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Shane Black Explains Why 1980s Nostalgia Inspired ‘The Predator’

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Shane Black was only twenty-five when he arrived in Mexico in the summer of 1986 to act in the first Predator film. Black was given the dubious honor of playing Rick Hawkins, a Special Forces soldier who ends up becoming the first victim in the Predator film series.

More than thirty years later, Black looks back fondly on the making of Predator, a film that Black considers to be one of the greatest genre films ever made. “I think Predator is the ultimate genre film,” says Black. “It was a zeitgeist film. It combined the alien film craze, which was born out of James Cameron’s Aliens, and the Rambo war movie craze. It had mystery and tension, and it was pure pulp entertainment.”

It seems like yesterday when Black took Hollywood by storm with his screenplays for the action films The Last Boy Scout and Lethal Weapon. Now fifty-six years old, Black is at a loss to explain where the time has gone. “I feel old,” says Black. “I didn’t see the time pass. What the hell happened? I remember being a student in UCLA, and then there was Lethal Weapon, and The Monster Squad, and Predator. I really miss those days.”

This wave of nostalgia is precisely what inspired Black to want to return to the Predator film series, as a filmmaker, after more than thirty years. “I wanted to go back in time with this film,” Black, explaining the origins of The Predator screenplay, which Black co-wrote with longtime friend Fred Dekker. “With The Predator, I approached the film as if it was being made back in the 1980s. I wanted to make a 1980s war film and then add in the FX shots later.”

After five Predator films (including the spin-offs Alien vs. Predator and Alien vs. Predator: Requiem), does the Predator film series still have the ability to generate mystery and suspense? Black believes that there are still many interesting questions to answer within the series. “The second film happened, and the other films happened, and now, in 2020, Earth has taken notice that all of these things have happened,” says Black of the film’s premise. “The intelligence community has created a division that’s devoted to responding to predator incursions.”

With The Predator, Black also wanted to further explore the origins of the predator species and the question of why the predators have been visiting Earth. “The predators have been visiting Earth for a long time, possibly since ancient times, and I wanted to explain why,” says Black. “The predators are obviously hunters, warriors, but they also have amazing technology, so the predator planet must be populated by scientists and warriors. We don’t have the ability to build interstellar spaceships, so the predator planet must contain some kind of think tank. From Earth’s perspective, there are technological opportunities.”

Black says that the predators in the film are also motivated by revenge. “There’s a rogue faction within the predator race, and some of them are angry because of what happened in the previous films,” says Black. “They’re angry because, time and time again, the predator warriors have been bested by humanity’s best champions, starting with Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character in Predator. They want to punch back.”

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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