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‘Uncle Sam’ The Ultimate July 4th Slasher

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Uncle Sam is a film I don’t expect many to have heard of. It was released in the late 90’s and made by the same crew that worked on Maniac Cop. Well zombie’s seem to be their gold standard villain, as the main antagonist of Uncle Sam is none other than an undead war veteran in an Uncle Sam costume. Because nothing says ‘Murica like an undead Uncle Sam killer.

The movie is just as ridiculous as you would imagine, with our killer springing to life for no reason in the very beginning, to kill a few soldiers before returning to the black. Good old Uncle Sam can’t let down his viewers though, as he reanimates again for absolutely no reason other than it being the 4th of July. That’s the only context given as to why the killer is jumping in and out of life the way he has.

Uncle Sam (1996)

It should be noted that Uncle Sam is at it’s core a slasher flick. So with that there are quite a few tropes to look out for, like how our killer absolutely needed to be in a costume rather than show off his zombie make-up. The killer has apparently spent the last 3 years underwater, that is an amazing opportunity for zombie make-up.

Over the course of the film Sam could be slowly melting and falling apart, but because Halloween set the mold for not just holiday themed slashers, but just about every one, our undead killer only gets to show off his zombie features sparingly, instead keeping hidden behind a mask. It just feels jarring having the movie spend so much time establishing that the killer is in fact a zombie, and instead of showing off some cool zombie effects, we get the done to death masked villain.

Uncle Sam (1996)

That of course doesn’t stop Uncle Sam from being an endlessly entertaining film. It was after all directed by William Lustig, who worked on Maniac Cop. It is an underrated slasher that brings the kills to the table, and while it doesn’t make much or any sense at all, still stands out in my mind as the only 4th of July themed horror movie with an undead masked Uncle Sam killer.

Maybe for a sequel we could see Sam riding a Thunderbird sized fire breathing bald eagle, while dawning an American flag as a long flowing cape. Thoughts or opinions on this particular movie, have you been able to track it down or actually enjoy it? Chat it out in the comments, and have a happy and safe 4th of July Everyone!

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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