Movies
[TV] First Promo for Eli Roth’s “South of Hell”
Here’s the first ever promo for WE tv’s original supernatural thriller, “South of Hell”, even if there’s no actual footage yet.
In addition to Eli Roth (Hostel, Cabin Fever, “Hemlock Grove”), the directing line-up includes Ti West (House of the Devil, The Sacrament, The Innkeepers), Rachel Talalay (“Doctor Who,” Tank Girl), Jennifer Lynch (“The Walking Dead,” “Teen Wolf”) and Jeremiah Chechik (“Helix,” “Reign”).
“South of Hell” premieres on WE tv in 2015.
Production is currently underway in Charleston, SC.
Charleston, South Carolina is the most possessed city in the world. Evil thrives there. Something with which 30-year-old exorcist Maria Abascal is intimately acquainted. She wrestles demons for a living. Especially Abigail, the one that lives within her. The one who feeds on damned souls and who’s violated the laws of hell to live on earth—and live on, inside Maria. Now, as they work as one, Maria will discover how personal her battle with evil has become and how far Abigail will go to protect them both. It’s a journey where the unspeakable is just a heartbeat away.
WE tv recently announced the cast of “South of Hell,” led by actress Mena Suvari in the dual role of Maria Abascal and her inner demon, Abigail. The cast also includes: Zachary Booth as David Abascal, Maria’s brother; Bill Irwin as Enos Abascal, Maria and David’s father and cult leader; Drew Moerlein as Dusty, Maria’s neighbor; Lamman Rucker as Rev. Elijah Bledsoe, a priest with a strong attraction to Maria,; Paulina Singer as the Reverend’s daughter, Grace; Lydia Hearst as southern belle Charlotte Roberts; Slate Holmgren as the local drug dealer, Sweetmouth; and Lauren Velez as Tetra, a spiritual informant.
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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