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Jeffrey Reddick: The Gay Man who Taught Horror Fans a New Way to Fear Death

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**Editor’s Note: Jeffrey Reddick: The Gay Man who Taught Horror Fans a New Way to Fear Death is a continuation of iHorror’s Horror Pride Month celebrating the LGBTQ community and their contributions to horror.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw Final Destination.

I had gone to my local movie theater, a small three screen set-up where the price of admission topped out at $4 and on Tuesdays you could get in for 50 cents. It was opening weekend and I headed to the theater as soon as I got off work.

I got inside and was excited when I ran into a friend who was very excited to see me because he was on one of the most awkward dates of his life!

We settled into that broken down theater that I loved so much and that familiar rush of anticipation for a new horror movie hit me as the lights dimmed. Devon Sawa soon filled the screen and I was completely drawn in as he and his friends cheated Death only to be picked off one at a time as He returned to settle the score.

I returned to the theater a couple of times to see the film, and it became my favorite of that year. I also went to work tracking down as much info as I could about the people who created it.

That was when I discovered Jeffrey Reddick. It would be a few more years before I discovered that the man who wrote my favorite film of the year 2000 was gay, as well, but at the ripe young age of 23 he had already made an impact on my life.

Seriously, every time I tripped or some weird accident happened for several months after that first viewing the thought “Is that you, Death?” would run through my head, and because of the first sequel, I still won’t drive behind one of those big ass logging trucks.

Eventually, I did discover that not only was Reddick an out and proud gay man, but that he was also from a small rural town in Eastern Kentucky that probably had an old movie theater just like the one where I’d seen his first film.

It’s hard to describe what that meant to me, then. I was an out and still struggling to be really proud gay man living in the sticks of East Texas and the connection to this man and his work just seemed alive to me. It also gave me hope that maybe, someday, I could contribute to the genre that I loved so much.

Reddick’s story is one that’s hard to believe.

At 14 years old, he wrote a letter to Bob Shaye at New Line Cinema with a story idea for a prequel to A Nightmare on Elm Street which Shaye promptly returned to him saying he could not accept unsolicited material.

Not to be defeated, young Reddick wrote back telling Shaye that he’d paid good money to see the man’s films and the least he could do was read the story. To his surprise, Shaye did, and sent it back with notes on how it could be improved.

For the next five years, Reddick, Shaye, and Shaye’s assistant Joy Mann would write numerous letters back and forth and when he was 19 years old, the young man from Kentucky started his internship at New Line.

It was during his time there that he read a story about a young woman who had escaped what would most certainly have been death in a plane crash after her mother called to warn her she had a bad feeling about the flight.

The seed from that article would grow into what ultimately became Final Destination. His idea of Death with a capital “D” as a force of nature weaving a pattern for the end of each and every life on the planet sparked the imagination of audiences, and spawned a franchise that would produce four sequels.

Eventually, Reddick left New Line, but he continued to write interesting horror films like Tamara and the recently released Dead Awake, and in that time, he’s never ceased fighting for the inclusion of minorities in his work even though studio execs continue to balk citing the difficulty of selling those films overseas.

As he told me in an interview in 2017, “An action movie starring Will Smith? No problem. But a horror film with a black leading actor or actress runs into problems every time. But I’ve been explaining for years that if you cast an African American leading actor or actress in a horror film, horror fans will see it so long as it’s good. That’s the key.”

His tenacity extends to including LGBTQ characters, as well, though he’s met with the same kind of push back from producers, agents, and actors.

It’s hard not to respect a man who keeps working and chipping away at those walls, even when they sometimes seem insurmountable, but then again, he’s starting to get some real results.

Perhaps due to the success of last year’s Get Out, or perhaps because people are just finally paying attention, Reddick’s feature film Superstition: The Rule of 3’s is currently in production.

The film, which takes place on a college campus and plays on the old saying that “death comes in threes,” stars a cast filled with African American and Latino actors and actresses like Ludacris, Prince Royce, Terayle Hill, and Lauryn Alisa McClain.

He also spent several months earlier this year working on the popular television show “Midnight, Texas” that not only features a racially diverse cast, but also boasts a prominent gay couple in the mix.

Through it all, Reddick remains true to himself as a writer, enriching the genre with his unique voice.

He once told me that if living his life as a gay man of color in the open positively affected one person, then it would all be worth it.

Well, Jeffrey, I’m sure I’m only one of thousands, but you have certainly been a positive role model for myself, and as I continue to write about the genre and dig deeper into the best of what it has to offer, I offer my humble thanks to the man who continues to inspire me with his work…

…even if it still makes me worry that Death is on my tracks when I trip over my own feet.

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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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Movie Reviews

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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