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All Aboard The Underrated ‘Horror Express’

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With the release of Kenneth Branagh’s new adaptation of the Agatha Christie classic Murder On The Orient Express, now is the perfect time to look back upon a criminally underrated terror set on a train, the 1972 sci-fi, horror thriller Horror Express!

Image via Youtube

The movie begins in 1906, following British anthropologist Sir Alexander Saxton (Christopher Lee) who has made the find of the century: a frozen ape-man preserved in the caves of Manchuria. He transports his career defining discovery from China on the Trans-Siberian Express. The train in question hosting all manner of characters such as Doctor Wells (Peter Cushing), Saxton’s scientific rival and friend, a Polish Count and his royal daughter, a raving mad monk, a Russian police inspector, a beautiful thief, and a brilliant engineer who’s transporting a brand new metal. The stage is set for an ensemble cast entwined in a deadly situation, as the ape-man manages to revive itself and start bumping off passengers one by one. can Saxton and Wells solve the mystery of the creature and stop its rampage while entombed on the train?

Horror Express is a brilliant little period piece, evocative of Hammer’s repertoire of horror. It has all the traits, including friends and frequent co-stars, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. With a memorable appearance by the great Telly Savalas as a merciless cossack commander. A historical setting complete with set-pieces and bloodshed. A bizarre monster brought to life with memorable practical FX. All this without actually being made by Hammer! A Britsh-Spanish production directed by Eugenio Martin and co-written by Julian d’Usseau and Julian Zimet (the writers of the equally genre busting Psychomania), it managed to cram as many tropes and staples into one hell of a bizarre murder mystery.

Though the title would have you think its roots are firmly in the works of Agatha Christie, many elements bring to mind Who Goes There? by John W. Campbell. The short sci-fi thriller that would go on to be adapted into Howard Hawk’s The Thing From Another World and John Carpenter’s THE THING. Without spoiling too much, there’s a  supernatural horror beyond a mere zombified ape that Saxton and Wells must combat.

Overall, Horror Express is a fun and entertaining genre mash-up with an amazing cast, interesting terrors, and a fascinating location as a period movie. If you want to give it a watch, punch a ticket onboard through Severin Films’ blu-ray or iTunes/Vudu!

Image via Mondo

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‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

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It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

Evil Dead Rise

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

High Desert Hell
The Gemini Project

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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

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Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

Happy Sad Confused

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.

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Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

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Jake gyllenhaal presumed innocent

Jake Gyllenhaal’s limited series Presumed Innocent is dropping on AppleTV+ on June 12 instead of June 14 as originally planned. The star, whose Road House reboot has brought mixed reviews on Amazon Prime, is embracing the small screen for the first time since his appearance on Homicide: Life on the Street in 1994.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s in ‘Presumed Innocent’

Presumed Innocent is being produced by David E. Kelley, J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot, and Warner Bros. It is an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1990 film in which Harrison Ford plays a lawyer doing double duty as an investigator looking for the murderer of his colleague.

These types of sexy thrillers were popular in the ’90s and usually contained twist endings. Here’s the trailer for the original:

According to Deadline, Presumed Innocent doesn’t stray far from the source material: “…the Presumed Innocent series will explore obsession, sex, politics and the power and limits of love as the accused fights to hold his family and marriage together.”

Up next for Gyllenhaal is the Guy Ritchie action movie titled In the Grey scheduled for release in January 2025.

Presumed Innocent is an eight-episode limited series set to stream on AppleTV+ starting June 12.

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