Movies
News Bites: ‘Saw VI’ Phone App, ‘Twilight’-esque ‘Shiver’, ‘Death Bell’ Trailer
We’ve had quite a big morning when it comes to horror news, so we’ve jammed all the small bits into this one article. Below you can find out how to get a free Saw VI iPhone app where you can talk like Jigsaw, then you can read all about the new Twilight wannabe movie adaptation entitled Shiver, Sid Haig toplines a new horror anthology, Jesse Metcalfe gets Tortured and you’ll see who won the Halloween Horror Nights shorts content. More as it comes in.URBAN PURCHASES OWN TWILIGHT-ESQUE BOOK SERIES
Because apparently nobody has learned that you can’t copy success, Unique Features has acquired screen rights to Shiver, a bestselling supernatural romance novel by Maggie Stiefvater that is the first of a three-book series in attempt to have their own Twilight franchise. It will flop.
The book covers a bittersweet paranormal romance between a teen who becomes a wolf each winter and his girlfriend, who helps him find the secret to staying human. The first installment was published by Scholastic Press in August and has been on the bestseller lists for six weeks. The sequel novel, “Linger,” will be published next August. Unique acquired all three books in the series. Lame.
“I’m not the biggest werewolf or vampire fan, but the author has a strong take on a young adult sensibility,” producer Bob Shaye said. “It’s also a sexy love story that isn’t too over the top.”
SAW VI iPHONE APP
If it’s Halloween, it must be SAW… and now, for the first time ever, SAW fans can SOUND like Jigsaw as well! Lionsgate wanted us to let you know that they’ve just released the Jigsaw Your Voice iPhone app into the iTunes store for FREE!
Features include — Long recording time (up to 60 seconds)… Jigsaw soundboard to hear classic lines from the film and practice… 4 Jigsaw presets to match your voice to Jigsaw’s… Advanced settings for pitch, speed and tempo… Email your voice to friends…
Lionsgate also wants to let everyone know that in the upcoming upgrade of the iPhone app, there’ll be Queue management (store multiple voice recordings), an expanded gallery, and more!
METCALFE GETS TORTURED
While we wait and wait and wait for Twisted Pictures to do something with Tortured, the new issue of Gorezone caught up with star Jesse Metcalfe who talked a bit about the project. AITH transcribes.
He says the film is about “an upper-middle-class couple’s life is destroyed when their only child is kidnapped and killed. Obsessed with revenge, the couple seizes an opportunity to kidnap the killer,” while also chatting a bit about co-star Bill Moseley. “He’s (Bill Moseley) creepy [laughs] He’s kind of a creepy guy. He’s extremely creepy in the film, but he’s one of those people that has a peculiar, sort of eclectic, set of interests and I think that’s possibly from doing so many films within the genre.”
No release date has been set yet.
HALLOWEEN HORROR NIGHTS SHORT WINNER
Chiller and Universal Studios Hollywood announce the winner of the 2009 “Halloween Horror Nights-Chiller Scary Good Film Competition,” which offered filmmakers an opportunity to have their scariest short film rewarded with a broadcast on Chiller, a $1,000 cash prize and a trip for two (2) to the October 2 opening night of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood.
“Bedfellows,” submitted by Drew Daywalt of Oak Park, California, was selected as this year’s winner by Internet voters who visited www.HalloweenHorrorNights.com/Chiller to pick their favorite among a field of ten finalist films.
Prospective filmmakers were invited to submit short films of 90 seconds to three minutes in length. A panel of horror industry professionals, including “Saw VI” Director Kevin Greutert, Syfy’s Executive Vice President of Programming and Original Movies, Thomas P. Vitale and Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights Creative Director John Murdy, first judged the pool of entries, narrowing the field to ten. Criteria included storytelling skill, originality and the degree of the “good scare.”
Writer/director Drew Daywalt says he knew he was destined for a life in horror cinema ever since he was a child in Ohio, staying up late to watch old horror films. Since moving to Los Angeles, Mr. Daywalt has written and directed features for Quentin Tarantino’s A Band Apart, Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer. He spent the last year writing and directing 30 terror-filled short films for the critically acclaimed Horror Troupe FEWDIO.
This year’s all-new “Halloween Horror Nights” at Universal Studios Hollywood will feature four new maze experiences including “Saw: Game Over,” “Halloween: The Life and Crimes of Michael Myers,” “My Bloody Valentine: Be Mine 4 Ever,” and “Chucky’s Funhouse,” six new “scare zones,” a new live stage performance of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: A Tribute,” as well as a fully re-imagined “Terror Tram” backlot studio experience. The all-new “Halloween Horror Nights” for 2009 will be the most intense and terrifying “live” horror event ever to be presented in a theme park environment.
“Halloween Horror Nights” will continue on consecutive weekends and selected weekday nights beginning on Friday, October 2 through Halloween, Saturday, October 31. Event dates are: October 2-3, 9-11, 15-18, 23-25, 28-31. The event will begin nightly at 7:00 p.m.; closing hours vary by night throughout the event. Tickets are now on sale at www.universalstudioshollywood.com/hhn including limited-time advance purchase discounts.
SIG HAIG TOPLINES GO STRAIGHT TO HELL
With a title that’s so original (Drag Me to Hell anyone?), the boys over at Dread Central learned that Sig Haig (Spider Baby, Devil’s Rejects, House of 1,000 Corpses) will star in Pristine Pictures’ upcoming Go Straight to Hell.
“The film, written by Scott C. Sanford and Ron R. Anand and directed by Edward G. Norris, is an anthology of four tales involving four souls trapped in Purgatory. Newly deceased, they have been gathered there to relive their greatest sins – shown to them by an unearthly guide – which they have failed to repent, hoping to be cleansed of this sin so that they may enter Heaven.
Currently in pre-production and slated to shoot in late fall, Go Straight to Hell also stars Traci Lords, Amanda Plummer, Courtney Gains, Karen Black, and James DeBello.”
DEATH BELL TRAILER
Below you’ll find the trailer for the Korean horror film Death Bel, which premieres on IFC Festival Direct October 14.
Directed by Chang and starring Lee Beom-soo, Kim Beom and Nam Gyu-ri, Death Bell was a huge hit when released in South Korea last August, racking up 1.28 million admissions.
For every wrong answer, one student dies. As the countdown for college entrance exams begin, Chang Ahn High School organizes a special exam cram class for the top 20 students including girl-next-door Lee Na (Nam Gyu Ri) and classroom big shot Hyun Kang (Kim Bum). Taught by Hwang Chang Wook (Lee Bum Soo) and three other teachers, the class is festering with high-strung overachieving teens, some of whom are struggling with serious mental illnesses. In the middle of class, the television suddenly turns on. The students are shocked to see their classmate Hye Young drowning in a water tank onscreen. A voice asks them a sample exam question. Answer correctly, and the classmate lives. Answer incorrectly and…
TWILIGHT SPOOF
Kevin Pereira and Olivia Munn present their short spoof on Twilight for the Fantastic Fest in Austin, TX.
There’s been a lot of talk about how Christopher Nolan snuck in some horror elements into his epic adaptation of The Odyssey. However, even before the Cyclops began to eat Ithican soldiers and Circe subjected them to magical body-horror, cinemagoers were already witnessing supernatural terror through a certain trailer that was attached to most IMAX screenings of Nolan’s film.
It turns out that this trailer was for Rob Savage’s Other Mommy, an adaptation of Bird Box author Josh Malerman’s horror novel, Incidents Around the House. With the teaser now available online and revealing that the award-winning Jessica Chastain is playing the titular antagonist (as well as her ill-fated human counterpart), not to mention the fact that the picture is being helmed by the director of hits like Host and The Boogeyman, genre fans are understandably hyped for this upcoming thriller.
That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the trailer and share four things we learned from this sneak peek at Other Mommy!
4. Rob Savage is Going Back to His Supernatural Horror Roots
I know I’m in the minority when I admit that Dashcam is my favorite Rob Savage movie, but even I understand why the filmmakers’ fans have been waiting a while for the director to get back to telling more grounded paranormal stories as he did with 2020’s Host.
Other Mommy obviously isn’t a found footage movie, but moments like the poltergeist activity on the kitchen table combined with the nature of the source material, which actually features a full-on exorcism, indicate that this adaptation is more than a simple creature feature. That’s why I think Savage is once again going to borrow from the same ghostly narratives that made his debut film such a viral hit.
3. Other Mommy is a More Convincing Doppelganger in the Adaptation
Part of the horror from Malerman’s original novel came from the fact that the entity taking on the form of Bela’s (Arabella Olivia Clark) mother wasn’t very good at passing itself off as human. This resulted in several uncanny moments where other characters began to notice that there was something visibly wrong with the family and decided to keep their distance.
Savage’s film appears to be taking a different route, with the trailer showing a version of the entity that can, at least physically, imitate Chastain’s character perfectly. This change is likely the result of the filmmakers wanting to incorporate more paranoid scenes where Bela and her father, played by Jay Duplass, are confused about which Mommy is safe to interact with.
2. The Family is Also Better Off This Time Around
Incidents Around the House featured some interesting subtext about how poverty can negatively affect American family dynamics. After all, the main characters were already feeling scared and isolated before the entity emerged from Bela’s closet and began scratching at their emotional wounds. The trailer for the movie, however, depicts the family as being relatively well off before these incidents begin to occur.
I can only imagine that this part of the story was changed so that the family’s fall from grace can be even more dramatic as the mom and dad’s pasts are revealed and Bela falls further into the clutches of the demonic antagonist.
1. Jessica Chastain is Embodying Evil Dead Rise’s Alyssa Sutherland
Mothers turning against their children is one of the most disturbing horror tropes out there (just check out classics like Hereditary and Carrie if you need proof), but it takes a remarkably skilled actress to pull off such a monstrous transformation. This is especially true when both a regular, loving mother and the Other share the screen in the same film.
That’s why I appreciate how Chastain appears to be channeling another evil redhead mother that recently traumatized audiences with her performance. It’s too early to be sure, but I’m fairly confident that Chastain’s character has at least some amount of Ellie in her cinematic DNA – Ellie being the iconic deadite brought to life by Australian actress Alyssa Sutherland in 2023’s Evil Dead Rise.
Let us know in the comments if you think we missed any important details from the trailer, and don’t forget to check out Other Mommy when it hits theaters on October 9!
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