Horror movies

Described as The Purge with werewolves, Steven C. Miller‘s (Silent Night) Werewolves is headed our way this December, and the crazy official trailer has arrived this morning

The insanely cool premise? “One year ago, a Supermoon turned millions into werewolves. This December, it’s happening again.” Watch the Werewolves official trailer below!

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Brian De Palma’s insouciantly horrible masterpiece from 1976, adapted from the novel by Stephen King, and mixing in tropes and tricks from Hitchcock’s Psycho, is now rereleased. This is the extraordinary exploitation shocker that also conveyed – or anyway fabricated – an impassioned sympathy for a bullied teenage girl with learning disabilities and telekinetic powers. It was a horror classic that didn’t conform to the narrative beats of the genre; it was a scary movie in which the terrifying demon was also the final girl.

Sissy Spacek gives an amazing performance as Carrie, a shy high school student and put-upon daughter of Margaret (Piper Laurie), whose fanatical religious devotion and fear of sex – and fear of Carrie having sex – stems from having been seduced and abandoned by Carrie’s now absent father many years previously. Poor, innocent Carrie still has not started her period, and when this happens in the showers after a volleyball game, she panics uncomprehendingly and the mean girls humiliate her by throwing tampons and chanting: “Plug it up!” Gym teacher Miss Collins (Betty Buckley) is outraged and – angrily smoking a cigarette and still wearing her PE shorts in the principal’s office – decides to hand out exemplary punishments to this crowd of bullies. This takes the form of a mortifying workout session which so enrages the queen-bee bully Chris (Nancy Allen) that she resolves to take a satanically wicked revenge on Carrie at the prom...

2022’s Smile was quietly one of the most profitable studio movies of the last few years. Originally designed as a low-budget movie for Paramount Plus, a round of excellent test screenings resulted in Paramount Pictures opting to give it a theatrical release. The result was a movie that grossed over $217 million worldwide on a $17 million budget. It immediately established writer/director Parker Finn, who adapted the movie from his own short (Laura Hasn’t Slept) as a horror phenom, and the release of his ambitious sequel is one of the bigger horror events of the year.

So, how does Smile 2 stack up to its sleeper-hit predecessor? Amazingly well, it turns out. Boasting a bigger budget, Parker Finn’s taken what could have been a run-of-the-mill sequel and elevated it to truly dazzling heights. I liked the first movie well enough, but I wasn’t prepared for how much fun the sequel was right off the bat.

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My only question about Smile 2 is what its reception by horror fans will be like- the film is so unapologetically camp that I wonder if some fans of the lower-key original might be put off. For me, it was the opposite, as Smile 2 dwarfed its predecessor, but it could rub people the wrong way with its heavy doses of pitch-black comedy. However, Finn also doesn’t skimp on the gore, with it being more gruesome than the original and having a big payoff, which is an all-timer for me as far as these things go. Indeed, I was shocked at how much I loved Smile 2. For me, it’s one of the more entertaining films I’ve seen this year, with the two-hour-plus running time racing by. It’s an all-out gore-soaked blast.

A new trailer for The Monkey, based on the Stephen King short story of the same name, has arrived – and it's seriously unnerving.

In the clip, which can be viewed below, we see a series of terrifying, freak accident deaths, involving blood, fire, and an electrified swimming pool. "Everybody dies," one character remarks. "And that's life." These deaths, however, seem to have a supernatural cause, revolving around that creepy monkey...

You can read on for more plot but all I need is this:

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cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18769198

Sean Astin may not be getting the Goonies sequel he’s hoping for, but he does have a role in an upcoming movie that has a shot at achieving cult classic status: a horror comedy called The Invisible Raptor, which will be receiving a theatrical and digital release (courtesy of Well Go USA) on December 6th. The film had its world premiere at the 2023 Sitges Film Festival and currently, with seven reviews, has a 100% fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Directed by Mike Hermosa from a screenplay by Mike Capes and Johnny Wickham, The Invisible Raptor has the following synopsis: After a top-secret experiment goes wrong, a hyper-intelligent invisible raptor escapes the lab and begins wreaking havoc in the surrounding neighborhood. When the creature’s identity is uncovered, it soon becomes clear that a disgraced paleontologist—alongside his ex-girlfriend, an unhinged amusement park security guard, and a local celebrity chicken farmer—is the town’s only hope for surviving the raptor’s ravenous rampage.

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The positive reviews of The Invisible Raptor have described it as “the smart version of a stupid movie,” “hilariously dumb,” “downright batshit,” “joyously silly,” and “inventive throughout,” and it’s said to have “likeable characters” and some “genuinely entertaining gore.” That sounds like a good time to me, so hopefully a trailer will be dropping online soon.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/18769539

Currently decimating theaters as the #1 film in the country, Terrifier 3 will make viewers vomiting and passing out in the comfort of their own home at a later date.

The unrated slasher sequel is up for pre-order on SteelBook 4K Ultra HD, 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD from Bloody Disgusting, SCREAMBOX, and Cineverse.

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Amazon’s exclusive Collector’s Box Set includes the film on 4K UHD + Blu-ray along with a Terrifier 3 ornament, Art the Clown mini mask, Terrifier 3 barf bag, Art the Clown enamel pin, Terrifier 3 box of soap, and Art the Clown selfie Polaroid replicas

Are you shocked to learn the author of /Film's three Halloween Horror Nights articles this year is a haunted attraction addict? Invite me to your Halloween mazes, hayrides, docked ocean liners, and Shaqtoberfests. I crave haunt season entertainment. Even better, I crave "Haunt Season Horror" movies. Is that trademarked? Can I coin that terminology?

Haunt Season Horror titles must take place in a Horror Nights-like maze or immersive experience, turning seasonal amusements into slaughterhouse backdrops. Marquee examples would be "Hell Fest," your corporate-branded Six Flags Fright Fest take, or "The Houses October Built," which ventures into the less moderated realm of do-it-yourself haunts. These films prey upon the rational fears of patrons who attend these pop-up "Scarehouses," stripping away the safety of regulated horror experiences. What happens when a killer infiltrates a place where commercial terror is purchased at a premium? It's the ultimate Halloween treat.

Unfortunately, there's a shallow pool of options to bob for, with many poison apples amongst the sweeter treats. My perfect trifecta would be "Hell Fest," "Hell House LLC," and "The Houses October Built," with "The Funhouse Massacre" on standby. You have a supernatural found-footage banger, another found-footage creepshow hinging on spoiled attraction tropes, and then a studio slasher decked out in the holiday spirit. These features indulge horror fans and exploit Halloween's headlining celebrations for relatable scares, proficient in understanding the "possible" risks of attending haunts that fall into the wrong hands (search "McKamey Manor" or watch "Haunters: The Art of the Scare" for the closest real-life instance)...

Oddity has become a major streaming hit after earning 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. Directed by Damian McCarthy, the Irish horror film premiered at SXSW in spring 2024, where it was met with a glowing reception from those in attendance. Starring Carolyn Bracken, Gwilym Lee, Johnny French, Steve Wall, and Caroline Menton, among others, the Shudder original tells the story of a psychic medium as she attempts to uncover the truth about her sister's murder, with Oddity reviews praising the scares, atmosphere, and filmmaking...

... Critics praise Oddity for its inventive scares and haunting horror atmosphere. The film features a persistent sense of dread throughout, that makes even more straightforward dialogue scenes unnerving. This undercurrent of unease culminates in some moments of true terror throughout Oddity's runtime, and these moments are made all the more effective due to the strong performances of cast members like Bracken, Lee, and French, among others.

Another major point of praise is Oddity's ending. While many horrors feature a strong premise and an intriguing mystery to get audiences hooked, critics seem to agree that McCarthy's film sticks the landing. The final moments of the movie, without delving into spoiler territory, ultimately bring the story full circle in an effective way. The ending ultimately means that Oddity isn't a watch-and-forget horror movie, and the experience is sure to stick with viewers even after the credits have finished rolling...

Arriving on the heels of Joker Folie à Deux and Terrifier 3, Smile 2 is the third multiplex offering in as many weeks to boast creepily grinning fiends. And while this latest clown-ish sequel is superior to those recent duds, it remains a small step down from its 2023 predecessor.

Once again charting a woman’s attempts to stave off insanity and death at the hands of an invisible demon that possesses and feeds on its human hosts, writer/director Parker Finn’s follow-up is technically accomplished and ambitiously unconventional, at least insofar as it sets its action in a milieu—the pop stardom universe—that isn’t a natural fit for unholy frights. Alas, that environment, as well as a dearth of genuine surprises, ultimately handicaps this polished thriller, even if it does reconfirm the filmmaker’s standing as a preeminent purveyor of jump scares.

There are two excellent jolts in Smile 2, and the fact that there aren’t more is perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this supernatural nightmare. Finn is adept at utilizing silence, empty background space, and slow zooms to create anticipation for disturbing shocks, and he’s just as skilled at supplying startling payoffs...

edit: adding the key:

A mixture of H.P. Lovecraft’s From Beyond, The Blair Witch Project, and the real-life Project MKUltra experiments conducted by the U.S. Government from the 1950s to early 1970s, Banshee Chapter is an impressively adept and character-focused horror movie.

The horror classic Nosferatu gets a brand new makeover from acclaimed director Robert Eggers (The Witch, The Lighthouse) this holiday season, and Focus Features invites you to sink your teeth into the official trailer this morning. Succumb to the darkness down below.

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Guillermo del Toro is adapting Mary Shelley’s classic horror novel Frankenstein for Netflix, and the Oscar-winning filmmaker has been keeping us updated on the production these last several months via his official Twitter account. Shooting kicked off back in February, and del Toro has taken to Twitter this morning to announce that production is now complete.

Del Toro tweets, “Shooting has been completed on “F” – Joy!!!”

Jacob Elordi will be playing Frankenstein’s monster in Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of the classic Mary Shelley novel, alongside Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, and Oscar Isaac.

Ralph Ineson (The Witch, The First Omen) will make a “pivotal” cameo appearance in the film

M. Night Shyamalan is the producer for an upcoming thriller titled Caddo Lake, formerly The Vanishings At Caddo Lake, and the official trailer has been released this afternoon

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“The plot revolves around when an 8-year-old girl mysteriously vanishes on Caddo Lake, a series of past deaths and disappearances begin to link together, forever altering a broken family’s history.”

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The inspiration for Caddo Lake was sparked after filmmakers, Celine Held and Logan George, came across a photograph of the real Caddo Lake online, leading to many visits to the cypress forest that rests on the border of Texas and Louisiana. The film was shot in late 2021 and 2022 in and around Karnak, Texas.

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IMDb

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17805465

Horror can be a difficult genre to get into. While its fans enjoy feeling the tension provided by a good horror movie, those who are less experienced with the genre often don't enjoy that feeling. But, for many, a comedic tone can help to remedy this issue.

Horror comedies are a great way to get into the genre. Horror is all about building tension, but laughter is all about relieving it. As a result, the best horror comedies don't stay tense for too long because they know when to put audiences on edge, while also knowing when to make them feel comfortable with a joke. The filmmakers behind these movies expertly blend screams and laughs to create horror films that are perfect for those who don't typically like the genre.

1. 'Evil Dead II' (1987)
2. 'Shaun of the Dead' (2004)
3. 'Zombieland' (2009)
4. 'Ready or Not' (2019)
5. 'The Cabin in the Woods' (2012)
6. 'Gremlins' (1984)
7. 'Freaky' (2020)
8. 'Tucker & Dale vs. Evil' (2010)
9. 'Killer Klowns from Outer Space' (1988)
10. 'Happy Death Day' (2017)

It looks like we have a full-blown modern slasher icon with a franchise that just won’t quit. Terrifier 3 hasn’t even hit theaters yet, but the film did premiere at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas last night. This marks Art the Clown’s third solo cinematic parade of carnage. Well, it looks like director Damien Leone intends to keep the blood coming as the filmmaker has confirmed that a fourth entry in the franchise is indeed happening. Buckle up, gorehounds.

“Yes there will be a Terrifier 4,” Leone said during the Q&A, which was attended by Fango’s own Angel Melanson. So there we have it! Nothing further was confirmed at this time, though that seems fair given that most of the world has yet to even see the third installment. Without giving too much away, the film does very much pave the way for another sequel.

After two movies and two seasons of a TV series, Outback murderer Mick Taylor will return in Wolf Creek: Legacy, recently announced as both the third installment and something of a reboot of Greg McLean’s horror franchise. But have no fear, John Jarratt is back as Mick Taylor.

What can we expect from Wolf Creek: Legacy? Speaking with David Clair-Bennett for his YouTube channel this week, John Jarratt teased a tone more in line with the original Wolf Creek.

“It’s dark and creepy again,” Jarratt teases. “It’s more like the first one. With the second one, we had a bit of fun. Cracked a few jokes. For this one, the dark creepy thing is the ultimate when it comes to playing Mick. Just creeping up and being scary.”

Jarratt adds, speaking about Mick Taylor, “He never runs, never yells, never dies.”

The actor notes in the same chat that the team is hoping to begin production sometime early next year (February-March), with a potential release around the holiday season in 2025.

In the wake of the film’s World Premiere at Fantastic Fest this Sunday, September 22, Benjamin Barfoot’s horror movie Daddy’s Head is coming to Shudder on October 11.

Watch the official trailer for Daddy’s Head below.

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In the film, “In the wake of his father’s untimely death, a young boy is left in the eerie solitude of a sprawling country estate with his newly widowed stepmother. Struggling to navigate the overwhelming task of parenthood, his stepmother grows distant, leaving their fragile bond at risk of collapse. Amidst the growing tension, the boy begins to hear unsettling sounds echoing through the corridors, and is soon haunted by the presence of a grotesque creature bearing a disturbingly familiar resemblance to his late father.

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According to The Numbers, The Crow debuted in 2,752 North American venues on August 23 and ended its theatrical run on September 12 with a gross of $9,528 from 297 locations. During its domestic run, The Crow grossed nearly $9.3 million domestically and $6.2 million internationally for a worldwide tally of $15.5 million.

According to Variety, The Crow had a $50 million production budget before prints and advertising.

The Crow made its digital streaming debut via premium video on demand on September 13, a day after the film ended its theatrical run.

The new horror and science fiction anthology, “Deepest, Darkest,” has added yet another cast mate to its already stellar lineup of genre heavyweights.

Rahul Kohli, a beloved member of Mike Flanagan’s Flanaverse (“The Haunting of Bly Manor,” “The Fall of the House of Usher”) and essential teammate in the crime-solving “iZombie” series, has officially joined the star-studded cast of “Deepest, Darkest,” a new horror anthology from writer and director Marc Bernardin and actor Tiffany Smith.

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Kohli joins the previously announced cast of Smith (“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3”), Rosario Dawson (“The Mandalorian,” “Ahsoka”), Ernie Hudson (“Ghostbusters”), Yetide Badaki (“American Gods”), Phil LaMarr (“Futurama,” “Samurai Jack”) and “Quantum Leap” stars Raymond Lee and Caitlin Bassett.

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The anthology promises a genre-blending mix of horror, dark comedy, suspense and sci-fi, with a pitch that reads: “Have you ever had a secret? One so big, so awful, so horrifically extreme that you had no choice but to keep it to yourself? Something that if anyone else knew, that revelation would shift your world on its axis? What if there was someone whose job it was to listen to those secrets — because she could never remember them? What would you pay for absolution?”

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The film is currently raising funds through a Kickstarter campaign, which has raised $128,000 toward its $250,000 goal. “Kickstarter is always a gamble,” says Bernardin. “But I believe there’s an audience out there that might embrace a collection of cinematic short stories that aim to thrill and scare and provoke while also celebrating voices who don’t often get to be at the center of narratives like this.”

McAvoy is the most compelling reason to see this one. The original may be darker, but it didn’t have McAvoy. He’s able to project the kind of careless bonhomie that initially seems to indicate fundamental decency lying beneath the edgy jokes – but by the time Ben and Louise start to realise that he is also missing a few fundamental components of humanity they are in too deep. In fact McAvoy’s performance is a neat nod to everything you’ve ever heard about the geniality and easy charm of Ted Bundy and his ilk; it’s true that manners don’t cost anything, but they also guarantee nothing.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/17574760

In her “Krazy House” review for IndieWire, critic Katie Rife described writer/directors Steffen Haars and Flip van der Kuil’s absurdist Dutch horror comedy as testing “the limits of taste.”

With its hyper-violent style and blasphemous dark humor, the latest feature from the filmmakers behind “New Kids Turbo” and “Bros Before Hos” also inspired Rife to write that their movie was “like an Adult Swim infomercial directed by black-metal teenagers.” That’s a point of pride in the outrageous project’s equally unapologetic first trailer — which debuted exclusively with IndieWire after “Krazy House” made its divisive world premiere at Sundance in January.

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“That was never going to work for Tim,” Abdy said about making the “Beetlejuice” sequel for streaming. “You’re talking about a visionary artist whose films demand to be seen on a big screen.”

The big issue between Burton and the studio was that the projected budget for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” at one point was around $147 million, largely due to “star salaries and producer fees.” That’s when De Luca and Abdy approached Burton and said he could make the sequel for an exclusive theatrical release as long as he got the budget down below the $100 million mark. They worked together to greenlight “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” for $99 million, with Burton and cast members Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega and Catherine O’Hara agreeing to less money up front but sizable back end deals that will now surely pay off since the sequel is a box office hit.

Splat Pack veteran Alexandre Aja tries his hand at family-in-peril horror along the lines of the Quiet Place franchise with Never Let Go. But mostly, the French director just succeeds in making us miss his entertainingly trashy swerves into B-movie pulp, with creature features built around ravenously bitey carnivorous fish (Piranha 3D) or giant Florida gators riled up by a hurricane and flood (Crawl). Whatever their strengths and weaknesses, those movies were fun popcorn entertainment with teeth. Fun is banished from Aja’s latest, which starts out mildly intriguing and chalks up a few bracing jump scares before running out of juice.