The Week in Horror’s got lots of news coming out of SXSW, as well as a new trailer for The Wrath of Becky, a sick new cover from Florence + The Machine, and something new from Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson!
A brand new trailer just dropped for The Wrath of Becky, which is currently having its world premiere at the SXSW festival. The sequel to 2020’s Becky is directed by Matt Angel and Suzanne Coote and sees Lulu Wilson returning to battle a white supremacist militia.
In The Wrath of Becky, “Two years after she escaped a violent attack on her family, Becky attempts to rebuild her life in the care of an older woman – a kindred spirit named Elena. But when a group known as the “Noble Men” break into their home, attack them, and take her beloved dog, Diego, Becky must return to her old ways to protect herself and her loved ones.”
No word on a release date yet, but The Wrath of Becky will be in theatres soon.
A new crowdfunding campaign from the George A. Romero Foundation is seeking to restore and release a long-lost film from the late filmmaker. The project is a short film called Elegy which was one of Romero’s first forays into movies, and has a pretty interesting story. From the campaign website:
“At 23 years old, George A. Romero implored his uncle for a new Bolex camera. His uncle gave him $5,000 to purchase it. With his new friends, Russ Streiner and Richard Ricci, they shot a series of short films, all thought to have been lost. One of these films, now entitled Romero’s Elegy, was found and is being restored by The GARF. Romero’s Elegy is a 21 -minute film shot in Pittsburgh in 1963. Shot without sound or dialogue, the original intention was to add music and poetry to it. But it was never finished. In 2020, Ricci wrote the poem that has been added to the piece. Richard passed away 4 days after he submitted the piece, which he worked on for nine months. The restoration team then hired Terry Alexander to narrate the poem. “
The campaign is looking to raise $10,000 USD by the end of March, and a limited number of donor perks including ‘Special Thanks’ and ‘Executive Producer’ credits are up for grabs. Take a look at the campaign here, and if you’re able, donate to preserve this important piece of film history.
A24 has picked up distribution for the Sundance hit Talk To Me and will be releasing YouTube creators Michael and Danny Phillipou’s debut feature on July 28. The film was written and directed by the pair and stars Sophia Wilde, Miranda Otto, Alexandra Jensen, Joe Bird, Otis Djanji and Zoe Terakes.
Talk To Me is about Sophia Wilde’s Mia, who attempts to commune with her late mother in a séance at a party, with horrifying results.
The Youtubers have a short piece on the making of Talk To Me which you can check out here before the film’s release this summer.
Guns n’ Roses guitarist Slash has partnered with Raven Banner and Rue Morgue creator Rodrigo Gudiño on a new horror production company, according to Variety. After partnering on Gudiño’s The Breach (our review here), the newly-minted BerzerkerGang will be working together on future releases with a “Forged in Fury” ethos.
Speaking of Raven Banner, Deadline reports that the Canadian genre outfit has picked up sales for Aberrance, which is the feature debut from Mongolian filmmaker Baatar Batsukh. The film has its premiere at SXSW this week.
“Aberrance tells the story of a couple who rent a cabin deep in the woods to get some rest from their busy life in the city. But their odd behavior causes a neighbor to grow suspicious, and as he starts to dig deeper, more questions and trouble arise.”
More details on the release strategy for Aberrance soon, but it’s exciting to see a Mongolian genre film breaking through.
Fresh off the success of Something in the Dirt, Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson are working on a TV series that will be set in the world of their features Resolution and The Endless.
The duo tells Empire that along with their work in the Marvel universe, which has them showrunning Loki Season 2 and Moon Knight, “Even now, “nights and weekends are spent working on what is our next thing…which is essentially, what is hopefully a TV show – at smallest another indie film – in the Endless universe. That’s where we put all of our passion.” Moorhead adds: “The main characters are Aaron and Justin again. But that’s about as far as we can probably go right now. What I can say, I am stunned by how good it is. It is Justin’s best work by far, and it’s just so, so incredibly fun to work on. I wish I could get into the plot more – I don’t know if we’re ready or not. But it very easily could be the thing that, if we die right after it’s finished, it’s like, ‘Ok! Cool, I did it. That was the one to go out on.’ It’s very cool.”
Finally, my favourite thing this week was the release of the second season trailer for Showtime’s Yellowjackets, which is one of my favourite series going right now. Not only does the trailer feature new footage of our favourite gang of plane crash survivors and their weird woodland rituals, but it’s also backed by a whip-ass cover of No Doubt’s “Just A Girl” by Florence + The Machine.
Yellowjackets was created by Ashley Lyle & Bart Nickerson (“Narcos”), and “is the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote northern wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later, proving that the past is never really past and what began out in the wilderness is far from over.”
In the second season, “two months have passed since Shauna gave Jackie the cold shoulder— to disastrous results. In the face of their deepening hunger and fear, the tension among our Yellowjackets has only grown worse. The harsh conditions of winter are intensifying by the day, and the psyches of our survivors are deteriorating just as fast. Threatened by the darkness of the wilderness— and the haunting memories of it in the present— our former state champs will be forced to make impossible decisions. As they confront the horrible truth of what survival entails, the real nightmare for each of them will be to figure out who they are— and what they are willing to sacrifice in order to stay alive.”
Melanie Lynskey, Tawny Cypress, Christina Ricci, and Juliette Lewis all return, and this season adds Lauren Ambrose (“Six Feet Under”) as the adult Van, Simone Kessell (“Obi-Wan”) as adult Lottie, and Elijah Wood.
Yellowjackets Season 2 kicks off on Friday, March 24 on streaming and on demand for SHOWTIME subscribers, with an on-air debut on Sunday, March 26 at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
