San Diego Comic-Con proved to be a big weekend for horror. It helps that so many shows on television are horror. Bates Motel cast Rihanna as Marion Crane. I actually interviewed the casts and creators of Walking Dead, Ash Vs. Evil Dead and Preacher below. On the movie side, three horror movies screened: Lights Out, Don’t Breathe and one big surprise I’ll get into below. Here’s a roundup of the biggest Comic-Con stories.

Blair Witch Reveal

It was enough that Lionsgate was screening the new Adam Wingard/Simon Barrett movie at Comic-Con. The team that brought us You’re Next and The Guest had a new movie titled The Woods. When the movie started with text of Burkittsville, MD and some very familiar climactic footage of an abandoned house in the woods, we all knew what it was before they mentioned Heather and the Blair Witch. By the time it was over, the true title Blair Witch was revealed.

Bravo to Lionsgate for committing to marketing The Woods as a huge misdirect. The movie delivers as a standalone and a follow-up to The Blair Witch Project and you know Brad loved it. He’s quoted all over the trailer too.

The Walking Dead Promises New Zombies

After seven seasons, how can The Walking Dead keep it fresh? Even George Romero only made six zombie movies. The show’s producer Greg Nicotero told us in a press conference that season seven will feature walkers unlike any we’ve seen before.

“We also don’t want to see the same zombies every single episode,” Nicotero said. “So my team and I spend a lot of time just finessing things and fine tuning things. We did a walker on Wednesday on set and my guys were like, ‘This is my favorite walker we’ve done ever since the beginning.’ They still bring the same enthusiasm to the job and that’s critical. I would’ve thought at some point that they were like, ‘F***, do we have to do another zombie?’ But they’re still in it and they’re still committed every day.”

The show also revealed a glimpse of Ezekiel in a new trailer, and Shiva the tiger, which Robert Kirkman promises is a CGI tiger. Maybe it’s Richard Parker from Life of Pi. And no, they still won’t say who Negan shot in the finale.

Ash Vs Evil Dead Goes Back to Evil Dead 2

Starz did a panel for season two of Ash Vs. Evil Dead, and we interviewed Bruce Campbell, Lucy Lawless and producer Robert Tapert. Tapert, part of the original Evil Dead films with Sam Raimi, said there’s a scene this season that mirrors Evil Dead 2. With Ted Raimi guest starring it was even more deja vu. 

“Bruce and Ted and myself found ourselves back in 1986 in the exact same scene, at the exact same moment going, ‘Oh my God, what has happened to our life?,” Tapert said.

Those still hoping for an Evil Dead 4 will have to wait. Campbell hopes to do at least five seasons of Ash Vs. Evil Dead. “I wish we could’ve done this a long time ago because that’s the only way you can get to inhabit a character,” Campbell said. “It’s not making a movie every decade. It’s doing him every day for weeks and weeks and weeks, season after season. I hope we get five seasons out of this because there’s so much I feel like we can do with the character.”

Campbell assures fans that they’ve topped even the record breaking amount of blood from season one. This was a bit of a shock to guest star and TV veteran Lee Majors. “I think we did [top it] because there’s more characters to get it,” Campbell said. “Lee Majors had his first experience with blood and he’s like, ‘What the hell is this?’ You can’t predict what it’s going to be like if you’ve never done it before. I know what it’s like to get slimed so it was a big eye opener. So yeah, we had more characters, more opportunities to bloody them all, so we did.”

Lawless previewed a subplot where Ruby would team up with Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo). “There’s a bit of firepower going on, girl power,” Lawless said. “They go on a rampage so [Ruby]’s kind of brought into the fold which just means you get shot with a lot more mucous. You get vomited on, you get blood, brain matter. That means you’re in the game, you’re in the family. We’ll see how that goes.”

Tapert also spoke to figuring out what an Evil Dead TV show would be. After season one, they have a much clearer idea. “I can say from a creative point of view, the show was harder than I ever thought it would be,” Tapert said. “I think we were all surprised that it was hard. Hard adapting these small movies into television shows that want to cram as much as you can in a half hour. So it was a real clash of what works in horror which was telling a small story in a very elongated fashion as opposed to a very big story in a compacted fashion. That’s been a creative challenge.”

Preacher Creators Debate Religion

Even with only two episodes left to air this season (now only one when this story publishes), Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg wouldn’t talk about what’s coming in the finale or season two. Or maybe they did. This sounds like they’re joking, but you never know on Preacher.

“Space,” Rogen said. “We’re going to space. No, we can’t tease anything.”

Goldberg added, “We can’t say anything more than space and time travel.”

More substantially, they discussed dealing with religion on the series. The dark, violent adaptation of Garth Ennis’s comic features characters from heaven and hell. The main character is a preacher who uses a cosmic power to make people follow his word. Goldberg made a good point that the show gives a balanced argument.

“The trick to that is just having the argument on screen instead of telling people what we think,” Goldberg said. “Cassidy has his thoughts and Jesse has his thoughts. When they have their arguments, they’re having proper arguments and there’s two sides and they both have valid opinions. That’s kind of how you strike the balance, by having each side go for it as hard as they can but representing numerous sides.”

No one would accuse Preacher of being religious, but at least they’re not calling it sacrilegious. “As long as it feels like you’re exploring an idea rather than telling people your beliefs, I think it’s a lot easier to delve into subject matter maybe some people would think is very hard subject matter to delve into,” Rogen said. “It’s a conversation. It’s not a statement. It’s a dialogue, not a monologue. I think that is hopefully what keeps it from being alienating and what keeps it feeling preachy, for lack of a better word.”

Oh yeah, and Ennis himself was there. He revealed that he is considering writing an episode of the show. “Yes, a provision has been made for me to do so,” Ennis said. “I do have this ongoing feeling that I should just sit back and leave them to it. What they’re doing is so good, but yes, I would like to try my hand at it eventually.”