Movies
‘Fright Night’s Imogen Poots Toplines ‘Hello Darkness’
From Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland comes Hello Darkness, which stars Dominic Cooper, Imogen Poots (pictured below; 28 Weeks Later, Centurion, Fright Night, V for Vendetta), and Julie Christie (Red Riding Hood). Now in pre-production, Hello Darkness is described as a genre-bending, kitchen-sink vampire movie with a potent love triangle at its beating heart. Here’s the long synopsis:
“Mark Cooper is an ordinary working-class man who became a vampire. He reached his prime in the early sixties and as a result of his conversion, never left it. Eternally young, he is the Angry Young Man preserved in amber. He lives in Newcastle, a town famed for its drunken excess, providing ideal feeding grounds. But the accidental death of a girl ends with a manhunt for a “Vampire Killer.”
Cooper lives with Rachel, his support for almost four decades, in an uneasy role somewhere between wife and mother. Long ago Cooper proposed to convert Rachel, but she chose to grow older while he remains eternally twenty-five. News that he’s a wanted man brings the tension in the house to breaking point.
On the prowl for victims, Cooper meets a beautiful posh student, Lucy. Entranced by her vivacity, he gets his overpowering first taste of blue blood.
But the union between Cooper and Lucy brews trouble; it brings out the staunch territorialism of Rachel and the snobbishness of Lucy’s friends. Meanwhile, the search for the Vampire Killer is intensifying. Cooper is driven into a crisis as he stares bleakly into eternity, and Lucy is forced to choose between the light moneyed world of her peers and the dark working class reality of her lover.”
The bar wasn’t very high to clear, but Lionsgate’s The Strangers: Chapter 1 did manage to break a box office record here in 2024, achieving the highest opening weekend at the domestic box office out of any horror movie released this year… so far. This despite largely negative reviews, once again proving that the horror genre is as review-proof as it comes.
The Strangers: Chapter 1 debuted with $11.83M at the domestic box office in 2,856 locations, just barely topping Blumhouse’s Night Swim to rip the crown off the top of its head.
Here’s the full lineup of domestic opening weekends for horror this year…
- The Strangers: Chapter 1 – $11.8 million
- Night Swim – $11.7 million
- Abigail – $10.2 million
- Imaginary – $9.9 million
- The First Omen – $8.3 million
- Tarot – $6.5 million
- Immaculate – $5.3 million
- Lisa Frankenstein – $3.6 million
For further context and comparison, 2018’s The Strangers: Prey at Night opened to $10.4 million before making $31 million worldwide, a number Chapter 1 may eventually reach.
The good news for Lionsgate is that the production budget for The Strangers: Chapter 1 was a reported $8.5 million, so there’s a good chance this one will soon be profitable. But is it enough to justify theatrical releases for both Chapter 2 and Chapter 3, which will continue Chapter 1‘s storyline and have already been filmed? Or will Lionsgate pivot to a streaming release?
These are the questions we can’t help but ponder today. Stay tuned for more.
Madelaine Petsch (“Riverdale”), Froy Gutierrez (Hocus Pocus 2), Rachel Shenton (The Silent Child), Ema Horvath (“Rings of Power”) and Gabe Basso (Hillbilly Elegy) star.
Here’s the full official synopsis: “After their car breaks down in an eerie small town, a young couple are forced to spend the night in a remote cabin. Panic ensues as they are terrorized by three masked strangers who strike with no mercy and seemingly no motive.”
Renny Harlin directed The Strangers: Chapter 1.
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