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Horror Pride Month: Writer/Director/Photographer Michelle Hanson

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“I’ve been a horror fan all my life,” Michelle Hanson told me during our interview for iHorror’s Horror Pride Month. “I’ve been gay all my life, too, but I didn’t know it until I was 19.”

And with that, we were off to the races.

Hanson, who works with a theater troupe in Columbus, Ohio, wears a lot of hats in the entertainment business. Not only is she a writer and director of both plays and films, but she’s also a published author and part-time photographer.

Of all the things she loves to do, however, horror is pretty close to the top of the list.

“I grew up mainly on slasher flicks,” she said. “I grew up in the 80s and 90s so there were plenty at my disposal, but I also love the more psychological films like Silence of the Lambs. When a movie gets into your head and sticks with you, it’s kind of like psychological torture and I love that.”

Looking back on those horror films that she grew up with, Hanson says she realized that coming out and really accepting herself didn’t change the way she viewed them, but it did make her realize a few things about her relationships to the characters.

“I think with so many of those characters, there was a physical attraction that I just hadn’t realized before my coming out,” Hanson explained. “I loved the Freddy films as a kid and all of the females in those films are gorgeous but it never took away from their strength or their intelligence.”

As for that layer of psychological horror, it plays out in some of Hanson’s own filmmaking, and she was eager to share the details of some of the projects she had been working on recently.

One, a short film called Veho, deals with a ride-share driver whose latest fare turns out to be a serial killer.

“Due to copyright, I couldn’t use Uber,” she laughed, explaining the title. “So the ‘Veho’ driver picks up the serial killer and the audience knows what the guy is from the beginning. The guy, instead of backseat driving, he starts psychologically torturing the poor driver.”

So, what about the portrayal of lesbians in horror films?

“What I’ve realized is that lesbianism in horror films is there to keep straight male viewers watching,” Hanson said. “There’s nothing there that really even hints at what it’s like to be actually be a lesbian.”

She pointed to the hyper-sexualized nature of most lesbian characters she’s seen in the genre, and one particular instance of sexual experimentation between two female leads that really got under her skin.

“I was convinced a 12 year old boy wrote Jennifer’s Body,” Hanson explained. “When I found out that it had been written, not only by a female writer but also one that I highly respected, I was shocked.”

For those unfamiliar, Jennifer’s Body contained one of the most incongruous uses of a sudden and pointless girl-on-girl scene that I’ve ever seen, and it clearly struck a chord with Hanson, as well.

It’s this type of nonsense that helps inspire Hanson to keep creating, however, and she even wrote a short sketch that she’s expanded into a short film based around the idea of the final girl.

“If a final girl was actually in a lesbian relationship and they were together at the end of the film, how would it play out? Would one of them have to die?” she asked. “It ended up being a sort of parody of Friday the 13th in its original sketch form and we had a great time playing on that trope.”

The short film, Final Girls, has since been completed. The entertaining parody is a lot of fun and we’re excited to share it with you at the end of this article!

Dallas Ray, Cat McAlpine, and Michelle Hanson on the set of Final Girls

The questions the writer/director posed turned the discussion to the future of LGBTQ inclusion in the horror genre, and there were a couple of points she was eager to make.

One, queer inclusion in horror is important for visibility, but the LGBTQ community members who want that inclusion also have to realize that it means we’re going to have to wholly embrace the fact that sometimes we might be the villain and sometimes we might be the victim,

In other words, just because a queer person dies in the film doesn’t make the film homophobic.

“If the gay character is being killed because they’re gay, then that’s a hate crime,” Hanson pointed out. “If they’re killed because lots of people in the movie are being killed and they just happen to be one of the many, then that’s equality. That’s what we’ve been fighting for all this time.”

And, Hanson says, in some ways we’re beginning to see progress on this front, even when it comes to the language we hear in films, and she specifically points to the films The Collector and its sequel The Collection as examples.

“There was this point in the first film where Josh Stewart calls the killer a ‘fa**ot’ and it gets this really visceral reaction out of him. You can tell it made him angry to be called that even though the other names Stewart had used didn’t phase him,” she said. “The sequel came out a few years later and I noticed that even though Stewart called the guy all kinds of names again, that word wasn’t used. That’s not the only example we could talk about, but it feels like that’s a signal that the vocabulary, at least, is moving in the right direction.”

For all our sake, I hope that Michelle Hanson is right.

Don’t forget to check out Final Girls below. You can also see the first season of Red Rue, Hanson’s web series, on YouTube!

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New Poster Reveal For Nicolas Cage’s Survival Creature Feature ‘Arcadian’ [Trailer]

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Nicolas Cage Arcadian

In the latest cinematic venture featuring Nicolas Cage, Arcadian emerges as a compelling creature feature, teeming with suspense, horror, and emotional depth. RLJE Films has recently released a series of new images and a captivating poster, offering audiences a glimpse into the eerie and thrilling world of “Arcadian”. Scheduled to hit theaters on April 12, 2024, the film will later be available on Shudder and AMC+, ensuring a wide audience can experience its gripping narrative.

Arcadian Movie Trailer

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) has given this film an “R” rating for its “bloody images,” hinting at the visceral and intense experience awaiting viewers. The film draws inspiration from acclaimed horror benchmarks like “A Quiet Place,” weaving a post-apocalyptic tale of a father and his two sons navigating a desolate world. Following a catastrophic event that depopulates the planet, the family faces the dual challenge of surviving their dystopian environment and eluding mysterious nocturnal creatures.

Joining Nicolas Cage in this harrowing journey are Jaeden Martell, known for his role in “IT” (2017), Maxwell Jenkins from “Lost in Space,” and Sadie Soverall, featured in “Fate: The Winx Saga.” Directed by Ben Brewer (“The Trust”) and penned by Mike Nilon (“Braven”), “Arcadian” promises a unique blend of poignant storytelling and electrifying survival horror.

Maxwell Jenkins, Nicolas Cage, and Jaeden Martell 

Critics have already begun to praise “Arcadian” for its imaginative monster designs and exhilarating action sequences, with one review from Bloody Disgusting highlighting the film’s balance between emotional coming-of-age elements and heart-pounding horror. Despite sharing thematic elements with similar genre films, “Arcadian” sets itself apart through its creative approach and action-driven plot, promising a cinematic experience filled with mystery, suspense, and relentless thrills.

Arcadian Official Movie Poster

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‘Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 3’ Is a Go with Enhanced Budget and New Characters

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Winnie the Pooh 3

Wow, they’re churning things out fast! The upcoming sequel “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 3” is officially moving forward, promising an expanded narrative with a larger budget and the introduction of beloved characters from A.A. Milne’s original tales. As confirmed by Variety, the third installment in the horror franchise will welcome Rabbit, the heffalumps, and the woozles into its dark and twisted narrative.

This sequel is a part of an ambitious cinematic universe that reimagines children’s stories as horror tales. Alongside “Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey” and its first sequel, the universe includes films such as “Peter Pan’s Neverland Nightmare”, “Bambi: The Reckoning,” and “Pinocchio Unstrung”. These movies are set to converge in the crossover event “Poohniverse: Monsters Assemble,” slated for a 2025 release.

Winnie the Pooh Poohniverse

The creation of these films was made possible when A.A. Milne’s 1926 children’s book “Winnie-the-Pooh” entered the public domain last year, allowing filmmakers to explore these cherished characters in unprecedented ways. Director Rhys Frake-Waterfield and producer Scott Jeffrey Chambers, of Jagged Edge Productions, have led the charge in this innovative endeavor.

The inclusion of Rabbit, heffalumps, and woozles in the upcoming sequel introduces a new layer to the franchise. In Milne’s original stories, heffalumps are imagined creatures resembling elephants, while woozles are known for their weasel-like characteristics and a penchant for stealing honey. Their roles in the narrative remain to be seen, but their addition promises to enrich the horror universe with deeper connections to the source material.

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How to Watch ‘Late Night with the Devil’ from Home: Dates and Platforms

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Late Night With The Devil

For fans eager to dive into one of this year’s most talked-about horror films from the comfort of their own home, “Late Night with the Devil” will be available for streaming exclusively on Shudder starting April 19, 2024. This announcement has been highly anticipated following the film’s successful theatrical release by IFC Films, which saw it earning rave reviews and a record-breaking opening weekend for the distributor.

“Late Night with the Devil” emerges as a standout horror film, captivating audiences and critics alike, with Stephen King himself offering high praise for the 1977-set film. Starring David Dastmalchian, the movie unfolds on Halloween night during a live late-night talk show broadcast that disastrously unleashes evil across the nation. This found footage-style film not only delivers scares but also authentically captures the aesthetic of the 1970s, drawing viewers into its nightmarish scenario.

David Dastmalchian in Late Night with the Devil

The film’s initial box office success, opening to $2.8 million in 1,034 theaters, underscores its wide appeal and marks the highest opening weekend for an IFC Films release. Critically acclaimed, “Late Night with the Devil” boasts a 96% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes from 135 reviews, with the consensus praising it for rejuvenating the possession horror genre and showcasing David Dastmalchian’s exceptional performance.

Rotten Tomatoes score as of 3/28/2024

Simon Rother of iHorror.com encapsulates the film’s allure, emphasizing its immersive quality that transports viewers back to the 1970s, making them feel as if they are part of the eerie “Night Owls” Halloween broadcast. Rother lauds the film for its meticulously crafted script and the emotional and shocking journey it takes viewers on, stating, “This whole experience will have viewers of the Cairnes brothers’ film glued to their screen… The script, from beginning to end, is neatly sewn together with an ending that’ll have jaws on the floor.” You can read the full review here.

Rother further encourages audiences to watch the film, highlighting its multifaceted appeal: “Whenever it is made available to you, you must attempt to view the Cairnes Brothers’ latest project as it will make you laugh, it will creep you out, it will amaze you, and it might even strike an emotional cord.”

Set to stream on Shudder on April 19, 2024, “Late Night with the Devil” offers a compelling blend of horror, history, and heart. This film is not just a must-watch for horror aficionados but for anyone looking to be thoroughly entertained and moved by a cinematic experience that redefines the boundaries of its genre.

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