Director David Gordon Green’s 2018 movie Halloween was great fun (reviewed here), a welcome callback to the low-budget filmmaking style of the 1970s, a sequel/reboot of the original horror film that set off a new era of scream queens and slasher horror films. But it was only the first act in a three-act opus that continues in Halloween Killsand will wrap next year in Halloween Ends. With this month’s premiere of Halloween Killson streaming platform Peacock Premium, fans will realize Gordon knows the franchise, the genre, and all that retro nostalgia that has audiences clamoring for shows like Stranger Things and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Complete with obscure characters from the corners of Haddonfield, Illinois, returning 40 years later, Halloween Kills is not just good horror but great–complete with all the non-apologetic, operatic gore and scares that have been the backbone of the modern monster movie mega-franchises first resurrected by John Carpenter and Debra Hill back in 1978. Since then we’ve seen the likes of Michael, Jason, and Freddy stepping in for Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, The Mummy, and the Phantom of the Opera.
It’s been a little more than a year since we said it. Now the distributors of Halloween Killsare doing exactly as we’d hoped. The latest installment in John Carpenter’s original slasher movie series has been ready for viewing since early 2020. Halloween Kills was wisely kept from theaters a year, so the studio released a teaser then and another earlier this year to keep us interested. The excuse for not just streaming the movie to viewers was always that the filmmakers didn’t want audiences to have a “compromised theatrical experience.” We suggested streaming it for Halloween last year here at borg, because it just makes financial sense. And guess what? They must have changed their minds. This Halloween we get a 1980s style celebration with another Halloween movie entry streaming at home for anyone and everyone who wants to see it. Now it will be released the same day as in theaters via Peacock’s Premium streaming platform. That’s not the free version we bragged about a few weeks ago here, but the version you can subscribe to for as little as $4.99 per month. So instead of dropping $20-40 in a crowded theater at the height of the second year of the pandemic, you can just stay home with the fam and watch it for less than five bucks. That’s going to be great for the streaming service, as it’s sure to be the top bet this Halloween weekend. Then you can hang around for some of the best classic TV series available on any current platform. Plus, we now have a full preview of a new Carpenter music track from the film. Check it out below!
Originally scheduled for an October 2020 release, this next installment in John Carpenter and Debra Hill’s original blockbuster horror franchise is the direct sequel to 2018’s Halloween, a pretty good third (or fourth or fifth) effort to reboot the series and the highest grossing movie (but not the grossest) in the franchise, which we reviewed here at borg. The delay for Halloween Killsnecessitates the delay to October 2022 for the 13th and “final” film in the series, Halloween Ends. The odds that will really be the last Halloween? Probably something like 3,720 to one, but this next film seems like it’s likely Jamie Lee Curtis’s last turn as Laurie Strode. Curtis, Judy Greer, Andi Matichak, Nancy Stephens, Charles Cyphers, and Nick Castle as Michael Myers are back, joined by grown-up Kyle Richards, plus Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Longstreet.
It’s been a year since we saw the teaser for this movie here at borg. The new trailer telegraphs an even gorier slasher flick than the last. If you dare–here is a look at Halloween Kills:
It’s that time of year again, time to take a look forward at what movies should be on your radar for 2021! But wait! Next year’s list sure looks a lot like the the films we previewed last December. The covid pandemic has delayed hundreds of film projects, but some made it through. When you walk back through last year’s list and compare it to movies released after theater lockdowns, you get some insight into how Hollywood thinks. Big movies and movies predicted to be successes were universally held back, while less popular films were released to low box office returns from theaters that remained open, and yet other films went directly to home streaming or related media platforms.
Last year we pulled 85 of the hundreds of films then slated for the 2020 movie calendar. The first two dozen made it to theaters (films like Underwater, Dolittle, and Birds of Prey) before the national shift began on March 11 with news of the NBA reacting to the pandemic by suspending pro basketball–the first national awareness of the scope of the problem. Suddenly we saw Vudu and other home platforms coming to the rescue for our entertainment fix, adding a new Theater at Home option, which captured movies like Anya Taylor-Joy’s Emma, Vin Diesel’s Bloodshot, and the animated Scoob! Disney began an interesting tiered release of Mulan, which for half the year showed a studio doing its best to maximize returns on what would have been a key release in any other year. After another delay The New Mutants made it briefly to theaters followed by home release after three years of getting kicked aside as the last vestiges of the Disney-Fox merger were shaken out. Other films, like Vast of Night, Extraction, The Old Guard, Rebecca,Radioactive, and Fantasy Island safely premiered on Netflix and Amazon Prime, with Chris Hemsworth’s Extraction standing out as the clear popular winner–the entire world needed some new entertainment and after what would only be the first of several months of shelter-at-home, it tentatively filled the void.
So our predictions for the year’s big genre films were flat wrong, every single one except Mulan was delayed to 2021, including Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Black Widow, No Time to Die, a new Fast & Furious, Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, and superhero flicks Venom 2, Eternals, and Morbius. Wonder Woman 1984 is expected to have a theatrical release by year end. Altogether 35 of last year’s 85 movies previewed on our annual list are back again below, plus we found more than 35 new genre films we think will appeal to borg readers.
So what’s left and what’s new?
Grab your calendar and start making your plans–here are the movies you’ll want to see in 2021. Then compare the below list to our 2020 list, and look back to the 2019 list, 2018 list, 2017 list, 2016 list, 2015 list, or 2014 list. Last year we noticed studios moving genre content from the big screen to the small screen via streaming services, and the pandemic only stepped up that migration. Note: Warner Bros. has reported it will issue its 2021 releases simultaneously on HBO Max. Netflix has mostly dramas slated for 2021, but a few genre films are in pre-production, so expect a few surprises throughout the year. Amazon Studios has fewer, most partnerships with Blumhouse Productions.
As we learned well this year, many of these films will have revised release dates, and even get pushed to 2022.
January
Mortal Kombat. Based on the video game. New! Tentative release date: January 15, 2021. HBO Max.
Wrath of Man. Next Jason Statham action flick. New! Tentative release date: January 15, 2021.
The French Dispatch. Wes Anderson and his familiar actors in new quirky film about journalists. New! January 28, 2021.
The Dig. A film about a woman finding archaeological treasures on her land, starring Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, and Carey Mulligan. January 29, 2021. Netflix.
Three years ago at borg we previewed a quirky holiday film on its way to theaters called Pottersville. It’s now on Netflix and one you might come across while looking for your next Christmas movie. Universally panned by critics, it still has some charm and is a step up from the average Hallmark made-for-TV holiday flick. It’s a quiet and evenly paced film highlighted by the performances of Michael Shannon(The Shape of Water, Midnight Special and Man of Steel) and Judy Greer (Ant-Man, Halloween, Jurassic World). And it’s about Bigfoot. But it’s not quite a “family film.”
We all know what that jack-o-lantern feels like. We learned this past week the latest installment in the original slasher movie series is ready to go. But the sequel and second part of the most recent Halloween trilogy, Halloween Kills, is being delayed a year until October 2021, so the studio released a teaser (below) as a sort of consolation prize. The excuse for the delay is that the filmmakers don’t want audiences to have a “compromised theatrical experience.” So how about showing it through all the available streaming channels this Halloween? Is holding back a movie that is ready for release because of the COVID-19 pandemic really the best financial move they can come up with? It can’t be. With not just the United States but a fair chunk of the movie studios’ international market at home, it’s inconceivable that the studios aren’t working out deals to get new movies in front of home audiences now, audiences who are starving for new movie content.
It’s that time of year again, time to take a look forward at what movies should be on your radar for 2020. Are you going to see them all? Heck no. These are the genre films we think borg readers will want to know about to make their own checklists for the coming year–and they are only the films we know about so far. We pulled 85 of the hundreds of films that have been finalized or are in varying stages of final production, slated for next year’s movie calendar.
What looks to top the list for most fanboys and fangirls? Ghostbusters: Afterlife! Scarlett Johannson solo in Black Widow! A new James Bond movie, No Time to Die. Vin Diesel in Bloodshot and a new Fast & Furious. The original Tom Clancy novel series is finally continuing with an adaptation of Without Remorse. Comic book adaptations are in less supply in 2020, but look for Venom 2, Wonder Woman 1984, Eternals, The New Mutants, Morbius, Birds of Prey, The Old Guard, and did we mention Black Widow? Compare the below list to our 2019 list and even the 2018 list, 2017 list, 2016 list, 2015 list, or 2014 list, and your takeaway may be seeing the studios moving genre content from the big screen to the small screen via streaming services.
Do you like sequels? There are far less coming to theaters in 2020 than in 2019, but many more remakes of movies, books, and TV shows are on the way. In fact, with all the blockbusters in 2019, 2020 looks pretty tame as the cinema marquee is concerned. Some films don’t have locked in release dates yet: Amazon Studios and Netflix haven’t revealed dates for the following 2020 releases (those we know you’ll find on the calendar below):
7500, a film about a highjacked airplane, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Amazon Studios)
The Dig,a film about a woman finding archaeological treasures on her land, starring Ralph Fiennes, Lily James, and Carey Mulligan (Netflix)
Horse Girl, Alison Brie stars and directs this story about an awkward girl who fuses her dreams with reality (Netflix)
Jingle Jangle, an animated Christmas story with the voices of Forest Whitaker, Keegan-Michael Key, and Hugh Bonneville (Netflix)
Louis Wain, biopic of the 19th century artist starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, and Andrea Riseborough (Amazon Studios)
The Old Guard, adaptation of comic book story, starring Charlize Theron and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Netflix)
Radioactive, a film about Marie Curie, starring Rosamund Pike and Anya Taylor-Joy (Amazon)
Rebecca, adaptation and remake of the Daphne Du Maurier classic novel, starring Lily James, Keely Hawes, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Armie Hammer (Netflix)
Welcome to Sudden Death, sequel to Jean-Claude van Damme 1995 movie starring Michael Jai White (Netflix)
The Willoughbys, animated adaptation of the Lois Lowry book, with voices of Maya Rudolph, Martin Short, and Jane Krakowski (Netflix)
Wonderland, murder conspiracy mystery starring Mark Wahlberg, Allan Arkin, and Colleen Camp (Netflix)
Some of these films will have revised release dates, or get pushed to 2021.
So grab your calendar and start making your plans–here are the movies you’ll want to see in 2020 (and some you might not!):
January
The Informer – Thriller, starring Joel Kinnaman, Rosamund Pike, Ana de Armas, Common, and Clive Owen – January 10.
Underwater– Thriller, stars Kristin Stewart in underwater horror story – January 10.
Dolittle– Family/Comedy, stars Robert Downey, Jr. in remake of the classic, with voices of Tom Holland, Rami Malek, Octavia Spencer, Emma Thompson, Antonio Banderas, Ralph Fiennes, and Michael Sheen – January 17.
Even better than seeing the original on the big screen again, writer-director David Gordon Green’s Halloween hits all the right notes to make the latest, but surely not the last, installment in the Halloween series the best sequel of the franchise. This Halloween may be the best horror sequel so far, in any series. Some may think that’s an easy task, yet for fans of the genre and nine previous sequels, including a similar effort 20 years ago with Halloween H20 and a reboot series by Rob Zombie, this weekend’s theatrical release will probably become the new go-to movie after the original, next year and the year after. Horror fans knew the film worked on paper–genre-defining scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis returning again to the role that made her famous, this time showing her extensive preparation for the inevitable return of the serial killer that she barely slipped past as a teenager, contributions from co-creator John Carpenter as executive producer and composer, and Michael Myers’s return, even performed by original actor Nick Castle and a weathered 40-year-old latex mask. The actual delivery fulfills the promise: the retro-style opening credits and Carpenter’s haunting theme prepare the audience for the suspense, thrills, and jumps over the next two hours.
Tha performances are everything: Curtis’s Laurie Strode is tough, smart, and prepared, but she’s not perfect, a bit addled by a lifetime of fear and not physically strong enough to take on Myers, so the outcome is not entirely predictable. Will Patton (The Mothman Prophecies, The Postman, Armageddon, Falling Skies) joins the cast as Sheriff Hawkins, an older version of the first young man to arrive at the original murder scene in 1978. He, along with Omar Dorsey(Castle, Chuck, Starsky & Hutch) as Sheriff Barker, bring the added gravitas and nostalgic vibe from former go-to Carpenter company cast members like Peter Jason and Keith David. Strode’s granddaughter Allyson, played by Andi Matichak (Orange is the New Black, Blue Bloods), like her grandmother, turns the horror genre upside down, as less of a victim, instead taking charge of the situation when possible. To a lesser extent the script provides some opportunity for Ant-Man’sJudy Greer to protect her family as Laurie’s daughter and Allyson’s mother. Rounding out the performances are a young Jibrail Nantambu as more than the stock kid stuck for Halloween night with his babysitter.
When a genre’s failings are part of what define it, even the film’s lesser components are consistent with the spirit of the original film. A doctor and an institution that are overly interested in a 40-year-old murder that gets mocked by a group of students, along with events that occurred in sequels that are ignored this time around and dismissed as the stuff of local legend, all somehow fit the movie and the genre. Could Carpenter himself have filled in some of the story missteps had he directed this one? Who knows. For the most part, Strode, Myers, and their new story follow the rulebook for the characters established 40 years ago.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Whisper of the Heart may be the anime master’s most heart-warming story. Based on the 1989 manga by artist Aoi Hiiragi, Whisper of the Heart is a 1995 romance and drama about a teenage girl who wants to be a writer, and with the determination and self-discipline necessary, she is successful at completing her first novel. The story within a story that she writes is about an ornamental cat in a store window that she names The Baron. In a fun twist, Hiiragi wrote the girl’s story into another manga, titled The Cat’s Repayment, and that story was adapted into Studio Ghibli’s 2002 anime film The Cat Returns. “The Cat” returned to theaters this week as part of the Fathom Events series and Studio Ghibli Fest 2018, and has its final screening at theaters nationwide Wednesday evening, April 25, 2018, at 7 p.m. local time. Find theater information and order tickets here.
This month’s release of Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs was inspired by the anime films of Studio Ghibli, and you can see the influences from The Cat Returns in particular. The Cat Returns is a much lighter film with none of the violence of Isle of Dogs. It has rightly been referred to as “delightful,” “sweet,” and “cute.” Its appeal for cat fans is the sincerity and authenticity of director Hiroyuki Morita (Akira, Perfect Blue, My Neighbors the Yamadas), and his use of real cats for some of the cat dialogue. The story centers on a high school student named Haru. When Haru rescues a cat in the road from an oncoming truck, the cat stands upright and speaks to thank her, and she soon learns he is a cat prince whose father the Cat King grants her the blessing of total happiness. She finds she could always hear and communicate with cats, but lost that sense years ago. Cats from the kingdom pile on the gifts, not realizing people don’t like mice and catnip as much as cats, and when the gifts and rewards get too great and the Cat King goes overboard, she is helped by a well-dressed cat at the Cat Business Office–The Baron.
Haru meets a rather skeptical, rotund, white cat along the way named Muta, who is possibly the finest, most realistic cat ever translated to film. Soon the Cat King determines Haru should marry his son, and Haru, The Baron, and Muta embark on an escape from the palace through a labyrinthine maze. Studio Ghibli, with creators Miyazaki and Morita, have visually presented the most believable cats in their numerous productions over the decades. In The Cat Returns the characters are not so much photo-real as in Miyazaki’s directorial efforts (here he serves as executive producer), yet the charming story is truly everything any cat lover will love. It is also filled with good humor, an engaging fantasy story, and lots of silliness that both kids and adults will appreciate.
A quirky new holiday film is on its way to theaters next week. Pottersville is next in the line of light-hearted regional comedies populated with plenty of familiar faces. Genre fans can find Midnight Special and Man of Steel’sMichael Shannon as a friendly businessman who gets mistaken for Bigfoot when he gets drunk and stumbles through town in a gorilla costume. This sets up an opportunity to perpetuate the story as a way to bring tourists into the town, a town which has fallen on hard times.
The trailer for the film is filled with holiday cheer and that unique blend of kooky characters and winter spirit you only find in the odd (stress on the word “odd”) attempt at a holiday keeper. Or on the Hallmark Channel. The man of many faces, Ron Perlman(Hellboy, Star Trek Nemesis) stands out in particular in the trailer as the town’s dopey sheriff.
The rest of the cast includes Firefly, Man Men, and Life’sChristina Hendricks, Ant-Man and Jurassic World’sJudy Greer, Night at the Museum and Bob’s Burgers’Thomas Lennon, and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides and Snow White and the Huntsman’sIan McShane. Pottersville gets a bit of a jump on another holiday film for the season, The Man Who Invented Christmas starring Dan Stevens (previewed here at borg.com).
Check out the trailer for the new holiday film Pottersville:
