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Roxy Shih’s ‘Painkillers’ Confronts the Horrors of Loss, PTSD, and Addiction

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Painkillers

Written by Giles Daoust (Starry Eyes) and directed by Roxy Shih (The Tribe), Painkillers is one of those films that, in lesser hands, could have fallen apart easily becoming a caricature of itself.

In the film, Doctor John Clarke (Adam Huss) and his young son, Brian (Tate Birchmore), have to cut soccer practice short when he receives a call from the hospital that his surgical skills are needed. Brian is upset at having to leave early so John does what he can to take the boy’s mind off of it, playing games in the car to pass the time.

Unfortunately, John’s divided attention leads to a terrible accident. Two days later, he regains consciousness in the hospital and his wife Chloe (Madeline Zima), tells him that their son has died.

Painkillers dealing with loss
Madeline Zima and Adam Huss mourn their son in Painkillers

Upon hearing the news, John’s entire body seizes with unbearable pain that no drug seems able to touch. For days, he trembles, screams, and begs for relief that will not come. When his friend and fellow doctor Gail (Debra Wilson) tells him she believes that the problem is emotional rather than physical, she makes the decision to send him home in the hopes that familiar surroundings will help him heal.

John’s body, still wracked with horrible tremors, betrays him at every turn until one night he accidentally cuts open his hand. Without thought, he lifts his hand and licks away the blood only to discover that his pain lessens, the tremors subside, and for the first time in days he finds some peace.

Faced with a terrifying possibility, John begins to experiment, finding that blood truly is the only thing that takes away his pain, and begins a journey that will affect everyone around him.

On the surface, this could be just a new spin on vampirism. John is a man cursed with an “unnatural” hunger and becomes a pariah.

Shih and Daoust, however, have crafted a multi-layered story that is as intelligent as it is scary.

Painkillers addiction
John (Adam Huss) gives in to his desires by punishing himself in Painkillers.

John, through his need for blood, becomes a living embodiment of the effects of PTSD and addiction which could have gone horribly awry without Huss’s sensitive portrayal under Shih’s direction.

He does not revel in the relief that he feels after consuming blood. Instead, he fights the instinct, pushes back against the need, and more than once gives in despite his best efforts.

Huss handles this inner turmoil with enviable ease and brutal honesty, but his performance is just one of many stellar turns in Painkillers.

Madeline Zima, who many remember as a child actress in the Fran Drescher driven sitcom “The Nanny,” proves those days are behind her giving a powerfully emotional performance as John’s wife whose grief at the loss of her son remains an open wound she cannot tend to because of everything happening to her husband.

It’s a pointed portrait of the fact that PTSD and other mental health issues can easily reach into every corner of a person’s life and that family and friends experience the trauma as well.

Likewise, Debra Wilson’s performance is spot on as a doctor witnessing what is happening to John and trying to piece everything together even when her logical medical mind cannot quite accept what she’s seeing

Painkillers doctor
Dr. Gail Konrad (Debra Wilson) counsels her friend and patient (Adam Huss) in Painkillers.

And then, there’s Dustin Morgan’s work on the film. The talented composer provides an evocative score that perfectly tonally complements what we see onscreen, amplifying emotions in the way that only great music can.

If you’re looking for excellent storytelling, genuine tension, and a new spin on an old trope, this is the film for you.

Painkillers hits Video on Demand this week, February 4, 2019. Check out the trailer below!

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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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