Editorials
Horror Franchises Impacted By Potential Weinstein Company Collapse
The genre titan is about to fall and it could impact several important horror franchises.
Last week, Colony Capital reached a preliminary agreement to provide much-needed cash to The Weinstein Company, which has been thrown into turmoil by allegations of sexual harassment and rape against its co-founder Harvey Weinstein. Colony was also given a limited period to exclusively pursue the purchase of some or all of the Weinstein Company’s assets.
But those plans have changed, explains the NY Times. Colony has not and will not provide a cash infusion, according to two people briefed on the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday to discuss private deliberations. They further added that Colony saw bankruptcy as the most likely near-term outcome for the studio. This potentially could put The Weinstein Company’s assets, which include Dimension Films, into auction.
There are other options, which means we’re going to have to watch and see how everything unfolds. Still, it got me thinking, what assets are held by The Weinstein Company that could be freed like Michael Myers and Halloween, who both snuck their way out of the company over a year ago?
Obviously, my first thought was, what’s going to happen to Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson‘s Scream franchise? Our understanding is that Miramax no longer has any involvement, which means it’s possible this asset could be up for grabs. What of MTV’s “Scream” series and forthcoming reboot that’s been fully cast and allegedly begun shooting for a March release? Interestingly, we discovered that Netflix had secretly been producers on previous seasons. Could they still back the series in the event of a Weinstein bankruptcy? Or would the rights be tied up? We’ll watch this one closely.
The Weinstein Company’s Dimension Films quietly put sequels to both Clive Barker‘s Hellraiser and Stephen King‘s Children of the Corn into production two years ago. It was done as a bid to retain the rights with allegedly no intention of a release. Us horror fans have suffered through this for decades now (with Inferno, Hellseeker, Deader, and Hellworld) and it’ll be interesting to see if both franchises will be freed from the grasp in the event of a bankruptcy. For now, there are two completed films collecting dust: Children of the Corn: Runaway, directed by John Gulager (Feast trilogy, Piranha 3DD, and Zombie Night), and Hellraiser: Judgment, helmed by effects wiz Gary J. Tunnicliffe and featuring Paul T. Taylor as the new Pinhead.
Let’s not forget, this past August we reported that Producer Donald Borchers filed a federal copyright suit, alleging that he and not The Weinstein Company owns the sequel rights to Children of the Corn. This could also come into play in the coming year and will be something to keep our eyes on.
Then there’s the official The Amityville Horror franchise, which just saw the release of The Awakening on Google Play and VOD. Produced by Blumhouse, the released film had scrubbed Harvey Weinstein‘s name off of the credits entirely. The film, which had suffered through many reshoots, had been in limbo for years before eventually being dumped. Platinum Dunes had once remade the film, could another studio swoop in and take a chance on it? James Wan‘s The Conjuring sequel opened with the Defeo murders, maybe we’ll one day see Amityville as one of the many Conjuring spinoffs? It’s also important to note that Miramax also retains some sort of rights in this franchise, so it’s entirely possible this ends up in limbo.
Well, looks like Amityville: The Awakening is the first movie to actually remove Harvey Weinstein’s credit from the opening. Good riddance. pic.twitter.com/L00YXcM125
— John Squires (@FreddyInSpace) October 16, 2017
There’s more, as Dimension Films released both the Alex Aja-helmed Piranha 3D and its sequel, Piranha 3DD, directed by John Gulager. The reboot of Joe Dante‘s franchise is another that could end up available, as well as David Cronenberg‘s Scanners, which Dimension had been developing for television. (In a quick IMDb search, however, it shows Bron as the current rights holder. We’re looking into this.) What happens to the Sin City franchise, which was a co-production between Dimension and Robert Rodriguez‘s Troublemaker Studios? And what about the various films acquired and shelved that still haven’t seen the light of day, including the French horror Livide?
The legal system is a complicated one and we’re not going to sit here and act like we understand the ramifications of each and every piece of news that trickles out. What’s clear is that The Weinstein Company is in serious financial trouble and could end up in bankruptcy. It could end in one of a dozen different ways. What we hope, though, is that through this process some of our favorite franchises are able to wiggle free to a better home and not end up in rights limbo until the end of time.
What do you guys think?
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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