Exclusives
Top 10 Possession/Haunting Films By WVM
7. Prince of Darkness (1987)
I am a huge fan of John Carpenter’s movies. “The Thing” and “Escape from New York” mean a great deal to me as I never tire of those movies and am always inspired by them. “Prince of Darkness” is an odd one from Carpenter but it is also a great one. It mixes sci-fi metaphysics with horror and an awesome ’80s synth score. I think the movie hits it on the head for the phenomena of possessions, spirits and demons. I don’t believe in religion but I do consider myself spiritual, just not bound to any religion. If there is any truth to the possession/spirit phenomenon, I see it more as a metaphysical event rather than a religious one. There is so much to this universe we are oblivious to, for example the concept that the universe is expanding has to make you question, “into what?” Is there anything outside? It’s a strange concept. This movie dives into these types of themes in a classic ’80s horror way and definitely has its unintentionally funny moments. Overall I love this movie. It has a very slow and methodical pace but that’s what makes it so good. Alice Cooper as a possessed vagrant has an awesome cameo and Donald Pleasance is always great in pretty much anything he did, but he really goes for it as the priest. Towards the end, one of the characters named Kelly is possessed by the “Prince of Darkness” and her face looks like a disgusting pizza with rotting pepperoni, there is something so cool about Carpenter movies’ special effects and makeup. That scene is a classic.
A bedtime lullaby soothes an unsettling newborn in our exclusive clip from Nightborn, from Hatching filmmaker Hanna Bergholm.
The dark fable makes its debut on Shudder on July 31.
Seidi Haarla (Compartment No. 6) and Rupert Grint (Knock at the Cabin, “Servant”) star as new parents in Nightborn, and this exclusive clip highlights mom’s harrowing transition into motherhood.
In Nightborn, “With dreams of starting a perfect family, Saga and her British husband Jon move to the isolated house where she spent much of her childhood, deep in the Finnish forest. But as soon as their baby is born, despite the reassurance of all around her, Saga knows there’s something terribly wrong with her son. As their marriage starts to crack, Jon struggles to support his wife, but only Saga suspects the terrible truth about her newborn.”
Pamela Tola, Pirkko Saisio, Rebecca Lacey and John Thomson also star.
Bergholm teased of her maternal horror movie, “In Nordic countries, there’s a long-standing mythology of trolls living in the forests. In ancient times, people truly believed that trolls inhabited the woods and had a kind of control over nature. And in Nightborn, the forest reflects Saga’s emotions and the animalistic, primitive physical side of humankind.”
“Hanna Bergholm’s audacious sophomore follow up to Hatching delivers tension and shocking moments surrounding parenthood and self discovery — with a touch of humor,” said Emily Gotto, senior vice president of acquisitions and production at Shudder. “We are thrilled to share Nightborn with audiences.”