January has been a horror show, so I’m back to talking about horror movies. I need something to quell the existential dread that sets in every day around 11 am.
While I’m not sure Finn Wolfhard’s directorial debut, Hell of a Summer, will do it, I am a fan of summer camp slashers, so I’ll give this a chance. It looks fun, but it’s a 2023 movie, and we all know movies age like fine wine when they’ve been sitting on a shelf. I also see being written and directed by Finn Wolfhard as … questionable. Let’s go with questionable for now. I’ll wait for it to come to streaming.
Wolfhard shares the writing and directing credits on Hell of a Summer with Billy Bryk (Ghostbusters: Afterlife). It also stars D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Reservation Dogs), Fred Hechinger (the Fear Street franchise), Pardis Saremi (Death and Other Details), and Abby Quinn (Knock at the Cabin).
It opens in theaters on April 18th
Shudder’s upcoming The Dead Thing looks like something I can take more seriously. The intersection of dating/mating and technology is always ripe for speculative horror. As we become more immersed in apps, AI, and machine learning, we have to ask if those things are making us safer or putting us in deeper danger when it comes to meeting people.
The Dead Thing stars Katherine Hughes, Blu Hunt (The New Mutants), and John Karna (Scream: The TV Series). It premieres on Shudder on Valentine’s Day, February 14th.
Director Steven Soderbergh is teaming up with Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender for his latest spy thriller, Black Bag. That’s probably more of an introduction than this needs. Soderbergh, Blanchett, Fassbender. Done.
In case you need me to say more, Black Bag also stars Marisa Abela (Back To Black), Tom Burke (Furiosa), Naomie Harris (The Wasp), Regé-Jean Page (Bridgerton), and Pierce Brosnan. It opens in theaters on March 14th.
As much as I dig the cast for Tubi’s The Z-Suite, it is relegated to Lagniappe because it looks like every other woman-focused, generational, workplace dramedy there has ever been. There is not a lot of material left to mine in these hills, y’all. But, you know, Lauren Graham.