#blumhouse
Sinister linings playbook
In the brilliant Whiplash, a young drumming prodigy works so hard to perfect his craft that he ends up bleeding onto his drum set. Yet, that pales in comparison to the sacrifices made by a budding pianist in Nocturne, who literally makes a deal with the devil in return for fame and adoration. There’s no prizes for guessing how that goes, but this brisk and entertaining thriller will keep you grimly fascinated till the end.
The latest offering from Amazon Studios and Blumhouse, this follows Juliet (Euphoria’s Sydney Sweeney), a withdrawn high-schooler who aspires to be a successful pianist, but seems destined to live in the shadow (resentfully turning the piano sheets) of her more gifted twin sister Vivian (Madison Iseman). When the top-rated pianist at her school mysteriously commits suicide, Juliet is presented with a chance at the spotlight when she stumbles upon the former student’s notebook. One ill-advised incantation later, and things creepily start turning in her favour…
From first-time writer-director Zu Quirke, this is not a film aiming to reinvent the genre wheel as such. As is slightly common in movies about demonic bargains, it’s initially difficult to believe that Juliet can ignore so many warning signs – when has reading from a book covered in demonic symbols ever ended well? From here, as Juliet’s fortune improves – but at what cost? – it follows a fairly predictable course, with a demonic prophesy that feels slightly spoon-fed to the audience.
There may not be much new here, but Quirke makes the most of the tools at his disposal, with a level of restraint and control that feels uncommon in the genre. Displaying a clear conviction in his subject matter, Quirke makes clever use of lighting and an off-kilter score to place you in the deteriorating mind space of Juliet, helping you understand her dark decisions. It’s also sold by a driven performance from Sweeney, who shows enough desperation and overlooked fury (at times reminiscent of that scene in Carrie) to convince you that selling her soul might have been an attractive option. Spoiler – it isn’t.
With assured work from Quirke and Sweeney, this is a lean and effective thriller with a hell of a curtain call.
★★★
Horror Musings- Ma and #ownvoices
I saw the movie Ma recently and (spoilers in link) and I have some thots. Buckle up. SPOILERS bro.
On the surface of it, Ma is a pretty okay movie. Good amount of suspense, interesting main antagonist but, by the time they started to “reveal” Ma’s backstory it was really too late. This was obviously not written by a Black person. I checked and sure enough, nope.
From the start, this had potential…
Dove Cameron as “Jasmine” in the Vengeance trailer
Film out in theaters July 29th!
Firestarter will be released on Digital on June 12 and on Blu-rayandDVD on June 28 via Universal. Produced by Blumhouse, the 2022 horror film is based on Stephen King’s 1980 novel, which was previously adapted into a film in 1984.
Keith Thomas (The Vigil) directs from a script by Scott Teems (Halloween Kills). Zac Efron, Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Sydney Lemmon, Kurtwood Smith, John Beasley, Michael Greyeyes, and Gloria Reuben star. John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter, & Daniel Davies (Halloween) composed the score.
Special features, including an alternate ending, are listed below.
Special features:
- Audio commentary by director Keith Thomas
- A Kinetic Energy - Featurette with director Keith Thomas and actors Zac Efron and Ryan Kiera Armstrong
- Spark a Fire - Featurette on how the story was adapted from the novel
- Igniting Firestarter - Featurette on fire effects
- Power Struggle - Featurette on stunts and practical effects
- Alternate ending
- 7 deleted and extended scenes
- Gag reel
For more than a decade, parents Andy (Zac Efron) and Vicky (Sydney Lemmon) have been on the run, desperate to hide their daughter Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) from a shadowy federal agency that wants to harness her unprecedented gift for creating fire into a weapon of mass destruction.
Andy has taught Charlie how to defuse her power, which is triggered by anger or pain. But as Charlie turns 11, the fire becomes harder and harder to control. After an incident reveals the family’s location, a mysterious operative (Michael Greyeyes) is deployed to hunt down the family and seize Charlie once and for all. Charlie has other plans.
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The Black Phone will remind viewers to never talk to strangers when it hits theaters on June 24 via Universal. I’m giving readers in the Boston area the opportunity to see the horror film early - and for free!
Broke Horror Fan is sponsoring an advance screening of Antlers at AMC Boston Common in Boston, MA on Tuesday, June 21, at 7pm. Click here and follow the instructions to download complimentary passes while supplies last. Seating is first-come, first-served and not guaranteed, so be sure to arrive early!
Based on the 2004 short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone is directed by Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange) from a script he co-wrote with C. Robert Cargill. Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, Madeleine McGraw, Jeremy Davies, and James Ransone star. Blumhouse produces.
Finney Shaw, a shy but clever 13-year-old boy, is abducted by a sadistic killer and trapped in a soundproof basement where screaming is of little use. When a disconnected phone on the wall begins to ring, Finney discovers that he can hear the voices of the killer’s previous victims. And they are dead set on making sure that what happened to them doesn’t happen to Finney.
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girly
Day Two of CinemaCon. From some attendees’ accounts it started out soft with Neon (who, along with A24, are holding down the indie ground that Annapurna Pictures had to vacate due to financial issues). Neon’s offerings?
- The full length trailer for David Cronenberg’s CRIMES OF THE FUTURE starring Viggo Mortensen (who has starred in four Cronenberg films. Mortensen returned the favour and cast Cronenberg in his directorial debut FALLING), Léa Seydoux and Kristen Stewart. The trailer will be released to the public next week ahead of its Cannes debut.
-Brett Morgen’s MOONAGE DAYDREAM which is a feature length tribute to David Bowie featuring concert footage and interviews.
-DocumentaryFIRE OF LOVE about married volcano scientists.
WB brought out their big guns -
No not the superhero films -Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s arms!
Johnson took center stage to promote his two projects: BLACK ADAM (whose trailer was shown) and DC LEAGUE OF SUPERPETS.
Other news:
-BATMAN returns….for THE BATMAN 2 with director Matt Reeves, RPattz and the other Gothamnites in tow.
THE NUN also gets the sequel treamen
As expected were teasers for THE FLASH, AQUAMAN AND THE LAST KINGDOM, SHAZAM! : THE FURY OF THE G-DS.
Logo for BLUE BEETLE starring COBRA KAI’s Xolo Maridueña.
BLUE BEETLE was to get the HBO Max treatment but WB decided for a theatrical release. Rumors is that they are pondering doing the same for their live-action BATGIRL.
Non-hero content was WONKA,
theSALEM’s LOT remake (produced by James Wan, going back to his horror roots) and Olivia Wilde’s DON’T WORRY DARLING.
A good portion of WB’s presentation was carved out for Baz Luhrmann’s ELVIS starring Austin Butler (who will be in DUNE 2) and Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker.
Luhrmann who is behind electric and eclectic projects like STRICTLY BALLROOM, ROMEO +JULIET, MOULIN ROUGE and Netflix’s THE GET DOWN will hopefully bring the same pizzazz to ELVIS. If Doja Cat’s offering for the soundtrack (snippet) is any indication the film won’t be a paint-by-numbers biopic.
Also news of the release date of the live-action BARBIE film starring Margot Robbie,
Ryan Gosling, Will Ferrell, Simu Liu and Alexandria Shipp and others. BARBIE -written by Greta Gerwig and her partner Noah Baumbach and directed by Gerwig - drives her pink corvette to the theaters on July 21, 2023. BARBIE is conterprogrammed against Universal’s OPPENHEIMER which will be released the same day. OPPENHEIMER is Christopher Nolan’s first film with Universal after he defected from Warner Bros. after their direct to streaming debacle in 2021.
Universal/Blumhouse ended the evening with a screening of the film THE BLACK PHONE starring Ethan Hawke.
This is not Hawke’s first Blumhouse film -he starred in SINISTER and the first (and very different from the subsequent entries but no less great) THE PURGE.
Also out of Universal is news that Justin Lin has dropped out of directing the tenth FAST AND FURIOUS film FAST X. This was to be his sixth FAST film.
https://twitter.com/Popgoes6/status/1503908393681047553?t=1WmhfoK5LACqYNyySmtq8w&s=19
FNAF Movie update. Possible 2023 release. Take with a grain of salt.
SUBLIME CINEMA #607 - NOCTURNE
Sublime thriller by Zu Quirke, a director I know very little about except that I really like her name. It’s a kind of dark Whiplash / Black Swan hybrid, which is fitting since Blumhouse produced the film. It’s an elegant affair, with some careful and controlled performances and cinematography by Carmen Cabana.
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Jessica Rothe / HAPPY DEATH DAY(Christopher Landon, 2017)
