Between Donald Trump and COVID-19, we have had more horror days than I count. However, Shudder is giving us an amount of days that I can count. They are giving us 61 days of horror starting on September 1st for Halloween. At least their 61 days are fiction, unlike the real ones we are experiencing.
The 61 days includes several movie exclusives, including Color Out of Space, Glenn Danzig’s Verotika, Scare Me, Spiral, The Cleansing Hour, The Mortuary Collection, 32 Malasana Street, and May the Devil Take You Too. We will also see the debut of A New Last Drive-In Special, NOS4A2’s second season, and a Ghoul Log for 2020.
Hallmark, Lifetime, and Up can have their two months of Christmas. This is my Christmas, and I prefer it.
To read descriptions of what you can expect during the 61 Days of Horror, then click here!
Back in April, Shudder brought us Cursed Films. The 5-part series looked at the cursed history of The Omen, Poltergeist, The Exorcist, The Crow, and Twilight Zone: The Movie. Five movies where not everyone who worked on them was alive when it came out in movie theaters. Were they cursed, or was it just coincidence?
Today, the horror streaming service announced that the docuseries will be back for a second season sometime in 2021. They did not say what films will be featured. I would love to see them do Rebel Without a Cause and the Superman franchise. Which features do you want them to investigate?
The pick up is no surprise. Shudder says that Cursed Films was their second most-watched series behind Creepshow.
Talking about the most-watched entities on Shudder, have you watched Host yet? You will never do a group chat after watching the horror movie that is truly scary.
These days, it is rare that a horror movie can scare the crap out of you, but that is what Host does to you. The film was shot completely in quarantine during the last three months for Shudder, and shudder is what you are going to do when you watch it.
Haley Bishop invites her friends Radina Drandova, Edward Linard, Jemma Moore, Caroline Ward, and Emma Louise Webb to a Zoom séance. She has done them before in person and thinks this one will be no different. They quickly find out, she is very wrong.
When one of the girls does something she is not supposed to do, something decides to get revenge on them one by one. There is nothing to they can do to help each other out, so they just have to watch as the mysterious spirit makes their group smaller and smaller. Just like them, all we can do is watch them in horror as they watch each other the same way.
Award-winning filmmaker Rob Savage, Dawn of the Deaf, created a short film when the international lockdown started. Somehow, Shudder’s General Manager Craig Engler saw it and asked him if he could create a full-length feature like it. Savage said yes, and in less than three months, he wrote the screenplay with Gemma Hurley and Jed Shepherd, directed, shot, and edited the movie. All while never being in the same room with any of the actors.
The actors not only acted, but they also shot their scenes and created their own special effects. It is the simplicity of their effects that make this film even more terrifying. One of the girls watches eveything go down from under the covers, and I can tell you will be doing the same.
I am not a fan of modern-day horror or found footage movies because they are all CGIed to hell. This movie is the first one, in a really long time, that made me put down my phone and pay attention to what was going on on the screen. Even Hamilton couldn’t do that.
I am also glad I watched it during the day. Therefore, you might want to keep the lights on after you press play. You will also want to revoke access to any apps that want to use video. You will never do another video chat after this. Even if your life depended on it, and that includes Teladoc, where your life literally depends on that.
The best part about Host is that it is less than an hour long. That means there is very little downtime, and the frights happen very quickly. Because it is so short, you are going to want to watch it again and again to catch all of the little scares. Don’t worry; there are plenty of big ones too and there is suspense there too.
I never heard of Rob Savage before Host, but this guy has a huge future ahead of him. How many directors can do what he did in such a short amount of time, with a smaller budget, and make it look like he had a year to make it with unlimited funds? I can’t wait to see what he does next. Maybe Shudder will give him an extra month for his next flick.
On that note, if you do not have Shudder, you can test it out for a week for free to see if you want it. Let me tell you; you will want it. Host is not the only horrifying thing they have on there. I grew up on horror since I was a toddler, and I can never get enough of Shudder or as I like to say Shudder and Shrill.
When COVID-19 took over the world, production came to a screeching halt. However, there was one man who came up with an idea to circumvent the evil virus. Rob Savage (Dawn of the Deaf) shot an entire movie Host via Zoom, and it will debut July 30th on Shudder.
According to the press release, “Host was shot remotely during quarantine and features groundbreaking scares, stunts, and surprises, all filmed by the actors in their own homes, operating their own cameras, helping pull off their own practical effects, and lighting their own scenes.” Savage directed the movie remotely, and never had any human contact with the actors.
The horror film was made from idea to air date in less than three months. Craig Engler, Shudder’s General Manager saw a horror short that Savage made, and asked him if he could do a full-length movie, Savage said that he could, and Engler says that we are getting a feature that “surpassed all our expectations.”
What is it about? Host is the story of six friends who hire a medium to hold a séance over Zoom during lockdown, but they get far more than they bargain for as things quickly go wrong. When an evil spirit starts invading their homes, they begin to realize they might not survive the night. The film stars Haley Bishop (Deep State), Radina Drandova (Dawn of the Deaf), Edward Linard (The Rebels), Jemma Moore (Doom: Annihilation), Caroline Ward (Stalling It) and Emma Louise Webb (The Crown).
The actors not only had to learn their own lines, but they also had to perform their own special effects. Personally, I think some of the scariest horror films are the ones with the least CGI or special effects. I prefer ones like American Werewolf in London. Its simplicity made it more terrifying. Something I think Host will also accomplish.
So host a Zoom party on July 30th, and watch Host with your friends. If you dare!
Shudder is streaming the last two episodes of their 5-part series Cursed Films. So far they have looked The Exorcist, Poltergeist and The Omen. Today, they start streaming what happened on the sets of The Crow and The Twilight Zone.
The Crow is infamous for Brandon Lee being accidentally shot and killed on the set while filming the movie. However, that was not the only reason why this comic book movie was cursed.
Before they even started filming, the production office got a warning that bad things were going to happen. And they did. On the first day of filming, two electricians were in a freak accident. One of the electricians raised the cherry picker on his van, and it hit a live wire. He suffered burns all over his body. He did not die, but he lost his ears.
Then there was Brandon Lee. They explain how the accidental shooting happened. They even demonstrate what went wrong. The docuseries also examined how people thought that the younger Lee was cursed like his father Bruce Lee.
Were both the movie and the actor cursed? That is up for you to decide after you watch.
The second episode deals with The Twilight Zone. Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed while filming a scene. The actor was holding the two kids, walking in the water, explosions going off around him, and a helicopter above him. One of the explosives hit the copter, causing it to crash down on the three actors. None of them survived.
While I don’t think this feature was cursed, I am glad they gave it its own episode. Richard Sawyer, who was a production designer on the film, described everything that led up to the night. Then he details what happened when they were filming the scene and immediately afterward. As he gets closer to the moment, he breaks down more and more. It is heartbreaking to see how that night from 1982 is still really raw to him.
Even though this movie was not cursed, this was my favorite episode of the five.
I really enjoyed the whole series, and I hope Shudder brings it back for a second season. It is always interesting to hear how they make movies even if there were deadly reamifications.
