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New Release Review: The Possession of Michael King

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The Possession of Michael King

This week, Gold Circle Films released The Possession of Michael King on DVD and Blu-ray.  I’ve always been a fan of possession films and have become a true devotee of the found footage horror phenomenon as it has developed, so I knew I had to check this one out as soon as I could.  I was not disappointed in the least.

Michael King is a documentary film maker and an atheist.  After his wife is killed in an accident, he decides to make a film proving one way or the other whether the supernatural exists, and thus, whether his wife might still exist in some way or not.  He is bitter and angry, understandably, and so his route is not one of belief and looking for positive results, but instead one of mocking and negativity.

First, he tries to summon a demon himself.  When that doesn’t work, he contacts a demonologist and a necromancer to perform rituals on him to bring about possession by a demon and a recently deceased young man, respectively.  They ply him with drugs and perform their rituals.  And thus, we begin to watch Michael’s slow descent into madness and possession.  It all starts with the constant sound of static in his ears, then hallucinations.  His reflection is no longer his own, and the static becomes voices that tell him to sacrifice his daughter.

I’m not a guy who likes spoilers, so I won’t give them here, but I will say this movie, for me, was genuinely frightening, and Shane Johnson, who plays Michael, did a fine job of portraying a character who goes from being a non-believing jerk to a frightened father to a pitiable mess in the end.  The film boasts an impressive cast of talented character actors.  Patricia Healy (Ultraviolet), Cullen Douglas (Deadland), Julie McNiven (“Supernatural”), and Tobias Jelinek (Hocus Pocus) all give stellar performances in supporting roles.

The second star of this movie, however, was the sound department.  They managed this film beautifully.  Quiet whispers and demonic screams all took on a life of their own and resonated throughout the film.

If I had one complaint, it would be that the character of the wife wasn’t a little more fleshed out.  There is a beautiful scene toward the end where Michael watches a video about a near death experience she had and I kept thinking if they’d taken more time to just give a little more information about her, it might have made his character a little more understandable, if not necessarily more likable.

All in all, if you’re a fan of the genre, this is a film that deserves to be in your collection.  It’s very reasonably priced ($17.96 on Blu Ray at Walmart) and I would imagine it will be showing up on most streaming services in the next few weeks.  Do yourself a favor and watch it today!

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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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