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Remembering ‘House’ On Veterans Day

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As we honor those who have served in the military this weekend, let’s take a moment to remember the ghoul in the steel helmet who had an ax to grind in the 1986 movie House: Big Ben.

SPOILERS AHEAD.

It was 32 years ago that during a bit of a horror drought at the box office we got excited that the original Friday the 13th director Sean S. Cunningham had written a film; a haunted house chiller starring one of the hottest television actors of the time, William Katt.

It was also exciting that Steve Miner, the director of Friday the 13th Pt. 2, was going to helm the film and music composer Henry Manfredini was doing the music.

It was a Friday the 13th reunion!

House pulled a lot of elements from popular horror movies of the time, from Poltergeist to Amityville Horror to pinches of Stephen King (Katt plays horror novelist Roger Cobb), the film was also a comedy much more so than Fright Night which came out a year before.

Katt wasn’t the only television star to appear in the film. George Wendt who played the lovable loser Norm from Cheers is in it. Then there was Richard Moll from Night Court who probably has the most important role as Big Ben, the Vietnam vet who haunts Cobb in his dreams.

The reason House is such a great movie to watch on Veterans Day is mainly because of its military plotline. You see, Cobb isn’t going to write another horror novel much to the dismay of his fans, he’s going to write about his experiences in Vietnam, something that he has yet to resolve.

His aunt dies by hanging herself and leaves him a gorgeous Victorian house. Soon after he moves in he begins to see visions of his missing son who disappeared into thin air a few months before.

He also has PTSD nightmares of Big Ben who’s an integral part of Cobb’s military mémoirs because he felt he had abandoned him in the line of duty.

Ben was mortally wounded and asks Cobb to finish him off but he can’t and subsequently, Ben is captured and tortured.

House isn’t the greatest film; much like its main character, it’s caught between two worlds. It doesn’t know whether to be a flat-out comedy or a serious supernatural tale of a house possessed.

But what makes it fun is the special effects. Thirty years ago CGI was in its infant stages so practical effects were the gold standard and House shined in that area.

Creature effects were created by Brent Baker. The flying skull demon is classic Lovecraft.

It even has an homage to Raimi’s Evil Dead in one scene with a cover of “You’re No Good” which comes out of left field.

Of course, there’s that unforgettable medicine cabinet scene; the gag has been mimicked so many times in later films.

But the centerpiece is Moll’s Big Ben who is the scariest with his full body prosthetic and unsettling visage. This pissed off vet isn’t going down without a fight.

In the years since House opened in theaters, the world has had many more wars to fight both domestically and abroad all with devastating results.

The only criticism of House is its lighthearted nature when dealing with PTSD. But given that there are so many iHorror readers who are also servicemembers both past and present, it’s nice to have a little levity in the genre they love so much.

We honor those who have served in the military and have fought for freedoms. iHorror thanks them for their service.

Even Big Ben.

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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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