Movies
[News Bites] Another ‘Hunger Games’ Victor, ‘The Hypnotist’ Posters/Trailer, WB Lands CW’s “Sleep Hollow” And More “666” Casting
Bruno Gunn (pictured below; Bad Teacher, “The Office,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Sons of Anarchy,” “Oz,” “Prison Break”) is the latest cast in Lionsgate’s The Hunger Games: Catching Fire as Brutus, a former victor of the Hunger Games. Filming of the sequel, based on the second book in the Suzanne Collins trilogy, is expected to begin next month with Francis Lawrence directing. Lionsgate will release the film on November 22, 2013.
Opening in Swedish cinemas on September 28 is Lasse Hallstrom’s The Hypnotist, which follows “Detective Linna investigates a grisly triple homicide where the only survivor, a young boy, is too traumatized to testify. Linna convinces a famous psychologist, against his better judgment, to hypnotize the boy, setting off a terrifying chain of events.” We’ve shared the official posters, while the second international trailer can be viewed here. Watch for a U.S. release when announced.
TV Guide has some fresh casting news for “666 Park Avenue”, premiering September 30 on ABC. Aubrey Dollar, whose credits include “Guiding Light,” “Women’s Murder Club” and “Weeds,” will play the recurring role of Annie, an obituary writer who yearns to be a real journalist. She’ll first pop up in episode four. Israeli actress Mili Avital, who had a recurring role on “Damages,” will play a lonely hearts woman who pines for romance and harbors a dark twisted secret. Lastly, Mike Doyle (“Oz,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “A Gifted Man”) will play Frank Alpern, who’ll prove to be quite a powerful adversary to Terry O’Quinn’s evil Gavin. He’ll first debut in the second episode and will also recur, much to Gavin’s chagrin.
The CW’s “Sleepy Hollow” drama has landed at Warner Bros TV, reports Deadline. The CW was in talks for the pitch, a contemporary take on Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” when another “Sleepy Hollow” drama project hit the marketplace, one co-written by Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci and directed by Len Wiseman. The development led to the CW pushing the pause button in the negotiations to reaccess the situation. The network eventually proceeded with buying the project, described as a boundary-pushing horror story for television. Patrick Macmanus and Grant Scharbo are co-writing the CW’s “Sleepy Hollow.”
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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