Writer-director David Koepp knows how to make a good movie. He’s written the scripts for Spielberg’s original Jurassic Park, for Raimi’s original Spider-Man, for De Palma’s Mission: Impossible, and the list goes on, to include some horror work. In You Should Have Left, Koepp adapts German writer Daniel Kehlmann’s novel of the same name. The film is from Blumhouse, which lately has produced horror that is less slasher and more appealing to mainstream viewers. You Should Have Leftis a pulse-pounding thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat, and barely earns its R rating. It also proves you don’t need a big cast and big budget to make a fantastic movie. You Should Have Left, a 2020 sleeper you probably overlooked, is streaming now on the free Peacock app.
It’s one of those head-scratching things. Previews for horror movies in October for movies not arriving until around Valentine’s Day. And it happens every year. Valentine’s Day is a big time for horror, and two movies heading your way next year look like you’ll want to see them if not in the theater at least streaming once they arrive on home video. Also, this weekend is DC Fandome, an online streaming event like Disney’s annual D23 fan event (which arrives next month). If you’ve wondered where DC Comics movies have been, they’ve evidently been waiting for next year–even before the pandemic they’ve been lagging behind the Marvel movies. DC rolled out several teasers this weekend, many highlighting concept art as they make their way to their final stages of production. Each of the new movies has promise, and you’ll want to compare them to our single Marvel preview below.
Below check out trailers for two 2022 horror movies, a Marvel series coming soon, and five movies starring characters from the pages of DC Comics, beginning next year.
Fantasies rarely play out as you would expect. — Mr. Roarke
Blumhouse introduced a new twist on the 1977-1984 series Fantasy Island in 2020 with a feature film version starring Michael Peña (Ant-Man), leaning into a darker, horror take on its story. ABC tried a reboot in 1998, starring Malcolm McDowell (Star Trek: Generations, Heroes). This week a new series emerges on Fox, entirely separate (or is it?) from the 2020 movie, but landing a perfect opener that is perfectly faithful to Ricardo Montalban’s classic weekly anthology showcase, an episode that would qualify among the top of the original series’ best stories. This time it’s the talented Roselyn Sanchez(Without a Trace, Kojak, Dragnet, Telenovela, Rush Hour 2), whose beauty, charisma, and talent are more than worthy of her iconic, suave, Latin predecessor. Miss Elena Roarke is not a descendant of Mr. Roarke, but a great niece of the former ambassador of the island. The update is as much homage as sequel, a fine balance that miraculously gets it all right, with an updated feel that is modern and even fun, like the long-running BBC series Death in Paradise (which follows a fish-out-of-water detective and his staff on another island paradise also encountering newcomers aka guest stars in each new episode). As with Montalban’s Fantasy Island, character actors from television’s past, present, and maybe even future, should all be scrabbling to get a part on this new incarnation of the series.
It’s unlikely anyone in 1976 could have foreseen the direction the adaptation of Mary Rodgers’ novel Freaky Friday could take in the 2020s. One of those Walt Disney studio classics before the company issued special re-release limited VHS tapes and merchandised every film to its hilt to become a corporate behemoth, the film starred Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris as mom and daughter swapping bodies and needing to live life literally in the skin of the other. Swap in part-time wacky comedic actor (Wedding Crashers), part-time horror actor (Psycho)Vince Vaughn as a creepy 50-year-old serial killer, and a high schooler named Millie played by young actress Kathryn Newton(Supernatural, Paranormal Activity 4) and you get Freaky, Blumhouse’s latest horror film, now streaming on Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, and other services. Continue reading →
Forget about that 2003 remake starring Lindsay Lohan. Freaky Friday is one of those Walt Disney studio classics before the company issued special re-release limited VHS tapes and merchandised every film to its hilt to become a corporate behemoth. The 1976 movie (written by Mary Rodgers, based on her novel) starred Jodie Foster and Barbara Harris as mom and daughter swapping bodies and needing to live life literally in the skin of the other. It was the kind of film your parents would take you to and you’d have a great time (I did). Flash forward a few generations and we now have an homage that might as well be a remake of Freaky Friday, only this time it stars wacky comedic actor Vince Vaughn as a creepy 50-year-old serial killer, swapped with a high schooler played by young actress Kathryn Newton(Supernatural, Paranormal Activity 4). It’s called simply Freaky, and it’s from Blumhouse and directed by 1970s icon Michael Landon’s son Christopher Landon, well established now as a slasher movie and slasher comedy movie director. Unfortunately the release will miss Halloween, but it looks like one to keep on the radar for its inevitable home release. Check out the trailer below.
Fantasies rarely play out as you would expect. — Mr. Roarke
You could have guessed from the trailers that Blumhouse’s Fantasy Islandwould cross the original 1977-1984 series with Black Mirror, but could you have guessed it’s also a sort of mash-up with The Dark Crystal and The Hobbit?Bloodshot, Kick-Ass 2, and Bates Motel writer Jeff Wadlow directs an unexpected twist on the original series, proving such a reboot that respects the source material and takes advantage of a big movie budget can be successful, even without original show staples like Ricardo Montalban and Hervé Villechaize. One of the stronger attempts and biggest successes at remaking a classic TV series, Fantasy Island is now streaming on Starz and other platforms.
Something in the air is hinting that autumn is on the way, and that means Halloween and more horror movies are coming. This weekend a new twist on a modern trope arrives in theaters with director Jacob Estes’ new film Don’t Let Go. Estes is a relatively new director, with the horror classic Ring sequel Rings under his belt. His latest project is billed as drama, fantasy, horror, mystery, and thriller, and it’s from Blumhouse, so expect plenty of blood and gore. The trailer suggests it has a science fiction element, too.
That’s the part that looks like the modern sci-fi movie classic Frequency (later made into a TV series), which starred Dennis Quaid and James Caviezel as a father and son who can communicate via HAM radio, years after the father’s death. In Frequency (despite the rantings of how time travel works in Avengers: Endgame, ahem) you are able to alter the past, and in Don’t Let Go it looks like it relies on the same understanding of time. After a man’s brother, sister-in-law, and their daughter/his niece are murdered, he gets a phone call from the niece, only she’s calling him her funeral–from two weeks ago. So just like in Frequency, it’s up to the lead character to prevent a murder. Time travel with a twist, this time with a horror set-up.
Don’t Let Go stars David Oyelowo(The Cloverfield Paradox, Star Wars Rebels, Jack Reacher, A Sound of Thunder, As Time Goes By) as an ex-L.A. cop, with Mykelti Williamson as his partner, Alfred Molina as their boss, Brian Tyree Henry as his brother, and young actor Storm Reid as his niece. Whodunnit? The cop, his partner, his brother, or the criminal element laid out in the trailer?
