The horror drop of October is just ramping up with new original films and series from Netflix, Hulu and Shudder while Amazon finally kicks off the highly anticipated 'Welcome to the Blumhouse' series.
OUT NOW:
Vampires vs the Bronx (Netflix)
A fun thriller that sits on a thin veil of gentrification and race-relation issues, Vampires vs the Bronx is a hell of a Netflix kickoff to October.
Produced by SNL legend Lorne Michaels and starring Sarah Gadon, Chris Redd, The Kid Mero, Method Man & Shea Whigham. Co-written and directed by Osmany Rodriguez.
"A group of young friends from the Bronx fight to save their neighborhood from a band of vampires. Three gutsy kids from a rapidly gentrifying Bronx neighborhood stumble upon a sinister plot to suck all the life from their beloved community."
Monsterland (Hulu)
The visually striking and haunting series consistent of eight different episodes, promises to have something unnerving for everyone.
Full with top-notch performances, elevated cinematography and enough creatively to keep you on your feet throughout.
"Encounters with mermaids, fallen angels, and other strange beasts drive broken people to desperate acts in Monsterland, an anthology series based on the collection of stories from Nathan Ballingrud’s 'North American Lake Monsters'"
'Scare Me' (Shudder)
The Sundance official selection film now turned Shudder Original, brings horror by way of comedy starring an unleashed Aya Cash (scene stealing in the new season of 'The Boys', previously of 'You're the Worst') in a scary story writing showdown with Josh Ruben (writer and director of the film) while trapped in a powerless cabin with Chris Redd (SNL, Popstar: Never Stop Popping) as the lone audience member of their cutthroat competition.
"The more Fred and Fanny commit to their tales, the more the stories come to life in the dark of a Catskills cabin. The horrors of reality manifest when Fred confronts his ultimate fear: Fanny may be the better storyteller."
COMING THIS WEEK:
The Cleansing Hour (Shudder 10.8)
This Shudder Original made its premiere at the acclaimed Fantastic Fest last year and has had fans anxiously awaiting its premiere on streaming. Currently sitting at an unblemished 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, the film follows a pseudo exorcism stream that turns painfully real. Playing on today's modern disease of internet fact or fiction, it flashes some serious monster action among demonic interaction.
Check back this week as Ryan J. Downey hosts an episode of Screen Crusades with writer/director Damien LeVeck.
"A live-stream exorcism goes viral in this bold, modern take on demonic possession. Millennial entrepreneurs, Max (Ryan Guzman) and Drew (Kyle Gallner) run a popular webcast that streams “live exorcisms” that are, in fact, elaborately staged hoaxes watched by millions. However, their fortunes take a turn when during one of their webcasts, Drew's fiancée (Alix Angelis) becomes mysteriously possessed by a real demon that takes the crew hostage. In front of a rapidly growing global audience, the demon subjects the crew to a series of violent and humiliating challenges that expose dark secrets they have been hiding from each other."
Welcome to the Blumhouse Presents 'The Lie' & 'Black Box' (Amazon Prime 10.6)
The horror production house responsible for genre films like Insidious, Get Out, Paranormal Activity, and The Invisible Man finally drops the first two films of the highly anticipated eight film horror anthology for Amazon Prime. Starting things off on Oct 6th, will be The Lie directed by writer/director Veena Sud (The Killing, 7 Seconds) and Black Box directed by writer/director Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour Jr. Two of remaining films will be released in a double feature segment next week, while the other four will drop in 2021.
In 'The Lie': two girls walk into a forest, one walks out kicking off a series of dramatic unravellings that push two families to the brink of how far each will go for their daughters.
"Starring Mireille Enos (The Killing), Peter Sarsgaard (An Education) and Joey King (The Kissing Booth 2, The Act). When their teenaged daughter confesses to impulsively killing her best friend, two desperate parents attempt to cover up the horrific crime, leading them into a complicated web of lies and deception."
The second installment releasing this week in the anthology series is 'Black Box'. In this modern experiment that continues to push the limitations of what's real in the advancement of our society, a new tech based memory treatment is a single father's hail mary to keep his daughter but his mind horrifically and brutally fights back leading to a devastating showdown for control that might unlock fearful truths that will destroy him. For those fans that want a little more horror in their Black Mirror and Inception.
"Starring Mamoudou Athie (Jurassic World 3, The Circle), Phylicia Rashad (Creed), Amanda Christine (Colony), Tosin Morohunfola (The Chi, The 24th), Charmaine Bingwa (Trees of Peace, Little Sista), and Troy James (The Flash, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark). After losing his wife and his memory in a car accident, a single father undergoes an agonizing experimental treatment that causes him to question who he really is."
'Books of Blood' (Hulu 10.7)
Among the world's first introduction to modern horror master Clive Barker included his widely acclaimed anthology of terrifying short stories in his Books of Blood.
Published in the mid-80's the series would catapult the writer/director into the mainstream and result in a historic career that has cemented his legacy as one of the greats of the genre. Many of the stories in the collection have gone on to become film productions including Rawhead Rex, The Forbidden as well as the 1992 version of Candyman. 1995's Lord of Illusions was derived from The Last Illusion. Quicksilver Highway was the retelling of The Body Politic. Just to name a few.
The upcoming feature film, inspired by three of Barker's six initial Books of Blood vignettes and arranged similar to acts in a play, will showcase three individual stories all dealing with horrors of the supernatural.
The film stars Britt Robertson, Rafi Gavron, Anna Friel, Yul Vazquez, and Freda Foh Shen and is produced by Seth MacFarlane, Erica Huggins, Alana Kleiman, Brian Witten, Jeff Kwatinetz, Josh Barry, Barker and Adam Simon, as well as the film's director, Brannon Braga.
The first act features Anna Friel as a psychologist grieving the loss of her 7-year old son. Things get especially interesting when she meets Simon, played by Rafi Gavron. Simon makes claim to being able to connect with her son as a medium. The results are terrifying.
The second act focuses on a young runaway in Jenna, played by Britt Robertson. Jenna suffers from misphonia (a condition where someone is chronically sensitive to sound) and ultimately finds refuge in the wrong house.
In the final act, Yul Vazquez plays contract killer named Bennett whose final job pits him opposite a supernatural force the likes of which he has never seen.
'Scream 4' (Hulu - 10.8)
The fourth film in the classic slasher series that brought horror hip again in the 90s with meta cliches, brutal killings mixed with stylized writing, mashes the original trio with Woodsboro's newest murder buffet (Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anthony Anderson, Adam Brody, Rory Culkin & Alison Brie).
The film teamed legendary director Wes Craven (it would be his last film directing before his death in 2015) and screenwriter Kevin Williamson back together for the first time since 1997's Scream 2 (as Williamson opted out of writing Scream 3).
Originally intended to kickstart a new trilogy, the series had been floating around on MTV until recent news of a fifth installment emerged, one that seems to have familiar faces returning.
CONTINUED WEEKLY EPISODES:
'The Boys' Season 2 (Amazon - Fridays)
Recent news of an R-rated spinoff film gives the show a mid-season shot of Compound V (not like the explosive Season 2 needed anymore). The details (coming from Variety) thus far are that the show will focus on America’s only college exclusively for young adult superheroes or “supes.” The college is also run by Vought International.
The new season continues Butcher (Karl Urban), Hughie (Jack Quaid) and their team’s bloodshed revenge adventure to take down the Superhero super team. Adding fuel to the fire is new superhero Stormfront (Aya Cash) who is already seen raising the stakes in the new trailer.
'Lovecraft Country' (HBO - Sundays)
The highly-anticipated series from Misha Green, Jordan Peele, and J.J. Abrams, based on the 2016 Matt Ruff novel of the same name, the series follows Atticus Freeman (Jonathan Majors) who connects with a friend and his uncle (Jurnee Smollett-Bell as Letitia and Michael K. Williams as Montrose) for a road trip across Fifties Jim Crow America in search of Freeman’s father.
Traversing the segregation and discrimination of the era, things become things become additionally terrifying as the trio undercover there are different kind of monsters among us. The teaser of the series has included an appearance by the mythical “Cthulhi,” which originated in the paperbacks of H.P. Lovecraft.
