News
‘Unsolved Mysteries’ Reboot will Debut July 1st on Netflix
Netflix has set an official premiere date for its reboot of the creepy classic seriesĀ Unsolved Mysteries with a brand new format. The series will premiere the first six of its twelve episodes on July 1, 2020.
It all began back in 1987 when after three initial specials hosted by Raymond Burr and Karl Malden, Robert Stack stepped into the series which enthralled audiences week after week. The show presented mysterious unsolved cases and urged viewers to call in at a special 1-800 number at the end of each episode if they had any information that might lead to resolution.
Stack became synonymous with the show, and without a doubt his narration of events involving everything from UFOs and the paranormal to missing persons and unsolved murders kept viewers coming back for more.
“The cross-generational fan base for UNSOLVED MYSTERIES is amazing,” executive producers Terry Dunn Meurer and John Cosgrove said in a statement. “Weāll hear from viewers ā now in their 20s and 30s ā who say, ‘I used to sneak episodes behind my parentsā backs when I was young.’ Everyone seems to have a favorite segment that totally freaked them out. Weāve learned that audiences like to be scared, and real stories scare people.”
The new series is produced by the original company CMP alongside Shawn Levy for 21 Laps Entertainment, the producers behind Netflix’s Stranger Things.
Back in the day,Ā Unsolved Mysteries would present multiple stories in a single episode. The new iteration will, instead, focus on a single story giving it as much time as necessary to fully recount the events surrounding the case. They have also decided to proceed without a host which honestly makes sense as it would be difficult to find anyone to match Stack’s delivery.
And, of course, in the year 2020, viewers will be instructed to a website to turn in any information they might have rather than calling a 1-800 tip-line number.
Check out the descriptions of the first six episodes below, and let us know if you’ll be watchingĀ Unsolved Mysteries in July in the comments!
āMystery on the Rooftop,ā directed by Marcus A. Clarke:
The body of newlywed Rey Rivera was found in an abandoned conference room at Baltimoreās historic Belvedere Hotel in May 2006, eight days after he mysteriously disappeared. While the Baltimore Police maintained that the 32-year-old committed suicide by jumping from the hotelās roof, the medical examiner declared Reyās death āunexplained.ā Many, including his devastated wife, Allison, suspect foul play.
ā13 Minutes,ā directed by Jimmy Goldblum:
Patrice Endres, 38, mysteriously vanished from her Cumming, Georgia, hair salon in broad daylight, during a 13-minute timeframe, leaving behind her teenage son, Pistol. Patriceās disappearance intensified the existing tensions between Pistol and his stepfather as they dealt with the loss and searched for answers.
āHouse of Terror,ā directed by Clay Jeter:
In April 2011, French police discovered the wife and four children of Count Xavier Dupont de LigonnĆØs buried under the back porch of their home in Nantes. Xavier, the family patriarch, was not among the dead and nowhere to be found. Investigators gradually pieced together clues and a timeline that pointed to Xavier as a devious, pre-meditate killer. For instance, they now know that shortly before the crimes occurred, Xavier inherited a gun that was the same model as the murder weapon.
āNo Ride Home,ā directed by Marcus A. Clarke:
Alonzo Brooks, 23, never returned home from a party he attended with friends in the predominantly white town of La Cygne, Kansas. A month later, a search party led by his family locates Alonzoās body ā in an area that law enforcement had already canvassed multiple times.
āBerkshireās UFO,ā directed by Marcus A. Clarke:
On September 1, 1969, many residents in Berkshire County, Massachusetts were traumatized by a sighting of a UFO. Eyewitnesses ā many just children at the time ā have spent their lives trying to convince the world that what they saw was real.
āMissing Witness,ā directed by Clay Jeter:
At age 17, a guilt-ridden Lena Chapin confessed to helping her mother dispose of her murdered stepfatherās body four years prior. In 2012, Lena was issued a subpoena to testify against her mother in court, but the authorities were never able to deliver the summons ā because Lena had disappeared, leaving behind a young son.
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Lists
Thrills and Chills: Ranking ‘Radio Silence’ Films from Bloody Brilliant to Just Bloody
Matt Bettinelli-Olpin, Tyler Gillett, and Chad Villella are all filmmakers under the collective label called Radio Silence. Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett are the primary directors under that moniker while Villella produces.
They have gained popularity over the past 13 years and their films have become known as having a certain Radio Silence “signature.” They are bloody, usually contain monsters, and have breakneck action sequences. Their recent film Abigail exemplifies that signature and is perhaps their best film yet. They are currently working on a reboot of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York.
We thought we would go through the list of projects they have directed and rank them from high to low. None of the movies and shorts on this list are bad, they all have their merits. These rankings from top to bottom are just ones we felt showcased their talents the best.
We didn’t include movies they produced but didn’t direct.
#1. Abigail
An update to the second film on this list, Abagail is the natural progression of Radio Silence’s love of lockdown horror. It follows in pretty much the same footsteps of Ready or Not, but manages to go one better — make it about vampires.
#2. Ready or Not
This film put Radio Silence on the map. While not as successful at the box office as some of their other films, Ready or Not proved that the team could step outside their limited anthology space and create a fun, thrilling, and bloody adventure-length film.
#3. Scream (2022)
While Scream will always be a polarizing franchise, this prequel, sequel, reboot — however you want to label it showed just how much Radio Silence knew the source material. It wasn’t lazy or cash-grabby, just a good time with legendary characters we love and new ones who grew on us.
#4 Southbound (The Way Out)
Radio Silence tosses their found footage modus operandi for this anthology film. Responsible for the bookend stories, they create a terrifying world in their segment titled The Way Out, which involves strange floating beings and some sort of time loop. It’s kind of the first time we see their work without a shaky cam. If we were to rank this entire film, it would remain at this position on the list.
#5. V/H/S (10/31/98)
The film that started it all for Radio Silence. Or should we say the segment that started it all. Even though this isn’t feature-length what they managed to do with the time they had was very good. Their chapter was titled 10/31/98, a found-footage short involving a group of friends who crash what they think is a staged exorcism only to learn not to assume things on Halloween night.
#6. Scream VI
Cranking up the action, moving to the big city and letting Ghostface use a shotgun, Scream VI turned the franchise on its head. Like their first one, this film played with canon and managed to win over a lot of fans in its direction, but alienated others for coloring too far outside the lines of Wes Craven’s beloved series. If any sequel was showing how the trope was going stale it was Scream VI, but it managed to squeeze some fresh blood out of this nearly three-decade mainstay.
#7. Devil’s Due
Fairly underrated, this, Radio Silence’s first feature-length film, is a sampler of things they took from V/H/S. It was filmed in an omnipresent found footage style, showcasing a form of possession, and features clueless men. Since this was their first bonafide major studio job it’s a wonderful touchstone to see how far they have come with their storytelling.
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News
Perhaps the Scariest, Most Disturbing Series of The Year
You may have never heard of Richard Gadd, but that will probably change after this month. His mini-series Baby Reindeer just hit Netflix and it’s a terrifying deep dive into abuse, addiction, and mental illness. What is even scarier is that it’s based on Gadd’s real-life hardships.
The crux of the story is about a man named Donny Dunn played by Gadd who wants to be a stand-up comedian, but it’s not working out so well thanks to stage fright stemming from his insecurity.
One day at his day job he meets a woman named Martha, played to unhinged perfection by Jessica Gunning, who is instantly charmed by Donny’s kindness and good looks. It doesn’t take long before she nicknames him “Baby Reindeer” and begins to relentlessly stalk him. But that is just the apex of Donny’s problems, he has his own incredibly disturbing issues.
This mini-series should come with a lot of triggers, so just be warned it is not for the faint of heart. The horrors here don’t come from blood and gore, but from physical and mental abuse that go beyond any physiological thriller you may have ever seen.
āItās very emotionally true, obviously: I was severely stalked and severely abused,ā Gadd said to People, explaining why he changed some aspects of the story. āBut we wanted it to exist in the sphere of art, as well as protect the people itās based on.ā
The series has gained momentum thanks to positive word-of-mouth, and Gadd is getting used to the notoriety.
āItās clearly struck a chord,ā he toldĀ The Guardian. āI really did believe in it, but itās taken off so quickly that I do feel a bit windswept.ā
You can stream Baby Reindeer on Netflix right now.
If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go toĀ rainn.org.
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Movies
The Original ‘Beetlejuice’ Sequel Had an Interesting Location
Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s sequels to hit movies weren’t as linear as they are today. It was more like “let’s re-do the situation but in a different location.” Remember Speed 2, or National Lampoon’s European Vacation? Even Aliens, as good as it is, follows a lot of the plot points of the original; people stuck on a ship, an android, a little girl in peril instead of a cat. So it makes sense that one of the most popular supernatural comedies of all time, Beetlejuice would follow the same pattern.
In 1991 Tim Burton was interested in doing a sequel to his 1988 original, it was called Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian:
“The Deetz family moves to Hawaii to develop a resort. Construction begins, and itās quickly discovered that the hotel will be sitting on top of an ancient burial ground. Beetlejuice comes in to save the day.”
Burton liked the script but wanted some re-writes so he asked then-hot screenwriter Daniel Waters who had just got done contributing to Heathers. He passed on the opportunity so producer David Geffen offered it to Troop Beverly Hills scribe Pamela Norris to no avail.
Eventually, Warner Bros. asked Kevin Smith to punch up Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian, he scoffed at the idea, saying, “Didn’t we say all we needed to say in the firstĀ Beetlejuice? Must we go tropical?”
Nine years later the sequel was killed. The studio said Winona Ryder was now too old for the part and an entire re-cast needed to happen. But Burton never gave up, there were a lot of directions he wanted to take his characters, including a Disney crossover.
“We talked about lots of different things,” the director said in Entertainment Weekly. “That was early on when we were going,Ā Beetlejuice and the Haunted Mansion,Ā Beetlejuice Goes West, whatever. Lots of things came up.”
Fast-forward to 2011 when another script was pitched for a sequel. This time the writer of Burton’s Dark Shadows, Ā Seth Grahame-Smith was hired and he wanted to make sure the story wasn’t a cash-grabbing remake or reboot. Four years later, in 2015, a script was approved with both Ryder and Keaton saying they would return to their respective roles. In 2017 that script was revamped and then eventually shelved in 2019.
During the time the sequel script was being tossed around in Hollywood, in 2016 an artist named Alex Murillo posted what looked like one-sheets for a Beetlejuice sequel. Although they were fabricated and had no affiliation with Warner Bros. people thought they were real.
Perhaps the virality of the artwork sparked interest in a Beetlejuice sequel once again, and finally, it was confirmed in 2022 Beetlejuice 2 had a green light from a script written by Wednesday writers Ā Alfred GoughĀ andĀ Miles Millar. The star of that series Jenna Ortega signed on to the new movie with filming starting in 2023. It was also confirmed that Danny Elfman would return to do the score.
Burton and Keaton agreed that the new film titled Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice wouldn’t rely on CGI or other other forms of technology. They wanted the film to feel “handmade.” The film wrapped in November 2023.
It’s been over three decades to come up with a sequel to Beetlejuice. Hopefully, since they said aloha to Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian there has been enough time and creativity to ensure Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will not only honor the characters, but fans of the original.
Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice will open theatrically on September 6.
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