And we’re back, folks! Back with a whole bunch of horror news that includes adaptations of a new Grady Hendrix novel and an old Stephen King one, a cannibal love story, and more!
The adaptation of Grady Hendrix’s2016 novel My Best Friend’s Exorcism is rolling along, with Damon Thomas directing from a script by Jenna Lamia. We got a first look at the movie which stars Elsie Fisher and Amiah Miller.
In My Best Friend’s Exorcism, “the year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby and Gretchen have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries—and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?”
Stephen King’s…er Richard Bachman’s 1996 novel The Regulators is being adapted for a feature film as well, says Deadline. In the novel, “the peaceful suburban life on Poplar Street in Wentworth, Ohio is shattered one fine day when four vans containing shotgun-wielding “regulators” terrorize the street’s residents, cold-bloodedly killing anyone foolish enough to venture outdoors. Houses mysteriously transform into log cabins and the street now ends in what looks like a child’s hand-drawn western landscape. Masterminding this sudden onslaught is an evil creature who has taken over the body of an autistic boy whose parents were killed in a drive-by shooting several months earlier.”
No word on whether the companion novel Desperation, which takes place in a parallel universe to The Regulators is being looked at, but I imagine if the movie’s successful enough, it won’t be far behind.
As a big fan of Luca Guadagnino, I was pleased to find out that his “cannibal love story”, Bones and All, will be playing this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and will have a release this November.
Bones and All stars Timothee Chalamet, Taylor Russell, Mark Rylance, André Holland, Jessica Harper, Michael Stuhlbarg, David Gordon-Green, Francesca Scorsese and Chloë Sevigny. Guadagnino directs from a script by his Suspiria collaborator, David Kajganich.
Paul W.S. Anderson’s Event Horizon is a personal favourite of mine, and the space horror celebrates it’s 25th anniversary this year. Anderson did an interview with Variety this week where the director is looking to return to the world of horror.
Anderson said, “I’m actually planning to do a kind of straight horror movie in the near future. It’s something I’ve always been interested in. My career has gone more in an action direction, but it’s always been kind of scary action. I’ve always tried for some great jumps, even in the PG-13 movies I’ve made. But I would like to embrace doing a more full-on horror movie, absolutely — one that works more on a psychological level, a return to what Event Horizon was.”
Whatever it is, I can’t wait to see it.
Jennifer’s Body director Diablo Cody is also looking at a return to horror with a new project called Lisa Frankenstein. The film is already in production.
In Lisa Frankenstein, “Set in 1989, the film follows an unpopular high schooler who accidentally re-animates a handsome Victorian corpse during a lightning storm and starts to rebuild him into the man of her dreams using the broken tanning bed in her garage.”
Lisa Frankenstein is directed by Zelda Williams from Cody’s script and stars Kathryn Newton (Freaky), Cole Sprouse (“Riverdale”), Carla Gugino (The Fall of the House of Usher), Liza Soberano (Alone/Together), Joe Chrest (Stranger Things) and Henry Eikenberry (The Crowded Room).
