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Science and the Paranormal Collide in ‘Our House’

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Our House, written by Nathan Parker and directed by Anthony Scott Burns, is a bit hard to define.

Based on 2010’s Ghost in the Machine, the film seems to be made of equal parts science fiction and paranormal horror with a full dose of family drama for good measure. In the capable hands of Park and Burns, however, the whole becomes greater than its parts in a film that is as terrifying as it is heartbreaking.

Ethan (Thomas Mann), a promising student at MIT, has been working to create a machine that will provide wireless electricity with his girlfriend/lab partner Hannah (Nicola Peltz). His world is shaken to its core one night, however, when his parents die in a car accident and he is forced to leave school to take care of his brother Matt (Percy Hynes White) and sister Becca (Kate Moyer).

A genius never stops working, however, and Ethan continues his experiments in his basement. It isn’t long before he realizes that his machine might actually be amplifying paranormal activity in the family’s home, and soon he and his siblings are engaged in a fight to survive.

Mann is quite good in the role of Ethan. His exhaustion is palpable as he struggles with his new role as the head of the family, the guilt over the loss of his parents, and his deep desire to continue his research.

Likewise, Percy Hynes White–who you might recognize from Marvel’s “The Gifted”, gives a beautifully layered performance in the role of Matt. He blames Ethan for their parents’ death but relies on him heavily for emotional support and validation when shadows take on a life of their own inside the home and dark spirits begin to threaten the family.

The two find common ground in protecting their little sister, and Moyer is the picture of open-faced innocence as Becca naively befriends the spirits around her.

Burns and casting director Millie Tom’s brilliant work didn’t stop at the family, however.

The supporting cast is equally talented, and Nicole Peltz especially stands out as Hannah. Not only is the actress stunning, but her every move, expression, and gesture is expertly placed as Hannah attempts to incorporate the reality of what is happening to Ethan and his family into her scientific view of the world.

Mark Korven, who previously scored The Witch as well as 1997’s Cube, provides a pitch perfect score for the film amplifying the tension while also subtly underlying the sadness and vulnerability of the core family.

Every good ghost story needs impressive ghosts, and Burns’ effects team brought their A-game to Our House.

The spirits in the film emerge from billowy, shadowed smoke which gives them leave to morph into whatever they choose to look like and ultimately ratchets up the tension because deep down, the viewer really has no idea who or what the beings conjured by Ethan’s machine actually are.

When all is said and done, Our House ultimately works because of its genre-bending strangeness. Its peculiarity and its subtle nods to films like The Legend of Hell House make it a must see for horror fans who love a good ghost story.

Our House is set for release by IFC films on July 27, 2018. Check out the trailer below!

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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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