Blumhouse’s Freaky Is Coming this Week To Theaters

Freaky is the latest horror flick from Blumhouse and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon who aims to put a terrifying twist on stories about switching bodies.

The film and revolves around the story of Millie (Kathryn Newton), a teenager who suddenly awakens in the body of a serial killer (Vince Vaughn) and must enlist the help of her friends to get her body back and stop the criminal who now looks like her before unleashing a massacre.

Landon directed from a script he co-wrote with Michael Kennedy. Jason Blum produced while Couper Samuleson and Jeanette Volturno executive produced.

Here’s the official synopsis for Freaky:

“Seventeen-year-old Millie Kessler (Kathryn Newton) is just trying to survive the bloodthirsty halls of Blissfield High and the cruelty of the popular crowd. But when she becomes the newest target of The Butcher (Vince Vaughn), her town’s infamous serial killer, her senior year becomes the least of her worries.

When The Butcher’s mystical ancient dagger causes him and Millie to wake up in each other’s bodies, Millie learns that she has just 24 hours to get her body back before the switch becomes permanent and she’s trapped in the form of a middle-aged maniac forever. The only problem is she now looks like a towering psychopath who’s the target of a city-wide manhunt while The Butcher looks like her and has brought his appetite for carnage to Homecoming.

With some help from her friends—ultra-woke Nyla (Celeste O’Connor), ultra-fabulous Joshua (Misha Osherovich) and her crush Booker (Uriah Shelton)—Millie races against the clock to reverse the curse while The Butcher discovers that having a female teen body is the perfect cover for a little Homecoming killing spree. The film also stars Alan Ruck, Katie Finneran, and Dana Drori.”

The name of the movie  is a reference to the ultimate body-swap movie Freaky Friday and will hit theaters on Friday, November 13th. Yup. Well thought-out!

Here’s the trailer for the movie below

What do you think?

James Wan Reveals The Conjuring 2 Demon That Was Replaced for Valak the Nun

Director James Wan has shared via Instagram some exclusive images of the impressive demon that could have been the Warren’s nemesis in ‘The Conjuring 2″, before they decided to replace it with Valak. He created it together with designer Aaron Slims from a previous concept that was going to be used in his Castlevania movie. Wan says that The Conjuring 2 is “one of my personal fav. I focused on character-storytelling above anything else.”

“Here’s my first design of the demonic entity haunting the family and Lorraine. Aaron Sims (concept designer) and myself took inspiration from our Dracula design for a movie I was attached to a long time ago called Castlevania.” Even after they had an animatronic suit made, it was not to be as he explained.

Fractured FX built an awesome animatronic suit, and we were going to augment it with CGI wings. But alas, during editing, I deemed this beautifully designed/sculpted horned demon too out of left-field for the film. It needed to be more grounded and personal — something that would take Lorraine’s faith and try to test/corrupt it.

The director recalled some personal experiences that he had to give The Conjuring 2 the right touch. “I remember the real-life Lorraine Warren talking about her love and reverence for her nun friends, and a lightbulb went off,” says Wan. “Thus… the Demon Nun was born. So we went back and replaced all the Horned Demon with the Nun during additional photography. I call the last image Beauty and the Beast.”

Valak was never pictured as a nun, the demon is traditionally described as a child with angel wings that rides on a two-headed dragon but thanks to Wan and the crew that worked on the idea, Valak is now an iconic figure in the world of horror.

What do you think? Would you have preferred this version of Valak?

This New Horror Film Is Said To Follow The Steps Of Jordan Peele’s Get Out

“His House” is a 2020 thriller film written and directed by Remi Weekes that had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020.

It tells the story of a couple of young immigrants from South Sudan trying to make a home after resettling as asylum seekers in the United Kingdom.

His House’s synopsis reads as follows: After making a harrowing escape from war-torn South Sudan, a young refugee couple struggle to adjust to their new life in a small English town that has an unspeakable evil lurking beneath the surface.

A first trailer has been released by Netflix and emphasizes how the couple is struggling to fit into their new neighborhood and how they’re treated differently in the first-world country they refugee themselves in. The caseworker states that they will be happy if they just prove themselves to be “…one of the good ones.” It also displays how in their new place resides something evil trying to come out of the dry walls of the house.

This will be Weekes’ debut feature film and stars Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù,  (Gangs of London) Wunmi Mosaku, (Lovecraft Country) and Matt Smith (The Crown). Javier Botet (It: Chapter 2) and Emily Taaffe (Ripper Street) are also part of the cast in this movie.

The film is being compared to the outstanding works of Jordan Peele like “Get Out” and “Us”, by delivering a well-crafted horror movie but that stresses issues of race and cultural which are necessary and timely topics at the present moment.

“Unlike traditional haunted house stories where the protagonist might be able to escape, our protagonists–two displaced asylum seekers–do not have the privilege to simply leave,” he explained. “Rather, they are stuck having to survive within their house. This is often the case in the U.K., where asylum seekers have to follow draconian rules when given accommodation. This is also often the case with trauma–you’re stuck having to find ways to survive your grief, and finding ways to heal within it.” said the director during a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.

‘His House’ will premiere in the streaming platform in October 30.

Netflix Is Gearing Up For A Sinister Halloween With This Upcoming Horror Movie

As we are approaching October, Netflix is getting ready for the spooky season with new horror movies and series. This time, it just released the trailer for a new Norwegian horror movie coming to the streaming platform this month, Kadaver.

The film is directed and written by Jarand Herdal and the story is set in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster,  leaving survivors without resources. Suddenly a charitable event will take place in a hotel to help those in need. That’s when Leonora (Gitte Witt), her husband Jacob (Thomas Gullestad) and their daughter Alice (Tuva Olivia Remman) accept the invitation.

The hotel’s director Mathias (Thorbjørn Harr) presents the entire hotel to them as the setting for a theater. Attendees are given masks to distinguish them from the actors, but things start to get weird as some members of the audience starts to disappear.

It all seems to be part of the show, though, when Alice disappears right in front of Leonora and Jacob, it becomes clear that things are not what they seem and that accepting the invitation they received might not have been a good idea.

It is a twisted story about survival, despair, hunger and immorality in a world without rules, presented through a gloomy spectacle.

The cast includes as mentioned early, Gitte Witt  (The impossible), Thorbjørn Harr (Vikings, July 22), Thomas Gullestad (The 12th Man) and Kingsford Siayor, known from Norwegian Netflix original ‘Home for Christmas’ as well as Maria Grazia De Meo (Kathrine), Trine Wiggen (Rakel), Bente Børsum (Vivian), Jonathan Rodriguez (David), Stig Frode Henriksen (Hans) and Helge Jordal (Ticketmaster).

Kadaver is being compared ‘Eyes Wide Shut‘ (1999) by Stanley Kubrick as for the masks, the dark colors of the hotel and even the soundtrack that we hear in the new trailer.

The film’s dark style has also been compared to ‘The Platform’ (2019), which is set in a futuristic world where the main message is a critique to both capitalism and socialist systems as the residents have to learn about a fair distribution of wealth under the worst circumstances in which hunger, despair and power talks for themselves.

The film is produced by Espen Horn and Kristian Strand Sinkerud from Motion Blur Films and it will be launched globally on October 22.

What do you think about the trailer?

 

The Unsettling Case Of The Watts Family Coming To Netflix This Week

Netflix has released a trailer for its upcoming true crime documentary, American Murder: The Family Next Door.

It tells the story of the Watts family, a marriage that had always been portrayed as happy, yet things were not what it seemed. Using raw, firsthand footage, unseen home videos, this documentary examines the disappearance of Shanann (who was pregnant at the time), and her daughters, four year-old Bella and three year-old Celeste.

It all started when Nickole Utof Atkinson, a friend of Shanann, dropped her back at home at around 2 AM after coming back from a business trip to Arizona on August 13. Husband Chris Watts was home with the girls. Atkinson got worried when couldn’t reach her friend through text messages, so she went to her house. Shanann’s car was there but no one attended the door. Atkinson called the police and notified Chris who was at work.

He becomes embroiled in the search, mentioning he had no idea where his family might be and even appearing on T.V. to plead for his family’s return.

Chris ended up confessing after failing a polygraph test and was arrested late on August 15 of that year, receving five life in prison sentences.

Watts was having an affair and had asked to separate from Shanann prior to her death. He told police Shanann had taken the lives of her two daughters in response to his request for separation and in a fit of rage, he strangled her in response. However, he later admitted the whole true and pleaded guilty.

His wife’s body was found in a shallow grave on the property of his former employer Anadarko Petroleum while the bodies of the two little girls were found hidden in oil tanks nearby.

Created by director Jenny Popplewell and Oscar-winning executive producer James Marsh (“Man on Wire” and “The Theory of Everything“), the documentary will be released on September 30.

‘The Exorcist’ Reboot Is Reportedly Coming In 2021

It’s time to take out your holy water and crucifix because in a recent Deadline article was mentioned that a reboot of William Friedkin’s 1973 horror classic ‘The Exorcist’ is being developed for the big screen.

Despite the casual mention, Morgan Creek Entertainment is said to be working on a new film adaptation of the iconic franchise and it may premiere in 2021.

Five years ago, the company claimed via Twitter that they will never remake The Exorcist.

 

However, it’s been described as a ‘reboot’ and not a remake, which may imply that it will have a direct narrative connection to the original film instead.

The Exorcist was inspired by American writer William Peter Blatty’s novel. The 1973 film was starred by Linda Blair as Regan MacNeil, a young girl who is possessed by the demon Pazuzu. The film also includes Ellen Burstyn as Regan’s mother, Jason Miller as Father Karras and Max von Sydow as Father Merrin.

It was the highest-grossing R-rated horror film for a long time. The cult film became one of the greatest horror films of all time. It received such critical acclaim that helped the film to be ten times nominated for the Oscars, winning for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound Mixing. It was the first horror film to be nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture.

The Exorcist has had a significant influence on popular culture ever since. There were four more movies after the original’s success: The Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), The Exorcist III (1990), The Exorcist: The Beginning (2004) and Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005).

More recently, Fox made a television series as a sequel to the original film in 2016 which was starred by Alfonso Herrera, Ben Daniels, Brianne Howey, Geena Davis, Hannah Kasulka and Brianna Hildebrand. However after two seasons, it got canceled.

The television series was overall well-received, yet the new film will face a complicated scenario considering that the spin-offs and prequels didn’t achieved such success as the original, but we’ll have to wait for this new upcoming adaptation to say otherwise.

At the moment, there’s still not much information about the possible cast or the director that will take on this great challenge.

Would you watch it?

‘The Haunting Of Hill House’ Director Will Be Working To Turn Stephen King’s Novel Into A Movie

Stephen King is not only one of the biggest horror writers in the history, but most of his works have been adapted into films, television series, miniseries, and comic books. His high standing in pop culture let us know that there is still a lot of material to adapt for those who enjoy his fearful stories jumping out from the pages of his books, up to the screens.

HBO recently adapted The Outsider (2018), to create one of the best horror series of the year. The novel tells the story of a murder that turns out to be much murky than it seemed. It’s considered by many to be one of King’s best new novels.

This time, his novel Revival (2014) is the one getting a movie. It is set in a small New England town and spans around five decades where a charismatic minister meets Jamie, a small boy that was playing with his toy soldiers.

Suddenly, a tragedy hits the boy’s family while the preacher mocks all religious belief and ends up being exiled. After a while, the boy becomes a musical nomad and an addict and meets the preacher again. But this time, they’ll face huge consequences.

According to Variety,  Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy who teamed up on the 2019 adaptation of King’s “Doctor Sleep”, will be working together again for the upcoming project. While Flanagan will be in charge of the script and direction, Macy will produce through Intrepid Pictures.

King’s horror novel received positive reviews, with many critics noting the book’s nods to classics of the horror genre, such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan, and the cosmic-horror of H. P. Lovecraft.

Mike Flanagan is one of the best horror directors right now after Netflix’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House‘ series turned out as a massive success and that makes us believe that Revival could become another great adaptation.

According to Flanagan, the script will keep the “bleak and mean” approach to Revival, especially the novel’s disturbing ending.

He appeared on the Kingcast podcast to reveal how much “fun” he’s having with this new project. “It is relentlessly dark and cynical and I’m enjoying the hell out of that.”

He even confirmed that the first screenplay draft is complete and has King’s approval. “What I love about it is it’s a return to cosmic horror, which I think is so fun,” he explained.

As for King’s followers, they will be able to enjoy another piece of work turn into an adaptation. However, details about the filming, the cast or the releasing date are yet to be revealed.

Would you watch it?

Netflix Buys This Reddit Horror Story To Turned It Into An Adaptation

Here’s the perfect example that if you have a creative idea on mind, it is worth sharing it to the world. You never know when it’s going to be your time to shine. Just like what happened to the Query brothers. From being a little creepy story to become an upcoming adaptation for one of the largest entertainment companies in the world.

Netflix has made a seven-figure deal to adapt the short horror story My Wife and I Bought a Ranch, which was first published on Reddit’s r/NoSleep forum.

Author Matt Query published the six-part story back in February, getting a lot of recognition among readers ever since. Only in the first part of the story, it earned more than 3000 upvotes.

Harrison Query, his brother, will be writing the screenplay while Scott Glassgold and his Ground Control Entertainment are producing the upcoming adaptation.

21 Laps’ Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum) & Dan Cohen (Stranger Things) and Atomic Monster’s James Wan (The Conjuring) & Michael Clear (The nun) are also in talks to produce the horror project.

The story follows Harry and Sasha, a couple who just bought their dream ranch in rural Idaho but soon discover that they are not alone in the mountains.

They meet their neighbors, who tells them that there’s an evil spirit in the valley and it manifests the same way at the beginning of each season. In order to keep the spirit out of the house, some steps should be followed. The violence and the tension keep growing after every ritual performed and the duel between the spirits and Harry turn personal.

Thereby,  “My Wife and I Bought a Ranch”, is the perfect proof that creative pursuits can be successful by posting them on Internet. Some stories that were shared just for fun are now turning into adaptations as well. So, don’t ever forget how much big companies are willing to pay for your work and turning it into a movie (or series).