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‘Outcast’ Season Two: ‘Ramped-up FX’ says Conor McCullagh

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Detached arms, severed torsos and bloody teeth. No this isn’t a crime scene, it’s Conor McCullagh’s work desk in which he creates practical special effects for some of the movie industry’s biggest directors, producers and studios.

Conor tells us a little bit about his current projects which include the next season of critically acclaimed Cinemax exclusive “Outcast” and work-in-progress indie “Faceless.”

That’s the thing about Conor though, he will take on any project whether it be independent film or a big blockbuster movie such as “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.”

His company, “Nightmares Etc,” dissolved in 2013, worked on some of the most iconic horror movie villains in history, from Chucky to Freddy and beyond.

He helped bring “The Hunger Games” franchise to life; his work on “Mockingjay Part 1” garnered him an award.

Conor is always busy. And that’s good for us.

FX master Conor McCullagh talks season

Cinemax

The artist’s latest venture, as mentioned before, is the graphic-novel-turned horror series “Outcast,” a project from the creators of “The Walking Dead.”

With one season in the can, fans have been wondering when it’s sophomore year will premiere. Cinemax of course, is not spouting out any details of season two, but Conor talked to us about some of the things devotees can expect.

“Outcast” follows the chronically possessed Kyle Barnes (Patrick Fugit) and his attempts to exorcise the demons which haunt the residents of his hometown Rome, West Virginia.

“Right now, the producers aren’t giving anything away,” he told iHorror. “So it would be unwise for me to get into how the story is evolving, but we do learn a lot more about what’s happening in the town of Rome, and how Kyle Barnes is connected to it.”

As most possession storylines go, there’s plenty of room for Conor to do his magic and season one is filled with his oleaginous handiwork, but we wanted to know about season two, he says get ready for even more repulsion.

“The production has definitely ramped up on the FX,” said Conor, “This season, we brought in Justin Raleigh’s company, Fractured FX, to help with the workload. On season one, I was kind of a one-man department, bringing additional help on a few episodes as needed.”

The Fractured FX team have worked on some of the most critically acclaimed horror movies in recent history: Insidious, The Conjuring, Dark Skies and recently the undervalued Incarnate.

Season two of Outcast, Conor says won’t be for the faint of heart.

“The producers wanted dead bodies, surgery torsos, and a little more graphic makeup effects all the way around,” he explained to us. “Fractured FX is located in LA and was able to do life casts of actors before they flew out to shoot, as well as take on the bigger gags that I would never be able to wrangle on a television schedule.”

In true Hollywood fashion mums the word for big name projects being produced for the large or small screen. His next job is one such production. He didn’t spill the beans, but he did give us a hint.

“Sadly, I cannot go into details about my next project, other than to say I’ll be working for an amazing artist and friend, Mike Marino,” Conor revealed. “His company (Prosthetic Renaissance) has gained a lot of press for the amazing makeups he designs for Heidi Klum, each Halloween. Obviously, I’m very excited!”

The award-winning artist worked on the delayed-release movie “Faceless,” as the key prosthetics sculpturer, but he can’t tell us why that movie hasn’t seen the light of day.

“Hmmm, what can I say about Faceless?” Conor said. “Well it was a smaller indie film that my close friend Megan Areford was department head of. I was brought into design and create a multitude of prosthetics needed for the show. The story is centered around facial transplant surgery, so there were a lot of different looks. At this point, I have no idea what happened to the film. We shot that almost two years ago.”

Cinemax has not given an official announcement about the premiere of “Outcast” season two, only to say that it is “coming soon.” Some have speculated that they want to wait until the end “The Walking Dead” season seven.

Even though Conor can’t give anything away about the plot line, it’s the perfect time to binge on all 10 episodes of “Outcast’s” first season streaming on Amazon and Cinemax’s on-demand app Max Go.

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News

Brad Dourif Says He’s Retiring Except For One Important Role

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Brad Dourif has been doing movies for nearly 50 years. Now it seems he is walking away from the industry at 74 to enjoy his golden years. Except, there is a caveat.

Recently, digital entertainment publication JoBlo’s Tyler Nichols talked to some of the Chucky television series cast members. During the interview, Dourif made an announcement.

“Dourif said that he’s retired from acting,” says Nichols. “The only reason he came back for the show was because of his daughter Fiona and he considers Chucky creator Don Mancini to be family. But for non-Chucky stuff, he considers himself retired.”

Dourif has voiced the possessed doll since 1988 (minus the 2019 reboot). The original movie “Child’s Play” has become such a cult classic it’s at the top of some people’s best chillers of all time. Chucky himself is ingrained in pop culture history much like Frankenstein or Jason Voorhees.

While Dourif may be known for his famous voiceover, he is also an Oscar-nominated actor for his part in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Another famous horror role is The Gemini Killer in William Peter Blatty’s Exorcist III. And who can forget Betazoid Lon Suder in Star Trek: Voyager?

The good news is that Don Mancini is already pitching a concept for season four of Chucky which might also include a feature-length movie with a series tie-in. So, Although Dourif says he is retiring from the industry, ironically he is Chucky’s friend till the end.

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Editorial

7 Great ‘Scream’ Fan Films & Shorts Worth a Watch

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The Scream franchise is such an iconic series, that many budding filmmakers take inspiration from it and make their own sequels or, at least, build upon the original universe created by screenwriter Kevin Williamson. YouTube is the perfect medium to showcase these talents (and budgets) with fan-made homages with their own personal twists.

The great thing about Ghostface is that he can appear anywhere, in any town, he just needs the signature mask, knife, and unhinged motive. Thanks to Fair Use laws it’s possible to expand upon Wes Craven’s creation by simply getting a group of young adults together and killing them off one by one. Oh, and don’t forget the twist. You’ll notice that Roger Jackson’s famous Ghostface voice is uncanny valley, but you get the gist.

We have gathered five fan films/shorts related to Scream that we thought were pretty good. Although they can’t possibly match the beats of a $33 million blockbuster, they get by on what they have. But who needs money? If you’re talented and motivated anything is possible as proven by these filmmakers who are well on their way to the big leagues.

Take a look at the below films and let us know what you think. And while you’re at it, leave these young filmmakers a thumbs up, or leave them a comment to encourage them to create more films. Besides, where else are you going to see Ghostface vs. a Katana all set to a hip-hop soundtrack?

Scream Live (2023)

Scream Live

Ghostface (2021)

Ghostface

Ghost Face (2023)

Ghost Face

Don’t Scream (2022)

Don’t Scream

Scream: A Fan Film (2023)

Scream: A Fan Film

The Scream (2023)

The Scream

A Scream Fan Film (2023)

A Scream Fan Film
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Movies

Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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