The health emergency was described as a suspected drug overdose. His health and substance abuse history have also been at the center of his mother’s efforts to establish a conservatorship over his estate.

Cher initially filed a conservatorship petition in December 2023, arguing that her son could not safely manage payments from a trust established by his late father. A judge denied her request for a temporary conservatorship in January 2024. Cher later dismissed that petition in September 2024 following private mediation. She filed another petition after Allman’s 2026 arrests, citing renewed concerns about his mental health, substance abuse, and finances.

In April, a judge again declined to establish an emergency temporary conservatorship, finding insufficient urgency while Allman remained hospitalized and could not access an upcoming trust payment.

During BlizzCon 2026, Blizzard went ahead and boldly teased two projects that are still in development and still roughly minimum 3 years in the future. The goal behind that was to let the world know that Blizzard has a strong footing and that StarCraft and Diablo 5 will be rolled out just in time. In a world where Rockstar is constantly extending the release date for GTA 6 and CD Projekt Red did the same with Cyberpunk 2077 back in 2020, that sort of commitment can genuinely be comforting.

During the opening ceremony, StarCraft developer Dan Hay went on to reveal that the game would be released sometime in 2030. It was also unveiled that instead of being a real-time strategy title, the 2030 StarCraft game will be an open-world shooter. As per GameRant, then came a surprising tease of Diablo 5, which is a good straw for fans to hold onto ahead of Diablo 4 rolling out its ninth playable class, the Amazon, in early 2027.

During an interview with Bloomberg, Blizzard’s president Johanna Faries insinuated that the studio is focused on shipping big releases on time. She specifically added that they have “all hands on deck to set those projects up for success.” Historically, however, that’s not been the case. In fact, Blizzard has followed a strict policy of “it’s done when it’s done,” and they rarely announce specific release years or windows for their games until the projects are very close to being finished. She further expressed her confidence in the Studio’s aims in the following words:

“We’re a Blizzard that’s going to ship, and ship big, and ship on time, and all hands on deck to set those projects up for success. We want to convey confidence in some of our biggest bets coming forward.”

StarCraft Has Tried to Become a Shooter Before — Twice

StarCraft: Ghost was announced way back in 2002 as a third-person action game before being indefinitely postponed and eventually treated as cancelled. Then Blizzard developed another StarCraft FPS, codenamed Ares, for roughly two years before cancelling it in 2019 so resources could move toward Diablo IV and Overwatch 2. That prototype was reportedly envisioned as something like Battlefield in the StarCraft universe, with players controlling a Terran Marine against the Zerg.

It’s also important to note here that Blizzard showed no StarCraft gameplay at BlizzCon, and the video shown was a cinematic. Platforms, precise gameplay systems, exact camera perspective, and many core details remain undisclosed for now.

StarCraft is being planned for a release in Spring 2030, and Diablo 5 is being shipped for Spring 2029. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

If you’re a fan of Apple TV‘s critically acclaimed series Slow Horses, you probably already know that the show is based on the Slough House novel series. Their author, Mick Herron, has been writing spy fiction since 2010, and what began as a cult favorite has grown into one of the most acclaimed thriller series of the 21st century, earning comparisons to John le Carré while doing something entirely unique: satirizing British intelligence with wit so dry it could sand furniture. The BBC described him as “the le Carré of the future.” The New Yorker described the series as “the best in a generation, by some estimates, and unquestionably the funniest.”

As a reminder, Slough House is MI5’s dumping ground for disgraced agents; they made mistakes that should normally cost them their careers but ended up in Slough House. Led by the monumentally disorderly Jackson Lamb, these agents, known internally as slow horses, shuffle paper and wait out their professional deaths, except, of course, they keep stumbling into genuine danger. The fine line between institutional irrelevance and real responsibilities is what makes both the adaptation and the books so compelling. The Slough House series now runs to nine novels, and not every entry is equally essential. Whether you’re a Herron connoisseur or picking up his books for the first time, here are the essential Mick Herron books you must read at least once.

‘Down Cemetery Road’ (2003)

Image via Hachette UK

Before Jackson Lamb and Slough House, there was a quiet Oxford street and a gas explosion that turned out to be foul play. Mick Herron’s debut novel, Down Cemetery Road, introduces Sarah Tucker, a bored housewife whose comfortable life is upended when a house on her street is blown up, two adults killed, and a four-year-old girl left unaccounted for. What begins as a neighbor’s concern escalates quickly into something far more dangerous, leading Sarah to hire private investigator Zoë Boehm and stumble into the long shadow of a government agency.

Down Cemetery Road is a more conventional thriller than anything Herron would later write; the cynical wit is present but less fully developed, and the plotting occasionally sprawls, but the essential Herron ingredients are already locked in: ordinary people facing off against official secrets, institutional deception, and a clear understanding of how power protects itself. The Apple TV adaptation of the same name starring Emma Thompson premiered in October 2025, giving the novel a fresh wave of readers. Starting here before Slow Horses is not essential, but for readers who want to understand where one of Britain’s best crime writers came from, Down Cemetery Road is a quietly revelatory place to begin.

‘Spook Street’ (2017)

Image via John Murray

It’s safe to say that River Cartwright is and has always been the series’ moral center; this young agent who ended up at Slough House because he made the wrong call in a training exercise spends several novels fighting to prove that his judgment was more complicated than anyone cared to admit at the time. Spook Street, the fourth novel in the Slough House series, earns its place on this list by finally turning that lens on his family, specifically his grandfather David Cartwright, a retired intelligence legend whose apparent mental decline may or may not be what it seems. Without understanding the Cartwrights, you cannot fully understand what Herron is doing with River across the whole series.

Herron uses the family dynamic to ask a question that runs beneath the entire surface: whether a lifelong immersion in deception corrupts everything from emotions to love and memory. The plot mechanics are typically intricate, but the novel’s real subject is inheritance, or better say, what we pass on to the people who come after us and what we hide from them. Spook Street is one of the series’ less raved-about entries but paradoxically one of its most essential. Readers who commit to River’s character development will find Spook Street unexpectedly emotional and will spend the rest of the series paying closer attention to the Cartwright name. Season 4 of Slow Horses adapts Spook Street.

‘Bad Actors’ (2022)

Image via Baskerville

By the time Bad Actors, the eighth novel in the series, arrives, Herron has built a world so fully inhabited that it can sustain a story and plot in which the slow horses operate almost entirely within the margins of their own story. The plot centers on a Downing Street special advisor who vanishes without explanation, a Russian First Desk who has slipped away from her handlers in London, and Diana Taverner’s increasingly dangerous attempts to keep her grip on MI5’s top job. Within the Slough House borders, Shirley Dander gets exiled to a spy rehabilitation retreat in the West Country, while Roddy Ho’s hacking skills take center stage in ways that are both comic and crucial.

What makes Bad Actors essential rather than merely good is all the plans, events, and long-running plots it sets in motion. It is, with hindsight, one of the most carefully constructed pieces of dramatic groundwork in the series, establishing power dynamics, delivering real consequences, and tightening threads that the most recent novel, Clown Town, pulls on and borrows from to make a point. Readers who race through Bad Actors for the plot alone may feel it is lighter than its predecessors, but those who understand it as preparation for what follows will realize it’s fundamental. By 2022 and the eighth novel, the series begins functioning like a well-oiled machine; Herron seemingly has a beginning and end in sight for each character he plants into the Slough House universe.

‘Nobody Walks’ (2015)

Image via Soho Crime

Tom Bettany is working in a French meat-processing plant when he receives a voicemail informing him that his estranged son Liam is dead. The police call it accidental: Liam fell from his London balcony while high. Bettany, a former MI5 undercover operative, arrives for the funeral and within hours realizes that it wasn’t. What follows is a stripped-back and intense revenge narrative that Kirkus Reviews described as “a violent little elegy that grows both more clever and more sour as it hurtles along.” It was shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award and named one of Booklist’s 101 Best Crime Novels of the Last Decade.

Technically a standalone, Nobody Walks is, in practice, a Slough House adjacent novel; familiar MI5 figures appear on the sidelines, ready to step in. More than anything, Nobody Walks represents the first significant appearance of the quiet and somewhat terrifying J.K. Coe, who appears in the Apple TV series starting with Season 4; J.K. Coe is played by Tom Brooke. More than that, it is the book that most nakedly shows what Herron can do when he removes the ensemble safety net and focuses everything on the main character with nothing left to lose. Leaner and colder than any Slough House entry, it is essential reading for anyone who wants the full picture of what this writer is capable of.

‘Joe Country’ (2019)

Image via John Murray

Widely regarded by the fans of the Slough House series as its emotional high, Joe Country brings several long-running plot threads to a close and delivers at least one genuinely heartbreaking farewell to a beloved character (but no spoilers here). Set partly in the Welsh countryside, a jarring change of scenery from Herron’s typical London-bound universe, it follows Louisa Guy to Pembrokeshire as she searches for Lucas, the teenage son of her late partner Min Harper, who has gone missing after seeing something he was never supposed to see. Frank Harkness, a renegade ex-CIA operative, looms over the whole novel like a storm that keeps on brewing.

Joe Country is essential because it is the book that proves Herron is not just an extraordinarily witty and clever writer but has the chops to write something genuinely moving. The comedy is still present and sharp, but here it exists in direct tension with loss in a way the series hadn’t previously attempted. Crime Fiction Lover called it “a triumph” and “the series highlight” at the time of publication. For readers who have followed the slow horses from the beginning, this novel earns every feeling it reaches for. The upcoming Season 6 partly adapts Joe Country, and we’re not sure if we’re fully saying goodbye or another hello to Rosalind Eleazar as the brilliant Louisa Guy.

‘Dead Lions’ (2013)

Image via John Murray

Dead Lions is the novel that put Herron on the map; it won the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award, the most prestigious prize in British crime fiction. This is the novel that most clearly announces what the Slough House series is capable of, though not all critics would agree it’s the best Herron has to give—and yet, it’s so brilliant, you can only imagine what the rest have to offer. Dead Lions is essential because it reveals Jackson Lamb’s past a little more, involving the apparent murder of a former Cold War sleeper agent and the reactivation of old Soviet networks that nobody believed were still active. This leans into classic le Carré territory but is handled with Herron’s characteristically sardonic twist. Lamb is given significantly more room to operate here than in the debut.

What Dead Lions gets exactly right is the balance between genuine spy thriller mechanics and dark comic character work; this is the balance that the rest of the series would later be built on, and Herron achieves it here with particular elegance. The Cold War material feels neither nostalgic nor exhausted, rather bringing the shabbiness of modern-day Slough House into a sharp focus. Dead Lions is also just one of the most entertaining thrillers of its decade, an essential entry point for anyone arriving from the TV show and wondering where to begin with the books. With Season 2 of Slow Horses having been done with great precision, Dead Lions (Season 2’s source material) will be an even more impressive feat to enjoy after the show.

‘Clown Town’ (2025)

Image via Hachette UK

The ninth and most recent novel, Clown Town, is a true game-changer in the Slough House series. This one resolves two of the series’ longest-running power struggles: the tension between Peter Judd and Diana Taverner and the uneasy standoff between Taverner and Lamb. Simultaneously, it upends the status quo in ways that leave Slough House’s future genuinely uncertain for the first time. River Cartwright, recovering from a case of poisoning, is drawn into a mystery surrounding a missing book from his grandfather David’s library. Meanwhile, Taverner, threatened by figures connected to a covert operation from the height of the Troubles, turns blackmail into opportunity, as she always does.

The Spectator Australia named Clown Town one of its books of the year, calling it “a magisterially accomplished novel” with “a plot of shining, machine-like efficiency.” What makes Clown Town essential is not just its quality but its finality; it closes doors that have been open since book one, takes some meaningful casualties, and arrives at an ending that is the very definition of the word “cliffhanger.” If you have read the Slough House series from the start, Clown Town is the payoff; if you haven’t, well, this is the most compelling argument for starting the series immediately.

‘Slough House’ (2021)

Image via Soho Crime

The seventh novel is where Herron’s ambitions expand from spy thriller to something closer to a state-of-the-nation novel: a panoramic, almost Dickensian portrait of Britain at its most paranoid and compromised. Brexit has pushed the slow horses further into the cold, Slough House has been erased from official records, and members of the team are dying at an unsettling clip. The satire extends far beyond intelligence services this time, reaching into media manipulation, global finance, and the privatization of state power, a territory Herron navigates with the confidence of a writer who has been building toward exactly this for a decade.

Universally, the unnerving realism of Slough House (the novel) has been considered as Herron gone spooky, with the satire getting even more biting and the comedy developing harder edges. Slough House is essential because it is the novel that makes the fullest case for what the series actually is: a genuinely serious piece of contemporary fiction that just so happens to operate through the conventions of the spy thriller. This one converted casual fans into devotees, and it’s the one that most convincingly demands to be taken seriously on its own terms. Season 6 partly adapts Slough House, meaning that the stakes are growing higher and more real within the Slow Horses TV universe.

‘Slow Horses’ (2010)

Image via Soho Constable

The one novel that started everything and is still the most essential of all is the first book, Slow Horses, because without it, none of the rest exists. Like in the series, River Cartwright lands at Slough House in disgrace after a training exercise goes catastrophically wrong in a very public way. Then a young man is kidnapped and threatened with beheading by a group claiming to be terrorists, and the slow horses begin noticing inconsistencies that lead them into a conspiracy with roots deep inside MI5 itself. The plot is gripping, and the atmosphere, with its unglamorous, rain-soaked, bureaucratic exhaustion, is immediately distinctive from other similar novels.

What makes Slow Horses essential rather than merely good is Jackson Lamb, and this applies to both the novels and the TV show. He arrives fully formed as one of the great characters in modern crime fiction: self-sufficient, brilliant, and oddly principled in ways that take an entire series to fully understand. Every subsequent book depends on the reader’s relationship with Lamb, which is established here; it’s hard to read the books without imagining Gary Oldman, who portrays Lamb in the Apple TV adaptation, and he seems to perfectly embody the spy’s description from the books. The show is excellent, of course, sometimes so much that it’s hard to imagine what the novels might represent. And yet, even here, we do get to say—the books are better, just because they establish a world so detailed and incredible that you will be drawn in to the very end.

Advertisement

Slow Horses

Release Date

Advertisement

April 1, 2022

Network

Apple TV+

Advertisement

Showrunner

Douglas Urbanski

Directors

Advertisement

Adam Randall, James Hawes, Jeremy Lovering, Saul Metzstein

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Zach Cregger‘s Resident Evil hits theaters September 18th, and after Weapons and Barbarian, expectations could not be higher. Cregger has quickly become one of the most exciting creative voices in modern horror, someone who understands terror as a slow, patient build built on expectation rather than the jump scares that dominated the genre for quite some time. Sony clearly believes he’s the right person to finally crack a franchise that has struggled to translate its video game roots into a quality theatrical experience. This new take follows Bryan (Austin Adams), a medical courier who stumbles into an outbreak at a remote hospital and is forced to fight his way out through hordes of infected creatures over one nightmarish night. Cregger is fresh off of 2025’s Weapons, a critical and commercial smash that grossed over $269 million worldwide and earned Amy Madigan an Oscar. He arrives with more industry goodwill and creative leverage than almost any other horror director stepping into a video game adaptation ever has. That combination of proven craft and creative trust and license is exactly why this particular reboot feels different from the franchise’s prior attempts.

Getting ready for it means revisiting the films that built the DNA that Cregger is clearly drawing from: outbreak horror, claustrophobic survival, and the kind of anxiety-inducing fear that can only come when you truly do not know what to expect next. This list traces that lineage all the way from the Umbrella Corporation’s earlier screen outings through the genre’s high points, ending with what might be the single best pure zombie film ever made. Consider it required viewing before opening night. Each of these projects approaches infection and outbreak horror from a slightly different angle; corporate conspiracy, claustrophobic confinement, global scale, giving a full picture of everything this subgenre is capable of. There’s no reason to watch these in order, but it does trace a clear evolution in how directors have handled this kind of story for the past two decades.

Here are seven horror films to get you fully primed for Cregger’s take on Resident Evil. Some showcase the outbreak-horror lineage directly, tracing where the genre’s visual and tonal language actually comes from. Others share Cregger’s specific interest in modern horror tactics, letting suspense and fear develop pretty much as long as possible. A couple are pure scale and spectacle, useful reminders of just how big this kind of story can get once a studio commits fully to it. Together, they map out the territory that Cregger is stepping into and what kind of performances and sequences he will need to top.

7

‘Resident Evil’ (2002)

Image via Screen Gems

Paul W.S. Anderson‘s original film adaptation may not be any masterpiece of horror craft, but its placement here is purely as a baseline comparsion for how far this franchise has come. The reboot allows for ample room for Cregger’s version to reinvent it in a survival horror aesthetic that more closely mirrors the game’s aesthetics and structure. Milla Jovoich‘s Alice became an iconic action horror lead of the 2000s almost overnight, even as the version of the franchise leaned harder into stylized gunfights and fought constant mixed reviews over its nearly decade and a half run (2002-2016). Looking back at the original a decade later after its final entry, audiences are reminded that aspects such as the hive setting, were fairly effective as a claustrophobic horror space. An all-sterile white corridors and a homicidal AI were entertaining elements of an otherwise unevenly developed project. Regardless, this debut kicked off a six-film franchise that grew increasingly action focused with every subsequent film, which is exactly the thing Cregger’s reboot seems destined to correct.

Watching it now is less about scares and more about looking at what a straight, atmosphere-first Resident Evil adaptation was capable of being. The Umberlla Corporation’s cold, coproate indifference to human life, dropping test subjects into a nightmare, is a theme that’s remained throughout every film. It’s a useful reminder of the franchise’s premise, stripped down to its essentials before six sequels buried it in increasingly convoluted mythology. Jovovich’s performance, for all the film’s shortcomings, established a template for a capable, resourceful horror lead that later entries relied upon. For anyone catching up before Cregger’s version, this is where the cinematic side of the story actually began.

6

‘Barbarian’ (2022)

Image via 20th Century Studios

Zach Cregger’s solo directorial debut announced him as a uniquely creative horror talent, a project designed around subverting expectations about where its story is actually headed. Georgina Campbell stars as a woman who discovers her Airbnb has been double booked with a stranger, a set-up that spirals into something far darker and terrifying. Cregger’s command of tone, shifting from tense thriller to pitch black comedy to grotesque body horror, is what makes his body of work such an intriguing fit for a franchise this vast and tonally varied. The film’s now infamous midpoint structural swerve is still one of the more talked about surprises in recent horror memory.

Barbarian is the film that should tell you everything about what to expect tonally from Resident Evil, a real confidence in patience and build up, and an interest in the human ugliness evident in institutional and interpersonal decay. Cregger creates empathy for his characters before subjecting them to escalating horror, a discipline that separates great horror from more disposable scares. It’s the clearest evidence yet that he understands how to build a truly unsettling atmosphere from the ground up. Justin Long‘s performance demonstrates Cregger’s gift for casting against type, in ways that pay off enormously by the film’s end. If you’ve somehow missed this one, it’s essential pre-Resident Evil homework.

5

’28 Days Later’ (2002)

Image via Searchlight Pictures

Danny Boyle‘s genre-redefining outbreak film reinvented what a zombie movie could be, trading the shuffling, groaning undead for the fast and feral rage-infected humans capable of the immediate terror the franchise has come to be known for. Cillian Murphy anchors the film as a man waking up from a coma into a version of London already emptied by catastrophe. Those early shots and sequences of him wandering an abandoned city are some of the most haunting images of 21st century horror. Boyle’s grainy, digital-video aesthetic gives the film a raw, documentary-like urgency that countless outbreak films have tried and failed to replicate since. The back half of the movie shifts its focus to a group of surviving soldiers, and adds a real moral complexity about what humanity looks like once civilization collapses.

28 Days Later is the film that essentially rewired audience expectations for infection horror, and its DNA is all over every subsequent Resident Evil adaptation’s attempts to modernize its own creature threats. The “fast zombie” innovation alone changed the genre permanently, injecting a form of physical urgency that hadn’t been explored in a subgenre that had unfortunately grown into something comfortable, slow and recognizable to audiences. Its bleak, morally ambiguous ending remains one of the zombie film category’s most effective gut-punches. Boyle’s willingness to end on uncertainty instead of a tidy resolution sets a tonal precedent that better apocalyptic films on the undead have followed ever since. Watch this one to understand where modern zombie horror’s visual and tonal language is bred from.

4

‘Cloverfield’ (2008)

©Paramount/courtesy Everett Collection

Matt Reeves‘s found-footage monster movie relocated giant horror to street level, following a group of young New Yorkers trying to survive and document a sudden, inexplicable attack on the city in real time. The shaky, handheld camera work, controversial at the time, puts the audience directly inside the characters’ confusion and panic without offering the clarity and comfort of a traditional wide shot. Reeves withholds full depictions of the creature for the majority of its runtime, opting for a strategy of suggestion and partial glimpses which tend to be much scarier than a complete reveal. The film’s ground-level chaos, collapsing buildings, panicked crowds, military barricades, give it a scale to a story told and centered on an incredibly intimate, limited perspective.

The connection to Resident Evil is less about zombies specifically and more about tone: ordinary people with no special training thrown into a catastrophic, world-ending event they don’t understand and can’t control. That’s precisely the position Cregger’s protagonist Bryan finds himself in, a medical courier with no combat training forced into one night of pure non-stop survival. Cloverfield‘s commitment to disorientation and limited information mirrors the kind of dread that any good survival-horror adaptation should generate. The movie’s refusal to fully explain its creature or its origins keeps audiences in the same state of confused panic as the characters are in throughout. It’s a reminder that scale and intimacy aren’t mutually exclusive in this genre.

3

‘World War Z’ (2013)

Image via Paramount Pictures

Marc Forster‘s globe-trotting zombie epic swings for a blockbuster scale, following Brad Pitt‘s former UN investigator as he races around the world trying to find the source of, and a cure for, a rapidly spreading zombie pandemic. The film’s most memorable sequences, massive, swarming hordes of infected scaling walls and overwhelming cities in tidal waves of bodies, gave the zombie genre a sense of true, apocalyptic scale rarely attempted before or since. Pitt leads with a grounded urgency, playing an ordinary family man ripped from his loved ones and thrust into a globe-spanning crisis he had no plan for. The production’s notoriously troubled reshoots reworked the entire third act, but the finished film’s mix of scale and intimate survival tension still largely works over a decade after its original release.

World War Z serves as useful preparation specifically for understanding how a franchise can steadily ramp up a virus outbreak without losing the horror elements or human stakes entirely, a balance that the Resident Evil games and movies have wrestled with across every installment. The film’s central question, whether a single family’s survival matters against a planet-scale catastrophe, echoes the corporate-versus-individual tension that’s always driven the Umbrella Corporation’s mythology. It’s blockbuster horror rather than pure genre film-making, but its scale remains genuinely impressive. The international scope of the project, moving from South Korea to Israel to Wales within its runtime, gives it a global sense of catastrophe that few zombie adjacent films attempt. A solid reminder of just how large this kind of story can get when a studio commits fully to the spectacle.

2

‘Dawn of the Dead’ (2004)

Image via Universal

Zack Snyder‘s feature directorial debut Dawn of the Dead reinvented George Romero’s original for a new generation, trading slow, shuffling zombies for fast, aggressive, terrifyingly relentless ones. The shift ended up changing the genre’s pacing and tonal language permanently. A group of survivors barricades themselves inside a shopping mall as the outbreak spreads outside, and the fear escalates and desperation escalates from within. Snyder mines real tension from the claustrophobia of a space meant for consumption now serving as a fortress against imminent collapse. The film’s opening sequence, a wordless, escalating descent from ordinary morning routine into full-blown chaos, remains one of the most purely effective openings in zombie movie history. Snyder balances his scares with dark comedy and surprisingly effective character work across a large, well-drawn ensemble cast.

This is essential preparation for the kind of relentless, high-velocity threat Cregger’s version of Resident Evil seems to be building toward, infected creatures capable of speed and aggression at a degree most zombie films don’t gear themselves toward. The film’s interest in how quickly social order collapses once systems stop working is reminiscent of the kind of institutional failure baked into the workings and history of the Umbrella Corporation. It’s tightly structured, genuinely tense from start to finish, and remains one of the best modern zombie movies made in English. Snyder’s later career, despite all of its grand scale, never again matched the lean efficiency he brought to this debut. If Cregger’s Resident Evil captures even half of this film’s relentless energy, audiences are in for something special.

1

‘Train to Busan’ (2016)

Image via Next Entertainment World

Yeon Sang-ho‘s claustrophobic masterpiece Train to Busan stands as the gold standard of modern outbreak horror, confining its entire zombie apocalypse to a single high-speed train racing toward the last uninfected city in South Korea. Gong Yoo anchors the film as an emotionally distant father forced to confront his own selfishness while protecting his young daughter against a series of increasingly desperate train cars. Yeon builds devastating emotional stakes alongside relentless, propulsive action, making the film’s losses land with real weight rather than feel like cheap genre spectacle. The zombies themselves are terrifyingly fast and aggressive, but the film’s real horror often comes from the selfish, cowardly choices made by the surviving humans around them.

This is the film every modern outbreak horror movie, Resident Evil included, is still chasing. It’s a perfect combination of visceral tension, tight structural confinement, and a human desperation that feels second to none. Its influence on the entire subgenre since release has been massive, and it is the clearest possible argument for why claustrophobic, character-driven outbreak projects work better than sprawling effects-driven herds of slow-moaning zombies or infected. Every element, pacing, character work, practical tension, is calibrated as close to perfectly as this kind of film gets. Its success also helped fuel a broader global appetite for South Korean genre film-making that continues to shape international horror to this day. If you watch nothing else on this list before Resident Evil, make it this one. It’s simply the best the genre has to offer.

Advertisement

Release Date

July 20, 2016

Advertisement

Runtime

118 minutes

Director

Advertisement

Yeon Sang-ho

Writers

Park Joo-suk

Advertisement

Producers

Kim Woo-taek, Lee Dong-ha, Huh Soo Young

Advertisement

Advertisement

• 
• 

Advertisement

Advertisement

Vice President JD Vance is giving his “pitch” to prospective voters ahead of the highly contested 2026 midterms, begging voters to give Donald Trump’s divisive administration “another chance” amid historically low poll numbers.

“Give us another chance,” Vance, 42, directly pleaded with voters on the Tuesday, September 15, episode of the “All In” podcast. “Give us another couple years to continue to work on the amazing things that we’ve been doing for the past two years.”

The former Trump adversary-turned-ally added, “Even if you don’t agree with us on every issue, the other party is consumed by craziness.”

The vice president presented an eyebrow-raising midterm strategy during multiple media appearances this week, encouraging voters to be wary of the Democratic Party — even if they are unsatisfied with the various aspects of the Trump administration’s policies, including the war in Iran, high gas prices, inflation, cost of living, controversial immigration policy and an affinity for renaming monuments and rebuilding Washington, D.C. in the president’s image.

Related: Bill Maher Defends His Interview With Vice President JD Vance

Democrat Bill Maher is speaking out after facing criticism for how he handled his interview with Vice President JD Vance. “They would never be happy unless JD Vance walked out and I punched him in the nose,” Maher, 70, told Fox News Digital in an interview published on Monday, June 29. “That’s the only thing […]

“To the American people, I’d say, send these people [Democrats] packing,” he said in Tuesday’s podcast interview. “Put them in the mental hospital. Do not put them in Congress because even if you don’t agree with us on every policy issue, at least we’re motivated by common sense and American interest. They’re just motivated left-wing interest groups and radicalism and they’re going to do a very bad job if we give them power.”

Vance’s pitch comes during a time where the GOP faces a gloomy forecast for November’s midterms. On Wednesday, September 16, pollster Nate Silver cited a “string of excellent polls for Democrats” with mere weeks to go before election day.

The same pollster shared an aggregation of Trump’s personal popularity across several top polls on Wednesday, revealing that the president currently holds a 58.5 percent disapproval rating — which is only “up slightly from its all time low.” (Trump currently holds 38.4 percent approval, per Silver.)

Despite his sagging poll numbers, Trump continues to ask voters to approach the midterms as if his name was on the ballot — even though, constitutionally, it cannot and will not be. .

Trump faced criticism for his appearance at the GOP’s American Airlines Center in Dallas, where he asked delegates to personally pledge their allegiance to him.

“Please raise your right hand. I pledge to the greatest president in the history of the United States that loves us so much he can’t even breathe,” Trump, 80, said on September 10, per USA Today. “That I will go out with my family, my friends. I’ll do it anyway. I don’t care if I am registered or not, I am going to cheat like hell like they do. There have never been bigger cheaters.”

Thank You!

You have successfully subscribed.

The president went on to say,“I’m going to go out and get my friends, my family, and we are going to vote on November 3, or we are going to vote before that.”

Advertisement

Related: Donald Trump Calls Mystery Woman a ‘Great Daughter’ in Social Media Post

President Donald Trump took to social media to praise a mystery “daughter,” sparking online confusion. “Great daughter. My Honor!!!” Trump, 80, wrote via Truth Social on Saturday, June 20, sharing a photo of a woman who was not either one of his daughters, Ivanka Trump or Tiffany Trump. He signed off the post with his […]

Later, he attempted to firm up support within his base to get out the vote on election day. (Trump has promised to send $5,000 dividend checks to all American adults if the GOP wins in November, though House Speaker Mike Johnson has since confirmed any payments would need the approval of Congress.)

“You know what? If you want, you can vote Democrat, but I don’t think there’s one person in this room that’s going to vote [for them]. I don’t think so.” Trump continued, “You know what happens if you don’t vote? You go to hell, you know that? You go to hell, and I don’t want that to happen to you, so please go and vote.”

Martha Stewart is hinting at making a bold move following her reality television cameo. 

After the release of the highly anticipated premiere of “The Real Housewives of New York City” Season 16, the lifestyle icon took to social media to tease an NSFW project, which quickly drew funny responses from fellow celebrities and major media brands.

Stewart has celebrated many wins lately, including signing a new deal with Netflix following the huge success of her 2024 documentary. 

4

Stewart recently took to Instagram with a zoomed-in selfie featuring a playful kissy face. She candidly teased her millions of followers about taking her personal brand in a risqué new direction, writing, “I’ve been thinking about releasing my nudes.”

The lighthearted post immediately sparked a flurry of celebrity endorsements and brand reactions. “Shark Tank” investor Barbara Corcoran was quick to join, commenting, “If you do it, I’ll do it!”

Corporate accounts also jumped into her comments section, with Playboy hinting at a prospective cover shoot by asking, “Have your people call our people?” and OnlyFans writing, “Martha Stewart Living has entered the chat.”

Stewart’s Cameo Involved A Playful Kitchen Critique Of Her Longtime Makeup Artist

Stewart’s playful online comments come on the heels of her “The Real Housewives of New York City” debut, during which she visited her longtime makeup artist and new cast member Nicole Daisy Toye.

While getting glam before an event, Toye confessed she felt nervous about her boss visiting her home, then joked that her space is “always Martha Stewart-ready.”

However, the lifestyle guru couldn’t resist delivering a hilarious, unfiltered critique after searching the kitchen for a snack and spotting a packaged dessert.

Advertisement

“What do you have in this kitchen … store-bought pie? Oh, come on,” she teased, as reported by People Magazine. She then promised to teach Toye how to make a pie so she never has to buy one again.

Stewart’s inspection didn’t stop at the baked goods; she advised Toye to clean and turn her hanging cookware around before pointing out a kettle on the stove, noting that it wasn’t in the right place. 

The Lifestyle Guru Recalled Speaking To JFK Jr. Days Before The Tragedy

4

Besides criticizing Toye’s kitchen setup, Stewart also got candid about her friendship with one of America’s most famous public figures.

During the premiere episode of “The Real Housewives of New York City” Season 16, Stewart recalled an eerie final conversation with her close friend John F. Kennedy Jr. just days before his death on July 16, 1999. 

She revealed that they caught up over dinner shortly before the tragic incident to discuss his political lifestyle publication. The conversation then shifted to his upcoming weekend travel plans to attend a family wedding in Hyannis Port with his wife, Carolyn Bessette, and her sister, Lauren. 

Advertisement

Upon learning that Kennedy intended to pilot the light aircraft himself, Stewart immediately advised him to bring along professional assistance. However, he insisted that he didn’t need a co-pilot, per The Blast. 

Unfortunately, later that week, Kennedy became disoriented over the Atlantic Ocean, causing the plane to crash off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard and killing all three passengers on board.

The Lifestyle Expert Is Expanding Her Netflix Presence 

4

In addition to her successful debut on “The Real Housewives of New York City,” Stewart also recently made major moves in her career. 

Building on the momentum of her 2024 documentary, the 85-year-old entrepreneur is broadening her partnership with Netflix by bringing two of her flagship projects to the platform, according to The Blast.

Stewart expressed her excitement over the new platform launch, saying, “I’m delighted to bring my podcast to Netflix, and with that, introduce the medium of video to the series. Netflix is the perfect partner to share and amplify the thoughtful and informative conversations the show is known for with an even greater audience.”

Advertisement

4

Stewart’s new deal with Netflix came after the network unexpectedly ended its relationship with Meghan Markle, a longtime fan of the lifestyle guru. 

However, despite Markle’s admiration for Stewart, the latter reportedly left the former distraught over remarks she made. 

According to The Blast, Stewart openly questioned the credibility of Meghan’s career transitions, saying:

“If you’re an actress, it’s hard to then transition to a princess and then from a princess into a homemaking guru on a television show. It doesn’t sort of follow.”

Following the statements, the Duchess was reportedly left upset by the candid assessment.

Advertisement

Coi Leray recently gagged her fans when she revealed how the song ‘Put It On Da Floor’ led to a physical fight with Brooklyn Nikole, who is Latto‘s sister. Soon after, a resurfaced clip appeared to show the sisters cackling about the same fight. Now, fans are divided about whether Big Mama meant to throw shade, as Coi first believed and lashed out over in April 2023.

RELATED: Yikes! Trippie Redd Seemingly Calls Coi Leray A Female Dog While Claiming He’s Not Allowed To See Daughter Miyoco

Coi Leray Says Brooklyn Nikole Fought Her On Latto’s Behalf

Coi Leray took fans back to 2023 when she told Jason Lee about a physical encounter with Latto’s sister, Brooklyn Nikole. She appeared on Lee’s self-titled show on Sept. 16, but teaser clips before then quickly spread online.

In one clip, the ‘No More Parties’ rapper admitted to throwing hands with Brooklyn. She explained that she was heated about Latto mentioning her in the track ‘Put It On Da Floor’ because she doesn’t like her name used for clickbait or clout, or to be mentioned in beef. The song was widely believed to be a diss at Nicki Minaj. 

In response to ever working with Latto, Leray said that, behind the scenes, the tension “went too far.” The rapper said she and Brooklyn fist-fought and she even re-fractured her knee in the confrontation. Coi said this happened pre-baby for both her and Latto, but the exact date is unclear. Though the confrontation with Brooklyn was physical, Leray said they never ended up “rolling around on the ground” with it. “I’m very strong,” Leray said, later admitting that Nikole swung on her first.

“She was defending her sister, felt like she had to defend her sister and me, I was defending myself.”

Coi Leray said all Latto had to do was hit her on the side to clear up that the lyric wasn’t shady, but she didn’t. “She let the fans eat that up,” the rapper said. Ultimately, Coi said she was the bigger person and squashed it.

Resurfaced Video Shows Latto Laughing Over Brooklyn’s Fight With “Female Rapper”

Amid Coi Leray revealing the fight with Brooklyn Nikole, the internet dug up an old clip of Latto and her sister talking on Snapchat. In the clip, Latto recalled Brooklyn getting herself in “that one fight” while laughing. Nikole affirmed she remembered and also laughed. Then, Latto said, “Brook put her hands on y’all favorite rapper, on y’all least favorite rapper.” The video is making its rounds as fans are connecting the apparent dots and claiming Latto was referencing the tussle with Leray.

Latto Previously Addressed Coi’s Body-Shaming Allegations

As mentioned, after ‘Put It On Da Floor’s initial release in 2023, Coi Leray clocked the lyrics online. She mentioned Latto in a tweet, accusing her of speaking on her body and warning her not to speak on anyone’s. “Lol like seriously . Out of all things . Lmaooo ya blunt my size ? Lmaooo this sh*t is never ending,” Coi wrote at the time. Minutes before the direct call-out, she had posted “let’s fight.” In additional posts at the time, Leray claimed that female rappers want to have beef “so bad,” like their male counterparts. Also, she said that anyone speaking about her body wants to have it. Her rant appeared to end after asking that her name not be mentioned in spaces where she’s not liked.

“If you don’t like me , support me or fwm don’t mention my name. Period. Sh*t don’t make sense. I don’t know none of you b*****s in real life. Stay in y’all lane and leave me outta the bullsh*t. I be minding my business and showing real love offline.”

While Latto didn’t return the energy online, she finally addressed Coi Leray’s tweets days later while performing at Coachella. While performing ‘Put It On Da Floor,’ she clarified that she loves Coi’s body.

“Smokin’ on that gas, blunt big as Coi Leray, B*****s like to run their mouths, but I’m the type to run the fade. When your diamonds hit like this, you never see the shade. Got the key to my city, they gave me a holiday b***h,” Latto rapped. Adding, “Aye Coi, by the way, I love yo body baby.”

Coi Leray later retweeted the video with a 100% emoticon and responded in a separate post. She wrote, “It was the diss record with my name on it that confused me. Much love to Latto! Appreciate the compliment.”

RELATED: Family Business? Ye & Big Sean Put Years Of Rumored Beef Aside With Surprise Reunion In Chicago (VIDEOS)

Sydney Sweeney’s relationship with Scooter Braun is reportedly facing pressure, with claims that one Hollywood agent believed the romance could affect how she is viewed in the industry.

Ari Emanuel allegedly encouraged the actress to reconsider dating Braun as she continues expanding her career beyond acting. However, reps for Emanuel have shared a different story.

Despite the alleged warning, Sydney Sweeney and Scooter Braun have remained together, while the actress continues making bold career moves that keep her in the spotlight.

3

Sweeney was reportedly advised to end her romance with Braun over concerns about how the relationship could affect her professional image.

According to Page Six, a source said, “Ari was telling her that if she wanted to be taken seriously as an actress and businesswoman, she needed to break up with Scooter.”

The alleged conversation reportedly happened months before Sweeney left Paradigm Talent Agency and moved to CAA. However, Emanuel’s representatives have strongly denied that he ever gave the actress such advice or had the interaction described in the report.

Braun was said to be unhappy when he learned about the alleged warning, particularly because he was said to have helped arrange the meeting.

Still, the situation did not appear to create lasting tension when Sweeney eventually joined CAA, with insiders indicating there were no hard feelings surrounding the move.

Scooter Braun Remains Firmly In The Actress’s Corner Despite Concerns

3

Whatever concerns may exist about Sweeney’s romance, Braun has continued to support her professional ambitions. The former music executive has reportedly taken a strong interest in her growing career and business ventures as their relationship developed.

Braun has remained one of Sweeney’s biggest supporters despite the alleged concerns surrounding their romance.

Their relationship, which began after they connected in 2025, has become increasingly serious, with Braun reportedly hoping marriage could eventually be part of their future. A source also said he thinks Sweeney is the “modern Marilyn Monroe.”

His support also comes as Sweeney expands beyond acting. She recently launched her lingerie company, Syrn, adding another business venture to a career that already includes major film and television projects.

Rather than distancing herself from Braun amid the reported pressure, Sweeney appears to be continuing with both her relationship and her ambitions on her own terms.

Sydney Sweeney Continues To Show Off Her Daring Side

Confirmed: Sydney Sweeney knows ball. pic.twitter.com/EXQ4PzVZsi

— Novig (@Novig) September 9, 2026

Advertisement

Sweeney has also continued embracing a more provocative public image as her profile grows.

The actress has attracted considerable attention through revealing appearances and projects that show she is comfortable pushing boundaries.

Among her recent moves was a nude campaign for a sports betting app, while her lingerie company has further placed her at the center of conversations surrounding her sex-symbol image.

Her return as Cassie Howard in the final season of “Euphoria” has also continued that daring streak. The actress’s huge confidence and career progress add another dimension to the concerns about how her relationship could affect her career.

Sweeney appears determined to make her own choices about both her personal life and the direction of her public image.

Scooter Braun Is Unbothered About Negativity Surrounding His Relationship

3

Braun appears largely unconcerned by the criticisms surrounding their relationship. A source close to him told People Magazine that he is “unfazed” by the negative reactions and even finds some of the attention amusing.

“He finds the headlines comical,” the insider said, adding that Braun considers the speculation “very funny.”

Despite the outside noise, the source maintained that the couple feels secure in their relationship and has no problems with trust.

Another insider close to Sweeney offered a similar picture, saying those around her find the negative coverage amusing because she is finally with someone confident enough not to be bothered by it.

The source also claimed the actress has “never been happier” since getting together with Braun.

Sydney Sweeney And Scooter Braun’s Relationship Keeps Waxing Stronger

Despite the reported outside concerns, Sweeney and Braun appear more committed to each other than ever.

Braun celebrated the actress’ 29th birthday with a romantic social media tribute that offered another glimpse into how serious their relationship has become.

“Happy birthday to the woman who is the exception to every rule,” the music mogul wrote alongside a video of the couple dancing and kissing.

He also praised Sweeney for showing him what “true partnership” could look like and said she makes him “smile harder, laugh louder, adventure more, and dream bigger.”

Advertisement

Braun ended the affectionate message by telling Sweeney, “I love you,” while looking ahead to “many more celebrations” together.

The public declaration comes after their romance gradually developed from something casual into a more committed relationship.

Many Criminal Minds episodes are difficult to watch. Some are gruesome, some are genuinely frightening, and others leave viewers staring at the credits in stunned silence, but Season 5, Episode 9, “100,” manages something far more painful: It makes the people hunting monsters feel completely helpless.

The episode, which aired in November 2009 as the series’ 100th installment, concludes the Reaper storyline that had been building since Season 4’s “Omnivore.” George Foyet (C. Thomas Howell) has spent months turning Aaron Hotchner’s (Thomas Gibson) life into a personal nightmare, and by the time “100” begins, the FBI agent has done everything he can to protect his family, but it still isn’t enough. Sixteen years later, “100” remains one of Criminal Minds’ most effective episodes because its violence is almost secondary. The real horror is watching Hotch realize he can do nothing.

‘Criminal Minds’ Makes Hotch’s Worst Fear Come True

Image via CBS

“100” wastes very little time establishing that the BAU is already behind. The episode opens with the team sitting through an internal investigation into Hotch, immediately revealing that something has gone terribly wrong. From there, the story rewinds to show how Foyet found Sam Kassmeyer, the U.S. Marshal responsible for protecting Hotch’s ex-wife Haley (Meredith Monroe) and their son, Jack.

Foyet has always understood that control matters more to him than simply killing people. In “Omnivore,” he manipulated Detective Tom Shaunessy into abandoning the Reaper investigation by offering him a deal. Hotch refuses to play along when Foyet offers the same bargain, making him the Reaper’s new obsession. By “100,” that obsession has become brutally personal.

After attacking Kassmeyer and stealing his phone, Foyet tricks Haley into believing that the people protecting her have been killed. He poses as the replacement marshal and convinces her to let him in. Hotch and the BAU are racing to find her, but Foyet has already anticipated their moves.

Haley’s Death Makes ‘100’ So Much More Than a Serial Killer Story

Image via CBS

Hotch’s relationship with Haley had never been simple. His dedication to the FBI repeatedly strained their marriage, and Haley spent years feeling as though she was raising Jack alone while her husband chased other people’s monsters. Their divorce was painful, but it never erased the fact that these two people loved each other.

As Hotch races toward the house, he is forced to speak with Haley over the phone while Foyet stands nearby. He knows what is happening, Haley knows what is happening, the audience knows what is happening, and no clever escape hatch is coming. Haley asks Hotch to tell their son how they met so that Jack will still believe in love. It is a heartbreaking request because it is simultaneously about her own death and the life she knows she is leaving behind. Hotch tries to stay composed for his son, even as he realizes he’s about to lose the woman he once planned to spend his life with. Foyet shoots Haley three times as Hotch and the rest of the BAU listen.

The episode didn’t need to show the murder to make it horrifying. The sound is enough. In fact, keeping the camera away from the actual shooting makes Hotch’s helplessness even more brutal. He is an FBI agent who’s spent his career learning to anticipate violence, and now all he can do is listen. Hotch is usually the person in the room who keeps everyone else calm. He is controlled, disciplined, and rarely lets his personal feelings dictate his decisions. But Gibson spends much of “100” showing exactly how much effort that composure requires.

When Hotch hears Haley being killed, there is nowhere for that control to go. His eventual confrontation with Foyet releases everything the character has been suppressing. Hotch finds Haley’s body, sees Foyet hiding behind the curtains, and unloads his gun. Foyet survives because he is wearing a bulletproof vest, and the two men then fight hand-to-hand. Even after Foyet surrenders, Hotch continues beating him until Morgan (Shemar Moore) has to physically pull him away. It is an ugly scene, deliberately so. The BAU has spent years asking whether hunting monsters can change the people doing the hunting. Now the show has its answer: Yes, it can.

That question was planted back in the Criminal Minds pilot. Showrunner Ed Bernero specifically wanted the 100th episode to revisit whether someone could spend their life hunting monsters without becoming one. Hotch killing Foyet with his bare hands — rather than the knife used in an earlier draft of the script — makes the point impossible to miss.

Why ‘100’ Still Hurts 16 Years Later

Image via CBS

The brilliance of “100” is that the audience already knows the destination. The opening scenes reveal that Hotch will face an internal investigation, and the episode becomes a countdown to the tragedy we know is coming — a structure that should make the episode less suspenseful. Instead, it makes every scene worse. And while “100” is not without flaws — Foyet’s seemingly endless ability to escape consequences requires a healthy suspension of disbelief, and Haley’s willingness to trust a stranger claiming to be a marshal can feel frustratingly convenient — none of that changes what the episode accomplishes emotionally.

Criminal Minds has killed beloved characters before and since, but Haley’s death permanently changes Hotch. The BAU doesn’t simply solve another case and move on to the next week because their leader has lost someone he loved because the monster he was hunting came after his family.

That’s why “100” remains the show’s emotional benchmark. It takes the fundamental premise of Criminal Minds — a group of people who understand monsters well enough to stop them — and asks what happens when understanding the monster isn’t enough.

Advertisement

Release Date

September 22, 2005

Advertisement

Showrunner

Erica Messer

Directors

Advertisement

Félix Enríquez Alcalá, Rob Bailey, Matthew Gray Gubler, Joe Mantegna, John Gallagher, Douglas Aarniokoski, Guy Norman Bee, Larry Teng, Nelson McCormick, Alec Smight, Charles S. Carroll, Rob Spera, Charles Haid, Diana Valentine, Rob Hardy, Tawnia McKiernan, Bethany Rooney, Karen Gaviola, Sharat Raju, Thomas Gibson, Aisha Tyler, Anna Foerster, Gloria Muzio, John Terlesky

Writers

Bruce Zimmerman, Virgil Williams, Edward Allen Bernero, Janine Sherman Barrois, Chris Mundy, Simon Mirren, Debra J. Fisher, Kimberly A. Harrison, Jay Beattie, Dan Dworkin, Karen Maser, Oanh Ly, Stephanie Sengupta, Aaron Zelman, Kirsten Vangsness, Erica Meredith, Andi Bushell, Holly Harold, Alicia Kirk, Jeff Davis, Randy Huggins, Edward Napier, Jayne A. Archer, Chikodili Agwuna

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Jennifer Aniston may have just found the easiest way to make a fall outfit look more expensive. The actress recently reached for a chocolate-brown crossbody, making a strong case for swapping lighter summer accessories for the rich, coffee-colored shade. Naturally, we found a similar style on Amazon for just $26.

On September 2, Aniston stepped out in New York City wearing a soft gray midi dress, gold jewelry and a structured chocolate-brown crossbody bag. She wore the strap slightly shorter so the bag sat higher on her side, giving the classic style a polished feel. Between the sleek shape and deep brown hue, it’s exactly the kind of accessory we want to pair with sweaters, denim and other fall staples.

Get the Apryl Structured Small Crossbody Bag for $28 at Amazon! Please note, prices are accurate as of the publishing date but are subject to change.

The Apryl Structured Small Crossbody Bag captures the same rich-looking aesthetic for a fraction of the price. Its chocolate-brown color looks strikingly similar to Aniston’s, while the structured silhouette and minimal design make it look much more expensive than its $26 price tag.

Made from soft, durable and water-resistant vegan leather, the bag features a front flap closure and polished gold hardware for an elevated finishing touch. The adjustable strap also lets you wear it as a classic crossbody or shorten it into a shoulder bag, making it easy to recreate Aniston’s styling.

Shoppers are already sold on its fall-ready versatility. One reviewer called it a “super cute fall bag,” adding that the “versatility is perfect” and it “can be an evening bag, a day bag and an errand bag.” Despite its compact silhouette, there’s still room for everyday essentials like a phone, cardholder, keys and lipstick.

Another buyer loved its adjustability, noting that it “can be worn as a cross-body or as a shoulder bag.” We’d pair the chocolate-brown version with a knit dress and loafers, jeans and a sweater or a classic trench once temperatures drop. At just $26, it’s an easy way to give your fall outfits the same rich-looking finish as Aniston’s purse.

Get the Apryl Structured Small Crossbody Bag for $28 at Amazon! Please note, prices are accurate as of the publishing date but are subject to change.

Looking for something else? Explore more from Apryl here and don’t forget to check out all of Amazon’s Daily Deals for more great finds!

UsNow Fall Sale Alert: These chic fashion finds are up to 60% off – plus free shipping

Welcome to fall with our biggest sale of the season. Our favorite dresses, tops, handbags, and shoes are all on sale + free shipping. Inventory is limited so hurry before they’re gone.

Shop the UsNow Fall Sale —>

Related: Martha Stewart Brought Back This *Very* Y2K Tote Bag Style

Advertisement

Martha Stewart just gave Us another reason to dig through our Y2K fashion archives. The lifestyle mogul stepped out carrying the kind of slouchy denim tote that would have looked right at home in the early 2000s — and suddenly, we want one again. Consider the throwback bag officially back on our fall radar. Stewart […]