Career

Blanks’ career in the film industry stretches back to the early ’90s, and he was a jack of all trades. His very first credits came as a composer on a batch of short films, and on one of those he was also a camera operator. He made his directorial debut on the 1993 short Silent Number, which also happens to be his sole writing credit.

He’s best known for directing a quartet of horror feature films, most famously the 1998 slasher Urban Legend and the 2001 slasher Valentine. The survival thriller Storm Warning followed in 2007, and his final directing credit was on the 2008 “nature run amok” film Nature’s Grave, which was a remake of the 1978 film Long Weekend.

He racked up thirty credits as a composer, twelve as an editor, seven as a camera operator, three as a sound editor, seven as a producer or executive producer, and a handful of other credits from soundtrack work and the music department.

Message

Blanks’ family announced his passing on social media, sharing the following message:

Jamie Blanks, 29/11/1971 – 16/03/2026

It is with the deepest sadness that we confirm our beloved Jamie passed away suddenly at his home in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday.

His death was unexpected, despite some ill health in recent years. and comes at a time when Jamie was preparing to direct another film. He was still very active supporting other filmmakers and developing his own projects.

Anyone who was lucky to know Jamie was immediately struck by his talent, kindness, humanity, generosity of spirit and boundless enthusiasm for what he did in life but also – so importantly – for the people around him. This big, beautiful heart of his eventually gave way.

We’re imagining him now in a better place, chatting up a storm about horror movies and music with many others he loved and admired who have passed before him. Honour him by watching one of his films or John Carpenter’s The Fog (a favourite film that inspired him to become a filmmaker) or listening to one of his music scores.

Jamie is survived by his wife, Simone; his son, Oliver; his parents, brothers and a huge extended family of movie fans around the world. We love you so much, Jamie. Fly high, darling. Forever here in our hearts.

Our heartfelt condolences go out to Jamie Blanks’ family, friends, and fans.

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Storm King Comics has announced that Cathedral, the first original graphic novel from legendary filmmaker John Carpenter, is set for an August 4, 2026 release – and the synopsis brings to mind elements of Carpenter’s 1987 film Prince of Darkness!

Story

Carpenter wrote Cathedral with producer and editor Sandy King and writer Sean Sobczak. Federico De Luca and Luis Guaragna provided the artwork, which is colored by Ryan Winn and lettered by Marshall Dillon. Here’s the synopsis for the 120-page graphic novel:

The middle of downtown Los Angeles sets the scene for John Carpenter’s Cathedral, where an abandoned cathedral stands, fenced in and ignored by the world around it. The preoccupied passers-by have long since ceased to notice the dilapidated church in their midst, never mind sensing the danger and centuries old evil trapped inside its walls.

A gruesome murder one late night pulls the structure into the spotlight, triggering a police investigation into the loss of one of their own. Lieutenant Christine Marks, along with detectives Paul Hernandez and Steve Mayfield, must enter the church in search of the monster that murdered her father. Every step takes them deeper into the belly of the church revealing the mystery of an ancient evil imprisoned within.

Carpenter is also working on a Cathedral album, so fans will be able to listen to the music he had in mind for this story while reading the graphic novel.

Statements

Carpenter provided the following statement: “I saw it in a dream: a nightmare landscape deep underground filled with monsters too weird and sinister to exist in daylight. I knew instantly I had to get these things out of my head and into everyone else’s brains.“

King added, “We have a saying at Storm King, ‘Every dream should be a nightmare.’ By reading Cathedral, you can take John’s dream and let it become your next nightmare.“

A press release notes that Cathedral will be available on August 4, 2026 in bookstores, online, and Storm King Comics, and on August 5, 2026 in comics shops. “But this is only the first step into the dark world of Cathedral. Head to JohnCarpentersCathedral.com and Storm King Comics for all the latest secrets of Carpenter’s Cathedral.”

Will you be adding John Carpenter’s Cathedral graphic novel to your collection? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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The Netflix streaming service plans to continue building out their Fear Street franchise, based on the works of author R.L. Stine. Disney+ recently cancelled their Stine-inspired Goosebumps TV series after two seasons. And last October, another streaming service got in on the Stine action: the free service Tubi! R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead, which was inspired by Stine’s The Haunting Hour, received a Tubi release just in time for Halloween and landed on Variety’s Streaming Original Movies Chart, which ranks the most-watched streaming originals every week. So now, a sequel is on the way! R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 will be released during the “Terror on Tubi” event in October 2026. 

Sequel

Written and directed by Jem Garrard (the Tubi Originals Slay, Takeout, Invasive, and Invasive 2: Getaway), R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead centered on teenage Sam, whose family’s move to Redhaven is made worse when his brother Finn disappears — and no one else remembers that he existed. Sam joins friend Becka and eccentric Rusty in the race to find Finn and break a harvest curse before Halloween ends.

Garrard is back at the helm for R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2. Lonely and bullied at school, Evan discovers a forbidden spellbook and unknowingly revives the ancient curse of Redhaven. Soon, the pumpkin-headed children from past sacrifices rise from the ground with a plan to claim the town during its Harvest Festival. As the event approaches, the only hope for Redhaven may be the return of a misunderstood witch determined to destroy the book and end the curse for good.

Statements

Adam Lewinson, Chief Content Officer at Tubi, provided the following statement: “Few storytellers have shaped the horror genre for young audiences as profoundly as R.L. Stine, and his work continues to find new life with each generation. Given the breakout success of Pumpkinhead, we’re going deeper into this mythology and continuing our commitment to fans of young adult horror.“

Stine added, “Halloween wouldn’t be Halloween without a good story about kids being trapped inside a pumpkin. I’m so happy that we are going to have another pumpkin head adventure on Tubi.“

Coming our way from Front Street Pictures, R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 is being executive produced by James Mattagne, Joan Waricha, Harvey Kahn, Yvonne Bernard, Dan Bernard, Jem Garrard, Allen Lewis, and Rama Diallo. 

Did you watch the first movie last year, and will you be watching R.L. Stine’s Pumpkinhead 2 when it reaches Tubi this October? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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The slasher sequel Scream 7 took a bumpy road to production, losing some cast members and directors along the way, but it has now made its way out into the world. The reaction is split (you can read a 5/10 review from Tyler Nichols HERE and an 8/10 second opinion review from Mike Conway at THIS LINK), but the box office is good, with the film setting the record for the highest opening weekend of the franchise. The numbers have taken a dive since then, but it didn’t even take three weeks for the movie to become the highest-grossing entry in the series.

Months before the release, we heard that the cast would include Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley, who played Ghostface killers in the original Scream and Scream 3, respectively, and did not appear to make it out of those movies alive. David Arquette also returned as the dearly departed Dewey, who exited the world of the living in the fifth movie. Now, director Kevin Williamson has revealed that he tried to get more actors to make cameos as their dead Ghostface characters.

Cast and Synopsis

Returning franchise heroine Neve Campbell, back in the role of Sidney Prescott, is joined in the cast by Isabel May of the Yellowstone prequel 1883, who has signed on to play Sidney’s daughter Tatum; Mckenna Grace of the Ghostbusters franchise, Grace’s Ghostbusters co-star Celeste O’Connor, Gen V‘s Asa Germann, The Fabelmans‘ Sam Rechner, Pitch Perfect‘s Anna Camp, Riverdale‘s Mark Consuelos, fellow franchise star Courteney Cox, who reprises the role of reporter / author Gale Weathers, Joel McHale (Community) as Sidney’s husband Mark Evans, and Ethan Embry (The Devil’s Candy). Although two of the “core four” characters established in the previous two movies are no longer around, Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are back as Chad Meeks-Martin and Mindy Meeks-Martin.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis: When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter (Isabel May) becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.

Cameos

In addition to Lillard, Foley, and Arquette’s characters making appearances, Scream 7 also features a cameo from Laurie Metcalf as her dead Ghostface character from Scream 2.

During an interview with Happy Horror Time, Williamson said (thanks to our friends at Bloody Disgusting for the transcription), that other cameos fell through. “Since it was Sidney related, I felt like 1 through 4 needed to be represented. I desperately wanted Emma Roberts. Because that movie’s not represented. And I wanted her so badly. And I asked her like three times. But… the schedule or something didn’t work. It just didn’t work out for her. She couldn’t make it.“

There’s one former Ghostface lost, but not the only one. Williamson said they also contacted Timothy Olyphant about appearing as his dead Scream 2 killer, “but he couldn’t do it.“

While I had heard that Lillard, Foley, and Arquette were in the movie before I saw it, the Laurie Metcalf cameo was a nice surprise. Olyphant would have been cool, but unnecessary since Metcalf was already representing Scream 2. It does feel like a loss that Emma Roberts didn’t show up, though, especially since her killer character from Scream 4 was Sidney’s cousin.

What do you think? Would cameos from Emma Roberts and/or Timothy Olyphant have added anything important to Scream 7?

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Logline and Cast

Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 has the following logline: Welcome back to Hawkins in the stark winter of 1985, where the original characters must fight new monsters and unravel a paranormal mystery terrorizing their town in Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, an epic new animated series. The last episode of Stranger Things season 2 took place on December 15, 1984, so this animated series will take place between the second and third seasons, which would allow all of the major characters to participate. The Hollywood Reporter adds that they’re joined by a new character: “Nikki, a tough, mohawk-wearing gal.”

The voice cast includes Brooklyn Davey Norstedt as Eleven, Jolie Hoang-Rappaport as Max, Luca Diaz as Mike, Elisha “EJ” Williams as Lucas, Braxton Quinney as Dustin, Benjamin Plessala as Will, and Brett Gipson as Hopper. Odessa A’zion provides the voice of Nikki. Janeane Garofalo and Lou Diamond Phillips also voice unspecified characters.

The animation studio is Flying Bark. The Duffer Brothers are executive producing the animated series through their Upside Down Pictures production banner, along with Upside Down’s Hilary Leavitt, and Shawn Levy and Dan Cohen of 21 Laps. Eric Robles executive produces via Flying Bark Productions.

AMC Theatres

Stranger Things: Tales from ’85 will premiere on Netflix on April 23rd, but the AMC theatrical screenings of the first two episodes will take place on April 18. Here’s the information from the AMC Theatres website:

Return to Hawkins with Stranger Things: Tales from ’85, an exciting new animated series from Showrunner Eric Robles and Executive Producers the Duffer Brothers. In the winter of 1985, snow blankets the town and the horrors of the Upside Down are finally fading. Our heroes Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas, and Max have settled back into a normal life of D&D, snowball fights, and quiet days. But beneath the ice, something terrifying has awakened. Could it be from the Upside Down? From the depths of Hawkins Lab? Or from somewhere else entirely? Our heroes must race to solve this mystery and save Hawkins in this new story set in the Stranger Things universe. A special limited theatrical screening of the first two episodes of the new series, STRANGER THINGS: TALES FROM ’85. Running time: 55 minutes.

The list of participating theatres can be seen on the AMC Theatres site.

Are you interested in catching a theatrical screening of the first two episodes of Stranger Things: Tales from ’85? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Writers

The spec script that launched The Death Roll was written by Kas Graham and Rebecca Pollock, who previously wrote the Kate Beckinsale / Scott Eastwood rescue thriller Stolen Girl. Deadline notes that Graham and Pollock have also been developing a Betty Ford movie for Netflix that has Sarah Paulson attached to star and Ryan Murphy attached to direct. Their feature May Savidge Moves Her House is set up with Pathè with Helena Bonham Carter starring, and their suffragist home invasion film Suffer has Tina Gharavi directing.

They were also producers on Apple TV’s Lessons in Chemistry and adapted the Diane Ducret novel La Dictatrice as a series for FX. They’re currently developing Young Agatha for Wiip, and have other projects set up with Monumental Pictures, Universal, A&E, and Apple France. They stay busy.

The story they crafted for The Death Roll follows a couple whose dream vacation turns into a nightmare when they encounter the unexpected: an invasive 15-foot saltwater crocodile.

Producers

Glen Powell and Dan Cohen will be producing the film for Barnstorm, while Bryan Haas does the same for Chasing Epic Pictures. Haas has also been working with Graham and Pollock on their Betty Ford project.

Barnstorm’s Ryan Schwartz will serve as an executive producer. Chelsea Kujawa and Maria Ascanio are overseeing the project for Lionsgate.

Killer crocodile movies always sound like a good idea to me. They don’t always end up being very good, but I’m glad to keep giving new ones a chance, so I look forward to seeing how The Death Roll is going to turn out.

Does The Death Roll sound interesting to you? Share your thoughts on this Glen Powell survival horror thriller production by leaving a comment below.

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Last year, it was announced that the Exorcist sequel had been passed over to writer/director/producer Mike Flanagan, who was said to be working on a “radical new take” on the franchise. And while Flanagan’s movie won’t be making its originally announced March 13, 2026 release date, it is moving forward, aiming to reach theatres on March 12, 2027. Filming is underway in New York City – and several cast members, including Black Widow herself, Scarlett Johansson, have been spotted on the set! The set pics can be seen at the bottom of this article.

Cast

Johansson stars in this new Exorcist movie with John Leguizamo (Land of the Dead), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet), Diane Lane (Let Him Go), Sasha Calle (The Flash), and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who recently worked with Flanagan on the Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck. 

Also in the cast are Flanagan regulars Rahul Kohli, Hamish Linklater, Carl Lumbly, Robert Longstreet, Matt Biedel, Samantha Sloyan, Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., and Carla Gugino will all be showing up in his new movie. They note, “Many of these actors featured in Flanagan’s Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher, with assorted members also appearing in the likes of Oculus, Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gerald’s Game, The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Midnight Club, and The Life of Chuck.”

Benjamin Pajak of The Life of Chuck is in the mix as well, along with Gil Bellows (Love and a .45)… and, unless I’m overlooking something, I think this is Bellows’ first time working with Flanagan.

The new Exorcist movie is coming our way from Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, Morgan Creek Entertainment, and Flanagan’s Red Room Pictures banner. Alexandra Magistro serves as an executive producer for Red Room. David Robinson is producing the film for Morgan Creek, while Jason Blum and Ryan Turek serve as the respective producer and executive producer for Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.

Are you looking forward to Mike Flanagan’s Exorcist movie? Take a look at the set pics, then let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Trick or Treat Studios plans to start shipping the dolls out in March 2027. The doll was sculpted by Alex Ray and features fabric clothing with metal accessories that were developed from hundreds of film stills. It also has a magnetic head and hands for use with other Ultimate dolls and accessories. The base price is $600.

The Kickstarter campaign had a $100,000 goal, but it passed that number in just ten minutes. As of this writing, it’s closing in on $400,000.

The Original Film

Written and directed by Mark Jones, Leprechaun has the following synopsis: Dan O’Grady steals 100 gold coins from a leprechaun while on vacation in Ireland. The leprechaun follows him home, but Dan locks the murderous midget in a crate, held at bay by a four-leaf clover. Ten years later, J.D. Redding and his daughter, Tory, rent O’Grady’s property for the summer. When their new neighbors accidentally release the leprechaun, he goes on a murderous rampage to reclaim his gold.

The film stars Jennifer Aniston, Ken Olandt, Mark Holton, Robert Hy Gorman, John Sanderford, and Shay Duffin, with Warwick Davis as the leprechaun himself.

Davis returned to the role for Leprechaun 2, Leprechaun 3, Leprechaun 4: In Space, Leprechaun in the Hood, and Leprechaun: Back 2 Tha Hood. Dylan “Hornswoggle” Postl took over Leprechaun duties for Leprechaun: Origins, and Linden Porco starred in Leprechaun Returns.

Are you a Leprechaun fan, and would you like to add the Ultimate Leprechaun 30″ replica doll to your memorabilia collection? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Last October, we heard that Rachel McAdams was in talks to reteam with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness director Sam Raimi on the 20th Century Studios horror thriller Send Help, which Raimi would be producing and directing. McAdams was quickly joined in the cast by Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner), Chris Pang (Interior Chinatown), and Dennis Haysbert (24). Filming began in early February, putting the film on track for a January 30th, 2026 theatrical release. It has done well at the box office, earning over $93 million worldwide, and racked up some good reviews (you can read our 8/10 review HERE). Now, the question we’re asking is, when will Send Help get a digital release?

The answer: very soon! 20th Century Studios will be giving Send Help a digital release next Tuesday, March 24th. A 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD release will follow on April 21st, and will have over two hours of special features. In the meantime, the digital version is already available for pre-order on Amazon.

Creative Team

In 2007, it was rumored that Sam Raimi would be producing a fantasy film with a screenplay written by Freddy vs. Jason and Friday the 13th 2009 writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. That didn’t pan out, but a decade later Raimi considered directing a Bermuda Triangle project that once had Shannon and Swift working on the script. Again, that didn’t pan out, with Scott Derrickson and more recently Marc Webb picking up the project after Raimi dropped it. In 2019, it was announced that Raimi would be directing an untitled island horror thriller, working from a script by Shannon and Swift. Then the pandemic hit and Raimi went on to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness… but now he has circled back to the island horror thriller, and A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods have done a rewrite of the script. They previously worked with Raimi on the Adam Driver dinosaur movie 65 and the anthology series 50 States of Fright. They also wrote and executive produced the Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman for 20th Century Studios.

Raimi produced Send Help alongside Zainab Azizi, the President of his company Raimi Productions.

Survival Horror Thriller

When Send Help was first announced, it was said to be like “Misery meets Cast Away” in tone. That’s still the description being given, as Deadline mentioned, “the film is described as a two-hander horror thriller set on an island, falling somewhere between Rob Reiner’s Stephen King adaptation Misery and Robert Zemeckis’ classic Castaway.” The film is a survival horror thriller about two colleagues who become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it’s a battle of wills and wits to make it out alive.

Film scooper Daniel Richtman recently revealed that Send Help has the following logline: Comedy-adventure horror about a female put-upon employee and her jerk boss. On a business flight together with their company, the plane crashes on an island and only those two make it. She has serious survival skills which means she’s his only hope. Richtman also shared character details: LINDA: Smartest person in the room, but no one takes her seriously. Actor can’t be overly comedic, has to be believable in serious office setting. Eyed Sandra Bullock. BRADLEY: LINDA’S misogynistic boss.

I’m glad that Rachel McAdams landed the Linda role, and think it’s really cool that she’s working on a project like this with Sam Raimi, twenty years after she worked with another genre icon, Wes Craven, on the thriller Red Eye.

Send Help is rated R for strong/bloody violence and language. It’s the first R-rated movie Raimi has made since The Gift back in 2000.

Are you glad to hear that the Send Help digital release is only a week away? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Now, Paramount and Warner Bros. are moving toward a merger – and original Friday the 13th producer/director Sean S. Cunningham, who has been involved behind-the-scenes again during the Warner Bros. era, couldn’t be happier.

Beneficial Merger

Here are some other reasons we haven’t gotten another Friday the 13th movie in seventeen years: Christopher Nolan, who Warner Bros. had worked with on the Dark Knight trilogy, set up his sci-fi movie Interstellar at Paramount. WB wanted in on the action, so in exchange for being allowed to get involved with the Nolan film, they handed the Friday the 13th rights over to Paramount for a period of five years. Paramount would be allowed to knock out as many F13 movies as they could between 2013 and 2018. The Paramount of the ’80s would have produced three or four movies in that window of time. How many Friday the 13ths did the Paramount of the ’10s make? Zero. They kept the project in development hell right up to the last minute, then cancelled it completely because one of their other horror releases, Rings, was a box office disappointment.

Then there was an extended copyright lawsuit between Cunningham and original Friday the 13th screenwriter Victor Miller. That dragged on for years, and when it came to an end, Miller was awarded with the U.S. copyright to the first film. He has gone on to team up with his lawyer Marc Toberoff, A24, showrunner Brad Caleb Kane, and Friday the 13th franchise rights holder Rob Barsamian – the last surviving investor in the original film – to develop the “expanded prequel” / “pre-remake-quel” TV series Crystal Lake, which will premiere on the Peacock streaming service sometime this year. The rights holders also teamed with Angry Orchard for the short film Sweet Revenge, which dropped online last year (and then disappeared after a few months).

But Cunningham didn’t just walk away from the Friday the 13th business because he lost that copyright lawsuit. Three years ago, it was reported that he was developing a new Friday the 13th movie. Five months ago, Barsamian confirmed, “We are actively working on a new movie.”

Now, Cunningham has told TMZ that he and Miller have patched up their differences and everyone is hoping that the Paramount / Warner Bros. merger will resolve any studio issues and get the new Friday the 13th movie into production.

As TMZ reported, “Cunningham tells TMZ a film treatment for an “old school” Jason flick is done … and he’s hopeful that, with the mega-merger of Warner Bros. and Paramount, the project will gain serious traction because he says both studios have rights –and that’s been a major hurdle. The horror icon Cunningham tells us that he and franchise co-creator Victor Miller resolved their issues … and he hopes the upcoming studio merger will take care of the other entanglement.“

Cunningham went on to say that the script needs a “young writer” because the heart of the series has always been “the fear of untimely death” — and SC says he’s too old to be worried about that these days. He also mentioned he’s just a “cheerleader” for the project … but anticipates being an executive producer — if it happens.

Are you glad to hear that we might finally get a new “old school” Friday the 13th movie, thanks to the Paramount / Warner Bros. merger? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the franchise get back on track – and I love that the treatment they have is described as being for an “old school Jason flick.” That’s exactly what I want.

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Rob Zombie has said that for every one film project of his that moves forward, there are five potential projects that fall by the wayside. We haven’t heard of quite that many unmade Rob Zombie movies, but we have heard of several over the years that never got off the ground… and unfortunately, most of them sounded pretty interesting. A little over a year ago, Zombie had said he didn’t know what his next movie is going to be, but he did know what it’s not going to be: he won’t be continuing his Firefly franchise (which consists of House of 1000 Corpses, The Devil’s Rejects, and 3 from Hell), and he doesn’t want to make a sequel to The Munsters (which was poorly received). So while he figures out his next cinematic move, we we have put together a list of Rob Zombie Movies We Want To See!

DR. SATAN PREQUEL/SEQUEL

Okay, so this flies right in the face of what Zombie just said about not making any more movies in the Firefly franchise. But while we agree that there’s nowhere for the story to go after the events of 3 from Hell, there could be an interesting story that focuses on the bizarre character of Dr. Satan. A prequel set before House of 1000 Corpses could show how Dr. Satan got involved with the Firefly clan and set up his underground lair full of experiment subjects. A sequel could dig into what happened to Dr. Satan after he was taken out of his lair at the start of The Devil’s Rejects. Maybe the best approach would be a sequel that provides some flashbacks to the pre-Corpses days.

Zombie did shoot some Dr. Satan material for The Devil’s Rejects, a scene where the mad doctor attacks a nurse played by Rosario Dawson, but it ended up on the cutting room floor.

THE PUNISHER

A while back, Thomas Jane mentioned that Rob Zombie was in the running to direct The Punisher 2 when the project was set up at Lionsgate and Jane was still attached to star in the follow-up to the 2004 Punisher film. Our minds have been swimming with the possibilities ever since. Jane’s time as The Punisher may be over (although you never know, in these days where Michael Keaton is Batman again and Hugh Jackman is playing Wolverine one more time), but it could be very interesting to see how Zombie would handle a Punisher story.

We know he can deliver the level of violence the audience wants to see from the heavily armed vigilante, but what sort of style would he bring to the film around the character and the violence? Would it be dark and gritty? Neon-soaked madness? Did Lexi Alexander already give us something along the lines of a Zombie Punisher with her Punisher: War Zone? We’ll probably never find out, but it’s fun to daydream about.

THE CROW: 2037

In 1997, it was announced that musician Rob Zombie would be making his feature writing and directing debut with an addition to the Crow franchise that would have been called The Crow: 2037. The story would begin in “2010, when a young boy and his mother are murdered on Halloween night by a Satanic priest. A year later, the boy is resurrected as the Crow. Twenty-seven years later, and unaware of his past, he has become a bounty hunter on a collision course with his now all-powerful killer.” What that synopsis doesn’t mention is that a plague has knocked the planet back into the Dark Ages by the time 2037 rolls around, so our hero wields a sword and gets around on horseback.

An unexpected mixture of medieval times and influences from the Universal Monsters movies, The Crow: 2037 would have been a very unique entry in the franchise… so unique that the producers seemed to get cold feet and decided to make a more typical Crow movie instead. For a while, Zombie considered turning his script into an original film called Black Rider X, but then moved ahead with House of 1000 Corpses instead. So all we can do now is read the The Crow: 2037 script (which is readily available online) and try to imagine what could have been. In the meantime, the new reboot of The Crow is due out in June.

WEREWOLF WOMEN OF THE SS

Werewolf Women of the SS is a faux trailer Zombie made for Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino’s brilliant Grindhouse project, and while all of the faux trailers are a lot of fun in their short form, it would also have been amazing to see them all get expanded into actual features, like Rodriguez’s faux trailer Machete was. Eli Roth is currently in production on a Thanksgiving feature, Edgar Wright has pondered a Don’t feature, and in the past Zombie has asked fans if they would be interested in seeing a Werewolf Women of the SS feature. We would be!

An homage to movies like Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS, Fraulein Devil, and Love Camp 7, Werewolf Women of the SS is set during World War II and involves Nazi mad scientists, the She-Devils of Belzac, and Fu Manchu working together in an attempt to create an army of werewolves.

TYRANNOSAURUS REX

Zombie had no intention of making Halloween II. He was going to hand that sequel over to Inside directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury while he made a different project for Dimension: Tyrannosaurus Rex, which was even given a 2009 release date. He started promoting the project with posters and concept art… but then Bustillo and Maury left Halloween II and Dimension roped Zombie into doing that movie for 2009 instead of Tyrannosaurus Rex. There was some hope that he would make the original film after Halloween II, but by the time he was done with his second Michael Myers movie his working relationship with Dimension had been damaged beyond repair.

Zombie revealed very little about what Tyrannousarus Rex would have been, but he did say it wasn’t a horror movie. Comparing it to Straight Time, Raging Bull, and a serious version of Every Which Way But Loose, he said the movie would be “about this washed-up prizefighter who’s got this self-destructive tendency, and he comes out of prison and the only way he knows how to survive is by fighting. But his boxing career is over so he gets caught up in this sort of underground fight ring.” Concept art revealed that, like Clint Eastwood in Every Which Way But Loose, this prizefighter would also end up running into trouble with a biker gang.

Thirteen years later we’re still hoping to see Tyrannosaurus Rex somehow, because Zombie making a “incredibly violent ’70s action movie” about a washed-up prizefighter sounds like a whole lot of fun.

THE NAIL

Some of the concept art for Tyrannosaurus Rex brought to mind The Nail, a comic book Zombie wrote with Steve Niles in 2004 that happened to center on a character named Rex. So it was erroneous reported that Tyrannosaurus Rex was an adaptation of The Nail and that really caught on, despite Zombie and Niles both saying Tyrannosaurus Rex was a different story. So if they are different stories, that means we need to see both Tyrannosaurus Rex and a cinematic adaptation of The Nail, because The Nail was really cool.

Basically a souped-up version of the 1975 classic horror film Race with the Devil, The Nail had the following synopsis: “Small-time pro-wrestler Rex Hauser (a.k.a. The Nail) makes a living touring the small-town wrestling circuit with his family. Its business as usual for this close-knit bunch until they unwittingly cross paths with a murderous gang of Satanic bikers. But these aren’t your run-of-the-mill devil worshipers. In fact, Hauser and his family just might be up against the most un-Godly evil ever known to man.“

The comic was a fun read, and it would be a blast to see it brought to life on the screen.

BIGFOOT

Speaking of Rob Zombie / Steve Niles comic books that desperately need to be brought to the screen, the pair also made an awesome “cryptid run amok” comic book appropriately called Bigfoot in 2015. The synopsis is simple: “A monstrous ape-man is stomping around the woods of the Pacific Northwest, and he’s not happy with mankind.” If Bigfoot were ever brought to the screen, it would easily be one of the best Bigfoot movies we’ve ever gotten. The Bigfoot in this story is a terrifying beast that makes a bloody mess of the people who are unlucky enough to cross paths with it, and we’re dying to see this creature splatter blood and guts across the screen in a live-action movie.

THE BLOB

The week Halloween II was released in 2009, it was announced that Zombie would be writing and directing another remake, this one of the 1958 sci-fi horror classic The Blob, which already received an awesome remake in 1988 and was about a gelatinous creature falling from the sky and consuming everything it came in contact with, growing larger with every meal. Zombie immediately made it sound like he was the wrong choice for the job when he said his movie wouldn’t be about “a red blobby thing”, so not many people minded when he decided to walk away from the project… But years later, concept art from Zombie’s abandoned version of The Blob showed up online and made it look like he had been plotting something fascinating.

Just going by what’s shown in the artwork, it appears that an alien monolith would have shown up in a small town, and this mysterious object would become the centerpiece of an annual rock festival. After five years, some kind of energy starts emanating from the monolith that makes people melt down into hideous, disgusting “blob people”. Some of the imagery is a bit too much like Robert Rodriguez’s Grindhouse movie Planet Terror, but it still looks like Zombie’s take on The Blob would have been entertaining and delightfully strange. However, we are finally getting another remake of The Blob, which will be coming from the Hellraiser reboot director, David Bruckner.

BROAD STREET BULLIES

In 2012, we heard that Zombie would be branching out of the horror genre with Broad Street Bullies, which would tell the story of “the Philadelphia Flyers hockey team that evolved from a cellar-dwelling expansion team into a team that racked up victories and penalty minutes in equal measure during the 1970s.” Zombie initially said he had secured the rights to the team’s story, had the full support of the Flyers organization, and was ready to make a movie that was like “Rocky meets Boogie Nights on ice”. But Broad Street Bullies never made it into production, and Zombie would later say that it was a nightmare trying to get all the necessary rights together.

Aside from comedies like Goon, it seems to be very difficult to get a hockey movie into production, as Kevin Smith also ran into trouble when he tried to make his own hockey movie, called Hit Somebody. So we’re left wishing that we had both Hit Somebody and Broad Street Bullies to watch right now. It would have been very interesting to see Zombie make a hockey movie set in the 1970s.

MANSON MURDERS PROJECT

This wasn’t going to be a movie and the Manson Family story has gotten too much coverage over the decades, but Zombie has been fascinated by the story since he was a kid and when he started developing a limited series that would “revisit the people and events connected to the Manson Family murder spree in August 1969“, he had an intriguing collaborator: the script was going to be written by American Psycho author Bret Easton Ellis. Their aim was to “tell converging stories of people and events leading up to and after the murders, from shifting points of view.“

In general, it would be just fine if Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood turned out to be the end of Manson Family stories, but we are left quite curious to find out how Zombie and Ellis would have handled the material. The Manson Murders Project was set up at Fox in 2014, and was scrapped when NBC started airing their own Manson-related series Aquarius in 2015.

RAISED EYEBROWS

Zombie made it clear in House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects that he had an appreciation for the Marx brothers, so when Broad Street Bullies started looking troublesome in 2015 it wasn’t too surprising that he shifted over to trying to make a film based on the memoir Raised Eyebrows: My Years Inside Groucho’s House by Steve Stoliar. This would have been “the bizarre story of the last years in the life of Groucho Marx, told by a young Marx Brothers fan who spent those years as his personal secretary and archivist. In addition to getting to know his hero, the author found himself in the orbit of Groucho’s brothers Zeppo and Gummo, Mae West, George Burns, Bob Hope, Jack Lemmon, S.J. Perelman, Steve Allen, and scores of other luminaries of stage, screen, TV and literature. The downside of this dream-come-true was getting close to his idol as the curtain was coming down, and dealing with Erin Fleming – the mercurial woman in charge of Groucho’s personal and professional life.“

For the first time, Zombie hired someone else – Oren Moverman – to write the screenplay for one of his films. He said he saw this story as “Groucho’s Sunset Boulevard“, “a sad, funny and very dark tale of a one of Hollywood’s greatest stars final years.” But once again, he found it too difficult to get a non-horror project into production. It’s a shame, because he chooses terrific material for his attempts to step out of the genre. If his version of The Munsters turns out to be a nice comedy like the sitcom source material, maybe it will open some non-horror doors for him.

Honorable Mention: C.H.U.D.

Some projects Zombie has been said to be involved with over the years were never actually happening. For example: there was a rumor that he was working on an animated adaptation of the comic book The Hills Have Eyes: The Beginning. Not true, and we’ve already seen him do the homicidal family thing multiple times. In 2007, a rumor emerged online saying that Zombie would be following his remake of Halloween with a remake of the 1984 film C.H.U.D. It was just a joke… but not such a bad idea. There is something appealing about the thought of Zombie making a movie about creatures called Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers, crawling out of the sewer to consume flesh.

The post Unmade Rob Zombie Movies We Want To See appeared first on JoBlo.

The movie can also be found on Apple TV, Google Play/YouTube, Fandango at Home, Dish, and DirecTV, courtesy of Electric Entertainment.

Synopsis

Directed by Brian Hanson (The Black String), The Bunker has the following synopsis: When mysterious alien ships appear over Earth, rookie scientist Dr. Michelle Riley is sealed inside a top-secret bunker where she and a team of researchers must develop a bio-weapon capable of stopping the invaders. While isolated underground, Riley begins suffering terrifying hallucinations and growing paranoia, forcing her to question her team—and whether the real threat is the alien visitors or the humans she’s working with.

Chelsea Edmundson (Army of the Dead) plays that rookie scientist.

The film is produced by Aaron B. Koontz’s Paper Street Pictures, Kelby Thwaits, Kayli Fortun, Charles Bunce, and Brian Hanson. Jim Langston and Sharif Ibrahim are executive producers.

Statements

Edmundson provided the following statement: “It was very exciting to be cast as Dr. Riley, my first true lead. She’s a quiet, lone hero. I saw that type of role, growing up, more often played by men. This role was originally written as a male character but was changed for me to play, that’s quite an honor. Working with both Tobin Bell and Tony Todd was an amazing experience. Tobin brought a razor-sharp intensity, yet off camera, he was so kind, and gracious. With Tony’s passing, I count myself extra lucky and honored to have worked with him. The moment Tony walked on set, he carried a timeless, effortless charisma. Working with Tobin and Tony was inspiring. In The Bunker, I loved stepping into the mind of a woman who refuses to break. Isolated, unsure and connected only through fractured screens, Michelle is the underdog who finds new solutions and stands her ground when the world is literally falling apart. It’s a story about self-doubt, resilience and the quiet kind of heroism that might just save humanity.“

Collins added, “It was a blast to put down my sniper rifle glass and don some high-IQ scientist specs as ‘Dr Sam Ellis’ in The Bunker – to go from thinking-man’s soldier to a biologist in a pressure cooker having to come up with a humanity-saving bioweapon with his team on a fast-ticking clock! I had fun leaning into a character that was trying to keep his wits about him and stay on-task while the stakes couldn’t be higher for planet Earth.“

And Hanson had this to say: “If aliens ever visit Earth, are they coming in peace or are they about to start a war? The Bunker explores that question in a fun, gruesome Twilight Zone style. The cast is amazing and they keep you guessing about who is friend and who is foe up to the very last frame.“

Will you be watching The Bunker now that it has received a digital and VOD release? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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UPDATE: Almost exactly one year to the date after it was announced that Taylor Russell and Jenna Ortega will be starring in a Single White Female reboot, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that the project is moving forward under the title Single Female, with Bodies Bodies Bodies screenwriter Sarah DeLappe signing on the write the script.

Russell and Ortega are producing the film with Stacey Sher and Marisa Paiva.

The original article, posted on March 14, 2025, follows:

Industry scooper Jeff Sneider of The InSneider reports that Taylor Russell (Bones and All) is in talks to star in a reboot that has been in the works for years, an update of the 1992 thriller Single White Female. Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) is also reportedly in talks to star in the film, which is set up at Sony and 3000 Pictures. Variety quickly confirmed Sneider’s report.

As Sneider notes, “Obviously, the title would likely change, as Ortega and Russell are women of color, and neither identifies as white.” Maybe they’ll just drop the middle out and call it Single Female.

Directed by Barbet Schroeder from a screenplay by Don Roos, the ’92 film was based on the novel SWF Seeks Same by John Lutz. Here’s the synopsis: Having recently split from fiancé, Allison Jones welcomes new roommate Hedra Carlson. The young women quickly form a bond, but as Allison starts to rethink her engagement, Hedra grows jealous and hostile. As Allison learns new details about her roommate’s life, Hedra gets violent in her efforts to get Sam out of the picture. With Hedra turning more menacing by the minute, Allison finally understands what she’s up against. Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh starred.

More than eight years have passed since we heard that a TV series based on Single White Female was in the works at NBC, but that show never made it into production. So the plan has changed and Sony is looking to make another movie out of the concept. The original film was made on a budget of $16 million and earned more than $84 million at the box office. Sony previously cashed in on the title with a 2005 direct-to-video sequel called Single White Female 2: The Psycho, starring Kristen Miller and Allison Lange.

What do you think of the idea of Jenna Ortega and Taylor Russell starring in a new take on Single White Female? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Single White Female reboot starring Jenna Ortega and Taylor Russell finds a writer appeared first on JoBlo.

Alien: Romulus

The story Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues crafted for Alien: Romulus slots right in between the events of Alien and Aliens. It has the following official logline: The sci-fi/horror-thriller takes the phenomenally successful “Alien” franchise back to its roots: While scavenging the deep ends of a derelict space station, a group of young space colonizers come face to face with the most terrifying life form in the universe. The cast includes Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla), Isabela Merced (Madame Web), David Jonsson (Industry), Archie Renaux (Shadow and Bone), Spike Fearn (The Batman), and Aileen Wu (Away from Home).

Sequel

The sequel is expected to center on Alien: Romulus survivors Rain (Spaeny) and Andy (Jonsson).

Speaking with Empire last year, Álvarez confirmed that he and Sayagues were working on the script for the Alien: Romulus sequel. He said, “We’re excited about where it can go. We’ve almost checked all of the boxes of things that I want to see [in Romulus], and brought back a lot of the things I hadn’t seen in a while. Wherever we go now, we can go into uncharted waters. I think it’ll be so exciting to go with characters you know from this movie, to a place in the Alien franchise that we’ve never been before, and to discover things that you’ve never seen before.”

Now, Nexus Point News is reporting that Michael Sarnoski is being considered to direct the follow-up, with their sources indicating that Sarnoski is currently the preferred candidate for the job. On the Hot Mic podcast, industry scooper Jeff Sneider of The InSneider confirmed that his sources have also told him that Sarnoski is on the short list of potential directors.

Sneider went on to address a rumor that’s been floating around online: that Álvarez decided to step away from directing the film because David Jonsson doesn’t want to reprise the role of Andy. Rather than the issue coming down to an actor named David, Sneider heard that Álvarez actually wanted to use the David android, who was played by Michael Fassbender in the Ridley Scott-directed films Prometheus and Alien: Covenant story. This supposedly caused friction with Scott, who remains on board all new Alien projects as a producer, who didn’t want him to put David in the movie. And that may be why Álvarez took a step back.

We’ll have to wait and see how this all pans out. In the meantime, let us know: would you like to see Michael Sarnoski get the Alien: Romulus sequel directing job?

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The fun started last month with a double feature of Friday the 13th (1980) and Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981). This month, we’re getting Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D (1982) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)!

Statement

Brooks LeBoeuf, Senior Vice President of US Content at Regal, provided the following statement: “At our theatres, Regal shares joy through extraordinary experiences, and on each Friday the 13th in 2026, we will deliver on that promise to our horror movie loving guests. We have scheduled a year-long moviegoing event around one of the most popular horror series in the world, celebrated on its namesake holiday.“

Line-Up

Regal’s approach to these theatrical rereleases is to feature the “canonical films that established the Voorhees lore of this storied franchise.” So here’s what we’re getting:

• Friday, February 13 – Friday the 13th (1980) and Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)
• Friday, March 13 – Friday the 13th Part 3 3-D (1982) and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
• Friday, November 13 – Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

Regal notes that “Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985) is purposefully missing from the rerelease schedule, as Regal axed (or more accurately macheted) the fifth chapter in the series due to a ‘fake Jason’ plot twist generally disliked by fans of the franchise. Regal has omitted Part 5 out of respect to the murderous legacy of the Voorhees family.” I wish they had kept Friday the 13th: A New Beginning in the line-up, as the movie would be a blast to see on the big screen and would give movie-goers three double features, but I guess they thought people would be less interested in seeing that one.

They add that there’s “something big planned to elevate the horror moviegoing experience on the final (un)lucky day in November.“

Info

The year-long Friday the 13th rerelease series at Regal is presented in partnership with Fangoria. Regal Crown Club members who attend multiple Friday the 13th showtimes across the year will receive continuity credits and Fangoria rewards for their continued attendance. 

Advance tickets for Friday the 13th showtimes are available for purchase at Regal theatre box offices / kiosks, on the mobile app, or through REGmovies.com. Regal guests can also secure seats for these bring back horror titles by joining Regal Unlimited, where subscribers see as many movies, whenever and wherever they want.

Do you have a Regal near you, and will you be attending these Friday the 13th rereleases? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Sundown

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sundown was filmed in Winnipeg and just wrapped production this week.

Directed by Rebekah McKendry from a script written by Joshua Hull and David Ian McKendry, the film is said to focus on three generations of women who reunite in a remote cabin to avenge a loved one’s death, only to discover their captive isn’t who he seems to be, and his family is closing in, waiting for sundown. That sounds to me like a promising set-up for bloodshed.

Howell is joined in the cast by Olwen Fouéré (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and Camille Sullivan (Shelby Oaks).

Slash is executive producing the film through his BerserkerGang label, while the producer line-up consists of Pasha Patriki, Michael Paszt, Andrew Thomas Hunt, James Fler, and Juliette Hagopian.

McKendry

Rebekah McKendry previously worked as the Director of Marketing at Fangoria Entertainment and the Editor-in-Chief of Blumhouse.com. She was a host on the Geeknation podcast Killer POV and the Blumhouse podcast Shock Waves. She earned a PhD in Media Arts, as well as Masters degrees in both Film Studies and Education, and happens to be a professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts.

She made her feature directorial debut with the 2018 Christmas horror comedy anthology All the Creatures Were Stirring, which she co-directed with her husband, David Ian McKendry. Since then, she has directed the thriller Psycho Granny and the supernatural horror films Glorious and Elevator Game.

Does a vampire movie that’s executive produced by Slash and directed by Rebekah McKendry, with Summer Howell, Olwen Fouéré, and Camille Sullivan in lead roles, sound like an interesting project to you? Share your thoughts on Sundown by leaving a comment below.

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Cast and Synopsis

Curtis is joined in the cast by Britt Lower (Severance), David Dastmalchian (Late Night with the Devil), and Anna Baryshnikov (Love Lies Bleeding).

The feature directorial debut of Russell Goldman, Sender is based on Return to Sender, Goldman’s award-winning 2022 short that he later adapted into a 2023 Black List script. Lower takes on the role of a woman who experiences an e-commerce package delivery scam that becomes so personal and disturbing that she becomes hellbent on discovering the identity of her anonymous sender.

Behind the Scenes

Curtis produced the film for Comet Pictures alongside Molly Hallam and Jake Katofsky. Akshay Shah, Lower and Goldman are executive producers on the project, with Thomas Grabinski, Eric Baird, Cesar Vega, and Mireia Vilanova co-producing. Verve Ventures attached Hallam to the project and represents the film for North American sales.

Curtis and Goldman previously collaborated on the graphic novel Mother Nature, which was based on an idea Curtis had been thinking of since the late 1970s. Curtis had been planning to make her own feature directorial debut with an adaptation of that graphic novel. She announced six years ago that she would be teaming up with Blumhouse Productions for that project, but we haven’t heard much more about it. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the version of the story they were developing then proved to be too cost-prohibitive, but she is still hoping to get the movie made with Goldman directing.

Curtis and Goldman are also planning a project called Closed Set, which would be about “an intimacy coordinator who goes rogue, and it becomes like Fatal Attraction.”

In the meantime, we have Sender to look forward to, and the images from the film can be seen right here:

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Last week, legendary drive-in movie critic Joe Bob Briggs had to break some bad news to his fans: the Shudder streaming service had cancelled his show The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs, and last Friday’s episode was the series finale. But there’s a silver lining here, as not only has Shudder commissioned Joe Bob to shoot four specials that will air through the rest of the year – but as of January 1st, he’s a free agent who’ll be able to take his movie-hosting talents anywhere, and he’s already weighing the options for another TV show! He let Variety know that he’s also planning to launch a genre-movie production company.

Joe Bob Briggs

Joe Bob Briggs made his debut as a drive-in movie critic in the early ’80s and soon earned a job hosting movies on The Movie Channel, where Joe Bob’s Drive-in Theater ran from 1986 to 1996. That was followed by the TNT series MonsterVision, which he hosted from 1996 to 2000.

That was followed by an eighteen-year stretch of darkness, but then he made his triumphant return with The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder. The Shudder era began with a 13-film marathon on July 13, 2018 – an event that Joe Bob thought might be his last rodeo. But so many people tuned in for that marathon, it crashed Shudder’s servers and convinced them to give him an on-going series, mixed with holiday specials.

On The Last Drive-In, the world’s foremost drive-in movie critic hosts eclectic horror movies, talking about their merits, histories and significance to genre cinema. The show is produced by Matt Manjourides and Justin Martell and directed by Austin Jennings. Joe Bob is joined on every episode by Diana Prince as Darcy the Mail Girl.

The Next Step

Speaking with Variety, Joe Bob said that Shudder never told him exactly why they were cancelling The Last Drive-in, but when the show started, Josh Sapan, who he had worked for in the Drive-in Theater and MonsterVision days, was running the streamer’s parent company, AMC. Sapan has since retired – and with him gone, it seems AMC’s priorities or their vision for Shudder have changed.

“As soon as people knew about (the cancellation), the phones lit up, the e-mail inbox filled up. I couldn’t keep up with all the texts because everyone was saying, ‘I’m shocked. You have to take the show somewhere else.’ Nobody was saying, ‘Well, the show finally played out, didn’t it? It ran its course.’ You know, nobody was doing that narrative on this one.” Offers for a new show are rolling in, but Joe Bob is eager to get feedback from fans to find out if they want him to continue his hosting duties or do something a bit different. (My suggestion: keep doing it like you’ve been doing it!)

He added, “We had actually thought that we had the show placed with another company. But when the word got out about the cancellation, other people called. So we may do it in a different way, of somehow preserving The Last Drive-in without using the name Last Drive-in.“

Production Company

What else is on the table? Producing movies!

Joe Bob told Variety, “I had been developing a horror production company for a while. My old friend Bob Bernie at Picturehouse said he wants to do it. Now, we’re signing the final papers for it. We have a production slate. We have projects to make, and I’ll be able to spend time on that.“

I’m glad to hear that’s moving forward, because I remember that Joe Bob was talking about starting a production company a long time ago, way before The Last Drive-in came along.

Specials

While we wait to find out what exactly is coming next, Joe Bob will be wrapping up his Shudder obligations.

The first of the four post-series specials will be Joe Bob’s Wicked Witchy Wingding, will is coming our way April 24th at 9pm ET. The double feature of occult flicks continues Briggs’ eternal campaign to establish Walpurgisnacht as an American horror holiday.

That one will be followed by a summer special featuring a title Joe Bob has been trying to get on the air for 30 years. (Fans have already been able to deduce that it’s I Spit on Your Grave, with special guest Camille Keaton.) Then we’ll get a Halloween special and one last Christmas special. By holding auctions during the Christmas specials, The Last Drive-in has been able to raise $1 million for charity over the years.

Are you a fan of Joe Bob Briggs, and are you looking forward to seeing what the post-Shudder era is going to be like? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Freaky and Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon was once attached to direct Scream 7 – but that project turned out to be so troubled, he had to activate his ejector seat and get out of there. While Kevin Williamson joined Scream 7 and pushed it through production, Landon has been busy lining up other genre projects, signing on to direct the “fast-paced thriller” Drop (which reached theatres last April), the werewolf thriller Big Bad, the Netflix thriller Blink of an Eye, and now, as reported by Deadline, a supernatural horror project called Final Boarding. Not to be confused with Final Destination.

Final Boarding

Final Boarding is set up at Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems and is based on the short story by Clarence Hammond. Details are being kept under wraps, but Deadline was able to find out that Landon will be writing and directing this one, working from both the short story and a previous script adaptation by Javier Gullón.

Hammond is producing the film. Screen Gems President Ashley Brucks optioned the story from Hammond, who she worked alongside at Paramount Players.

Landon

Landon brings a lot of genre cred to the project. In addition to directing Drop, Freaky, and Happy Death Day, he has also directed the comedy thriller Burning Palms, Paranormal Activity: The Marked One, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, Happy Death Day 2U, and We Have a Ghost. As a screenwriter, his credits include Paranormal Activity 2, Paranormal Activity 3, Paranormal Activity 4, Viral, Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin, Heart Eyes, and most of the movies he has directed.

Plus, he has produced My Best Friend’s Exorcism and Time Cut (in addition to several of the movies mentioned above).

I’m not into the Paranormal Activity stuff, but I have enjoyed most of the other movies Landon has been involved with. I was excited to see what he was going to do with Scream 7, but that didn’t work out, so now I’m looking forward to Big Bad, Blink of an Eye, and Final Boarding.

Are you a Christopher Landon fan, and are you glad to hear that he has signed on to make the supernatural horror film Final Boarding? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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The slasher sequel Scream 7 took a bumpy road to production, losing some cast members and directors along the way, but it has now made its way out into the world. The reaction is split (you can read a 5/10 review from Tyler Nichols HERE and an 8/10 second opinion review from Mike Conway at THIS LINK), but the opening weekend box office was good, with the film setting the record for the highest opening weekend of the franchise. It had a steep decline in its second weekend, indicating poor word of mouth – but I don’t think there’s any chance we’re not going to be getting a Scream 8 soon. Even if it has a different creative team. And, for his part, Scream 7 director Kevin Williamson has said that he has no intention of directing the next sequel.

A Lot of Ideas

In the build-up to the release of Scream 7, we were already hearing rumblings of an eighth film, with producer Marianne Maddalena suggesting that it could go into production as soon as this fall.

Williamson, who wrote the screenplay for the original Scream, directed the seventh film from a screenplay by 2022’s Scream and Scream VI writer Guy Busick, who crafted the story with his co-writer on the fifth and sixth films, James Vanderbilt. (Vanderbilt is also a producer on the most recent sequels.) Williamson also did enough work on the script to earn a “screenplay by” credit alongside Busick. He told Variety that he had “a lot of ideas” for Scream 8.

“If this film is successful and there’s an audience for it, you know we’ll make it because 1, I think the studio would like to make it, and 2, we the people who make these movies would love to make it because… they’re a blast to make and they’re so much fun.“

Now, he’s talking about taking a step back.

Other People Can Take the Reins

Speaking with Hello Sidney, with thanks to our friends at Bloody Disgusting for the transcription, Williamson said, “I think the next Scream I’ll probably step back. “I want to direct another film that I have written. That is just waiting for me to find the time to direct. Right now I’m working on a couple TV shows. Maybe I’ll direct one of those. Who knows. … I have some ideas of where it could go, but I’m anxious to see what another storyteller could do with it. It’s nice to be part of the Scream family. That doesn’t mean I always have to be front and center. I don’t always have to write or direct… other people can take the reins. And I’m excited to see what other storytellers come up with.“

So, if the producers do want to get the next film into production by the end of this year, they should get the director search started.

What do you think of Kevin Williamson taking a step back from Scream 8? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

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More than forty years ago, a Boy Scouts of America camp in Hardwick Township, New Jersey served as the primary filming location for one of the most popular horror films ever made. That camp is Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco, the film was the 1980 classic Friday the 13th (watch it HERE), and with another Friday the 13th coming up on the calendar, the campground has announced that they will be hosting a screening of Friday the 13th this weekend! The information can be found at CrystalLakeTours.com, and tickets are available for purchase there.

Tours and Events

Friday the 13th will be showing at Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco twice this Friday, March 13th, and twice on Saturday, March 14th. Tickets to the screenings will also allow you to participate in “winter lakefront explorations.” This is the first time the camp will be holding an event in March, and tickets are selling fast.

If this is too short notice, don’t worry: the camp will be hosting tours for fans of the film in June, October, and November. The movie will be shown there again on Friday, October 16th and Saturday, October 17th. Right in the heart of spooky season.

The Movie

Directed by Sean S. Cunningham from a screenplay by Victor Miller, the original Friday the 13th has the following synopsis: Crystal Lake’s history of murder doesn’t deter counselors from setting up a summer camp in the woodsy area. Superstitious locals warn against it, but the fresh-faced young people — Jack, Alice, Bill, Marcie, and Ned — pay little heed to the old-timers. Then they find themselves stalked by a brutal killer. As they’re slashed, shot and stabbed, the counselors struggle to stay alive against a merciless opponent.

The film stars Adrienne King, Harry Crosby, Jeannine Taylor, Laurie Bartram, Kevin Bacon, Mark Nelson, Robbi Morgan, Peter Brouwer, Rex Everhart, Ronn Carroll, Walt Gorney, Willie Adams, Debra S. Hayes, Sally Anne Golden, Ari Lehman, and Betsy Palmer. It also features some great effects by Tom Savini.

Friday the 13th is one of my all-time favorite films and kicked off my favorite franchise. I would love to have the chance to watch the movie at Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it this weekend… but, hopefully, I will someday.

Would you like to watch Friday the 13th at its campground filming location, and take a tour of the place? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Watch Friday the 13th 1980 at the campground filming location this weekend! appeared first on JoBlo.

The Pitch

In the podcast episode, there is some confusion between Bousman and Stolberg as to whether this pitch would be an “unmade Saw 8” (replacing Jigsaw) or an alternative version of Saw X, or if it would have been the ninth movie, as Bousman says the project pivoted into Spiral territory when Chris Rock revealed that he wanted to work on a Saw movie. Whatever the case, here’s the pitch, as described by Bousman:

“Basically, the opening scene was the desecration of all the totems from Saw. I had this idea, and I tried to get us to do it in Spiral as well. I think I pitched this to you too. I love this idea that it starts off and you see all of these men, kind of in the way Saw II begins, these SWAT team members getting ready. You see these men putting on the… what’s it called? Balaclavas. They’re putting on these things. You’re seeing them strap up with guns. Then it cuts to the middle of the night: these black SUVs turning off their lights, stopping the cars. They knock on a door, and then every living character you’ve seen… so you go to all the characters who have ever lived in a Saw film…. are being executed door to door. Ding-dong, Cary Elwes, boom, boom, drops down. All these characters are being executed. You’re seeing these black SUVs all over, and it’s cutting, cutting, cutting.

They finally go to this warehouse and go inside. There are all the traps of John Kramer laid out. You’re seeing them basically take the traps out, remove all these things. They finally get to this room, and there’s Billy. You see Billy, and the camera is pushing in on Billy, pushing in on Billy. As they push in, you see them take Billy and throw him into a duffel bag. Cut to the cover of darkness. They’re going into a trash compactor dumpster, and all these things are being thrown in. The last thing that’s thrown in is Billy. It’s crushing, then it smashes, and then it says (the title).

The idea was that they were going to try to kill Jigsaw’s message by removing anyone who could have been an accomplice, any piece of iconography that people could have worshipped. The premise was Fight Club. Four or five years pass, and Fight Club-style arenas pop up all around the United States and the world, where YouTube videos get put up. It started right after Jigsaw’s stuff gets crushed.

It cuts to a guy in a suit walking through a house. He goes into a garage, and it’s all closed off. You see him loosen his tie, take his button-down shirt off, nicely fold it, take his pants off and fold them. There’s a coffin. He opens it, and inside the coffin are spikes lining it. He takes a deep breath, goes inside the coffin, and then it’s rapid-fire Saw style, he’s getting cut and bleeding. You see he’s got to turn his body over and grab a key. You see him struggle, but he eventually gets the key out and unlocks the coffin.

When the coffin opens, there are all these people around cheering and clapping. They’ve got videos up. Cameras are out. Then it pulls out and we see 100 views, 1,000 views, 10,000 views, a million views, and these are popping up all over the place. They can’t stop Jigsaw’s message because it became viral. So it was kind of a Fight Club thing.”

Bousman plotted out the pitch with Abattoir screenwriter Christopher Monfette and even showed animatics to the Lionsgate executives (and those animatics can be seen in the podcast video), but Lionsgate wasn’t into it. “They said, ‘We already let you kill Jigsaw once. We’re not going to do it again with this.’ So they never did it.“

So Bousman didn’t get to make that particular Saw movie. The next one we’re going to see will be from the creators of the original film, James Wan and Leigh Whannell. Wan and Whannell moved on from that franchise after Saw III, but when creative disagreements between the producers at Twisted Pictures brought the development of Saw XI to a screeching halt, Blumhouse Productions swooped in and picked up the rights to the franchise. And since Blumhouse recently merged with Wan’s production company Atomic Monster, they’re bringing Wan and Whannell back into the picture.

What do you think of Bousman’s pitch for the unmade Saw sequel? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Saw Meets Fight Club: Darren Lynn Bousman shares pitch for unmade Saw sequel appeared first on JoBlo.

In the build-up to the release of Evil Dead Rise (read our review right HERE) in 2023, Evil Dead franchise rights holders Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell, and Rob Tapert let it be known that they were already looking forward to producing more entries in the series, with Campbell revealing they were hoping to make a new sequel / spin-off every two or three years. They quickly proved their commitment to this idea by hiring Vermin, a.k.a. Infested, director Sébastien Vaniček to make an Evil Dead movie that will be called Evil Dead Burn and is set to reach theatres on July 24, 2026. Two months later, the rights holders also hired Francis Galluppi, who just made his feature directorial debut with the crime thriller The Last Stop in Yuma County, to write and direct Evil Dead Wrath, which is now assembling its cast – but Campbell recently let it be known that he will be less involved behind-the-scenes on Vaniček and Galluppi’s movies than he was on Fede Alvarez’s Evil Dead (2013) and Lee Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise.

This decision came well before Campbell received the cancer diagnosis that he announced last week – and during a recent interview with Forbes (which was also conducted before his diagnosis), he gave some more information on his decision to take a step back from the new Evil Dead movies.

Detachment

Campbell explained to Forbes, “I’ve participated in everything that I can, and it’s a process that Rob and Sam are way better suited for. They dove into the studio system very early. They know executives’ names. They know they know the power plays. They know it all, and it was always kind of foreign to me … Whenever I’d meet these [executives] or see them on an elevator, I had never had anything to say to them. I was just so detached from it. There are a lot of processes that I don’t care for as a filmmaker.“

The Evil Dead franchise has gone corporate now, and while that means the movies have a shot at making more money at the box office than ever before, it also means that Campbell isn’t comfortable being part of the development process anymore.

He can trace his disinterest with the process back to a specific moment: “We had a meeting a couple of years ago and the French director [Sébastien Vanicek] of Evil Dead Burn was there to experience his first script development meeting. He turned in a 10-page treatment to say, “Here’s my rough idea. Here’s what I’m thinking, A to Z’ and I think he got 20 pages of notes back. That’s when I said to myself. ‘You guys got this. I think you guys got this.’ I got tired of arguing points with someone who’s 26 years old about story and structure, and all that sort of stuff, and what matters and what doesn’t matter. So, I just found out it’s way better to just step back. I’m partners with the guys. Nothing else has changed. I just told them, ‘Guys. I’m actually doing my own thing now, and it takes a lot of time and attention. If I can get fewer emails for approvals not clogging my timeline, that’s good for me at this point.“

Ernie & Emma

Doing his own thing also means making his own movie, a comedy called Ernie & Emma.

Written and directed by Campbell, Ernie & Emma has the following synopsis: Widowed pear salesman Ernie Tyler travels to scatter his wife’s ashes in places she specified, each location stirring memories that help him process their marriage, his work life, and his future. Campbell stars in the movie as Ernie. Cerina Vincent, Ted Raimi, Emma Raimi, and Robin McAlpine are also in the cast.

Campbell said the project was born out of “a desire to see if I could make a ‘one character’ movie. Eventually, with influences of my dad as a Detroit ad guy and the place where I currently live, Ernie was born.” He added that Ernie and Emma “were married for a long time, so there was lots of history, baggage and unresolved issues. The journey comes with many revelations, good and bad.” The film deals with death “directly. Emma is a lead character of the movie. It was nice to do an ‘age appropriate’ role.“

Campbell is currently undergoing cancer treatments, hoping to be in good enough condition by the fall that he’ll be able to go on tour with Ernie & Emma. The plan is to show the movie at 20 Alamo Drafthouse Cinema locations across the country from September to November.

What do you think of Bruce Campbell taking a step back from the new Evil Dead movies? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

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Saw is the series that just won’t stop. Some horror fans love these movies, others write them off as nothing but torture porn, but movie-goers usually show up to give them healthy box office returns. Not only did the most recent film, Saw X, wind up making over $100 million worldwide, but it also earned the franchise’s best reviews since the original. Now, Blumhouse Productions is gearing up to show us what they can do with the property. But, how does the entire series rank? You can check out our Saw Movies Ranked list below – then let us know how you would rank the movies by leaving a comment!

SAW 3D (2010)

Envisioned as the “Final Chapter”, the seventh Saw movie was released in 3D so it could throw some of the biggest, most over-the-top traps of the franchise right in the viewer’s face. Saw 3D was directed by Saw VI’s Kevin Greutert, who was forced to replace Saw V director David Hackl just two weeks before filming was to begin. A move like that is just asking for a mess, and that’s exactly what the finished film turned out to be. A mess. Bringing Dr. Lawrence Gordon / Cary Elwes from the first movie back for the “last one” was a good idea, but it could have been handled better. The storyline following a guy who lied about being a Jigsaw survivor as he’s put to the test feels irrelevant. The way-too-long saga of Jigsaw’s follower Mark Hoffman is finally brought to an end, but in the most underwhelming way possible. He deserved worse.

JIGSAW (2017)

You might think the Saw franchise would be refreshed and rejuvenated after a seven year rest, with new writers crafting the story and new directors (Michael and Peter Spierig) at the helm. But Jigsaw feels like just another in the previous line of sequels, and even falls into the same traps that dragged down the series the first time around: timeline tricks, flashbacks, forgettable characters going through a bunch of traps, and a secret apprentice. Questions left unanswered at the end of Saw 3D remain unanswered, as Jigsaw goes off in its own direction with a new Jigsaw follower we had never seen or heard of before. The most memorable thing about this movie is the fact that there’s a trap involving lazers at one point.

SAW V (2008)

Now we know that Mark Hoffman is the apprentice carrying on Jigsaw’s work, and FBI agent Peter Strahm is figuring this out as well. While Hoffman and Strahm play cat and mouse through dimly lit scenes, there’s also a group of five people going through a series of tests / traps. But it’s difficult to care what’s going on with them when the real focus of the movie is Strahm’s pursuit of Hoffman and flashbacks to Hoffman being recruited by Jigsaw. Directed by David Hackl (who was production designer and/or second unit director on previous sequels), Saw V has one of the coolest moments in the franchise – Strahm giving himself a tracheotomy with a pen to survive a water trap – but otherwise feels like it’s just trudging through the motions. It’s a dull, tired entry in the franchise. Which isn’t surprising, since they were pumping these sequels out so quickly.

SAW IV (2007)

Saw II and III director Darren Lynn Bousman stuck around for this sequel, but the story came from a new team of writers who had to figure out how to continue the franchise now that Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith) were dead. One choice was obvious: Jigsaw needed a new apprentice. But some other choices were unexpected, like the fact that they still have Donnie Wahlberg hanging around as Saw II’s Eric Matthews, six months after he appeared to be as good as dead. They also dive deeper into Jigsaw’s back story than ever before, giving him even more reasons for getting into the business of making death traps. Terminal cancer and a car accident / failed suicide attempt weren’t the only things that drove him over the edge, there was also a tragic romance and a lost child. This is when the Saw franchise becomes a convoluted, gory soap opera, which is part of its charm as far as some fans are concerned.

SAW III (2006)

Franchise creators James Wan and Leigh Whannell still receive executive producer credits on every new Saw movie, but their creative involvement with the series really ended with Saw III. And they saved the grossest for last. Even Whannell was reportedly sickened by the sight of the traps in this one, which feels much darker and meaner than its predecessors. And includes a trap that involves rotten pig guts. While the terminally ill Jigsaw and his apprentice Amanda are forcing a surgeon to give him brain surgery, a grieving man played by Angus Macfadyen is made to go through rooms where he has to decide whether or not to save people connected to his son’s death in a drunk driving incident (the driver, the witness who didn’t testify, the judge who gave a lenient sentence). This is a bleak, ugly movie that tells an interesting story, but it’s really not pleasant to sit through.

SAW VI (2009)

Mark Hoffman is not an interesting villain, and it’s really annoying to watch multiple movies of him slipping out of situations you hope will remove him from the franchise. But while we’re still stuck with Hoffman and we’re still being shown a ridiculous amount of flashbacks designed to answer questions we didn’t even know to ask (three movies later, we’re still getting details about what was going on in Saw III), Saw VI does manage to be a step up from a few previous installments. Director Kevin Greutert, who edited the previous films, made a movie that brings an element of fun back into the proceedings, and the screenwriters had the great idea of putting a health insurance executive from Jigsaw’s past at the center of the games being played in this one. Unfortunately, Saw VI was the least successful Saw up to this point because movie-goers were giving up on the franchise.

SPIRAL: FROM THE BOOK OF SAW (2021)

Saw II, III, and IV director Darren Lynn Bousman returned to direct this entry about a Jigsaw copycat. Sort of the Friday the 13th: A New Beginning of Saw movies. Chris Rock stars as a detective trying to figure out who keeps killing cops with elaborate traps, and his performance is at its best when he’s cracking jokes. When Rock tries to be serious and intense, it’s not quite convincing. Samuel L. Jackson plays his dad, who gets stuck in a trap along the way – and it is fun to see an icon like SLJ strung up in a Jigsaw-style device. Other than the traps and references to Jigsaw, Spiral: From the Book of Saw has little to do with other Saw movies… which was kind of refreshing at this point. There’s no reason to worry about continuity, you can just sit back and take it in as a simple, straightforward revenge movie.

SAW X (2023)

I find several of the Saw sequels tough to sit through. Not because of the violence and gore, but because they get bogged down with excessive flashbacks, timeline tricks, and soap opera-esque dramatic elements. I got so tired of that stuff, I even found the generally unpopular “spin-off” Spiral to be a refreshing entry in the franchise because it didn’t attempt to further (or further convolute) the story of John “Jigsaw” Kramer… So it’s surprising to find that Saw X was able to get me interested in another Jigsaw story – and it was able to do so by jumping back in time, being set in between the first and second movies. Before the franchise got so messy. This time Jigsaw himself is the star and we follow him as he falls prey to a medical scam, then gets revenge on the scammers by playing his usual games with them. Not only was this the most enjoyable Saw sequel in quite a while, it was also the first time I had any interest in John Kramer as a character. In the other movies I always found him to be a pompous, hypocritical ass.

SAW II (2005)

Like any self-respecting sequel, director Darren Lynn Bousman’s Saw II takes the concept introduced in the first movie and goes bigger with it. Instead of two people trapped in a room we get seven people trapped in a house, hit with nerve gas and forced to participate in a series of games that have been set up throughout the rooms so they can retrieve vials of antidote. While they’re playing their games, deeply flawed detective Eric Matthews and a SWAT team have stormed a warehouse and caught Jigsaw himself… and yet Jigsaw, who we learn more about this time around, still manages to be in control of the situation. The traps are gruesome and cringe-inducing (the syringe pit is one of the most memorable moments in the series), but there’s still a sense of fun to the sequel. It doesn’t feel as bleak and mean-spirited as future installments in the franchise would.

SAW (2004)

The Saw franchise has become so big and convoluted, you might forget that it all started with a simple little serial killer thriller. Director James Wan and screenwriter Leigh Whannell came up with an idea they could bring to the screen for very little money: two men trapped in a room with chains on their ankles and hacksaws at hand. Then they built a fascinating story around those two men. The story of the Jigsaw Killer, who forces victims to play dangerous “games” to decide their fate. Most of them don’t survive. There’s also a mother and daughter being held at gunpoint, an obsessed detective chasing the wrong suspect, and a Jigsaw survivor who is grateful for the experience. And a jaw-dropping twist. Even if no sequels had ever been made, we’d still be talking about Saw as a classic thriller along the lines of Seven.

The post Saw Movies Ranked: From Worst to Best appeared first on JoBlo.

Here’s some disappointing news: it has been reported by Bloody Disgusting that tonight’s episode of The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs will be the series finale. This news has been confirmed on Joe Bob’s own Patreon account, The Lost Drive-in. An epic era is coming to an end… but it’s not all doom and gloom, because Shudder will still be airing four The Last Drive-in specials throughout the rest of the year. Tonight is just the end of the non-special show.

Joe Bob Briggs

Joe Bob Briggs made his debut as a drive-in movie critic in the early ’80s and soon earned a job hosting movies on The Movie Channel, where Joe Bob’s Drive-in Theater ran from 1986 to 1996. That was followed by the TNT series MonsterVision, which he hosted from 1996 to 2000.

That was followed by an eighteen-year stretch of darkness, but then he made his triumphant return with The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs on Shudder. The Shudder era began with a 13-film marathon on July 13, 2018 – an event that Joe Bob thought might be his last rodeo. But so many people tuned in for that marathon, it crashed Shudder’s servers and convinced them to give him an on-going series, mixed with holiday specials.

While the early seasons of The Last Drive-in were weekly double features, just like the MonsterVision days, there has been some tinkering with the format recently. Season 6 brought us one movie every other week, and season 7 has brought us monthly double features. The final episode airs tonight, March 6, at 9pm ET on Shudder and AMC+, and will be available on demand beginning Sunday, March 8.

On The Last Drive-In, the world’s foremost drive-in movie critic hosts eclectic horror movies, talking about their merits, histories and significance to genre cinema.

The Last Drive-In with Joe Bob Briggs is produced by Matt Manjourides and Justin Martell and directed by Austin Jennings. Joe Bob is joined on every episode by Diana Prince as Darcy the Mail Girl.

Specials

Courtney Thomasma, EVP, Linear and Streaming Products, provided the following statement: “Joe Bob Briggs has been a Shudder staple since 2018, when his original 13-movie marathon ‘broke the internet.’ Since then, he and Darcy the Mail Girl have continued to delight Shudder fans with double features and seasonal specials tailored to horror buffs and cinephiles alike, always offering plenty of surprises. We look forward to sharing these four new specials with Drive-In Mutants everywhere.“

The first of four post-series specials will be Joe Bob’s Wicked Witchy Wingding, will is coming our way April 24th at 9pm ET. The double feature of occult flicks continues Briggs’ eternal campaign to establish Walpurgisnacht as an American horror holiday.

A reason for the end of the series was not given. For now, Darcy has just commented, “We are only allowed to say so much right now (there are even certain words/phrases we aren’t permitted to use), but I will answer any questions you have to the best of my ability. The #1 question is about JB’s health, so let me assure you he’s doing fine…Spry AF, even!!” Future plans have not been revealed, but she has confirmed that Joe Bob will continue doing his live show tours and Jamboree events. A video from Joe Bob can be seen at the bottom of this article.

Ending The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs seems like a bad move for Shudder and their subscriber numbers, but we’ll see how it goes for them. For now, I’m just grateful that we’ve gotten eight years of the show.

Are you sad to hear that The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs is coming to an end? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Tonight’s episode of The Last Drive-in with Joe Bob Briggs is the series finale, but more specials are on the way appeared first on JoBlo.

Synopsis

Yeti was originally set up at Sony and Picturestart a couple of years ago, under producer Jon Silk’s first-look deal. But Silk is now a film executive at the Netflix streaming service, so the project has moved from Sony to Netflix. Picturestart is still involved, with Erik Feig and Jessica Switch producing for the company, alongside Dan Kagan. Hans Ritter and Pine serve as executive producers.

Peter Gaffney and Sean Tretta have written the script for Yeti, which takes place deep in the Alps, where an avalanche unleashes something primeval from the glacial ice. With no hope of rescue, a father and his daughter must fight to survive against a merciless predator that blends in with the snow. 

Cast

Pine will be playing the father in that scenario, with Iona Bell (The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping) as his daughter. Ray Winstone (Damsel) is also in the cast, but there’s no word on the roles he or Sofia Boutella will be playing.

I would more excited about this project if it were one of the Jean-Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal yeti projects being unearthed and revived (possibly even as a team-up vehicle for those two now that they’ve set aside their differences). It seems we’ll never get to see Van Damme or Seagal fight yetis, but I am interested in seeing what it looks like when Chris Pine crosses paths with one.

Are you interested in Yeti? What do you think of the cast that has been assembled for the film? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Chris Pine and Sofia Boutella to star in Yeti survival thriller appeared first on JoBlo.

Cast and Synopsis

Here’s the cast list:  Gillian Bolt (Landman), Sydney Elizebeth Agudong (Lilo & Stitch), Thomas Lennon (Reno 911!), Sydney Cole Alexander (Severance), Ashleigh Murray (The Other Black Girl), Lindsey Normington (Anora), Evan Rubin (A House of Dynamite), and Peloton’s Cody Rigsby.

Andrews developed the idea for Bach Sh*t Crazy with Catie Bolt and Gillian Bolt, “inspired by the trio’s ever-rotating roles in their current real-life bridesquad era.” The story follows a tight-knit group of college friends reuniting for yet another bachelorette weekend — this time at a lavish ski chalet owned by the bride’s ultra-wealthy fiancé (Lennon). Maid of honor Maya (Agudong) has grown distant from best friend Evie (Bolt), whose rekindled bond with estranged college mean girl Tess (Alexander) threatens to derail the trip. A competitive scavenger hunt heightens tensions before taking a violent turn, stranding the women on a snowy mountain with a killer on the loose.

Production

Bach Sh*t Crazy is currently filming at Lake Tahoe in California.

The project is supported through fiscal sponsorship by the Alliance of Women Directors, where Andrews was an inaugural RDF Fellow. Catie Bolt and Gillian Bolt are producing for Bolt Productions. Andrews is producing under her Dumm Blonde banner.

Bach Sh*t Crazy had my attention as soon as I saw the title, caught my interest with Thomas Lennon’s name on the cast list, and fully sold me with the synopsis and the “comedic slasher” description. I’m looking forward to seeing how this one is going to turn out.

Does Bach Sh*t Crazy sound interesting to you? Let us know if this sounds like something you would want to watch by leaving a comment below.

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Last year, it was announced that the Exorcist sequel had been passed over to writer/director/producer Mike Flanagan, who was said to be working on a “radical new take” on the franchise. And while Flanagan’s movie won’t be making its originally announced March 13, 2026 release date, it is moving forward, aiming to reach theatres on March 12, 2027. Filming is underway in New York City – and in recent weeks, we’ve heard that the cast consists of Black Widow herself Scarlett Johansson, John Leguizamo (Land of the Dead), Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix), Jacobi Jupe (Hamnet), Diane Lane (Let Him Go), Sasha Calle (The Flash), and Chiwetel Ejiofor, who recently worked with Flanagan on the Stephen King adaptation The Life of Chuck. 

But Flanagan is known for working with a core group of actors again and again. If you’ve been wondering where they are, fear not, they will be in this Exorcist movie as well!

Frequent Collaborators

Deadline has confirmed that Flanagan regulars Rahul Kohli, Hamish Linklater, Carl Lumbly, Robert Longstreet, Matt Biedel, Samantha Sloyan, Kate Siegel, John Gallagher Jr., and Carla Gugino will all be showing up in his new movie. They note, “Many of these actors featured in Flanagan’s Netflix miniseries Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher, with assorted members also appearing in the likes of Oculus, Hush, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Gerald’s Game, The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Midnight Club, and The Life of Chuck.”

Benjamin Pajak of The Life of Chuck is in the mix as well, along with Gil Bellows (Love and a .45)… and, unless I’m overlooking something, I think this is Bellows’ first time working with Flanagan.

The new Exorcist movie is coming our way from Blumhouse-Atomic Monster, Morgan Creek Entertainment, and Flanagan’s Red Room Pictures banner. Alexandra Magistro serves as an executive producer for Red Room. David Robinson is producing the film for Morgan Creek, while Jason Blum and Ryan Turek serve as the respective producer and executive producer for Blumhouse-Atomic Monster.

Are you glad to hear that Mike Flanagan hasn’t left his frequent collaborators out of his Exorcist movie? Share your thoughts on this one by leaving a comment below.

The post Mike Flanagan adds several frequent collaborators to the cast of his Exorcist movie appeared first on JoBlo.

The slasher sequel Scream 7 took a bumpy road to production, losing some cast members and directors along the way, but it has now made its way out into the world. The reaction is split (you can read a 5/10 review from Tyler Nichols HERE and an 8/10 second opinion review from Mike Conway at THIS LINK), but the box office is good, with the film setting the record for the highest opening weekend of the franchise.

Kevin Williamson, who wrote the screenplay for the original Scream, directs the film from a screenplay by 2022’s Scream and Scream VI writer Guy Busick, who crafted the story with his co-writer on the fifth and sixth films, James Vanderbilt. (Vanderbilt is also a producer on the most recent sequels.) Williamson also did enough work on the script to earn a “screenplay by” credit alongside Busick. He recently sat down for a SPOILER-filled interview with Esquire – and during that interview, he revealed that there was a deleted coda that would have confirmed that a character who is said to be dead was actually alive. So watch out, there will be SPOILERS below.

Cast and Synopsis

Returning franchise heroine Neve Campbell is joined in the cast by Isabel May of the Yellowstone prequel 1883, who has signed on to play Sidney’s daughter Tatum; Mckenna Grace of the Ghostbusters franchise, Grace’s Ghostbusters co-star Celeste O’Connor, Gen V‘s Asa Germann, The Fabelmans‘ Sam Rechner, Pitch Perfect‘s Anna Camp, Riverdale‘s Mark Consuelos, fellow franchise star Courteney Cox, who reprises the role of reporter / author Gale Weathers, Joel McHale (Community) as Sidney’s husband Mark Evans, and Ethan Embry (The Devil’s Candy). Although two of the “core four” characters established in the previous two movies are no longer around, Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are back as Chad Meeks-Martin and Mindy Meeks-Martin.

Also in the cast are Matthew Lillard and Scott Foley, who played Ghostface killers in the original Scream and Scream 3, respectively, and did not appear to make it out of those movies alive. David Arquette is back as the dearly departed Dewey, who exited the world of the living in the fifth movie.

Here’s the film’s official synopsis: When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter (Isabel May) becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.

Scream 7 earned an R rating with strong bloody violence, gore, and language.

SPOILERS

The mystery at the heart of the film is whether or not Matthew Lillard’s character Stu Macher really died at the end of the original film or if he somehow survived and is now coming after Sidney again. In the end, it’s said that the video calls Sidney was receiving from Stu were just AI deepfakes created by another maniac. Stu is dead.

But, during his Esquire interview, Williamson said they did shoot a coda that would have revealed that Stu actually was alive all along.

Williamson told Esquire, “I went to game night at Mike Flanagan’s house and Lillard was there. I’m like, ‘Oh shit, he’s going to ask me.’ And the whole evening he was just like, ‘You’ve got to bring Stu back, man. You got to bring Stu back.’ And I’m like, ‘What do I tell him?’ My husband goes, ‘Just tell him.’ I was like, ‘No, I’m not.’ And he kept going on and on about it. Finally I said, ‘Listen, Stu’s dead. It will make no sense whatsoever if he’s alive. And I do not want to do that to this franchise. I do not want to jump the shark in that big a way. I’ll jump one shark, but I’m not going to jump ten sharks.’ He goes, ‘All right, bro, forgive me.’ And in my head I’m going, ‘Oh shit, I lied to him.’ But then I realized I didn’t lie to him because … he’s not alive.“

He went on to say, “Guy Busick had that in his script. He wrote all the AI stuff. The first time I read it I was like, ‘How is this going to work? How is he going to be alive?’ Furthermore, if it is AI, will part of the audience be disappointed that he’s not real? We were playing that game. And I’d be lying if I said we didn’t shoot it both ways. … We shot a little coda at the end that we had in our back pocket. But oddly enough, the decision was that the audience wanted him dead.“

So if you’re disappointed that we didn’t get a “Stu is alive” coda, blame the test screening audiences. “It makes more sense. It’s more real. If he’s alive, that’s a big stretch. We live in a world now where with fake AI, we know that’s possible.“

What do you think of the ending of Scream 7? Do you wish a coda would have revealed that Stu is alive, or were you satisfied that he was just an AI deepfake? Let us know by leaving a comment below.

The post Scream 7 deleted coda would have shown (SPOILER) was alive appeared first on JoBlo.

Scream Franchise Joins the Billion Dollar Club

After less than a week in theaters, Scream 7 has already slashed its way to $104 million globally, bringing the franchise’s cumulative total to $1,016,897,342. Congratulations, Ghostface.

While horror movies can be incredibly profitable, billion-dollar franchises are still relatively rare in the genre. With this latest milestone, Scream becomes just the sixth horror franchise to cross the $1 billion mark. The others include Saw, It, Resident Evil, and Alien, while The Conjuring Universe towers above them all with a massive $2.9 billion worldwide.

Here’s the official synopsis: “When a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott (Neve Campbell) has built a new life, her darkest fears are realized as her daughter (Isabel May) becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all.”

Our Reviews Were Mixed

Our own Tyler Nichols, and Scream franchise mega-fan, sadly didn’t enjoy the sequel. “Most of the new characters are simple set dressing or fodder for kills,” he wrote. “I get that this is a slasher but no one even feels dimensional and they hardly get any characterization. With the worst final act in Scream history, I feel like it’s definitely time to put this franchise to bed.” You can check out the rest of his review right here.

However, our own Mike Conway found much more to enjoy, although he admitted that the film won’t be for everyone. “The critics are already sharpening their knives, and some fans can’t see past the production hurdles,” he wrote in his review. “But if you can separate the art from the industry mess, you’ll find a lean, mean slasher that definitively answers the existential question of what this series is. At its heart, Scream is Neve Campbell’s franchise.“

Make sure to let us know what you thought of Scream 7 as well!

The post Scream 7 pushes the franchise past $1 billion worldwide appeared first on JoBlo.