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New ‘Artik’ Featurette Digs in to that Beast of a Torture Chair

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We had recently shared a trailer for Artik, the upcoming film that follows a violent, volatile, comic book obsessed serial killer in his quest to find someone worthy of surviving his wrath.

One of the trailer’s elements that really stood out (for me, at least) is that homemade, ergonomic nightmare of a torture chair. After just an hour in that thing I’d need to crack my back like it’s a damn glow stick.

The newest featurette for the upcoming film focuses entirely on that metal monstrosity, giving all the in-depth details you’d need to know. Time to strap in.

Speaking with iHorror, production designer Chris Scott shed some light on Artik’s use of the (100% handmade) chair.

“It can be adjusted to fit any victim. It has an adjustable seat height, adjustable spine length and adjustable head restraint, each with pivot points allowing the victim to be positioned in multiple angles and spinal rotations.” Scott said, “Metal chain, shackles, barbed wire and straps keep Artik’s victims where he wants them”.

Director Tom Botchii explained it as “Artik’s proving ground. If you live through it, maybe there’s something special about you”.

Botchii also revealed that – after a last-minute change – production designer Chris Scott designed and physically built the chair in less than 24 hours using salvaged tractor parts and farm equipment. The end result is an absolute beast that perfectly fits with the rusted rural aesthetic.

Botchii said, “Chris Scott’s effort was already crazy impressive, and a good example of why indie films have more heart than the mainstream stuff you see everywhere. But, to do it all in a day… man, he really deserves a lot of credit. The industry deserves more production designers like him”.

Scott gave a bit more detail on the chair’s design and building process.

I sketched the first and only design sketch with a waitress’s pen on a scrap of paper while eating at Denny’s, 10:00 on a Friday night.” Scott said, “By midnight I was walking a salvage yard with a flashlight looking for parts to make the chair. Before going to sleep I had a clear picture in mind of what I was going to make. I knew exactly which parts I wanted to work with”.

Thankfully, Scott and his team had some help along the way. “Aaron Ward, the very gracious salvage yard owner was my primary assistant and a key factor in helping us get The Chair made in the manner we made it. He granted us full access to his scrap yard and metal shop where we worked late into the night with the crew.”

Artik stars indie genre favorites Chase Williamson (SiREN, John Dies at the End, The Guest), Lauren Ashley Carter (Jug Face, Darling, The Women), and Matt Mercer (Contracted, Contracted: Phase II, Beyond the Gates), with Jerry G. Angelo (Warfighter) as the titular villain.

The story centers around a family-run sunflower farm, where comic-book obsessed serial killer Artik (Jerry G. Angelo), his life partner Flin (Lauren Ashley Carter), and their family of foster kids are on the hunt for the ultimate comic-book hero. Until Holton (Chase Williamson), an Al-Anon attending straight edge, punk purist, comes between them.

You can watch the in-depth breakdown of The Chair in the featurette below, and keep a keen eye out for Artik.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPQqkAuVkvk&feature=youtu.be

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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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