Movies
News Bites: King’s ‘Under the Dome’ Adapted, NECA Teases ‘Evil Dead 2’ Ash, ‘Jurassic Park IV’ & ‘Truth Below’ Clips
In a new article over at Variety, they reveal that “The River” writer Michael Green is at work adapting the Stephen King tome “Under the Dome” in preparation for DreamWorks TV to shop to broadcast and cable buyers in a few months. The book goes a little something like this: “Just down Route 119 in Chester’s Mill, Maine, all hell is about to break loose… On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day, a small town is suddenly and inexplicably sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field.”
As for the long-gestured fourth Jurassic Park, Sam Neill tells MTV he personally believes the franchise is “done,” not that he has any true insight into the development process at Universal. “I think we’ve told the story. I think it’s done,” he explained further adding, “Stan Winston who made those beautiful dinosaurs died. So, no Stan, no ‘Jurassic Park’ really…” Again, this is just an actor’s perspective….
Back on May 5 NECA revealed they’ve licensed the rights to do a line of figures based on Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead 2. While there’s no info on just how many figures or variations there will be, this weekend they unveiled a prototype teaser of Bruce Campbell as “Ash”. You can dig on the image inside.
Also inside you’ll find a slew of behind-the-scenes videos from “The Truth Below,” MTV’s survival horror film from Behind the Mask director Scott Glosserman. Premiering on June 16, “A fun Spring break snowboarding trip soon turns into a terrifying journey as a group of four friends; Jenna (Gillian Zinser), Ethan (Reid Ewing), Liam (Ricky Mabe) and Dante (Nick Thurston), begin to make their way home from the mountain. When unpredictable weather forces their car to spin off the road, all four become trapped in the vehicle, buried by an avalanche. Without any sign of rescue, the group decides to spend their last moments confessing deep secrets, only to reveal disturbing and unsettling pasts – which test and call into question their own friendships. As tension builds and air supply declines, the game soon turns deadly as they discover they not only have to survive the accident, but also each other. One question remains– How well do you know your friends?”
Judging from the unprecedented box office success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms adaptation, you’ve likely already seen the liminal horror hit that managed to make audiences afraid of empty hallways and bad wallpaper. And now that so many of us have already entered the yellow labyrinth (some of us more than once), the time has come to discuss the spoiler-filled details that make the movie so fascinating in the first place.
And if there’s one element here that makes the Backrooms movie stand out from any previous lore/mythology, it has to be the genius addition of the Still Life entities. Warped recreations of real people that somehow wandered into the Complex, these misremembered creatures are responsible for some of the most disturbing imagery of 2026 – as well as laugh-out-loud memes created by one of the film’s very own concept artists.
However, true to Parsons’ word that the movie would rely heavily on practical effects, each of these distorted monsters was brought to life by real actors under heavy layers of makeup and prosthetics (with the occasional splash of CGI enhancements). While Anora and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You actress Ivy Wolk wasn’t among these performers, despite what Letterboxd might have you believe, the creature cast did benefit from veteran players with plenty of genre experience.
For starters, Alien: Romulus alumni Robert Bobroczkyi (who previously brought that film’s horrific Offspring to life during its most memorable sequence) plays the flick’s main antagonist, the Still Life version of Captain Clark. And though there was some obvious CGI involved in making the character’s peg-leg and nightmarish face more believable, Bobroczkyi’s monstrous performance and his natural 7’7″ frame helped to make that final chase sequence a clear highlight among this year’s genre offerings.
The film’s Texas-Chain-Saw-inspired “dinner” scene also features a freaky collection of less-aggressive Still Life creatures in the form of the Bearded Man, the Red-Headed Woman and, strangest of them all, the cheekily named “Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life” (who earned this title among fans and crewmembers as a reference to his apparent affinity for lamps).
While this was the first major horror outing for both Patrick Baynham (The Bearded Man) and Dana Mahmood (Archibald), Rhiannon Roberts has worked as a stunt performer in everything from Yellowjackets to HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation – which is probably why The Red-Headed Woman is the most active out of Clark’s impromptu “family.” That being said, the Archibald Leland Sutter Still Life is my personal favorite of the bunch simply because his anachronistic outfit suggests that the Backrooms phenomenon might be a lot older than the Async Foundation. I also love how hard he tries to be helpful with that little light of his!
That might be it for the Still Life entities, but I think horror fans will also be pleased to hear that the film’s Found Footage prologue stars none other than Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City star Avan Jogia as Naren Warne – and American Mary herself Katharine Isabelle also shows up in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo at Mary’s house party towards the middle of the story (though I have a feeling that she originally had a bigger part that was likely cut for time).
At the end of the day, Parsons’ Backrooms may have been an auteur-driven project motivated by the young director’s unique take on the classic creepypasta, but film has always been a collective artform, so it’s fun to see just how many talented performers it takes to bring this kind of supernatural nightmare to life in a way that connects with so many people.
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