Happy Sunday, fiends! Welcome back to your weekly highlight rundown of the week’s biggest horror news, let’s get current!
First up, the biggest news hands down, is that Jennifer’s Body, The Invitation, and Destroyer director Karyn Kusama has been tapped to direct a new Dracula for Blumhouse. This news comes on the heels of Leigh Whannell’s resounding success with his fresh take on The Invisible Man. Karyn Kusama is an inspired choice for this project, which, like The Invisible Man, will be set in modern times with a mid-range budget, and more creative freedom for Kusama and future Universal monster directors. The most recent work from Karyn Kusama can be seen in HBO’s series, The Outsider.
So how about we fan cast this new Drac! First up, our titular antagonist. The first name that came to mind was Granit Lahu, who played Garth in Jenn Wexler’s The Ranger. He’s got a mean edge, but can also pull off a sinister charm. For Van Helsing, I have two suggestions – Richard Brake or Malcolm MacDowell. Both experts at playing villains and both can bring a real gravity to a film. Either one would put us in Anthony Hopkins territory.
For Jonathan Harker, what if it were Joanne Harker? Addison Timlin of Like Me could walk us into the Count’s home at the beginning of the film and her Mina waiting at home? Chloe Levine, who played our hero in The Ranger. For Drac’s faithful servant, Renfield, can’t think of anyone better than indie legend Larry Fessenden. Then there’s Lucy Westenra. I really like Lilli Lorenz, who worked devilish magic in Luz.
Finally, for Dr. John Seward, let’s go with Graham Skipper, who has been awesome in so many great films, like The Mind’s Eye, The Green Room, and Bliss. Speaking of Bliss, we can’t forget Drac’s brides and Bliss star Dora Madison, flanked by Riot Girls’ Madison Iseman and VFW’s Sierra McCormick. Obviously, my taste tends to skew indie horror, but I think you want to avoid big star names that will suck all the air out of the room. And you still have MacDowell or Brake and Fessenden to provide the maturity and acting muscle among a younger cast.
I hope you weren’t too excited to see A Quiet Place 2 or New Mutants, because thanks to the Coronavirus both films, along with several others, have been pushed back. TV shows are halting production, and we can expect more work stops and fluid release dates in the near future. It sucks, but it’s better than getting sick and dying! So break out those Arrow, Severin, and Criterion films you bought, because we’re inside for a bit.
In Stranger Things season 4 news…oh production has shut down on that too. Ok, what’s up with the next season of Fear the Walking D… oh, production shut down. We get it!
Waxworks Records has revealed they’ll be releasing the full soundtrack for Friday the 13th: The New Blood, which is one of my favourite entries into the series, based on the concept and the look of Jason. Frankly, the movie itself has some flat acting from some of the side characters, and the MPAA forced director John Carl Buechler (RIP) to cut all his gore effects, so it’s far from a perfect film. However, Jason going up against a telekinetic is a great idea and I always have fun rewatching this one. Fred Mollin’s soundtrack has never been released before, so this is awesome! Sarah Deck provides amazing artwork for this double gatefold release. This is a must-have.
And finally, coming up for pre-order on March 27th is Second Sight’s 4K remastered special editions of George A Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and Martin! This is massive news because neither film has been available in the country…and they still won’t be, but many of Second Sight’s releases have been region free, but even if these aren’t, they are absolutely worth the cost of a region free player. No details have been released about what Martin will include, but Dawn will have the theatrical, director’s, and international cuts, all remastered for Blu-ray and Ultra HD. And the box for Dawn looks amazing!
