There’s something about Mary, a new horror film coming this fall, that screams out John Carpenter.  It has that seaside feel of Carpenter’s The Fog, complete with a haunted seafaring vessel and moody cinematography.  It also has that trapped-in-an-evil-car vibe of Carpenter’s adaptation of Stephen King’s Christine.  It’s about an old boat with a past, found and restored, and haunted–all Christine elements.  Who doesn’t want more Carpenter movies, or second best, a Carpenter homage?  Mary is a new horror film that boasts its contrast with the average why-not-run-from-the-haunted-house movie by staging its ghost story on a boat: “The thing about boats is there’s nowhere to run.”  A nice double feature with The Lighthouse, perhaps?  The first trailer for the movie also conjures a little Jaws, The Ring, and Dead Calm.

Academy Award-winning actor Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, RoboCop, The Fifth Element) and Emily Mortimer (Mary Poppins Returns, The Kid, The Ghost and the Darkness) star in the indie film, which is directed by cinematographer Michael Goi (Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Swamp Thing, American Horror Story), with a cast including Jennifer Esposito, straight off her supporting role in The Boys, plus Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (The Magnificent Seven, Murder on the Orient Express), Natalie Jean (Gotham), Michael Landes (Final Destination 2, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), Stefanie Scott (Chuck, Jem and the Holograms), and Owen Teague (IT, Black Mirror).

The solid leading and supporting cast and some nicely creepy cinematography and scares in the trailer make this look like a good Halloween pick.  And the eerie music is supplied by frequent horror movie–and Avengers movie series–composers The Newton Brothers.  Here’s the trailer for Mary:

Here is the marketing synopsis:

Oldman plays a struggling blue-collar captain looking to make a better life for his family.  Strangely drawn to an abandoned ship that is up for auction, David impulsively buys the boat, believing it will be his family’s ticket to happiness and prosperity.  But soon after they embark on their maiden journey, strange and frightening events begin to terrorize David and his family, causing them to turn on one another and doubt their own sanity.  With tensions high, the ship drifts off course, and it becomes horrifyingly clear that they are being lured to an even greater evil out at sea.

Just in time for Halloween, look for the horror flick Mary in theaters in limited U.S. release, October 11, 2019.

C.J. Bunce
Editor
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