This week’s edition of The Week in Horror has vampires, puppets, teddy bears, pervasive insects, and so much more! Let’s not waste any more time with chit-chat, because there’s even more spooky business to get down to this week.
After Natasha Kermani’s Lucky, I couldn’t wait to see what the director would do next. Well, Deadline reported this week that Kermani’s next project will be an adaptation of Joe Hill’s Dracula-centric story, Abraham’s Boys. According to Deadline, “the plot follows Max and Rudy Van Helsing, who know nothing of their father Abraham’s past and cannot understand his overprotective attitude and strange behavior. To make matters worse, Abraham is becoming increasingly more unhinged, paranoid, and violent.”
Prano Bailey-Bond‘s Censor has been getting an unusual amount of praise for a debut feature. The film has received rave reviews wherever it’s been screened.
“Film censor Enid (Niamh Algar) takes pride in her meticulous work, guarding unsuspecting audiences from the deleterious effects of watching the gore-filled decapitations and eye gougings she pores over. Her sense of duty to protect is amplified by guilt over her inability to recall details of the long-ago disappearance of her sister, recently declared dead in absentia. When Enid is assigned to review a disturbing film from the archive that echoes her hazy childhood memories, she begins to unravel how this eerie work might be tied to her past.”
In addition to the new poster, which you can see below, Censor is screening in select theatres right now, and will be available on VOD on June 18. Do not sleep on this one!
I reported, last week, that Macon Blair’s reboot of Troma’s The Toxic Avenger would be starring Elijah Wood as the film’s villain. Well, The Hollywood Reporter seemed to correct that this week with the announcement that it wouldn’t be Wood but Kevin Bacon that would be playing opposite Peter Dinklage’s titular Avenger. In an interesting ‘six degrees’, Bacon also played the villain in Troma veteran James Gunn’s Super (one of my favourite films). We’ll have more details about the much-anticipated Toxic Avenger as they arise!
We’ve talked about vampire horror Blood Red Sky before, but the airborne bloodsucker tale has a new trailer and a new release date. The German vampire film will be hitting Netflix on July 23. We’ve got a teaser of the film too, which depicts the battle between a group of terrorists and a mother with a very dark secret. Check it out here!
Speaking of vampire stuff, a Serbian film (not that one) called Vampir has a brand new trailer to sink your fangs into. Branko Tomovic’s directorial debut will be featured at the Cannes Film Festival this year. In the folk horror, “Arnaut (Tomovic) is offered a job by charming yet ruthless local Vesna to look after a cemetery in a small remote village in Serbia. He soon starts to have nightmarish visions and is frequently visited by the mysterious older woman Baba Draga who guides Arnaut into the darkness. Only the village priest seems to be trying to keep him safe from the sinister intentions of the villagers.”
The trailer is absolutely chilling and you can check it out right here.
I don’t often get to report on sweet stories in this column, but I was pleased to find out that the crowdfunded puppet-based fantasy horror Kylgor In The Grisly Abyss reached its funding goal this week. Mason Newton DeRushie’s film, which has the backing of some amazing practical effects folks, is described as:
After the death of his people by the order of “Evil King Kath”, KYLGOR and his band of fellow surviving barbarians set out to get revenge and behead the evil King. Succeeding in their quest with the king’s head in possession the gang flees the kingdom with the king’s soldiers close behind. But before they can escape, the barbarians plummet into a giant underground wasteland filled with horrific creatures that they must slaughter to stay alive.
You can still donate to the campaign here, or if you’re inclined, the film is still looking for poster artists, voice talent, and visual effects designers. There are more than a few similarities between this project and Steven Kostanski’s wonderful Psycho Goreman, and Kylgor also has the endorsement of that brilliant director. Check out the campaign, and watch the film’s pitch right here!
It seems like every week brings news of a new Stephen King adaptation or a new film from Blumhouse. Well, this week I’ve got both! According to Deadline, Stephen King’s classic car-killer story Christine is set to get a fresh coat of paint from Hannibal and Wonderfalls creator Bryan Fuller. Blumhouse is backing the film and I can’t wait to see how King’s novella, first adapted by the legendary John Carpenter in 1983, is folded into the ‘Fullerverse’.
I love when a horror movie mashes a bunch of seemingly-incongruous tropes together to make something uniquely scary, and that is exactly what’s happening in James Suttles’ The Nest. The trailer really hammers home the perils of bringing home soft items from garage sales, and combines a creepy kid with some truly gnarly creepy crawlies. Check out the trailer here ahead of the film’s release on DVD on July 20.
Fresh off wrapping their latest entry into the series, Conjuring creators Chad and Carey Hayes have their next project lined up, according to Deadline this week. The new possible franchise is called The LaLaurie Mansion and is set in New Orleans. The famous mansion has long been a source of supernatural lore, and the Hayes Brothers are eyeing it as a whole new franchise. The first film has already begun casting and may be released as soon as the end of this year, with Saw veteran Darren Lynn Bousman behind the camera. We’ll definitely have more news about this soon.
The good folks at Netflix gave us a little taste of their upcoming adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s seminal graphic novels, The Sandman this week. The long-awaited project has finally resumed production and this week had the creator lashing out against the smooth-brained trolls that don’t think a non-binary Desire (who will be played by Mason Alexander Park) or non-white Death (who will be played by Kirby Howell-Baptiste) can fit into the Sandman mythos.
Check out Netflix’s preview here!
