July 2023 Horror Preview

Over halfway through the year now – Happy July! Celebrating the Red (River Horror), White, and Blue!

Onto the preview!

July 7th

Insidious: The Red Door: 13 years after James Wan reinvented the horror genre for better or worse (…again), Insidious: The Red Door is the fifth and supposedly final installment in the POLTERGEIST-esque franchise. It’s also the first in 10 years to feature the return of the original cast (Patrick Wilson, Rose Byrne, etc.)

While I confess to not being the biggest fan of the series myself, the prospect of a proper and direct sequel this many years later helmed by the lead actors of the first two films is admittedly just too tempting to pass up.

July 14th

Bird Box Barcelona: While the original BIRD BOX proved to be an almost overnight massive success for Netflix, it did come across as a bit of a flash in the pan. Quickly forgotten as more content rolled out – hoping to recapture the magic and intrigue of its predecessor and perhaps bring new eyes to a potential franchise, albeit five years later, is this Spanish set film taking place in the same world as the original Sandra Bullock vehicle.

It’s an interesting idea to do a story that takes place in the same world without directly referencing the originals. I honestly wish more franchises would try things like this as opposed to the inundation of stale legacy sequels we get nowadays – props to Barcelona for thinking outside the box (Ha! I’ll show myself out.)

The Flood: This Louisiana set low-budget creature feature promises ATTACK ON PRECINCT 13…but with alligators! Reminiscent of 2019’s CRAWL, The Flood stars cult icons Nicky Whelan (ROB ZOMBIE’S HALLOWEEN II) and Casper Van Dien (STARSHIP TROOPERS), and its absolutely bat-shit insane gonzo throwback of a premise is enough to have me hooked. Will definitely check this out when it hits VOD.

July 21st

Cobweb: Based on the viral one-page script that set the annual black list of hottest unproduced Hollywood projects ablaze, Cobweb promises a fully realized and fleshed-out vision of terror loosely adapted from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart”.

Produced by Seth Rogen’s Point Grey Pictures and starring his frequent collaborators and friends Lizzy Caplan (FREAKS AND GEEKS) and ANTONY STARR (THE BOYS) – Cobweb is a tale of family trauma, dread, and cosmic horror that I’ll definitely be first in line to see when it hits limited release later this month.

July 28th

Talk To Me:

Sibling filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou of the viral Youtube channel RACKARACKA make their directorial debut with this indie darling that premiered at Sundance earlier this year. The film has been making waves on the festival circuit and was eventually picked up for distribution by A24 – the film seems to be a riff on viral challenges like “Charlie Charlie” as it examines a group of young, impressionable, teens who discover they can communicate with the dead via a severed and embalmed hand.

What starts out as a harmless gimmick and social media prank soon proves disastrous…

The Haunted Mansion: Disney has had an awful track record with these amusement park ride-themed movies…

The PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN franchise notwithstanding, JUNGLE CRUISE, THE COUNTRY BEARS, TOMORROWLAND, and even the original HAUNTED MANSION have all proven to be disastrous flops – hoping to break the curse, this reimagining of the Haunted Mansion features an all-star cast of Rosario Dawson (CLERKS II, AHSOKA), Owen Wilson (MIDNIGHT IN PARIS), Danny DeVito (IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILIDELPHIA), Tiffany Haddish (THE CARD COUNTER, GIRLS TRIP), and Jared Leto (MORBIUS).

Hopefully, this version faires better than the aforementioned ill-fated Eddie Murphy starring original released nearly two decades prior.

Sympathy for the Devil:

Last but not least…

Just give Nic Cage his own cinematic universe at this point.

I mean, sure, he’s already been Dracula this year, why not just go ahead and promote him to the Prince of Darkness himself?

Though details are scarce, the trailer makes this look like a horror movie twist on COLLATERAL starring Joel Kinnaman (THE SUICIDE SQUAD) as an expecting father forced at gunpoint to drive around a devilish Nic Cage on the night of his wife’s delivery.

Suffice it to say, this might be the most fun movie trailer I’ve seen in ages and if the film itself lives up to the hype – we’re in for a helluva treat.