Editorials
All the Horror Headed Our Way on Friday, October 13th!
The final Friday the 13th of 2017 brings a whole lot of horror fun with it.
Once upon a time, a brand new installment of the Friday the 13th franchise was penciled in for release on Friday, October 13 of this year, which would’ve been absolutely perfect. After all, what could possibly be better than getting a new Friday the 13th movie on a Friday the 13th just weeks before Halloween?!
Alas, that film just wasn’t meant to be. But that’s okay, because we’ve got a whole lot of new horror content to consume when the calendar flips over to Friday, October 13!
For starters, Blumhouse is taking advantage of the date with the release of Happy Death Day on Friday the 13th. The film, directed by Christopher Landon (Paranormal Activity: The Marked One) and being released in theaters, looks to put a really fun spin on the slasher flick, trapping a young woman in a time loop that forces her to get killed by a mask-wearing maniac every single day until she can solve her own murder. It’s like Friday the 13th meets Groundhog Day, which should make for perfect Friday the 13th viewing.
Another new film being released on October 13 is Natalia Leite’s M.F.A., which Brad described in his review as being one of the most important films of the year. Francesca Eastwood plays an art student who confronts her attacker after being sexually assaulted, digging deep into the widespread campus violence that has been brushed under the rug. Many “rape-revenge” films are pure exploitation, but this one looks to confront troubling current issues head on and spark important discussions.
M.F.A. will hit limited theaters and VOD outlets.
Also arriving on VOD and Digital HD this Friday the 13th is Bone Tomahawk director S. Craig Zahler’s Brawl in Cell Block 99, starring Vince Vaughn in a role that’s likely to forever alter the way you look at Vince Vaughn. He stars as Bradley, a down-on-his-luck former boxer who winds up in prison after a gunfight with the police. In prison, “his enemies force him to commit acts of violence that turn the place into a savage battleground.”
Kalyn Corrigan saw Brawl in Cell Block 99 at Fantastic Fest, writing in her review that the exploitation-style thriller is “utterly ravenous and insanely cool.”
Before they unleash the second season of “Stranger Things” on October 27th, Netflix has another Halloween treat for us on October 13th. The Babysitter, directed by McG, promises a whole lot of bloodshed, centered on a young boy who discovers that his hot babysitter is a member of a Satanic cult. Worse yet, she and her friends want to make him their next sacrifice.
Speaking of Netflix…
Friday, October 13 also marks the arrival of Netflix’s “Mindhunter,“ an original series produced by David Fincher, who also directed several of the episodes. The 11-episode debut season follows an agent in the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit who tracks down serial killers and rapists and interviews them in the hopes that they can help solve current murders. Sounds a bit like The Silence of the Lambs, doesn’t it?
With Fincher on board, this one promises to be a standout October offering.
Another streaming service celebrating Friday the 13th this year is Amazon, set to drop the Prime Member Exclusive series “Lore” next Friday. The anthology series, based on the same-named podcast. presents the frightening and often disturbing tales based on real people and events that have led to our modern-day myths and legends.
Six episodes of “Lore” will arrive on October 13th, including the tale of a boy given a doll that seems to have a sinister life of its own; a family whose home appears to be inhabited by a spirit from the other side; and a German village that hunts for a murderous creature.
Fans of true horror should definitely dive deep into “Lore.”
IFC Midnight will release 78/52 in theaters, VOD, and on all digital platforms on October 13, a documentary that shines the spotlight on a single scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho: the infamous shower scene, of course. The doc explores the scene from multiple angles, focusing on its complicated technical aspects and its huge impact on the culture and the future of movies. Interview subjects include Guillermo del Toro, Elijah Wood, Danny Elfman, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Anthony Perkins’ son, Osgood Perkins.
The documentary’s title, by the way, refers to the number of setups (78) and the number of cuts (52) in the notorious shower scene.
Looking for some kid-friendly frights to enjoy with the whole family on Friday the 13th? Look no further than Nickelodeon’s “SpongeBob: Legend of Boo-Kini Bottom,” a stop-motion Halloween special that brings The Flying Dutchman back down into Spongebob’s underwater lair. His goal? To make sure Spongebob and his friends are scared on Halloween.
Not only is Friday the 13th: The Game finally getting a Playstation 4 and Xbox One physical release on October 13, but as we learned this week, a brand new map based on Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, along with The Final Chapter‘s Jason, will also arrive on that date. Additionally, a tease today suggests that Part 3 character Chuck will make his way into the game as a new playable counselor.
We may not be getting a new movie, but we won’t be without Jason this Friday the 13th!
Also on the video game front, The Evil Within 2 arrives on October 13.
For more horror fun on Friday the 13th, be sure to tune into AMC, as they’ll be airing Jason Goes to Hell, Freddy vs. Jason and Jason X beginning at 8pm!
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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