Although it may seem that horror is going down the toilet due to all the toned down big budget studio crap (cough Dracula Untold) but occasionally we are reminded that there is still life in the genre, as the following five upcoming films prove.
1. Crimson Peak
Guillermo Del Toro is, quite simply, one of the best directors working today. His fascination with monsters and the macabre holds no rival, and when it comes to bringing terrible creatures alive on screen he quite simply the best.
Crimson Peak marks his first directional foray into the haunted house genre, although he has stated numerous times that the film will have the feel of a full scale blockbuster rather than the smaller scale ghost films hat we are more accustomed to.
With a stellar cast including Mia Wasikowska, Jessica Chastain, Tom Hiddleston, Charlie Hunnan and Del Toro regular Doug Jones, no doubt playing another grotesque creature, Crimson Peak looks like it could breath life into the ghost genre, which has been waning recently. And the best part? Del Toro has confirmed an R rating.
In-between Crimson Peak and Pacific Rim 2 Del Toro plans to shoot a low budget black and white horror on an extremely tight schedule similar to how Josh Whedon shot Much Ado About Nothing in seven days. Looks like after breaking his five year gap from directing with Pacific Rim, the horror maestro is here to stay.
2. P-51 Dragon Fighter
Okay it’s not exactly upcoming as it was released on DVD last month but come on, you haven’t heard of it, have you?
Nor have you heard of its director, Mark Atkins, despite the fact that he has no fewer than seventeen directing credits under his belt. He works for the Asylum, known for making mock busters of blockbusters such as Battle of Los Angeles, as well as occasionally delivering into their own original productions.
As P-51 Dragon Fighter clearly shows, The Asylum is in no way daunted by the somewhat non-existent production values that they face. A WW2 movie with dragons sounds made on a micro budget sounds like just the kind of junk that reminds us that filmmaking is meant to be all about being ambitious and taking risks.
3. Goosebumps
Okay before you start trashing this decision please just listen.
R.L Steine’s Goosebmbs books are, as everyone knows, is one of the best selling book series in the world (350 million copies sold and counting) and spawned an awesome albeit all too short lived TV series. Word of a film has been circulating for some time, but when it was announced that Gulliver’s Travels director Rob Letterman was on board to direct, with star Jack Black also onboard, all interest seemed to die pretty damn quickly.
But come on people. Yes, Gulliver’s Travels was no masterpiece, yes most of Jack Black’s recent acting credits have been nothing more than fast pay checks, but nobody seems to see the point. Goosebumps is supposed to be childish, and campy, and fun. So yes the film will be camp, and goofy, and low on any kind of intelligence, but who cares.
After all, there was never any actual violence or mature themes such as death, drugs or sex in the books, as Steine felt that including them would alienate children, so we can expect the same tame sense of fun from the film.
Black plays a fictionalised version of Steine, who writes about evil so that he can keep it magically locked in books instead of unleashing it upon the world.
Give it a chance and this could prove to be something special.
4. 31
At one point Rob Zombie looked like one of the most promising upcoming horror filmmakers out there. That is until he made Halloween, and from then on his career deteriorated to new depths.
Zombie is quite simply, not cut out for studio filmmaking, as his two Halloween films proved. The Lords of Salem was a slight improvement but still lacked that his unique touch that made both House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects such classics.
His next feature will take a crowd funded approach, a first for Zombie and hopefully a sign that he will steer clear of studio productions in the future. And if a killer clown horror sounds like something unoriginal, just remember that this is the guy who turned a killer hillbilly story into a thoughtful, emotional family based drama that surpassed all expectations.
5. Yoga Hosers
Similar to Rob Zombie, Kevin Smith usually has limited success when it comes to studio filmmaking and therefore is opting for an independent route for most of his future films.
With his latest, Tusk, getting rave reviews, his next feature will be a sequel of sorts focusing on Johnny Depp’s character Guy LaPointe, who helps two young Yoga dancers from an ancient evil threatening to destroy mankind.
The two kids will be played by Smith and Depp’s own daughters, hopefully not a sign that they will be taking the Judd Apatow/Will Smith route of always putting your own kids in your own film. Smith’s love of comic books will also be on display, with both Kevin Conroy (one of the main Batman voice actors) and the legendary Stan Lee making appearances.
After Red State and Tusk, Smith looks set to become one of the top horror filmmakers of our generation.
