Well well well, look who’s back for more horror news for another week. It’s you! And, holy moly, you have no idea what’s in store for you. Actually, I can pretty much tell you what’s in store. We’ve got releases from Shudder, from Netflix, as well as an interesting new project from James Wan. All that and a whole lot more in The Week in Horror!
Robbie Banfitch’s The Outwaters is a new found footage horror that’s getting a ton of early buzz. It’s been described as disgusting and bizarre in all the best ways, and deviates from the typical formula. The film will have its premiere at the New Jersey Film Festival in New Brunswick, NJ on February 12, 2022.
Best I can tell about from the first trailer for The Outwaters, some folks are out wandering in the desert when they’re attacked by…something. The trailer is definitely an experience all on it’s own, so there’s unlimited possibilities for what’s going on here.
Horror heavy hitters James Wan and Jason Blum will be bringing a new terror called M3GAN to audiences about a year from now, on January 13, 2023. Blum and Wan will produce, with Gerard Johnstone (Housebound) directing from Wan’s original story and a script by Akela Cooper (Malignant). Allison Williams (The Perfection, Get Out) is set to star as “Gemma, a brilliant roboticist at a toy company. She uses artificial intelligence to develop M3GAN, a life-like doll programmed to be a kid’s greatest companion and a parent’s greatest ally. After unexpectedly gaining custody of her orphaned niece, Gemma enlists the help of the M3GAN prototype – a decision that has unimaginable consequences.”
Canadian indie horror Honeycomb, which is Avalon Fast’s feature debut, drops its first trailer this week and it looks stunning and very authentic to the experience of female friendship and anxiety for the future. Fast co-wrote the film with Emmett Roiko and the film stars Rowan Wales, Sophie Bawks-Smith, Jillian Frank, Destini Stewart, and Mari Geraghty.
In Honeycomb, “in the mundane hours of early summer, five girls sulk in their own boredom waiting for something. When Willow (Sophie Bawks-Smith) stumbles upon a seemingly abandoned cabin, she begins fantasizing about the life she and the girls could have there. Leader (Destini Stewart), Jules (Jillian Frank), Vicky (Mari Geraghty), and Millie (Rowan Wales) pack their bags and whisper a quick goodbye to the life they knew. They flow through open fields, blissfully entering their new sun-soaked world.”
Check out the gritty and promising trailer for Honeycomb ahead of its world premiere at the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival!
Shudder has a bunch of great releases in February including Toby Poser and John Adams’ Hellbender, a group of Boris Karloff selections like The Mummy and The Black Cat, and a really dark-looking project called Slapface. Directed by Jeremiah Kipp, Slapface is about a young boy who’s swept up in an urban legend that seems to be coming true. Check out the trailer ahead of its release on February 3, on Shudder.
Speaking of Shudder, Igor Legarreta’s All The Moons looks to scratch that vampire itch with maybe my favourite trailer of the week. All The Moons hits the streamer on February 10, and “is set north of Spain, at the end of the 19th century. It takes place during the final throes of the last Carlist war, where carnage and disaster are ubiquitous. A little girl is rescued from an orphanage by a mysterious woman after it’s destroyed by a bomb. Wounded and close to death, the girl believes the woman is an angel coming to take her to Heaven. She discovers that this strange being has given her is the gift of eternal life by turning her into a vampire…”
The trailer is stunning and All the Moons was one of the best things at this year’s Fantasia Festival, where it picked up an Audience Award along with Best Director and Best Cinematography. Take a look!
Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are my favourite filmmaking duo, and have created some of my favourite horror experiences with Resolution, The Endless, and Spring. This year’s currently-underway Sundance Film Festival will premiere the team’s brand new film, Something in the Dirt. It’s a sci-fi thriller that seems to be on an X-Files tip, whose details we have very few of. But that’s ok, because the joy of Benson and Moorhead’s films is puzzling out the mystery that lies at the centre of each.
In an interview for the festival, the pair says that Something in the Dirt is “…a sort of love letter to Los Angeles, and the movie is a mystery, so we don’t want to give away too much. But… generally the movie’s about these two new neighbors – one of them just moved into an apartment… something that might be paranormal or otherworldly happens. And they decide to explore it together.”
As with The Endless, Moorhead and Benson star in Something in the Dirt. Check out the video here!
Bong Joon-Ho’s on top of the world after having won top honours at the Oscars with Parasite, and his next project looks to be an adaptation of Edward Ashton’s Mickey7. Bong will write, direct, and produce, and word on the street is that Robert Pattinson is signed on to star.
In Mickey7, “Mickey7 is an Expendable: a disposable employee on a human expedition sent to colonize the ice world Niflheim. Whenever there’s a mission that’s too dangerous―even suicidal―the crew turns to Mickey. After one iteration dies, a new body is regenerated with most of his memories intact. After six deaths, Mickey7 understands the terms of his deal…and why it was the only colonial position unfilled when he took it.
“On a fairly routine scouting mission, Mickey7 goes missing and is presumed dead. By the time he returns to the colony base, surprisingly helped back by native life, Mickey7’s fate has been sealed. There’s a new clone, Mickey8, reporting for Expendable duties. The idea of duplicate Expendables is universally loathed, and if caught, they will likely be thrown into the recycler for protein.
“Mickey7 must keep his double a secret from the rest of the colony. Meanwhile, life on Niflheim is getting worse. The atmosphere is unsuitable for humans, food is in short supply, and terraforming is going poorly. The native species are growing curious about their new neighbors, and that curiosity has Commander Marshall very afraid. Ultimately, the survival of both lifeforms will come down to Mickey7.”
Netflix obviously feels that it’s struck a rich vein in Korean horror with the breakout hits Squid Game and Hellbound, so it’s no surprise that the streamers are going back to the well again for a new zombie-themed series called All of Us Are Dead. The series centres on a zombie outbreak in a school, causing staff and students alike to have to fight for their lives.
The series was created by Lee JQ, Chun Sung-il, and Kim Nam-su and is based on Joo Dong-Geun’s 2009 digital webcomic. Take a look at the absolutely massive-scale trailer for All of Us Are Dead here, ahead of the series debut this week on January 28!
Netflix picked up the rights to the retro-animated video game Cuphead a while back, and the TV series adaptation is set to release on the streaming service on February 18. The first trailer looks surprisingly dark, and the beautiful retro animation style is very much intact.
“As [Cuphead and his brother Mugman] scour their surreal homeworld of the Inkwell Isles in search of fun and adventure, they always have each other’s back. Unless there’s only one cookie left, in which case it’s every cup for himself. “The Cuphead Show!” combines nostalgic delights, side-splitting gags, and a healthy dose of the heebie jeebies—especially when a ridiculously weird nemesis, The Devil himself, arrives on the scene to toy with our heroes.”
