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BEYONDFEST 2016 REVIEW: THE VOID

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It seems like just another quiet night on patrol for Police Officer Carter. Until a man covered in blood lurches out of the woods and collapses in front of his cruiser. Carter transports the wounded man to a local hospital on the eve of being shut down, manned by a skeleton crew of staff and patients. Only to find himself and the rest trapped as they become surrounded by a mob of strange robed cultists! But the true terror might be hiding in plain sight… in THE VOID.

THE VOID is a fantastic phantasmagorical movie with FX as astounding as the horror it creates. But before going into the actual raw, bloody meat of the film, let’s take a look back into the history of the production. The brainchild of veteran Astron-6 (Father’s DayManborg) collective members Steven Kostanski and Jeremy Gillespie. Veteran filmmakers, designers, and FX artists wanted to bring back some of the good old fashioned practical creature FX horror that they, and so many like us, grew up with. Making a proof of concept trailer, they set about running a successful Indiegogo campaign, raising well over their base goal. And with good reason!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAcknEyohpE

 

If that was just the proof of concept, I was on pins and needles waiting to see the final product and simply had to contribute. Citing influences like The Blob ’88Hellbound: Hellraiser 2The Keep, and From Beyond, among others including the more modern Beyond The Black Rainbow. They were invoking that golden age when monsters and visual FX were a thing of beauty as much as fear inducing. While the inspirations are easy to see in some places, THE VOID is completely its own beast. Never outright shouting out to influences, but featuring the right aesthetics. The mood lighting. The grit and gore. All blend together to create a tangible horror along with the spiritual terror. While not exactly striking new ground in terms of plot, the fear itself is unique enough to keep audiences compelled.

grahamhumphreys

While I’ll be keeping this review spoiler free, I will say they delivered what they promised. A cornucopia of creature carnage and a veritable ocean of blood and gore to back it up are let loose. All with a classical Lovecraft-bent along with the above cited 80’s era of bloody horror monster movies. Unlike previous works with Astron-6, this story is all but bone dry in terms of humor. There’s also a focus oncharacter development amongst the endangered cast, especially in a few unexpected sources. Carter himself has several skeletons in his closet that come out to get at him throughout. There’s a claustrophobic sense of fear in the derelict hospital as it is surrounded by deranged cultists that evolves into one of nihilistic and existential dread as the true depravity pushing the monsters made flesh escalates on Carter and his allies. The poster’s memorable tagline “There is a Hell. This is worse.” sets up the bizarre terrors to come as nightmarish abominations come into play.

 

I had the good fortune of seeing THE VOID  at BeyondFest (Along with other great movies) and while it is currently on the festival circuit, I cannot wait to hear when it will be fully unleashed on the unsuspecting populace. There have been a number of movies that have promised to “bring back” practical FX and creature FX, and THE VOID truly is a sinister slice of horror that can.

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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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Trailer for ‘The Exorcism’ Has Russell Crowe Possessed

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The latest exorcism movie is about to drop this summer. It’s aptly titled The Exorcism and it stars Academy Award winner turned B-movie savant Russell Crowe. The trailer dropped today and by the looks of it, we are getting a possession movie that takes place on a movie set.

Just like this year’s recent demon-in-media-space film Late Night With the Devil, The Exorcism happens during a production. Although the former takes place on a live network talk show, the latter is on an active sound stage. Hopefully, it won’t be entirely serious and we’ll get some meta chuckles out of it.

The film will open in theaters on June 7, but since Shudder also acquired it, it probably won’t be long after that until it finds a home on the streaming service.

Crowe plays, “Anthony Miller, a troubled actor who begins to unravel while shooting a supernatural horror film. His estranged daughter, Lee (Ryan Simpkins), wonders if he’s slipping back into his past addictions or if there’s something more sinister at play. The film also stars Sam Worthington, Chloe Bailey, Adam Goldberg and David Hyde Pierce.”

Crowe did see some success in last year’s The Pope’s Exorcist mostly because his character was so over-the-top and infused with such comical hubris it bordered on parody. We will see if that is the route actor-turned-director Joshua John Miller takes with The Exorcism.

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