Good day, cravers of all things visceral and bacon-scented. It’s a pretty huge weekend for theatrical horror, even though it's of the limited variety. Kevin Smith’s psycho body horror flick Tusk is out, as is Adam Wingard’s thriller The Guest. The question is, would you rather watch Dan Stevens kick some ass or watch Justin Long scream his ass off?
Smaller headlines this week include Gerald "Major Dad" McRaney joining D.J. Caruso’s thriller The Disappointments Room, which is now set for a September 25, 2015 release by Relativity Studios. Sony Pictures spent a bunch of money acquiring the thriller In the Deep, which is described as "127 Hours meets Jaws." TWC-Dimension surprisingly pulled Amityville: The Awakening and Demonic off of their schedule without much of a reason. Finally, check out the ridiculously lame new poster for Insidious: Chapter 3, which showcases a vent and a childish half-story. Scary!
And now, a woman’s private parts will eat a dude’s face for your enjoyment.
V/H/S Viral Delivers a Mayhem-Strewn Red Band Trailer
What the fuck was all that about? Like its two predecessors, V/H/S Viral is a found footage anthology film with several different writers and directors creating disassociated shorts that aim to shock and dismay. This third entry appears to be leaving behind the "house where the videotapes are found" and instead takes place within an L.A. where people aiming to capture the next viral video are instead forced to experience their worst nightmares. And the red band trailer seen above offers a look at what each of these terrifying situations looks like. I love it.
People with glowing eyes and mouths and Cthulhu-like lower torsos? Check. A woman inexplicably falling into her chair, like Nancy on A Nightmare on Elm Street? Check. A cop threatening to tase someone before being demolished with a vehicle? Check. With a director list that includes the fabulous Nacho Vigalondo (Timecrimes), Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Resolution), Todd Lincoln (The Apparition), Marcel Sarmiento (Deadgirl) and Gregg Bishop (Dance of the Dead), V/H/S Viral seems primed to make the first two films look like child’s play. Except for Gareth Evans’ segment in V/H/S/2, which was magical. Find out if my enthusiasm is all for naught when V/H/S Viral hits VOD on October 23, just in time for Halloween, with a limited theatrical run starting November 21.
Dead Snow 2 Trailer Fills Your Week’s Nazi Zombie in a Tank Quota
Zombie movies are a dime a dozen these days, so it takes some rather extraordinary subject matter to make one of the sub-genre’s offerings stand out. Norwegian director Tommy Wirkola knows a thing or two about standing out, and his upcoming sequel Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead has been lauded as the best zombie horror comedy since Shaun of the Dead. That’s a hefty claim to make, but the trailer above makes it clear that Dead Snow 2 has definitely ramped up every aspect that made the first film such a fun romp.
Starting up not long after the first film ended, this sequel puts sole survivor Martin (Vegar Hoel) right back into the madness, as his infected severed arm has been surgically reattached, and the zombified germs inside are quite vengeful. The evil Nazi zombie warlord Herzog (Ørjan Gamst) and his undead military are still out there, so Martin calls upon the assistance of an American squad of zombie fighters (Martin Starr, Jocelyn DeBoer, and Ingrid Haas), none of whom have ever actually seen a zombie before. But that’s all right, because Martin is able to call upon the assistance of a bunch of undead Russian POWs for an all-out war. Get in on all the ridiculously bloody fun when Dead Snow 2: Red vs. Dead gets a limited theatrical release on October 10, the same day it hits VOD.
I Saw the Devil Remake May Have Founds Its Writer/Directors
When it was announced last year that Kim Jee-woon’s I Saw the Devil was getting an Americanized remake, the world was just getting used to ignoring the shit out of Spike Lee’s completely unnecessary and watered-down Oldboy redo. As such, it wasn’t very well-received news. But now it’s been revealed (via The Wrap) that indie filmmakers Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett are on board for the adaptation, along with production company Snoot Entertainment, which produced Wingard’s films You’re Next and The Guest. Dredd producer Adi Shankar is also part of the team. Check out Wingard’s confirmation/reaction to the leaked news below.
Wingard will direct from a script written by Barrett, presumably sticking to the story of a nuts-as-hell killer whose latest victim puts him in the sights of another man who will stop at nothing to get his exceedingly violent revenge. The original was a boundary-pushing achievement that doesn’t need to be retold. But since it's happening anyway, I'm glad it's by filmmakers of whose past work I am a fan. The pair also worked on segments in the V/H/S films and Pop Skull, among other things. As a way of assuring fans and naysayers alike, Wingard also tweeted that he also hated the Oldboy remake. Here's hoping they find the perfect way to approach this material.
Fargo Creator is Penning One of Universal’s Monster Movies
Last year, writer/producer Roberto Orci raised a lot of eyebrows by talking about resurrecting the classic Universal monster lineup, and this year saw his former Hollywood partner Alex Kurtzman and Fast & Furious franchise writer Chris Morgan officially taking over a connected cinematic universe. Kurtzman is already set to direct 2016's The Mummy as the first of the new regime, and it was recently revealed that Noah Hawley, who adapted the Coen brothers’ Fargo into the stellar award-winning FX series, is currently scripting another one of the Universal films. Unfortunately, we’re not quite sure which one.
Hawley spent years writing for and producing Fox’s Bones, and also created the short-lived 2009 series The Unusuals. He certainly upped his game with Fargo, which makes his presence in a big monster movie pretty interesting. But which one will it be? It seems likely that Universal will want to push another one of their major players to the forefront, despite the fact that we’re already bogged down with Frankenstein movies, and Dracula Reborn is coming up soon. Will they return to the Wolfman mythos so soon after 2010’s The Wolfman, or will they attempt to tackle (relatively) new territory with the Invisible Man or the Creature from the Black Lagoon? Here’s hoping for the latter, as I absolutely loved the original.
Eli Roth-Produced The Stranger Drops Effectively Creepy Trailer and Poster
If a bearded man arrived on your front step one night and asked about the dead woman that used to live in your house, you’d have reason to be somewhat wary. Just pray that it isn’t Peter (Nicolás Durán), a man who returns to his hometown after years of being away, with the goal of stopping a deadly disease at the end of the world. Or something. The official synopsis for The Stranger doesn’t give away much, and the trailer above gives away even less, laying out a bunch of dead, bloody bodies and some guy with bloodied bandages covering his face. Don’t expect the film’s new poster to explain any more of it, either.
Regardless of its subject matter, The Stranger looks like a solid flick, and it’s the English-language debut for writer/director Guillermo Amoedo, who has been in Eli Roth’s camp for the past few years. The two, along with Nicolás López, wrote 2012’s Aftershock and Roth’s upcoming thrillers The Green Inferno and Knock Knock. Both Roth and López are producers on The Stranger, which made its world premiere at Fantastic Fest this weekend. No distributors have snatched this dark flick up just yet, but I can’t imagine it’ll be too long, as this legitimately looks like one of the better indie horrors of 2014.
