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Screamfest Review: Soska Sister’s ‘Rabid’ An Entertaining Ode To Cronenberg

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The Soska Sisters, Jena and Sylvia have made a name for themselves in the modern world of horror with such gory features as American Mary, See No Evil 2, and Dead Hooker In A Trunk. With a proclivity for body horror and deeper subtext (as well as being Canadian) they were the ideal directors to handle a remake of one of David Cronenberg’s earlier works, Rabid.

Image via IMDB

The film follows Rose (Laura Vandervoort) a shy woman attempting to work her way up in the fashion industry and become a successful clothing designer. Her only friend and support being her step-sister Chelsea (Hanneke Talbot) who encourages her to be more assertive. All while working under the obnoxious and arrogant fashion designer Gunter (Mackenzie Gray). After being grotesquely disfigured in a horrific accident Rose’s dreams appear to be shattered… until she receives an offer from the enigmatic Dr. William Burroughs (Ted Atherton) to receive a highly experimental stem cell procedure to regrow her flesh and mend her body. The operation appears at first to be a complete success, making Rose more gorgeous than ever before. But soon Rose finds herself overcome by a hunger for flesh that soon spreads like a pandemic…

The movie is in many ways an improvement on the original story. Giving the lead character of Rose more agency and a larger spotlight and arc throughout the film outside of being Patient Zero. It’s interesting to see Rose’s transition from humble fashion worker to tragically disfigured to a whole new person. The pandemic itself more in the background this time around, and keeping the focus more on the ground and with the immediate characters. As well, the Soska Sisters are clear fans of Cronenberg and don’t just update Rabid, but make the entire movie a widespread homage to the master of body horror. So keep an eye out for those easter eggs.

Image via IMDB

The greatest strength of the movie is its fast pacing. At an hour and fifty minute runtime, it could have easily felt overly long. But The Soskas direct the story into such a breakneck speed and with so many hard hitting scenes that I was hooked on every moment. From the scenes of fashion and iconography to the bites and dismemberment. Which is another positive for Rabid, an amazingly stomach churning level of practical FX. Said FX being so disturbingly real, The Soska Sisters were banned from twitter for promoting the movie with some screenshot gore. The film showcases the outstanding work their team did between bloody massacres and bone crunching body horror.

Unfortunately, Rabid is considerably constrained by a lower budget. As opposed to the original film that showed the pandemic level outbreak of the disease and the ensuing chaos, the scenes and number of characters are noticeably limited. The plus side to those constraints being a greater focus on Rose and grounding the story more. It does diminish the apocalyptic effect and some scenes trying to elevate the danger. And without spoiling, the ending did feel rather abrupt and anti-climactic.

Those flaws aside, Rabid is an impressive update on Cronenberg’s story of infectious madness and sure to attract an audience. With a memorable notch to their credits, I’ll be eagerly looking forward to what Jen and Sylvia Soska do next.

Image via IMDB

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Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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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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