Exclusives
Universal Getting ‘Unfriended’ Once Again (Exclusive)
Blumhouse acquired Levan (Leo) Gabriadze’s Cybernatural out of the Fantasia Film Festival last July. Two weekends ago, the techno-thriller was released through Universal Pictures as Unfriended, and has since pulled in an estimated $25M here in the States. It’s a tremendous success when you consider that it’s a single location micro-indie, told entirely from a young girl’s computer desktop, and cost next to nothing to make.
With that, Bloody Disgusting exclusively learned that an Unfriended sequel is already in the works – in fact, we’re told it’s already being scripted by Nelson Greaves, who wrote the first film that was produced by Timur Bekmambetov.
Three of Bloody’s writers enjoyed the found-footage thriller quite a bit – here’s all three Unfriended reviews: review #1, #2, #3.
Shelley Hennig, Moses Storm, Renee Olstead, Will Peltz, Jacob Wysocki, Courtney Halverson and Heather Sossaman all star in the debut film: “While video chatting one night, six high school friends receive a Skype message from a classmate who killed herself exactly one year ago. At first they think it’s a prank, but when the girl starts revealing the friends’ darkest secrets, they realize they are dealing with something from beyong this world, something that wants them dead.”
A gnarly infection threatens to claw its way out of a moving camper in the first trailer for Shudder’s claustrophobic Hellcat.
The feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, who previously edited the Fantasia title Ultrasound, makes its debut on Shudder on August 14.
In Hellcat, “Lena wakes up in a moving camper trailer with a horrifying wound. She’s warned by the driver that they have one hour to get to a doctor, or she’ll succumb to an unimaginably awful fate. As the pain sets in and reality begins to fray, who should really be afraid?”
Dakota Gorman (Natural Disasters) leads the cast that also includes Todd Terry (“Breaking Bad”), Liz Atwater (The Other People), Jordan Mullins (The Bikeriders), and James Austin Johnson (“Saturday Night Live”) in a voice role. Bodell also produces alongside Andrew Duensing and Nate Eggert.
Hellcat made its world premiere last summer at Fantasia. I wrote in my review, “Hellcat is a bit of a Trojan horror that defies easy classification, by design. Bodell’s sneaky debut feature is occasionally too sparse in its worldbuilding in its bid to preserve the mystery, but not enough to detract from the thrilling road thriller that transforms into a completely left-field type of horror we don’t get nearly enough of. The stripped-down tribute to a classic horror staple catches you off guard in more ways than one, marking Bodell as one to watch.”
In other words, there’s a lot more than meets the eye to Hellcat‘s simple infection setup, delivering plenty of surprises along its bumpy road of horrors.
Check out the trailer and poster below and add Hellcat to your watchlists asap.
You must be logged in to post a comment.