Editorials
For Now, Let’s Relax: Our Favorite Horror Icons Are in Really Good Hands
They’re all coming back. And it’s been a while since they’ve been in such good hands.
Looking ahead to the near future of the horror genre, you’ll see that big time franchises Friday the 13th, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween are all being rebooted within the next year or so – and, unsurprisingly, none of those “reboots” will be directly connected to the remakes we’ve already gotten in years past. A reflection of Hollywood’s lack of originality and desire to milk popular franchises until their teats are swollen and sore? Without a doubt. But at the same time, it’s hard not to be excited whenever our favorite villains are put back in the killing business.
More importantly, we’ve got very little to worry about right now.
On the Friday the 13th front, Jason Voorhees is expected to resume his Crystal Lake killing spree on January 13th of next year, and while you may not be too keen on the idea of the film telling a full-on origin story, you must at least derive some level of comfort from the team that’s behind it. A director hasn’t yet been announced but we do know that Aaron Guzikowksi penned the script, and if you’ve seen the 2013 film Prisoners, you know how lucky the franchise is to have him. As producer Brad Fuller recently pointed out, he’s probably a better writer than the series even deserves – it may sound demeaning to the legacy of Voorhees, but it’s not exactly an untrue statement.
After all, if we’re being honest with ourselves, the franchise doesn’t exactly deal in high art.
In addition, the 2017 Friday the 13th reboot will be the first film in the series made by Paramount Pictures in nearly 30 years, which makes it an exciting homecoming of sorts. Jason Takes Manhattan, released in 1989, was the final film in the original series to be produced by Paramount, as subsequent installments Jason Goes to Hell, Jason X, and Freddy vs. Jason were made by New Line – so too was the 2009 remake, co-produced by Platinum Dunes. True, Paramount’s Friday the 13th track record is by no means pristine, but there’s something about Jason coming home that just feels so very right.
Not to mention, the next Friday the 13th film will technically be the 13th installment in the franchise, and with Paramount on board, you have to believe they’ll be taking a “go big or go home” approach to the revival of the series. And again, having Aaron Guzikowski pen the script seems to suggest that they’re taking the former approach this time around.
We don’t yet have a release date, but the original Texas Chain Saw Massacre will soon get a prequel of its own with the already-filmed Leatherface, headed to theaters either this year or next. The film, much like the upcoming Friday the 13th reboot, will delve into Leatherface’s origin story, particularly focusing on his years as a teenage madman. Okay, so nobody was really asking to see what Leatherface was up to in his teenage years, but again, it’s the team behind this one that makes it an exciting project.
The directors of Leatherface are Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury, a French filmmaking duo who made quite a splash back in 2007 with brutal home invasion flick Inside. Again, like Guzikowski and Friday the 13th, theirs are talents the Chainsaw franchise is incredibly lucky to have. Yes, the guys who made Inside are the ones bringing Leatherface back to the big screen, and I don’t know about you, but that’s more than enough to pique my interest and curb any fears.
Perhaps the most exciting franchise revival on the menu right now is Halloween, being brought back courtesy of Blumhouse Productions and John freakin’ Carpenter himself. The recently announced new installment will be executive produced by Carpenter, who will also serve as creative consultant, and early word is that the horror master may even handle the film’s score. It’ll be the first film in the series made with Carpenter’s direct involvement since Halloween 3, which of course makes it the first to actually feature Michael Myers, and have Carpenter on board, since Halloween 2 (1981).
Blumhouse will produce with Miramax and Trancas International Films, and another point of excitement for longtime fans of the series is that Dimension Films won’t have their hands in this particular cookie jar. Dimension has been involved in the last several installments in the franchise, which are needless to say not quite fan favorites. Furthermore, Blumhouse and Carpenter promise that the new Halloween film will take the series back to its simple and terrifying roots, which is right about now music to our ears. Michael Myers is expected to come home in October 2017.
As for Freddy, well, we’re still waiting on news of his impending return.
Will any of these films turn out to actually be good? It’s impossible to tell, at this present moment in time. But for now, it seems that our favorite horror franchises are being treated with the care and respect that they deserve. And that’s a damn fine start.
It’s been 75 years since The Thing From Another World first warned us to “watch the skies”, and filmgoers have done just that by showing up to multiple instances of extraterrestrial contact on the big screen. This makes sense, as a recent CBS news poll estimated that 63% of Americans believe in intelligent life on other planets, and the ongoing disclosure movement aims to raise that number with each passing day.
With Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day leaving many genre fans hungry for more alien footage (preferably of the spooky variety), today I’d like to share a list recommending six underrated alien invasion thrillers for your viewing pleasure. After all, regardless of whether or not you believe that we’re alone in the universe, it can be fun to dream about the worst-case scenario if our cosmic neighbors ever decide to visit.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be focusing on lesser-known invasion stories rather than the popular extraterrestrials of franchises like Alien and Close Encounters of the Third (or even Fourth) Kind. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own alien favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling movie.
While it won’t be featured in this article, I’d highly recommend checking out Dean Alioto’s UFO Abduction/The McPherson Tape if you’re up for some ufology-inspired found footage thrills.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. The Arrival (1996)
Not to be confused with Denis Villeneuve’s Academy Award-winning Amy Adams vehicle about learning to communicate peacefully with extraterrestrial life, David Twohy’s The Arrival is a much more straightforward (but no less entertaining) genre romp where Charlie Sheen faces a global conspiracy involving hostile alien invaders.
It’s not exactly up there with Close Encounters or even Independence Day, but Twohy’s conspiratorial thriller plays out like an exceptionally fun episode of The X-Files that I’d recommend to sci-fi/horror fans who don’t mind a little bit of wonky CGI and 90s excess alongside their alien thrills.
5. Extraterrestrial (2014)
The Vicious Brothers made a name for themselves with the success of 2011’s Grave Encounters, but that was far from the Canadian duo’s only collaboration. And while it’s not exactly a fan favorite, I always point out 2014’s Extraterrestrial as one of their most underrated projects simply because I agree with the filmmakers’ opinion that there aren’t enough ‘cool alien abduction movies’ out there.
Admittedly, the majority of the picture functions like a run-of-the-mill creature feature with paper-thin characters and familiar horror tropes, but I’d argue that the cosmically-terrifying final act elevates the experience to new and memorable heights. The movie also boasts great performances by both Michael Ironside and Emily Perkins – a combination that more than makes up for the occasionally janky CGI.
4. Alien Raiders (2008)
Director Ben Rock has gone on record lamenting how his John-Carpenter-inspired creature feature was forcefully renamed from Supermarket to the painfully obvious Alien Raiders (a change which likely resulted in many potential viewers skipping out on the experience), but the new title doesn’t change the fact that this single-location thriller is something of a hidden gem.
Taking place entirely within a supermarket, Alien Raiders tells the story of an ensemble of customers and employees who are taken hostage by a group of armed men looking for something far more dangerous than an easy payout. I won’t get into details in order to avoid spoiling the experience, but I’d highly recommend this criminally underseen flick to fans of John Carpenter and the Resident Evil games.
3. Phoenix Forgotten (2017)
You’d think that a Ridley-Scott-produced retelling of one of the most infamous real-life UFO sightings of all time would have a bigger following, but I rarely see Justin Barber’s Found Footage period piece brought up during discussions about extraterrestrial-focused horror movies.
This is a huge shame, as Phoenix Forgotten is just as spooky as it is convincing, with this well-researched dive into the Phoenix Lights incident benefiting from surprisingly believable special effects as well as an appropriately horrific finale.
2. Communion (1989)
I wouldn’t blame you for disregarding Whitley Strieber’s controversial book about his alleged close encounter as sensationalist slop, but I’d argue that Phillipe Mora’s 1989 adaptation of these events is much better than the source material. After all, the movie works as a standalone piece of speculative fiction while also benefiting from an incredible performance by the one and only Christopher Walken!
Mora’s take on Communion may not be particularly scary, but the film is still an unforgettable character study regardless of whether or not the abduction really happened. Not only that, but the flick also paved the way for plenty of future sci-fi stories where the extraterrestrial invaders aren’t as evil as they initially appear.
1. Altered (2006)
Originally envisioned as a Sam Raimi-style horror-comedy titled Probed, Eduardo Sánchez (of The Blair Witch Project fame) eventually realized that it would be much more interesting to turn the film into a serious exploration of the emotional aftermath of a traumatic abduction incident.
That’s how we got Altered, a clever inversion of the standard abduction narrative that follows a group of troubled friends as they capture and experiment on an alien in order to enact revenge for their own abduction years prior.
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