Movies
‘Underworld’ Duo Tell The Tale Of ‘Swedish Cults’
Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, the Swedish directing team behind Underworld: Awakening, are returning to home turf for their next project: an adaptation of the horror novel, Collected Swedish Cults, from author Andres Fager, THR reports.
Fager’s novel, published last year, “takes the form of a collection of supernatural horror tales about good vs. evil that together create a larger story.” You’ll find the book’s lengthy synopsis after the break.
Mårlind will adapt Fager’s novel compilation for the screen and co-direct with Stein.
“Måns and I have astonishingly similar taste and a fascination for morbid stories,” said author Anders Fager.
Karl Fredrik Ulfung of Sweden’s Svensk Filmindustri will produce. Collected Swedish Cults is expected to hit local theaters in late 2013. BOOK SYNOPSIS:
“At Underryd Dance Hall in the woods outside of the boring midsized town of Borås there has been dancing and partying since the dawn of time. There, a group of teenage girls meet to party, but they seem to have more on the agenda than just drinking and flirting. When darkness falls they lure a young man out into the marsh behind the Dance Hall building, to meet with the Messenger, a creature who is as old and ugly as he is powerful. They have done it many times before and their mothers before them, but this time something goes terribly wrong.
Grandmother is going on a journey. Zami and Janoch, brothers from the immigrant suburb of Rosengård outside Malmö have been given a mission: They are going to cross Europe by car to pick up Grandmother in the Balkans and bring her back to the new country up north. But the brothers have never driven a car before; they have never even handled money and never spoken to anyone outside the family. And they keep to the shadows; people have a tendency to freak out when they get a look at Janoch …
Collected Swedish Cults is a collection of short stories divided into three books, but it’s more than that. Anders Fager himself compares the form with that of a modern American TV-series, such as True Blood or Lost. Each short story, or episode, tells a story of its own as well as adds a piece to the puzzle of the whole. And just as the TV-series with each new season adds a new perspective, each of the three books of Collected Swedish Cults shows the Fager universe from a new angle. What first appears to be a traditional collection of short stories soon evolves into a web of tales building an epic saga of good versus evil in a world inhabited by the supernatural.
Anders Fager is the latest and most interesting and chocking example of the strong trend of Swedish horror that started with John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let the right one in in 2004, taking the young adult supernatural trend into darker territory. Fager presents a modern, adult and quite violent take on the horror story reminding of Stephen King at his darkest, or perhaps a John Ajvide Lindqvist on steroids, inspired by the world of classic horror master H.P. Lovecraft. It is at the same time completely realistic and utterly monstrous.“
Movies
‘Werewolf By Night 2’? Michael Giacchino Says It’s Being Talked About But “Everything Takes Forever”
It was Oscar-winning composer Michael Giacchino who sat in the director’s chair for Marvel’s Disney+ Halloween special Werewolf by Night back in 2022, which was released in both throwback black & white as well as full color. But are we ever getting a sequel?
Giacchino tells Screen Rant in a new chat this week that he remains hopeful.
“We’re talking about it,” Giacchino explains. “Everything takes forever to do. There’s a lot of planning that has to happen. Everything has to fit in a particular place at a particular time.”
He adds, “So, nothing moves as fast as we’d like it to. But I hope one day that you will be sitting there watching another Werewolf by Night. That’s my hope.”
Inspired by horror films of the ’30s and ’40s, Marvel Studios’ Werewolf by Night takes place on a dark and somber night as a secret cabal of monster hunters emerge from the shadows and gather at the foreboding Bloodstone Temple following the death of their leader.
In a strange memorial to the leader’s life, the attendees are thrust into a mysterious and deadly competition for a powerful relic—a hunt that will ultimately bring them face to face with a dangerous monster.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her review for BD, “The MCU kicked the horror into overdrive with Werewolf by Night. The nearly hour-long feature presents as a classic horror movie, dropping viewers into the middle of a secret world of monster hunters. Film composer Michael Giacchino directs the special, penned by Heather Quinn and Peter Cameron. Giacchino focuses on evoking the classic horror vibe to assist in the initial worldbuilding. The events play out in monochrome, save for the vibrant red glow of the Bloodstone. Cigarette burns and film grain get added for that retro look. The rules of the hunt get relayed to the cutthroat candidates by way of reanimated dead, albeit in a much campier and family-friendly way via animatronics.”
“Aside from the aesthetics, Werewolf leans heavily into the mysterious,” Meagan continued. “The black and white cinematography more than sets the retro vibe; it allows the feature to remain accessible to a wider audience even as it lets its monsters and monster hunters spill plenty of blood. Toss in a Jack Pierce-inspired beast with practical application, and you’ve got a modern superhero story with a classic Universal Monsters makeover.”