Movies
‘Devil’s Carnival: Alleluia’ Trailer Sends You To Heaven
In 2012, Darren Lynn Bousman (Saw II, Repo! The Genetic Opera) sent viewers on a trip straight into Hell with The Devil’s Carnival, a macabre musical that featured Sean Patrick Flannery, Emilie Autumn, Paul Sorvino, and Bill Moseley. Now, in 2015, he plans on strapping you in and sending your ass straight into…Heaven?
That’s right, the trailer for The Devil’s Carnival: Alleluia has hit the web and looks just as insane, flashy, and catchy as the first! The film tells the tale of Lucifer and his intent to wage war on Heaven. Little does he know that God and the angels are aware of this plan and are ready to raise a little hell themselves.
Currently being shopped at AFM, the film will once again stars Paul Sorvino and this time includes Ted Neeley (Jesus Christ Superstar), Adam Pascal (Rent), and David Hasselhoff. Don’t ask me about that last one.
Bousman states:
Securing financing, getting distribution, getting anything off the ground these days is a damn miracle. The Carnival is our answer to that. We found a way to circumvent the catch-22 by making this more than just a movie. The Devil’s Carnival is an experience that demands more of you than sitting there and just being passive.
Head below for the trailer [Courtesy of Hollywood Reporter].
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
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