In honor of this revered, august, sacred day, I thought I’d take a little peek at what’s to come in the world of horror…at least so far as it’s interesting to me. So read on for news of in-production slashers, currently -playing thrillers and maybe even an occasional brilliant recommendation.
Starting with something a bit out of the ordinary, we have Danny Boyle’s theatre production of Frankenstein, starring Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch (the handsome guy who plays Holmes in Stephen Moffat’s Sherlock series.) The cool twist, aside from being a live action version of the story, is that Miller and Cumberbatch alternate playing the roles of the doctor and the monster nightly. However, according to this FEARnet review, the story is unfortunately thin, despite the actors’ clear enthusiasm, and Boyle bogs down the production with an endless train of special effect gimmicks.
Ridley Scott is currently filming his Alien-prequel Prometheus. From what I can tell it involves the terraforming of a planet and some evil scientist who creates the Aliens and sends them to kill settlers so he can reap the bounty of the planet’s natural resources. It has quite a large cast, including Michael Fassbender, Idris Elba, Charlize Theron and Guy Pearce. However I don’t feel very excited about the plot…whenever ‘terraforming’ is used in sci-fi these days it tends to turn into some kind of global warming allegory. Also, no one can replace Sigourney. Ever. (Well, except maybe Sarah Michelle Gellar who can do anything.)
The remake of Straw Dogs, Peckinpah’s classic bloody, psychological drama/horror, will be released in September. The original is rather hard to watch, and this one will be too (they’re calling it a “hard R”) so by all accounts I would have no interest in the remake. But then they went and cast James Marsden as the lead Dustin Hoffman character. I just can’t say no to him (call me, James!) and that includes the possibility that one day I’ll find myself watching Hop. Talk about horror.
Victor Salva, convicted child molester and child pornographer and director of Jeepers Creepers (which is a film I unfortunately enjoyed, mostly due to the brother-sister dynamic in the face of evil) has a new horror film coming out. It stars Rose McGowan, whom I also have a soft spot for, as a radio talk show host who comes back to her hometown after her alcoholic father dies. There she discovers the local paperboy is a sociopath who might also be a serial killer and she finds herself in a fight for survival. Rose McGowan in a climactic battle? Yes please. Victor Salva? Isn’t he what Blacklists are for? Find another guy to press record on the camera.
Marti Noxon (of Buffy writing fame) and her Fright Night remake keeps trucking along. Starring David Tennant as a vampire who moves next door, this campy, humorous, potentially brilliant scary movie is starting to get me rather enthused. It also stars Toni Collette, and for some reason Colin Farrell. Check out a pic of Tennant as a glam vamp, and look for the trailer online (it’s being released today.) Update: Bleeding Cool has a (Tennant-free) trailer. It actually looks rather good.
One small piece of news, though enormous for its coolness factor, is that the great Michael Biehn is in talks to join The Darkness, a thriller about, well, a world that has gone completely dark and then the electricity grid falls under the new demand.
Also looking pretty fantastic is Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. Who knew vampires were behind the Civil War? Well, Giles, probably, but he didn’t tell anyone.
And last but not least, Dimension is starting to try and drum up support for a Scream 5. Scream 4 did rather pitifully at the box office, and as followers of this incisive, relevant blog might recall, I wasn’t a huge fan of it. Nonetheless, it seems I’m a complete glutton for punishment, or else have severe memory loss, because I would totally support further adventures of Sidney Prescott. And that’s key; this next movie must focus more entirely on Sidney Sidney
"How much do you love @Scream4? How badly do you want #Scream5? Come up with a clever tweet and we'll RT!" (Per Dimension’s twitter)
Have a fantastic weekend everybody!
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