It’s the beginning of the month, and this March comes in like a lion with a ton of horror news! There’s some new trailers, a few big releases this week, and some massive announcements, including the release of a new George Romero film that has rarely been seen.
We got the first trailer for Minoru Kawasaki’s Monster Seafood Wars, which poses the question we’ve all been asking since Godzilla first made landfall in 1954 – what if kaiju were…delicious? I caught this one at Fantasia last summerand it was maybe the most fun I’ve had with a movie all year, besides Psycho Goreman. Check out the English trailer here, ahead of a limited Blu-Ray release around April from SRS.
We’ve been looking forward to the new animated entry into the Pacific Rim series, called The Black. Ahead of it’s release on Thursday (March 4), we’ve got a fresh new trailer for the kaiju actioner!
Craig Zobel’s The Hunt made a ton of waves last year, for many reasons, so it was big news when Deadline announced that his next project will be a science fiction thriller whose plot is a closely-guarded secret. The film will come from a script by Evan Spiliotopoulos (Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, Beauty & the Beast) and Andrea Berloff (Straight Outta Compton).
Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman is one of the most jarring, critically-acclaimed films of the year with an incredible performance by Carey Mulligan. For those that missed it on VOD or were wisely staying out of movie theatres, the film finally gets a digital release tomorrow (March 2) and a DVD/Blu-Ray release on March 16 from Universal. The release will include:
- Audio commentary by writer-director Emerald Fennell
- A Promising Vision – Writer/director Emerald Fennell discusses her inspirations for the film
- Two-Sided Transformation – A look at how casting, wardrobe, hair, and makeup were used to express the balance between light and dark
- Balancing Act – Cast members discuss their reactions to the film’s balance of levity and tragedy
Paramount+ is making some big moves, with the streaming newcomer announcing some massive properties coming to the service. Deadline reported that not only will a new Paranormal Activity film be added to the library (with creator Oren Pell producing), but a prequel film to 2019’s adaptation of Stephen King’s classic novel Pet Sematary will be arriving as well, from screenwriter Jeff Buhler.
Prano Bailey-Bond’s horror film Censor has been the source of a ton of buzz coming out of Sundance, where it had it’s world premiere as the opening film of the festival’s Midnight programme. Variety reports that Magnolia Pictures has picked up the film and has planned a June 11 release. Censor is about a film editor whose work leads to an unraveling mystery around her sister’s disappearance, and I can’t wait to see it.
With it’s release date coming on faster than a giant ape hauling ass towards the shore, we have the newest and final Godzilla vs Kong trailer, and holy moly is it a banger. If you listen close, you might even hear Kong utter a few words. Adam Wingard’s kaiju battle is a long time coming, but it’ll finally be unleashed on us on March 31, both in theatres and on HBOMax.
The world continues to do right by H.P. Lovecraft’s racist-ass legacy by providing opportunities for Black filmmakers to recreate his works. That was made particularly clear with Variety’s announcement that Spike Lee will produce a Cthulhu film, called Gordon Hemingway & the Realm of Cthulhu for Netflix. The film will be directed by Stefon Bristol (See You Yesterday) from a script by Hank Woon. It centres on a Black gunslinger who allies with an Ethiopian princess to rescue a king from the many-tentacled cosmic god Cthulhu.
The Hollywood Reporter gave us one of the most surprising and exciting announcements of the week with the news that a rarely-seen early George Romero film called The Amusement Park is coming to Shudder this summer. The film has a fascinating story that could be a film in itself. It was commissioned by the Lutheran Society (the only commissioned film Romero ever worked on) in the early 1970’s to convey the hardships and humiliating experiences that come with aging in America, through the eyes of an elderly man wandering through rollercoasters and crowds at, well, an amusement park. The zombie pioneer’s film was deemed too gruesome for audiences, though, and has been considered lost for years. Something tells me that the messages in The Amusement Park will still ring disturbingly true when Shudder brings it back to life this summer.
Not to step on the toes of Figure Friday, but NECA announced the latest addition to their Universal Monsters line of figures, with The Wolf Man (as portrayed by Lon Chaney in 1941) joining the previously-announced Frankenstein and The Mummy.
Speaking of action figures, I don’t know of a single person who wants to commemorate a single moment from 2010’s A Serbian Film, but Unearthed Films has a figure of Milos from that movie, if you want to cough up $100 for it. The figures will be individually-numbered and only a couple hundred will be made, so if you know someone that loves A Serbian Film enough to want one of these things, maybe you can wrap a restraining order around the figure or something.
Shudder has some great stuff on tap for March, including Brea Grant and Natasha Kermani’s excellent Lucky this Thursday (March 4) and the outstanding Koko-Di-Koko-Da on the 18th. Also on the 18th, the US market will also be lucky (heh) enough to experience Slaxx, Elza Kaphert’s screamingly funny and surprisingly deep haunted pants horror comedy. I’ve been waiting to rewatch this one for months since I saw it at Fantasia last summer, because no matter what you might be expecting from this film, Slaxx is determined to subvert those expectations in every way.
We’ll have more news in our next edition, but until then, have a great week, everyone!
