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Interview: Sam Keeley Stars in “The Cured”

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David Freyne’s new Irish horror film, The Cured, is one of the most original and intelligent zombie films I’ve seen in over a decade. It imagines a world in which a cure has been found for the infected and what happens after it is administered.

There are a couple of caveats, you see, to the film’s cure. It only worked on about 75% of the infected, and those who were cured remember every moment and every atrocity they committed during the infection.

When the uninfected population found out about that last side effect, things began to get ugly for the cured. It’s assumed that because they remember their terrible actions then they could have controlled them, and if they could have controlled them, they should not have committed these acts in the first place.

They are pariahs and some are taking action against those who treat them poorly.

Enter Senan played by Sam Keeley. The treatment worked for him and unlike many of the cured, he has family, an American sister-in-law named Abbie (Ellen Page) still living in Ireland with her son, who will take him in and give him a place to live as he tries to re-integrate into society.

It was not an easy role to portray, Keeley told me in an interview earlier this week.

“Finding that mental space wasn’t fun,” Keeley said. “I looked into people who have been released from prison after committing murder or manslaughter and sex offenders who have been through the system and have to find a way back into society.”

Once inside that head-space, he had to keep “one foot in the door” throughout the shoot to hold onto that bleak outlook no matter if he was on set or not and he admits it took “a lot of red wine and a lot of hot baths” to deal with that bleak emotional center for the seven weeks of filming.

Still, the results were ultimately brilliant and Ireland was the perfect setting for a film of this nature. The tiny island nation has dealt with more than its fair share of political and social upheaval and the oppression of its citizens by various regimes, and Keeley says that changes a people.

“It creates a kind of character that’s unique,” he explained. “This is just another version of the political and religious upheavals we’ve had in this country, and I think that creates a hotbed environment for interesting filmmakers and stories and characters.”

They reinforced this connection to Ireland and its people by filming entirely on location.

“Abbie’s house was a house in Dublin; those streets are Dublin streets,” the actor pointed out. “The prison where the infected that couldn’t be cured were held was a prison in Belfast that held prisoners up until only recently.”

This last location was particularly difficult to work in according to Keeley. There was very little natural light or ventilation and the walls would quickly begin to close in on them.

“There’s no life in there,” he explained. “It’s specifically designed to numb a human’s senses so we had to take a lot of breaks while the crew switched out camera positions or we’d go crazy.”

At the end of the shoot, the actor says, it was all worth it, and he learned a few lessons along the way.

“I think it just made me very mindful of the world and the things going on it; there’s a refugee crisis going on right now that no one is talking about,” he said. “I think the world is crazy, and I think doing a film like this, even though we’re not beating people over the head with a message it’s enough to remind you that everyone has something going on. In a way, it just kind of kept me in check in terms of being aware of other people’s situations. It was very humbling.”

The Cured releases in the US on February 23, 2018.

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The Pope’s Exorcist Officially Announces New Sequel

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The Pope’s Exorcist is one of those films that’s just fun to watch. It isn’t the most terrifying film around, but there’s something about Russel Crow (Gladiator) playing a wise cracking Catholic priest that just feels right.

Screen Gems seems to agree with this assessment, as they have just officially announced that The Pope’s Exorcist sequel is in the works. It makes sense that Screen Gems would want to keep this franchise going, considering the first film scared up almost $80 million with a budget of only $18 million.

The Pope's Exorcist
The Pope’s Exorcist

According to Crow, there may even be a The Pope’s Exorcist trilogy in the works. However, recent changes with the studio may have put the third film on hold. In a sit-down with The Six O’Clock Show, Crow gave the following statement about the project.

“Well that’s in discussion at the moment. The producers originally got the kick off from the studio not just for one sequel but for two. But there’s been a change of studio heads at the moment, so that’s going around in a few circles. But very definitely, man. We set that character up that you could take him out and put him into a lot of different circumstances.”

Crow has also stated that film’s source material involves twelve separate books. This would allow the studio to take the story in all kinds of directions. With that much source material, The Pope’s Exorcist could even rival The Conjuring Universe.

Only the future will tell what becomes of The Pope’s Exorcist. But as always, more horror is always a good thing.

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New ‘Faces of Death’ Remake Will Be Rated R For “Strong Bloody Violence and Gore”

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In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, the Faces of Death reboot has been given an R rating from the MPA. Why has the film been given this rating? For strong bloody violence, gore, sexual content, nudity, language, and drug use, of course.

What else would you expect from a Faces of Death reboot? It would honestly be alarming if the film received anything less than an R rating.

Faces of death
Faces of Death

For those unaware, the original Faces of Death film released in 1978 and promised viewers video evidence of real deaths. Of course, this was just a marketing gimmick. Promoting a real snuff film would be a terrible idea.

But the gimmick worked, and franchise lived on in infamy. The Faces of Death reboot is hoping to gain the same amount of viral sensation as its predecessor. Isa Mazzei (Cam) and Daniel Goldhaber (How to Blow Up a Pipeline) will spearhead this new addition.

The hope is that this reboot will do well enough to recreate the infamous franchise for a new audience. While we don’t know much about the film at this point, but a joint statement from Mazzei and Goldhaber gives us the following info on the plot.

“Faces of Death was one of the first viral video tapes, and we are so lucky to be able to use it as a jumping off point for this exploration of cycles of violence and the way they perpetuate themselves online.”

“The new plot revolves around a female moderator of a YouTube-like website, whose job is to weed out offensive and violent content and who herself is recovering from a serious trauma, that stumbles across a group that is recreating the murders from the original film. But in the story primed for the digital age and age of online misinformation, the question faced is are the murders real or fake?”

The reboot will have some bloody shoes to fill. But from the looks of it, this iconic franchise is in good hands. Unfortunately, the film does not have a release date at this time.

That’s all the information we have at this time. Make sure to check back here for more news and updates.

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Panic Fest 2024 Review: ‘The Ceremony Is About To Begin’

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People will look for answers and belonging in the darkest places and the darkest people. The Osiris Collective is a commune predicated upon ancient Egyptian theology and was run by the mysterious Father Osiris. The group boasted dozens of members, each forgoing their old lives for one held in the Egyptian themed land owned by Osiris in Northern California. But the good times take a turn for the worst when in 2018, an upstart member of the collective named Anubis (Chad Westbrook Hinds) reports Osiris disappearing while mountain climbing and declaring himself the new leader. A schism ensued with many members leaving the cult under Anubis’ unhinged leadership. A documentary is being made by a young man named Keith (John Laird) whose fixation with The Osiris Collective stems from his girlfriend Maddy leaving him for the group several years ago. When Keith gets invited to document the commune by Anubis himself, he decides to investigate, only to get wrapped up in horrors he couldn’t even imagine…

The Ceremony Is About To Begin is the latest genre twisting horror film from Red Snow‘s Sean Nichols Lynch. This time tackling cultist horror along with a mockumentary style and the Egyptian mythology theme for the cherry on top. I was a big fan of Red Snow‘s subversiveness of the vampire romance sub-genre and was excited to see what this take would bring. While the movie has some interesting ideas and a decent tension between the meek Keith and the erratic Anubis, it just doesn’t exactly thread everything together in a succinct fashion.

The story begins with a true crime documentary style interviewing former members of The Osiris Collective and sets-up what led the cult to where it is now. This aspect of the storyline, especially Keith’s own personal interest in the cult, made it an interesting plotline. But aside from some clips later on, it doesn’t play as much a factor. The focus is largely on the dynamic between Anubis and Keith, which is toxic to put it lightly. Interestingly, Chad Westbrook Hinds and John Lairds are both credited as writers on The Ceremony Is About To Begin and definitely feel like they’re putting their all into these characters. Anubis is the very definition of a cult leader. Charismatic, philosophical, whimsical, and threateningly dangerous at the drop of a hat.

Yet strangely, the commune is deserted of all cult members. Creating a ghost town that only amps up the danger as Keith documents Anubis’ alleged utopia. A lot of the back and forth between them drags at times as they struggle for control and Anubis keeps continuing to convince Keith to stick around despite the threatening situation. This does lead to a pretty fun and bloody finale that fully leans into mummy horror.

Overall, despite meandering and having a bit of a slow pace, The ceremony Is About To Begin is a fairly entertaining cult, found footage, and mummy horror hybrid. If you want mummies, it delivers on mummies!

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