Movies
Lionsgate Vows to Dominate the Horror Scene Going Forward, as They Once Did
There was a time when it seemed like the Lionsgate logo played before every major horror film, with the studio earning its cred in the horror world thanks to franchises like Saw and Hostel, as well as everything from My Bloody Valentine 3D to The Cabin in the Woods. Nowadays, it’s the Blumhouse logo horror fans see more than any other, but Lionsgate is vowing that their reign of dominance over the horror scene is about to be re-animated.
“We used to own horror,” Lionsgate vice chairman Michael Burns said at the recent Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference. “We’re going to own it again.”
A bold statement, but one that they’re looking to back up as early as this Halloween season. Lionsgate and CBS Films will be unleashing the theme park slasher Hell Fest in theaters on September 28, and various other horror projects in the works from Lionsgate include Cobweb, The Bride, and Hellboy. Another Saw sequel is reportedly also in development.
Horror is hot right now. And we welcome you back with open arms, Lionsgate.
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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