You want horror? Lose your phone and laptop at the same time and then scramble to fix it all with different/older devices. *shudders* Not a great day, fiends. Anyway, here. We. Go…
Universal has completely pulled the plug on The Hunt in the wake of the horrific mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton. On the one hand, the film itself sounded incredibly stupid. “Rich liberal elites” hunting Republicans? Oh, fuck off. On the other hand, though, this sets a bad precedent blaming art, films, music, or video games as a source for real world violence. Like David Cronenberg said, “censors tend to do what only psychotics do; they confuse reality with illusion.” Wal-Mart has taken down signage for violent video games while leaving guns for sale. The world is getting dumber and scarier.
Pollyanna McIntosh’s directorial debut/follow up to Lucky McKee and Jack Ketchum’s The Woman, Darlin, will hit Blu-ray and DVD this September. Darlin’ is actually the third film in a series starting with Off Season, based on the Ketchum novel and directed by Andrew van den Houten. Mckee developed The Woman with Ketchum with McIntosh playing the titular character, a feral woman captured by a hunter and kept like an animal he’s trying to domesticate. I haven’t seen Off Season, The Woman is fantastic. Darlin’ has been well received critically and is currently streaming on Amazon and iTunes.
You know who’s great? Adam Wingard. I’ve liked everything he’s done so far. Yes, even Blair Witch. It was really solid. You know what else I like? Event Horizon. It was a better Hellraiser-in-space than Hellraiser: Bloodlines. Well, it was announced that Wingard will be helming an Event Horizon TV series for Amazon! I think that’s possibly the best news we’ve gotten this week, entertainment-wise.
Some out of left field news I did not expect, Guillermo Del Toro will be directing a new adaptation of William Lindsay Gresham’s dark crime noir novel Nightmare Alley. It was previously adapted in 1947 starring Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell. It was also adapted into a graphic novel by comix legend Spain. Del Toro promises it will be R-rated to bring out the books darker elements.
