Editorials
FULL 2014 HORROR MOVIE PREVIEW!!
After nearly a decade of doing studio previews for the upcoming year, I decided to mix things up and do a breakdown by month.
Below we’re previewing the major horror releases of 2014, which included quite an offering by Lionsgate. The studio has a hot horror film opening in January, February, April, August and even in November. They also have the sci-fi thriller Divergent in March.
Paramount has their usual January and October slots locked for two found-footage movies, both Paranormal Activity sequels.
The summer season actually has quite a few big budget genre releases, with The Conjuring‘s success giving studios confidence to drop two in July.
Below you’ll find all the major releases planned for 2014, subject to change. Also note that I did not include limited theatrical runs, as those are supplementary to VOD platforms, and rarely play outside of NY and Los Angeles.
What are you most excited for?
Why you should be excited:
The film is allegedly crazy awesome. In fact, it’s supposed to be better than Paranormal 3 and reinvigorate the franchise.
What it’s about:
After being “marked,” Jesse begins to be pursued by mysterious forces while his family and friends try to save him.
Why you should be excited:
It hails from Radio Silence, who directed the haunted house segment of our first V/H/S film. They are YouTube legends, and know how to deliver a punch. I’m all-in on these guys. Also, fans of “Friday Night Lights” should be excited to see Zach Gilford (Matt Saracen) in a horror film.
What it’s about:
After a mysterious, lost night on their honeymoon, a newlywed couple finds themselves dealing with an earlier-than-planned pregnancy. While recording everything for posterity, the husband begins to notice odd behavior in his wife that they initially write off to nerves, but, as the months pass, it becomes evident that the dark changes to her body and mind have a much more sinister origin.
Why you should should excited:
If you’re a fan of Underworld, it’s from the same writer and production house. Aaron Eckhart is also a phenomenal actor.
What it’s about:
Set in a dystopic present where vigilant gargoyles and ferocious demons rage in a battle for ultimate power, Victor Frankenstein’s creation Adam (Aaron Eckhart) finds himself caught in the middle as both sides race to discover the secret to his immortality.
Why you should be excited: It looks to have exploitative qualities (watch the trailer) and could have tons of sex, blood and violence. Oh yeah, and Paz De La Huerta is crazy hot.
What it’s about:
By day Abby Russell is a dedicated nurse, someone you wouldn’t hesitate to trust your life with. But by night, her real work begins…using her smoldering sexuality she lures cheating men to their brutal deaths and exposes them for who they really are. When a younger nurse starts to suspect Abby’s actions and compromises her master plan, Abby must find a way to outsmart her long enough to bring the cheater you’d least expect to justice.
Why you should be excited:
Sure, it’s a remake, but RoboCop is back! And hopefully the phrase “I’d buy that for a dollar!” is too…
What it’s about:
In RoboCop, the year is 2029 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the centre of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.
Why you should be excited:
The new vampire film, which actually looks pretty slick, is helmed by Mark Waters, the man behind the criminally underrated Mean Girls.
What it’s about:
Rose Hathaway is a Dhampir, half human/vampire, guardians of the Moroi, peaceful, mortal vampires living discretely within our world. Her legacy is to protect the Moroi from bloodthirsty, immortal Vampires, the Strigoi. This is her story.
Why you should be excited:
It looks like Chronicle with time travel. The film also stars Jonny Weston, who was the lead in our indie creature feature Under the Bed. Trust me when I say he’s an incredible actor.
What it’s about:
In the Dean Israelite-directed film, a group of teens embark on an adventure when they discover secret plans to build a time machine.
Why you should be excited:
It’s allegedly a darker take on the Leprechaun films, which would mean it’s a return to its roots. The first film in the franchise is actually pretty great…
What it’s about:
No one knows, but it’s produced by WWE. Is that good? Probably not.
Why you should be excited:
It takes place in Chicago. That’s the only reason I give a shit…
What it’s about:
Divergent is a thrilling adventure set in a future world where people are divided into distinct factions based on their personalities, Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley) is warned she is Divergent and will never fit into any one group. When she discovers a conspiracy to destroy all Divergents, she must find out what makes being Divergent so dangerous before it’s too late.
Why you should be excited:
An indie action film that had 100+ day shoot? Gareth Evans already blew out mind with The Raid, and hopefully you guys enjoyed his insane “Safe Haven” segment in our V/H/S/2 as much as I did, so there’s no reason to expect anything less than full-blown bananas. I’d put money on this being one of the best films of the year.
What it’s about:
Picking up right where the first film ends The Raid 2 follows Rama as he goes undercover and infiltrates the ranks of a ruthless Jakarta crime syndicate in order to protect his family and uncover the corruption in his own police force.
Why you should be excited:
Because it can’t possibly be worse than the first film. Can it?
What it’s about:
After losing his possessed girlfriend Kisha in a car crash, Malcolm (Marlon Wayans) meets and falls for Megan, a single white mother of two. As he moves into a new home with the family, Malcolm discovers bizarre paranormal events surrounding the children and the property. To complicate matters, a back-from-the-dead Kisha moves in across the street, and there’s nothing worse than the scorn of a demonic ex-girlfriend…
With spine-tingling tension and hilarious punch-lines A Haunted House 2 spoofs supernatural horror movie hits such as Paranormal Activity 4, Sinister, The Possession, Insidious, The Conjuring, and more. This time… it’s not just the house that’s haunted!
Why you should be excited:
Because Mike Pereira raved about it out of the TIFF world premiere – and it’s said to be absolutely terrifying.
What it’s about:
The story centers on a murder that left two children orphans with authorities charging the brother while his sister believed that the true culprit was a haunted antique mirror. Now completely rehabilitated and in his twenties, the brother is ready to move on but his sister is determined to prove that the haunted mirror was responsible for destroying their family.
Why you should be excited:
Hammer Films is becoming a staple in horror and making a name for themselves (again). If their direct-to-disc releases have been awesome (Wake Wood). The film also stars Jared Harris, one of “Mad Men’s” great performers.
What it’s about:
The Quiet Ones (inspired by true events) tells the story of an unorthodox professor who uses controversial methods and leads his best students off the grid to take part in a dangerous experiment: to create a poltergeist. Based on the theory that paranormal activity is caused by human negative energy, the rogue scientists perform a series of tests on a young patient, pushing her to the edge of sanity. As frightening occurrences begin to take place with shocking and gruesome consequences, the group quickly realizes they have triggered a force more terrifying than they ever could have imagined.
Why you should be excited:
Warner Bros. took a Godzilla-sized chance on a young, hungry and talented director (Monsters‘ Gareth Edwards) and let him loose on a re-imagining of the big green machine. Sources tell me that it was insanely difficult to find the “right story”, considering you can’t tell the story from the perspective of Godzilla. Expect this to be something special. Maybe even a game changer…
What it’s about:
An epic rebirth to Toho’s iconic Godzilla, this spectacular adventure pits the world’s most famous monster against malevolent creatures who, bolstered by humanity’s scientific arrogance, threaten our very existence.
Why you should be excited:
Tom Cruise is awesome, so you need to STFU. The trailer is also fantastic, really pushing the character development and the bizarre Groundhog Day-themed overall arc.
What it’s about:
The epic action of Edge of Tomorrow unfolds in a near future in which an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to little more than a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop—forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again…and again. But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt). And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.
Why you should be excited:
Well, even though the first film wasn’t very good, the concept is actually crazy cool. If the filmmakers can get the audience outside of a house during a “purge”, they may actually see a non-stop action-packed bloodbath.
What it’s about:
“The Purge” is happening again, which means another 12-hour period in which any and all crime is legalized.
Why you should be excited:
Scott Derrickson is an incredible director. Not only did he helm Sinister, but he also introduced us to Jennifer Carpenter in The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Although unconfirmed, this is allegedly a monster movie with some serious surprises.
What it’s about:
The story is set in a paranormal world and follows a New York police officer investigating real life demon possessions, exorcisms and werewolves after dark. Eric Bana plays an Irish Catholic cop working a case when he meets a renegade priest. Despite the cop’s beliefs, he’s convinced by the priest that there is a demonic element and together they work to solve the case and combat the paranormal forces working against them. Edgar Ramirez plays the priest. Olivia Munn plays the cop’s wife, who also has a tie to the case.
Why you should be excited:
Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a masterful prequel about the introduction of the plague. The trailer for Dawn implies that the sequel will be a more action-packed survival film that will give us Caesar with all of his powerful. Also, it’s directed by Cloverfield and Let Me In‘s Matt Reeves.
What it’s about:
A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth’s dominant species.
Why you should be excited:
It feels a bit “too late” for the sequel, but the first was so much bloody fun that it’s hard to imagine this will be anything less. Plus, look at this ensamble cast: Mickey Rourke, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Juno Temple, Jaime King, Rosario Dawson, Michael Madsen, Jessica Alba, Jamie Chung, Dennis Haysbert, Crystal McCahill, Christopher Meloni, Josh Brolin, Jeremy Piven, Ray Liotta, Julia Garner, Eva Green, and Stacy Keach.
What it’s about:
The film is about Dwight McCarthy planning to have his vengeance against the woman who betrayed him, Ava Lord, while Nancy is trying to cope with Hartigan’s death.
Why you should be excited:
You guys probably already forgot about Kevin Greutert. I didn’t. He helmed both Saw VI and Saw 3D, and has worked on classics such as Donnie Darko.
What it’s about:
About a girl who is forced to return to her father’s home in Louisiana when a car accident leaves her without the use of her legs. What she finds there is a mystery surrounding her own birth and an angry ghost that seems determined to destroy her.
Why you should be excited:
Insidious‘ Patrick Wilson stars?
What it’s about:
In a very Hitchcockian plot, the pic follows five married friends who share a loft where each of them bring their mistresses. When the body of an unknown woman is found in the loft, they begin to suspect one another of murder.
Why you should be excited:
Hostel and Cabin Fever director Eli Roth is back with an homage to classic cannibal tales like Cannibal Holocaust!
What it’s about:
A group of student activists from New York City travel to the Amazon to protect a dying tribe, but crash in the jungle and are taken hostage by the very natives they saved.
Why you should be excited:
You shouldn’t be as I expect it to be pushed to 2015.
What it’s about:
The final installment of the trilogy Anderson began with Resident Evil: Afterlife.
Why you should be excited:
It’s about the origins of Dracula, which could be interesting with modern filmmaking techniques.
What it’s about:
Luke Evans is starring as the most famous of vampires in an origin story that sees a Transylvanian prince risk eternal damnation in order to save his wife and son from a Turkish horde. Barks will play a figure in Eastern European folk tales known as a baba yaga, a beautiful young woman who turns into a savage witch. Kristjansson will play Bright Eyes, an Eastern European taken as a slave as a young boy and now a vicious assassin in the Ottoman Army. Parkinson will play Dracula’s son, named Ingeras.
Why you should be excited:
Another animated genre film? Why not.
What it’s about:
The Boxtrolls is a comedic fable that unfolds in Cheesebridge, a posh Victorian-era town obsessed with wealth, class, and the stinkiest of fine cheeses. Beneath its charming cobblestone streets dwell the Boxtrolls, foul monsters who crawl out of the sewers at night and steal what the townspeople hold most dear: their children and their cheeses. At least, that’s the legend residents have always believed. In truth, the Boxtrolls are an underground cavern-dwelling community of quirky and lovable oddballs who wear recycled cardboard boxes the way turtles wear their shells. The Boxtrolls have raised an orphaned human boy, Eggs (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), since infancy as one of their dumpster-diving and mechanical junk-collecting own. When the Boxtrolls are targeted by villainous pest exterminator Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley), who is bent on eradicating them as his ticket to Cheesebridge society, the kindhearted band of tinkerers must turn to their adopted charge and adventurous rich girl Winnie (Elle Fanning) to bridge two worlds amidst the winds of change – and cheese.
Why you should be excited:
If The Marked Ones is as good as they say, why can’t a fifth Paranormal (technically the sixth) be just as good? They need to change the structure and shake up things a bit to really knock it out of the park…
What it’s about:
Greg Plotkin directs from a screenplay by Jason Pagan and Andrew Stark. There are no plot details, but expect more witch mythology to unfold.
Why you should be excited:
Catching Fire was crazy, crazy, crazy awesome. It truly was the Empire Strikes Back of our generation, and the rebellion is sure to be even more violent than the games themselves…
What it’s about:
Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games twice. But now that she’s made it out of the bloody arena alive, she’s still not safe. The Capitol is angry. The Capitol wants revenge. Who do they think should pay for the unrest? Katniss. And what’s worse, President Snow has made it clear that no one else is safe either. Not Katniss’s family, not her friends, not the people of District 12.
Here’s a short list of notable indie releases that will be playing in limited theaters after a VOD release: Banshee Chapter, Dark Places, Cooties, Devil’s Knot, Human Centipede 3, The Sacrament, Almost Human, Willow Creek, The Guest, Big Bad Wolves, Dead Snow; Red vs. Dead, Killers, Life After Beth, and The Knights of Badassdom.
I first heard about The Mandela Catalogue through a couple of nephews who were obsessed with the ARG’s sinister mythology. It was only after watching Wendigoon’s in-depth analysis of the series that I realized just how deep this rabbit hole goes.
In fact, I’d already been exposed to the nightmarish visuals of Alex Kister’s YouTube creation for years at that point without even realizing that it was the origin of several viral “cursed images” and spooky memes that had leaked into the wider internet – with this viral element actually being a part of the Catalogue’s overarching narrative.
Flash-forward to 2026 and the unprecedented success of Kane Parsons’ Backrooms has led to Hollywood betting on horrific internet properties with existing fanbases, which means that Kister’s unique hybrid of both religious and analog horror is finally headed to the big screen with a script written by Kister himself alongside Tyler Clifton.
While this news shouldn’t be too surprising if you’ve been keeping up with the ongoing success of The Mandela Catalogue (both myself and Wendigoon having previously predicted that the series would inevitably make the jump to theaters one day), plenty of horror fans are likely confused as to why so many folks are excited for what appears to be a Hollywood adaptation of a series of creepy .jpeg images under a VHS filter.
With that in mind, today I’d like to invite fellow readers to accompany me as I explore the origins of Alex Kister’s viral hit and attempt to explain exactly why we should all be excited about the Mandela Catalogue adaptation!
From High School Writing Project to Internet Horror Phenomenon
The first seeds of The Mandela Catalogue were sown when Kister was still in high school and developed a writing project subverting religious tropes in a world where biblical history had been altered by demonic forces. A little while later, Kister came across an analog horror contest on Reddit and decided to adapt his ideas into a standalone video where he would edit a religious kids’ cartoon –The Beginner’s Bible: The Nativity, to be specific- into something far creepier. This is how the iconic Overthrone video was born, with this viral short film taking on a life of its own as fans demanded more eerie content from Kister.
Though the video was originally meant to be a one-and-done sort of affair, with Kister actually regretting some of its primitive visuals and considering the editing amateurish and “YouTube-Poop-like” when compared to his current standards, fan reaction and free time during the COVID-19 pandemic encouraged the (then) seventeen-year-old filmmaker to continue producing content set in this same world. The Mandela Catalogue name was inspired by the Mandela Effect conspiracy theory, as the series would slowly begin to explore the subtle horror of alternate histories.
Inspired by existential dread brought on by extended periods of quarantine as well as a personal crisis of faith, Kister continued to expand his alternate timeline where the rise of Christianity had been prevented by what was presumably the Devil disguised as the Archangel Gabriel. This alternate course of fictional events led to the existence of certain paranormal anomalies that had come to be accepted as “normal” by the 1990s, which is why most of the series’ supernatural horror is presented in such a matter-of-fact manner.
Most of this background information and religious lore is delivered by increasingly cryptic broadcasts and in-universe PSAs, as well as the occasional found footage video, that often have to be decoded by clever viewers. Of course, it’s the consistently disturbing imagery that made the series so popular – much of which was originally created by Kister on a smartphone!
The Alternates: Horror’s Most Unsettling Modern Monsters
The show’s early episodes mostly take place within the fictional Mandela County in Wisconsin and depict life in a world where demonic entities are capable of using media to enter our reality. This process usually involves scaring victims into killing themselves and then repurposing their bodies as horrific doppelgangers referred to as “Alternates”. This terrifying phenomenon has become so common that local police already have specialized procedures in place to deal with the issue, though this usually consists of simply ignoring calls for help so as to avoid spreading so-called “Metaphysical Awareness Disorder” any further.
Over time, Kister would expand this mythology and incorporate different kinds of Alternates into the mix, though the story never stopped deconstructing religious concepts. The series’ second volume exponentially increased both video quality and the overall narrative scope as we began to follow the lives of characters who had already grown up in this dystopian hellscape where the government is forced to prohibit religion, television, and even mirrors in the hopes of mitigating the damage done by the ongoing invasion of otherworldly entities.
The really interesting part comes into play when you realize exactly how the Alternates make use of scary media in order to spread their demonic influence, with the analog horror of it all being a diegetic part of the story and something of a memetic trap orchestrated by the false Gabriel.
I particularly appreciate how some characters begin to suspect that there’s something wrong with their version of reality and that things weren’t meant to play out this way, especially when Mark utters the haunting line “who have I been praying to all this time?” That’s why I think The Mandela Catalogue is an effective piece of religious horror even if you don’t subscribe to the Christian worldview, as the mere idea of a world where evil has already won is a universally terrifying concept in and of itself. Not only that, but the series’ uncanny analog imagery alone is already worth the price of admission, as you’ve likely already noticed by looking at the pictures accompanying this article.
Why The Feature Adaptation Could Be Horror’s Next Big Success
It’s actually been a whole year since Kister first announced that he had been working on a feature-length screenplay for a Mandela Catalogue movie since 2022, with his proposed story following an ensemble of high-school graduates who uncover a supernatural conspiracy after the mysterious disappearance of a fellow student. This premise sounds similar to narrative elements present in the series’ second volume, but I’m pretty sure that Kister is going to go the Kane Parsons route and make the movie more of a spin-off than a re-imagining of its source material.
While notable Hollywood producers like Aaron B. Koontz, Scott Stuber, and Steven Spielberg himself are backing the upcoming project, I feel like there’s no one better to adapt this deeply personal exploration of faith and the dark side of communication than the person who first came up with it. That’s why I can’t wait to see Kister’s work on the big screen, as I have a feeling that this young filmmaker is the next one on the list about to make cinematic history – especially since this is clearly a passion project that has been in the works for years at this point!
That being said, there’s always a chance that the film could end up unleashing a fresh wave of Alternate incursions, but I guess that’s just a risk we’ll have to take.
You must be logged in to post a comment.