Connect with us

News

Dee Wallace Is Our Horror Mom

Published

on

From The Howling to Cujo and now to Red Christmas, Dee Wallace is the mom of horror movies.

Not that she gave birth to them, but she plays them in the genre, also having roots in science fiction. Who can forget her role as a single working mother trying to raise two boys at different stages in puberty in E.T.?

As for The Howling, she may not play a mother, but does a motherly act at the end, protecting the planet.

So when I sat down to speak with Dee on the phone I wanted to talk about a few of her most famous roles and her current one that may be even more extreme than any of the others because of its subject matter and metaphors.

Now 68, in her latest film Red Christmas she plays another mother who has made some choices in life that are coming back to haunt her, “It combined two things I love the most, horror films and Christmas,” she said. “So I was like wow, I’m going to get to do both things I love to do there,” she laughed. “I thought the script was really interesting. I was surprised and excited that it wasn’t your typical horror film that it dealt with important issues too without giving it all away.”

Her Diane is a tour-de-force to be reckoned with. She says it was a rare opportunity to, “do something in the same spectrum as Cujo, and I haven’t had that shot in a while and I really, really really just wanted to bite that off. I wanted to actually, truthfully see if I could still do it.”

And she does, even if that was amid the extreme landscape of Australia where wild Wallabies and giant spiders are a part of the job. Despite her encounters with the local fauna, she is extremely proud of this film even if it was done on a meager budget.

“I really learned what you could do and do well. And do joyfully and with respect for each other on a budget much smaller than we’re used to working with, in the U.S.”

Speaking of her U.S. films, one of my all-time favorites is Cujo, it’s Dee’s too. Her work on that film with Lewis Teague deserved an Oscar in my opinion. She played yet another mother fighting to save her child while locked inside a Ford Pinto as a rabid Saint Bernard is blinded by rage trying to get in.

This was way before the time of CGI, there was no green screen and it was shot on location. I asked if that film were ever re-made how she would feel if it relied on CGI. “I think modern horror sci-fi films rely too much on gimmicks. As opposed to really well-crafted thought out relationship films where shit happens. That’s what a good horror film is.”

She said a lot of Cujo and even Howling developed the character relationships first then went into action,” I am drawn to the projects that really really do take time to create great characters and great relationships so that you really care.”

This is why she loves Red Christmas, “It is totally an original horror film, it makes you look at your consciousness while you’re on this amazing ride trying to get away from the bad guy. And what does the bad guy represent? All of our decisions that we are suffering from and guilty for in our lives.”

Yes mom.

Her motherly essence also flows into her real-life as a spiritual healer. She advises people, even me in our conversation, about living life to its fullest by doing the best you can. She said about six words to me in response to a personal problem I was having and honestly it made a world of difference.

But as for Red Christmas, this is one she wants people to see.

“It’s a Christmas horror film,” Dee said, advising people to watch it now, “and just let it lead you through the holidays.”

Red Christmas is now available nationwide on Blu-ray, DVD and VOD.

 

 

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Click to comment

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply

Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

on

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

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

on

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.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading

News

Jake Gyllenhaal’s Thriller ‘Presumed Innocent’ Series Gets Early Release Date

Published

on

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.

'Civil War' Review: Is It Worth Watching?

Continue Reading