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5 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ and ‘Poor Things’ at Home!

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Poor Things Frankenstein
Pictured: 'Poor Things'

This week is notable for bringing two recent big screen releases into our homes, one a horror comedy from the writer of Jennifer’s Body and the other an Oscar nominated genre favorite.

Here’s all the new horror releasing February 27 – March 3, 2024!

For daily reminders about new horror releases, be sure to follow @HorrorCalendar.


Lisa Frankenstein review

Less than one month after being released in theaters, the horror-comedy Lisa Frankenstein is now available at home. You can own or rent the film on Digital starting today.

Directed by Zelda Williams and written by Diablo Cody (Juno, Jennifer’s Body), Lisa Frankenstein first dug up someone special in movie theaters nationwide on February 9.

Meagan Navarro wrote in her review for Bloody Disgusting, “Billed as a coming-of-rage tale, Lisa Frankenstein instead offers a celebration of outcasts and weirdos.”

“It makes for a sugary sweet, almost wholesome effort held together by a trio of infectiously winsome performances,” Meagan’s review continued. She added, “As a celebration of teen girls and outcasts who just want to be loved, Lisa Frankenstein ultimately charms.”

Kathryn Newton (Freaky) and Cole Sprouse (“Riverdale”) lead the cast for Focus Features, and the new film is rated “PG-13” for “bloody images and sexual material.”

In Lisa Frankenstein, “Set in 1989, the film follows an unpopular high schooler who accidentally re-animates a handsome Victorian corpse during a lightning storm and starts to rebuild him into the man of her dreams using the broken tanning bed in her garage.”


Poor Things review

Nominated for eleven Oscars including Best Motion Picture of the Year, director Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things was also released at home for digital purchase & rental today.

You can expect the Blu-ray to release on March 12.

Emma Stone stars alongside Willem Dafoe in Poor Things from Yorgos Lanthimos (The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Dogtooth), a Frankenstein-like tale based on the 1992 novel by Alasdair GrayRamy YoussefJerrod CarmichaelChristopher Abbott, and Mark Ruffalo also star.

Lanthimos’ latest tells “the incredible tale and fantastical evolution of Bella Baxter (Stone), a young woman brought back to life by the brilliant and unorthodox scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Dafoe). Under Baxter’s protection, Bella is eager to learn. Hungry for the worldliness she is lacking, Bella runs off with Duncan Wedderburn (Ruffalo), a slick and debauched lawyer, on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, Bella grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.”

Meagan wrote in her 5-star review for Bloody Disgusting, “Poor Things’ dedication to bluntly exploring the weirdest quirks of humanity, from infancy to adulthood, is the precise type of strange cinema that mainstream audiences will find off-putting. Yet through Stone’s audacious performance and Lanthimos’ awe-inducing approach, Poor Things fearlessly and humorously champions the magic of curiosity that’ll reward adventurous movie lovers.”


A throwback to the slasher movies of the past, director Thomas Walton’s Camp Pleasant Lake was released by DeskPop Entertainment in select theaters and VOD beginning today.

Camp Pleasant Lake follows Rick and Darlene Rutherford, who attempt to breathe life into the eerie remnants of an old campsite, unaware of its dark past. Strange occurrences haunt the area, mirroring the tragedies of the old camp, where two decades earlier, a young girl was kidnapped and her parents brutally murdered.

“Amidst chilling atmospheres and long-forgotten secrets, the couple grapples with a horrifying revelation—they are entwined in the camp’s history. And as the shadows of the past collide with the present, the Rutherfords must confront the haunting histories of a sinister crime.”

The cast of familiar faces includes Jonathan Lipnicki (Jerry Maguire), Bonnie Aarons (The Nun 1/2)Andrew Divoff (Wishmaster 1/2), Michael Paré (Eddie and the Cruisers), Kelly Lynn Reiter, Robert LaSardo (Death Race), Maritza Brikisak, and Greg Tally.


Inspired by the classic Mary Shelley novel, Frankenstein Legacy is a “Victorian era horror tale about the consequences of Dr. Victor Frankenstein’s medical journals falling into the wrong hands.” The film was also released today, now available on VOD outlets.

Paul Dudbridge directed this latest adaptation of the classic novel. Juliet Aubrey, Matt Barber, Philip Martin Brown, Alexandra Afryea and Michelle Ryan star.

“England, 1875. A century after Victor Frankenstein’s doomed experiment, his journals have traded hands for decades. Frankenstein’s secrets did not die with him. As graves are torn up and patience disappear from asylum, William Browning sets out to find who stole his father’s body – and finds horrors close to home as his mother descends into madness.”

Paul Dudbridge previously directed Fear the Invisible Man (2023).


Amelia's Children trailer

Family isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be in Amelia’s Children, a supernatural horror film from writer/director/producer Gabriel Abrantes that will be released later this week.

Magnet will release the horror movie in theaters and on VOD Friday, March 1.

In Amelia’s Children, “When Edward’s search for his biological family leads him and his girlfriend Ryley to a magnificent villa high in the mountains of Northern Portugal, he is full of excitement at meeting his long-lost mother and twin brother. Finally, he will discover who he is and where he comes from.

“But nothing is as it seems, and Edward will soon learn that he is linked to them by a monstrous secret.”

Brigette Lundy-PaineAlba Baptista, and Carloto Cotta star.


And finally, it’s not a horror movie but don’t forget that Netflix’s Spaceman, an original science fiction drama directed by Johan Renck (“Chernobyl”), debuts at home this week.

Adam Sandler co-stars alongside a spider alien voiced by Paul Dano in Spaceman, which flew into select theaters February 23 and comes to Netflix on March 1.

In the upcoming movie, “Six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub (Adam Sandler), realizes that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth.

“Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka (Carey Mulligan), he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš (voiced by Paul Dano) works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late.”

The film also stars Kunal Nayyar, Lena Olin, and Isabella Rossellini.

Spaceman is based on Jaroslav Kalfař’s novel Spaceman of Bohemia. Kalfař teases, “I was completely blown away when I saw the film. I’ve seen it twice now. I think all the people out there who love weird things and weird art will hopefully be delighted by it.”

Writer in the horror community since 2008. Editor in Chief of Bloody Disgusting. Owns Eli Roth's prop corpse from Piranha 3D. Has four awesome cats. Still plays with toys.

Interviews

“Chucky” – Devon Sawa & Don Mancini Discuss That Ultra-Bloody Homage to ‘The Shining’

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Chucky

Only one episode remains in Season 3 of “Chucky,” and what a bloody road it’s been so far, especially for actor Devon Sawa. The actor has now officially died twice on screen this season, pulling double duty as President James Collins and body double Randall Jenkins.

If you thought Chucky’s ruthless eye-gouging of the President was bloody, this week’s Episode 7 traps Randall Jenkins in an elevator that feels straight out of an iconic horror classic.

Bloody Disgusting spoke with series creator Don Mancini and actor Devon Sawa about that ultra-bloody death sequence and how the actor inspires Mancini’s writing on the series. 

Mancini explains, “Devon’s a bit of a muse. Idle Hands and Final Destination is where my Devon Sawa fandom started, like a lot of people; although yours may have started with CasperI was a bit too old for that. But it’s really just about how I love writing for actors that I respect and then know. So, it’s like having worked with Devon for three years now, I’m just always thinking, ‘Oh, what would be a fun thing to throw his way that would be unexpected and different that he hasn’t done?’ That’s really what motivates me.”

For Sawa, “Chucky is an actor’s dream in that the series gives him not one but multiple roles to sink his teeth into, often within the same season. But the actor is also a huge horror fan, and Season 3: Part 2 gives him the opportunity to pay homage to a classic: Kubrick’s The Shining.

Devon Sawa trapped in elevator in "Chucky"

CHUCKY — “There Will Be Blood” Episode 307 — Pictured in this screengrab: (l-r) Devon Sawa as President James Collins, K.C. Collins as Coop — (Photo by: SYFY)

“Collectively, it’s just amazing to put on the different outfits, to do the hair differently, to get different types of dialogue, Sawa says of working on the series. “The elevator scene, it’s like being a kid again. I was up to my eyeballs in blood, and it felt very Kubrick. Everybody there was having such a good time, and we were all doing this cool horror stuff, and it felt amazing. It really was a good day.”

Sawa elaborates on being submerged in so much blood, “It was uncomfortable, cold, and sticky, and it got in my ears and my nose. But it was well worth it. I didn’t complain once. I was like, ‘This is why I do what I do, to do scenes like this, the scenes that I grew up watching on VHS cassette, and now we’re doing it in HD, and it’s all so cool.

It’s always the characters and the actors behind them that matter most to Mancini, even when he delights in coming up with inventive kills and incorporating horror references. And he’s killed Devon Sawa’s characters often. Could future seasons top the record of on-screen Sawa deaths?

“Well, I guess we did it twice in season one and once in season two, Mancini counts. “So yeah, I guess I would have to up the ante next season. I’ll really be juggling a lot of falls. But I think it’s hopefully as much about quality as quantity. I want to give him a good role that he’s going to enjoy sinking his teeth into as an actor. It’s not just about the deaths.”

Sawa adds, “Don’s never really talked about how many times could we kill you. He’s always talking about, ‘How can I make this death better,’ and that’s what I think excites him is how he can top each death. The electricity, to me blowing up to, obviously in this season, the eyes and with the elevator, which was my favorite one to shoot. So if it goes on, we’ll see if he could top the deaths.”

Devon Sawa as dead President James Collins in Chucky season three

CHUCKY — “Death Becomes Her” Episode 305 — Pictured in this screengrab: Devon Sawa as James Collins — (Photo by: SYFY)

The actor has played a handful of distinctly different characters since the series launch, each one meeting a grisly end thanks to Chucky. And Season 3 gave Sawa his favorite characters yet.

“I would say the second one was a lot of fun to shoot, the actor says of Randall Jenkins. “The President was great. I liked playing the President. He was the most grounded, I hope, of all the characters. I did like playing him a lot.” Mancini adds, “He’s grounded, but he’s also really traumatized, and I thought you did that really well, too.”

The series creator also reveals a surprise correlation between President James Collins’ character arc and a ’90s horror favorite.

I saw Devon’s role as the president in Season 3; he’s very Kennedy-esque, Mancini explains. “But then given the supernatural plot turns that happen, to me, the analogy is Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneath, the character that is seeing these weird little things happening around the house that is starting to screw with his sanity and he starts to insist, ‘I’m seeing a ghost, and his spouse thinks he’s nuts. So I always like that. That’s Michelle Pfeiffer in What Lies Beneathwhich is a movie I love.”

The finale of  “Chucky” Season 3: Part 2 airs Wednesday, May 1 on USA & SYFY.

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