Movies
Hulu Turning Their “Bite Size Halloween” Shorts into a Series of Feature Length Horror Movies
Remember Hulu‘s “Bite Size Halloween” shorts? Well today we’ve learned via press release that several of those short films are now being turned into feature length horror movies!
The press release explains, “The partnership between 20th Digital Studio and Hulu is set to include nine horror features over the next few years. The films will expand directly on the shorts from the “Bite Size Halloween” collection, featuring previous writers or directors, or inspired by past shorts. The films deal with topical social issues such as mental health, ecological collapse, reproductive rights, interracial adoption and online hysteria.”
Horror short film APPENDAGE by writer/director Anna Zlokovic and starring Rachel Sennott (SHIVA BABY) and Eric Roberts, now playing at the Sundance Film Festival, will expand to a Hulu Original feature film with 20th Digital Studio as part of the nine-film slate currently in development.
The first confirmed titles of the horror film collection include…
APPENDAGE is the story of a young fashion designer whose anxiety physically manifests. The film opened season two of 20th Digital Studio’s “BITE SIZE HALLOWEEN” on Hulu, a short film series that ranges from horror comedy to psychological thrillers and everything in between. Zlokovic has signed to write and direct the feature film version and casting is underway.
GRIMCUTTY, written and directed by John William Ross, is a teen tech horror thriller, shot outside Los Angeles in fall 2021 and now in post-production. The film stars Shannyn Sossamon (WAYWARD PINES, SLEEPY HOLLOW), Usman Ally (A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS, VEEP), Alona Tal (SEAL TEAM), and newcomer Sara Wolfkind.
WORMEATER, a rural British family trauma body horror from writer/director Ben Steiner, recently completed filming in the UK with stars Kate Dickie (GAME OF THRONES, THE GREEN KNIGHT) and Jemima Rooper (THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, upcoming FLOWERS IN THE ATTIC: THE ORIGIN). The film is a thematic successor to Steiner’s 2018 20th Digital short URN.
THE HUG, will expand on the story of the animatronic “Pandory the Panda” who terrorized children in his Pizza Palace in a viral 2018 short from 20th Digital. The original creators, writing/directing team Jack & Justin (Bishop and Nijm, respectively) have signed on.
CLOCK by writer/director Alexis Jacknow and inspired by the “BITE SIZE HALLOWEEN” 2020 short of the same title will follow a woman’s desperate attempt to fix her broken biological clock.
Additional scripts are currently in development and will be announced at a later date.
It’s been eight years since Ari Aster came onto the scene and helped usher in a new wave of horror with Hereditary, one of the rare horror movies from the past ten years that still seems to come up in conversation every single week. And it’s back in the conversation this week, with Ari Aster revealing at an event that he’s already written a prequel to Hereditary!
Ari Aster was on hand at the American Cinematheque for Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair last week, a Los Angeles festival that screened all of Aster’s movies to date. The website Gold Derby reports that Aster revealed the Hereditary prequel script during a Q&A at the event, and you can watch the full Q&A conversation below for confirmation on the website’s report.
“I wrote a prequel to this,” Aster told the crowd, referring to Hereditary. “It never feels like the right time to do it. It’s a prequel, not a sequel so I don’t know where this goes.”
Would a potential Hereditary prequel dig deeper into the mythology of demon king Paimon? Unfortunately, Aster provides no further details on his prequel approach at this time.
Aster said of Hereditary during the same Q&A, “I was just trying to make a really good horror movie.” I think most horror fans would agree that he more than accomplished that goal, and the past eight years have proven that Hereditary is an enduring classic of its generation.
We celebrated the fifth anniversary of Hereditary here on BD back in 2023.
Ron Breton wrote, “Hereditary offers a similar emotional resonance to this new generation of horror – my generation of horror– as movie-goers in the seventies when they first saw Exorcist. Much like Aster’s film, we see the incomprehensible evil wear the face of a young girl; the victim of a raw deal she had no say in, as it tears a family to its core. Sure, both films offer so many terrifying visuals that can make the hair stand up on anyone’s neck – but it also depicts intense relationships and emotions that are tangible. Real. Familiar.”
“In that familiarity lies the uncanny, ready to rear its ugly head and force us to confront thoughts and horrors laying dormant and clawing at our psyche,” Breton continued his 5th anniversary celebration of Hereditary. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s been five or fifty years. These horrors are always there, as we become pawns in its horrible, hopeless machine.”
Toni Collette, Gabriel Byrne, Alex Wolff, Ann Dowd, and Milly Shapiro star in Hereditary. In the film, “A grieving family is haunted by tragic and disturbing occurrences.”
That’s putting it mildly, eh?!
You must be logged in to post a comment.