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Eight Horror Movies By Non-Horror Directors
There’s little doubt that the horror genre has its heroes. Filmmakers like John Carpenter, Wes Craven, and Tobe Hooper know how to make a good horror film, so that’s what they do. Every once in a while, though, a director from outside the genre will momentarily set foot into the realm of terror to give us a classic movie, only to go right back to making “normal” movies when they’re done. Here are eight horror movies by non-horror filmmakers who crossed over to the dark side just once.
1. Child’s Play – Sidney Lumet
Sidney Lumet made some of the most important movies in cinematic history, movies like 12 Angry Men, Network, and Dog Day Afternoon. Lumet had a way of coaxing brilliant performances out of his actors, and that gave his films heart. In 1972, he made his only horror film, Child’s Play. This is not the film about the demonic doll named Chucky, this is an adaptation of a Broadway play about bullying at a catholic boys school that is the result of demonic possession. Sadly, Lumet died in 2011, so Child’s Play will always be his only horror film.
2. The Exorcist – William Friedkin
The Exorcist is easily one of the top five movies on any horror fan’s list (if it isn’t consistently number one), but the 1973 classic is director William Friedkin’s only horror film. Choosing story over comfort, Friedkin dipped his foot into many different genres, making documentaries like The People vs. Paul Crump, crime dramas like The French Connection, and action films like To Live and Die in L.A., but only wandered into horror again for a few television episodes of The Twilight Zone and Tales from the Crypt. And speaking of The Exorcist…
3. Exorcist II: The Heretic – John Boorman
Most moviegoers know John Boorman as the director of seminal films such as Deliverance and Excalibur, but he was tapped in 1977 for the inevitable sequel to The Exorcist, appropriately titled Exorcist II: The Heretic. The film was a flop, and to this day is considered a black eye in the history of the franchise. Maybe that explains why Boorman never made another horror film?
4. What Lies Beneath – Robert Zemeckis
Robert Zemeckis is better known for shaping the youth of the eighties with his Back to the Future trilogy and for winning Oscars with Forrest Gump. Although he dabbled a little bit in horror on television, directing episodes of Amazing Stories and Tales from the Crypt, his only big-screen fright flick is the 2000 Hitchcockian ghost story What Lies Beneath. Despite a strong script and a big-name cast that included Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer, What Lies Beneath was a box-office disappointment, so Zemeckis went back to making movies that he knew would be successful – and immediately made the Tom Hanks vehicle Cast Away.
5. Near Dark – Kathryn Bigelow
Before she was making Oscar bait films like The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow made action movies like Point Break and Strange Days. However, even before that, she made Near Dark, a 1987 movie that, along with The Lost Boys, would challenge all of the preconceived notions about vampires. Bigelow’s direction coupled with the natural chemistry of the cast (Bigelow basically used onetime husband James Cameron’s Aliens cast, a group that consisted of Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton, and Jenette Goldstein) turned Near Dark into an instant revisionist western classic vampire movie. Then, she moved on to making war movies.
6. 28 Days Later… – Danny Boyle
For a while, Danny Boyle was England’s hippest director, making too-cool movies like Trainspotting and The Beach. In 2002, he turned the zombie subgenre on its ear with 28 Days Later… and its fast-moving, athletic pack antagonists. This was two years before Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn of the Dead would bring quick zombies into the lexicon. Boyle didn’t return for the sequel, 28 Weeks Later, instead opting to win a few Oscars with Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours. As of now, he has never made another horror movie.
7. The Omen – Richard Donner
Richard Donner got his start in television, directing episodes of old westerns like The Rifleman and Have Gun – Will Travel before helming some of the best episodes from the final season of The Twilight Zone in 1964. His sole contribution to horror history is the 1976 anti-Christ movie The Omen. The Omen was a huge box office success and is largely considered one of the best horror films of all time, but Donner parted ways with the genre, moving on to more family accessible films like Superman, The Goonies, and Ladyhawke. He would end up directing a few episodes of Tales from the Crypt in between making Lethal Weapon movies, but The Omen remains his only horror film.
8. Misery – Rob Reiner
A child star who got his big acting break playing Meathead on All in the Family, Rob Reiner stuck gold with his directorial debut, the cult classic mockumentary This is Spinal Tap. Reiner’s film resume includes softies like The Princess Bride and When Harry Met Sally…, but his adaptation of Stephen King’s short story “The Body” into the coming of age film Stand by Me impressed King so much that, in 1990, the writer let Reiner have a shot at directing one of his more frightening books – Misery. Reiner’s direction combined with knockout performances by James Caan and Kathy Bates turned Misery into a classic horror film, and Rob Reiner dropped the mic and went back to making dramatic comedies.
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Movies
‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments
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.
“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:
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‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening
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.
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
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.
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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