It’s a packed week of horror news, with an alligator creature feature, two news bits from John Carpenter, and a whole lot more!
You might think that an alligator-focused creature feature like The Flood would have SyFy or Asylum-level production quality (i.e not great) but from the new trailer, it’s looking to overdeliver. The Flood is directed by Brandon Slagle and stars Casper Van Dien, Nicky Whelan, and Louis Mandylor. In the film, ““A horde of giant hungry alligators is unleashed on a group of in-transit prisoners and their guards after a massive hurricane floods Louisiana.”
Check out the trailer before The Flood chomps its way into theatres, On Demand, and Digital on July 14!
It’s not actually beginning to look a lot like Christmas (because it’s June), but we’ve got the deets on an exciting new Christmas horror which stars Chrissy Metz of “This Is Us” fame.
Damien LeVeck’s A Creature Was Stirring “follows the overprotective mother and professional nurse Faith (Metz), who keeps her teenage daughter (Annalise Basso) locked securely in her room and subjected to constant methadone injections, their only means of sustaining a delicately balanced fever state that keeps a mysterious and terrifying affliction at bay. However, when a pair of strangers (Scout Taylor-Compton and Connor Paolo) breaks into the home while seeking shelter from the Christmas blizzard, they quickly discover that this mother-daughter relationship stretches the limits of both dysfunction and reality, and that the women are hiding a terrible secret — specifically, the presence of a malevolent houseguest who won’t be content to lurk in the shadows much longer.”
Keep an eye out for A Creature Was Stirring, which – wild guess – I expect to hit theatres around the holidays.
Lucky McKee’s May is, hands-down, a top 3 horror for me, and I’m ecstatic that it’s finally coming to Blu-Ray. UK distributor Second Sight is handling the release and it’s expected to be up for sale on July 24.
The package is loaded with special features, which includes new commentary, a video essay, a 70 page book with art cards, and interviews with McKee, Rian Johnson, James Duval, and more.
May stars Angela Bettis, Anna Faris, Jeremy Sisto, and James Duval and was released in 2002. The limited edition set is available to preorder from Second Sight today.
Here’s a list of everything packed into this loaded Limited Edition!
- Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Bella Grace
- 70 page book with new essays by Joseph Dwyer, Dr Rachel Knightley, Mary Beth McAndrews and Heather Wixson
- 6 collectors’ art cards
- A new audio commentary with Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
- Audio commentary with Director Lucky McKee, Cinematographer Steve Yedlin, Editor Chris Sivertson and Actors Angela Bettis, Nichole Hiltz, and Bret Roberts
- Audio commentary with Director Lucky McKee, Editor Rian Johnson, Composer Jammes Luckett (formerly credited as Jaye Barnes Luckett), Production Designer Leslie Keel, and Craft Services guy Benji
- The Toymaker: a new interview with Director Lucky McKee
- Perfect Hands: a new interview with Actor Jeremy Sisto
- Blankety Blank: a new interview with Actor James Duval
- How to Execute a Murder: a new interview with Cinematographer Steve Yedlin
- Peeling Back the Layers: a new interview with Editor Rian Johnson
- Jack and Jill: a new interview with Editor Chris Sivertson
- In the Cut: a new interview with Editor Kevin Ford
- Blood, Gore and Rock ‘n’ Roll: a new interview with Composer Jammes Luckett
- From Frankenstein to May: Miranda Corcoran on May
- Bits and Pieces: on the set of May
John Carpenter’s back in the director’s chair – er, couch as he’s bucked the post-COVID ‘return to office’ trend by helming a new TV series called ‘Suburban Screams’ remotely from his home in Hollywood. The series is being shot in Prague. No details yet about the production, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon!
Matthew Ninaber, who you may remember from his titular role in Steven Kostanski’s Psycho Goreman, is also heading back to the director’s chair for his second feature, A Knight’s War, which has just wrapped shooting and heads into post-production.
A Knight’s War stars Kristen Kaster, Jeremy Ninaber, Kristen MacCulloch, Raechel Fisher, Ariel Gerard, Sasha Ormond and Sadie Jantzi. The film was being shopped around at Cannes this year and will be released by DREAD. Not many plot details are floating around yet, but we hear that it will centre around “a knight venturing off into various chaotic realms to slay witches and demonic gods to save the unlikely. “
With Insidious: The Red Door coming later this year, it was a surprise this week when Deadline reported that a spinoff film, called Thread: An Insidious Tale was also in production. Jeremy Slater wrote and directed this one, with Mandy Moore and Kumail Nanjiani starring. No word on where this will take the long-running franchise, but Slater, who has his hands full with writing Mortal Kombat 2 as well as Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, makes this one a must-watch for me.
No surprises that the wildly popular Terrifier series will be getting a third installment after the success of Terrifier 2, and Deadline confirmed this week that the film is ready to kick off production. The new installment is expected to begin filming late this year with director Damien Leone, David Howard Thornton (Art the Clown) and Lauren LaVera (Sienna) returning. Late 2024 is being targeted for release.
Says Priscilla Smith of distribution company The Coven about Terrifier 3, ““There will be a much bigger budget this time around, which is intended to give the filmmakers more creative freedom, and let them be as wild as they can be. And, all jokes aside, we are going for that Oscar this year.”
Finally, in some of the most exciting news this week, it seems that John Carpenter has let slip that a direct sequel to The Thing may be happening. Talking to the crowd at Texas Frightmare Weekend, the horror master says,
“I have been sworn to secrecy, okay, because there may be, I don’t know if there will be, there may be a Thing 2.”
John Carpenter, Texas Frightmare Weekend 2023
I don’t even care that we don’t have any other details than that. Just the knowledge that it is, or at least is strongly hinted that it might be coming is plenty.
