Movies
‘When Evil Lurks’ Director Developing Vampire Comedy ‘FELIX: A Complex Puzzle’
Writer/Director Demián Rugna is keeping busy. The filmmaker is not only developing a sequel to When Evil Lurks but a new vampire horror-comedy, FELIX: A Complex Puzzle, too, per a new press release.
Not only does Felix sound like a break from tone from Rugna, but it also sounds like a break from standard vampire fare: the vampire will be hunting down his own body parts this time.
The film follows “Omin, a hard-partying vampire playboy and leader of the notorious ‘Blood-Suckers’ clan. After falling into a river during a wild yacht bender, Omin is presumed dead and sent to the morgue, where doctors mistakenly harvest all his organs, including a lung. Waking up the next morning, disoriented and dismembered, Omin rallies vampire bounty hunters from across the globe—from Romania to Indigenous American clans—to track down his missing body parts. Meanwhile, in the Big City, we meet Felix, a hypochondriac night tour guide unknowingly about to become part of the bloody puzzle.”
“Felix is a super fun, spooky comedy in the vampire world that plays a lot with horror and dark comedy. It features endearing characters and draws a lot of influence from films like Fright Night and Lost Boys. It explores my very peculiar comedy style without losing my genre director signature, as in every project,“ Rugna said in a statement.
The vampire comedy is being produced by Guido Rud, CEO of FilmSharks, who said, “The script is complete. It’s a vampire comedy, and the script is masterful. It’s got fresh takes on themes like masculinity and excess. And elements of a road trip movie. It’ll be a masterpiece.”
Rugna is quickly emerging as a vital new voice in horror with films like When Evil Lurks and Terrified, and it’ll be interesting to see the filmmaker take on the horror-comedy next.
Stay tuned.
A contemporary reimagining of H.P. Lovecraft’s short story Herbert West: Reanimator is on the way, and Deadline has unveiled the first look at the new Herbert West and the pathologist drawn to his orbit.
Adam Simon (The Haunting in Connecticut, “Salem”) and Tim Metcalfe (The Haunting in Connecticut, Kalifornia) penned the script. The original screenplay and storyline come from Jade Sandberg Wallace.
Michael Grossman (“The Originals”, “Pretty Little Liars”) directs.
The new images introduce star Joseph Morgan (“Vampire Diaries“), who plays “brilliant surgeon and scientist Herbert West, who is obsessed with creating a serum to reanimate the dead.” Katie Cassidy (Speed Demon) stars opposite as the pathologist with a troubled past who joins his efforts.
Together, they prove that conquering death may be the ultimate sin against life itself.
The film’s official synopsis: “As a child, Herbert West watches his father Peter reanimate his dead mother Judith in a secret basement lab — only for Judith to mortally wound Peter and nearly kill Herbert before Peter shoots her. The trauma leaves its mark on Herbert, but so does one final image: his mother’s finger, twitching after death. Thirty years later, Herbert West is a brilliant, secretive surgeon still chasing his father’s obsession.
“Pathologist Kate Locke arrives in town and is drawn into his orbit — first through a spark at a hospital fundraiser, then through his secret lab, where he reveals a serum capable of reanimating severed tissue. Kate, hiding a dark past of her own, is thrilled rather than horrified, and moves into West’s mansion to work alongside him. Their early experiments on a cadaver succeed only briefly. West concludes that dead tissue is the problem — they need something fresher.”
Supporting cast includes Scott Aiello, Ira J Amyx, Randall Newsome, Emma Reinagal, James D. Bryce, Kathryn A Bentley, Jack Lancaster, Amy Holland Pennell, John Pierson, Mindy Shaw, Eric Dean White, Tristan Wilder Hallet, Adrienne Lamping, Aaron Crippen, and Drew Patterson.
Makeup artist Jeff Lewis (“Star Trek: Voyager,” “Star Trek: Enterprise”) and cousin Roger Lewis are heading the production via their newly established Woodlake Entertainment.
Lovecraft’s short story, first serialized in Home Brew magazine in 1922, is the first among his works to mention the fictional Miskatonic University. It was most famously adapted into a 1985 horror movie from Stuart Gordon, starring Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West.
Herbert West: Reanimator is set in Alton, Illinois, where production is now underway.
Herbert West: Reanimator. Photo credit: Matt Lief Anderson
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