The Last Horror Blog: ‘It Follows’ Finds a Home; ‘We Come in Pieces’ and ‘Submerged’ Trailers, and More!

Welcome to The Last Horror Blog, a biweekly column on all things horror.

Cannes horror flick It Follows finds domestic distribution – Amidst all the artsy dramas and highbrow features at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, one horror film stood out: It Follows. Director David Robert Mitchell’s chiller earned praise from genre-friendly critics who found it creepy to the max – and now it’s headed to America.

The film, which is about a teenage girl who can’t shake the feeling that someone – or something – is following her after a strange sexual encounter, was acquired by RADIUS. The company plans to release the feature domestically in the first quarter of 2015 (which seems further away than it really is). Hopefully this news means we’ll get an official trailer sooner rather than later.

Bryan Bertino set to adapt killer robot short ABE – If you’ve been anxiously waiting for director Bryan Bertino to make his long-discussed sequel to The Strangers, then this news will not likely make you happy.

Bertino has been hired to write a feature-length adaptation of Rob McLellan’s short film about a murderous robot for MGM. McLellan was originally hired to write and direct the adaptation, but will now simply helm the project while Bertino figures out how to expand the story.

ABE is a pretty neat little short film, and I’m curious to see what Bertino will do with it. 

You might want to hold your breath while watching this Submerged clip – I’ve got the first trailer for Steven C. Miller’s newest effort, and while it’s a bit of a genre bender, there’s no denying that the thought of drowning is horrific. Here’s the breakdown:

“A limo ride home from a party turns into a terrifying ordeal for a group of college kids. A young woman and her friends have been targeted by a ring of vengeful kidnappers and must do everything they can to survive after their limo is forced off the road and plunged into a canal.”

Trailer looks interesting – but I’m hoping this one is more like Buried than ATM.

Awesome short documentary We Come in Pieces explores horror anthologies – With the success of films like V/H/S and The ABCs of Death, the horror anthology film is once again a viable way of telling twisted tales for audiences.

The format has been around for ages, and filmmaker Ryan Spindell is looking to make his very own anthology feature (titled The Mortuary Collection – you can help fund it here), but to show his love for the form, he’s crafted this 12-minute documentary titled We Come in Pieces.

Spindell interviews directors like Joe Dante and horror writers from sites like FEARnet as he examines the enduring popularity of the subgenre. It’s a really great documentary – and if The Mortuary Collection doesn’t pan out, I’d gladly pay to see this blown up to feature length. 

Whatever you do, don’t split up after watching this supercut – It’s one of horror’s oldest tropes: people in a potentially dangerous situation split up to investigate something strange happening around them and then next thing you know, they’re dead.

It’s a pretty standard genre cliché, but it’s fun to watch this supercut featuring dozens and dozens of people making this horror 101 mistake. Check it out below, and remember there’s safety in numbers. 

Will Ouija release in time for Halloween? – The planchette never lies, and it says yes. The film industry may have cooled off on the idea of building feature films around board games, but it’s still moving forward with the release of Ouija – a title centered on the popular board game that somehow figured into every “Satanic Panic” story to emerge in the 1980s.

The plot blurb describes the film like this:

“In Ouija, a group of friends must confront their most terrifying fears when they awaken the dark powers of an ancient spirit board.” 

The film opens on October 24. The real question is, can it live up to the legacy established by Tawny Kitaen in Witchboard?

Horror on the Horizon

Things are pretty dead on the theatrical front, but not the good kind of dead horror fans tend to love.

Things are a little better on the home video side of the equation. As pointed out last week, June 10 sees the arrival of Patrick: Evil Awakens and The Devil’s Knot.

The week of June 17 features new versions of old favorites like John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars, Picnic at Hanging Rock and Flatliners alongside stuff like Joyride 3. Not the greatest options, but not terrible either. 

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