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“Darknet” is a Clever Horror Twist on Modern Society

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Darknet computerMany of us begin our days by opening Facebook, Twitter, or email on our devices to see what the world has to offer. Our friends and family post numerous photos or status updates or tweets that allow us to peak into their worlds, or send us amusing emails to give us a chuckle. But what if we received a strange email that included videos of murder? Or a text from an unknown sender that led us on a wild goose chase around town, teasing us into a deadly confrontation with our past and present sins? Such is the idea behind the clever anthology series Darknet, which is currently streaming on Netflix.

Darknet bloody faceDarknet features new stories in each of its six episodes, all dealing with people coming face-to-face with the nastier side of the world, be it on the streets of the big city or inside their own apartments. Events and characters within each episode are connected in some macabre way, which usually reveals itself at the episode’s conclusion. The chronology is occasionally mixed up, with some characters that perished earlier reappearing later to reveal their place in the overall story. The common thread running through the series is the fictional website Darknet, which is filled with videos of the worst parts of humanity. Think YouTube meets Faces of Death. On this website, users can upload closed circuit security footage of an ax murderer, or ask questions about how to dispose of a dead body. It is the ill-advised interaction with this website that leads some characters to certain doom, and the website serves as a great storytelling device to bind the series.

Darknet laundromat

The website is just part of the fun. The real treat with Darknet is how the pieces of the puzzle fit. Each episode is only 25 minutes long, but the stories are so crisply told that it’s still plenty of time to weave plots together while creeping us out. Paying attention is key; this is not a series you can play in the background while going about the day’s other activities. Your attention will be rewarded, though, when you have satisfying realizations about what was truly happening. I don’t want to mention many specifics and spoil the fun, but one of the most enjoyable sequences involves a woman finding out the truth behind the audience for whom she is performing an impromptu striptease.

Darknet striptease

Darknet takes many aspects of our modern world and turns them against us. The temptation to write a nasty comment on an Internet message board. The desire to put on your headphones and escape from the world while being oblivious as the world escapes around you. Sometimes we may be quite self-serving with our devices, or find it difficult to pay attention to one thing at a time since so much of the world is at our fingertips from various sources—the phones in our hands, the tablets on our laps, and the TVs in front of us. In a way, this series gives a nod to that by demanding our full attention in order to connect the dots. It also serves as a warning. Relying too heavily on technology, ordering a strange product from an unknown seller, or trolling the wrong people online could lead to paying the ultimate price.

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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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