Good day, avengers of all things closet-bound and feared. Hollywood kicked off the Halloween season with the Conjuring prequel Annabelle and audiences were ready to watch it. The supernatural thriller brought in an estimated $37.2 million over the weekend, taking second place to David Fincher’s mystery thriller Gone Girl. How about we get a mash-up between the two where a doll gets possessed by the spirit of Ben Affleck and turns a young innocent family into Oscar winners?
In smaller news, Robbie Pickering’s long-delayed comedy horror Kitchen Sink has been pushed back from its January 9, 2015, release date and will now hit theaters on September 4, 2015. The similarly long-delayed Mockingbird, from director Bryan Bertino, now has an official release date of October 7 for VOD outlets, with a Blu-ray/DVD release coming exclusively to Walmart (of all places) on October 21st. And for parody fans, Blacula and Scream, Blacula, Scream are coming to Blu-ray for the first time through Shout Factory.
And now, a Bigfoot project.
First Look at Bigfoot in Woodsy Horror Exists
Indie cinema is weird. This year we’ve already seen Bobcat Goldthwait’s Willow Creek, a Bigfoot tale that harked entirely too much back to The Blair Witch Project, and now we’re waiting on Blair Witch co-director Eduardo Sanchez’s Bigfoot horror Exists. We now have our first look at the cryptozoological beast’s back, as well as a clip from the film that may or may not show audiences the film’s inciting incident. The plot here isn’t complicated: five friends head out into Texan wilderness and get into an accident, one that puts them in the crosshairs of the legendary beast, who wants to murder them. Check out the clip below.
The first rule of summer vacation is "Don’t hit a fucking Bigfoot with your car," but I guess these guys never got that memo. It’s hard to get entirely excited for Exists, as it looks like basically any "group of people heads to a place and interrupts evil" flick that’s clogged cinema over the last decade or so. But the still seen above is encouraging, as it proves these guys are comfortable with sticking to practical special effects. A CGI Bigfoot would be embarrassing for all involved. Starring Chris Osborn, Dora Madison Burge, Roger Edwards, Samuel Davis, Denise Williamson and Brian Steele, Exists will hit VOD and a limited theatrical run starting October 24th. Call up your best abominable snowman friends and check it out.
More Creepy Stills from ABCs of Death 2
We were lucky enough to be a part of the exclusive image roll-out for ABCs of Death 2 this past week – find the "Head Games" still here – and now we have even more of them for you to alphabetize your fears by. (Find the full list here.) Above is the horrifying claymation tale of rebirth that is Robert Morgan’s entry for "D." Below you’ll see a moment from Nigerian director Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen’s segment, which was one of the more bizarre shorts, if not one of the best.
And now here’s a ghoulish shot from another truly odd short directed by Todd Rohal.
ABCs of Death 2 also features directors such as Vincenzo Natali (Cube), Julian Barratt (The Mighty Boosh), E.L. Katz (Cheap Thrills) and many more. Find it on VOD now and in theaters on October 31st.
Vampirism is a Man’s Best Friend in Summer of Blood Trailer
Brooklyn writer/director Onur Tukel may not be a household name just yet, but his upcoming festival hit Summer of Blood could launch him into the upper stratosphere of indie directors – that is, if the new trailer seen above is any indication. Tukel himself stars as Erik Sparrow, a social outcast who seems more comfortable ruining relationships than trying to make them work. He is dumped by a girlfriend after he refuses her marriage proposal, and then enters a rabbit hole of bad dates, ending with a white-eyed vampire turning Erik to the dark side.
As you can imagine, becoming a vampire turns Erik into a stud, and he gets his sex lust fulfilled as often as his bloodlust. Rather than just a film that makes fun of gore and murder, Summer of Blood appears to be an interesting character story about a man who doesn’t quite know what his place on Earth is. Also starring Alex Karpovsky (Girls) and Anna Margaret Hollyman (Gayby), this looks like the perfect feature to pair with Jemaine Clement and Taika Watiti’s What We Do in the Shadows. Find Summer of Blood in theaters and on VOD starting October 17th.
Bone Tomahawk Adds More to Already Amazing Cast
With some due respect to Jonah Hex, the world of horror westerns is just north of non-existent, and I’m really hoping S. Craig Zahler’s hyper-violent thriller Bone Tomahawk jumpstarts the sub-genre into the limelight. The film’s already stellar cast had a few new faces added to it this past week, as Lili Simmons (Banshee), David Arquette (Scream), Sid Haig (The Devil’s Rejects), Kathryn Morris (Cold Case) and Evan Jonigkeit (X-Men: Days of Future Past) are joining the previously cast Patrick Wilson, Kurt Russell, Richard Jenkins and Matthew Fox.
The film centers on four Wild West men who try to rescue a group of victims from a vicious squad of cannibal cave dwellers. While not everyone’s roles have been divulged, Simmons will be playing Wilson’s wife and the doctor in the community of Bright Hope. Arquette and Haig will work together as a pair of dirty criminals who set off a violent course of events. Morris will play Russell’s wife, and Jonigkeit will play a young deputy sheriff. Also starring Sean Young (Blade Runner) and Geno Segers (Banshee), Bone Tomahawk is currently filming for a 2015 release.
The Mule Trailer will Unnerve the Shit out of You
"Why won’t the prick shit?"
The above question isn’t one heard too often in cinema, popular or otherwise, but it’s almost the entire focus of The Mule, the upcoming Australian crime thriller directed by Tony Mahony and Angus Now. This film doesn’t exactly fit into the horror genre in the strictest sense of the word, but there are some truly horrific things in motion in the trailer. The darkly comedic flick premiered earlier this year at SXSW, and Entertainment One Films and XLRator Media should be releasing it later this year.
Based on a true story, The Mule takes place in 1983 and centers on Ray Jenkins (Sampson), a man who has lethal narcotics inside of his stomach. He’s detained by Australian cops, including an intense Hugo Weaving, and instead of this being an open and shut case, Ray refuses to "pass" the drugs through his system, and all the cops want is for him to take a shit. It’s one of those films that I assume will take a few hideously dark turns later in the film as Ray’s body starts trying to revolt on him. The cast also includes Fringe’s John Noble and Georgiana Haig (Once Upon a Time). I think I need to drink some Pepto now.
