Movies
‘Bugonia’ Launches In-Universe Conspiracy Website Loaded with Easter Eggs and Advanced Screenings
Emma Stone stars as a high-powered CEO suspected of being an Andromedan in Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, and its genre-bending conspiracies are spilling over into real life with a new in-universe website.
Human Resistance HQ evokes the lo-fi aesthetic of the early web as it spins conspiracy theories surrounding Stones’ character and the alien race she’s suspected of being. Discover in-universe details and Easter eggs, including sign-ups for advanced screenings of Bugonia!
Bugonia will receive a special limited engagement on October 24, ahead of a wide expansion on October 31, 2025.
The film follows “two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced she is an alien intent on destroying Planet Earth.”
Bugonia is an English-language remake of 2003’s Korean genre-bender Save the Green Planet!, an offbeat, black comedy-sci-fi feature written and directed by Jang Joon-Hwan. The teaser below introduces Stone as the powerful CEO targeted by a pair who suspect her of being an alien.
Jesse Plemons (Civil War, Antlers), Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias (Let’s Start a Cult), and Alicia Silverstone (The Lodge) also star in Bugonia. Lanthimos directs from a screenplay by Will Tracy (The Menu).
Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) produces along with Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Miky Lee, Jerry Kyoungboum Ko, Lanthimos, Stone, and Lars Knudsen.
I wrote in my Fantastic Fest review, “That the filmmaker opts for ambiguity to play up the paranoia means that his latest plays it coy with the genre elements until it shows its grim hand. It makes for a searing remake that goes beyond crowd-pleasing “eat the rich” narratives for a more cynical prognosis about humanity’s future.”
Head to Human Resistance HQ to learn all about the Andromedans ahead of Bugonia’s release later this month.
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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