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“Black Mirror” gave us a dark white Christmas

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One of the best surprises off of Netflix in 2014 was Charlie Booker’s slice of genius called “Black Mirror.” This show is horrific on a near-future dystopian level. What’s even more horrifying are the implications that it puts on our current state. Basically, technology equals an extreme bit of nastiness.

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The six episodes that were split up over two seasons are an anthology based sci-fi horror series that are akin to the “Twilight Zone.” The stories range from a prime minister who has to decide if he is going to have sex with a pig on live television or let a duchess die at the hand of her captors all the way to an implant that records every second of your waking life.

The brilliance isn’t around the initial idea (which at times comes off as absurd) it’s how the show goes about making you realize that technology has made it possible for the most ridiculous situations to have severe social consequences.

“Black Mirror” might be “new” here in the states thanks to Netflix but it has been around for a couple of years in the UK, originally being broadcast on BBC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDFcTmdQqIc

Over the Christmas Holidays, the BBC broadcast the brilliantly timed and placed “Black Mirror, White Christmas.” The hour and thirteen minute one shot, was nothing short of what the first two seasons introduced.

Matt Trent (Jon Hamm) and Joe Potter (Rafe Spall) are in an isolated house that is seemingly snowed in on Christmas. Both sit down to have a celebratory Christmas dinner. With so much time on their hands they decide to tell their stories of what lead them to end up at such a desolate location.

Trent’s story delves into his past, back in the day when he was a “love guru” for people who had trouble talking to ladies. In Trent’s past he helps young men who have trouble talking to women via ocular implant. He gives suggestions on how to handle situations through an earpiece.

For full time work Trent helps to break the spirit of a copy of a human beings mind.

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Potter’s story is far more melancholy, his story revolves around a girlfriend who leaves him and uses a new feature where you are able to “block” someone in real life. The result is the blocked individual is a white mosaic blob; you are no longer able to see the person who blocked you either.

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During an argument Potter’s girlfriend decides to break up with and block him. The rejection leads to dark results.

Talking about it past that would be giving away too much, but much like the “Twilight Zone” there are some pretty great twists along the way.

I’m hoping that Brooker keeps the show going for a couple more seasons. But even if they don’t he has left us a lot of great stuff to watch re-watch and think about.

You can watch “Black Mirror” series one and two now streaming on Netflix.

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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.

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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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