Movies

‘Excision’ & ‘Suburban Gothic’ Director Sets a ‘Trash Fire’

Published

9 years ago

October 2, 2015

Writer/director Richard Bates Jr. makes some really unique films. He followed up the dark coming of age tale Excision with the morbidly madcap Suburban Gothic (our review). In both, Bates exhibits a knack for addressing the fears of the youth while embracing the horror genre he loves. Now for his third feature, which just wrapped filming, Bates has set a Trash Fire. Starring Adrian Grenier (Cecil B. Demented) and Angela Trimbur (The Final Girls), Trash Fire is a psychological horror comedy being described as “Pyscho meets Harold and Maude.” Richard’s last name is Bates, after all.

Bates’ Suburban Gothic dealt with the fear of having to move back home again, which is painfully relatable. I’m excited to see the direction he takes tackling the sins of the family. Plus, I’m stoked to see Trimbur in another dark comedy – she’s wicked talented and an absolute riot in The Final Girls.

The synopsis for Trash Fire reads:

When an unforeseen event forces Owen (Grenier) to confront the past he’s been running from his whole adult life, he and his girlfriend, Isabel (Trimbur), become entangled in a horrifying web of lies, deceit, and murder. Trash Fire is a deeply, darkly comedic take on the traditional psychological horror film. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll be scarred for life.

Joining Grenier in the film’s cast is Angela Trimbur (The Final Girls), Fionnula Flanagan (The Others), AnnaLynne McCord (“90210”), Matthew Gray Gubler (Criminal Minds), Sally Kirkland (JFK), Ray Santiago (“Ash vs. Evil Dead”), Ezra Buzzington (The Hills Have Eyes) and Molly McCook (Excision).

When an unforeseen event forces Owen (Grenier) to confront the past he’s been running from his whole adult life, he and his girlfriend, Isabel (Trimbur), become entangled in a horrifying web of lies, deceit, and murder. Trash Fire is a deeply, darkly comedic take on the traditional psychological horror film. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll be scarred for life.

Lawrence Mattis and Matt Smith of Circle of Confusion and David Lawson Jr. of Snowfort Pictures produce the feature, which wrapped principal photography in Los Angeles last week.

Related Topics:Adrian Grenier Angela Trimbur Excision richard bates jr Ricky Bates Suburban Gothic Trash Fire

Patrick Cooper

Patrick writes stuff about stuff for Bloody and Collider. His fiction has appeared in ThugLit, Shotgun Honey, Flash Fiction Magazine, and your mother's will. He'll have a ginger ale, thanks.

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Movies

‘The Invisible Man 2’ – Elisabeth Moss Says the Sequel Is Closer Than Ever to Happening

Published

17 hours ago

April 25, 2024

John Squires

Universal has been having a hell of a time getting their Universal Monsters brand back on a better path in the wake of the Dark Universe collapsing, with four movies thus far released in the years since The Mummy attempted to get that interconnected universe off the ground.

First was Leigh Whannell’s The Invisible Man, to date the only post-Mummy hit for the Universal Monsters, followed by The Last Voyage of the Demeter, Renfield, and now Abigail. The latter three films have attempted to bring Dracula back to the screen in fresh ways, but both Demeter and Renfield severely underperformed at the box office. And while Abigail is a far better vampire movie than those two, it’s unfortunately also struggling to turn a profit.

Where does the Universal Monsters brand go from here? The good news is that Universal and Blumhouse have once again enlisted the help of Leigh Whannell for their upcoming Wolf Man reboot, which is howling its way into theaters in January 2025. This is good news, of course, because Whannell’s Invisible Man was the best – and certainly most profitable – of the post-Dark Universe movies that Universal has been able to conjure up. The film ended its worldwide run with $144 million back in 2020, a massive win considering the $7 million budget.

Given the film was such a success, you may wondering why The Invisible Man 2 hasn’t come along in these past four years. But the wait for that sequel may be coming to an end.

Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast this week, The Invisible Man star Elisabeth Moss notes that she feels “very good” about the sequel’s development at this point in time.

“Blumhouse and my production company [Love & Squalor Pictures]… we are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” Moss updates this week. “And I feel very good about it.”

She adds, “We are very much intent on continuing that story.”

At the end of the 2020 movie, Elisabeth Moss’s heroine Cecilia Kass uses her stalker’s high-tech invisibility suit to kill him, now in possession of the technology that ruined her life.

Stay tuned for more on The Invisible Man 2 as we learn it.