Movies
Breaking: ‘The Woods’ is Actually ‘BLAIR WITCH’! (Trailer)
The black cat is out of the bag, officially, as Lionsgate has officially pulled off the greatest coup in the history of cinema. The Woods, in theaters September 16th, has a new title: BLAIR WITCH.
Yup, all this time The Woods has secretly been the hotly anticipated sequel to Eduardo Sanchez and Daniel Myrick’s indie smash The Blair Witch Project.
I believe now is as good of a time as any to throw out a booming TOLD YOU SO. Back on April 11, 2015, Bloody Disgusting exclusively broke the news that The Woods was allegedly a Blair Witch film. We knew we were onto something when we were met with deafening silence from the studio, producers and filmmakers.
But I digress, there’s a lot of good news here. The first being that we’re finally getting a sequel to The Blair Witch Project, the other is that it’s awesome. Yes, I’ve seen the movie and loved it so much I’m going to be championing it all the way through release this coming September. In fact, I’m now allowed to share my review, which you’ve seen plastered on posters and in the initial teaser trailer.
” ‘Blair Witch’ is that game-changer horror fans desperately have been waiting for. It will usher in a new breed of genre films that are targeted at creating an emotional experience above all else. “Scary” is probably an understatement as this may just be the first film since ‘The Exorcist’ that will leave younger audiences scarred for life.”
It truly is one of the scariest movies ever made…
Blair Witch is directed by Adam Wingard, who helmed V/H/S and V/H/S/2 for Bloody Disgusting (in the interest of full disclosure), not to mention the awesome The Guest and You’re Next. But when Blair Witch releases this fall, he will become a household name. Blair Witch is written by his longtime collaborator Simon Barrett:
“A group of college students venture into the Black Hills Forest in Maryland to uncover the mysteries surrounding the disappearance of James’ sister who many believe is connected to the legend of the Blair Witch. At first the group is hopeful, especially when a pair of locals offer to act as guides through the dark and winding woods, but as the endless night wears on, the group is visited by a menacing presence. Slowly, they begin to realize the legend is all too real and more sinister than they could have imagined.“
James Allen McCune, Callie Hernandez, Brandon Scott, Valorie Curry, Corbin Reid, and Wes Robinson star.
As I said previously, I’m putting my full weight behind Blair Witch in a way that I haven’t done since Paranormal Activity. It’s terrifying. It’s rattling. It’s next level.
Roy Lee (The Ring, The Grudge, The Strangers, It), Steven Schneider (Paranormal Activity, Insidious), Keith Calder and Jessica Wu (You’re Next, The Guest) are the producers.
Movies
‘Abigail’ on Track for a Better Opening Weekend Than Universal’s Previous Two Vampire Attempts
In the wake of Leigh Whannell’s Invisible Man back in 2020, Universal has been struggling to achieve further box office success with their Universal Monsters brand. Even in the early days of the pandemic, Invisible Man scared up $144 million at the worldwide box office, while last year’s Universal Monsters: Dracula movies The Last Voyage of the Demeter and Renfield didn’t even approach that number when you COMBINE their individual box office hauls.
The horror-comedy Renfield came along first in April 2023, ending its run with just $26 million. The period piece Last Voyage of the Demeter ended its own run with a mere $21 million.
But Universal is trying again with their ballerina vampire movie Abigail this weekend, the latest bloodbath directed by the filmmakers known as Radio Silence (Ready or Not, Scream).
Unlike Demeter and Renfield, the early reviews for Abigail are incredibly strong, with our own Meagan Navarro calling the film “savagely inventive in terms of its vampiric gore,” ultimately “offering a thrill ride with sharp, pointy teeth.” Read her full review here.
That early buzz – coupled with some excellent trailers – should drive Abigail to moderate box office success, the film already scaring up $1 million in Thursday previews last night. Variety notes that Abigail is currently on track to enjoy a $12 million – $15 million opening weekend, which would smash Renfield ($8 million) and Demeter’s ($6 million) opening weekends.
Working to Abigail‘s advantage is the film’s reported $28 million production budget, making it a more affordable box office bet for Universal than the two aforementioned movies.
Stay tuned for more box office reporting in the coming days.
In Abigail, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
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