Puppet on a string 😱 #35
There's a major update on Sam Raimi's remake of a cult classic.
Welcome back, horror lover! 👋 I’ve now completed my Poland, Leeds and Fylde Coast round trip and need a holiday from my holiday in order to catch up on all the horror films and shows I’ve been desperate to binge.
Is anyone watching Widow’s Bay on Apple TV? I’m hearing excellent things and will be swiftly adding that on my next to watch list in between new FROM episodes, true crime and, shamefully, Married At First Sight USA.
Anyway, I’ve kept you waiting long enough… let’s get on to the good stuff!
Horror latest 🩸
⌚ Lionsgate has finally offered an update on Sam Raimi’s upcoming remake of killer doll horror, Magic, revealing it is coming soon. The original from the seventies starred Anthony Hopkins as an unstable magician who loses control of his dead-eyed sidekick.
🌊 Iron Lung finally has a streaming release date. Given YouTuber Markiplier made the film, it’s fitting that it will be released exclusively on YouTube Movies, and there’s not long to go - it drops next week.
😱 A series of Scary Movie 6 posters have dropped showcasing the films being parodied. The fresh artwork includes humorous takes on the Backrooms, Weapons and The Substance to name but a few.
🤡 Terrifier star David Howard Thornton revealed that he hung out with Lady Gaga years before they both found fame. You can watch the incredible interview moment here.
🍔 A French body horror has set tongues wagging at Cannes, and it’s one every genre fan should pop on their watch list. Species (previously known as Sanguine), from director Marion Le Corroller, follows a medical student who catches a mysterious condition from her patient.
On the slab
A note from your editor ✨
I feel like we’ve been anticipating the Backrooms movie for what feels like forever, and in the meantime wow has my algorithm been delivering.
Excuse me if I’m irredeemably late to the party here, but it turns out there’s endless social media accounts dedicated to creating infinite loops of walkthroughs of digitally rendered Backrooms-style spaces, and while they’re super creepy, they’re also weirdly relaxing. Anyone else?
My engagement with this constant stream of sprawling spaces that are vaguely nostalgic also threw onto my radar an incredible real-life hotel in the UK which I am absolutely now dying to visit.
Next time you’re at London’s Heathrow Airport, check out the Terminal 4 Holiday Inn Express and adjoined Crowne Plaza. r/Backrooms is chock-full of people sharing pics from their stay there and it’s something to behold.
Keep on screaming 😱,
Samantha
Horror bite 👄: Obsession star Michael Johnston makes his own cottage cheese.
To a friend, I recommend… 🎀🩸
If you’re as obsessed with liminal spaces and Backrooms-style aesthetics as I am, then you absolutely have to check out Vivarium.
The 2019 release is a heady blend of horror and sci-fi, and follows a couple (played by Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg) who find themselves trapped in a sprawling new build estate.
Things turn weird pretty fast when a baby turns up at their door and they are forced to raise it for an undisclosed period of time. As the days drag on, and the adopted child grows, they learn something is seriously up with this place they’ve found themselves in.
Trending 🔥
There’s glitter, sequins and Sophie Thatcher aplenty in the first trailer for The Neon Demon director’s latest flick.
Her Private Hell is the first horror we’ve seen from Nicolas Winding Refn since his 2016 tale of models-gone-mad, so hype is sky-high among fans of more artsy scares.
The film centres around a woman searching for her missing father, during which she crosses paths with a soldier on his own mysterious mission. Intrigued?
Don’t miss… 📅
👨💼 Corporate Retreat - US theatres (Out now)
🧪 This Is Not A Test - Shudder (Out now)
👽 The Boroughs - Netflix (Out now)
🚗 Passenger - Cinemas (Out now)
🍬 Saccharine - US theatres (Out now)
🏢 Backrooms - Cinemas (May 29)
😨 Smothered - Shudder (May 29)
Kill some time 🔪⏰
❓ Backrooms director Kane Parsons just did a Reddit AMA.
👜 If you loved Obsession then you need this custom handbag.
🏡 This guy just nailed Ellis’ dialogue in FROM.
🌈 Jealous of everyone getting to visit the Backrooms IRL.
🦇 The incredible theory that What We Do In The Shadows is in the same universe as Se7en.
Most visited links from last week’s newsletter
Scream Society is written by me, Samantha King (you can call me Sam), a lifelong horror nerd and journalist.
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REALLY enjoyed Vivarium, it is so so unsettling and watching it during lockdown was a fittingly claustrophobic experience 😬