Movies
October 2nd Is a Legendary Day In Horror!
Ironic that Sony just got behind the long-delayed Zombieland (review) sequel as today marks the 5th anniversary of Ruben Fleischer’s hilarious horror comedy that starred Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray (who had the most epic cameo of the decade). The film was a monster success taking in $100M worldwide, which is why a sequel was quickly put into development, even if it never came into fruition. One of the best little gimmicks in the film are the “rules”. Which rule would be your flaw? Too bad the Amazon television pilot was so awful because we could have had a world of Zombieland…
Also released in 2009 was Filmax and Magnet’s incredible found-footage sequel [REC]2 (review), which originally premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. This was in the early days of VOD platform pushes, and was considered an exciting moment for horror fans to be able to rent it the same day as it was in theaters. The coolest aspect of the sequel was how Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza evolved the story so that these zombies were actually possessed by demons.
What really makes October 2 so special is it’s the day DreamWorks took a big chance on The Ring, one of the first remakes that started the reboot fad and also the J-horror trend. Nothing ever came close to the success The Ring had both financially and in terms of quality horror. Gore Verbinski’s visual style is what set the tone for this terrifying reboot of the Japanese franchise, Ringu, which racked in $250M worldwide. It’s also one of the rare horror films to break $100M in the states, actually pulling in a shocking $129M. I remember DreamWorks setting up early screenings across the country, which is what started the hype train a rollin’. It’s too bad the sequel was so awful, even though the home video release came with a kickass short film
October 2 was even better, though, sharing the day with Dee Snider’s criminally underrated, way ahead of its time 1998 Strangeland, about teenage girls who are victimized by a psycho (named Captain Howdy) who lures them using the Internet. The film was a box office disaster, but has found life among us horror fans on home video.
In 1987 Kathryn Bigelow’s revolutionary vamp flick, Near Dark, blasted into theaters. Starring Lance Henriksen, Adrian Pasdar, Bill Paxton, Jenny Wright and Tim Thomerson, “Country boy Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar) whittles away the quiet rural nights hunting local girls – but when he falls prey to the mysterious and beautiful Mae (Jenny Wright), Caleb unknowingly becomes the hunted. Mae is no ordinary girl, Caleb soon learns; she is part of an outlaw band of vampires, and their love is about to lure him into a terrifying world of bloodlust, mayhem and absolute horror. Will Caleb pay the ultimate price for love and eternal life – or will he find a way to defeat the evil growing inside him each night NEAR DARK?” The film is insanely bloody and features some wicked special effects work.
Of these aforementioned films, which is your favorite, and which are you going to revisit this coming weekend? I feel like re-watching them all is in order…
After multiple delays, Blumhouse Atomic Monster finally launches the newest android that is sure to light your fire while keeping you on the edge of your seat: SOULM8TE is set to release soon.
SOULM8TE arrives on Digital on August 1, 2026, from Universal Pictures Home Entertainment.
Lily Sullivan (Evil Dead Rise, Monolith) stars alongside Claudia Doumit (“The Boys”). The spinoff is described as a ’90s-style erotic thriller with a “new technological twist.”
David Rysdahl also stars in the upcoming SOULM8TE.
The film follows “a man (Rysdahl) who acquires an Artificially Intelligent android (Sullivan) to help him cope with the recent loss of his wife. In an attempt to create a truly sentient partner, the man inadvertently turns a harmless lovebot into a deadly soulmate.”
Kate Dolan (You Are Not My Mother) directs. The filmmaker rewrote an original draft from Rafael Jordan (Salvage Marines), based on a story by James Wan, Ingrid Bisu and Jordan.
“When Blumhouse Atomic Monster first approached me about an erotic thriller set in the M3GAN-verse, I thought, are you insane? But something drew me in. We exist in a bizarre time where companies sell us ‘connection’ through apps, algorithms, and AI. Yet those are the same forces pulling us apart. The lonelier we get, the more dependent we become on the tools doing the pulling,” states Dolan. “SOULM8TE is a movie about that vicious cycle. It is a satirical, unhinged movie that explores desire, obsession, autonomy, and control. It’s a movie that knows how ridiculous it is, and I’d argue it’s best watched the way you’d watch Basic Instinct or Showgirls now, with friends, a drink in hand, and zero shame about shouting at the screen.”
Producer and Blumhouse Atomic Monster CEO, Jason Blum says, “Kate Dolan has expertly blended tech paranoia with erotic thriller in SOULM8TE, which is just as fun as that sounds, but also has more on its mind than you might think.”
Watch the new trailer below that unleashes a new killer AI bot, this time for an older demographic. SOULM8TE is rated “R” for “Strong violence, gore, sexual content, graphic nudity, and language.”
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