Blood Drive!
by
Patrick Corcoran
“The Amityville Horror” (2005).
Budget: $18 million.
U.S. theatrical gross: $64 million.
“The Exorcism of Emily Rose” (2005).
Budget: $19 million.
U.S. theatrical gross: $75 million.
“Saw II” (2005).
Budget: $4 million.
U.S. theatrical gross: $86 million.
And therein lies Hollywood’s continuing fascination
with horror. The genre permits smart producers to reap
weighty fortunes – without having to build a big
movie star’s salary into the budget.
The horror epic is also monstrous in its
relentlessness. In January, audiences will be treated to “R-Point,” “Wolf
Creek” and “Underworld: Evolution.” With
February comes “Final Destination 3” and the
remake of “When a Stranger Calls.”
What lies beyond February? Snuggle up close,
hang on to your Milk Duds, and get ready to count the grosses,
both
literal and metaphorical, as we follow well into 2006 (and
beyond) the gruesome, bloody trail of Hollywood’s
horror thrillers.
In “The Hills Have Eyes,” a suburban family
trapped in a desolate desert is preyed upon by a clan of
disturbed individuals. It’s a remake of the 1977
Wes Craven film of the same name. The team of writer-director
Alexandre Aja and screenwriter Grégory Levasseur,
who were behind the French horror hit “High Tension,” make
their English-language debuts. Emilie de Raven (“Brick,” TV’s “Lost”),
Ted Levine (“Memoirs of a Geisha”), Vinessa
Shaw (“Melinda and Melinda”), Michael Bailey
Smith (“Men in Black II”), Dan Byrd (“A
Cinderella Story”), Desmond Askew (“Go”)
and Kathleen Quinlan (“Battle of Shaker Heights”)
star. Fox sees a March 10 release.
“Slither” is a horror thriller about an alien
plague that transforms the residents of a small town into
murderous zombies and mutants. Screenwriter James Gunn
(“Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed,” “Dawn
of the Dead”) makes his feature directorial debut
from his own script. Nathan Fillion (“Serenity”),
Elizabeth Banks (“Daltry Calhoun”), Jenna Fischer
(“The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” TV’s “The
Office”), Michael Rooker (“The 6th Day”),
Tania Saulnier and Gregg Henry (“Ballistic: Ecks
vs. Sever”) co-star. Universal lets it snake onto
screens March 31.
Horror has a new name or, rather, a
comic horror franchise has a new theme. “Scary Movie 4” reportedly
finds the fear in a spoof of superhero movies. Returnees
from all three prior installments include Anna Faris (“Brokeback
Mountain”) as Cindy Campbell and Regina Hall (“The
Honeymooners”) as Brenda Meeks. Returnees from part
three include director David Zucker (“BASEketball,” “My
Boss’s Daughter”), screenwriters Craig Mazin
(“Rocket Man,” “Senseless”) and
Pat Proft (“Wrongfully Accused”), and actors
Simon Rex (TV’s “What I Like About You”)
and Leslie Nielsen (“Wrongfully Accused”).
Original “Scary Movie” star Carmen Electra
(“Cheaper by the Dozen 2,” “Date Movie”),
returns also. Newcomers to the franchise include Andre
Benjamin (“Four Brothers”), Craig Bierko (“Cinderella
Man”), Link Baker (“My Boss’s Daughter”)
and Joanna Krupa (“Planet of the Apes”). The
Dimension genre label of the Weinstein Co. plans an April
14 bow.
“Silent Hill” is a thriller about a mother,
searching for her missing daughter, who begins to investigate
the secrets of an abandoned town. It’s based on the
best-selling video game series of the same name. Christophe
Gans (“Brotherhood of the Wolf”) directs from
a screenplay by Roger Avary (“Killing Zoe”).
Radha Mitchell (“Finding Neverland”), Sean
Bean (“Flightplan”), Laurie Holden (“Fantastic
Four”), Deborah Kara Unger (“White Noise”),
Alice Krige (“Reign of Fire”), Kim Coates (“The
Island”) and Jodelle Ferland (“They”)
star. Sony raises a ruckus April 21.
“Omen 666” is a remake of the 1976 horror classic “The
Omen,” about an American diplomat who realizes his
son is the Antichrist. John Moore (“Behind Enemy
Lines,” “Flight of the Phoenix”) directs
from a screenplay by Dan McDermott. Liev Schreiber (“The
Manchurian Candidate”), Julia Stiles (“The
Bourne Supremacy”), David Thewlis (“Kingdom
of Heaven”), Michael Gambon (“Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire”), Pete Postlethwaite (“Aeon
Flux”) and Mia Farrow (“Miami Rhapsody”)
star. Fox’s marketing team did the happy dance when
they realized they could release it 6/6/06.
“The Messengers” centers on
a troubled family that moves from the city to an isolated
North Dakota sunflower
farm, where the clan’s paterfamilias begins to exhibit
alarming behavior. Brothers Oxide & Danny Pang (“The
Eye”) direct from a screenplay by Mark Wheaton, Todd
Farmer (“Jason X”) and Stuart Beattie (“Collateral,” “Derailed”).
Dylan McDermott (“Wonderland”), Penelope Ann
Miller (“Along Came a Spider”), John Corbett
(“Raise Your Voice”) and Kristen Stewart (“Zathura”)
co-star. Sony delivers it Aug. 18.
“The Covenant” is the supernatural tale of
a summer camp attended by four teens destined to become
the world’s most powerful warlocks – and what
happens when they unwittingly unleash a force of great
evil. It’s based on a series of graphic novels written
by TV scribe Aron Colleite (“Crossing Jordan”).
Renny Harlin (“Mindhunters,” “Exorcist:
The Beginning”) directs from a screenplay by J.S.
Cardone (“True Blue”). Steven Strait (“Undiscovered”),
Chace Crawford, Sebastian Stan and Toby Hemingway co-star.
Sony pledges to release it Sept. 8.
Having scored a tidy $80 million at
the domestic box office with 2003’s remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” New
Line heads back in time for “Texas Chainsaw Massacre:
The Beginning,” a look at the origins of the infamous
Leatherface and his equally bloodthirsty family, who again
find victims in a group of unsuspecting teen travelers.
Jonathan Liebesman (“Darkness Falls”) directs
from a screenplay by Sheldon Turner (“The Longest
Yard”). Andrew Bryniarski (“Rollerball”),
Heather Kafka (“Where The Heart Is”) and R.
Lee Ermey (“Man of the House”) reprise their
roles from the first installment. Newcomers to the franchise
include Jordana Brewster (“Annapolis”), Taylor
Handley (“Jack Frost”) and Lee Tergesen (“The
Forgotten”). It plans to lop off a piece of the box
office Oct. 6.
Lions Gate revisits the “Saw” franchise again
in time for Halloween with “Saw III” on Oct.
27. No cast, crew or plot details have been announced,
but we hear the budget may soar into the $6-7 million range.
A slavering monster that pulls warriors
apart limb from limb? A slimy underground cavern, at
the end of which waits
the slavering monster’s vengeful (and even more gruesome)
mother? Sounds like horror to us, even if “Beowulf” is
based on the epic middle-English poem about a Norse warrior
who faces off against an indomitable creature named Grendel.
Robert Zemeckis (“Cast Away,” “Polar
Express”), using the performance-capture animation
techniques first employed in “The Polar Express,” directs
from a screenplay by Roger Avary (“Rules of Attraction,” “Silent
Hill”). Angelina Jolie (“Mr. and Mrs. Smith”),
Anthony Hopkins (“Proof,” The World’s
Fastest Indian”), John Malkovich (“The Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy,” “The Libertine”),
Robin Wright Penn (“Nine Lives,” “Breaking
and Entering”), Brendan Gleeson (“Harry Potter
and the Goblet of Fire”), Ray Winstone (“The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe”)
and Crispin Glover (“Charlie’s Angels: Full
Throttle”) provide the voices and the motion to be
captured. Paramount deigns to release it Jan. 21, 2007.
It’s not to be confused with “Beowulf and
Grendel,” a live-action rendering directed by Sturla
Gunnarsson (“Such a Long Journey”) from a screenplay
by Andrew Rai Berzins. Gerard Butler (“Dear Frankie”),
Tony Curran (“Underworld: Evolution”), Sarah
Polley (“The Secret Life of Words”), Stellan
Skarsgård (“Exorcist: The Beginning”)
and Ronan Vibert (“Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle
of Life”) co-star. The British/Canadian/Icelandic
production has yet to secure a domestic distributor.
Some horror films do employ big stars.
In “The Visiting,” an
updating of the 1956 classic “Invasion of the Body
Snatchers,” Nicole Kidman (“The Others,” “Bewitched”)
plays a doctor whose desire to cure an epidemic – an
epidemic that causes strange changes in the humans it infects – takes
on new urgency when her son appears to be the key to stopping
an alien invasion. Oliver Hirschbiegel (“Downfall”)
directs from a screenplay by Dave Kajganich. Kidman’s
co-stars include new 007 Daniel Craig (“Layer Cake,” “Munich”),
Jeremy Northam (“Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull
Story”), Jeffrey Wright (“Syriana”) and
Veronica Cartwright (“Kinsey,” 1978’s “Invasion
of the Body Snatchers”). A release date of Aug. 11
is growing on Warner Bros.
“The Return” is the latest title for what
was once known as “Untitled Supernatural Thriller” and “Revolver.” Covered
in last month’s MIA edition of Next!, it stars Sarah
Michelle Gellar (“The Grudge”) as a young woman
who comes to believe she has been reincarnated – and
is being prepared by supernatural forces to avenge her
own murder. Rogue, a unit of Focus, has yet to settle on
a release date.
When it comes to frogs, locusts, boils,
cattle plague and rivers turned to blood, this one goes
to 11. “The
Reaping” is a horror thriller about a university
professor – famous for debunking myths – who
comes to a Louisiana town to investigate what could be
the 10 plagues described in the Book of Exodus. Stephen
Hopkins (“The Ghost and the Darkness,” “Lost
in Space”) directs from a screenplay by Chad & Carey
Hayes (“House of Wax”), Jacob Estes (“Mean
Creek”) and Chris Markus & Stephen McFeely (“The
Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”).
Hilary Swank (“Million Dollar Baby”), David
Morrissey (“Derailed”), Idris Elba (“The
Gospel”) and AnnaSophia Robb (“Charlie and
the Chocolate Factory”) star. Warner Bros. hasn’t
set a release date, but urges you to leave your first-born
male children at home.
As if young love isn’t fraught with enough terror, “Blood
and Chocolate” is a horror thriller about a teen
werewolf whose romance with a human puts her at odds with
the rest of her pack. It’s based on the young adult
novel by Annette Curtis Klause. Katja von Garnier (“Bandits”)
directs from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger (“The Brothers
Grimm,” “Skeleton Key”). Agnes Bruckner
(“Stateside”), Olivier Martinez (“Taking
Lives”), Hugh Dancy (“King Arthur”),
Katja Reimann (“Rosenstrasse”), Bryan Dick
(“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”),
Tom Harper (“The Upside of Anger”) and Kata
Dobo (“Rollerball”) star. Sony has yet to chaperone
it to a release date.
The third big-screen effort to emerge
from the Ben Affleck/Matt Damon “Project Greenlight” TV series, “Feast” is
a comic horror-thriller about a group of bar patrons locked
inside their local watering hole and forced to battle encroaching
monsters. John Gulager makes his feature directorial debut
from a script by Marcus Dunston & Patrick Melton. Navi
Rawat (“House of Sand and Fog”), Eric Dane
(TV’s “Gideon’s Crossing”), Krista
Allen (“Paycheck”), Balthazar Getty (“Ladder
49”), Judah Friedlander (“Starsky and Hutch”),
Jason Mewes (“Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back”),
Jenny Wade (“Ice Harvest”), Henry Rollins (“A
House on a Hill”), Josh Zuckerman (“Pretty
Persuasion”), Duane Whitaker (“The Devil’s
Rejects”) and the director’s father, Clu Gulager
(“My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys”), co-star.
Weinstein has yet to set a release date.
“Fido” is a horror-comedy, set in the 1950s,
about a youngster and his devotion to his best friend:
a 6-foot-tall flesh-eating pet zombie named Fido. Andrew
Currie directs from a screenplay by Currie and Robert Chorniak.
Billy Connolly (“Lemony Snicket’s A Series
of Unfortunate Events”), Carrie-Anne Moss (“The
Chumscrubber”), Henry Czerny (“The Exorcism
of Emily Rose”), Sonja Bennett (“Where the
Truth Lies”), Peter Stormare (“The Brothers
Grimm”), Dylan Baker (“Hide and Seek”)
and Tim Blake Nelson (“Syriana”) star. Lions
Gate has yet to fetch a release date.
“Skinwalkers” is a thriller about a 12-year-old
boy who unexpectedly finds himself caught at the center
of a struggle between two warring packs of werewolves.
James Isaac (“Jason X”) directs from a screenplay
by James DeMonaco (“The Negotiator,” “Assault
on Precinct 13”) and Todd Harthan & James Roday.
It stars Jason Behr (“The Grudge”), Rhona Mitra
(“Stuck on You”), Elias Koteas (“The
Greatest Game Ever Played”), Sarah Carter (“Final
Destination 2”), Barbara Gordon (“Men With
Brooms”), Matthew Knight (“Cheaper by the Dozen
2”), Shawn Roberts (“Cheaper by the Dozen 2”)
and Kim Coates (“Silent Hill”). Lions Gate
reportedly plans a world premiere at Cannes, but has yet
to set a domestic release date.
