It’s horror news galore here in The Week in Horror, and I’ve got news about yet another Junji Ito adaptation, a true-life exorcism story, and a whole lot more!
Last week I reported on the new Junji Ito project, Maniac, that’s coming soon to Netflix, but this week I’ve got some bad news about another much-anticipated Ito adaptation. The long-awaited Adult Swim adaptation of Ito’s best-known work, Uzumaki, has been delayed from it’s planned release this fall in order to “replicate the quality of the intricate designs and detailed line work of Mr. Ito’s classic manga, Director Hiroshi Nagahama and the production team have asked for additional time to recreate Ito’s masterpiece properly.”
This is particularly frustrating to fans that have been waiting for Uzumaki since 2019, but at least it’s for a good reason. I’m happy to hear the crew behind the mini-series is committed to doing this right. Once we have a new release date, I’ll definitely keep you folks updated!
Overlord director Julius Avery has a new horror project on the way, this time starring Russell Crowe. According to The Wrap, in The Pope’s Exorcist, Crowe will play Father Gabriele Amoroth, a real-life Italian priest who “performed over 100,000 exorcisms for the Vatican.”
Screen Gems acquired the rights to the priest’s real-life writings about his exorcisms when he passed away at 91 years old in 2016. Avery will direct from a script by Evan Spiliotopoulos (Beauty and the Beast, Snake Eyes).
A new adaptation of 1924’s The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell is on tap from Mill Creek Entertainment and director Justin Lee, according to Deadline. The most famous version of the story is 1932’s film where wealthy passengers on a yacht are hunted for sport. Blumhouse riffed on the story in The Hunt, but this looks to be closer to the source material.
In The Most Dangerous Game, “A father and son are shipwrecked on a remote island where they are caught up in a trophy hunt held by its mysterious owner, a merciless man who uses the land as an elite hunting preserve for stalking the most dangerous game of all: human.”
Bruce Dern, Judd Nelson, Casper Van Dien, and Tom Berenger star in Lee’s film, which comes to threatres and On Demand on August 5. Check out the trailer here!
A new image from Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator prequel, Prey, which comes to Hulu on August 5, gives us a glimpse of the new Predator, and Trachtenberg says to Time Out that he wanted his version of the ultimate hunter to be uniquely terrifying.
“I wanted the Predator to be scarier than we’ve seen it before. It’s intelligent and it has advanced technology, and that makes it even more difficult to take on. But because the movie is set 300 years in the past, those things need to feel a little bit older than we’ve seen before, but also still far more advanced than what we think our earthlings would be able to handle. I wanted to make sure the head was more proportional to the body. This predator is much slimmer and less armoured than it’s ever been. It’s more ‘creature’. It’s still hulking and ferocious.”
Check out these images ahead of the film’s release on Hulu on August 5!
This week’s best trailer comes from the terrifying-looking Barbarian, which comes to theatres on August 31. The film is written and directed by Zach Cregger and stars Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long, Matthew Patrick Davis, Richard Brake, Kurt Braunohler and Jaymes Butler.
In Barbarian, “a young woman (Georgina Campbell) traveling to Detroit for a job interview books a rental home. But when she arrives late at night, she discovers that the house is double booked, and a strange man (Bill Skarsgård) is already staying there. Against her better judgment, she decides to spend the evening, but soon discovers that there’s a lot more to fear than just an unexpected house guest.”
Check out the trailer for Barbarian here!
