As seen on Shock Til You Drop
2015 kicks in proper and we’re all back to work. So what do we have to look forward to? Movies. Between the holidays, I ran down the films I’ve been lucky enough to see already, and which I know will take many of you by storm this year. Here, you and I are in the same boat. What am I, as a horror fan, anticipating? Disregarding the films we’re not even aware of, I think the following is a tidy, diverse peek at the horrors ahead.
• Crimson Peak
It seems horror hero and monster lover Guillermo del Toro is bringing the more intimate, personal stamp of his Spanish language films to his English language moviemaking. Described as a Gothic romance and ghost story, Crimson Peak has already revealed some of its stunning, windswept design. This might be a haunted house, and a haunted house movie, for the ages. (October 16th)
• Da Sweet Blood of Jesus
The incomparable Spike Lee remakes Bill Gunn’s experimental cult vampire oddity Ganja & Hess? Sounds amazing.
• Friday the 13th
Though there’s plenty of uncertainty surrounding it, it’s hard to forget there’s a newFriday the 13th film scheduled for release in 2015. We all know we’ll be there, whatever it ends up being. (November 13th)
• Green Room
Jeremy Saulnier’s beautiful, violent American revenge road tale Blue Ruin was one of the best films of 2014. Where does he go next? A punk show. Alongside Blue Ruinstar Macon Blair, as well as a killer cast including Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Mark Webber, Anton Yelchin and Patrick Stewart (as a neo-nazi), Saulnier is crafting a punks vs. skins thriller entitled Green Room. Yelchin leads a band who witnesses a murder and finds themselves trapped and under attack from a group of skinheads. I’ll headwalk to wherever it’s playing.
• High-Rise
Ben Wheatley—he of violent, visceral and darkly funny work like Sightseers, A Field in England and Kill List—has adapted J.G. Ballard’s seminal High-Rise, with a cast that includes Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Elisabeth Moss and Reece Shearsmith. Wheatley’s filmography, written with regular co-scripter Amy Jump, should make it apparent just how perfect this is.
• Insidious: Chapter 3
Insidious: Chapter 2 did something special. It got kind of weird. Following the first’s nifty spin on a haunted tale, which included moving house and astral projection, director James Wan and writer Leigh Whannell upped the garish, colorful design, made the scares meaner and the plot stranger. Now Whannell, a horror mainstay for years, is poised to make his directorial debut with this third film, after penning the acclaimed The Mule and writing and co-starring in the upcoming Cooties (where he kills). As an introduction to the directorial vision of Whannell, Insidous: Chapter 3 (which acts as further adventures of Elise, Specs & Tucker) is already something to look forward to. As the next film in a series that distinctly hasn’t run its course, it’s one of the most anticipated. (June 5th)
Read Sam’s other 2015 notables here.