Movies
‘REC’ Director Leaves ‘Circus’, Filmax FInds Replacement
While REC, REC 2 co-writer/director Paco Plaza was once attached, Aullidos revealed today that Daniel Calparsoro will now be getting behinds the camera for Filmax’s Circus. The project has been in development for quite some time now, now word on when this sucker is set to go into production. BEyond the break you’ll find a long synopsis and early promo art released earlier this year.
The Nevada desert; silence reigns under an implacable sun. The advancing silhouette of a car stands out on the horizon as it approaches along an unending highway, the drone of the engine coming closer and closer. An animal suddenly crosses the highway; the car swerves abruptly to avoid it and loses control.
`A tiger in the middle of the desert?’ Inside the vehicle chaos reigns, one by one, the members of the Mason family climb out of the mass of twisted metal as best they can; the mother is hurt badly. Outside the heat hits down and the situation is dramatic: there is no mobile, nor any other sign of civilisation, only dust, sand and stones. From the stop of a dune Bobby, the younger son, describes what looks like the big top of a circus. Is it a mirage? It is their only hope.
The family seeks help in the caravans surrounding the tent and the dirty and ragged inhabitants duly attend to their distress call. But the Masons cannot hide to their revulsion towards these strange beings.
The mirage of their salvation vanishes as a new menace threatens the Mason family. Outside the circus ring and under the burning desert sun, clowns, acrobats and lion tamers reveal their spectacular abilities for more than mere entertainment. Unwillingly, the Masons have now become the main event…
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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